cough, hack, wheeze, gasp...

Getting a persistent tickle in the back of the throat while on the phone with somebody and trying to schedule a meeting is embarrassing. I couldn't stop coughing for about five minutes, and I think all the rest of the people I have to contact today are going to get contacted by email. At least then it won't sound quite so much like I'm dying. (Which I'm not; I'm actually much better today, it's just that I've got this tickle in the back of my throat.)

Hiccups are embarrassing too, but at least there's some amusement value to them.

Did I make any plans for this weekend with anybody? Please remind me if I did, because I forgot.

right effort

Were I Jewish, what I did this evening would have been a mitzvah (I think). Since I'm closer to Buddhist mixed up with Shinto in places, I'm calling it an example of right effort.

(I gave my old laptop to a Harvard Law student who didn't have two nickels to rub together. I didn't want the laptop any more, and despaired of ever getting rid of it, because nobody wants a G3 iBook these days if it means they have to pay anything for it. Besides, I've been a grad student without two nickels to rub together, and I know how much that sucks.)

Some one of these days I'll have to write down the entire Eightfold Path so I can stop having to Google it when I can't remember how it goes.