Duuuuuh Brain
Posted on January 13, 2016 Posted by John Scalzi 24 Comments
Progress on the new novel has been pretty good — 20k words so far, which is where I want to be prior to being at Arisia, which will trim back my writing speed at bit — but one consequence of this is that when I’m done, and have done some other necessary work for the day (email, etc), when I come to the blog to write something, my brain is all eeeeeeeeeegh yeah no. Whether this is a side effect of getting back to novel writing after a pause, or because I’m getting older and only have so much brainpower per day, or because it’s the dead of winter which makes me feel sleepy at 6pm anyway — or some combination of all three and/or other factors — it’s hard to say. But it has made the blog a little, uh, less sparkly than usual, I suppose. I mean, unless you like kitten pictures, in which case it’s been awesome. And most of you like kitten pictures, so.
Along this same line: I’ll put up the Award recommendation posts next week, so be looking for those then.
In short: Look, here’s Zeus.
Aaaaiiiii. Oh no! Scalzi is human! And we all thought he was superhuman, posthuman, transhuman, or some such.
20% of a first draft done? I’d call that impressive. Cat pictures are always welcome, though.
Perhaps this is an indication you’re about to break into the world of feline photography coffee table books.
How about guest bloggers? That would help keep the “lights on” while you focus on the book. Not that I’m volunteering . . .
Glad to see Zeus get some Internet love.
Funny, what you describe is kind of how my brain feels after a day of battling gremlins in my employer’s new accounting software. With a couple of significant differences, though – you can actually say you’re accomplishing something, AND others will enjoy the results. Neither is true for me.
In any case, please know that a photo of a handsome black-and-white feline lounging in his bed, or a close-up of a snoozing kitten, or pretty much any photo of a fur-covered four-legged family member of yours, is a completely acceptable and very welcome substitute to an essay. Not only acceptable, but downright therapeutic after a day like today. So there you go – you’re not only getting writing work done, you’re also providing therapy to your blog readers.
See, lots accomplished today! Go have fun at Arisia, and we’ll enjoy the cat photos while you’re gone.
Hi, Zeus! Glad you’re getting some screen time — every cat ought be suitably worshipped on a frequent basis. Or at least, so my feline empress tells me.
You look comfy. Hope your human minions are serving you properly.
Feline photography is never unwelcome and likely to always be more engaging and less stressful than my year so far.
I’m just curious, what is your novel about? Is it romance, fantasy, horror, … I would love to read it. And as i read your posts, i’ve pictured you in my mind, young and handsome :) so how old are you plz?
After some of the ‘days of hell’ that are the new norms in teaching, cat photos are more than welcome. Zeus really is a handsome guy; does he play with the sisters at all?
Zeus is still quite the handsome lad. Glad to see he’s not forgotten in these days of Scamperbeasts.
Aw. He looks like my childhood pet, Rocky. Black-and-whites are the best :)
We really don’t get enough Zeus since the Scamperbeasts came around. Not that I mind the Scamperpics.
Maybe toss in a Daisy or twelve, but what the hey. Zeus, I’m jealous buddy. I’d rather have done that today than the labor I did do. LOL
There’s a fancy term for the winter blahs – ‘seasonal something or other’. I prefer to call it ‘Screw the world, I want to hibernate!’
I’d say better two “ok” words than twenty thousand bad ones :P
Kitten pics are always welcome… and it’s nice to see Zeus!
Unlike kittens, we feline supermodels will not get out of bed for less than ten cans of tuna! Or even stand up. I will briefly LOOK at your camera though, so catch me while you can.
Wonderful to see Zeus. With the politics heating up even more, I suspect that when I go on FB I’m gonna be scrolling past most of the posts and concentrating on the cat and landscape photo posts… A few kitty pics, as well as landscape, sky scape, city scape photos can help one recover even from really bad days. More photos of all four of the four legged beasties, please.
Turns out an individual can only make about N decisions a day before performance on making *good* decisions goes down. The process of writing is filled with decisions, large and small.
For example, Obama (whatever you think of him) deliberately has two suit colors and a limited number of ties. Basically, he has to make two decisions when getting dressed.
Unfortunately, the literature is sparse on the effects of felines in ones vicinity on the number of good decisions one can make. Increase or decrease? No effect? (Not that the cat cares one way or another…)
I’ll settle for cats. I’m a settler.
Good thing you have a new picture of Zeus. I was beginning to think he was just a myth.
cold weather dulls my gray matter and we get a bit now and then, thankfully not much here in Dallas. I enjoy the cat pix. I have way too many cats for living in the city (or on the planet) LOL and if I ever come up with a cat-repellent keyboard, I’ll let you know.
cute cat with unique name.