Hi, everyone. (Me again.) Remember my old "daythink.html" file? (If you don't, look here.) I wrote that during spring semester 1996 at UIUC, the fourth semester of my doomed experience there. Two years later, I decided to have another go at it. So here are more "Thoughts of the Day".

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• 26 January 1998 (Monday): Category: Philosophy
  Perhaps the greatest negative about being depressed is the tendency to have negative influences on others.  Au même temps, perhaps the greatest weapon against depression is to have positive influences on others.
• 27 January 1998 (Tuesday): Category: Mental Note
  Denver beat Green Bay. (This is a mental note not because it is the first time in my cousin Janine's life that the AFC champion won the Super Bowl, but because I found out about it at 13:55 today.)
• 28 January 1998 (Wednesday): Category: Philosophy
  It is not really necessary to know why people care; it's just really nice to know that they do.
• 29 January 1998 (Thursday): Category: Mental Note
  I have Math 361 on Thursdays. All my days seem to run together, but on Thursdays that class does meet.
• 30 January 1998 (Friday): Category: Philosophy
  Some people dread filing their income tax. For them, it is a time-consuming, daunting, even frightening task. Then, of course, there are those of us for whom the greatest task is simply writing yet another check to the Illinois Department of Revenue for yet another six dollars and ninety-one cents.
• 31 January 1998 (Saturday): Category: Overheard/Overspoken
  Overheard: I laugh at all the jokes at this table, but I only get half of them.
  Overspoken: I like to keep my money in the bank; that way, someone knows where it is.
• 01 February 1998 (Sunday): Category: Philosophy
  Harry Burns (in When Harry Met Sally....) says, "That's the good thing about depression: you get your rest." This is not true. In depression, one may sleep, but only in happiness may one truly rest.
• 02 February 1998 (Monday): Category: Philosophy
  It always seems like I want to improve my relationships with all my friends.  The problem with that is that includes the friends I want but cannot have.
• 03 February 1998 (Tuesday): Category: Philosophy
  All people are human. Whether we are male, female, blue-eyed, brown-eyed, rich, poor, white, black, or something else entirely, we are all human -- no less. Whether we are bankers, lawyers, engineers, consultants, artists, firefighters, politicians, or even teachers, we are all human -- no more.
• 04 February 1998 (Wednesday): Category: Philosophy
  We cannot always have success, nor always get what we want, even in our dreams.
• 06 February 1998 (Friday): Category: Philosophy
  While it may be argued that no one can really be forced to do anything she doesn't want to do, it is far more readily apparent (and a bit more painful) to note the utter impossibility of getting someone to do something she doesn't want to do without wanting to force her.
• 07 February 1998 (Saturday): Category: Mental Note
  There is a Taco Bell on Main Street in Wheaton. (However, it is better for my general mood to drive through Glen Ellyn.)
• 08 February 1998 (Sunday): Category: Philosophy
  Large public gatherings can be enjoyable, as much due to people-watching as anything else. But if watching hundred other human beings is enjoyable, then the downside is inevitable when one is alone at the end.
• 09 February 1998 (Monday): Category: Philosophy
  Every once in a while, you have to take the surface streets; it's the only way of truly knowing that where you are going is really connected to where you have been.
• 10 February 1998 (Tuesday): Category: Mental Note
  I have a 22-inch vertical leap.
• 11 February 1998 (Wednesday): Category: Philosophy
  Having a disability is not simply taxing on the ability that one does not have; it is factors more taxing on the abilities one does have and is forced to use instead. Disabilities, then, are more than may be perceived.
• 12 February 1998 (Thursday): Category: Mental Note
  Hobby Lobby sells fabric dye. And one box of dye does a nice job on a dozen socks in a five gallon bucket.
• 13 February 1998 (Friday): Category: Philosophy
  No one ever really knows how fortunate he is. To understand that would necessitate not being fortunate.
• 14 February 1998 (Saturday): Category: Philosophy
  Valentine's Day has never been one of my favorite days. If I choose to really think about it, it is both frustrating and depressing. The key, then, I suppose, is to just ignore it, to treat it as just another day (or, at least, like the 14th day of any other month).
• 15 February 1998 (Sunday): Category: Philosophy
  Time moves forward at a constant rate. Whether it is spent wisely, poorly, or indifferently, it still passes. Even the most daunting of tasks can be accomplished in a finite amount of time, so usually a finite amount of time is alloted for their completion. The key, then, is to actually complete the task in a finite amount of time BEFORE the time required exceeds the time remaining. (Sounds simple enough, I know, but then we run into all the problems dealing with motivation, which is another story, and it gets just that much more complicated.)
• 16 February 1998 (Monday): Category: Philosophy
  The least efficient way to spend time is to sleep. However, sleep makes the rest of time more efficient.
• 17 February 1998 (Tuesday): Category: Mental Note
  

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