Lost on LOST

From day one I have been obsessed with ABC’s hit show, LOST. Maybe it was the appeal of a mysterious island, or the idea that everyone in this world is connected in some way…or maybe it was because of the hot doctor on the island, Jack, the handsome southern bad boy, Sawyer, or the hobbit turned rock star, Charlie. Regardless, I’ve never missed an episode.

People have complained about how confused they were when they to jump into the series mid-way into a season. But this is a television show that you have to either watch religiously from episode one or you rent the previous seasons to catch up.

Stories and character’s backgrounds are told through flashbacks, which were a little hard to follow at first, but very soon I got the hang of it. I even stuck around for the four to six week breaks where they showed reruns while the writer strike was getting resolved. The flash forwards into the future almost had me channel surfing, but I stayed true.

Lately things are starting to get a little out of hand. The random acts of time travel that are inflicted upon by the mysterious island have me reaching for the Excedrin. Not to mention, people coming back from the dead and others visiting their estranged parents before and after they, themselves, were born.

ABC has insisted that they will be answering more and more questions that have been lingering throughout the show. The only problem is that ABC has created twice as many questions with the answers given.

This show has me mystified, but it also has me intrigued…so for now, I will remain an avid viewer. In the meantime, if you're lost like me, check out this video for the crazed, yet, confused fans.

Going Old School

I have a very strong bond with my family. But sometimes they forget what it’s like to be a young adult and they get upset when they don’t hear from me every day; this is especially true with my grandparents.

It’s not as if they don’t have my phone number, but I hear about how unsociable I have been every time I go back home. But recently, through my procrastination attempts, I found a quick and easy solution. E-mail!

Recently, I started a ritual. A few times a week, I will take five or ten minutes (away from work) to write an e-mail updating them how I am and asking how they have been. Not only does it make me feel better knowing that I am checking up on them, but apparently, it makes my grandparents day to hear from me.

So it just goes to show you that a little procrastination can go a long way.

Stand by Me

Every now and then, there’s something that that could put a smile on your face whenever you think about it. Earlier today, my friend passed a video onto me of people covering the song, “Stand by Me.”

At first, it just looked like a possible homeless guy singing a strange rendition of the song on a California street with an empty guitar case for tips. When a blind man from New Orleans named Grandpa Elliot was edited in with his version, things started to get more interesting.

By the time the video was over, “Stand by Me” was performed by people in Italy, Spain, Amsterdam, an Indian tribe in New Mexico, and an African musical group in South Africa, just to name a few.

In five minutes time, thee message of support through struggle was being sung and performed across the world. The video speaks volumes, and it is important to listen to the meaning behind the lyrics.

Dirty Little Secrets

Every weekend, there is a website I visit where people choose to share their most intimate secrets: postsecret.com.

Everyone has a secret. Some are funny, some are embarrassing, and some are downright overwhelming. This website takes the therapist out of therapy and allows people release their secrets without fear of judgments.

In many cases people find support from other secret-keepers. In fact, the website’s community was invited to the first postsecret.com picnic and it’s amazing watching these people connect through a common ground: they all had a secret that they didn’t want anyone to know.

Sometimes the only way to let go of a hardship in life is to let it out. The beauty of postsecret.com is that it doesn’t turn anyone or anything away. It is a completely unbiased way of divulging innermost secrets.

People have even found comfort from bloggers reading the posts that send comments of compassion and understanding.

Every postcard I read, I think how lucky I am in my life and how much I shouldn’t take for granted. In a way, it teaches me to become less judgmental of others because you never know what is underneath the surface.

Nit-Twittering

I am all up for giving in to distractions, but there is a website that has gone far enough: twitter.com. Another social networking site that simply asks its members: what are you doing?

In 140 characters members can tell everyone on the Internet what they are doing at that very moment. Companies and even television shows have joined, along with businesspeople and average Joe’s.

My question is: who cares? What can possibly be conveyed in 140 characters that would be of any significance to me?

I understand that Twitter is a way for companies to do marketing, and it is another way for job-searchers to find prospective employment. But I suppose I choose the more personal route when it comes to communicating on a professional level. I believe that I will get farther through in-person interviews, phone calls and e-mailing.

If I want to communicate with my friends, I prefer the old fashioned way of e-mailing, instant messaging or, if I’m feeling really bold, calling them on the phone! If I want to send messages to people where the medium gives me limited numbers of characters, I will go old school and send a text.

There may be a circumstance when I want the masses to know. That’s when I Facebook.

One of the few advantages that I have found on Twitter is that I am able to market my work that is already on the Internet. Blog posts are easily advertised along with websites for people to check out.

Bottom line, Twitter seems to be a site that is geared towards people with iPhones who know the applications and are “tweeting” constantly all day. But for me, I just feel like a nit-Twitterer.

Get Up and Shape Up

Even though this blog is about procrastinating and being distracted in general, I have found a way to procrastinate while being productive at the same time. I am a firm believer that it is better to do something than to do nothing. If you have the free time (or want to procrastinate), exercise!

Not only will it give you something else to do besides work, but it’s good for your body and your mind.

Working out is statistically proven to release endorphins, thereby increasing happiness and improving mental health.

Of course, there are the obvious benefits to working out which includes getting in shape, losing weight and creating a healthier lifestyle. There are also long-term benefits that affect the body. Studies have shown that regular exercise can reduce the risk of heart disease, one of the leading causes of death in the United States.

One way to exercise and feel obligated to work out several days a week is to get a gym membership. Knowing that your money is going to something, you should probably take full advantage of the resources at your disposal.

But exercising doesn’t have to be expensive at all. In fact, it can even be free. Anyone on any budget can find a way to exercise, whether it is to take a walk outside, or buy an inexpensive work out DVD.

So, as Vince Vaughn says in Wedding Crashers, “No excuses play like a champion!”

The Real Catfights Obsession

Drama, drama, drama. That’s what reality television is based on, and it’s what viewers find most appealing. Let’s face it, if reality shows didn’t have full-on brawls, catfights, and backstabbing, they would not be as entertaining.

The Real Housewives of New York City has been my reality television show obsession since last year’s first season. Sure the Orange County Housewives were entertaining with their constant drinking, their spoiling of the brattiest children on television, not to mention their botox, lip injections resembling duck bills and plastic surgery in general.

Not to say that the Real Housewives of New York don’t partake in those activities, but there is one thing that the New Yorkers to that makes them stand apart from the ladies of Orange County: they skip the bitching behind the back, and go straight to the source of the problem- usually, the other Housewives and usually in public.

The group of type A, high-maintenance personalities features a typical Jewish, Long Island princess, a prim and proper Countess, a no-holds-bar business woman who wants to be like her pre-teen daughter, a mother with devilishly wild children and a pretentious husband, and, my personal favorite, a chef turned author who built herself from the ground up and has one-liners that could go on forever.

I am the type of person who likes to keep a minimal amount of negative drama in my life. But to get my fix, I tune in every week on Tuesdays at 10 to BRAVO to see the madness unfold.

The best part is that new viewers can catch up easily with hours of reruns before the week’s new episode. Or, if you are an avid watcher like me, you can just tune in to the reruns for hours of entertainment.

Little Miss Distracted

Sometimes people just have one of those days where everything seems to go wrong. I had one of these days recently after my car got a $75 parking ticket just before I was about to leave to go to a funeral. Not to mention, all my pictures for my photojournalism assignment had gotten deleted.

After a day like that, I was begging for anything to distract me. After looking through 30 plus pages on fmylife.com, I decided to turn to my DVD collection.

Movies let people escape from their lives for about two hours and spy on the fictional, and sometimes factual, lives of others. One of my favorite movies is the 2006 Oscar winning Little Miss Sunshine.
Talk about having problems, this movie takes a look at the very dysfunctional Hoover family as they trek on a long road trip together. It has everything from side-splitting laughter to tear-jerking moments and all that’s in between.

The bottom line is that after this cinematic experience, almost no one can walk away without thinking: well if the Hoovers can get through that, then I can get through this.

Join the Mafia

I’ve never been much for video games. Even when I was little and my older brother would ask me to play Sonic: The Hedgehog or Donkey Kong or, my least favorite of all, Mortal Combat, I would get my rear end lovingly handed to me every game. My only defense would be to smash all of the buttons on the control resulting in a miraculous victory. My brother stopped asking me to play after that.

So when my cousin asked me to play a video game online via Facebook, I rejected the application. After several Facebook chat conversations with him, he told me to try out Mafia Wars, mainly because he needed more people for his mafia, but also because he thought I would like it.

I figured I would try and be the procrastinating version of Oprah and do a little multitasking during my Facebooking, Instant Messaging, and E-mailing. That was how my addiction started and I have been hooked ever since.

The basics are that the user is a mob boss with a mafia that does his or her bidding and helps out with jobs, robbing other mafia’s properties, and fighting other mafias in order to make money and loot. Sounds pretty ordinary and, admittedly, boring at first. But as soon as you get snuffed out by a rival mafia, revenge is the sweetest form of victory.

So, I urge all of you, especially all the skeptics out there to give Mafia Wars a try. But as a warning, watch out for Donna Santini and her mafia; she takes no prisoners.

F*** My Life

At my internship one evening, I found myself to be very distracted. I had just spent a weekend home for the funeral of my grandmother. Needless to say, I was very distracted by the sadness of the past few days. Having finished my work for my boss and just waiting for the time to run down until I could go home, I remembered a website that my roommate told me i had to see.

One of the latest Internet crazes has been http://www.fmylife.com/. It's full of people's everyday life situations. Some are more comical, and others are just down-right shocking!

If you haven't visited the site, do it! It's for those times when you've had a really rough day and think to yourself: "how could this day possibly get any worse?" My dad always says that things in life could be a lot worse than what they are, and after reading a few posts on fmylife.com, I realized he couldn't be more right.

After a few minutes on the website, I was desperately trying to stifle my laughter in front of Baltimore's NBC sports anchor, producer, and other interns. With everything from fake proposals to playing Jesus Christ in a play while having an erection, fmylife.com has every embarrassing moment you could ever imagine. And if it doesn’t, then feel free to share with the world some personal humiliation and make a post yourself.

Waiting til the Last Minute = 60 seconds of Work

Shiny ball syndrome is something that everyone goes through once in a while. For me…it happens a little more often than that.

A friend once told me that if you wait until the last minute to do your work, then you only have 60 seconds of work to do. I might not wait until the very last minute, but I am certainly guilty of waiting until the stress is too big to ignore.

Everything gets done in the end, but in the meantime I have become an expert at the act of procrastinating! And in this day and age of having technology literally at the tips of our fingers, the distractions from work are so accessible and abundant.

I have chosen to embrace my expertise in this blog and share some of the most entertaining ways to avoid work.

The following is a video of me and my roommates procrastinating on a night when we all had a lot of work that needed to be done, but did not get done until the next morning because we were too busy filming. Enjoy!