for those that live lawyerless lives

Its warmer today but the rain makes for a pretty miserable walk into campus. Lucky for me, rain also makes it fairly easy to decide whether or not to skip my classes.

Recently I've noticed how, in a world with such an abundance of textual communique, it is getting increasingly more annoying whenever you are unable to get in touch with someone. When I was little, it was two phone calls, and if I couldn't reach someone with two phone calls, that was it. My friend was probably at the store or the zoo. Today we have facebook, e-mail, text message, voice mail, home phone, and any other modes of communication I am sure I am leaving out. People are developing shorter and shorter attention spans. Everything is immediate. If I am trying to get information and the page is loading slow, the information isn't worth the time.

To consider that the most convenient information is the most consumed information is kind of an alarming notion.

The average American buys just one book every year. Taking into account Stephen King, Dan Brown, Harry Potter, and The Twilight Series, there are a lot of Americans that don't buy any books at all. I think the problem is not that people don't like to read, it's just that they don't know what to read. For instance, I am sure there are people that haven't read a book since high school but would none the less be unable to put down a Chuck Palahniuk book. Not that I think they are specifically great, I just think that they are good books for people who don't like books. If we stop making books, what would all the trees do?


I heard that MIT graduate, Daniel Biss, wrote a theorem that proves that a circle is nothing more than a bloated triangle.

The value of your life, as I see it, is measured by the amount of lawyers that are in it. If you do not have any lawyers in your life, things are probably looking pretty good.

Tomorrow I am going to finally meet Puff. If you don't know, Puff is the cat that my family replaced me with as soon as I left for college. It makes sense because a cat is much easier to take care of than a human.

The cat pictured below is my Moldovan friend, Poofa. That's the phonetic spelling of his name anyway. The name means 'Puffy' in Romanian. It will be difficult for Puff to compete with this guy for my all time favorite puffy cat. Poofa caught his own mice and loves to eat bread; pretty tough competition.


Virtue 6: "Industry." You should always have a job and always be employed in something useful. This kind of fits with yesterday's "frugality", except that it implies that by constantly doing, you are not wasting. Benjamin Franklin also insists that you ought to cut off all unnecessary actions. This raises the question, "What is a necessary action?"

Speak easy,
Neil

Today's Playlist:
Driving Home to Cape Cod: Part II (Requested by Andrew)

1. Built To Spill - Car (There's Nothing Wrong)
2. Feist - I Feel It All (The Reminder)
3. Say Hi To Your Mom - Blah Blah Blah (Impeccable Blahs)
4. They Might Be Giants - Experimental Film (The Spine)
5. Her Space Holiday - Four Tapping Shoes and a Kiss (XOXO, Panda...)
6. Sunset Rubdown - They Took A Vote And Said No (Shut Up...)
7. Death Cab For Cutie - Pity and Fear (Narrow Stairs)
8. The Good, The Bad, & The Queen - '80's Life (The Good, The Bad...)
9. Desaparicidos - Greater Omaha (Read Music, Speak Spanish)
10. Cloud Cult - Story of the Grandson of Jesus (Feel Good Ghosts)
11. Regina Spektor - Music Box (Begin To Hope: Bonus Disc)
12. The Format - Dog Problems (Dog Problems)