"sneer quotes"; nothing changes

As he spoke I noticed, what had often struck me before in his conversations... that whenever he spoke of serious matters, whenever he used an expression which seemed to imply a definite opinion upon some important subject, he would take care to isolate, to sterilise it by using a special intonation, mechanical and ironic, as though he had put the phrase or word between inverted commas, and was anxious to disclaim any personal responsibility for it... But then, if it was so absurd, why did he use the word?

- M. Proust regarding M. Swann, a hundred years ago

(no subject)

Caught up on the current season of Doctor Who. Interesting stuff.

( spoily )

(no subject)

Life is full of interesting and beautiful things. Too full; perhaps. It seems that the past six months or so my schedule has been more full than at any sustained time in my memory. Perhaps I try to do too much, but it's tough to single out anything to put aside in favor of unplanned time. My recent thinking has been to set aside one day in each week when I can get a decent amount of sleep to counterbalance my usual tendency of sacrificing sleep for anything else that might be vaguely interesting.

It may well be that I feel prematurely the shortness of life, and try to gorge myself on it while I can. Kinda silly. My upcoming birthday, rather than making me feel old, reminds me that I still have quite a lot of time to work everything out. Still, I wouldn't be me if I were content to wait for enlightenment; naturally I will continue striving to get ahead at life. As M. Pound says,

And the days are not full enough,
And the nights are not full enough,
And life slips by like a field mouse,
Not shaking the grass