Found it here: moreintelligentlife.com

This is the one that resonated. I always say that the purpose of life is to live it, and to experience as much joy as you possibly can while doing it. This is also very Buddhist.

What do you think?

JOHN BURNSIDE Poet
As any teenager can tell you, it’s a short step from asking the question: “What does it all mean?” to arriving at the inevitable answer: “Nothing.” Meaning is constructed by each person after her own fashion, his own nature; there is no universal formula or divine plan—no “all”—that can make individual lives meaningful. At first, such a realisation can lead to dismay: befuddled by the schemes and promises of our elders and betters we had trotted dutifully to school and kirk and community discos full of the blithe enthusiasm youth is cursed with, in the sure expectation that a worthwhile life would just fall into place, with a modicum of effort, so long as we did the right things. Maturity, love and marriage, job satisfaction, happiness—they were all out there, waiting to be achieved. So we thought, until this perennial teenager’s question cropped up, and we began to doubt.

Doubt is a good thing, most of the time. As is the shedding of illusions, however painful the process. For after dismay, after the insomniac nights and the hollow feeling in the pit of the mind, what follows (if our supposed betters can be persuaded to refrain from meddling) is the gradual understanding that, since meaning is neither fixed nor universal, it is determined, to a significant extent, by the power of the individual imagination. True, there is a world out there that would compel us to conform, to consume, to render unto Caesar. But we are, nevertheless, free to resist, free to imagine, free to furnish our lives, and the terrain we inhabit, with meanings that derive from our own natures, and from the nature of our home terrain.

Henry Miller remarked that “life has to be given a meaning because of the obvious fact that it has no meaning.” But he also said that “the aim of life is to live, and to live means to be aware, joyously, drunkenly, serenely, divinely aware.” In a conformist society, the attainment of that joyous, drunken, serene awareness is both an act of resistance and a personal achievement, for it says to hell with Caesar and his tawdry coin, and leaves each of us to invest life with all the intangible and unaccountable forms of wealth that the imperial minions in their counting house can scarcely begin to imagine.

This picture makes me so sad, because it’s true. I am disappointed. My own government is standing by and doing nothing, but the United Nations takes a stand.

This is from the Huff Post:

UN Condemns U.S. Police Brutality, Calls For ‘Stand Your Ground’ Review
Reuters | By Stephanie Nebehay
Posted: 08/30/2014 8:31 am EDT Updated: 08/30/2014 9:59 am EDT

* Panel issues recommendations after review of U.S. record

* Says killing of Michael Brown “not an isolated event”

* Decries racial bias of police, pervasive discrimination

* ACLU calls for addressing racial inequality in America

GENEVA, Aug 29 (Reuters) – The U.N. racism watchdog urged the United States on Friday to halt the excessive use of force by police after the fatal shooting of an unarmed black teenager by a white policeman touched off riots in Ferguson, Missouri.

Minorities, particularly African Americans, are victims of disparities, the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) said after examining the U.S. record.

“Racial and ethnic discrimination remains a serious and persistent problem in all areas of life from de facto school segregation, access to health care and housing,” Noureddine Amir, CERD committee vice chairman, told a news briefing.

Teenager Michael Brown was shot dead by a white police officer on Aug. 9, triggering violent protests that rocked Ferguson – a St. Louis suburb – and shone a global spotlight on the state of race relations in America.

“The excessive use of force by law enforcement officials against racial and ethnic minorities is an ongoing issue of concern and particularly in light of the shooting of Michael Brown,” said Amir, an expert from Algeria.

“This is not an isolated event and illustrates a bigger problem in the United States, such as racial bias among law enforcement officials, the lack of proper implementation of rules and regulations governing the use of force, and the inadequacy of training of law enforcement officials.”

The panel of 18 independent experts grilled a senior U.S. delegation on Aug. 13 about what they said was persistent racial discrimination against African-Americans and other minorities, including within the criminal justice system.

U.S. Ambassador Keith Harper told the panel that his nation had made “great strides toward eliminating racial discrimination” but conceded that “we have much left to do”.

Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson, who shot Brown, has been put on paid leave and is in hiding. A St. Louis County grand jury has begun hearing evidence and the U.S. Justice Department has opened its own investigation.

Police have said Brown struggled with Wilson when shot. But some witnesses say Brown held up his hands and was surrendering when he was shot multiple times in the head and chest.

“STAND YOUR GROUND” LAWS

In its conclusions issued on Friday, the U.N. panel said “Stand Your Ground” Laws, a controversial self-defense statute in 22 U.S. states, should be reviewed to “remove far-reaching immunity and ensure strict adherence to principles of necessity and proportionality when deadly force is used for self-defense”.

Ron Davis, father of Jordan Davis, a 17-year-old shot dead in a car in Jacksonville, Florida during an argument over loud rap music in November 2012, attended the Geneva session. Sybrina Fulton, mother of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed black teen killed in Miami, Florida by a neighborhood watch volunteer, testified.

The U.N. panel monitors compliance with a treaty ratified by 177 countries including the United States.

“The Committee remains concerned at the practice of racial profiling of racial or ethnic minorities by law enforcement officials, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Transportation Security Administration, border enforcement officials and local police,” it said, urging investigations.

The experts called for addressing obstacles faced by minorities and indigenous peoples to exercise their right to vote effectively. This was due to restrictive voter identification laws, district gerrymandering and state-level laws that disenfranchise people convicted of felonies, it said.

Jamil Dakwar of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said the U.N. recommendations highlighted “shortcomings on racial equality that we are seeing play out today on our streets, at our borders and in the voting booth.

“When it comes to human rights, the United States must practice at home what it preaches abroad,” he said.

I have only been on the computer a short time, and I have already learned that some scientists are trying to prove that we may be living in a hologram, like the Matrix. So? If it is proven to be the case, then what? Will it change anything? Will it make us better people? Instead of aspiring to heaven, as so many people seem to do, will we be trying to make it out into the ‘real’ world? Is there a point? Will Neo turn up? Keanu is kind of cute.

Here’s a headline I came across:

“Cops Investigating ‘Sex Sounds’ Find Man Making Love to a Mattress”

Okay, misleading headline, but still, before I read the article, my question was, “Why are cops investigating sex sounds?” Aren’t there actual crimes going on? Seriously?

I am so fed up with all the unbelievable (insert your choice of exasperated yet descriptive bad word here) going on in the world, I am reduced to blogging about hologram-world and suspicious sex sounds. I fear there is no hope for me, people. None. At all. BTW, do bad words (or any words, for that matter) actually GET exasperated? IDEK

On the other hand, illness-y speaking, I am still doing much better with the supplements I’m taking, in spite of the really crappy day here and there. I cut back the Prednisone again on Sunday, and so far nothing unmanageable has cropped up, except for having quite a bit of pain before I went to bed last night. I’m hoping this was the last time I decrease and then have to go back to the previous dose for a bit before decreasing again. I’m down to 1 1/2 mg, so hoping to get off it for good some time in the relatively near future. Before I have to contend with living in a hologram, at least. Or get investigated for making ‘sex sounds’.

One last thing. I am getting a bit worried about a friend I haven’t heard from in a bit, so if you see this (you know who you are), please email me.

1. Let myself down yet again. Got up, another gorgeous day. “I WILL go outside’ I tell myself. Get dressed and organized and gradually begin to stall and ask the ‘but where will I go, what will I do’ questions, and before you know it, I’m on the desktop trying to figure out yet again why all my stupid Amazon readers keep freezing and/or rebooting and/or freezing during rebooting, all by their lonesomes. So never made it out. I can feel the anxiety starting as soon as I get myself all dressed and ready to go. Happens every time. One of the things I forget about when I am not doing well with the illness. One of the hard things about doing better with the illness, I have to remember all the other reasons my life is not going the way I want it to. It’s down to me, I know that. Just cannot seem to get past my stupid, stupid issues.

2. Just discovered this site today, from a post about the corpse flower. Amazing flower posts, but more amazing site.

The Huntington Library

Anyway, it really is another gorgeous day in what has been an unbelievably gorgeous summer. I AM going to email my fav weatherman and ask him if this summer has been as unusual as I think it has. Been. Whatever. 🙂

Cinnamon. I didn’t realize what was involved. Turn off the sound, it’s just annoying music.

Found it here: The Backlot

1. “Every April 20th weed smokers all over the country “observe” a sort of underground holiday of sorts, where marijuana is consumed on or around 4:20 pm — and depending on the circumstances, for an entire day.”

How did I not know this? I could have been really, really celebrating my birthday. Was reading Tumblr, a post mentioned April 20 was Hitler’s birthday and ‘weed day’? Weed day? My first thought is ‘Great, I share my birthday with Hitler and things people want to get rid of’. Googled ‘weed day’. Oh.

2. Is this not the coolest thing ever? I want one for real, please.

Abiogenesis (Short Film) from Richard Mans on Vimeo.

I couldn’t think of anything clever for a title.  So I have recovered surprisingly quickly from my melt-down.  I think it has finally sunk in that I don’t actually need to feel guilty when my illness prevents me from doing something someone else wants me to do.  I have issues.  I have explained my issues until they should be engraved on people’s brains, and yet I am still pressured to do, to be, what is expected of me, rather than what I am capable of doing or being.  Finally, I get it.  It’s not about me, it’s about refusing to accept me as I am, rather than the person I am wanted/expected to be.  I feel so much better (up until the point the self-doubt sets in again).  But I realized that I am constantly being judged, and being found wanting, when it is actually beyond my control.  Interesting when you finally get that people aren’t really who you’ve always thought they were, that you have been wearing the proverbial rose-tinted glasses.  So feeling better today.  Thanks for asking.  Wait, did anybody ask?  No?   You know what, I get by just fine on my own, so never mind.  Ooo, maybe I’m feeling just a tiny bit pissy, as well. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. :). Oh, just thought of a title:  Pissy Jean is pissy.  Good, huh?

Einstein said, “Try not to become a man of success, but rather, try to become a man of value.”

That’s from America’s Test Kitchen Radiogram newsletter. Why does a person who rarely cooks need a food-related newsletter, you may ask? Wishful thinking, that’s why.

Having a bit of a depressive episode. Sometimes, things just get to be more than I can handle, and this is one of those times. I’ll get over it. I always do, she says confidently. I would so love to be well and normal and not have issues, and be able to do the things I want, when I want, and go the places I want to go without all the issues crap and the illness getting in the way, but it is what it is, and you just have to get over it.

On the bright side, even though I never get to go outside and actually experience it first hand, it has been the best summer weather-wise that I can remember in all of my years living in New England. I want to see if I can find weather info that might tell me how much of an anomaly this is, because it sure doesn’t seem anywhere near normal. There have been a couple of nights recently where I have actually felt cold. In August. Get a blanket cold. This is so not right. Not that I am complaining, mind. If it was like this most of the time, with a lovely rainstorm here and there, and a month or two of really grand snowstorms, can you imagine? Perfection.

Found this on Tumblr:

“I would refuse to go to a homophobic heaven. No, I would say sorry, I mean I would much rather go to the other place,” Archbishop Desmond Tutu said at the launch of the Free and Equal campaign in Cape Town.

“I would not worship a God who is homophobic and that is how deeply I feel about this.”

Archbishop Tutu said the campaign against homophobia was similar to the campaign waged against racism in South Africa.

“I am as passionate about this campaign as I ever was about apartheid. For me, it is at the same level,” he added.

I’ve been wanting to blog about my really fascinating life for a couple of days now, but fatigue has won the toss. Besides which, in light of Robin Williams’ sad ending, it’s more important to post a couple of useful things. Having been diagnosed with clinical depression, and being on meds for it for many years (off now, and doing fine so far, thank you), I think I can speak to the need for info like this:

Suicide Prevention

And:

In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Hotline is 1-800-273-8255. In the UK, the Samaritans can be contacted on 08457 90 90 90. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is on 13 11 14.

I cooked. Really, I did. Here’s proof:

Lucky for me, I had time to take very quick rest breaks twice during the cooking, and quite a long break after prepping all the veg. This was easy. If I didn’t have pain/fatigue issues, it would have been a piece of cake. How did it turn out? Very, very nice. Salmon was lovely. Said to cook it 3 or 4 min per side. I did about three, and next time would do 4, I think, but it was lovely anyway. The potato salad, OMG is that stuff good. Potatoes usually taste kind of potato-y, for some reason, but these seemed to have individual flavors. The whole combo was fantastic. The downside, and it’s only a downside for people like me: I don’t like fennel. I ate some, but the more I ate, the more I remembered I don’t like it. A whole nother meal left, people, since this is dinner for two. My next two for this week are vegetarian, and I am so looking forward to them. I really loved the step by-step directions, too. No confusion. I do confusion quite a lot, so it’s nice not to. Next time, I will try to remember to take pictures from opening the box on. Pictures are fun.

Also, I cooked. I am so proud of me, because I really, really did not want to cook. Now there’s cleanup. Big rest break first. A lot of days, a week’s rest break would not be enough for me to have energy to clean up, but I really am doing better since I started those extra supplements I mentioned awhile back. And a good time was had by all. Sort of. LOL

So I have been having issues with all of my Amazon products lately. My old keyboard Reader kept freezing up and/or rebooting and the reboot freezing up and sometimes a whole day would go by before it would get itself together. Then the replacement keyboard Reader started doing the same thing, only more so. Sometimes the Fire, wouldn’t. It would start, but only load a blank page, there is never a carousel anymore, which I don’t mind at all, and if I go to the apps tab, it will be empty, or a few will load, etc. etc. etc. So the reboot part was getting worse and worse, and now the Fire won’t connect to the internet AT ALL. (My Nexus 7 works perfectly every time, people. Really, it does.) I was talking to DD today, and telling her all this really fascinating info about my electronic life. Get off the phone. Reading a webpage on my desktop. Desktop reboots. All by its lonesome. I’m sorry. Is there some weird alien energy thing going on here? Have I been magnetized? Do I need to be degaussed? This is just creepy and wrong, people.

Actually, I have a friend who was struck by lightning several years ago, and nothing works right when she is here (she hasn’t been here when any of this was happening). I sometimes tell her she needs to be degaussed. She doesn’t believe me, though.

And another thing. I was so looking forward to the Blue Apron food delivery thing. Of course, Fedex left it in the outer lobby without even buzzing me (Did I mention this already? Has my brain completely forgotten how to work, even after two cups of coffee?), but it’s here, and it looks fantastic, and it turns out I really, really don’t want to cook. At all. Ever. Anything. Oh, crap. Seemed like a good idea at the time. They put in little paper bags rolled up with a label, i.e. ‘Salmon Knick Knacks’. What on earth is a salmon knick knack. It’s the seasonings and really small stuff, stupid. That is so cute. LOL Without having cooked any of the food yet, I will say that if you like to cook, and don’t mind paying for the convenience of no waste and everything measured out and step-by-step directions, I would definitely recommend Blue Apron. Now if someone would just come and do the actual cooking part, my life would be complete.

I am a joy-killer. Just came across this vid, which echoes my sentiments about the whole thing. Also cats. Did you see those pics of that poor cat who looked like someone had sat on his face and crushed it? ‘Oh, how cute’ were the comments. Bet the cat wasn’t thinking that. “Help, I can’t breathe!” is probably more in line with his/her inner thoughts. Anyway, here’s today’s joy-killer vid. I subscribed to the channel, so hoping there will be more.

And now it isn’t. I went away for it, and now I’m back. The thrill of it all. Really, really great weekend, spent with my oldest friends. I always feel the need to explain, no they’re not old, I’ve just known them longer than any of my other friends. English. Very confusing language. Coming home from a weekend at their house is always so depressing. There I was in the gorgeous place, with people I love, having a great time, where my friend John always make my favorite food, steak on the grill by John, and now here I am back in my dump of a prison box. On the other hand, if you think your life sucks, I found out that someone I actually know in actual real life is going on vacation for a WEEK, to a place that costs $7,000 per NIGHT. Not year, month, or even week. Night. I don’t have words. That’s almost four times the money I get in a year.

The state of ‘OMG, are there even words for it?’ that my country has fallen into, here’s a little info thingy for you:

Fired for blogging about homophones.

If you don’t know what a homophone is, here’s a bit:

“a word pronounced the same as another but differing in meaning, whether spelled the same way or not, as heir and air.”

The article says the school was worried they would be associated with (OMG, the horror) homosexuality. Well, by that criteria, no one there can then say homo-sapien, or even homogenized, although that one is pronounced just a bit differently. “You know, Fred, that really-shaken-together-well milk we have nowadays is great and all, but I prefer the old kind where the cream came to the top.”

Is it something in the water? We seem to be getting more idiotic, less tolerant, more religiously-fanatical, more eager and willing to hate, repress, disrespect, discriminate against any one who isn’t exactly like we (not me, that OTHER we) are. It is making me ill, people. Please tell me how to fix this.

Much better today, btw.

Cross-posted from that other blog of mine, with a few additions:

I have my pet peeves and my questions. Why do so many people say ‘ground’ when Jack or whoever is inside, and ‘floor’ when he is outside? (you’d say ‘whoMever’ if ‘him’ would fit in place of Jack) Is this a UK thing? Why, oh, why can’t people get that ‘span’ is reach, not a past tense of spin? ‘The Brooklyn Bridge was constructed to span the East River between the boroughs of Manhattan and Brooklyn.’ ‘Jack spun around quickly.’ That is, without doubt, my biggest pet peeve.

Point here is, I keep reading ‘bored of’ instead of ‘bored with’, which has always been common usage as far as I know. Lo and behold, I decided to google, “when did ‘bored with’ become ‘bored of’.”. (Yes, I suck at punctuation.) Didn’t actually know you could phrase things that way in a search, but did it ever work. Here’s the first result:

From here: http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/words/bored-by-of-or-with

“Bored by, of, or with?

Which of these expressions should you use: is one of them less acceptable than the others?

Do you ever get bored with eating out all the time?

Delegates were bored by the lectures.

He grew bored of his day job.

The first two constructions, bored with and bored by, are the standard ones. The third, bored of, is more recent than the other two and it’s become extremely common. In fact, the Oxford English Corpus contains almost twice as many instances of bored of than bored by. It represents a perfectly logical development of the language, and was probably formed on the pattern of expressions such as tired of or weary of. Nevertheless, some people dislike it and it’s not fully accepted in standard English. It’s best to avoid using it in formal writing.”

It’s not as jarring as ‘span’ instead of ‘spun’, but the point really is, I love google. I love that I can come up with a very crudely-fashioned search question, and it gets answered regardless of my lack of skill with the English language. And yes, English is my first, and unfortunately only, language, and I’m still not very good at it. 🙂 Although, I can say ‘maisonnette’ which I just learned my one-bedroom, teeny kitchen box is called in England. Also, ‘croissant’. Hey, people, I speak French. 😉 Oh, ‘cafe au lait’, you all.

Here’s a good resource, if you’re not sure about a word:

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/

I look things up all the time. I’m especially bad with apostrophes, as in it’s, its, or its’, and I’m always having to go back and check. Don’t you just love words and language and grammar and punctuation and all that jazz? Could it be more confusing? Possibly, but then I’d have to give up speaking all together. Which I also just looked up, and it’s correct usage is ‘altogether’. Who knew?

Also, ‘Jack and I went chasing weevils’ NOT ‘Jack and me went chasing weevils’. ‘He told Jack and me about another weevil.’, NOT ‘He told Jack and I about another weevil.’ Take out the ‘Jack and’ and that’s how you know if it’s ‘me’ or ‘I’.

Enamoured of, or enamoured with? From the Oxford dictionaries site:

If you’re crazy about ferrets, you’re enamored of them.

It is less common but still acceptable to say “enamored with.”

But if you say you are enamored by ferrets, you’re saying that ferrets are crazy about you.

This stuff is addictive. Or I’m just in a good mood today. Or both.

You get two choices about today’s post. They both made me laugh, so….(I think it’s four dots)

OR

I am having so much fun with this post. Done now.
Pictures are from cartoonstock.com and Dilbert

But, god, you know what’s worse? People actually voted, and keep voting them into office. What does that say about us?

On another note of miserableness, having a major pain day. Even my fingers hurt. And my toes. IDEK what that’s about. For future reference, people, Tylenol sucks for pain. I took three. Nothing. No effect at all. Why do I keep taking it? Morons R Us. (Oh! See previous paragraph.) The thing is, if you eat a good amount of food when taking it, it theoretically won’t give you ulcers. Ibuprofen, which does work, has no such fail-safe. Apparently it can cause strokes and heart attacks. Major pain or dead. What a choice. I love American medicine. Really, I do. God forbid you should give me the good drugs. You’re not the ones in pain. I am just a big bundle of joy today. Sorry.

“Why no, I did not have time to put the baby in her crib. I did, however, find time to dig out the ear muffs so the gunfire would not deafen her.”

Was reading a blog I follow when the person mentioned an article upon which said person commented, and the comment was deleted. Here’s the article:

The Evolution of
Gwen Cooper

So of course I had to go check it out, and now find myself in a bit of a flame war with the author. Hey, I try to be nice, but sometimes it’s just so hard. Anyway, it’s making me laugh a lot. Just thought I’d throw that out there. Laughing is good, people.

Also, my homemaker is back after two weeks. Yay.