Five Things Make a Post
Nov. 15th, 2012 12:38 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pedanther1. There've been some upheavals in the United States since I last posted, what with the hurricane and then the election. I hope all of you who were in the path of either or both got through unscathed.
2. I had something timely to say about procrastination, and then I didn't get around to saying it. But recently I finally girded myself up and did a job I've spent hours actively avoiding over the course of several months. It presented no great difficulties, and was done and dusted in half an hour. (Rita Emmett has something very pithy to say in The Procrastinator's Handbook about putting more effort into putting a job off than it eventually takes to do the job; it's a common experience, apparently. It may be about time I read the Handbook again.) One thing I note is that after the first few weeks, I suspect I was largely putting it off because I'd been putting it off: every time my mind came near the thought of the unfinished job, and thus the thought of how late it was, it hurried off to think about something else instead.
3. At a recent brass band rehearsal, as a break between the big job we'd just finished and the one we're about to throw ourselves into, we spent the time pulling out old pieces we haven't played in years and trying them out again. Most of them had mysteriously become much easier to play since last time I played them.
4. For Halloween, the Toastmasters club did a themed demonstration meeting, with members of the public invited to attend, and a costume competition, and several talks about famous local haunted buildings. It was a successful night, well-attended and fun, and we even got a few new members out of it.
On Halloween night itself, I didn't do much except reading the big finale of A Night in the Lonesome October. It was a lot more dramatic than I remembered, possibly even more dramatic than it was the first time I read the book. That might have something to do with reading it late at night, if not with what night it was. (Note to self: If you start at 11.50 next time, midnight in the book will coincide with real midnight. That might be interesting.)
5. In other reading news, I seem to have neglected to mention that Gene Luen Yang's American Born Chinese is awesome.
2. I had something timely to say about procrastination, and then I didn't get around to saying it. But recently I finally girded myself up and did a job I've spent hours actively avoiding over the course of several months. It presented no great difficulties, and was done and dusted in half an hour. (Rita Emmett has something very pithy to say in The Procrastinator's Handbook about putting more effort into putting a job off than it eventually takes to do the job; it's a common experience, apparently. It may be about time I read the Handbook again.) One thing I note is that after the first few weeks, I suspect I was largely putting it off because I'd been putting it off: every time my mind came near the thought of the unfinished job, and thus the thought of how late it was, it hurried off to think about something else instead.
3. At a recent brass band rehearsal, as a break between the big job we'd just finished and the one we're about to throw ourselves into, we spent the time pulling out old pieces we haven't played in years and trying them out again. Most of them had mysteriously become much easier to play since last time I played them.
4. For Halloween, the Toastmasters club did a themed demonstration meeting, with members of the public invited to attend, and a costume competition, and several talks about famous local haunted buildings. It was a successful night, well-attended and fun, and we even got a few new members out of it.
On Halloween night itself, I didn't do much except reading the big finale of A Night in the Lonesome October. It was a lot more dramatic than I remembered, possibly even more dramatic than it was the first time I read the book. That might have something to do with reading it late at night, if not with what night it was. (Note to self: If you start at 11.50 next time, midnight in the book will coincide with real midnight. That might be interesting.)
5. In other reading news, I seem to have neglected to mention that Gene Luen Yang's American Born Chinese is awesome.
