Stalling for Time

Procrastination, par Franck Vervial (Photo credit: Franck Vervial)

      I was scheduled to participate in a Deja Vu blogfest event today and then I discovered it was called off.  The story of my life.  That's kind of deja vu in itself.  I don't know how many times I've been expecting something to happen because it was on my schedule, only to find that it wasn't going to happen after all.  Since I don't want to be the only one putting up some forgotten post from my blog's past, I'm not going to do it.  Instead I'll stall for time.

      Stalling for time is something I frequently do on my blog and in my life.  I can always find something to do instead of what I really should do.  It's kind of the way I've always been I guess.  When I was a kid in school I'd put off projects to the last minute and then stay up late slapping something together. Perhaps to my detriment I'd always seem to come up with A grade work which only reinforced my bad habits of putting things off.

       When I learned the word "procrastinate" in my senior year of high school, it became one of my favorite words.  The word procrastination made my habit sound more important.  Now I could justify my behavior by proclaiming myself a procrastinator.  With smug satisfaction I felt comfortable with my poorly justified excuses.  Stuck in a rut I am.  I still procrastinate much of the time.  Eventually I might be able to use the excuse of senility or something like that, but I'll put that off for as long as I can.

       It's probably better to dump the excuses and just say things as they are.  But who does that when excuses are so easy.

        For the next few weeks on my blog I guess I'll be stalling for time like I've done for the past holiday seasons.  I'll be trying to slap up something on my sites.  If I don't make it I guess I won't be the only one, the difference being that many of you have already scheduled blog vacations.  Why would I want to do something like that when I have an opportunity to screw up?

        So some of the things you will be seeing in the next three posts are my Battle of the Bands post on Sunday December 15 ( I have planted some clues in this post), announcements on Monday December 16 (a Roast winner and an event to come), and on Wednesday December 18th I will roast myself as requested by Sydney Aaliyah.   After that anything goes, but I will try to bring you something as I travel to places afar.

       For now I think I've stalled enough for time.   Happy Friday the Thirteenth!   I'm outta here.

       Are you a procrastinator?    Why do you think some people tend to put things off?   Do you have any helpful hints to help us procrastinators?   Any idea what Christmas song I'll be using in my Battle of the Bands post?

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Killing Time--Is It Murder?

Image via Wikipedia

         Recently I heard a discussion on a radio talk show about the effects on the brain and behavior resulting from playing video games.  One of the callers said that he liked to play the war game Call of Duty every night after he got home from work "just to kill the time".  The sadness of that statement struck me immediately as something that is wrong with our society.

          The empty ennui of so many lives is something that burdens me with sorrow and perplexity.  There is so much that I want to do and never seem to have the time to do it all.  If people have time to waste then I'd like to have some of that time.  I know I waste plenty of time due to my own lack of organization, but I would not ever want to think I was purposely killing time or idling away my hours.

         What is it about the "I can hardly wait" and the "hurry Friday" mentality that so many people have?  Shouldn't every moment count?  I often have things I look forward to, but I don't want to give up a second to get there any faster.  I'm going to get there soon enough.

          Are you treasuring every second, every minute, every hour?   Do you make the most of uncomfortable, boring, or difficult times?   What do you enjoy most about the journey before you arrive at your destination?  Is killing time murder?

Tomorrow on Wrote By Rote my special guest will be Christine Grote on the topic Why We Write Our Stories.  

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