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Everyone needs a reality check sometimes. But only Stephan Pastis delivers this check with porcine astuteness.

To answer's e:zzzzzzzoooooobbbbbbbaarrrr's unasked question:

Current scientific thought points to the following processes:

a)


+

b)


+

c)


But we all know why they *REALLY* die!

PROOF!

a) Sitcoms
+
b) Arguments with kids
+
c) Beauty Magazines
+
d) Treadmills!

Ranked in descending order from toughest to easiest:

3. Logon and check e:strip only once a day!


4. Complete one page of academic writing every day.


5. Draft tasklists and try and complete 75% -> 100% of the list every day.


6. Finish writing and propose before this month is out.


7. Take notes on worthwhile articles and keep up the running notes diary.


8. Will finally gather my wits together and start discussion sessions with future collaborators and draft grant ideas @rate of 1/month.


9. Cut down on non-productive interaction. Reply to relevant emails promptly.


10. Erase hate-like emotions and cultivate indifference instead because really, sometimes I couldn't care less.


Here's to a more streamlined 2009!!
TP

This is going to be a rather boring abstract stream of thoughts from some of yesterday's conversations. Thus, feel free to skip this journal. I am writing it because really, the construct of hope continues to fascinate me. I am not sure whether its this particular holiday season - the only one I have spent away from immediate family or because I am at this crazy unsure point in my school. Every step seems to take an eternity because a thousand thoughts flow and ebb before I complete it.



At the last minute I see patterns in the waves and that changes the place where my step is finally going to take root. I am almost about to place my foot down but I look down and I see its not solid ground.



Its a wild desolate marsh full of exotic colours - they are so exciting and pretty but they are also so foreign I can't name them even if I try really hard! I look up and there is a lighthouse but its lights are too distant and fog shrouds its outlines. Its a hint of hope. Every little thing I see is tinged with hope when what I really want is for them to be fully coloured with bold broad firm strokes.

I think hope is very contextual in its distribution. Its in tune with what we do for a living and what our particular situation in life is. Why does this nonuniform distribution even exist? Why is it that our professional lives are, more often than not, tempered with a heavier dose of hopes and convictions than our perspective of the professional fields that others work in? Does this unequal hope temperance only happen when we have invested a high level of effort and deliberation in choosing and pursuing our professions? It surely does not stand a chance when we hate our jobs, but it thrives when we feel even a tenuous and remote connection to what we do for our living.

Are we merely justifying the work that went into being qualified for a living when we cultivate dreams for its future and believe in them? Or do we think that somehow our "expert insight" into our professions extend to also detecting shiny and hopeful visions of this field in the crystal ball? Does all this also stunt our visions for other professional fields? Is it some psychological one-bird-in-hand grapes-are-sour phenomenon?



New Year Resolution 2. Write down craziness when it occurs. Use writing as a weapon for thought resolution. Check.


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Photos:

Resolution No. 1: Cook more interesting stuff. Check.