On Letter Memes

[danieldwilliam]

F4f3 gave me the letter P.

Something I hate:  Procrastination.  It is the bane of my life.  I would be far more effective as a human being if I could find some way of managing it. So far, the most effective way I’ve found of forcing me to do things is to paint myself in to some sort of corner with a public obligation. This works fine a motivating tool but because I’m working against myself, putting myself under pressure and not managing my workload very well I can end up feeling anxious and then often down. This occasionally leads to depression.

I think procrastination is the mental health thing I need to work on this year.

Something I love: Passion.  I love passion in myself. I love it when I’m inspired and driven and made joyful by the doing and the achieving of something. I love it when other people are too. But, it’s a secret love. I’m a bit embarrassed by passion, in myself and in other people. Perhaps because if we admitted that we had passion or could have passion we would have to examine the way we live our lives and the way we structure our politics and ask ourselves why only a few people get to act on their passions as fully as they would wish?

Somewhere I have been: Portland, Oregon. MLW’s bestest and oldest friend and her husband, my spiritual twin currently live in Portland. We will be visiting them in a few months’ time. Portland seems like a nice, relaxed sort of a place with lovely beer. If ever I win the lottery I’m setting up a brewpub like they have in Portland. 

Somewhere I would like to go: Pompey. One of the things I love is archaeology. Another is Classical Rome. I’m particularly interested in how ordinary people lived their lives. I’d love to go to Pompey and Herculaneum and explore the past as people experienced it.

Someone I know: Pete, my friend Pete, my “friend” Pete. Pete is perhaps the most unreliable friend someone could have. I first met him when I moved back to Aberdeen at the age of 15. We were at Uni together, in the same halls, in the same course. We even mooted together. He was an usher at my wedding. Every so often he just disappears, often for years at a time. He’s erratic, prone to outburst of intemperate anger, often irrational. I’ve no idea what is going on in his head but I wish I did.

Best Movie: Platoon. When I was a young teenager one group of my friends were fascinated by the Vietnam war. It was the decade after the tenth anniversary of the Vietnam war. I was living in Australia at the time. A few of my friends’ dads or uncles had been involved in the war.  My friends and I would devour Vietnam war films in a great film fest of jungle green savagery. Platoon, Hamburger Hill, Apocalypse Now, Full Metal Jacket and perhaps, most disturbing of all for me Good Morning Vietnam. Platoon was the first film I saw  where I was aware of the authorial position sitting underneath the story.

It is well that war is so terrible, else we should become too fond of it.

Comments

[strange-complex.livejournal.com]

On procrastination, did you see this post about why people procrastinate which was doing the rounds yesterday? That post itself is good, but perhaps even better is the second post, linked from the bottom of it, about how to stop yourself from doing it. I certainly found it helpful.

[alitheapipkin.livejournal.com]

I feel similarly about the first 2 bits of this. Did you read the procrastination links Andrew posted yesterday? The advice in the second post is excellent - I've beaten mine mostly into submission at work thro meticulous planning.

Pompeii is a fantastic place to visit, I highly recommend it. Go on the train rather than a guided tour (you can buy excellent guide books) so you can spend all day there, and do the bits closest to the car park really early or late in the day because they will be utterly packed from late morning to early afternoon with all the people who go on coach tours and only see a fraction of it. Herculaneum is a much smaller site that you can do in an afternoon but you could spend 2 days at Pompeii easily.