Time... that's what keeps everything from happening at once. In this sense, time is our friend. If everything happened at once, we would all be dead before we knew it and the universe as a whole, not just our own personal worlds, would end immediately. This would not be a good thing. It would, in fact, be a bad thing. This would be the worst thing that could ever happen. It would transcend all of the bad things that have ever happened in one swell foop. There would be no one left to wonder at the audacity of it, however. There are those of you who are wondering what this has to do with procrastination. Be patient, dammit. I'll get to that part when I feel like it, OK? OK, so let's get back on track again. Suppose time didn't happen all at once. Well, let's assume that it didn't, or hasn't, or won't. Would we know about it? Maybe time is not as fast as we think it is. Maybe, instead of thinking thoughts in mere nanoseconds, it actually takes us hours to think an entire thought. How would we know about it? Answer: we wouldn't. Sure, there have been a few superheros in the comix that could speed up their personal time, and make the rest of us look like we were living in slow motion, but, after all, those are the funny books for you. For real, is it really happening right now? Conversely, suppose time was going much, much faster than we think. I mean faster than we think. I mean faster than we think! Once again, we wouldn't know about it. Here we are, running around like ants and talking like fucking demented chipmunks, and we don't know how really stupid we look. Our lives would be lived in a perceptual instant, born, lived, buried, rotted and gone before you can blink an eye. Is this what is really happening, right now? Answer: maybe. Einstein (Albert, y'know) proved that time goes slower as you physically go faster. Theoretically, then, by extending that concept, it you were to go as fast as light, and nothing can go any faster, according to the same guy, time will stand still. That has nothing to do with the present discussion, of course, but I thought that having his name in here would lend weight to what I have to say about procrastination. Which I will say, here presently. Nilknarf's theory of time compression then, is this: the older you are (that is, the more time that you have been cognizant of the fact that you are here, if in fact, you are really here, which is another subject, altogether), the faster time goes. Essentially, the speed of perceived time is dependent on how much time you have personally perceived. We're not talking about what you read in the history books, or how long your great grandfather lived. We're talking about you. When you were five years old, a year was a very, very long time. When you were eight, summer vacation was an eternity. When you were fifteen, a weekend was something you could get lost in, and often did. The equations: one year divided by five years = 0.20 = 20% (1) three months divided by eight years = 3/(8*4)=something less than 5% two days divided by 15 years = lost (2) The rest of your life divided by 65 years=0.001% (3) (1) considering when children actually start to think (some believe that it takes thirty years) this number might be as high as 100%. (2) teenagers are always lost. This is a different equation entirely, based not on mathamatics but on actuality. (3) Statistics reveal that life essentially ends when you retire, especially if you're living on social security. OK, what does this all boil down to? you ask. Nilknarf answers: When you're alive, you're not dead. What you do with your time is your own business, as long as you don't harm anyone else with it. When you're dead, you're dead. Your perception of time no longer matters. Oops, we've run out of time;-) We'll take up that other discussion tomorrow, OK? Have a Nice day!