Areas of Unrest

20 March 2005 - Forcing Myself to Write

I don't really feel like writing, but part of the reason I've kept up this pattern of weekly entries is to give myself incentive to write even when i don't feel like it. There isn't even any specific issue that is keeping me from writing. I've been in a reasonably good mood all week and, while I'm busy, I'm not feeling particularly overwhelmed. Mostly, things right now are about contentment and routine, which doesn't exactly create gripping drama.

One meme making the rounds right now has to do with 10 things the writer has done that other people reading it probably haven't. That's an intriguing subject. But even if I could come up with 10 items, it feels smewhat unfair to throw things out without any explanation. For example, there are a few things which are obvious choices for me to list.

1. I've helped prepare a dead body for burial.
2. Ive been interviewed by CNN.
3. I've been to the 18th floor of the Mobile Support Tower for a Titan rocket on the launch pad.
4. I've test-played a game show under development.

I suppose I could come up with six more items if I got into listing travel experiences. (For example, I had my helicopter commandeered by the police in New Guinea so they could go after a guy who stole the police car.) But the point is that these are intriguing statements only in isolation and there's less of a story to any of them than the simple statements suggest. So I end up dismissing the whole thing as not being worth an entry.

Just so this entry isn't entirely whining about a sort of writer's block, here are a few odds and ends from my week:

• I acquired the greatest office toy ever, namely a plush Anubis. Having an Egyptian god of the dead doll is just so appropriate for our office. And he is way cute.
• I tried to buy tickets to Spamalot, but nothing was available for the weekend I wanted. It turns out that my mother would like to see this, so I'll have to look harder. Unfortunately, they use Telecharge, which has an annoying interface for searching. Some of the ticketing sites let you search a block of dates, but theirs only lets you look for individual performances.
• The abstract I submitted for a conference in Germany this summer got accepted. Now, of course, I have to write the bloody paper and there could still be funding issues with respect to the travel, but it's a step forward. (The idea is, of course, to get to Stockholm for a few days after the conference to see Robert.)
• I saw the movie Bride and Prejudice. It was reasonably enjoyable, but not as funny as it should have been, largely because it needed editing.

No gripping drama, but I guess that's enough.