Thinking back, those are some of my fondest memories, actually. I didn't have a car until just after graduation, so I had to depend on the boyfriend de jour, or my best friend (who was usually in need of a jaunt to the library resulting from her own predilection towards procrastination) to take me to the local stacks. So, rarely did I ever have to face the mountains of potential term-paper fodder alone. As such, after weeks of procrastinating the actual trip to the library, I could spend hours fooling about with my trusty side-kick instead of actually working on the term paper research while at the library.
If memory serves, my reports and papers (as well as essay exams) ended up being 40% actual material and a good 60% "fluff". The amazing thing to me is that I always managed to pull A's. In fact, I may have learned some sort of lasting life lesson had my procrastination ever bit me in the arse, but it never did. On the contrary, I seemed to thrive on the pressure of impending doom.
"This all very interesting, Sam. But what brought on this little jaunt down memory lane?"
I'm so very glad you asked, kind reader.
I was recently on Facebook, and I happened across the "What 'The Office' Character Are You?" quiz. I'm a fan of the show, so I dove into the inane questions to see what they could portend about my life, as it relates to Dunder Mifflin.
Voilà! I am Jim Halpert. Not too shabby! He's cute. He's funny. ... he spends more time talking to the receptionist and/or harassing unsuspecting work-mates than he does on his actual job. In fact, let's go to the text accompanying the outcome of this wonderful little quiz, shall we?
"You are Jim Halpert, an employee of great untapped potential. Rather than spending your time on your work, however, you do what is necessary and spend the rest of your time goofing off."
Wait! I'm not like that, am I? Well, not anymore, at least.
... right??
Hrmmm. Let's take a look at the evidence.
If it pleases the court:
Exhibit A - I opened this post, and began writing on November 4th (the night I actually took the quiz). But then, I just moved on to other things, namely starting and outlining three other "future" blog posts (which, as you may have noticed, have not been posted either). Today is the 15th, and I'm not altogether sure that it'll even get finished and posted today.
Exhibit B - My short story. I've been in research and character development for quite some time now, but I've only actually written the opening paragraph. In my defense, there's quite a bit of research to be done, as it's a piece of historical fiction. My OCD demands that I get the background information just right. I want to know the time/place/events surrounding my characters very well so that I'm completely comfortable writing their dialog, and making them move about in the story. But I've only spent just a handful of days emersed in my research stuffs, truth be told. I can't expect the information to hop off the pages and into my brain. Perhaps if I fell asleep at the keybord with Google Books up. Genius! Could I expect some bizarre form of internet osmosis to take place? Or if I could, just once, jack in to the 'Matrix' and learn that way. Oh the thinks I could think!!
But I digress (more often than not, and at great length)...
There are various points in the day (or, more accurately, the evening - as I work during the day for the majority of the week) in which I find my mind turning to one or more of the things that I want to get done. ... and if that something is on my "Procrastinating for One Reason or Another" list, the mind takes an immediate u-turn to the list of things that I maybe could do instead. High atop that list of late has been: a. puttering around on Facebook, b. playing on the Playstation, c. watching shows I've "dvr-ed" from the History Channel or Palladia, d. reading someone else's opes (or, is it opera? ...)
- insert 20 mintues while the author got sidetracked looking up the correct plural form of the word "opus" -
Your honor, the prosecution rests.
