Mast cell disease isn’t enough, a DNA test for hemochromatosis shows that I’m a “compound heterozygote.” If you’re interested, you can find more information at hemochromatosis.org.
They say I got this disease from the combination of my parents DNA, but I’m guessing I got it from watching the Limitless tv series so many times. :)
Lights go out and I can’t be saved
Tides that I tried to swim against
Brought me down upon my knees
Oh I beg, I beg and plead
Come out of things unsaid
Shoot an apple off my head
And a trouble that can’t be named
A tiger’s waiting to be tamed
You are
You are
Confusion that never stops
Closing walls and ticking clocks, gonna
Come back and take you home
I could not stop, that you now know
~ from the song Clocks, by Coldplay
FATHER, TALKING TO HIS SON: Life is a pain in the ass. I’ll tell ya’, you know. You work hard, try to provide for the family, and then for one minute ... everything’s good. Everyone’s well, everyone’s happy, and in that one minute you have peace.
SON: Pop ... this isn’t that minute.
~ from the movie, While You Were Sleeping
“His name’s Chappy.”
~ an inside family joke, from a Jackie Chan movie
“Always do what you are afraid to do” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
(Image from the Zen Pencils website)
“One woman can make you fly like an eagle, another can give you the strength of a lion, but only one in the cycle of life can fill your heart with wonder and the wisdom that you have known a singular joy.”
Way back in my first year of college I went to Kentucky Wesleyan College in Owensboro, Kentucky. A teacher at the school named Gary Bielefeld created the mosaic mural of mirrors shown in this image on the side of a building in the downtown area, using two tons of glass. Per the video, more than 9,000 drivers see the mural every day when they go over the blue bridge that’s just to the left of this parking area. For more information, see this 14news.com story.
Today (2/20/2020) was a bit of a milestone in that I was able to walk for 15 minutes straight before I got the first twinge in my heart. This was the first day I was able to walk that long without pain since the pericarditis episode of late 2019.
When I saw this image on Netflix I immediately thought that a story that might be interesting is about a soul who is both a man and a woman at the same time. At the moment it seems like an interesting idea for a book, movie, or series, a way to explore all sorts of concepts related to “gender identity.” Parts of it could be like In Your Eyes, and it could be a little like Cloud Atlas, but it would also be very different from those movies.
Ah, the Chicken Oil Company ... once I discovered it when I went to school at Texas A&M, I ate quite a few Deathburgers. I’m glad to see that they’re still in business. (Image from this link.)
February 19, 2014: I passed out for the first time. Before then I knew I was sick, but that was the first day I went down.
*three years of hospital visits and dozens of doctors*
February 19, 2017: For the first time in many years I’ve been able to practice yoga on a daily basis. As usual, during the first several weeks it was difficult and I was sore, but these days all is well. Soon this body will be rock hard and incredibly limber. :)
“Energy and persistence conquer all things.”
~ Ben Franklin
The Rolling Stone article, The Oral History of Santana and Rob Thomas’ ‘Smooth’, is probably the best Pocket reference I’ve ever followed. It’s a good story about a great song. It struck me that Carlos Santana seems to have had the least involvement in the creation of the song out of all the players.
Dear diary: Filed under the category of “transparent dangling carrots,” today I realized that there is a surface reason the Dalai Lama talks about practicing compassion, and also a much deeper reason. It’s really quite a trip, though with my limited knowledge, for all I know it’s turtles stacked on turtles stacked on turtles.
(A diary entry from January 21, 2015. Dalai Lama quote: “If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.” Image from this link.)
I like this quote from Leo Buscaglia: Take responsibility and grasp it. Don’t be a victim.
I’ve written it before, but Mr. Buscaglia was a significant, positive influence on my life. There was a lot of negative and downright mean programming going on in our household when I grew up — negative role models on both sides of the family — and Mr. Buscaglia was an extremely helpful antidote to that, helping me to see that not everybody was like my relatives.
“You’ve got to be real. Don’t be a phony. Find ‘you,’ who you are ... Say, ‘Here I am. Take me for what I am with all my frailties, all my stupidity, and so on. And if you can’t, leave me alone.’”
~ Leo Buscaglia in the book, Living, Loving, & Learning
This tweet shows that the traffic jam trying to get to the outdoor hockey game at the Air Force Academy last night was a disaster. And in this tweet, a young woman demonstrates a Babe Ruthian swing.
“The meaning of ‘Hatha Yoga’ is Sun (Ha) and Moon (Tha), Yoga in which Sun is the soul and Moon is consciousness. Consciousness can be compared to a lens. Its inner surface faces the soul itself, and its outer surface comes in contact with the world. Inevitably a degree of grime attaches itself to that outer surface and obscures our vision. In fact it prevents us from seeing clearly what is outside, and it equally prevents the light of our soul from shining out. If our house is gloomy because the windows are dirty, we don’t say there is problem with the Sun; we clean the windows. Yoga cleans the lens of consciousness in order to admit the Sun.”
~ probably from the book, Light on Life, by B.K.S. Iyengar
“Yoga is the cessation of the fluctuations of consciousness. The still mind is by definition, pure.”
“Is this the end? Are we there yet? No. There remains the ego, the self, the known self, the impersonator of the Soul. He is the last actor to leave the stage. He lingers even for the very final hand clap of applause. What forces him off the stage? Silence, and retention of the breath.”
~ From the book, Light on Life, by B.K.S. Iyengar
Apparently back in the day, squirrels were popular pets.
