Where’s my rope?
May 9th, 2005 at 01:57 pmIt’s 0400 and I’m just getting to bed. Again. Somehow, I allowed my work to pile up to the point where one more assignment added on would effectively bring down my delicate balancing act of procrastination. On Wednesday, I have a 15 minute presentation due that I have stunningly been able to put off for two weeks due to my superb acting skills. You should have seen me last week, pretending I had no idea what was going on and that I was supposed to be presenting then. And what did I do with my one week extension? Exactly, not a damn thing.
Thursday calls for a 2,000 word essay in Aboriginal Studies. Friday demands for both a 2,500 word and 1,500 word essay in America is Evil and Australian History, respectively. And next Tuesday simply asks for a 2,000 word essay on Australian-Asian relations, as well as a 10 minute presentation in that class. And then we’re right back around to next Wednesday, where I must submit a 1,000 word essay on that damn presentation I first talked about where I’ve done not a damn thing.
It’s not the word count that bothers me. Honestly, I’ve yet to write anything less than a 2,000 word e-mail to Fellner since I’ve been here. Getting the words out is no problem, but getting the information is a bit trickier. I’ve read a grand total of 30 pages this semester. In all my classes. Combined. Looks like I’ll be spending some time in the library over the course of this week.
Oh yeah, I’m also completely building a brand new website as well as a branch of Shyzer that has grown into its bastard child from hell that won’t die let me finish building it. Plus there’s the mountains of posts I have half-written in my “Future Shyzer Posts” (current count: 12), which are the type of posts that I spent a week or two polishing up before throwing them up here.
I thought I wasn’t going to be working while I was over here?
mike http://www.mikeosipoff.com
i know how that goes, i am the king of pushing things off to the last minute here at Sonoma State. Sleep is for the weak…
Stan http://www.circleofjerks.org
Funny how you don’t write “Australia is Evil” essays over there.
Stan http://www.circleofjerks.org
Until I get my site going I am going to post any writtings that I may develop in the comment sections of my friends. So without further ado…
Stan http://www.circleofjerks.org
Now I remember why I went to college!
Physical labor is not what it’s cracked up to be. Unless it’s cracked up to be shitty. In which case, it’s everything it’s cracked up to be. I remember growing up and my family telling me, “You need to go to college so you can use your brain for a living instead of your back.”
I remembered that advice for a few years. I spent a year of my life working at a Farm Supply store and that involved physical labor to the extent of 90% or better. “Side load of 100 6ft T-Posts.” In case you are wondering what a T-Post is. It is the posts that are placed every 10 feet or so in cattle fencing and the likes. Farmers come and by them by the hundreds. So when you get paged for a side load of t-posts, you pray he’s making a pen for a small kitten, not 200 heads of cattle. T-Posts come in bundles of 5. They weight only a few pounds each. So maybe each bundle weighs 20 lbs. Doesn’t sound like a big deal, but when they are stored on the ground and you are bending over and picking them up non-stop for 5, 10, 30 minutes or more. It begins to grow tiring. Eventually I gave up that job and went to office work in the college tv station. That was the last time I ever did physical labor for a living.
Today I found myself helping my dad in his yard. I offered to help because I thought the job would be quick and easy. I was wrong on both accounts. Trimming hedges doesn’t sound like a hard job. At least it didn’t to me. There are several factors that I failed to take into account before making a commitment to this task.
1) The hedges were 6 foot tall. Problem: I am 6 foot tall. In order trim the top of these hedges I must lift the trimmer a foot above my head and extend it a foot from my body. Holding a 10lb hedge trimmer in this posistion longer than a couple minutes begins to wreak havoc on ones arms.
2) The hedges extended from the front of the property to the back of the property. Problem: The property is at least 150ft from front to back. It may be more than that. It’s a consertive estimate. Now, combine problem one with problem two.
3) The result of problem one and problem two.
4) The trimmer wasn’t long enough to reach all the way across the top. So I had to go all the way down one side, cutting what I could, and then repeat the process on the other side.
I make it sound horrible, but there was a bright side to all of this. At one point in the middle I developed a system that took the strain off my arms and back and allowed me to double my speed. This is where the college education comes in. (Even though I’m 90% sure I could have come up with this idea with a high school education. 80% sure I could have done it with a GED. 83% sure I could have done it if I would have dropped out my junior year.)
What I did almost excited me enough to give me an extra andreline rush and make me anticipate trimming more hedges. “BRING EM ON!” I thought to myself as I plowed through hedge trimmings like I was some sort of hedge Terminator. “PLUG ME BACK IN!” I holler at my dad when I snagged the extension cord and it unplugged and I didn’t want to walk all the way back to the source of the problem. “STOP HONKING AT ME!” I at not point said but am sure I would have had I been honked at repeatidly.
So basically, what I am trying to say is that even though I find myself in the middle of some “hard” physical labor, I was able to use my brain and take the majority of the “physical” part out of it.
And for this, I thank you education.
Goob http://www.shyzer.com
Mike, sleep is for the weak. Too bad I like to sleep =)
And Stan, THAT’S what I’m talking about! That’s why you need to hurry up and open a new site back up. I loved it.