“I should be doing my homework now. But the way I see it, playing in the snow is a lot more important. Out here I’m learning skills that I can apply throughout the rest of my life — procrastinating and rationalizing.” – Bill Watterson, Calvin and Hobbes

Earlier this evening, when it was still snowing, I thought maybe I wouldn’t have to go to work tomorrow, and I went in search of forecast information and news from the University. Everything I’ve read, however, confirms my worst fear: I will have to go to work tomorrow. The University will be open. It has not snowed enough. Such is life. At least I have this little irony to amuse me:

“THE CAMPUS WEATHER SERVICE MEETING SCHEDULED FOR SUNDAY, JANUARY 6 HAS

BEEN CANCELLED DUE TO INCLEMENT WEATHER CONDITIONS.”

Now if it would just start snowing again…

Rygel: No dominar from the House of Rygel ever travels in reverse!

John: Turn around, pretend you’re heading forward.

– Farscape

It doesn’t take much more than a nozzle spraying you, your shoes, and the side of your new car with gasoline to make you feel like an idiot. I don’t know how much spilled, but it was enough. The ground was splashed, my shoes were splattered, and I’m almost certain I paid for more than actually found its way into my tank. It’s a new car, and I’ve almost never pumped my own gas — only twice before, actually — so I was a little worried I might make some dumb mistake. But not so worried I thought gasoline would start geysering from the nozzle in all directions. It’s impossible to stand there while that happens, desperately trying to stop it from happening, and look like anything but an idiot. This is what I get for trusting machines and trying to follow the directions they give me. Where’s a decent Butlerian Jihad when you need it?

“Distrust everything I say. I am telling the truth.” – Ursula K. Le Guin

Don’t believe anything you read. The internet is not to be trusted.

There is saying, “Good judgement comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgement.” Tonight, driving home, I heard this on the radio, and I thought, being something of a quote junkie, that it might be nice to know who’d said it. My well-thumbed copy of Bartlett’s Famous Quotations was no help, so I turned to that purveyor of misinformation, the internet, and moseyed on over to Google.

The quote is attributed, if at all, to John Higdon (sometimes as Higdon’s Law), Jim Horning, Mark Twain, Rita Mae Brown, Garrison Keillor, Christian Slater, Bob Dylan, “the great cardiac surgeon, C. Walton Lilihei”, “an old Cowboy prayer”, “Walter Wriston, banker”, Brigadier J. W. Lang, Simón Bolívar, “a famous American CEO”, a “famous Chinese proverb”, Arthur Jones, John Fullbright, Fred Brooks, Jay B, Anthony Robbins, “the sage and wisdom of our dear friend Emery”, Barry LaPatner, Barry LePatner, Evan Hardin, and of course, your friend and mine, the most prolific writer of his day, Anonymous.

Like I said, the internet is not to be trusted.

“Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.” – Samuel Beckett

A few resolutions for this brave new year, 2002:

  • I will write something that will change the world. If this change is not immediate, irrevocable or earth-shattering, and if the only world it affects is my own, that will be enough. I will finish the stories that have stalled in my head. I will put pen to paper and craft new worlds from whole cloth. I will write or die trying.
  • I will read more. My goal will be a new book every two weeks, give or take depending on length, averaging some two dozen for the year. I would like to read at least one new book every week, if not more, but I have a job and responsibilities, and I know myself too well to make promises like that.
  • I will keep in touch with old friends, write letters, answer emails, remember birthdays. I will remember to thank others when they do the same.
  • I will do something unexpected, I will do something that frightens me, and I will learn something new every day. I will be wiser when the year is through, and I will still have much to learn.


Me and my new (eternal blue pearl-colored) car. Bring it on.

“Happy Endings” by Margaret Atwood:

So much for endings. Beginnings are always more fun. True connoisseurs, however, are known to favor the stretch in between, since it’s the hardest to do anything with. That’s about all that can be said for plots, which anyway are just one thing after another, a what and a what and a what. Now try How and Why.

Happy New Year.