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:

  1. 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.

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  2. 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).

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  3. 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.

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  4. Anonymous10:36 AM

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

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  5. Anonymous2:05 PM

    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.

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  6. "went finally to work?"

    No, QED

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  7. ...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...

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