I began my day calling my spiritual big brother on the phone, to engage him in a 30-minute existential conversation, even before I had my morning coffee. During the conversation, we talked about the current state of the country, including the massive education and government layoffs in California. I mentioned to him that it seems …
In the movie Searching for Bobby Fischer, the young chess prodigy’s teacher tells his student that in order to win, a champion must regard his competition with contempt. The champion must believe that he is the only one who is worthy of winning. Only with that attitude can one continually win every match. In an …
Click on the video below, please. And listen to this guy sing. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZsoCW7hMvY] Instead of reading this, you will be better served if you simply went to www.youtube.com and did a search for “Arnel Pineda Journey“. And then read his wikipedia page. Arnel Pineda, a Filipino singer, is the new lead singer of the rock …
People are losing their jobs and their homes. People are struggling to survive. Some say that it’s a cycle, that it will work itself out if we just give it time. Meanwhile, people are losing their jobs and their homes. There is a moment when one simply gives up. That moment usually comes after the …
If I get enough sleep, I usually wake up with an empty mind. My bedroom is quiet, the sun is out behind the drawn shades, and over the next couple of minutes I recognize the different parts of the room. Everything in the room at that moment has equal importance. The TV is no more …
Whenever a little doubt enters my mind about what I’m doing in life, my direction, somebody says something that brings me back to my path. Bill Cosby was just on David Letterman’s show. Cosby talked about his mother, now deceased, who, even at the height of his career, kept telling him “Get out now!” She …
“The major problem of life is learning how to handle the costly interruptions. The door that slams shut, the plan that got sidetracked, the marriage that failed, or that lovely poem that didn’t get written because someone knocked on the door”.–Martin Luther King, Jr. I wake up every morning knowing exactly what I need to …
The Director’s Cut of Blade Runner DVD came out last month, and I bought a copy recently. One of the documentaries in the DVD discusses the difference between Ridley Scott’s definition versus Philip K. Dick’s definition of an android/replicant. Ridley Scott, the director of the movie, defined his androids as stronger, faster, more intelligent, and …
Burden happens not when one carries a load, but when that load becomes undesirable. The load doesn’t necessarily change, but the perception of its weight, importance, and meaning, does. Maybe desire has something to do with it. If one doesn’t desire carrying a load in the first place, it never has a chance of becoming …
Some say that J.R.R. Tolkien, author of The Lord of the Rings and other epic stories, wrote to carry on the legacy of his close friends, Rob Gilson and Geoffrey Smith, also writers, who had fought and died during World War I. Tolkien also fought in the war but survived. Some say that Tolkien would …
(Click on each picture for a larger version.) The Horizon Explorer is a medium-range survey ship whose primary mission is to explore alternative sources of energy. Its two large external pods are multifunctional engines, utilizing internal nanobots to reconfigure the hardware and technology to adapt to whatever new energy source has been discovered for that …
The older I get, the more I realize how much I need satirists. There are enough people in my life to tell me when I’m being delusional, but it’s always good to have backup. Lewis Black, Eddie Izzard, John Stewart, Stephen Colbert, the Dalai Lama and any other person who is sneaky enough to draw …
I was sitting here, reading. My friend’s cat, who is recovering from an illness, is sleeping on my lap. I’m writing now, but will resume reading soon. I don’t know why I was frantic earlier today. I don’t know why I wanted traffic to go faster. I don’t know why I wanted a car with …
A good life is a balanced one. The right amount of the right friends, the right amount of the right family, the right amount of the right play, the right amount of the right rest, and the right amount of the right work. What is “right” is determined by each individual. The right amount of …
At their best, my writings are apples that naturally fall out of a tree because it is their time to be ripe. If I am lucky, I will catch them as they are falling. I gather them with a small basket, lightly polish them, if at all, and bring them to the table. If I …
Snippet of David Letterman’s August 22, 2007 interview with Richard Gere, regarding Gere’s meeting the Dalai Lama for the first time. This is what Gere said: “The Dalai Lama said, ‘I hear that you’re an actor.’” “And I said, Yes.” “And the Dalai Lama asked, ‘When you’re doing this acting thing that you do, and …
I got this article from my cousin: Poll: Family ties key to youth happiness Snippets: You might think money would be clearly tied to a general sense of happiness. But almost no one said “money” when asked what makes them happy, though people with the highest family incomes are generally happier with life. However, having …
Take out envy, take out greed. Take out ten minutes of each day. I watched the end of the movie “Cool Hand Luke”, where Paul Newman, the escaped prisoner named Lucas, is once again caught, shot in the neck and taken away in a police car, where he supposedly dies. The end credits roll over …
At a mansion, in the middle of a cocktail party during Happy Hour. Town Crier: Oh my God everyone–Luke shot Laura! Ashton: How did it happen, Town Crier? Town Crier: Luke saw Laura driving a white Toyota. Since Luke knew that Laura’s favorite car was a metallic azure sky Mercedes convertible, Luke assumed that Laura …
The older I get, the more I understand John Lennon’s song, Imagine. There is a new treatment called Lipodissolve that’s supposed to literally melt fat away. The treatment is injected into the fatty spot and gets rid of the fat permanently. If this treatment becomes safe, successful and affordable, one day in the future it …