Mot juste du Jour, reprise:

“This has ‘clusterfuck’ written all over it.”

- Me, to my roommate, upon hearing about his company’s management’s decision to switch the entire crew to a shift rotation, pretty much solely in order to deal with an unreliable service vendor.

I love my friends

So. The other day I was in a folk-songy mood. There was one particular song that was running through my head. Problem was, I didn’t actually know the song. Didn’t know lyrics, or the name. Quite honestly, I only knew the first few bars; but I had heard it before and remember that I thought it was good. How the heck am I supposed to find out what it is?

Well, I know that the tune was featured in a Loony Toons cartoon. I haven’t seen this cartoon in probably 15 years, but I remembered it vividly.

So I have a tune I half remember, but the only reference I can make to it is by referring to a cartoon. And I’m no closer to finding a source for information about the name of the tune. I mean, after all, who would have such broad expertise and in depth knowledge to be an authority on both folk-tunes and Loony Toons?

Why, James, of course.

I email him my problem. As it turns out, he did know one word from the title of the song. No, then he remembered another, and a Google search did the rest. Voila: he had recalled the cartoon I was trying to describe, the folk song that was played in it, and was able to find the song’s title.

It’s nice having an ace in the hole.

The real winner in the affair, though, gentle reader, is you, given that I was quite taken by the beauty of both the tune, in its entirety, and the lyrics. I shall post them here; if you want a MIDI file of the tune itself, I recommend you look at the site I filched the lyrics from.

Believe me if all those endearing young charms

Believe me if all those
Endearing young charms
Which I gaze on so fondly today
Were to change by tomorrow
And fleet in my arms,
Like fairy gifts fading away
Thou would'st still be adored
As this moment thou art
Let thy loveliness fade as it will
And around the dear ruin
Each wish of my heart
Would entwine itself
Verdantly still.

It is not while beauty
And youth are thine own
And thy cheeks
Unprofaned by a tear
That the ferver and faith
Of a soul can be known
To which time will but
Make thee more dear
No the heart that has truly loved
Never forgets
But as truly loves
On to the close
As the sunflower turns
On her god when he sets
The same look which
She'd turned when he rose.

Blogger vs. LiveJournal

Obviously, blogging has been light.

There are a number of reasons. Not all of them are "I've been insanely busy," but a fair percentage translate into a reasonable facsimile of such.

Reasons for busy-ness, and lack of blogging, do include spending more time with "the girl." However, moving, a funky work schedule which has included new equipment at work, taxes, and academic deadlines have all been present as well.

Most importantly, however, is that much of my intellectual effort is usually directed towards dissertation-writing, or at least ought to be. I made a personal decision, when I first started this blog, that it would not be a forum for angsty, self-indulgent, overly psychological musings. As a general rule, unless it is a comment about things actually going on in my life, or thoughts I have about things external to myself, I try not to post it here.

That's what a journal is for.

So, while I haven't had the intellectual spare capacity to focus on analysis, or just to write about whatever's going on, I have been terribly moody lately and putting that out on my LiveJournal account. I don't actually recommend reading my LJ, and I seriously doubt that there are any people out there actually interested.

However, if you just can't get enough of Jonathan and actually give a darn to know what's going on in my brain, well, then, I actually have been journaling, as opposed to blogging, quite a bit lately. Anyone interested, feel free to look things up there.

All good things…

At strategically opportune times, one’s rotational momentum is such that sufficient inertia and moment is attained, and with a linear course of movement is perfectly aligned with the axis, stability is imparted and movement is amplified in a perfect convergence of forces.

Sometimes, orthogonal considerations are not just complementary; they may actually be mutually supportive.

All good things must have a beginning.

A lesson I’ve never learned: Big successes are built from small ones. One never makes bad big decisions: one let’s oneself make a million bad small ones. And then you wonder how you’ve wasted your life.

I’m equal parts terrified of having completely wasted the best opportunities of my life, and still blindly optimistic that I’m still in the game.

I’m moving into a new apartment. It’s a new start. I have a new relationship with a wonderful young lady. I have IDEAS. I want to FINISH, so I can START.

Holding hands is really nice.

Life begins at 31.

About a girl....

Well, it's official.

I have a girlfriend! 21 months after things ended with Alisha, I'm seeing someone. And I just wanted to shout it from the rooftops. Hey, it's my blog, I can do whatevertheheck I want.

Yes, I know, this is so high school (and before I get ANY comments, this is a different girl, and this one is legal) but what can I say, it's Springtime, I'm in love, things are wonderful.

The post-(other girl's name here) period was rough. It took a bit to get through. But... I knew the mistakes I had made, and I wasn't going to wallow in something that was never more than slightly substantial. She was - is - a wonderful girl, but she and I never had anything. There wasn't much for me to get over, except for my own issues.

This is different. This is new.

For the first time in my life I'm happy just to let things happen. I don't need to know where things are, where they are going. I don't need to understand everything that is happening: I can just accept that things are as they are and let life go where it will. This is very unusual for me. And... I like it.

She is a student at Samford. Very smart, very talented. Lots of interests that overlap with mine and a few that don't: similiar enough to be good, different enough to be exciting. She's absolutely gorgeous, though she has a hard time believing it. And best of all she's an Irish lass, complete with red hair and freckles.

So, there's the news. If you hear from me in the next couple of weeks, brace yourself for the annoyance of listening to a guy who's found a new girl.