Living In the World, Not on It

This is me all over (taken from Eat Pray Love ): "Like most humanoids, I am burdened with what the Buddhists call the "monkey mind"--the thoughts that swing from limb to limb, stopping only to scratch themselves, spit and howl. From the the distant past to the unknowable future, my mind swings wildly through time, touching on dozens of idea a minute, unharnessed and undisciplined. This in itself is not necessarily a problem; the problem is the emotional attachment that goes along with the thinking. Happy thoughts make me happy, but-- whoop! --how quickly I swing again into obsessive worry, blowing the mood; and then it's the remembrance of an angry moment and I start to get hot and pissed off all over again; and then my mind decides it might be a good time to start feeling sorry for itself, and loneliness follows promptly. You are, after all, what you think. Your emotions are slaves your thoughts, and you are slave to your emotions. The other problem with all this sw...

You would think that this would be a bit more wow! than you'd think. I had gone out to my hammock around 15:40, only to see a brightly blue sky with not a single stray cloud anywhere. Okay, it must be OK, the forecast was off and there'd be no storm approaching. Well, alrighty then! I hooked up my ear covers, started up my iPod, and set up my beautiful hammock. I lay in it and it swung from side to side gently, eventually stopping. The stopping was disappointing - once the hammock was in its normal spot, nothing moved. I mean nothing: not a single leaf twitched, not a blade of grass quivered, nothing. Not a breath of moving air. It was only 79°F but it was 84% humidity - disgusting. So I lay in my hammock, and did not even read page... whatever page I was on! I lay there in the heat and humidity, sweating with my iPod playing, realising that this is very warm. But in moments I fell asleep. Sheesh. I slept for a good long time, from 18:00 to 19:47. I would have remained sleepin...

Most people don't want to hug me. Not at work, anyway. And to a large degree it makes sense. Not too many people feel comfortable hugging the Human Resources Manager. It's a daunting idea. What if it is not received well? I get that. I'm most approachable and friendly and never hesitate to be touchy-feely with the people I know who are comfortable. It is a limiting feeling to not be so approachable on a more touchy feely basis. But one person there is a just such a love, a great, good friend, with warmth and happiness that is best and most effectively given to others through a hug. So whenever we see each other, we hug each other. There is nothing inappropriate in it, there is nothing sexual in it, it is just a wonderful, warm reassuring hug that like looking at the stars and planets does for me, the hugs restore perspective. I love that.

...of dealing with other drivers. I'm not the perfect driver, but I'm a good driver. I am not a rabid speeder; my comfort zone is 70 miles an hour. I don't tailgait, which seems never to work in my favour since keeping a safe distance means more than a car length and everyone is determined to fill in any open spaces. I refuse to play musical lanes. Once I'm in the left lane, that is where I plan to stay until I am ready to exit. That is not generally a good tactic, but I find that once I learned about CEVO driving and ambulance operations, I prefer that style of driving. Get to the safety zone, then head to your destination, then worry about the getting off the road and getting to where I need to go. There are no safety zones. Not in this misbegotten state! Everyone is a bad driver. I'm not but I am fighting with an entire state's worth of truly worthless drivers. The short woman in a huge Suburban truck who clearly needed to be reminded about her turn signal a...

The upcoming hurricane season could be a top 10 active year, a stark contrast from the relatively calm 2009 season. AccuWeather.com Chief Hurricane Meteorologist Joe Bastardi predicts a total of 16-18 storms this season. To put that in perspective, only eight years in the 160 years of records have had 16 or more storms in a season. The season should start early with one or two threats by early July, and stay late with additional threats extending well into October. His forecast team expects at least six storms to impact the United States coastline--slightly more than one out of every three. In a normal year, one out of every five named storms (20 percent) in the Atlantic basin impacts the United States. In the 2005 season, 36 percent of the storms affected the United States, while 50 percent impacted the United States in 1998 and 2008. "From the standpoint of number of storm threats from the tropics to the United States coastline, we will at least rival 2008, and in ...

Penn & Teller have asserted that this hubbub about Area 51 is bullshit. I have to agree. Do I think the government has secrets and is guarding one (or more) in Area 51? Sure. All governments have secrets. And they probably all have them in areas that we know about, such as any base or place like Picatinny Arsenal, since those would be the obvious places. But I wouldn't expect any government to have all the information they have open to John Q. Public. Given how many stupid people there are, it's just as well. Area 51 is known as the place with alien secrets. And you should see the winners on this show. I believe there are aliens, and I'm sure they've stopped by to check us out. I'm also completely confident that they tuned into our channels, saw the wars, general violence and of course, nations' leaders speaking and looked at each other in horror and quickly put out the word that this planet needs to be avoided. Seriously avoided. They'll stop in around...

By Hillary Chura In the time it takes you to read this paragraph, the average recruiter will have plowed through six resumes. (We know; we timed one.) Want to increase the chances of your resume making it to the next round? Then don’t do any of these seven things, which recruiters say — more than anything — make them want to push the “shred” button. (For more resume tips, check out our interactive critique of an actual resume .) 1. Apply for a job for which you are not remotely qualified Many candidates believe the job hunt is a numbers game — drop enough resumes, and you’re bound to land something. But shotguns are for hunting pheasant, not finding jobs. The reality is that recruiters hate wasting time on resumes from unqualified candidates. Morgan Miller, an executive recruiter at StaffMark, recalls the security guard who applied to be a financial risk manager (maybe Lehman should have hired him), while Scott Ragusa at Winter, Wyman talks of the aerial photographer who sought...

NEW YORK (AP) -- It's a fermented, pungent tea, but it's the alcohol that can lurk inside of kombucha that's causing a stink. Regulators and retailers are concerned that the ancient and trendy tea may need to be regulated as an alcoholic drink. That's because some bottles have more than 0.5 percent alcohol -- the legal limit for a drink not to be considered alcoholic. The drink dates back thousands of years and across cultures, though its actual country of origin is unclear. But it has gained popularity in the past few years in the U.S., partly because of claimed health benefits, though there's little science behind them. And it doesn't hurt when stars like Lindsay Lohan are photographed drinking kombucha. Since last month, the government has been testing kombucha to determine if it should be labeled like beer or wine. Distributors and retailers like Whole Foods Inc. have removed the most popular form, raw kombucha, from stores, saying they won'...

By JUAN McCARTNEY, Associated Press Writer Juan Mccartney, Associated Press Writer – 1 hr 26 mins ago NASSAU, Bahamas – The teenage " Barefoot Bandit " who allegedly stole cars, boats and airplanes to dodge U.S. law enforcement was nabbed Sunday as he tried to make a water escape then brought handcuffed — and shoeless — to the capital to face justice, abruptly ending his two-year life on the lam. Colton Harris-Moore was arrested before dawn in northern Eleuthera, said Sgt. Chrislyn Skippings, a spokeswoman for the Royal Bahamas Police Force. A contingent of high-ranking officers traveled to the island and took the suspect to Nassau, the country's capital, where he faces possible extradition to the United States. ...

It really was a long weekend. Normally five days is a little too long, but for once I really needed it. I've been going at 124% since April and while that is an expectation through May, while the hiring is happening in bulk, that's fine but timing and events conspired to make the headaches be much more than just the norm. I was ready for the norm; no one is prepared for what isn't expected or on the radar. At the same time, my weekend came with a price tag. I suppose there is the you can't have everything factor and this is it. (You can get the details on the 3 July post entitled Geriatrics and Pediatrics .) If there is not too much stress in this or that part of your life, then it will show up somewhere. I don't know if this is Fate's way of reminding us not to become complacent, but that is as good as any theory. In the world of don't tempt fate, here's a tip: don't carry too many items in your arms while walking on hot sand in Crocs. At least it ...

What makes a movie great? Plot line, acting, music, visuals and ease of following the plot. For some, that last variable means a very convoluted story with a lot of details and small plots inclusive and for others, a more linear, easy to follow single plot. Bicentennial Man offers all of that. The five main items that make a great movie are represented in this film. The opening scenes for the title and credits are interesting, with wonderful music. Watching Andrew find himself and subsequently others is a journey that is incredible. Seeing the android slowly morph into Robin Williams' character is great. It is a heartwarming movie. Few movies make this kind of marks with me. It may not seem that way from what I write, but who wants to write about the lousy movies that are out there? And maybe it is a benefit to find many movies to be good, but Luis can sit through movies that in a million years I wouldn't watch. He just got back from seeing the latest Twilight movie, of which...

I've been setting myself up for failure. I want to have a post a day on my blog but I'm very erratic both by nature and by the job(s). My statistics are all over: January: 10 February: 22 March: 16 April: 32 May: 33 June: 17 July's first post went up last night, but I keep forgetting that it is only 3 July. So for the year I have put up 133 posts... so I need 50 more posts to catch up to the mid-year amount. No problem...

My mother is in Wayne General (now St. Joseph's) after throwing up what looks exactly like coffee grounds. The whole story: Thursday night she had a seizure. She had a grand mal seizure, which is uglier than the little ones that are still disturbing to other people. Ray said that the post-dictal phase was too long and so he called 9-1-1 (this took years of training to get him to react the right way to emergencies, so no criticising!). They did a CAT scan of the brain (of which I don't know what was seen, having been on call for our own patients), then sent her home. She vomited at 0800 and as much as I don't recall the conversation, I do remember him trying to describe the vomitus and asking if it looked like coffee grounds He immediately said yes, and I said hang up now and call the doctor. Tell him it looks like coffee grounds. He'll know what it means. I know what it means. It means internal bleeding. Internal bleeding can be ulcers or a major GI bleed or a whole hos...

Luis went onto Apple.com and after some vacillating, bought a Mac Mini. It's absolutely tiny! The keyboard and magic mouse arrived a few days ago. the actual unit, which is maybe 7" (15cm) across and front to back, came from China... the whole journey tracked by Luis, who wanted to know every minute where it was. He's been setting it up since he got home. It's really quite amazing! The image is sharp, the computer allows the user to make the font as large or small as he or she would like it to be and the interface is easy to use. The 42" telly doesn't hurt, but any telly will handle this. NetFlix was also a crisp, clear image and streamed in a much better fashion on the Mac Mini than ever before - through TiVO. The interface allows the user to set up a multitude of things - YouTube, NetFlix, Flex, the internet, Pandora, and iTunes, to name a few. This is the new toy in the house. I need to refamiliarise myself with Mac keys, using the Command key instead of co...