Undertaken Use

What I am doing today is important because I am exchanging a day of my life for it.

Unknown
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Howdy
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Hurry....
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It seems odd to think of one's days in terms of a balance sheet, but in a way that's what it is. You wake up in the morning with an asset, your day, and you face a liability, what you have to do in that day. What you do may be all kinds of fun (I hope so), but whatever it is it's still going to cost you a day of your life. But the amazing part is that after you've spent your day doing whatever you did to fulfill your liability and retired for the night, while you're asleep life deposits another day into your account.

Sometimes the day is spent doing some refreshing, invigorating and inspiring activity. Other days are exchanged for grimy, grunt work. But those days should be spent clearing up liabilities and balancing the books for a pleasanter day.

Probably the most tedious work an actor has to do is memorizing his lines. Some younger actors will waste time sitting with a new script and a yellow or similar colored felt pen and highlight his lines. I used to waste time with a red pen and a ruler and underline them. After many years of doing that I just drew a vertical line in the margin next to the speech. And finally, as I grew more confident, I drew no lines at all.

For some actors, the first thing they do when they get a new script is to count their lines. I counted pages. I saw how many days I had until I had to know the script and divided the script up into days. Let's say I had to learn 8 pages a day. Whether I had a few lines on those 8 pages or a lot of lines or none, those pages were part of my liability for the day and I didn't worry about the next 8 pages until the next day. Whatever occurred on those pages, both my words and other character's words was my main concern and it was part of the overall objective of knowing the role and the play. But each day spent correcting the balance sheet was also time spent preparing for the final joyous objective/liability of performing the play,

Now I look back at my life and ask: "Was what I did important?" The answer is: It must have been, because I spent the grand asset of my life doing it.

DB
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If you go out this weekend, have one for me.
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It's a state bathing heavy weight. (10)
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WEEKEND PUZZLE
(There were no winners of last week's Weekend Puzzle, I'm sorry to say.)

Splish Splash - this one'e easy.

Below is a list of waters. Your mission is to tell me which one of them does not belong on this list and why.

Arctic Ocean
Atlantic Ocean
Bering Sea
Bristol Bay
Buzzards Bay
Cape Cod Bay
Chesapeake Bay
Delaware Bay
Gulf of Alaska
Gulf of Mexico
Hudson Bay
Lake Erie
Lake Huron
Lake Michigan
Lake Ontario
Lake Superior
Long Island Sound
Massachusetts Bay
Pacific Ocean

Good luck
dbdacoba@aol.com