FWIW, my week leading up to the Memorial Day weekend went like this:
Tuesday: Went to the liver doctor, he said my numbers are greatly improved, no worries, keep up the good work. A couple of hours later I started having chest pain, and eventually went to the ER. Their first two tests didn’t show any heart issues, but they wanted me to take a stress test the next day.
For anyone interested in the radioactive iodine treatment instructions I received from the hospital back in 2014 (for the post-surgical treatment of thyroid cancer)(which I’ll be going through again), here you go. As I note in the image, as a writer I appreciate the strong finish. :)
Wow, this radiation is good stuff. I just woke from a very long dream sequence where I was in three and then four dimensions, all at one time. It was similar to what happened to Picard in the last episode of STNG. In my case I was trying to help the people in the third dimension, who I originally thought may have had an earthquake, but as I later found out, they were in some sort of battle or war. As Spock would say, fascinating.
(A note from my radiation treatment,
June 24, 2014)
Another tequila sunrise. Virginia Beach, Virginia, November 7, 2009.
“Spirits are very fragile. Easy to break, but not impossible to repair.”
~ from a Monk episode
These are some cool stats about neutron stars from this space.com article:
June 23, 2020: I woke up in the middle of the night only to find someone drilling in the back of my head. It didn’t hurt, but it was just like what you might expect, kinda like a dentist drilling in your mouth, but this was someone with a larger drill, drilling into the back-right side of my head.
This happened once before, maybe 1-2 years ago, and that time I panicked. I started trying to yell, “I’m not dead,” “I’m not asleep, either!” I just wanted to get the heck out of there, so I woke up quickly.
This time I was extremely groggy, but I realized that there wasn’t any pain, just noise, so I tried to keep my eyes open and look around. Unfortunately most of my view was obscured, and I could only see out of my right eye, and most of that view was blocked. I could only see the floor and the bottom of some people’s outfits. From what I could tell, they were all wearing white and lightblue or lightgreen surgical garb.
My favorite part of doing lower-body yoga work is that when you’re finished, your hips and legs are so loose that it’s impossible to walk a straight line. It’s like daily life makes your legs only go in one direction, but once you loosen all the joints, you lose that straight-line stiffness.
Sometimes in lucid dreams I get so busy doing what I want to do that I forget to pay attention to other things in the dream holodeck. Last night I was trying to get something done before I woke up, and I knew I didn’t have much time.
So I’m flying around around trying to get it done, and then as I’m flying down a pathway like Superman, there’s my dad standing in my path. He’s wearing a bright Hawaiian shirt, and so I come to a screeching halt and pause for a moment in front of him like the Road Runner. I’m torn between the time clock running out and having a conversation, so I just say, “Hi dad.” Then I poke him in the belly and say, “Great shirt!” Then I zip off again with a little “meep meep” because I know my time here is almost up.
#HappyFathersDay
Donald Trump can’t even utter the words, “Black Lives Matter,” and his son Eric refers to protestors as “animals.”
I’m an independent voter, and I have supported both Republic and Democrat candidates before, but I could never vote for these people.
If you’re a Republican, I certainly understand that. All I can say is that the Trump family is alienating so many voters that I think it’s better for the Republican party that he loses, and then Mitt Romney can take the mantle in 2024. The longer Trump is in office, the more people he will alienate, and the worse it is for the Republican party in the long run.
Sixty days ago I was taking the maximum doses of two blood pressure medications, and my resting BP was 150/106 with a pulse of 92. I more or less assumed that one day the pericarditis would strangle my heart. Last night it was 111/68 and 58, while I take 1/2 of the medicine I was taking.
It’s amazing what a proper diet and exercise can do for you. :)
From this Juneau Empire article, “Officials say a person who didn’t follow quarantine procedures after arriving in Alaska has created the possibility of broad community spread of the coronavirus. The person went to social gatherings and public places in Ketchikan while awaiting results of a COVID-19 test that turned out positive, officials said.”
(The image comes from that article. I just thought it was beautiful and tried to make an oil painting from it.)
My sister-in-law’s family gave me a Zen Garden for Christmas back in 2014. I’ve been trying to take care of it, but it looks like it needs a little work. :)
If you’ve ever had an experience where you’re falling asleep at night and suddenly your mind is awake but your body is asleep and you can’t move, fear not, the condition is known as sleep paralysis. (The same thing can also happen during the middle of a sleep cycle, where your mind wakes up while your body is asleep.) For some reason it’s featured in a story here in Business Insider (India). There’s also an article about it here on Wikipedia.
“The best use of imagination is creativity. The worst use of imagination is anxiety.”
~ Deepak Chopra (Image from a now-gone Google+ page.)
In this article Steve Sinofsky talks about Mac computers potentially using ARM processors, based on his history with Microsoft and Windows RT:
“The biggest ‘if’ at all is whether such a device is or would be called Macintosh and the implications of that path. Of course when we named Windows RT there was no debate about using ‘Windows’ in the name as everything had Windows in it for us (Windows NT, Windows Embedded, Windows Media Center, Windows Tablet PC, Windows Server, Windows CE, Windows Phone) and they rarely shared more than the name Windows. But is Macintosh a brand, a set of specific capabilities, a form factor, or what? I’m excited to see as Apple holds all the cards and can choose as they wish.”
The following is a definition of equanimity, and how equanimity differs from indifference or apathy. The entire quote comes from Shinzen Young:
“Many people get confused about what equanimity is and what it isn’t. Here are some examples that may help clarify.
Equanimity can be deepened by relaxing tension around pain, such as the pain of a broken leg. But equanimity does not mean that you don’t care about getting proper medical attention, such as getting a cast.
Equanimity means opening up to angry sensations that may arise during an argument. But equanimity does not mean that you should stay in a bad relationship.
The Sun setting over the Rocky Mountains, June 11, 2020, as seen from Broomfield, Colorado.
A painting titled Chop Suey, by Edward Hopper. I found a nice collection of paintings at WikiArt.
