The Detritus of My Mind

Monday, January 17, 2011
Because really, you know your Monday won't be complete without knowing what's knocking around in the dark corners of my mind.

1. I'm currently listening to Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void by Mary Roach. She really does write the most interesting books, but I could have continued indefinitely to live as a fan-girl of the space program without the details of hygiene in space. Ew.

2. If you want to work as a tutor, it might behoove you to be available sometime other than "before 11:00 a.m." Not to put too fine a point on it, but doesn't your target demographic have other fish to fry during those hours? Just askin'.

3. Today is Martin Luther King, Jr. day. I have to work, because my company doesn't observe the federal holiday schedule. Since it's not very busy, I've been reflecting on the man's life and work, however. As noted by Hampton Sides in this week's Newsweek,
If Martin Luther King Jr. were alive today—he would have turned 82 last week—he would in all likelihood be in Arizona, marching against the forces of violence. Not that he’d be particularly welcome there. Arizona, of course, is the state whose former governor, Evan Mecham, made headlines back in the 1980s defending the word “pickaninny” and scrapping the state’s observance of the MLK holiday. King’s views on the Second Amendment would be suspect in many parts of this heat-packin’ state—a place where firearm ownership, entwined with a certain strain of reactionary patriotism, has in some quarters reached the level of High Creed.

Dr. King must be so very proud of how far we've come since freeze-dried whackadoo James Earl Ray decided he deserved the notoriety of killing a public figure. How depressing.

4. I'm sort of out of control when it comes to my Cool Auntie shopping. But can you blame me? There's just so much cool stuff out there.

5. I am so over corporate-speak and the behavior it encourages I can't even tell you. For example: "She's not hungry enough" or "We need help messaging this to the team." What the fuck do those things even mean? English, motherfucker - do you speak it?

6.The fact that dogs have co-evolved with people to achieve an unprecedented level of partnership with us is cool as shit.

3 comments:

Steve Buchheit said...

I used an unforced "paradigm shift" in a phone conversation today. I'm so ashamed of myself.

Dr. Phil (Physics) said...

Not trying to be an asshat here, but if MLK were alive today, Evan Mecham wouldn't have spent any time trying not to observe MLK Day. Undoubtedly the two men would've had something else to disagree about.

Dr. Phil

Janiece said...

Steve, you should be. You should be.

Dr. Phil, that's fair enough. And I'm sure they would.