chilly cha cha

Santa Barbara

Boston

Please just take a look at that 40 degrees on the y-axis.

dr. seuss

Sometimes the questions are complicated and the answers are simple.

confucius

Care not for want of place; care for thy readiness to fill one.

you have the right to remain

I used to love the multiple series of Law & Order: the vanilla classic, SVU, CI.  I will forever be able to hum out each note of that sweet sweet theme song on cue.  & you just have to give it up for Jack McCoy.

Everyone knows there's a good crime drama playing on some channel at any waking moment and unfortunately, the success makes sense.

Law & Order, CSI, all of those shows make people fear the crazies that roam our cities plotting to commit heinous crimes (yes, I did use heinous from the disclaimer at the beginning of the program).  The thrill of watching this type of program is enjoyable and slightly addicting, putting sick-minded neighborhood criminals in their place at the mercy of detectives with some serious swagger.  Part of the addiction is also wrapped into the viewers' validation to remain within their four walls and avoid contact with new people who may or may not have a fellow neighbor locked up in their attic.

So the viewers keep sitting and the programs keep running and the viewers keep viewing.

pumpkin seeds

*& a drizzle of olive oil

Lauren and her kitchen have opened my eyes to the glory that is a meal made of fall bounty.

run with what you have

Not all brains are created equal.

Growing up, I thought I was a smart cookie.  Smarter than the average bear.  Or snake.  Or fox.  You can't just skate through standardized tests like I did.

That is, until college.  And now in the workplace.  I am not necessarily the owl I thought I was.  Events slip my mind.  Words escape me.  My reason stops cold in the heat of a debate.  But most of all, I get stuck in routine, e.g. explaning things at work the way I have a hundred times before.  Treating information and scenarios like fresh occurances, as they rightfully deserve, would be more of a challenge, but it's difficult.

It's difficult to stretch.  & even the quickest, most able minds can suffer from idleness.

As we become older, there is so much more time to strive for betterment, to nuture your brain.  It isn't about natural ability anymore.  It's about picking up a book, remembering what you've learned, and actually practicing it.  Some people impress you that way.

haymarket 1

I moved to Boston a couple months back.

& on Fridays and Saturdays, there is an outrageous farmer's market near Faneuil Hall.  Well I shouldn't say farmer's market... there is an outrageous produce and random food market - boxes and boxes that some farmers or food dealers somewhere couldn't sell.

Okay so maybe this isn't that interesting - but to me, using up things in the fridge with constraints (like my unstocked pantry, limited kitchenwares, and objection to cooking with fatty or expensive ingredients) is nothing short of awesome.

If you stock up on things that keep, like garlic, onions, potatoes and catch big bundles of ripe produce thoughtfully, you can minimize waste of food and money.  For example, on the last visit to Haymarket, I found 6 onions for $1.50 and a mesh tube with 7 large garlic heads for $1 among my purchases.  I mean, seriously.  Garlic for months.  The next trip included a very large bundle of asparagus for $1.  So in total, the following soup probably cost around $2 and provided two satisfying servings made from fresh ingredients.

Dice an onion & 2 cloves of garlic
Throw in a saucepan with olive oil
Chop up the bunch of asparagus, tossing the rough ends, & add to the pot
Cover with some combination of water, milk &/or chicken broth
Heavily season with salt, pepper, etc. - thyme is great
Bring to a boil and let simmer until it's soft enough to mash or blend
Add Greek yogurt to make it creamy &/or Parmesan to make it cheesy &/or lemon to make it zesty... shall I go on?

It stores well too.

philip zimbardo

Life is temptation. It's all about yielding, resisting, yes, no, now, later, impulsive, reflective, present focus and future focus. Promised virtues fall prey to the passions of the moment.

6 Time Perspective Factors
1. Past time perspective - Positive
2. Past time perspective - Negative
3. Present time perspective - Hedonism
4. Present time perspective - Fatalism
5. Future time perspective - Life goal-oriented
6. Future time perspective - Trancendental, life after death of the mortal body

There are two ways to be present oriented. There is two ways to be past oriented, two ways to be future. You can focus on past-positive, or past-negative. You can be present-hedonistic, namely you focus on the joys of life, or present-fatalist. It doesn't matter. Your life is controlled. You can be future oriented, setting goals. Or you can be transcendental future: namely, life begins after death. Developing the mental flexibility to shift time perspectives fluidly depending on the demands of the situation, that's what you've got to learn to do.

...what is the optimal time profile? High on past-positive. Moderately high on future. And moderate on present-hedonism. And always low on past-negative and present-fatalism. So the optimal temporal mix is what you get from the past - past-positive give you roots. You connect your family, identity and your self. What you get from the future is wings to soar to new destinations, new challenges. What you get from the present hedonism is the energy, the energy to explore yourself, places, people, sensuality.

daniel quinn

Not knowing the truth, he might say to himself, "Whatever I can justify doing is good and whatever I cannot justify doing is evil."

Ishmael p.162

omar khayyám

XIV

The Worldly Hope men set their Hearts upon
Turns Ashes - or it propsers; and anon,
Like Snow upon the Desert's dusty Face
Lighting a little Hour or two - is gone.

XV

And thsoe who husbanded the Golden Grain,
And those who flung it to the Winds like Rain,
Alike to no such aureate Earth are turn'd
As, buried once, Men want dug up again.

incense, in a sense

Decisions, decisions.  Pack this.  Donate that.  Ship these.  Store those.  - I'm moving to Boston.

Little bag of incense, where do you belong?  It sat on the table in the middle of the "maybe" things and "yes" things, but one suitcase is packed and the others are waiting.

So I lit a stick.  & discovered, really discovered, the beauty of smoke.  It curls, folds, ripples, and rises, all right in front of your eyes in this little thing called reality.  & all you have to do is sit back and watch.  What a pleasant by-product!  Did everyone know this?

So some little dinky item that I wasn't sure served a purpose in my life had me kneeling, elbows on the dresser, actually sighing "wowww" alone in my room.  Thus, I'm packing my incense and will have one more thing to do in my TV-less east coast apartment.

You have to realize beauty on your own.  No one can explain or the importance of February sunsets or heat rising off a car on a summer day.  They can try to show you, but you must find it on your own - let it bring you to your knees on your own.

I need to do more of that.  The nature within reach is enough entertainment.

If that makes me a hippie, then sobeit.

amen

proverbs

Better a friendly refusal than an unwilling consent.

There are two things a person should never be angry at, what they can help, and what they cannot.

Soft words win hard hearts.

Every man goes down to his death bearing in his hands only that which he has given away.

No answer is also an answer.

terrence malick

This great evil - where's it come from?
How'd it steal into the world?
What seed, what root did it grow from?
Who's doing this?
Who's killing us, robbing us of life and light, mocking us with the sight of what we mighta known?
Does our ruin benefit the earth?
Does it help the grass to grow and the sun to shine?
Is this darkness in you, too?
Have you passed through this night?

from The Thin Red Line

stefan sagmeister

Everybody who is honest is interesting.

astute peer refutes root beer repute

Long intro short, my French friend and I are hanging out for the first time on American soil 7 months after we last saw each other, this time speaking in English instead of German.

There is a minimal language barrier, more in the subtleties than anything else.  During her stay in San Francisco, she improved her knowledge and daily use of English.  More importantly, she was allowed to experience a new way of life and has expanded her breadth of the world merely by being, seeing, and allowing the newness in.

Of course, I think this is great.

She reminds me of how hard it is to find people with an open mind.  People who are empowered by knowing that they don't know much.

So we finish our meal, our conversation, walk down the block and move onto dessert because I can't wait for her to try her first root beer, let alone her first root beer float!  With her blessed open mind, Anaïs takes a few spoonfuls of this newness and says it tastes familiar, pulls out a pack of gum from her purse and tells me that she's not sure, but it reminds her of chewing gum.  She shrugs and the gum is put away.  "Hmm maybe," I wonder, "but I believe it's flavored with sassafras or some other... well... roots."

Later at home, my nightly routine brings me to Google where I find:

In 1960 the FDA outlawed sassafras because it contains safrole, which was proven to cause cancer in lab rats. The primary element in the root beer flavor we know today is wintergreen.

And sure enough, the next time I share this information over brunch, one of the newly-enlightened conjures up a box of wintergreen mints, as if by magic.  We three shut our eyes, so as not to be disturbed by the color stigma that so rudely kept us from the truth and... voilà!

Brown meets green, particles dissolve on our tongues, and the power of an open mind brings forth an unmistakable sensory connection.

sybyl partridge

Just for today I will be unafraid, especially, I will not be afraid to be happy, to enjoy what is beautiful, to love, and to believe that those I love, love me.

scrumptious smoothie

I have always looked forward to breakfast, probably because I develop a favorite, easy-to-prepare food with which to start my days off right.  For a few months now, I've found smoothies to be pretty cool.  It's a smoothie and raw almonds (and coffee, as always) every day.  So the fridge, freezer and fruit bowl are kept with plenty of variety and I never pour the same slurpy goodness from the blender twice.  By far, the creation below has been my favorite.  I'm not sure if it was the fresh orange what, but you will not regret trying this bad boy!  Bonus for raw almonds on the side.

(click image if it's too small)

I also like to add untoasted wheat germ to my smoothies for a little more texture and tasteless fiber. Yum!

[cat]

Q: Look, though.  It's in its natural habitat; we can barely see it.  It has found its home because it was meant to be there.  What's our natural habitat?  Where do we blend in?
[cat's] A:  With one another.

love breeds love

...breeds love breeds love...

& more on this later.