mighty random

2008-05-08T15:39:00.001-07:00

Opportunity is not a lengthy visitor...but he's also inconvenient, demanding, and ruthlessly intolerance of ambivalence...

2008-04-19T17:11:00.000-07:00

TIME magazine online photo/essay showing cults that led to mass death

2008-04-16T16:49:00.001-07:00

Being an out-of-work writer is exactly like being a writer.

2008-04-05T07:07:00.000-07:00

When the world revolves around you and other people don't understand, it ain't easy.

(Heard about my sister-in-law, but has other applications, I'm sure)

2008-04-03T13:38:00.001-07:00

What if everybody played hookey today?

2008-03-10T20:11:00.001-07:00

There is nothing more motivating than a sense of purpose. Therefore, beware of anyone who offers you one.

2008-02-29T16:08:00.002-08:00

Guy at work walking a visitor around. They go by my spot, he tosses his head toward me and says, "That's the Internet."

I AM THE INTERNET. Whoa.

2008-02-29T16:08:00.001-08:00

Is there such a thing as a hopeful cynic? That's what I am.

2008-02-01T19:37:00.000-08:00

Men are at their most depressed at 44, I just heard. Don't know where that's from, someone said they heard it on Marketplace.

2008-02-01T16:26:00.000-08:00

It really is weird in America when you don't drink. I mean, it's not like I'm an antidrinker; I've gotten tanked in my day, and I like to taste dark brews, but that's it. My body doesn't want more than literally a taste. It's a chemical thing. And the whole social system is so built on this drug. When people "go out", it means to bars. The drinking stories, allusions, it permeates the fabric of this society. Unless you don't do the bar scene, I don't think you can appreciate this point of view.

I try to broaden my perspective to something sorta realistic by imagining I'm projecting myself into outerspace and looking down at the world. Try it with television sets. You suddenly see all these people in their houses, devoting all this time and focus to these TVs, and it seems bizarre.

Anyway, I'm glad I don't drink seriously for a lot of reasons, but I think I'd have an easier time of it socially if I had the need to go to a bar on the weekend and drink. I just don't get why of all the drugs in the world, alcohol is the one that got to be god. (It isn't everywhere, and it wasn't in North America until whitely brought it over.)

2008-02-01T16:13:00.000-08:00

Next to my desk, they're going through what my boss left behind. At least one of them had it in for him, finally took him out. He came in last Thursday and was told it was his last day. He carried everything out past my desk, boxes stacked onto a cart that he filled twice and took to his car, fussing over how the bookshelf would fit. He kept his head high, said good-bye to everyone and wished us all well, only choked up once and it was quick. In there are the HR person, the old timer who's been here 30+ years, and the newcomer/climber. It reminds me of people going through a house after someone's died, only in this case, he's out there somewhere, his heart beating blood through his veins, probably trying to keep his blood pressure down at his age, maybe putting on a suit and trying to stay out of the house. When they joke and laugh in there, it gives me chills.

2008-01-14T12:51:00.000-08:00

I think the truly rebellious thing about the Internet is that while capitalists scramble to structure it as a merchant's world, individuals continue to invest energy, time and resources into their own online projects without getting paid - in fact, at cost to themselves, and individuals continue to give away things - yes, for free - information, forums, resources, works of art and utility. This persistent world of sharing without a trade system, is an organic, fertile world, and in many respects, a Utopia representing true human nature. Money is invented, trade is a tyranny, resource partitioning creates wars. Here sharing and creating and ownership run rampant and free. This may be what is behind the basic objection to Net Neutrality - not that little guys may make money, but that the monetary system may be rejected altogether.

2008-01-01T15:13:00.000-08:00

New Year's resolutions are acceptable failure. Only one in ten people will keep them (NPR). It amazes me that lack of willpower is the accepted norm in America, yet people get up everyday and go to work.

2007-12-18T14:02:00.001-08:00

"Developing countries" is such a rude term.

2007-12-15T13:54:00.000-08:00

trying to purge the bathroom of parabens...

2007-12-15T09:39:00.001-08:00

It's a shame all these people on cell phones can't be with the people they're talking to.