Now then, having successfully dispensed with the special morning sports report, we return to our regularly scheduled diversions. Since last week's parlor game was so sparsely participated in, SOME might think that the whole enterprise should be dispensed with permanently as a sign of ineptitude and failure.
BUT IF THERE IS ONE THING that can be counted as success, it is that there IS INDEED an edition of the most funnest thing to do on a Thursday morning involving a computer and time to kill, The Axis of Weevil Thursday Three--Miserable Failure Edition!
Everyone loves a winner, right? Sure they do! But come on--failures are pretty doggone interesting, so let’s take a look at some of those today.
As usual, the object of the game is to answer the following three questions by either leaving a comment below, or a link to your very own highly successful blogging operation. Anyone may play, even people who are completely successful in all aspects of life. (As if anyone fitting that description would be here!)
SO, here we go:
1) What is one task that you have started innumerable times but just haven’t finished?
2) What one thing in your life would you consider your biggest mistake or failure?
3) What is your general attitude toward failure--do you see it as proof of your eternal inadequacy; simply part of life; something of a learning experience; or as something that shows you’re actually trying to do something?
Okay, there you go--if you can manage to go off and answer them without blowing something up or poking yourself with a sharp object, please do so now!
AS FOR MY ANSWERS…
1) There are so very many--finishing fixing the floor in the downstairs bathroom, writing a book, making money, finishing the final three volumes of Durant’s The Story of Civilization, reading the Bible through in a year. Making a list of things I haven’t finished doing…
2) I think it would be waiting so late in life to overcome my natural shyness--not wanting to be noticed or seen or heard can make life hard, and limits your choices of things to be or do. There’s plenty of small personal failings that continue to happen, but they don’t seem so bad as they might once have to me since I’m a bit more willing to speak my mind. Shyness can be endearing in a way, I suppose, but it’s still can be quite a cage. A second thing would be not trying harder in mathematics. If I had only tried just a bit harder, I might could have managed to find myself a much more remunerative occupation. Or not--one of those things you'll never know about, I suppose. I guess I could calculate the odds and such, but I'm at a loss to figure out how.
3) I fall more toward the latter nowadays--I figure the only people who never fail are the ones who aren’t doing anything in the first place. And I do see my mistakes as a learning experience, because my mother told me I should.
So, there you go.
Posted by Terry Oglesby at September 28, 2006 08:16 AM1. I spent enough time in grad school for several PhDs, but did not complete one.
2. Mid-way thru grad school, leaving the cow college where I got my BS&MS and going to an Ivy League school intending to complete the PhD. Turned out there was a serious attitude problem. They didn't like mine and I didn't like their's.
3. Since in my career in aer0space I've seen lots of underemployed PhDs, I think I ended up better off.
[mu.nu saw er0s within aer0space and decided this post had questionable content]
Posted by: steevil (Dr Weevil's bro Steve) at September 28, 2006 09:09 AMQuestionable content, eh? Well, you know how you arrowspace people are all the time doing questionable stuff...
Posted by: Terry Oglesby at September 28, 2006 09:49 AM1. Developing an exercise regimen and sticking to it. I'd like to incorporate a program of walking and yoga into my life. I've only made tentative steps in that direction -- I have good shoes and a hat with a bill to shield my eyes, a mat for the floor. They have a dedicated space in the house.
2. So far, not becoming confident with power tools. If something were to happen to Lyman, I'd be stuck.
3. All of the above.
I'd say I haven't tried very hard. I'm not a doctor who has failed to make a correct diagnoses, a firefighter who failed to contain a blaze, an intelligence agent who failed to read the cards right, or even a parent who failed to keep a child safe from harm.
My failures are insignificant in the scheme of things. So my biggest failure is probably not living up to potential, after all.
Posted by: Janis Gore at September 28, 2006 09:56 AMSounds like the yoga might be doing pretty well for you even if you get to do it only in theory.
Posted by: Terry Oglesby at September 28, 2006 10:25 AMI'm up, too.
Posted by: Diane at September 28, 2006 12:00 PM