Hokay, So...

[the_gneech]

Life is full of distractions; this is hardly news to anyone. The problem with distractions, of course, is that they're distracting. Some of the most annoying distractions in my life come in the form of sleep, and flakery. The former, I can't do anything about ... but the latter I can.

This past weekend, I got very little accomplished. Even given that I tend to bite off more than I can chew in the achievement department, this weekend was a disappointment. Saturday, I ran a D&D game, which was cool, except I spent the whole day prior to it getting ready -- and this was a module out of Dungeon magazine, no less! I can only imagine how long it would have taken to write up my own. Sunday, Laurie and I saw Brother Bear, did some bicycle shopping, and I got today's strip drawn.

There was a possibility of a trip to the range with camstone and tye_g_wolfee, something I would like to do sometime just because I think that every male (and many females) should fire a gun at least once in their lifetime and I've never done so ... but that got punted. There was also my exercise regimen ... which also got punted. And working on commissions ... yup, punted. And scripting/drawing more strips for the rest of the week ... you guessed it, punted. I don't regret having spent the weekend on what I did spend it on, but I do kinda resent that gaming took ALL DAY Saturday, when only ~3 hours was spent actually gaming.

A lot of my trouble comes when I try to actually start to do something ... I dither, I get distracted, I "think about it" -- and by the time I get all that crap out of my system, four hours have gone by and I haven't accomplished anything. That, and I have an innate resistance to "assignments," whether given by myself or someone else. If I can approach a task with an attitude of "I want to do X," it goes fast and gets done quickly. More often, however, I find myself thinking, "I have to do Y," and my id rebels.

So, if I get a sudden urge to draw a tap-dancing wolf, just to pick something at random, I'll whip out a drawing of a tap-dancing wolf with an intensity that is frightening to behold, forsaking food and sleep and my job, and so forth. But if I "have to" draw a tap-dancing wolf, because of a commission or the strip etc., I stare at the paper, sigh in frustration, start and discard five attempts, and suddenly become obsessed with completing the next series of missions in Wing Commander.

Being a flake is very irritating.

I can sometimes circumvent this tendency by reminding myself why I decided that I "had to" do this project, whatever it is. Other times, I remind myself how good I feel when I finish a project, particularly one done well, and get thanks and/or accolades from it. Still other times, I look at somebody else's work (Herbie or Vince or dozens of others) and find inspiration (not to mention a bit of a green-eyed monster saying "Why haven't I done something like that lately?"). None of these solutions work all of the time, but at any given time, usually at least one of them will. The hard part is remembering to do them, because the other part of flakery is that half the time, I don't realize that I'm engaging in it.

Oh well ... everybody has junk they gotta deal with. As problems go, mine aren't so bad really. :)

-The Gneech

Comments

[the-lizard-rat.livejournal.com]

I tend to do the same thing myself --- good at starting the avalanche, but I suck at tending it to the point it picks up any worthwhile speed in order to accomplish anything.

And on the subject of D&D Geekery, if you take the Starfox series of games and cross it with D&D, The Result Looks Something Like This. (http://www.angelfire.com/ri/shadowsbase/crescentmoon.html) Thought I'd pass the link, very interesting reading. Makes the Blood Bayou likable.

Lizard Rat out.
Random in Rensselaer

Firing a Gun..

[praeriedog.livejournal.com]

      I went out to a deserted spot with murrrmaiyd and Bob while they went shooting once. Bob handed me a pistol, I'm not sure what kind (possibly a .45?), and I pointed it at what I was wanting to hit, pulled the trigger, immediately handed it back to Bob and have never touched a gun since.

      Mur told Bob he should've started me out with a rifle, and that I might then have found it cool. All I know is, I've never wanted to fire another one.

Re: Firing a Gun..

[laurie-robey.livejournal.com]

I fired a shotgun once. Eh. There was a target. I shot it. No big deal. I can see how it's something you'd be interested to experience for real if you've never done it before, but once you've done it (at least in my case), it's not that big a deal. I guess I didn't catch the "shooting bug."

Re: Firing a Gun..

[camstone.livejournal.com]

For me, shooting with Tye was interesting. I have been shooting guns since I was young, and now I tend to shoot big guns. I mean really big guns. Like 127mm diameter, 64 caliber guns. =)

But for me, I always shoot targets. I want to see the sport of improving my aim and ability to get to further and further ranges with a handgun. A rifle (or Cannon for that matter,) you just throw on a scope or "dial in" the range, and everything else is (more or less) automatic. It's more about how someone breathes as they pull the trigger as anything else. With handguns it's a little different, in that there is some art of aiming involved, and your aim is both physical as well as using your eye-hand coordination.

So for me, it's a little like Archery. Kinda-sort-of. but not.

Gaming.

[camstone.livejournal.com]

I for one, am grateful for the gaming venue you provide. You are very good at it, and it shows. Perhaps I don't say that enough, but I should.

As for the resistance and such, I have the same procrastination attitude. I try to work out a schedule that gives me some free time each day to coordinate what I need to, and if it doesn't happen, I at least have more time to do it for next time. Sure, I put off things too. MooiVos wants me to draw more. I want to ride my horse more. I want to do more photography. I want to set up a new (old) computer so I can do more (and have less free time.)

I overbudget things too. I figure retirement will be good enough to catch up on things I've been missing... I mean, how far behind can I get in 15 years? <^,^>

I think I shot my first gun at...four...five...

[mammallamadevil.livejournal.com]

it was a 22 Marlin...but, my grandfather was an accomplished hunter and owned his own sporting goods business, made his own bullets, etc...our Thanksgiving entertainment was to go out behind the lake in a couple of cars and plunk targets, or out to some land my grandfather owned and either do oranges or clay pigeons...my brother inherited all those genes where I've not picked up a gun in a while...I think that EVERYONE though should a) fire a weapon at least once and b) learn how to respect them, not fear them...

there's a nice target range about five minutes from FC..if you get too stressed, I know getting a party together for safe and sane plunking won't be difficult...(grin)...

it's 3 pm and I have a to-do list as long as my arm, but I know I'll get it done...spending time spinning wheels about not getting anything done just causes massive holes in cheap carpet!...MLD

Re: I think I shot my first gun at...four...five...

[makovette.livejournal.com]

Interesting - I had air guns and what not, inspite of Dad being into hunting and all, I never pulled the trigger on a real goes bang gun until I was in the Navy. Go figure :)

You talking about the range off the 101 at roughly Scott? It used to be American Shooters Supply but was sold to errrm, drat, I can't recall now, doh!

It's a nice, well lit range, I like shooting there far better than the place on Minis Circle in Milpitas near the cop shop - that place is like plinking in a cave...

Gneech-san, it's a lot of fun. Rent a nice 22 semi auto pistol and plink away on the cheap with an easy and fun to shoot caliber. Starting out with Mr. Hand Cannon isn't the way to learn.

CYa!
Mako

PS: Inspite of prodigious amounts of productive hole punching plinking, my aim-fu still only adds up to an 8 ring average, doh! :)

Re: I think I shot my first gun at...four...five...

[mammallamadevil.livejournal.com]

yeah, the range is on Duane between Jay and Lafayette..(I used to work on Jay)....

Been shooting heavy caliber guns since I was six

[furloph.livejournal.com]

Nothing to it either. If you want to fire a hand gun and you've never done so before. Try a Smith & Wesson .38. Light weight frame, its a six shooter so theres nothing that could possibly jam expect like one of six or seven moving parts.

Re: Been shooting heavy caliber guns since I was six

[makovette.livejournal.com]

I respectfully disagree with you on starting a new shooter out with a .38 light frame (and typically short barrel) revolver. There's too much muzzle flip and the recoil and flash from the short barrel for a newbie shooter which can be startling to many folks that have never shot before.

I've found it best to start people with a .22 semi-auto pistol and get them into learning proper shooting skills that way. Bonus is it's also cheap as it gets cost wise, and more often than not, Cheap Is Good ;-)

I do completely agree on the jam-proof design of a revolver over a semiauto, but at the range with a rented pistol in a newbie's hand, that's not your primary concern. Learning safe and sound firearm handling skills, range safety and basic aiming proficiency are the key to a new shooter have a good time their first time out at the range.

Mind you if at the end of their first day, the now graduated to novice shooter wants to run a clip through my .44 Desert Eagle just for the experience of shooting a Damn That's Big Pistol, I'm all for it, but to put a larger caliber into someone's hand for their first shot ever, well...

Building on that first pistol range experience the next few times out is the key to building confidence and possibly even a love of the sport.

CYa!
Mako

Re: Been shooting heavy caliber guns since I was six

[furloph.livejournal.com]

I learned with a 12 guage. So Im kinda used to heavy kicking weapons. And I usually forget that for people whos never shot before that might be an issue.

Hugs!

[tygercowboy.livejournal.com]

Did you get my email I sent you the other day?

[katrinacat.livejournal.com]

I know the feeling, when it comes to doing things. For example, I used to code all sorts of crazy stuff for my MUCK, often losing huge amounts of sleep and completely forgetting to eat in the meantime. I'd just go insane until I'd finished the damn things. I then decide to take a few weeks break, and as soon as something's broken that I really should fix ASAP, I find myself looking for any excuse to not do it.

Weird how things like that work. o.o