Damek.

Another week turns out to be not what I’d expected a week before. Solitude, thoughts and chores? No, the universe decides to throw me people, mysteries and activities. How about the upcoming weekend — last ski trip of the season? No, money and love leads me to choose a friend’s party which may or may not include mini-golf, a random movie viewing, and possibly a Sunday adventure or two.

And I’m pondering what to do with this site. I’ve had it a long time. I plan to keep it. Don’t have much time to change it. But I’m thinking I need to supress some of the more personal things here, if I do want to be a teacher, and I do. I’ve just done the magic of removing it from the wayback machine and shutting off google’s caching. Alex, bless her, has convinced me not to delete old posts, but just to put them behind a password. (Of course, when I’ll get around to doing that, who knows?) As for future posts, I’m pondering whether to keep writing personal stuff at all. If so, whether to do it behind protections over at myspace, or just give in and keep a private journal. Problem with the latter is, if it’s not a keyboard, I just get lazy.

Well, I’ll think about it. For now, some random collections from online & offline sources…

“Worries go down better with soup than without.” It’s true. Soup is good. (this is apparently a Jewish proverb; I wouldn’t know, I saw it in a sig on a Doctor Who forum.)

“Two minutes in heaven is better than one minute in heaven.” Also true. Although apparently 3 to 13 is optimal. Kudos to the commenter who linked to the Business Time video, but the live version is better.

“Variety is the spice of life.” More than true. Variety is the cornerstone of evolution! Which is why I love hearing about things like the Viognier grape, which was nearly extinct by the 1960s but has had a resurgence. Would that all our agricultural crops, and indeed, our attitudes towards humans, reflected such an appreciation for variety. (Heard about this at my local vintner’s.)

Speaking of evolution & variety, this is just about the most amazing thing I’ve read in a while. Highly evolved DNA repair, just due to the need to deal with damage caused by complete dessication. It lets these little bugs be surprisingly resilient species despite reproducing asexually, which usually results in low genetic variation and, thus, greater vulnerability as a species.

Speaking of vulnerability as a species, sucks to be last of the Time Lords, huh?

“…living a life day after day. The one adventure I can never have.”
“Am I ever going to see you again?”
“You can’t.”
“What are you gonna do?”
“Oh… I’ve got the TARDIS… Same old life, ‘Last of the Time Lords…’”
“…on your own…”
*nods*
“I L…” … “I love you.”
“Quite right. … and I suppose … it’s my last chance to say it …” *fades away*

Let’s see, what else can I pack into this post? How about a few thoughts I’ve collected recently, won’t bother sharing where they came from.

You should think of all the things you like about someone before you think about the things you don’t. Focus on their strengths, not their weaknesses, and judge people by those strengths. Help them through their weaker parts, and let them help you through yours. That is how to be loving.

Finish each day & be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders & absurdities have crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day. You shall begin it serenely & with too high a spirit to be encumbered w/your old nonsense.

Despite the pains and hardships of life, there still is an astonishing richness of beauty, wonder, and much to laugh heartily about. And so we say, at any given moment, “If this isn’t nice, what is?”