Hardcore

I am hardcore procrastinating right now.
I told you how my computer died a grisly death two days ago. That means, I have no place to type in my room. I'm in the library, working on a paper for a Government class, which is due tomorrow. I actually had a bunch of the paper done before my computer blew up, but that was days ago...and I forget most of what I wrote. At least I still have my list of quotes.

But, it's currently 1:41. My paper isn't due for another 8 hours. I've got lots of time. (By the way, the computer lab I'm sitting in has 9 computers, and three of them have people working on this same paper) Plus, it doesn't even have to be that good. We're just going to be peer editing it...and that's something I haven't done since high school. I really have no idea why he wants us to do it here. It is a class for freshmen, but peer-editing still seems kind of rediculus.

My problem is, it's much easier to blog about something than it is to write a paper about something. The writing quality isn't that much different. I mean, sure, I write papers in Word, not blogger's post editor, so it's spell checks and grammar checks for me automatically, but I use mostly the same tone. I guess I use a slightly more formal tone for my papers than I do here.

But it's essentially the same work...and if I could write it all out blog style, it would be easy to edit into paper-style...except it doesn't work that way. I think the reason that I find it easy to blog is that I'm excited about the prospect of someone else reading what I wrote and getting interested in what I said, and then maybe even commenting about it, thus spawning a discussion which enlightens us all. But I have serious doubts that my much-smarter-than-me professor is actually going to be interested in what I said. I mean, he's probably thought of everything I have, and done it twice before breakfast. Him reading my paper is a chore...and thus, me writing the paper is a chore.

So right now I'm staring at a computer screen full of a list of quotes from Aristotle and Robert A. Heinlein. Oh yeah, I didn't tell you what the paper was about yet. I need to discuss Aristotle's views on citizenship...who should be a citizen and what should they do with that status. He actually thinks that people who aren't rich enough to persue a life of virtue (by which he means essentially sitting down and thinking and reasoning) shouldn't be allowed to be part of the political system. I think that's a crock of BS. But I didn't really need to say that here...you all know that already.

But I could just go ahead and write that up (what he says and why he's wrong) and be fine with it. Except that it's easy, and forty other students in the class will do the same thing, so I get a C for average (my gov professors hold no truck with grade inflation, and I think that's a good thing). Then the nine others will write papers that are at least different from the rest...some of them will agree with Aristotle and provide a reason that backs them up...and some will do way too much work and read some extra books and find some really excellent reasons why Aristotle is right or wrong, and those nine people will get B's for at least trying to be original.

Well, this time I decided to be that idiot who read a lot of extra books and did too much work. I remembered reading about Robert A. Heinlein from the corner, and I knew he was a good conservative Sci-Fi writter. Maybe a little bit too conservative...but he's pretty smart. And I remembered watching Starship Troopers, which is one of his stories (but the movie doesn't even try to follow the story line) and hearing "military service doesn't garuantee you citizenship, but you can't be a citizen without serving." So I surmised that Heinlein would sort of agree with Aristotle, and set about finding exactly how, and why. It turns out that I got the quote wrong, but the idea right. And I found some good stuff. And my prof is a conservative who knew Heinlein's name...which didn't necessarily have to happen, but something that's a good thing for my paper.

So I'm gonna write an essay about how both Aristotle and Heinlein were right, as far as they go...they make good arguents and I can just show them. Plus it'll be a cool paper cause I get to quote a sci-fi writter in a gov. class, and nobody else in the class will even come close to this ammount of originality. Yeah, I'm sort of a geek...especially when it comes to Gov. and Sci-Fi.

But it's now 1:55 and I'm still not writing the paper. I think if I thought that any of you would enjoy reading it, it would be easier to write. But I can't seem to convince myself that anybody would want to read 1750 words about Aristotle's views on citizenship. I'll probably post it anyway, cause since my computer's busted, I don't really have time to come up with good new posts, so I gotta take what I can get.

So now it's back to the grindstone, and I'm done procrastinating. I've got all my quotes, now all I need is a title and a topic sentance that will string everything together. Then the rest will be easy, just time-consuming...cause I will eventually have to write up a bibliography, which will suck, sort of.

Whatever. I'm sure you're bored reading this by now...so I'm gonna stop writing.