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A solid day of work...
Mar. 9th, 2011 07:58 pmBetween yesterday's call from a client I hadn't heard from in a while and today's increment of material, it's been a fairly busy day. There's been hardly any time to think of anything else.
Except, perhaps, to wonder if this going-out-on-your-own thing back in 1992 and again in 2000 was worth it, and to recognize that wondering about stuff like that isn't very productive. The past is the past, and there's no going back to change it.
Assuming one would want to change it.
Which leads to the consideration of that ever-popular question, typically asked of people who have Been Through It All: "If you had it all to do over again, would you have changed anything?"
Oh, it might be fun to wonder how different your life might be if you had bought, say, 100 shares of an outfit called Microsoft when it made its appearance on the market in the early 80s at, if memory serves, less than $4 per share. That same 100 shares would've been worth over a million dollars a few years back (and might still be valuable, except that I don't follow the stock market all that much). But wanting to have done that doesn't change the fact that you didn't.
On the flip side, one might want to scream "Yes!" in answer to such a question because of some horrendous event that occurred in one's life, but wanting to do that won't change anything, either.
Realistically, as the answers won't change anything, I don't really see the sense in the question. To me, it's like asking: "When do you think is the best time to immanentize the eschaton?" It's not like you can come up with any sort of pat answer, or indeed, any answer than makes sense (e.g., "I think we should hold off until after 2012.")
That said, it seems a natural segue for it to occur to me that I am older now than my stepfather was when he was laid off into a permanent unemployment that became his retirement. I am older now than my stepbrother Carlos was when he died. I am older than my father and his father were when they died.
Where am I going with this, anyone know?
Perhaps it's an acknowledgment that there's still a hand to be played. And by that, I have in mind some of what Randy Pausch covered in his inspirational "last lecture."
Or perhaps this is a manifestation of "cabin fever," although in truth, the social world is out there and easily reachable by me, certainly in the digital domain (how else would I know that Castle and NCIS both ran repeat episodes last night?) as well as in the physical (as long as I don't mind having to walk up the driveway on the return trip), so my use of the term is somewhat like that of a person who skips a meal and says they are suffering from "hunger."
I was outside about 45 minutes ago to catch a pass of the ISS as it flew overhead, in sunlight, while we ground-pounders sat in the darkness. It was uplifting.
The future is what one must keep one's eye on.
Cheers...
Except, perhaps, to wonder if this going-out-on-your-own thing back in 1992 and again in 2000 was worth it, and to recognize that wondering about stuff like that isn't very productive. The past is the past, and there's no going back to change it.
Assuming one would want to change it.
Which leads to the consideration of that ever-popular question, typically asked of people who have Been Through It All: "If you had it all to do over again, would you have changed anything?"
Oh, it might be fun to wonder how different your life might be if you had bought, say, 100 shares of an outfit called Microsoft when it made its appearance on the market in the early 80s at, if memory serves, less than $4 per share. That same 100 shares would've been worth over a million dollars a few years back (and might still be valuable, except that I don't follow the stock market all that much). But wanting to have done that doesn't change the fact that you didn't.
On the flip side, one might want to scream "Yes!" in answer to such a question because of some horrendous event that occurred in one's life, but wanting to do that won't change anything, either.
Realistically, as the answers won't change anything, I don't really see the sense in the question. To me, it's like asking: "When do you think is the best time to immanentize the eschaton?" It's not like you can come up with any sort of pat answer, or indeed, any answer than makes sense (e.g., "I think we should hold off until after 2012.")
That said, it seems a natural segue for it to occur to me that I am older now than my stepfather was when he was laid off into a permanent unemployment that became his retirement. I am older now than my stepbrother Carlos was when he died. I am older than my father and his father were when they died.
Where am I going with this, anyone know?
Perhaps it's an acknowledgment that there's still a hand to be played. And by that, I have in mind some of what Randy Pausch covered in his inspirational "last lecture."
Or perhaps this is a manifestation of "cabin fever," although in truth, the social world is out there and easily reachable by me, certainly in the digital domain (how else would I know that Castle and NCIS both ran repeat episodes last night?) as well as in the physical (as long as I don't mind having to walk up the driveway on the return trip), so my use of the term is somewhat like that of a person who skips a meal and says they are suffering from "hunger."
I was outside about 45 minutes ago to catch a pass of the ISS as it flew overhead, in sunlight, while we ground-pounders sat in the darkness. It was uplifting.
The future is what one must keep one's eye on.
Cheers...
