Showing posts with label life. Show all posts
Showing posts with label life. Show all posts
Saturday, February 25, 2012
Saturday, January 07, 2012
Friday, January 06, 2012
Stage III Terminal Case of Life
The way I see it, life is divided into four stages. In the first stage, when we're very young, we are taken with how amazing it everything is. We constantly discover and explore new things and there is a joy of living that is unmatched by anything.
As we grow a little older, we enter a second stage. In that stage of life, we hold onto the illusion that we have the means to control the events of our life and the people who inhabit our corner of the world. The down side of this is that, as we focus on all of our efforts to control outcomes, we miss out on many of the small and beautiful things that are right in front of us. They invented the phrase, "stop and smell the roses", for just this reason. Sadly, the control we imagine we have is an illusion and, even when our plans come together the way we thought we wanted them to, our gains almost always fall far short of what we imagined they would be. Our lives are filled with frustration and conflicting feelings.
In the third stage of life, we begin to recognize that controlling the people and events in our lives are an illusion and that we simply don't have the power to do that. If we have power at all, it is the ability to control how we react to the events and people we encounter in our lives. This is where I find myself. Stage III terminal case of life.
In recognizing that we can only control how we react, we also start to realize that it is important to store up as many wonderful memories as we can for that final Stage IV, when all that's left to us is to savor the memories we made as they fade, one by one. A time when we recall the smell of a rose or the wonderful shape of an orchid and we smile inwardly for having stopped to experience them.
In the end, we regret most the things we didn't do.
As we grow a little older, we enter a second stage. In that stage of life, we hold onto the illusion that we have the means to control the events of our life and the people who inhabit our corner of the world. The down side of this is that, as we focus on all of our efforts to control outcomes, we miss out on many of the small and beautiful things that are right in front of us. They invented the phrase, "stop and smell the roses", for just this reason. Sadly, the control we imagine we have is an illusion and, even when our plans come together the way we thought we wanted them to, our gains almost always fall far short of what we imagined they would be. Our lives are filled with frustration and conflicting feelings.
In the third stage of life, we begin to recognize that controlling the people and events in our lives are an illusion and that we simply don't have the power to do that. If we have power at all, it is the ability to control how we react to the events and people we encounter in our lives. This is where I find myself. Stage III terminal case of life.
In recognizing that we can only control how we react, we also start to realize that it is important to store up as many wonderful memories as we can for that final Stage IV, when all that's left to us is to savor the memories we made as they fade, one by one. A time when we recall the smell of a rose or the wonderful shape of an orchid and we smile inwardly for having stopped to experience them.
In the end, we regret most the things we didn't do.
Monday, May 09, 2011
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Christopher Hitchens: "All Of Life Is A Wager"
... or catch the video on YouTube.
In my opinion, few people have a greater understanding of life than Christopher Hitchens.
Monday, November 15, 2010
Retinking One's Values
Over the weekend there was a Neo-Nazi rally in Phoenix in support of Arizon'a SB1070.
When you find that your values are shared by Neo-Nazis ... wouldn't that be a clue that maybe you should start to rethink your values?
or catch the video on Huffington Post after the click ...
When you find that your values are shared by Neo-Nazis ... wouldn't that be a clue that maybe you should start to rethink your values?
or catch the video on Huffington Post after the click ...
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
On the Effectiveness of Aluminium Foil Helmets: An Empirical Study
(with special thanks to mh)
Among a fringe community of paranoids, aluminum helmets serve as the protective measure of choice against invasive radio signals. We investigate the efficacy of three aluminum helmet designs on a sample group of four individuals. Using a $250,000 network analyser, we find that although on average all helmets attenuate invasive radio frequencies in either directions (either emanating from an outside source, or emanating from the cranium of the subject), certain frequencies are in fact greatly amplified. These amplified frequencies coincide with radio bands reserved for government use according to the Federal Communication Commission (FCC). Statistical evidence suggests the use of helmets may in fact enhance the government's invasive abilities. We speculate that the government may in fact have started the helmet craze for this reason.
... read the rest after the click ...
Among a fringe community of paranoids, aluminum helmets serve as the protective measure of choice against invasive radio signals. We investigate the efficacy of three aluminum helmet designs on a sample group of four individuals. Using a $250,000 network analyser, we find that although on average all helmets attenuate invasive radio frequencies in either directions (either emanating from an outside source, or emanating from the cranium of the subject), certain frequencies are in fact greatly amplified. These amplified frequencies coincide with radio bands reserved for government use according to the Federal Communication Commission (FCC). Statistical evidence suggests the use of helmets may in fact enhance the government's invasive abilities. We speculate that the government may in fact have started the helmet craze for this reason.
... read the rest after the click ...
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Rambling thoughts on passing
LP in California, whom I knew mostly through her brother some 50 years ago, wrote to tell me that BA had died of pancreatic cancer in Oregon. They'd been good friends and my mother's elementary school students many years ago. I didn't know BA except by name and the pride my mother had taken in the two of them. They'd stayed in contact with their old teacher and I guess I'm the only remaining contact point with those days and with Mrs. K, who died almost a decade ago.
When I was between marriages, Mary (Mrs. K) tried to hook me up with LP. It was a strange, surreal afternoon ... sitting on lawn chairs, under a tree at the house in Jamesville, drinking lemonade with my mother, my daughter and LP. We've written back and forth, now and then, since that afternoon.
When we are young we make friends and acquaintances faster than we loose them. But nature loves balance. There comes a time when we loose friends faster than we can make them.
I honestly don't know why LP thought I should know ... or even wanted to know that BA had died. I received the note from LP more than a week ago and I don't know how to answer it. She included a picture of my mother's class that she shared with BA.
Somehow "I'm sorry for your loss." seems so detached and impersonal.
When I was between marriages, Mary (Mrs. K) tried to hook me up with LP. It was a strange, surreal afternoon ... sitting on lawn chairs, under a tree at the house in Jamesville, drinking lemonade with my mother, my daughter and LP. We've written back and forth, now and then, since that afternoon.
When we are young we make friends and acquaintances faster than we loose them. But nature loves balance. There comes a time when we loose friends faster than we can make them.
I honestly don't know why LP thought I should know ... or even wanted to know that BA had died. I received the note from LP more than a week ago and I don't know how to answer it. She included a picture of my mother's class that she shared with BA.
Somehow "I'm sorry for your loss." seems so detached and impersonal.
Sunday, July 19, 2009
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Thought for the day
from Quotes of the Day
"I've gone into hundreds of [fortune-teller's] parlors, and have been told thousands of things, but nobody ever told me I was a policewoman getting ready to arrest her."
-- New York City detective
"I've gone into hundreds of [fortune-teller's] parlors, and have been told thousands of things, but nobody ever told me I was a policewoman getting ready to arrest her."
-- New York City detective
Sunday, June 07, 2009
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
One Second before Midnight
by Al Petrone
Science tells us the earth is over 4.7 billion years old, with all of modern history and human civilization only occurring within the last 5,000 to 10,000 years. Said differently, if all of time were compared to a 12 month calendar, ALL of mankind's recorded history would have occurred on the last second, of the last minute, of the last day of that year. Using our universal timeline as an analogy, everything we know as humans has transpired at 11:59PM on December 31st .... all in less than one second. All of the world's cultures, languages, countries, empires, governments, religions, stories, songs and dreams that have ever come and gone - and those that are still here ....have all happened within this "one second before midnight". In this one blink of an eye, millions of species have appeared and disappeared off the face of the earth. One species however, evolved beyond the others, and learned to walk upright and communicate. In very short order, this same species went on to build pyramids, paint the Sistine Chapel, crack the genetic code of our DNA, and fly faster than the speed of sound. Thru their many stages of evolution, and while struggling to survive, this human species continually re-defined itself and its rightful place in the universe. As they journeyed on their many different paths thru time, they created many forms of culture and society. Along the way, each of these societies offered their own version of economic, political, judicial and religious belief systems. This resulted in the birth of numerous tribes within the species - each with their own language, their own customs, their own government, and their own Gods. Many of these forms of authority were based on birth-right, legend, inherited power, blind faith and legacy. Whether one believed the species was a "risen ape" or a "fallen angel", one thing was irrefutable: most of all human conflict had arisen thru man-made institutions....like borders, governments, religions, cultures, languages, and armies. Yes, the very same species that found the cure for polio, also created the atomic bomb. The very same species that sculpted the Statue of David and painted the Mona Lisa, also enslaved their fellow man. The very same species that wrote Hamlet and landed a man on the moon, also allowed a holocaust and several genocides to occur against their own species. History shows us that this continuous battle between good and evil has raged for thousands of years - with many of the ideas, cultures, governments, Gods and societies having come and gone in the flash of this one second before midnight.
... more on the hope for mankind after the click.
Science tells us the earth is over 4.7 billion years old, with all of modern history and human civilization only occurring within the last 5,000 to 10,000 years. Said differently, if all of time were compared to a 12 month calendar, ALL of mankind's recorded history would have occurred on the last second, of the last minute, of the last day of that year. Using our universal timeline as an analogy, everything we know as humans has transpired at 11:59PM on December 31st .... all in less than one second. All of the world's cultures, languages, countries, empires, governments, religions, stories, songs and dreams that have ever come and gone - and those that are still here ....have all happened within this "one second before midnight". In this one blink of an eye, millions of species have appeared and disappeared off the face of the earth. One species however, evolved beyond the others, and learned to walk upright and communicate. In very short order, this same species went on to build pyramids, paint the Sistine Chapel, crack the genetic code of our DNA, and fly faster than the speed of sound. Thru their many stages of evolution, and while struggling to survive, this human species continually re-defined itself and its rightful place in the universe. As they journeyed on their many different paths thru time, they created many forms of culture and society. Along the way, each of these societies offered their own version of economic, political, judicial and religious belief systems. This resulted in the birth of numerous tribes within the species - each with their own language, their own customs, their own government, and their own Gods. Many of these forms of authority were based on birth-right, legend, inherited power, blind faith and legacy. Whether one believed the species was a "risen ape" or a "fallen angel", one thing was irrefutable: most of all human conflict had arisen thru man-made institutions....like borders, governments, religions, cultures, languages, and armies. Yes, the very same species that found the cure for polio, also created the atomic bomb. The very same species that sculpted the Statue of David and painted the Mona Lisa, also enslaved their fellow man. The very same species that wrote Hamlet and landed a man on the moon, also allowed a holocaust and several genocides to occur against their own species. History shows us that this continuous battle between good and evil has raged for thousands of years - with many of the ideas, cultures, governments, Gods and societies having come and gone in the flash of this one second before midnight.
... more on the hope for mankind after the click.
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Referendum on Policy?
Jobs Still Elude Some Bush Ex-Officials
Wall Street Journal
The jobless rate is hanging high -- for many of the roughly 3,000 political appointees who served President George W. Bush. Finding work has proved a far tougher task than those appointees expected.
"This is not a great time for anyone to be job hunting, including numerous former political appointees," said Carlos M. Gutierrez, Mr. Bush's commerce secretary. Previously chief executive of cereal maker Kellogg Co., he hopes to run a company again because "I have a lot of energy."
Only 25% to 30% of ex-Bush officials seeking full-time jobs have succeeded, estimated Eric Vautour, a Washington recruiter at Russell Reynolds Associates Inc. That "is much, much worse" than when Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton left the White House, he said. At least half those presidents' senior staffers landed employment within a month after the administration ended, Mr. Vautour recalled.
... get the rest in the WSJ after the click.
Wall Street Journal
The jobless rate is hanging high -- for many of the roughly 3,000 political appointees who served President George W. Bush. Finding work has proved a far tougher task than those appointees expected.
"This is not a great time for anyone to be job hunting, including numerous former political appointees," said Carlos M. Gutierrez, Mr. Bush's commerce secretary. Previously chief executive of cereal maker Kellogg Co., he hopes to run a company again because "I have a lot of energy."
Only 25% to 30% of ex-Bush officials seeking full-time jobs have succeeded, estimated Eric Vautour, a Washington recruiter at Russell Reynolds Associates Inc. That "is much, much worse" than when Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton left the White House, he said. At least half those presidents' senior staffers landed employment within a month after the administration ended, Mr. Vautour recalled.
... get the rest in the WSJ after the click.
Monday, February 09, 2009
Friday, February 06, 2009
Depression 2.0
Fortune (Magazine)
There are a lot of unhappy lines in this recession, but this wasn't one of them. The people that snaked around Denny's restaurant in Avenel, N.J., may have been cold and wet, but no one was complaining as they stood in the snow, waiting for the restaurant chain to disprove the old myth that there's no such thing as a free lunch (or in this case, breakfast).
"A free meal in an economy like this? Heck yeah," said Joe Barrera, who waited in line with his wife Tuesday to take Denny's up on its offer of an on-the-house Grand Slam breakfast. The two go to Denny's a couple of times a year, but that may change. "I'd give them my loyalty if they did this every once in a while," he said.
By the time the couple got in line at 9:15 a.m., manager Sam Kaul estimated that almost 300 people already had been served. Normally he would have seen between 25 and 30 customers at that point in the morning.
... read the rest in Fortune after the click.
A Stimulus Program that Doesn't Need a Congressional Vote
As the economy takes a spanking, many women are turning to freelance fetish work to supplement their incomes.
"I've seen it before," says Linda, “during the tech bust in 2002. Women who thought they would always make a decent living in the tech sector lost their jobs.” They came looking to Linda’s industry for freelance work, and now it’s happening again: professional women whose cubicle-bound careers have been downsized are entering Linda’s corner of the “gig economy”—a corner that involves whips, ropes, and occasionally, nipple clamps.
With staff jobs evaporating and former nine-to-fivers cobbling together incomes through scattered side projects, freelancing as a dominatrix—or “pro-domme,” as industry types prefer to call it—has become a plausible gig option.
... more in the Daily Beast after the click.
"I've seen it before," says Linda, “during the tech bust in 2002. Women who thought they would always make a decent living in the tech sector lost their jobs.” They came looking to Linda’s industry for freelance work, and now it’s happening again: professional women whose cubicle-bound careers have been downsized are entering Linda’s corner of the “gig economy”—a corner that involves whips, ropes, and occasionally, nipple clamps.
With staff jobs evaporating and former nine-to-fivers cobbling together incomes through scattered side projects, freelancing as a dominatrix—or “pro-domme,” as industry types prefer to call it—has become a plausible gig option.
... more in the Daily Beast after the click.
Hardship Hits Wall Street
from the New York Post:
(regarding Obama's rule capping the salaries of execs of companies getting taxpayer bailout money)
My comment: I guess you could make a similar case for the guy who made on the order of $30K or $40K for years and who's now on the unemployment line because of the poor judgment and greed of the SOB who's had his pay slashed to "ONLY" half a million a year. What's THAT fella going to do? And there are lot more of HIM out there.
Personally, I think I could make it on half a mil ... barely, right?
Let them eat cake? Those are the kinds of words that start bloody revolutions.
(regarding Obama's rule capping the salaries of execs of companies getting taxpayer bailout money)
"These guys have been making a certain amount of money for years and years. . . All of a sudden when you slash it down to half a million dollars what are they going to do?"
My comment: I guess you could make a similar case for the guy who made on the order of $30K or $40K for years and who's now on the unemployment line because of the poor judgment and greed of the SOB who's had his pay slashed to "ONLY" half a million a year. What's THAT fella going to do? And there are lot more of HIM out there.
Personally, I think I could make it on half a mil ... barely, right?
Let them eat cake? Those are the kinds of words that start bloody revolutions.
Wednesday, February 04, 2009
Don Quixote
"Many people, not all of them Spanish, are on record as believing that 'Don Quixote' is the greatest prose fiction ever produced in the Western world. Certainly it is one of the few books a genuinely international critic would dare to group with 'The Dream of the Red Chamber' or 'The Tale of Genji' or 'The Mahabharata'. It epitomizes the spiritual world of European man at mid-career as 'The Odyssey' and 'The Iliad' do at his beginnings and as 'The Brothers Karamazov' does in his decline. . . . Don Quixote starts on his quest with his head full of phantasm. What he finds is his own identity, but he finds it in communion with others. He discovers what Don Quixote is really like by discovering that other people are like himself and that he is like them. The mystery that is slowly unveiled in the course of his complicated adventures is the mystery of the facts of life. . . . Possibly all great fictions deal with self-realization, with the integration of the personality. This is, in a special way, the subject of 'Don Quixote'. Even more than in the wise reveries of Montaigne, Cervantes in this golden book gives us the purest expression of humanism -- not just its message, but its special wisdom that can be found only in adventure in the manifold, inexhaustibly eventful ways of men." (Rexroth)
Don Quixote (Passages in Spanish and English)
Sunday, February 01, 2009
Adopt a Word to Save it From Extinction
from Lifehacker
Save the Words is a website dedicated to keeping underused English language words in the dictionary. Pick an underused word and pledge to save it from extinction.
Lexicographers analyze the frequency of word usage in popular culture and media to decide which new words will go into the dictionary, but they also track the falling popularity of words and opt to remove them. At Save the Words, an initiative of the Oxford English Dictionary, you can browse a wall of rare words, be given a random word, or search for a word to see if it's in danger of extinction.
... find a word and throw it a lifeline on SaveTheWords.
Save the Words is a website dedicated to keeping underused English language words in the dictionary. Pick an underused word and pledge to save it from extinction.
Lexicographers analyze the frequency of word usage in popular culture and media to decide which new words will go into the dictionary, but they also track the falling popularity of words and opt to remove them. At Save the Words, an initiative of the Oxford English Dictionary, you can browse a wall of rare words, be given a random word, or search for a word to see if it's in danger of extinction.
... find a word and throw it a lifeline on SaveTheWords.
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