yup

Calvin & Hobbes was my favorite cartoon strip growing up.  Or rather, I was actually too young to appreciate it while it ran in the papers, but I discovered Calvin & Hobbes later, in the book-anthologies, which I eventually assembled a complete collection of.  Any American who will have any sympathy for what I am going to say in this post is probably already familiar enough with the cartoon that I don't need to waste too much space extolling Bill Watterson's virtues, or going on about how much he deserved a Pulitzer (but he did).  Suffice it to say that no matter how many times I return to his material, I always find new nuggets of sage advice.

One in particular struck me today.  Calvin's father (a patent attorney) is sitting at work complaining to himself about all of the different ways that people can get in touch with him, that he can work from home, that microwaves can nuke food, etc.  He then says something to the effect of, "if people really wanted to relax, they would make technology that does stuff slower rather than faster."  Yes, I butchered whatever the quote originally was.  But the point is really great, and entirely true.  The truth of his statement struck me as I sat on the bus on my way home from class.  If I had a car, I would have driven to school, driven home, then probably run on over to Cumberland Brews to meet some friends for a beer.  As it is, I had a nice walk to the bus stop, read on my way to school, read on my way home from school, and then proceeded to watch Leon: the Professional on surfthechannel.com and chat with my ex-girlfriend on skype.  So what parts of my day do I look back on fondly, and which parts will probably scar me for a while?  Which parts were more productive and more relaxing, and which were more useless and stressful?  Time suddenly expands when we don't have broadband, or personal forms of transportation, or lean cuisine to waste it all for us.  

And what am I doing now?  Damnit, this post really came back to bite me.