Waking time

What is it like for me to wake up? Well, first I look around.


I put my glasses on and sit up. My glasses help me wake up. But I like to stay under the covers for a long time, because I dislike the temperature differential. The light fixture always reminds me of a mammary gland.



My landlord was proud of the new mammary gland light covers, featuring them when I moved in, but he didn't say much about this hole in the ceiling. I live in a building with two apartments. They are adjoined by the attic. So, that little flimsy board and tiny screw serve as reminders that if I forget to flip over the deadbolt on the door occasionally, maybe it's not the end of the world. If I were a shady neighbor and I REALLY wanted to get in, I'd definitely sneak through the attic.


This is my view when I roll over to my left side. As you can see, I consider computers, books and papers worthy investments, but furniture is not. I've had that little tv stand since 1998 and I keep my clothes in Tupperware containers. I'm so addicted to the internet that I play online in my bed. I also have a computer in my living room, but that's for my really heavy computing needs. If I weren't trying to be a least a little reasonable, I'd have a cell fancy phone with the internet on that too. Hell, I'd sign up for a computer chip brain implant if I could Google things inside my head. That would really be great!



I sleep with my door open. I know a lot of people don't. Fortunately, I have lived alone most of these past 6 years since I graduated college, so keeping the door open really doesn't matter. What a luxury living alone is! I can keep everything just as I want it. I'm not especially obsessive-compulsive about order, but I do like keeping the dishes clean and the floor free of debris. Chores are so much less onerous when you know it's definitely YOU who made the mess.



My nightstand reveals some of my habits; more books and papers stacked everywhere so that there is only room for a box of tissues, a waterbottle, and a spoon. I make it a point to drink water before bed, because it makes me feel like I'm doing a good thing for my body. The spoon is evidence of my tea drinking habit. I drink tea day and night, though I try to switch to herbal long before bedtime.



No, she's not really snoring... as you can see her eyes are open. Both my cats, Foxtrot and Tango, like to sleep right on top of me all through the night. I don't think it's so much because they love me, but rather because I'm warm. It's only Foxtrot who makes this cute snoring noise when she's in a cuddly purring mood.

MOST economist agree....

I am writing to remind everyone that "agreement" is not always evidence of good sense.

Just because it is a group of doctors, scientists, or economists who are doing the agreeing, doesn't mean that particular majority enjoys an automatic exemption from being wrong.

So you can tell me that the value of Keynesian economic insights are "agreed" upon by "most" economists, and it will still sound like "Most doctors choose Camel cigarettes," to me.

Have no idea what I'm talking about? Don't worry, most people don't.



P.S. Just trying to be challenging and witty, not rude. It's not a reasonable expectation that most people ought to be versed in the entire history of economic thought. It would simply be that way if I had my druthers, because *I* think it's cool. But I'm just another blogger among millions, don't mind me. :)

A quote for the times in which we are living

"Anyone who says that economic security is a human right, has been too much babied. While he babbles, other men are risking and losing their lives to protect him. They are fighting the sea, fighting the land, fighting disease and insects and weather and space and time, for him, while he chatters that all men have a right to security and that some pagan god – Society, The State, The Government, The Commune – must give it to them. Let the fighting men stop fighting this inhuman earth for one hour, and he will learn how much security there is."

~ Rose Wilder Lane (1886–1968)

Lasting effects ....

I bought those Debbie Meyer's Green Bags "As Seen On TV" in an effort to attain long-lasting veggie freshness. I know you've seen them, and you've wanted the very same thing for yourself, haven't you? Hey, it's natural. There are many things in the world that humans try to keep going "just one more day."

Take the economy for instance. Wouldn't it be nice if instead of deteriorating further, we could wrap it in some sort of miracle packaging that will arrest its natural progression? Indefinitely?

(Special plastic didn't work for the celery, but maybe a bureaucratic committee can pass a law that will buy us some time...)

One of my friends forwarded me an email he got this week. It said the following:

Following yesterday’s meeting of the Board of Directors it was decided to institute a temporary Wage and Salary Freeze for all employees effective immediately. This action will be reviewed and the end of the first Quarter 2009 with one of two possible outcomes:


* Extend the Freeze Indefinitely


* Rescinded Retroactively


Your support and cooperation will be appreciated.

Events can be delayed, but rarely are they avoided completely.

But that fact that we can't pervert the natural progression of things is good, right? Because who wants an "indefinite" wage freeze, anyway?

And I wouldn't eat celery that lasted too long either.

One-in-a-lifetime versus day-to-day

Because humans are born, live for some finite period, and then die, we tend to assume that all of the really defining moments in life are singular events. A wedding. A car crash. Winning the lottery. Just once is enough.

Just one time is enough times to change the course of a life forever.

While it is true that turning points do indeed tell the story of an individual's life, I have found that the human condition is better described by its thousand-times-over events. It's what we do again and again that truly impacts our lives and shapes who we are.

I think we can be grateful for the repetitive nature of life. Personally, I'm rooting for a zillion more heartbeats to come, even if each one is not particularly thrilling.

While the everyday may be associated with drudgery and monotony, I contend it is a far more desirable to have life described by the phrase "one day at a time" than by "do or die."

At least, most of the time.