Blog Post No. 435
With all hands on deck working to finish Break/Interrupt by next week, there it’s anything else going on for me to talk about. Since I’m still hiding at home, I don’t even have the day job to complain about or regular excursions around the city on which to muse. I’m always excited to get to the end of a project, but I seem extra eager for this one. Since time in the pandemic is so weird, it’s felt like I’ve been writing and editing this thing for a year and not the eight months it’s really been. Wow, it’s only been eight months. Also strange to think about. Continue reading “Searching for a Topic”
This week’s post may meander a bit. I have an idea in my head and I’ve been turning it over in my head for the last few days—trying to find the right way to express it so that it makes sense to other people. Like, I’m sure if you were inside my head (and not horrified by the stuff going on in the background) it would make total sense. I’m going to try to use words to explain it, though, as the technology to see into another person’s head (thankfully) doesn’t exist. The basic thesis statement is that when you set your brain to focus on one type of thing, the ideas that you create from the things you absorb around you will mostly fit that format. See. It’s not easy to put into words. Let me try to elaborate and clear up what I mean. 
It’s the last update of the year. Probably. I still have two weeks left and who know what I’m going to dig up to talk about. I have the 2021 preview post to do, so that means it’s next week’s topic that’s still to be determined. As far as updates go, though, this one is going to be mostly about Break/Interrupt. 
I often have trouble starting. Sitting down to get some work done is like a long race. No matter the project, job, or task, for me the topography of the course always starts with a mountain. That’s not to say the rest of the race is downhill (downhill being more difficult than some people may realize). There are other rises and plateaus, but the hardest part is always the beginning. A long term project like writing a book is filled tough starts every morning (or evening depending on when I sit down to work). If I’m writing, I may be looking at the blank page of a new chapter or the dangling end of a paragraph. When editing, I have a page full of words waiting to be culled or changed. 
While 
One thing to get out of the way right off the bat. I am not a coder and my meager accomplishment would likely insult the sensibilities of a real coder at a single glance. With that in mind and the overwhelming amount of help I’ve gotten from 
I suppose this is going to be mostly an update. I’ve so far avoided reviewing the two events that happened early in the month (that were steamrolled by the 
I know it’s technically still summer until the 23rd, but lets be honest. For most of us, the summer ends at the start of September. That’s how I feel, anyway. Since so much of my summer was rooted in self analysis and self criticism, I’m now at the point where I can look back, see how I did, and hopefully, come to some conclusions. The focus in question is my summer slump. Every year from some time in may to usually September (if I’m good) my productivity plummets and I haven’t been able to nail down why. The obvious answer to outdoor-type people is that summer is spent having adventures and enjoying time outside. I am not and outdoor person. Especially not in the melting heat of the summer. So, that was an easy one to rule out. 
Remember when everything even remotely related to the internet had to have a lowercase ‘e’ in front of it? Then Apple made the ‘i’ a thing and we’re still feeling the backlash from that. It’s all a moot point, though. I just wrote the title and it struck me that we’ll be stuck with eBook for the foreseeable future. 
Ben Van Dongen 