Thursday, April 25, 2013

I'll Tumblr For Ya...

by Allison Pang

I own this topic like nothing else.

I am the master of procrastination. If I can find something else to do beside whatever I'm supposed to be doing, I'm a happy camper.

Oh hey, shouldn't my house be clean? My house should be clean. Like I really need to get into the corners of that bathroom. And go through that closet that I never use. I'd get so much more done if that closet were organized, right?

*ahem*

At least until I run headfirst into a deadline - in which case I become completely screwed - but that's slightly different topic.

So, my two biggest weaknesses?

Games...and Tumblr.

The games is a given. I generally try to limit myself to playing only on certain days, or games where I can save and quit in between missions. (As opposed to Civ V, which is the devil.  JUST ONE MORE GRANARY. ONE MORE BATTLE. ONE MORE CITY TO FOUND. Seriously, the micro managing is sort of addictive. So, yeah. I gotta stay away from Sim games. They NEVER end. And then it's 4 am and I haven't done shit except build an empire.)

And then tumblr.

OMG. Tumblr.

It's chaos incarnate, and for what it's worth, I cannot turn away. It's like dashboard roulette. Just keep refreshing and see what pops up! Social Justice topic of the week. Porn. Kittens. Gay porn. Writing advice. Random WTFkry. Porn. Animated gifs of porn. Every fandom everything - tho heavily dominated by gaming fandoms, sherlockians, whovians, comics, LotR and marvel movies. Fanfic. Naked men. Naked ladies. Tattoos. Wonderful freaking art. And porn.

It's a geek's wet dream, frankly.

(There is something called Tumblr Savior - which I highly recommend for home and office use. It only works if people tag their posts, but there's nothing quite like surfing some lovely art with the kids behind you and then OMG. GIANT PEEN SHOT to make one a bit nervous.)

My own tumblr is a mix of writing advice, pictures of foxes, my own smutty Dragon Age fanfic, and just shit that makes me laugh. Which is why I tend to frequent Tumblr in the first place. I'm in great need of stress reducers. Tumblr fills that need, but it comes at a price. Since there's new stuff on it every second, I have to stay away from it when I'm trying to write. I've had to resort to Freedom, like Jeffe mentioned - because like chocolate, I appear to have zero willpower when it comes to refreshing it. And refreshing it. And refreshing it.

>_<

But I'll grant that the people on Tumblr are quick.

Just look at the Thor trailer that came out the other day. Within minutes, there were gifs and memes popping
up everywhere.  Mostly because LOKI AND HIS HAIR. OMG.

And tumblr exploded.

(Which you can read about on The Mary Sue, because it seriously exploded.)

I tweeted briefly about the fact that mr. loki looks a bit like Gotye here, but I was already too late, because 3 seconds later?





Yeah. They went there....


Anyway, not sure if I'm being all that convincing here or frightening people off, but it makes me laugh and sometimes that's the best thing about procrastination. :)

9 comments:

  1. I made a Tumblr, but I'm afraid to dive in. Still ankle-deep over here. Love the Loki gif

    ReplyDelete
  2. I still don't really "get" Tumblr but I am addicted to lots of pages. I seem to be drawn to the Tumblr pages of alienated, rebellious, generally miserable and/or drug using teenage girls. It sort of frightens me.

    Also - re procrastination - baby, NO ONE can not write like I can not write. I haven't published anything since August 2009 and procrastination is the single cause.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah - it definitely skews younger. I try not to get involved in flame wars, but it can be pretty fascinating overall.

      Delete
  3. I hear you on games. especially Left 4 Dead and Mass Effect take lots of my time. And it's maybe a good thing my pc broke down otherwise there'd be The Sims 2 to take even more of my time.

    ReplyDelete
  4. my teenage daughter is a tumblr addict! In the morning she tells me "oh, the feels!" the Supernatural fandom is straight up crazy, don't mess with them! I only subscribe to a handful of blogs (mostly horror) so I can't get lost

    ReplyDelete
  5. I've never dipped into tumblr but this post was fascinating! I can tell I'd better continue to resist it or my procrastination levels will go up exponentially!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Oh so good to know! Here I had been thinking I should check out tumblr...now I know its a black hole to avoid! :)

    ReplyDelete