I’m sick. Have been for the last couple of days. One of those flu/cold things which makes it hard to focus on more than watching the tv. I stumble from bedroom to living room couch and then back again. Today I even out slept the cats (that’s a first).
So this blog is probably as much a result of fevered dreams during a sleepless night and a nap filled day.
This particular version has expressed itself in a sore throat such that I have to hesitate before that first swallow after waking up. I have the slight fever. Less on the cough (though it is somewhat there) and lucky not to deal with the hot and cold sweats.
And in the midst of the painful swallowing and the coughing and general yucky feeling I’m also making that mental list in my head for how I can use this in a future story/novel/moment. The frustrations at the pain of doing a task you end up doing a ton throughout the day. Waking up about every 90 minutes because your mouth is too dry to not try and drink something… only to experience the pain again.
I think I need to rewrite my brain or something. Not every little thing needs to be some form of defacto research, right? I can just have an experience (good or bad) and actually just live that instead of analyzing it for something else, correct? I wonder if other writers have these moments where they view their lives as a series of moments, and the pick and poke at each until they can mine some truth for their future art. They always say you should write what you know, so I guess it only makes sense. Even if most of the time you don’t have to acknowledge it in the moment.
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Videos vs. Transcripts vs. Podcasts (or “Get off my lawn” because clearly “sick John” is a 76 year old man)
I listen to a fair amount of podcasts throughout the day, but one thing I actually completely don’t understand is this:
People today have shorter attention spans, right? We flip through the channels and Youtube videos can’t be longer than 5 minutes or we get bored.
<Though we also can sit down and over the course of a weekend Binge watch some new show from Netflix.>
But here’s the thing I don’t understand… why spend 10 minutes watching something that you could read in 5 minutes?
Why watch a podcast rather than just listen to it? Assuming you have a commute of any sort (or that you go on walks or whatever) you can certainly listen to a podcast easier than watch it. Yet there are tons of people who watch these videos and skip all the time saving things.
How much free time do you people have?
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From being sick, I have manged to clear off a TON of TV I had saved on the old DVR. I’m convinced that the DVR is both the greatest invention ever and the worst invention ever. Because back in the old days you had to actually be present at your house to watch a show. Even when we were dealing with VCR tapes and recording things, you still had to plan things out a little bit. Now? Now I can record things on the possibility I’d like to watch them. It’s gotten to the point that I’ll end up recording a show for its 1st season, but not actually start watching until I hear whether it has been picked up for a second season.
But, even that isn’t a fail safe. And it seems like just as soon as I clear off these shows, I end up adding new ones. And so the DVR is always about 80% full no matter how much TV we end up watching.
So maybe it has just added to the idea that I’m accomplishing something (watching tv shows) while also being about the least productive I could be?
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Anyway, I’m running a bit out of steam, needing to go to sleep at some point in order to hopefully show up for work tomorrow.
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John McGuire is the author of the supernatural thriller The Dark That Follows, the steampunk comic The Gilded Age, and the novella There’s Something About Mac through the Amazon Kindle Worlds program.
His second novel, Hollow Empire, is now complete. The first episode is now FREE!
He also has a short story in the Beyond the Gate anthology, which is free on most platforms!
And has two shorts in the Machina Obscurum – A Collection of Small Shadows anthology! Check it out!
He can also be found at www.johnrmcguire.com.