Intermittent posting for a while

 "Ambition means tying your well-being to what others say or do.  Self-indulgence means tying it to the things that happen to you.  Sanity mans tying it to your own actions." - Marcus Aurelius

Rough wood, smooth wood

 "Do every act of life as if it were your last." - Marcus Aurelius

Early Instrumental Rock Music

 "Take the shortest route, the one that nature planned - to speak and act in the healthiest way.  Do that, and be free of pain and stress, free of all calculation and pretense." - Marcus Aurelius

Live Concerts

 "Do not get too attached to life, for it is like a sailor's leave on the shore, and at any time the captain may sound the horn, calling you back to eternal darkness." - Epictetus

Sir, I need to see your license

"No person is free who is not master of himself." - Epictetus

The future you were promised is currently unavailable. Please try again later.

 "Don't let your imagination be crushed by life as a whole.  Don't try to picture everything bad that could possibly happen.  Stick with the situation at hand, and ask, "Why is this so unbearable?  Why can't I endure it?  You'll be embarrassed to answer.  Then remind yourself that the past and future have no power over you.  Only the present - and even that can be minimized." - Marcus Aurelius

Shoes - regurgitated

"Everything that happens is either endurable or it is not.  If it is endurable, stop complaining.  If it's unendurable then stop complaining.  Your destruction will mean its end as well." - Marcus Aurelius

Society is doomed

 "No man is crushed by misfortune unless he has first been deceived by prosperity." - Lucius Annaeus Seneca

Criminality and Informed Consent

 "As the sun does not wait for prayers and incantations to be induced to rise, but immediately shines and is saluted by all, so do you also not wait for clappings of hands and shouts of praise to be induced to do good, but be a doer of good voluntarily and you will be beloved as much as the sun." - Epictetus

Covid - Media still ignoring the lab leak hypothesis

"Since every man dies, it is better to die with distinction than to live long." - Gaius Musonius Rufus

Pondering Price vs. Value

 "Observe always that everything is the result of change, and get used to thinking that there is nothing Nature loves so well as to change existing forms and make new ones like them." - Marcus Aurelius

I'm losing page views!

 Every once in a while, I track page views and search terms to see what people are looking for, and which posts people find interesting.  For the past six months, views have hovered around 60 per day.  

Recently page views have dropped off, very unnaturally.  Below is a trend of page views going back 10 years.  You can see where things went south suddenly last week.

Dang.  There goes my ad revenue!  Oh wait... I don't get any ad revenue.  I just do this for fun.

New shoes!

"The superior man, when resting in safety, does not forget that danger may come.  When in a state of security he does not forget the possibility of ruin.  When all is orderly, he does not forget that disorder may come.  Thus his person is not endangered and his States and all their clans are preserved" - Confucius

Curio idea: CP-1

 "Do not try to seem wise to others.  If you want to live a wise life, live it on your own terms and in your own eyes." - Epictetus

So much for those days off...

"Perfection of character: To live your last day, every day, without frenzy, without sloth, without pretense." - Marcus Aurelius