« Cool! | Main | Boo-ring »

October 30, 2003

Giving sixty-five percent

We just did a scroll of the blog's main page, and were struck by the visual representation of a truth we have been trying to avoid: we are currently in a period of impressive accomplishment in the art of half-assedness.

We look at the piddly little groups of sentences that we try to pass off as "writing," and realize we have been phoning it in for weeks. This becomes particularly apparent when we visit the likes of other blogs that are thoughtfully crafted and gutbustingly hilarious and/or poignant. This little project was, at one point, supposed to be or at least attempt to be sort of like that. We never intended a daily journal that would inform readers when Girl-E purchased eggs or simply said "wow, the sky looks cool!" (see below). But clearly, giving it that old junior high try is all we are capable of at the moment.

Our current state undoubtedly reflects that of our benefactress, who has recently been perfecting the art of C-plus effort in everything she does. Girl-E recently started what can definitely be put in the rough category of dream job, and yet she has been applying herself about as rigorously as a babysitter who has already put the kid to bed. She's been exercising some, but her lofty goals of committing to a progressive and competitive program have fallen face down in the water (or really out of the water, seeing as it was swimming). She tried to resume bass lessons, but went to one and hasn't picked the thing up since. Her preoccupation with finding some kind of regular singing activity outside of karaoke has led to nothing but self-doubt and distraction. After a year of reading about 1,000 pages a week, she hasn't picked up a book in over a month. Meanwhile, she constantly searches the internet for new activities that she could get real good at. She has also been diligently devoting large periods of time to browsing through the Gap and playing Pyramid Solitaire on her Palm Pilot.

Anyway, it appears it's time for her next feeding and thankfully there's a sandwich calling her name. She'll need the energy to eventually roll herself across the street to the library and find the articles on reserve that she needs to write the speech she has been not working on for three weeks.

Posted by The Twins at October 30, 2003 12:48 PM

Trackback Pings

TrackBack URL for this entry:
/cgi-bin/mt-tb.cgi/137

Comments

it's impossible to give anythign 100% effort.
65% is good! i only put 22.3% effort into what i write and it shows!
:-)

Posted by: snowshoe at October 30, 2003 01:06 PM

I think actually the estimate of 65% is a little high.

Posted by: EV at October 30, 2003 01:11 PM

65% would be a d+. and i don't buy it. so you've been slacking a little. maybe you're wiped? give yourself the time to take a breather and then jump back in.

and if you need a kick in the butt, i did kickboxing this morning, so i'm all warmed up. :-)

but seriously, i do know what you mean. at least you recognize it. it'll turn around eventually.

Posted by: kat at October 30, 2003 01:19 PM

It is my opinion that the ability to slip in with a sentence or two, make people laugh, and leave them wanting more for next time, is nothing to be sniffed at. And you always do that. I wouldn't worry too much. Writing slumps are natural. That's why newspaper columnists build a big backlog of stuff to choose from, usually.

Posted by: Hilatron at October 31, 2003 10:52 AM