Procrastination - It's a disease!

Procrastination must be a disorder, like ADD. Everyone always says that procrastination is only a lifestyle and that you can change if you really want to, but I can honestly say that I have tried and failed miserably on multiple accounts. A month before my project is due, I will look at and I’ll grab my pen and scribbler and just as I’m about to start writing down ideas, and then my roommate comes into my room and says, “I have a coupon for free wings! Do you want to come?” First there is a little voice in my head that says I just started doing homework, but then a larger, louder voice says Hell ya! Because face it who turns down free wings. Plus I still have a month to do it. 

Flash forward – two weeks to go. Well by this time I’ve had two weeks to look at the project and I even wrote down some ideas! Now that is impressive. I settle down, turn on my study playlist, put my feet up, binder open and I just start reading and answering part of my project (that’s worth30% of my grade), when all of a sudden, BANG, my door opens and my best friend comes in. We start talking about our favorite movie, Star Wars. We then have a brilliant idea! Call up some of our buddies and let’s have us a movie marathon, because admit it, Star Wars is amazing and you can never get enough of Chewie. Everyone comes over, we pop some popcorn and watch the opening credits. All the while The Project sits on my floor, forgotten, forgotten by the time R2-D2 and C3P0 are on the screen.

Flash forward – T-minus five days until The Project is due. I start worrying about the time left to actually finish it, but thinking back, I’ve done a lot more in shorter time frames. I go to my room, lock the door so no more people can come in and distract me. First I sit there getting my mind ready for the big homework session. An hour later I’m felling pretty good since I’ve had a good start on it and may even be able to get 1/3 of it done tonight. I glance down at my phone and notice that I’ve had a message. Well I can’t ignore it, what if it’s important? I pick up my cell and begin to read. Then the excitement starts to build, because there is a party tonight! Parties with a live DJ don’t happen often so I quickly respond and say ‘Yes I’ll be there!’ I get up and start getting ready. After getting dressed and making sure that every hair is perfect, I glance down and catch the binder in the corner of my eye. I turn towards and justify myself for going out and ignoring The Project. It’s because you got so much done tonight and you deserve to go out and have fun! And I promise to do it tomorrow. Let the party start!

Two days to go and the panic starts to set in. How could I have let it get this bad! There have been 30 days to do The Project and now there’s only 48 hours left! How is it going to be possible to try and get over half of it done in two days? I sit down at the desk and work as hard as I can, scribbling down half sentences that don’t make any sense. Information from Wikipedia is my main source of information, even though you know that half of what Wikipedia says is wrong, but it takes too long to look for legit websites, and I need to get it done! Luckily I’ve been able to do two hours solid work without any distractions. I begin to relax because it could be possible to actually finish on time. There’s a knock on the door. Now who could it be? It would be rude not to answer so I go and open it and find my friend. She comes in and sits on the bed. You state that you have The Project to finish and so she responds, “I won’t stay long.” We both begin to talk and catch up on times past. The conservation flows on and begins to morph into gossip and rumors and who can resist good gossip? I glance at the clock and it reads 10:30pm. I know that I should be getting back to work but even if she leaves at 11:00 I will have enough time to get some more done. It’s 12:30am by the time she leaves, so much for a short visit. I’m tired so I just look over at The Project and say good night. 

The final day to complete The Project. 10 hours to go before I have to hand It in at 8am the next day. It’s already 10pm at night. I know I’ll be going for an all-nighter so I stock up on some coffee and energy drinks, anything to keep me awake tonight. I tell everyone, roommates, friends, even family that I cannot be disturbed tonight! I lock the door, turn off my phone and make sure that Facebook isn’t logged on. I think I’m just over half way done so it shouldn’t take too long to finish. 2am rolls around and I’m still typing away like a madman. I make sure to save every half hour because I’ve learnt that lesson the hard way! 4am and I’m almost done with 4 hours to spare! I think that I’ve done good. By 4:30 am I hit the save button one last time. I breathe a sigh of relief. I go to my printer and hit print. Beep, beep, beep- oh crap! It’s out of ink! And there’s no possible to fix that since every store is closed at this time of the morning. I think quickly and come up with a good solution. Save it on a memory stick and print it before class! It’s the only way. I turn off the light and curl up in bed and shut my eyes.

Way too soon, the alarm clock is buzzing and I hit the snooze without thinking. It goes off again and I get up slowly and look at the time. Oh crap! I should never have hit that snooze button. Now I’m going to be late. I through on whatever clothes that are on the floor and grab my backpack and the memory stick. I rush out the door at 7:45. Only 15 minutes, I can do this. I run to the library and wait another 5 minutes while the computer warms up and ‘loads your settings’. Finally its up and running! I hit print twice (because you never know what will happen) and log off. I glance down at my watch. 7:57. Three minutes to get to class. I run like my life depends on it, which it kind of does. I enter the class room out of breath and add my Project to the top of the pile and congratulate myself for getting there with a minute to spare! I sit down and say to myself, I will NEVER procrastinate again!

Flash forward- 3am with only a few hours left before to complete the next big Project….

National Past Time

"Baseball is America's pastime." This statement is widely accepted, meaning that the citizens of the United States of America are some of the biggest fans of the sport, watching and playing the sport. I do agree that States have a big following with their Major League Baseball Association, but I beg to differ that baseball is "America's National Past Time." I am a Canadian and proud of it. I have been playing baseball since i was seven years old and had my very own T-Ball set and later on in elementary my father was my softball coach. Playing catch with my dad was one of my favourite things to do and then in junior and senior high we played scrub as soon as the snow was half melted off the baseball field. We even went as far as convincing our teachers that we could continue to learn our lessons for the day while playing Canada's Past Time. In college, there were Snowball tournaments in February, playing in snow pants and a field full of a foot of snow. And don't forget that when your an adult, there are beer league teams for every company. So to say, baseball should be Canada's game. 

Now to give you a little history on this fabulous sport. In the US, Alexander Cartwright has been given the credit of inventing the modern baseball field in 1845 and the members of his team, the New York Knickerbocker Base Ball Club devised the rules and regulations that were accepted for the modern game of baseball and the first recorded baseball game in the states was on June 19, 1846 at the Elysian Fields in Hoboken New Jersey. However though Canada's first recorded baseball game was on June 4, 1838 in Beachville Ontario. Now at this time there may have been slight differences in the rules from that of  Alexander Cartwright and his team, but this game was played eight years earlier. 

But this modest sport still has a much larger history then just the 1800's. The games of Beachville in 1938 and Cartwright's game in 1846 is said to be based on the English game of Rounders.

Rounders and cricket were both evolved form a game called stoolball which was a game consisted of a marked field with a batter and bowler, where originally the runner would be out if the ball that was thrown and if it hit the runner. Luckily for us they quickly disbarred that rule, or there would be plenty of more injuries out on the field. It is said that Rounders has been around since Tudor times (1485-1603), played with two teams with as few players as 6 or up to 15.  Rounders is still played in modern day England, mainly a game played on school grounds though. Games involving balls and what we call bats today, have been around for thousands of years, dating back to ancient Egypt. 

The debate on the origins of baseball will probably never be agreed upon the 'experts' of todays sports fans, but i think it can be agreed that modern baseball rules, regulations, and field were determined in the early 1800's in North America. I may be a little biased being a Canadian and all but I believe that the credit should be given to Canada for having the first official game 8 years prior to the Americans. And to all the Americans out there, you have enough actors, scientists, athletes, gold medals, and trophies; can't you let us have this one game?