Pause

If life can't have an undo button, then I think a pause button would also be useful.

It would be nice to once in a while pause life and take the day off. This may in fact sound just like taking a day off, but the problem with vacations and weekends, is that life continues to move forward while you are relaxing. You have to do a lot of catching up once you return. With a pause button, you could actually escape your worries for a time. You could take a moment and collect your thoughts without neglecting any other duties and obligations. That'd be nice.

Undo! Undo!

I think the Staples commercials with the Easy button are stupid, but I've decided life would be much improved if people had Undo buttons. Like the use in word documents, you'd only be able to undo so far back into the future, but at least if you made a mistake and immediately realized it, you could undo and try again. The world would be better for it.

... as long as it wasn't used for evil, as most useful things seem to be destined for.

What do you dress like?

Yesterday, one of my coworkers/classmates told me I always dress like an adult.

What does this mean? Is it good? Bad? How was I to respond?

I think I said,"Oh."

I have recently developed an aversion to pants, leading me to wear lots of skirts and dresses, but I'm not sure I understand the connection to adulthood. Maybe it's because I don't wear jeans as often ...

Fly or Fly Paper?

When I'm bored in class, along with critiquing people's hair cuts, I find myself creating analogies and metaphors. I think it all stems from several weeks ago when my editor shared one.

This is my newest:

Sometimes I feel like fly paper, but I don't want to catch flies. I'll notice one beginning to come a little close and I'll try to warn it. I mean fly paper gives out signals that it's fly paper. Alas, the silly fly will ignore all signals and come too close. Then it's stuck. I keep trying to brush it off, but it's no use, completely stuck. I've caught an unwanted fly and now have to deal with it. It's annoying.

All kinds of people can act like flies: the overly friendly stranger, an acquaintance who thinks you're close friends, and the most obvious and worst kind, which I prefer not to mention explicitly. It's not that I don't like people, but I like my space, and don't want them to be stuck to me. Everyone has a few unwanted flies.

But then I begin to wonder how many people think of me as a fly on their fly paper and decide maybe I shouldn't be so dramatic.

You are what you eat

I went on a food run with most of the ed board to Safeway yesterday evening. It was a chance to get something to eat other than dining center food. I went with a loaf of sourdough bread and several cheese sticks. I also got two giant cream puffs.

The bread and cheese lasted me through Sunday dinner and today's lunch and dinner. Similarly, I had one cream puff yesterday and one today. I bring all of this up only because I only just finished eating the last cream puff. They really were giant size and difficult to eat. The plastic fork wasn't cutting it, literally. I suppose I should also have picked up a plastic knife.

The puffs were filled with chocolate cream and had chocolate on top. I ate today's while wearing a white jacket. I managed not to get any chocolate on myself, a rare event, so kudos to me.

As we left Safeway, we discussed what our food options say about us. I was teased for having a bourgeoisie dessert while the copy chief's organic cream cheese was deemed elitist imperialistic oppression food.

I am fond of saying my character is full of contradictions. If what was said about my dessert is true, then even my food options contradict one another. The cream puffs may have been bourgeoisie, but bread and cheese is the meal of a peasant.

Don't ruin the holidays

Why?

Why are there Halloween cookies on display at Safeway?
It is not yet October.

Why?

Why was Christmas Vacation playing on the T.V.?
It's not even October yet.

There should be no Halloween references* until at least October. There should be no Thanksgiving references at least until after Halloween. There should be no Christmas references until after Thanksgiving. Everything has a time and place. It should be kept this way. Part of what makes the holidays enjoyable and special is that you have to wait for them. They aren't supposed to be around every day.

For shame.

*References include decorations, music, television, print, and casual conversations. This post is excluded.

Like a Fish Out of Water?

Last night, as I was trying to fall asleep, I started thinking about something I saw on a TV show I had just watched. The show was on the Discovery Channel and this lady had looked underwater and clearly seen sharks. This is something I just don't understand. How can you see such detail underwater without goggles? I have thought about this before and the only thing I can come up with is salt water. I am in the pool all the time and without goggles you can see shapes (which would explain the sharks), but you can't see details.

This is my possible theory: Maybe you can see more detail in salt water than you can in fresh/pool water. People's eyes are covered by a salty liquid. I know for a fact that chlorine affects your eyes. If you keep your eyes open underwater in a pool for too long, your eyes will get fuzzy and you'll see rainbows around lights and such. Trust me. I also know from experience that underwater in a freshwater lake you can see shapes and colors, but no details. However, I haven't spent much time underwater in the ocean recently, and I don't plan on doing so anytime soon. So maybe, because our eyes are salty we can see more detail under salty water. Maybe the mixture of the freshwater and the salty liquid of your eyes creates an estuary like anomaly. That could cause the eyes to blur and make it hard to see. On the other side of things, maybe saltwater mixing with the salty eye fluid does...something different.

I first really started thinking about this after I watched Poseidon. The characters spend quite a bit of time underwater motioning to each other, reading signs, doing whatever they have to to find their way out of the overturned ship. Kurt Russell's character even sacrifices himself to shut off the propeller blades. When he sees that the OFF button is broken, he flips a different switch to make the blades to spin the reverse direction, which allows the others to throw stuff into the blades and blow them up...blah blah blah. I don't see how this is possible. I realize it is a movie and fictional (it might be based on a true story actually), but it just makes me think. How did Russell's character see what the switches and buttons are for? He couldn't have been able to read the labels. Maybe saltwater does allow you to see better. I'll have to test this out someday.