Category: Musings

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Solitude

I think the older I’m getting, the more introverted and anti-social I’m becoming.

I just want to do what I’m doing and not have anyone bother me.

I’m tired of being around people. Most of the time I find watching the dogs at the dog park more interesting than the people there.

I used to like to go places just to people watch, but lately I don’t even want to do that anymore.

I feel like I’m almost within grasping distance of a moment of enlightenment, but not quite there yet and no idea how to get closer. I’m missing something again.

I’m becoming Clint Eastwood’s character from Gran Torino.

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Political pontificating

Talking politics is something I try to avoid, mostly because it’s a topic I’m not all that well versed in aside from the sound bites I get through the news, or only develop half-formed opinions/responses.

Road tripping to Florence, SC yesterday though, there was a lot of NPR being listened to. Half-formed or not, I figured I might as well spit these thoughts out.

Prop 8

I fail to see how anybody can reasonably defend the position that gay marriage is ok as long as it’s not called a marriage. If you’re going to reserve the term “marriage” for only church/religion sanctioned unions, then I guess all those heterosexual couples that got married by a judge or some other officiant are SOL too.

Social Security

Employee social security taxes are apparently capped at something like the first $93k or so of your income. How much more could be added to the social security trust fund if the cap was removed? Perhaps not too much, but some is better than none, right?

Repealing the Bush tax cuts

When it came to extending unemployment benefits, there was much gnashing and wailing by Republicans who said that the extension shouldn’t be passed because it wasn’t paid for. Well, here’s a way to pay for it and maybe a few other things.

Cropmob

One word: genius
Back to my irregularly scheduled ramblings

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Politicking

The thought occurred to me today.

US politics isn’t about politicians representing their people.

It’s about politicians trying to convince the people that his/her beliefs are their beliefs.

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Heading into decade 5

The past 10 years, upon reflection, have been pretty interesting (in that Chinese proverb kind of way). Thanks to the blog, events of at least 6 of those years have been reasonably well documented.

Among the notable events:

Like previous decades, 4 had ups and some big downs (which are not documented), not unlike the economy. Heading into decade 5, PhD work will probably dominate the first half, although I’m looking forward to a lot of other fun things to go on as well.

So far it’s starting off on a pretty good note.

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How do I get off this ride?

This combination of work, school, research and regular life is starting to seriously kick my butt.

I think I’ve reached the point where I go “What the h*** was I thinking?!”

There are too many things going on. It’s tough trying to keep track of it all.

I have a tendency for being absent minded and having tunnel vision when I work on things. Normally it helps me focus on the task front of me and get things done. Lately it’s been getting me into trouble.

I’m involved in too many activities. The introvert in me is off in the corner whimpering.
To be fair, much of it is self-induced. I know I’m not working as efficiently as I can, and I’m not using the tools I have the way I should be to stay organized.

I have no plans on quitting anything. I have however reached the stage where the need to do things differently is finally hitting home. It’s one of those things that I knew I’d have to do, but was like “I can handle it. I’ll see how things go for now”.

“If you knew you’d have to do things differently, why didn’t you do it from the beginning?” Yeah, I’m dumb like that.

I need simple again.