Wednesday, February 16, 2011

I have reached the ends of the internets

I finished the first (conference/seminar paper version) of this project last night. I feel good about where it is, for what it is, and I'm eager to work it into an article-length essay over the summer.

Unfortunately, I now have to spend the next three months revising my book manuscript.

And good God, people: the internet is boring when it's not part of an overcommitted day of furious multi-tasking. My only commitment is my writing. I have no meaningful distractions or diversions, and though I keep trying to invent them (first it was Etsy, for wedding-related shit, then it was Zappos and eBay for shoes, then it was Kayak for travel deals, and now, God help me, I'm browsing real estate listings), each distraction gives me about a day of pleasure--and then there's either nothing new to look at, or the new listings require all of 10 minutes to scrutinize.

I expect to be the most boring person alive for the next little while.

6 comments:

Piers said...

Most boring and most productive person?

scr said...

I have perfected the technique for visiting the same handful of sites 10 times an hour and expecting something to have changed while I was away.

Must.... try.... to..... single-task....

Renaissance Girl said...

You are amazing. I can't believe all you've finished.

Sisyphus said...

I noticed that many of my blog-regulars are not posting much or at all these days, and I am going into withdrawals. (And the news right now is so disgusting I'm afraid to look and see which basic social protections they are trying to roll back next, so, yeah ---- less to look at.)

But speaking of chess-by-mail... if you need some Scrabble procrastination, let me know...

Flavia said...

Piers: I wish.

Bro: See, that's the nefarious thing about Facebook and blog readers/aggregators (both of which I have blocked for most of the day): they do change! Often enough, anyway, that one can delude oneself about how essentially boring the new information they provide actually is.

I don't have EVERYTHING blocked, though, which means that I still pointlessly check my work email (where I receive maybe two messages a day, since I'm on leave), my online bank account, and a few other things that totally don't change. Ever at all. It's enough to make one give up on the internet.

RG: I'm . . . not sure what you're referring to I haven't finished anything but this paper. But I'll take the compliment!

Sis: So true. Maybe we're ALL giving up the internet, or people have migrated to goddamn Twitter or something.

Renaissance Girl said...

Yeah, the conference paper, which you've squeezed out while in the midst of working on a book, and also a draft of the book manuscript, and all the other essays and review and the always acute blogging, and so on. You take that compliment. You take it.