I’m in a blogging funk. It’s not that blogworthy things aren’t occuring—they are, constantly—it’s that I’m either a) too lazy b) too tired or c) too busy to write them down.
This is a problem for a number of reasons. Firstly, I like to write and should be doing it more often, which is why I started this blog: to force myself to create. I know, I know, oh the irony, it’s not possible to force creativity, etc. etc. Whatever, it was working for a while. But I haven’t created anything in so long I’m wondering if I’ve lost my touch.
Another blogging roadblock, for reasons not necessarily obvious, is my job. True, I don’t have time to blog in part because I need to, um, you know, go to work. But being at work has never stopped me before: don’t tell my previous employers (at least one of whom is probably reading this), but as busy as my past jobs have ever gotten I often still managed to squeeze in a post or comment here and there.
However, I now a) don’t have time at work to squeeze as much as an orange and b) am employed by the federal government.
It’s Part B that really stops me. Aside from my concern of being dooced, the feds actually restrict the sites you can go to while online at work. Xanga.com, for instance, is blocked. So is MySpace, eBay and a whole slew of time-wasters and cheap thrills. So if you haven’t received a comment from me in a long time, that may be why.
But that doesn’t explain why I don’t post anymore, because despite how obviously high-trafficked my site is (I mean, come on, who hasn’t heard of mydogischelsea.com?), the feds have yet to block my URL. So what has stopped this Queen of Procrastination from procrastinating while at work?
Fear and guilt, I guess. Sad but true.
So, lesson learned? I need a secret blog.
12 responses so far ↓
1 fern_forest // Mar 15, 2007 at 3:29 pm
secret blog! you better tell me if you do. even when you write about not being able to write, i’m still readin’. oh yeah. fear and guilt will run their course. they have no permanence. ride it out and you’ll be flowing with creativity in no time. {v}
2 fern_forest // Mar 15, 2007 at 3:43 pm
high school here in gainesville. advanced placement environmental science and AP biology. i’m a little scared. excited and nervous.
3 thinlizzy // Mar 15, 2007 at 4:55 pm
Secret blogs rule!
I had no idea you had a big bad government job now. What’s your job?
4 TimsHead // Mar 15, 2007 at 5:04 pm
All worksites should block MySpace dot com. Just because it blows.
I do wonder if certain government agencies also block access to news sites that aren’t as fair and balanced as Faux News.
I also wonder how I’ve spent this long immersed in Internet culture and never heard the term dooced before.
While my blogging has been somewhat consistent (in quantity, probably not in quality), it’s my recreational non-blog writing that has taken a hit with being so busy lately. Non-recreational writing is way up, for whatever it’s worth.
5 michael5000 // Mar 15, 2007 at 6:38 pm
When I’ve had computers under scrutany, I would do any writing that needed doing in Notepad, which pretty much flies underneath the radar. Then, attach the .txt document to Email to an address set up for the purpose with the blandest possible name. No promises it would work everywhere, though.
The People want MDIC!
6 Jeanine // Mar 15, 2007 at 7:26 pm
If you’re in a blogging funk; then I’m in a leaving-comments-on-my-subscribers’-blogs funk.
And I apologize. And I shouldn’t begin a sentence with “and”….and whoops, I just did it again.
I hope you are well – take your time, do what moves you. No rush, we’ll all still be here ready to read when you’re ready to write. : )
7 Boo // Mar 15, 2007 at 8:07 pm
We have a 100% filter at work and almost nothing gets through. But the zefrank ORG does. I think that’s because it ends with org. Who knows? I don’t have much time to look anyway…sigh.
I know what you mean about wanting to create and not having the time. I started doing little exercises again because blogging doesn’t always fit the way I create. So I give myself a time limit and find an inspiration and go with it. I have used projects at the ORG to do it mostly. I do not know if those people will find it useful or amusing when I add a document to their project, but who cares? It’s fun and it fits the time limits.
I have not been around much either to comment and have vut back on the blogging too. It’s all okay. Work has to come and creation does too and i cannot cut back on those.
I hope your job is going well and that you and yours are healthy and happy!
8 James Cooper // Mar 16, 2007 at 7:57 am
Ah yes, blogging funks/writer’s blocks are particularly frustrating when there’s definitely stuff to be written but you just can’t manage to put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard).
It’ll pass though, and in the meantime update/informative posts like these keep the blog’s heartbeat from flatlining, which is a very bad thing. In fact, seems like this post has brought out a lot of anti-filter sympathizers.
9 Mandie // Mar 16, 2007 at 8:23 am
I wonder that about my photography. I’ve been busy, tired, and depressed here in Seattle and just haven’t taken the time for my photography stuff. Sucks but it’s true. For both of us, I hope we didn’t lose our touch(es?).
10 Greg // Mar 16, 2007 at 5:55 pm
Does this mean that you are now “The Man?”
11 Oscar // Mar 19, 2007 at 6:16 am
I know I don’t actually know you, but I swear I just had an interview with someone who looked just like you in your posted pictures. Weird.
12 Lori // Mar 19, 2007 at 7:03 am
Blogworthy things happen to me (or I see them happen) but by the time I get here to write, I think “Hmmm…that wasn’t THAT interesting”. LOL. I should just throw it out there anyway!