Melilyn.com

Where I work, there’s a posse of old men that come in every day (I mean, they’re like clockwork… every day) and sit in the front corner by the windows. Not a big deal in and of itself… pretty harmless. Just a bunch of old friends having breakfast together every day. Not so.

This is an open letter to any and all guys that stumble across this. When you (inadvertently) get old and find yourself with nothing really interesting to occupy your time, do not go into your local eating establishment just to sit there for three hours every day and ogle every girl that comes in the front door. Seriously. I’m sure you’ll be able to find better and more productive things to do besides hitting on random girls that are young enough to be your great-grandchildren. Find a hobby to occupy you in your old age. The girls of tomorrow will thank you.

It occurred to me about halfway home that walking in fifteen degree (windy!) weather while eating ice cream is probably not the best way to keep January colds away. Oops.

You’ve heard of black holes, right? They’re like… okay, blobs of really dense nothing that sucks in everything around it. Black holes have something called the event horizon, which is the point where something getting close to a black hole has no choice but to get sucked in. I guess up until that point, you could turn around and avoid the whole ordeal altogether… but once you pass the event horizon, there’s no turning back.

I’ve discovered that I personally learn new things in much the same way. Let’s say I’m learning a new language… say, Spanish. When I first start learning it, it’s pretty easy. Call it beginner’s luck. I can learn some basic words, form a few sentences, and have a simple conversation.

After that, it gets hard, and that’s the point when I have to really buckle down and study. I have to push myself extra hard to get past that event horizon, when it suddenly falls into place and becomes easy… second nature. (more…)