Eighty Years (or so) To The Big Zero

Today I spent close to an hour and a half outside. If she was around she would have shown up at my presence.

So I walked my perimeter and into the woods, smelling. Last I saw of Lea (my cat by my younger brother) was on Monday. After five days I should be able to track her by smell or sight of birds in the sky. Nothing.

She was most likely dragged off by a fox or random dog. I haven’t seen either in months.

Vayne is sleeping, still. He’s been in the house since Friday night and hasn’t gone outside and I haven’t pushed him. He simply sleeps. I think he notices the absence just as he did when his brother Zork died Jan 19, 2004.

The stray cat was also missing Wed, and Thursday nights and I thought the same thing might have happened to him but he showed up on Friday. A friend from work will take him when she gets back from Vegas at the end of next week. I won’t take in any more animals.

I read The Book of Five Rings and took a page of notes. Here they are:

The Earth Chapter

“… with weapons, just as with other things, you should not make distinctions or preferences.”
“Going too far is the same as not going far enough.”

The Water Chapter

“Be aware of the rythmn in all things. The flow of rythmn is crucial to action and victory.”
“In using the eyes, do so in a large and encompasing way. There is observation and there is seeing.”

The Fire Chapter

“… taking the initiative is surely at the heart of gaining the victory.”
“Ferrying Across” This one is to remember the concept of Ferrying Across. It refers to a state of mind where when traveling you move through villages, towns and across streams and oceans to reach your goals, without distractions in the travels. The concept of Ferrying Across is simply a means to the goal.
“… nothing is going right, nor is there progress, be of the mind to throw off your former intentions and start entirely anew.” - the concept of Renewal.

The Emptiness Chapter

“In Emptiness exist Good but no Evil.
Wisdom is Existence.
Principle is Existence.
The Way is Existence.
The Mind is Emptiness.”

The last is a philosophy of Buddhism but with a twist in applying it toward war and sword fighting specifically. It refers to a state of mind where by the mind must be empty in order to be free. If you begin to think of leaping, your mind moves toward leaping and loses its potential for reaction, you loose focus and what ultimately happens is the mind stops, when that happens the body stops.
When you are free of thought, only then are you free to move anywhere.

Like I said it’s a philosophy of thought taught in Buddhism. Something the author Miyamoto Musashi (who was undefeated in over 60 sword fights, many against multiple opponents at once) was well aware of but claims no direct link with his Way of sword fighting.

To my mind it relates to his thinking of “make no distinctions or preferences”. The idea that you limit yourself if you favor something over another, each has its place and in that place is equally valid.

Although this is probably overly simplistic and would most likely be bashed as naive by anyone who actually has studied Five Rings for any length of time and didn’t just read it straight through over a few hours on the weekend and then wrote a blog post about it.

Perhaps. Time to move on.

……

A Whole New You, Thinking out loud

I just go back from a week long trip in the Great Smoky Mountains.

I was one of three adult chaperones for a school function with 12 students (6 boys, 6 girls). Overall it was a very good week (lost ten pounds, got poison oak on the insides of of my ankles and calfs. Weird, I don’t know how I got those). Saw some amazing mountains, streams, and forests. I’ll put up some pictures later. Remind me if I forget, I’m still kinda in a fog, because now that I’m back:

– Must finish up two final exams for my semester today and tomorrow.

– Move my bank from the hacked bank to my new local bank (set up direct deposit, get visa/debt card, etc.) (Did I mention I got hacked again two days after getting my new credit card? I’m switching banks and filed a identity alert on my national profile with the three credit card reporting agencies. Equifax, Transnation, and the other one. Twice they got me, second time for $2000 in UPS shipping and Craigslist charges, and there is absolutely nothing to be done for it. The banks won’t give me any details, and since the charges were pending and didn’t actually process they have no details about where, when, or who used them. This is complete bullshit! I can’t believe there is no information on these transactions. What details are stored with the charges while they are pending? Come on people. Why are we letting these criminals get away with this? )

– Do all the laundry in the house and de-flea the entire home. Major flea issue occurred while I was away and now I’m covered in fleas. My legs look like they were sprinkled with pepper when I go into the back room. Ack!

– Straighten up a little bit before MerryMaid comes out on Thursday to give me an estimate on what it’ll cost to come out on a bi-monthly basis. (This house really needs to be cleaned and I’m just too pulled and unmotivated to do it right now. Once it’s clean for a couple months perhaps I’ll cancel the service.)

– Monthly credit card bills are due…. WAIT!

Nope. Don’t have to do that anymore. I’m credit card debt free. All my credit cards are paid off in full with no balance or pending transactions! Very happy about that, it’s been a long time coming. Will never fall into that hole again.

So while I’m still in the mountains mentally, I’m slowly returning to the “normal” routine  of life and work, which starts tomorrow (Monday 4May09).  Ugh. Should take another week and I’ll be good to go.

A Whole New You, The Credit Trap, Thinking out loud

I was offered the job today. I go in at 11 to be shown around the shop before they want my final decision.

If all goes well, I’ll start on Monday. There’s a new project starting Monday with Active Directory (Dell is setting it up) and they want me in on it from the ground floor.

I leave in fifteen minutes.

Just have to keep calm, don’t say anything stupid, and all should be fine.

Salary will be 2.5 times what I was making before.*blink* *blink* Stay calm. Breath.

Remember you’re good enough. You’re smart enough. And dog gonnit, people like you.

Sits: 7 (daily)
Push: 4 (daily)

A Whole New You, Thinking out loud

Apparently you can eat too many carrots. I’m not feeling very well at the moment. (It’ll pass after I get some sleep, I’m sure.)

I cooked a new recipe the other day. It was:

Yellow Rice with saffron
Chicken in a can
chopped carrots
chopped celery
1/2 onion (chopped)
can of mushrooms (when I remember to add them, which I haven’t yet so the can I purchased for the first attempt at this recipe will be for the third try.)

I liked it so much that I cooked it again this Sunday. I went a little overboard with the carrots and celery and it’s like eating rice with small legos in it. Good news though. This time I cooked the rice perfect and they weren’t hard and brittle like before. Before it was the proper amount of carrots/celery but the rice had a hardened center which crunched when I bit down.

But this delicious meal wasn’t enough for lunch/dinner. I’ve been trying to eat healthier (hence the new recipe) and instead of my usual bowl of butter and salt I had a bowl of carrots while I watched some movies.

You know how you can feel sick and in your gut you know exactly what it is that’s causing the problem? Well I do and it’s carrots. They are rising in my throat as I type.

I think I’ll be visiting the porcelain throne sometime during the night. Good thing it’s shiny clean.

(Updated: Good night sleep did the trick. Although I had weird dreams about sacrificing and fighting and colonialism and betrayal. Must have been the Howard Zinn documentary I watched. )

A Whole New You, Thinking out loud

A Whole New You, Thinking out loud

So I just returned last night - at 10:30 pm - from a week long trip to the Great Smoky Mountains.

Myself and two other teachers took 12 students to the mountains for some hiking, camping, whitewater rafting and all around outdoor fun, plus the Aquarium in Chattanooga.

After being in civilization for nearly three years (the last time I went out into the woods for an experience like this was three years ago), it feels a little weird typing on the keyboard. On an interesting note I was able to go through the hundreds of unread emails in about 30 minutes. It’s weird now it went. I was able to scan through the list and select 25% that was obvious sales and pitches I didn’t want and delete them. 50% of the rest were joke emails (which I enjoyed and watched) and the rest were regular type emails for events I wasn’t there in the week to attend, so I skimmed them and deleted, and updates on plans from before I left.

And yes I have pictures. (Not of me working through my emails. Geez people keep up. :P) There are some great shots of me on the mountain top - Mt. Le Conte. Yes that mountain in the photo.

Oh and as far as my road to Mt. Olympus goes, and the lack of updates for the last month or so, I think I just covered the entire month of April in one week so I’m writing that down as a physical exercise success.

Well I have some unpacking and mental preparing to do to get back to work on Monday. Stupid Monday.

A Whole New You, Thinking out loud

So I filled up the tank in my brand new Toyota Corolla a week or so ago (check the Daily Commute for an exact date).

I went to a Murphy Gas station which are the stations just outside the Wal-Marts. They have the most inexpensive gas in town. I also noticed a new sign when I filled up - “Now with 10% ethanol.”

Well I think my car doesn’t like the gas because it’s hesitating when I start it. It’ll skip a little and I actually have to pump the gas pedal some. When I first got it I would simply turn the key and it would start. Now it takes a moment.

I think the 83 percent gas is not playing well with the new car. I’m still gonna get 83 percent but I’m not going to get it from Wal-Mart anymore. I’m thinking Chevron and fill up with a tank of their fuel cleaning gas with Techron. See if makes a difference.

I’m at less than a quarter tank now so I’ll be filling up tomorrow. We’ll see how it goes.

In other news I’m becoming very bored with my exercise routine. I stopped running because I was constantly dredding the walk/run time. So I backed off and am simply walking again. I still am only able to do 7 push ups, although they are becoming easier it’s not smooth and I’m winded at 7. I also stressed out my lower abs with the sit-ups. I think doing incline sit-ups really focuses the lower stomach and inner thigh muscles because they are hurting. If you take a look at the Road to Mt. Olympus you’ll see a couple mornings/nights were I skipped the sits and push ups. I need to let the muscles heal up some.

Some days are better than others.

This weekend I cleaned my living room of stuff and took it to GoodWill. I think I’ll be able to get at least $8000 in tax right offs with the stuff I pulled in. 8^) That side of the living room looks much better now. At least it’s not so cluttered. I think getting rid of stuff and having an empty clean space feels better than working out and getting in shape. Does anyone else feel like there’s just so much “stuff” going on around us and in our lives these days? I can’t be the only one with this feeling.

There’s a pressure of minutia that is incessent these days. Oh great, now I’m in a mood. Terminator better come on soon so I can get to bed.

I watched Jericho the other day online. I can’t stay up to 10pm to watch the show so I have to watch it on the cbs.com website. They allow you to stream it. But Fox requires you to download and install their own special player to watch shows. Bastards. No wonder people use bittorrents.

I better go before I get too worked up and start spoutting off like Howarth Beale.

Before I go though, I saw this amazing show on PBS called Ape Genius. It was fantastic. Everyone should watch this program.

** Speaking of crazy talk - if the solution to this economic downturn we’re having in America begins to sound like the Politicians are promoting a new currency to better stablize the future economy you’ll know all we’ve gone through these last couple years has been just part of the plan. You heard it here first. Crazy Talk I know, but still… who’s to say?

A Whole New You, The Daily Commute, Thinking out loud

Yesterday two good things occurred. One was planned and the other was not.

First the planned one: I got my refund check from the IRS last week. I put most of it down on my one remaining credit card and reduced the balance by a little over 55 percent. I’ll have some very comfortable payments for the next couple months and it should be completely paid off by July. This is important for many reasons. The primary one being I now have a car payment (plus insurance for a new car) so my budget has been squeezed a bit.

The second thing that happened was at work. I was coming out of the staff lounge and heading down the hallway when a fellow worker who was further down the hall was headed toward me. When we met in the hall he said “Hey have you lost weight? I didn’t recognize you when I first saw you coming out of the door.”

I was like - “Really? Thanks. Yes I’ve been working out.” And he replied. “Well it’s surely working. I hadn’t seen you in a while and I wasn’t sure it was you for a moment there until I got closer.”

Now that’s cool!

As you can tell from my Road to Mt. Olympus tracking I haven’t really lost a whole lot - about 3-5 pounds on any given week - but I’m definitely slimming down.

Then that same day I had just gotten home and was about to go on my walk when I head some birds in the back yard. I looked out back and there were dozens of vultures sitting in the trees and even walking around the ground. I went out and they were cawing and fluttering their wings and just hanging out in my back yard.

I went toward the trees they had roosted in and was walking underneath them but they didn’t move. I looked into the sky and more vultures were overhead. I was sniffing the air for death, and looking at the grounds for some dead animal. I was out there about five minutes when suddenly they all started to move on. Some took off and flew into the sky while others simply moved to jump from tree to tree.

Circling off in the distance I saw a few more vultures and the ones from my yard started to join them. Then a hawk started to screech in a tall tree nearby.  I’m not sure if it was the hawk or they were simply resting but almost all at once they were gone and large cyclon funnels of birds were springing up in different areas of the sky. It was like out of a King novel or something.

I hope they had just needed a place to relax after a hard journey of eating the dead. I still have all my cats so I know it wasn’t that.

A Whole New You, The Credit Trap, Thinking out loud

I walked the Leon County Sinks Geological area this morning. It was very cool. I’ve done it once before but not like this.

It’s a wonderful area of forest, grasslands, and swamps with huge sink holes scattered throughout. I took the trail with a friend because we are working on getting in shape for a week long camping trip up north. Periodically when we would come an interesting hill or rise I would sprint to the top. I must have sprinted at least 20 times during the over five mile hike. It had to be at least a mile of running through the forest. It’s so much easier to run in the woods than it is to run on the road. It’s a completely different feel. I really enjoyed it and may do it again. It costs three dollars to get into the park though so I’m not sure if it’ll be a regular thing, but still it’s a great nature hike.

Mid-way through the trails we kept saying, “Man where’s the camera.” We should have brought a camera and took pictures because then I could have included pictures in this blog post rather than boring old words. Oh well, next time.

We’re doing the Garden of Eden trek in two weeks so I’ll have some pictures of that. On a good note, I was hardly winded for most of those sprints. If I had done this a couple months ago … well I wouldn’t have been able too. The Road to Mt. Olympus is getting easier.

Darn, we shouldn’t brought a camera.

Later.

A Whole New You

My sun room is 95% cleaned up. I still have some items across the top of the bookcases but until I clean the 3rd bedroom those items will have to wait for their new home.

As you can see this room is a pig sty.

It slowly became cluttered and before I knew it I couldn’t use it. You’ll notice the sit up bench to the right. I would make my way through the maze and do my sit ups on that bench. The shelves became a nestling place for any random book/magazine that made its way into the house. I’m telling ya we have too much stuff! Or at least I do. I really want to reduce the amount of stuff I have but I am not at the point where I’ll just get a big dumpster and toss everything.

I’d like to get some value back from all these items scattered around the house. But fret not, I have a plan. I’m going to build a website were I can auction off all my stuff. People will be able bid on the items they want. I may even open it up for other people so they can auction their own items on the site. I’m in the process of working out the schema and such for the database and web design layout and functionality but when it’s completed it’ll be awesome I swear. It’ll be huge! I should probably check and make sure there isn’t another site similar to this though. It’s always good to check for your competition when building websites on the web.

So in between working on this auction site idea I have cleaned the sun room

and marked it off in my Mind Map Priority and Projects page:

On other news my Geo Metro has been retired from active service. It was time. 

I got a 2008 Toyota Corolla. I’ll take pictures eventually. But basically go to the Toyota website and look at the 2008 Corolla’s and choose the Desert Sand color and that’ll be my car.
(Maybe now women will unlock their front doors when I go to pick them up for our dates. 8^)

Here’s something cool.

The January numbers for my trek to Mt. Olympus. I had a total melt down this last week as far as walking/running goes but I’ll get back on the calves and knees and feet again this week. I maintained my other routine though.

I think I’m going to stop doing the Dips in favor of Military Presses and Arm Curls with the weight bar. It just seems more balanced. I’ll do push-ups every morning but the weight bar in the evening. We’ll see.

In other fronts the cookie jar was stolen. Well it wasn’t stolen but it might as well have been - it was definitely raided. I had to pull money out of the jar to cover expenses for the month of January. I didn’t get paid in January since in my job we get paid twice in December. It’s a holiday thing that totally screws up the ledger. Most of the expenses were unexpected bills, gas, and food.

So that withdraw is reflected in the Cookie Jar page.

That’s ok. This month will be much better. My auction website idea will see to that. 8^)

A Whole New You, The Daily Commute, Thinking out loud