Count That Day Lost

If you sit down at set of sun
And count the acts that you have done,
And, counting, find
One self-denying deed, one word
That eased the heart of him who heard,
One glance most kind
That fell like sunshine where it went –
Then you may count that day well spent.

But if, through all the livelong day,
You’ve cheered no heart, by yea or nay –
If, through it all
You’ve nothing done that you can trace
That brought the sunshine to one face –
No act most small
That helped some soul and nothing cost –
Then count that day as worse than lost.

-George Eliot

I’ve heard that Mary Anne Evans, the author of the above poem, used a pen name because she wanted to be taken seriously. I also have found no proper source stating this to be the case, so I left the poem as she did.

It’s almost 8. Here’s the steps:

1. Take 2 Benadryl
2. Set an alarm for 7:30 (hopefully I wake up on my own before that)
3. Eat Dinner
4. Watch some TVVvvvvvZZZZzzzzzZZZzzz… *snore*
5. Wake up refreshed

You can now legally videotape police officers in Illinois. Fuck yeah!

Words are easy to toss around, but sometimes the words we use are tied to such powerful imagery that finding an appropriate application for them can be difficult. Take excruciating, literally from crucifixion. For fuck’s sake, this is a word people throw around like it’s nothing. “I was in excruciating pain.” Really? You would equate your suffering with a slow death from suffocation and exposure after being tied – or nailed, fucking nailed – to a cross?

I understand that there is a flexibility to language and that using a word in an imperfect context isn’t actually wrong, but I find it greatly satisfying to find the perfect word for a specific situation. A work friend and I made up a word for that feeling, but I forget it. It was something like dictogasm. [Sidenote, it's doubly satisfying that dicto and gasm both have Greek origins.]

Finally, my appreciation for appropriate use also extends to symbols. After seeing one or two this weekend I got to thinking about Saint Peter’s cross, the inverted cross. Yes, like words, symbols can mean what you want them to mean, but Jesus Christ (haha, get it?), it’s not some pagan, counterculture statement. It’s probably one of the most intensely humble symbols in Christianity. The story goes that Saint Peter asked to be crucified upside-down because he did not think he deserved to be compared to Jesus. Christ, that’s intense.

it’s raining.

had a dirty martini.

had a nice long walk.

these things are entirely undervalued.

This hook dances in your ear, the verses tie it all together, but the bassline sells it. Oh, and the message doesn’t hurt either.

Necessity

Work?
I don’t have to work.
I don’t have to do nothing
but eat, drink, stay black, and die.
This little old furnished room’s
so small I can’t whip a cat
without getting fur in my mouth
and my landlady’s so old
her features is all run together
and God knows she sure can overcharge—
Which is why I reckon I does
have to work after all.

-Langston Hughes

Tonight’s Law & Order: SVU brought up an old favorite adage: “I don’t have to do anything but stay black and die.” Curiosity piqued, I wanted the origin, and Google exists, so there I went. I first landed at another special place: Lean on Me. What a good movie! And the quote is from the HNIC himself!

Damn son. Still not satisfied – oh, who am I kidding, I was already hooked and just chasing the dragon at this point – I delved deeper. Then I hit Langston. Specifically, his poem Necessity. He is just so damn cool it’s depressing. I could write every day and still end up stumbling amongst the foothills of his massive literary and cultural contributions. He mixes passion and emotion like a fine cocktail, and I’m awed every time I find works of his I have not yet read.

I’ve been stuck on how to approach my website redesign for the better part of a month, but now I realize that I was putting it off because I was being stupid and lazy.

I need to approach it piecemeal – doing ten things at a time is clearly not the answer. Recognizing that a personal site exists in an ecosystem is necessary for a good result. It sucks for development though. The realization that I don’t have to do it all at once (and shouldn’t) was quite a relief.

The focus here is my web presence, the interaction between my website and social networking as judged by search engines. I’ve been David Baylor #1 for a while now when it comes to Google – the only search engine worth caring about. I say that because, generally, I could give a damn about someone who would be looking for me otherwise.

A lot of things have to get done, and I guess I have to prioritize. I need to brush up on HTML/CSS, flat-out learn PHP (thanks WordPress), pick which social networks to keep around, and update all of my information. Is it weird that I’m a little excited about it?

At least I know that I don’t have to do it all at once.