I've done this for a month before. I want to try this for 3 months starting in January. Here will be the rules.
3 MONTH FISCAL FAST
1. No new stuff.
2. No fast food or eating out (exception: not going to hold back group).
3. Medical costs, travel costs, and repair costs are okay.
4. Food will consist of whatever's already in the house.
5. This is just my stupid project so I'm not restricted from buying for my family.
6. If, at any time, I go against my rules, I will confess to it.
Self Assessment stuff
Major Problems
|
|
Career Problems
|
Problems With Son
|
Problems With Money
|
Problems With Fun
|
Problems With Self
|
Bucket List
40. Go to Cuba
54. Like my body
55. Ride a horse
79. Escape a straitjacket
138. Go to Fantasy Fest
79. Escape a straitjacket
138. Go to Fantasy Fest
2014 Resolutions
RESTAURANTS
Prato, Winter Park (try Widowmaker)
Scratch, Winter Park (closed Monday)
DOINGS
Horse Riding (Tues 9am)
Get under 200 lbs
TO WATCH
Reign Over Me (wait for Kiri)
TO READ
Through a Scanner Darkly (reading)
Gateway to a Vast World by Deng Ming-Dao (collected in Chronicles of Tao, library)
Even Cowgirls Get the Blues (library)
Zen Without Zen Masters (on wishlist)
Shambhala by Chogyam Trungpa (available on Kindle)
Novahead (available on Kindle)
7Life System
7 Life Principles
- I am a family man. I act with consideration to my family at the forefront of my thinking.
- I know myself. I keep track of my body and mind and act humble but truthful to who I am.
- My life is to be enjoyed while I have it. Every moment not spent living is spent dying.
- I practice mindfulness. I live in the moment and am present in the moment without thought to past or future.
- I understand the difference between a barrier and a hurdle. I do not let hurdles change my course.
- I am transcendent. I do not let the circumstance of my time, experience, or location dictate my philosophy or culture.
- Find the best rewards and get them. Don't settle for anything less than the best life possible.
7 Life Goals
- Keep Kiri happy
- Raise Hunter right
- Like my body
- Escape a straitjacket
- Go to Cuba
- Go to Fantasy Fest
- Richard Petty Driving Experience
7 Before 40
- Keep business growing
- Keep Kiri happy
- Raise Hunter right
- Like my body
- Escape a straitjacket
- Go to Fantasy Fest
- Richard Petty Driving Experience
7 Goals For This Year
- Potty train Hunter
- Get under 200 pounds
- Like my body
- Read Even Cowgirls Get the Blues
- Read Zen without Zen Masters
- Read Novahead
- Watch Reign Over Me
7 Goals For This Month
- Ride a horse
- Go to Scratch
- Go to Prato
- Read Gateway to a Vast World
- Read Shambhala
- Expand SafeRide social media
- Make new friend
7 Goals For This Week
- Treadmill
- Water Aerobics
- Bodyweight Routine
- Finish A Scanner Darkly
- Make Schedule
- Fiverr post
- Quality time with wife
7 Daily Goals
- Take Pills
- Make best use of time
- Read A Scanner Darkly
- Clean the clutter
- Eat light
- Exercise
- Brush teeth
The Desdemonas
A friend brought up today that in an exercise years ago I had neglected to include her when I turned all my friends into superhero characters. So here you go, D!
Desdemona - The Living Dead Girl
Desdemona Divine is a powerful witch with more magic at her command than a human body can contain. Her mortal form shredded as the energies poured forth from her and for years, she was a ghost on the wind. Possessing the recently deceased bodies of three friends, she split her mind and her power between them. Separately, each is a powerful mage in her own right, but together, with Desdemona whole, there is no force on earth that can stand to her.
The shared consciousness between the Desdemonas give the witch six eyes and six ears, three points in space that she occupies simultaneously. In a room with the Desdemonas, one might beginning speaking a sentence while another will complete it. This shared consciousness transcends all distance. If one is drinking on a beach in Miami, the others will experience it as well.
Desdemona - The Living Dead Girl
Desdemona Divine is a powerful witch with more magic at her command than a human body can contain. Her mortal form shredded as the energies poured forth from her and for years, she was a ghost on the wind. Possessing the recently deceased bodies of three friends, she split her mind and her power between them. Separately, each is a powerful mage in her own right, but together, with Desdemona whole, there is no force on earth that can stand to her.
The shared consciousness between the Desdemonas give the witch six eyes and six ears, three points in space that she occupies simultaneously. In a room with the Desdemonas, one might beginning speaking a sentence while another will complete it. This shared consciousness transcends all distance. If one is drinking on a beach in Miami, the others will experience it as well.
Insomniac with Dave Attell
First travel show I ever got in to. One of the best theme songs (it's like a rallying cry or a toast for a drink). Great humor. Off-beat interests.
Just remembering it now because I'm having trouble catching Zzz's and I'm hearing Dave Attell shout his sign off line: NOW GET SOME SLEEP!
Sir Bearington, at your service
Black Bear, Medium Beast, Languages: Bear, Common (unspoken)
+1 Natural Armor, Speed 40, Climb 30
Multi Attack: Bite 1d6, Claw 2d4
Keen Smell: Advantage on Perception checks relying on smell.
Walks on all fours, can stand on two, can not wield normal weapons or wear normal armor
X5-3: Lord Ursus the Black, Charlatan
N Black Bear, Medium beast, Rogue 3, Charlatan
Str 16, Dex 8, Con 14, Int 12, Wis 10, Cha 18
AC 10, Speed 40 ft., climb 30 ft., HP 24, Languages: Bear, Common (unspoken)
Multi Attack: Bite +3 1d6+3, Claw +3 2d4+3 / Disguise +12 / Deception +8
Proficiency: Perception, light armor, simple weapons, hand crossbows, longswords, rapiers,
shortswords, thieves tools, dex save, int save, Deception (Doubled Expertise), Sleight of Hand,
Disguise Kit (Doubled Expertise), Forgery Kit, Athletics, Insight, Intimidation, Investigation
0/U
Acid Splash 1d6 vs dex (can hit two if within 5’)
Friends 1 minute charm person, advantage on cha checks on one person
+Mage Hand 30 ft, 10 lbs
Minor Illusion (sound or 5 ft of vision, if examined: investigation vs dc 13)
1/2 per rest
Charm Person 1 hour vs wis
Comprehend Languages 1 hour
Silent Image (15 ft cube, moves, if examined: investigation vs dc 13)
Other: Expertise, Sneak Attack +2d6, Thieves’ Cant, Cunning Action, Arcane Focus:
Honeycomb Amulet
Keen Smell. The bear has advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on smell.
Multiattack. The bear makes two attacks: one with its bite and one with its claws.
Mage Hand Legerdemain
Starting at 3rd level, when you cast mage hand, you can make the spectral hand invisible, and
you can perform the following additional tasks with it:
• You can stow one object the hand is holding in a container worn or carried by another
creature.
• You can retrieve an object in a container worn or carried by another creature.
• You can use thieves’ tools to pick locks and disarm traps at range.
You can perform one of these tasks without being noticed by a creature if you succeed on a
Dexterity (Sleight of Hand) check contested by the creature’s Wisdom (Perception) check.
In addition, you can use the bonus action granted by your Cunning Action to control the hand.
Gear: Fine clothes, thieves’ tools, disguise kit, fake signet ring, 15gp
Scam: Identities
Personality Trait: Flatterer
Ideal: Charity
Bond: Lost child
Flaw: Can’t resist swindling those more powerful than me
Feature: False Identity
You have created a second identity that includes documentation, established acquaintances,
and disguises that allow you to assume that persona. Additionally, you can forge documents
including official papers and personal letters, as long as you have seen an example of the kind
of document or the handwriting you are trying to copy.
+1 Natural Armor, Speed 40, Climb 30
Multi Attack: Bite 1d6, Claw 2d4
Keen Smell: Advantage on Perception checks relying on smell.
Walks on all fours, can stand on two, can not wield normal weapons or wear normal armor
X5-3: Lord Ursus the Black, Charlatan
N Black Bear, Medium beast, Rogue 3, Charlatan
Str 16, Dex 8, Con 14, Int 12, Wis 10, Cha 18
AC 10, Speed 40 ft., climb 30 ft., HP 24, Languages: Bear, Common (unspoken)
Multi Attack: Bite +3 1d6+3, Claw +3 2d4+3 / Disguise +12 / Deception +8
Proficiency: Perception, light armor, simple weapons, hand crossbows, longswords, rapiers,
shortswords, thieves tools, dex save, int save, Deception (Doubled Expertise), Sleight of Hand,
Disguise Kit (Doubled Expertise), Forgery Kit, Athletics, Insight, Intimidation, Investigation
0/U
Acid Splash 1d6 vs dex (can hit two if within 5’)
Friends 1 minute charm person, advantage on cha checks on one person
+Mage Hand 30 ft, 10 lbs
Minor Illusion (sound or 5 ft of vision, if examined: investigation vs dc 13)
1/2 per rest
Charm Person 1 hour vs wis
Comprehend Languages 1 hour
Silent Image (15 ft cube, moves, if examined: investigation vs dc 13)
Other: Expertise, Sneak Attack +2d6, Thieves’ Cant, Cunning Action, Arcane Focus:
Honeycomb Amulet
Keen Smell. The bear has advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on smell.
Multiattack. The bear makes two attacks: one with its bite and one with its claws.
Mage Hand Legerdemain
Starting at 3rd level, when you cast mage hand, you can make the spectral hand invisible, and
you can perform the following additional tasks with it:
• You can stow one object the hand is holding in a container worn or carried by another
creature.
• You can retrieve an object in a container worn or carried by another creature.
• You can use thieves’ tools to pick locks and disarm traps at range.
You can perform one of these tasks without being noticed by a creature if you succeed on a
Dexterity (Sleight of Hand) check contested by the creature’s Wisdom (Perception) check.
In addition, you can use the bonus action granted by your Cunning Action to control the hand.
Gear: Fine clothes, thieves’ tools, disguise kit, fake signet ring, 15gp
Scam: Identities
Personality Trait: Flatterer
Ideal: Charity
Bond: Lost child
Flaw: Can’t resist swindling those more powerful than me
Feature: False Identity
You have created a second identity that includes documentation, established acquaintances,
and disguises that allow you to assume that persona. Additionally, you can forge documents
including official papers and personal letters, as long as you have seen an example of the kind
of document or the handwriting you are trying to copy.
To consult the I Ching
Putting these instructions in my own words.
Throw three coins six times.
0 head - - (yang unstable)
1 head - - (yin stable)
2 head --- (yang stable)
3 head --- (yang unstable)
Forms one hexagram (combo of upper and lower trigrams) which corresponds in I Ching. This is the answer to the question posed. This hexagram will transform into another hexagram when the unstable flip to show the future.
http://divination.com/iching/lookup/
To find hexagrams, consult link.
Throw three coins six times.
0 head - - (yang unstable)
1 head - - (yin stable)
2 head --- (yang stable)
3 head --- (yang unstable)
Forms one hexagram (combo of upper and lower trigrams) which corresponds in I Ching. This is the answer to the question posed. This hexagram will transform into another hexagram when the unstable flip to show the future.
http://divination.com/iching/lookup/
To find hexagrams, consult link.
Drinking and Breastfeeding
This entry is really a note to @FrankAuntie rather than a proper blog post, but I'll try to hit the middle ground in formatting. I'm just not used to expressing myself in 140 characters and she (assigning gender from user pic) disagreed with something I said, which was: If you asked a woman not to breastfeed while she smoked crack, the breastfeeding advocates would still call you literally Hitler.
This was in reference to this article: http://www.clickondetroit.com/news/bar-asks-mom-to-stop-drinking-while-breastfeeding/27874902
So Frankly Dear and I went back and forth. She said that the woman only had a few sips. I said that taking the word of a drinking woman with a baby in a bar off her own facebook page over the words of the managers and other patrons proved my initial point about breastfeeding bias. She challenged me to produce an article which says she had more than a few sips. So I present... the same article: http://www.clickondetroit.com/news/bar-asks-mom-to-stop-drinking-while-breastfeeding/27874902
Frankly, I don't want you to think I'm some faceless internet troll or a misogynist asshole. I'm a stay-at-home dad who owns a company that pays women the same as men and a writer/journalist who has written for womens magazines and specifically feminist magazines in the past (we liked to say I was the "token pig"). I butt heads with other feminists when I say that something has gone too far, but someone has to say it.
So let me explain how the article casts serious doubt on Crystal's claim that she only had one sip of beer using induction, deduction, and abduction.
1. Crystal orders a shot of Fireball Whiskey and a beer.
2. She claims she was sipping the beer and a water, but saving the shot until she was done breastfeeding. "I had a huge water I was downing. I had a beer and a shot of Fireball in front of me but that was for after I was done. And I had one sip of beer and was not planning on the rest until after I was done nursing," McCullough said.
3. One of the managers approached McCullough, telling her that several of the other patrons had complained.
So Frankly Dear and I went back and forth. She said that the woman only had a few sips. I said that taking the word of a drinking woman with a baby in a bar off her own facebook page over the words of the managers and other patrons proved my initial point about breastfeeding bias. She challenged me to produce an article which says she had more than a few sips. So I present... the same article: http://www.clickondetroit.com/news/bar-asks-mom-to-stop-drinking-while-breastfeeding/27874902
Frankly, I don't want you to think I'm some faceless internet troll or a misogynist asshole. I'm a stay-at-home dad who owns a company that pays women the same as men and a writer/journalist who has written for womens magazines and specifically feminist magazines in the past (we liked to say I was the "token pig"). I butt heads with other feminists when I say that something has gone too far, but someone has to say it.
So let me explain how the article casts serious doubt on Crystal's claim that she only had one sip of beer using induction, deduction, and abduction.
1. Crystal orders a shot of Fireball Whiskey and a beer.
2. She claims she was sipping the beer and a water, but saving the shot until she was done breastfeeding. "I had a huge water I was downing. I had a beer and a shot of Fireball in front of me but that was for after I was done. And I had one sip of beer and was not planning on the rest until after I was done nursing," McCullough said.
3. One of the managers approached McCullough, telling her that several of the other patrons had complained.
4. When McCullough expressed that she didn't think she was doing anything wrong, the manager closed out her tab, effectively preventing her from buying any more drinks.
5. She left Big Woody's shortly afterward.
6. At the end of the article is a quote: "Our concern was for the child, really that's what it is," explained Craig Davis, one of the owners of Big Woody's.
So here's the sequence of events based on Crystal's version of what happened.
1. She already had a water, so this was not the beginning of her night there.
2. She ordered a shot of Fireball Whiskey and a beer.
3. She had one sip of beer before or during nursing.
4. She was interrupted during or after nursing by a manager who told her that several of the other patrons had complained about her drinking and breastfeeding.
5. She refused to stop drinking.
6. The manager closed out her tab.
7. She stuck around for a while.
8. She left.
See the parts where it starts to fall apart? By the time she had taken her first sip of beer, several patrons had already complained about her drinking and spoken to the managers. She had a tab open at the bar already. Maybe she opened the tab with that beer/whiskey purchase and just planned on drinking more as the night went on, but since she has already been there a while (the "huge water I was downing" when she ordered two more drinks) it's very possible, given that the other patrons were complaining about her drinking, that the tab had been opened before the whiskey/beer order. To everyone saying how alcohol takes 30 minutes to get to breast milk and thinking that she was just going have these... umm... two drinks at the same time... and then switch back to water, remember, the manager didn't kick her out or take her liquor. He just said she couldn't have any more to drink. Then she left. This is all HER VERSION from her facebook page. There's always three sides to a story, each person's and the truth. All of this where it seems likely that she was drinking before she claimed she was and planned on drinking after she claimed she was going to stop comes from her version, so the truth is going to be worse.
So it's a bit of a flimsy story. The only reason anyone is believing her is because of the breastfeeding bias. If I told you she was snapping her fingers and under certain conditions drinking and snapping her fingers would cause a child harm, then we see Crystal with a baby at Big Woody's Bar ordering Fireball Whiskey with a beer chaser being cut off by the manager after several patrons complain that because of her drinking she'll harm a child. Without the bias.
Now, Frankly Dear, you said you couldn't find another source that said she was taking more than a couple sips and challenged me to produce one. I admit that I can not. The above is conjecture based on Crystal's version of what happened. I will explain why there are no sources though. There's two sources that could say that Crystal was drinking heavier than she claims: the staff and the patrons. The patrons are transitory by nature so no reporter could show up today and get the same people that were there then. Even if someone claimed to have been there, the reporter wouldn't quote them on the drinking because it enters a gray area of slander since there's no way to know if the person was really there in the first place. The staff, I imagine, are under orders not to speak to anyone about this incident. See above where the owner gave a short, generic, and vague quote despite the fact that he wasn't involved. The manager wasn't quoted? The bartender? Just the owner with a vanilla quote to prevent the reporter from saying (the very damning) "X refused comment."
I'm afraid I don't have too much more to offer on the subject and hope this clears up my stance on the issue. I don't ask that you take it as truth, just another point of view. If you see some validity in it, great. If not, oh well.
And as a totally random thing that no one else reading will understand: pillories lock a person looking forward and bending over so that they couldn't tell who was raping them. Now THAT'S bizarre out of context.
Imagine a robot
Imagine a robot named X5-1. Ants built X5-1 over the course of many years very slowly. It took a lot of work and a lot of time. They didn't actually build X5-1 at first. They mined the iron ore first.
Ants. Mining ore. You can imagine it took a long time; centuries.
And X5-1 wasn't their first project. They used the iron ore to make iron then used the iron to make lots of random things. Cars and calculators and radios. They would take apart those machines and build other machines with the iron, recycling it. They even built other robots. Some looked like X5-1. Some did not. Some of the robots worked very well and some were barely functional. Some of those robots killed people and some were medical robots, saving lives.
Eventually, X5-1 was built from all these parts from all these different things and he was turned on. X5-1 did his job, moved around, experienced life, then broke and was disassembled. His parts were used to make cars and calculators and radios and other robots that did good things and bad things, believed things similar and opposite what X5-1 believed. These parts kept being reused. The iron kept being recycled and resmelted into different shapes and functions. This went on until every ant in all of history died and stopped slowly building these things. The iron continued to exist for all time just as it had existed for all time before the ants mined it.
We considered X5-1's "life" to be from the point he was built and turned off to when he broke and was disassembled. If X5-1 is only a collection of parts which each had a life before and after his functionality then X5-1 has always existed in the iron and will always exist in the iron. At the atomic level, he is immortal.
More than immortal, X5-1 is not only a robot named X5-1. He is a car and a calculator and a radio and other robots with moralities similiar and opposite to the morality he carried in his "life".
If we imagine a particle that lives for eight billion years and is only self-aware of one of its personalities for 100 years, do we ignore the other 79999999/80000000ths of its existence?
The moment you realize I'm talking about humans (which might be this instant), you'll shut down the logic side of your brain and return to the primal side which fears death. It's the side that tells us that nothing existed before us and nothing will exist after us. We may learn about events and predictions, but they aren't real because they aren't us. We can hear about things even in our temporal blurb, but geographically removed, and not feel their realness. We can talk to a person temporally and geographically close to us, but if we perceive them to be different from us, their realness disappears.
You are Hitler. You are Jesus. You are Barack Obama and George W. Bush.
In your body is an atom or two that use to comprise a man named Julius Caesar. And that's just the small picture.
For billions of years, since the beginning of time was just a ball of hydrogen atoms, the atoms in your body have been creating things and people. As you live, you lose atoms that will go on to become other things and people.
Millions of years ago, there was a caveman named Grogg. Grogg's atoms spread over the millenia and helped create Jesus and Hitler and Obama and Bush and that homeless guy on your corner and the ethnic guy who runs the convenience store and the guy on tv that you think is a hateful religious bigot and you. Grogg is immortal and we're all Grogg. We're all the big ball of hydrogen atoms.
By now, you're seeing this as "Yeah, we share a few atoms. That's science." You've already forgotten the lesson of X5-1. We ARE atoms. Mass and energy. That's it. End of story. What we are is what your enemy is. You are the same stuff. At one point you were the same person or toaster that he was. Eventually you will be the same person or toaster again. Our story doesn't begin and end with our blip of consciousness to this particular identity in the billions of years of our existence. We are one. Not in the hippy dippy "We are the world so let's hug it out" kind of a way, but in a real, scientific way.
I teach and people ask me how I be so patient with my students. Since my thinking has fallen in line with this fact, the question has seemed ridiculous. When I'm talking to a student, I'm talking to myself. Every interaction I've ever had or will have is with myself. Of course I treat myself kindly. Of course I want myself to succeed. If someone is saying something that I consider hateful, I understand that it is me saying those things and I think about what my life must have been like for me to say those things and I feel pity for myself, not hate. Because that's me. I'm X5-1.
Ants. Mining ore. You can imagine it took a long time; centuries.
And X5-1 wasn't their first project. They used the iron ore to make iron then used the iron to make lots of random things. Cars and calculators and radios. They would take apart those machines and build other machines with the iron, recycling it. They even built other robots. Some looked like X5-1. Some did not. Some of the robots worked very well and some were barely functional. Some of those robots killed people and some were medical robots, saving lives.
Eventually, X5-1 was built from all these parts from all these different things and he was turned on. X5-1 did his job, moved around, experienced life, then broke and was disassembled. His parts were used to make cars and calculators and radios and other robots that did good things and bad things, believed things similar and opposite what X5-1 believed. These parts kept being reused. The iron kept being recycled and resmelted into different shapes and functions. This went on until every ant in all of history died and stopped slowly building these things. The iron continued to exist for all time just as it had existed for all time before the ants mined it.
We considered X5-1's "life" to be from the point he was built and turned off to when he broke and was disassembled. If X5-1 is only a collection of parts which each had a life before and after his functionality then X5-1 has always existed in the iron and will always exist in the iron. At the atomic level, he is immortal.
More than immortal, X5-1 is not only a robot named X5-1. He is a car and a calculator and a radio and other robots with moralities similiar and opposite to the morality he carried in his "life".
If we imagine a particle that lives for eight billion years and is only self-aware of one of its personalities for 100 years, do we ignore the other 79999999/80000000ths of its existence?
The moment you realize I'm talking about humans (which might be this instant), you'll shut down the logic side of your brain and return to the primal side which fears death. It's the side that tells us that nothing existed before us and nothing will exist after us. We may learn about events and predictions, but they aren't real because they aren't us. We can hear about things even in our temporal blurb, but geographically removed, and not feel their realness. We can talk to a person temporally and geographically close to us, but if we perceive them to be different from us, their realness disappears.
You are Hitler. You are Jesus. You are Barack Obama and George W. Bush.
In your body is an atom or two that use to comprise a man named Julius Caesar. And that's just the small picture.
For billions of years, since the beginning of time was just a ball of hydrogen atoms, the atoms in your body have been creating things and people. As you live, you lose atoms that will go on to become other things and people.
Millions of years ago, there was a caveman named Grogg. Grogg's atoms spread over the millenia and helped create Jesus and Hitler and Obama and Bush and that homeless guy on your corner and the ethnic guy who runs the convenience store and the guy on tv that you think is a hateful religious bigot and you. Grogg is immortal and we're all Grogg. We're all the big ball of hydrogen atoms.
By now, you're seeing this as "Yeah, we share a few atoms. That's science." You've already forgotten the lesson of X5-1. We ARE atoms. Mass and energy. That's it. End of story. What we are is what your enemy is. You are the same stuff. At one point you were the same person or toaster that he was. Eventually you will be the same person or toaster again. Our story doesn't begin and end with our blip of consciousness to this particular identity in the billions of years of our existence. We are one. Not in the hippy dippy "We are the world so let's hug it out" kind of a way, but in a real, scientific way.
I teach and people ask me how I be so patient with my students. Since my thinking has fallen in line with this fact, the question has seemed ridiculous. When I'm talking to a student, I'm talking to myself. Every interaction I've ever had or will have is with myself. Of course I treat myself kindly. Of course I want myself to succeed. If someone is saying something that I consider hateful, I understand that it is me saying those things and I think about what my life must have been like for me to say those things and I feel pity for myself, not hate. Because that's me. I'm X5-1.
adamsimon. Blogger Template created by Deluxe Templates
CSS Template by Breezy / Support by Dante Araujo