I got asked if I was over 60 at a hockey game this week. First time for me. The asker was very young and they are very bad at judging ages. Still. I'm not and won't be for a few years yet.
Enjoyed the image of Mark Zuckerberg on the stand, so to speak. Most of the US senators in the hearing were unbelievably ill informed about Facebook and how it works but there were some good questions about bias and the profit motive that he had no real answer for. His repeated use of the word 'community' was especially surreal. I would like to see the directors of Google in the same seat some day. Facing better questions this time.
At five o'clock on weekdays where I live, The Monkees, The Waltons, Mary Tyler Moore and Independence Day are all on at the same time. I'm sure Friends is there somewhere. Was it William Faulkner who said that the past is not gone, it's not even the past?
Five things I learned this week:
Five sets of body weight exercises can produce extreme soreness even in relatively fit people.
Don't take your snow tires off too early if you live in Canada.
Hockey is what ties us together. Still.
No one won the X Prize for landing on the moon so Google pulled their prize money. The companies who persevered are going ahead anyway. They are looking for a new sponsor so...
No matter how old you are, your heart can feel young, in ways both good and bad.
An excerpt from some writing I am doing:
We get up. My hands are covered in blood. How had that happened? The roar of the battle returns. Keep them off the wall. That’s what we have to do. It is so hot. My back and arms feel like wire that has been stretched too far, beyond it ability to retract. I have no strength left. I see the arrow enter Norril’s eye again. I shiver. Then an arrow rushes by me and clicks off the stone. Then another. I reach back into the tall bucket and find one myself. I notch it and turn to sight it. A Bonded soldier is three rungs from the top. I put the arrow into his neck where it meets his shoulder. He flinches, takes another step up and then keels over and falls into the moat with a splash. I immediately reload and turn but there is no one on the ladder. One of our boys pushes it up and back until it falls over. The Bonded soldiers have stopped. They are retreating in good order. Shields up, leaving their dead behind.
Enjoy your week.