Reading this book felt Just like having a conversation with a friend after work… yes, a bit one sided, but Robert’s style is so friendly that with each story or anecdote, he draws me in, so I could become part of the story.
THE BELLMAN CHRONICLES
I enjoyed the story separations, which made it easy to stop and start again, reading in little spurts which is often my style.
I love the honest feelings he presented about the not so politically correct guests he had to work with. The stories were told in an easy friendly manner, engaging me in the very experiences he was undergoing!
There were lots of cliches in the book, but that’s the whole point of it. Robert wanted to show the reader that these cliche people really do exist!
And finally, Robert ended with a little of his homespun wisdom on various subjects from comic books, parenting, grocery shopping while hungry, Reality TV, and today’s hero’s for our kids to politics and human nature.
You gotta read this book! It’s warm and friendly, and funny and every point he makes will make you go “Yeah, I’ve always thought that too!” It’s a feel good book in which we can all commiserate about the funny nature of our fellow human beings.
Thanks, Robert (he goes by The Hook on his blog You’ve Been Hooked) for a very entertaining time!
Oh, and for a Canadian, he’s all right in my eyes!
Tuesday (today 4/2/13) is Day 2 of the April 2013 AtoZ Challenge…
In my excitementI may have forgotten to mention my theme – it will be fractals, fractal art, everything fractal up to and including my new book Fractal Dreams! Have a look around my pages and such to see lots more fractals. Also, every Friday I post a FridayFractalFeature (fff, for short) for all to enjoy! Thanks for stopping by and engaging in the A to Z 2013 Challenge! This is my FIRST ever, so I’m pretty excited! So every day I will post a fractal whose title starts with the letter of the day… and perhaps other things fractal related.
B is for…. Buddhakat – why, that’s me, of course. Or, more specifically our family name, the Buddhakats. Our family currently consists of myself – the fractal artist, of the genus felinus humanus (Janet, head cat), Mama – all gray long hair (meow – mother to Mimi) and Mimi, all black short hair (meow – daughter to Mama). They used to be Michelle (Mama) and Miriam (Mimi), but when they moved in they wanted to change their names. So we did. They seem to like their new names just fine! Book – as in my new book FRACTAL DREAMS currently available at RedmundPro Benoit – as in BenoitB Mandelbrot, the mathematician for developing a “theory of roughness” in nature. He also coined the word “fractal” and wrote the defining book on the science of fractals, Fractals: Form, Chance and Dimension in 1975. It was translated to English shortly after that.
the fractal for B is: Behind Bars
BEHIND BARS
Behind Bars is not in my book, Fractal Dreams, which is available exclusively at RedmundPro.
Disclaimer: I am NOT a mathematician, so please forgive the uneducated tone of my definitions. I am an artist, so I try to explain the math of fractals to the best of my (limited) ability.
Imagine seven ‘wheels’ of energy spinning in your body along its centerline, from the base of your spine to the top of your head. These subtle energy channels each correspond to different areas of the body as well as specific life situations. They channel energy to where it’s needed, for optimal health and wellbeing.
In many ways the chakras are like intersections in a busy city. They channel traffic, and the traffic grid is designed to keep traffic flowing freely. But as we have all experienced, city traffic can easily become snarled. All it takes is one angry or insensitive driver blocking an intersection, and everything comes to a stop. Traffic ‘upstream’ from the blockage becomes an impassable domino effect of cars clogging the streets and blocking other intersections. And ‘downstream’, the streets are empty.
Check out the chakra chart below to understand your chakras better.
Howdy gang! Hope your Monday brings you oodles of joy and cyberdeals and all other things that make you smile!! Just in case not, I have a little something that might brighten your day, or at least a few minutes of it!!
I watched this guy on America’s Got Talent, voted for him every time he was up for a vote. And thanks to me (NOT) and his really special talent, he won that year.
Then a few years later, I took a trip to Vegas just to see Terry Fator or the brand new Cirque du Soleil honoring the Beatles (my forever favorite musicians)… Terry Fator won out and I’m totally happy!! Not only did we have excellent seats, second row back, just slightly to right of center (from our perspective). Terry stated right up front that it was OK to take pictures and such – you know how some of these big stars can be… well, then, after the show we got to meet him, have our pics taken with him and of course I let him know how many times I’d voted for him! He was very personable, and since we were the last in his meet and greet line, we got to chat a bit longer. Then, I sat waiting for my sister who’d gone out to smoke, in a small coffee shop just on the main path. As Terry walked back to his dressing room passing me, he met my eyes and gave me a special wave, just for me!!! I felt so special, and I am totally in awe of his skill. He is AMAZING!!!
Hope you enjoy!!!
PS just a footnote on the book release: it has been pushed back to perhaps mid December. It seems my publisher is so good at breaking software (that can’t stand up to her intense requirements), without her even trying, the Library of Congress (that’s THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, folks) had a software fail and they are still trying to get back on their feet. So, due to delay in getting out LCCN number, which MUST go hand in hand with the ISBN #’s when a book is published… Well, you see where I’m going with this. But am I BLUE about it? NO! I mean NO NOT AT ALL!!! I have full faith the book will be out soon and will be well worth the wait. Stay tuned for the rest of the story folks… most likely this will be the first public place I’ll announce its release, on that you can count!
On another Blue note ;), you may remember several years back in Santee CA (just outside of San Diego), it was a Monday, in fact it was January 29th, my birthday, and a young lady took several rifles and started blasting away at the schoolyard directly across from her home. I don’t remember the details (not important, anyway), but I have always felt it became my duty, on that very Blue Monday (I think there was a song?) when that girl took out several teachers and students (I was living in San Diego at the time), it became my duty to ensure that the only thing blue about Mondays any more would be either some humor or some beautiful art…
So, that is the purpose of the video (no blue humor, btw) above and the piece below… hope your Monday is FAR from being a sad or bad kind of blue Monday!!
A friend has shared the following in a journal post on his wonderful DA site. The title of his journal, in blue below is a link to his actual journal. In the interest of global peace and harmony, I have linked you to it.
Hi everybody, this journal has the purpose to both inspire and invite you to join in one of the largest globally-synchronized meditation and prayer events in history! In celebration of the International Day of Peace, hundreds of organizations and thousands of individuals worldwide will join together as One for a worldwide “Be The Peace” event. “Be The Peace” will feature public meditation/prayer events in over 380 cities worldwide from Friday, September 21st, 2012
6:00 p.m. – 7.00 p.m. in local time zones, creating a profound planetary wave of peace. For more information about the Global “Be the Peace” event please visit [link].
At the end of the “word” part of his journal Kancano composed a lovely photo montage, so I hope you will journey over to see it.
Also, Kancano shares the link to BeThePeace which is the source for information on this event for Friday, 09/21/2012, International Day of Peace.
I hope you take a moment to read about this worldwide event/wave and possibly feel/experience the spirituality as the peaceful energy moves through your own part of the world.
Metta love to you all, and thanks for stopping in…
Namaste…
🙂
PS If I try real hard, mayhaps I can publish my FridayFractalFeature during the specified hour of my local time. I have a feeling that sharing my fractal inspirations might be a fruitful contribution to the international energy of peace.
So, does that phrase ring a bell for anyone? I know of at least one person my dear friend lizzie, after all, she is the person who has said that about herself!! And guess what!?!?!? TODAY is our lizzie’s birthday!! So in honor of the woman who is delightfully (CRACKED 4/7), not broken, I’ve got here a post for a mid-afternoon mental moment. And it is all to honor that terrific artist, lizzie, who brought Mantra to life for Red‘s book “Mantra for a Muse”.
So, Lizzie… it time to grab hands and dance around and sing our happy birthday tunes to you and your lovely CRACKED (4/7)self… happy birthday for you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday DEAR lizzie, happy BIRTHDAY to you… (and many moooooorrreee).
So, to find lizzie’s secret birthday list there are clues sparsed around the blogosphere… if you look real hard, lizzie, you might just find some more clues at the preceding bloggers’ Monday posts (I know I’m bringing up the rear)…
Now, I want to talk about lizzie’s birthday gift. It is not CRACKED (4/7) it is FRACTURED. Actually could one of the first “big” words I learned. FRACTURED. CRACKED (4/7). Not broken, just cracked (4/7). Then, when I got older, I realized that a hairline fracture was a crack in my bone, not actually a broken, exactly. Just cracked. And let me tell you – that teeny weeny cracked bone HURT!!!
Anyhow, where was I… Oh yes, this very special FRACTURED FEATURE …
So, my dear lizzie, I have brought for your birthday something CRACKED (4/7), that is something FRACTURED… I bet you are waaaayy too young to remember these, lizzie, but I hope more than a few of us grew up on these ever loving treasures…
These are really creative but cracked looks at some of the fairy tales we all knew and loved. A. J. Jacobs actually took over, cracked, fractured and rewrote 91 fairy tales. Ranging from “Jack and the Beanstalk” to “The Flying Carpet”. “Son of Snow White”, “Jack Be Nimble”, “Cutie and the Beast”, “The Prince and the Popper” The list goes on and on.
H is for HAPPY
B is for BIRTHDAY!!!!!!
LOVE YOU, LIZZIE!!!!!
Just in case you are totally lost and can’t find your way out of this mess,
I hope you might share some of my utter and pure delight…
Lyrics:
[Robert Winston]
It’s amazing to consider that I’m holding in my hands
The place where someone once felt, thought, and loved
For centuries, scientists have been battling to understand
What this unappealing object is all about
[Vilayanur Ramachandran]
Here is this mass of jelly
You can hold in the palm of your hands
And it can contemplate the vastness of interstellar space
[Carl Sagan]
The brain has evolved from the inside out
Its structure reflects all the stages through which it has passed
[Jill Bolte Taylor]
Information in the form of energy
Streams in simultaneously
Through all of our sensory systems
And then it explodes into this enormous collage
Of what this present moment looks like
What it feels like
And what it sounds like
And then it explodes into this enormous collage
And in this moment we are perfect
We are whole and we are beautiful
[Robert Winston]
It appears rather gruesome
Wrinkled like a walnut, and with the consistency of mushroom
[Carl Sagan]
What we know is encoded in cells called neurons
And there are something like a hundred trillion neural connections
This intricate and marvelous network of neurons has been called
An enchanted loom
The neurons store sounds too, and snatches of music
Whole orchestras play inside our heads
20 million volumes worth of information
Is inside the heads of every one of us
The brain is a very big place
In a very small space
No longer at the mercy of the reptile brain
We can change ourselves
Think of the possibilities
[Bill Nye]
Think of your brain as a newspaper
Think of all the information it can store
But it doesn’t take up too much room
Because it’s folded
[Oliver Sacks]
We see with the eyes
But we see with the brain as well
And seeing with the brain
Is often called imagination
[Various]
[Robert Winston]
It is the most mysterious part of the human body
And yet it dominates the way we live our adult lives
It is the brain
Check out http://symphonyofscience.com for more science music videos. You can find links to all the sources used in this video at the website under “additional info” for each one.
This started out a comment to Hobbs‘ post about some pretty serious and basic beliefs from April… when my comment got so long, I could only see my comment box on the screen, I realized it’s time for me to do the same thing she was doing – reviewing options, asking questions, listening to what others had to say, etc, etc, etc.
so, I think I’m just gonna go with that flow… so…
hey, sweetie… I’m late to the party, but that’s just how I roll!!! I couldn’t read all the comments, because it’s all been said. Before. And some of it even makes sense. But your quandary reminds me of myself, now, and as a teen, becoming a truly self aware person who thought it important to do the right thing, above all else. I don’t mean someone else’s right, but what my spirit, my soul, my heart and my brain told me was right. Kind of like selecting someone to vote for when the time came.
Then I got really confused, because, who am I to decide what’s right – I don’t have all the facts, so how can I make an informed decision about what’s right. It took many years of just plain living to help me understand one thing. It’s not about making a decision for me. It’s more a gut, instinctual, perhaps spiritually guided feeling. They say that’s what falling in love is. I guess – I’ve been in and out of love and that’s a whole ‘nother subject, not to mention blog. But once I understood that my spirit totally knew what was right in my eyes, my choice was to do it or not. Never was it based on someone else’s view of right. I mean, like, don’t kill. Except when you have to. Well that’s just plain stupid. Either you do or you don’t. I know, that can be debated, but that’s where my heart/soul/spirit landed. I didn’t decide. I just discovered what was right for myself. So, from that point forward, I hardly ever… kill an insect (had ya going, didn’t I?), unless I do. Which, really hasn’t been, if ever, many times. Either I capture it and release it to “out of my house”, or I leave it alone. Both have their merit. Relocation happens, so that’s not too bad. And if I just leave it alone, I’ll always have the knowledge that next time I see another member of that same family of critter, it’s probably the one I let live, so there’s not so many of them after all. Silly, I know. But I didn’t decide, I just know, then choose my course of action or lack thereof.
So, like they say about being gay, or whatever, it’s not decision or choice (though I’m not sure of that either), it’s about KNOWING who you are and living true to yourself. Believe me, I know that’s not as easy as it sounds. I’ve always had trouble answering questions like “where do you want to be in 5 years?” How the HE double L do I know what my circumstances will be in 5 years. So how can I say X is where I want to be? Or Y? What if something happens that disallows both X and Y? Am I a failure then, because I didn’t reach that spoken goal? Or, back to the metaphysical, how did I know what I would feel in 5 years? Today I like doing crafty things. Or writing music. Or making fractals. Or writing. Maybe I won’t like it in 5 years.
So, for me, that could mean one “truth” today might be another “truth” tomorrow, because of an experience, an idea, a thought, an external occurrence, or even something I thought about recently. And, I realized it’s not a function of the intellect to “decide” what is right or true (for ME), rather it is something that comes from all of the experiences and knowledge and mistakes and successes and observations and stuff that just seem to be part of who I am and I have no idea how it got there. AND it has to be right and true at the moment I make that choice. So I make a choice for now. I don’t mind not knoowing. I know I can go in directions now, for example, like getting a PhD in AstroPhysics, that will make my options way different in 5 years than if I DON’T get that doctorate.
So, God, religion, faith – these are all just words to me. And it’s not in the words I’ll find my truth. It’s in seeking and finding who I really am and what I believe to be right/true for me.
So what does that all mean? Damned if I know, but, that’s how I roll.
I do know that I get annoyed when someone posts a video/song/whatever on YouTube and the commenters take it as an opportunity to espouse their “platform”, make their beliefs known. That might be ok, but what the devil is the reason for name calling and trolling and otherwise being rude and bullyish. I just don’t get it. Like this video I found the other day.
I listened to it, watched, read it. Much of the content was not necessarily part of my belief system, but that did not stop me from appreciating the intent in which it was made, uploaded, shared, etc. I found it to be very kind and compassionate, which are things that ARE part of my truth, part of what I believe is honorable and good.
So, WTF were all the commenters doing debating religion, god, atheism, the bible, etc, etc, etc. I don’t judge. I just don’t get it. In my world, there is definitely a place for those things, but not as comments on a video that some caring person thought would be nice, perhaps helpful to share. Hopefully that person didn’t take all this personally, or as a reflection of how people saw her. But, many did appear to make judgements about her, because of the content of that video. IDK…
And that is where I must end my rant. Is it a rant? IDK. Maybe I see it as a way to work some things out for myself. And, why, then would I turn it into a blog post? IDK. Maybe because I think there might be others working on similar things for themselves. IDK. Maybe, it will inspire to think about these things and discover their own personal truths. IDK.
It comes down to, I blog, therefore I am! And thanks, Hobbs, for writing, publishing and encouraging communication in the comments of that post (and all your posts, really). It all made me think of these things in a particular way, that may help me know myself better today, than I did yesterday. IDK. If not, fine.
Seth Godin is an idea man. And a genius. And do you know what makes him a genius? He uses common sense and critical thinking. Together!!! With those skills and a mind perpetually in motion, almost everything Seth says is golden. Such that whatever the idea, whatever the focus, Seth uses an almost classic succincticity, and squeezes any subject into a sentence, maybe two, often only a paragraph. Offering it up like a magical goose, the golden eggs spill out.
Any of which could easily be expanded into an entire seminar. (Or perhaps a blog post?) With his result, all you need do is manipulate the context and you have enough content for an executive marketing strategy seminar to a self help guru’s daily/weekly TV show, and everything in between.
Here’s a short look at Seth’s inspirational perspective. The article “Still Broken” on Squidoo , while a bit more wordy than many of his shared common sense bits and pieces, blogs, postings, tweets, etc, he also has some nice big pics that clearly depict his point.
But what I really wanted to share, is the following video of his “Long Lost Broken Speech”. Hope you enjoy.
Just a little food for thought on this holiday weekend. Something to ponder, maybe have a chuckle or two, after you are all played out and your body says “STOP – let the brain have some fun for a change.”
BuddhaKat 