11/04/2003 01:08:36 PM|||Travis|||

Sweet, carry look-ahead is faster than ripple carry!

Its been hard to study today. It took me about three hours to get in one, solid uninterrupted hour of studying. So many little things kept popping up and I started to think "oh yea! I should do that." Then I would get done with that, and would have to start trying to concentrate all over again. I used a CD as a timer and reset it whenever I launched off into a distraction.

This journal entry is my reward.

I think that my theory on structured procrastination is what is at work here. When I am doing something that is due in the near future, I start to think about other little things that have been bugging me up to this point. For example, do you ever wonder why so many people do laundry during finals? yep, you guessed it- thats because they want some excuse to take a break from hours of focused concentration on a single subject.

Another thought that occured to me is that perhaps this is a clearing of the mental landscape. When you want to accomplish something, you suddenly realize that there is all this baggage on the landscape- unpaid bills, laundry, a dirty room, etc. and so you start with this small crap first so that your mind is clear when you tackle the other task.

Yet, I can never clear my mind of all this clutter. Every couple minutes something new pops up- bills, my account balances, forms I need to fill out, people I need to talk to, unfinished business, etc. I doubt that I could ever have it ALL finished... there is always more stuff that pops up. Perhaps if I became a hermit in the woods, like Thoeru, then I could clear my mind of senseless crap. But then, I would still have things like feed the chickens, hoe the garden, build the house, etc. that would STILL keep my mind occupied. I would just be filled with other types of senseless crap.

Perhaps what I need is to master the art of meditation. I have often looked into this as a means to relax myself and cease this senseless drivel of crap that assualts my mind as it attempts to focus. You see, the art of mediation is the art of letting all these thoughts fly by. Its like watching a lake of our thoughts without interacting with it, and therefore disturbing the water and distorting your perception of them. Sounds nice, eh?

In practice its more like this- you sit on a mat for an extrememly long time and pretend that you are discovering a greater truth and that pretty soon you will be enlightened and be able to levitate and shoot fireballs out of your ass. At least that is what I think about...

yea, fireballs.

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