Every once in a while, but typically precipitated by an impending and unrelated deadline, I experience an absolute shift of drive and desire from one of my pastimes to another. My interest in the former wanes complete, and the latter becomes a pure fixation for a week or so before settling into "just the thing I do now." Guess where I am in this moment, having launched a so-normal-it-feels-perverse blog concept (1) mere days after starting this guy here. Friends, it is Writing Season.
I enjoy Writing Season, generally. Writing Season is when I think a lot about games and adventures. Writing Season is when I feel my most useful. Writing Season is when I absolutely have things that need to be written. And, of course, Writing Season is not when I write Those Things. Today, I have a couple big things on which I need to move: an accepted book chapter, a search strategy for a scoping review, heck, probably finishing a half-written game or two would be a better application of this shift. Instead, here I am, blogging about myself.
It could be worse. Gaming Season recently ended, which is fine by me. It's a lovely distraction, paying rent on someone else's mortgage. I enjoy putting together flat-pack furniture, building proficiency in a skill inapplicable anywhere else, but at least at the end of it there's a patio table. Gaming Season usually sees me investing any spare minute into the development of a weird dude instead of myself, and whenever I realize this, Gaming Season ends.
The third major season is Music Season. Somewhere between Gaming and Writing in terms of the self-indulgence-to-fulfilling-outcome ratio, this is where I play little ditties, maybe put out a YouTube video, maybe compile a Bandcamp album, and always spend a lot of money and time on synthesizers & software, downloads & tapes. And, of course, it doesn't come around when I have music commitments or commissions. So the shuffle goes.
At the horizon, temptation looms for a New Season: soldering irons and multimeters in my Microcenter shopping cart. I tell myself I may indulge when I've completed my music commission, but who can say what season I'll be under then.
(1) Visit dayton.cafe for earnest reviews of every place I eat in the greater Dayton metro area.