Random ridiculous thought:

If a nihilist believes in nothing, what does an a-nihilist believe in?

Suggested answers thus far:
1. The absence of nothing
2. Everything

River deltas of light lead to an ocean of darkness.

Not sure...

The last few days have felt like college.  I've been waking up late, lounging around, and otherwise doing whatever I felt like.  I guess it is odd, I spend years wanting to be out of college, and then miss the freedom that it allowed.  I keep thinking about taking classes.  But, what would I take classes in?  Where would I take them?  Is it class, or just the freedom to do whatever I felt like it.

What should I learn next? 

Things always seem to go in circles.

The summer has come...

Or something like that.  The heat has been somewhat unbearable.  It makes me want my old apartment, the tiny one with air conditioning.  At least I could sleep easily there.

Things of interest:
1. Rollerblading.
This is fucking awesome. It has been a very long time since I last skated.  I guess I remember "how" to do it.

2. Pools
Swimming in heat is awesome... I guess that is what happens when you live in a city.  The conveniences of life are there for you when you need them, except for taxes you have no obligation to maintain them.  Who wants to clean a pool every day, or check the chemicals in it, when you won't be using it every day.  The same goes for libraries, parks, etc.

3. Team Sports 
There is really something about team sports that I enjoy.  That is all.

4.  Movies and TV DVDs
I've been watching a lot of movies lately.  Two that I watched tonight were great.  Valkyrie and Pushing Tin.  I've also been watching South Park and the X-Files lately.  I've seen most of the X-files, but I've never really seen South Park.  I'm on Season 4 right now (just finished Season 3 the other night).  This show is great.  I can't believe what I missed all of these years.

I guess that is all for now.

Today is a somewhat gorgeous day out, even if it is threatening to rain.  I thought to myself, why not take a walk.  So, what was seen on this walk:

1. Bunny
2. Baseball game
3. Yinzers doing yinzer things
4. A handwritten letter on the ground from Chrystina to Gramma  (possibly the highlight)

Either way, it made me think about something I thought not that long ago.  It is the little things each day that make it all memorable.  I have a tendency to forgot that.  Sometimes I get to thinking that every day needs to be some fantastically amazing experience for every waking moment.  That just isn't the case.  Now, there are days that are sort of like that, but, on a daily basis, it just doesn't, and can't happen.

So, it is the little things, like bunnies and a discarded letter, that make the days memorable.

I was reading Unclutterer today and came across this entry: http://unclutterer.com/2009/02/18/planning-your-perfect-day/ 

The gist of the post is that you should try to map out your day, or at least, what your ideal day would be, every day.  I keep a general to-do list that usually gets done, and I have to track every minute of my day in a database, but, I still end the day feeling like I didn't get anything done. 

The list they post is great:

How To Create a Perfect Day

1. Identify the work that has to be completed by the end of the day. What, if you fail to accomplish, will get you fired/stressed/full of anxiety/arrested/etc.?
2. Identify at least three things you want to do in addition to the must-do items.
3. Identify any routines that should take place to keep you on track. Is today a laundry day? Is it your night to make dinner?
4. Estimate length of time to complete all of your must do, want to do, and routine projects.
5. Write out a plan for your day, where you stagger easy and difficult tasks and schedule the hardest task when you’re the most alert.
6. Get working.
    

This book also looks like a good read: Parkinson's Law: and other studies in administration
The idea behind the book, which I think I may pick up, is that if we have 8 hours to do work, we will use 8 hours to do it all, even if that time is excessive.  I'm not sure that I agree with the premise of it.

When I have very little to do at work (such as today), I end up distracting myself, but still doing my tasks in the same amount of time.  I've always been a "get it done right away" sort of person (college papers the exception), so, the idea of taking 8 hours to do 2 hours of work just seems excessive.

This weekend was freakin' awesome.   I went camping in Mingo Creek County Park, right below an observatory.  Went up to the observatory on Friday night to look at planets and nebulae, and to see a nearly perfectly clear sky.  We pitched a tent, started a fire, and cooked a few hotdogs. After going up to the observatory and returning, we found that a raccoon had stolen our hotdogs.... with precision.  Nothing else, just the hotdogs.

Either way, it was a great time.  Sitting in a little hole in the wall roadhouse, a guy at the bar was telling a woman how he got his red beard from his grandmother.  Mingo Inn Bar and Restaurant: Good food and Good Eavesdropping

 I've been thinking about reset buttons a lot lately.  "Wouldn't be great if life had a reset button," I thought.  I can remember when I was a little kid, playing nintendo.  Eventually, we would come to a point in the game, some football or whatever game, where one person would be winning in a devastating fashion.  Inevitably, the other person would hit the reset button.  I've seen my nephews do it, it just happens.

We invented this button that lets us start over again, try again, fresh, no strings attached to the past.  So, what would life be like if we had that?

I read The City and the Stars not long ago.  The book has a reset button of sorts.  In the "last" human city, Diaspar, people live forever. They are "born" every 100,000 years, by being assembled, and having their programming inserted into this new being.  For the first 20 years of their life, they remember nothing of the old lives.  After that, it starts to come back, slowly.  They are reset for those first 20 years.  If things go bad, they can just walk back into the hall of creation and return to the computer, awaiting their next life.

I don't believe in an afterlife, or reincarnation, or anything like that.  I suppose if you do believe in such things, it gives you a sort of hope for the future, a hope that in the future you will get to start over, or at least go somewhere amazing, and perfect, as if such a place could exist.  That isn't to say that there isn't hope to be had when you are living, or when you don't believe in such fanciful things.

I've wished I could press a reset button for most of this week.  Part of it has been that my back has been aching since pulling a muscle, or something, last weekend.  For much of the week, I could barely stand, or sit, or do anything.  Part of it has been that I haven't been eating (regularly or at all), and that's put me into some sort of mood, cranky, easily annoyed.  What are you supposed to do when you aren't hungry?

Either way, I came to the realization that wanting such a button is crap.  You can't start over.  Well, sure, you can try to correct things, you could pick up and move somewhere completely new, but, the same things will follow you, the same thoughts and feelings, the same concerns.  You can only do with what you have, what you've experienced. You try to change the things you aren't happy with, as hard as some of those things are to change, or to even acknowledge, and you, I guess accept the things that you can't.  Worrying about it, one of my favorite* pastimes is worthless, it just makes you crazy.

So, with that realization, or whatever it should be called, all the worry from the week just sort of disappeared.

I just got back from a screening of "12", a Russian adaptation of 12 Angry Men. I will admit, while it can't compare to the original American version, the overt political elements that were put into this film were excellent. Discussions of racism, corruption, and the plight of the poor in Russia rounded out excellent performances.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0488478/

The film is a bit long, 2 1/2 hours, and, with a sore back, it made it nearly unbearable by the end, but, it was well worth it.

The White Devil was old.  The White Devil spent many a day terrorizing the other creatures of the house.  Yet, it turns out, he succumb to a seizure, or some other thing.  They found him behind the dryer.  I sort of imagined that he had run off to the woods, and was living by his wits.  I think that is the memory I will keep. 

There is a billboard near my building that looks like a Married to the Sea cartoon.


I did have a witty caption for it, something about infinite armies and all, but, I've since forgotten it.

Either way, there are a bunch of them, that can be seen here.

I decided to take a few days of vacation this week. Well, that isn't the whole truth. I put in for vacation weeks ago. I then promptly forgot about it. On Monday, I was reminded when the sheet was put in my mailbox and approved. Thus, I have a mini-cation.

What am I doing? Well, for one, I have been drinking tea and walking through Schenley Park. Reading, going to the library, etc.

Also, I downloaded a dashboard widget for posting. Maybe I'll actually post things longer than two sentences now?

Today is absolutely gorgeous. What a great day for a vacation.

As I was running today, I had a thought:  "Children are like dogs, people only get them because it lets them talk to other people."  How many times have you seen the "dog people", people that walk their dog all over the place, really just to run into someone else with a dog, or someone that likes dogs, so that they can have a random conversation.  While running at the oval with all the little children running around playing soccer, I noticed that parents use their kids the same way.

So, who has the advantage, children or dogs, in the long run?  You can't send little Johnny to a farm upstate when he turns on you. 

It's still a bit cold today. Here is something that warmed me up in that "awww, that's awesome" way.

I recently purchased a set of resistance bands to use at home to supplement my running, or attempt to wake up in the morning, or, something.  I questioned whether these could be worthwhile, and effective.

I learned today, that, indeed, they are effective, worthwhile, and actually create a really good workout, the sort where afterwards you just want to sit down and relax because you're so tired.  So, resistance bands  get my seal of approval, for what it's worth.

R U² R' U' R U' R' L' U² L U L' U L

I can't stop turning the little squares around and around.  

I purchased a cube on Sunday and have been obsessively messing with it since then.  I think I'm finally "figuring it out", so to speak.

 

Serotonin, endorphins! Running is great, today is great.