How to aesthetically catalog your life: Of cat lovers and sports agents

Today I will discuss some problems that are plaguing society in both a personal, a sarcastic, and a neutral perspective. There's an infinite number of societal problems so I'll only be touching upon a couple.

Procrastination

Immediately we think of students. And with due reason. However, procrastination plagues the entire world, especially when considered under a broad interpretation. I was inspired by some students who have yet to begin an extensive English blogging project (hmm...) that was clearly assigned weeks ago. Again and again we are told how procrastination is bad. Unfortunately, in cases when it comes from a teacher who takes seven weeks to grade a math test, I find it extremely difficult to take seriously. But seriously, why stress over how close you can do a project to its due date while still completing it? I have yet to see the purpose of this tactic known as procrastination. If you have an answer, please enlighten me in the comments section below. This tactic fails in the business world, and the only solution is to be more productive. I see chronic procrastinators as lacking self-motivation and therefore as lacking the skills required to "succeed in life" (whatever that means). But we must ask ourselves, what do chronic procrastinators at the high school level do with themselves? I did some data collection and these are what I discovered as the top alternatives to doing work:

Playing video games, computer games, or other self-depriving gaming (I know how popular Gameboys are these days).
Watching South Park.
Watching other television shows, particularly mindless and vulgar ones.
Reading about "how to carve carrot flowers" on the Internet.
Spending excess time finding and stalking colleagues', bosses'/teachers', or subordinates'/students' Facebook or Twitter accounts.
Spending time on online dating sites, like PURRsonals.com.
Making poor Photoshop compilations.
Viewing inappropriate media of whatever form.
Going shoe, clothing, and curtain shopping.
Finding the latest fashion trends or One Direction videos.

We all know at least one person who partakes in one or more of the above activities, whether it be for procrastination or for other reasons. It's detrimental to society.

Discussion Questions

How can a high school student possibly spend more than three hours on homework per night? (I'd say more than one or two is unnecessary.)
Why do professional athletes and sports agents make exponentially more money than the competents who actually help society?
What is your favorite dating site? Does it target specific animal-lover groups?

A common dating site advertisement. http://mousebreath.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/purrsonals.jpg

Why kids waste there time watching this excrement is beyond me. http://www.dan-dare.org/FreeFun/Images/CartoonsMoviesTV/SouthParkWallpaper1024.gif

Lastly for this section is an interesting excerpt from the Wikipedia article "Procrastination" regarding the justifications for the disease:

Justification

Individual coping responses to procrastination are often emotional or avoidant oriented rather than task or problem-solving oriented. Emotion oriented coping is designed to reduce stress (and cognitive dissonance) associated with putting off intended and important personal goals, an option that provides immediate pleasure and is consequently very attractive to impulsive procrastinators. There are hundreds of identified emotion oriented strategies, similar to Freudian defense mechanisms, coping styles and self-handicapping. These procrastinators include using the following:

Avoidance: Where we avoid the locale or situation where the task takes place (e.g., a graduate student avoiding going to University).

Distraction: Where we engage or immerse ourselves in other behaviors or actions to prevent awareness of the task (e.g., intensive videogame playing or Internet surfing)

Trivialization: We reframe the intended but procrastinated task as being not that important (e.g., "I'm putting off going to the dentist, but you know what? Teeth aren't that important.").

Downward counterfactuals: We compare our situation with those even worse (e.g., "Yes, I procrastinated and got a B- in the course, but I didn't fail like one other student did."). Upward counterfactual is considering what would have happened if we didn't procrastinate.

Humour: Making a joke of one's procrastination, that the slapstick or slipshod quality of one's aspirational goal striving is funny.

External attributions: That the cause of procrastination is due to external forces beyond our control (e.g., "I'm procrastinating because the assignment isn't fair").

Reframing: Pretending that getting an early start on a project is harmful to one's performance and leaving the work to the last moment will produce better results (e.g., "I'm most creative at 4:00 AM in the morning without sleep.").

Denial: Pretending that procrastinatory behaviour is not actually procrastinating, but a task which is more important than the avoided one.

Task or problem-solving oriented coping is rarer for the procrastinator because it is more effective in reducing procrastination. If pursued, it is less likely the procrastinator would remain a procrastinator. It requires actively changing one's behavior or situation to prevent a reoccurrence of procrastination.

It's been called a virus. Is it?

**Please note that the following section is inappropriate for the emotionally immature. Harsh realities are presented. Proceed with caution.**

Foolishness

Well, it has been said that chronic procrastinators are fools. I don't think I necessarily agree, but it's a plausible statement. Foolishness is most commonly associated with abuse of drugs and other toxins. There's the fools who come to school or work high on their favorite drug or hung over from the previous night's drinking parade. It's inappropriate, derogatory, insulting to the people who have to deal with the fools...it's utter foolishness. But, seriously, if you want to go ahead and destroy yourself, do it, I won't stop you. Maybe we'll see you on the news one day for owning six crack houses, maybe for overdosing on cough syrup, maybe something else. But always something bad. I reserve all my pity and empathy for those who are not fools, as should everybody. There are few exceptions to my rules. Chronically smoking exotic plants out of grapefruits in local nature preserves is not an exception. And yes, that happens. I saw it and didn't even get shot. Going on with my theme of lists, below is a list of some common foolish behaviors:

Smoking illegal plants out of a grapefruit in the local nature preserve (previously stated).
Snorting grape juice.
Yelling across public places about totally unnecessary information.
Shooting your neighbor because their dog defecated on your lawn or in the apartment building hall.
Showering in alcohol (like vodka).
Jumping off bridges into shallow water.
Driving recklessly, putting innocent children in danger.
Failed deception without reason.
Vandalizing public places.
Slashing the buttocks of strangers on the city streets in broad daylight.
Blasting music in the car to make yourself seem cool. (It's really just obnoxious.)
Getting drunk and urinating in public places, like off the roof of an elementary school.