A great article on how the more stuff you have, the more it begins to own you:
I have too much stuff. Most people in America do. In fact, the poorer people are, the more stuff they seem to have. Hardly anyone is so poor that they can’t afford a front yard full of old cars.
Since I was getting mountains of comment-spam, and nobody was actually making any comments anyway, I’ve removed/disabled the comments link. When I have a spare moment I’ll look into the various tools to reduce comment-spam and re-enable it using one of those.
“Complex decisions are best left to your unconscious mind to work out, according to a new study, and over-thinking a problem could lead to expensive mistakes.”
I knew it!
Great films I saw this weekend (between packing boxes):
Thunderbirds are go again! At least Captain Scarlet might be.
Ah yes … Tuesday already. Todays highlight has been the UPS guy delivering some accesories for my Weber BBQ: a sturdy cover to keep it looking good, and a cast iron griddle for griddling things (fish, vegtables and the like). Now all we need is better weather than we’ve had for the last few days …
No … honestly … this week I’ll start full scale blogging. Honest. Last week was just a tease. A trailer if you like.
Which is a nice segway into talking about Star Wars. I’m ambivalent on the newly released Episode II: Attack of the Clones. Whilst I grew up as part of the Star Wars Generation, I wasn’t over excited about Episode I coming out (although I did go to the cinema to see it). For this one, I’m not so sure. The reviewers are not treating it kindly, and whilst that’s never a good way to judge a film, I’m all for going to see films which I know absolutely nothing about. Never seen the trailer. Don’t know who’s in it. Barely even remember the title. Of course this is where I’m supposed to quote my favourite films of all time based on these criteria … and I’m drawing a blank. Err … bear with me … Ah yes, Run Lola Run would be a good example.
Maybe I could do “Monday Morning Top Ten” lists, since I’m such a fan of making lists. So in no particular order, here’s my top 10(ish) favourite film .. of all time .. subject to change without notice. And before you ridicule me for some of the choices, bear in mind some of them are chosen for their context in time rather than their cinematic excellence:
Well, the time has come. It’s taken a while. I’m finally going to commit to my Blog. I think I need the structure and order it gives or implies. Rationalize my time and thoughts.
Not quite sure what that all means … but clearly it’s profound!
Monday is Patriot’s Day, which is a State holiday in Massachusetts, so it’s a long weekend. The City of Boston uses this opportunity to host the Boston Marathon on that day (so if you’ve ever wondered why the Boston Marathon is on a Monday, rather than the more usual Sunday, now you know!). As a result the place goes a little bit ‘marathon crazy’ for the weekend. There’s a big expo on at the Hynes Convention Center (sic) which is a good source for free PowerBars and the like. Lots of vendors come and sell last years running and fitness gear for knock down prices. It fun but chaotic! Also the streets round Back Bay start to close off as m-day approaches. It’s madness in such a busy city with so many small one way streets, but folks seem to cope.
Today was DIY Saturday for me. The weather is (was this morning) beautiful, so I split my time between sealing the cracks between the floor boards under the kitchen cabinets and treating the roof deck. The kitchen needed doing because unfortunately the 3 guys who live downstairs smoke, so when they have a particularly big night the apartment reeks of stale smoke as if someone had been smoking in here. I don’t want to know what goes on down there — I suspect some serious dodgy tobacco — but I’m blaming my recurring headaches and bad nights sleep on them.
Today looks like it’s shaping up to be one of “those days”. A bit of Yin and Yang. The weather is a beautiful outside - spring has definately arrived with beautiful blue skies, a light breeze and blossoms on the trees. In contrast, here in the office it’s dark: there’s little motivation to do anything, and the stock is dropping like a stone (off another 6% this morning). Must try to focus on the long term, but it’s hard given the way the media buzzes about these things. Some times I long for simpler times when information wasn’t quite so accessible.