On the apple home page (www.apple.com) they are advertising links to relief organizations that are helping with the Tsunami tragedy in India / Indonesia. You don’t see that on www.microsoft.com.
Just stayed up until 1:30 AM watching 21 Grams. Very good movie, if you haven’t seen it yet. It is expertly directed, and you really have to pay attention when you watch it. Unfortunately, I’m too tired to wax philosophical, but I do have to say the film was one of the better films I’ve seen in a while. The idea that a part of us might live beyond our ‘death’ and continue to influence the world around us in spectacular ways. That a part of us might stick around just long enough to set things right. Interesting idea, indeed. I’ve heard allegorical stories about heart transplant recipients aquiring hobbies, food likes/dislikes, mannerisms, etc. of the donor right after the transplant — I haven’t chased them down to confirm them, but it’s a romantic idea that might have some scientific underpinnings — our consciousness is a process that is hardly understood, and though we attribute our brains for doing most of the heavy lifting, there are neurological processes throughout our body that might add into that greater gestalt which is our ’self’. Who’s to say we can’t remember with our toes, or actually feel with our heart. Well, there ya go — can’t stop the philosopher. I guess I better clean up all this wax.
Last night Julie’s uncle Lou stopped by out of the blue for absolutely no reason other than to drop off two pounds of coffee for me from his favorite coffee place because he knows I like it. He went to the coffee place in the city because he was in the neighborhood — he didn’t need any coffee for himself, and he wasn’t going to go for any other reason other than to get me the cofee. He didn’t ask for money to pay him back, he just gave it to me because he loves me. That, my friends is a true friend and an excellent example of a man I want to emulate in my life. What a tremendous act of love and kindness. A gift out of the blue, just because you know the other person will like it.
Lou is an extraordinary man. He comes over to teach my boy how to play ball. he helped me frame out the walls in the garage to create a new living space. He’s full of life experience and wisdom and loving kindness. He’s raised a daughter of his own, and is a damned fine parent. He’s got lots of hands-on experience that he’s unafraid to share, and he’s always willing to lend a helping hand for any project that needs to be done. And everything he does is with a loving, selfless smile. Just being around Lou makes you happy. I don’t have an uncle Lou as a blood relative, but Lou is my adopted favorite uncle. He kicks ass all over any other brother or sister my parents might have.
Thanks Lou, thanks for loving me and thanks for being such an awesome guy. I’m drinking some of your coffee now. Cheers.
Today is the winter solstice — the longest day of the year, and the day we celebrate the return of the light. It’s also a time that we acknowledge renewal in our life, and think about all the things that are ‘coming around the bend’. There are so many things that feel as if I’ve been ever-descending into darkness, only to recently be climbing back into the light, so I am wholeheartedly invoking the energies of the sun, and roll the psychic wheel of fire down the hill of my life. Work has been ever more distracting, people have had serious medical issues, home has been chaotic and my life has been disorganized. For the first time this year, I have missed important spiritual rituals that I have participated in for years now. I have felt myself in darkness, but now I feel the power of the light returning. I hope to engage myself more and more and to act as a sympathetic enchantment for the resurgence of energy and focus in my life. Please keep posted, as the days unfold to follow. I can feel a rebirth in my future.
It’s Monday morning (2:30 AM), and I’m just recovering and getting the house moving closer to what it was before the party. We had an excellent turn-out (approx 50 people, children and adults included) and two thirty-pound birds were more than enough to feed everyone. I didn’t get a chance to spend time with everyone I wanted to spend time with, to the extent to which I wanted to spend time with them, but all in all, I had a very satisfying experience.
For those of you who don’t know what the hell I’m talking about, every year my wife and I through a huge holiday party where I subject the guests to a recipe for turkey that requires you to burn the outside (for an astoundingly moist turkey inside). Do a google on ‘Black Turkey’, and you’ll find the recipe. I also have for the last few years added a second traditional bird, brined in apple cider and brown sugar, called ‘the Drunken Squab’, which we put on the Weber and smoke with apple chips. Both very nice and distinctive flavors.
We now have enough turkey leftovers to feed 30.
I just got back from Blade III about an hour ago — overall a mediocre film. Some good fight scenes, but really not worth seeing. Oh how I miss Blade I.
So yeah, it’s past one, and I have to cook 2 30lb turkeys tomorrow, starting around 8am. I’m going to bed. G’nite y’all.
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That gets me to thinking... |
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