31.01.09
The Library is Awesome
    I like wandering through the library and picking up random books. Whatever I end up with is usually an interesting measure of my current mood and interests. There was that one time of hopeless literary and professional optimism where I picked up Ayn Rand, James Joyce, Marcel Proust, Barbara Kingsolver, Rachel Carson, and a book on PHP. I read about half, didn’t even finish some of the books I started, renewed, still ignored the thing on PHP, then returned them.
    I scaled back since, sticking to the comfortable genres of contemporary lit, a book of Kingsolver essays instead of a novel, and the unsurprisingly appealing world of food writing.
    Today was a bit of a mystery; ambitious in places, with some more topical selections, and a few guilty pleasures. See what you make of the titles:
    Flesh and Blood
    The Satanic Verses
    Wrack and Ruin
    Good Bones and Simple Murders
    Insatiable: Tales from a Life of Delicious Excess
    Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
Speaking of which…

26.01.09
    Okay, seriously too much work to do at the moment.

23.01.09
   …anyway. I went to the dentist on Wednesday. I must have missed the tipping point where the dentist becomes your early indicator for the gradual erosion of the integrity your entire body. Previous to this, the dentist is about your casual commitment to your baby teeth, then making sure your adult teeth come in straight, and have adequate fluoride, and then maybe some nightmare with the wisdom teeth, but it’s all about growth and getting you set.
    Then it changes. Then you’ve passed the point where your teeth are as good as they’re going to be, and you find yourself doing maintenance for the long slide. At this last appointment, my hygienist detected a “groove” in one tooth and a “pit” in another; neither was “sticky”. I had her define “sticky” as I was imagining some eventual decay to the point where the “pit” became more like “tar pit”, trapping unwary animals within its murky depths. She explained that right now she couldn’t feel the irregularities with the dental tools. If it were more serious, they would “stick” in the groove, or something. They said they’d keep an eye on them, and I’m to pay attention while brushing, the next step would be nothing more serious than some kind of sealant (I hope).
    This is how it starts; sure, right now the worst symptom is some discolouration, but how long before we start on the vocabulary of the aged: the caps, bridges, veneers, and dentures? How long before good teeth enter the realm of nostalgia? Damn you, swift chariot of time, damn you.

22.01.09
    Sigh.

19.01.09
    There are a lot of things running through my brain right now, one is possibly a quote I can't pin down, something like; "Eternity is not an infinite amount of time, it is one moment that is indistinguishable from the next". Google was no help. I'm this close to bad emo poetry. I'm going to go live inside my head now.

10.01.09
    On Sunday I put together a PDF on how to make your own microscope at home. On Monday I foolishly agreed to design a journal cover, which had to be in that week. After sending in a draft that evening, I received word to do a poster, which had to be in on Tuesday. It qualified as real* work (just barely), so that got done during regular business hours. The journal cover got done on Wednesday. I put together a presentation board for the Museum, previewed the fossil auction, and set up our new camera on Thursday, then represented work at an event on Thursday night. The posters were on the walls by Wednesday or Thursday, and by Friday, the event was sold out**. I prepped graphics for a meeting on Friday, and in the chunks of time in between I updated or developed five websites, and started talks on a sixth.
    And so it explains the blank look when people ask “and what do you do in your spare time?” However, this week, between bus rides and procrastinating, I finished reading a novel. So there.
    *Versus the fake work of freelancing.
    **Figuratively, as the event is free, but “all the tickets were given away” seems less impressive.

06.01.09
    Classes are on again, curse the chaos of first week. Today’s line for the bus in the morning was the longest I’ve seen it in the history of this bus (and I’ve been on this here bus since they created the route back in ought 6, dagnabit). Inappropriately shod youngsters form mincing herds through the slush puddle that is campus, and lost wide-eyed students wander the hallways of my building. I can’t wait for April.