October 2009
'Better' is between where you are now and perfect
It’s easy to get down on yourself when you’re not perfect. Being less than perfect admits a shortcoming, a failure. It’s humbling.
A common cliché used to make someone feel better after a failure is to remind them that no one is perfect. However, this condolence provides little or no consolation. That’s probably because it doesn’t take a perfect person to avoid the particular screw up that’s getting you down. It only takes a better person.
Can a husband and father be a radical lifestyle designer?
Consciously or not, I’ve found myself drawn to a number of lifestyle design blogs over the past few weeks. They’re filled with stories about individuals actively pursuing unconventional ways of thinking and living.
Part of this desire may stem from feeling that my life is becoming to ordinary, too formulaic. I want something drastic, something radical to break up the mundane. There shouldn’t be anything ordinary about life.
Remember Memory
(The following is from my 2005 book of poetry, Ordinary Time, which provided the inspiration for the title of this blog. I will be republishing the poems here over the next several weeks in their original order)
Remember Memory
The water, turning over on itself, the shifting of a formless mass, swirling in and against itself, and refusing
Encouragement available
There seems to be no shortage of encouragement available if you look for it hard enough.
However, words from other can be, at times, in short supply. This can lead to one desperately fishing for encouragement from friends and family, which can cheapen what is caught.
Not yet a writer
I understand I have a lot of work to do to become the writer I want to be. Words and pages are not enough. Although, that would be a good start. No, thoughts and well expressed ideas are what I’m after. I am not sure that I am prepared to think like a writer. I know I don’t have the habits developed yet. One step at a time, I know. But I have in mind what I want to be: I want to be able to sit quietly and think to myself about my subject and then open up a blank document and write what I think.
Issues with unfinished business
I have a problem with unfinished business.
I had some issues with my computer a few weeks ago. It was late but instead of letting it go, calling it a night and saving the trouble shooting until morning, I felt an uncontrollable urge to fix the problem. Nothing could distract me from my desire to fix the problem and make things right again.
I can see how this trait could be harmful. Stubbornness can easily distract me from what may really be important.
A World of Mind’s Creation
(The following is from my 2005 book of poetry, Ordinary Time, which provided the inspiration for the title of this blog. I will be republishing the poems here over the next several weeks in their original order)
A World of Mind’s Creation
A world of mind’s creation stands unhindered in a darkened sleep, while night hours fall to morning, and dawn gives breath to day, but first, the cloud must hover upon the veiled mystery of dreams.
100 pushups seems a long long long way away
I just struggled through my pushup routine. Over the past few weeks of preparations for my 5k run, I have completely neglected all of the muscles in my upper body and today it showed. However, I’m preparing to turn that around.
A few months ago I had printed off Steve Speirs’ Hundred Pushups Training Program and started working on the routine. I got through the first few weeks of the program without too much trouble, but near the end of the third week I began to realize my weaknesses.
88 Examples of Incredible Aerial Photography
A participant in the annual Rubik Cube Hungarian Open Championships solves…
A participant in the annual Rubik Cube Hungarian Open Championships solves nine 3x3 cubes blindfolded after memorizing all of them in Budapest, Hungary, Sunday, Oct. 18, 2009.(AP Photo/Bela Szandelszky) (via Rubik’s Cube Hungarian Open Championships - Yahoo! News Photos)
Perception
Big change can be easy if the change happens over night
I want to start getting up at six. I did it this morning, but I want to do it every morning.
The conventional wisdom says that baby steps are the best. Break down your big goal into manageable action items. Forget it. Radical change has to be more like ripping off a band-aid.
However, keep it to one big change at a time, or you may go into shock.
10 Revealing Infographics about the Web
Kramer’s Entrance (via tylercreviston )
Kramer’s Entrance (via tylercreviston
)
The 10 Biggest Misconceptions We Learn In School - Manolith
5k Run: Weakness Accomplishes Nothing
So, I ended up doing much better than I expected in my 5k run on Thursday. I was so nervous going into it. I’m not sure why, but I think it was because I haven’t engaged in any competition at all this year, and also because I was convinced that I would embarrass myself in front of my co-workers, who were all expecting fantastic times.
As it turned out, I came in first at my company, and 20th out of 150 some men. It was quite a shock to me, but in the process I learned a lot about myself and my body.
Storm Trooper: Singing in the Rain
Care for the Dead
(The following is from my 2005 book of poetry, Ordinary Time, which provided the inspiration for the title of this blog. I will be republishing the poems here over the next several weeks in their original order)
Care for the Dead _
To sense the life
What goes in will come out
My struggle is the beginning, middle, and end. I have a hard time coming up with what I’m going to write about. Once I’ve figured that part out, I have a hard time putting my thoughts into words. And after I have something down on paper, I have a difficult time accepting that what I have written is of any value.
However, this is my only obstacle to becoming a writer. It doesn’t take as much time as I once thought because, it seems, no one is out there trying to write the next Moby Dick. It no longer takes 1,000 pages to tell a story or to make a philosophical point about the human condition. I don’t know that it ever did, but the way most readers consume information now has changed, and writing has had to change to keep up.
Fresh Pics: Free-Falling Art Of Li Wei
Greg Mankiw's Blog: First-Year Grad Student Wins Nobel Prize in Economics!
[](http://donttouchmymoleskine.wordpress.com/2009/10/08/se-liga/ )
The three elements of full employment
Oh Shi- [PIC]
Dropped by rushmaven.
Twitter Talking Separately to Microsoft and Google About Big Data-Mining Deals
Unbelievable: “123456” Most Common Hotmail Password
Motivational Posters: Winston Churchill Edition (Part I) - The Art of…
Motivational Posters: Winston Churchill Edition (Part I), The Art of Manliness
There’s 19 of these and they’re all great!
What’s the Point of Education?
teacup-sized pigs
Procedure List + Monday Refocus Form
Weird Wonders: 15 of the World’s Strangest Animals
Today is the day for my run
After a few more workouts over the past few weeks, today is the day of the 5k run. I think I’m ready for it, as ready as I could get in the short period of time between when I found out about it, when I started training, and today. I’ll be writing a post about my experience and how it turns out.
Caring for Aging Parents - Dealing with Aging Parents
The art of brief emails - mnmlist.com
Rubikcubism on yay!everyday
Creative Art in Fly dead body - 15 Pics - Curious, Funny Photos / Pictures…
Creative Art in Fly dead body - 15 Pics - Curious, Funny Photos / Pictures
This is kind of twisted, but still an amazing project.
Telescopic Text © Joe Davis 2008
Focus on your Personal Strengths, Not Correcting All the Weaknesses
Facebook: Gabriela Frei: How Jonathan Slayed the Alligator
How Jonathan Slayed the AlligatorShare – Monday, September 14, 2009 at 11:04am
Best story ever. So on our way home from Rock the Universe in Orlando, Florida, Jonathan and I had the hardest time staying awake during the drive. It had been a long day, Orlando is 2.5 hours from our home, and it was midnight when we left… so yeah, we were pretty exhausted. We were about 45 minutes away from lovely Fort Myers, and simply praying to God that He allow us to remain awake just one more minute, and then one more minute, when all of a sudden we catch glimpse of something in the road ahead. I was prying my eyelids open with pliers, and Jonathan had the air on full blast and was playing smooth jazz - which he informed me would help keep him awake because of its complicated melodies. After miles of empty black pavement, it was startling to spot something ahead, inevitably doomed to one-on-one time with my car. Yeah, it was a alligator. Not a log, or piece of tire, or deer (for you Northeners)… but an alligator that was minimum 6 feet long… I say minimum because we could only see half of his body (the half that was 6 feet long), and the other half was in the bushes ten feet from the road… he was a monster! How dare he try and keep us from the blessed sleep we so desperately craved, that waited a mere 45 minutes away in our bed? I wish I could have seen the look in Jonathan’s eye. We both knew impact was inevitable, cause clearly swerving poses a potential risk to our safety lol. All I know is I felt the car accelerate as Jonathan gleefully achieved a longtime dream: killing something fully capable of killing him right back. If he would have had his wish, we would have stopped, pulled out the gator’s jawbone, and bagged up his flesh for a barbecue. But no, sleep outranked that dream. We couldn’t believe it. It was of those iconic moments in your life. WHAM. and that alligator was toast.
Little Soldier Girl “Didn’t Want to Let Go” - NBC Philadelphia
Why we remember what we remember
So many events, images, sounds, and smells hit our minds every day, but not all of it sticks. We don’t remember much of it, yet there is so much that we do.
Events that seemed insignificant at the time stay with us for our whole lives. Moment we promise ourselves to cherish grow foggy. Random episodes in our lives replay themselves in our heads, triggered by sounds, smells, or nothing at all.
There does not seem to be any set of rules that determines what you will remember and what you will forget. There is a science behind it, I suppose, but that is not what I am interested in exploring in too much depth. However, to be fair I offer the following.
New blog design released
I’ve made some radical changes to my blog template, and I think I’ve just about configured it the way I want. That’s kind of a scary thing. I mean, once I have the template figured out, the only blogging activity I’ll be able to participate in is actually writing.
So far I’ve successfully avoided the actual work and thinking that this hobby and project will require. However, I’m ready for the change. I think it will be much more fun to write, create, and market my creation than it was just to pick out the template and fiddle with the colors and configurations.
Favrd.
My wife and I made a pretty cute kid. I just have to figure out how we’re gonna get a return on our investment.
— Favrd.
Writing in specifics
Idée Labs
TweetPsych TweetPsych uses two linguistic analysis algorithms (RID and LIWC)…
TweetPsych uses two linguistic analysis algorithms (RID and LIWC) to build a psychological profile of a person based on the content of their tweets. The service analyzes your last 1000 tweets and works best on users who have posted more than 1000 updates. It also works best on accounts that are operated by a single user and use Twitter in a conversational manner, rather than simply a content distribution platform. For more information read the blog post or follow the creator Dan Zarrella
Federer between the legs shot at US Open
family portrait
Boy with a tiger. I’m not sure I could get that close. The tiger looks hungary
Sesame Street Channels Mad Men
Home Sweet Home I need to find some white furniture for my son to color on…
I need to find some white furniture for my son to color on when he gets a little older. (or I might get out the crayons myself…
Favrd.
Star Wars: Uncut I’m so excited for this project to get finished. Such fond…
I’m so excited for this project to get finished. Such fond memories of this movie. I can’t wait for the internet to flub it up…
Getting Started
I plan to integrate this into my main blog and use it for a platform for sharing fun and inspiring things I find on the Internet.
Writing in specifics
It’s not the job of the writer to rehash old ideas, and consolidate them into broad general statements, as much as it is to uncover new ideas through the general and collective knowledge that is already present in the world. Now finding that new knowledge, within the collective knowledge, is a skill that is not natural to the thought process. It takes a conscious uncovering in order to develop and nurture the traits before one can effectively find those new ideas even if they’re in plain sight.
Financial win
Yesterday, I ended the battle over the remaining money my family owes the hospital for my son’s birth. After an insurance review that went nowhere and several months of waiting and nerve racking phone calls, it’s finally over. And I won.
It ended with the hospital settling and discounting the balance we owed by 45 percent. This is a tremendous financial relief, as well as a major ego win for me.
It felt wonderful to confidently ask for a discount and get it.