*tap, tap, tap* Is this thing on?

So it’s Monday afternoon and I’ve managed to get through the entire day without even thinking about Facebook or Twitter. Well, until writing this post.

I’ve also managed to yell at my computer, which I’ve dubbed “Starscream” — twice. The computer name came from a poll I took last week where people on Twitter and Facebook suggested names and then voted on them. It feels like it was the last “fun” thing I did before going dark and I laugh every time I think about this. My office is decorated with all things geek — including a spectacular set of 80s Transformers illustrations which people didn’t even know I had. To my right I have the original Star Wars fan club poster of the Millenium Falcon, a signed Thor print, Soundwave and Blaster. That doesn’t even begin to cover the collection of things on my desk and the other two walls.

Outside of pouring through the tubes to see reader’s reactions for Paths of Storytelling, I didn’t really use the net for much else this weekend. Reviews… Oh, how I’m wondering what those’ll turn out to be.

ANYWAY. I digress.

So… Where was I, again? Oh yeah, the Curse. You know that saying about how people are wrong on the internet? Well, if Damn You, Autocorrect! is any indication, sometimes people aren’t always wrong. Maybe they posted a typo or maybe they were trying to be sarcastic. Truth is, not everyone is dumb yet, when the Curse strikes, that’s exactly how it feels.

I call it the Curse of Well, Actually. What happens is, is that in our need to get accurate information online, of which there’s sometimes very little, we correct someone using these dreaded words. I’ve done it; others have done it, too. In our desire to find accurate information, though, sometimes this really downplays the person’s intelligence on the other end.

Why am I bringing this up? Well, after I announced the 100 Days experiment I got some interesting feedback. My fiancee, Matt, declared that I’ll be back on by the end of this week. A few people thought one hundred days was a long time to be off of social media; others wanted to track my progress and see what the results were.

The obvious question, of course, is why I chose one hundred days. Well, here’s the interesting thing about that. The reason why I picked that length of time, is because rumor has it it takes that long to learn a new routine. What I want, is to do two things before I even start the rest of my day: work out and work on my novel. Period. I need to do these things regardless of how much time I spend on them and what other commitments I have during the day. Otherwise, Argentum will never get done and I’ll continue to feel like a sea slug, even though I’ve been hitting the vegetables hard.

So that’s the reason behind the length of time. After all, if I want to have a series of novels gracing the shelves of your local bookstore, I have to focus on the work. It sucks, because I do enjoy hearing how everyone else is doing, but there it is. To establish two good habits I need to break a bad one.

– Monica