feelings Archive

  • to-do

    Making lists of lives to save

    
    We (humans) make lists.

    1. Lots of lists.
    2. We love lists.
    3. We have lists of lists.
    4. There are people who write about lists of lists; we also make lists of those people.

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  • the storm back home

    A tornado hit my farm – my response

    Pictures of the INCREDIBLE DESTRUCTION follow this post. I returned home the other night to find a series of Gchat messages from my mother; she likes Gchat. Here’s an excerpt (names changed for some reason):

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  • quantum ripples in chaos

    Quantum science and poetic expression

    quantum ripples in chaosI sent a friend an article by Deepak Chopra earlier today with the note “Read this – it’s a window into what is running through my mind all the time!” Chopra’s article was about the Higgs boson and its implications for billions of religious people the world over. Or at least, that’s what it started out being about. He goes on to talk about different view of quantum mechanics. You know, waves versus discrete states and superposition and all that good stuff that makes blood shoot from your nose if you think about it for too long. At one point, he talks a bit about how consciousness itself is capable (due to the relatively high gravity of the brainpan once you leave Planck space) of collapsing waveforms into observable pieces of reality. Whew.

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  • 3186472137_748b9f98ca_o

    Play-Doh shows us how to be the Torchbearers of humanity

    The Souls of people, on their way to Earth-life, pass through a room full of Lights; Each takes a Taper (candle), often only a spark, to guide it in the dim country of this world. But some souls of rare fortune, are detained longer and have time to grab a handful of candles, which they weave into a Torch. These are the Torch-Bearers of humanity, its Poets, Seers, and Saints, who lead and lift the race out of darkness, towards the Light. They are the Lawgivers and the Saviors, the Light-bringers, Way-showers and Truth-tellers, and without them, Humanity would Lose its way in the Dark…

    Candle rowThis quotation is attributed to Plato, the namesake of our favorite non-toxic modeling compound and one of the fathers of western philosophy. I’m not going to research the likelihood of whether or not he actually said it, of course, but it’s a fantastic meditation on why some people come into the world to change it, rather than be changed by it.

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  • Kids

    Charity? Paradox?

    He’s pulling on my shirt. I’d guess that he’s about 7 or 8. He’s not speaking English, so I have no way of knowing what his “hook” is. He keeps rubbing his right eye – it looks terrible, like something exploded in it. This is my first interaction with a child of the street. I say, “No, thank you. Teşekkür. Allahaısmarladık.” and wave him away. He lets go. My friend, familiar with the holy city, tells me not to concern myself with the street kids. “They put mascara in their eyes to make you pity them,” he says. I try to believe him as I watch the little kid latch onto the next foreigner.

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  • California coastline

    The Bay Area Dispatch of Doom Vol. 15 (name change edition)

    Hello friends,

    I’ve taken to eating giant salads at around 5 or 6 PM each day. It allows me to go light on lunch and avoid going to bed feeling too full. My estimate is that each such salad has about ten servings of vegetables. I also use dangerous levels of turmeric and cumin. And yes, I’ve finally changed the name of the Dispatch of Doom. Until such a time as I find myself in a more permanent location for work (more on that later), this will remain the new title.

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  • Jason Calacanis

    The problem with “The Problem With Generation Y and Millennials” – A response to Jason Calacanis

    I told myself a while ago that I would pay close attention to what Jason Calacanis said; the guy’s as close to tech as you can get and he’s got his brain in lots of different pies. Now, unfortunately, he occasionally offers opinion in some of the pies that he has no business talking about. By “occasionally”, of course, I mean “always”. That’s not a reason to stop reading him, mind you. The last major example, and there are many, was his rant (read: hissy fit) about the “Middle East” and other geopolitical realities that he understands merely by dint of being the Tesla Roadster’s most high-profile cheerleader.

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  • We must do things these days

    We must do things these days

    Not sure why I’ve chosen to post this today.

    I am troubled, deeply, by the billions of people worldwide who will go to bed tonight hungry, fearful for their safety, or sick from disease. These days, it’s not worth mentioning the statistics concerning how many people live on less than $2/day. I even hesitate to use the word “statistics,” since it cheerfully allows us to ignore the very human lives behind the numbers. We know that it’s bad.

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  • Losing old gods, finding nature

    Losing old gods, finding nature

    I recently headed back to Colorado for a wonderful weekend of R&R with my girlfriend and her family. We went skiing at Crested Butte, an absolutely amazing mountain way out in the center of the state. Here’s what happens when I ski:
    1. I fall down. This happens a handful of times. During this particular trip, I managed to stay vertical 95% of the day, even completing a blue square run without dropping.
    2. I come closer to completion. Allow me to explain: When I’m sliding down the side of a mountain fast as hell, staring out into the distance where other peaks look back at me, feeling the warmth of the sun and listening to the whoosh of air past my ears, I really do find a little slice of heaven.
    I’m guessing that this is a not-too-foreign experience for those familiar to strapping slippery boards to their feet and shooting down a hill. I relish these moments as I coast towards the base of the mountain. I use religious language to describe these times. Increasingly, I am not alone.
    Bron Taylor’s “Dark Green Religion: Nature, Spirituality, and the Planetary Future” describes the “replacement” or at least supplementation of traditional religions by more sensory forms of spirituality. I want to read this book. I grew up around trees and I feel a very deep connection to nature. Here’s a very important piece of an interview with Bron Taylor on Religion Dispatches:

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  • Five myths around disaster relief

    Five myths around disaster relief

    Edward Brown, relief director for World Vision, debunks five myths around disaster relief. I offer my thoughts on each point in place of Brown’s remarks. This came in the form of a Facebook note:

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