When finals are over I promise to stop writing entires with the tag “procrastination” but for now… allow me to indulge.
I am here in NYU’s Bobst library with about 200 fellow late-night stragglers, eeking out my final final. The library always reminds me of a casino, especially the lower levels which have no windows and are open 24 hours a day. Down here there is no concept of time, no concept of what is lost or gained. We sit here coked out of our minds (I’m talking the drink, mainly) and pound away at these machines hoping for success. Computers like slot machines and students like gambling addicts.
I have about four more pages to write before 6pm this evening (about 13 hours remaining!) but of course at this obscene hour I am dabbling in some innocent procrastination. Allow me to take you there.
First I opened up nyt.com to see what was shaking on the New York Times website. Paul Krugman’s op-ed is up! Fantastic! Krugman wrote a pretty optimistic piece about November and provided some good pointers that Dems should pay attention to if they don’t want to screw up this election. I liked it a lot, but it hardly satisfied my need for distraction. What’s new at Slate, I wondered.
Same old, same old. But I found an interesting article about vegetarianism . Funny the link should be called “I am a vegetarian. I am not silently judging you” because sometimes I do in fact feel silently judged for being a meat muncher. This article was cute, but to be honest I got bored half way through. It’s the kind of article that maybe only veggies can finish. Let me go on Facebook, I thought, and see if Penny took her turn in our game of Scrabulous. Nope, she must be sleeping. Damn.
What next? Gawker? Ehh. Huffington Po– Nah. I think I’ll go back to Slate.
I browsed, scrolled over many intriguing articles but committed to none (some kind of metaphor?) and THEN something caught my eye. “Slate’s Procrastination Issue Coming in May Soon!” Well, that is right up my ally! I may have even said “cool” out loud. But they weren’t joking when they said coming soon. It is under construction. Drats.
I craved a little more time away so I opened up Heavy on the Seltzer and proceeded to write this entry. Fantastic! I’ve killed about 20 minutes doing all of this. Okay, maybe 30.
Now I can get back to Walter Benjamin’s Illuminations with a clear head! (Only to get fogged up again by Walter Benjamin’s Illuminations).
