Emancipate yourself from mental slavery…

Happiness is a learned condition.

When I travel by myself, friends and family often wonder if I´ve gone mad. They´re getting used to the idea, but many do not understand it.

It all depends on what you are looking to get out of your travel.

When traveling with friends/family/significant others, the focus of the good times is sharing experiences with those travel partners – a worthy cause. This reminds me of something an ex-girlfriend once said (who had a caustic sense of humor). We were looking at a friends´ travel photos – and the photos were awful. Every single one of the photos featured either one or both of them – and they took up the majority of each photo. It was so bad that we could hardly see the landscape/architecture/things that they were trying to photograph. After a while, the ex-girlfriend could no longer contain herself. As she received the next picture, she blurted out, “Oh look! Another picture of you with different lighting!”.
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These unhappy [outer space] agents found what had already been found in abundance on Earth – a nightmare of meaninglessness without end. The bounties of space, of infinite outwardness, were three: empty heroics, low comedy and pointless death.

Kurt Vonnegut Jr. – The Sirens of Titan

In honor of empty heroics, low comedy and pointless death – it’s time to revisit the employment situation.

I last presented my employment plan while at a conference in Monterey.

Toward the end of that conference – my supervisor found me before we were each going to different workshops.

He told me, “You need to carry my things back with you.” – motioning to all of the free corporate-giveaway schwag and work-materials. He was renting a car, and leaving the conference early, to take a few personal days to drive and visit someone.

I was so surprised, all I could do was laugh.
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Second-Month Budget Checkup

First full month of living in the new location…

Not bad – good company, getting my space figured out and not missing television at all anymore. The no-heat, drafty-house took a little getting used to – but it’s a chance to use my outdoor gear (and keep the down parka out of storage).

The biggest challenge of the last month was work-related. As in the overtime necessity and stress-level demands have been off the charts. I backslid a bit on making lunches for work – sometimes the greasy cafeteria food can be comforting.
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When in Doubt – Write About Relationships

Work, overtime, business travel, this, that – I’m glad I have set up a system to keep myself on track for this project. I find myself backsliding a bit when I get ridiculously busy and/or the stress levels ratchet up.

This is one of those times. I am looking forward to the end of the month – so I can see how well I have done. In the meantime, in a state of complete busy-ness, my impulse spending is speeding up; it’s a burrito here, an apple fritter there, unnecessary greasy-salty snack there…

As I write this webpage – now almost two months in – I receive a variety of responses from friends and family. One of the more common responses follows the line of thinking that I need to settle down and have kids. If I would only settle down and have kids – I would be content. This webpage and “search for greater purpose” would be satisfied by raising kids.

They are exactly 100% correct – in a way. If I had kids, I most likely would not be following this current thought-path and writing on this page. Not because I would feel sated by the experience of raising kids – and seek no more from the buffet-table of life. I think the reason is that I would be too tired to do anything else. Satisfaction would likely be there though – I feel enormous job satisfaction when I teach, and raising a child is probably the ultimate teaching project.

So why am I not looking to buy and outfit a house for raising a family? Shouldn’t I be putting my money and energy into “nesting” to attract a mate?
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Employment Planning

The caffeine, carbs and sugars have finally begun to kick in. Arriving at the airport at 5am (Sunday), I am almost tempted to stay asleep. Do I need to be fully present for this portion of the work-day? My supervisor doesn’t look all that aware anyways.

The destination: Monterey Bay. Four days and three nights of a dual-geek-type conference (IT geeks and Research geeks). As usual for geek conferences – especially geek conferences where cross-species communication is necessary – all meals and social activities are pre-arranged. We will be locked into the conference area starting with the 8am breakfasts until the last call at 10pm for the late-night hospitalities.

No sight-seeing on this trip. At least none that is officially sanctioned by our corporate multi-billion dollar hardware and software sponsors.

Monday is St. Patrick’s Day – and alternative plans for the evening quite possibly need to be created.
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Surf Report, March 10, 2008

This was actually not a stellar day for surf – but it was a day worth celebrating nonetheless. Monday, March 10, 2008 marked the first day I had time to surf after work this year. Due to Daylight Savings Time on the 9th, I now have the opportunity for post-work paddling.

The surf looked sloppy from the cliff. From the cliff, the waves looked knee-to-waist high with only the large rocks for scale (no people out to gauge true height). A storm was coming ashore, and the offshore breezes were helping, but the majority of the swell was leftovers from the previous swell combined with the local SW wind chop from the approaching system. The combination was creating peaks at several places along this beach, and some were held up by the offshores to make what looked like fun little steep sections. The tide wasn’t quite low enough for that other spot, so this was best choice.

Actually, it was also the best choice because no one else was out when I looked. It looked small and disorganized – so people would probably drive to low-tide spot (which did not have a low enough tide) and surf where they already saw people in the water.

For all the time effort surfers make trying to escape the crowds – many of them appear to be lonely and need to surf where others are already out in the water.
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Savings Goal for the Year

This morning when I woke up – I was out of beans (of the coffee variety). For those of us addicted to this country’s version of corporate-endorsed legal speed – that presents a problem. Before I had a chance to really wake up, I put on my house-slippers, threw my backpack over my shoulder and started walking to the local grocery store.

As I was walking, I momentarily had the feeling as if I were in Mexico heading to the mercado. The sun was shining, there was a light offshore breeze that smelled of dry inland air (versus the usual damp briny-smelling air), and I felt particularly buoyant.

Why the change? Was it a lack of stuff surrounding me in my new home? The absence of a television (no longer hypnotized by the great unblinking eye…)? Maybe it was the presence of a long-term plan in my life now?

The closest I could figure was that since I had made changes – and created a plan, I was much more aware of the present – and had been spending much more time there.

This is a feeling I usually do not experience when walking to the grocery store (at least not in the last few years) – unless I’m on vacation. Vacations are all about practicing “presentness”.

This may seem counter-intuitive – the long-term plan leading to more awareness of the present.
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One Month Budget Checkup

Two years ago, I was living in a 4-bedroom 3-bath 2600 square-foot home in the midwest. The last year and a half, my home was down-sized to a 850 square-foot cottage in far northern coastal California (strangely enough, the rent on the cottage was the same as the mortgage on the Minnesota house). Now, I’ve downsized again – into a 8′x9′ bedroom with a 8′x5′ storage unit (~150 square feet).

I hate moving.

Not all aspects of moving… moving can represent fresh starts, new places, new living situations.

I hate the fact that moving the first 90% of your stuff takes 10% of the total time needed – while that last 10% (and cleaning) seems to take forever.
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Simplify. Downsize. Get Rid of Stuff.

This weekend I had to prepare to move from an expensive house to a much cheaper room. I needed to downsize and sell off some of my stuff. Over the last couple weeks, I had made progress and sold off much of my furniture. However, with the end of the month occurring this Friday, I need to be nearly finished this weekend! I emptied almost all the remaining contents of the house into my living room to take inventory.

It was a practical idea. Two years ago when I drove here from Minnesota – I was able to downsize enough to fit all my possessions into a 6′x12′ covered U-Haul trailer (which almost killed me several times on downhill sections – but that is a different story). I eventually rented a 2-bedroom house here in California – and at the same time, my supervisor at work moved away and they sold me lots of stuff to fill up the house (because they didn’t want to have to drive a moving van across the country a second time within a year).

Anyways, I no longer have the V6 SUV to tow the 6′x12′ – I downsized to the 4-cylinder pickup – so I need to be able to fit my life into a 5′x8′ trailer. I have had people comment on my soon-to-be monk-like existence – but do monks have 5′x8′ storage units?
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WWMBD?

It’s a Human Brain’s World

Out of the three brains: the Lizard Brain, the Monkey Brain and the Human Brain – the Human Brain has the power to overcome the Lizard and the Monkey. For better or worse – our society is geared towards a Human Brain existence.

Our brains can be thought of as three functional areas – the Lizard Brain, the Monkey Brain, and the Human Brain.

Out of these three, the Lizard Brain is the oldest and most primitive. The Lizard Brain is the cerebellum and the brain stem. Lizards only have this structure – while for us it is just a small portion at the base of our skulls – “the brain is like an iPod built around an eight-track cassette player”. The Lizard Brain controls reflexes – and reflexive actions. All of our instincts are housed in the Lizard Brain. Lizards – having only Lizard Brains – do not think, they only act instinctually.
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