I just read a brilliant little article over on Locus Magazine. It was written by Cory Doctorow from Boing Boing, it was all about how to avoid distraction in the twenty-first century. It's really good and I think that it can apply to a lot of different areas. My biggest problem has been a lot of these specific issues when it comes down to writing a simple blog post. And this is the reason why I don't end up writing as much. I can complain that I need to learn more, or that I need to pick a subject but the reality is I need to just write more. It doesn't have to be the greatest thing on the planet, I just have to write about something, anything, that interests me. I worry about not having a lot of readers, that no one has joined my site via Google Connect, but that is just gravy. They all come when they have something to read.
What do I know? It's hard to work 40 hours a week and go to school for 6 hours, let alone my usual schedule of 9 hours. I'm easily distracted my computer, a problem that I have suffered since I've had a computer — even before the Internet existed in its present form. My partner, my wonderful loving partner, keeps forgetting that in order for me to receive 'A's in my college career I have to stop running around town doing errands or watching — shudder — television; I have to study and not just for an hour, here or there, but every day for a minimum of 3 hours. And that's just for calculus which I have to retake due to becoming sick last semester.
Whose fault is all these distractions? Mine. No one else can take that blame but myself. I can't blame technology, anymore — my monitor had slowly been failing. It reached a point where you couldn't really read anything on it because it was blurry. My temporary solution was to move my user account over to Bear's Mac Book Pro. It was a great solution but two people and one laptop is not really fun. Considering that I had to use it for school when he needed for work, or even for play, it created a distraction. Our solution to the problem was an awesome one. We have been paying off his computer with Best Buy for the last year and there is credit that was available. If we were, and we were, able to find a flat screen monitor to put on the account then we could just continue to pay on that account. I still want my own Mac Book, but I can wait on my perfectly good PowerPC desktop for that year, now that I can see the monitor.
So I have solved one my problems. The next step is go into my office, every day, and study a minimum of 3 hours on Calculus. It is really my only job worth anything. I have to receive an 'A' in this course this semester. Anything less than that can't be an option. I also need to stop watching so much damn television. It truly does make my mind go to mush.
