People who know me really well know I’m a geek. People who know me really well always seem to end up moving out of state for some reason—never could understand that. But back to the geek part. One should always realize that once a geek always a geek, no matter how old one becomes you’re still a geek. Now I don’t look like your typical geek per say, I look more like a character from Pirates of the Caribbean ©. Somewhere between Jack Sparrow and his father I’d imagine although you can’t look much worse than Keith Richards and still be alive. And folks say I always look pissed. That is until they get to know me better then they move out of state.

So what has this to do with swimming through molasses? Well, just this. It refers to writing and how hard it’s been for me to do so of late. Seems that every time I start writing up a post lately I completely lose interest after the first paragraph or two and end up chucking the entire thing. Even with the simplest of topics the thoughts flow like sludge. It’s like swimming through molasses you see. You don’t get very far and you become exhausted real quick. I used to love researching a post, sticking in all sorts of references and the like—I didn’t even have to think about it. I’d have multiple tabs open in two different browsers while I was writing while all the time wishing I had a dual monitor setup with my research sources on one while I was writing on the other. Now I find it’s all I can do to write some twaddle about the snow outside and how sick of it I am.

Frustrating.

I’m not totally daft, I know a lot of this has to do with the way I feel and the [Insert: nasty word] prescription medication I’m forced to take. And in doing some research with a good friend of mine who is also having the same type of trouble as I am (except that, unlike myself, he’s a natural born writer so that helps some), we have come to the conclusion that CFS might have something to do with it also. No matter what the cause the end result is a mind that’s mostly turned to mush or at the least it feels like it.

Now here’s where the geek part comes in.

For the last couple of months I’ve been worried about this lack of production as far as writing goes and whether it’s spreading to other preoccupations of mine such as remembering where I live—things like that. But then the other day, while I thought I was staring listlessly at my computer display I suddenly realized what I was doing. I wasn’t paying any attention to my actions at the time, my thoughts as usual were more turned toward the fact I needed to post something to my poor old blog here when I came to realization that I had just finished writing a rather long post to a tech forum involving a problem in updating a certain operating system along with a work around I had found for it. It then occurred to me that I had been doing this on a regular basis for the past several weeks without really thinking about it all.

So I finally had to sit and ponder the situation. On one hand I had 3 different operating systems installed on my computer, all different versions of Linux Mint (Linux Mint 10, Linux Mint 10 KDE and Linux Mint Debian Edition). Actually I had 4 different operating systems on this machine of mine if you counted the same copy of Windows 7 running in a virtual Machine on two of the Linux installs. Now the point here is not so much that I’m promoting Linux Mint but rather the fact that I’ve been running essentially 4 different operating systems on the same PC, 3 of which I’ve been testing, troubleshooting, trying this-that-and-the-other-thing, posting on forums as well as doing my best to break 2 of them which often requires an entire re-install of the OS and doing all of this apparently without thinking one bit. Sort of akin to a geek’s version of twiddling their thumbs.

And on the other hand I have this blog. My poor 5 year old blog that has been suffering from a bad case of lack-a-post for the last few months and the only difference that I can perceive at this point is the act of thinking about what I’m doing. Here I am writing long, detailed troubleshooting reports and helpful hints about operating systems without giving it a single thought but I can’t seem to grind out a post a week to my own blog? The  solution therefor is obvious.

I must stop thinking when I’m writing.

That has to be it. The only difference between this tech writing I’ve been doing lately and writing up posts to Just Thinkin’ is, in fact, the act of thinking. So the obvious remedy is to not think when I’m writing, yes? Keep my mind a complete blank, listlessly stare at the screen or the keyboard in this case since I can’t touch type to save my soul. Maybe even  listen to some music while I’m at it? Either way this lack-a-post has to stop. I didn’t keep this blog of mine going for 5 years just to have my brain of mush put a stop to the whole thing now. So from now on it’s going to be Just [not] Thinkin’.

Maybe that will help?