Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Methods of Labor Avoidance

by J J Cohen

Here are the things at which I've worked today rather than compose my keynote for Leeds:
  • walked Katherine to school via a circuitous route
  • took a run in the rain
  • checked email repeatedly
  • sent comic messages to college colleagues about commencement
  • alliterated (see preceding item)
  • updated the English Department blog with a spiffy picture of T Shirt Tuesday
  • Twittered inanities
  • FaceBooked
  • did laundry
  • ate a second bowl of cereal
  • annoyed the dog
  • annoyed the lizard
  • annoyed myself
  • took the Tiny Shriner out of my computer bag to bring to Kalamazoo
  • did more laundry
  • feared I was running out of ways to avoid composing a talk in which I reveal that I know nothing about anything, but suddenly remembered that I could blog something at ITM
  • hit the PUBLISH button for this post
  • went finally to work?

7 comments:

Eileen Joy said...

Here's what I did all morning in terms of labor avoidance: drank coffee and tried to figure out if the movie "Elegy" [based on Roth's "The Dying Animal"], which I watched last night, is either a really stupid male fantasy or one of the most beautiful movies I have ever seen. I came to no worthy conclusion.

Jeffrey Cohen said...

So far I can add to the list ruminating over a TV show I watched last night but am too embarrassed to admit I watched; made a caffeinated beverage; ate some peanuts; looked over the outline I put together last week. That is about five minutes of work so far.

Now please don't comment again because it just distracts me (from eating peanuts).

Eileen Joy said...

Jeffrey: I hate it when you eat peanuts, so I have to distract you again. Was that TV show "American Idol," by any chance? Uh huh; I thought so.

Anonymous said...

Some of us have been working for hours! Stop procrastinating.

Anonymous said...

You're not alone. I returned home this evening to find that my SO (who 'works' from home) had spent a large part of the day organising our photographs and (bizarrely) lining up the remote controls in the living room. This is such totally uncharacteristic behaviour that I can only assume there was serious work to be avoided. And so, of course, I must sign off anonymously so Google never finds out.

Steve Muhlberger said...

"went finally to work?"

No, QED

Mary Kate Hurley said...

...the funny thing about posts like this is that, as I face the long intermission of my teaching career for a dissertation fellowship year...I realize my favorite way to procrastinate is to work on stuff for my class. I call it "productive procrastination."

Bright side: I anticipate next year's blogging will benefit immensely from not teaching...