It's THAT time of the year...

...when little (and not so little kids) go to the store and buy new school supplies.

I found myself having to go to National Bookstore this morning.
It was a quick chore: Buy one item, pay for it, then getting on with my normal life.

Or so I thought.

I knew it was a mistake to dwell in the specialty paper section.





But. I. couldn't. help. it.

All it took was one look at those packs of embossed boards and I fell into the school supply blackhole.

Estimated shopping time: 5 minutes
Actual time spent: 1 hour and 15 minutes

Most women spend their window shopping time at boutiques and malls. They can lose track of time looking through shoes, dresses, bags and all sorts of accessory knick-knacks.

I, on the other hand, could care less about shoes and dresses.
My big vice are school supplies followed by home improvement stuff as a close second.

The way some girls get excited about a new fashion line is the same enthusiasm I get over the newest stationery items from 3M or Stradmore.

Say, for example, there's now COLORED plastic cover. The same transparent (& boring) plastic sheets we used to cover our textbooks and notebooks now come in fun colors of red, blue, green and yellow! (Kids today never had it so good...)

There's also a line of rabbit-ear paper clips that come in every imaginable shape. From apples to zebras, they've got it!

I almost bought this huge, oversized (can you say redundant?) paper clip (about 6 inches wide) with the words "BIG CLIP" on it. I'm guessing the manufacturer wanted to make it clear just what the item was in case you haven't seen a paper clip since 1955.

And let's not even get started on glue!

As I write this, I'm only starting to realize the depth of my geek-iness.
Oh well. I suppose things could be worse.

I could start obssessing about bookends.




Oh wait. I already do.

Crap.

Inner Debate

(Work in progress, folks. Feel free to put in your two cents if the mood strikes you.)

Resolved:

Self-imposed boundaries are not only necessary, they are also beneficial.

Government:
Self-imposed boundaries allow for an individual to define his standards for action, which in turn are defined by his standards of morality. Without boundaries, a person finds himself without principles to stand by making him ineffectual to his own person and to his society.

Opposition:
Thinking that boundaries are necessary and even beneficial is what breeds closed-mindedness and biases. The very things that result to bigotry, racism and other evils that delineate one group from another. Boundaries only serve to limit possibilities, and to not fully explore such possibilities robs man of his full potential which in turn deprives society as a whole.