This is so very me: “I start each night futilely trying to clear a workspace and end it when I can‚Äôt think of another website to visit.” Actually, my workspace is pretty tidy, but I can relate to the web-as-gravitational-vortex theory of non-productivity. That’s one of the reasons I love my nice, quiet WriteRoom for distraction-free progress.
And a bit more brilliance over at Crushing Krisis:

“When my work-time ended I promptly sat on the floor and fell asleep, face pressed against the crack beneath my door to catch a cool draft from the hallway.”

Oh, I love you, Raisin Nut Bran. Why must you be so expensive?

A map of where the planet’s happiest people are. Denmark takes the top spot; United States comes in at #23.

Here’s a multi-part dialogue mulling the question, Why Are Atheists So Angry?

I got back from Virginia this afternoon. There are few things that can make you appreciate stillness like driving 1400 miles. Funny thing about driving solo: you know you’re getting bored when you start talking to yourself. And you know it’s getting even worse when you stop talking to yourself. But it was a pleasant trip all in all. Great wedding, good friends, perfect weather, and all of my bad dancing that I’d really prefer others not to remember.
Staunton was a cool little town with some great old-school architecture in the historic district. I spent quite a bit of time pounding the pavement in the surrounding neighborhoods. Noteable landmarks were the campuses of Mary Baldwin College, and the Virginia School for the Deaf and the Blind. I also discovered that Staunton is the home of the Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library and the Blackfriar’s Playhouse, a modern-day replica of the 16th-century Blackfriar’s Theatre in London.

I noticed one particular thing when I was walking around that I thought was a little odd. Staunton is a hilly town, and like many hilly towns you’ll find the largest, most well-appointed houses on the tops of the hills. Wealth tends to rise like that. No surprise there. But when I was walking around in the town cemetery (the grey area on the map), the pattern was reversed. Down at the bottom of the hill near the main road you could find the half-dozen or so sturdy marble vaults for the wealthy folk. As you approach the top of the hill the plots were smaller and more densely packed, and the headstones generally more modest. So there’s a curious geographic reversal from life to death.

Of course, befitting the South, the very tip-top of the hill was reserved for a monument to fallen Confederate soldiers. Never forget, etc.

This weekend I’m heading up to Old Dominion for a wedding in the Waynesboro/ Staunton area. After that I’ll be cruising south to see some friends in Raleigh on the way home. I’ll try to squeeze in some time to meet my NaBloPoMo quota, and I’ll be back to full-steam blogging sometime on Tuesday night.

A lucid bit from Heather Armstrong’s recent trip to New York City: “I have finally cleared off the 4 gigs of memory cards I filled taking pictures in New York, and sadly more than half of them are blurry because every time I went to take a photo I kept thinking MUST KEEP MOVING. OR DIE. That city will totally do it to you, make you think that unless you are in a constant state of forward trajectory your lungs will stop working. And so everyone is running around on a small high of caffeine and panic, a feeling not unlike the buzz you get from certain ADD medications.”