Waaaaaall-eeee

The space rover Spirit recently encountered softsoil on Mars and is no longer mobile. Scientists are unsure whether they will be able to manipulate Spirit's wheels to release it from the soil. If not, Spirit may just have to sit there and study what it can. Poor Spirit! Meanwhile, Spirit's robot twin Opportunity is having a grand old time on its two year trek to the Endeavor crater.

A return

I'm back! Makin' a comeback! Its been a long, long while (ok, about a year, which in the grand scheme of things, is not that long) but I hope to make this run last a while. Although "a while" is really relative.

My goal is to post. Anything. Substance is not a criteria. Just to warn you.

So...here goes!

Perspective

The pessimist complains about the wind
the optimist expects it to change
the realist adjusts the sails.


--William Arthur Ward

Naughty, naughty

Yale University's Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library has a blog where they post "visual and textual curiosities" from their vast and diverse collections. My favorites so far of the items they've published are images of "naughty" novelty baseball cards from the early twentieth-century (circa 1910):

Particularly this last one:

Way to take one for the team. ;)

You can take the girl out of New York, but you can't take New York out of the girl

Oh wait, yes you can.

In the 5 months that I've been in Hawaii, and thus the 5 months that I've left New York, the nostalgia pangs have hit me perhaps thrice, and I'm pretty sure two of those times I was a bit buzzed (making me more susceptible to irrational emotion). I definitely don't miss the rush, the noise, the pollution, and I don't even miss the perks of the world's best restaurants, artists and museums. In fact, I am much more satisfied to buy non-brand names, to use coupons at grocery stores, and to cook mundane meals consisting of the main dish, the occasional starch and the ubiquitous side of green salad.

Is this the "me" I've been looking for? The "me" I could never find in New York? The "me" that I left Hawaii to discover only to discover it was home in Hawaii all along?

Its been one hell of a rollercoaster ride. In my more idealistic days, I would carry the banner "Live without regrets," using it as an excuse to do what I pleased as long as I remembered to not regret whatever it was that I was doing. As if I actually had control over that. Now that I am older, and more realistic, I do regret. A lot.

Yet despite my regrets, I am spectularly happy to be where I am now. I am very excited about my future. I'm excited to go back to school, I'm excited to get 2! Masters degrees, and I am excited to marry Dave.

I guess I done growned-up.

Sometimes, irony just makes me want to spit.

"If we pride ourselves on our humility we may end up like the man given a small medal as the most humble person in town. He had it taken away when he was seen wearing the medal in public."

To be alive

To be alive: not just the carcass
But the spark.
That's crudely put, but…

If we're not supposed to dance,
Why all this music?

-by Gregory Orr