As an American, I grew up with baseball, hot summer days, peanuts, and steroid-injecting muscle men. One of my favorite traditions from baseball is the 7th inning stretch, both a practical necessity and acknowledge of baseball's inherent lackadaisical nature. Just as the game reaches conclusion, everybody takes a break. Mascots run a rigged race around bases. Hats or shells move horizontally at a progressively faster pace in an attempt to conceal an object. No pitches are thrown. No balls are hit.

What's not to love?

Baseball has seeped into my writing habits. I am very good about: (1) Clear thesis, (2) Organized outline, and (3) Revision. However, I am absolutely awful when it comes to writing the last 15% of any book, blog post, or article. I don't know if it's a Seventh Inning stretch mentality or an Ingmar Bergman fear of death transposed upon the "end" of a writing project, but, shit, my brain goes jelly and my will power dissipates.

So, yes, I can see the summit of the end of my manuscript's first draft, but the trail to the peak is personally a treacherous climb. There's, like, moving ice bridges, backstabbing sherpas, subzero temperatures, and shifting 75mph Arctic winds. At least in my head.

My wife will ask me - have you been writing or playing Angry Birds? To which, defensively, I will reply: do not speak about Angry Birds in such a negative tone. Studies show computer games in healthy doses develop problem solving skills in grade school children.

Studies of adults remain sparse and generally inconclusive.