I'm hoping your post title's a pun. :D

How so?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pussy_Galore

*grin*

Haha. I hadn't intended it but...

Whole new take on cat waxin'!

I've seen "catwaxing" before in gryphynshadow's posts, and I think I've gotten the gist of what it's supposed to mean ("useless activity to make one feel productive"), but if you'd be so kind as to provide your definition of it...?

Also: Just checked out the Mabinogi link, and it looks cute. But what's it about? (I mean, the aim of the game, as well as the game's general genre.)

Here's a definition I found online:

Behavior the author undertakes to avoid working on the WIP. E.g. "I've mowed the lawn, washed the windows, weeded the garden, scrubbed the toilets, cleaned the bugs out of the lights, and worked out all my menus for the next three months. Guess it's time to ... wait! How long has it been since I've waxed the cat?"

Cat waxing is anything you do to avoid writing, but specifically it is those things you do which seem absolutely 'necessary.' OMG, I can't start writing until I've washed the dishes, cleaned out the back seat of the car, and wax the cat! I saw an online definition (can't find it now) which suggested the term originates with Teresa Nielsen Hayden of Making Light/the Tor Books/Boing-Boing editor but she may have gotten it in turn from other writerly types.

Mabinogi is a massively multiplayer online game (MMORPG) in the vein of Warcraft or Everquest. This one is based loosely on Welsh myth with (obviously) a heavy anime influence. It started in Korea and has been popular throughout Asia, but is just being released here.

Rather than a class system, all characters can learn any skill but most people specialize in one of the major skillsets -- melee combat, archery or magery. The combat system is cool because it takes some strategy to decide which move to use when, rather than simply clicking on monsters till they die. There is also a music system which allows you to program any song into the game to have your character play, and some songs have positive magical effecs, bard style. It's also quite amusing because people have programmed all kinds of songs, and I find it hilarious to have a fantasy anime dude playing 'Paint it Black' on his lute. There's an extensive crafting system allowing for tailoring, cooking, and even I think making your own arrows and weaponry. You can also go fishing, which I think there must be a law requiring all MMORPGs to include.

The game has an interesting twist where you can start your character at any age from 10 to 17, and the character ages a year every week. Up until age 25 you gain a bunch of bonuses on this birthday. Eventually, when you get old, you can rebirth the character by paying Nexon for a few bucks, starting them over at level 1 and age 10 but with all their skills intact. Another neat system is that you earn 'titles' for various accomplishments, so my character is Caspar the Fire Arrow for his use of flaming arrows.

The aim of the game is pretty typical of these kinds of games -- go on quests and kill stuff so you can level up so you can go on more quests and kill more stuff. The quests vary from retrieving a item or rescuing a person to monster hunting quests ('Kill 5 dire wolves'). You can also do part-time work in town to earn experience or money by working for one of the NPC shops. Nexon just ended the beta phase and released the 'Generation 1' patch, which releases the mainstream quests. You have to have one of the paid service to access the G1 quests... I have access to them due to a free trial on those services but haven't explored it yet. It has something to do with the goddess Morrighan. Quests are run either solo or with a party of adventurers.

So now I've successfully catwaxed by explaining the game in detail to you...

Sometime when you are in college station, would you be interested in getting together with Reesa, Jennifer and I (and whichever other members of our writing group who are in town) for a writer's salon?

I've personally found that journal-writing is the best catwaxing exercise ever, because you can justify to yourself that you have indeed written that day. :D

Thank you for the explanation. I know of exactly what you speak, having done that so many times that it's become not just a habit, but an essential when in my procrastination mode. (I have a method of working: 1. Get an idea; 2. Get excited & research the hell out of it, taking copious notes; 3. Write an outline, proposal or vignette; 4. Temporarily run out of steam, pause for the "what next?" break; 5. Figure out/know where to go next, but fall into procrastination rut; 6. If WIP has a due date, come within a week or two weeks of said date, panic and finish the WIP in a flurry of soda, coffee, chips, snacks, music, teeth-gnashing, book-riffling and punctuations of sheer genius among the general noises of ACK! and OMG! and I suck!; 7. Alternately, if WIP has no due date, come back to it time and again, poke at it with a stick, add something, contemplatively rethink it all, perhaps write another vignette, and put it away again because idea is Too Cool and not sure where to take it next.)

Anyway: Thanks for the invitation. I'd like that. It may get me off my writerly butt and get something done with the Zombie Idea (aka The Idea That Would Not Die, aka Current WIP now in procrastination mode).

Yeah now that I blog on my 'writer blog' I can pretend that writing a blog entry is somehow furthering my writing career. Whee!