Butterfly

climb into my mouth...

Hope

It is hope which both allows us to continue... and destroys us...

tragedy

Sometimes, I feel like life is nothing more than a tragedy which continues until the actors are all dead, like Hamlet. The only thing which we really have are the small moments of feeling connection with those whom we love. We have also those moments of complete transparency, like when Hamlet proclaims his love for Ophelia. And those moments when you really feel like you understand the state of things, though in the smallest way. When the flavor of the wine fills your head, or you take a bite from a steak which is gushing juices from the incision, or hear a song which epitomizes your feeling, or a fascinatingly ugly insect.

Alright, I'm changing. My beginning and ending of the previous paragram argue for different perspectives. I need change...

Retaliation

When you retaliate, you are giving up self - you are only responding to your environment, and not acting independently.

Self and Creation

Is there any self when you are only reacting? Is not the epitome of self to create?

Argument

If you are equals, the ask questions until you can state their position clearly, in language which they can agree to. Only then will you understand enough to make a claim about their position.

Frustration

Why live in a world of pretty things which you cannot have?

Perspective

When you step back far enough, you cannot be angry.

Norms

It's late, and all those things you're told to care about just don't matter any more...

Knowledge Work

Thinking about the similarities in what every knowledge worker does, it seems that we all do the same things, just in different realms. We all think, create, examine, refine, over and over. How does one, then, break into a different application area? How is managing the state of world politics any different than writing good software? Good software is robust in a changing environment, considers a functional set of requirements, delivers demonstrable value to the stake-holders. Are these not all qualities of a foreign affairs official, a sociologist modeling the world, a medical researcher, etc?

Tell me anything and I'll believe it

Perhaps the "tell me anything and I'll believe it" facial expression of Barbi was a means to break down the "barrier to entry" between men and women. That is, if the woman is brainless, then there is no competition between male and female: the male is obviously the dominant one.

Male dominance has been perpetuated in our society, certainly, by many things. Perhaps the doll contributed to it in this and other subtle ways.

When to rewrite

Analyze complexity of working with existing code. If you can write a simpler solution in less time than you can debug the problem, do so.