Enoch’s Thoughts

I had a great Christmas vacation, starting with a trip to see my family in mid-December. During Christmas week all four of our progeny were here, plus Ben’s new spouse, various significant others, pets, presents, and Becca’s baby delivery stories from the far North. The foodstuffs were amazing. We watched BluRays on a new big screen, played Sports Resort until our rotator cuffs were exhausted, read Terry Pratchett and other books, worked crosswords, stayed up late, slept in, and just generally goofed off. Even the intermittent trips to work in late December were pleasurable – the office was mostly silent, just a few cheerful co-workers, and I started some new projects, since it was too late to do anything for the sake of 2009.

So here we are at the beginning of a new year. Over the years I’ve become comfortable with the fact that I don’t typically resolve to do things. I make decisions as opportunities present themselves. While I do make some long-term plans, mostly I react to the forces around me. I suspect from above I might look like a billiard ball, caroming around the table of life. But I can look back at most of my decisions and explain what I was thinking at the time. Like the billiard ball, the angle of incidence equals the angle of reflection, inertia is conserved, and frictional forces slow the ball down until eventually I lie at rest on soft green felt.

This year, the closest thing I have made to a resolution is that I want to write more regularly. It’s indoor work with no heavy lifting. How hard can it be? I would prefer to write a Book, weighty and important, or at least an Article, incisive and witty. But I am willing to settle for regular Postings, either on my work page, or on my “public” page, or, as in the case of this writing, both.

Intending to write raises other questions, like “why,” and “what,” and “when.” There’s a short answer to “why” taped to one of the computer monitors in my cube: “How can I know what I think unless I read what I write.” That’s a healthy, self-centered reason, and it has served me well. But I also recognize that there is a Reader, if only an imaginary one. (Note to self – write something about the unexpected usefulness of creating an empty object in Blender.)

Perhaps my value to the Reader is that I have a Peculiar Perspective on life and other things. Perhaps that perspective provides illumination to people who are more Normal. Perhaps it offers encouragement to other Peculiar People. Or maybe it’s just entertaining.

That’s really more thinking and writing than I usually do about the Reader. Mostly I just want to write, and write well, with quality (see Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.)

Oh, yes, and point to other clever things. I like sharing clever things with others, and even though I continually have to raise the bar for what I share (it sags, and I am often tempted to share cute pictures of cats), I still find lots of things that I want to post. Like this cartoon from Adam@home, which relates more to people at work because we are working on 3D stuff right now, and because there are latent Deadheads and other musical types here.

(click for larger image)

And this column, sent to me by my wife, which says things I would like to have written, but am not good enough to.

As always, feel free to comment or e-mail me with your responses, but don’t feel obligated. I can always listen to the voice of the Invisible Reader in my head. It’s a familiar sound.

I wish for you and your loved ones a happy and prosperous New Year!