I saw a .sig on an email today:

"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter." -MLKjr.

And my first thought was that the irony of this being a quote from someone who was gunned down for his beliefs is not lost on me. It reminded me of one of my favorite quotes:

"Though the early bird gets the worm, it's the second mouse that gets the cheese."

Now I'm not discounting that great efforts sometimes require great sacrifices; I'm just all too often reminded of the dangers of putting principles before, say, the laws of physics. Life isn't always as simple as worms and cheese.

I think I woke up on the snarky side of bed this morning.

But then I saw the following:

"You may be gone tomorrow, but that doesn't mean that you weren't here today."

Yeah...be the change you want to make in the world.

And be wary of the free cheeses.

I was reading in a recent article how the GOP talking heads are making much ado about "fascism" as a new buzzword-- all the kewl neo-cons are saying it (much to my ironic shagrin).

Anyway, one rather interesting view in this article pointed out that the phrase "war on terror" is a misnomer, as terrorism is a tool and not an ideology. This individual then went on to say it should instead be "war on radical Islam". I strongly disagree, because most people are just going to hear "Islam", etc. However, his first point is an apt one that got me thinking.

So I'm tossing it out there-- is there a more accurate term than the frequently-bandied "war on terrorism"?

What is your opinion of (romantic) love? How would you characterize your experience of it? Have you ever been head over heels?

How do you know when you're in love?

Sometimes I think myself a fool for wanting to see the good in the world that seems full of dissappointment. Sometimes I think myself a fool for not remembering that a bright outlook enables me to prepare for the good in the world when I see it. Sometimes I wish I could choose one and rip the knob off.

Which would you rather be-- a hopelessly deluded (but very happy) optimist, or a reality-centered (and very aware) pessimist who was prone to bouts of depression?

You find a wallet with a FAT wad of cash in it. What do you do? What if it was just a plain envelope with cash in it, crisp clean 100's? What if it was just a $100 bill? What if it was just a $20 bill? A $1 bill?

Now, suppose and of the above were yours, and you lost it. What would expectation of any given person to do in each of those situations?

Do you believe in karma? Or any such concept, that is-- in the idea that there is some cosmic balance kept whereby the color or intent of one's deeds always come back on oneself?

Presuming you know that little rhyme, quick! Of what did it remind you?

The first time I heard that little ditty, I was knee-high to a grasshopper, playing hide-and-seek with my cousins. At the time I thought it was a really clever way to pick who goes first.

Nowadays I'm surprised some desperate pop star hasn't tried to record it, blatantly using the background beat to some older Madonna song.

Str tiy snkr yi svyyskkt trsf ygud? Fi tiy drr ygr osyyrtb?

What's your favorite happy childhood memory or ritual? Was it around a place (the ice-cream truck), a certain time, a season?

Mine was Saturday morning cartoons...remember those? Man, I remember getting up early, decked out in my underoos, with a bowl of Cap'n Crunch, and not a care in the world. ::nostalgic sigh::

What was your most unequivocally most embarrassing moment or screw up, ever?

Did it teach you anything useful? Anything unexpectedly related to the incident in question?

For some silly reason, I can't remember of mine, and I fear they must've been especially bad lately if I'm suppressing them...and now I'm curious!

So let's say your motivated, chomping along at a fierce clip, ball of fire, or are at least a goodly boulder rolling downhill.

What saps you (or can most sap you, if it catches you unawares) when you're at your most juiced? What do you most regularly battle against to keep your momentum?

Some people say they run on coffee. Some people say that they do their best work under pressure. Others say that thy do everything (that they do well) for love and never for money. Still others are driven by a need to excel beyond their peers, or even their own expectations.

What do you run on? What is your chief motivator?

What is the strangest dream you've ever had?

Do you believe dreams "mean something"? And if so, did your strangest dream have a meaning or interpretation?

Have you ever had a dream that clearly told you something important and/or brought about a change of some kind for having had it?

It's...as of a little later this evening...officially summer, officially the longest day of the year (we're talking max sun and all that).

WHOOHOOOOOO!!!

What was the longest day you've ever had? How about the shortest? Looking at both, do you find that there's truth to the fact that time flies when you're having fun and drags when you're not?

What is your most unexpected truth? That is, what fact about you most defies the expectations people would have of you?