Wednesday Night Lights: Writer's Block

I had an idea for a post on the drive from my full-time job to my part-time job. I was musing in my head about some things, and thought "Oh! That would make an interesting post!"

Of course, I had nothing to write it down with nor did I try to mantra it into my brain so that I could write it down when I arrived here. I've been trying for almost four hours to return the idea to my head. But it won't come. The initial process was so random I can't recreate it in my head to jigger the dust motes together.

So I've been trying to come up with other ideas for tonight, and I still got nothing. I have half-formed ideas about absinthe, Chuck Mangione, science fiction, baseball, and syrup. But nothing concrete. Nothing good. And while writing a post that could somehow connect all those things together would be awesome...it's beyond my powers as a writer.

And I know this post is such a cop out on writing something with substance. But I want to make a post tonight (stubbornly refusing to admit defeat and perhaps post something later tonight or tomorrow) and I'll post whatever I have.

But this brings something to mind for me. What do you do when you're out of thoughts? What resource do you use to spark your imagination? When faced with the need for an emergency program, is there a favorite book or website that you go to for ideas? Is there a movie that makes ideas pop in your head like crazy? Are you like Betteredge in The Moonstone and dive into Robinson Crusoe to interpret the world around you?

I myself like to dive into the world of commercials. Yes. I said it (and was rightly mocked for it last night when I wanted to skip some): I like commercials. They can be like perfect jewels of storytelling to me. And they can be utter garbage. But good and bad, there are worlds of the unknown out there in commercials.

How about you?