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I've had a lot of projects lately that have required thinking. None of them, of course, had anything to do with work. In fact, they've all been things I've wanted to do outside of work...
I was talking to one of my friends over the weekend, about how much easier it was to write in college. Because I could take things in, and the way I'd interpret them (oftentimes) was to write them into things (for example, for those of you that weren't around for this particularly embarrassing phase of my life, there's an entire chapter of an FMA/Naruto crossover I wrote that retcons the whole of Konoha into an extension of Aristotle's ideal city).
And now I'm realizing that this is an essential part of how I think. (Late realization, I know.) In college I got quite good at passively taking in information and processing it through whatever distraction I was actively working on. But in the real world, I'm not taking in massive amounts of largely irrelevant information. At best I'm taking in massive amounts of relevant (or at least news-y) information and either cataloguing it away (because I'm not the sort of writer that works well with real-life, applicable ideas as a basis) or in the case of things to do with my job, spouting them back when necessary. And through most of my work day, it's actually a disadvantage to sit and think, because who can think critically or creatively about anything while filling in tedious forms and transcribing information over and over?
Anyway, basically I've had a heck of a time writing things I intend to finish. And every time I think I've made a dent in the programs I have to get prepared for DI they e-mail me back with a dozen things I haven't covered. I've gotten bad at this abstract, predictive thinking stuff. And I think it's because I don't have any time in my day to think in anything other than a straight line (seriously guys, people were surprised today when I pointed out that one of our county templates had probably been dropped into another county's folder. And the only reason that even came to mind so quickly was because someone last year had lost a partner's folder by dropping it into our Scans directory. This is not exciting or in-depth thought!)
So, I guess... let's say what I want to do for the rest of my life actually involves processing vast amounts of useless, esoteric information and turning it into (possibly) fictionalized but perhaps marginally more entertaining (or, in the case of non-fiction, more useful) vast amounts of useless, esoteric information? What the heck should I be doing with myself? (Other than going to grad school/committing myself to the ivory tower for all eternity. Because I don't have the cash or credit for that.) Can you even devote yourself to being some kind of... I dunno... information-kidney?
(This entry brought to you by A Fever, a subsidiary of Being Sick for the First Time This Winter. Additional sponsorship provided by: Being Tired Because I was Actually Consciously Keeping Myself Asleep Last Night and possibly also Because I Was Up at 4 This Morning, Maybe Because We Had an Earthquake. Hurray.)
I was talking to one of my friends over the weekend, about how much easier it was to write in college. Because I could take things in, and the way I'd interpret them (oftentimes) was to write them into things (for example, for those of you that weren't around for this particularly embarrassing phase of my life, there's an entire chapter of an FMA/Naruto crossover I wrote that retcons the whole of Konoha into an extension of Aristotle's ideal city).
And now I'm realizing that this is an essential part of how I think. (Late realization, I know.) In college I got quite good at passively taking in information and processing it through whatever distraction I was actively working on. But in the real world, I'm not taking in massive amounts of largely irrelevant information. At best I'm taking in massive amounts of relevant (or at least news-y) information and either cataloguing it away (because I'm not the sort of writer that works well with real-life, applicable ideas as a basis) or in the case of things to do with my job, spouting them back when necessary. And through most of my work day, it's actually a disadvantage to sit and think, because who can think critically or creatively about anything while filling in tedious forms and transcribing information over and over?
Anyway, basically I've had a heck of a time writing things I intend to finish. And every time I think I've made a dent in the programs I have to get prepared for DI they e-mail me back with a dozen things I haven't covered. I've gotten bad at this abstract, predictive thinking stuff. And I think it's because I don't have any time in my day to think in anything other than a straight line (seriously guys, people were surprised today when I pointed out that one of our county templates had probably been dropped into another county's folder. And the only reason that even came to mind so quickly was because someone last year had lost a partner's folder by dropping it into our Scans directory. This is not exciting or in-depth thought!)
So, I guess... let's say what I want to do for the rest of my life actually involves processing vast amounts of useless, esoteric information and turning it into (possibly) fictionalized but perhaps marginally more entertaining (or, in the case of non-fiction, more useful) vast amounts of useless, esoteric information? What the heck should I be doing with myself? (Other than going to grad school/committing myself to the ivory tower for all eternity. Because I don't have the cash or credit for that.) Can you even devote yourself to being some kind of... I dunno... information-kidney?
(This entry brought to you by A Fever, a subsidiary of Being Sick for the First Time This Winter. Additional sponsorship provided by: Being Tired Because I was Actually Consciously Keeping Myself Asleep Last Night and possibly also Because I Was Up at 4 This Morning, Maybe Because We Had an Earthquake. Hurray.)
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From:
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The more worrisome thing is that the "expert" they interviewed about it in the New York Times said they couldn't figure out which fault system it was that caused it. Last I checked there weren't really a whole lot of fault lines over here...
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OK, that wasn't that funny. But I just woke up and did homework (went to sleep at 4 in the morning because I got distracted by recent Saiyukic chapter, but anyway), and my brain's still homework-y. In any case, it seems to me you should just accept your fate and become an academic. XP I mean you sound like a quirky professor type person right there (and this conclusion is NOT made by me just reading Tobias Wolfe), or a quirky writer. Write some stories and send them out. You might become insta-famous. :D