MIND

Mind is a four letter word.

"Mind your P's and Q's." It is one of those sayings that has always been a bit odd to me, yet the explanation for it (or at least one explanation for it) has had a most satisfying answer to me. When doing typesetting (using actual metallic moveable type), the letters were the reverse of how they'd be printed and had to be placed in the typesetter reversed as well. A lowercase "p" and a lowercase "q" could easily be confused, so the saying is a reminder to pay attention to details, an aspect which always appeals to me.

And it sounds nicer than reminding you to mind your B's and D's.

PATH

Path is a four letter word.

I'm working on a program and trying to configure it to "normalize" a path correctly, that is to resolve the path in a known consistent way. While doing so, I was pondering the nature of paths and roads... and the paths that we may take through life. This, of course, led me to ponder Robert Frost's poem The Road Not Taken:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I -
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

and from thence to ponder Addventure, and to remember how much of this does feel like my philosophy on life - there are paths in the world that we must choose... but we not only choose the paths, we write what comes next.

MEOW

Meow is a four letter word.

I'm a cat person, but my cats aren't that photogenic. Fortunately, I have a friend who does have quite a few cats who enjoy getting their pictures taken.

DRUM

Drum is a four letter word.

ECHO

Echo is a four letter word.

The interesting thing about echos, to me, is how they're not exactly the same as the original. They're similar... usually unmistakeable... but they have a sound all their own that kinda drifts away on the wind...

YUCK

Yuck is a four letter word.

Happiness is not waking up and finding what the cat left on the floor for you to clean up.

FOOL

Fool is a four letter word.

I haven't liked April Fool's Day since I was in the fifth grade and a prank I was peripherally involved in backfired. Quite badly.