Non-Smoking Makes Me a Dan...

And for those of you who never had the pleasure, be grateful. He was always bitchy, angry, throwing things at his desk, yelling at anyone within a ten-foot radius of his cubicle, and generally foul-tempered.

And then I thought, why am I angry about this? It certainly isn't productive, anger rarely is... I'm reminded of something I read in "The Dhammapada" translated by Eknath Easwaran...

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I have learnt through bitter experience the one supreme lesson to conserve my anger, and as heat conserved is transmuted into energy, even so our anger controlled can be transmuted into a power which can move the world.

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And I am also reminded of a bible verse my one teacher oft-quoted in college:

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Pro 14:16 A wise [man] feareth, and departeth from evil: but the fool rageth, and is confident. 17 [He that is] soon angry dealeth foolishly: and a man of wicked devices is hated.

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I do need to learn how to not let my temper get in the way of being a productive person, let alone a rational human being. I also need to remember how I used to be before nicotine. I need to not let boredom or irrationality control me. That is how silly e-mails from my mother get my goat and disturb reality.

**topic shift

• Kelly's eyes have bulged out of her skull.
  
• Tamie will be getting a visit from Rich and I in late April (we'll see if Tennessee can handle all the liberalism...)
  
• Bethany started talking to me again today after pointedly ignoring everyone in our department.... I am rethinking the whole existence of hell thing... :D
  (Disclaimer: That statement is me lightening up!)