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The Time Suck

Silly Things That I Have Done Instead of Writing

© Cat Rambo

Here's a list of some of the things that either I've done or that other people have reported doing while procrastinating instead of writing.

  1. Written thousands of room, item and character descriptions for an online game.
  2. Made chocolate caramels lightly sprinkled with sea salt.
  3. Made fruit leather.
  4. Written coupon-winning letters of complaint.
  5. Done dishes or other forms of housework up to and including, somewhat unbelievably since it's one of my least favorite chores of all time, changing the litter box.
  6. Refuted trolls on internet bulletin boards with far more eloquence than they actually deserved.
  7. Played entire campaigns of Civ II, Civ III and Civ IV.
  8. Gotten a Tauren warrior to level 60 in World of Warcraft.
  9. Made an entire angel food cake from scratch in order to "use up the eggs".
  10. Random acts of housewifery worthy of Martha Stewart.
  11. Brought entire civilizations to their Golden Ages, courtesy of the Sid Meier game. Curse you, Sid!
  12. Pillaged the Spanish Main, courtesy of a different Sid Meier game.
  13. Made sure that all my fiction submissions are carefully tracked in an elaborate spreadsheet.
  14. Tried various get rich schemes, none successful.
  15. Said that yes, a kangaroo petting zoo sounded like an excellent notion, and we might as well plan on spending the entire day on the trip.
  16. Gotten a Troll hunter to level 60 on World of Warcraft.
  17. Alphabetized many things, including CDs, books, folders, and a spice rack. (twice)
  18. Graded papers and included far too much feedback.
  19. Rebuilt a hard drive.
  20. Planned out an elaborate mobile-phone game that would spread like a virus across the world and brought me fame and glory.
  21. A lot of reading.
  22. My taxes.
  23. Looked up old lovers on the Internet.
  24. Looked up old teachers on the Internet.
  25. Looked up people from grade school on the Internet.
  26. Filled out online quizes that analyzed my personality, my aura, my dating habits, my vocabulary, my diet, and which Marvel superhero expresses my true self.
  27. Figured out how to redecorate my house, including downloading software in order to draw up floor plans.
  28. Watched three seasons of Arrested Development in a weekend.
  29. Conquered the world...or dreamed of it.
  30. Written articles like this.

The copyright of the article The Time Suck in Sci-Fi/Fantasy Fiction is owned by Cat Rambo. Permission to republish The Time Suck in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.





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