“‘The unknown,’ said Faxe’s soft voice in the forest, ‘the unforetold, the unproven, that is what life is based on. Ignorance is the ground of thought. Unproof is the ground of action. If it were proven that there is no God there would be no religion….But also if it were proven that there is a God, there would be no religion….Tell me, Genry, what is known? What is sure, predictable, inevitable — the one certain thing you know concerning your future, and mine?’

‘That we shall die.’

‘Yes. There’s really only one question that can be answered, Genry, and we already know the answer….The only thing that makes life possible is permanent, intolerable uncertainty: not knowing what comes next.'” – Ursula K. Le Guin, The Left Hand of Darkness

“Getting an inch of snow is like winning ten cents in the lottery.” – Bill Watterson, Calvin and Hobbes

Today is an Almost Snow Day, the sort of day when the snow is deep enough that you want to stay home, and you know the only sane course of action is to stay home, but you can’t stay home because you have a job and it’s still open for business. An Almost Snow Day is a terrible start to the week, just enough of the real thing to make getting to work a wet and icy chore, but not enough to keep you toasty warm in your bed watching cartoons or reading a book, which is the sensible place to be on a Monday morning like this. The University was on a two-hour delay this morning, and the buses are running slow, so I’m here later than expected. But I’m still here. And that hardly seems fair.

“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.