You’re having a rough day. Seems like everybody wants a piece of you and they aren’t kind about it. So you put on some ear protection, grab your leaf blower and step outside. Nobody bothers you out there. The leaf blower yells nonstop the way you wish you could and even though you aren’t doing the yelling, there is still something cathartic about the noise. It creates a bubble where you are left alone. As the minutes pass and the debris collects into neat little piles, you can slowly regain your calm. The urge to explode, unleashing your anger and frustration, in an irreparable way ebbs and you feel like you can hold your shit together for a little while longer.

Or they are in a feud with their neighbors and are trying to piss them off.

Run DMC - Christmas in Hollis

The Pogues - Fairytale Of New York

Dropkick Murphys - The Season’s Upon Us

Corey Taylor - X-M@$

The Kinks - Father Christmas

Wizzard - I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday

The Waitresses - Christmas Wrapping

Slade - Merry Christmas Everybody

The Flaming Lips - Christmas At The Zoo

Fountains of Wayne - I want an alien for Christmas

The Futureheads - Christmas Was Better In The 80s

The Killers - Don’t Shoot Me Santa

I am going to need you to define what it means to you to be “pure of heart”.

There is a decent chance that you will find an answer to your question by doing this.

Do they? Most cartoon kings I can think of have either white or gray hair.

I was once working with a team in India to resolve a database issue. During a particular call, we had to export data several times to create backups. Exporting the DB data is done with “dump” commands and my Indian counterpart would repeatedly tell me that he “took a dump just now”.

Here are a couple of items that I wish that I had picked up earlier. They are not required, but they greatly simplified my life.

• headlamp: Trying to balance or prop up a flashlight while working used to result in so much frustration.
• tin sheers: I love these so much that they have replaced scissors in most day-to-day applications
• flexible drill bit extender: So many screws are in places inaccessible to a drill body. This inexpensive item solves that problem. Magnetic wristbands: Keep those screws and bits from getting lost.
• level that is at least 2ft long: I really appreciate having a level that can span two studs (16")
• precision / mini needle nose pliers: I don’t need them often, but when I do I am always happy that I have them
• painters tape: I am surpised how often I use painters tape for all sorts of applications

It’s easier and generally more acceptable to ask here than in the grocery store.

Maybe I want clear enough, so allow me to expand.

Some events, like the cited example of award shows, have their outcomes decided on before they are announced. If I gain this ability after that the decision is made but before the outcome is announced, then I could place a wager on it now without impacting anything in the past. This is where the “depending on the timing” qualifier comes into play and why I said “already decided but not yet announced”.

The ability would be see back to any year. I could just look back at any specific event within the year. I wouldn’t need to memorize anything if I can just observe it.

I already consider myself a fairly happy individual. I would be pursuing financial independence, not happiness. Besides, why would I assume that the acquisition of knowledge would have an impact on my emotional state.

This year. Having near omniscience about recent events would have so many useful applications.

My stock predictions would be crazy accurate if I could observe what decision makers were planning but had not yet implemented or were still in the process of implementing.

Depending on the timing of when this ability takes affect, I might be able to also place wagers on events, like awards shows, that have already been decided but not yet announced.

My ability to solve crimes by observing how they were committed and what happened to the evidence would propel me to Sherlock Holmesian level of noteriety.

I am also sure plenty of influencial people would be willing to do favors for me in exchange for my silence on some of their various recent activities.

Those aren’t even the imaginative ideas.

A few uneducated thoughts:

I feel like there should be a way to use tides to track the passage of time. Maybe by monitoring the shifting water at fixed points?

While a clepsydra may not work underwater, a inverse one that slowly releases air instead of water might. Similarly, any container that slowly releases sand, or other such substance, at a constant rate could be used. Either by adjusting a scale, releasing counterweights, or even tracking how much has been released into another container (like an hourglass).

• Office Space
• Clerks
• 9 to 5

More anti establishment than anti-work, but still worth mentioning:

• Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
• Fight Club
• Falling Down
• They Live

I think social media provides a good reference to start speculating an answer to your question.

The problem with statements like this is that they only ever seem to be made by narcissists who thinks work is only those efforts that directly benefit them. The end of my “work day” is when I start my other job of working for myself. I manage my home, I take care of my garden, I put effort into maintaining or improving my physical and mental well being, I foster and build the relationships in my life that I care about, etc. All of that is work, it’s just work that I do for myself and don’t get a paycheck for.

Personally, I consider family to be a social group more than a biological relationship. I have relatives that I’ve never met in my adult life that I don’t consider family. Conversely, there are people I consider family that were brought into my life through marriage, adoption, and close friendships.

The big ones for me were joint pains, chronic headaches, and cramping that made me feel like I needed to take a painful crap. For some strange reason, that last one only occur in the middle of the night and it would last for a good hour or so.

Drink water.

So many odd physical conditions ended up being the result of dehydration and went away once I started drinking water throughout my day. I was in my 30s when I learned that one.

So true. If you are lacking knowledge on a topic, asking questions is always the best approach.

None.

When a man lies he murders some part of the world.

– Merlin (Excalibur, 1981)

If you know something to be false and try to pass it off as truth, that is lying. It doesn’t matter how you phrase it or try to hide behind symantics like “I’m just asking questions” or “it’s just a hypothetical”.

That being said, it does not mean that you cannot contribute to a conversations if you are not an authority on a subject. If you are not sure or cannot recall a credible source for your information you can preface your comment with something like “I never confirmed the validity of this, so I may be completely wrong, but…”.

A few more famous people with 2 first names:

• Anne Frank
• Bob Dylan
• Dylan Thomas
• Billy Joel
• George Harrison
• George Michael
• Elton John
• Missy Elliot
• Meg Ryan
• Kevin James
• Elizabeth Tyler
• Liv Tyler
• Steven Tyler
• Carey Grant
• Hugh Grant
• Mariah Carey
• Diana Ross
• Dean Martin
• Steve Martin
• Grace Kelly
• Alexander Hamilton
• Larry David