Tuesday, February 21, 2012

clockspeak

The hands of my clock turned elastic while I imprinted these feelings in memory.
You must remember this.


It was all I had, all I've ever had, the only currency, the only proof that I was alive.

Memory.

-Abraham Verghese in Cutting for Stone, p.465

Monday, February 20, 2012

two-selfed?

We have an experiencing self and a remembering self, and the remembering self is more powerful.

-David Brooks, p379 from The Social Animal



Wednesday, February 15, 2012

All Things Round

What is forever?  It cannot be in time, because time can be measured, and forever cannot.  Time is inextricably tied up with place.  
- Madeline L'Engle


Time also, as I know it, seems inextricably tied up with memory.

Not sure how that relates to forever - but I've been thinking quite a lot about time and memory...mulling over this quote and a few others.

The distillation of this thought-process continues.Will probably involve more blabbery (<made it up, now it's real) on here soon.

Friday, February 10, 2012

Protestation-edition #1: My entire education feels like a fluke


DG: Are you double spacing after periods?
EM: yes
EM: why?
...
DG: You're only supposed to do one space.
EM: you're supposed to double-space!
DG: Some English teachers have been telling students that because you were supposed to because of the way typewriters worked, but that fact didn't carry over to computers.
DG: If it makes you feel better, I always double space, the first one in this paper just looked bigger and it made me think of that.
EM: !
EM: this is a total revelation to me
EM: you just turned the world upside down
DG: And actually, a lot of websites when you double space on them, they automatically compress it to one.
EM: I was about to be snarky and all like nuh-uh
DG: lol :)
EM: but, I googled it and you're RIGHT
DG: I figured you would be.
EM: (headbang)
...
EM: the thing is, we learned to type on computers!
EM: so why the hell did they ever teach us to double-space?
DG From teachers that learned on typewriters.
EM: worthless
DG: If you're like me, then you're going to be bothered by this revelation for a few weeks.  It was really annoying.
EM: I AM

{proof}

Friday, February 3, 2012

TGIF

It's (functionally) the weekend, which is cause for celebration.

One of my favorite parts of my job is when I get to travel.  Two weeks ago I went to Chicago, and I lingered in the city over the weekend (post-work).  I have awesome friends who just moved to the Second City, and so we caught up over beers (at a UK bar!) and then ventured out together to this really cool event that included a documentary screening, spoken word poetry and a break-dancing competition.

Amazing.

Friend and I concluded that it looks cool when tall people break dance, and thus we think Charlie should learn.

He's definitely got potential.


Happy dance-party-weekend!

Thursday, February 2, 2012

Last night.

When faced with more grad school essay writing prompts, I had the strength and perseverance to run away via convincing Charlie to build a fort with me.



And I'm pretty sure I can also add to the yesterday-accomplishments list:
Fstrained a finger muscle while attempting to floss my teeth.
{fortface}

WIN.

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Subconscious channeling

{before I know it, I'll be shopping for a pair of horned-rims}
I have become such an avid Brooks fan that I have begun to channel him without knowing.

Brooks:
We also live in a highly individualistic culture. When we’re shopping for a vacation we’re primarily thinking about Where. The travel companies offer brochures showing private beaches and phenomenal sights. But when you come back from vacation, you primarily treasure the memories of Who — the people you met from faraway places, and the lives you came in contact with.

from my 3 for '11 entry:
Although the initial pull was always to explore new places or rediscover old ones, the Who? always ends up trumping the Where? 

Great minds, I s'ppose.  {ha!}