Inside the pinball guys warehouse

timeshifrnce

My first mp3

This is very rough, but here it is: Click here for music

Salt and Pepper

A cool little salt and pepper shaker I found at Goodwill.

Picture @ office in hallway

Son of Ruprecht

This message has been sent using the picture and Video service from Verizon Wireless!

To learn how you can snap pictures and capture videos with your wireless phone visit www.verizonwireless.com/picture.

Note: To play video messages sent to email, Quicktime@ 6.5 or higher is required.

My 2nd favorite guy of all time:

Don't worry about avoiding temptation. As you grow older, it will avoid you. - Winston Churchill

Deep

The voice of one mooing in the wilderness.

This message has been sent using the picture and Video service from Verizon Wireless!

To learn how you can snap pictures and capture videos with your wireless phone visit www.verizonwireless.com/picture.

Note: To play video messages sent to email, Quicktime@ 6.5 or higher is required.

This message has been sent using the picture and Video service from Verizon Wireless!

To learn how you can snap pictures and capture videos with your wireless phone visit www.verizonwireless.com/picture.

Note: To play video messages sent to email, Quicktime@ 6.5 or higher is required.

Lala & the j-man

Pilar and jeremy eating oranges

This message has been sent using the picture and Video service from Verizon Wireless!

To learn how you can snap pictures and capture videos with your wireless phone visit www.verizonwireless.com/picture.

Note: To play video messages sent to email, Quicktime@ 6.5 or higher is required.

Death by roo roo

Getting rid of just about everything that doesn't work. I think. Maybe.
Ok. I'm not getting rid of my blogs, but at least this one has my calendar staring me in my face.
So there.

This message has been sent using the picture and Video service from Verizon Wireless!

To learn how you can snap pictures and capture videos with your wireless phone visit www.verizonwireless.com/picture.

Note: To play video messages sent to email, Quicktime@ 6.5 or higher is required.

Thank you Secret Motel

one of the guys i follow at d-land posted this today... awesome!

This message has been sent using the picture and Video service from Verizon Wireless!

To learn how you can snap pictures and capture videos with your wireless phone visit www.verizonwireless.com/picture.

Note: To play video messages sent to email, Quicktime@ 6.5 or higher is required.

This message has been sent using the picture and Video service from Verizon Wireless!

To learn how you can snap pictures and capture videos with your wireless phone visit www.verizonwireless.com/picture.

Note: To play video messages sent to email, Quicktime@ 6.5 or higher is required.

Extremely low clouds!

Mookah

This message has been sent using the picture and Video service from Verizon Wireless!

To learn how you can snap pictures and capture videos with your wireless phone visit www.verizonwireless.com/picture.

Note: To play video messages sent to email, Quicktime@ 6.5 or higher is required.

Im up in the clouds and i cant i cant come down.

Marffy- our new import consultant!

This message has been sent using the picture and Video service from Verizon Wireless!

To learn how you can snap pictures and capture videos with your wireless phone visit www.verizonwireless.com/picture.

Note: To play video messages sent to email, Quicktime@ 6.5 or higher is required.

Pilarica del mundo!

Vanessa & nick

This message has been sent using the picture and Video service from Verizon Wireless!

To learn how you can snap pictures and capture videos with your wireless phone visit www.verizonwireless.com/picture.

Note: To play video messages sent to email, Quicktime@ 6.5 or higher is required.

Marffy & Jamie @ la carreta

Me and my pet giraffe, Ruprecht.

Name that tune

"Things are going to change, I can feel it."

Time saver

If you have a stomach ache, why not just change the spelling to "stomache"? I'd also like to point out that if you stare at the word "stomach" long enough, it begins to look funny.

BBC - BBC Comedy Blog: Doctor Firth saves Christmas

Is it true that some people actually don't know the chemical equation for Christmas?

Granke, I wouldn't be surprised. The last I heard, only one third of the population have even the most basic grasp of Signal Transduction, and only around 60% of those idiots can pronounce it properly. It makes me dry heave every time I think about how stupid we, as a species are becoming. What scares me the most, is that so many people out there are experimenting with Yuletide festivities, without the supervision of a qualified Christmatician. This is a great danger to us all. Not many people realise this, but Christmas effects the same part of the brain as cheap curry and prostitutes - a potentially deadly cocktail.

something else

a bridge that is a tree
down walks a shadow
through its own path that is a man
who stands before you
something else.

Extending the logic of Homo Vendens

Let's monetize everything. I will mention your goods or services during the course of my normal social interactions to other people who are doing the same to me and for me.

"I am going to go to Starbucks for a delicious cafe mocha grande where I will enjoy free T-Mobile internet on my Toshiba NB205 Netbook running Windows. Would you care to join me?"

"Certainly, lets go in my new Subaru Outback with all wheel drive and traction control. We can listen to the hit single "3" from Britney Spears now available in stores, or press my left nipple to download the mp3 file wirelessly to your Amazon Kindle."

Slurry1

pedal your bike
fast as you can

find the plastic bag circling
by the chain link fence

it's just a dream,but go there anywhere.
go there just to see.

just go.
just go.

the so-called world writing its own code
it just makes it up

when you wake up, you know.
something is coming. just go.

Drunkerings

VII

It's time. Old Captain, Death, lift anchor, sink!
The land rots; we shall sail into the night;
if now the sky and sea are black as ink,
our hearts, as you must know, are filled with light.

From Baudelaire's "Le Voyage", translated by Robert Lowell

Hieronymous Bosch with a view

Come be my student, my acolyte.

I will teach you the pathway between moments,
Show you all the spaces in between.
I speak the language of the birds;
They sing a map of time.
It shows the way out of here.
I flew away with them.
And I have seen.

Come on get up!
You gotta get higher.
Come on and get up.
The higher you are,
The closer it becomes.
What isn't darkness lights the way.

You weren't meant to be this far down.
It only feels bad,
Cause you don't belong.
The pressure pushing down--
It isn't real
The lack of air--
It isn't real.
It isn't real.

Come on get up!
You gotta get higher.
Come on and get up.
The higher you are,
The closer it becomes.
What isn't darkness lights the way.

What Plotinus said

Withdraw into yourself and look. If you do not as yet see beauty within you, do as does the sculptor of a statue that is to be made beautified: he cuts away here, he smooths it there, he makes this line lighter, this other one purer, until he disengages beautiful lineaments in the marble. Do you this too. Cut away all that is excessive, straighten all that is crooked, bring light to all that is overcast, labor to make all one radiance of beauty. Never cease "working at the statue" until there shines out upon you from it the divine sheen of virtue until you see perfect "goodness firmly established in stainless shrine." Have you become like this? Do you see yourself, abiding within yourself in pure solitude? Does nothing now remain to shatter that interior unity, nor anything external cling to your authentic self? Are you entirely that sole true light which is not contained by space, not confined to any circumscribed form, not diffused as something without term, but ever unmeasurable as something greater than all measure and something more than all quantity? Do you see yourself in this state? Then you have become vision itself. Be of good heart,. Remaining here you have ascended aloft. You need a guide no longer. Strain and see.

Dragons

Spirit is the source of energy, which flows throughout the body. There are some who listen with their inner hearing to this. They cultivate this flow, removing obstructions and occlusions, always attending that which is vital within. They are not moved by the external, though they respond appropriately to what arises Though they live among us, I think they are more like dragons that have shed the dead skin of ego.

Rearrangements

Rearrange the letters in "Fred Meyers", you get: "F Mr Red Eyes".

Spent a lot of time this morning thinking about the paths of rain drops.
What if there was always a rain cloud, but only over your house?

Really True

This is the latest entry. You are reading it.

Weather Report in September

Seventy-three degrees and broken clouds.
Night comes softly down.

My angels in the garden go up the darkening stair!

NOT suitable for kids. But very funny.

Remove Negative Karma While You Drive

Turn your car into a spiritual device. Prayer wheels spread spiritual blessings and well being.

Mantra: Om Mani Padme Hum

left handed dimension

my tennis elbow seems to be turning into tennis body, at least on my right side. i'm wearing so many straps and accoutrements on my right hand, wrist and arm that i look like a cross between darth vader and a bondage fetishist. did some drawings tonight with my left hand and they looked really cool, like someone else drew them. also, i felt a lot more confident drawing with my left hand.

3rd dimensional

Live your life, OK? And it will be OK.

Live your life in happiness, even though those around you lead lives which are unhealthy, and wish to spread their illness to you. Be Happiness itself. - Buddha

Blurple

Profundity #11,346

You always start from where you're at.

blue green

everything through a glass, darkly.

Handy Watch Repair Tip

If you're ever trying to change your watch battery, and you're having trouble getting the back plate to snap back properly, you might think that a light rap with a sledge hammer would be just the thing. Trust me; it's not.

It is, so let it be.

It is.
So let it be.

If you can just ride in your head... If you can just ride around in your head while you go anywhere

observing quietly from somewhere anytime

while you go when you go quiet or maybe you are talking

from somewhere in the back of your mind...while you go about your daily routines, observing quietly

If you can merge your awareness with its own being.

If you can accept emptiness when it comes. If you can accept awareness.
If you can be there when being empties. If you can put it up, so you can lay it down. can you trust?

If you will...
Awareness can accept what you thought was you. Then what was empty becomes full.

Then a loss and a win don't seem so different.
Then miracles happen so frequently you lose track. You win and you lose track.

You stop keeping score.

When the hurt passes through. passes through. passes through. through.

What you once thought of as you. Which once thought it was you.

Which passes through into its own pure awareness of itself being aware of its being.

When you lose track of loss. If you lose you. And win.

Then let it be.
Then let it be.
Then, bliss!

Oak Grove Temporal Distortion

Everyone agrees we seem to be experiencing some sort of time-contraction event. The weekend actually felt more like 1.33 days long. What this means is anyone's guess. If space is really curved, as Einstein proposed, then isn't it possible our sensory-cognitive apparatus could be dimly aware of "curved time". I'd write more on this subject, but my work day seems to be rapidly drawing to a close, and I still have loads to do.

The Headache Sutra

World-Honored One, what must I do to attain liberation?

Subhuti, you have not yet grasped the bottle of spiritual Ibuprofen; much less have you twisted off its child-proof cap. Still further are you from shaking out the Immortal Pill into your Buddha palm. And further yet you are from washing it all down with the Water of Life.

Master, if I may not gain instruction from one such as You, then I must give myself up as lost!

Subhuti, you begin to understand. For who is there that seeks liberation? And where shall it be sought?

Those who believe in a path mistake the effect for the cause. They see the calming of the mind, the quelling of desire, the dispelling of Karma as a path to a state, rather than the symptoms or behaviors caused by a state or consciousness field.

Subhuti, do you know the expression, "Seek first the Kingdom of God"?

World-Honored One, this is a saying of the Christ-followers. It is from a passage that states that the things of the world will be provided to believers, but that they must seek the most important thing first, rather than pursuing the things of the world.

Subhuti, you speak rightly. Do you see the problem with seeking the fruits of attainment, rather than attending to the root? The self that you believe in seeks mastery, enlightenment, peace and other states of being, but in so doing, do you not see the flame of desire burning just as brightly?

What the Christians refer to as the Kingdom of God, we might do well to refer to as Original Mind. If one can regard the self and the phenomena of this world as a sort of dream, one can find shelter in the Kingdom of God, that quiet place that has always remained at the back of your so-called mind. We call this "Abiding in the Golden Abode of the Real."

I begin to see, World-Honored One; one does not need to study the wisdom of the ancients. It is necessary only to "stand where they stood"! The field of consciousness supplies all the rest.

Subhuti, I believed we are finished.

Cookie rocks the xylophone

The Half-Hearted Teachings, Volume 1

It's entirely possible that what you're tripping out about is completely wrong. I'd write more, but I've got to find the wart medicine.

A sickness that heals you?

I know it's going to sound weird, but I feel different today... more unified, if that makes any sense. It's as if I had to have this weird sickness break me down so I could get put together the right way again. Like I wasn't quite right before I fell ill.

And death shall have no dominion.

Sometimes when the going gets rough and I don't know what to do, I like to jump in the backseat with my pal The Constant Observer. He is always there, sitting quietly in the back. Think I first noticed him during a bad car crash I was in. I was in panic-mode, as you might expect, but I still registered the fact that there was... this consciousness... taking it all in. I think that was the first time old C.O. ever really communicated with me, not so much the meaning, "You are crashing the car." so much as the feeling: "But don't worry about it."

So anyway, I think there are certain activities (besides car crashes) that are conducive to C.O. coming forward, and practicing music is one of them I can write about in this blog. There's something about letting the surface mind work its kinks out in the music, and then slowly relax back away from trying to accomplish anything. Then he's kind of there, like he was all along, but he was letting the temporary mind do its thing, because he's got all the time in the world, and he's not worried about a thing. If you're trying to make something happen, he's just going to let you do your thing. But there probably won't be much communication or teamwork or whatever.

I mean, it's really like C.O. is the real one, and I'm just the character he dreamed up. When the life is up, the dream is over. And I think I'm cool with that. I'm very cool with that indeed.

Non-specific happiness

Is perhaps the best. Feeling like the only stuff that's real is what I learned in Sunday school at age 4. All knowledge I've acquired since then is nothing more than the internal logic of a dream that's not particularly good.

Remembrances

Evil Woodpecker

physical reality is what
got left over from a prior existence

Short Story

Once upon a time, there lived a man who was convinced his life was nothing more than an average-length sentence that existed in a set of narratives.

Black Cloud

After signing the stupid tax forms, I was feeling grumpy. Actually, I was feeling grumpy before this, both in non-specific ways as well as in ways that could be attributed to specific things: unexpected news of an old friend's death, missing out on a $6,000 order, etc. So anyway, I decided that some exercise might burn the fatigue-induced adrenaline by-products polluting my body and soul.

I went on my "dream route", so named because it passes through a neighborhood I'm pretty sure I've dreamed about before ever visiting. As I ran, the fatigue from the last run a couple days ago made its presence felt pretty quickly. My run became more of a run-jog, then a jog, then a walk, then a sort of run-walk, if such a thing is possible. All the while, a black cloud drizzling rain close by would start spraying drops on me as the wind changed direction. I discovered that if I ran for 100-200 yards and then slowed to a quick walking pace, I could just keep ahead of the leading edge of this micro-weather pattern that seemed determined to follow me.

By the time I got home, I was still dry, and thankfully in better spirits. It seemed funny that the metaphor for someone being in a mental funk, i.e., with a "black cloud" hovering over their head, was on this particular evening both a metaphor and an actuality for me. Was I giving myself a sign or something? Maybe when we get into these bad spaces, it's up to us to get up and do what we can to run out from underneath the cloud?

You might not believe this

The following is extremely tasty late-night snack!

Take some Greek flat-bread and warm it up in the micro for 30 seconds.
Spread a little mayo on it.
Put three or four layers of raw baby spinach on top of this (make sure it is washed)

Fold it up and eat it like some kind of weird semi-healthy taco.

meditation

majestic sameness. time viewed edge-wise, each moment immediately adjacent to me. the dream-logic of this worry world grows threadbare. I'm starting to see the way again. the way out is the way in is the way across is the way back home. doesn't disappear just because you're lost. we can be who we dreamed in the beginning. the journey only costs everything. but to get back original mind is worth the trip. at least it seems that way to me.

From March 2003

The Garbage Diaries

here there be monsters

What's interesting is how much things stay the same. The link goes to a post which was from six years ago. Could have easily written it six days ago.

The meaning of life.

This should explain a few things.

Housing Crisis

The Machine

The Machine from mudlevel on Vimeo.

The Apple computer I probably won't buy.

I've been on the fence for months now about whether or not to buy a new machine. Figured there would be some kind of price rollback on Apple's ridiculously over-priced machines. Sure enough, they announced it the other day $100 off. Laptops only. No mention of teh Imac I had my eye on.
Meanwhile, I'm getting used to Linux... just need to solve this little pesky problem with video. Will probably burn an image of the Gutsy Gibbon and do a fresh install on this laptop one more time. Maybe I don't even need a new machine. If that doesn't work, then I'll see how much processing power I can buy with my $1000. My bet? Can probably get an Intel quad core with dual 500g sata drives, 4 gb ram, plus Windows Vista Business, plus graphics card, dual monitor capabilities, etc.

Steve Jobs-- get serious! People are willing to pay a little more for your Apples, but this is a serious downturn, and businesses are looking for bargains. You have a great ad campaign, but you haven't closed the sale.

More prognostications

OK, I'm really having a vision of Obama taking the White House, especially after McCain's failure in the debate last night. (Nick said it was like watching Elmer Fudd trying to box with Bugs Bunny!)
Watch big pharma stocks and any ETFs with exposure to health insurance carriers sink relative to the broader market. I think it is starting to sink in that Obama will be our next president.

Roubini-damus

RGE - Bloomberg (October 14, 2008) Roubini Sees Worst Recession in 40 Years, Rally's End: "The economist said the recession will last 18 to 24 months, driving unemployment to 9 percent, and already depressed home prices will fall another 15 percent."

Roubini is a Nostradamus's Nostradamus.

Black Friday: A One Act Play

Here's the scenario... Monday is a federal holiday, so quite a few people will get the day off, or will take a vacation day to stay home with the kids. Some of these folks will also take Friday off, to stretch that three day weekend into a four day weekend.

Mr. Dude: So have you seen the stock market lately?

Mrs. Dude: I don't understand it. I thought the big bailout thing was supposed to keep everything going while they figured this thing out.

Mr. Dude: It doesn't look like that's happening; the Dow dropped down to around 8500 yesterday. GM shares lost 33% of their value in one day.

Mrs. Dude: That's insane! Wait a minute... don't WE own a lot of those stocks in our mutual funds?

Mr. Dude: Well, I suppose so... because we picked those index funds ten years ago.

Mrs. Dude: So what's happening with our retirement money.

Mr. Dude: To be honest with you, I've avoided looking... also because they say we're supposed to be in it for the long haul... yadda, yadda yadda.

Mrs. Dude: Yeah, but I've also heard that some experts say if you're as close as retirement as we are, that we might need to have less stocks, because we wont' have as much time to make up a loss.

Mr. Dude: Hmm... well, maybe we'd better look.

[typing on keyboard]

Mr. Dude: Here it is.... The Edge of the Ledge Mutual Fund...

Mrs. Dude: Oh my god, is that right?

Mr. Dude: Wait a minute...

Mrs. Dude: That's $170,000 less than it was a couple summers ago when we were looking at it! And that doesn't even count all the money we've been putting in there since then!

Mr. Dude: Well...what do you think we should do? If we sell out now, we take the loss.

Mrs. Dude: If we don't sell out now, and it goes down more, we'll have even less money! Or none!
Do you think these guys really know what they're doing? They've never seen anything like this before. What if the company that runs this fund goes out of business like these other companies? What if the money just isn't there when we need it. How the hell are we going to retire?

Mr. Dude: Well... maybe we should take some out, and then if it looks like things are getting better, we can jump back in. I don't think we should take it all out... but we should probably do something.

Mrs. Dude: [Reaching for the phone] I think we need to take out the amount that we simply can't afford to lose if the bottom totally falls out. We've got to preserve a least that much. We can't afford to lose everything. Don't you think? We've got to save at least half... and if we wait to take action, it'll be worth even less. We don't want to be the last people trying to find the exit... this could really turn into a panic!

Mr. Dude: Well... I suppose we could take out half, put it into some sort of cash account, 6 month CDs or something... then we could always go back into stocks if things start looking a little more normal. We'd only lose the 6 months of appreciation, and the stock might still go up from there... but at least we'd have a little security...

Mrs. Dude: I think we should do it, then.

Mr. Dude: We don't have a lot of options. I don't think... If we were 30 or 40 years old, we could probably just ride this thing out...

Mrs. Dude: [starting to cry] I don't want to lose everything we've worked so hard for.

Mr. Dude: Don't worry, honey... we've got a plan. It may not be what we wanted, but we have a plan, and we're working that plan. We can work through this. I'm calling them right now. We're not going to lose everything. I'm calling right now. Everything is going to be fine. I'm calling.

Sort of Nostradamus

Evil Woodpecker: "Predictions from 9/25
1. Washington Mutual will fail this Friday.
2. The Fed will lower rates by 50 basis points BEFORE their next meeting.
3. Current stock market rally is a dead cat bounce. Look for the Dow to sink to 8,700 points in the next 12 months. Expect further dead cat bounce after rate reductions, then much deeper declines as investors lose confidence in government to manage the problems in the finance industry."

Well... my first 3 predictions came true. Sort of. I should have points deducted from my final score for guessing that it would take 12 months for the Dow to get down to 8,700 points. I also guessed that when the Dow got down around this point, it would mark the beginning of the recovery. Timing the end of a bear market, kind of like catching daggers... which is why I am not a day trader.

I would guess that the Dow is now trading at pretty low trailing P/E, historically. As of September 30, it was 15.68 when the DJIA was at 10,850.

So unless these companies have disastrous earnings, that ratio should be much lower.

It kind of hints at indiscriminate selling, which is a good thing if you still have decades left to figure out retirement. It's basically your favorite stocks going on sale.

Fed leads round of global rate cuts - Stocks & economy- msnbc.com

Fed leads round of global rate cuts - Stocks & economy- msnbc.com: "The Fed reduced its key rate from 2 percent to 1.5 percent. In Europe, which also has been hard hit by the financial crisis, the Bank of England cut its rate by half a point to 4.5 percent and the European Central Bank sliced its rate by half a point to 3.75 percent."

Bernanke opens door to Fed cutting rates - Economy in Turmoil- msnbc.com

Bernanke opens door to Fed cutting rates - Economy in Turmoil- msnbc.com: "WASHINGTON - Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke warned Tuesday that the financial crisis has not only darkened the country’s current economic performance but also could prolong the pain.

The Fed chief’s more gloomy assessment appeared to open the door wider to an interest rate cut on or before Oct. 28-29, the central bank’s next meeting, to brace the wobbly economy."

And then the Dow fell 500+ pts. Probably would have had a more bracing effect if he'd talked about inflation and talked about what his buddy over in the Treasury Department was doing to help the commercial paper market. IMHO

Inter-meeting rate cut in the offing?

Credit crunch continues as lending rates climb - MarketWatch: "'The probability of further Fed easing has increased and markets are now considering a 50 basis point inter-meeting rate cut' before the rate-setting Open Market Committee meets later this month, said economists at Danske Bank. 'While we do not rule out such action, we think more specific measures directly targeting the problems will prove more efficient.'"

Subway series in Chicago?

Is it possible we could see a White Sox Cubs World Series?
If the Cubs win, would this be a sign of the Apocalypse?

Terms

Remember what people called the First World War prior to the Second World War?

They called it the Great War.

What term do people use to refer to the economic depression that started in 1929?

That's right; they call it the Great Depression.

Think about it.

U.S. bailout in chaos, feds seize WaMu | Reuters

U.S. bailout in chaos, feds seize WaMu | Reuters: "U.S. bailout in chaos, feds seize WaMu"

Just call me Nostrildamnus.

Predictions

1. Washington Mutual will fail this Friday.
2. The Fed will lower rates by 50 basis points BEFORE their next meeting.
3. Current stock market rally is a dead cat bounce. Look for the Dow to sink to 8,700 points in the next 12 months. Expect further dead cat bounce after rate reductions, then much deeper declines as investors lose confidence in government to manage the problems in the finance industry.
4. Senator McCain will continue to stumble around blindly, blurting foolish things.
5. Senator McCain will win the presidency because he is white.
6. History books will mark the election of 2000 as the beginning of the era of American Descendency. Watch emigration to Canada from America increase in 2008.
7. Doom. Doom. Doom!
8. In eighteen months, when things start to improve, we will have forgotten all of this.