Reading Today...

By Charles Bragg

Reading: Jack Kerouac - Selected Letters

"Since when is a bookie more important than a man in a motheaten coat."

"O peace, mother, for the mammothness
of the coming & goings of the ladders of life."

Your Power Color Is Magenta

At Your Highest: You energize yourself and push others to suceed. At Your Lowest: You feel frustrated and totally overwhelmed. In Love: You are suprised by who you attract. You're a love magnet. How You're Attractive: Open and free spirited, people want to explore the world with you. Your Eternal Question: "What is my next source of inspiration?"

What's Your Power Color?

Happy Birthday Oli!

Listening: Dressy Bessy - Dressy Bessy

Work just called and wants me to go to Louisiana for the potential hurricane, Ernesto. I can not go because I have the inner ear infection. I'm still in lots of pain. The two darvocets every six hours does not seem to be working.

Today is the brother's birthday and I sent him this poem:
At last I find a meaning of soul's birth
Into this universe terrible and sweet,
I who have felt the hungry heart of earth
Aspiring beyond heaven to Krishna's feet.

I have seen the beauty of immortal eyes,
And heard the passion of the Lover's flute,
And known a deathless ecstasy's surprise
And sorrow in my heart for ever mute.

Nearer and nearer now the music draws,
Life shudders with a strange felicity;
All Nature is a wide enamoured pause
Hoping her lord to touch, to clasp, to be.

For this one moment lived the ages past;
The world now throbs fulfilled in me at last.

- Sri Aurobindo

I had to post it here because I thought it beautiful.

August 24

Ear Ache, Office Politics & Buddha
Current mood: sore

Listening: Nina Simone - The Essential Nina Simone

First of all, I have a terrible ear ache. The kind that makes you wince when you move your jaw.

Secondly, of all things I hate, I believe office politics are the worst. I work in an office of about 30 people with hundreds of volunteers coming in and out everyday. Someone is always upset about something...the silliest things really. Here are some examples:

1. A is mad at B because B told C something before D had a chance to tell A.

2. Dog is upset because Cat told Mouse to do something and Mouse works for Dog, not Cat! Cat thinks Dog is stupid and runs to tell Cow. Cow can not keep her mouth shut, so she tells Sheep, Turkey, Wolf and Snake. Dog is then mad at Cow because Snake told Dog what Cow said.

I believe you get the drift of what I am talking about.

Finally, enjoy the picture of buddha. I do not understand why you have to right-click on the pictures in the blog and click on view picture to see them. It is rather inconvenient.

Have a wonderful night. I am loopy now since I have taken a pain killer.

August 23

23 Aug 06 Wednesday

43 Things
Current mood: inspired

Listening: Lenny Kravitz - Greatest Hits

You know that website 43things (http://www.43things.com/)
Here are mine:
1. Travel the world.
2. Get my Masters and PhD.
3. Be healthier.
4. Start my own business and be successful at it.
5. Speak French & Spanish fluently.
6. Be a better activist for free speech.
7. Live in London for a year.
8. Write a bestseller.
9. Achieve enlightenment and teach.
10. Live in a tree house in Alaska or Nova Scotia.
11. Sing like Sarah Brightman.
12. Produce documentaries that change the world for the better.
13. Make the world a better place (too many ideas to name here).
14. Have enough money to volunteer fulltime.
15. Make sure each child born is vaccinated for measles.
16. Have more compassion and patience.
17. Plant a tree each year on my birthday.
18. Leave in the woods for four years and read.
19. Have zero debt.
20. Run a marathon and enjoy it.
21. Learn to play the piano.
22. Be a terrific artist.
23. Stop world hunger.
24. Cause no harm to anyone or thing.
25. Quit saying I am sorry all the time.
26. Get a passport.
27. Become a "morning" person.
28. Become a tea conisseur.
29. Be more athletic.
30. Be more open-minded and less judgemental.
31. Attack life and live every moment passionately.
32. Travel to Africa.
33. Spend more time with my family & friends.
34. Be happy & content and wish that for everyone.
35. Try not to put so much effort into having "things"
36. Learn new stuff everyday.
37. Care more about American politics.
38. Become a vegetarian all the time.
39. Get to know more fascinating people.
40. Meditate daily.
41. Live the eightfold path every moment.
1. Right understanding
2. Right thought
3. Right speech
4. Right action
5. Right livelihood
6. Right effort
7. Right mindfulness
8. Right concentration
42. Be a better philosopher and expand my critical thinking skills.
43. Live authentically.

These are subject to change depending on my mood.

August 22

Cheers
Current mood: pensive

Listening: Charlotte Church - Tissues and Issues (Why did I buy this album???!!!!)
Listening now: Bill Evans - Portrait in Jazz

To venture causes anxiety. Not to venture is to lose oneself. - Kierkegaard

Things that made me laugh out loud with unabbreviated glee:
1. Taking a bath on a hot, rainy day with the window open and the rain is hitting me through the screen in the window.
2. Watching my two cats fight...it is like a kung fu movie...a really bad one.
3. I hate to admit this, but I love that stupid AFV show. Something about people falling down just puts me in stitches.
4. Searching in the fridge and finding the last can of husband's Diet Mt. Dew.
5. Wrapping myself in new bedding with the air conditioner going full blast.
6. Watching my friends do dumbass impressions of each other. LOL
7. Waking up and realizing it is Saturday morning and not Monday like I thought.
8. Having husband yell because Aja (chihuahua) pooted under the covers.
9. Having completely insane conversations with my family (mom, dad, brother & husband)...a list of topics to follow later.

August 21

Indigo Children and Eric Clapton
Current mood: impressed

Listening: Eric Clapton - The Blues

I was reading this about Indigo Children or Crystal Children.

In the spiritual community, there are many who anticipate the Emergence of a Golden Age to come. An important part of this awakening that is occuring is the coming of Children with an awakened Consciousness. These childrens have been called the Indigo children.Are the Indigo children, (variously called the Indigo children, Crystal Children, the Children of Oz) the ones who will launch humanity into a new era of consciousness, laying the groundwork for the emergence of a Golden Age?"The Indigo Child is a boy or girl who displays a new and unusual set of psychological attributes, revealing a pattern of behavior generally undocumented before. This pattern has singularly unique factors that call for parents and teachers to change their treatment and upbringing of these kids to assist them in achieving balance and harmony in their lives, and to help them avoid frustration." Lee Carroll & Jan Tober
In an epic poem, Savitri, the late master Sri Aurobindo of India vividly describes a coming new race of humanity emerging on Earth. Was he referring to the Indigo Childrens? "I saw them cross the twilight of an age, The sun-eyed children of a marvelous dawn, Great creators with wide brows of calm, The massive barrier-breakers of the world, Laborers in the quarries of the gods. The architects of immortality."

Maybe we are all indigo children? Or maybe we are all trying to be something special and make sense in a world that does not make sense?

I have not heard this cd in a long time. Man, is it good!

August 20

Southern Buddhist...another oxymoron, huh?
Current mood: chipper

Listening: KT Tunstall - Eye to the Telescope


I had a friend ask me the other day how it felt to be a Buddhist in the South...well, it is not easy. It is not something I advertise, but I occasionally feel like being stared at and I will wear my Buddha t-shirt around town. There are two people at my job that know I am a Buddhist, but both say it is me rebelling against God. One of them told me I was going to hell if I did not hurry and figure out the truth. Well, I try not to judge them so harshly.

I have been practicing Buddhism for almost a year now. It has totally changed my life. I have read everthing about Buddhism I could get my hands on. UU has offered some classes and I have been discussing things with real time/online friends. It works for me and I will share more in depth in later blogs.

August 15

15 Aug 06 Tuesday

Still here...
Current mood: awake

Listening to Fergie - "London Bridge"

Some of my favorite oxymorons
1. Almost ready
2. Assistant Supervisor
3. Clearly misunderstood
4. Controlled chaos
5. Fuzzy logic
6. Minor disaster
7. Random order
8. To infinity and beyond

5:18 AM - 1 Comments - 1 Kudos - Add Comment - Edit - Remove

Insomnia
Current mood: weird

Listening: WXYC Streaming - Student Radio from Chapel Hill, North Carolina
"Movin' On" - The Blue Rags

August 14

Listening to Pink Martini - Sympathique

I have that Aicha Song (Gelliman) in my head. It's driving me insane.

One of my coworkers told me that he was against gay marriage because "where would it stop....pretty soon you would have people marrying animals." GEEZ!

It riles me up when my husband thinks he is not hireable competition because he does not have a college degree. I work with unintelligent people every day and many have two or three degrees. It is helpful, but should not be the end all.

It has been almost 60 years since the United Nations signed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and still the atrocities continue. People continue to be tortured, suppressed, terrorized, defiled, neglected and murdered!

Read this about NESTLE USA
CEO: Joe Weller
800 N. Brand Blvd.
Glendale, CA 91203
Phone: 818-549-6000
Fax: 818-549-6952

Human Rights Violations: Abusive child labor, repression of worker rights, aggressive marketing of harmful products, violation of national health and environmental laws

1. Much of the chocolate eaten all over the world is made of cocoa beans that have been harvested by illegal child labor, including child slave labor.

2. In 2001, Save the Children Canada reported that 15,000 children between 9 and 12 years old, many from impoverished Mali, had been tricked or sold into slavery on West African cocoa farms, many for just $30 each.

3. Nestle is well aware of the tragically unjust labor practices taking place on the farms with which it continues to do business. Nestle and other chocolate manufacturers agreed to end the use of abusive and forced child labor on cocoa farms by July 1, 2005, but they failed to do so.

4. In Italy in 2005, police seized more than two million liters of Nestle's infant formula that was contaminated with the chemical isopropylthioxanthone (ITX), a component in the packaging's ink. It turned out the company knew about the contamination for months, but did not recall the formula.

5. Visit globalexchange.org for more.

August 12

Current mood: thoughtful

Listening to Outkast - Speakerboxx/The Love Below

1. When you were born, I told Mom that you were my baby. I threw temper tantrums when I did not get to hold you or feed you when I wished. You were such a curious little baby. Always smiling and forever getting into mischief. You made my life so much more interesting when I talked about you in show & tell in Ms. Martin's First Grade class. I drew pictures of you and wrote stories about you. I would learn songs and immediately come home and sing them to you. You always wanted to be with me and vice versa.

2. When you were about 2 years old, the parents had a very large dresser and you would climb up on top of it. If a drawer was open, you would sleep in it. You had no concept of what danger meant. Most kids are attached to blankets or bottles, not you, you were attached to this flimsy plastic fish. You carried it every where, but mostly in your mouth with the tail sticking out. Mom was always worried that you would swallow it, but you refused to give it up.

3. We took our play very seriously. No tea parties for us. We played wrestling, circus, wild animals and other brutal games. We use to fight over climbing this one tree in the grandparents' yard. You always won because you would kick me and I could not get my feet up high enough to shove you out.

4. You tried to kill me a couple of times (by accident of course, right?). You tried to blungeon me with a baseball bat once when you were about 3 years old. You tried to drown me in our small pool when you were about 6 years old. You thought it was a great big game.

5. When I picture you as a child, I remember you always having a kool-aid mustache with your thumb in your mouth and watching cartoons so close to the tv that you could turn the channel with your toes.

6. Our parents rarely fought if ever. You had lots of friends, but none that you considered "best" friends. You were too smart for school and preferred to learn on your own. You were never a "normal" child in the sense of tv sitcoms, but you had a terrific imagination and loved art. You were a creator and a destroyer. You would spend all day making something crafty and then take 15 seconds to destroy it with a grin on your face. Teachers would say that you were immature for your age and you would laugh with that secretive grin on your face. You rarely let people know the real you. You always had this rage about you when you felt confined/trapped. I think we both thought Georgia was paradise while North Carolina was our own private hell.

7. You never felt a sense of belonging. Now that I think about this, I can't understand why. The kids in the neighborhood would flock around you. You were the leader, the instigator...you hated authority and would take blame even if you did not cause it. You never really lied as a child. I remember one time you lied, and that was to get me out of trouble for throwing a rock at you and blackening your eye.

8. You were such a free little spirit. You were always fighting against Dad. He was the ultimate authority figure and I really do believe that you hated him for it when you were younger. You hated the fact that the parents would wake you up around 4:30am so you all could commute to the hospital. You hated the routine and would rage against the preschool teacher for it.

August 10

The Architect: Hello, Neo.

Neo: Who are you?

The Architect: I am the Architect. I created the Matrix. I've been waiting for you. You have many questions, and although the process has altered your consciousness, you remain irrevocably human. Ergo, some of my answers you will understand, and some of them you will not. Concordantly, while your first question may be the most pertinent, you may or may not realize it is also the most irrelevant.

Some quotes I like...

I am having to transfer my myspace blog to this one.

Some quotes I like...
Current mood: blah

My Favorite Quotes

"Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is to live everything. Live the questions" - Rainer Maria Rilke

"When you realize how perfect everything is you will tilt your head back and laugh at the sky" - Buddha aka Gautama Siddharta

"I don't want to earn my living; I want to live" - Oscar Wilde

"A man's character may be learned from the adjectives which he habitually uses in conversation" - Samuel Clemens aka Mark Twain

"Two percent of the people think; three percent of the people think they think; and ninety-five percent of the people would rather die than think." - George Bernard Shaw

"I hate victims who respect their executioners." - Jean-Paul Sartre

"The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination." - Albert Einstein

"It's better to light a candle then to curse the darkness." - Carl Sagan

"Many are destined to reason wrongly; others, not to reason at all, and others to persecute those who reason" - Voltaire

"This is what you shall do: love the earth and sun, and animals, despise riches, give alms to every one that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labor to others, hate tyrants, argue not concerning God, have patience and indulgence towards the people, take off your hat to nothing known or unknown, or to any man or number of men; go freely with the powerful uneducated persons, and with the young, and mothers, of families: read these leaves in the open air every season of every year of your life: re-examine all you have been told at school or church, or in any books, and dismiss whatever insults your soul." - Walt Whitman

Sharing my birthday with...August 6

1180 - Emperor Go-Toba of Japan (d. 1239)
1504 - Matthew Parker, Archbishop of Canterbury (d. 1575)
1619 - Barbara Strozzi, Italian singer and composer (d. 1677)
1638 - Nicolas Malebranche, French philosopher (d. 1715)
1644 - Louise de la Valli�re, French mistress of Louis XIV of France (d. 1710)
1656 - Claude de Forbin, French naval commander (d. 1733)
1697 - Charles VII, Holy Roman Emperor (d. 1745)
1715 - Luc de Clapiers, marquis de Vauvenargues, French writer (d. 1747)
1766 - William Hyde Wollaston, English chemist (d. 1828)
1768 - Jean-Baptiste Bessi�res, French marshal (d. 1813)
1809 - Alfred Lord Tennyson, English poet (d. 1892)
1844 - James Henry Greathead, British engineer (d. 1896)
1844 - Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (d. 1900)
1861 - Edith Roosevelt, American First Lady (d. 1948)
1868 - Paul Claudel, French poet (d. 1955)
1874 - Charles Fort, American writer and researcher (d. 1932)
1877 - Wallace H. White, Jr., American politican (d. 1952)
1880 - Hans Moser, Austrian actor (d. 1964)
1881 - Leo Carrillo, American actor (d. 1961)
1881 - Alexander Fleming, Scottish scientist, Nobel laureate (d. 1955)
1881 - Louella Parsons, American gossip columnist (d. 1972)
1889 - John Middleton Murry, English poet (d. 1957)
1889 - George Kenney, American Air Force General (d. 1977)
1891 - William Slim, British general (d. 1970)
1892 - Hoot Gibson, American actor (d. 1962)
1893 - Wright Patman, American politician (d. 1976)
1900 - Cecil H. Green, American geophysicist (d.2003)
1902 - Dutch Schultz, American bootlegger (d. 1935)
1904 - Henry Iba, basketball coach (d. 1993)
1908 - Helen Jacobs, American tennis player (d. 1997)
1908 - Will Lee, American actor (d. 1982)
1911 - Lucille Ball, American actress (d. 1989)
1916 - Richard Hofstadter, American historian (d. 1970)
1916 - Dom Mintoff, Maltese Prime Minister
1917 - Robert Mitchum, American actor (d. 1997)
1918 - Norman Granz, American jazz musician and record producer (d. 2001)
1920 - Ella Raines, American actress (d. 1988)
1922 - Sir Freddie Laker, English entrepreneur (d. 2006)
1923 - Jess Collins, American artist (d. 2004)
1928 - Andy Warhol, American artist (d. 1987)
1928 - Herb Moford, baseball player (d. 2005)
1930 - Abbey Lincoln, American jazz singer
1932 - Howard Hodgkin, British painter
1934 - Piers Anthony, English writer
1937 - Barbara Windsor, English actress
1938 - Paul Bartel, American actor (d. 2000)
1938 - Peter Bonerz, American actor
1940 - Mukhu Aliyev, President of Dagestan
1941 - Lyle Berman, American poker player
1941 - Ray Culp, Baseball player
1943 - Jon Postel, computer scientist (d. 1998)
1945 - Andy Messersmith, baseball pitcher
1946 - Allan Holdsworth, British musician
1946 - Roh Moo-hyun, South Korean president
1946 - Masaaki Sakai, Japanese comedian
1949 - Alan Campbell, Northern Irish clergyman
1949 - Clarence Richard Silva, Catholic Bishop of Honolulu
1950 - Dorian Harewood, American actor
1951 - Daryl Somers, Australian television personality
1951 - Catherine Hicks, American actress
1957 - Jim McGreevey, American politician
1957 - Bob Horner, baseball player
1962 - Michelle Yeoh, Malaysian actress
1963 - Kevin Mitnick, computer hacker
1964 - Moosie Drier, Actor and occasional director
1965 - Yuki Kajiura, Japanese composer
1965 - David Robinson, basketball Player
1967 - Archbishop Alexy (Bondarenko)
1967 - Mike Greenberg, ESPN sportscaster
1969 - Elliott Smith, American musician (d. 2003)
1969 - Cactvs Chris, American/British musician
1970 - M. Night Shyamalan, Indian-born film director and actor
1971 - Merrin Dungey, American actress
1972 - Geri Halliwell, British singer
1973 - Asia Carrera, American pornographic actress
1973 - Stuart O'Grady, Australian cyclist
1975 - Jamie McGonnigal, American actor
1976 - Melissa George, Australian actress
1978 - Marisa Miller, American model
1978 - Billy Klippert, Canadian singer
1981 - Vitantonio Liuzzi, race car driver
1981 - Liliana DomÃnguez, Mexican supermodel
1982 - Adrianne Curry, American model
1982 - Ryan Sypek, American actor
1983 - Robin van Persie, Dutch football player
1984 - Marcos Airosa, Angolan footballer
1985 - Steve Williams, Single Circuit Stock Car Driver