8 Ways to Sunday

Today’s quote was inspired by the yard work I did early this afternoon:

There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root.

— Henry David Thoreau

When it comes to weeds, I have to admit that I’m a branch-hacker rather than a root-striker. It’s just too much trouble to pull the weeds out by the root when they make up about 60% of my yard. Besides, if you mow the lawn down close enough it’s hard to tell the difference between the grass and the weeds.

No doubt Thoreau and his transcendentalist cohorts would find my approach lacking in moral and intellectual rigor.

Arthur C. Clarke passed away yesterday afternoon, having suffered from breathing problems and back trouble during the last days of his life. His was some of the first “hard” science fiction I read, after graduating from the Star Trek spin-off novels in my local public library.

ZDNet’s Jason Perlow reminds me of a passage from 2010 that seems appropriate for the occasion. In this exchange, the dead/assimilated David Bowman talks with HAL about his own impending demise:

HAL: What is going to happen?

Dave: Something wonderful.

HAL: I’m afraid.

Dave: Don’t be. We’ll be together.

HAL: Where will we be?

Dave: Where I am now.

Thanks for your stories, Sir Clarke. Have fun exploring the universe.

Every December, I get surprised at least once by the fact that it gets dark around 5:30 PM. You’d think I’d have figured it out by now.

For some reason, I can’t get this out of my head today:

Well the movie star
Yeah, she crashed her car.
But everyone said she was beautiful,
Even without her head.
Everyone said she was dangerous.

— “Movie Star,” by Cracker

I quit smoking a couple of months ago, because it’s bad for me and because I was getting way too wheezy for a 29 year-old man. I’ve put on weight since quitting, but I feel better in every other way so it was worth it. I quit instant messaging many months ago, because it was a huge distraction and time sink for me. I’ve been more productive since quitting IM, so that was also worth it. I will not, however, quit blogging.

I have been a bad, bad blogger. Two months; no posts. Even worse, many of my distant friends keep in touch by reading and commenting on one another’s blog posts. Not only have I not been posting here, I also haven’t been keeping up with my friends’ blogs. I could do the usual “I’ve been so busy yadda yadda yadda” thing, but the fact is that isolating yourself from your friends is an asshole thing to do. For this, you have my apologies.

Updates are going to be more frequent here in the future. I’m also going to start blogging about Web-related stuff over on Zenscope.com. That means fewer posts about geeky Web stuff here, and more posts about things like music, politics, and hot chicks. You know, the important things in life.

Stay tuned.