$ curl --silent "$url" | grep -E '(title>|description>)'

They talk a lot about reframing in cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). With reframing, you're taught to look at problem situations in a different way. This is most useful when you know that you're heading into a spiral or when you're having racing thoughts. If you can do so, it's helpful to avoid extremes of language: I can never.... I/they always.... Instead, you might be able to say: I can't yet .... or This time, they ....

One of the challenges, however, is that you don't always see the connection between a problem and the spiral. For example, I've been trying to find an easy way to fetch some web pages using RSS and Perl. I've looked at this problem before and may have even solved, but I can't remember if I did or not. So, I was trying a number of different approaches, each of which sent me off on an unhelpful path of configuring and compiling and debugging and such. I stopped for a while, took a lunch break, and noticed that my mood was slipping. Marley and I went for a walk around the block (about a mile). It was during that walk that I made the connection between my frustration this morning and my slipping mood.

[Between paragraphs, my mechanical pencil and I got into a tussle. I wanted to make some notes about something else, but I couldn't get the lead refill to behave properly. I know that it's not Darfur or Rangoon or that island off the coast of Yemen that just blew up. I found another pencil and will save the refill for another time.]

This is a reminder why I'm not ready to go back to work. I'm not yet able to solve problems that require that I learn something new. I can also get sand-bagged emotionally when I encounter frustration. I'm a lot better than I was, but still not ready for prime time.