I changed my calendars again today. Only five days after the start of the month. That might be the earliest I have changed my calendars since they arrived (though I don’t remember when they did and postage is notoriously slow, so they might have been installed late).
Since the advent of electronic calendars, I have had very little use for printed calendars. I do not buy them for myself, but I usually get one every year from our property manager and sometimes from a relative so we have 12 New Zealand photographs to look at. Of course, living in the opposite hemisphere, the images are counter to the season, but with global friends I am used to seeing Facebook updates of their summer beach images in my winter or their skiing photos during my summer.
Do you still have printed calendars and change them on time?
If I created a series of 12 images would you buy them in a calendar format? Would you look at them? Would you change them on time?
The foundations of the earth are falling apart. Photographs of sculpture.
Just over a year ago, I created Non-flat earth (unpainted), a sculpture of a model of the earth that combined facts and legends of how the earth is supported.
The world is falling apart, photograph of a sculpture previously known as Non-flat earth (unpainted).
The foundations are crumbling and decaying which is kind of appropriate with the laws of thermodynamics and the current global pandemic.
However, there is hope.
‘They will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the places long devastated; they will renew the ruined cities that have been devastated for generations. ‘
I could repair the sculpture. Or leave it to decay further. Or build a new one.
As the (unpainted) title of the original sculpture suggests the work is not finished. It was a prototype for further work and could have been painted to fit more with the ancient legends. My procrastination has given this sculpture an opportunity to express itself its own way.
Post about the creation of the original sculpture:
Tomorrow is only a day away. Tomorrow might be a bit too close and this song may be too optimistic for some procrastinators but it may have potential as a procrastination anthem.
A while ago I created a social media procrastination die (single dice) for times when you need to decide which social media platform to procrastinate on.
I have updated it for 2018 with the current top 6 social media platforms according to DreamGrow.
The 2018 die features logos for:
Facebook (~2.10B monthly users)
YouTube (~1.50B monthly users)
Instagram (~800M monthly users)
Twitter (~330M monthly users)
Reddit (~250M monthly users)
Pinterest (~200M monthly users)
Tumblr and Google+ on my original procrastination die have been replaced by Instagram and Reddit. I am on Instagram but I am procrastinating on joining Reddit.
Using an online tool to randomly go to a social media website could save you time, but remember, procrastination is not about saving time. Make your procrastination more effective with this manual tool. First, step away from the computer, then roll the die several times, then type in the address of the social media website (not provided so you get an extra procrastination step to find them). In every part of the process, there is abundant opportunity for you to get distracted and procrastinate further.
Her days are a distant memory, a long forgotten hope
Gone is the sun with its passionate heat
Gone the joyful scent of flowers and their vibrant colours too
Where are the cool evening walks and the lovers in the park?
I am alone in the cold and the dark
All around is grey and dreary and gloomy as I await the dawn
How I long to embrace your light and be wrapped in the warmth of your touch
Return to me again
Shine your smile on me and dry away my tears
I’m looking forward to the end of this winter and fulfilment of this scripture:
“My beloved spoke and said to me, “Arise, my darling, my beautiful one, come with me. See! The winter is past; the rains are over and gone.” – Song of Songs 2:10-11 NIV
I am not so good at making resolutions. Part of the problem is that I don’t know when should I make them? I have lots of opportunities:
1 Jan – the beginning of the calendar year and my wedding anniversary
28 Feb – my birthday
1 Apr – the beginning of my tax year
25 Apr – my spiritual birthday
1 Sep ish – the start of the academic year when my wife and children go back to school
11 Sep – the anniversary of my moving to Turkey
Then there are seasons which have arbitrary beginnings and ends (See Too many winters). I could make plans and resolutions for those times.
Or maybe I could make plans at the start of each new month and try to keep a habit for 30 days.
I usually find myself procrastinating the making of resolutions until the next significant date on my calendar.
This Christmas, 77% of my close extended family is getting together to celebrate and my mother has asked that her children and grandchildren create decorations. With the short notice and the long distance between us, I have created this DIY papercraft Santa decoration that you might like to make yourself.
Santacraft yourself, Digital design (A4).
Download the Santacraft yourself PDF, print it out and create your own last-minute Santa decoration.
I am in the midst of my 53rd Winter. So far I have experienced 50 Autumns and 48 Springs, but only 47 Summers. How old am I? Why am I procrastinating Summer?
The seasons I have met (pie chart), digital image
One of the benefits of international travel is that I can spend time in different hemispheres, experiencing the different food, culture, and people of the world. I grew up in the Southern Hemisphere where Christmas is in Summer and the school year matches the calendar year. But, 14 and a bit years ago I moved to the Northern Hemisphere for work and a different lifestyle. I now get a real Winter Christmas and the academic year spans two calendar years with a long break in the Northern Hemisphere Summer/Southern Hemisphere Winter.
One of the drawbacks of living on the other side of the equator from family and friends is the opposite seasons. With my immediate family in school, our local long Summer break is the only practical time for us to visit our antipodean whanau, who are then in the midst of their Winter.
The seasons I have met (stacked), digital image
Unseasonal days experienced during the season have not been counted, only prolonged exposure to the season experienced by the rest of the hemisphere at that time.
For the purposes of my calculations, a season is counted if I was in a hemisphere experiencing any part of that season at the time. If I visit an opposite season and return before the end of the original season, the original season is only counted once – for example, I left the Northern Hemisphere Summer in June 2016, had four weeks of Southern Hemisphere Winter and returned to experience the remainder of the Northern Hemisphere Summer; earlier/later in the year I had another whole Northern Hemisphere Winter. I have only counted a season if I experienced it for at least one week – I do not remember any of the 21.5 hours of the summer of my birth.
I am using the Meteorological definition of seasons: Southern Autumn / Northern Spring: 1 March to 31 May Southern Winter / Northern Summer: 1 June to 31 August Southern Spring / Northern Autumn: 1 September to 30 November Southern Summer / Northern Winter: 1 December to 28 (29 in leap years) February [ Source https://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/aboutseasons.html ]
Sometimes it is good to have a rest from creating art. But then getting back into creating art again can be a struggle and a battle. Rest wants a bit more time. Art wants to return. Procrastination sets in. In this quirky typography animation, rest and art battle for attention.
What would happen if certain countries did not exist?
One of the items in Theo’s procrastination list (since 2014) is an geographical education computer game called Country Thief.
As someone who comes from a country (New Zealand) that is often left off global maps, I decided to create a game where countries are disappearing from the map for various reasons (evil dictators, nuclear war, economic collapse, alien invasion, meteors of unusual size and shape, global warming). Players race against decreasing time limits to find the missing country and identify it. Can you beat the clock and save your country from disappearing?
Given recent current events and environmental concerns, I am releasing this concept design image for people to share on social media and make their own comments.
