I realized I am a steady celebrant

We use Google Calendar to keep track of activities and commitments.  While checking what was up today, I realized that for years, I have been a steady follower of the calendar dictates.  When it is Wednesday, I do Wednesday activities.   I don't argue.  I don't disagree.  Wed., Thurs., Fri.  Our calendars might not be acceptable to everyone.  Every page, every week: W,T, F.!  Wtf?  We didn't start this stuff, just quietly acquiesce. 

Little day pretending to matter

I use a laptop to compose the Fear, Fun and Filoz blog posts.   When I sat down at the computer this morning, I got a tip from the computer's operating system.  Today, as you probably know much better than I do, that today is the barely known "Talk like a pirate day."  I gather that we are talking about kids' cartoon pirates and Hollywood versions of dangerous critters who plunder and steal, and sometimes behave in even worse ways.

When I told Lynn about what I had learned, she used the dismissive exhalation "Oh, brother!"

Here is a link to more unimportant information:

https://www.google.com/search?q=talk%20like%20a%20pirate%20day&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-b-1-m

Trying to stay safe

The message "This doesn't agree with our records" keeps coming up too often.  I write down what just worked and I use it again carefully.  Sometimes I am as sure as I can be that what I did just now to get in is indeed what I just used and met with failure.  I went to get technical help.

She helped me very much.  I think the most important idea was if I know the web address, use it.  No "links", just the right address.

We are not going

Lynn has liked to travel as long as I have known her.  So it is a surprise to us both that we both agree to not take a YMT trip we had planned.  It is supposed to start on Saturday and last for two weeks of travel and touring in maritime and French Canada and New England.  Our recent two-day group trip to northern Wisconsin convinced us we are getting past the age of travel and that was not even considering the considerable steady business of Lynn being the physical (but not financial) guardian of her brother who has dementia.  She has been having a very frustrating time getting clear that we have decided to not go and to get our money back.  Stay tuned.

The news

I realize I can't keep track of what's happening in my town, much less my county, state, nation or planet.  I don't really have any actual responsibility for doing so.  I read CNN Five Things, which now has  an AM edition and a PM edition.  I look at Time magazine but don't read many of the articles.  In a similar way, I skip most of the news articles in The Week but that magazine has the best anecdotes and weird little events that happen in the US and the world.

For instance, along with all the usual stuff about Ukraine, elections here and there, sports, natural storms and disasters, most of which I have already heard about, the best part of The Week are its reports of odd events that happen.  After I read about them, I sometimes ask myself what of them I can recall. Items that strike me as interesting and memorable I often read to Lynn.  

One I read in this week's issue is about two children who set up a lemonade stand and sold drinks.  Some man came by and stole $40 from their cashbox.  The neighborhood learned of the theft and gave the sellers money.  Between local people and social media the pair got $6500. Plus, the thief was caught.

CNN Photos of the week 9/12/24

https://www.cnn.com/2024/09/12/world/gallery/photos-this-week-september-5-september-12

"Soul Made Flesh" by Carl Zimmer

I am reading this book aloud to Lynn.  It is good and certainly shows how imaginative people can be.  It is about slowly working out what the massive, spongy lump in the top of the head actually does for the body.  We still don't fully understand that brain but we seem to be making progress.  My two favorite brain books are still "Incognito" by David Eagleman and "Seven and a Half Lessons About Your Brain" by Lisa Feldman Barrett.

Just drink it, hot or cold or inbetween

It was about age 5 or 6 or so that I first paid attention to coffee.  I had had iced tea many times and I felt it had no effect on me.  Coffee seemed more of a grown-up drink and I wasn't a grown up until I had a family.  Ever since, I have had coffee regularly.  I drink a cup at breakfast and after lunch, with an additional cup of Starbucks instant on Wednesday and Sunday morning.  No special reason for those days or that coffee.  I suspected that Starbucks instant had a little more caffeine than my drip coffee and I like it.  

I have usually heated up the 2nd cup from the brewing when lunch was finished but I often let the cup sit long enough that it is room temperature when I get around to drinking.  I have gotten to the point of merely drinking a cup after lunch without bothering to heat it. I am drinking it that way anyhow so why not?

We listened to Michael Pollan's "How Coffee Created the Modern World", which seems to be an Audible recording only and not in print or ebook format.  I have read other sources about the transitions from farming and its timing to other occupations and coffee seemed important in that.  I just read recently that the Union army was careful and regular about having coffee available to its troops. 

Yawkey Woodson exhibit

The Leigh Yawkey Woodson art museum in Wausau, 40 miles north, has an international show each fall called "Birds in Art."  We drove up and walked through it last week.  There are many memorable paintings, carvings, photos and statues.

The one that struck me was a painting of deflated bird-shaped balloons lying on a driveway surface.  There were all sorts of celebrations of magnificent birds in flight or feeding babies but I thought the person who connected the Birds in Art exhibit with the sight of three balloons shaped like various birds showed extra sensitivity and imagination.

Today is my wife’s birthday

Today is my wife's birthday.   She is 85, which is an age that shows longevity but she shows no signs of being over 82. She has always been a little different in many ways, starting with an unusual mix of ancestors.

https://inktank.fi/10-fun-facts-finns-dont-know-about-finnish-americans/

Having Finnish ancestors is just the start.  Her Cuban grandmother had a sister who dated a Swedish miner posted in Cuba to aid in mine construction.  When he proposed, the prospect of living in upper Michigan without any company motivated the woman to ask her sister to accompany her.  Thus, my wife has Cuban ancestors.

Later in life, she and two other passengers survived an accidental head-on crash that killed the driver of her car but left the others unharmed. Still later, she earned a PhD in library science and taught university classes.  She did this just as computers were penetrating society and the World Wide Web was being born.  She is a rocket I am lucky to be connected to.

Fresh eyes

Our house guest, a worldly woman we have known for years, left today so it is back to just two old people who are in love and who appreciate the mystery of each other.

We were discussing our experience with hypnosis.  The talk reminded me that I have the hypnotist the goal of giving me fresh eyes, a mental state often called "beginner's mind" in Buddhism and related thought.  Our house guest reminded me of the beginner's mind title.  

Here is a link to blog entries that include the term:

https://fearfunandfiloz.blogspot.com/search?q=fresh+eyes

Better understanding, better appreciation

Socrates, a fundamental figure in early philosophy, said one should know one's self.  It is a good idea but it is not possible.  Granted, a person can work on improving self-knowledge but there are many mysteries.  In addition, as we age and eventually decline, we change.  Still, there are useful clues.  It is not only reasoning and memory but there is also emotion, feelings and the fundamental unconscious.  

David Eagleman's "Incognito" is an excellent tour of the parts of us that don't speak and don't communicate much but still matter all the time. Lisa Feldman Barrett's "Seven and a Half Lessons about Your Brain" is clear, quick and valuable.  Car Zimmer's "Soul Made Flesh" explores the advances in conceptualizing what the mound of squishy stuff under the skull bones does.  I read that Aristotle hypothesized that it acted as a radiator, cooling the body.

Professor Barrett has some excellent TED talks.  One of them is "You Have More Control Over Your Emotions Than You Think"

https://www.ted.com/talks/lisa_feldman_barrett_you_aren_t_at_the_mercy_of_your_emotions_your_brain_creates_them

It can be that sometime when you aren't in the mood for a walk or a movie, think of something that made you sad or happy or confused or whatever after watching Prof. Barrett.

CNN Photos of the week

https://www.cnn.com/2024/09/05/world/gallery/photos-this-week-august-29-september-5/

Sending messages

We have multiple ways to send someone a message these days.  If you want to contact someone, you can:

1. Call their landline

2. Call their cellphone

3. Text them

4. Email them

5. Mail them a note

6. Create a web page

7. Have an airplane pull a banner through the sky

8. Use any one of many social media

9. Have a friend or a grandchild use their know-how in any of the above ways

I like to know my friends' preferences for communication channels but I often don't.  Besides, preferences and arrangements can change without notice. So, I imagine a message sitting in an email account unread for days or longer.  There are pros and cons for each method.

Wonderful money-making new ideas

Create a web-site for those poor souls who can't find something to worry about.  With just a little (expert) help, we can supply you with wonderfully worrying worries and concerns.

Updating Plus - another great business idea!  Our campus people recently reminded us all that if we have occupied the same office for 5 years or more, it is possible that callers hear a greeting that is completely out-of-date.  This service will check all your contact channels for up-to-dateness!

What's the secret of success?

Just writing to advise success seekers to modify the question a little bit.  Asking "What's the secret of success (in anything)?" can set the seeker up to find the answer.  I suggest changing the question to "What's a secret of success?"  That may not seem like much of a change but the first version more or less sets the seeker up to try to find THE answer.  In many complicated matters, there isn't ONE item that creates success.  It may be more like nutrition, where many different sorts of nutrients are all needed and contribute the needed combination. 

House guest

We have a house guest staying with us for the next few days.  She is a friend of long standing.  You may read about her and our activities with her over the next week.

40,000

I have been writing Fear, Fun and Filoz since 2008.  It is fun sometimes to get an idea for a blog post, look up terms related to the idea and see what I have written before, if anything.  I have been meaning to write about "40,000 jobs" and I looked that up.  As I suspected, I did write about that here: https://fearfunandfiloz.blogspot.com/search?q=40%2C000+jobs

The search term "40,000 jobs" refers to a government publication called "Handbook of Occupational Titles".  When my class of mostly elementary education teachers-to-be discussed getting teaching jobs years ago, some students expressed fear that they were doomed unless they got a teaching job.  I asked a counselor from the campus career counseling office to come and talk about jobs, getting employment and being a college graduate.  The counselor mentioned the Handbook and her talk made me realize that what one thinks of the 'world of work' can be strongly related to the size and nature of the location of one's childhood.  

Personally, I searched quite a bit through my memories and feelings to see what about ME seemed to be a clue about a sort of work that I could do and do happily for a long time.  Teaching 5th grade and undergraduate and graduate courses was close to what seemed I could maintain interest for.  I do understand that a complex modern world has far more types of work needs than I know about.  I also realized from my students that there is far more to a talented, educated young person than most of them realize.

Not rechargeable

My charge is running down slowly.  I don't think I can be re-charged.  When it runs sufficiently low, I will die.  That is, of course, if I don't get shot or hit by a bus before that.  It was a big help to me when I read that Warren Buffet said that at his age of 94, he is "playing extra innings".  I let that comment season in my head beside my feeling that it is ok to die and that using some fear of death to threaten me is a weaker and weaker strategy against me. My wife says she doesn't want my charge to run out and I like her.  I want to do what she wants me to, if possible.

But I definitely like that feeling that I have done it!  I have performed ok through the whole play.  Yea for me!

(I just read this to her and she assured me that it is ok for me to die and that I need not hang on just for her.)

CNN Photos of the week 9/1

https://www.cnn.com/2024/08/29/world/gallery/the-week-in-30-photos