Top Five Wishlist

Do not ask me why, for I don't know. For some reason beyond me I felt the urge to create this list. Here it is. The top five things on my wish list.

Thousand Foot Krutch's latest album, Welcome to the Masquerade. I wanted it the moment I heard of it and heard the track "Bring Me To Life" which I obtained for free download from their website much before the release of this album. That song is incredible, and from what I've heard on Facebook, Twitter and the world in general, it is one of the best, if not the best rock album of the year. I can't wait to get my hands on this. If only I could find the money...


The 3 A. M. Epiphany - Uncommon Writing Excercises That Transform Your Fiction by Brian Kiteley. I heard about this book in Kevin Kaiser's blog. He has mentioned it a couple of times, and it seems like a very good and helpful book for writers. I would love to have this! It would do wonders for me to improve and stretch my writing. Oh how I wish I could add this to the collection on bookshelf. It would certainly get used a lot!

Ah, yes. The book that invaded my Twitter, Facebook, website and even this here blog. You probably want to hear no more of this story ever again! However I must bring it up one more time. It is the story I long to read most right now. The beginning and the end of the circle series... Book Zero.... Green. On top of that, I have not read any Ted Dekker in such a long time... I am beginning to go mad... No, wait, I already was. Either way, I need more Dekker! In particular, Green... Book Zero of the circle series...


Keeping with the Ted Dekker theme (yes I'm obsessed, I know) I give you the Circle Pendant. You guessed it, straight out of the Circle Trilogy. If I had this I would wear it like every single day.


Lastly, and most expensive and thus furthest away, is the Logitech 5.1 surround sound speakers for my bed room. Not the lounge, no. My bedroom. That way I can turn my new Thousand Foot Krutch CD right up and blast the neighbours out of their house. Or I could try Underoath... I don't think they'd appreciate that at full volume! Bottom line: My laptop speakers simply don't do some music justice. I need another 6 to plug into it...

There you have it. The list could go on forever, but there is my top five.

Awesome plans and STOP

Plans. Mountains of them. Everywhere: my computer; cell phone; that incredible place called my mind. Post-Its on my desk, computer, in my bag, on the wall... everywhere you could (and couldn't) possibly imagine. They are the single most awesome piece of stationary. I love them! Post-Its are just the best. I could go on about them for a whole blog, but that's really not the point. The point is this: I have ideas and plans everywhere. Truckloads of them. Stored in almost every way, shape, form and place.

I'm a planner.

There are a lot of things I plan to do and be. These things change every once in a while. Every so often I come up with new plans. Ditch old ones. I could spend literally hours, days, planning, refining, working out details. I enjoy it (most of the time) and can't wait to see these plans unfold. It excites me.

I have heaps of awesome plans.

STOP

How is it then that I don't seem to ever move anywhere? I'm stuck in a continuous limbo, forever unmoving as if time stands still. But it doesn't. Oh, no. Time keeps flying by. It is I who stands still.

Sometimes I wish I wasn't a planner. I wish that I was a doer. Forget the plans, things will come together by themselves. We can work out the details as we move along. We'll cross that bridge when we get to it. I am like that, in some respects. But not most of the time. It would be nice if it was the other way around.

I spend hours planning, but for the most part those plans never see the light of day. To take something from a plan to reality is incredibly hard for me. It's easier said than done. It also takes not being so lazy. That would be one of the main things preventing these plans from being executed.

Sometimes things just need to planned less, done more. That is the case for most things, I think. The problem is that you can always plan more, and so things get planned and planned and planned, as they're never quite perfect. Being a perfectionist (oh how I wish I wasn't) this means that it will never be fully planned. This presents quite a problem.

So the conclusion I have come to is this: Plan less, execute more. It's not exactly rocket science. Then why is it so difficult? Who knows. If I want to get out of limbo, I need to start doing things. I can still plan them, I just need to focus on the doing more than the planning.

It can't be that hard, can it?

Caterpillars, worms and other such random stuff

Come to think about it, I don't think I've actually seen a caterpillar in a heck of a long time. I honestly cannot remember when I last saw one. Quite sad indeed.

Nor have I read The Very Hungry Caterpillar in a long time. I must go and find it after I finish this blog; It's one of the greatest books on Earth! If you haven't read it before, you're missing out greatly. Go find it. Every half decent book store sells it.



Worms however are creatures I could very easily live without seeing. Funny how they're the ones I see all the time. They're not always bad though, they make for epic computer games! Oh how I wish I had it; the clone I have isn't anywhere near as good as the original.

Why the heck is he going on about caterpillars and worms? You may ask.

The answer, to be completely and truly honest with you, is this: I have absolutely no idea. It just happens to be the thing that came to mind when I sat down to write this blog. Isn't my mind a wonderful place?

As of yesterday afternoon, I am exactly half way through my exams. Two down, two to go. I have approximately three days to learn everything I need to know for Maths; four for Physics. Oh how I'm dreading the Physics exam. I should really be studying right now, but I really cannot be bothered. After all, I have three whole days till my next exam! That's why I'm not studying but rather sitting in front of my computer writing a blog about worms and caterpillars and other such random stuff.

Continuing on the said topic of randomness, let me take this opportune moment to introduce you to a video of pure awesomeness that has made me laugh a thousand or more laughs. It's great. It's short. You should watch it. If you have the same somewhat weird sense of humour as me, you'll love it. Check it out.


Now moving on to even more exciting news, The Seed are playing at the Powerstation in Auckland tonight, in the Rockquest Finals!

The Seed: Stefan, Dylan, Ben, Chad, Thomas, Canaan.

It's going to be super-epically awesome. I'm going. You should, too! But if you can't make it, be sure to watch C4 tonight at something like 6:00pm. I can't actually remember the specific time. Oh well. You're clever; I'm sure you'll work it out. Also, check out their MySpace, Facebook and Bebo. Yeah. They're awesome. Honestly. Come see for yourself!

Our time has now come to an end for yet another week.

...and everyone breathes a sigh of relief. It's over. Finally!

That would be one of the reasons for bringing this to a close, yes. I'm fairly sure I've sufficiently bored you all to death enough for today. I'll let you go and do something interesting now.

Ciao!

Procrastination is a stupid idea

It is. Trust me. I'm quite the expert on it.

Procrastinate (verb): to put off till another day or time; defer; delay.

It doesn't make sense. All it brings is stress and late nights upon oneself, and in some cases even affects others around said person. It achieves nothing. It is, in fact, a pretty stupid idea.

I must confess, I am one of the world's worst procrastinators. The amount of late nights I have had on the night before a deadline this year alone I have lost track of. Yes, I work well under pressure. In fact, some of my best work is produced the night before a deadline, when the pressure is highest. However, I still don't like it. It's rather pointless.

I want to destroy it. Tear it limb from limb. That's easier said than done, though. I try. Or I say I try. I've been saying all year that I'm going to stop procrastinating on everything. Finally, this term, I've managed to make a very tiny little step in that direction. Not enough to make a difference, though.

How does one kill the giant beast known as procrastination? Is it even possible?

In order of last to first I shall try to answer those two questions.

Yes.

I have no idea.

Oh, sorry, you wanted me to give a little more detailed answers?

Yes. How much more detail can you give to that question? It is, after all, a yes/no question. The answer to which, it yes. It is in fact entirely possible. Just rather difficult.

Where to start, how to stop procrastinating... That is a difficult one. One that I think is easier answered after it has been successfully completed by myself. Which means you shall have to wait until then to find the answer, I'm afraid, for I do not know what it is.

All I can say right now is that it is easier, much easier, said than done. To break such a habit as procrastination is incredibly difficult, especially when it is deeply ingrained in you after many years of practise. But don't despair, eventually you will make it.

By my reckoning the easiest way to do so is to set deadlines much earlier than necessary, giving you much time to refine whatever it is you would normally procrastinate on. You must also believe in yourself, believe that is is possible and that you can do it. And you must try. Not just try, but really try. Hard. In fact, the word "try" shouldn't even be part of it. More like, you must do it.

Many people have heard me say this before. In fact, most of you probably won't even believe me. But I am going to slay the beast of procrastination. I'm going to do it. I'm not just going to try, I'm going to do it.

But I can't do it alone. No one can. To attempt such a feat as this is worthless if there no one else believing in you and helping you. You need someone to support you through it, and beat you up when you need it. Find someone. Don't get me wrong, you shouldn't completely rely on this person: You have to put in as much effort as humanly possible yourself. But they are just as vital as everything else I've mentioned.

So there you have it. I guess I gave some advice on how to do it after all.

Now to apply it. I'm going to give it all I've got.

I encourage you to do so, too.

Together let's slay this beast once and for all!

How I Waste My Time

Sometimes I wonder just how much more stuff I would get done if I didn't waste so much time.

And I do waste a lot of it! Hours. Every day. Facebook, Twitter, stalking my favourite bands and authors all over the net... the list goes on. Just imagine how much more stuff I could get done if I didn't waste so much time on all this stuff! It's pointless. It's a waste of time. It's totally not worth it.

Facebook. Oh, if I knew just how many hours I have wasted on this site... I'm sure I spend at least an hour or two on Facebook every day. Multiply that by the hundred or so days I've had it, that's like 150-200 hours! Just imagine HOW MUCH other stuff I could have achieved, stuff that had a point, if I never went on Facebook!

It's not just normal Facebook, either. No. Once I've finished with Facebook, I move onto some of the hundreds of games that are on Facebook! I've wasted a heck of a lot of time on both Mafia Wars and Farmville especially.



And the bigger and better I get, the more I can do, and the more time I waste. Soon enough, I will never have time to do anything else, because I need to go on Facebook. I need to play Mafia Wars. I need to play FarmVille... Oh, how I waste my time!


Yet another way I waste my time is on this certain stalker-ish site called Twitter. As of yet I have failed to find the point. I think that is one of the things that appeals to me. It's complete lack of point. It's pointless. I do love pointless things. They waste so much time, though!

At present I generally get at least a couple of hundred text messages a day. I know, I'm pretty freakin' popular, aye? The sad thing is that they're all either from Twitter or Facebook. I get excited every time I receive a real text now. My sad little life.

I love reading everything even remotely connected to my favourite authors. Bands, too, but not quite as much. Either way, that all can take up a lot of time, too. Not quite as pointless as Facebook and Twitter. But still a bit of a waste when done as excessively as I do.

I really do waste so much time.

Imagine how much I could have written in the amount of time I've wasted on all these things? Imagine just how much I could have achieved in all this time? Hundreds of a hours this year alone... I really do waste a lot of time.

So I've decided that I'm going to spend my time doing much more productive things. No, I'm not going to stop Facebook altogether. Or Mafia Wars or Farmville or Twitter. I'm just going to spend less time on these things, and more time on other things, things that matter slightly more, things that aren't such a waste of time.

What about you? How much time do you waste? How do you waste it?