buter's BABY blog

First up, a moment to reminisce: once when I was very small, I must have been reading the dictionary and I learned a new word "procrastinate". I was really impressed with this word, because it seemed just right for me - put everything off till the last minute and then come through with flying colours. Well when I went to share this new exciting word it came out all wrong. I intended to say "Mummy, I know what I want to be when I grow up - a procrastinator!". But somehow my very little brain mixed that up and it came out "Mummy, I want to be a prostitute when I grow up!" My mummy nearly had a heart attack and told me to go read the dictionary again. And that's how I learned what a prostitute is.

So anyway, sprint forward through time to now, 2005, and I've been at school in some form or another almost continuously since 1980. Apart from a 2-year gap just after finishing my undergraduate degree, I've been studying for more-than-twenty-years. You'd be forgiven for thinking that that's impossible as I only look 16 years old - but really who am I kidding. The studying has aged me. But in that 20-or-so years I've been really good at procrastinating. Somehow I always seem to get everything done, but at the last minute. The most organised I ever was, was in Year 12 we had to do a writing folder over the course of 6 months and I started it 3 months before it was due. But that was actually fun.

So right now, I'm studying for my MBA, and this is my last semester ever. You'd think by now, having done an undergraduate degree, an honours year, and 11 subjects of my MBA, that I would have learned to not leave uni assignments to the last minute. For one thing they tend to need a fair bit of research and so you'd think it would be obvious to the assessor that I'd done it all in the last 2 weeks.

Being my last semester ever* of study is pretty cool, apart from the Pareto principle. That's something I learned about in Unit PDM303 - that old saying how you get 80% of the work done in the first 20% of the time, and the 20% that's left takes the remaining 80% of the time. Or that 20% effort puts in 80% of the work, or any other way you want to put it. What I'm trying to say, is that now that I'm eleven-twelfths (that's about 90%) of the way through my degree, the last 10% is mighty hard for me to get motivated about.

So anyway, my last assignment ever is due tonight. At midnight. I put the finishing touches to it on the train this morning at about 9.30am. So I was 14.5 hours ahead! Who ever said I was procrastinating? I'm just really sleepy from the late nights over the last 2 weeks... My last exam ever is on the 8th of November, people. So don't ask me to be friendly in the two weeks leading up to it because I'll be cramming ... yes, leaving all the studying to the last minute ;) ... can't wait to finish ... all I need is a pass this semester, that's all. A pass.

Oh and did I mention I was working on it on the train? That's because I have me a cute new lappy. It's a Compaq Presario and it's a wiiiidescreen and it's entirely too cute for words. Now that the assignment's over I'm planning to watch Buffy DVDs on the train in the mornings :)

*The term last semester ever is here to placate DTM. He said recently if I have to do another semester of my MBA that it's divorce material. I've been using the MBA as an excuse to get out of housework for 5 years. I guess he's figured that out.