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Sunday, March 30, 2003 Another beautiful Spring day. (Yesterday wasn't - cold and grey.) The Purple Martins are back from their winter holiday in South America. And the Swifts and Swallows - maybe this year I'll learn to tell the difference between 'em. It's great to see them darting through the sky. Just hooked up our new router, since we both have computers now. Time to get back outside and enjoy this weather. posted at 12:12 PM Saturday, March 29, 2003 Blogging from Jenni's new iMac G4 bulb computer. Pretty nice corn-pooter. posted at 9:22 PM Friday, March 28, 2003 Heavenly Images Righteous! (Thanks, G!) posted at 11:13 AM Wednesday, March 26, 2003 I'm on jury duty this week. Not much I can say about it other than to quote the bailiff, "Court time and real time are two different things." posted at 8:13 AM Sunday, March 23, 2003 Went kayaking on Town Lake today and saw a lot of birds: Cormorants, Buffle Head Ducks, Carolina Chickadees, a pair of Red-Tailed Hawks, Seagulls. Sandpipers, Blue Jays, Great Blue Heron, Turkey Buzzards, Kingfisher, and two Swans. Heard, but didn't see, a Canyon Wren, high in the cliffs. posted at 6:17 PM Friday, March 21, 2003 Jandek on Corwood -- a Documentary Film Oh, Lordy. Can't wait to see this film on one of my favorite oddball musicians. Thanks, Gerry, for the heads up. posted at 3:34 PM Whoops. Just realized I was a couple of days early when I said "Spring is here." Now, it is officially here. Happy Vernal Equinox. posted at 2:09 PM So, I went to meditation practise last night at Rolling Hills Yoga. It seemed the only thing to do with the outbreak of war was to try to bring a tiny bit more peace into the world. And there was peace in the room. There were only 7 of us, including the teacher, but it was utterly quiet during the 30 minutes we actually meditated. I went with some trepidation, wondering what sort of weirdness I might be getting myself into. (It may not seem like it, but I am afraid of a lot of this 'alternative' stuff I've been wading into. Afraid of turning into a 'bliss ninny' or a New Age nutter. Hell, maybe I'm afraid I'll change.) But I'd been thinking about meditation ever since I began Alpha training in biofeedback. Alpha training is a type of neurofeedback where you try to maintain an Alpha state or predominantly Alpha brainwaves. "Alpha is seen in wakefulness where there is a relaxed and effortless alertness," (biocybernaut) and it is doggone tricky... at least it has been for me. Anyway, I thought maybe meditation would help me with my Alpha training, but last night, it seemed that Alpha training had helped me with meditation. I haven't been that still for that long, sitting on the floor, in forever. It was Zen meditation, or at least, the teacher practises Zen Buddhism... I don't know if that necessarily means we (the class) were. Maybe we were just quiet. A tiny bit of stillness and peace. While searching for info on the teacher, I found this extremely interesting article about his argument with the State about what constitutes religion. 'Churches have acknowledged that the search for spiritual growth and understanding may not lead everyone to believe in the Judeo-Christian "God."' "If there's one right way to look at things, then the best that we can do for the world is to take over and force everybody to follow along." Amen. posted at 10:11 AM Shoe Shine Koan 'This calls to mind the joke about two signs, which are posted in the afterlife. One is labeled "Heaven" and the other reads, "A discussion about Heaven." The second line is jammed packed with Unitarian Universalists.' posted at 9:48 AM Thursday, March 20, 2003 "Peace is a daily, a weekly, a monthly process, gradually changing opinions, slowly eroding old barriers, quietly building new structures." — John F. Kennedy another great quote of many posted at 3:10 PM War Is Stupid Dot Com - a collection of great quotes "The basic problems facing the world today are not susceptible to a military solution." — John F. Kennedy "War will never cease until babies begin to come into the world with larger cerebrums and smaller adrenal glands." — H. L. Mencken "Non-violence leads to the highest ethics, which is the goal of all evolution. Until we stop harming all other living beings, we are still savages." — Thomas Alva Edison posted at 3:02 PM Guardian Unlimited | 'This remains George Bush's war' "We [who are opposed to the war] are first and foremost those who resent headlines like the one carried on the top of the front page of the Herald yesterday - 'Australia chooses war' - for the simple reason that Australia bloody well did no such thing.... "So bitter is [the] division in Australia at the moment that all of us who are against this war find ourselves being accused of being 'pro-Saddam' and all the rest...." posted at 2:47 PM BBC NEWS | Europe split over war "This is grim news as war is always the worst of all solutions," said [German] Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer. Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt said his country was "profoundly disappointed". Russian President Vladimir Putin said: "Military action can in no way be justified. Military action is a big political error." A Vatican spokesman said the Pope was deeply pained by the latest events in Iraq. --For once I agree with the Pope. posted at 9:03 AM Wednesday, March 19, 2003 Maybe it's obvious, but I love my new digital camera. It doesn't do real great still photos, but it's a champ in the digital video department. It's small enough that I can stick it in a coat pocket, like I did while skiing. And it was super cheap! posted at 11:05 AM See? I can do an approximation of Chakrasana, the Wheel pose. It's getting better. I'm getting better at Yoga in general. I'm thoroughly enjoying it. Funny that I just didn't get it 10 years ago or whenever it was I last tried it. Too young, I imagine. And it fits in perfectly with the work I'm doing in biofeedback. Especially the breathing. I have gotten my breathing down to 3 breaths per minute, easily. No strain, no holding, no gasping. I mean, when I'm concentrating on it, not in everyday reality - though everyday breathing has improved as a result. I feel like I'm gaining a very strange set of skills here. And yet... I feel they are valuable skills. posted at 10:34 AM But on a more positive note, Spring is here. The bluebonnets (Texas' state flower) are blooming. I saw about 30 cormorants flying north this morning. And I thought the Cedar Waxwings had left town, but I heard them wheezing in a Chinaberry tree outside our house this morning. (They are fruit eating birds, and I guess Chinaberries count as fruit.) Then I found them and watched them through the binoculars. (Their 'song' sounds like a wheeze to me... like a sleeper with whistling nostrils.) I'm learning to identify birds by their songs and sounds... putting names with faces and voices. Discovered recently that the clear, vibrant call that wakes us up early - really early, before dawn - is not the Cardinal but the Carolina Wren. Similar cadence and tone, but different number of notes in a repetition. The Waxwings in the Chinaberry tree posted at 9:31 AM Tuesday, March 18, 2003 This whole war thing has got me really bummed out. posted at 5:00 PM Monday, March 10, 2003 Just War — or a Just War? by Jimmy Carter, Nobel Laureate. posted at 3:56 PM Wednesday, March 05, 2003 Hot diggity dog. I got the Chakrasana last night in yoga class. I didn't think it would be possible for me so soon, but the teacher showed me what I was doing wrong. I'm enjoying yoga class quite a bit. posted at 10:47 AM Monday, March 03, 2003 I took it as a good omen (for birding, etc.) that the hotel we stayed at in Frisco, Colorado, had a print of a drawing of a Waxwing. I'm not at all sure what the fact that it was badly drawn meant. The drawing was wrong enough that it was not possible to determine if it was a Cedar or Bohemian Waxwing. The last day in Colorado, I discovered that I had not, in fact, forgotten my binoculars; they were under the seat of the rental car. I went on a short birding hike along the mostly frozen creek and spotted a Stellar's Jay and some Redwing Blackbirds. Saw several Magpies at Vail. I would've been disappointed if I hadn't seen a single Magpie. Strange that I only saw them at Vail. (Other than the one that flew over the highway in Denver.) The rest of my very few snapshots of the trip. posted at 3:20 PM The catalogue of UK Entrances to Hell Pretty funny. Thanks, Rodney. posted at 10:06 AM