Thursday, March 9, 2006 | by nathan

Procrastination Station, Here Comes Nathan…

I should be working on the novel. It has gone too long neglected, and, oops, the first hundred pages are due now-ish. And yet I just cannot bring myself to work on it. I can work on Your Mom Already Knows from now until doomsday, or rather, from now until I am given a deadline to finish it.

This is how I work, and I absolutely hate it. I put things off until it becomes crucial that they get done, and then, at the 11th hour, I whip out something that, if not good, is something I can live with, and other people generally like it. Notable exceptions to this rule include my 7th grade science fair project, on which I got a 46. Notable example: my 40-page honors thesis for the Religion Department at Wake Forest, which I wrote in 3 days. Another Notable example: my senior oration for Wake, which I wrote in 15 minutes, and which won "Best Senior Oration" from the University for the class of 2002.

I suck. Summer and I were talking the other day and got to wondering what would happen if we actually started applying ourselves, rather than coasting by, playing to our strengths, giving people what we know they want. She and I share in our tendencies to get by academically in this way, and while it drives both of us crazy, I am not sure that either one of us plan to be changing our ways anytime soon.

In related news, my graduate assistantship was renewed for a second year, which seems like some kind of computer error, considering how much I suck at teaching Video Productions. And yet I suppose I am glad, in a way, as this means I get to procraaastinate for one more year about getting a *real* job or graduating early. So there’s that.

The truth is I have started to like my classes, and my job, more and more as time has gone by. We just found out this week that we are finally, finally done with the History Channel project and that it is definitely going to air sometime in early spring, which means soon. Of course, our interview with Robert Warrior already went to air, but this will be much more exciting, as we put our full energies into the Fort Sill stuff. Verhoff and Giacchino, the HC producers, were stoked about the idea of us doing another production like this next year, and I must say, I really hope I get to be a part of it. 

Also, I am looking at leading a couple seminars for the upcoming Oklahoma Interscholastic Press Association meeting here at OU in April. For those of you non-Oklahoma people, OIPA is this thing that journalism nerds all go to in high school. We are derided and disliked for it, as we are for most things (we make band nerds look cool), but we have a great time. Since last summer I have discovered something in myself like a love for high schoolers, despite their surly, moody, hormonal, defiant little ways of looking at things.

So they sent out a request today for us to come up with seminars for this little nerd-fest, and I have been wanting to try my hand at teaching something that does not lead to a career in television. So I’m thinking of doing a brief overview of blogs, or personal columns, or creative writing in general.

We’ll see. Okay, I really have to write this novel. Or, watch the copy of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire that I picked up on DVD earlier. Whichever.