When you're meant to be working on a Masters dissertation, the one thing you really don't want to be doing is work for your dissertation. Practically any other activity would be preferable.
People all over the world feel similarly about this, whether at work, home or study. They all also have many ways of coping with this need. Mine is spending hours at a time on the Halfbakery, and I can tell I'm not alone.
The 'Displacement Activity Swap Shop' is a place where people can do two things:
Firstly, they can share their favourite ideas on how to waste time with the world (or at least, that portion of it with an internet connection).
The second option is generally only applicable to computer-related activities, or activities the results of which can be transmitted by computer. A user can post up the task it is which they are currently trying to avoid doing. Other users are free to browse these tasks and, if they see one which takes their fancy, they can take it on as their displacement activity, sending their results back to the original poster. Hopefully, general productivity will be improved as more displacement activities being performed actually fulfil a useful function.-- -alx, Aug 06 2001 Slacker Day, 24th August http://www.oncus.com/slackerday/For those who need an excuse not to do work. [-alx, Aug 06 2001, last modified Oct 21 2004] No, it's not about sex http://www.letsgetitoff.comIt's a campaign for P.O.E.T.S Day (Piss Off Early, Tomorrow's Saturday) [Guy Fox, Aug 06 2001, last modified Oct 05 2004] This is good. It's like a virtual, barter-based, task-sharing cooperative. We all learn from each other, and get some work done at the same time.I don't suppose you feel like writing this report for me, do you?-- angel, Aug 06 2001 I'll trade the method and discussion sections of my dissertation for it.-- -alx, Aug 06 2001 I think you have baked this for me with my VB thing (which is now refusing to recognise cell references, would you believe?!). So I'd be very happy to write someone else's report in return as a useful type of displacement activity. I'm also quite good at speeches, technical drawings and writing versions of I Will Survive.Also, we should nominate a halfbaker to be the relevant superhero(ine) - Displacement Activity Man/Woman-- lewisgirl, Aug 06 2001 You mean the same UnaBubba who just confessed to spending all morning doing something constructive?-- -alx, Aug 06 2001 And failing?-- angel, Aug 06 2001 "...and Procrastination Boy!"-- hippo, Aug 06 2001 well, between me and UB we could cover all the waking hours of the world...-- lewisgirl, Aug 06 2001 I have some bills I need to pay...-- protean, Aug 06 2001 I'll trade finishing my doctoral dissertation for hours of scanning someone's photos into the computer, cropping them, and saving them to disk...... or, I'll trade redesigning my website for riding lessons (oh, yeah, that's a RL activity....)-- Susen, Aug 06 2001 OK, so who enjoys tracking down the causes of segmentation faults?
('RAM Man - tough on segmentation faults, tough on the causes of segmentation faults.')-- -alx, Aug 06 2001 Use of Intel platforms is the cause of segmentation faults.-- LoriZ, Aug 07 2001 alx, I'll swap my segfaults for yours.-- AllenGrace, Aug 07 2001 Loriz - there ain't no Intel inside this solaris box. 'Twas the stupid attempt to evaluate instantiations of a virtual class that was causing my segfault.
AllenGrace - sorry, sorted mine out in a bout of real work...-- -alx, Aug 07 2001 [Susen]: but for the atlantic ocean and my need to pay the rent, you'd be on (the website not the dissertation that is).-- st3f, Aug 07 2001, last modified Aug 09 2001 [st3f]: darn pond. I would *love* to give you riding lessons in exchange for website help...and I wouldn't make you sing or dance either....-- Susen, Aug 07 2001 *watches plot thicken*-- thumbwax, Aug 08 2001 We can see how highly [Mephista] values her own services vis-a-vis [Susen]'s.-- angel, Aug 08 2001 2083 looks open-- thumbwax, Aug 08 2001 [hippo]: I made Procrastination Man a long time ago. In fact, I'm fairly sure you came up with his sidekick. (you usually do after all)
[susen]: I'd take your riding lessons, but I don't think you'd want the really bad website design (damn the fact that I never learned more than basic html)-- CoolerKing, Aug 08 2001 dammit indeed CK, but at least you can spell, (a whole lotta webdesigners can't)I'm sure you've all heard that story (modern parable/proverb?) about the jug, and the pebbles then the little pebbles, then the sand and then the water - and that you couldn't have fit the same amount of each into the jug if you'd put in the water, then the sand, and so on. The moral of the story being of course that you should always do the important things on your list first (the large pebbles), and then gradually your other activities will fit around them. Well, I heard a variation - you put the liquid in first then the sand, then... and you can't fit all the pebbles in, however hard you try. The class watched their teacher, gripped by the graphic displacement-activity analogy unfolding before their very eyes... He put in the large pebbles, then the smaller pebbles, and shook it around a bit to help them settle. Then the sand, and some clay particles for good measure (come on, I'm a geologist!)... and then the liquid. And the class, their voices as one, shouted out the lesson to learn from this demonstration: "There's always room for beer!"-- lewisgirl, Aug 08 2001 That all depends on whether you've just had a curry, rice & family sized naan from the Chamon, LG. One of my friends tried this last year. He managed it, but couldn't eat anything else for the next 2 days.-- CoolerKing, Aug 08 2001 tell him to go for repentance with Vernon.And Sundarbon's better - Chicken Malayan Biryani - they put half bananas on it - soooo cool. (Have been veggie for a month. Darn.)-- lewisgirl, Aug 08 2001 Surely you can get some sort of Veggie Biryani? Vegetarianism is a good idea in principle, it just falls down in practice, especially if your housemates start cooking bacon.-- CoolerKing, Aug 08 2001 oh yes totally - biryani is just rice with bits (usually including meat) and a vegetable curry poured over the top, so take out the meat and you've got the same thing. Bacon is not my downfall, sausages are. Anyway, I'm actually doing it *for* housemate convenience - now there are two veggies in a house of four, we can cook together: sense of community and less food wastage, plus the likelihood of actually eating decent meals more often. Unfortunately she's on holiday, so I've been lazy and eaten supernoodles three nights in a row - bad!Have just remembered where I was going with that jug story: A possible variation on this swap shop is that you trade the things that you'd *rather* be doing. Thus, today I'm supposed to weld a set of electrodes, organise a fieldwork exercise, plan a write-up that could become a published paper, and lastly I have to make a set of bingo cards with buzzwords that I'll be using in a few speeches over the next few days. Obviously I want to do the bingo cards first, but that's just too easy. So if I could swap a non-essential activity with someone (like, your least important activity is writing a thank-you letter to your granny) then I'm more likely to get on with my electrodes, fieldwork and paper - because I don't desire to write your granny's letter so much. You will have in effect held the bingo cards out of my grasp for just long enough for me to get on with the things I really should be doing.-- lewisgirl, Aug 08 2001 zzzzzzzzzz "I-5" zzz zzzz "I-5" zz whuzza... I-5? BINGO! I win again! zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz-- thumbwax, Aug 08 2001 All I need now is a vat of custard and a good defenestration and I'll call "house!"
((((([UnaBubba]: Who are you callin' a Horrible Hairy Hog? :o) ))))-- st3f, Aug 08 2001 wrong genre, guys: holistic, community, togetherness, conceptual, humble, ambitious, challenge, eyes opened, set in stone, vision, spirit, focus, proactive, organic, dedicated, stewardship, lessons learned, living reality, seeds sown, potential, inclusive, dynamic, bond, synergy, laid foundations, desire, cynical, stakeholders, strategy. My task is now to say all those words without looking obvious, over four days, starting from tomorrow. Must buy the prizes.-- lewisgirl, Aug 08 2001 The stakeholders' strategy was a kind of synergy between being ambitious and humble. The community spirit began as a cynical desire to set in stone a living reality of togetherness. The easy part was getting the conceptual seeds sown; the challenge, after they had laid foundations down, was to focus their vision on the potential of a dynamic stewardship.
Lessons learned are that having ones proactive eyes opened in an organic manner is not in itself dedicated enough. The bond needs to be far more inclusive and holistic.-- -alx, Aug 08 2001 ::::::::::applause:::::::::::::For the real source, check my site (on profile) then /npc and it should be noted that I was going to accept any derivative of those words, e.g. stratagem, organically, cynicisms... But really -alx, top marks. I must get you on my team.-- lewisgirl, Aug 08 2001 *bows*
That sounds like a frighteningly responsible position of authority you're in there...-- -alx, Aug 08 2001 Bonus points for using the word 'inquorate'.-- angel, Aug 08 2001 Oh my god. I've just checked out your site Lewisgirl, and have realised that you are only the second person I've ever met (not counting those people who were in my actual class at University) who did the same degree as me (i.e. Geological Geophysics). Only I did mine at Leicester (it was a lot cheaper than living in London!!) (as an aside, Imperial offered me three E's to go there on the results of my Cambridge entrance exam, but at the time, you could only do straight geology. seems they must have come to their senses eventually). Looking at your resistivity equations takes me back to sticking electrodes into a peat bog in north west scotland trying to find gold....aahhh those were the days!-- goff, Aug 09 2001 I see your three E's and I raise you: an unconditional offer! (Cambridge wanted four A's at CSYS, which if you don't know it, is a Scottish sixth year qualification making you specialise further from your Higher subjects.)-- lewisgirl, Aug 13 2001 Oops, [CoolerKing] - you're quite right (although arguably, Procrastination Man (whose sidekick is Postponement Boy) can exist in the same universe as Procrastination Boy (sidekick to DisplacementActivity Man/Woman) withough causing a singularity or the wrath of the SNRO)-- hippo, Aug 13 2001 Your university offered you three E's to study there? Cool. Hope you didn't take them all at once, though.
Thought you might like enclosed link, anyway.-- Guy Fox, Aug 13 2001 [CoolerKing] I know that this site isn't really the place for our search for the perfect Bristol Road curry, but it could be counted a Dsiplacement Activity so... last night in the Chamon I noticed that they put bananas on the type of biryani they call the Persian. (This is like the search for the Rowntree) I'll continue up the road soon. Balti International next.-- lewisgirl, Aug 13 2001 Offered: plays written, poems created, shows directed, screen plays fixed(I'll rewrite scripts so they have 5 plot points, if you lack this)
Needed: Fix my web site so people can delete poems and edit them:http://www.futurebird.com/poetryvote
convince me to clean the apartment.
correct spelling of my halfbakery posts.-- futurebird, Aug 14 2001 I think the El Pedanto voluntary service is already taking care of that last point.-- -alx, Aug 14 2001 Wears El Pedanto wen ewe kneed hymn?-- st3f, Aug 14 2001 hmm?-- -alx, Sep 17 2001 I_m_m_e_d_i_a_t_e reply upon sending an email to (Formerly) Fair Day Farms querying about Susen:The farm and facilities are available for lease or purchase in entirety. No internships are offered. Boarding is open only to professionals. No horses, dogs, or puppies are available. The Fair Day Farm name is no longer used. Susan Hunter is no longer in these businesses.Hope she doesn't run out of things to do to avoid doing whatever it is she should be doing.-- thumbwax, Apr 02 2002 random, halfbakery