Blind Optimism

Last Tuesday, I was walking to work, and I passed a seeing-impaired woman I would presume to be nice, because I'm just that optimistic. This started to get me thinking & brought me to the odd-servation about what optimism is. Is it believing the rainy forecast tomorrow is wrong? Or is it taking your shoes off and stomping around in the puddles, enjoying them for what they are?

Nope, I figured out at the end of my walk that it's not any of that stuff. If you do 1 thing today, write this down: Optimism is walking through a park or down a city side walk, seeing (or maybe even stepping in) dog poop, and not wanting to slap the dog owner on each cheek. An optimist would keep walking and imagine that woman with her seeing eye dog. Clearly she can't pick up after the dog, and the dog is talented, but not that talented. I'm not an optimist any more...

Great Ideas Begin at the Dentist

The other day, I was at the dentist getting a chipped tooth fixed. However, that is beside the point here. All normal people really don't enjoy trips to the tooth guy, but this isn't solely due to their minions poking your gums nor the huge sums of money they'll look to sneak from your wallet. A major, often overlooked, issue is the bound-to-be fruitless conversation the old doc tries to have with you. How does he expect you to respond with something meaningful about what's going on this weekend or politics when he has both of his hands playing in your mouth?
Well, the solution may not be all that far away. Everyone's friend, Stephen Hawking, uses some fancy gadgets to share his brilliance. I plan to make my next million by going dentist door to dentist door selling this fine device. My pitch: No longer will your clientele lay back in that awkward chair listening to you like a psychologist. You'll still get your work done, and even have the benefit of a computerised voice responding back to you! This may go a long way to curing the well-documented epidemic of dentist depression. Will you or your dentist be my first buyer?