“The person who risks nothing, does nothing, has nothing, is nothing, and becomes nothing. He may avoid suffering and sorrow, but he simply cannot learn and feel and change and grow and love and live.” –Leo F. Buscaglia
May 252010
I don’t have much problem accepting the possibility some highly motivated and inspired ancient people could have built a vessel sizable enough to carry a whole lot of animals. The proposition that the world as man knew it encountered a cataclysm as severe as Noah’s flood is also plausible in theory. Animals marching two by two to the ark to be safely preserved? Why not? Science observes animals doing some inexplicable stuff.
My problem with the story has to do with God’s role. As I learn to believe less in God and feel more in God the idea of God getting pissed at the entirety of creation over what humans were doing and wiping it all out in order to start over sounds much more like something I might do than the timeless source of love, truth, and creative energy.
Isn’t great flood story completely typical of the egoic mind? The epitome of selfishness? “Things aren’t working out as planned. F-it I’m going to end it, tear it up, throw it away, or haul ass and I don’t care how many innocent people, places, or things get messed up as a result.” And if that weren’t enough to seal it, there’s the part where he comes back after ands says “I promise never to do it again.”
That’s me. That’s people.
God though?
Image above from Marxchivist
Wow. One million iPads sold as of earlier this week and none of them to me. Took iPhone 74 days to hit the million mark, 28 days for its speechless oversized brother.
Via World of Apple
As if I haven’t wasted enough bytes on the iPad, my reasons for not being one of the million:
- No accounts: I can’t set up my email and stuff and leave it on the coffee table
- $500
Those are about it. I would have been a sucker for the rest. That thing is pretty.
I’m strongly considering a netbook to take that place on the coffee table.
May 062010
So the most important thing to realize is this: Your life has an inner purpose and an outer purpose. Inner purpose concerns Being and is primary. Outer purpose concerns doing and is secondary.
This particular truth was something I learned when I came to terms with eating and my weight. It took me a long time to realize that what I do, even immediate stuff like eating, is an “outer” thing. The outer things never seem to look good until the inner things are in good shape which is another important truth for me. Fix the stuff on the inside, and the need to fix anything on the outside diminishes or goes away.
“You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself, any direction you choose.” -Dr. Seuss
Where there is time, there is change. Where there is change, there is time.
Time is either involved in creating momentum or complacency and decay.
Time is for growing and dying, never for living. Living happens only in the now.
“Someday” “back then” “later” “if this happens” and things like that are not places in time, they are places in the imagination where delusion usually grows. Places in time have numbers.
It is impossible to do anything in time. We can only plan things in time. We do things now.
Whatever your concept of God or higher power, there is no interaction in time, only the present.
Creativity requires time. So does entropy.
Time is the one thing you can’t get more of, find elsewhere, or buy, so don’t depend on it for anything.
Its much easier to do something now than to do it the rest of your life. Its impossible to do things later. Later is an illusion.
Learn from the past, be thankful for the learning, and apply it in the present.
Don’t rely on or become attached to the future, there’s zero chance it will exist exist as you hope or expect it will if it becomes the present.
If you can accept the present, you won’t regret the past or need the future. If you can’t accept the present, its because you need the future, regret the past, or both.
Here’s a tip on how to get those low signal to noise ratio Twitters out of your immediate Twitter follows.
Nothing I like more than reading stuff about to-do lists while I’m not doing stuff on my to-do list. I read through the article at Lifehacker on to-do list cleaning and determined I am at least a little guilty of most of these, but the one on using the to-do list for free writing rung a few bells.
You should not be using your to-do list as your brain storming/thought capturing zone. Ubiquitous capture—writing down all your stray thoughts, bits of information, and ideas—is an excellent habit to have, but if you’re capturing right to your to-do list you’re throwing yourself under the bus before you even get your sleeves rolled up. Your to-do list must remain separate from whatever capturing process you use. Go through your list and convert the “dumped” items into actions that belong on your to-do list or remove them.
Time management junkies enjoy:
link: Clean Out Your To-Do List for Guilt-Free Productivity – tasks – Lifehacker
Apr 062010
Its been months now since I took part in any TV watching, newspaper reading, radio listening, or use of any other media except the Web that has commercials or advertisements. Without going too deeply into all the benefits of this in my life suffice to say I never look back, never miss TV or radio, and surely don’t miss the commercials. I find myself wondering often “where did I ever get the time to watch TV?” That’s probably the best part – I got a whole bunch of time back.
As the distance between me and the media has grown I’ve spent a little time looking at what drives the whole thing. I’ve identified some obvious connections and opened some questions.
Obvious connection: TV content exists to get people to watch commercials. Commercials exist to change your mind.
When I watched TV my usuals were new analysis shows or just news and channels like National Geographic, Discovery, History, etc. Funny how I sort of prided myself on the “educational and informative” choice of content. That was kind of like being proud of eating fruit for choosing a banana split over the fudge brownie sundae.
The types of commercials I remember most were things like investment and stock buying companies, cholesterol medicine, depression medicine, restaurants and fast food, junk food, weight loss products, male enhancement and erection pills, and toilet paper. I’m sure there were more.
So, following the train of thought that media content, including the news, is nothing more than a mechanism to drive you to watch commercials, and that commercials serve no other purpose to change your mind – specifically to create or amplify a need in your mind, look at what they want to create a need for.
How much of a stretch is it to assume that no matter how enriching the actual between-commercial content is, if the entire enterprise as a whole does not fail at its main purpose, I’m going to be walking around believing on some level or resisting the belief that my money isn’t safe and productive, I’m fat and about to have a heart attack, I’m depressed, I’d be so much happier with some sloppy ribs or a triple cheeseburger or ten layer burrito, that the unit isn’t stiff enough or big enough, and that even my toilet paper is substandard.
Funny thing is – since I’ve been media free I don’t worry much about money at all, I’m happy with my weight and health and should be because my weight and health is very good, I suffer no symptoms of depression, I don’t like the idea of eating food that’s bad for me, my unit is fine, and so is my toilet paper.
One of the startling connections is all the cholesterol medicines, weight loss schemes, and all the junk/fast food/restaurant commercials. Talk about a self-licking ice cream cone! They sell you Big Macs, potato chips, baby back ribs, beer, and soft drinks to clog the arteries then sell you the pills to unclog them and the snake oil and gizmos to get rid of the fat you put on eating that crap.
The dating sites need you to be lonely and the investment brokers need you to be worried about your future and the toilet paper companies need you to have an irritated bottom – enter drug companies to sell you depression and anxiety pills.
I could write a whole other post on the possibilities of where the “news” content fits in with all this. I mean, you know someone chooses what’s going to be news and what’s not right? Dozens, hundreds, maybe thousands of women disappear or are abused but there’s only one missing white woman of the week. Again, that’s another post.
Do I think people are strategizing in a smoke-filled windowless room about how to continue pulling this off? No, not really – its more a product of the collective consciousness. I don’t know what’s pulling the crazy train or who’s driving or exactly where its going, I’m just happy to be off it.
Holy impulse buys Batman, about one more good news thing about the Ipad I hear today and I’m pulling the trigger.
Amazon has announced Kindle Apps for Tablet Computers (including Kindle for iPad), a rather polished e-reader application that both makes the Kindle itself look rather old-fashioned and explains why last week’s Mac version was so unfinished: The Amazon developers have clearly been spending all their time on this instead.
The app offers all the usual Kindle features: Whispersync to keep your bookmarks and notes in sync between devices and the ability to load up any books you have previously bought. It also adds a lot of visual polish, from the obligatory page-turn animation (you can switch it off) to a fetching, full-color grid view of your library. You can adjust “paper” color, and change screen brightness from within the app.
Still, the Ipad won’t replace my Kindle – I don’t think… I’m pretty attached to the Kindle for dedicated, hard core, long term, sit-until-my-butt-goes-numb reading. Nothing beats the Kindle as far as I’m concerned.
But just like I’ll sit and read the Iphone Kindle app at lunch, the Ipad opens up other possibilities too. All about possibilities right?
Read More http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/03/amazon-shows-off-kindle-for-ipad/#ixzz0kBJYwGYO
Mac version
via Amazon Shows Off Kindle for iPad | Gadget Lab | Wired.com.
