journal features

setting this aside for now

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-seven years and one million words

Toronto, 1997.07.30

Two things have become clear to me, of late. First, I'm spending too many evenings just at home watching movies. It was one thing to do so to save money while I was paying down my student debt, but this has gotten out of hand. I've watched 70 movies and it's only seven months into the year. I used to be a creative person, what happened to the writing?

Second, the new job is starting to get in the way a bit. While that's good for the first problem, it represents a problem of its own: I needed to re-home this thing because I can't stay where I am, and I don't have time. So I'm going off-line for a while.

Maybe I'll add a third thing: a lot of these movies are a waste of time.

rand()m quote

If I had my life to live over, I'd try to make more mistakes next time. I would relax, I would limber up, I would be crazier than I've been on this trip. I know very few things I'd take seriously any more. I'd certainly be less hygenic... I would take more chances, I would take more trips, I would scale more mountains, I would swim more rivers, and I would watch more sunsets. I would eat more ice cream and fewer beans. I would have more actual troubles and fewer imaginary ones. Oh, I've had my moments, and if I had to do it all over again, I'd have many more of them, in fact I'd try not to have anything else, just moments, one after another, instead of living so many years ahead of my day. If I had it to do all over again, I'd travel lighter, much lighter than I have. I would start barefoot earlier in the spring, and I'd stay that way later in the fall. And I would ride more merry-go-rounds, and catch more gold rings, and greet more people and pick more flowers and dance more often. If I had it to do all over again - but you see, I don't.

—Jorge Luis Borges