*a prayer for the wild at heart, kept in cages

From watching the Office.

1. Always, always type the right email address. Packing & Packer are not the same.

2. Be careful which Temp guy you choose to run your errands. You may have to call him Boss tomorrow.

3. Sausage-eating skills are essential in becoming Regional Manager. So is fire-walking. And carrying eggs in spoons while blindfolded.

4. If you hear strange noises at midnight on the Shrute family farm, do not investigate.

5. A beard, or the ability to sprout facial hair, gives you extra credibility at work.

Wonder if #5 applies to the fairer sex.

From watching SATC

1. Do not put on any random firefighter’s overalls at the local fire station.

2. Twenty-somethings live in dumps & skimp on toilet paper.

3. Don’t marry a man who replies “Alrighty” after you propose. Avoid men who say Alrighty to everything.

A birthday cake bought, out of guilt, by the birthday girl, maketh not a Happy Birthday.

What is the self? A man goes to the window to see the people passing by; if I pass by, can I say he went there to see me? No, for he is not thinking of me in particular. But what about a person who loves someone for the sake of her beauty; does he love her? No, for smallpox, which will destroy beauty without destroying the person, will put an end to his love for her. And if someone loves me for my judgement or my memory, do they love me? me, myself? No, for I could lose these qualities without losing my self. Where then is this self, if it is neither in the body nor the soul? And how can one love the body or the soul except for the sake of such qualities, which are not what makes up the self, since they are perishable? Would we love the substance of a person’s soul, in the abstract, whatever qualities might be in it? That is not possible, and it would be wrong. Therefore we never love anyone, but only qualities. Let us then stop scoffing at those who win honour through their appointments and offices, for we never love anyone except for borrowed qualities. [688/323; p. 245]

– Blaise Pascal, from Pensées, trans. A. J. Krailsheimer, Penguin Books, 1966.

So I was on the plane, on a flight back to Singapore, & this family of four I was fortunately seated next to starts getting excited over a movie. The son, my age or so, pesters the Dad for the title of the movie.

“What is it?”

“Ay….Wait!”

“What show?”

“Ay! New Line Cinema, its New Line Cinema!”

Then they convulsed into a guffawing fit so loud, it knocked the sleepiness out of me for the next half hour.

I cringe in amusement, but truly I envy their happiness at the simplest things.