It is absolutely no fun...

to want something that's right in front of you when you aren't supposed to have it.  I love V-8 juice.  I used to keep bottles and bottles of it in my apartment and drank entirely too much of it on a regular basis.

Now I live with daily restrictions on the amount of fluids and the amount of sodium I take in.  I'm certainly free to ignore them at my own peril, but they are part of what I need to be doing to live as long and as healthily as possible.

But I love my V-8, so I've learned to live with a daily dose.  One 11 ounce can at breakfast.  That way there isn't any in my refrigerator, temptation is removed.  Except that someone gave me a thank-you gift.  A 64 ounce bottle of V-8 juice.  And it was fine.  I just pretended it didn't exist.  But once I let myself give in to temptation, to take just a sip, I was done for.  I drank more.  Finally I put it into the refrigerator and I'm pretending it isn't there.  Out of sight, out of mind.  It is a new challenge for me.  To see how long I can go without finishing the bottle. 

Maybe there is a tiny bit of wisdom there.  Maybe setting things up as challenges is a strategy to achieve what is usually difficult to achieve.  Especially when you're an insanely competitive sort.

Today is the inauguration of the President of the United States.  It's a big deal.  And for some reason I have little interest in it.  I'm keeping up with it via the media.  I just don't want to watch and listen to every single word.  The speech will be available to read at my leisure later on, which I will do.  The pundits' spin on what is said and unsaid will also be available to be read at my leisure.  Somehow I feel like I should be more interested in what's happening.  Perhaps I'm just suffering from information overload.  Every major network and news channel is showing every single second of what's going on in D.C.  Maybe I'm rebelling because I want to choose what to watch on television.  I think it's awesome that an openly gay, Latino poet is involved.  I think it's historic and brilliant to have had Myrlie Evers-Williams delivering the invocation.  I'm just not going to watch every single second of this.

Other things I'm pondering this morning are:

Which is more important?  Working hard, or working smart.  Or are they both equally important?  Are they mutually exclusive?  Is the notion of working smarter somehow implying that you don't or won't work as hard?  I think you need to work smart and still work hard.

Just what perverse pleasure is the idiot or idiots who are engaging in the new "swatting" phenomenon getting from this?  Will it be as much fun for them when someone gets seriously injured?

I was sure that the old video from ABC's long-dead "Wide World of Sports" that was illustrating the "agony of defeat" would remain the worst ever video of a ski jump gone wrong. 

People think that the higher tax rates at the federal and state level won't change people's behavior in major ways.  Maybe for most of them it won't.  But Phil Mickelson, who has a net worth of nearly $200 million and earns another $30 million or so annually, says that the higher taxes may push him to go ahead and retire early.  Food for thought.

Bill Belichek is the coach of the New England Patriots.  He's also a very poor sport.  His team lost yesterday and he blew off his obligation to do a post-game interview with CBS.  I'm insanely competitive, remember?  I can't imagine letting my drive to win keeping me from meeting an obligation.  I might be fuming at the loss, but that doesn't give me an excuse to go off and sulk.  How childish of him.

For those who think our system of justice is too harsh, consider the case of four men in Iran who "mugged" a man at dagger point.  The two driving the motorbikes only got 10 years in prison, 74 lashes, and five years of banishment from the capital.  The two who actually robbed the man were hanged, in public.  Wonder if others thinking about mugging will think twice after seeing the hanging.

Colin Powell is slamming the Republican party, mostly about intolerance.  About time.

This Date in History:

On this date in 1643, Abel Tasman became the first European to reach Tonga.
On this date in 1720, Sweden and Prussia sign The Treaty of Stockholm.
On this date in 1793, Louis XVI was executed by guillotine.
On this date in 1861, Jefferson Davis resigns from the U.S. Senate.
On this date in 1899, Opel manufactures its first automobile.
On this date in 1950, Alger Hiss is convicted of perjury.
On this date in 1954, the USS Nautilus is launched.  It is the first nuclear-powered submarine.
On this date in 1968, the Battle of Khe Sahn in Vietnam begins.
On this date in 1981, production begins on the famed DeLorean.
On this date in 1999, one of the largest 'busts' in U.S. history takes place with the Coast Guard seizing 9,500 pounds of cocaine on board a ship.