Living vicariously...

While scrolling back through my friends posts just now, I ran across a couple of memorable items.

First was something from LJ friend pigue, on the importance of our being "liked" in the world. I probably could have used some of this material in the course of a recent informal political discussion. Then again, I did resolve not to get into useless political discussions, didn't I?

The second item was a post by LJ friend kf6gpe. His recounting of his last few hours with his long-time companion Sake reminded me almost line for line of my last few hours with Max, who had to be put down in... was it 1999? His post brought the feeling of being in the back room with Max and the vet flooding back, and I cried. I still miss that dog.

* * *When not living "vicariously," I resign myself to the real world. Today, after getting back from the store, I settled in and started translating. Since about noon, I've done 18 pages, and am intent on doing about 6 more before calling it a day. At that rate, I'll have this job in the can easily by Sunday night.

Cheers...

An, um, blast from the past...

I knew I'd find this somewhere:

"Diplomacy with North Korea has scored a resounding triumph. Monday's draft agreement freezing and then dismantling North Korea's nuclear program should bring to an end two years of international anxiety and put to rest widespread fears that an unpredictable nation might provoke nuclear disaster. The U.S. negotiator Robert Gallucci and his North Korean interlocutors have drawn up a detailed road map of reciprocal steps that both sides accepted despite deep mutual suspicion. In so doing they have defied impatient hawks and other skeptics who accused the Clinton Administration of gullibility and urged swifter, stronger action. The North has agreed first to freeze its nuclear program in return for U.S. diplomatic recognition and oil from Japan and other countries to meet its energy needs. Pyongyang will then begin to roll back that program as an American-led consortium replaces the North's nuclear reactors with two new ones that are much less able to be used for bomb-making. At that time, the North will also allow special inspections of its nuclear waste sites, which could help determine how much plutonium it had extracted from spent fuel in the past."
- The New York Times, October 19, 1994

I mean, you could hardly plan to be more wrong.

Cheers...

Exceeding my expectations...

I'm calling it a day after completing 25 pages of the document. This is good news, as I had originally planned to do only 20 pages. Overall, I am just short of the 50% mark, and might actually come close to finishing the thing tomorrow, if I can figure out how to handle some pesky "forms" in the appendices of the thing. They're short, but complicated.

* * *As a start, I guess the best way to attain the goals envisioned in my affirmations of yesterday is to make sure that one or more activities undertaken during the day reflect a non-urgent step in the right direction. By that, I mean that I've got to plan to do things that I really don't have to do (i.e., like this translation, or take out the garbage).

Having said that, I don't plan to bore myself silly by detailing here every little thing that takes me where I want to go. It is, however, a technique to keep in mind.

If you don't chart your course, you can't complain about the destination.

Cheers...