Susie’s family left yesterday for home (Alexandria, Virginia, USA). Parents and brother and sister were here for the holidays. That was very very much fun. They are a very do-nothing group on holidays it seems—they only went off on a few excursions unlike some travelers who feel inclined to see three tourist destinations before lunch.
They did make it to the museum of television and radio, which was nice, if snooty. They also saw the floats from the Rose Parade, which are parked a few blocks from this house.
It was great having them here, and felt very comfortable the whole time, though there was a little confusion about their exact role: are they guests? Are they equals? Who takes out the garbage?
On the plus side, the gifts were plentiful due to the number of people in the room—when it’s just Susie and I, it’s pretty much a swap, but with 6 people, the math gets complicated.
I got the mother of all presents—a iPod, Apple Computer’s magical MP3 player that is super cool and easy to use and stylish and crashes very very rarely.
“Almost every American I know does trade large portions of his life for entertainment, hour by weeknight hour, binge by Saturday binge, Facebook check by Facebook check. I’m one of them. In the course of writing this I’ve watched all 13 episodes of House of Cards and who knows how many more West Wing episodes, and I’ve spent any number of blurred hours falling down internet rabbit holes. All instead of reading, or writing, or working, or spending real time with people I love.”
“Live a good life. If there are gods and they are just, then they will not care how devout you have been, but will welcome you based on the virtues you have lived by. If there are gods, but unjust, then you should not want to worship them. If there are no gods, then you will be gone, but will have lived a noble life that will live on in the memories of your loved ones.”
You can scroll right easily by holding down the SHIFT key and using your scroll wheel. (Firefox users trying this will end up jumping to old Web pages until a) Firefox releases a fix, b) they change their settings like so.)