In which I explain why I’m giving up manga and rewatching tv shows for march
2013 has not been going great so far. Thats not to say its been going poorly either. But I was hoping to kickstart the year with a nice big burst of creativity and that unfortunately hasnt happened. I suppose theres a number of factors involved. But to a large extent they arent really important. I’m hoping March is going to see a solid turnaround. So, like every good Irish boy, I find shame is a solid motivator. So here’s what I said I’d have done by this point:
– Four “Best of 2012” articles complete
– Two general articles complete
– Ave Imperator Game Design Document and Treatment complete
– Flash ACA course complete
– Nanowrimo first draft complete and edited
– Complete 4 games in February (managed to get one done)
Admittedly I did extend my January holidays which pushed some of that stuff back and changed the order I was planning to do it in. I also lost a week and a half or so to illness and odd posting schedules fucked up some other plans. But they just feel like excuses, as opposed to reasons. Now I didnt get entirely nothing done in February, I started up a bit of old school world creation over here. Which consumed more time than the two entries suggest, I’ve more stuff done for it but I got distracted trying to make a map for it using a mixture of L3DT and Terragen. Both of which seem pretty powerful but not exactly user friendly. I also got 6-7K words down outlining a solid spine for a new game I want to run and the basis for another novel attempt. I also plotted out a short story for that competition Adam sent around. So it wasnt as if I got nothing done. But it annoys me that I didnt get what I wanted done. I have an unfortunate habit of letting my efforts diffuse and dissipate as I jump from idea to idea and project to project.
Now I know it isnt the sole reason, but I cant help but think that the amount of manga I read is partly to blame. Because I read a lot of it. Too much of it. For example, in February I read about 1550 individual chapters, some of which were monthly. Thats an average of around 55 a day, even for a short series where the chapters are in the 15 page range and which contain a fair amount of action (thus being quicker to read) its still about 800 pages a day. Which on the one hand seems like a lot, but really its only three or four volumes so only a few hours a day. But even if its only two hours a day thats 56 hours I could have put towards something else. I dont consider the time wasted. We only get one go around and everything we do is ultimately pointless so as long as I enjoy my time I dont consider it wasted. But I would also like to spend it in other ways. So no manga in March (well possibly with one little excpetion, the new Naruto game is out and I’m well behind the story so I might just bang through it to catch up).
Another culprit is rewatching tv shows, to be honest nearly all my friends also seem to fall prey to this. Its so easy to just throw on a tv show you’ve seen before and either have it play away in the background or kill an hour or two. Thats out too.
I’m not going to set myself any additional goals. If I can kill most of the list above this month I’ll be happy. Oh, I suppose I’ll add one additional task:
– Post a blog entry at least once a week