I'm useless, but not for long. The future is coming on..

I've long described my problem as "crippling ambition". I so badly want to do everything that I end up unable to do anything. Unable to make small, specific goals, I make lofty, unachievable goals that I can't meet. I want to do this and this and this and this and that. Then I think and freak out about all of them and how could I possibly do it. And then I don't.

Every semester I run into problems planning for the next semester. My long term vision is fairly blind and I have huge problems trying to make plans in advance. And juggling my own class schedule along with several work schedules dependent on other peoples' schedules, well that confusing sentence is indicitive of the actual confusion.

I need constant change and commotion. Even if I am able to create a realistic schedule, and realistic to me is generally pretty ridiculous, I can only handle it for about six months. Then I get anxious and uneasy, ready to move on.

Since I am graduating in May, the "what are you doing next" question comes up almost daily. The real answer is: I don't know. And I'm fine with that, but that is usually not what people want to hear. If I give that response, the reply is always supportive and in the vein of "youre young! you certainly don't need to make a decision yet!" But I don't think most people really believe that. So instead, I pretty much give a different answer to everyone who asks. Try out the sound of different post-graduation lives. Of course, given my scheduling difficulties, even if i could decide on a plan, it going as planned is doubtful.

I do know that I have done a good job for the past twenty-one years of following "the plan". Schooling and working as a good American youth should. But now, I can do anything. And that is incredibly liberating and terrifying.

Of course right now I should be studying. But pontificating about my future is much more interesting than dealing with my right now. Yet another reason I get nothing done, ever. Crippling Ambition.

Football = Love

Today was my penultimate home Texas football game. Boo to senior year.
Great Saturday spent watching football. Iowa upsets Penn State, Alabama almost goes down against LSU, Texas beats up on Baylor. Right now Tech is owning Oklahoma State. As much as I want to hate TT, they are playing amazing and really earning their ranking. Harrell and Crabtree are almost as fun to watch as McCoy and Shipley. Almost. :)
I'm excited to see the new rankings tomorrow, only two games left!

Indecision 2008

Today a pollster from Katie Couric's show called and surveyed me on my pre-election political leanings. Having studied survey creation and implementation, I noticed that the wording and sequence of questions strongly favored Obama. This supports my opinion that the mass media has been completely won over as a result of Obama's incredible marketing campaign. It wasn't a huge shock when AdAge named Obama as 2009 Marketer of the Year (http://adage.com/oy2008/article?article_id=131810). In my opinion he surely deserved it. What is a mystery to me is why McCain didn't fire his campaign president three months ago.

Even with significantly less funding, an intelligent, strategy-driven campaign could have gone toe-to-toe with Obama's. But time and time again, McCain's camp failed to come through. Their awkward, poorly-timed, out of touch efforts to reach young voters reeked of desperation and cluelessness. It's not enough to say you're cool or hip or whatever adjective you aspire to be, you've got to make like Nike and just do it.

The virtual world is one area in which the republicans really missed the boat; and to their extreme detriment. Sites like palinaspresident and mccainfreewhitehouse create a huge stir, but go unanswered. Whether these sites are created internally or externally doesn’t really matter. McCain's campaign should have made sure there were equal and opposite forces at work. Defying Isaac Newton doesn't seem like a good idea!

To further illustrate, on the popular microblogging site Twitter Obama has 112,423 followers, or subscribers, while McCain has a mere 4,597. McCain has also updated his account just 25 times, compared to Obama's 257. Another example of failure to connect.

Is Obama's position as media darling a result of his campaign? That's the great thing about advertising, ROI is a slippery and elusive concept, and it's difficult to ever be sure what direct influence an ad exerts on one's actions. And who knows, perhaps the survey wasn't really colored by a pro-Obama sentiment. Maybe it was my views on the campaigns that colored my interpretation of the survey.

November 2, 2009 - Inauguration of the President of Procrasti Nation

*This is a re-post from a group on fb.*

It seems that finals season started several weeks ago and will continue for several more. Then, the magical month of finals will be upon us. I hope everyone is finding ample activities where you can squander your precious study time.

However, if newfacebook isnt living up to the time-sucking ways of oldfacebook, allow me to recommend some other online blackholes with which to fill the void.

- ruminations.com
Read Aaron Karo's column dating back to the late
90s, as well as insightful and idiotic musings of
users just like you.
- tuckermax.com
Max is on par with Karo as a love-to-hate/hate-
to-love hilarious foreverfratboy. On a side note,
both graduated from prestigious universities. Who
knows, your sordid tales may one day earn
millions!
- someecards.com
The original site that spawned 1000 bumper
stickers. If you want to try your hand at that
comedian stuff, there is a platform for user
generated cards as well.
- stuffwhitepeoplelike.com
A caustic compilation of commentary on caucasian
neuroticisms. I dream of having a blog this
successful; and the resulting book deals.
- postsecret.com
Oldie but goldie. Another ridiculously successful
blog. Too bad it's only updated once a week.
- sidereel.com/hulu.com
Sadly, school and work interfere with my television
viewing. These sights make it right. Fo' free.
- twitter.com
If facebook status updates just don't come often
enough, seek refuge in microblogging with 39048
of your closest friends. Or me :)
- 1893430.blogspot.com/
Speaking of me, I have a blog. I'll get around to
keeping it current someday. Right now, I'm going
to repost this.
- neave.com/games/nblock
In my opinion, the best fake tetris there is.
- Some of my favorite creativity/inspiring sites
- changethethought.com
- ilovetypography.com
- notcot.org
- cpluv.com
- storypeople.com

Well, that helped me put off studying. I can only hope it does the same for you. If all else fails, just go to wikipedia, type in "procrastination", and keep clicking.