Ah procrastination, I have a thousand and one stories I could tell about this
First of all a bit of background, I'll admit, I am pretty much seen as a nerd, although, I would never class myself as such (who would?). I wear glasses, chequered shirts and have even been known to wear school trousers outside of school hours (hey they're comfortable!). I rarely attend parties, don't drink and didn't even go to our school prom. I'm shy and as a result am usually very quiet around people, I mean really quiet, I still reckon that I managed to say less than one hundred words in a full two years worth of art lessons, but I usually pass it off by saying "I have nothing to say". It took a great amount of courage for me to tell my friends that I actually fancied a girl in Year 11, the first time I had ever admitted to doing so. I also have a huge love for video games and, until a couple of years ago, comic books as well.

I hate a lot of contemporary music as well, preferring to listen to classic rock and pop of the 60s and 70s and have been ridiculed many a time by my peers for my great love of the music of Robert Zimmerman. I also am renowned for almost never showing any emotion to people I don't know well. The kids would say "He never smiles" or "I've never heard him laugh/speak". I'm also known for getting good grades, having one 30-second detention throughout all of secondary school, never being on the wrong side of teachers and being generally a good student. So yes, I am the model of a model "geek".

However, unlike a geek, I am also the laziest person I know.

Seriously, it's almost like some sort of brain condition or something. It's not that I'll be too lazy to do something, it's just that I will always, leave it to the night before. Always.

This is extremely prevelant in my artwork. I consider myself an artist first and foremost. Always have, probably always will and although I'm a cartoonist at heart, I've always managed to produce decent work in lessons as well as at home. But, I could never do that work in advance.

In Year 10, I had some homework where I had to create a model of an animal out of junk. I left this to the night before and thought I actually had enough time to produce a paper mache hedgehog using cocktail sticks. I didn't. My brother ended up bailing me out, helping me make a small owl out of a tin can, broken CD, a lightbulb and some magnets. Funnily enough I never ended up submitting it for coursework.

Another time I had to do an artist study. I left it to the evening before and then realised our crappy printer didn't have enough colour ink to print the pictures I needed. My brother and me drove to ASDA to buy some, knowing full well that they did not sell the ink I needed, but we were desperate. They didn't have the ink; what did we do? We bought a new printer which ASDA did stock the ink for. My brother went to buy ink and came back with a £40 printer/scanner combo.

A different time I had some business coursework to produce. I could have done it at any time during half term, but instead left it till the last weekend where I had to do it at a friend's house because I learnt that my computer didn't have Excel. Then, exactly the same thing happened that summer holiday.

In Year 9 I had to produce a study of Mount St. Helens in any interesting medium. I managed to create a decent paper mache sculpture of the mountain, complete with cross-section and facts on the side, in just 5 hours the night before.

Another time I had english coursework I had to complete for a deadline the next day. I missed out on seeing The Chariot with my brothers as I had to stay home and do it. They ended up meeting the band as well!

So this summer I thought I'd get a job and earn some money before I started college. Did I? No. Originally I was going to apply to ASDA as soon as I finished my GCSEs, then I thought "Do I want to work there?" Then I played WoW for a month and came to the conclusion that it was too late to get a job now.

So college comes around and after two weeks I drop fine art and switch to graphic design. Do I make an awesome attempt to catch up? Hell no! I leave it all to 15:00 the day before the due date (fully aware that failure to submit could jeopardise continuation) and then spend a solid 10 hour period catching up on a whole terms work. I broke for just fifteen minutes to eat. It nearly fucking killed me. I ended up going to bed at 1 in the morning after a cold shower and had to get up just 5 and a half hours later.

After that I thought: "No more! I will not leave stuff to the last minute again!" But, actually I'm writing this just after having completed another sizable chunk of artwork that is due in tomorrow.

I have to wrap this up soon as I need to allow myself at least half an hour to do a politics question that is also due in tomorrow.

My ultimate act of laziness though, must be from May to July of this year. The exam period. My GCSEs. As you may know, Year 11s essentially finish the year a couple of months early so that they can spend time revising and prepping for exams.

I was doing anything but that.

I was working on getting 1000 Gamerpoints on Dead Rising which I was basically addicted to. I didn't revise for any of my subjects apart from maths, and the only reason I revised for that was because I knew my teacher would be there on results day to inspect our grades. I say I "revised", but really I just read my book once for an hour the night before.

But, I still came out of my GCSEs with all passes, 7 A's, 2 B's and 1 C.

Infact I realised that the subject I did the most revision for was religious studies the year before where I actually learnt the names of all the Gurus and their important actions.

The night before.

There's probably many more stories I have to tell; those certainly aren't all of them, but I really most go do that politics essay. And I've just realised that I've only done about half of my graphics work for this term so far. I could do it this weekend I suppose. At least I would, if I hadn't already planned on playing Gears of War 2 with littlenipple instead. Ah well, I'll do it the night before.

Length? About 500-600 words by eleven O'Clock; here goes!
( St. Defenestration The REAL one, Thu 13 Nov 2008, 22:36, 4 replies)

Ooh, a mention.
And I remember that Mount St. Helens. It was bloody good.
(littlenipple hate's bad grammar, Thu 13 Nov 2008, 22:41, closed)

It sounds like you're perfectly normal.
Eventually you'll do badly enough at something that you'll decide to change your ways and really mean it.

Then, when you're starting to write your PhD thesis on the morning it's due in, you'll remember that decision as one you really should have stuck to.
(you FUCKING *BANG* BANG*BANG* AAAAAAARRRRRRGGGGGHHHHH!, Thu 13 Nov 2008, 23:34, closed)

So.
What was the C in? The shame.
(bacontrout got ska, Fri 14 Nov 2008, 5:38, closed)

German

( St. Defenestration The REAL one, Fri 14 Nov 2008, 18:55, closed)