Brain Block

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, and I don't have time for a thousand words, so here is what I've been up to lately:

I have to make these prioritized "to do" lists to keep from losing my mind.  Today I finally flipped the paper over to its backside, which leads to a seductive but false sense of accomplishment.  The work of these 6 weeks is not halfway finished, despite all the cross-outs and check marks I've managed to amass.  I still have three research papers to complete.  Two of them are under way, but I'm experiencing severe brain block for the third.  It's due in just over two weeks and I'm still waiting for the Good Idea that I'll write it about to pop into my head.  I thought I had uncovered that Good Idea two weekends ago, when I spent two entire days re-reading and researching before writing my paper proposal... but my professor's feedback indicates that this was, after all, Not Such A Good Idea.  So back to square one.  There's nothing to do but Just Keep Playing, I guess, but the difficulty with this particular class is the following:  What do you do when you just don't care about the content, no matter how hard you try to coaxe yourself into caring?  I work in an office, so I do work I don't care about every day.  I know you do, too.  But it's impossible to write a decent paper on a topic you don't care about.  Or, at least, it is for me.  And that's why the paper proposal was bad.  Part of me wishes I didn't like and respect the professor so much, because then it might be less painful to face the possibility of turning in a halfhearted seminar paper.

So come on, Good Idea.  I have a nice, cushy space for you in my brain.  Once you get here, you'll be surrounded by all my other Good Ideas, and you might even bump into a few Very Good Ideas.  I've done all the work; I've done all the reading.  But I don't know how to make you appear except to keep my brain open as I turn page after page.

(Brain Block is some sort of kids book or something.  It also describes my current mental state.  "Writer's Block" is an old friend of mine.  But brain block is new territory, which I am traversing at the worst possible time.)