In my “Resolutions for 2008,” #12 was “I shall make a real twelfth resolution before June 30th.” I finally have a good one, which, if I remember correctly, I first heard from a co-worker.

I have a habit (as I suspect many others do) of looking at Minor Task X or Simple Chore Y and thinking, “That will take so little time that I can do it any old time. I’ll do it later.” This is usually followed by rationalization about minimizing the total effort spent on several similar tasks—which lasts longer than the task itself would’ve taken—followed a week or two later by a sink full of dishes, a stack of books waiting to be re-shelved or a desk covered in “To Do” notes. The dinky little tasks that I deem unworthy of immediate attention invariably combine into a Voltronesque megatask that no man dare face alone.

Therefore, in the interest of reducing clutter, fighting procrastination, and getting my final resolution in at the last minute, I hereby resolve that:

12. If a task or chore will take less than one minute to accomplish, I shall do it immediately.

…

They had a Star Trek marathon on one of the cable channels. The crew was trying to contact Picard, but his comm-badge had been taken away. They couldn’t get hold of him and assumed the worst. Long story short: they found him anyways and eventually saved the day.

As the calls to the captain went unanswered, I couldn’t help but wonder, “Why don’t these communicators have voicemail? Or texting?”

They can overcome all the known laws of physics and chemistry by traveling thousands of times faster than the speed of light, by breaking matter down into energy and reassembling it elsewhere exactly as it’d been before, by taking the ship’s refuse and “replicating” it into the ship’s food and fuel, but nobody thought to spend five bucks a month on voicemail. Unreal.

2 COMMENTS

Doctor Hmnahmna Says:

You realize that the reason why voice mail doesn’t exist in Star Trek is because the society has become moneyless. There’s no incentive to provide a free service.

And if you’re looking for other time-saving tips . . .
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5784740380335567758

July 2nd, 2008 at 8:32 am

Vincent Viscariello Says:

Ah yes, the “economics of the future.” The least realistic and least consistent element of that show.

July 2nd, 2008 at 10:46 am