Yellow lights

A few weeks ago when I was giving my friend a ride, he commented, "You are different from people around here.  Normally when people see a yellow light, they see that as a sign to step on the accelerator, not the brake."

Perspective on a day off

Acquaintance: Did you have a good day off?

Me: Well, not really.  I took a day off to get some chores done, but I didn't do anything.  I just lay around and relaxed.

Acquaintance (jokingly): You relaxed on your day off?! How terrible!  I won't be your friend any more. 

Acquaintance: Did you read?

Me: Yes.  But I wasn't planning to read, so I didn't have any new books.  I read some books that I've read before.

Acquaintance: Oh horrors!

It's nice to have someone put things in perspective for me, so I don't feel so bad about how I spent the day.

Tact

My friend: For someone who's half space alien, your English is not too bad.

Me: That's not a compliment.

My friend: Well I gotta do something.  You said I was tactful the other night.  I have to uphold my reputation for obnoxiousness. 

Administrator free path

A professor commented:

"That's what I am thinking: how much sourpuss I am."

and

"I am taking the administrator free path."

He was considering whether to go to the hooding ceremony for his student who just completed a PhD.  He did not want to go because he would have to see administrators there, and he usually manages to avoids seeing administrators.  Theoretically, he should put the interest of his student above his own interests, and just go.  But he is thinking that he will be so miserable about being there, that he will be a sourpuss, so he will not be good company for his student.

The use of a scarf

Yesterday as I was walking to work, I passed a woman walking her dog.  She commented on how cold it was.  She said, "My face is frozen."  I noticed she had a scarf hanging loosely about her neck.  I did not know her, so I did not venture to point out that some people wrap their scarves around their faces, thus preventing frozen faces.

Enjoying the simple things

My friend said, "I wish I was always as happy as I am when there is watermelon on my mouth."

Robot

I told my friend that it was nice visiting my father because we're alike in some way.  When I'm with people I'm not related to, I think they are weird, or else I am weird, and sometimes I feel I should be more like them.

My friend's response: "I told Sean you were a robot."

I didn't quite know where he was going with that, but it seemed consistent with the idea that with non-relatives, I feel like an alien species. 

He explained, "When I called you, you said you couldn't talk because you were getting your oil changed.  You should be able to talk if your car's oil is being changed, so I guess it was your oil that was being changed."

Going to heaven?

My co-worker felt like she had just done a good deed.  She commented, "I'll go to Heaven."  Then she added, "As long as he doesn't hear what I say under my breath."

Looking to the future

Every moment marks the point between the past and the future. Because we tend to forget this, we have seasonal holidays to remind us. When life events mark transitions in our lives, that's another occasion when we often reflect on what we want. One example of such a transition is that of getting a house. In recent weeks, I have noticed a number of related comments from family members:

My sister-in-law: When we get a house, can we get a piano?

My brother: When we get a house, can we get a new towel?

My mother: When we get a new house, I want to get a new mattress.

Me: When I get a house I want solar power, both passive and photovoltaic.

My sister: When I get a house, I'm going to have goats and chickens.

When my sister reported to my mother what I said about solar power, it came across as what I was going to do when I grow up. My mother thought of the things she wanted, and she said in her case, "I don't want to wait until I grow up."

Then she remembered, she is 64. It might not be such a long wait until she grows up.

We all have goals for the future. These goals change over the course of our lifetimes. Holidays remind us to take stock of our current goals and work toward them. Sometimes we do have to achieve our goals in a certain order. For example, moving out of a city apartment would come before getting goats. Sometimes we find ways to get around such pre-requisites. For example, someone living in a city apartment might make an arrangement with someone who lived on a farm to spend time on the farm caring for animals.

Library fines

When I take out library books, if I am not going to return them by the due date, I can renew them online. Sometimes I forget, and renew them online a few days after the due date. As a result, I end up owing small amounts in fines.

A few days ago, I checked out a book from the library. When the woman checking out my book scanned my library card, the information that popped up on her computer told me I owed a fine. She said, "I see you owe 20 cents. Would you like to pay any part of that now?"

It seems rather silly to think that I might need an installment plan to pay a 20 cent fine. But I like that. I like that they are open to adapting to the payment schedule that fits the customer's needs. That's the kind of organization which inspires me to willingly give them money. In contrast, when I feel that a company has no interest in serving me, but just wants to squeeze money out of me any way it can, I will not give that company my business.

Bugs

I have bugs in my apartment. I sprayed stuff on them that is supposed to make bugs go away. Or at least die. Now I have bug corpses lying around in addition to live bugs crawling around. Also the spraying stuff is not really good for asthma. I sprayed it on a number of different days, and each time, I got a crop of corpses a day or two later, but the live ones kept on coming.

I was looking on the internet at pictures of bugs to see if I could find out what kind they are. But I didn't find the right kind, and after a while I was like, "I don't like looking at bugs. I have to do that too much in real life anyhow" so I quit.

My bugs are about 3/4 of an inch long. They are black with orange trim. They have six legs and antennae. They fly a little bit, like turkeys do, just to hop off the roost, but mostly they walk around. They seem to come from the south facing windows. Well I don't really see them actually crawling in through the windows, but that is where their concentrations seem to stem from.

Montpelier laundromat

At the laundromat in Montpelier, the signs on the non-working washing machines and dryers say, "Resting today. Please use my neighbor."

Quaker dog

Bonnie says her dog is a Quaker dog. How can she tell? Because the dog thinks everyone is good.

The future

As we walked on a path where the railroad tracks used to be, we could hear the cars whizzing along a highway off in the distance. Stephen said that some day people will go for walks along places where the highway used to be, and off in the distance they'll hear the hovercraft whizzing by.

Things to be thankful for

Steve Daub is on the air on WRPI now, and since it is Thanksgiving, he has been talking about the things he is thankful for. Some of the things he mentioned that I found interesting:

• That the woman he once proposed to declined.
• That his parents have been patient and supportive with him as he tried to figure out what he wanted to do when he grew up while he was in his 20's. And still trying in his 30's. And his 40's. And now partway through his 50's.
• His sisters, even though sometimes he wishes he was an only child.

Talk about grad school

Today I spoke to students at a local college about grad school. There were two professors present.

One was Darren, who talked for about half an hour about graduate application stuff, especially the GRE. I knew him when he was a student, so it was cool to see him as a professor. In his presentation, it seemed evident that he was a professional teacher.

The other was Tim Lederman. He required the students from his software engineering course, which is the senior capstone class, to attend. He sat in the back and occasionally asked questions. His questions were very good because they were basically an opportunity to talk about whatever important information we forgot to cover.

I think asking good questions is a good trait in a professor. I've had professors who did that, whose questions caused thoughts to rush to my head.

After the talk, I went to dinner with Darren and three students. The students had a lively conversation about student stuff, apparently uninhibited by the presence of a professor and a guest speaker. It was interesting to hear their perspectives, to get a view of what it is like to be a student at a small liberal arts college, in contrast to the research university where I work.

Honor the living

When someone dies, we give speeches about how wonderful they were. We publish articles in the newspaper about how wonderful they were.

Why wait until they aren't around to enjoy it? Wouldn't it be better to appreciate people while they are here?

I think birthdays should be appreciation days. Birthdays should be about celebrating the fact the the person was born.