Justifying Procrastination

GAH! I nearly missed doing my post at all this week. NOT because of procrastination. Because, for freaking once, I am not engaged in some lame displacement activity. I'm finishing a book. That's due Tuesday. And that has no ending. Yet.

But I'm writing. All day long. Bashing my brain against the intractable 'why isn't this scene working' questions, and listening to the characters whispering when I finally collapse in exhaustion at night. For the record, they now shower with me, too, and I've taken to carrying a sticky pad and a pen in my shower bag to catch what they say the second I have a towel wrapped around me.

However. It's possible I'm in this position because of previous procrastination. My favorite? Pseudo-science on TV. Real science on TV. Anything that *could* be true and that would be 100% freaky if it were. Yes. I'm talking mega-tsunamis, conspiracy theories and 'the aliens are among us' diatribes. Ghosts, assorted monsters, Atlantis - it's all great procrastination stuff.

Two reasons for that.
1. I can turn it on and do the dishes while it plays - I 'learn' something AND get chores done at the same time. That's efficient, right?
2. All of these shows are fuel for the fiction fire.

See? Totally justifiable. Now. If you'll excuse the lack of eye candy and the tardiness of this post, some characters are summoning me back between the sheets. Of virtual paper.

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. :)

Pro-Krantz-tination: What KAK's Really Doing Instead of Writing

Bless me, Would-Be Fans, for I have sinned. It's been three hours since I last looked at my WiP. I've been...

Window Shopping. 

Probably for shoes. Possibly for that next DIY design element in that other room that I'll start just as soon as I finish this ...erm... book.

Chicken. Egg. Egg. Chicken.

I mean how can one resist ogling shoes like this?
(She-Hulk Heels on Etsy: 
http://www.etsy.com/shop/FaithisFabulous?ref=seller_info)

Or these? 

(I caved and bought these Wild Diva temptations)

I am weak. I can't ignore daydreaming about custom-printed shades of Collier's Oracle of Delphi. Or maybe Waterhouse's Boreas?

And would it be too ... ya know .. too, erm, odd to have Fuseli's Nightmare screen-printed on an upholstered headboard? Maybe I should go with Ritt's Man in Chains?

Then there's the issue of the bedspread in the guest room. Zebra's overdone, but it does hide the dog hair of assorted beasties when the #weeniece visits, but that doesn't really go with the showtunes theme of the old albums I'm going to get around to framing just as soon as I ...

Finish the book.

Maybe I oughtta go, uhm, write and see if that'll help me Finish. The. Book.

Why Twitter Is the Perfect Way to Procrastinate

I'm at my 25th college reunion this weekend and took this pic of our iconic administration building.

This week's topic is: Procrastination Station: Your Guilty Pleasures... Now, typically, I'm not much for feeling guilt about anything, but procrastinating when I should be writing is angst-inducing, indeed. Fortunately, I rarely do this - probably because I can't afford the time - but when I do, there's one place I go. Let me present to you the one-stop-shopping solution for ALL of your procrastination needs!

TWITTER

What did we do before Twitter? (And, yeah, those of you who've never looked at it or looked and ran away screaming, you may be excused from this post. Go find some other way to procrastinate.)

The grand and deadly thing about Twitter is, it's always new. It constantly changes. If you follow enough interesting people, and I do, you can watch the conversations all day long. You don't even have to say anything. Sometimes I'll end up following conversation threads back for days. If I do get involved in conversations, the back and forth can go on for a long time. Clicking on article links alone can take me down a rabbit hole worth hours of time...

If I let it.

Which takes us back to the top. I don't spend much time at Procrastination Station. I have a little trick up my sleeve called Freedom and Twitter is the primary reason I need it. Sometimes I have to set the Freedom timer before I've closed Twitter, just to make myself stop.

But I know all my friends will be there when I get back, being all interesting...