Takin' a break for a trip up the eastern seaboard. Look for a new post somewhere around August 7.
In the mean time I offer the following for your own musings... that which you count on as a certainty seldom is.
Tuesday, July 31, 2012
Monday, July 30, 2012
Back to the Way It Used to Be
I just heard a commercial for a dating service advertising themselves as the on-line dating service without the on-line.
Maybe I'm missing something, but isn't that the way dating always worked before the internet - Pick up a phone, ask someone out, and then actually physically meet someplace? What's the new invention here?
To my mind, physically meeting remains the best way to really get to know someone. After all who knows what lurks behind an internet persona?
It saddens me to think that perhaps in this information technology age the idea of direct personal interaction has become a foreign concept.
Maybe I'm missing something, but isn't that the way dating always worked before the internet - Pick up a phone, ask someone out, and then actually physically meet someplace? What's the new invention here?
To my mind, physically meeting remains the best way to really get to know someone. After all who knows what lurks behind an internet persona?
It saddens me to think that perhaps in this information technology age the idea of direct personal interaction has become a foreign concept.
Sunday, July 29, 2012
Baby Germs
Oh, I remember these days...
Baby goes to daycare...baby gets sick... baby brings the bug home... and suddenly the entire household is fighting over Kleenex boxes and ibuprofen bottles.
The normal sounds of daily living are punctuated by the blowing of noses, raspy coughs, and gargling.
One by one members of our household have been filing into the doctor's office to receive the news that bronchitis has come our way.
With clogged noses, sore throats, and coughs that go further down the octave scale by the day even the tiniest of chores require more energy than can be mustered.
And yet we continue to stumble out of the house and into work to further spread our misery.... because misery loves company after all.... and because that's what we crazy Americans do after all.
Baby goes to daycare...baby gets sick... baby brings the bug home... and suddenly the entire household is fighting over Kleenex boxes and ibuprofen bottles.
The normal sounds of daily living are punctuated by the blowing of noses, raspy coughs, and gargling.
One by one members of our household have been filing into the doctor's office to receive the news that bronchitis has come our way.
With clogged noses, sore throats, and coughs that go further down the octave scale by the day even the tiniest of chores require more energy than can be mustered.
And yet we continue to stumble out of the house and into work to further spread our misery.... because misery loves company after all.... and because that's what we crazy Americans do after all.
Thursday, July 26, 2012
The Dreams You Dream
It's a wonder we ever manage to wake from a might of sleep feeling rested.
It seems the average person has 1,460 dreams a year or four dreams per night on average. Which got me wondering how long the average dream is? So I consulted Dr. Google. After all if someone took the time to count the average number of dreams in a year it only follows that someone also studied how long a dream lasts.
Turns out dream times are as individual as the dreamer - but in between each dream we go on a roller coaster ride through sleep stages ranging from near wakening to totally oblivious. Which is sort of like enduring an Iron Man triathalon four times over. Near awake, deep asleep, dream, totally oblivious, rising to near awake, deep asleep.... well you get the idea.
Makes me tired just thinking about it. I better get to bed a few hours earlier tonight to compensate...or will I only end up churning through one more cycle?
It seems the average person has 1,460 dreams a year or four dreams per night on average. Which got me wondering how long the average dream is? So I consulted Dr. Google. After all if someone took the time to count the average number of dreams in a year it only follows that someone also studied how long a dream lasts.
Turns out dream times are as individual as the dreamer - but in between each dream we go on a roller coaster ride through sleep stages ranging from near wakening to totally oblivious. Which is sort of like enduring an Iron Man triathalon four times over. Near awake, deep asleep, dream, totally oblivious, rising to near awake, deep asleep.... well you get the idea.
Makes me tired just thinking about it. I better get to bed a few hours earlier tonight to compensate...or will I only end up churning through one more cycle?
Wednesday, July 25, 2012
What's In a Picture
Well this is something of a milestone... blog post number 1000. The event calls for a special story:
He sat on the toy box in his children's room comparing the room to the two pictures in front of him. The first picture, taken with his digital camera was unnerving enough that he had searched out an old Polaroid camera. He felt certain the Polaroid could only record what was in front of it whereas the digital camera - well, who knew what might go on inside data chips and megabytes.
And yet both pictures showed the same thing. A room furnished with a wide four poster bed, a dark oak armoire, and a small writing table.
In just two camera clicks his home was turned into a foreign, uncomfortable place. Both pictures were taken this very night in the very room in which he now sat. And the room in which he was sitting was furnished with a set of bunk beds, a toy box, and two bureaus painted semi-gloss white.
A prickling at the back of his neck caused him to look up. He watched as a woman wearing a flowing dress, ankle high shoes with black buttons, and a linen bonnet that tied under her chin entered the room....through the wall...and sat at a desk that wasn't there.
He sat on the toy box in his children's room comparing the room to the two pictures in front of him. The first picture, taken with his digital camera was unnerving enough that he had searched out an old Polaroid camera. He felt certain the Polaroid could only record what was in front of it whereas the digital camera - well, who knew what might go on inside data chips and megabytes.
And yet both pictures showed the same thing. A room furnished with a wide four poster bed, a dark oak armoire, and a small writing table.
In just two camera clicks his home was turned into a foreign, uncomfortable place. Both pictures were taken this very night in the very room in which he now sat. And the room in which he was sitting was furnished with a set of bunk beds, a toy box, and two bureaus painted semi-gloss white.
A prickling at the back of his neck caused him to look up. He watched as a woman wearing a flowing dress, ankle high shoes with black buttons, and a linen bonnet that tied under her chin entered the room....through the wall...and sat at a desk that wasn't there.
Tuesday, July 24, 2012
Baby Roll
Media Girl's baby is generally so laid back that it's rare to hear her yawp for any period of time - but she has surely been giving her lungs a workout tonight.
Though we are all suitable impressed that Mini Media can roll from back to front, she does not like being face down. Doting adults that we are, Media Girl, Motivated Mom, and I have been coming to the rescue and flipping Mini Media back over.
But the doctor has advised that the baby needs belly time so that she can learn to roll the other way. So tonight there have been no adults to the rescue and Mini Media is pissed. She has yawped more in the past three hours than the past three months and I just know that when she gets old enough to talk she is going to say - you remember that time you just watched me cry into the carpet.
Which is why I made like Snagglepuss and exited stage right. My hands will be clean of any emotional trauma.
Though we are all suitable impressed that Mini Media can roll from back to front, she does not like being face down. Doting adults that we are, Media Girl, Motivated Mom, and I have been coming to the rescue and flipping Mini Media back over.
But the doctor has advised that the baby needs belly time so that she can learn to roll the other way. So tonight there have been no adults to the rescue and Mini Media is pissed. She has yawped more in the past three hours than the past three months and I just know that when she gets old enough to talk she is going to say - you remember that time you just watched me cry into the carpet.
Which is why I made like Snagglepuss and exited stage right. My hands will be clean of any emotional trauma.
Monday, July 23, 2012
Mindfulness Challenge
There is a Vietnamese monk and Zen master named Thich Nhat Hanh who wrote an inspiring piece of work titled The Miracle of Mindfulness.
In his book Thich suggests that too many of us get to the end of a day with no memory of what we have done because while we were doing one thing we were thinking about something else.
As an example he challenges the reader to do dishes by doing dishes. The challenge set here is... while washing dishes think about absolutely nothing except washing dishes for the entire time you are washing the dishes. Don't think about the meal you just finished of the meal you'll have next. Don't think about what you now need from the grocery store, don't think about sweeping the floor after you finish with the dishes. Think only about doing dishes
Sounds easy right? I tried it and guess what... not so easy as it sounds. Try it yourself and see what you think.
Once (if) you master the doing dishes thing, apply the principal to other things in your life. When someone is taking to you, do nothing except listening to what they are saying. Don't think of how you will respond, don't allow yourself to ponder a similar experience of your own. Listen only to what the other person is saying. You might be surprised by all that you hear.
In his book Thich suggests that too many of us get to the end of a day with no memory of what we have done because while we were doing one thing we were thinking about something else.
As an example he challenges the reader to do dishes by doing dishes. The challenge set here is... while washing dishes think about absolutely nothing except washing dishes for the entire time you are washing the dishes. Don't think about the meal you just finished of the meal you'll have next. Don't think about what you now need from the grocery store, don't think about sweeping the floor after you finish with the dishes. Think only about doing dishes
Sounds easy right? I tried it and guess what... not so easy as it sounds. Try it yourself and see what you think.
Once (if) you master the doing dishes thing, apply the principal to other things in your life. When someone is taking to you, do nothing except listening to what they are saying. Don't think of how you will respond, don't allow yourself to ponder a similar experience of your own. Listen only to what the other person is saying. You might be surprised by all that you hear.
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