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Thursday, September 11, 2003

Regrets...
I've had a few.
But then again,
Too few to mention!
--"My Way",
written by Paul Anka
When I hear that song, I think of Frank Sinatra, and sometimes Elvis or Sid Vicious -- all of whom have been known to perform, in their own unique manner, that wonderful song. Wonderful because -- though I don't always enjoy hearing it, I've heard it so much -- the song is a wonderful personal anthem. That's something we all need: a personal anthem. A song that praises our individuality; a mark of devotion to oneself. After all, they say you're going to have a helluva time loving anyone else unless you've first learned to love yourself, right?

This is not to replace your love for your God, or your spouse, or your family. I'm simply saying that we all need to give ourselves a bit more self-love at this time of year. (No, not that type of self-love !) Too many of us beat up on ourselves throughout the year, and then nearly destroy ourselves at year's end. No wonder there are so many suicides during the Holidays; the messages bombarding us are to Buy Buy Buy and to Give Give Give -- but what if you have nothing to give but love? If you have a dearth of that good stuff, then you'll have a bitch of a time spreading it around to your neighbors.

So be good to yourself, whether you're Christian, Pagan, Wiccan, Athiest, Hindu, Islamic, Mormon, Podcastin, or otherwise. Don't take the pills, they won't do you or anyone else any good; you'll simply miss out on the Next Big Thing (which may turn out to be Your Next Big Thing). Just do things your own way, singing that little hymn as you do so:
For what is a man,
What has he got?
If not himself,
Then he has naught.
To say the things,
He truly feels,
And not the words,
Of one who kneels.
The record shows,
I took the blows
And did it my way!

Monday, March 30, 2009

Now it's night; my body aches. It's time to check into bed soon. I suppose it was a good day, all in all. Not much exercise, though. I'll have to figure out a way to get that going more regularly. One long walk every few weeks just won't cut it. The heart needs more -- always so, so much more.

At least: At least I learned a few things today. Today I spent much of the day working on the labs for my PHP programming course. It's fun stuff, once I get into it. Problem is getting into it. That is, the problem is getting myself to ignore all the other distractions and get down to studying and scripting (programming).

posted by Harold  3/30/2009 12:54:00 AM | 0 Comments | Links to this post

Sunday, March 29, 2009

Coffee’s brewing. I’m thinking brewin’ but I’m not from the South (though I may be soon...but that’s another story). Now the coffee’s to mouth. That happened quick, didn’t it? I took a moment between sentences to stir up my brew and pour it into my cup. A lot can happen between sentences. Any particular moment in life: a breathe, an activity. A lot of living, breathing activity.

Imagine all the things that can happen between blog posts.

My cup is half empty now. Half full? How many clichés...never mind. (Did you know that nevermind is a common misspelling of never mind? I didn’t. My word processor let me know, just now.) Coffee’s done. Maybe I should place the sentences faster. Maybe I should think less. Edit my thoughts less. (I edit my thoughts a lot. Sometimes I edit them right out of existence. That’s why there’s so few blog posts.)
posted by Harold  3/29/2009 11:57:00 AM | 0 Comments | Links to this post

Sunday, March 01, 2009

Childhood's End Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke


My review


rating: 4 of 5 stars
I'm close to giving it five stars, but so far I've made it a habit to do that only rarely. This was one fantastic story about the possible purpose and end-result of an alien visitation/occupation. Difficult to say much without giving away the fun; just remember this: the description of the alien race is *quite* interesting, perhaps the most interesting I've ever encountered (ahem, pun intended).


View all my reviews.
posted by Harold  3/01/2009 11:57:00 PM | 0 Comments | Links to this post

Businesses in Huntsville, Alabama

*

I once posted, in this space (this right column), the following:

If I had friends they would be listed here

That particular bit o' text, that silly and idiotic phrase, was repeated a dozen or two dozen or so times and was intended to be temporary. I had been working on a project -- a new layout for this blog -- and had intended for that text to be placeholder content. That is, the text was supposed to temporarily replace the content that had previously occupied this column (which was a list of links to friends -- that is, other blogs and web sites I linked to). I didn't know what content I was going to place into that (this) space, so I placed a bunch of duplicate phrases here as a placeholder so that I would remember to fill in this space again later.

At the same time, I thought I was being cute with the heading:

NEW & IMPROVED FRIENDS!

The fact remains: I still don't know what content to put here, in this column. Links again? Pictures? Video? Audio? Ads? Oh, hell no! It hasn't come to me yet, but I'm sure it will eventually, and when it does it'll come quick and (as usual) with consequences.