| Quotables |
"Only I wasn't steering anything, not even myself. I just bumped from my hotel to work and to parties and from parties to my hotel and back to work like a numb trolleybus. ... I felt
very still and very empty, the way the eye of a tornado must feel, moving dully along in the middle of the surrounding hullabaloo."
-- Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar |
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"On the surface, it sounds irresponsible, but to flourish in a rapidly changing world, you actually need to make more mistakes. Fail quickly. Fail often. If you do something and it
doesn't work, just recover in a hurry and try something else. ... Help develop a culture that is willing to fail its way to the future."
-- Price Pritchett, Culture Shift |
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"There is something demoralizing about watching two people get more and more crazy about each other, especially when you are the only extra person in the room. It's like watching Paris from an express caboose heading in the opposite direction -- every second the city gets smaller and smaller, only you feel it's really you getting smaller and smaller and lonelier and lonelier, rushing away from all those lights and that excitement at about a million miles an hour."
-- Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar |
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| things i've learned thus far |
| Friday, June 5, 2009 |
I may have mentioned that this road trip has already been fraught with learning experiences and minor snafus that irritated me at the time, but that probably have their value from a learning perspective.
For starters, GPS units like Samantha are terrific and very reliable, but they are no substitute for independent thought. They sometimes add unnecessary turns to your drive in the interest of the "most direct" route or the "shortest distance," but don't spend so much time looking at the map that you forget to look at the road. Samantha is there as a guide, not a babysitter.
Another: there comes a point after which your body is clearly not using any of the liquids you're imbibing. As such, there is no point in drinking any more. Your bathroom pit stops will only grow more and more frequent.
Still another: your twenty-month-old nephew will go absolutely anywhere he wants. If there is no clear route to his destination, he will create one. It's not if, it's when.
As a bit of a corollary, he will not sit still for photos. It's your job to spot good photo ops, not his job to create them for you. That's not to say he won't give you any opportunities, you'll just have to be on the ball. Constantly.
Also: that 2 gig xD card in your digital camera will be enough. I know a thumb drive doesn't do any good without the USB cable with which to connect to a computer, but if you're stuck, just leave them on there. Unless you go nuts with the videos, that's plenty of room. You'll see what I mean.
Turn signals only give other drivers the warning they need to prevent you from merging.
Many Texas highways have no numbering system for their exits. It's not all... it's just the ones you're on.
Domed baseball stadiums shouldn't even be considered stadiums and are among the most bizarre buildings ever constructed.
Free pizza tastes good no matter what state you're in.
If I can blog every day this month while spending the first week 600 miles from home, every one of y'all clowns can too. :)
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posted by N.T. @ 1:21 AM  |
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i think domed stadiums are ridiculous, too. and you are SOOOOOOO right about following 20 month-olds around with the camera! But when they have an older sibling to watch posing for pictures, they get really good at holding still, slapping a cheesey grin on their face and saying 'GEEEEEEEESE!!!'
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i think domed stadiums are ridiculous, too. and you are SOOOOOOO right about following 20 month-olds around with the camera! But when they have an older sibling to watch posing for pictures, they get really good at holding still, slapping a cheesey grin on their face and saying 'GEEEEEEEESE!!!'