I don't write much because I don't like doing things poorly. If I am going to do something, I really like to make sure I do it well. Usually that means I wind up doing nothing rather than possibly doing something poorly.
I signed up for a Mog account over a year ago. It wasn't until a few months afterwards that I got around to actually making a post. It wasn't even much of a post. It was more like a test just to see if it worked. Making that simple note was a laborious and overwrought process. Not on Mog's part, mind, but because of me. Even though it was difficult, I did it because September 11th is a day of reflection for me. But probably not for the reason you immediately assume.
September 11th is my birthday and the one day a year I think about everything I didn't do in the previous year. The French have a term L'esprit de l'escalier. Basically it refers to how it is only after a conversation has concluded that you think of everything you should have said. The moment you start down the stairs every poignant, funny, insightful, witty, interesting thing that could have been said suddenly floods your mind. This is a phenomenon that I think everyone has experienced, but probably most don't have a term for it. I believe I learned it from Neil Gaimans's novel American Gods. (But I might be wrong as it's been several years since I read that book.) My birthday is the one day each year when I stop to appreciate the enormity of all the stuff that didn't get done in the last year.
My birthday is coming up again here in a month or so. Before that day arrives I vowed to make another post. I still don't have much to discuss as I'm not really part of the "leaving the house" or "talking to people" scene. But I do have recommendations. So I will attempt to explain why I have recommended what I have. I think I put up this first group of recommendations last September maybe the 11th. I know these aren't my current recommendations, but I still felt I should go back and explain myself.
