I thought I had lost my favorite key necklace sometime in the fog that was February but after my car wash and apparent cleaning, the necklace was found and placed in my little miscellany compartment.

All seems right in the world now.

Photo credit: Nicole Nguyen

Dan Ariely, a professor of behavioral economics at Duke University and the author of a new book, “The Upside of Irrationality,” has studied why earlier adopters do what they do. “It’s not about the cost-benefit analysis,” he says. And rarely is it a successful calculation of higher productivity, though many a person has tried to justify purchases of expensive toys that way.

“I realized years ago that I derive great pleasure from buying a new gadget,” said Professor Ariely. “I bought a Segway.”[Source]

Early adopter love.

Two qualities that can be mildly enjoyable by themselves, but together are completely and wholly disastrous. It’s a constant influx of extreme boredom then excitement. The anticipation makes time move more slowly — the boredom and restlessness, twice as slow.

My solution: Why not counteract the dawdling days by moving even slower!

If you are trying to contact me in the early evenings only to find that I’ve fallen asleep, I apologize in advance. I’ve descended into one of the most unproductive phases of my adult life. Someone please inspire me.

Also, I think I’m doomed to write only about time until my watch is fixed.

Before I run off to class (classes that truly do get in the way of my education, thanks Mark Twain).

We all have those moments—where time passes by so slow it’s as if she’s been sedated by our own ennui. This essay I just read on boredom suggested that there was a neurological explanation, as there always is (love’s just a chemical reaction, yeah?).

Researchers have discovered that when people are conscious but doing nothing — for example, lying in an f.M.R.I. scanner, waiting to be given some simple mental task as part of a psychology experiment — the brain is in fact firing away, with greater activity in regions responsible for recalling autobiographical memory, imagining the thoughts and feelings of others, and conjuring hypothetical events: the literary areas of the brain, you might say. When this so-called default mode network is activated, the brain uses only about 5 percent less energy than it does when engaged in basic tasks. But that discrepancy may explain why time seems to pass more slowly at such moments. It may also explain the agitated restlessness that compels the bored to seek relief in doodling or daydreaming.

So, bore me & spend a little (more) time with me.
“Pay close attention to the most tedious thing you can find and, in waves, a boredom like you’ve never known will wash over you and just about kill you. Ride these out, and it’s like stepping from black and white into color. Like water after days in the desert. Instant bliss in every atom.”

Time: a measurement system invented by humans to quantify a universal and constant progression whose true definition escapes us. And the caveat—our minds can manipulate and perceive time as it wishes.

Is time subjective? Time keeps moving without us. Don’t be stuck in the wrong time.

[Source]

The latest is how to sort all the junk I post online in one neat Web site—this one.

…but what of the wretched hollow?

[Source]

An e-mail from a professor I will have in the fall:

Millie,

JD

Lovely.

I love summer because the likelihood of someone being as bored as I am is exponentially higher.

I’ve taken to reading this book called “The Botany of Desire.” It’s supposed to be told from the plant’s point of view – this is good because I’ve always wondered what it’s like to be a plant.

</bored>

Smoking – cigarettes in particular. Straight up? I think it’s stupid and one of the worst thing you can do to your body.

Someone try to give me a logical answer and I will consider – or, most likely not. This is not to berate smokers or make a judgment on anyone’s character as I kind of understand the… Social pressures? Familiarity? Genes? All pretty much empty excuses, I think. Also, the cool factor is not an answer either.

Excuse the diatribe, but there is just insurmountable evidence about the effects of smoking. Does your body need it? Initially, before the first cigarette, not thereafter. I am trying to understand why anyone would continually poison their bodies in this way. Why would you risk higher probabilities of disease and cancer? Physically, mentally, economically… in none of these areas can I even begin to proport any rational reason to smoke, given the cost-benefit analysis.

Last Wednesday, I went to the track hoping to get in a short run before the marathon and my calves felt like wooden blocs. I couldn’t run, literally. There was this stiffness in my calves that was punctuated with every step on the rubber track. It was a terrible feeling to not be able to do something so simple, something that some people take for granted – being able to run. Now, I’m limping around with sore quads and walking is basically a concerted effort between my brain and my legs to not fall down the stairs. That said, if smoking impairs (I purposely didn’t use “‘may’ impair” because it is a definitive statement) your physical ability, your lung capacity – tell me why you would smoke.

I suppose it’s difficult to discourage smokers with vague, distant things like “coronary heart disease” or “lung cancer,” just as it’s hard to organize a collective effort to combat global warming warning of distant future catastrophes. But, some immediate effects of smoking are nearly just as unattractive: bad breath, yellow teeth, smelly clothes. Maybe this is the way to go about solving the climate crisis – make it sexy!

That said, I do believe that quitting is always an option. Running the marathon this past Monday, sans proper training I am embarrassed to admit, proves that it really is MIND OVER MATTER. A marathon is basically a really long mental exercise – you don’t run fast (I was running at a 11-12 min pace) and after about the 10th mile, your legs go on auto-pilot and the rest is just you getting over the mental wall (Mile 23 for me) and trying to distract yourself from realizing that you’re going to run 26.2 miles.

This marathon has seriously gotten me believe I can do… anything. Ha!

/Ad nauseam/

I know James Franco is your commencement speaker, but here are some notable addresses by David Foster Wallace and Steve Jobs. Or, an oldie-but-goodie, Mary Shimich’s Wear Sunscreen.

(Excerpts coming soon, I can’t blog all day!)

Dithering between these two.

The norm in the (blogging) industry is updating 3x/day?

I am severely lacking; how does one individual have that much news to share?

Regardless, I thank my loyal readers, whoever you are – I appreciate you.