Les Bonnes Choses

And how has everyone enjoyed their Valentine's day? Yeah, me neither. The day itself wasn't particularly bad, save for that I'm 600km from my loved ones. On the other hand, at least I have loved ones. Nothing worse than being single, self-conscious or even despondent of the fact, and then having your nose rubbed in it once each year. So that some card companies have another reason to ply their wares, and the de Beers diamond cartel get their yearly fix. Learning that the traditional association of diamonds with romantic advances and eternal affection was a fabrication of 20th century marketers only amplified my cynicism. I never liked the day to begin with, even in grade school, as obliging children to give and receiving tokens of affection to classmates they don't even particularly like is not as effective at fostering community as optimistic teachers and parents might think.

Obviously I did not spend my day doing anything romantic -- or at least, out of the ordinary, given that one could construe a video chat with my family, who I love very much, to be in the spirit of the day, if not in the common fashion. So what DID I do with my day? Mostly, I felt like I ran around like a chicken with its head cut off. I did make a pasta sauce to enjoy for a nice (non-romantic) dinner with Gillian, and then promptly returned home to return to my recent preoccupation, and reason for my sparse updates these last few weeks. I can't say more because it is my intention to make it the topic of several blog posts in the near future in a series that will leave no question as to where I stand in the geek spectrum.