I’ve got another job offer for you, Deadsplinters. Well, more like a paid vacation. The Goteborg Film Festival is offering one lucky contestant a week of film watching at Sweden’s famous Pater Noster lighthouse. No phone, no friends, no family. Just you and the full film festival catalog. Applications must be submitted by January 17.
Do you think you could stand a week in total isolation, no contact with the outside world? Sounds like heaven to me, as long as I could bring my dog.
…it’d be a slightly extreme way to try & break the doomscrolling habit…but I suspect I might be fine with the isolation for a week
…my main concern would be it potentially being a slippery slope into becoming a fully-fledged hermit…but I like to think I’m not quite that antisocial, really?
Hermit is my dream job.
I had lunch with a friend last week. Her mother passed away a couple of years ago so I asked about her father. “He’s GREAT. He LOVES the pandemic. Nobody calls, nobody comes to see him, he doesn’t have to talk to anyone — he’s incredibly happy!”
He’s a retired college math professor and literal hermit. It’s just bizarre to me to think that people would actually choose that, but they do.
Living’ the dream, lol.
I’m not really as anti social as I make out to be. I have my friends in real life and here on line. But I do need a lot of alone time.
I had to undergo a psychiatric evaluation for a job I took once. Little weird but I said okay. Eight solid hours with a psychiatrist. Later I wished I had recorded it or at least taken notes on the doctor’s conclusions.
The one that stuck with me though was he told me I’m a “socialized introvert.” I’m an introvert who has learned to mimic extroverts. He said the difference, though, was that extroverts thrive on contact with others. It energizes them. However, that same contact drains me. So I have to retreat into seclusion and recharge.
So when I was in marketing and would do an event, say a tradeshow, I could stand on the show floor with the salespeople and beam at passersby and chat up complete strangers and I could keep it up all day. But as soon as I closed the booth I had to bolt to my hotel room and lock myself in all alone by myself to recover.
It was really eerie because it’s absolutely true.
A socialized introvert, I never heard that term. But I’m the same way as you. My mother used to say I was the most extroverted hermit she’d ever met.
I’d never heard it either and a quick Google search shows me just about nothing on that specific term. But I remember it. I also remember the day and place in high school where I decided fuck it, I’ve got nothing to lose, I’m gonna act like all these other people. And I did.
I remember the day I learned to extend my hand when I meet people and introduce myself. I mean, I can picture it exactly and I remember the name of the guy I was emulating. I saw him do it and I thought “that’s what I need to do.” I watched people and I filed away all their behaviors in my mind and I kept doing it until it became automatic.
Short interactions are just autopilot now. But longer ones I have to think about and push myself. I learned a long time ago to watch people at parties and go over to people who are alone and strike up conversations because I know how they feel.
If I’m seated next to people I don’t know, I HATE it, but I switch over into learned behaviors and start asking questions and drawing them out. It’s like knowing what utensils to use in a formal place setting and in what order. “Social Bryan” just takes over and runs things until he can get away and normal Bryan can come back.
And yeah, I was popular in high school and college. It still amazes me sometimes, but I was. Kurt Vonnegut said “be careful what you pretend to be, because you might wake up one day and find out that’s what you are.”
If anyone wants a moody isolated Nordic island lighthouse opportunity that doesn’t involve actual exposure to freezing cold saltwater, I would recommend the kids book Moominpappa at Sea by the Finnish author Tove Jansson.
The father of the Moomintroll clan uproots his family from their comfortable home and brings them to a blasted rocky island with an abandoned lighthouse and a single inhabitant, a mute fisherman.
If it sounds bleak for a kids book, boy howdy is it ever. The son, named Moomintroll, is so lonely he ends up befriending a miserable creature named The Groke who is so deadly everything she touches freezes and dies. Pretty much everything the family tries to do, including bringing the lighthouse back to life, fails.
But the book is not just strange, it is wildly beautiful and imaginative. And you can read it in an hour on the couch instead of freezing in Sweden.
That sounds amazing, I will definitely look for it.
As long as the movies didn’t suck, I’d be on board. But as someone who has seen their fair share of film festival movies, a lot of them tend to suck with their self-absorbed, “this is art because I say so”, garbage.
I’m with you, seems like all the movies are the same…
Good point.
While you’re locked up watching unintelligible movies surround by a cold empty void, you could always maintain your sanity by bulding a couple of robot pals and make lots of wisecracks.
Joel Hodgson should apply, lol.
Hell, I’d go and ignore the movies. Just read books, write, take photos, walk/run the coast, cook, nap, split wood, nap some more …
I’m with you, I would spend the entire time taking lighthouse pics, whale watching, and walking around.
You aren’t allowed to bring books! That would be a dealbreaker for me. And I don’t honestly know if I could go a whole week without talking to my daughter.
No deal. That’s blasphemy. Those Swedes can go fondue themselves.
Same. No books=no deal. Other than that? Easy. I’d absolutely LOVE it. I’d even happily leave my wife and daughter at home for a week (they’d both lose it in less than 24 hours – probably 6 for my daughter).
You could pass the time by making the Scandinavian version of fondue! They use “gjetost,” which is a caramelized goat cheese. You may be hearing more from me about fondue in the very near future.
The Festival provides supplies for seven days. I wonder if you can request specific items?
I hope they provide a generous of ration of alcohol—the “lucky winner” will be there for the first week of February.
I hadn’t even thought of that but yeah, no alcohol is almost as bad as no books!
a week of isolation sounds pretty good to me especially in that place
tho…i may well get a week or two of isolation minus the scenery soon ish anyway as 2 of my coworkers tested positive this weekend…and one of them is from logistics…those fuckers are all over the shop and touch everything..
welp guess ill see how many people stay home tomorow
*shrugs*
Paid time off I hope.
it will be….perks of having a proper contract…
whilst i do kinda want the time off…i think i’d prefer not needing it this time
welp..we’ll see where we go 🙂
7 days? As long there’s enough coffee, and well heated.
I think it’s a hotel so I assume it has heat, not sure about coffee. My list of deal breakers is growing – I’d need alcohol, books, and coffee.