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Monday, September 26, 2005

MountainCon 1

Stardate 59092.6 (9-26-2005)
Random notes: Kibizt (or kibbitz) is indeed Yiddish in origin, but it is an English word. I used it at dinner Saturday, and Drama wanted to know if I was Jewish. No, I'm not. English is a polygot language. I remember back in the mists of time reading that English absorbs words from other languages at a phenomenal rate. 10,000 new words were introduced within 50 years after the Norman invasion in 1066 A.D. (or C.E.), mostly synonyms. The example given was that before, there was only one word meaning "Of the king", kingly. The French speaking Norman persons added Majestic and Royal. This is
a good thing, since 'What a kingly view!' and 'You are a kingly pain in the behind'
just don't have the same ring. Just be glad I didn't drop into Techspeak (The words are English, but I have not idea what you said.)

Vaughn Armstrong talked about his obsessive-compulsive disorder as a child. I think just about every child has some sort of OCD. Patrick will ask how many minutes it will take to go from one place to another, and will expect an exact number. (I do the same thing, I just learned not to do it out loud.) That's probably not OCD, but I do it anyway.

Thomas scored his first goal in soccer Saturday. April was stuck with ferrying the kids from one game to the next, along with a birthday party and Cub Scout function. I got to read my ebook at the con.

I got a new laptop at work last week. This week I found what I had failed to transfer off the old one, all of the training manuals I have been working on for the past month. Not a big deal to lose, but annoying.

Someone sent me this:

Stress Management 101

A lecturer, when explaining stress management to an audience, raised a glass of water and asked, "How heavy is this glass of water? "
Answers called out ranged from 20g to 500g.

The lecturer replied, "The absolute weight doesn't matter. It depends on how long you try to hold it. If I hold it for a minute, that's not a problem. If I hold it for an hour, I'll have an ache in my right arm. If I hold it for a day, you'll have to call an ambulance. In each case, it's the same weight, but the longer I hold it, the heavier it becomes."

He continued, "And that's the way it is with stress management. If we carry our burdens all the time, sooner or later, as the burden becomes increasingly heavy, we won't be able to carry on."

"As with the glass of water, you have to put it down for a while and rest before holding it again. When we're refreshed, we can carry on with the burden. So, before you return home tonight, put the burden of work down. Don't carry it home. You can pick it up tomorrow. Whatever burdens you're carrying now, let them down for a moment if you can."

"Relax; pick them up later after you've rested. Life is short. Enjoy it!"

And then he shared some ways of dealing with the burdens of life:


--Accept that some days you're the pigeon, and some days you're the statue.

I'd rather be neither.

--Always keep your words soft and sweet, just in case you have to eat them.

But then many will not hear.

--Always read stuff that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it.

--Drive carefully. It's not only cars that can be recalled by their Maker.

--If you can't be kind, at least have the decency to be vague.

--If you lend someone $20 and never see that person again, it was probably worth it.

Not if his friends show up.

--It may be that your sole purpose in life is simply to serve as a warning to others.

I always thought my purpose was to insult everyone in the Universe in alphabetical order. Wait, that's Wowbagger.

--Never buy a car you can't push.

Then what's AAA for?

--Never put both feet in your mouth at the same time, because then you won't have a leg to stand on.

--Nobody cares if you can't dance well. Just get up and dance.

--Since it's the early worm that gets eaten by the bird, sleep late.

Depending on whether you are the worm or the bird. POV means a lot.

--The second mouse gets the cheese.

For the life of me, I can figure this one out.

--When everything's coming your way, you're in the wrong lane.

A variation on: "The light at the end of the tunnel is the headlamp of the oncoming train."

--Birthdays are good for you. The more you have, the longer you live.

See below.

--You may be only one person in the world, but you may also be the world to one person.

--Some mistakes are too much fun to only make once.

--We could learn a lot from crayons. Some are sharp, some are pretty and some are dull. Some have weird names, and all are different colors, but they all have to live in the same box.

--A truly happy person is one who can enjoy the scenery on a detour.

Major Premise: Man is mortal.
Minor Premise: I am a man.
Conclusion: I am mortal.
Loophole: If I act like a child, I'll live forever.
Acting like a child is good, but I'd love to EAT like a child again. The effects of a bad diet
show up this week:


Weight: 192.5 lbs
Mood: Strange (which is normal for me)
Music of the Moment: None. One of the wires pulled loose from my headphones. It bugs me to listen to music in one ear only.

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