In 2000 a retired dairy farmer - Pete Ondrus of Michigan, USA - realised that the Guinness Book of World Records had no record for the fastest cow. In response he founded the Mid-Michigan Cow Racing Association and the World-Wide Cow Racing Association, with the motto “Don’t milk them, race them”. He held his first cow race that year, and it appears to be an annual event although his website has not been updated since 2004. Most people would not be surprised to find that such an event began in America, but did it?

Pete Ondrus was apparently unaware of the Compass Cup, a cow race which has taken place every year since 1974 in the town of Mt Compass in South Australia. As far as I can tell, this was probably the world’s first organised public cow racing event. It began when a 12-year-old Guernsey was called in for milking and ran full speed for the milk shed. This fired the imagination of a Rural Youth Adviser, who formed a committee and organised a cow race as a fund-raising event for the town. Its popularity grew, despite the challenges of getting any cow to go fast, and the 34th annual Compass Cup was held last weekend.

If you picture people sitting on dairy cattle and trying to make them race, and making a big community event out of it, the phrase “only in America…” may be a normal response. So for me it’s strangely satisfying to think that Australians can lead the world in this delightfully unconventional activity.

Photo credit: CompassCup.com.au

Another time when procrastination is potentially a good thing is when “warming up”. This could be when getting up in the morning and launching into the day, or when arriving at work and starting on the day’s tasks.

Some people can dive right into things - being alert and busy within minutes of waking up, or reaching their full speed and productivity within minutes of arriving at work. Others, like me, are simply not built to operate that way; we need more time to get mentally into gear, organise our thoughts, and build up to full productivity. For the latter type of people, trying to “hit the ground running” prematurely can be counterproductive, whereas we work much more effectively after a warm-up time, which others may view as procrastination. Both approaches may achieve the same end result, but in different ways.

An article at lifehack.org - Are You Just Getting Warmed Up by Tony Clark - explains the warming up type of procrastination well:

“I’m honestly not procrastinating in the traditional sense, but need some time to ramp up into my day. How do I know I’m not just slacking? Because when I jump right in, most of what I produce is crap. But if I give myself time to get warmed up - have some coffee, check some feeds, read some mail - when I do get to work, I’m way more productive. I’m also much more focused.”

He draws an analogy with warming up a car on a cold morning - scraping off the ice then leaving it to idle while the engine warms. This warm-up time improves the performance and the life of the car … and some people need this idling and warm-up time too! You just have to be careful to know whether your procrastination is the legitimate warm-up time you need to function at your best, or just slackness. We are all different, so only you can judge that.

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.

Today marks the 23rd anniversary of that fateful day in 1984 when I began collecting the lint from my navel each day. I’m still collecting it, and still hold the record for the world’s largest collection.

The main collection is sealed and stored in a safe place, with my daily harvesting being added to a separate small container. In recognition of my collection’s birthday I have transferred the past year’s lint from the small container to the main collection, together with the lint from the tiny container I carry while travelling. An updated photo of the collection is now on the Navel Fluff page.

This small container I add to each day (pictured) is noteworthy. Just when I thought everything that could be made from clay had been made, this turns up! It was very kindly sent to me by Brenda Beasley of South Carolina, who is herself a collector (of statues of liberty and related paraphernalia; see her website). It’s perfect for storing tiny balls of lint - I wonder if its makers ever imagined it would be used in gathering the world’s largest navel lint collection.

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.

It was one of those things I’d been meaning to get around to for a year or two, but kept putting off because I thought it would take a long time. Well, I have finally done it, and it didn’t take as long as I thought.  What I’m talking about is updating my website with some new photos.

The two old pages of West Australian photos have been removed, and replaced with six new pages organised according to location (see links under Photography on left, for “Albany”, “Southern Forests”,etc).  It feels good to have some of my better photos on display, though some of the best are on slides which haven’t been scanned yet.  Hopefully now I will feel motivated to start my New Zealand collection.

Last week my parents cat, Oliver, was accidentally shut inside my dad’s van - he must have sneaked in un-noticed for a nap. Soon afterwards the vans horn sounded continuously, and Oliver was found standing on the driver’s seat with his paws resting on the steering wheel, making the horn sound. If he hadn’t attracted attention in this way, he could have literally roasted inside the vehicle as it was a hot day.

This behaviour is on a par with our previous cat, Rastus (pictured). She was known to occasionally knock on a closed glass door to be let in - her claws tapping the glass made just enough noise to be noticed.

Also last week, in Cairns, Queensland, a kitten named Tinny saved a family from a house fire (see news story). By clawing on the face of the son whose room was on fire, and meowing loudly, the kitten alerted the family to the fire and enabled them all to escape. His early intervention not only saved the family but also spared the home from major damage. The family dog didn’t start barking until the fire engine arrived.

When people talk about clever attributes in animals, dogs get most of the glory. But as these few examples show, cats should never be underestimated!