Wow, so much for that empty promise.

Hi to all who venture past here. I have nothing earth shattering to report at this time.

Holy Cow!

To quote Willie Nelson: "ain't it funny how time slips away?" I can't believe how long it has been since I've given my blog a thought. A heck of a lot has happened in the interim. Some good. Some bad. A lot in between. I promise not to wait so long next time. (Like it matters! Who reads this but me anyway?)

Natural selection usurped.

Today, while Christmas shopping in Jeff City I stood in line behind a woman and her son(obvious physical resemblance). I could not help but notice her impossibly narrow hips and wonder how on earth she manged to give birth. Then it occurred to me that she'd likely had a c-section. Then, whiling away my time in queue, my mind wandered about a bit thinking how she likely would've died in childbirth had she lived in the not-too-distant past. But she didn't, and now she is passing on the small-pelvis gene to who knows how many future descendants, who'll all have to give birth by c-section or die...

As my mind wandered further it occurred to me that all sorts of other modern medical advances have enabled less-than-the-fittest of our species to survive to propagate more less-than-the-fittest offspring. We are screwing with natural selection without realizing it. (Maybe other people realize it, but it is just now dawning on me) What is our civilization going to be like in a few more generations? What happens if we are suddenly forced to survive without modern conveniences and medicines? Will the homo-sapien bloodline be so watered down that none will survive? Surely not. Surely there will be some hardy enough to carry on. I hope.

online classes and turkey day

It's turkey day, and I'm watching the Macy's parade. That's about as profound as I can be today. Happy turkey day!

I spent the better part of yesterday preparing for and taking an online test on Cut and Fill mining methods. 15 essay questions, 105 minutes. I'be glad when he throws us a bone and gives us a multiple choice/T-F test! seesh!

Watching the parade makes me long for another visit to NYC. That place has really grown on me. Go figure.

ttfn

Life's soundtrack

Okay, personal fact here. 'Bout 10 years ago I was diagnosed manic depressive, prescribed Prozac and well, that didn't last. I remember telling the dr. at the time " it would be great if you could level me off up here on the peaks (mania) rather than down here in the middle" meaning, the effort to avoid the valleys (depression) was successful in that sense, but it took away most of my creativity and spontaneity and worst of all it interfered with my "lovelife". What I mean by that is that I had no problem with the bing and the bang (no ED) it was the BOOM that was elusive. In the intervening years I've come to realise the role that the BOOM plays in avoiding the valleys.

I know, TMI. Tough, I'm getting this off of my chest. \

Well, let me get back on track. You know, to the point. Nowadays I've got a pretty darn good handle on the manic depression. I know what triggers the mania, and more importantly, I know all of the ingredients and the recipe for a good bout of depression and am pretty successful at avoiding it now. In breif, the depression usually comes as the aftermath of a sugar overload. Yep, it was that simple. I guess that whatever it is that my body produces to metabolize massive amounts of sugar screw with my head if it doesn't have sugar to metabolize. Typical scenario: visit my mother-in-laws' for the holidays. She inevitably has a huge spread of sweets; cakes, candies, pies, the works. There's not a lot to do around there, so I tend to spend the visit plunked down in front of the TV watching the FOOD network or Discovery and grazing constantly on sugar-rich stuff-particularly chocolate. Ond bite and I have to have another, and I won't quit until there's none left. Then, when we get back home and I cease the sugar intake, the world turns dark. Everyone around me becomes stupid! (I think in reality that they don't change a bit-it's my tolerance for less-than-intelligent behavior that is skewed) And my mind starts dwelling on things it shouldn't.

So now I try hard to stay on the chocolate wagon. But during times of extreme stress I still have to hop off of the wagon for a bit. The key is to minimize my exposure. Stay away from the vast supplies. And most importantly I have to come down off the chocolate gradually then the dperession remains at bay. I have been successful bringing on the depression with other seets, but it's not nearly as easy as with chocolate.

Now, if I haven't lost you by this point you must be wokdering what all of this has to do with the title of this post. Well, when I'm not depressed, I hear music in my head constantly. The more manic I am, the louder and more varied it is. Yesterday it was mostly 70's rock standards at a reasonable volume. the day before it was one particular Roger Clyne and the Peacemakers song that kept looping. I often wonder what my cranial DJ looks like. Whatever, he does a good job, and I miss him when he's silent.

Viva la' musica!

Plans are nothing, planning is everything.

The title of this blog is a quote from Dwight D. Eisenhower that I learned of this past week. It got me to thinking. When I got married (at the tender age of 17) we had a plan. Finish high school and attend a four year university. Get a great job and have 2.4 kids. And here's the kicker; retire by age 44. Well thanks to the marvel of the "Copper 7", we became one of the 1% of its users to have a child. Our firstborn arrived 10 days after my 19th birthday...anyway, today it occurred to me that I have a little over four months to aachieve my goal of retirement at age 44. Not bloody likely. So much for plans, eh?