Advanced Work-Avoidance Tactics, Part 1

Today I have written a paragraph. Which is better than yesterday. Yesterday I only managed a title.

In case you were wondering, I'm (still) finishing up my thesis, and to say that it's slow-going would be an understatement. I have (most of) one final chapter left to write. Then I have to tidy everything up, stick in an introduction and conclusion, whip up a bibliography, jot down some acknowledgements, compile a contents page, paste it all together with stickyback plastic and send the whole lot off to an external examiner in the hopes that one day soon I'll be able to put "Dr." in front of my name on letters to my bank and my driver's license. Sweet.

Anyway, as everyone knows, whenever you're sitting in front of a computer trying to write something very important there is invariably something much more fun, exciting and interesting to look at roughly two seconds away. And, even if there isn't, you can always WRITE about doing something more fun, exciting and interesting. On a blog. Thanks internet.

For the last hour or so, I've been reading about someone who's been doing just that:

www.angryman.ca/monkey.html
(via BoingBoing)

Adam Scott is living for a week on nothing but monkey chow (which I guess is American Canadian for monkey food) and telling the internet all about it! It's like a zoologically-friendly version of Supersize Me. He's even posting daily video diaries on youtube, all delivered in an achingly funny deadpan style. Exciting, huh? Well, when the alternative is writing some more about the semantics of the English verb 'open', I think you know which one wins every time...