Procrastination and Subtitles

As I’m currently experiencing my period, of a holiday form, (yes it’s that time of the year again for me), a time which I can use to further my writing, practise my craft, read books and gain the knowledge in them from a combination of osmosis and vision, I decided, at least for the day that has just passed, to watch television.

Procrastination - from the latin 'pro', meaning for, and 'crastination', meaning large piles of paper

Procrastination – why do today what you can do tomorrow?  Some procrastination comes from fear, some from other sources, such as not wanting to do a boring or labourious job.  Personally, I think I have a combination of the latter, and another source.  I quite strongly believe, mainly because I came up with the idea (although I’m sure it’s been thought of before, as have all my thoughts usually) the following: procrastination is the fear of having nothing left to do.  Which may be a silly idea in some ways, but maybe it isn’t.  Perhaps why I have trouble finishing what I start (especially when it comes to writing), is that if I did happen to finish a draft, then what would my next idea be?  How would I begin to get the idea for another story, another play?

This is stupid, though.  If you asked me right now what my next play would be (even though I haven’t finished the one I’m currently working on), I could tell you four ideas that have been percolating in my head (mighty uncomfortable, but great when you need a pick-me-up in the morning and don’t have a percolator handy) for the past few months.  Of course I probably wouldn’t tell you, but that’s a different matter entirely.  But yes, I think a lot of my procrastination comes from an ultimate worry that I have nothing left to do.  Which is a fear in a way, which fits in with the first source that I mentioned, which I only just realised now.  That throws an evaporating spanner in the water works, doesn’t it?

But procrastinate I did today, and I ended up watching quite a bit of TV, including some Japanese dramas, which, due to the fact I have neither taken the proper amount of time to learn Japanese, nor has my brain had a stroke and enabled me to miraculously speak it, I had to watch with subtitles.  I think I have a fairly good idea why subtitled films (i.e., foreign films) aren’t as popular.  Apart from the stories they tell being different, and cultural differences and all that, they also require the audience to concentrate on the subtitles, which, to be honest, unless you’re blind, isn’t that hard.  But the one thing I notice when I’m watching my Japanese dramas is that you have to have your eyes on the screen the whole time.  This is why people don’t watch foreign films as much – because they have to give it their full attention, which I’m sure that quite a lot of people don’t want to do unless they’re in a cinema.  And even then there’s popcorn to eat, mobile phone texts to answer (not that I do that, but I’ve seen many people do it), et cetera.

Yearly lawn-mowing competition at Wimbledon

I’m watching Wimbledon as I type this – well, a match on at Wimbledon, between Serena Williams and an Australian named Jarmila Groth.  Groth, eh?  Sounds like a large German with a lisp to me.  And you have no idea how happy that joke makes me.  It’s the type of joke that you know no one else will probably laugh at, or at best will elicit an outpouring of groans from the table, but I’m enjoying myself, and that’s all that matters!

And to think, in less than two weeks time, Wimbledon will be Wimbledone.

Yes, I do apologise for that one.

Haiku #4

to write a review
takes a lot of time, moreso
when your brain is dead

what are these haikus?
they are useful fillers, yes,
between real posts

The Duel I saw,
walking there both wet and cold,
ah, ah, ah, ah-choo!

but why do I have
creative power to write
haikus – not reviews?

damn you feisty Muse,
your Japanese fetish is
very annoying

Haiku #1

Recently the opportunity arose to write a haiku about detergent.  A haiku, for those of you who are blissfully unaware, is a short poem (originating from Japan), with a structure of 5-7-5 syllables, such as this:

detergent I wash
my soul on the rinse cycle
but it is not clean

Howaito Detergent - for those who like Japanese culture but can't stand anime

This haiku was brought to you by Howaito, the only detergent guaranteed to clean your soul.  If you’ve committed a cardinal sin or just pirated an album off the internet, Howaito is the detergent for you.  Want your whites to be as white as the soul of an innocent child?  Want to make your blacks as black as your heart?  Want your reds as red as a brain anneurysm?  Then Howaito is the detergent for you!  Howaito: the smart choice for the discerning Japanese consumer.

(For those of you interested, Howaito is the Japanese representation of the English word “white”.  Or at least it is one word that stands for white – if you say it fast enough you’ll hear why.)

I think it would be best to end in a fashion such as this:

this is a small post
because I am too lazy
to write a long one