I don't procrastinate, I collect distractions

How many procrastinators does it take to screw in a light bulb?

ANSWER:

Two. One to hold the giraffe while the other fills
the bathtub with brightly colored bicycles.

As a chronic procrastinator, I have the habit of filling my schedule with random distractions to prevent finding any time for the dreaded necessities. Which in short means seemly innocent pastimes become massive roadblocks to my progress.

If you will humor me, I'd like to tell you about a dream I had a little over a year ago.

The dream begins at my parents house on my wedding day. Most brides have notebooks, planners, organizers, and PDA's filled with all the details for this once in a lifetime event. I however did not. Instead of making wedding plans during the previous weeks, I had purchased a puppy and had spent all of my free time housetraining it.

When the big day arrives I wait until midmorning to go to the church to begin getting ready. For some reason I think it would be quick and easy so I bring my teenage niece and a younger nephew along as my only helpers, but I discover a few set backs. First, my wedding dress won't stay on my shoulders and keeps falling off. Then my niece then points out that I haven't showered and my hair isn't done.

Just then my nephew begins to tantrum because he's incredibly bored, and my niece takes him home. As I start going through my clothing options, and consider postponing the wedding, my sister comes in to help with the dress. Taking control of the situation she starts off by saying “How about some color?” Although a colored wedding dress isn't exactly what I had in mind, I let her take control.

As we try to figure out what I can possibly do about a dress, I ask her what she thinks of my fiancee, at which point I am suddenly hit with the realization that I have no idea who my fiancee is, and then I wake up.

What we've got here is a major undertaking (a wedding), a distraction (a puppy), and a no planning (wedding dress mishap, grungy hair, and a mystery fiancee). As much as I hate to say it, I've seen this pattern in my life on more than one occasion. I am a renowned collector of distractions which keeps me from planning for most major undertaking which leads to........(drum roll)............disaster.

With my current plan to film my Masters project on January 20th, I am hoping that I can somehow turn this around. So if I even mention a puppy in the next 2 months you have my permission to slap me silly.

Google a friend today

Every once in awhile I suddenly think of a long lost forgotten friend, and I begin pondering where that person might be today. Well, such a moment came today.

My friend's name is Dax. Isn't that a great name? I've always wanted to name a son that, but a few years back Star Trek used it for a female character who had a symbolic relationship with a slug creature that lived inside her. Try explaining that one to your child. So I've had to forgo that idea.

Anyway, I haven't seen him since 6th grade. Dax was a funny guy. I remember one Valentine's Day he caused a riff with one of my other friends when he gave her a valentine that read:

The roses have wilted.
The violets are dead.
The sugar bowl's empty,
and so is your head.

When I found myself wondering "what ever happened to him," I decided the most logical thing to do was to enter his name into Google to see what popped up. Fortunately his first/last name combination is a wee bit unusual so when I got a hit, I was fairly confident it was him.

Surprise, surprise, he's a high school teacher in the Nowheresville, Utah. Who'd a thunk it? I went to the high school website just to verify that I had the right Dax, and indeed I did. There's a picture (he's changed a bit since we were 12, but it's him all right), his educational background, and a really boring blog (I never did care much for earth science homework).

Anywho, I just thought I'd share this experience with you, and suggest that maybe we should all take a moment now and again to try to look up an old friend. Perhaps you'll find nothing at all, but then again, you just may just discover something interesting.

Cheers.

Sombostah, here I come.

Perhaps you have heard of AT&T's "Network This" campaign where your personal network consists of the three places you most often divide your time.

An example might be Manchester, New York, and Liechtenstein which becomes........Manyorktein. Or perhaps you split your time between Guatemala, Las Vegas, and Tenbucktoo. Well, then your network would be Logvegtoo. My personal network is technically Sombostge, but I haven't a clue how to pronounce that so I'll go with Sombostah instead.

To check out your network visit http://www.attwheredoyoulive.com/. And if you really, really, really like your network name (and are willing to give into AT&T's promotional ploy) you can get it on t-shirt or mug ;)

Employment Benefits

There are definitely reasons to like my place of employment (the large beige building in the left corner).

1. Sweet View for Red Sox and Patriots Parades.

Whenever a Boston team wins a national/world championship, they put the athletes on boat-car hybrids called Duck Boats and drive them around town so we can all share in the excitement of the win and prevent the need for riots. ;)

The best part is that these parades go right in front of my building, and I can get some great pictures without braving the crowds.

View from the roof.

View from atop my co-workers desk.

I took 132 pictures in all so I'd prefer to not post them all here, but you can check out the album on snapfish:

www1.snapfish.com/share/p=676311193844098631/l=317249732/g=16664672/otsc=SYE/otsi=SALB

2. The View From My Desk.

Not only do I have a window, I have a window with a sweet view. Sunsets like this make working late a little more tolerable.

3. Movies

A film titled Bachelor No. 2 filmed a scene in the 6th floor of my building a couple months ago. Dane Cook and Alec Baldwin were there. I had hoped that my being the assistant to the person who gave them the okay to film would provide with more than a 5-second glimpse of Alec, but alas it was not to be.

Since I couldn't get a picture with the stars, I got a picture of the chairs that are occasionally occupied by the people who tell the stars what to do. (please note that Mike Elliot is the cutie producer)


And some entertaining signage:


4. Miscellaneous Benefits

There are loads of other cools things from my job like free lunches, free Diet Coke, free advice, but I'm afraid those aren't nearly as photogenic. ;)