Priorities are something I've often wallowed about here in the halls of Classic Brian. To summarize my earlier findings, doing things is hard, and I hate doing things. More often than not, being responsible and productive is more difficult than not giving a damn. Which sucks!
Oftentimes, while wondering what terrible god would do things like make peoples metabolisms operate on wildly different scales and make tying ties so tricky, I wonder what I do if I was suddenly free of the logical shackles of this world. What if I wasn't obliged to do society any service, what if I distance meant nothing, what if time was my only limitation and I could effectively do whatever I wanted?
If I had 24 hours to spend however I wanted to, how would I do it? What would My Perfect Day look like?
Here we go. Most of this can happen in any order, unless otherwise noted in my description.
2 hours would be spent playing Ultimate in Norman. Everyone would be there. It would be good ultimate, we would play well, but it would not be taken seriously. The game wouldn't devolve into exclusively upside-down hucks and the like, but it would definitely get pretty stupid by the end.
An embarrassing 3 hours of the day would be spent playing Final Fantasy. Know that I shaved a lot of other things down in order to ensure that FF got its fair share.
2 hours would be spent at improv practice. I say improv practice because, while I love the rush of having to make the improv good because there's an audience watching, at improv practice we can do stupid, regrettable things. Things can go badly and it can be way funnier than if they had gone well and we don't have to give a damn. We can ensure our spots in hell, worry free. Also, everyone who's ever been in improv would be there. And I wouldn't be the leader.
1 hour would be spent at either Steak N' Shake or Little Saigon. Come one, come all. EVERYBODY SHOW UP.
1/2 an hour would be spent at Snowbiz Shaved Ice. I guess, for financial purposes, it would be a Tuesday, so we could get two for one. I would get a medium sour lemon, sour green apple concoction. Every time I haven't gotten this I have regretted it.
1/2 an hour would be spent going on a run through Washington Park with Nick Dietrich, and whoever else worked up the energy to come with us that day. Which I guess would be the whole crew. Because this is the Perfect Day. We would run around the park twice. This would probably occur around 11:00 at night. No park police would bother us about being in the park after it's closed, because how do you close a park.
2 hours recording a new song with Band Practice. It would be a good song and everyone would like it. The lyrics would not be bad, and every band member would have an interesting part. It would not be showy, or too melodramatic. It would just work well. Later, we would play a 1 hour show that would be reasonably well attended. It would be a very very small venue so it would appear like there was better attendance than there was. Somehow, I would not sweat.
12 hours down.
2 hours would be spent sitting around 1042 Leslie Lane, and doing whatever. Relaxing. Chillaxing, maybe even. Fuck you, blogspot, don't you dare put a red squiggly line underneath chillaxing as if you don't know exactly what I mean. I would maybe take turns playing Halo 3 with some of the guys, maybe I would just sit in the living room we've entitled The War Room and talk to people, watching a movie in the second living room we call Codename: Bitch Tits, maybe I'd play ping-pong, maybe we'd play Risk maybe I'd just sit in my room and read. It don't matter. It'd be nice.
3 hours would be spent going to dinner with my family and then playing board games with them afterwards. We would go to someplace nice. Like Ginger Asian Bistro. We would then play Banagrams, or Chasing Mr. X or whatever that new game someone just got for Christmas was. I wouldn't win. Even in my perfect day, I have to accept simple facts about life.
2 hours would be spent seeing an impossible concert. It would basically be like a 2 hour mix CD where every band plays one or two songs and so there are like 10 or 11 of my favorite bands. There is no set up or tear down time. Somehow. It's in a medium sized venue. Probably in Oklahoma, but people from Illinois are there, too, for some reason. It's crazy.
Or it could just be a 2 hour Mountain Goats concert. I'm cool with that too.
2 hours would be spent in a car, driving, talking to whoever else would be in the car, and listening to music. The sun would be setting. I'd probably be drinking a monster.
2 hours would be spent at a party in Springfield. The Party Planning Committee would have pretty set it up. I would be the designated driver, but I would still have a fantastic time. I would get to see all of the people I miss, all of the people who I acknowledge I haven't put enough energy into seeing while I'm back in town. I've been thinking about this lately. It's so easy and so convenient for me to spend time with the same 5 or 6 people in Springfield, and because I am a creature of sloth I've done just that. I feel pretty shitty about that. I will do my best. I haven't done well thus far, but I'll try. I know if I wait any longer to start maintaining these relationships, it will be too late.
2 hours would be spent at a party in Norman. I would not be the designated driver.
I would also take a 45 minute nap.
Also my perfect day would be 25 hours and 45 minutes long.
It would also be my birthday.
And Christmas.
EDIT: If anyone's interested, list the contents of your perfect day. It's probably exactly like mine.
Showing posts with label Priorities. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Priorities. Show all posts
Saturday, January 21, 2012
Monday, June 7, 2010
Nick - Make It A Priority To Learn
There's a lot of sentimentality going on in these posts this week; I want to take the focus off of the sadness of leaving behind the people you know, and try to look to the future and new opportunities. Today I want to talk about a couple of qualities that are instrumental to the success of our college careers.
Priority and learning.
My name is Nicholas Dietrich, but you can call me Nick. I know nothing about pop culture, but I read about politics and science every day. But more on that later. Let me introduce myself.
I grew up in private schools from kindergarten to freshmen year of high school, when I made the decision to stay at home and homeschool. And I'm not talking about the wacko Glen Beck-style "your kids are being indoctrinated" homeschooling. I wanted to quit being taught and start learning.
It was the best decision I ever made.
All of a sudden, I could tell you exactly what I've learned this year. I could explain all about the behavior of fish in an aquarium and the nesting habits of wasps; I took two math courses my first year so that I could get to calculus before going off to college. I was reading books every day, solely because I wanted to and had the time to. Freshman year I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life; this year I went and saw an autopsy at a hospital, and next year I'm going to be starting pre-med at University of Illinois in Champaign. You have undoubtedly heard that homeschooled kids are awkward and lack social skills, and I'm here to tell you that you heard wrong. I'm part of an improvised comedy troupe which I love, and I have friends and a girlfriend (!) despite deciding to stay home.
The reason I'm telling you this isn't to try and brag. I certainly don't think I'm smarter than the average person; I just have more time and I'm willing to put in an effort. The reason I'm telling you this is so that you think about these things, and maybe consider homeschooling when you have kids. It can be awesome when done right.
Now, back to the overarching theme here; priority.
When I say "overarching," I'm sure that I raise a few eyebrows. "You only mentioned priority in the first paragraph," you think to yourself. The point I'm getting at here is making it a priority to learn; don't waste your time when you could be learning. Use your common sense, and instead of finding out who is in what movie or what funny groups you can join on Facebook, go learn something real.
I'm challenging you all to pursue your interests, or find some if you don't have any you want to read about. You could go read up on the science behind climate change or the BP oil spill, you could study the anatomy of insects and witness the balance of an entire ecosystem by simply starting a freshwater aquarium. The only way you're going to make a difference in your life is if you know what you want to change and make it a priority to do something about it. And to do that you need to start learning as much as you can right now, because life is short.
Prioritize. Get out there and learn while you're still young. I'll even throw you some links to get you started.
News and Politics:
Politico
Think Progress
The Young Turks
Huffington Post
Al Jazeera
Animal Behavior, Anatomy, and Psychology:
Fabre's Book of Insects - edited by Rodolph Stawell
King Solomon's Ring - by Konrad Lorenz
All Creatures Great and Small - James Herriot
All Sorts of Science:
A Short History of Nearly Everything - Bill Bryson
Reddit Science
That's just the most interesting and fun entry-level stuff I can think of off the top of my head, in case you don't know where to start. But go to wikipedia and look up something you're interested in. There's a whole world of material out there you haven't even heard of yet.
-Nick.
Priority and learning.
My name is Nicholas Dietrich, but you can call me Nick. I know nothing about pop culture, but I read about politics and science every day. But more on that later. Let me introduce myself.
I grew up in private schools from kindergarten to freshmen year of high school, when I made the decision to stay at home and homeschool. And I'm not talking about the wacko Glen Beck-style "your kids are being indoctrinated" homeschooling. I wanted to quit being taught and start learning.
It was the best decision I ever made.
All of a sudden, I could tell you exactly what I've learned this year. I could explain all about the behavior of fish in an aquarium and the nesting habits of wasps; I took two math courses my first year so that I could get to calculus before going off to college. I was reading books every day, solely because I wanted to and had the time to. Freshman year I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life; this year I went and saw an autopsy at a hospital, and next year I'm going to be starting pre-med at University of Illinois in Champaign. You have undoubtedly heard that homeschooled kids are awkward and lack social skills, and I'm here to tell you that you heard wrong. I'm part of an improvised comedy troupe which I love, and I have friends and a girlfriend (!) despite deciding to stay home.
The reason I'm telling you this isn't to try and brag. I certainly don't think I'm smarter than the average person; I just have more time and I'm willing to put in an effort. The reason I'm telling you this is so that you think about these things, and maybe consider homeschooling when you have kids. It can be awesome when done right.
Now, back to the overarching theme here; priority.
When I say "overarching," I'm sure that I raise a few eyebrows. "You only mentioned priority in the first paragraph," you think to yourself. The point I'm getting at here is making it a priority to learn; don't waste your time when you could be learning. Use your common sense, and instead of finding out who is in what movie or what funny groups you can join on Facebook, go learn something real.
I'm challenging you all to pursue your interests, or find some if you don't have any you want to read about. You could go read up on the science behind climate change or the BP oil spill, you could study the anatomy of insects and witness the balance of an entire ecosystem by simply starting a freshwater aquarium. The only way you're going to make a difference in your life is if you know what you want to change and make it a priority to do something about it. And to do that you need to start learning as much as you can right now, because life is short.
Prioritize. Get out there and learn while you're still young. I'll even throw you some links to get you started.
News and Politics:
Politico
Think Progress
The Young Turks
Huffington Post
Al Jazeera
Animal Behavior, Anatomy, and Psychology:
Fabre's Book of Insects - edited by Rodolph Stawell
King Solomon's Ring - by Konrad Lorenz
All Creatures Great and Small - James Herriot
All Sorts of Science:
A Short History of Nearly Everything - Bill Bryson
Reddit Science
That's just the most interesting and fun entry-level stuff I can think of off the top of my head, in case you don't know where to start. But go to wikipedia and look up something you're interested in. There's a whole world of material out there you haven't even heard of yet.
-Nick.
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