Starting at midnight today, there are 521,280 minutes left in the year. You already blew the first 1,440 minutes on New Year’s Day, possibly by reaffirming your obeisance to the porcelain idol in your bathroom. OK, some of you might not have been hung over and spent the first day of the year writing thank you letters (72 minutes), going for a ski (80 minutes) and cleaning up the holiday mess (950 minutes). Good start, Betsteroids!

How did you spend the next 1,440 minutes on Wednesday? How will you spend today’s 1,440 minutes? Tempus fugit! That’s fancy pants Latin for “time flies.” We know how fast 2012 went, and here we are, three days in. Batten down the hatches.

Will you spend it browsing Facebook (103 minutes)? Texting bon mots to friends (122 minutes)? Stuffing your face with artery clogging fatty foods (180 minutes)?

Or, will you do something brave, like writing a sonnet a day (32 minutes)? Reading a really big book that isn’t a fat fantasy novel (95 minutes)? Learning to play the ukulele, the marimba or the guitar (75 minutes)? Will you volunteer three times a week, just because, and not to work off community work service (270 minutes)? 

Tick tock, tick tock goes the clock. You can’t turn it back. You can’t slow it down. All you can do is surf forward into the future. We are perched eternally on the present, this odd transition between the past seconds ago and the future seconds to come, on and on and on until kaboom, lights out.

Don’t just seize the day. Seize the moment, and make every second matter. Take time to enjoy life, too (45 minutes), because as W.H. Davies wrote, “What is this life if, full of care, we have no time to stand and stare?” Appreciate a bit of fun in life, perhaps with these Best Bets:

 

BEST SHARP BRAIN BET: Meet new friends and keep your brain sharp — now there’s a good use of your leisure time. Today from 6 to 7:30 p.m., play games with others at the Homer Public Library. Scrabble? Chess? Candyland? If you want to play games in a place that serves adult beverages, AJ’s OldTown Steakhouse also holds a game night at 6 p.m. Tuesdays. Or, you could play bingo at 6:30 p.m. every Wednesday at the Homer Elks Lodge and support the Emblem Club. Your move.

 

BEST DOUBLE DIP BET: “The Life of Pi” has been getting rave reviews. Catch the Homer premiere at 6 p.m. Friday and support yet another good cause when proceeds go to the West Homer Elementary School’s library lexile program.

 

BEST BIG IDEAS BET: Cheer the winners of the annual BIZ Idea contest and learn how local entrepreneurs can take their ideas to the next level. “The Idea Is Just the Beginning” is 6 to 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Homer Public Library.

 

BEST GET THE FACTS BET: Confused about how to hook up to natural gas when the gas line comes to Homer? Get all your questions answered in a presentation by representatives from Enstar Natural Gas at 6 p.m. Tuesday at Homer High School.

 

BEST BE A STAR BET: Go ahead — be brave. Show off your musical talent at the weekly Open Mic from
8:30 p.m. to midnight on Wednesday at Down East Saloon.