Sorry for the delay!

To all my blog-buddies: I'm sorry to have ignored you for so long. As an apology present, the least I can do is give you a few interesting links to look at.

First, a few words from Winston Churchill, who, amongst all his other gigs, was also a writer:




You can find more here; the main site is interesting in general, actually.

Next, something that both made me grin and made me feel like weeping: a superhero grandma. Make sure you read the story!

Third, an interesting case study in the human compulsion to attach meaning to what are essentially random (and therefore most likely meaningless) events: The Always Amusing Euphemism Generator (keep refreshing/reloading the screen for an endless supply of euphemisms). Fans of Umberto Eco's Foucault's Pendulum will already have gleefully explored this compulsion; so, too, will devotees of pareidolia. For others, I invite you to consider just how much of what we are certain we know is actually due to our need to make sense of things, whether or not they actually do. Make sense, that is. Because maybe they just...plain...don't. (EDIT! Thanks to Jason Fischer for the link!)

And finally, not another link, but a reflection: as the year starts to lurch and careen to a close (it never does seem to move smoothly to the curb, where a skilled and subtle chauffeur/chauffeuse opens the door and courteously invites one to alight, does it?), I am drawn to consider my 2010 goals. I have achieved a few; I haven't achieved a significant number more (although the year is not yet entirely over). For 2011, I am going to experiment with a different approach: not goals as such, but plans. I will devise month-by-month, step-by-step plans for the areas in my life that are really important to me. Each area will have an overall objective, toward which I will need to convince myself that each step leads if I am to include it in my plan. Ideally, this will help me focus on activities that contribute to larger, more lasting accomplishments, rather than just coming up with a bunch of random "nice things I'd like to maybe do" (aka the merit-badge approach). If it works, I'll certainly let y'all know in about a year from now.

Meanwhile, I hope you all have a terrific summer/winter and holiday season whatever the weather where you are. If you write, keep writing! If you study, keep studying! If you cook or make things or program computers or take care of families or play music or heal people or help people find information or keep governments working well or pursue justice and fairness — keep doing these things! For the world needs you all!