The Aerie
Oh, hello, it's Saturday?
I'm back to the "Well that's just silly!" stage of life management.
You know, where I'm in a rocket-car to the future, and the weekends
are whipping past like ignored stoplights?
I mean, this is ridiculous. I'm not unhappy, I just can't believe how
fast time is passing. Heck, JANUARY is almost over, and I'm still
trying to get with the program!
One of the first losses I take when life gets like this are my daily
resolutions -- it's hard to be sure I get to the gym every day when
the days go by so fast I hardly notice them. I did get another
sub-20:00 row (19.53.8) in this week, but aside from that not too
good.
And they had to go put a scale back in the men's locker room again...
Unless I was wearing 5 lb. underwear I've put on a little weight over
the holidays. Not that that's any big surprise, but it's frustrating.
And I have to confess to letting myself fall into a bad old habit:
online conference boards. I really have to quit again.
Of course, I had a good reason
TITLE:a friend recently became the administrator of a fairly sizable
conference board website. It seemed only polite to log in again and
contribute to a few of the discussions.
The next thing I know I'm wasting my time arguing with the same old
thick-headed conservatives that seem to infest every board. Really, I
get the sense that some agency distributes them evenly across the
nation.
"Okay, Smith, you're assigned to troll the ABC board
TITLE:make sure that NO meaningful conversation takes place! Jones,
you troll the XYZ board, and remember -- sidetrack, then terminate! I
don't want to see any relevant discussion lasting more than three
messages!"
So instead of putting what little free time I have to good use -- say,
posting journal entries or chatting on friendly mailing lists that
make me feel good -- I end up playing Conceptual All-Star-Wrestling
with morons who think that Big Business, the Media, and all Government
are socialist left-wing pinko commie conspiracies. Really, it makes me
wonder how -- or if -- we ever evolved intelligence.
I have to give that up too. Yeah, I get a kick out of practicing
mental judo on these midgets, but I've been told I come across nasty.
Between looking bad and wasting my time, these conferences are a bad
idea for me. I'll add my conference link to my NetHack binary as
things I just can't let myself do until such time as I have, what is
that again? Oh yeah, "free time."
Speaking of free time, I've been trying to begin recording the books I
read on this thing -- not because anyone out there cares, but because
I lose track myself. How many times have I bought a book and read it
either partly or completely, only to suddenly realize I've read it
before, and in fact it's right over there on my bookshelf? More than
once.
So I figure if I post them on here I can (someday when I have my
web-browsable cell phone) check before purchasing whether I've read a
given book or not. Okay, that will never actually work (I'm just not
that organized), but what the hell. Anyway I've finally gotten around
to picking up Neal Stephenson's "[1]Cryptonomicon."
On the one hand it's disappointing because, well, I was expecting
cyberpunk (or cypherpunk as the case may be), and what I'm getting has
no science-fiction elements in it (in fact some parts are rather
dated). On the other hand, it's a fun little read. Stephenson has such
a merry narrative voice that it's easy to forgive the typos,
inconsistencies, and occasional lapses when he goes off to the
restroom and leaves Bruce Schneier alone at the keyboard.
I guess at 1000 pages, it had better have an engaging narrative voice.
Reading it is entertaining because of the length. With a normal
250-page novel, I can finish it in about one or two days. And when I'm
facing a week of work, it's frequently easier and less stressful to
just eat the novel and get done with it than put it down and have it
tempt me for the entire week. With this thing, no way: I can't eat
that novel, not in any one sitting. I've been reading for 300 pages,
and I can't even tell where the plots are or where they are going. For
all I can tell this novel just keeps telling its story until it stops.
And if I try to stay up all night to finish it, I'll be up until next
Tuesday.
So I can easily put it down and pick it up later knowing that I won't
be finishing the thing today or anytime soon.
Well, now we see what happens when I don't post journals for a whole
week: 10K of meaningless, directionless drivel! Now, however, it's
time to pack up the family and head off to see 'Much Ado About
Nothing' at the U of M Rarig Center theater. Twenty two years ago I
was in that same theater lusting after Didi Bencriscutto, and now I'll
be there with the wife and three kids.
Like I said, I'm strapped into a rocket-car into the future. Whoosh!
There goes another week...
[2]Last
Posted by Albatross at January 25, 2003 12:00 AM