Random disorganized thoughts

I have not much to offer in the way of coherence today. It’s been a long day, and I still have traces of The Cold That Wouldn’t Die – the gift that just keeps on giving and giving.

There were two separate door-to-door salespersons going around my building this evening. One wanted to offer me three free magazines as part of some promotional deal or other. When he asked me whether I read magazines, I saw a way out: I said no. (I actually don’t, at least not much.) The second salesperson was offering an alternative electricity plan, or something. I’m not sure. He showed me a sample bill, and guaranteed my rates wouldn’t go up. Or maybe not. I was pretty sure I didn’t want whatever it was.

My worst fears, in no particular order: death, being trapped in an enclosed space, drowning, poisonous snakes, any height I am at risk of falling off of, wearing out my welcome. Especially this last. I would rather hide away from the human race than go where I am not wanted.

I guess I’m officially middle-aged now: my hair is starting to go more and more gray. I swear it’s like time-lapse photography. If this keeps up, I’ll have to get a new driver’s licence, as I won’t look like my picture any more.

According to the CBC, Stephen Harper was less than supportive of the Kyoto Agreement when he was the leader of the former Canadian Alliance. In 2002, he wrote a letter that included the following: “Kyoto is essentially a socialist scheme to suck money out of wealth-producing nations.” Gosh!

Reading the small print of the service manual

I’m battling a headache right now – it’s Day 5 of my latest cold – so this will be a short entry.

I’m just starting to read U2 by U2, and found this from Bono:

Your nature is a hard thing to change; it takes time. One of the extraordinary transferences that happen in your spiritual life is not that your character flaws go away but they start to work for you. A negative becomes a positive: you’ve a big mouth: you end up a singer. You’re insecure: you end up a performer who needs applause.

And:

That to me is the spiritual life. The slow reworking and rebooting of a computer at regular intervals, reading the small print of the service manual. It has slowly rebuilt me in a better image. It has taken years, though, and it is not over yet.

As I see it, this is one of the few advantages of growing older: I’ve started figuring out a little bit more about how my thought processes function. This means that, hopefully, I am causing less harm to self and others, and maybe I can possibly make the world and other people slightly better off for having me around. At least, I can hope.

Signs of advancing age, Part XVII

Yet another sign that I’m growing older: I went to wrap Christmas presents today, and discovered that I had some wrapping paper saved up from last year. I even had some left over – I might be able to use it next year too.

A small consolation: most older people don’t listen to Clem Snide while they wrap their Christmas presents. Clem Snide is what Wilco would sound like if they didn’t bother to get out of bed in the morning: they’re so laid back that they’re practically bent over backwards. I like them. “Tonight I feel like Elvis looking for his long-lost twin.”

Short shameful confession: I have become addicted to Nethack again. Maybe it’s because this version is so damn hard: I think I’ve made it to level 10 once. But, each time, I think I got killed because of some dumb mistake – a mistake I won’t make next time, no sir. I probably need a life. Or maybe two.

If I had to reduce my music collection to just one artist, I’d pick Neil Young. Who else can both rock out and write such wonderful slow sad songs? (For some reason, “Star of Bethlehem” always breaks my heart when I hear it.) And he still thinks of himself as Canadian, even though he has lived in California for so many years: he went to the trouble of performing at Live 8 in Barrie a couple of years ago.

Metafilter has a link to a New York Times article which lists 15 questions couples should ask each other before marrying. Question 7 in this list is Will there be a television in the bedroom? I suppose that this is equivalent to Would you prefer watching television to having sex?

Metafilter readers have suggested the following questions to be added to the Times list:

• Let’s assume an electric train had departed from Boston at 6:35 am. As it travels en route to Chicago, it accelerates to a rate of 45 miles per hour…
• Bon Scott AC/DC or Brian Johnson AC/DC?
• If Lemmy and God got into a fight, who would win?
• What do you like the temperature of the air around you to be?
• Are you now, or have you ever been, a member of the Communist Party?
• Have you EVER considered letting me win?
• Lennon or McCartney?
• Is the the toilet paper supposed to unroll ‘over’ or ‘under’?

And the make-or-break question:

• Which operating system?