Like many students, I have a very bad habit of becoming distracted while working.
Take this column, for instance. I started working on the Catch 20-Q you are reading right now on Sunday. The very first word was written at 5:04 p.m. the next day.
Despite my inability to pump out some stories in quick fashion, I’ve still been able to churn out columns at a relatively acceptable rate.
However, I fear that may change soon.
On Wednesday, I’ll be heading out west without ever having to leave my house. Or chair, for that matter.
Darius Kazemi, lead analyst at Blue Fang Games, announced Jan. 26 that classic educational games “The Oregon Trail” and “Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?” will be released on Facebook.
Of the two games, I’m much more excited about the former – a game that, like many others, I first encountered way back in my education. I fondly remember traveling across the virtual frontier, with your caravan of people named after friends in class, just so that you could inform little Jimmy of his dysentery-fueled end.
Some expeditions stayed serious, ensuring that the caravan made it safely to its destination. Others, well…sometimes all you need is a hat and 12 grandfather clocks to make the journey worthwhile.
So, in fairness to anyone who reads Catch 20-Q, the combination of this announcement and the already extensive list of stuff that I waste time doing will likely render me useless.
Sure, I may still be able to pump out columns in a timely fashion most of the time, but if, on a fateful Monday, I have the sudden urge to watch Blur’s “Coffee & TV” music video featuring an anthropomorphized milk carton named Milky finding missing guitarist Graham Coxon approximately 37 times, then some sacrifices have to be made.
There are only so many hours in a day that can be wasted, and each distraction must be allocated proper amounts of time. The mere delegation of diversions is a job in itself. From StumbleUpon to Top 50 lists for 2010, each waste of time needs its own schedule.
So, I must warn everyone that when my 12 grandfather clocks and I ford that upcoming river, I may not be able to afford enough time to be your distraction.
Of course, there is still the possibility that after a couple days, the rekindled fascination with the game will burn out, leaving me with nothing better to do than write Catch 20-Q.
When that happens, I’ll just have to focus on finding a new way to be distracted.
