Hey, writing a meditation with no replies is not unlike 90% of blogs out there. :) I think merlyn once said that blogging is like making a speech to a big empty hall. :)

As for getting no replies, I don't stress over that. I enjoy the act of writing. Plus, I've received enjoyable feedback from serious golfers (such as hallvabo, mtve, Jasper, J_-_L, emiltin, rhebus, o0lit3, murky-satyr, primo, grimy) which indicates that my exposes are read and appreciated. The people who get the most out of them are probably serious golfers who have actually played in the challenges and who are mostly not members of Perl monks. So why write these golf articles on Perl Monks? Why not start my own blog instead? Ironically, my "no replies" nodes notwithstanding, I feel I am likely to get more replies on Perl monks than I would if I wrote some obscure blog. Plus Perl Monks is a very comfortable place for me.

As for the state I'm in when writing my golf exposes, from your three choices, I would choose "golf zone". While I find my "writing zone" to be pretty much the same mental state no matter which topic I'm writing on, I feel that my "writing zone" is a different mental state to my "programming zone", which is different to my "playing golf zone".

When writing, I am focusing on story-telling, trying not to bore the reader. Trying not to be too dry by throwing in a few jokes, but also trying not to irritate the reader by using too much humour. That is a very different mental state to programming or golfing.

Though I enjoy programming, golfing, and writing, I usually enjoy writing more than the other two. I'm getting too old for golf nowadays.