When a thing ceases to be a subject of controversy, it ceases to be a subject of interest.
- William Hazlitt

Study without desire spoils the memory, and it retains nothing that it takes in.
- Leonardo da Vinci

This is freaking me out. Morgan Stanley, Allstate, Lehman, and WaMu all closed exactly even today.

I wouldn't have thought, but the internal speaker on the iPod touch is a killer feature.

There are two things that will be believed of any man whatsoever, and one of them is that he has taken to drink.
- Booth Tarkington

If a man is offered a fact which goes against his instincts, he will scrutinize it closely, and unless the evidence is overwhelming, he will refuse to believe it. If, on the other hand, he is offered something which affords a reason for acting in accordance to his instincts, he will accept it even on the slightest evidence. The origin of myths is explained in this way.
- Bertrand Russell

Three blades of lameness.

Overslept yesterday but still needed to shave from the weekend's growth. Had found some Mach 3 cartridges while cleaning the other day and figured I could give that a swing, just to make sure my new safety razor lifestyle was as awesome as I thought.
Verdict? Mach 3 fail. It felt like an ineffectual toy. I went with the grain and, compared to my safety razor with the grain lazy shave it was woefully inadequate. Sure, it takes a few more minutes when I do the full two-way shave, but it has a much better final product with waaaaay less ingrown hair.

Just had a dream come crashing back that I had last night. I knew I had an awesome one, but it took a lot of work to tease it back out of my brain.

The dream was that I had not seen the first episode of Mad Men, but I was watching it in the most vivid way possible. It turns out that the first episode deals with Don Draper being a time traveller from the future that had to be born in the past in order to travel there. He was very disappointed with where he was born. So he grew up unhappy, married several times in different parts of the country, always knowing what the future was going to bring but angry with how the time travel worked out. He keeps restarting his life in different places while trying to evade those that were sent from the future to prevent him from interfering. This first episode even has his kid figuring out that his dad is from the future. Eventually he finds his way to Madison Avenue and becomes crazy successful because he can just recall what successful advertising campaigns had happened. It also explains why he doesn't vote or care about politics - he knows he can't change the future.

Hmm.. Will today be the day that breaks the pattern of horrible Tuesdays? Things look promising so far.. Perhaps my head straightening last Wednesday has proved effective.

Free advice is worth the price.
- Robert Half

Exercise

Ran/walked 2.5 miles. Sprinted another 1/8 mile. 30 pushups before, 20 pushups after. Would have worked on the machines in the main room, but it was a madhouse in there.

On benchmarks..

On a benchmark note, my car turned 50,000 miles today. I took a picture, to timestamp the event. I wonder how the Civic feels about it? Lauren got it a nice inside and out wash, so hopefully it feels good. 40,000 miles I've put on it since November '06. An average of 1,481 miles a month or 17,777 miles a year. Vroom vroom.

Thirty something something.

Well, it's happened. I've gone beyond the veil. When I was young, I always felt like I was simultaneously existing as an older person - somewhere in my 20s. Then when I was in my 20s, I felt like I was simultaneously existing as that younger self. When I read Slaughterhouse Five I almost freaked out because that was exactly how my life felt.

The other simultanaiety that started when I was about five was with death. I suppose when I am dying I will feel that simultanaiety with every point in my life.. But it really has skewed my mental processes all my life - knowing innately that I am going to die and feeling like there is nothing on the other side.

So, out of those two dualities, one is apparently gone. It feels like I'm able to focus a little more on things. It IS the first days of the rest of my life. I work with people who have had twice as much life as I've even gotten past. I know I'm supposed to respect that, but after having conversations with them, I mostly feel more self-respect for what *I* know and am capable of. So that means that all the stuff I've accomplished in the last 30 years are a platform for getting a really solid 30-35 years of shit done. And I'll get to where these other people are and I'll feel even better.

I can finally get past the "I don't want to be where that guy is when *I* turn 30" fear. I don't live in my parents' basement. I have a degree. I have an awesome wife. Guess it's time to stop worrying about where I'll be at 30 and, once again, get shit done.

Perhaps I need that as a tattoo somewhere that I can see. Maybe on my knee, so it will remind me when I'm sitting on the can. "Get shit done." It?ll serve multiple purposes. Perhaps a test run with a Sharpie is a good idea, though.

On the theme of the big three-oh, I'm already testing my focus-ability. This week is reading week. I have the dining room set up as the reading room and that will be where my ass stays when I'm not working out. I have books on Creationism, financial planning, asset allocation, and the origin of Wolverine to get through. All enlightening, I can assure you. (you, meaning me, who is the one that reads this.)

Ach! Mein Playlist!

I've been listening to so much music lately, it's broken my super automatic playlist. All of the subsections of the playlist that are supposed to pull music from certain criteria and not played in the last 3 weeks are suddenly running out of things to play. It's supposed to be 150 tracks total, but could only pull together 135 when I synched this morning. Guess I'll have to deal with it or let songs cycle faster... Hmm..

A bad sign

It's a bad sign when your wife visits your workplace and you spend part of the time regaling her with stories about the interesting quarters you've gotten as change from the convenience store in the lobby. Yeah, it's weird that you got so many 1965s, but..

Illegal aliens have always been a problem in the United States. Ask any Indian.
- Robert Orben

While sitting in traffic today and meditating upon the 'baby on board' sign on the car in front of me - you know, trying to figure out what kind of sign I would put on my car to say it's ok to hit me - said car decided to pull into oncoming traffic on Roosevelt because the person they were following was going too slow. I'm not sure what that means, exactly. He did end up stopped at a stop light about 5 seconds later, though.