I have a 10-12 page TERM paper due in 14 and a half hours that I have not STARTED and I am going to have to have a library-lock-in since my laptop is getting fixed - when was the last time you procra

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Yay, good times. It's gonna be a fun nite, at least the 'Net will be faster in the library.

Watch out, ILX...

V, Wednesday, 4 December 2002 02:42 (twenty-two years ago)

I did this every time I wrote a paper, I would try to do it early but I think I am physically and mentally incapable of starting a paper any earlier than the day before it is due. Good luck V!

Nicole (Nicole), Wednesday, 4 December 2002 02:46 (twenty-two years ago)

you should give us an hourly update on how many pages you've done.

rainy (rainy), Wednesday, 4 December 2002 02:50 (twenty-two years ago)

I think I am physically and mentally incapable of starting a paper any earlier than the day before it is due.

Yeah, I mEan, isn't this like the norm though, isn't this the way almost every normal person do their papers? It just doesn't make sense to even try to start earlier. Your body/mind just WON'T let you start until the night before (or sometimes, week after). But isn't it also kinda helpful, like a defense mechanism: I mean, really, all the BEST papers I've written have been last minute anyway. Or wait, that's how I write all of them...it just doesn't seem worthy worrying over then, but one still does. It's like a crime not to, an impossibility!

Mine is for my documentary class on Gimme Shelter. Direct Cinema, Mick Jagger, wee wee - ever notice how even the coolest, non-academic subjects turn into UNHOLE BURDENS when they have to be paperized, like academic mutants. How am I gonna spread this shit out over 10 pages???!@###!@@@@

i need caffeine (i already hada 15 min presentation today)

V, Wednesday, 4 December 2002 02:56 (twenty-two years ago)

Oh believe me, you'll be getting the half-hour lowdowns. I feel sorry for the server already. Unless I somehow decide to swear off ilx again

V or Vee, Wednesday, 4 December 2002 02:58 (twenty-two years ago)

I did it last night/this morning, as a matter of fact. I had to write on the inherent flaws of the protagonist in Chinua Achebe's "Things Fall Apart." Instead I wrote about the tragic aspect of the book and how his inherent flaws interacted with each element. Seemed like the logical approach from my perspective, but as it was an all-nighter I don't think the teacher will appreciate my "insight." It's hard to look intelligent when you write a paper of that size in a fraction of the time you'll need. It was my final exam, too.

B, Wednesday, 4 December 2002 03:01 (twenty-two years ago)

(In other words I feel you...good luck)

B, Wednesday, 4 December 2002 03:02 (twenty-two years ago)

Yeah - final exams as papers blow

and i don't even think i have enough time to take this machine to the fed ex place, fuck it i might just have to do this paper at home now. but my laptop-fixing warranty is like running out!! ::worrying::

V, Wednesday, 4 December 2002 03:31 (twenty-two years ago)

I started university by delaying writing essays until the last minute. Gradually, I discovered that what had seemed to me to be the last minute wasn't the last one at all. It was in fact hours before the real last minute. At first, I was beginning to write the day before essays were due. Then it was the evening before. By the end of my three years, I was speed-typing stream of consciousness shit in the morning that was to be handed-in in the afternoon. The later essays I could not bear to re-read at the time. Looking at them years after, they are full of mistakes and sloppiness and they all lack conclusions because I'd reached the last possible minute to print them out before I got to the conclusion. But, bizarrely, the quicker I wrote essays, the higher the marks I got.

Eyeball Kicks (Eyeball Kicks), Wednesday, 4 December 2002 04:29 (twenty-two years ago)

when was the last time you procrastinated like this to find yourself leaping into HELL?

the entirety of undergrad and law school, not to mention the NY and NJ bar exams?

Tad (llamasfur), Wednesday, 4 December 2002 04:40 (twenty-two years ago)

I have to write a paper on Huck Finn in the next 2 hours, so yeah I symmpathise with you

ejad, Wednesday, 4 December 2002 04:41 (twenty-two years ago)

I also can't spell korrektly

ejad, Wednesday, 4 December 2002 04:45 (twenty-two years ago)

i handed in a paper called carry on cleo you slut today- a dayt late after a 7 day extension.

anthony easton (anthony), Wednesday, 4 December 2002 05:00 (twenty-two years ago)

Ok how bout this one. I just opened my e-mail to a reminder from my art teacher that I have a 20X30 impressionist style painting due tomorrow morning. I haven't started. I don't even have a subject. My only salvation is that I can paint, am only taking this course becuase it's required, and I prefer impressionsim. The other problem (besides my stupidity in forgetting) is where the hell can i get canvass at this hour?

B, Wednesday, 4 December 2002 05:33 (twenty-two years ago)

don't worry dude, i'm still in the same boat - i havent even started. it is 10 to 10 pm. and i have videos to return first,,,

but of coursem my excuse right now is: SOME ONE FROM THIS ILX BOARD IMED ME AND INVITED ME INTO A PRIVATE CHAT - MY VERY FIRST ILX AIM CHAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! IT'S ALL ILX'S FAULT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

V, Wednesday, 4 December 2002 05:53 (twenty-two years ago)

Keep tellin yourself that, dude, it only gets better. As for me I found an old thin blanket that was set for the trash heap. It's not perfect, but if I staple it on a piece cardboard it just might work...

B, Wednesday, 4 December 2002 05:59 (twenty-two years ago)

Scratch that, i found a used canvas in my car...now, 7 hours...paint...

B, Wednesday, 4 December 2002 06:01 (twenty-two years ago)

I did this on Sunday night, the paper was due on Monday. I finished the book I was writing on around 10:30, started around midnight, got some more motivation around 3:30 am, and only truly started writing in earnest about 5:45 am. 4 vanilla cokes later I had 8 pages and no sleep, handed it the paper at 11:10.

Actually, I probably would have handed it in late, except I did that with the last paper and the prof handed it back with a page long guilt trip about how I forced her to compromise her morals by handed in an A paper late, and how if I handed in the next one late she would do what she was supposed to do and fail m

Jordan (Jordan), Wednesday, 4 December 2002 06:10 (twenty-two years ago)

Dude! I'm so responsible! I'm working on a paper right now that's due in nine days. 'Course, I'll probably end up writing the bulk of it the night before it's due.

Dan I., Wednesday, 4 December 2002 06:17 (twenty-two years ago)

every single exam ever.

I am the procrastination queen. But I might have ADD, so that's no fun at all.

nellskies (minna), Wednesday, 4 December 2002 07:09 (twenty-two years ago)

I hear you..ADHD here i think...my greatest procrastination legacy is all of high school. After my first year I completed only twelve assignments until graduation. Two of them were half-assed satires of the exam itself, so they don't quite count. I did well on tests, though, which is why I graduated, but barely.

B, Wednesday, 4 December 2002 07:14 (twenty-two years ago)

You evil slackers you are the doom of western civ do you see?

I am the very painting (impressionistic no less) of responsibility, always buffering myself from deadlines with at least five days so I can take a leisurely pace in composition, then long strolls through the woods for inspiration, and then refining through editing.

Leee (Leee), Wednesday, 4 December 2002 07:34 (twenty-two years ago)

Nix the long walks. I honestly did begin writing a healthy amount of time before the due date, but then again, this extension has produced several protracted, epic struggles. The longer you give yourself, the more you can anguish over the fact that your creative spring is dry so that your prose is dry and limp, not the muscular and virile style you are so accustomed to. I've gone through torturous, agonizing experiences -- for the final paper of my undergraduate career, the night before it was due I simply ran into a wall after about two weeks of work and didn't care about what I felt to be generally shoddy quality. (Turns out that my prof liked it enough to nominate it for some kind of prize. Not to boast or anything.)

Leee (Leee), Wednesday, 4 December 2002 07:40 (twenty-two years ago)

I may be extremely apathetic and irresponsible when it comes to school, but that seldom carries over to real life. School is not real life. The education system is just a fallacy painted by impressions from the substitution of literature for life by academia. I have little interest in it, hence my disregard. I've always lived by the Mark Twa1n philosophy "I never let my schoolin' interfere with my education." Sounds purdy, doesn't it?

((Leee...sounds like the last 2 years for me..mediocre work in my opnion, but somehow I always end up on top....can only last so long though...))

B, Wednesday, 4 December 2002 07:45 (twenty-two years ago)

It's a relief to see I'm not the only one who thinks like this. I've got a 12-page paper about the history of the IRA due on the 16th, and I fully expect to be writing the bulk of it that morning.

Justyn Dillingham (Justyn Dillingham), Wednesday, 4 December 2002 08:23 (twenty-two years ago)

And what will you have learned from this?

B, Wednesday, 4 December 2002 08:29 (twenty-two years ago)

That is to say, what the hell good will a 12-page paper on the IRA serve you ever?

B, Wednesday, 4 December 2002 08:31 (twenty-two years ago)

but somehow I always end up on top....

You lads are so spoiled, and that may contribute to all this: past successes w/ good grades leads to overconfidence, which only perpetuates the cycle. Even if you get burned once, you just attribute it to the dickness of the grader, I know I do!

I know this has contributed to my awful condition. I wrote all my papers for the advanced writing class' portfolio inthe last few hours last year, and the portfolio introduction as well (granted it was humanities related - i actually wrote parts hip-hop videos!) -> something that was definitely average in quality for me. Not boasting at all as well, but I got a 95%, the highest in the class, but since I had turned in some of my papers in the portfolio late, (of course, i still did them last-minute-late, like doing them only in the wee hours before next week's class began, not spending the entire week to do them!) it was downgraded.

Which is what I deserved - a B+ instead of the A I would've gotten if I had even a modicum of disclipline. My terrific bald, gay, south african professor (he was fabulous in every way, but especially commentary) succinctly summed me up in an email he wrote: "Vik, you scored the highest in the class. It's just such a shame that you were so flakey the whole semester, or else you'd have gotten your A." I wanted to eat my keyboard!!!!!!

Oh, for the record: it's 12:49 AM here, I have 8 hours, and written a word yet. I'm still, uh, eating dinner : )

V, Wednesday, 4 December 2002 08:51 (twenty-two years ago)

My last year of middle school my English teacher asked me to stay after class. This was the short portly lady with a gigantic chest which always seemed to undo the buttons on her blouse by the end of the period. We were reading the Hobbit, no less, and since I'd read the entire trilogy first when I was 8 I was naturally bored. Anyway, so i stay after class and she shuts the door, turns around and slaps me in the face and says "You'd be my best student if you weren't so damn apathetic." Then she smiles and says "See you tomorrow." I couldn't complain, I deserved it.

For the record I reread the e-mail and my painting isn't due until Saturday, but it's almost done anyway. If I knew how to post pictureson here I could show it to you...

B, Wednesday, 4 December 2002 09:04 (twenty-two years ago)

Nothing whatsoever, which is why I'm only going to waste one day of my life writing it. (I'm almost proud of how beautifully fucked-up this rationale is.)

Justyn Dillingham (Justyn Dillingham), Wednesday, 4 December 2002 09:12 (twenty-two years ago)

Apathetic or not, she really had no right to hit you. If I'd gotten slapped by every teacher who accused me of being apathetic I'd probably have a broken nose by now.

Justyn Dillingham (Justyn Dillingham), Wednesday, 4 December 2002 09:21 (twenty-two years ago)

I agree..I always took a bit of sadistic pleasure in my classmates who spent the better part of their week and their senses researching and writing a boring, witless, ultimately useless piece of drivel, only to be torn to pieces by the professor's criticism, all the while I sit back and enjoy until a few hours before it's due, through some random semi-related thoughts on a piece of paper, hand it in and get a pat on the back. Is that so wrong?

B, Wednesday, 4 December 2002 09:23 (twenty-two years ago)

Yeh you're probably right...she didn't hit me hard, and I knew her outside of school (as a real person) so i didn't take it too personally.....heh...I drove her crazy in class for the rest of the year though...

B, Wednesday, 4 December 2002 09:25 (twenty-two years ago)

ah, i wish i'd had t'internet when i was procrastinating on essays.

i think the problem stems from lower senior school where i could zip through the work in virtually no time, thus never learning proper study skills, which was fine for scamming GCSEs and scraped me through a-levels, but then at college i was ok in my first year (well, everything was written the nite before, but at least it got written), but then things drifted and drifted (not helped by the fact that i was working on shows with my main lecturer who was therefore happy to give me stupid extensions), until i realised with about 2 months to go that i physically couldn't write essays any more (NB this may not be entirely true, but was certainly how it felt at the time), and i used to sit in a near catatonic state staring at a blank piece of paper for hours and hours. Fortunately i had done enough (combined with the large practical element of my course) to just about get a non-honours without having to do any more essays, which was like the biggest relief...

sorry i seem to have gone off on a tangent there :)

anyways kids, don't do it, be good students (who am i kidding ;))

CarsmileSteve (CarsmileSteve), Wednesday, 4 December 2002 10:05 (twenty-two years ago)

My degree dissertation was a wonderful piece of procrastination. I had several months to write 12,000 words; so of course I started off on the appendices, and didn't start the actual text until 9pm on the day before the deadline. I wrote through the night, finished it at 6am in the morning, and handed it in before going to bed.

caitlin (caitlin), Wednesday, 4 December 2002 11:14 (twenty-two years ago)

I am procrastinating about ten different things right now.

DV (dirtyvicar), Wednesday, 4 December 2002 12:42 (twenty-two years ago)

Hah that's nothing I handed it in after going to bed...

Pete (Pete), Wednesday, 4 December 2002 12:47 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm actually turningt his shit in late now since I oopses and took a "nap" that lasted 5 hours. No biggie, i'll just see the prof directly tommorrow and not the smarmy TAs and tell him how many major thingi've had due in past 2 days (5) and that my laptop iz gettin' fixed, he's a nice guy, and now I'm realizing after starting that this isn't a hard one at all, it's humming along.

AWWW Welllllllllll...

V or maybe Vee, Wednesday, 4 December 2002 15:04 (twenty-two years ago)

actually caitlin that's what most of my fellow students did, except without the appendices bit ;)

CarsmileSteve (CarsmileSteve), Wednesday, 4 December 2002 15:15 (twenty-two years ago)

God I did this all the time and always got away with it; that's why I gave up education even though I was an honors student. The whole experience just left me worn out and feeling slimy. I'm still a pretty bad procrastinator. The boyfriend is the opposite--always gets things done *ahead* of time. Maybe that's why he's been in higher ed for the last nine years (and one to go)! Still not convinced that he's not an alien.

teeny (teeny), Wednesday, 4 December 2002 15:48 (twenty-two years ago)

I never did this - I finished everything days in advance. It wasn't discipline, and it certainly didn't lead to spending longer on assignments and doing a slicker job. It was because a looming deadline would prey on my mind, so some free day a week or so ahead of deadline I'd throw myself into it, and knock it off in a few hours. I rarely got great marks on coursework - I got a 1st comfortably enough, but that was more down to being really good at exams.

Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Wednesday, 4 December 2002 18:30 (twenty-two years ago)

Had to write what basically was Worm 2 in assembly for a 386 or later in two days and make it fit in under 1k. Being an idiot I had plenty of time, but I had forgotten till near the end that debugging versions are massive in comparrison due to all the safety checks put in place. I could have probably stopped the morning it was due but continued to tighten it up till a few hours before it was due.

Mr Noodles (Mr Noodles), Wednesday, 4 December 2002 20:18 (twenty-two years ago)

It was because a looming deadline would prey on my mind, so some free day a week or so ahead of deadline I'd throw myself into it

How little he understands of the mind of a procrastinator. Try having looming deadlines preying on your mind and STILL not doing it.

I've just remembered that the main reason I chose to read Psychology was that I was so fed up of the misery of English essays and my procrastinating ways that I wanted to do something that was as light on essays compared with writing up practical work as was possible for someone who did arts A-levels. It kind of worked. We still had essays but not as many as if I'd done an arts degree. And writing up experiments wasn't *quite* as bad as starting with a blank page. Thing is, I got the best marks at uni in my philosophy subsid, which was of course totally essay-based. Staying up all night writing (yes *writing* - OW my hand hurt when it came to the 4am final draft write up) an essay on Cartesian dualism the night before deadline is a particularly painful memory. I remember turning the radio on every hour for ten minutes or so as a treat to myself. I couldn't work with it on.

N. (nickdastoor), Wednesday, 4 December 2002 21:22 (twenty-two years ago)

I sympathize w/all fellow procrastinators.. or slow writers, it seems that even if I do start well before the deadline I can't turn out a paper in less than a few days. Am trying desperately to find a way to circumvent this b/c have four term papers to write in three weeks - in French. Have found there can be no overnight rushing to meet the deadline, since that doesn't allow a day for the all-important final edit, just to make sure I'm saying what I think I'm saying ! argh.

daria g, Wednesday, 4 December 2002 23:26 (twenty-two years ago)

Like many ILXers (ILXors?) I managed to float through high school without doing anything and still make 20th in my class, and learned fairly rapidly how to not work in undergrad, turn everything in late and still make B+/A- grades. However, I am now too frightened to put everything off. I have exams starting in 8 days and am already a bit freaked, starting to outline, study, etc. I have to learn the Federal Rules of Evidence and didn't study enough during the semester. These days, I like my paper topics, so I write them early in order to justify putting off coursework I find less interesting.

webcrack (music=crack), Wednesday, 4 December 2002 23:44 (twenty-two years ago)

Also papers are more likely to be 30-40 pages now, and those aren't quite so easy to bang out overnight.

webcrack (music=crack), Wednesday, 4 December 2002 23:45 (twenty-two years ago)

I managed to float through high school without doing anything and still make 20th in my class

Ha ha that's rubbish, even with class overcrowding.

N. (nickdastoor), Thursday, 5 December 2002 14:27 (twenty-two years ago)

Ha ha that's rubbish, even with class overcrowding.
If your from a school that graduates 500+ a year its not too bad.

Mr Noodles (Mr Noodles), Thursday, 5 December 2002 16:17 (twenty-two years ago)

This thread is my life in miniature

Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Thursday, 5 December 2002 18:29 (twenty-two years ago)

This thread is all our lives. Except the strange freaks who actually do things on time, of course.

Ally C (Ally C), Thursday, 5 December 2002 19:15 (twenty-two years ago)

No, it is kind of rubbish, my high school starts about 500 each year but only graduates about 380 or so. It isn't exactly competitive.

webcrack (music=crack), Thursday, 5 December 2002 22:28 (twenty-two years ago)

If your from a school that graduates 500+ a year its not too bad.

Sorry - it was just a lame joke on differences in US/British English. For us 'class' means the 30 or so pupils in your classroom for a specific lesson or registration form. Not all the kids in the year.

N. (nickdastoor), Thursday, 5 December 2002 22:48 (twenty-two years ago)

Still haven't started, but oh I did manage to read all the new movie reviews on entertainment weekly in the library here. Yay.

Vic, Friday, 6 December 2002 02:14 (twenty-two years ago)

Haven't finished my painting yet either. It's due on Saturday and i have to work all day tomorrow....Class starts at 10 on Saturday, which means Ihave ot be up at 8, when I'll no doubt get home at 2 or 3....I suppose I could finish the painting now....heh....riiight.

B, Friday, 6 December 2002 02:34 (twenty-two years ago)

I now have to write a paper that's due tomorrow on why FDR was a no good commie and tried to pack the supreme court.

ejad, Friday, 6 December 2002 03:41 (twenty-two years ago)

Painting finished with 2 hours to spare.....need sleep though....

B, Saturday, 7 December 2002 10:43 (twenty-two years ago)

two months pass...
right. now.

english 8 page term essay that's worth half my grade. and i'm an american studying in england which puts me at the WORST disadvantage.

darn you laurence sterne!

pam, Friday, 28 February 2003 07:41 (twenty-two years ago)

Wow. I hope it's for Tristram Shandy and not Sentimental Journey...

Chris P (Chris P), Friday, 28 February 2003 08:35 (twenty-two years ago)

nine months pass...
revive

ryan (ryan), Tuesday, 16 December 2003 05:02 (twenty-one years ago)

Once I had to do a 10 pager for an Aesthetics 310 course or some such collegiate garbage. I had a steady lay at the time and was rather preoccupied as such. My initial topic, which I had written my midterm outline on, wasn't working at all. I was two pages in and stalled completely. I looked upwards, saw my record collection, and proceeded to bust out an entierly new paper with completely new arguments based on techno music and its realtionship to folk tradition vis a vis the new world of mass produced electronic equipment.

I finished the paper in 3 hours, counting the time it took to email the .pdf to myself, print it out on the library laser, and haul it over to the humanities building. Kaboom.

Quit bitching and get the job done. It's only school, motherfuckers. It's not like anybody is asking anything important from you.

TOMBOT, Tuesday, 16 December 2003 05:12 (twenty-one years ago)

Did you quote 2 Unlimited?

Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 16 December 2003 05:19 (twenty-one years ago)

Yeah, what would anyone be thinking getting upset over school. How retarded and stupid and worthless a person must be to get like that.

Allyzay, Tuesday, 16 December 2003 14:33 (twenty-one years ago)

I once lost a 20+ page paper the day it was due. I was working in a computer lab on campus (oh, so very long ago) and it didn't save correctly to my disk. I didn't have a backup either. So I rushed to the student tech help desk and they couldn't recover it. So then I had to use my note scribbles and write it all from memory. It was horrible.

Sarah McLusky (coco), Tuesday, 16 December 2003 15:42 (twenty-one years ago)

haha story of my life, I have about 6000 words to do for this one subject but the deadline was changed from Monday to the 5th of January. What a sweet victory for laziness.

Ronan (Ronan), Tuesday, 16 December 2003 15:53 (twenty-one years ago)

one year passes...
TOTALLY DONE WITH THIS FOREVER BITCH ASSES

Allyzay do not obtain to make download of yours MP3 (allyzay), Tuesday, 3 May 2005 03:18 (twenty years ago)

ugh seeing that post of mine upthread brings back bad memories!

ryan (ryan), Tuesday, 3 May 2005 03:21 (twenty years ago)

(i actually ended up just turning the paper in late!)

ryan (ryan), Tuesday, 3 May 2005 03:21 (twenty years ago)

hi dere

A homunculus of Darby Crash, .... created for the purposes of *EVIL* (ex machina, Tuesday, 3 May 2005 03:22 (twenty years ago)

The paper I got back today actually says on it "A very clear A+!!!" but with underlining as well, it was totally like being in 5th grade again.

Allyzay do not obtain to make download of yours MP3 (allyzay), Tuesday, 3 May 2005 03:23 (twenty years ago)

though, not to sound too smug, I will point out that I just LIVED THE NIGHTMARE THAT PEOPLE ALL SUPPOSEDLY HAVE in which you show up for a class and suddenly there is the FINAL EXAM that you thought was next week!

Allyzay do not obtain to make download of yours MP3 (allyzay), Tuesday, 3 May 2005 03:27 (twenty years ago)

did you have pants on?

shine headlights on me (electricsound), Tuesday, 3 May 2005 04:17 (twenty years ago)

Rah for Ally surviving!

Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 3 May 2005 04:18 (twenty years ago)

HI DERE JON @ CSUG

A homunculus of Darby Crash, .... created for the purposes of *EVIL* (ex machina, Tuesday, 3 May 2005 04:20 (twenty years ago)

Heh. This thread is just a hazy memory now... OH THOSE INNOCENT DAYS when "school papers" could dryly be called a serious concern...ahh.

fwiw, i did this in a few hours half-asleep the next day still locked in that library, and got an A- on it... the TA didnt take off for it being tardy since he liked it alot i suppose

Vikramadithya IX, Tuesday, 3 May 2005 04:46 (twenty years ago)

I AM DOING THIS RIGHT NOW

latebloomer: But when the monkey die, people gonna cry. (latebloomer), Tuesday, 3 May 2005 05:32 (twenty years ago)

WORD

A homunculus of Darby Crash, .... created for the purposes of *EVIL* (ex machina, Tuesday, 3 May 2005 05:34 (twenty years ago)

man, procrastination isn't just for schooldays anymore.
i can't get my freelance done or manage to get to bed before 3am to wake up for my full-time job. or get my electronical art working in time for a gallery opening. or do all my website and identity system updates. i'm such an ocd loser :.(
i think i'll sanitize my apartment again...

lolita corpus (lolitacorpus), Tuesday, 3 May 2005 07:23 (twenty years ago)

Deadlines are amazing things.

Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Tuesday, 3 May 2005 08:20 (twenty years ago)

Yes, Tracer, they certainly are.

(congratulations, Ally)

suzy (suzy), Tuesday, 3 May 2005 10:17 (twenty years ago)

I started university intending to start all my essays early and get them finished in plenty of time. I ended it by starting the text of my 12,000 word dissertation at 9pm on the night before the deadline, writing it all in one burst, and binding it and handing it in at 9am on the deadline day.

caitlin (caitlin), Tuesday, 3 May 2005 10:29 (twenty years ago)

Man, I don't miss being a student!

Having said that, the whole paper deadline/procrastination issue was an important one in my development as a professional. Some of you curse (or worse) the profs with strict ("to the minute or zero") deadlines, but I'm glad I had 'em, cuz now I have deadlines every day and they're nothing and I do the stuff right away and my life, though really more stressful today, is less stressful cuz of my better system of dealing with it.

peepee (peepee), Tuesday, 3 May 2005 11:23 (twenty years ago)

caitlin, that is the only way that I work! The essay that I just handed in, my last and final one, was only like meant to be like a 5-8 pg paper. I checked out the book for it in FEBRUARY. I have no excuse as to why I wrote it all the day it was due!

Allyzay do not obtain to make download of yours MP3 (allyzay), Tuesday, 3 May 2005 15:31 (twenty years ago)

1984.

Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 3 May 2005 15:46 (twenty years ago)

I did this on Sunday night, the paper was due on Monday. I finished the book I was writing on around 10:30, started around midnight, got some more motivation around 3:30 am, and only truly started writing in earnest about 5:45 am. 4 vanilla cokes later I had 8 pages and no sleep, handed it the paper at 11:10.
Actually, I probably would have handed it in late, except I did that with the last paper and the prof handed it back with a page long guilt trip about how I forced her to compromise her morals by handed in an A paper late, and how if I handed in the next one late she would do what she was supposed to do and fail m

-- Jordan (jordancohe...), December 4th, 2002.

God, I don't miss college AT ALL. I would really love to know what class this happened in, though.

Jordan (Jordan), Tuesday, 3 May 2005 15:48 (twenty years ago)

Holy shit, Ally, I would have peed my pants. I screwed up the time to one of my finals in high school and showed up an hour late. The nun yelled at me.

But blast the TURBONEGRO and CELEBRATE GOOD TIMES.

EuroBoyeee Ć’ury (Jeanne Fury), Tuesday, 3 May 2005 15:50 (twenty years ago)

I was that douche in college who started papers a week in advance and did about 2-3 pages a day. Minimal amount of work involved and stress free, bitches.

Actor Sizemore fails drug test with fake penis (jingleberries), Tuesday, 3 May 2005 15:55 (twenty years ago)

Haha Je4nne the main thing was that I never really study that much to begin with I guess, I mean I'll write up a little study guide and stuff but then never really look at it! PLUS IT WAS A FILM CLASS, the last question on the exam was actually "Name a director you really enjoyed and why?"

Allyzay do not obtain to make download of yours MP3 (allyzay), Tuesday, 3 May 2005 15:56 (twenty years ago)

This is why my GPA is not so great.

Allyzay do not obtain to make download of yours MP3 (allyzay), Tuesday, 3 May 2005 15:57 (twenty years ago)

haha i was that guy who wasn't in class the day the paper was assigned, wasn't there when everyone else turned it in, but *was* there when it was handed back. and yes this still turns up in dreams

mookieproof (mookieproof), Tuesday, 3 May 2005 15:58 (twenty years ago)

oh and congrats ally!

mookieproof (mookieproof), Tuesday, 3 May 2005 16:00 (twenty years ago)

If anyone failed to understand what I was saying on the college thread, does this one help?

gabbneb (gabbneb), Tuesday, 3 May 2005 16:04 (twenty years ago)

The full stops around N's "I couldn't work with it on" are totally poignant.

Gravel Puzzleworth (Gregory Henry), Tuesday, 3 May 2005 16:20 (twenty years ago)

"I have a 10-12 page TERM paper due in 14 and a half hours that I have not STARTED and I am going to have to have a library-lock-in since my laptop is getting fixed - when was the last time you procrastinated like this to find yourself leaping into HELL?"

answer: 25th april.

ambrose (ambrose), Tuesday, 3 May 2005 16:24 (twenty years ago)

i don't believe the problem with the college thread was failure to "understand" you, gabbneb.

i'm still giggling over the nuns yelling at Je4nne though. especially since she coupled it with a reference to turbonegro!

Allyzay do not obtain to make download of yours MP3 (allyzay), Tuesday, 3 May 2005 16:30 (twenty years ago)

On thursday night I have to build my own RSA crypto system and encrypt a message with it!

Granted this involves picking two small prime numbers and knowing how to do simple multiplication and division. BUT IT SOUNDS INTENSE!!!!

Also I have to encrypt a message using THE CAESAR CIPHER!!!!! OMG

Grad school is play-doh. I'll go away again now.

TOMBOT, Tuesday, 3 May 2005 16:53 (twenty years ago)

Congrats Ally!

Yeah - final exams as papers blow

I used to love final exams as papers. No pointless memorizing and a guranteed good grade.

In college I wrote everything the night before, but in grad school with 3 15 pg papers due at the end of each semester that wasn't going to happen.

Mary (Mary), Tuesday, 3 May 2005 18:08 (twenty years ago)

5-7 pg. paper due in 25 hours. i'm good.

joseph (joseph), Tuesday, 3 May 2005 19:10 (twenty years ago)

I've been a professional writer for more than 10 years, and I still do this--for every assignment. Pretty much everything I've ever written has been written in the two or three hours before it was due.

Waiting until something is almost due has always produced my best, freshest writing. If you have two weeks to work on something, there's a danger of overthinking it. You write sentences that don't need to be there, you put in words that don't need to be there, you waste time on a rewrite that only makes things worse.

(Or at least that's what I tell myself. The unwelcome truth is that I don't change my work style because I keep gettting away with it.)

The Mad Puffin, Tuesday, 3 May 2005 19:57 (twenty years ago)

eleven months pass...
Nobody has been here for a while but I need to vent, though it will not be heard. I have to write a paper on Kant's transcendental philosophy due in 10 hours, I'm so tired, I just finished my paper on Empiricism in Locke and Hume. And before I began that I failed my Social and Polictical philosophy final because I didn't study, AT ALL. God I have an extreme case of senioritus. In the midst of dreading the real world with a B.A. in philosophy and the overwhelming joy of never reading Kant or Descartes again, I am in utter fear and anxiety over my grades. Just last semester I was award the outstanding undergrad award for my department, and now I am sucking ass so bad that my profs are worried about my mental health. Not to mention the credit cards are maxed my checking account drained and I'm over 30 days late on all my bills with the exception of rent and car insurance. I feel like I'm losing it, I want to go back to my mom's and work part-time and sleep all day. I want to rot my brain and catch up on pop culture and dream of becoming a rock star. I want to sit on the couch eating chips and playing video games for 3 days straight without getting up except for pepsi and to relieve myself. But back to reality I just lost 10 precious minutes of sleep (pending the completion of my paper) talking to no one. Oh it is so soon, I need to realize it isnt' over yet and get my shit together.

Michelle, Tuesday, 2 May 2006 05:39 (nineteen years ago)

I'm writing a paper on the economic efficiency of legalizing teh weed and while researching, I found out my prof is on the same page!

http://www.prohibitioncosts.org/endorsers.html

Now I'm afraid I'll look like a sycophant, but not enough to, like, start over. Fuck that, just two more pages.

Fonzie Scheme (Matt Chesnut), Tuesday, 2 May 2006 05:55 (nineteen years ago)

Michelle, maybe you SHOULD worry about your mental health. It's a lot of pressure you're under there. Could you intermit?

On the other hand, it WILL be over soon.

Archel (Archel), Tuesday, 2 May 2006 09:19 (nineteen years ago)

I used to do this all the time in college, right down to writing the suckers the morning they were due whilst posting on the internet about the process. The philosophy papers I could get away with doing this because the profs were cool and they were fine with creative writing masquerading as academia. The English profs? Not so much.

Raymond Cummings (Raymond Cummings), Tuesday, 2 May 2006 14:54 (nineteen years ago)

What would Kant say?

Jimmy Mod is a super idol of The MARS SPIRIT (The Famous Jimmy Mod), Tuesday, 2 May 2006 15:00 (nineteen years ago)

Don't put Descartes before da horse?

dar1a g (daria g), Tuesday, 2 May 2006 15:10 (nineteen years ago)


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