4090 Catching up

Sunday, August 16, 2015

“Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.”

-- Plato --

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It must be the end of summer.  The cicadas, both of them, are buzzing.  Yeah, both.  There's one cicada a bit north down the street, and one to the east on the next street over.  North starts buzzing, then East answers, then they both stop and there's nothing for five or ten minutes, or more.

Poor cicadas.  Such a long time to wait underground anticipating this, your debut year, you dress in your fanciest flashiest clothes and then arrive at the party ready for your big once-in-a-lifetime chance at romance ... and find no one there.  Except another guy who keeps stomping on your song, and he's too far away to punch.

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My back is still iffy.  I got a little worried because I felt a sharp pain under the last rib on the right, where the "good" kidney is.  But I ran my fingers along my spine on the right, found a tender spot, pressed there, and the pain went away for several hours.  I guess it's just an angry nerve.  I guess.

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Catching up on saved stuff.


This one makes me smile every time I watch it.  I didn't realize walruses were built so similarly to humans.  Note especially the leg lifts and situps.  It's from opinionsofallkind, titled "Walrus fitness", 1:29.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X67R7m4C8Ug]

This is so incredibly cute, especially his first attempt, it makes you want to run right out and kidnap a little kid.  From ChildrenVids, titled "Little Boy Trying To Break Board In Taekwondo", 1:54.

[https://youtu.be/1ZLN9AzxVa8]

This is from CGP Grey, titled "The trouble with the electoral college", 6:30.  Fascinating.  He shows several ways the electoral college can really screw up an election.  We know this is a problem, and there's no way to fix it short of an amendment, but enough states benefit from the problems that it's not going to be that easy.  What's maddening is that the founding fathers planned it that way on purpose.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wC42HgLA4k]
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3757 Bugged

Thursday, August 8, 2013

The immediacy and appropriateness of your action in the moment

is far more important than your cleverness with words and numbers.

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Having finally come out of my recent obsessive funk, I looked at the July calendar for the first time.

I screwed up.  In July I managed to blow off three birthdays, two anniversaries, and one baby each of which merited at the very least a card.  Sheesh. 

I know this won't make up for it, but

Happy Birthday, Baby Big Sister!

I did manage a sympathy card, because I got the call and responded right away, it didn't require awareness on my part.  A friend and his youngest daughter, also a friend, lost their mother/grandmother.  The lady had been on her way out for the past five years, multiple crises where she wasn't expected to make it through the night, but she'd recover, a little less strong, and keep on going.  So her passing (in her 90s) was almost a relief.  My friend had called me to tell me he'd be heading south for the funeral and wouldn't be back for a few days. 

Then, like two days later, I get another call.  His eldest daughter's husband died in a fishing accident (he fell in, went over some falls, and drowned (there was also a heart attack, but there's some confusion as to whether the heart attack happened before he fell in or after the falls)).  The 12-year-old son was with him, and the kid of course blames himself for being unable to save his father, although he did pull him out of the water at the base of the falls.  So my friends had also lost a son-in-law/brother-in-law, and have a grandson/nephew who's a freaking mess. (Yes, they got him into counseling immediately.)

So I sent a card to the two of them at their business partnership, and included a letter --- after fussing over whether it should properly be two cards, or four cards, and then thinking it probably didn't matter how many cards, it's the expression that matters.  Four would be overkill.  No pun intended.

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There was a huge bug on my window screen last night.  I suspected it was a cicada just by the size and shape, but it didn't look like any cicada I'd ever seen before, and I haven't heard a single cicada around here (city house), so I looked it up on the internet.  Yup, it's a cicada.  Strange.


They are all over everywhere at the country house.  There are many broods up there, two year, three year, five year, seventeen year, heck, I never asked any of them how long they'd been waiting, but anyway, it's a rare year when you don't hear them somewhere along the roads.  It was the same at the old estate across the road from our house when we lived near St. Louis.  There were cicadas every year.

As I said, I haven't heard a single one here.  Possibly because there are very few large stands of old trees?

Every one I'd ever seen was different from this one guy last night.  This quiet fellow was the same shape and size as the Mid-Hudson or St. Louis cicadas, but whereas they were splashed with color (black with red , yellow, and green spots or streaks on their bodies), with huge HUGE red RED eyes, this guy is solid black with small black eyes.  Very dull.  Boring.

And much too quiet.
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