Nerve Endings Firing Away

Literature reviews are a veritable pain in the posterior and I get locked in an infinite regressive loop with returns diminishing with each passing hour. A similar experience over the past couple of days in an attempt to get started on that all-important research paper on innovation and R&D impacts got me all in knots. Greek and Latin for some, but virtually the bread-n-butter stuff for me, I can’t even afford to wallow in sorrow or use the procrastination excuse for long because no one cares, especially my professor. Have you ever tried searching something academic online? Heavens pray that you can wriggle out of your chair if not burdened with the immense load of knowledge and crap, separated by a blurry line of your own vision or guesstimates.

Whenever I am loaded with this task, I prefer to find everything online and do not relish my umpteen trips to the library in search of the elusive article. Murphy couldn’t be far here when I say that the more important the resource is, the less are the chances of accessing it easily. After rummaging through that movable stacker machines that have been installed recently in the library and photocopying the bulky bound journals, I realize that it is hardly useful. So much for productivity. These are the times when I pray for my computer to crash. Finally all the IE windows vanish, dumping all my search windows and I am forced out of my chair to take a breather. I wish there could be a tell-tale sign of ending all searches. The computer crash is the only effective method I have managed to discover so far and of course my computer is only too pleased to comply. However the converse is not true.

I didn’t want to stare at anything digital for a while so I head over to the nearby Barnes & Noble. I head straight for the periodical section and resisting all temptations to browse through the Maxims and SI’s Swimsuit issues, I pick up a copy of the Digital Photography. An amazing photo and its so-simplistic technique makes me go grab my camera and recreate that same picture. Except I don’t have a kid around who would cooperate and I can’t whirl around adults. Very much in the photography mood, I next picked up the Life Magazines’ Pictures that Defined the Century. Amazing pictures is all I can say. But it still is too expensive for me to own. Whiling away time, I just wanted to spend some time away from home because I knew that once I get home, I will either plop down on the couch to watch TV or stare in the luminous glow of my laptop. After couple of hours of browsing through Moore’s rant-filled books, I bought the Chicken Soup for the Writer’s Soul to make some peace. When I was first introduced to the series, I loved them. Short stories that moved you and made you smile made for nice light reading before dropping off to sleep. But lately I find them too saccharine and monotonous. They still are a lovely read for the uninitiated but maybe I have moved beyond them and will have my lobster dinner now.

On the side note, I finally managed to land on Rediff’s sizzler list and like everything else; you don’t feel anything special when you ultimately do get it. Nothing has and will change in my blogging habits but the astronomical spike in my web hit counter is scary. I literally zoomed past the 10,000 mark and am still going strong but strangely the comments box do not reflect a relative rise.