Darth Vader being an ass!

This made me laugh way too hard not to post.

Writers Discipline

To write, especially in this day and age, you have to be very disciplined. Now, more than any other time in history, there are distractions everywhere; television, the internet, family, friends, phones, pets, sports, it can all be overwhelming. Everything in our modern lives is so fast paced, where can someone find the time to slow down and write, it’s counter to our culture. Even now, while I am writing this, I have the urge to browse other pages, to read other blogs or to watch Jerry Springer. But in order to write effectively, I need to resist those urges and just concentrate at the task at hand.

But I also begin to wonder, does living in such a fast paced, choice filled, highly connected world lead to unhappiness? It seems the more and more you speak to people, the more you discover they are unhappy about life in general. It is normally nothing specific, its just a general uneasiness, or unhappiness. Personally I believe it is because it’s very hard to settle on one thing anymore, there are simply too many choices.

But then again, I have always believed that humans are very simple creatures, and that we unnecessarily complicate our own lives, leading to confusion and unhappiness (I know, how Buddhist). But through this process of writing, well trying to, some days. I have truly learned about the discipline it takes to stay focused on any one thing in life. I am going to be making an effort to simplify my life even more, and really learn to keep on one task at at time (excluding work, where I am the known multitasker).

So, this post is my first step towards that goal of simplification. Hopefully if I keep on track, you will see more and more posting here in the future as I do not lack topics (I have a whole page full), I simply lack the discipline to stay focused.

Traffic – Discovery through observation

I have made it known on quite a few occasions that I love to people watch. So much can be learned by simply observing people, especially when they are not aware they are being watched. Groups like Improv Everywhere perform, en masse, large “stunts” to simply cause a reaction in people (does it technically qualify as art now?) To me, it is always amazing to see how everyone reacts to what is going on around them. For a great example check out the Freeze they performed at Grand Central Station in New York.

I also, like everyone else, I am sure, hate traffic, with a burning, fiery passion. My people watching also extends to the road, and I have seen everything from makeup being applied, to newspapers being read, to hair being done. The latest incident, the one that brought me to write this post up is what really did it for me. I noticed traffic was starting to back up around this one car on the highway, cars behind this guy were going slow, and trying to get around him, cars to the right and left were passing him with caution. Getting closer, I peeked over into his car, passing I noticed the following: The guy had a dog on his lap with its head out the window and had one arm around the dog to hold him in while he drove with his wrist/forearm on the arm so he could text message/use his phone. I was floored, this guy was cruising along with minimal control of his vehicle at around 50-55MPH on a highway where people normally cruise at 70-80MPH.

After passing him I thought to myself “Man, he is going to get creamed one of these days” and my mind began to drift off into thoughts about traffic in general, and that pre-cell phone and the retardation of the human race, there was still traffic. Sure, some of it is due to sheer volume or an accident, but what about those times when, for no reason at all you have to stop for no reason. My assumption was always that someone had to jam on their brakes or cut across many lanes of traffic, causing someone else to do the same, but it was never something I could prove. Searching around on the internet, it turns out a Japanese study proved just that.

Called a shockwave traffic jam, these are caused when someone gets too close to the car in front of them and slows down, causing a “shockwave” behind them. To be able to observe this phenomenon is pretty cool, as it really illustrates the differences in people as a whole. All drivers were given the same set of instructions “Cruise around the track at around 30KPH (18.64MPH)” yet someone still managed to get too close (by their own judgment) to another vehicle and had to slow down. At higher speeds, I would imagine the slowdown would be even greater in relation to the speed they were going, causing a more noticeable change. That slowdown would also shockwave back as you saw in the video. So for example if Driver A slows down from 75 to 60, Driver B (behind driver A) now has to compensate for Driver A going 60 and slows down more, say to 50. Driver C, behind B, now has to compensate for their change from 75 to 50 and go ever slower, etc.. That would continue until you get the near stops we see in the video and experience in life.

The truth is that despite all that we have in common, including fears, dreams, hopes, etc we all still react differently to the same set of stimuli. So traffic jams that start for no reason will continue to happen. People not acting or reacting as you would in the same situation will not stop, and the sooner we can accept and understand that fact, the happier I think we can be as a whole. We often forget that we are really not the same, at least in our brains, and it is unfair to get angry at someone for being who they are (doing obviously stupid things aside, like any of the examples I gave above). Sure it causes us an inconvenience at the time but try to remember when you, maybe, did something silly by other peoples standards (like running away from a little bug or something). In the end, we all die, so why stress ourselves out over relatively minor things in life? We should really enjoy as much of life as we can while we are here.

I AM, IRONMAN …. err, Mr. Mom

Instead of apologizing for any lack of posting, I’ll simply tell you that my life has been very hectic recently. Aside from work going nuts (5am meetings and 5pm end of days) I have been trying to balance my work and my new role, Mr. Mom. You see, my company has recently started an awesome teleworking program which means I am home a lot more now.

The way it works is that I am pair with another person in the building and work from home half the week and from a shared cubicle the other half. (alternating Mon/Wed/Fri and Tues/Thurs) This arrangement benefits both myself and the company. For me, I save on driving, gas, wear and tear on the car, and hours of traffic a week (on average I was driving 10-15 hours a week just to get to work) For the company, they get to plan for smaller work spaces due to less cubicles being used, less power consumption, less wear and tear, less water usage, etc. They also end up getting a longer work day. Most people tend to log in earlier and work later when working from home, I know I do.

The other great thing for me is that I now get to spend a lot of time with my son at home. Now at four months old (pictures at the bottom) he is becoming more and more fun. He plays and laughs, rolls over and is now starting to eat some level 1 foods. He really is a little boy now and less of a baby. Me being at home also helps out my parents and my wife’s parents as they had agreed to watch him when we worked. Now they are asking to take him on some days because they only get half of the time they anticipated.

All in all I am thrilled to be home, working and raising my son. Sure it gets hectic some days when I am on a conference call and he is strapped to my chest in his baby Bjorn, but I just tough it out and share some laughs with him later on.

Non baby related, you will begin seeing more posts from me now that I am more settled in what I am doing with work and Josh. I have a ton of topics to write about, some sexual, some not, either way, I am aching to write again. I genuinely miss it.

Are we too wired?

I have said many times in my posts that I believe everything in life is balanced, for every good there is an evil and for every up there is a down. Lately, that belief has set its sites on this now wired world of ours and the downside of the connections and distractions those wires provide. Sure, inventions like the alphabet, writing, the printing press, typewrites, computers and the internet all provided easier means of sharing information, leading to great discoveries and the propagation of ideas on a wide scale. But like I said everything has a down side. The same technologies that allow us to share good things, also allow us to share hate literature, weapon designs, stolen credit card numbers and entire identities.

My real annoyance with portable electronic devices began one evening when my wife and I were out at dinner. Eating our bread sticks dipped in alfredo sauce we were absolutely disgusted at the family sitting next to us. Here they were, all five of them, two parents and three kids, eating “together” with only the parents speaking. All three kids alternated between picking at their food and either text messaging their friends or playing their GameBoys. Bad parenting? You bet, but this type of activity is becoming more commonplace it seems; and unfortunately now that I have noticed it, I see it everywhere (like the arrow in the FedEx logo).

“But they were only kids”, you say? Perhaps, but the behavior is not unique to kids. The boyfriend of one of my wives friends would regularly attend holiday dinners with our families and spend half of his time on his BlackBerry working, sometimes at the table. Manners aside, if you cannot enjoy a dinner with friends and family without constantly checking your phone, you have problems. Sure he was a bit of a workaholic, (even working during a wedding in the balcony once) but with the introduction of cell phones, BlackBerry’s, PDA’s, text messaging, SecurIDs and remote email access, people are spending more and more time connected to work, friends and family, after all they are only a few keystrokes away now.

Yes, I know, those connections can be a great thing in certain situations, but people have a hard time knowing when they should sever those connections and the devices off or simply ignoring them. There have been far too many times when I have seen people out in public rush to pick up their phone only to talk about nothing. Phone calls on elevators or standing in a check out line with conversations like “Oh, nothing, just picking up some groceries. What are you doing?” Never mind some of the more obscene calls I have heard; though as an aside my personal theory is that people have some weird expectation of privacy when a phone is connected to their ear, no matter where they are physically located.

The big problem with these connections is that they remove you own personal time when you could sort things out in your mind, or simply think about nothing and day dream about the future. It seems, for many, those days are long gone; their need to talk to everyone all the time has made them slaves to the devices attached to their hips. So, I urge you, take one hour a day (bed time doesn’t count), and get away from your computers, ignore your cell phones, and put down the iPod. Go for a walk or just lie in bed and think. Get away from everyone and everything and enjoy yourself (not like that you pervs! Though, I guess you could *rawr*). Stop being slaves to the devices and the people connected to them and reclaim your independence from them. Or if you really need to talk to someone, go meet them face to face, they won’t bite, I promise.

Beware, geeky stuff ahead!

Ok, my brain is always working, sometimes on really odd things, especially if involves trying to see or find a pattern. With that said, I have “discovered” two cool math things, though, I am sure they have been pointed out by someone before; but DAMNIT, they are new to me, and they are special cuz I thunk of it all myself!

Ok, since I don’t know how to properly write what I want to say, I’ll write how I want and explain.

Lets say you have a series of numbers 1 through 15 (shorthand: [1 +.+ 15]

I found out that [1 +.+ 15] = ((1 + 15)/2) * 15

Go ahead, do the math, I’ll wait. *taps foot*

Satisfied? Good. So that holds true for all numbers and can be written as

[1 +.+ X] = ((1 + X)/2) * X

For the second one, Ill use 15 again

[1 +.+ 15] / [15 / 2] = 15 +1

Again, go do the math. *taps foot again*

so written generically as:

[1 +.+ X] / [X / 2] = X + 1

Go ahead, say it, I’m a geek. Now, the above examples only work starting at 1, but I know there must be a pattern starting at other numbers, I’ll start pondering it. =)

Reach out and touch someone

I was at the vets the other day, having my dogs nails trimmed when I saw two women come in, probably late twenty’s early thirties carrying in an older looking dog, some small toy breed. When they stepped inside, one of the women started crying hysterically. Frantically looking around she finally spotted the room she was looking for, number one, directly behind her. The door opened and I could see a doctor standing beside a table, with a solemn look on her face. Knowing why they were there now, I watched as the crying woman stepped into the room, closing the door behind her. Just then, my dog was called in.

As I was paying, the woman walked past me, still crying, carrying the dogs collar and leash. My heart ached for her, she was devastated. Looking down at my dog I though “One day, that will be me; but I know you have an awesome life, and probably more love than any other dog”, then asked her for a hug and kiss, which she gladly gave me. As we walked out, I saw the woman standing there in an open patch of grass, crying. I didn’t know where her friend was, but I wanted to walk over and just embrace her and tell her it was ok. That everyone and everything dies, it’s just an unavoidable part of life. The pain she feels is temporary, and that if she keeps the good memories in the front of her mind, she will have a life time of things to smile and laugh about.

But I didn’t. This world scares me sometimes, people are so easily offended and litigious that I was afraid she would freak out and mace me or something, then call the cops and have me arrested for sexual harassment or some bullshit. I suppose it was mostly my imagination going crazy again, it often does that, but people are losing their minds, and this country is agreeing with them. We constantly hear stories of people being sued for silly things, and I just know my luck. But deep in my heart, I wanted to reach out and try to ease some of her pain. Even now I wonder how she is doing, if she is able to reconcile at all.

Josh is three months old!

Just like last month, I find myself not believing we are at the three month mark already. It’s simply amazing. We can get him to smile and laugh now very regularly. He love playing the “drop game” where I hold him and simulate a drop. He goes NUTS for it. He is starting to get a tooth or teeth in his gums already, and while nothing is showing, its causing him obvious discomfort. He is constantly eating his fist (you will see below), grabbing his ear and drooling. But other than when he is hungry, he rarely cries and tends to be a very content baby.

On a side note, my last spirituality post is nearly done, every time I am ready to publish it, I notice something different with Josh which makes me go back and tweak it one last time!

Me and the lil man

Wait... I'm how old?!

Whew... that's a lot... I need to lay down

Excuse You!

I’ve learned that the majority of people in this world are inconsiderate. They tend to care only about themselves, and even become pigheaded when they are clearly in the wrong. A good example of this is illustrated in an even that occurred a few weeks back.

I work on a decent size campus, so our lunch room is a separate building from where I physically work. To get there I have to walk past a smoking hut (where people smoke outside of it, but that is another topic altogether), and down a decently long path wide enough for 3 average, or 4 really skinny people. As I walk, I hug the right hand “path” like we do when driving. Now, I am not a large person by any stretch of the imagination, I really take up no space at all, which makes this all the more infuriating. As I was walking, I noticed a group of three larger men walking towards me, shoulder to shoulder, taking up nearly the entire path. I continued walking, we came closer and then “!BAM!” our shoulders smacked (see beautiful illustration below):

After we hit, I expected him to say excuse me, so when it did not, I said “Excuse you”. Spinning around on his heel he said “Excuse me, what did you say?”. Reiterating I again said “Excuse you. You ran into me.” Taking a step closer he stated, “No, you ran into me.” Chuckling, I pointed to myself and said “Look at me, I take up no room, and you guys were walking three abreast. Decency dictates you should have moved behind your friends so others could pass.” He argued, “You could have walked on the grass.” Countering, “Seriously? I shouldn’t have to… I am not going to argue this anymore, nor am I going to apologize, you ran into me.” One of this guys friends put his hand on his should and agreed with me, pulling him away.

As I continued my walk, I could not believe the nerve of him to suggest he was in any way right. Was he just trying to be a tough guy? Did he really believe I should have moved? I shook my head in disgust as I arrived, trying to forget about him. Two bites into my sandwich, and I was already calm… AAH the power of  roast beef and cheddar.

Another Video

Not sure why, but I’ve been into these “feel good” short movie type things on the internet lately. Here is one I stumbled across and the sheer simplicity of the video never fails to make me smile. Please, check it out, watch the entire thing, I promise it’s worth it.

Happy People Dancing on Planet Earth