Just when I had thought I wouldn’t do anything “structured” on my blog, pop comes Duane Scott’s Pleasantly Disturbed series.
He’s been doing it for five weeks now and I have been watching from the sidelines, marveling at his ability to write about everything and nothing.
It’s a rant unlike rants.
He makes it beautiful. There aren’t any threads, and yet when pieced together it makes sense – in a whimsical way.
Today, I finally succumb to that temptation of mimicking how my brain works.
Spill it out on paper …err..computer.
Things that are completely disconnected but make their appearance in my frontal lobe with irreverent regularity.
Like those e-mail notifications that pop up when I am in the middle of doing something really creative. I set them up, so I don’t have anyone to blame but me.
I want to know the minute someone e-mails me, so I can immediately take care of it. Scan it, delete it, spam it, put it in my flagged folder, reply to it – just whatever needs to be done to mark it read.
I hate having unread e-mail counts in my mailbox – personal and official. I don’t know why, but it feels like something is looming over my head.
And it needs to be addressed.
Kind of like being stuck in an MRI machine…I’ve had that experience a couple of times now – it’s hard to stay still when all the itches you could possible have start the minute the technician says “Stay still now … just keep breathing.”
But I really want to scratch my thigh and my back and my head and my toes! Someone help me please!
You just want it to go away – that feeling. That itch.
That’s the kind of itch I have with those e-mails that come at the rate of three per minute some days!
But then there are times when there is no e-mail. Nothing for 3-4 hours.
I find myself refreshing my e-mail client on the iPhone4 (which, by the way, works just fine with a bumper!), my iPad, and my desktop – sometimes refreshing it repeatedly, wondering if the 3G or the wireless is causing e-mails in the ether to not appear.
I curse AT&T or our university wifi.
Because they are there. How can they not be?
Someone somewhere (even if it is an automated bot sending spam) has to be thinking of me … sending me forwards of dancing angels, not-so-hilarious-but-definitely-freaky cats, or irresistible vacation offers in the Bahamas!
I need that distraction to continue working creatively. It helps my synapses.
Just looked out the window to see a colleague pick up her dog’s poop – she’s got him to work today, so we can have a distraction-full day.
I guess for the next couple of hours I won’t care if the universe forgot about me.
And, I guess, I’ll need another Thursday to really mimic my brain…
In the meantime, check out the other Pleasantly Disturbed Thursday bloggers … and have some fun, will ya?

[…] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Mansi, Duane Scott. Duane Scott said: RT @mansibhatia: Just when I’d thought I wouldn’t do anything structured on my blog, comes @duane_scott ‘s Pleasantly D http://bit.ly/9og1l0 […]
I’m with you on the email thing! I am constantly checking it, and I hate having unaddressed email in my inbox.
That’s one reason my students love me. They get almost instantaneous responses if I’m at my desk at all.
I’ll have to see if I can take part in this next week, maybe. If I can get my blog brain working again.
I sure hope you get around to doing it, given what a lazy git you’ve been recently (office moves notwithstanding!)
So you have been reading!
That’s always good to know….
Of course I have! I’m one of them lurkers
LOL yes, you have.
No, I didn’t think you were reading that blog. Just enjoying the synchronicity of us using that term at almost the same time.
Though you’re more than welcome to check it out!
Wow, that’s ironic, since I just talked about lurkers on a blog post that I posted to Game Informer, but not to my other blog.
Hey, wait a minute…..
Have I creeped you out enough?
Rest easy, it was just an innocent comment … I’m not stalking you in the blogosphere.
Oh how I know the feeling of thinking my email client must be down — how could no one be writing to me?
Then when the mails come.. and it’s all junk.. sigh……
Brilliant bit of randomness today. Thanks!
Thank you so much for stopping by. Appreciate your kind words (and thanks for letting me know I am not the only one refreshing my inbox!)
This is EXACTLY how I am.
I can’t explain it.
My inbox just has to show 0!
I love the randomness. You are very talented at this!
Thanks, Marty. Need to keep at it every Thursday now I guess