Day Thirteen: Not much in the way of progress
Another day, another fifteen minutes sitting in front of a candle whilst thinking about random other things.
That was after starting the day with yet another odd dream, this one involving playing with big fluid magnets and finding out that there was a big chunk of metal embedded in my body.
Then followed another day with poor concentration and overall ennui. I’m really not feeling brilliant. I think I may be overcompensating with caffeine; getting into one of those vicious cycles. Caffeine isn’t that great for the concentration. Mind you, I don’t think it can be massively significant in my case, as I gave up caffeine for Lent1 but didn’t find myself concentrating any better.
On the plus side, last night I did a little bit of writing. Ah, the joys of having a deadline! I really mean that; external deadlines are brilliant motivation and can really help spur me on and focus me. I received the first edit of an article I sent in for Null Hypothesis a few days ago, and last night I did the necessary editing and reworking to get it into shape. So, in a couple of days’ time my article on WiTricity should appear on their site, which will be nice.
I’ve enjoyed getting back into a bit of journalism, however small, and I’m trying to think of some more ideas for them. I want to write some funnier stuff — they’re mostly a fun/spoof site, but I’ve only written for their more serious side so far, albeit in a jokey fashion.
Most of the stuff I’ve written up until now has been very much based in fact: book and event reviews, interviews, and suchlike. This means it’s often just a matter of writing it down in a consistent voice, maybe with a bit of a story-like wrapper, but fundamentally it’s just me saying what’s actually happened. Spoof/funny stuff will need more invention, so it’ll be an interesting stretch for me.
Anyway. I’ve probably managed to distract myself about ten times just writing this blog entry, so I’m going to stop here and go get an early night, I think. That’s probably what I need.
1No, I’m not Christian, or particularly religious in any direction, but occasional self-denial can be useful, even if it’s just for eliminating the possibility that coffee is worsening your eczema, for example…