Newshound

I have never been much of a stamp collector or knitter or computer gamer. I do not have a favorite weekend activity, like golfing or going to the gym or rock climbing. I am vaguely interested in all of these things to some extent,  but I have always rather been of the opinion that I have no hobbies. For a while I thought that meant I was a driven, ambitious workaholic.

That is, until I moved to Iceland. Now I realize that something I used to enjoy doing as a kid has turned into a definite hobby here in Iceland: keeping up with the news. And like any good hobby should, my hobby borders on an obsession, one that easily gobbles up all my free time.

The addiction to the news and current events started early for me, I suppose it had something to do with my dad requiring a half-hour of silence every night while he watched the evening news. Thursday night at pubquiz, the only section I did really good at was the current events section. And as I have mentioned here before, my daily ritual through highschool was to turn on CNN Headline news the moment I got home from school, and watch it for several hours straight.

Here in Iceland, keeping up with current events is a habit/hobby that is widely encouraged, and extremely easy to do now with all the news services and blogs being online. When people ask me what I do when I am not working at Vikingaheimar or on my dissertation, I usually sheepishly admit, I am checking the news. Unlike news in the United States, which may come from another state or have really and truly nothing to do with oneself, there is hardly a bit of news in Iceland that does not in someway or another impact some aspect of my life here. That is the same for every Icelander, I do believe, and thus being addicted to the news is a perfectly acceptable hobby/past time around here. I am actually not quite in control of my addiction, I have to admit. Even when I have work to do, I am wondering what is happening in the news.

It is so bad.

This month, however, has to be different. It has to be. I have told my dissertation committee I will get them a draft of my dissertation by October 1st.

So, newsmakers in Iceland, and around the world, I hereby request that you do nothing even slightly interesting for the next 3 weeks. Thank you.

Comments

Valur said…
Are you ever in control of your own addiction?
Lissy said…
No, but it is a good idea to acknowledge it as such, just so one becomes aware of when one really is crossing over the boundary of healthy behavior.

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