Little Talk

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How Much Dull Routine Of Existence Does A Man Require?

My current answer:

To clarify: I only write down one of these routines, for myself, when I feel like I've been doing it wrong in some significant way, and feel like I need to make a change.

1. waking up

2. morning session

3. morning / midday break

4. midday / afternoon session

5. afternoon / evening break

6. evening session

7. winding down

8. falling asleep

in terms of session times (maybe):

variant 1: balanced

morning session: 7:30 - 11:30

midday / afternoon session: 1:30 - 5:30

 evening session: 7:30 - 11:30

variant 2: broad in the beam

morning session: 7:30 - 9:30

midday / afternoon session: 10:30 - 6:30

evening session: 7:30 - 9:30

variant 3: hourglass

morning session: 7:30 - 1:30

evening session: 5:30 - 11:30

variant 4: thank me no thankings, nor break me no breaks

morning session: 9:30 - 1:30

midday / afternoon session: 1:30 - 5:30

evening session: 5:30 - 9:30

variant 5: night owl

midday / afternoon session: 11:30 - 5:30

evening session: 7:30 - 1:30

variant 6: so owl it's lark

evening session: 7:30 pm - 7:30 am

variant 7: so lark it's owl

morning session: 1:30 am - 1:30 pm

variant 8: burnout Bernie

morning session: 7:30 am - 3:30 pm

evening session: 5:30 - 11:30

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Big Talk

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https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2024/07/24/remarks-by-president-biden-in-statement-to-the-american-people/

My favorite quote from Biden's speech:

We hold these truths to be self-evident:  We’re all created equal, endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights: life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness.

We’ve never fully lived up to it — to this sacred idea, but we’ve never walked away from it either.

I also liked this section, about having a real value for peace, while also being prepared for war:

I’m the first president in this century to report to the American people that the United States is not at war anywhere in the world. 
 
I will keep rallying a coalition of proud nations to stop Putin from taking over Ukraine and doing more damage.
 
I will keep NATO stronger . . .And I’ll keep doing the same for our allies in the Pacific.

And I’m going to keep working to end the war in Gaza, bring home all the hostages, and bring peace and security to the Middle East and end this war.
 
We’re also working around the clock to bring home Americans being unjustly detained all around the world.

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Next post: January 29, 2025

Big Talk

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https://www.thehindu.com/society/column-banojyotsna-lahiri-a-modern-love-story-priya-ramani/article68380747.ece 

“We thought that this is such an unjust case,” says Lahiri. “We thought we just had to raise our voices and justice would be delivered.” . . .

the weekly jail meeting, when she talks to Khalid across a glass partition on an intercom, takes precedence over everything else. Then there is the whirl of bail applications . . .

"I’ve gained weight, lost sleep and all this has had concurrent effects on my body,” she says, joking that Khalid’s health, on the other hand, has improved because of the daily prison routine and exercise.

. . . “Those children of Palestine who still play between the bombardments give me hope,” she says.

There was a quote from Jim Hightower that I initially couldn't find, because I was searching for "riff-raff" and not "riffraff":

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Hightower

https://www.c-span.org/video/?20387-1/origins-us-economic-problems

You know we just celebrated the July fourth occasion which is the honoring of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Yet of course in 1776 it didn't include a whole lot of people: Didn't include any African-Americans, because they were slaves. Didn't include any women, because they were chattel. Didn't include any Native Americans, because they were heathens. Didn't include anybody who didn't own property, because they were riffraff.

It included only about three percent of the people who voted in the first election for president of the United States. So what we're really celebrating is not the document itself but rather the intervening two hundred odd years of struggle by people like you to democratize that document.

I had remembered the quote as being, "We don't worship the documents. We worship the people who fought to democratize the documents." And Hightower may in fact have said that at some point, on the radio or something.

https://www.jfklibrary.org/archives/other-resources/john-f-kennedy-speeches/american-university-19630610

So, let us not be blind to our differences--but let us also direct attention to our common interests and to the means by which those differences can be resolved. And if we cannot end now our differences, at least we can help make the world safe for diversity. For, in the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children's future. And we are all mortal.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeffrey_Sachs#Publications

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4jWAwUb63c

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Little Talk

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How Many Sessions Does A Man Require?

My current answer:

1. session 1: desk-work, field-work, errands or exercise

2. rest

3. session 2: desk-work or errands

4. more rest

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How Much Broadsheet Web-Surfing Does A Man Require?

My current answer:

bookmark folders on my browser: 

1. opening bowling (6 links). Twice or thrice a day

2. first change (6 links). Once or twice a day

3. newspaper (6 links). Once a day

4. magazines (5 links). Once a day or less

5. blogs (12 links). Once a day or less

6. social media (10 links). Once a day or less

7. utils (2 links). As needed

1. after waking up: check the phone to see whether the sky has fallen

2. after turning on the laptop and checking e-mail: check the first 6-12 start links

3. sometime during the day or the evening: 

    1. clean inbox (not necessarily all at once)

    2. check start links, newspapers, magazines, blogs, social media (not necessarily all at once)

    3. download the newspaper, skim it or read it, and possibly clip out an article, or two. (not necessarily all at once)

    4. re-check the first 6-12 start links, once more, for the road, before logging off.

I probably should be using some kind of RSS reader, or metabrowser.

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Next post: December 29, 2024