two monks and a mountain

Today I'm reminded of a story my dad used to tell me when I was a child to put me to sleep:

A long time ago, there was a mountain. On the mountain was a temple. In the temple was an old monk, and a young monk. One day, the young monk says to the old monk, "Old monk, tell me a story." So the old monk says to the young monk, "A long time ago, there was a mountain. On the mountain was a temple. In the temple was an old monk, and a young monk. One day, the young monk says to the old monk, 'Old monk, tell me a story.' So the old monk says to the young monk, 'A long time ago...'"

Here's hoping that I fall asleep soon...

birds behind the birds.

I came across this display at the carnegie mellon museum of natural history. They compare famous cartoon birds with their real life counterparts...pretty interesting stuff.

50 beans | 30 café’s in 30 days

30 café’s in 30 days is another project that I’ve wanted to try for a while now. This is pretty self explanatory. Try a different café every day for 30 days. I know…I should start drinking less coffee…spend less $$ on starbucks...yada yada yada…but think about it this way: if I’m gonna be spending $$ on coffee anyways, why not go around and check out different coffee shops and experience all that my surroundings have to offer? You know I’m right :)

So if you’re curious…I’m gonna try to take a picture at each coffee shop and post it on FB just for kicks (but I’ll probably end up posting them one week at a time cuz I’m lazy hahaha).

i hope david's right...

1 I will exalt you, Lord, for you rescued me.
You refused to let my enemies triumph over me.
2 O Lord my God, I cried to you for help,
and you restored my health.
3 You brought me up from the grave, O Lord.
You kept me from falling into the pit of death.

4 Sing to the Lord, all you godly ones!
Praise his holy name.
5 For his anger lasts only a moment,
but his favor lasts a lifetime!
Weeping may last through the night,
but joy comes with the morning.

6 When I was prosperous, I said,
“Nothing can stop me now!”
7 Your favor, O Lord, made me as secure as a mountain.
Then you turned away from me, and I was shattered.

8 I cried out to you, O Lord.
I begged the Lord for mercy, saying,
9 “What will you gain if I die,
if I sink into the grave?
Can my dust praise you?
Can it tell of your faithfulness?
10 Hear me, Lord, and have mercy on me.
Help me, O Lord.”

11 You have turned my mourning into joyful dancing.
You have taken away my clothes of mourning and clothed me with joy,
12 that I might sing praises to you and not be silent.
O Lord my God, I will give you thanks forever!

Psalm 30

the nineteenth

"The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex."

Today marks the 90th anniversary of the 19th amendment, ending a good 70+ years of struggles for the suffrage movement. It's interesting, for such a large occasion, there was no ceremony, no photographers, no pen distribution. The Secretary of State at the time, Bainbridge Colby signed the proclamation at 8 a.m. in the morning at his home. Colby drank a cup of coffee and signed the document with an ordinary, steel pen. Then he said, "I turn to the women of America and say: 'You may now fire when you are ready. You have been enfranchised.'"

All those years of struggles ends anticlimactically with a cup of coffee, a stroke of a pen, and a little quote.

chew your food.

I ran across this interesting little poem on the writers almanac called Last Meal, by Bill Holm:

On death row you celebrate your last night
with your last dinner, your choice, your last craving
to make at least your stomach happy before it stops
craving anything at all. Many choose
simple food: a hamburger, mac and cheese, ice cream.
What might it be for you, my friend?
Duckling Rouenaisse? A roast of unborn lamb?
Washed down with Veuve Cliquot '59 and old Armagnac?
And how do you know, my friend, that you are not
eating your last meal at this very table now?
Chew slowly. Make sure you take in all the body and the blood.

The way the poet gets his message across is definitely interesting in a weird way. As I read it this morning, it totally made me look at my chocolate cheerios a little differently. There's no way my last meal is gonna be a handful of dry cereal in the car :P

the longest week ever...

This week has been long. As a matter of fact…it’s been longer than long…it’s been endless for reasons I’d rather not disclose. Even though it’s been one of those weeks, there have still been little things that have amused, intrigued, tickled, or just downright annoyed me.

I just got back from youth group retreat, and man was it fun. There was a little capture the flag action going on, as well as some firepit fun and a little stargazing as well (google sky map is freakin awesome!!). We also played like 10 rounds of mafia (got killed off in first 2 rounds EVERY game even though I had the face of innocence…) and some other games to kill some time.

Everyday this week I drive in to work at the same time and I always pass by harbor blvd at 8:50 and see an interesting scene. There’s usually about 5-10 UPS trucks that get on the freeway. They caravan all the way until the intersection of I80 and I5, and they suddenly all peel away…one of these days I should take a picture of this interesting scene…

Wednesday morning I went to air out and clean two of the compass tents that we used last weekend for the acacia camping trip. There were two identical tents and I wasn’t sure which one needed cleaning because one of the guys had used it and left a rather robust odor in the tent (although I must note that he did leave the tent in a cleaner condition than the girls did…). Needless to say…being on my hands and knees scrubbing brown spots off the bottom of a tent with Lysol wipes at 8am is not how I envisioned starting my Wednesday mornings.

My coworkers have started a fantasy football league and the admin was sending out the invite to all who expressed interest. He didn’t, however, disclose what his email address was. So it was a little startling to see this in my inbox when I got home:
Yahoo! Fantasy Sports: sexyjesus@gmail.com has invited you to join the fantasy football league Corporate Gangstas

This whole week I’ve been chatting with my coworkers Bao (formerly known as CTG) and Denise on sametime about the most random crap. Because work has been a bit dull these last few days…we’ve been having random question time. As you can imagine…all kinds of stuff came up, from HS reunions to counting paperclips to churches to glasses.

One of my buddies is moving to NY for grad school and so I met up with him for a drink at yummy guide the other day. It didn’t quite dawn on me until an hour into it that this was probably the last time I’m gonna be able to get milk tea with the guy…kinda sad but I’m happy for him…I guess it’s one of those happy crappy moments.

There’s a guy at work who is intent on giving me fatherly advice. I’m not really sure why, but he says some of the cheesiest cliché dad lines to me every time we have a meeting. There are days when I want to mention to him that I already have a father who loves me and is actually there for me.

Cupcake is not a verb!!

Ok so I must explain a little before this next story. In our building, we have to use the badge in the elevator to get from floor to floor and the badge reader is about waist high. So on Thursday, as I got into this particular elevator to go up to 10th floor with some coworkers, I felt a little lazy and decided to, instead of pulling my badge out of my back pocket, to just see if the card-reader would scan if I just got my back pocket close enough to it. Unfortunately, the emergency stop button is right next to the badge reader. While the badge did read, I also had to explain to security on the phone why I accidentally pushed the emergency stop button. Time to hit the gym…

The other day I was leaving target with a 24-pack of charmin ultra soft. Of course since it didn’t fit in a plastic bag I walked out carrying it under one arm and a bag with my cereal and OJ in the other hand. The looks I was getting from people in the parking lot made me feel so self-conscious…don’t judge me!!

Thanks for putting up with this horrendously long post (kinda fitting for the longest week ever I suppose…). I hope you’ve enjoyed reading about the random stuff I’ve been through this week. The ebook and kindle version will be made available later this month.

Ciao!