Although I constantly refer to “silence” and “presence,” I have put off posting any how-to here about meditation, since there are innumerable resources out there and I don’t want to re-invent the wheel. I may eventually post a how-to here.
In the meantime, Brian Williard sent me the below link that I can’t ignore.
I’d urge anyone who’s interested in meditation, or in learning how to meditate, to read it. Actually, I’d encourage anyone who’s not engaged in meditation now, to read it.
At the shelter, we’re required to attend chapel for an hour every night. I normally find it just as edifying as a traffic jam.
The group from “Guilford” presents on the fourth Monday every month. About a dozen of them come. Their leader is J_____ R__. Different ones preach in different months. When J_____ R__ preaches, the message is always the same.
“Just how bad do you think you’ve got it?”
Continue reading * “Just how bad do you think you’ve got it?”
(Originally posted 08/25/12 at Trojan Horse Productions. Reblogged 09/13/18.)
06/25/12 I had to buy another flash drive.
I was downloading the music for The William Tell Show. I backed up the .mp3 files by attaching them to e-mails to myself. Problem: some files, such as the first movement of Tchaikovski’s violin concerto, exceed 25 MB and can’t be attached to a Yahoo! e-mail. What to do? Get another flash drive, to back up just those files.
My current flash drive consisted of an aluminum sleeve wrapped around a flat plastic stick. The stick had the USB contacts at one end, and the other end was shaped into a hook. By moving the sleeve back and forth, you could either expose the USB contacts for use, or hide them and expose the hook, to clip the drive onto, say, a key ring for storage.
The clerk offered me a different kind, with no hook or loop or anything that would let me attach it to something for storage. I don’t want to carry the drive around loose in my pocket or bag. So I asked for another like the one I already have. She said people have had trouble with those because “they’re easily breakable.” She said the staff at the Public Computer Center had seen this so much that they asked for the new kind instead.
I smiled and said nothing.
The drives aren’t easily breakable. Rather, some people easily break them.
(Originally posted 12/26/12 at Trojan Horse Productions. Reblogged 09/06/18.)
A week ago today I had a highly successful interview at a dollar store. There may be one obstacle that, if it’s there, cannot be overcome; but if it’s not there, I’ll have to take a drug test and go for a second interview at which the actual job offer will be made. In the days since, there have been some communications glitches. Meanwhile, time goes on.
This morning in my last five minutes at Lenny’s, I prayed about this, reflecting on (1) my disappointment to have had no word so far and (2) the path by which I got here.
I just completed a two-month “job readiness” program … not as if I needed any program to make me “ready” for a job, but this one is unique in that while one is taking classes, they have scouts hunting down specific job opportunities that well match each candidate. That is the big factor I see missing for most people in the big picture.
Was the class a waste of time? Continue reading * Job search status: Pep talk
(Originally published 07/21/12 at Trojan Horse Productions. Reblogged 08/09/18.)
The pigeons. Years ago, when I had an office job downtown, I’d wait for the bus every afternoon on the south side of Baltimore Street one or two blocks east of Charles. Often, someone tossed down several handfuls of torn-up bread for the birds to eat, and I’d have time to watch them.
For the most part, the pigeons acted just as you’d expect: eating together, share and share alike. But I noticed one individual whose conduct was quite different. This guy never picked up any food from the ground. He never seemed to notice any food on the ground. Instead, he’d notice what someone else was eating, and go over and take it away from that person. Time and time again, he did this.
Put this fellow down on top of a pile of food, and he’d starve to death, because he’d never pick up any for himself. Put another pigeon with him, and he’d be OK — taking away what the other one picks up to eat.
How much closer can you get to the way some people act; who will not do anything for themselves, but only take away what someone else has worked for? Can there be a gene for this?
———— ♦ ————
When I lived in Barclay, I maintained a bird feeder in the back yard — different locations, but always visible from the kitchen window. Two species used to visit the feeder in flocks: sparrows and starlings. There might be fifty sparrows or fifty starlings there at a time.
… can make a hard situation easy, or make an easy situation hard.
To enter the shelter, you walk across this parking lot to an iron gate, and then down these steps to the “smoke pit,” an 8 x 20′ area with benches where we sit until they call us in, in groups of six, to register for this night. One does this every day.
(Originally posted 2012-07-26 at Trojan Horse Productions. Reblogged 2018-06-14.)
How Swearing at Work Could Ruin Your @#*! Career
[See also the William Tell Show page, “Word of the Day.”]
Sunday 2014-03-30. I have bad news and good news.
The bad news is that I submitted no applications in March. I have no excuse, but will not kick myself. There is an impediment in current conditions at the shelter, described here (They have essentially taken away from me two hours of usable time per day, and replaced it with two hours of unusable time.), and I need to make some adjustments to my search engines. I will do better in April.
The good news is that I have finally become selfish enough to say, “I want this (fill in the blank) for me.” If I can maintain this posture, I will make great progress. I need to practice what I preach, and finally live life the same way I counsel for anyone who wants to leave poverty.
It’s a different approach to life.
(Originally posted 06/02/12 at Trojan Horse Productions. Reblogged 05/24/18.)
Friday 06/01/12 we were working on the assembly line, and the music they had on the PA was WQSR 102.7 “Jack.” I didn’t mind; it was an interesting change of pace.
At mid-afternoon this one song came on that made me feel tense. What song, I don’t recall and it doesn’t matter. The music made me feel tense. That’s what this post is all about.
The earlier post entitled “Change your diet” was all about words. One needs also to be aware of the feelings and attitudes music itself brings out in you, and choose accordingly.
Continue reading * Change your diet, chapter 2
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