I became insane with long intervals of horrible sanity. Edgar Allen Poe
The trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most of one's time defending scoundrels. For it is against scoundrels that oppressive laws are first aimed, and oppression must be stopped at the beginning if it is to be stopped at all. - H. L. Mencken Many people would sooner die than think; In fact, they do so -Bertrand Russell What I have been telling you, from alpha to omega, what is the one great thing the sigil taught me — that everything in life is miraculous. For the sigil taught me that it rests within the power of each of us to awaken at will from a dragging nightmare of life made up of unimportant tasks and tedious useless little habits, to see life as it really is, and to rejoice in its exquisite wonderfulness. If the sigil were proved to be the top of a tomato-can, it would not alter that big fact, nor my fixed faith. No Harrowby, the common names we call things by do not matter — except to show how very dull we are ... -James Branch Cabell
February 05, 2018 - 10:26 a.m. I watched most of the Super Bowl yesterday; is that a stop the presses announcement? I suspect I have watched it quite often; it's just not a priority for me. If there's a concert or something else I want to do I won't stay home to watch the game. At least once I went food shopping, the stores are empty. If I'm home, I'll watch unless there is something else on that I very much want to see. Last night I missed the start of the game, I was listening to John Platt, but I went down to make dinner around 7:30 and watched from then on. I left then as the guest segment with Joanna Wallfisch was about to start. It's not that I don't like her, I love Jo; it's that I can listen to the guest segments on the archives. I was rewarded with perhaps the most exciting Super Bowl ever. It went down to the wire. It was a shootout, there were more yards gained then in any game in NFL history; not just the Super Bowl, any game ever. There was only one big defensive play and it happened in what looked like the Pats' final drive when Brady lovers were waiting for and Brady haters were dreading, one of his patented comebacks. When he was stripped of the ball I shouted out, "You suck Brady!" I cared. I didn't think I cared that much. I'm also aware that Brady might very well be the greatest of all time, it's him or Joe Montana, but he's also a schmuck. I hate him, and I hate the Pats' coach Belichick. He abandoned the Jets for New England. I was rooting for the Eagles as they are the first football team to follow the lead of first baseball and then basketball and use analytics. They do things like go for fourth down far more than most teams as analysis says they should. It paid off. So much is done because it's conventional wisdom, not because there's evidence that it works. That's true in almost every endeavor, not just sports. "That's the way it's always been done" is not a reason to do something. I loved that the Eagles twice went for it on fourth down, the announcers were shocked; I wasn't. This is the team's hallmark. It's been written up, they went with guy that brought them. I also had a scrumptious dinner, a pan grilled chicken fillet sandwich with cheese and fries. I had a hot fudge sundae with chocolate peanut butter ice cream for dessert. One of the best parts of the game was watching my friends' comments on Facebook. I have clever friends. I should have saved the best of them, so I could show you now. There were jokes about the game, Justin Timberlake, and Budweiser. I'm not a huge football fan, baseball and basketball are my games, but I love trolling Pats fans almost as much as I do Yankee fans. This is one of the great services that sports gives us. It gives us a safe outlet for tribalism. People know that when I call the Yankees and Pats fans evil I don't mean it. It's all in fun. It's much better than being tribal about religion, race, or nation; those things get people killed. I caught up on my TV, watching the latest episodes of Arrow and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.. That latter was great. Any other fans of the show out there? Despite all those good things I found myself being dragged into the Vortex of Depression as I went to sleep. It was served with a side of anxiety. The therapy has helped so much. I snapped myself right out of it with meditation. There is a part of me that wants to get sucked in and recount over and over the things that are wrong. The therapy makes me aware of that and then the meditation does its job. Now I'm going to read a scary email then eat breakfast. It's been five minutes since I wrote that last sentence as I'm debating on what to eat. I'll decide when I get to the kitchen. I signed the Pro-Truth Pledge: please hold me accountable.
Memories: Not that Horrid Song - May 29, 2018
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