Meeting someone you’ve never met before is an error-fraught process.
For one thing, how do you decide where to meet? If it’s for business, it should be somewhere serious, but not somewhere boring. It should be somewhere suitable, but not somewhere too expensive (at least for those of us without an unlimited expense account).
And then there’s the matter of identifying the person you’re supposed to meet. Do they sound like their telephone voice? Do they look like an employee of company X? Is that the kind of person who signs emails with “Indubitably,”?
I realize that sometimes these things seem a little abstract, but I’m actually writing this while sitting in a cafe wondering if the fellow in the orange shirt on the other side of the cafe is the freelancer I’m supposed to meet.
Next time, I’m for sure going to insist that my rendezvous partner wear an identifiable hat, preferably a sombrero.
Chai is the life-giving nectar of the gods. Don’t believe me? Try a blended ice chai next time you go to a cafe. They don’t serve it? Move on, life’s too short for cafes without blended ice chais.
I found this random note on my computer’s desktop:
I’m going to switch to Moveable Type blogging software. One of the important criteria of using blogging software (as opposed to just putting up random home-grown pages like I do) is that you need to start blathering on about blogging software in your blog. Also, you have to call it a blog instead of a journal or column. I’m prepared to make these adjustments. In exchange, I’ll get handy tools for posting stories from anywhere, and you’ll get more column entries from me at times I’m supposed to be working or paying attention to my lovely and talented wife.
“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.)