Neti Pot is for babies.

A friend of mine mentioned that she had been using a neti pot every morning. I had no idea what that was. Turns out it is basically a little tea pot that you fill with warm salt water and you put the opening in one nostril and then let gravity do the rest. It is supposed to pour out the other nostril. It cleans you out and helps your sinuses... Well that is just great. good for those folks. I recently became sick. Did not feel like doing anything. Every morning there was the perfunctory brownish green yellow with flecks of red united nations of crap pouring out of my head thus indicating that this cold mean business, liked my head, and wanted to settle in. Well I didn't very much like that idea. I rummaged around my disorganized bathroom sink cabinet looking for my silver bullet. A Neti pot you ask?

Aw hell no. H E L L no! I am not going to rely on gravity and gentle streams to penetrate the crud in my head and throat. No, I go for "Saline Irrigation". I have not had to do it for a long long time, but this is the first time I have been sick in recent memory and I just won't stand for it.

I take one of those ear wax removal bulbs (obviously a fresh one that has NOT ever been used for ear wax removal) and fill it with the hottest salt water and a pinch of baking soda that I can stand. Then I put the tip in one nostril and pinch my nose shut with the thing in there. I then exhale (to keep with salt water from going down my wind pipe) and smash the bulb as hard as I can. Hot salt water flies all through my knoggin. Drips in the back of my mouth down my throat, fills everything. I then stay bent over the sink to let all the mess flee my head. I repeat for each nostril usually another time or two. I used to cough or gag, but I have gotten used to the sensation and I tolerate it fairly well now even though it has been a few years since i have done it.

The rest of the day I can breath and I also know that I have really cleaned myself out. Typically just one session does the trick, but if I wake the next morning stopped up at all, out it comes.

Musinex commercial, kiss my ass.

Clear the state...

...Of Mind

I have sat for a few minutes before and after yoga clearing the mind (as instructed). I don't drive much with my job, but when I do, it's often a few hours. It's nice to be alone with my thoughts some times. But sitting and meditating for 20 minutes. That is a new one. Sitting still, eyes closed and "thinking" but not thinking. Hauling a Trailer down I-40 at 60 miles an hour with eyes closed and not moving for 20 minutes would be ill advised. The Yoga instructor typically says clear the mind, not "think"... or, specifically think about one thing. No, with Meditation, My mind becomes the truck and trailer moving at 60 miles an hour... at first on the highway... but then pretty soon it just goes off road and then I think starts jumping through the occasional worm hole. I was told to allow thoughts to come in but then just let them pass. For a few minutes, honestly, nothing came to mind...

Was it a kink in the garden hose?

Or was it a water melons worth of thoughts trying to push their way out of a spigot?

Who knows?

Who cares for that matter?

Finally a few started coming and then free association just kept issuing a new thought that was sometimes loosely connected to the previous thought, sometimes not. I am certainly not comfortable with it yet so I bumble around a bit in my own mind. I grinned occasionally and giggled a bit once at the bizarre non sequiturs that came forth. I also likened the thoughts to some turn of the century walk on a spring evening in Paris after the work day had ended, the thoughts were people all dressed up in their finest to see and be seen kind of strutting around in a slightly over dramatic manner. (a top hat and monocle sort of thing.) The thought comes up with a grand sweep of the hand coupled with a slight bow and says "How do you do?" I say "Fine thank you how are you." It then Ambles on into the pleasant night air. Then another one strolls by. And this is odd because I am in North America and it was clearly 11:30 in the morning. (which ironically puts it at early evening in Paris). I had many layers of thought going all at once. Some of it was simply commentary on each thought, some of it was trying to find the pattern in the thoughts. And then thankfully, most of it was just the passing thoughts themselves. I feel that this is what it is supposed to be... but hell I don't know. It's my meditation and the bottom line is this. What must I do to gain a little clarity? Clearly its a Chinese finger trap. It is something that I must allow rather than force... At any rate, it's something new for me. And I think I'll go sit down and SEEMINGLY do nothing at all for another 20 minutes. But things are happening non the less. I do believe that much.

Don't be clumsy twice in a row.

Writing... I do like how it sometimes forces you to flesh out an idea a little more than you would have if you just thought it out instead and then moved on. This installment is founded on minutia. I made some eggs for breakfast and then with plate in one hand I reached into the fridge for some Tabasco. It was on a ledge rather than in the door where most people would put condiments... but my fridge runs bare most of the time, so stuff just goes where ever. I clumsily grasped at it (that's what she said) and I sent it flying toward the kitchen floor. With the same offending hand I circled around and caught it mid air, plate of eggs still level. And with a lack of humility I hissed "Yesss!" to the morning sun that was flooding the living room and pumped the first clutching the Tabasco. The pumping was good, both celebration and function... (shake well) I added the Tabasco to the salsa on the eggs, took a bite to test and then made my way over to my desk to 15% work and 85% eat I then managed to unbalance the fork just as I was maneuvering to sit. Once again a hand shot out and caught the fork mid air before it had a chance to stain the nice clean carpet with salsa and egg. Within the space of 2 minutes, two instances of clumsy. No harm done however. A full bottle of un-shattered Tabasco is safely back in the fridge and the salsa and eggs are all safely in my tummy rather than some of them in the carpet.

Inattention, bad luck, poor thought processes... these can lead to "oops". The cool thing about oops is that many times, if you act quickly and correctly you can then create a solution before the consequences of "oops" fully manifest themselves. The American Public made an Oops a little over 8 years ago. Some how or another, four years later no hand shot out to catch the falling item, no we just allowed four more years of shattered Tabasco all over out kitchen floor and no one stepped up to end sub prime balloon mortgages. At first I thought it was insane with cars... but said hmmm, whatever. But houses? HOUSES? Of course, I have known what it was like to be house poor and then house screwed when i lost my job in 2001 and vowed I would never do it again. I will straight buy future housing after this condo. That is to say that I will have paid the condo off, then I will start working on a down payment on a modest stand alone house out in the woods. I will then have a single mortgage to pay for the period of time during which I sell the condo. Then, with the money from the Condo, that will go to destroy the mortgage of the new house. Done done and DONE. See, there is me not being clumsy twice in a row. I am sure that there are some mistakes that I make over and over again. I think I will take some time the next time I have to drive a long distance and figure out what those things are. It can sometimes be very hard to be self critical. Looking at America, our Oops is plain as day. The middle east, Dependency on Oil and other fossil fuels, corruption of the rich, financial retardation of the middle and lower classes. That just names a few. Let me clarify the retardation. Buying too much house, to many nice things. They couldn't afford it, but we kept making it (or China did I suppose) now all of a sudden... we are all not just kinda out of money... I mean we are OUT.

It's all too late now. There was no magic hand to grab that bottle before it struck the tile floor. Grab a mop, be careful to not cut yourself, and don't sniff in too deep while you are picking up the glass shards. Clean up in Isle world.

Creatures of Habit

We all are. I have changed a good number of habits in the last few days. I can do that fairly well. The more I sit here and try to type, the more I understand that I have no clue where I am going with this. It can't go on the blog. This is nothing more than a personal mental book mark so that in the future, I can come back, read this and then recall ... ah yes, the thing about the thing. At any rate, one of the craziest things I can think of is when you do all this work to route the water of your soul into the channels that you feel best serve it and then a full moon tide sweeps in and lets you know that you actually have no idea what you are doing. No idea at all. You stand waist deep in muddy water with sand in your shoes, slightly uncomfortable, a little chilly, and all you can think about is... "well what is this going to look like after the water recedes?"

Day of Days

My observations about our 44th President. More to come I suppose.

1. I am happy that Barack Obama has not been assassinated. I pray he dies an old man many many years from now and gets to see his lovely daughters have children of their own. Like every man, he deserves it. I'd say he deserves it more than me because of the risk he is taking for the common good. I look at our greatest presidents, the brave ones, the barrier breakers, the ones who really made positive change in our nation. That same energy draws evil to it and they are far too often shot at and often hit. Obama is SO positive for this nation, for the world in fact, that I am scared SH!tless for his safety. With the nation and the world in the shape it is in right now, if he is killed, I fear the worst for not just America, but for the human race. THE HUMAN RACE. I'd take a bullet for the man. I have never said that about someone I don't know personally.
2. I watched NBC. In this day and age, the ALL the technology, what a crappy job they did. Lack of sound feeds, poor editing. For a network that did so much to help Obama (subtle ways mind you, but I feel they did). MAN what a crap job of bringing us the day.
3. Obama's Speech... well, what can I say, the bar was set so very high...
Out of any other president in my life time I would have said "oh hells yeah". I think the victory speech on election night was much better.
I really would have liked for him to say. Fine, I am a black man. Whatever, I am just the right guy at the right time. This should have happened long ago because slavery should not have happened etc etc etc. Great, whatever... you know what, good for America for making this change and thanks to all African Americans who had to suffer and beat on that glass ceiling (that honestly looks like an Arctic ice shelf with a few holes poked here and there... and i mean like, every few miles here and there) over and over to make this even possible. That aspect needs to keep improving. Then I really wanted him to Really get impassioned and hammer home the green revolution of making new jobs that ultimately get us off oil. And I wanted him to say this more definitively all the other things that got him elected. And I wanted him MOST of all, to tell the American Public that they are lazy and we have to really kick in gear and fix this. We must be accountable for everything we do, each person should strive to do better. With the lines about responsibility, he did it... but in a vague and flowery way. He could have pressed the issue harder. He is an icon, he has emotional capital to spend. I wanted to see him become a peaceful warrior, a drill Sargent of sorts for the boot camp of the American public. Obama more than any other president in my memory would get the response of "SIR YES SIR!" to demands made of it. 300 million people doing a little better each day is a huge thing. It could be personal health, it could be driving less, anything... But when Obama sat back down I didn't feel a call to arms to do much different than I do now. And sure, my goals are aligned with his... But I wanted this speech to drive it home somehow. Because if he really made me think again with his speech then I would know that he might have also really swayed republicans with his speech.
Well, maybe our 44th is taking a page out of the 26th's play book... today he walked softly. And upon hearing the words a few more times. Perhaps I must say, Obama is not soft... rather he is a professional political boxer. He has not tried to deliver any knock out blows too early in his opening rounds. But he did land scoring punches in every place that he needed to without opening himself up to a counter punch of any significance... well played sir, well played.
Now as for the senate and house that needs to fall in line with Obama's views... the battle of attrition has already begun. Cheney is in a wheel chair (funny and appropriate) not that I wish ill health on people but I really have nothing nice to say about the man apart from personal matters. And in Obama's corner, Byrd and Teddy Kennedy BOTH could not make it through lunch, LUNCH. Ok. I have no doubt what so ever that both Teddy and Rob have nothing but love for their country and support for our new president. But, you know what, the country needs men and women of youth and vigor to deal with the nations challenges. Hell, my kid is 11 and she is doing things on an I touch that I have no clue about. And I am 32. The men in power.... yes, years and years of experience... but the world... I feel it is changing at a rate never before seen. Lets look back... combustion engine. 100+ years ago now it is possible to sail England to the US in a few weeks, MUCH faster than wind. Then we build rail ways. Things across the nation in a week or so. Lets invent the telephone also 100+ years ago. A message around the world from one person to another in less than a minute. However, getting that message to more than that one person could take some time. Now, entire videos with audio, things that happened minutes ago. can be transmitted anywhere in the world without bias or editing, instantly, but this time around... TO EVERYONE ( now this is truly about 2 years old..). Now the question is not who sends the message, BUT can we trust the message sent? At any rate. within the next ten years anything will be seen live anywhere in the world by anyone if it is deemed relevant. In fact I propose that in a decade a group called the department of relevancy will be more important than any national security unit of government. At any rate, I love change, I love this nation. The future is scary exciting challenging and amazing. And I wonder if I will ever feel so Alive ever again. This could be our time. Our grand fathers fought world war two with new bullets, tanks, planes and Atom Bombs. Perhaps we fight a war of truth this time... there are no regiments, there are no artillery shells. We might fight this war from from comfort of our living rooms. Our weapons are a key board and a connection to a global interface none could have imagined 50 years ago. And so it goes. We bunker down in our living rooms and make claims. Then we kiss our children and loved ones emerging from our bunkers to fight... But in this war, death is not apparent. You can get yourself AND your family killed and not find out until years later. You can go home every day and hug your family, but every next day you had better be ready to fight. Welcome to the global economy and all the trappings that come with it.
Namaste.

Things We Take For Granite.

Yes, Yes indeed, someone wrote that on their wall on facebook in reference to something or other that was important to them. And no, this person was not making a joke. They meant the thing that is written to say, things we take for GRANTED.

That is a good one right there... Much better than a "moot" point vs. a "mute" point. That one runs rampant through Engineering types in the south. It always made me giggle first then be depressed for that fool with a 4 year degree yet apparently no command at all over the English language.

I will say no more about the "Granite" person other than to say I have known them since I was 5 and leave it at that. And, this does not surprise me in the least. Said individual had also recently joined the facebook group "keep God in Schools ". This starts me on a very sad path of discourse. I estimate that for every 50 or 60 christian idiots I can show you 1 smart one. I used to think that the number was something like 2 billion to 1. Having a few christian Friends has changed that for me. They do worship God as best I can tell. It is important to them and it is not lip service. Their actions seem to reflect this daily, yet they somehow live and function as normal people and can relate to us heathens. Which is a very important part of Christianity I think, spreading the word by being with all people in an inclusive manner. The more commonly practiced method is that of exclusion and fear (hell fire etc). Why the carrot of heaven and the stick of hell. My christian friends are like, "hey, here is a carrot, when are we hanging out next?" They don't try to force religion down my throat. If they are worried about my immortal soul they might pray for it behind my back, if they do, that is very sweet of them, but they certainly don't confront me with it.

I know even more idiots who just claim to be christian because they haul themselves to church once a week and think little else about it as if Jesus Christ is some sort of weekly errand that must be done. "OOOP! It's Sunday, I'm fresh out of the Lord, gotta stop by for some more."

At any rate, these christian friends of mine are SMART, they understand the importance of separation of Church and state, and they want to see this nation move forward. It is lamentable that Religion is holding us back politically as a nation. Freedom of religion is an awesome thing, but it must be balanced perfectly with indivdual rights. If only my smart christian friends could some how infect the dumb ones with a "wake the hell up!" virus.

As Americans our freedom is not something we should take for GRANITE. Um... well cause unless it is just a little tiny piece of it, that shit is heavy. And I wouldn't want to carry it very far.

The love virus

No not the high 5. Something useful. I watched a show on National G that revolved around the concept that viruses drive evolution and all sorts of things. It makes sense, I buy into it. It also explains all of the "junk code" in DNA... Well, that is crap I think, scientists are calling it junk because they don't know what the hell it does or what the hell it once did. So, anyway, they had these two strains of prairie vol. One type was known to be monogamous, the other type was known to spread his seed far and wide. They took one of these "playa" vols and injected him with this virus found in the monogamous species. The little pimp turned into a home loving man ( or little furry thing, whatever). Simply amazing! Everyone releases chemicals into their own blood stream during sexy time. There were 3 specific ones named. One is responsible for pair bonding, AKA love. Oxytocin??? Which is the same stuff that causes labor. At any rate, the playa vol released it but without that virus the chemicals were not reacting in the brain and changing behavior, the virus acts as a catalyst.
There have been a small handful of women that I have been absolutely addicted to. I would never in a million years have thought of cheating on them, and when we parted, for whatever reason, I was seriously messed up. But with all other women, it's been fine, even some that dump me. I have been like... enh... ok, next.
Put the TV show together with what I just wrote about and it brings all sorts of questions up.
1. Was I infected?
2. Who carried it?
3. Am I now immune?
4. Will I need a booster shot?
5. Do I want a booster shot?
6. Can I keep myself single by using disinfecting wipes consistently?
7. Am I a carrier?
8. Can I spread it to others?

Ah, the love bug... literally, that may be what it is. At any rate, I hope to god that if I come down with love again it does not end in a train wreck.