Posts in the “personal” category

“Today I escaped anxiety. Or no, I discarded it, because it was within me, in my own perceptions — not outside.”

~ Marcus Aurelius

“No man can have a peaceful life who thinks too much about lengthening it.” ~ Seneca

“There is a limit to the time assigned you, and if you don’t use it to free yourself, it will be gone and never return.” ~ Marcus Aurelius

two quotes from dailystoic on twitter

farnamstreetblog.com has a good article about investing, and another good article about mental models.

Wow, I saved $600/year on car insurance by switching to Progressive. Geico — who I had been with for five years — wanted to increase my rate to a whopping $680 every six months, while Progressive is only $380 for the same coverage.

A few days ago I ran into a woman who seemed very stressed out. I had a conversation with her that went like this:

Me: You seem to be feeling a lot of stress, may I ask why?

Her: Yada yada yada ... I’m trying to save my marriage! (Said loudly, with a lot of emotion.) (She starts crying.)

Me: Why?

Her: What?

Me: For as long as I’ve known you, you’ve said that you’re not happy, and now you seem very stressed out. So I’m wondering why you’re trying to save your marriage?

Her: ...

I thought it was a simple question — I thought she might say that she still loved the guy — but it turns out she had no answer for it.

She was crying, and tired of crying, so we talked about something else for a while. Then out of the blue she said, “I think I’m trying to save it because I always thought it was the right thing to do. Or maybe I never wanted to be divorced. But those aren’t very good reasons, are they? He really is a mean, selfish jerk, and he’s making my life miserable.”

I don’t send cards at Christmas, but if I did, I might send this “Fox looking at Santa and the Moon” Christmas card that I saw in Santa Fe, New Mexico this week.

The beginning of this story about Lakers’ coach Luke Walton has a few discussions about meditation and a mindfulness app.

This morning I was thinking about something that I want to accomplish, and as I thought about it a voice in my brain said, “You can’t just wish for it, you have to put in the work.” That seems like good advice in general.

“Find your way through your insanity. Find the order in the chaos. Otherwise, how will you ever find me?” ~ River

If you’ve never heard of The Hero’s Journey, Wikipedia states that it’s a “common template of a broad category of tales that involve a hero who goes on an adventure, and in a decisive crisis wins a victory, and then comes home changed or transformed.” The concept was originally introduced by Joseph Campbell in The Hero with a Thousand Faces, in 1949. This image comes from thewritersjourney.com.

“Current neuroscience research shows that gratitude practice begins the process of shutting down the default-mode network (‘monkey mind’), which is responsible for many of our distractions.”

I added the “monkey mind” part. This quote comes from my current favorite book, Right Concentration: A Practical Guide to the Jhanas.

Rolling Stone and Business Insider report that Elon Musk asks himself six questions “any time he needs to come up with an idea, solve a problem, or decide whether to start a business.”

I was wondering where the term “key fob” originally came from, and I found this theatlantic.com article about its etymology.

Girl in a store: Mom, we have to get away from these candles, the smell makes me sick.

Mother: Oh, dear, you know that’s all in your head.

Me: Actually, it’s a possible indicator of mast cell disease.

*mother and daughter silently turn and walk away*

A nice thing about most hotels in Santa Fe is that they treat water like you’re living on the Space Station. They have signs like, “You may have noticed that there’s not a lot of water around here. Please don’t waste it! Thank you, the management.”

At restaurants they usually only give you water if you ask for it, and I remember one time a waitress asked if I was really going to drink it or just look at it.

All of which reminds me of being at a hostel one time, where there was a sign that said, “Save water, shower together.” :)

From November 7, 2016: On the eve of the 2016 U.S. Presidential election, I thought I’d share these memories of the worst things that were said about Presidential candidates in years gone by:

1976: Jimmy Carter had a brother named Billy who apparently really liked beer.

1980: Ronald Reagan made some bad movies, and was the first President to have been divorced.

1988: Gary Hart was a front-runner until it was found out that he was having an affair with Donna Rice. Within a week he quit the race.

1988: Joe Biden plagiarized a speech, and quickly withdrew from the race.

1992: Bill Clinton was rumored to have had affairs, and he was the first major candidate to admit to smoking marijuana (though he apparently didn’t inhale).

1996: Bob Dole seemed really grumpy.

2000: George Bush was the first presidential candidate where I can remember thinking, “Um, he doesn’t seem very smart. Shouldn’t there be an IQ test for this position?”

(I would later come to think that there should be an “Enlightenment Test,” where Presidents have to think about “100 years from now” as much as they think about today.)

2008: John Edwards: affair, dropped out

I’m sure there’s more than that, but that’s all I can remember at the moment.

Stopped off to do a little bowling on the way to the grocery yesterday. I’m rolling the ball about 21-23 mph. Next to me, a little old man with an oxygen tank strapped onto his back is rolling maybe 10 mph, but with a really nice hook. He’d throw a few balls, then rest for a while, then throw a few more. We had some good conversations, but the best was about enjoying whatever time we have left.

~ November 2, 2013

As I mentioned a few months ago, I made a small, one-time donation to The Guardian. I don’t read it regularly, but I find that other sources lead me to their articles from time to time, so I wanted to give them a little money. This morning I read that 300,000 other people have given The Guardian a one-time donation as well.

Maria Menounos, age 39, was diagnosed with a brain tumor, and gave a talk at a UCHealth gathering. A few quotes from her:

“When you’re an overachiever, you’re conditioned to just do, do, do, do ... We are over-tapping ourselves. We are doing way too much. We’re trying to be everything to everyone and nothing to ourselves. If your body is screaming at you ... then surrender to it.”

“Maybe it’s true, 99 out of 100 people will let you down. But there’s magic in that one percent.”

~ From the Hart of Dixie