Saturday, June 8, 2013

Quo Vadis, Cygnus?

Excuse me, it seems someone has stolen my [blogging] mojo....


Here's the thing: I've got no shortage of plans and projects for this blog.  But I've also got work -- that's been quite draining lately -- and home -- that isn't draining but also takes its own chunk of the day.  Because of these, my blogging time ends up being concentrated into a few hours right before bed, when I'm usually just in the mood to browse.  Certainly not to write, and usually not to comment that much, either.

So the question is:  how to get back into the groove?  I just took a little stroll through memory lane (i.e., past posts) and reminded myself of some of the projects that I'm hoping to get back to:
  • Although I haven't yet dipped back into Surfaces and Essences since my interim review, I do intend to finish that sucker and post my Glass Bead musings.
  • I also hope that said musings will help lead to more ideas for a real-world variant on Hermann Hesse's chimerical game.  It may be helpful to continue posting more mini-reviews of other peoples' attempts to do that, too (see here and here and here). There are a few other neat ones out there that I haven't talked about yet.
  • On the RPG front, I really want to complete Volume 1 of the Homebrew '82 rule book.  The current version contains 53 pages all done and nicely laid out, followed by about 20 pages of rough notes that need some tender care.
  • In a much more embryonic state are my ideas for a kind of Right Stuff RPG, where players take on the role of hotshot astronauts at the dawn of the space age, and follow them into one of many possible futures.
The problem with many of these things is that I assign them to the category of "stuff that requires deep thought."  In other words, I have the prejudice that they require fresh daylight time when I've got a nice stretch of hours in front of me.  In other other words, I've got some unreasonable expectations, there.  :-)

The posts that I do tend to churn out are those that, for one reason or another, I don't assign to that "deep thought" category.  Maybe there's some ironic humor in there, since many of my posts probably end up being pretty esoteric and introspective.  But I don't pre-judge them to require the kind of white-hot spotlight of concentration that is reserved for "serious" writing.

So it's looking that I've got two mini-goals for myself...

1. Trick my brain into thinking about the writing of my preferred projects as one-off blog posts, and not components of the Most Important Work of All Time.  Now that I think of it, I wonder if a simple solution could be to just do that writing in the very Blogger composition tool that I'm typing into right now, instead of in the LaTeX-linked text editor that I associate with deep thought (and with work)?  I'll try it.

2. Start a new series of blog posts on something fun and light, so that I can keep to my goal of posting roughly once or twice a week.  Of course, me being me, I know I'll find a way to make these posts pretty esoteric and strange.  My current idea is to profile some strange alphabets and writing systems.  I really love those things.  It's related to what I had fun with for my 2012 April A-Z posts, and I did do one post sorta like this back in January.

(What say you, good readers?  Is it fair for me to ask if you have any specific posts of mine that you think might make for a fun series?)

Anyway, apologies for the navel-gazing.  I do think that writing this all out has helped me to find a bit of extra purpose to continue on....  And, hey, there's that mojo.

Groovy, baby.

8 comments:

  1. Here's what I have to offer. Write when your heart pounds at a thought. I've found that my most satisfying posts in terms of interaction come when I've decided I'm gonna lay off blogging for a while because of x, y and z and then this idea comes and it's all pretty and it wants to play.

    I'd love to see what your mind produces while succumbing to such an influence, whether by sun or by moon to light the way.

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    1. Thank you. I'm also wondering if I'll start to explore a little bit about music theory and the GBG in future posts. I'm reading a very cool novel about people discovering their musical paths, and how that way of thinking influences the rest of life.

      Unexpected ideas for posts have come to me in a similar way, at least 2 or 3 times in the history of this blog: I announce that I'm so busy and there will be a hiatus... and a day or two later, bam! I actually avoided doing that in this post because I knew it wouldn't work if I was intentionally expecting the bam to come. :-)

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  2. Yeah, write when you feel like it & don't hold yourself to twice a week. Some weeks will be 4-idea weeks, and others will be zero. It's no fun if it feels like a chore.

    With that said, I'd love to see some weird alphabets.

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    1. Thanks, Kerry. I'm surprised how much I'm looking forward to exploring the weird alphabets. I've decided to trust that feeling. :-)

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  3. Your post comes at a time when I've got so many things to attend to that I can't write as I'd like --and I'm retired! Working or not, schedules sometimes throw our pleasures into a muddle. I have the utmost confidence in your ability to unmuddle. I wish you good progress!

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    1. I'm on my way to Un-Muddville there, Casey. Thanks. I wish you well with your tasks, too.

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  4. I think it is pretty hard to fool yourself.

    Lao-tzu once famously said, "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." I think this advice is often wise when looking at amorphous projects. Small steps lead eventually to big gains.

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    1. Two birds with one stone, maybe... My attempt to trick myself by composing in a different (simpler) piece of software will actually require me to break up each large project into smaller chunks. We'll see how it all works out. :-)

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