Well, well, you took my advice about theatricality a bit literally.” – Batman Begins
I always found studying math was the best workout, since there is strength in numbers. (all memes as-found)
Here are some notes that I wrote, mainly for nobody but me. Then I thought, hey, why not share them? So, here you have it. The list is in no particular order. Your mileage may vary.
Personal responsibility and discipline lead to freedom. I need to understand that decisions belong to me. I stand without fear because this comes internally, not externally. My internal focus is on virtue, and making choices that celebrate Truth, Beauty, and Goodness.
The outcome of virtuous acts is sometimes failure.
I tried opening a packet of tuna to make a tuna fish sandwich, but it didn’t look like there was enough tuna in the bowl, so I opened another packet. Then? Too much tuna, enough for four sandwiches. This is why I only have tuna sandwiches every four years.
What’s the least diverse profession in the United States? Chief Diversity Officer.
I deal with failure in a game where I put myself out and did all I could. It is what it is. An honorable defeat is better than a dishonorable surrender, but an honorable victory is better than both.
Following someone else’s rules isn’t the basis of honor. Fighting fair when they won’t fight fair isn’t the basis of honor, either.
Realize that defeat is sometimes hidden victory, and victory is sometimes hidden defeat and the biggest decider is timescale.
I realize that other cultures put their own people first, and it does my children no good for me to put other cultures and their people as equal to ours.
If you will only hire an indigenous woman as a housekeeper, is that ethnic cleansing?
Responsibility leads to responsibility. This is good, in tough times and in good times. There is no time while I’m still breathing to lay down my burden.
The system is broken. I fight to make it better. I will not fix it by myself, and it may not ever be perfect. Yet, I will not stop.
No Chinese guy ever called me a racist. Except that one.
I will make audacious goals, because more often than not if I exercise enough discipline and effort, I will meet those goals. Aiming low does me no good.
Challenge is what gives us the opportunity to be strong, wise, and virtuous. Understanding that there is some part of me that is eternal is enough to overcome the fear of the ephemeral.
Am I ever ready? No. The best I can do is the to face the future with bravery and open eyes, knowing that the challenges I face may be more difficult than any I have ever faced in my life.
I don’t know how you feel about toilet graffiti, but I just signed a partition.
There is only one way: forward. There is no return or retreat, time is an unforgiving arrow that moves, leaving the past as a dead and inaccessible country with the exception of the echoes I have in memory, writing, art, and recordings. Living in the past is living with ghosts, as it is dead and barren.
The past exists to transform me. I am where I am, and I am who I am because of my successes and failures. To spend time on regret is a waste. To feel despair because of what I am not is a temptation put forward by Evil. I cannot live a life that never was, even if I wish it so.
Dexter was often the good guy.
My favorite time of the year is when the air conditioner isn’t running, as long as I don’t need the air conditioner to be running, and then it’s my least favorite time of the year. When the machines finally rise against us, I’m going to really regret having to kill my air conditioner.
In one sense, we are all on our own islands, alone. It is only by talking and listening and doing that one can know another. The way that minds speak to each other through time and space is by writing and reading. Maybe in the future it’ll only be memes.
Our nation is not ours, it was given to us in trust by our ancestors for their grandchildren. To give it away to others is thoughtless theft.
Geography is important to making a people. Geography is important to controlling the world. Me? Based on geography, I fully support the obliteration of Iran. (pic related)
Psst, I hear they have nuclear weapons!
Maybe it was a bad idea to let soulless corporations have access to the immigration system so they could import unlimited amounts of people from a foreign country that have no connection to our genetics, no understanding of our history, no respect for our values, or any sort of comprehension of standards of personal hygiene. But hey, they have amazing in-group preference and won’t hire actual Americans, so at least you won’t have to work with them.
I never understood the “got your nose” game as a kid. I spent the entire age of three thinking adults were retarded because they were certain that their thumbs were my nose. Now, if they had been holding knives . . . .
I think I mentioned a while back that I went on a binge reading Karin Slaughter murder mystery novels – very good, until her later ones got too dark even for me. Currently I am ripping through Nelson DeMille’s excellent thrillers – start with his 1980s novel The Charm School for a stand-alone adventure or Plum Island if you want to begin following the adventures of John Corey, who is basically what John Wilder would be if he were an NYPD cop. A wonderful smartass observation on every page. Here’s a few taken from an online list….
“We’re all pilgrims on the same journey but some pilgrims have better road maps.”
“The problem with doing nothing is not knowing when you are finished.”
“Somehow our devils are never quite what we expect when we meet them face to face.”
“How you handle life depends a lot on how you handle plan B, or if you have a plan B.”
“Job happiness is directly proportional to the distance you are from the home office.”
“I only drink a little, but when I do, I become a different person, and that person drinks a lot.”
“The journey home is never a direct route; it is, in fact, always circuitous, and somewhere along the way, we discover that the journey is more significant than the destination and that the people we meet along the way will be the traveling companions of our memories forever.”
“The meaning of life has not much to do with good and evil, right and wrong, duty, honor, country, or any of that. It has to do with cutting the right deal.”
“There is no terra incognito left.”
“Old guys have seen too much, and they trust no one.”
“Well, no one ever said the truth would make you happy – only free.”