Maybe it’s coming back

My attention span, that is. During and after grad school, I feared I was losing the ability to read books for pleasure (I may even have written about this, but I can’t be bothered to look). I seem to have regained it in the past few months, though, and I’ve actually killed off three books in the last two weeks. This can only be a good thing.

This one, spotted in the “new arrivals” section at work is strangely tempting:

Speaking of random photos, look over to the right. There’s a new feature here (OK, on flickr, really) that I’m calling Dailystream. It’s pretty much a “photo a day” kind of thing, which is not really innovative or exciting at all, except to me because this time I’m doing it rather than someone else.

Population implosion

I can’t help thinking that it probably doesn’t bode well for the Triad that there was only about 20% population growth here over the past ten years. By way of comparison, Wake County, where Raleigh is located, has added the equivalent of the entire population of Greensboro since 2000. Mecklenburg County, home to Charlotte, has added almost the entire population of Winston-Salem to its headcount in the same period of time.

Interestingly, the really big growth was in Fayetteville, where Fort Bragg is actually one of the nicer neighborhoods. So I guess there’s no accounting for taste.

On February and friendships

How much do I appreciate the very well-timed visits from two of my oldest and closest friends last month? Lots. It’s quite amazing the perspective that nearly thirty years of history with a friend (or two) can provide and how being together with them can help you get reacquainted with the person you really are and the things that you really value. And also to remember that the person you really are is one of the main things that you really value.

For keeping me in touch with my sense of humor, for helping me reexamine my priorities, for understanding the confusing place I’m in right now, and for generally helping me remember that I am a pretty damned OK person, I offer my thanks. And my apologies for the fact that I probably haven’t been as available for you over the past few years as you have for me. That will be something for me to work on. In fact, I have a lot of stuff to work on right now, but that’s near the top of the list.

Incidentally, it was nice to have so many excuses to overeat, too…

Videolog: Those Were the Days

Mary Hopkin
Those Were the Days, 1968

I’ve loved this song since I was four or five years old. I still do.

Randomly Friday

By some strange miracle, I seem to be considerably healthier today than I was at my physical six months ago. I’ve lost weight, my “good” cholesterol is up (my “bad” is always low anyway) and I’ve backtracked quite a bit on that road to diabetes, heart disease, and all sorts of other nasty things. I’m kind of amazed, considering how rough the past few months have been for me personally and how–until a few weeks ago when I finally got my head out of my ass–I was basically using comfort food and lethargy to treat the symptoms.

So can I lose fifty pounds this year? What say ye?

Other stuff:

Mark arrives for a quick visit tomorrow. It will be the first time we’ve seen each other since December and I am much looking forward to it.
The oldest supermarket in Charlotte is about to be torn down. I’m a little depressed about that, but I’d be more depressed if there were a little more of the original buidling left to begin with.
In case you care what I’ve been doing at work lately, here are two samples. They’re part of a bigger project I’m working on that’s still in beta (and not finished).
I actually had occasion to bring my Zip drive to work (and even to use it) last week as well. That was fun.
There’s something else big that’s supposed to make up this last bullet point, but I don’t remember what it is.