Dave vs. Technology

Whelp, I've managed to get myself totally overwhelmed again. Technology is awesome, but I've also discovered that technology forces me to "waste" massive amounts of time. I shouldn't say I just discovered that; I've known this for going on ten years now. Get me in front of the World Wide Web, and I can spend hours -- wait, better make that days -- doing nothing of any value to my life.

I can spend an hour creating hockey player profiles on Wikipedia, but I can't create a ten-day unit plan which was due last week, and whose completion is of the utmost importance as far as the state of my education is concerned.

I can spend thirty minutes going through all the football and hockey blogs I have inserted into my Bloglines account, but I can't get motivated to work on the professional website which I am supposed to have completed, to some degree, by Tuesday.

I can spend countless amounts of time clicking through my fantasy football and basketball teams, searching for the perfect matchups, but I can't find the time to make the serious edits which need to be made on the second draft of my research paper (due Wednesday) or to be at all concerned about the twenty-minute presentation on said research assignment which I will be making on Wednesday.

This is the crux of our technology situation. Web-based technology is awesome. Like, uber-awesome. But in the wrong hands, such as mine, it becomes a breeding ground for unmitigated procrastination, followed by unwarranted whining, excuse-making, and stress-fueled fits of crying.

And please, for your consideration, allow me to share the fact that I came up to the library tonight to work on all these projects I mentioned above (well, for that, and to escape the grip the technology in my apartment -- the TV -- has had on me today), and I've spent the last hour surfing my Bloglines feeds, updating my fantasy basketball team, and writing this worthless post. Technology, be damned.