Addictions & Meditation

I went to a 3 hour lecture on meditation this weekend. A zen monastery close to my house had a visiting nun from Canada and when they have guest they usually have a reception to allow the community to hear the thoughts of the honored guest. I can't remember this lady's name but she was very interesting. Her main focus was on meditation, of course, but more specifically it was about how to use meditation to overcome addictions. Normally when we think of addictions we think of alcohol, drugs, smoking, and those sorts of things but she included addictions such as self loathing, over eating, hatred of others, negative thoughts, etc. It was so interesting and very revealing. She showed us how to spot these addictions in our own personality, how to acknowledge these addictions as we are doing them, and what to do if we want to stop.

I discovered that my addictions are:
1. Negative Thoughts
2. Eating
3. Shopping
4. Sleeping

She made the analogy of an addiction being a bad itch, the more you scratch it the more it itches. So, I am sure my addictions will get worse before it gets better.

Most of us don't normally take the time to hear ourselves think. Spending three hours in a monastery and being at peace with yourself and with those around you is such a wonderful experience. I use to go a lot on Saturday mornings for the meditation lecture and to meditate for an hour but I stopped going several months ago. I am now going to make an effort to go at least once a month and spend sometime by myself.

If You Love GOD, Say No to Halloween

If You Love GOD, Say No to Halloween
Originally uploaded by kai7710.

This flier was left on my door on Sunday October the 30th.

Smelly Candle Lady

There is a lady two doors down from my boss’s office that has a candle on all of the time. It is the worst candle smell ever. It is one of those .99 cent store candles that use cheap scented oil and even cheaper wax. I don’t know how to describe the scent other than cheap and oily. It is horrible.

I think I mentioned before that we are running out of room in our building so there are conference rooms with 3 to 4 people in them and Smelly Candle Lady shares an office with another lady. I don’t know how the other lady stands it, if it was me I would have already asked her to turn it off. Maybe I should drop off a good candle on her desk and put everyone around her out of their misery.

I walked by her office about 15 minutes ago and I can still smell the candle. It is horrible.

KB - do you remember how you felt when you sat next to Bad Perfume Lady? Well, it is 100 times worse.

Rosa Parks, civil rights heroine, is dead

It has been reported that Rosa Parks died earlier today. May she rest in peace and may we all accomplish and build a legacy half as great as hers.

http://www.freep.com/news/latestnews/pm6901_20051024.htm

To Much Fun

To Much Fun
Originally uploaded by kai7710.

Someone had to much fun this weekend.

There is nothing worse than throwing out empty bottles of alcohol after a night of drinking and realizing that you are a drunk.

Boy or Girl

Boy or Girl
Originally uploaded by kai7710.

This is Kate and Kate's owners have a question on her gender.

This weekend I was at my sister’s house and she was telling me that she is taking Kate to the vet find out if Kate is a boy or a girl.

Is it me or is it obvious? I could not stop laughing, has she not seen her cat? Are they blind?

What do you think?


(I know the cat should have been neutered by now...that will also happen on Monday)

Pictures of My Life

I am going to start de-cluttering my house, actually I have already started, and I have found items that make me wonder what I was thinking when I bought them. As I find new items I am going to post them on my blog. I don't think I will find anything embarrassing, I think I threw all of that out a few years ago when my mother was staying with me for a few months.

I have a lot of crap I use to buy at the P1 sample sale. While you are at the sale you just put things in the bag, you really don't have time to figure out what it is or what you will use it for so you just grab and bag. I am sure I have a lot of things in my closets that I never intended to use but I felt bad getting rid of them because I had paid money for them.

Is there anything in your house that you would be embarrassed to have someone else find? Or do you own something but are you not sure why you have it?

When you moved, did you find anything interesting?

China Town

China Town
Originally uploaded by kai7710.

This is the entrance to China Town in San Francisco.

Coit Tower

Coit Tower
Originally uploaded by kai7710.

The tower in the background is Coit Tower, from the top you can see all of SF and the bay. It is beautiful.

Protesters

Protesters
Originally uploaded by kai7710.

Once a month the people of San Francisco take to the streets in thier bikes to protest. They congest traffic and for about 30 minutes all you can hear is honking.
I love these people.

Lombard Street

Lombard Street
Originally uploaded by kai7710.

On to San Francisco...this is Lomard street, it is the worlds most crooked street.

Little Tokyo

Little Tokyo
Originally uploaded by kai7710.

We went to Little Tokyo and we came across a festival they were having. I am not sure what the drummers are called but they were amazing.

Disney Center in LA

Disney Center in LA
Originally uploaded by kai7710.

Isn't it beautiful?

Chinese Theater

Chinese Theater
Originally uploaded by kai7710.

These are pictures of my trip to Los Angeles with Chico.

Work

I think I have mentioned that I never see anyone where I work now. I spend most of my day in my office in the corner of a building and nobody ever passes by my door. My team mates are in a different building that is literally located a block away so I try not to go to their building unless I really need to. It's a lonely existence but I like it...sometimes.

Anyway, I never see anyone over here, I just hear voices and the occational "That fucking son of a bitch!" or "FUCK" or "SHIT" or some guy saying "Beth did you pull the deposition for the ______ case?" So I either keep my door closed most of the time or I have my ear phones on.

Anyway, there is a guy up here that has a voice that gives me the chills, in a good way of course. I can hear him talking in his deep voice. His deep sexy voice. I have no clue what he looks like but I imagine him to be around 6 feet tall, with piercing blue eyes that let me look into his soul, brown hair, and looks that would stop traffic. Doesn't he sound dreamy?

One of these days I am going to find out who he is and ask him to marry me.

All Systems Down

Most of the systems I work with or think I work with are down this morning at work. For a technology company they seem to have these issues very often. Anyway so I had to options 1. Read the Regulations or 2. Kill time online. I obviously choose the latter.
I didn't do much this weekend. The only productive thing that I can think of is installing my wireless network at home yesterday. I am not very technical and I figured I would need help installing it but it was as the instructions claimed to be "Easy as 1, 2, 3.".

I was feeling kind of down because of all of the things going on in my world and because of occurrences of last week so I did drink a bit more than I should have. But other than that I had a pretty uneventful weekend.

I am considering going on vacation at the end of this month to California but I am still not sure I want to spend the money. I just need to get away for a while and clear my head.

If I don't talk or see you guys, I hope you have a GREAT week.

I am not one to judge, but

people at my new office don't really care about how they look when they leave their house in the morning. I am not saying I look like a super model when I come to work but I at least have pressed clothes on. Some of these people look like they rolled out of bed and decided to come to work.
I am so glad I am so glad the area I am in right now has a business professional dress code or I may end up looking like the rest of these people.

At my old job people use to dress up to go to work, it was like a freaking fashion show every day. Here it is the complete opposite. That will take some getting use to.

Damn! The boy is HOT!

Did anyone catch the Oprah show tonight with Ricky Martin? Damn! The Boy is HOT!. I am going to run out and buy the CD tomorrow.

Chico,
Did you record it? I want the show. Do you have it?

My First Week on the New Job

I started my new job on the 5th of October and I love it so far. The commute is not as bad as I thought it was going to be and I am still figuring out new shortcuts to avoid traffic.

I am still not entirely sure what my new company does. I know what I will be doing and how it affects other areas of the company but I am not sure what those other areas are.

My first few days were spent doing training and getting to know everyone I will be working with. My group is in one building and I am in a completely different building so training hasn't been very convenient. I can't wait for them to let me loose so I can stay in my office all day long.

Speaking of offices, did I mention my office is HUGE? I am on the same floor as some of the big wigs of the company and the legal team and they all have huge offices. I have already been warned that my set up is temporary until they figure out what building my team will be working from. My department is fairly new (6 months old) so we are still in limbo.

I think I am going to love it here.

My favorite new website

I found a website that I think is just awesome. The website is called

PostSecret

and people send in post cards with their secrets on them. I am thinking about submitting a few of my own such as "I am gay and nobody knows it" or "I secretly wish today was Wednesday". But seriously take a look at it, it is a great site.