Think Metric

“Our life is frittered away by detail… Simplify, simplify.” – Henry David Thoreau

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Life is complicated. I don’t think that too many people will disagree with me on this subject. And the more convoluted things are the more stressful and taxing life becomes.

To live a more serene life, everybody should strive for simplicity. And many do.
One notable exception seems to be the United States.

“The United States is now the only industrialized country in the world that does not use the metric system as its predominant system of measurement.”

 Can you believe this? The country that gave the world the transistor, the defibrillator, the hard disk drive, the laser, the integrated circuit, the global navigation satellite system, the contraceptive pill, the light emitting diode, the computer mouse, the cordless phone, the compact disc, the wireless local area network, the personal computer, the Global Positioning System, the digital camera, the Internet, etc. this country is still using the Imperial System.
A true relic from the past.

The Imperial System used in America is a legacy of the British Empire that was a leading commercial power from the 16th to the 19th century.
But the Imperial System is outdated and overly complicated. Inches, feet and yards might have been handy in the 18th century, but today it is hopelessly cumbersome and inefficient.

Most of the world is now using the metric system an internationally agreed decimal system of measurement.

It was originally based on the mètre des Archives and the kilogramme des Archives introduced by the French First Republic in 1799.

 The Metric System is a decimal measurement system that measures length in millimeters, centimeters, meters, and kilometers; capacity in liters and milliliters; mass in grams and kilograms; and temperature in degrees Celsius.

It is exquisitely simple and easy to use and I wonder why the US still did not implement this system countrywide. The kids would gobble it up like candy.
As usual, the main obstacle to this transition is probably cost and inertia.
A bad excuse when enormous sums are wasted on ridiculous projects.

Similarly, the US hemmed and hawed for a long time before finally starting to implement the more secure chip-based credit cards that has been used in Europe since the mid-1990’s.

Thus the metric system did not really catch on in the States, unless you count the increasing popularity of the nine-millimeter bullet. Dave Barry

Don’t be phobic, think metric.

Alain

Writer’s block

“Keep a small can of WD-40 on your desk—away from any open flames—to remind yourself that if you don’t write daily, you will get rusty.”
—George Singleton

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It is a good advice.

Like most bloggers, once in a while I experience “writer’s block” or as the French would say, “le syndrome de la page blanche », the condition of being unable to think about what to write.

Writing, if you must know is an addiction and it is like any other craving. If you don’t indulge, you will feel restless, fidgety, cranky.
To get a fix, you MUST write. About nothing and everything.
As the saying goes, “It is not because you have nothing to say that we must keep your mouth shut.”
Just like jogging, you must continue writing in order to keep your mind fit.

My best personal medicine to relieve this curse is a long solitary walk, letting your mind wander like an off leash dog. The creative process is a lonely activity that does not suffer companionship. It is probably similar to a hen laying an egg. I surmise that to do this she must concentrate and not gossip with another hen.

Contrarily to what you might think, sleep does not stop the creative process. I have often awakened in the middle of the night to jot down some idea that came to me during my beauty sleep.

“I always start writing with a clean piece of paper and a dirty mind.”—Patrick Dennis

Another good piece of advice.

A dirty/naughty mind is necessary to titillate one’s libido and make your writing a little more entertaining.
To resonate with your audience, you must write about what you have experienced. Bad and good. Clean and naughty. These last few weeks as you have probably noticed, I have indulged in the naughty: stinking politics.

To my everlasting sorrow, it seems that good guys often finishes second. But politics is often akin to a marathon. A triumphant start does not necessarily augur a victorious finish.

Neville (“peace for our time”) Chamberlain had a good start and a much less brilliant finish.

Thank you for reading a Seinfeld-like story “about nothing”.

Alain

Spontaneous combustion

Once in a while… What am I saying? Almost daily I read about celebrities’ pregnancies.

Some personalities are very coy about it. They are single and they don’t seem to be in a widely known relationship.
So what the hell happened? One-night stand? Artificial insemination? Or was it simply an “immaculate conception” or as they say a “spontaneous combustion”?

And talking about Immaculate Conception… What an extraordinarily convoluted story!
I am not sure I am almost certain that nobody really understands what it means.
The Roman Catholic Church said, “God preserved the Virgin Mary from the taint of original sin from the moment she was conceived.”
What kind of gibberish is this?

And what is the Original Sin? Is procreation a sin? Didn’t God say, “be fruitful and multiply”?Excuse my French, but I recall that this verse was originally written in Hebrew…
Could some misanthropic monk have deliberately induced the public in error and called “discussing Uganda” a sin? I don’t put anything past someone who abjured sex.

Don’t get me wrong. I don’t begrudge any woman the right to get pregnant, but raising a child singlehandedly is a tough job. A very badass job.

“Life is tough enough without having someone kick you from the inside.”–Rita Rudner

Single celebrities set a bad example for the rest of the women folk because what’s relatively trouble-free for a wealthy celebrity is hardly manageable for the average woman. Celebrities have the means to hire nurses and nannies, but single women in general don’t have the money to do so and become hopelessly hobbled by the responsibilities.

When I was a schoolboy a woman got engaged first, then married and then had children. Today, in the age of instant gratification, many women prefer to have their dessert first without bothering with the appetizers.

To each his own, but if you are not swimming in dough, think twice before having your “Baba au Rhum” before your antipasto.

Alain