Blended Living

• sleep – these darks days have contributed to me going off schedule
• its late, but a quick nap has me wide awake…again
• that computer book on powerpoint will likely do the insomniac trick
• middle east is at it again- that’s depressing if you let it get to you
• so much for trying to get in a library fine-less year
• made it 5 days, maybe next year
• all things seem to come in waves, and reserved books at NYPL is no exception
• trying to read more and faster, but can’t seem to cover all my interests
• should minimally scan all the books first, so I can better prioritize
• first attempts at a better reading/diversion/exercise rotation has been good
• this was first thought off during my trading as a living period
• chunking by setting routine breaks actually allows me to digest more information or get more done
• which may seem counterintuitive at first
• but yet it works
• and burns some extra calories during the day as a bonus
• combined with a steady water drinking habit
• it becomes a nice detox benefit too
• I like the buddhist concept of good and bad seeds in all of us
• just that we need to acknowledge the bad seeds
• and nurture the good ones more
• otherwise we find ourselves doing bad things for no good reasons
• like watching TV for hours and hours to dull our senses
• or eating all the Ice Cream
• or shopping for yet another thing we don’t have money or space for
• or worse…
• its OK and actually very healing to notice these trends in us, and actually smile when we catch ourselves and postpone that bad automatic desire or craving
• and take a deep breath in and let it out with a smile
• which is an addictive habit but in a good way
• as I notice I’m smiling more because random strangers are smiling back at me
• I came across a nice quote today
• Random Kindness and Senseless Acts of Beauty
• I helped someone carry groceries for a ways
• she was receptive to the help
• which is more rare than you’d think sometimes
• as the world conspires to cause people to be so suspicious sometimes
• but she thanked me with a smile
• you know recessions can be bad things, but they can be good things if you make it so
• like it causes you to focus on some more important things

Blended Living, Rants, SoC, health, personal chunking, goals, resolutions, SoC

• Market looks like it may be building a base to make a move up
• but tomorrow may show us if SP500 has a floor at 900
• dollar made a turn and moved 10 cents quickly (vs Eur)
• Oil has dropped under 40 despite OPEC cutting back production
• I think Oil in the 30’s is a great opportunity for a buy and hold for a few months
• sell when it makes 50-100%, might take a few months to about a year and a half
• still think the market bottom will be sometime in the spring or summer
• unless there is some major sea change event
• like another war, major attack, or aliens landing
• states are being crunched in the middle  between
• federal policies that are shrinking funds and
• rising unemployment rates
• which could hit 10%
• the MTA raising rides 23% is a huge slap in the face of NYers
• Madoff news is dominating attention
• its the witch hunt and will be the poster child of this downturn
• like Enron was
• want to play with phpBB to launch a way to record predictions
• and other market news and ideas
• new HD channels appeared on my cable box
• but many of the content is still SD
• that’s annoying
• I’m becoming an HD snob
• but blue ray is still too expensive.
• and they have to fix that long load time thing
• 42+ inch 1080p LCD and blue ray player with DVD recorder for under a grand
• that’s my price point.  maybe 2009?

Predictions, Rants, SoC gadgets, market, Predictions, SoC

My phone was out of service due to a bad power adapter – my own reluctance to wait on the line and diagnose the problem with my phone company caused me to not have phone service for almost 4 weeks.  Its a statement about how important I deem that legacy landline (actually its Vonage now and no, that’s not my actual phone).  In the end it was only a 15 minute conversation with most of it on hold.  Express shipping and no cost to me and 2 days later my 212 number was back in service.

What I don’t miss is the incessant cold calling around dinner time.  By my annoyed count that was 5 tonight.  I know enough to not automatically answer, but to stop what I’m doing and walk over to the caller ID gets weary that fifth time.

I suppose if it wasn’t one of those times in my life when I absolutely need to see who is calling it wouldn’t be so bad.  I’d just let it ring and not mind it so much.  Which is like the pesky people in our lives – they may not “mean it” and say “it will just be a few minutes, but could you…” and not realize that it just took you 25 or 75 minutes to reach this point in your thought process…

When my phone line was out, I could still get phone messages that callers left via an attachment to my email.  I set it up also to text me on my cell.  I knew which I could delay (forever) and which I should answer sooner based on the phone number.  If only we could shield ourselves similarly with pesky people.  I’m not being rude, just efficient with my time.   I know what I know because I made the time to learn – and they are intruding upon that precious time.

Rants, Social conventions, personal pesky people, phone, rant

Had the time to play with WordPress a bit today and decided to try and configure it a bit more the way I’d like.  Changed the sidebar some.  Downloaded a plugin to allow creating photoblogs more easily.  Next to dust off the camera and snap off a few photos.

I’m liking this blogging software alot- and I’m barely scratching the surface.  Making it extendable by user created plugins is a great concept.  If only we as humans could just plugin another module and now dance or draw or code competently.

It has been said that it takes 10,000 hours to become an expert at something.  I wonder what that number would be to become competent?  Also, what frameworks allow the most efficient processing of hours of study, play, practice in some field of endeavor?

I’m sure it took the author of that plugin much more than the 20 minutes I took to add it to my install.  Knowledgebases and NLP attempt to speed up the process.  Some gifted people can learn a language very quickly.  In fact surprisingly in a recent survey almost a half of the respondents said they would be open to having a surgical implant if it would enhance their abilities.

I’m not sure I’d like to flex my biceps and get FM radio yet.  Or even have WiFi built in to my skull.  Small laptops and phones are good enough for me.  Keep that RFID chip in the packaging.  I even hesitated putting them in my dog, but the idea of finding a lost pet won in the end.

Getting past this rough patch in the economy – I wonder what new technologies will propel us forward?  The pace of change has sped up such that what our grandparents experienced we will see happen every decade, And that just gets cut by 50%.   So then it will be 7 years then fewer.  It would be great to see energy issues solved, so that we don’t have such economic and ecological crises.  What plugin will affect some young mind and spark that next great idea?

Rants, personal future, photoblogs, plugins

• Is it really “man created in God’s image”, or god created in Man’s image?
• Is it a fools errand to seek God, or rather to find god in us?
• One person’s dogma, is another’s myth, blind faith is so dangerous
• I’d like to take snippets of song lyrics and make a play – not necessarily a musical
• [this is a stream of consciousness- and my focus is that fleeting]
• entrain, entrain what is my perfect rhythm, my natural melody?
• who to dance with?
• I think that was the market bottom for the year
• it be nice to have a dog again, but the responsibility is daunting
• 40 days left?  Can I hit that goal?  Have to ramp it up.
• if only we took the literal figuratively, and vice versa
• where is the beauty?
• the park in the morning was beautiful
• have to do those morning pages
• fire up the new computer
• move the zune over
• setup the laptop for the morning pages
• subscribe to that drawing site?
•  netflix?
• enough

Rants, SoC, personal Rants, SoC

I once read that a wealthy person isn’t someone who has everything, but a person that doesn’t need anything else.  How does that apply to time?   What is time freedom or wealth?

Is it in someone that is so here and now, that there is no regret of the past and no want of the future that he or she just purely exists in the now?  If we were singularly spiritual beings that could be nirvana.

We are more however.  Perhaps its the ease at which we can feed our brains, then rest them while we feed our bodies, and then feed our emotional needs, then go around again.  Some rest time for all of them, some fantastic unity when we use all of ourselves.  Sometimes fast, sometimes slow.  Like a symphony with the brass, winds, strings, and percussion in balance.   There are solos, alternating melodies and backup, teamwork that creates more than the pieces.  There is fun and joy and those moments that aren’t.

Rants, Uncategorized, personal

I’m watching my DVR and thinking how it was a time freeing technology at its onset.  Humorously, later on after programming in all my favorite shows and being at the mercy of finite video storage space and near infinite interests, I remarked with a colleague that I am in a race to see all the shows on my DVR before they “fall off the bottom”.  What freed me has enslaved me now.

On this viewing, John Updike is being interviewed by Charlie Rose and the topic of getting better at your craft in later years is being discussed.  This coincides with his ‘Widows of Eastwick’ which is a 30 year sequel to ‘Witches’.  (I wonder would “Witches” the movie be a good candidate for blue Ray viewing?)  The topic of how Clint Eastwood getting better as a director and actor comes up, how he might be the exception.   They mention how conductors get better in age and perhaps its because of all the arm movements that helps them live such long lives.

My mind escapes to wondering if that is purely the physical, or is it perhaps a clear example of blended living (the act of conducting involves the left and right brain, the physical, emotional, and perhaps spiritual).  Then I wonder if the Wii games will foster a new generation of longer lives.  Is there a Wii conductor game with New York, Philadelphia and other great cities’ symphony versions?  What a contrast to Grand Theft Auto pick your city version.  I doubt there is a Musical Conducting for Dummies book.  I think about adding some workouts with music and a lot of arm movements.  I wonder if Yoga is a starting point for a new workout, or best left alone as it is. [Most enduring multicentury  things are fairly mature]

Its fun to allow this SoC (stream of consciousness) to run along, until it becomes senseless gibberish (have I lost you already dear reader ?)  At many other times it is really true original thought.  Looking for the crevices between disparate fields, new combinations of old and current, east and west, modern technology and old world thought.  Some (most?) SoC could go into morning pages.

“Time Shifting” has been a fun read so far, and as it hasn’t seemed to be slow, I’ve spent more time reading 65 pages than most other books.  Ironic for the topic and title.  I guess in alot of my other reading there is so much overlap that I can pretty much scan past whole chapters but not in this one.  More details on this topic to follow.

Have you gotten tired of all this negativity about the global recession yet?  Unfortunately more bad news is likely to follow, as more jobs are lost.  Hope you stay solvent and ride this out.  It is after all a cyclical business the economy. Boom follows bust eventually – just like the seasons. It reminds me of the concept of cyclical time and linear time in “Time Shifting”.  There is growth and rest, not an endless series of higher highs.  Cultures that resist their societies’ tug for linear time thinking are happier.  That will be an essential ingredient to a good blended living recipe.  Otherwise no endless supply of time saving devices like the DVR will answer the rising need.  Its like time inflation.  Are you under time poverty?  Be here now. Be happy.

Rants, SoC, personal DVR, Now, Rants, SoC, Time Shifting