Eliminating Procrastination through GSD
October 30th, 2006I have some homework that’s due by midnight tonight. One would think that since this homework has a deadline so near and since I know it will take me about two hours worth of work to get it done that I would have picked it up first thing, right? Well, I am really good at finding things to do when there is a task I don’t want to work on. I filled out the rebate form for a product that was recently delivered and got it ready to go. I listened to a podcast while I looked up some information for another assignment that’s due in a couple of weeks that I haven’t started yet. I had some candy and I drank some water. I looked into the newest version of WordPress and the steps needed to upgrade. I noticed that there was a new version of Freevo just released and that got me thinking about DirectFB and df_xine. I looked and saw that DirectFB just released 1.0-rc2 and I downloaded that and started it compiling. I wrote a post for PayPerPost, and I decided to blog about how I’m procrastinating too much.
It’s time to start getting stuff done. I still haven’t decided exactly how I am going to implement it, whether I go paper or digital. Expect progress reports to come.
October 31st, 2006 at 9:31 am
man, that is freaky how exactly you have described my mindset. I will put off things I dislike doing in the same way: eating for no reason, doing other easier things, starting new projects etc. One thing I hate doing is washing the silverware. I would rather clean a week old marshmellow-caked Rice Krispy treat pot than clean three forks. It doesn’t make sense, but I hate the silverware. Usually I pile the silverware in a cup of hot water while working on the “real” dishes. That way I feel the hot water is working for me so I have to do less actual cleaning later.
October 31st, 2006 at 11:46 am
Well, I just spent an hour upgrading wordpress to the newest version. That’s something I’ve been putting off for three months. I must really not want to work on that assembly program I need to finish by tomorrow night!
October 31st, 2006 at 2:29 pm
ah, but assembly is the best language out there Shawn! I am sad because they just moved me from working on assembly for the BIOS to working in C for another BIOS. Oh well, this is a production BIOS though so millions will receive my implementations… bwahahaha! I should put an easter egg in that’ll flash my face across the screen or something.
October 31st, 2006 at 3:38 pm
It’s not that I don’t like assembly language so much as that the class requires that I use MASM and teaches useless Windows API calls when I want to learn NASM and Linux kernel calls. The other annoying thing is that you should be able to learn assembly language on any x86 system available almost ragardless of how much RAM is on it, etc. But when I go to do the homework for this class I have to fire up VMWare with Windows 2000 installed and then use that to assemble the programs. I think all this Windows-centric teaching has to quit now! Oh, yeah, and this teachers asks us to take screenshots and turn them in to him with our answers to questions in a Word file! I asked him if I could just turn in a PDF becasue then I know he gets what I see. Nope! So I have to use Word 2003 (I tried other things and he couldn’t see my screenshots and he gave me half credit). Word is not a portable document format! Let me see if I can think of one. How about a Portable Document Format file!?
About the BIOS… that’s pretty cool that your code will be
breakingfixing millions of laptops around the world. Maybe something more sly and less narcissistic than flashing your face on their screen when they press Alt + 2 + 7 during POST would be in order, though.October 31st, 2006 at 4:59 pm
Oh man, that sucks for you! What a lame teacher, he should be flexible with the file format being a computer teacher. I know the type though. Some professors are super geniuses in the area that they are fluent in and super idiots in all other areas. Sounds like this guy. Being an assembly teacher he probably isn’t used to all this new flashy GUI based operating systems and programs. But seriously, how hard is it to open a pdf man?!