January 2012
1 post
“Never leave anything unsaid.”
– SSG David A. Gabler, 1964 ~ 2012
October 2011
2 posts
“We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children.”
– Native American Proverb
1 tag
September 2011
1 post
August 2011
6 posts
It is 3:30 on a Tuesday. The closest place with internet access is the bar around the corner, a 100 yards from the lake. There are no complaints from this girl.
To Do:
[X] Deposit severance check
[X] Complete catastrophic health insurance paper work
[ ] Pack car
[ ] Clean house
[X] Update iPod
Last remaining items before I can blow this popsicle stand. The feelings of guilt about no longer being a “productive” member of society are slowly starting to fade. With a little luck, two weeks of no tv or cell service in the boonies of Idaho will...
Willfully Unemployed
…in the worst economy since the great depression. Not one of my more sensible decisions to date. Twenty-six years of honor rolls, steady paychecks and lunch meetings on indefinite hold. For what? To see where depositing in my soul instead of my bank account leads. Things around here should become a lot more interesting in the coming weeks.
July 2011
1 post
Sage Advice
Joni: Oh financial blahblhablah. You are young and fancy free! Soak it up!
Me: I like the way you think.
Joni: Deposit in your soul and not your bank for a bit.
May 2011
4 posts
What's Legacy Look Like? →
Of all that’s been called ‘Alberto’s Legacy,’ the gift with the most profound impact on me is the maxim he lived by.
Do the thing you are most dreading. And do it now…
As in, don’t procrastinate or bury your head in the sand about your finances, deadlines, promises or goals.
Write To-Do Lists often.
Complete them swiftly.
As a result, the man lived fearlessly. Presently…
Data →
…doesn’t change behavior. If it did, Apple would be advertising the iPhone to us with stats about how the iPhone increases our productivity by 22% and our love life by 34%.
Inspiration changes behavior…
They don’t use numbers. They use inspiration…
1 tag
April 2011
2 posts
1 tag
“An entrepreneur is someone who steals office supplies from home and brings them...”
– Auren Hoffman
March 2011
2 posts
"B"
… That there’ll be days like this, “There’ll be days like this my momma said” when you open your hands to catch and wind up with only blisters and bruises. When you step out of the phone booth and try to fly and the very people you wanna save are the ones standing on your cape. When your boots will fill with rain and you’ll be up to your knees in disappointment and those are the very days...
1 tag
January 2011
4 posts
Killing Your Job
When is the right time to walk away from a project or job? And what about all your fears of leaving?
“All courses of action are risky, so prudence is not in avoiding danger (it’s impossible), but calculating risk and acting decisively. Make mistakes of ambition and not mistakes of sloth. Develop the strength to do bold things, not the strength to suffer.” -Niccolò Machiavelli,...
“But in business, like they say, you don’t get what you deserve, you get...”
– Jay-Z
“To do creativity at the level we do it … five days a week, eight hours a...”
– Ferran Adrian
Wisdom and Happiness
I believe that David Foster Wallace was a better essayist and thinker than a writer of fiction, and I like his oft-quoted Kenyon commencement address very much; in it, he suggests that controlling one’s attention is integral to happiness, to real wisdom, and to meaningful freedom:
I have come gradually to understand that the liberal arts cliché about teaching you how to think is actually...
December 2010
2 posts
“I’ll tell you a big secret, my friend. Don’t wait for the last judgment. It...”
– Albert Camus (via jamesnord)
November 2010
1 post
October 2010
2 posts
August 2010
1 post
“An answer is an invitation to stop thinking about something, to stop wondering....”
– Rachel Naomi Remen
July 2010
4 posts
“Develop interest in life as you see it; in people, things, literature, music –...”
– Henry Miller
“I hate everything that is driven by fashion. From the beginning it was hating...”
– Dieter Rams
Is It Friday Yet?
Jules: I’m just going to walk the Earth.
Vincent: What’cha mean, “walk the earth”?
Jules: You know, walk the earth, meet people… get into adventures. Like Caine from Kung Fu.
WatchThe Gourmet/PBS series Diary of a Foodie (ignore the cliche title) is amazing. They cover everything from traditional Japanese knife making to spice markets in Istanbul. All three seasons are available for free at Gourmet.com.
June 2010
5 posts
1 tag
Better.
…What makes you feel less bored soon makes you into an addict. What makes you feel less vulnerable can easily turn you into a dick. And the things that are meant to make you feel more connected today often turn out to be insubstantial time sinks – empty, programmatic encouragements to groom and refine your personality while sitting alone at a screen.
Don’t get me wrong. Gumming the edges of...
1 tag
“Everything in moderation, including moderation.”
– Julia Child
May 2010
7 posts
Sometimes you have to throw your life ahead of you...
Note To Self
Try to make happiness instead of find it.
Tao Te Ching
Fill your bowl to the brim and it will spill. Keep sharpening your knife and it will blunt. Chase after money and security and your heart will never unclench. Care about people’s approval and you will be their prisoner.
Do your work, then step back. The only path to serenity.
The Difference: Living Well vs. Doing Well
…This notion — that material investment is somehow more important to life than personal investment — is exactly what leads so many of us to believe we could never afford to go vagabonding. The more our life options get paraded around as consumer options, the more we forget that there’s a difference between the two. Thus, having convinced ourselves that buying things is the only way to play...
“The long view sharpens the short view.”
– Steve Pavlina
1 tag
April 2010
7 posts
“There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.”
– Hamlet
“I don’t want to read online, I don’t want to wake up and look at a screen. I feel like as a society, we try to put everything on that same goddamn screen, and pretty soon we’re going to be eating on the screen or, like, making love through the screen. It’s just sort of like: ‘Why does everything have to be on the screen?” - Dave Eggers
“Life is to be lived. If you have to support yourself, you had bloody well better...”
– Katharine Hepburn