(15 November, 2001)
I almost wanted to title this one "Try to Remember the Ides of November." Had I been in any shape about ten days ago, it might instead have been "Try to Remember the Fifth of November, But Don't Follow." (Sorry, bit of gallows humor...)
Be all of that as it may, it is now once again The Future, and my motto from the beginning of this month stands in a general sense as well as the specific one in which I stated it: It Wasn't Supposed to Be This Way.
Someplace, I said something about The Current Horrors being a generalized example of Gresham's Law -- cheap currency drives dear currency off the market. It's cheap and usually rather easy to hurt people; the alternatives are generally more difficult. Unfortunately, if we do not step out of the box we are going to be buried in it.
Here is a link to
the M.K. Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence,
one of the various alternatives you'll find on the
Web...
(2001.xii.13)
...why I hate having ADHD...
I have a string of what would ordinarily be referred to as holiday lights or "Christmas-tree lights". These are moderately fancy ones, with a little controller box, and they do a number of stupid little dances if you let them. I got them from my ex-wife, probably a couple years after we split up -- neither she nor her daughter particularly liked them. I leave them hung up in my office, and every once in a while I run them.
Well, that is, I used to run them. Then I caught one of the little lighbulbs in the back door, and squished it. I removed it and set it on my desk, resolving to buy a replacement.
Welcome to the Wonderful World of ADD. I remembered perhaps a month or two (or three or four) later that I needed a replacement bulb, but when I went to look for one, there weren't any at the drugstore because it wasn't the Holiday Season yet.
Mirabile dictu, I actually remembered to try again when the Holiday Season started, and by gum they even had the silly bulbs... without the little green sockets on the bottoms. Needless to say, when I got the bulbs back to the house, there was no least trace of the stupid little green socket, which I figured I would never see again.
Murphy, however, had other plans. "Whom the Gods would destroy, they first give ADD." About two days ago, while moving stuff around on my desk in preparation for the arrival of the new-used monitor that actually got put on this Mac just about an hour ago, I actually found the little green socket.
Much good it will do me, however, without the @#$(*@#$%(*@+#*$ bulbs, which are (of course) nowhere to be seen. @#)$%*@#)+$*)#$ it.
(2001 XII 20/21)
I succumbed to the inevitable, and bought another set of
replacement bulbs; the main string now works. Needless
to say, when I went to plug in my other string, which
hangs in the bedroom, I discovered that it also had a
mashed bulb. Again needless to say, the mashed one was
the same color as the one I'd just used to repair the
big string. There are days when I wish Murphy would
quietly go @#)($*@#)_( himself, y'know?
(2001 XII 21)
This hitherto-unknown Mozart opera, the title of which is usually translated into English as "The Happy Bodger" (though perhaps "The Joyous Bodger" might be closer to the intent, if somewhat less literal), is one of those little 18th-century uncut and unpolished gems that one encounters from time to time in the Archives. Though clearly not his best work, else it would be much better known, "The Happy Bodger" (or, as it is sometimes known, "The Fourth Prince of Serendip") chronicles the activities of one Giogiovanni dei Baziliani through the hectic month of madness leading up to the parade at the beginning of Carnival. Giogio must construct a float for the parade with a fire-breathing dragon on it, and he must do so without killing or seriously injuring himself or anyone else in the vicinity, either during the construction and testing of the device or at the parade proper.
Working mostly alone, late at night, ....
Ahem. Good thing it's a comedy, eh?
To the Previous Biscuit, with a Caution: it is not a happy thing...
Pseudo-mailto: jon [at] bazilians [put it here] org
Last modified: Sun Jan 6 10:07:48 PST 2002