Quote

It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets. -Voltaire

Did you ever get the impression that I'm somewhat liberal based on the quotes I post? ;-)

Anger

Anger is power, power for change, power for betterment, power, raw and bloody. Anger can feed your soul, strike down obstacles in your path and fuel your life...

but, beware anger for anger is power, anger burns, it consumes the soul that it feeds, it can be blind and stupid like a maimed troll flailing here and there, striking down friend and foe alike. Anger hurts all who are near it.

Feel the anger, know the causes of the emotion, but (if you can) act from compassion, speak from kindness, love from joy. Calm the savage beast before releasing the power of change.

Old Construction photo and test of "Hello".

Survival of the lucky 

So I ran across the idea of using "Hello" to post pictures on my blog. This particular shot was from last summer when the street in front of my work place was obliterated and then reconstructed. These lovelies managed to survive since they were a few feet off the actual road-way.

Quote

The history of liberty is a history of the limitation of government power, not the increase of it. -Woodrow Wilson, 28th president of the U.S., Nobel peace prize winner (1856-1924)

Disc Golf - The wet and the willies

I played 18 holes of disc golf today for the second time this season. We have a couple of courses (ok, 3) in the Stevens Point area; one is fairly nice and open with only a minor (Wisconsin River) water hazard on a couple of holes while the other could easily be nick-named "The Disc-eating Tree Farm". I have yet to try my hand at the latter but may brave it some day when I'm feeling wealthy or have a desire to get a new set of discs. As for today, I nearly lost my long distance driver in said water hazard. It was a rotten throw to begin with but a bit of wind caught it and drove it deeper into the very wet, mildly slimy, sharp rock and broken glass infested waters. It took several minutes of wading by the three of us before another member of the troupe found it. (Thank you, ma'am.) Thankfully, the same wind kept the mosquitoes from being overly pesky.

Speaking of mosquitoes, I definitely need to get a mosquito sucker of some kind for my yard. Their ravenous appetites make my property unusable for recreating. Well, more soon. I have to get to bed and go mow a lawn in the morning.

Quote

He who is cruel to animals becomes hard also in his dealings with men. We can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals. -Immanuel Kant, philosopher (1724-1804)

I wonder if mosquitoes fall in that category. If they wouldn't insist on attempting to suck my blood, I wouldn't insist on hunting them with acetylene. ;-) Nah, I just swat them. There's not a lot of good eatin' on roast mosquito. :-p

Pain in the ...

Pain is such an interesting sensation. Physical pain seems to be a warning that the body is being damaged in some way, by heat, by being cut or crushed, etc. This makes sense. We need some type of warning system to tell us, "Hey, stop that. You're in danger." The really interesting part here is that the sensors that tell us something hurts are the same sensors that tell us if something tickles. Extremely low level tickling can also register as pleasure (...and this coming from a guy who hates to be tickled). So it stands to reason that the same sensors that register pain also register pleasure.

Okay, what about emotional pain? Does emotional pain serve the same purpose as physical pain? Someone leaves our life or someone we love is "cruel" to us. What is the pain we feel? What is its purpose? Is it the emotional or psychological equivalent of physical pain? I don't know. In some cases, perhaps. When you're young and you do something your parental figure believes you shouldn't do, you are chastised. If you value the parental figure's opinion, you probably feel guilt or shame which, in turn, probably cause some form of emotional pain. Thus, we are warned not to do something because we don't want to feel the pain again. But what about when we feel pain because someone says something careless which strikes a nerve? We didn't "do" anything to warrant this pain, yet we feel it anyway. Why? Are we letting that person have too much control over our feelings? Perhaps that's the warning. Maybe it's the "heart's" way of telling us, "Hey, this person can manipulate you. Is that how you want to live?"

Well, it's an interesting concept, anyway. If someone affects you or you feel the effect of their actions/words/etc., they probably have some level of control that you have given them, either consciously or subconsciously. If the effect isn't what you want, it may be time to examine the relationship (be it friendship, lover, associate, etc.) and find a way of viewing the situation such that what they say and do no longer causes the pain. This doesn't mean hurt/control them before they hurt/control you. This means changing your internal view point. If someone says to you, "You're a jerk," you can either feel the pain of the insult or you can step back from the incident and simply accept that said person thinks you're a jerk. The rough part is doing this with a loved one and still maintaining intimacy. It's (relatively) easy to simply stop caring about someone's opinion if you stop caring about the person as a whole. The trick is to continue to care about the person and yet cease to care about their opinion. I think this would be a great example of love without attachment; it's a great ideal but getting there can be a struggle.

Blah, blah, blah. I think I've blathered on long enough for one evening. Good luck in all your endeavors.

At your service

I had the opportunity to serve yesterday. The local TKD group held a belt promotion testing in which I had several students. I was pleased with their performance. Although I only ran one group and only refereed two matches, I felt that I served the group nicely by cleaning up their mess after the show was done. It wasn't exactly something a person of my rank is usually asked to do, but then I wasn't asked. I just happened to come back to the room after returning the hogos to the locked closet on the other end of the building and found that little had been done. Most of the chairs were stacked which I'm grateful for, but some were not and none of the tables had been collapsed or stacked. *shrug* Whatever.

I saw my ex there as well testing for her red belt. She did a nice job on her form and sparring. I'm pretty sure she doesn't read this anymore, but just in case, nice job.

And speaking of serving, after the clean up, I stopped briefly at the black-belt dinner, ate half a plate of food and then excused myself. The morning of testing, there was a power outage at my place of work due to a rather intense electrical storm and several computers (servers, etc.) were still down in the evening. I made a stop there and restarted them. I sometimes feel that my place of work has sucked all the life out of me and that I am no more than a programmed automaton doing my best to get through the days of work there. It's not that the work isn't challenging; some of it is. The real problem is that it isn't interesting to me anymore. I'm hoping this vacation will help, but I'm doubting it thus far.

A truly wonderful thing happened late last week. Two of my house-mates who do not always see eye-to-eye seemed to put the past behind them and attempt to rebuild some friendship bridges. I hope beyond hope that this works. It would definitely make living here nicer for everyone.

My vacation is proceeding. I only worked about an hour today so it's more like an extended weekend. I do hope to get some cable laid yet this week along with a few other chores around the house, etc. I need to call my father, too and try to set up something for Father's day. I was going to do that tonight but then a friend stopped over and we chatted about BESM d20 instead. I need to find a book but I think I'm going to wait a bit. There is supposed to be a revised edition coming out in June sometime. I'd rather have the latest if possible and since I don't think we'll be playing much before next semester, I think I'll be safe to wait.

Curiosity may have killed the cat, but without it, little can be learned.

Quote, etc.

As no roads are so rough as those that have just been mended, so no sinners are so intolerant as those that have just turned saints. -Charles Caleb Colton, author and clergyman (1780-1832)

The path of the righteous is a dangerous path, indeed. Oft it seems that what one abhors the most is what presents itself in one's own life again and again. This is actually very logical. If one abhors something, truly hates it, then one thinks about it often. In that thinking, they bring it into being. So, instead of focusing on what you don't like, focus on what you like about your life and the world you live in. Attract that to yourself instead of what you don't like. In short, love.

Shave and a hair cut ...

They're a bit more than two bits ($0.25) these days.

New Time to beat:

7.46 miles
27 minutes and 56 seconds.
Average speed: 16.24 mph
Top Speed: 21.6 mph

I shaved a full 50 seconds off my best recorded time. I could not have been more soaked if I had been caught in a rain storm when done with this little trip. I was so tired, all I could do was lean and drip for several minutes. I rather doubt I'll beat this time anytime in the near future, but you never know. ;-)

In other news, I'm staring down the barrel of two weeks of vacation to take before the end of the month. I'm just trying to decide what I should do with the time. There so much and so little at the same time. I think it may be time to bite the bullet and finish the CAT5e wiring in my house and then replace certain portions of the basement ceiling. - The latter is going to be pricey. *sigh* Oh well. There's a wiring problem on the east side of the house that has been there since the new siding was put on. That will likely take up some time, too. As I said, lots to do. I'm just not sure how much of it I want to do. Mmm. Diablo calls. ;-)

Quote

A man who works with his hands is a laborer; a man who works with his hands and his brain is a craftsman; but a man who works with his hands and his brain and his heart is an artist. -Louis Nizer, lawyer (1902-1994)

(From a lawyer, no less. ;-) )

Summer movies

I've now had the pleasure of seeing both Shrek 2 and Harry Potter and the prisoner of Azkaban. I was a bit worried about the first; there was so much advertising and toys, etc. before it actually came out that I thought it was a marketing scam, but it turned out to be a pretty funny and enjoyable movie, if somewhat predictable. It's definitely one I'll want to get on DVD. There were a lot of fine point details and I'm sure I missed some with only one viewing.

The Harry Potter film was also rather predictable, but only because I had read the book. I found it to be a quite enjoyable and well put together film even though it left out quite a bit from the book. I assume more and more will be left out of each following movie as each new book is longer than the last. Still, the main points of the story were fairly well captured and it was an engaging tale.

I seeded a bit of clover last week and again Saturday night. I have a several small plants sprouting here and there and hope to have more soon. If all goes well, I may never have to mow my lawn again. ;-)

Time to beat

7.46 miles
28 minutes and 46 seconds.
Average speed: 15.73 mph
Top Speed: 22.7 mph

I recently had the drive train replaced on my bike. Although the gearing is a bit different, (more like a mountain bike instead of a cross over bike) I like it a lot. The chain doesn't slip anymore no matter what gear I'm in and the gear shifters actually cause the bike to go into the desired gear. This is significantly better than when I purchased the bike new. Thank you, Campus Cycle. It's nice to find someone who cares about the quality of their workmanship.

Quote

Distrust all in whom the impulse to punish is powerful. -Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, philosopher (1844-1900)

Rant

The following is not suitable for children, small farm animals and most house-hold appliances.

Turn Signal: n : a blinking light on a motor vehicle that indicates the direction in which the vehicle is about to turn.

Now, obviously this definition taken from Dictionary.com isn't wholly inclusive because one can have turn signals on bicycles (awful things, really. They introduce extra weight, battery usage, wind resistance, etc.) and other non-motorized vehicles like the occasional weird pedestrian. The point is, they exist on most motorized vehicles in the US. In fact, they are supposed to exist on all vehicles manufactured after July 1, 1958. They are there for a reason. That reason is to let other people know what you are planning to do. If you are planning to turn a corner, use them approximately 3 seconds prior to making your turn. If you are going to change lanes, use them BEFORE you actually start moving in to the destination lane. If you are interested in further uses of turn signals, please look at page 36 of the Wisconsin Motorists' Handbook. There is a great deal of excellent information in that document. There are snippets on who has right of way at an intersection, when and how to use your horn, when you are supposed to have your high-beam headlights on and when you are supposed to have your headlights on in general. It seems like an almost necessary document for those planning on engaging in vehicular travel on Wisconsin roadways. Ah, but I digress. The point of this paragraph was to talk about turn signals. In short and to be exceedingly blunt, if you have a turn signal, USE IT!!!!!! THERE IS NO SHORTAGE OF BLINKER FLUID. IT WON'T KILL YOU TO BE CONSIDERATE OF OTHER PEOPLE. USE YOUR F***ING TURN SIGNALS!!!!! IS IT SO F***ING HARD TO UNDERSTAND?!?!?!?!?!? IF YOUR ARE PLANNING ON GOING IN A DIRECTION OTHER THAN STRAIGHT, USING A F***ING TURN SIGNAL!!!!!

I'll save my rant on using pickup trucks as personal vehicles for another day.