To procrastinate - to put off till another day or time; defer; delay - is usually thought of as a bad thing. Indeed, some dictionary definitions allude to “habitual carelessness or laziness” as causes, or describe such delay as “needless”. I don’t think it’s a black and white issue. While most procrastination may be counterproductive, there are times when putting things off can be good, and I’d like to share some examples.

1. As an antidote to impulsiveness, particularly impulsive shopping.

Have you ever bought something on impulse and later regretted it? More procrastination when shopping can avoid this, as it gives an opportunity for reasoning to overcome impulsiveness. This may not matter with something like a tub of yoghurt, but with expensive items it can be very important indeed.

In my line of work I’m exposed to a lot of expensive computer gadgetry, and read magazines which heavily advertise such gadgets. I also read outdoors magazines and frequent shops which sell all the latest hiking and camping gear. Gadgets and cool gear can be tempting when shopping, so on the odd occasions when I see something that I just have to have, I deliberately procrastinate. Even if I feel that buying an item is justifiable and the price is good, I usually put it off - the higher the price the longer I’ll put it off.  After several days or weeks and some contemplation or research, if I still think that buying the item is justifiable then I’ll do it. More often than not, I’ll realise that I don’t really need the thing, or that something cheaper will do. The result: deliberate and purposeful procrastination when shopping has saved me a lot of money.

I’ll share some more examples of good procrastination  … when I get around to it!

An American researcher has found that patients hospitalised with heart failure were less likely to die during their hospital stay if they were fat! This is according to a New Scientist article yesterday, which concluded:

“Fonarow suggests that fat people may cope better with heart failure because they have more metabolic reserves to draw on when the heart isn’t pumping blood fast enough to meet the body’s needs.”

Of course, being overweight can lead to heart problems and so is best avoided. But if you already have a heart problem due to other causes (like my faulty valves) it’s nice to think that being a little overweight may not be entirely bad news.

Comet McNaught has been in the news lately, not surprisingly as it is the brightest comet to be seen in 40 years (see ABC news story and Spaceweather photo gallery). Last night I visited Perth’s City Beach to get a clear view of it, and of course some photos.

It became visible to the naked eye as soon as the sun dipped into the Indian Ocean - although at that point it was easily missed if you weren’t looking at exactly the right spot. Gradually it revealed its full glory, looking brighter as the sky darkened, but disappearing beneath the horizon before the sky was fully dark. A strong sea breeze made photography difficult: even with a tripod most of my long exposures were blurred. However I was pleased to get one reasonable photo, as shown here. It was an eight second exposure which I have not enhanced or modified in any way - it shows realistically how the comet looked to the naked eye.

I just stumbled across some statistics (source here) for the average viewing time of television, and was flabbergasted at how long people spend in front of the box per day:

Japan: 5 hrs, 1 min
USA: 4 hrs, 28 mins
Eastern Europe (inc. Russia): 3hrs, 43 mins
Western Europe (inc. Britain): 3 hrs, 35 mins
Australia: 3 hrs, 7 mins
World average: 3 hrs, 7 mins per day

Most drivers (it seems) ignore speed limits and many drive like lunatics to shave a few minutes off their travel times. People get anxious if the checkout queue is moving slowly. I spend five seconds per day collecting my navel lint and people accuse me of having too much time on my hands (see my guestbook). Yet according to the statistics these same people who get upset about trivial amounts of time being “wasted” are probably, on average, happy to spend more than three hours every day sitting in front of the television.

Being anxious about minutes, while letting hours slip away, appears to be normal.  If that is the case, not being normal may be a good thing!

There are only two rules for achieving anything:
1.  Get started
2.  Keep going

I noticed the above many years ago on the wall of someone’s office, along with other motivational slogans. It’s simplicity appealed to me, and something I just read on the Internet reminded me of it. I repeat it here because it is relevant to this time of year when people tend to make resolutions.

Lots of worthwhile goals are never achieved - like writing a novel, sorting the photo collection or sock drawer, losing weight, reading a series of books, building something, etc. One reason is procrastination - we simply never get around to starting something. Or if we do start we may not see it through to completion, due to lack of time, losing interest, unrealistic expectations, or a million other reasons.

The slogan I quoted distills some profoundly simple logic from the business of achieving goals. If we start, and keep going, we should finish … eventually (and an achievement that takes a long time is better than one never started or completed). Looking at it this way can make a large project appear more achievable. The trick is in dividing it into bite sized pieces that our self-discipline and schedules can realistically cope with.

My example is the reading of the Bible from cover to cover - something I decided I wanted to do over 20 years ago. For years I read bits and pieces but never got around to tackling the whole Bible. Eventually I started a one-year reading plan, only to abandon it because I couldn’t keep up with the reading schedule. I thought a three-year reading plan would be more achievable because the lighter reading schedule would be easier to stick to, so two years ago I began. So far, so good. One year from now I will have finished reading the whole Bible, systematically and thoroughly. All I really had to do was get started, then keep going.

This news may be of interest to people living in Perth who appreciate a good bakery - the Miami Bakehouse has opened a Perth outlet!

The original Miami Bakehouse lives on the southern edge of Mandurah, and for years has been hugely popular as an eating stop for Perth people (including me) driving to or from the south-west. Its popular because its bakery products are excellent - no other WA bakery has won more awards. They have a website but at the time of writing it is being revamped.

Yesterday I had the great pleasure (a culinary serendipity) of accidentally finding their new outlet on Canning Hwy, Melville (south side of road, just west of Stock Rd). Being a fan of good bakeries I stopped and conducted some product evaluations, and can testify to the excellence of their cajun chicken pies, turkish bread and vanilla slices. Like the Mandurah store, the new one is a bakery/cafe serving good coffee with both indoor and outdoor seating. A souvenir I bought at their Mandurah shop has the slogan “A taste worth driving for” - it is a great taste, but now the people of Perth don’t have to drive so far for it.

Are you thinking of getting a calendar for 2007? Are you an environmentally sensitive, pro-recycling person (or just a cheapskate)?

If so, you may be pleased to know that dates and days of the week for 2007 are identical to 2001. Other matching years are 1990, 1979, 1973, 1962, 1951, 1945, 1934, 1923, 1917, 1906, 1900, 1894. I found this on time and date.com, along with calendars for any year which can be customised and printed, and other useful info.

So if you have an old calendar for any of these years, it can be re-used next year, although giving one as a gift may not go down too well.

I read a number of books while on holiday in New Zealand. Most were novels for relaxation, but this one made me think - Affluenza: when too much is never enough by Clive Hamilton and Richard Denniss. Authors’ website here.

It is written from an Australian perspective, and poses the question “if the economy has been doing so well, why are we not becoming happier?”. The authors describe how the Western world is in the grip of a consumption binge that is unique in history. We (as a society) have bigger houses, better cars, more appliances, and more money to spend — yet rates of stress, depression and obesity are rising, we are working longer hours and going further into debt. The more we have, the more deprived we may feel - despite being one of the world’s richest countries, with real incomes better than ever, 62% of Australians believe they cannot afford to buy everything they really need (thats need, not want).

The book contains a lot of well researched information on consumption, debt, overwork, waste, sickness, and how we pursue happiness. And how we don’t achieve fulfilment through spending money on things we don’t need. Serious stuff, but it is well written and an enjoyable read. It ends with discussion on ignoring advertisers, reducing consumer spending, and recapturing time for things that really matter.

I think we all know deep down that happiness doesn’t come through buying lots of stuff. Yet it was fascinating to read the results of current research which graphically illustrates this. It also validates the wise words spoken by Jesus in the parable of the rich fool (Luke 12:15):

Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.”

Western Australia is a democracy in which elected representatives carry out the will of the majority … or is it? The issue of daylight saving raises questions about whose will the politicians are carrying out.

I took a photo of this unusual sign on a trip to Tasmania. Even in the context of its surroundings, its meaning was far from obvious. A sign warning of low-flying winged people, or abduction by UFO?  Or is that what Tasmanians look like? What do you think?

The general concensus amongst those I spoke to was that the sign warns of …

(Continued)

A chance discovery on a Sydney bus has sent shockwaves around the world of children’s television - Humphrey B Bear is gay.

This revelation surfaced in a humble wallet, left on a suburban bus last night and found by its driver. A quick search revealed the owner’s ID … and a membership card for a gay organisation. Also found were some photos of Humphrey with another male television character, in a pose clearly unsuitable for broadcast to Humphrey’s young fans.

Humphrey’s refusal to wear pants has been of concern to many parents for some time; this revelation of his habits can only add to those concerns. Investigations are now under way into Humphrey’s relationship with Donald Duck, who also fails to wear pants.

I wrote this fictional newspaper story as part of an exercise on a writing course, and thought I’d share it. Surely I’m not the only one who finds it oddly amusing that so many children’s TV characters are depicted with clothes on their upper bodies, but naked from the waist down?

The other day I walked around Lake Monger, just a few km from the middle of Perth, and captured this unusual photo of a black swan and her chicks on their nest, sitting on an egg (click on it for a larger version).

Its unusual because breeding season is September to March (spring and summer), and the black swans usually have babies in spring … whereas this photo is early June, the beginning of winter here.

Maybe the weather has upset their timing. Last winter and spring were unusually wet, followed by a very mild summer, and so far the driest start to winter ever recorded in Perth. I really don’t know. It was just a delightful serendipity to come across these wild creatures going about their business close to a busy pathway in the middle of an urban sprawl.

Ever wondered what the world’s population is? Not last year or the year before, but right now? You can see an up-to-date estimate at the World Population web page.

The interesting thing about this counter is that it updates each second. I knew the world population was over six billion, but to see a number increasing before my eyes (at a net rate of about three per second after subtracting deaths from births) emphasised the reality and urgency of population growth.

With a finite supply of fossil fuels, sea level rises expected to flood vast areas of currently populated land, and climate change capable of upsetting food production, it makes you wonder … where will it end? The population surely can’t increase at this rate forever.

Am currently at home with a virus, one symptom of which is alternating hot sweats and shivering caused by a fever. I’ve had fevers before, but this time I’ve noticed a remarkably regular cycle to it.

At one extreme, I’ll be shivering uncontrollably while in bed wearing warm clothes and covered by all available blankets. Two hours later, I’ll be hot and sweating profusely while laying on top of the bed and wearing little. Two hours later I’ll be back to shivering. So far this cycle has been almost as regular as clockwork, which sparked my interest in the physiology behind it.

In a temperate part of the cycle I browsed the net and found this good explanation of fevers. I won’t attempt to summarise it, but it does explain the cycling back and forth between shivering and sweating. This cycle is normal - I just hadn’t noticed it being so regular and predictable before.

Yesterday a story on the Today Tonight current affairs TV show (on Australia’s Channel Seven) annoyed me. Like countless other stories before it, this one featured an expert going on about how inaccurate police radars can be, if not operated correctly. It isn’t online, but this story from Channel Nine’s A Current Affair is in a similar vein.

The message of these endlessly recycled TV stories is that speed cameras and police radar traps are inaccurate and unfair revenue raisers, and that anyone driving lawfully will probably be hit with undeserved speeding fines. To these experts I pose a simple question:

If speed cameras are as inaccurate and unfair as you make out, then why, in 24 years of driving at the speed limit, have I never received even one speeding fine from an incorrect camera?

I’ve probably driven past between 2000 and 3000 speed cameras or hand-held radars in my driving years, within a couple of km/h of the speed limit. If all the TV reports were to be believed, I should have had many undeserved speeding fines by now … but I’ve had no fines at all, undeserved or otherwise.

I’m not saying that mistakes don’t happen. Some do, and that isn’t fair. However my experience suggests that mistakes and unfair speeding fines are nowhere near as common as current affairs TV shows portray. Its a human tendency to try to transfer blame for one’s own shortcomings, and giving people excuses to blame speed cameras is obviously popular with TV viewers.

Recently I read the phrase “get the short end of the stick”, and wondered where this expression came from. It means to suffer the bad effects of a situation, or to get a raw deal, or the worst outcome … but how this relates to sticks didn’t appear at all obvious.

At first I thought about it literally. How is the end of a stick defined? How far up the stick does the “end” extend? If the ends of a stick are its furthest extremeties, then that would make them points, which have no size and therefore can’t be short or long. If not, then what would make the short end worse than the long end? Some Googling was required.

Thankfully I came across The Phrase Finder website and the light dawned. This post contained an explanation:

I am quite confident that the phrase “short end of the stick” refers to an old fashioned method for carrying heavy objects (this can be visualized using a bale of hay). A long stick is inserted through ropes or cords wrapped around the object and two (or more) people carry the object together. If the load is off-center a disproportionate burden is placed on the person(s) on the “short end of the stick”

So now I know, and can once again sleep at night!

In the last week of March 2006 I shaved off the beard I had been growing for the last year and eight months. Taking the whole lot off at once would have been too conventional, so I shaved it off in stages.

Details of the beard and its removal can be found in my updated Beard Collection page, towards the bottom. A photo of all stages in the deforestation process can be seen by clicking on the thumbnail below:

When it seemed as if almost every Tom, Dick and Harry was starting up a blog, or online diary, I felt no compulsion to follow suit. Following the crowd is something I avoid, often as a matter of principle. But a recent examination of some other people’s blogs suggested I may have been too hasty in dismissing the idea … perhaps it could be worthwhile after all.

I enjoy writing, and usually find it theraputic. However I’ll often think of things I’d like to share on the internet, but which go unexpressed because they don’t warrant a web page of their own. A blog is a quick and easy way of expressing something online without having to be concerned with page formatting, and should nicely complement other more structured or long term writing projects such as the rest of this website, or the novel I’ve been working on for many years.

Time will tell if I have anything much to say in the context of this blog. But if I have, my website traffic of 8000 visitors per month (long term average) means there is a potential audience that makes it worthwhile to at least have a go. Thats why I started a blog.