Well, it’s February now (duh eh?) and I am using a theme for titling my posts this month. You can probably guess what it is right off the bat but let me have my little fantasy that I am way cool and obscure in it, K? Ummm, thanks!
aTOMicTOM has his little “Cleaning the desk drawer of the mind” and I reflected that my mind is more like the attic at my grandma’s old house than a desk drawer (AT is young – he needs time to accumulate his schtuff!). Hence:
Cleaning the “attic” of my mind today:
As it should be:
Shoe Bomber Sentenced to Life in Prison
(AP) – Richard Reid, the al-Qaida follower who tried to blow up a trans-Atlantic jetliner with explosives hidden in his shoes, was sentenced to life in prison Thursday by a judge who warned him: “We are not afraid … We are Americans. We have been through the fire before.” The 29-year-old British citizen cried, “You will be judged by Allah!” before being dragged from the courtroom in handcuffs.
We are not afraid of any of your terrorist co-conspirators, Mr. Reid,” said the judge. “We are Americans. We have been through the fire before.
“You are not an enemy combatant ? you are a terrorist. You are not a soldier in any war ? you are a terrorist. To call you a soldier gives you far too much stature. You are a terrorist and we do not negotiate with terrorists. We hunt them down one by one and bring them to justice.”
The judge then pointed to the American flag behind him and said: “You see that flag, Mr. Reid? That’s the flag of the United States of America. That flag will fly there long after this is long forgotten.”
What a flaming tool. Pictures don’t lie!
Words to the wise:
Seriously, don?t watch this at 11:30 pm and expect to sleep well. And yes, I know this from personal experience. It was REALLY interesting but probably better watched when you can go do something else after to wash the pictures from your brain. (I’m not terribly squeamish and it wasn’t gross necessarily – everything was done pretty scientifically but I couldn’t get past seeing his hands folded over his stomach … they cut the frozen body into four sections across and the midsection showed these sort of detached hands and it just stayed with me. Not sure why. Just did.)
“Virtual Corpse” is the story of a convicted murderer on death row in Texas who bequeathed his body to science. After his execution, scientists made the controversial decision to slice his body into small pieces, digitally photograph them and create a computerized “visible man”- the first such virtual representation of a healthy human body. In this way, the condemned man continues to “live on” through the internet– where the visible man is available to researchers- and can make a positive contribution to society.
Convicted killer Joseph Paul Jernigan agreed to donate his body to science shortly before being executed in Texas in 1993. His body was subsequently chosen as the male model for the Visible Human Project, an ambitious plan of the U.S. National Library of Medicine to create a 3D database of the entire male and female human anatomies. The documentary details Jernigan’s case, including interviews with family, prison chaplain and attorneys, as well as doctors at the University of Colorado, as they systematically freeze and slice his body into one-millimeter sections, which are photographed and digitally re-assembled as a “Visible Human.”
For more scientific info, go here
Choosing Happiness
I saved this post from a Table Talk entry several days ago and it speaks to the same thing that the most recent post at wKenshow does (sychronicity much??):
From Table Talk:
It’s kind of funny. Right now I’m looking at what I really want in a relationship, and I’m quite mindful at the moment of what a dear friend told me the other day — that you often go after people you wish would want you. And you put up with crap because then they would want you, lalala. And you overlook the people in your life that would do anything for you, that would really accept you and share their lives fully with you.
I never thought I’d say this, but living with my housemate has taught me a lot about my inner desires and made me feel much more resolve about choosing happiness. Does that sound silly?
I just totally feel this… ok, you are good at going after unattainable things. You are an expert at feeling bad for not measuring up.
What about really reveling in things that make you happy, people that make you happy, a life that, while not filled with those fabulous people that don’t want you, IS filled with people who you didn’t at first think about, but now realize how much they warm your life?
I choose happiness.
wKenshow.com
From wKen where he is talking about keeping a journal (whether on line or hand written) (this is not the entire post, btw – but the part *I* found most relevant. It’s worth it to go and read his entire post):
Then one night, instead of writing, I went back and read my journal from the beginning. Man, I was an unhappy person, with every right to be pissed at the world. I read page after page of grief and fear. The grief was probably justified, because my ex really did screw me over, but that?s another story. The fear, though, almost always turned out to be about things that never materialized. I was afraid this thing was going to happen or sure that I?d never be able to do that thing again. Yet, as I read on I saw how life always turned out different than I expected and so I just found new things to fear.
That doesn?t mean that no more bad things happened. They always do, and always will until I die, and maybe even after that. Who knows, but most of the things I was afraid of never came to pass. Things didn?t happen like I thought and I was able to do this or that thing again. Life kept moving on, and being negative and afraid didn?t do me any good.
Actually, I realized that writing all this negative stuff every night seemed to make me focus on negativity. It was like blogging is now, where I see much of my life as potential blog entries, or when I was a serious photographer and I saw everything as a potential photo. My mind kept going to the dark side because I sat down and wrote about dark things every day.
So I stopped keeping the journal. Instead, I started daydreaming about good things. I started imagining myself in better situations, and then I made an effort to make decisions based on moving towards them. Almost like magic (literally), things started to get better. That didn?t mean that I had no more problems or that things always turned out the way I imagined. Life was, and still is full of surprises. Still, in general I achieved the goals I dwelt on. They almost never came about the way I anticipated, but one way or another I got to where I wanted to go.
Now, I don?t want to sound like a New Age guru or snake oil salesman, and I?m not saying that all you have to do is think positive thoughts and everything will be okay. Life isn?t fair like that. You can make all the right choices and still get fucked. There?s a Bible verse that says something like ?the race doesn?t always go to the swiftest nor the battle to the strong, but time and unforeseen occurrences befall all men.?
You don?t always get what you want. You don?t always get what you deserve. You get what you get, and it?s up to you to deal with that.
I just found it interesting to see how that post in his blog completely ran along the same lines as the one in TT. Is that the Universe talking to me?? My journals were always filled with my sadness about what I didn’t have. Too much of one thing and not enough of another. Maybe it’s time to re-orient my thinking. Hmm.
When is it time to stop celebrating birthdays?
NEVER!! in Lisa-land! :) And on that note, I wish my bestest buddy Mark H. a happy, HAPPY (40-mumbleMumble something) birthday! I hope this year brings you much joy and happiness and new discoveries!! SMOOCH!
That’s all for now, kids. (Isn’t that enough??)
Thanks for the birthday greetings!
I was struck by an observation last night in the book “Emotional Intelligence” when you said you choose happiness. The observation was that we spend most of our days trying to be happy. The things we choose to do on a daily basis are those things that make us happier and thus give balance to our lives.
It also said that happiness and sadness were givens in life but most people could cope just fine, as long as they had periods of both they didn’t feel deprived.