Back when I was in college, I frequently found myself delaying projects and papers until the last minute. True, I have always had a bit of a tendency to procrastinate in most everything I do, but I identify the college experience because during this time I developed my methods for psyching up to complete said task. Not surprisingly, the motivation would come from music, but somehow I would always manage to select the appropriate tunes to enable me to get cracking on the paper that was due the following morning at 10am.
Of course, it would always be about 10pm when I sat down to start writing (most of the time it was a paper that was due), and I always scolded myself for once again, waiting until the last minute before starting. That said, I knew full well that I would be having the same stern conversation with myself in another week's time, or whenever the next paper was due.
For me, there is just something about having it come down to the wire. Enter, "In Vivo," by the band Wire. This particular track always seemed to prompt me into gear, and after the obligatory dancing around the rooom (whether it be the dorm room, study, library, or as we will soon find, the kitchen in my flat) for several listens, I could manage to settle down and get the piece written (remember these were the days of hand writing the first draft, then eventually typing the final product) and turned in on time.
I do pause for a moment to fondly remember some very very late nights creatively arguing why authors like Larry McMurtry or William Faulkner had such a dynamic influence on punk music. I am quite fortunate to have had some very accomodating professors who recognized that I was able to establish my voice in my papers, even though I may not have always produced exactly what they were looking for in the conventional matter. Ah, the joys of a liberal arts education...
At any rate, I come back to the song "In Vivo," and how it has helped me crack on this morning on the project that I have coming due. No, it is not a paper that I have to turn in, though I have to smile at the bit of procratination; I was in between making a 14th coffee for myself, dancing on the balcony to said song, waiting for the bathroom cleaner to soak in a bit (for extra cleanliness!) when I thought, "hey, I will just go write in the blog right quick."
Project for this weekend is: give the flat a good cleaning. This had been intended as a weekend project, but Saturday morning after mopping my balcony and getting attacked by some aggressive dust bunnies that had escaped from their warren under my bed, I kind of lost momentum. A bit of Thai take away, a pint of ice cream and a thriller movie with Liam Neeson seemed the logical alternative instead.
Lately, in addition to the novel in German that I am reading, I have been reading Bill Bryson's At Home: A Short History of Private Life. As with all of his works, I am enjoying this one immensely. However, on Friday night as I was reading in bed, I found myself in the chapter where he discusses all of the varieties of life that exist in ones house. "Armies of tiny creatures...crawl across bedsheets at night to gaze upon the vast, delicious, gently heaving mountain of slumbering flesh that is you." was quite a disturbing passage to read while lying in bed, so I did not have the most restful sleep of my life that night. Eventful dreams, though.
Therefore, I did get up early Saturday morning with purpose and motivation to scrub, sweep, and mop. However, after the dust bunny incident mentioned above, I managed to involve myself in other distractions.
That brings me to this morning, where I still have the day (and night) to finish operation clean up. It is not as if the flat is in horrible shape (apart from under the bed), but a simple tidy up will not suffice here, either. "in Vivo," has once again helped to get me to focus (sort of) on the tasks that I need to complete today.
I am certainly making progress, and listening to some rather decent tunes at the same time. I did a filter on Wire on my ipod and quite a few gems popped up in addition to "In Vivo." OK, this also has proved a bit distracting, also. One of my favorite U2 songs (erm, "Wire") has brought a bit more impromptu dancing, which has resulted in a coffee spill and a need to mop the balcony again.
Next up on the playlist, "The Ideal Copy," and the rest of "It's Beginning To and Back Again."
I can keep this up all day.
Happy Birthday, Pablo. Thanks again for letting me borrow your Mac all those nights in school.
keep the faith
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