Colin Powell's "rules to live by"

from Parade magazine:

1. It ain't as bad as you think. It will look better in the morning.
2. Get mad, then get over it.
3. Avoid having your ego so close to your position that when you position falls your ego goes with it
4. It can be done!
5. Be careful what you choose. You may get it.
6. Don't let adverse facts stand in the way of a good decision.
7. Check small things.
8. Share credit.
9. You can't make someone else's choices. You shouldn't let someone else make yours.
10. Remain calm. 
11. Have a vision. Be demanding.
12. don't take counsel of your fears or naysayers.
13. Perpetual optimism is a force multiplier.

others not included in that article:

"Of all manifestations of power, restraint impresses men most." (via Thucydides)

"Avoid conservatism."

"You never know what you can get away with until you try."

"Use your intellect to inform your instincts, but trust your instincts."

I am still amazed

that, when I am having trouble getting my face to conform to English,
moving to a dialect of some kind helps.

I just found a white hair growing out ma belly.

oh, my.

Grant green Deep River

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Reagan quote of the young year

While using the biography I'm currently reading for VO-in-dialect practice, I just read the following out loud in standard British:

"Reagan liked to tell stories he believed displayed his lack of racial bias..."

That was roughly 40 minutes ago.

At least 5 minutes of that was afterglow, the other 35 have been recuperation.

I can even began to guess what will happen to my body once I work up the courage to read comes after "bias".

( ! )

Ooh...wait.....sorry....I need a minute.....

Telefon Tel Aviv - fahrenheit fair enough

um....yum.

I wonder how concerned I should be that I just really don't feel like
doing anything.

Like.

In general.

We shall oversleep

Perhaps fitting that this came on the evening of MLK day.....

I had a dream that I was in a small, Black church - except everybody was dressed like it was the 50s/60s. It wasn't set in the 50s/60s - but we looked like it.

I seemed to have a mate...chocolate of complexion with a nigh perfectly spherical coiffe consisting of swooping straightened curls.

Well, there weren't many people in the church, but there was some sort of inclement weather - heavy rains perhaps. It was bad enough that we needed to stay put and the kind of bad where people might look for shelter.

And it must have been desperate straits indeed, because soon after this dream started knights of the local klan came striding down our isle.

Black church. mid century dress.

Ku Klux crew.

Don't you love my brain?

These appear to be some ranking types, and I seem to remember thinking the term "grand dragon" came up. I do remember one of them having robes of a more satin/iridescent finish, colored mother-of-pearl if not gold.

There, of course is some debate about whether to allow them to stay, and I believe I took the side of "our Christian duty". I believe there was actually a larger number of them than us, because it seemed a good idea to invite friends of a lighter tone to join us - and just more people in general to even out the mood...and perhaps the ranks.

And that's pretty much how it ended. The klan folk stayed and things stayed civil.


But how, exactly, does one's subconscious come up with that??!

I find it a bit of a coincidence that the Nazi hunter episode of Outer Limits came on this morning (which I watched when I should have been asleep).

I think my brain watches Quantum Leap while I'm gone.

Ewok

click,

While walking north toward the Flatiron District last night, I decided to call the G.o.A.T. Barb on the way up. She had just texted me that she was going back to work - big surprise, no?

We talked for a while in W Sr. came into the room and got on the phone from the background.

Him, "So, you - you ready to head back this way?"

I think, at this point, the only person in my immediate family who has not asked me this is my sister - but she's got her own stuff to deal with, so that's not too surprising. She probably also expects the least of any of them for to return, so it may just not have occurred to her.

After going through the roller coaster of the Saints game, confronting a livery driver with his decision to park half of his suburban in the crosswalk at Park and (twenty-something) and the always strange-for-me club experience, I walked back south towards the ferry.

At some point while walking, I went back to that question. At some point - I'm not sure if it was before or after - I thought about how I'm right back to not having to chosen to stay or leave since deciding to leave in late 2009 and never doing so.

(as poorly as a I remembered what I was getting at I went back and really read the poem in the comments section of K's post and now REALLY don't remember what I was talking about - HBG!)

I think, because I'd planned earlier this year to have enough money to leave and those plans got "interrupted" - I'm having a bit of a "I DON'T (heart) NYC" moment.

I thought, for the first time, whether it was a mistake to have not left here 5 years ago. I played hating that out in my mind a bit. It is a bit flabbergasting to think that I've been in the same twin bed in the same tiny room for 7.5 years....with not too much more than this blog to show for it - even there I've left several musings that belonged here dissipate before putting writing them.

Or..maybe I didn't play it out. Maybe I actually hated it. Maybe if I hadn't gotten distracted with the camera I'd be tapping out some finely thought-and-worded precision justifying my immediate exit.


It just occurred to me that some of this may have to do with having just left a going away party....maybe/maybenot.

(shrug)

Ok. This started out sounding like it was going to be good, but I'm just rambling now.

Boo this man.


(boooooooooooooo)

Q + Canon = (whut?)

has no idea what this dude is saying besides "time lapse", "Johnston
Canyon" and - I think - "time is money".

Yet, I find this video strangely engaging.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=QTQAIQKWsjs

eBay hi-jinx.

You know, my general view of privacy is such that I'd leave the name off this...but, you know what?

Flame this person hard.


I'm just done with eBay stupidity.

From: cdubbleyoo
To: szelectronics1
Subject: Other: cdubbleyoo sent a message about IBM LENOVO TABLET STYLUS PEN X60 X61 X200 X201 New DIGITIZER THINKPAD #150701422882
Sent Date: Jan-11-12 21:31:02 PST

Dear szelectronics1,

The title is for IBM but pic & desc are for Toshiba...

Dear cdubbleyoo,

Very good little johnny !

A is for Apple
B is for Boy
C is for Cat
..................

- szelectronics1

From: cdubbleyoo
To: szelectronics1
Dear szelectronics1,

Oh, so you had no intention of describing the item correctly. Noted.

- cdubbleyoo

Dear cdubbleyoo,

A jacked made by whites can be worn by blacks. I'm sorry that your mental capacities do not allow you to ponder this far.

Blocked-(Reason:Buyer's mother and father were originally siblings)

- szelectronics1

Dear szelectronics1,

"A jacked made by whites can be worn by blacks"

Mental capacity?

You have no interest in selling anything; just auctioning for personal entertainment. I get it...even artistic in it's way. Carry on.

Dear cdubbleyoo,

A jacket made by whites can be worn by blacks. I'm sorry that your mental capacities do not allow you to ponder this far.

Blocked-(Reason:Buyer's mother and father were originally siblings)

Also do not contact me again or I will be reporting you to ebay for harassment.

- szelectronics1

Dear szelectronics1,

Even spelled correctly that makes no sense. I contacted you to clarify what item your auction was for. Perhaps you missed the subject line asking "Which brand", but you chose to answer answer flippantly. Then you chose to attempt to be cryptically...something or another which looks vaguely racist but just seems a teenage attempt to win an argument (which there never was to begin with).

So, you go right ahead and report me. For harassment. Please make sure to include the entire exchange.
 
- cdubbleyoo

bedroomeye