Developing Usable Experiences

In the Catbird Seat

May 11th, 2007 7:22 am —  129 views

cat_on_birdhouse.jpg

This past week has been a busy one. It’s already a quarter after seven in the morning. I should be getting ready for work. Instead I’m futzing around.

We’re starting to find spiders in our basement. The weather is warm and humid and everything is growing fast. Leaves have exploded on the trees. The weekend before last we put out a hummingbird feeder. We usually get a lot of hummingbirds but don’t know exactly when they return. They’re back. I’ve already seen at least two. A male and a female. I’ll try to get their photo.

This is a picture of Hadji, my elder brother’s beloved family pet. Named after a character on Jonny Quest. I visited my brother and his family over the weekend. While one of his boys was showing me their mini-bike, Hadji claw-climbed this leaning tree and started reaching around inside this bird house. Compared to those birds, he is huge.

It’s been a crazy week. I’m nowhere near being in a catbird seat.

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52

May 3rd, 2007 11:49 pm —  179 views

Look at that, two posts in one day. It’s almost midnight though…this is almost tomorrow.

Golf league was strange tonight. I shot a 52…that’s for 9 holes. Not a great score. My partner shot a 40 which is impressive. But in general, the golf league scene was familiar but broader and deeper. My perception is evolving.

Things are changing in a way that I can’t rightly articulate. My job, my education…my marriage even. Not necessarily bad changes, though some I’m not so sure about, but there are changes. The way I perceive the world is changing. I was thinking on my way home from golfing tonight how situations change as I get older. Things are less and less strange to me. Situations are familiar, but not identical, to other situations. It affords me a new but not naive perspective. I have more to compare against and this allows me to be more aware and somewhat more relaxed with how circumstances unfold. In some circumstances at least.

And yes, I’m rambling a bit. Blogs are funny that way. I can pour out my thoughts and feelings to a silent audience. To some extent at least. Google analytics is pretty accurate.

The internet continues to shape our lives. A fascinating evolution.

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Croweing about my Grades

May 3rd, 2007 6:47 am —  190 views

Yesterday afternoon I received an email announcement that our final exam and class grades had been posted online. This is the final that totally kicked my butt. I worked like a demon on it for the full two hours and still couldn’t answer all the questions…seventeen pages of questions. It was a challenge. I nervously logged on to find out my grades.

But alas, by some crazy stroke of luck, I earned 75.7 out of 100 on it. Considering that I got 67 out of 100 on the midterm I was quite shocked. Fortunately for me…and I’m guessing many in these classes, grading is based on a curve. Thanks to the curve, I was given an A- for the semester.

For this semester, I received an A- in both classes. Sum total for the four classes I’ve had this year, three A-’s and a B+. Not too shabby. And to think how much I worried about those exams. As long as I give it all I have, it’ll turn out fine….despite how it “feels”.

Thanks to Reverend Randall and his early notification about the Black Crowes playing at Kresge in Interlochen this July, I’ve managed to procure a couple tickets. This was one of my favorite bands for a number of years and have always wanted to see them in concert. Now I’m going to get that chance…fourth row from the stage no less. This is the same auditorium where my nephew will be walking for graduation in June (provided he graduates of course).

Summer golf league starts today. Woohoo.

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Emptiness as a reminder

May 1st, 2007 10:49 pm —  137 views

If you are new to this blog you might be unfamiliar with my ponderous entries on truth. If you aren’t new to this blog, I suspect you’ll probably stop reading right here. Cowards.

After the wife and I watch our trash television shows like American Idol (who’s gonna win?!?!) and my favorite genius egomaniac, House M.D., she retires to bed and I head back to my radon filled office and take a few minutes to capture some thoughts for the day while sipping a little whiskey.

Wise teachers try to explain to us that there is no such thing as inherent existence. For those of you new to this idea, let’s consider what it means for a second. The idea, at least as I’ve come to understand it, is that nothing exists independent of anything else. To say all things are connected is an oversimplification and doesn’t do much good. Maybe you should consider that no thing is connected. There are no things to be connected because all is one thing. Though the things we perceive appear separate, all is part of one moving, changing truth. That truth is what is and that’s all there is. Hit me over the head with a rock and all ceases to exist.

At best you can observe it (provided you are conscious of course). Maybe pay attention to trends. Increase your awareness of causes, their parts, and how your mind imputes things. But underlying all this, our only chance at dealing effectively with the craziness of life, is to ponder what this means and work toward non-attachment. We’ve all done things we’d rather not mention. But we aren’t those things. Water under the bridge. Learn, observe, absorb and move on. In the end it doesn’t matter how I did on the final exam in “Choice and Learning”…what matters is that I don’t attach to the outcome or the process.

Maybe I’m getting to far out there and now I’m just coming off as babbling to myself, which I am a little bit. This is my blog after all. But to wrap this up, I’ll drop in a quote I found on Wikipedia that sums up these ideas…and in fancy Buddhist terms no less:

In the theory of emptiness, everything is argued as merely being composed of dependently related events; of continuously interacting phenomena with no fixed, immutable essence, which are themselves in dynamic and constantly changing relations. Thus, things and events are ‘empty’ in that they can never possess any immutable essence, intrinsic reality or absolute ‘being’ that affords independence.

This is me reminding myself to let things flow. Not everything can be controlled but that isn’t a reason to do nothing. It is important to pay attention, be patient, and be ready. And right now, I’m ready to go to bed.

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