Δαφνη Ευτυχια Αρθουρος

From the Quotation of the day mailing list, 2004-08-30:

"The public buys its opinions as it buys its meat, or takes in its milk, on the principle that it is cheaper to do this than to keep a cow. So it is, but the milk is more likely to be watered." -- Samuel Butler

I've noticed that when reading text that mentions a lot of the '-um' elements -- unranium, plutonium, niobium, platinum -- if the 82nd element crosses my mind, the word that goes through my brain first is "plumbum". A moment later I remember that I almost never call it that, usually thinking of it as "lead".

Too many '-um's in one place, I guess. I'm not sure whether I do the same thing with argentum (which actualy does cross my mind under that name randomly once in a while, but I haven't caught myself spontaneously thinking of silver while reading heavy [pardon] '-um' text so I don't know whether the odds change), but I'm pretty sure I don't do it with aurum. And I haven't noticed a similar effect from reading too many '-en' and '-on' element names in one place.

Yesterday, today's plan for "a day when I've got something planned" turned into "a busy day". (More than one thing scheduled, with one running into travel time for the other, and the possibility of a too-long day.) So I'm probably going to fall farther behind on my LJ reading again.

If you've just had seven years of bad luck for no good reason, do you get to break a mirror for free, with no additional penalty?

I lost my bass.

I just went to move it upstairs, and it wasn't there. And it wasn't in the place where I would have put it if I'd been too lazy to put it away in its usual place. And it wasn't under the guitars in the front hall. And it wasn't in one of the bedrooms, nor the office, any of which would have made sense. I even looked in the bathroom. Gone! I was all set to call Emory and ask whether I'd left it at his studio a couple of months ago. Then I went into the what-will-be-a-living-room-once-it-stops-being-storage room and turned around. Discovered a blind spot in my house, a place I don't even know I don't look at. Discovered my bass, in its case.

I'm guessing that the last time I had it out of the house, somebody else helped me carry things in from the car, and put it in that spot where I never would have. (A perfectly reasonable spot, actually, unless you're me.) *whew* Now to get my heart to slow down.

Obviously this means I have not been practicing bass guitar as often as I should. I think it's going to have to stay in a stand, out of its case, for a while so that it will remind me with pointed stares and pleading looks whenever I walk past it. (This is the advice I give to studends, by the way: although a guitar is safer in its case, when you're learning to play, never put it away except to take it somewhere. Leave it out where you'll see it and think of it every time you walk into the room, and pick it up and play it as often as you think of it. That's how to get enough hands-on time for the lessons to sink in and the fingers to learn what the brain has heard. If I had enough free space (read: ifwhen I get the house organized) most of my instruments will be on stands most of the time, except the two guitars I take to rehearsals and performances the most often.)