What's Happening Lately

I'm a procrastinator. I know a lot of people claim to be but I'm really bad. It's my grand shame. I read a book once about procrastination and how to "overcome" it. It was written by some psychologists who claimed to be procrastinators as well. In an early chapter they made the claim that procrastination isn't an across the board behaviour--rather it's a chosen behavior in certain situations. Later they introduced a little quiz to help isolate the problem. Their point was that once you figure out what types of activities/tasks you put off you can then address your issue/s. Typical therapists.

"You will probably find that no matter how pervasive you believe your procrastination to be," they say, "when you take a closer look you'll see that you procrastinate selecively." Here's their list and I'll mark my problem areas with an X.

Household:
X day-to-day chores (e.g., dishes)
X minor home projects or repairs
X gardening and yard maintenance
X calling a repairman
X returning defective or unwanted merchandise
X large home or yard projects
X car maintenance and repairs
X paying household bills
X grocery shopping
X running errands for spouse or children

Work:
X being on time for work
X being on time for meetings
X making business phone calls
X making decisions
X doing paperwork
X writing reports
X keeping up with work related reading
etc.

School
attending classes (tardy but not truant)
doing homework assignments (But I do them at the last minute.)
X keeping up with reading for classes
X studying for tests
X writing papers
X talking with a teacher or advisor
X applying to college
X doing bureaucratic tasks
X returning library books
etc.

Personal Care
X getting physical exercise
X losing weight
X making medical or dental appointments
X personal hygiene (I'm good now. As un undergrad though...ick)
X shopping for new clothes
X getting a haircut (well...)
reading for personal interest
pursuing hobbies (like t.v. and internet?)
X taking vacations
etc.

Social Relationships
X calling friends
X asking someone for a date
X personal correspondence
X inviting people to your home
X visiting relatives
X calling or writing relatives
X planning recreational activities with other people
X expressing appreciation
X giving gifts or sending cards
X giving parties
X being on time for social events
X asking for help or support
X confronting someone about a problem
X telling someone you're angry or upset

Finances:
X filing by April 15
paying quarterly taxes (huh? not checked cause I don't know what this means.)
X organizing receipts and tax records
X finding an accountant
X budgeting money
X making investments
X calling the bank about a problem
X paying credit card bills
X paying parking tickets
X paying back institutional loans
X paying back personal loans
X collecting debts owed to you
X paying insurance premiums
X balancing checkbook.

Remember that episode of Seinfeld in which Jerry becomes warm-hearted and asks George to open-up to him? So George gives in and shares all his deepest darkest secrets. Everything he's capable of. Remember the look on Jerry's face when the scene cuts to the "after" shot? I'm George in that one.

When speaking in my absence a friend once said about me "I don't know how Michael manages to know what he does about books and TV and still get as much sleep as he does." Before it got back to me so that I might think of it as a complement he clarified his intent. "It's not that he knows so much about books. It's just that he sleeps so much and constantly watches TV."

Heads of the Class

We gathered with a group of friends and had as much of every dish as one could wish. I tried collard greens for the first time. They were prepared with some sort of shredded meat. The usual side dishes and appetizers riddled the tables and side tables. at least three cheese plates sat in front of the sofa. (Buffy and I provided one of them.) Sweet potatoes (or were they yams?), squash slices, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes (garlic and plain) a green bean casserole with french onions on top, a bean/meat dish, beer-bisquits, turkey, ham (made with apple cider I believe), stuffing, and gravy to pour over it all. Dessert was the usual set of delicious pies with "homemade" whipped cream, brownies, and a cheesecake that we were told to avoid. Those who brought it tasted it then assured us something had gone wrong. We all trusted them.

It was a group of English types--at intervals the discussion would alight on insufferably pompous issues including such: the importance of rhetorical terminology in an introductory composition class; the proper pronunciation of "often"; the heroic or non-heroic qualities of Beowulf; the pre-velar raising of the 'a' in "bag" in Minnesota dialect; the Seinfeld episode that best illustrated kairos; the distinctive characteristics of asiago and smoked gouda. Okay so we couldn't perform the whole time. At one point I heard someone who speaks French pronounce "Beaujolais" like "boo-zhelay." I don't know enough about French or wine to speak ill of this. It just surprised me.

Then the evening turned against us. And it revealed the limits of our type of intelligence. A drip was discovered. One drop every 3 seconds from the kitchen ceiling when it was first noticed. There were fourteen of us and no one knew what to do. A group of four would walk upstairs then come back down shrugging wide-eyed and cluelessly. No one knew how to shut off the main water supply. No one knew how to locate the source of the overflow/drip. At least 3 people at a time took turns standing staring with a gaping maw at the ceiling.

"Whadoowedo?"
"I-ownknow..."

Someone noticed a line in the ceiling leading up to the drip. "It's obviously started over here!" Everyone ran over there to gawk at this new discovery. Over at the drip a daring fellow touched the ceiling crying out "Hey! It's puffy. I don't think it's supposed to be puffy!" Everyone shuffled back and a few curious types reached up towards the ceiling. "Maybe we shouldn't touch it" another suggested. All paws withdrew immediately and muffled grunts indicated agreement.

We will have our PhDs one day. And until another ceiling leaks we'll do our best to act like the sheepskin says a lot about us.

Annexing

I find that much of what I say on my other site is of very little interest to many of my friends. Or at least I hope there are some people who stop by every 2 weeks or so asking "Why isn't Michael telling us what he does on weekends? How does he like Indiana? Why doesn't he tell some stories? What in the world is a labial velar? Is it naughty?"

Those who are asking the last two questions are probably reading the other web log. But even Buffy smiles politely and goes dead in the eyes when I talk about underlying forms and allophones. For anyone else who cares to put aside the symbols and might like to read my attempts at a more parlorly parlance I've added this new area.

So:
Thanksgiving break is coming up and we'll be spending it here in Indiana. We're only a few hours away from my parents and sisters in Battle Creek but it's a scary last 2 weeks of school that's beginning to wrap its arms around us. And the embrace is not loving. Buffy has some papers to write and grading to do, and I have a big project due and a final exam in Middle English, and I've been told (by some who took the class in years past) that the exam is to be feared.

So we will sit here in our ménage à deux (Does that work Daniel?) trying our best to cook a good meal. Some friends in the area are planning a Thanksgiving gathering--it's always a possibility if I feel like putting the kitchen work aside. But I do love a chance to put my sharp sharp knives to work.

Buffy let me buy some Shun knines with some of our wedding money. They deserve a holiday to shine. (Because they don't really shine on their own. They're made of a pretty Damascus-like steel.)