I Swimming! (or at least treading water)

11:15 pm. July 31. Where did the month go? Or as marc puts it, “Jason? Is that you?” If you check the few posts I left here, you’d think I spent most of my month troubleshooting server problems for the Wordherders, reposting KF’s cfp (which I wish I could afford to submit to), and reading Harry Potter.

Not too far off, actually. At least as far as personal digital time goes.

See, June was a long month. Action-packed, one might say. Conferences, deadlines … just busy all ’round. The “July Retreat,” as we’ll call it, wasn’t so much a retreat from anything but a screen. I tended to surf less (Internet and TV) and read more, plowing through some Atwood, some Coupland, some Powers. And, yes, some J.K. Rowling (though that took just under 24 hours, so it hardly counts). I go through these bursts of technical hibernation at times, where my game play drops to near nil, and my reading picks up to 2-3 novels a week. Old school immersion. Screenless (except for a full viewing of the partial-season DVD of Joss Whedon’s Firefly. How I wish that show was still on).

The other half of the story is that since my wonderful wife clocked overtime helping me through June, I tried to do a bit more to give her time in July (I never quite feel as though I measure as much time for her, and remain amazed how she’s able to give so much up for me). The critter, meanwhile, is growing like a weed and constantly wants to go to the pool so she can kick her legs and say “I swimming, I swimming!” Seriously. She wakes up and says “pool?” By mid-afternoon, she hunts down everyone’s bathing suit and drags over the beach bag. The kid loves the water. Blog, or swim? Pretty easy decision.

So, I have a bunch of overdue blog posts. On Tribble-gate. On Guild Wars (Decent enough game so far, if you have a friend or two to play with. They have capes. The writing, however, is … unimpressive). On Atwood and narrative communication. On >Getting Things Done (almost done with the book, and about to begin my reorganization … my question: PDA or paper notebook ala Franklin-Covey? I’m leaning towards the Zire 31). I have pictures to upload to Flickr from our trip to Nags Head last week (“I swimming!”).

But mostly, friends, I’ll be dissertating and reading, when I’m not at work (or, if my daughter gets her way, at the pool). So no promises on too many blog posts.