Posts in the “personal” category

Happy Halloween, 2019, from some folks at Texas A&M University (one of four colleges I spent time at).

(Image from this TAMU LinkedIn page.)

The Dalai Lama offers advice on how to start your mornings:

“Every day, think as you wake up, today I am fortunate to be alive, I have a precious human life, I am not going to waste it. I am going to use all my energies to develop myself, to expand my heart out to others; to achieve enlightenment for the benefit of all beings. I am going to have kind thoughts towards others, I am not going to get angry or think badly about others. I am going to benefit others as much as I can.”

I can especially dig the, “today I am fortunate to be alive” part.

One year for Christmas I got a bunch of cookies and a car charger for my phone. It was a good Christmas. :)

I was going to write more about this, but instead I’ll just share this link to RamDass.org related to a soldier asking him, “What are you, some kind of yogurt?”

Amelia: How do you feel about me now?

Nick: I fell in love with you the first time I saw you — that’s crazy. I didn’t even know you, it was just this idea of you. And then ... it just wasn’t what I thought.

[Then he says something about the way she kisses, and she slaps him.]

Amelia: Hey. I’m not an idea of a person. I’m an actual person.

[She walks away.]

~ from New Girl

Having lived with many great dogs (and a couple of cats), I just orded this book by Eckhart Tolle. The few pages I can see on the Amazon preview look great. It looks to be more about “mindfulness” and “spirituality” than “religion,” which suits me well. I’m looking forward to it.

The bad news is that I have the flu. The good news is that I’ve watched the first 25 episodes of New Girl (though I wasn’t conscious for all of them, and I’m not sure what happened to Coach).

I haven’t binge-watched anything like this since I had a bad infection after having my gallbladder removed.

I always wondered what was going on in the song, “MacArthur Park.” When I was very young I remember Donna Summer singing it, and I used to think, “Just make another cake. Why won’t you have that recipe again? Shoot, just buy a cake if cooking makes you that upset.”

Jimmy Webb discusses the lyrics to the song on newsday.com.

For whatever reason, I get back into yoga every fall, and a favorite book during this time is The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali.

(When I studied by myself I thought his name was pronounced like “pat and jolly,” but when I studied with Judi Rice she taught me it was “pa-tan-ja-lee.”)

I like most of Dana Stabenow’s work, and while I didn’t particularly like Dead in the Water, I did enjoy some of the quotes in the book, such as, “Always perform the work that has to be done without attachment,” which comes from the Bhagavad Gita, of which there are many translations (such as this one, this one, and this one).

“If you are motivated by a wish to help on the basis of kindness, compassion and respect, then you can do any kind of work, in any field, and function more effectively with less fear or worry, not being afraid of what others think or whether you will ultimately reach your goal.”

~ the Dalai Lama, in this tweet

I don’t know the original source of this image of Darth Vader and Yoda balloons, but I post it here because I’ve been seeing many photos from the Albuquerque Balloon Festival the last few days.

“Seize the time. Live now. Make now always the most precious time. Now will never come again.”

~ Jean-Luc Picard

I recently had a discussion with two people I’m working on a book with, where they are essentially very active reviewers. I like to write with enthusiasm, so I made a particular statement in the book. One person said they thought it was motivating — which was my intent — but the other person said it made them wary. I thought it was fascinating to get such different perspectives.

When I was meditating this morning I remembered going on a first date with a girl in high school. We went to a nice restaurant — it had tablecloths and silverware — I don’t currently remember the name of, and sat across from each other at a small, round table.

After a very short while a young boy came up to us and asked, “Are you on a first date?”

My date and I looked at him and said, “Yes, we are.” I started to look around to see where the boy came from, but I couldn’t figure that out.

“It’s okay if you sit closer to each other,” he said.

“Really,” we replied, looking at each other and smiling with surprise.

So I got up and moved my chair around the table until my date and I sat next to each other. “Is that good,” I asked.

“Much better,” he said. “This way you can hold hands.” And then he left.

“Better to be on the edge of a party, don’t you think?” I’m not very good with idle chit-chat in the middle of parties, but I enjoy good conversations around the edges.

~ a favorite scene from Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil

James Garner passed away in July, 2014. I know he was in many good movies and tv shows, but I’ll always remember him in The Rockford Files. Every episode had at least one car chase, cigarette smoking, a phone call from a pay telephone, and drinking. In most episodes he was helping a “damsel in distress,” in which he often held her elbow (or upper arm) as they walked. I won’t say it was a great show, but for some reason (him), you just watch it. It was one of the first shows I watched when Netflix came around.

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become.”

~ Steve Jobs

About eight weeks ago -- May 20, 2012, to be exact -- I started a simple exercise and diet program. I was having several health problems, including constant severe headaches, blood pressure spiking to 150/100 for some reason the doctors hadn't figured out, my thyroid was failing (we knew that, and were treating it), and I also knew about a prostate problem. I generally felt like crap, and because of the headaches I was barely able to work 20 hours a week, constantly laying in bed trying to ride out the pain.

June 2, 2016: I don’t think my chest is as hairy as Steve Carell’s, but I got three chest-waxings at the hospital last week, and it is really, really painful. (They put the heart monitor leads on, take them off, put them back on, etc.) Someone told me Mr. Carell did this for real for the movie. If so, wow, that’s dedication.