Wednesday, August 22, 2007

eventually i will be mostly lipid

georgia is so disgusting this time of year
it gets so humid it isn't even worth putting clothes on
or going to the mailbox unless you know there's going to be something good
which there rarely is
the only time i go outside between the months of july and august is to walk to my car and then from my car to wherever i am going and then back to my car and then back to my house
or sometimes i go running
usually i try to run on a treadmill in the summer
or get exercise other ways
but some days i get up and don't think about temperature
and i just put on my women's jogging shorts
(i run in women's jogging shorts because it's the only pair i own)
and head straight on out into the heat
you sweat twice as much as normal when running in extreme humidity
your skin gets so wet and glisteny
i didn't know that my sweat had acidic properties
until i started running in extreme heat and felt it hit my eyes.
most of the day i spend sitting in front of the computer.
my rss feed keeps me up to date to friends' and other writers' blogs.
i look at the same sites every day either because they are bookmarked in the main toolbar or they are in the drop down menu and all i have to do is click even if i know there's no new content there.
often i'll look at the same unupdated site five or six times a day.
in addition to my rss feed sites i look at gmail, myspace, duotrope, juked, 5cense.com, statcounter, pitchforkmedia, facebook, ebay, the websites of any journals i have an entry to a soon-ending contest in, the websites of any journals i have recently been accepted by, sharkscope, diagram, bookslut, amazon, mcsweeneys, google, paypal.
i could probably get done what i do on the internet each day in a total of 45 minutes not counting my email checking but somehow it stretches over a 6-8 hour period.
i do not go out very often unless there is something specifically interesting to do
though there is not often something specifically interesting to do
and yet i still do not consider myself an introvert.
i used to not watch much television.
until 3 months ago, i did not have cable at home for 7 years.
now each week i watch top chef, bizarre foods, whatever new poker broadcasts are on, flipping out, the pickup artist, the soup and occasional movies.
often i watch the same episodes of the same show multiple times in a week, sometimes even in the same day.
i think less now about how i spend my time.
i used to obsess about stuffing my life full with 'productiveness'
if i weren't sleeping or occasionally hanging out with people i would be sure to be working on writing, reading, submitting, sending productive emails, or something else that i could look back on and have palpable evidence of my effort.
now i don't seem to care.
as long as i run each day and write at least a little and send work out a couple times a week and play some poker and see people outside my house two days a week and spend a decent amount of time with my girlfriend, i don't think about much else.
i wonder if this could be considered an improvement or devolution.
i wonder if i am old.

5 comments:

Mike Young said...

georgia heat.

i just read yonder stands your orphan, which is mississippi, i suppose, but still.

Tao Lin said...

that was good

"often i'll look at the same unupdated site five or six times a day.
in addition to my rss feed sites i look at gmail, myspace, duotrope, juked, 5cense.com, statcounter, pitchforkmedia, facebook, ebay, the websites of any journals i have an entry to a soon-ending contest in, the websites of any journals i have recently been accepted by, sharkscope, diagram, bookslut, amazon, mcsweeneys, google, paypal.
i could probably get done what i do on the internet each day in a total of 45 minutes not counting my email checking but somehow it stretches over a 6-8 hour period.
i do not go out very often unless there is something specifically interesting to do"

haha

Kathryn said...

i like this. i especially like the title.

thanks for linking to us. i like your blog.

BLAKE BUTLER said...

mike: i've read the first half of yonder about 4 times. i somehow keep losing track. 'ray' is my favorite barry hannah by far.

thank you tao.

kathy, venom literati booyah.

Mike Young said...

i think you probably lose track because there are 6456309534529642349782634923864234 different characters.

as a child, i watched much wrestling and star trek. my brain said 'bring it, little bitch.'