Yes Virginia, there is no Santa Claus

... I'm a huge fan of veggie burgers, they have grown on me. I'm even so ridiculous I almost prefer them over actual burgers....

I'm not sure what I'm doing.... You all know I have 3 blogs I'm currently maintaining actively.... The old blog is up... and I'm posting stuff to it. The good ones I'm trying to cross post... which is a bitch.

The thing is that Somethings arn't appropriate for some audiences.... and some stuff is just whining that I don't want to post to some blogs... or send to people in email.

Another problem is that I'm never sure what I have posted where.....

When I was 19 I moved to Taiwan and taught English. It was quite an eccentric move to be honest....I've always had in my mind that I should write a book about my experience.... The interesting thing, is that most books need a Theme/Concept.... some form of Moral that they share...... I always thought it would be better as a fiction.

I also think that a good story about the blog would be good too.... but I digress.

I'm not sure.... Maybe I started thinking about the book over the weekend... or when this happened I started thinking about that book. I was taking one of my infamous weekend naps... Ok they are only infamous in my mind. I woke up, with just a bug up my but to track down some of the people I met in those travels.

My first cyberstalking victim, was this sweet, attractive young lady(I was 19, she was 21 or so). and Now I know I'm old and ugly.... so..... I'm not sure what my point is. She was a little Smitten with me, and like a fool..... like the recurring fool that I am, I was never aggressive enough in pursuing it. Not that I actually know her all that well.....

I completely track her down, takes me a couple hours, a nice walk and a good cup of coffee. She is completely surprised, as one should be when someone you knew 15 years ago for a short time tracks you down......

Then I totally blow it, by banging out one of my Overwhelming emails.... some of you know about these.... i mean... You all know what it's like to read my blogs, and realize I have 3 of them. Pluss e-mail correspondence..... Point being, when I hit you with "What I Think", I literally Pull my brain out, drop it on the table, and show you all the little pieces.... Getting inside my head is like doing a self autopsy... with the patient talking you through it, and it can be charming, but it's an acquired taste

I guess it also shows, quite accurately what a lunatic I am.

Now I toil, do I break the social Etiquette of quid pro Que social interaction and just let her respond, or do I just Play it cool....

I'm currently leaning toward waiting a week, then I'll do the "sorry, I'm a goofy Loon email."

Liquer and food pairings.

I posted this to the other blog.....

.... Like every Lilly liped liberal, in his 30's, I'm getting into wine and food pairings.

Last night I realized what a miserable pairing 8 year old single malt is with PB&J...... Just so you know...

Tonight I realized what a nice pairing a cheep Box O' Wine is with

a Hot Dog.... Now, I did have Ketchup with it(which is strange, I'm a mustard guy).... So I may have to try that again.

I'll keep you posted.....

You have new Picture Mail!

PB&J.... Purgatory

..... The Chinese have a lot of hells..... I seem to have a lot of purgatories. Without regular exercise, I find it tough to sleep. I'd run but I'm so out of practice, it's hard on me to start up again.. and as I take it easy on my joints for some time, I don't get very great exercise.

It also means I don't get very good sleep.... I thought I got some great sleep yesterday night, and yet I was groggy and hazy all day.... then I take naps.... then I don't sleep very well.....

Repeat until exhausted.... and it's only Wednesday.

Umn.... Lets hope this puts this old horse to bed...

Day of the dead

.... I generaly have to do a review of the zombie movies I see....

Day of the dead.... went straight to video. Someone decided to add fast zombies to the dead series... Now, I'm ok with the faster zombies... but scientificly, it's hard to get around rigermortis. So when they start acting like spiderman... it's worth a mention.

They also use romero's name in vain.

It has Nick Cannon... who is big in japan I think. and the chick from American Beauty... but most noteable

AnnaLynne McCord

All and all it was ok, my expectations via the remake of dawn of the dead were probably too high, it wasn't stupid enough or good enough.... either one. I think Plane of the living dead was better...

...... When we were Young

... I weighed my self today... things are neutral.... I'm good with that, need to slow it down a bit. I can get crazy with my diets, and I'm completely fatigued.

I liked pink floyd when they were all borderline neuvo-Jazz... Freeform hula-bollue.... So, I'm digging it cat's and Kittens....

I'm really filled with Haze... Maybe I'm not hydrating enough... I'm blaming my weekend of scotch and beer.... which I want more of....

problem is, I'm not as focused on the market. The diet and the lack of exercise arn't helping.

On the financial front... I am killing it... Except I put a Little position against oil a few days ago... thinking we were going from 115 to 100.... Well for those of you who don't keep track of the price of oil... instead of it going Down As I bet... it made a record $122 today. and Gas was up .05 per gallon...... based on weeks of a stronger dollar and large builds in supply.

Strangly during all this I purchased some stock in Exxon..... I'm just letting Crystal know, she works for me now.... at least for the time being.

Everyday

... The market closes, and I have to pick up the pieces. Long days that start at 4am and go till 6pm 14 hours of Tick by Tick purgatory.

And I'm frustrated by this bike thing. I'm tempted to start my own web site and distribute Pillar Spokes. They arn't all that special. I'm starting to think there is some kind of bike maffia Cartel keeping me from buying the spokes.

"The way of the bodhisattva"

"The way of the bodhisattva" is an Indian Text Composed 12 centuries ago. It's a Text on the usual Buddhist Theme... The Alleviation of Suffering.

According to my readings to write a commentary on it, you either need and advanced spiritual realization or be directed in a dream. I have no idea what an advanced Spiritual Realization is. But It did occur to me in bed to Blog this baby out, as a better way to my understanding of it.....
But, maybe I just read the preceding and then made the rest up in my mind......

Let me just diverge here, I'm a huge fan of science, and I believe that the scientific method is the Single greatest Accomplishment of mankind. So, as I get into this spiritual stuff, and even when the Buddhists talk about Faith.... I don't buy it. I don't believe in Faith... I currently believe that Faith is a Dream like state of delusion, and that in my opinion to be "Awake" is to not suffer the Delusion of "Faith". Either something Is, or it Isn't.... Or we don't know...... we don't have "faith".

The single greatest thing about buddhism that I respect, is that one of the cannons is that you can't profit from it. My sense is that profiting from buddhism, creates a "Clouded intent", and then invalidates the teachings. It's also one of the reasons, you don't find many people "pushing" it.

Another interesting thought I always have is that.... To be honest, it's easy to be a monk in a monastery.... It's out in the World that it gets sticky....

It looks like besides this I don't have time to actually get into the readings.....

We will see what tomorrow holds...

Hell of the upside down Sinner.

... The weekend of Drinking... Only slight in it's magnitude, but significant, on a relative basis. Well, it has me topsy turvy.





I have started a reading on "the way of the Bodhisattva".. Bodhi-Awakened. Sattva-Being.





It could be the "Unclarity" that came from the drinking, but it's being a hard read, or the book isn't all that well written.... or the first chapter is written in a rushed or poor manner.





In my ideal world, I'd like to work through it in stages, as a meditation on my blog....





These are the times I like my blog, I can't sleep... and I'm sitting here in the Semi-dark, collecting my thoughts. Using my blog to do it.

This is "The Great Departure of Bodhisattva. a Tai painting from the 17th -18th century.

Apparently the Buddha referred to himself as a young person as a bodhisatta.... or a person Bound for enlightenment.... Hmmmm Maybe Bound Toward enlightenment.

Another Description of the Bodhisattva, is for the fairly enlightened who is using their energies to help to enlighten others.

Let me just share that, I'm not trying to sell anyone on anything.... I'm a Guy, in his room, listening to music, who can't sleep.... I'm doing some readings, and Blogging some thoughts on those readings.

Somewhere I heard that "We Write what we need to read"... maybe it's "We write what we want to Read"

I've decided to rename power lunch..... Crazy talk lunch...

The Great Swindle!!!!

2008 TOUR OF THE GILA Silver City, NM 5/4/2008 2:26:20 PMMEN PRO 1 Stage 5 ResultsPL TIME @ TIME B / P BIB # NAME TEAM HOMETOWN STATE LICENSE

1 4:37:13 0:00:00 - 00:15 101 Swindlehurst Burke BISSELL PRO CYCLING Salt Lake City UT USAC005122

2 4:37:14 0:00:01 - 00:10 59 Ladino Vega Gregorio TECOS Trek 45

3 4:37:59 0:00:46 - 00:05 21 Colby Anthony Colavita Sutter Home p/b Durango CO 118320

A Little Bitter Sweet ....

Sunday......

I feel very good right now.... I could use a cookie.... The Soup and salad and stress diet continues. I don't .......

I'm into falling asleep watching baseball.....

I just feel so normal today...... I want it to continue...... I want a hammock and a book...

Maybe I'll go kick some dirt in the garden...

Friday night....

I went to hop on my bike and Realized my rear wheel had become tragically untrue.... Knowing that this was going to escalate into a several hour fiasco of re-truing it, I started pulling it apart and realized that I had popped a spoke....

Then.... UGH.... It's looking like it's impossible to even find my spokes.... and I have 2 or 3 more that also need to be replaced. I'm thinking about replacing all of them, It never makes me happy to know that I somehow have specialized parts that it requires an act of god to get new ones, and that I'll be off my bike for weeks finding the parts...

Walk around

I did much walking today, Saturday is tough for me. Weekends are rough, It takes me so long to decompress. I decided that I'd be better served on Saturday. Sort of Taking it easy, but wandering around, Clearing my head.

It occurred to me, or I've been asking myself what ever happened to the people the Great Human beings who could build the Coliseum and have done so little since.

as I was walking under an underpass today, I realized all our engineering genius has gone to building underpasses and overpasses. These things are MASSIVE... It's ridiculous and for the cost, we could have an amphitheater in every city.

From Hell's heart

For some reason, I ended up in the heart of Consumer Hell... The shopping mall, with gas prices so high, I bet shopping mall traffic is higher.

I did get an ice cream... I did walk 10 miles, sure It's not on the diet...

I was surprised, the food court, had a Dairy queen(owned by Warren Buffet.... as is sees candy). I got a small dipped cone, for $2 and I expected it to be... Tiny... It was HUGE!!.. I was quite happy about my indulgence.

Would you believe.

This is the first beer I've had in a while.... Well that's not true, I had One beer in my fridge, that was about 2 years old. I drank it about a week ago. But other than that, I bet it's been 3 months.

and then about 3 months before that. Christmas and Late Feb.

guess my next one will be Aug...

Well I did pick up a fair bottle of scotch.

This was cool today.

This is the path around little america.

Some nice gardening around there... a lot of water usage but it's nice.