10/11/2011

How to avoid meaningful work and meaningless despair

In case you happen to be doing NaNoWriMo this year, Paula over at Lite Motifs has posted a list of things you can do to avoid working on your project. Her suggestions are very useful, not only for NaNoers, but for anyone wanting to distract themselves from pressing and important work. And, as distraction is my special area of expertise, I felt compelled to add a couple of ideas to her list. They work. I myself managed to waste today's precious last hour of daylight drudging them up and writing this post.

For starters, try this zippy but soothing video of guys getting left behind when the International Space Station reboosts. Then watch and re-watch it again and again and again for, you know, as many times as you can stand it.


And if you still need more, because if you're looking for more you've already watch an ungodly number of cat videos, there are always surfer dog videos. I include them as a special homage to dear little Bella the happy dog, recently departed. Surfer dog videos are like popcorn. You mindlessly want more, even during times of deep despair when life is slipping through your fingers and you are crushed by an overwhelming sense of meaningless tedium and you are least able to remember when you last had even one fleeting second of fun.


We just got back from Southern Oregon. We were there to attend a going away party for a longtime friend who is moving to Portland which is located far far away at the other end of the state. About 150 people showed up. It was very nice. Everybody loves him. He's a sweet guy. And we saw lots of old friends. After the slideshow, whoever wanted to shared at the mic and the event took a decided turn, becoming more a memorial than farewell roast. The fact is, he is dying. Everybody knows it. Nobody mentioned it but most of us realized we will probably never see him again. Life. We are now entering the part where, one by one, we begin leaving the stage.

And I got a rejection (with comments) from The Fine Line, one of the magazines to which I recently submitted poems. In case you're wondering, a rejection with comments is preferable to getting a rejection without one. I submitted two poems to this particular magazine. The other is still "in progress".

8 comments:

Roy said...

I would love to see a weightless, surfing dog, as we had often entertained the idea of making a harness for Pea Pah, (although she was merely a cat,) to which we could attach lots of helium balloons and then watch the expression on her face as she lifted off, (which, as explained by Paula Poundstone, would be the same as if she saw an ax murderer or a moth.)

And, truly, very strangely, enough, the word verification is "topride."

asha said...

Topride? Wonderful. What are you, one of the Universe's favorite chil'ren? You always get the good word verification words.

No doubt Pea Pah should have been an Astrocat, little helmet and all. She'd be much better than a dog out there. Dog drool. Imagine that floating around the cabin. And all that tail waging? Who knows the trouble a misplaced wag might do? Clearly dogs are better than cats on the beach and cats are better than dogs on missions in outer space.

Roy said...

Truly, a misplaced tail wag would wreak havoc on Newton's Third Law. Plus, usually cats are soft so they would gently bounce to and fro inside the cabin without accidentally flipping switches and stuff.

Yeah, cats would suck at the beach.

In one way, this has been the weirdest week as I have been oddly synchronous at several turns. It's kind of fun.

asha said...

Lucky you. A whole week? Excellent.

Roy said...

Another way to avoid meaningful work would be to write a blog post. But that's just me. Thinking out loud. And where is this poem?

Word verification: trostore. I guess they can't all be gems. Or I have worn the cogs off my synchronicity wheel.

asha said...

Oh GOD! NOOOOOoooooooooooo...... not the COGS! I prefer to think it's just that they can't all be gems. This morning the universe asked me to put the dummy non-word "hedlegau" into the baffle gate to comment on my own blog but I can't let that get me down and you must not allow trostore to topple you

The poem is back in the hopper but I will send it out again in hope it will find roost somewhere.

Anonymous said...

I can't believe I missed this post and that your poems were rejected! I'm behind on nano but not ready to give up yet.

-Paula

asha said...

Paula, nice to hear from you... NOW GO WRITE!!!!!

Ps. Don't worry. I haven't given up finding roosts for poems. ;)