Quote:

So pertinent to the world today:

America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter, and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves. -Abraham Lincoln, 16th U.S. President (1809-1865)

GMail, etc.

Since Blogger is associated with Google, it makes a certain amount of sense that they would offer a Beta account for the Blogger community. The Gig of storage space is what potentially interested me, though I like varied and multiple email accounts anyway, so one more shouldn't make much of a difference. I like the interface well enough and I'm really not concerned about the tracking my email or things I get in my email. If someone really wants to read my email, they're going to find a way to do it. Unless I PGP encrypt everything, someone, somewhere (other than the intended recipient) is going to be able to read my email. I guess the big question for me is, who'd want to? I'm not rich, I'm not overly interesting once you get to know me, I don't work for any secret area of the government (any government) and the most interesting thing anyone is likely to find in my email is the spam sent attempting to entice me to increase or decrease the size of various body parts.

In other news, two of roommates (well, a roommate and her SO) acquired the crud that I had over the last week and something. I hope they recover more quickly than I did. It was quite unpleasant for me but then I also worked and taught through it not allowing for much down-time.

I received a couple of good bits of news yesterday (Monday). One of my roommates acquired a decent grant for schooling and a friend finally passed a kidney stone. I'm very happy for both of them.

Hmm. I think I'd best quit this and go to bed. 7:00 AM comes awfully early when you go to bed after 3:00.

Quote

Money may be the husk of many things but not the kernel. It brings you food, but not appetite; medicine, but not health; acquaintance, but not friends; servants, but not loyalty; days of joy, but not peace or happiness. -Henrik Ibsen, playwright (1828-1906)

The "reality" of the situation.

I actually had something moderately interesting to say here but I fear it was driven out by a bit of Soul Caliber. - Go figure.

The freshness factor may be waning yet the other option remains dormant. - Creation is key, creation of all that is and will be.

Gwar!! And I don't mean the band.

Tax day came and went. In theory, my taxes went in on time. I say 'in theory' because I didn't do them. Instead, I did a friends' taxes online. The process was mostly straight forward. He ended up owing nothing and getting nothing in return, but at least they were done on time.

Friday I awoke to find myself ill. I slept in far later than I had intended which may or may not have helped. It's hard to say. Saturday was also a real downer as far as health was concerned. Today (Sunday, actually), I felt far worse when I awoke but forced myself to go to belt promotion testing, anyway. I didn't feel well physically, but I did feel well emotionally. I saw my students test, one of which received a 2nd place trophy too long deserved. I was very pleased with the fact that she had been selected and I think she was, too based on her smile, etc. Another "new" student tested whom I have a vested interest in. She also did well in my opinion and although she did not receive a trophy, her performance was excellent none-the-less.

I also felt good (emotionally) about going because I was able to help several youngsters break their boards whom I do not think would have otherwise broken. I think that's good, especially after they try and try and cannot break the board while it is held by someone else. At the same time, I let several people hold a few times longer than I usually would have. Not only did the student break the board and build confidence in themselves but also in the holder. So, it really comes down to balance. If one doesn't help at all, then many may go away frustrated and unhappy. Yet, if you one helps too soon, then opportunities to learn and grow (opportunities to create one's own reality) are denied.

Finally, I felt good about going to testing because I had a short dialogue with an old friend. She thanked my for helping her with her most recent testing (many months ago now) and told me that she doesn't have any hard feelings toward me anymore. She was a good friend of my ex-wife so she got hit fairly hard when I broke the relationship a year and four months ago.

Once in a while, I still feel "bad" about making that decision, but more and more often, I can see the necessity for it. I wonder if it will be necessary again in this life time.

I'm reading "Conversations With God - An Uncommon Dialog" at the moment. Thus far, I really enjoy the book. It says many many things which coincide with my own beliefs. I'm not sure if I hold with it 100% but then that's okay, too. It may just be a slightly different way of looking at things. No matter; as I said, I like it.

Well, I'd best grab some sleep while the grabbing is good. To those friends who read this, I love you. To those "old" friends who may or may not read this, please know that I love you, too. I hold no ill-will for you and have long since forgiven any slights or hurts, real or imagined on my part. May peace be within your hearts, wisdom in your minds and courage through and through to face what you co-create around you.

Quote: So true...

The true danger is when liberty is nibbled away, for expedients, and by parts. -Edmund Burke, statesman and writer (1729-1797)

Quote:

What sculpture is to a block of marble, education is to a human soul.
-Joseph Addison, essayist and poet (1672-1719)

Stalk it, good.

I think I wrote on stalking some time ago and compared it with courting. Sometimes it's hard to tell the difference. An acquaintance chatted with me the other evening about some of his unfortunate experiences and of being accused of being a stalker. I find it interesting how so often people (generally women) don't have the training necessary to tell someone that they are not interested. That's unfortunate enough but the worse part is that they will oft go and tell their friends that they are being stalked when in fact, they have never verbally indicated that they do not wish the attentions being shown to them. Some people (both men and women) seem to believe that the world around them is completely aware of their feelings, wants and needs without them ever having to say a word and that when someone acts without taking those unspoken desires into account, they are rude, selfish, unfeeling or, in this case, a stalker.

Of course, this fellow actually could be a stalker. After all, he has allowed his emotions to taint his judgment. Flowers and attempting to chat with this girl after two years of email back and forth (with no mention of him bothering her) is quite possibly the worst case of stalking I've ever seen. :p

In other news, someone recently (April 7th, 2004) made me an offer to help make a dream come true. It's still in the preliminary stages and there's a bit of paperwork to examine, design and agree upon, but I'm looking forward to the possibilities.

I wonder if it's light enough to go outside and practice some T'ai Chi.

Quote

One glance at a book and you hear the voice of another person, perhaps someone dead for 1,000 years. To read is to voyage through time. -Carl Sagan, astronomer and writer (1934-1996)

Quote:

Three grand essentials to happiness in this life are something to do, something to love, and something to hope for. -Joseph Addison, writer
(1672-1719)

Word: resistentialism

resistentialism: The theory that inanimate objects demonstrate hostile behavior against us.

I find this to be an interesting theory. For as long as I can remember, whenever my father, uncle, grandfather, etc. would get angry, seldom would they be overtly angry at someONE. More often than not, they were angry at someTHING. I have also found that this theory holds true. The following quote from A.Word.A.Day explains the it a bit better:

[Coined by humorist Paul Jennings as a blend of the Latin res (thing)
+ French resister (to resist) + existentialism (a kind of philosophy).]

If you ever get a feeling that the photocopy machine can sense when you're tense, short of time, need a document copied before an important meeting, and right then it decides to take a break, you're not alone. Now you know the word for it. Here's a report of scientific experiments confirming the validity of this theory:
http://www.uefap.co.uk/writing/exercise/report/clatri.htm

As if to prove the point, my normally robust DSL Internet connection went bust for two hours just as I was writing this. I'm not making this up.

-Anu Garg

"Resistentialism has long been used in our family to explain the
inexplicable: Why light switches, fixed in place in daylight hours,
elude groping hands in darkness. Why shoestrings break when we are
in a hurry... The explanation for these and many more daily
occurrences is that there is no such thing as an inanimate object.
Seemingly inanimate objects actually resist those they are intended
to serve."
Myron A. Marty; Hostile Inanimate Objects Have Their Murphy's Law;
St. Louis Post-Dispatch (Missouri); Sep 15, 1996.

"Reports of resistentialism abound in ephemeral literature as well.
The Peter Tamony Collection at the University of Missouri, Columbia,
contains dozens of newspaper clippings documenting the phenomenon ...
Among Tamony's clippings is a story about a lady in London whose
telephone rang every time she tried to take a bath. No matter what
time she drew the bath, day or night, the phone always rang -- and
when she'd answer it, nobody was there. Things eventually got so bad
that she stopped bathing altogether, which prompted her husband to
investigate the problem pronto... In the great scheme of things (think
about that one!), Jennings tells us, we are no-Thing, and Things always
win."
Charles Harrington Elster; Resistentialism: Things Are Against Us
(Including Our Own Words); New York Times Magazine; Sep 21, 2003.

---

So there you have it. A theory with moderate amounts of proof. I have lived this theory from time to time but what I've found is that "things" react. It all comes back to Newton's second law: "The acceleration of an object as produced by a net force is directly proportional to the magnitude of the net force, in the same direction as the net force, and inversely proportional to the mass of the object." AND Newton's third law: "For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction."

If I pick up a ball and hit it squarely with a bat, the ball travels away from the point of impact. If I kick a board with a well defined and powerful kick, the board breaks. (This holds true for walls, too.) If I am in a truly foul mood, electronic equipment around me is less likely to work correctly. Why the last one? I would theorize that this is because I am (when I'm highly irritated) giving off negative energy. The objects around me absorb this negative energy but are not unchanged by it. Thus, a devices chance of failure goes up the more negative energy it absorbs.

Objects also tend to react the way people anticipate them to react. Thus, if I'm in a bad mood and I'm expecting things to go awry, then sure enough, they go awry. If, on the other hand, I control my foul temper and attempt to remain calm or, heaven forbid, am actually in a good mood, things tend to go better. Try it sometime. If you can really change the way you look at things, (both physical things and the happenings of your life) you may find that things in general go better.

Not much

Sanity is an over used word to indicate the following of established norms. Who set the norms? Society at large. The group. The people of the world (or place) said, "This is how it is," even though they did not necessarily say it out loud. But what if I am not of that people? Do I still need to live in the way they prescribe? Only if I want to fit in. :p