Alvin Alexander | Java, Scala, Unix, Perl, Mac OS X

As for his (Carlos Santana) thoughts on self-fulfillment:

“Three things: Your spirit, your soul, and your heart. If you find those and you really find them, you’re going to realize that innocence. Those things don’t leave you, and you don’t misplace or lose them. Those are the ingredients for you to have a glorious existence.”

One of his favorite terms is “naked awareness” — the ability to see yourself fully and make changes away from the negative.

~ from a story by Leila Cobo about Carlos Santana

(If you like Carlos Santana, you might like his book, Universal Tone.)

So I go to the grocery store yesterday, buy some grapes, and think I’m being all healthy as I eat them.

Then later in the day I read the “Dirty Dozen” report, which states that the non-organic grapes I just ate had 15 pesticides on them, and after non-organic strawberries, they’re one of the worst things you can eat in the entire universe.

“In a book I read recently, the author talked about humans as transitional beings — beings who are neither fully caught nor fully free, but are in the process of awakening. I find it helpful to think of myself this way. I’m in the process of becoming, in the process of evolving. I’m neither doomed nor completely free, but I’m creating my future with every word, every action, every thought.”

~ Pema Chödrön

This healthy eating thing is still new to me, and I can never remember the name “brussels sprouts,” so I just write “balls” on my grocery list.

~ a note from August 18, 2016

This is a fun response from this Ask Polly Q&A:

“Your in-laws are next-level, off-the-charts batshit.

Every now and then, a group of people assumes the traits and behaviors of sociopaths. Maybe one person in the group completely and permanently lost their doughnuts several decades prior, and slowly, each member of the group learns that playing along with this singular menace is the only way to survive. Eventually, the members of the group are so utterly confused and gaslit by each other that they enforce the will of the group and nod along with bizarre opinions until they can’t even remember what it means to think logically or have free will or behave like other regular human beings on the face of the planet.

Because these people are confused and weak and angry — and because they’re rendered increasingly more confused, weak, and angry by their exposure to each other — they tend to have less and less contact with those outside the group. And when they do encounter someone who’s not in the fold, they recoil and attack. Anyone who questions the group is attacked with words and actions. Anyone who questions the group is bad, and the group is good.”

When asked if he had the proper experience to be President of the United States, Ross Perot said:

“Well, they got a point. I don’t have any experience in running up a $4 trillion debt. I don’t have any experience in gridlock government, where nobody takes responsibility for anything and everybody blames everybody else. I don’t have any experience in creating the worst public school system in the industrialized world, the most violent crime-ridden society in the industrialized world.

But I do have a lot of experience in getting things done. So if we’re at a point in history where we want to stop talking about it and do it, I’ve got a lot of experience in figuring out how to solve problems, making the solutions work and then moving on to the next. I’ve got a lot of experience in not taking 10 years to solve a 10-minute problem. So if it’s time for action, I think I have experience that counts. If there’s more time for gridlock and talk and finger pointing, I’m the wrong man.”

From Bloomberg: U.S. farmers already stung by Trump’s tariffs now face a $3.5 billion dollar corn loss.

“We are the choices that we make.”

~ Wade Kinsella’s grandmother (Hart of Dixie)