GroovyMojo.com

One way to beat procrastination is to make a goal public and set yourself up for global ridicule if you don’t follow through. That’s what I’m doing right here, right now. I am in a situation where I can spend a lot of time on my current novel manuscript, and so I am challenging myself to do it. Not only work on it, but to finish the first draft. So I hereby challenge myself to get it done, to deny the little demon inside me that tells me everything else is more important, that tells me I should re-arrange the furniture or go take pictures of a streetlight instead of sitting here banging on this keyboard and putting words on my novel.

45,000 more words by mid August. That’s my goal.

Wish me luck and give me hell if I don’t do it. Thank you!

UPDATE 8/13/2008 - I was delivered a setback in the form of a broken molar, emergency dental work, and lots of pain killers.  Still, I’ve managed over 20,000 words, nearly half the goal, and I still have a few days left.  It looks like I won’t make it but I’ll be close, and that is better than nothing.

So a bridge collapses in Minneapolis, and now CNN is reporting that America’s entire infrastructure is on the verge of destruction and we’re all going to die. So now — according to the news media — all bridges, water plants, piping under the cities, buildings we live and work in — everything — is suddenly a big ticking time bomb.

Yes, bridges need to be inspected. Yes, things should be looked at and repaired. But the news media has seized on this and is trying its best to make you panic.

Why? For your safety? Are they using fear mongering to help you, the viewer? To call attention to what needs to be done?

No. They’re doing it so they can keep you glued to your television, so they can sell more advertising.

Even if one bridge collapses every year and kills a hundred people, the odds of you ever being involved is about one in three-hundred-million. That’s the same odds as you winning a million dollar jackpot in a Lotto drawing.

Don’t panic, my friends. Let’s mourn the loss of life and do what is necessary to keep it from happening again, but at the same time, let’s look at it as it really is: a sad but very unlikely event. Given enough time, the unlikely does happen.

But the unlikely is nothing to fear, otherwise you may as well never leave your home.

The population estimates from the US Census Bureau (www.census.gov):

282,909,885 people, of which
138,396,524 are male
144,513,361 are female
72,707,840 are under 18 years old, and
33,896,172 are 65 years old and over

Keep these figures in mind, especially when watching a panicky news broadcast about things like a mosquito-born virus which has made 126 people sick.

282,909,885 people the USA, and 126 people get sick. You do the math. The chances of it affecting you - even in the 65 and older population - would be so close to zero that it might as well be zero.

A while ago, a man in the medical field told one of my friends, “Say goodbye to most of the people you know. This bird flu is going to kill a lot of them off.” Needless to say, this struck fear in her heart and gave her some sleepless nights.

Let’s put this Bird Flu into perspective. According to the CDC it’s very hard to catch this flu. It doesn’t spread easily from human to human. The CDC only knows of a few cases — one example was a mother and an infant. You have to be that close for it to spread.

Also, according to Reuters, the reported deaths from Bird Flu in Southeast Asia stands at around 60 people.

I checked the CIA World Factbook for population statistics. There are an estimated 1,646,803,377 people in Southeast Asia. That’s over one point six BILLION.

Sixty out of 1.6 BILLION people. According to my Excel spreadsheet, that gives you odds of about 1 in 27,000,000 of dying from the Bird Flu.

Those are lotto odds, people. Even if it were 1000 people, or 10,000 people, it would still be lotto odds.

Don’t worry about the Bird Flu. Worry about eating healthy and wearing your safety belts while driving.

I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past, I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.

- Frank Herbert, Dune