As words go procrastination has to be one of the best. I like the way it rolls around on your tongue, taking, as you might expect, a little longer than necessary to get itself out. It’s a word that lingers, without really knowing why.
Putting things off is something most normal people do as a matter of course. Unless a task absolutely needs to be done now we’ll typically set it aside and do it later, focussing instead on what we feel is more immediately compelling. Psychologists, as is their wont, weave a complex tapestry of theoretical meaning around people’s very natural tendency to defer things until tomorrow. They call it procrastination, and describe it as a mechanism for coping with the anxiety of making a decision or starting any task.
But who in their right mind pays much attention to psychologists? They’re masters at taking perfectly natural human behaviour, sticking it in a box, adding a fancy label and attributing it to potentially serious underlying mental health issues. They’re so good at it because they spend an awful lot of time doing it… time they could easily allocate to more productive work, but choose not to. Sounds very like procrastination in action to me.
According to the psychologists then, procrastination stems from issues of anxiety, a low sense of self-worth, and a self-defeating mentality; too much of it, they maintain, can be a symptom of underlying mental health conditions like depression or ADHD. What a load of old cobblers!
Spotted this sign attached to the gate at the dock on Sherkin Island recently:
Wonder what the equality ombudsman or whoever looks after that sort of malarkey would make of it… ? Not so much a glass ceiling, more a glass windscreen, I suspect!
So there I was on a remote West Cork headland, chucking a line into the water on the off-chance of picking up a couple of passing mackerel. On the nearby pebbly beach the rest of the family were waiting eagerly for the barbecue to heat up.
Showing an insensitive, but I have to admit well founded lack of faith in my fishing prowess, our friends had brought along some fresh mackerel, just in case. We’d also packed a supply of emergency sausages, so we wouldn’t go hungry.
The fish weren’t biting, so I decided to switch the mackerel lures for a spinner and try my luck at that. As I turned I saw two people looking out to sea, obviously scouting the location for some reason.
One of them asked if I’d caught anything… which was fair enough. The other asked “Is your name Calvin?”
A very talented software developer I used to work with way back when — Walter Higgins (@walter on twitter) over at Cork based Sxoop Technologies — has developed a cool little application that builds a clickable photo-montage of all your twitter followers’ avatars.
People are already putting the resulting Twitter Mosaics on their blog posts, desktop wallpaper, mugs, T-shirts, bags, business cards… you name it. The application has evolved somewhat since I first looked at it — and now lets you selctively delete avatars from the resulting mosaic and even order printed products. It also presents you with the HTML code to embed the mosaic on your own website or blog post.
Great work by Walter and the crew at Sxoop, and proof, yet again, that when it comes to Twitter application ingenuity Ireland in general, and perhaps Cork in particular, is leading the charge.
Normally I abhor channel surfing with a passion… but tonight my wife’s antics with the remote control yielded unexpected dividends: Fraggles!
It was an obscure free-to-air satellite channel called “POP TV“, and we’d caught the Fraggle Rock opening credits. Magic!
When you’re ploughing through your adult life, trying to make ends meet, busy with work, family, and the myriad challenges, pressures and distractions of the world we live in, it’s all too easy to forget about the lighter side of life. But them something small (like Fraggles ) will help put things back into perspective.
I used to watch Fraggle Rock with my sister and brother in my “Nain’s” house (Welsh for Grandmother) after school. Happy, carefree days, long gone, but thankfully not forgotten.
Picked up a link to this photo on Twitter (click on the image for the original image on Twitpic) it’s a shot taken by @clodaghkelly at her local SuperQuinn.
Sums up the government’s medical card fiasco so more eloquently than anything I could write… no further commentary required!
Sums it up nicely really. I’m a writer, not a designer, but as soon as anyone finds out I do some website stuff… or I’m in any way involved in internet related work, this is almost invariably the way the conversation pans out!
The new lawn out front was looking a bit patchy, so I called in to our local co-op this afternoon to pick up some grass seed. They put the seed into a potato bag (see photo below).
Front of the Potato Bag
Nothing strange there, you might think… until you turn the bag around and read what’s on the back.
That Irish culinary classic, Smoked Reindeer Stew
Yes, you read that right smoked reindeer stew! That’s just the sort of thing you might want to make with your bag if Irish spuds! Oh, hold on, I seem to be out of smoked reindeer again… I’ll just pop down to the local Dunnes Stores and pick up a pack!
What’s unbelievable is that somebody somewhere in Irish Potato Marketing actually chose to put that particular recipe on the back of the bag. Priceless!
my latest tweets! 
? Not so much a glass ceiling, more a glass windscreen, I suspect!
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=a8ca6fee-a461-46db-91fe-cc11c5e8668e)
) will help put things back into perspective.![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=84b19384-ed26-4f0d-be51-207a725962b3)
Irish Potato Recipe Classic: Smoked Reindeer Stew
The new lawn out front was looking a bit patchy, so I called in to our local co-op this afternoon to pick up some grass seed. They put the seed into a potato bag (see photo below).
Front of the Potato Bag
Nothing strange there, you might think… until you turn the bag around and read what’s on the back.
That Irish culinary classic, Smoked Reindeer Stew
Yes, you read that right smoked reindeer stew! That’s just the sort of thing you might want to make with your bag if Irish spuds! Oh, hold on, I seem to be out of smoked reindeer again… I’ll just pop down to the local Dunnes Stores and pick up a pack!
What’s unbelievable is that somebody somewhere in Irish Potato Marketing actually chose to put that particular recipe on the back of the bag. Priceless!