Hello, all! Welcome to this week's Thursday Thirteen post. As you can guess by the title, I'm a little distracted, lately. I need to refocus on writing, but sometimes, there's just so much to play around with to keep me from getting down to the nitty-gritty, you know?

So, this week, I'm sharing at least

Thirteen Things Which Keep Distracting Me!


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1) Facebook.
While I love my social networking as much as the next person, should seeing my friends' updates really be such an obsession for me? Seriously.

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2) Youtube.
Foul, evil scourge that it is, I go there for some innocent research, and end up lost for huge chunks of time. Very, very distracting.

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3) Romance Divas.
Sheesh! Just poking around the forum is bad enough, but then I start compulsively hitting my "refresh" button to see what's new. Too, too DISTRACTING!

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4) Google Image Search.
It's ridiculous. One little search for honest-to-goodness research purposes, and I'm lost for ages. Too many images, too little time.

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5) Shutterstock, Big Stock Photo, et al.
What happens on Google happens here, too. I go searching for a potential cover photo for my work, and end up thinking of a million different search strings and keep digging, and digging, and digging...

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6) Naked Men, Happy Women blog.
(Definitely Not Safe For Work!) It is what it says it is. A frank discussion of what makes women happy. With pictures.

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7) Cycling Race Results.
I mean, weren't YOU tuning in to the live coverage of the Tour of Qatar? I was! Aren't YOU digging up the results from the first-ever Tour of Oman? I am! Whither thou goest, Fabian, I go!

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8) Work.

One of the more unpleasant aspects of having a job is that whole working bit. Don't they know I need to be focused on the voices in my head to get things done?

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9) My kitteh.
I love my kitty, Sophie. Really, I do. But there are days where she literally drives me to distraction. I can't let her in the office where I'm writing, because she goes nuts and destroys things to get my attention. So, I have to go out and play with her and give her skritches, or hold her tail so she can eat. (Weird, I know. She's a neurotic pussycat to the extreme.) Needless to say, no writing gets done when Sophie needs attention.

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10) Email.
This is all on me, of course. Do I really need to check my email every fifteen minutes or so? No. So why do I do it? Am I hoping to get a surprise?

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11) Listening to music.
While music helps me create, it can also distract. If I'm not listening to the playlist I made for the current WIP, the music can pull me right out of the "zone" I need to be in to get things down on the page.

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12) Webcomics.
I only follow a few of these (Questionable Content and Girls with Slingshots, plus a few others) but waiting for the newest one to be posted can keep me clicking back on their sites again and again. Sad, eh?

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13) Revisiting other WIPs.
(or is that WsIP?) This is something I've been able to mostly resist, but there are times I find myself rooting through older works (and a soon-to-be-published one) for no real reason. Except it seems to kill time. Which I don't need to be doing!

Yeah, I know. I need to focus and stop blaming my lack of output on other things.










But some things are just so...








I don't know...











Distracting...
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Ciao for now! :)
 


Comments

18/02/2010 14:19

The one just above "Ciao for Now"....REALLY distracted me. I forgot what the others were.

My Thursday post is now posted if you'd like to drop by....<a href="http://hootin--anni.blogspot.com/2010/02/sisters-sisters-there-were-never-such.html"> 13 sisters</a>

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18/02/2010 15:02

It took me a long time to read your post. I was distracted by the Naked Men, Happy Women blog. But when I finally got to the end... I... forgot everything else. Beach football anyone?

Happy T-13! Mine's at http://maryquast.blogspot.com/

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18/02/2010 15:28

I can so relate to the stock photo sites. With the opening of my online store I've become a master at photoshop, html coding, and product design. Who'd a thunk it? LOL
Happy T13!

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18/02/2010 15:43

Wow, I could have written this. LOL! Alot of these, especially Facebook, have been distracting me too. :) Happy Thursday!

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Sasha Devlin
18/02/2010 15:51

It's nice to know I'm not the only one distracted. And I refuse to click on Naked Men, Happy Women...Im supposed to something productive today.

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18/02/2010 16:51

Oh, I share many of those distractions, but instead of Facebook, put me in the Twitter camp. :)

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18/02/2010 17:02

Naked men, happy women... great, now I'm distracted too.

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18/02/2010 17:32

The "ciao for now" part is more distracting. Lol <a href="http://www.mariposatells.com/2010/02/womens-perspectives.html">Mariposa's T13</a>

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Penelope Anne
18/02/2010 17:48

You made me distracted, that picture, keep scrolling back may never leave your blog.
Hope you'll drop by my blogs for my T13s at <a href="http://cafeendofuniverse.blogspot.com/2010/02/thursday-thirteen-57-penelope-z-g.html">The Cafe</a> & <a href="http://libraryattheendoftheuniverse.blogspot.com/2010/02/thursday-thirteen-4-male-authors-i-like.html">The Library</a>.

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18/02/2010 21:01

I love this list. Replace your #5 with my budget spreadsheet, #7 with great movies and #9 with my children and this could be my own personal list of distractions!

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18/02/2010 22:13

Wow. What a list! Amazing! And yes, those are cert...

um.

What was I saying?

Distracting. Yes, those are very distracting!

:)

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19/02/2010 00:37

YouTube is addictive. Mind you, I don't want to be cured!

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19/02/2010 00:43

Your kitty is so cute! I love her white paws.
I am constantly checking my email too. I don't know what I am expecting either, but I can be a little obsessive about it too. ;)

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19/02/2010 01:58

Huray, I am number 6 on the list!
I am proud that I am keeping you lovely ladies from being productive! ;)

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19/02/2010 09:36

I'm so easy to distract too. That's half the problem.

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20/02/2010 00:37

Facebook is my worst distraction. That and email it's awful. I tried one day where I avoided every website that wasn't strictly work related and didn't take phone calls and I got so much more done.

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A Desi
21/02/2010 16:24

now that is a really awesome treat ;)

<a href="http://2short2sweet.blogspot.com/2010/02/more-than-just-annoyed.html">More than just annoyed</a>

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