Sunday, January 20, 2013

New Distractions

I have a confession to make - I almost didn't post tonight.  It got past my usual posting time, and I'm tired.  I gave serious thought to simply saying, "Eh, no one's going to miss me if I don't post tonight."  But then I remembered my own advice about consistency.  I wasn't out of the country(as happened in the month of April last year), and I actually have tomorrow off.

So, what nearly made me fall off the wagon?  I'd love to say it as because I was grinding on my new novel, and truth be told, I did get very close to the end of Act One tonight.  I got so close, in fact, that I expect Act One to be complete by this time tomorrow(look for a post later this week about it).  However, doing 2000 to 3000 words each day is what I've come to expect on this book.  Instead, I got distracted by my new toy.

I'm a dinosaur.  I've gone kicking and screaming into the 21st Century.  I didn't even have a cell phone until my daughter was born in 2006, and that cell phone lasted until last week.  It was an old flip phone that did what I needed it to do, and besides being a little intimidated by technology, I'm also very cheap, so I really resisted getting something more current.

Unfortunately, when the screens on my old phone went out and I couldn't even tell who I was dialing anymore, I caved, coming to grips with the reality that I needed something more current.  Honestly, it wasn't exactly coming to grips with needing something more current as much as figuring out my old phone was no longer even made.  Therefore, I went down to my local Verizon store and got me a new iPhone.

New is a relative term.  By today's standards, what I got is already outdated.  It's the old iPhone4 model and supposedly already has 18 months on the market(such things don't interest me all that much, so I don't really know the exact amount of time it's been out...and I don't care, either).  However, it's probably not the smartest thing to bring a caveman onto a space station, so this is a good introductory item before I go all in.

All this rambling leads me to why I almost didn't post tonight - I've been screwing around with my new toy.  In the past, it's been a movie or a long-winded post on Facebook that distracted me, but it was undoubtedly my new toy tonight.  Barely even knowing what an app was, I downloaded several(mostly news apps) and commenced to fiddling with it like a fiend.  I went through all the ringtones, checked email, and even made a call.  Before I knew it, it was 9pm, and I hadn't even thought about tonight's post.

I've got to be careful.  It's easy to see how such things can be addicting.  I still have to work, as well as finish up Schism before May if possible(things get kooky for me then), so I can't let such things keep me too occupied.  There's outlining to do for Schism's second act, tentatively called "Conflagration."  Anything that gets in the way will have to be studiously ignored.

Now if you'll excuse me, I need to check my Facebook status.

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