Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Random bullets of diversion for those on a break

  • When cats sit on your desk and then stare fixedly behind you at a spot on the wall, and you look, and there's nothing there, are they saying to themselves "Ha! Made you look"?

  • Is there any phrase more ridiculous than "failure is not an option"? Failure is ALWAYS an option, even if no one likes to think so, and the imminent possibility of failure is likely to be the reason why someone says "failure is not an option" in the first place. What people mean is "we will try very hard not to fail." What's so difficult about saying that?

  • When caught behind a slow-moving bus, car, or 18-wheeler on a two-lane road, do you spend several minutes silently willing them to turn off at the next exit and give a mental "Yessss!!!" and fist pump if they do?

  • Do you think that your mental energy caused them to turn off? Discuss.

  • If you have to complete some service-related writing before your own writing, because otherwise the service writing will nag at you and break your concentration, do you feel pretty good, as though you accomplished something, when you finish the service writing?
  • 5 comments:

    Bardiac said...

    That's why I like dogs: they aren't scheming enough to play that game.

    I think it's because the failure is too horrible to contemplate, though very, very real, and often quite likely.

    Yes, but not quite to the fist pump level.

    No

    Absolutely!

    undine said...

    So true about the dogs, Bardiac! I've never seen a dog stare at anything but a person's face (or maybe a squirrel)--something real, anyway.

    Spanish prof said...

    Absolutely about the service writing! It happened to me yesterday, and it felt so good that I actually didn't go back to my own project (I am not kidding, and no, it's not a bad thing. I have yet to embrace the Calvinist ethic of writing floating in the blogosphere).

    undine said...

    Spanish prof, I know that feeling! I think we need to feel good about the service writing.

    Ink said...

    LMAO re: #1!