Does anyone still read this thing any more?
A few rare items of interest from my life:
Item #1: The other day while watching a coworker play spider solitaire on the computer (we had a couple of minutes to kill before punching out), I realized that my approach to solitaire and life are very similar, and the results tend to be similar as well. I'm the type of person who generally likes to get everything aligned and organized as much as possible within the confines of my situation. But in spider solitaire, this organizing behavior tends to be a lot of extra effort (moves) for no real benefit (and sometimes even causes complications)--because when the next hand is dealt or the next card uncovered, it is all just a game of chance and the results are often no better (and sometimes worse) when you have everything else arranged properly in order. I'm probably not explaining this concept adequately, but it's the best I can do at the moment. Anyhow, the trick with solitaire seems to be in getting the essentials in order and not worrying about the rest, and then moving on to the next hand that you are dealt. I think the same is probably true for life. (Now, if only I could manage to make myself act on my conclusions.)
Item #2: I heard this song a couple months ago and it totally blew me away. I was working on the car and pretty exhausted at the time, so I was only half-listening until it had really built up to the climax, at which point I realized that it really resonated with me. I think it's the building intensity, the emotional confusion, and the almost fervent desperation delivered in something just a shade apart from spoken word and contrasted with a bit of a symphonic backdrop. In some ways the song feels like it's on the borderline of being really cliché and a little bit cheesy, but it really speaks to me on a raw level that both opens old wounds and somehow also manages to salve them. It was probably another month before I heard it again and was able to pay enough attention to it that I could track down the artist and title: The Airborne Toxic Event - Sometime Around Midnight (*I recommend just listening to the song and not really watching the video. I found that the scenes which played in my mind as I listened were far more intense and interesting than the video itself is.)
Item #3: For the past few months, I've been randomly setting off security scanners in department stores and post offices. I couldn't figure out why it was happening, but today a girl at Walgreen's suggested that it might be my wallet. Sure enough, she slid my wallet over their security tag scanner thing and it made a "dwong!" sound and de-activated a hidden security tab in the wallet. So hopefully now I won't keep setting off alarms when I walk in and out of stores and post offices. Woohoo!
Item #1: The other day while watching a coworker play spider solitaire on the computer (we had a couple of minutes to kill before punching out), I realized that my approach to solitaire and life are very similar, and the results tend to be similar as well. I'm the type of person who generally likes to get everything aligned and organized as much as possible within the confines of my situation. But in spider solitaire, this organizing behavior tends to be a lot of extra effort (moves) for no real benefit (and sometimes even causes complications)--because when the next hand is dealt or the next card uncovered, it is all just a game of chance and the results are often no better (and sometimes worse) when you have everything else arranged properly in order. I'm probably not explaining this concept adequately, but it's the best I can do at the moment. Anyhow, the trick with solitaire seems to be in getting the essentials in order and not worrying about the rest, and then moving on to the next hand that you are dealt. I think the same is probably true for life. (Now, if only I could manage to make myself act on my conclusions.)
Item #2: I heard this song a couple months ago and it totally blew me away. I was working on the car and pretty exhausted at the time, so I was only half-listening until it had really built up to the climax, at which point I realized that it really resonated with me. I think it's the building intensity, the emotional confusion, and the almost fervent desperation delivered in something just a shade apart from spoken word and contrasted with a bit of a symphonic backdrop. In some ways the song feels like it's on the borderline of being really cliché and a little bit cheesy, but it really speaks to me on a raw level that both opens old wounds and somehow also manages to salve them. It was probably another month before I heard it again and was able to pay enough attention to it that I could track down the artist and title: The Airborne Toxic Event - Sometime Around Midnight (*I recommend just listening to the song and not really watching the video. I found that the scenes which played in my mind as I listened were far more intense and interesting than the video itself is.)
Item #3: For the past few months, I've been randomly setting off security scanners in department stores and post offices. I couldn't figure out why it was happening, but today a girl at Walgreen's suggested that it might be my wallet. Sure enough, she slid my wallet over their security tag scanner thing and it made a "dwong!" sound and de-activated a hidden security tab in the wallet. So hopefully now I won't keep setting off alarms when I walk in and out of stores and post offices. Woohoo!