"Be careful what you wish for!"

Not without some detectable trace of regret, M. told me with a sigh - "Be careful what you wish for." She did not know she had to learn it the hard way.

Shouldn't this friendly warning have come from someone who is old and, at the same time, wise? i always thought it took years to accumulate experiences, so as to tell if something strongly wished for is worth it.

The problem is, how could human beings possibly foresee the future, only in which the true worth could finally be revealed? In reality, we all naturally crave someone, something, somewhere, or someday - not knowing what could really be tagging along with that desire. While we are strongly in love with an object, it is just absurd to imagine that it could turn out to be disastrous.

Creepily enough, it seems that the saying is about to manifest itself...on me. What i wished for was a leisurely life, free of certain parental obligations. At the age of 31, i am not entirely sorry for this particular wish - only because the moment of truth has not yet arrived.

Almost Two Weeks

This evening i made up my lazy mind to go with Sam to Dodge for some workout - after a 10-day-or-so break. We went up Amsterdam to return the dvd, and walked back down the street towards the campus.

The route actually contains a short walk uphill for two blocks, and is later comsummated by some 70 flights of stairs if we take the gate. The uphill trip hardly compares to any mountain climbing at all, but i can always use some extra air when i jog up the stairs. Usually they at best provide a good warm-up.

Yet today when i finally reached the gym entrance, i was very out of breath. My heart was pounding with the same vehement, choking beat as i would have climing up the Empire State Building...well, it's just figuratively speaking, since there is no way for you to travel up the building by taking the stairs. All of a sudden, i realized it had been quite a while since i last seriously exercised.

Isn't it true that one's physicality corresponds the way it has been fed? Shouldn't the same logic apply to one's mind? If i need to be constantly exercising to be free of muscle atrophy, don't i also need to be constantly reading for fear of postmodern ignorance?

"Remember Me"

Till very recently, i am finally beginning to feel comfortable with the "Remember Me" checkboxs. Mostly, they show up either below or right next to all sorts of online accounts, as if they were part of the entity that naturally has to tag along, or were actually the must-have accesories of the 21st century's Internet logins.

Why was i even asked to check that box, and why would i want to be remembered - so that my information could be stored and later retrieved by a total stranger, or even some corporation that i could by no means stand up against ? i was always able to identify the cynicism in Sam, and never believed i was in any way associated with it. Oh well...perhaps i was only being cautious.

But then the question has come down to: Why is there the checkbox? It is obviously that, with it checked, account names and/or passwords do not have to be entered again and again. However, it's gotta be something beyond mere convenience.

My guess is, the purpose of the checkbox is to reduce as many keystrokes as possible, thus preventing the latter to be recorded and misused. This shall work well except that, after cleaning out the cache and temp files, an user has to run the whole process once again...at the risk of being logged.

So i suppose there is no romanticism in the act, even though for a fact these checkboxes could have been named simply as cold as "Save My Login Name", "Remember My ID", while i am more likey to be able to feel relaxed with "Remember Me" - or even "Forget Me Not"?