Black Holes and Procrastination
Originally published at Irene Smith. You can comment here or there.
Did you know that the Internet can be a great time waster?
I know, who would have thought it.
There are times when I think that I would get a lot more work done if I turned off the wi-fi. I know that I get a lot more writing done on the train (when there’s no Internet connection) than I do when I am at home.
When I am working at home, I don’t allow myself to spend time surfing the ‘net unless I have research to do. For example, if I’m trying to do something with an application and I’m stuck, I’ll look to see if someone else has solved the problem and written about it. Otherwise, I do my work and pretend that the Internet is “off” for the day.
When I am trying to write, it’s a different story. Stuck with a story and don’t know what people should do next? Check on Facebook, MySpace, Live Journal, or Twitter and see what people are talking about. I can spend tons of time updating my status, writing a blog, uploading pictures and not even realize the time has gone by. Check me out…
Irene Smith on Facebook
Irene on MySpace
13-Stories at Live Journal
Story_Teller at Twitter
Once that’s done, there are online games to play. I have two destinations that are particular favorites. Do you like jigsaw puzzles? I do. JigZone has tons of great jigsaw puzzles and you can decide how difficult it should be from six pieces to 247 pieces and if that doesn’t sound like a lot, believe me, 247 pieces on a computer screen makes the pieces small enough to be a big challenge.
When it comes to other kinds of games, my favorite place to waste time (and believe me, it can waste a lot of time) is Club Bing. It used to be called the Live Search Club but Microsoft changed it recently. This place is not a total waste of time, by the way. At Club Bing you can earn tickets and with tickets you can earn cool prizes. This is one of the few places that doesn’t make the prizes impossible to win either. So far I’ve earned enough tickets to get an XBox 360 game, an XBox 360 controller, and a copy of the Zoo Tycoon 2 Zoo Keeper’s Collection. They even pay the postage.
If nothing else fails, I can pretend that I’m doing “research” for a story. I go to Behind the Name to research the meaning of names and to look for names for my characters. Or, for a whole host of fun name generators, I go to Seventh Sanctum where I can make up names for everything from exotic fantasy races to kingdoms.
All together these web sites (and more like them) combine to make what little free writing time I have disappear as quickly as light into a black hole. I have become a master procrastinator and while I hate myself for it, sometimes I just can’t resist.
So now that I’ve confessed some of my favorite time wasters, it’s your turn. Where do you go to pass the time? Leave a comment and tell me about it.
