6/29/12

Wordworms?

Earworms are songs that get stuck in your head.
What are words that, seemingly by chance, pop into your brain and sit there for a while?
Is there a word for that?

Triumvirate floated up in my mind a little bit ago, and for no good reason at all.
I'd like to know what subconscious goings-on are responsible for such an impractical and seldom-used word getting jammed up in my cogs. It's hard to think about any subject without triumvirate trying to tie in.

6/27/12

From Blaise Pascal's Pensées

Yes, the same Pascal (1623-1662) infamous for his Wager, which is found in the same collection.
Just a few lines I enjoy.

"The Church is in an excellent state when it is sustained by God only."

"How useless is painting, which attracts admiration by the resemblance of things, the originals of which we do not admire!"

"In my present state, ignorant of what I am or of what I ought to do, I know neither my condition nor my duty. My heart inclines wholly to know where is the true good, in order to follow it; nothing would be too dear to me for eternity.
I envy those whom I see living in the faith with such carelessness and who make such a bad use of a gift of which it seems to me I would make such a different use."


6/25/12

1984

"If you loved someone, you loved him, and when you had nothing else to give, you still gave him love. When the last of the chocolate was gone, his mother had clasped the child in her arms. It was no use, it changed nothing, it did not produce more chocolate, it did not avert the child's death or her own; but it seemed natural to her to do it. The refugee woman in the boat had also covered the little boy with her arm, which was no more use against the bullets than a sheet of paper.
. . .
What mattered were individual relationships, and a completely helpless gesture, an embrace, a tear, a word spoken to a dying man, could have value in itself."

Orwell, 1984

6/17/12

3:44


Why can't we just live in our bodies on earth, 
and recognize which things are good and have worth?

6/15/12

In life, In dreams

What does it mean when I wake up in the middle of the night with a crushed stress ball in my hand?

It means work is taking up too many brain cells,
It means I should intentionally un-schedule time in my calendar,
It means I drink too much coffee,
It means I'm probably focusing too much on little gods,
It means not enough of my days involve things like these:

Gotta remember to slow down a little, really soon.