I have felt guilty all morning, knowing that I didn’t have a new post up. So guilty, in fact, that I’m writing this here at work, in Microsoft Word, no less, even though I thought I’d never do a post again without Ecto (and, oh, how I love thee, Ecto).

If it’s not so obvious, I thought I’d let you in on a little secret – I usually future-publish my posts. Oh, not too extended into the future. If I went on vacation, I wouldn’t write posts to be published in the interim. Usually, I write the posts the night before. I’ll spend an hour or two, even on the short posts, because I write in between homework assignments, and while I’m surfing the internet. The only “immediate” posts that I publish are usually the asides.

I hope you don’t think I’m a cheat because of this. I just remember looking at my post after I had finished writing it, and thought to myself, this can wait until tomorrow. Especially since I finish my posts after 10pm or so, and I’m sure I don’t have a majority of my readers drop by after then.

Also, it turned out to be handy, because even though I use Ecto, I have to go in and hand-edit all of the posts in the wp-post panel, to tag them correctly. It is my fondest wish that Ecto and WordPress will play friendly one day, but then it’d have to be WP-Ecto, because there are features involved that I know would involve a core hack of everyone involved.

This delayed posting, though, can get me into trouble sometimes. When I write about something that happened today, I have to stop and remind myself – no, that’ll be yesterday tomorrow. That’s why there’s a lot of “yesterday, such and such happened, and it reminded me…” I try to avoid that to keep from becoming repetitive, but it’s a very slippery slope I know I’ll fall down one day.

The best thing about delayed posting, though? The part where I get to really think about what I’m going to post about. Nearly nothing I write about is dependent on the day I post it. If I write about a math class that happened today, I could just as easily tell you it happened last week. Being able to take my time leads to much better posts. I’m not rushed to get something up in the morning, and when I think about something I want to write about, I know I don’t have to immediately get to it. If it’s still rattling around in my brain a day, a week, or even a year from now, I know it’s something that I really want to write about.

Although, there is something to be said for-on-the-spot blogging. This post is nothing near what I wanted to write about last night, or what seemed like a good topic when I got of the train this morning. So, now I have this diatribe explaining my process, and two more ideas to round out the week, along with half-baked ideas that are whining for me to write them from Ecto.

Oh, and the reason I didn’t have time to write last night was because I had to do four math assignments – which took me three hours – and by the time I was done, my hand was cramping horribly. Also, I had to get up early to finish copying the last two assignments out of my note book (why I thought the notebook was the way to go, I have no idea), so I just went to bed at 10:30. I know, lame of me.

- “London Beckoned Songs About Money Written By Machines,” A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out: Panic! At the Disco