Procrastination is a wonderful thing

I think I've found a great way to make use of the human habit of procrastination - commit to doing something that I really don't want to do, and suddenly all the other things that I've been putting off doing look really good by comparison.

For example, I really should be studying for my Microsoft Windows 2003 server exam. But it's not totally urgent, and although I can use the knowledge at work it's more as a backup to our main guy who handles such things. So it's not a tight deadline or anything. And suddenly there's a million other things that I am interested in - like setting up my website (which was another job that I had kept putting off - see how my theory is working?) and doing some video editing. So here I am, putting my thoughts up on my web site at 5.30am in the morning because I can't sleep, (probably because of the guilt of not studying for my exam!), and getting all the other things done in my life because they are all suddenly more appealing than committing to a month's worth of hard study to get this exam done.

I'm probably going to have to find something that I don't want to do even more just in order to get going for this exam. If this trend continues, I shudder to think where this will end up though....

Insomnia!

It's 5.30am on Sunday morning at the moment and I'm writing this post instead of sleeping. Only problem is I've been up since about 1.30am. The last few days my sleep patterns have been all over the place, had about 6 hours sleep Thursday night and woke up at 4am, then crashed on Friday at 11pm and woke up at 10am. Went to bed at 10.30 or so last night and BAM! Eyes open at 1.30am and brain switched on. Have been fiddling around with my web site until 4.30am or so, then tried to go back to bed. No good - my mind is stubbornly refusing to shut down. Decided that I might as well be doing something useful so here I am, bleary-eyed and typing away when I should be sleeping peacefully. Oh well....

WTF#3 - What was I thinking?

Last week I went to the ATM to get some money out of my bank account. Put the card in and got a mental blank about the PIN number. Tried a couple of times unsuccessfully, then walked away and thought about it a bit. Came back and tried again - still no luck and the ATM ate my card, telling me to contact customer service. Fair enough.

Went inside the bank to get my card back. Explained the situation to the customer service officer, and she said that she would get my card back in the next day or two and she would mail my PIN number to my home - but which card did I use - my debit card or my credit card? I told her I had used my credit card, so she arranged to get my card back and mail out the pin for my credit card again.

Next day, I picked up my credit card from the bank, put it in my wallet, confirmed that they were sending out the PIN to my credit card, and went back to work. Then, driving home that night, I had a personal WTF moment of my own - I had been using my credit card to try to access the account that uses a debit card! WTF! I mean, when I open my wallet the credit card is on the right and the debit card is on the left - it was there staring me in the face every time!

To add insult to injury, guess which PIN number I got sent through the mail? You guessed it, the PIN number for the credit card! I'm too embarrassed to go back to the back and ask for the PIN number to the debit card, so now I've got to hunt through a years worth of mail to find the letter that they originally sent me with the debit card PIN.

Just goes to show that we all have our own personal moments of stupidity, I guess. I'll have to be more understanding the next time I see someone else doing something dumb - it will probably be my turn again soon.

WTF #2 The Police (not the band)

Here's a word or two of advice to the two policemen who gave tickets to me and my girlfriend on Australia Day for going through a stop sign on our bicycles: stop being arrogant pricks. You caught us fair and square and we admitted it at the time - we didn't notice the sign and we are prepared to pay the fine. So why the patronising lecture on what a stop sign is? WTF? We're not stupid - we just didn't see this sign. Give us the ticket and warn us about keeping a lookout for road signs - don't insult our intelligence by asking us questions a 5 year old can answer. Especially when we can't give you the answer we really would like to in case you decide to make something else up for the ticket. Hope you enjoyed having to work on Australia day you creeps.

PS - In general, I like cops. I'm grateful for the job they do and wish they would catch more of the idiots on the roads these days - including me if I'm being stupid. But we were nothing but polite to these two and got treated like crap. How about a bit of common courtesy?

Doctor's Waiting Rooms

I've been waiting to see my oncologist today - how is it that it is 11.30 am and he is already more than half an hour late, but when I go to see him my appointment is never more than 5 minutes? Who is the person who is getting in before me and taking up all his time? I've got a sneaking suspicion that I could get an 8.00 am appointment and the Doctor would still be running late.

And why is it that Doctors' waiting rooms are always so horrible? Why do there never seem to be any magazines that I might be interested to read? There are always multiple copies of Women's Day, New Idea, Vogue etc but where are the blokey magazines such as Ralph, PC World, or even the daily newspaper? I look around and there are 4 or 5 of us guys, sitting there reading Women's Weekly and looking uncomfortable, except for the lucky exception who got hold of a Cleo or Cosmopolitan and is reading about the latest sexual technique for women. C'mon already, we're not expecting a Playboy or Penthouse but give us something other than the latest fashions and crash diets for goodness sake.

WTF #1 - Stop Signs and Red Lights

WTF is it about STOP signs that makes drivers of 4 wheel drives think that they can stick the nose of their car out into the lane going past? Is it because they think they are driving an indestructible tank so everyone else will swerve around them? I wish I had a laser beam attached to the left side of my car so I could slice off the front of their bonnet and give them a wave as I go past. WTF!!

And while on the topic of driving, has anyone else noticed that you can't go out for a drive these days without seeing someone running a red light? Who are these guys and why are they in such a hurry? And why is there never a police car around to go after them! WTF!!

First Post

This is a test post to see whether I can get this working or not