update

books and babies

I read 'Maus' today, a comic book about the holocaust.
I visited Sara and lil Augustus after Kaiser group (art week, this week).
I watched 3 episodes of 'it's always sunny in Philadelphia'.  hilarious.
only 60 or so episodes to go.  It's called a "cult" show on netflix, for some reason.
I went to the Y, early.  Only once, today.  and no NY times.
I'm working on 'the science book' (lol), a 400pp national geographic book with lots of pictures.
It reminds me of that song, "Don't know much about science book...french I took...etc."
(What a wonderful world this could be -Sam Cooke)
I've also got a book called Black Theology & Black Power, by James H. Cone.
I'm going to dinner this Saturday, at my parents' house.
Looking forward to seeing lil Ben again.
I bought a book from a used book store recently, here in Berkeley, called "Collected Poems of Robert Service" for 10 bucks.   My dad already has it, but I wanted a copy for myself.  It's good for campfires.  I remember Ed Lindquist reciting (from memory) poems from it at Camp Royaneh.

cells

by the numbers
(from my national geographic 'the science book' I'm reading)

Human bodies consist of about 10 trillion cells.  (by continuous cell division from the original single ONE cell!) that's 10 to the 13th.

The gastrointestinal tract contains about 100 trillion cells of microorganisms
and
there are Another trillion bacterial organisms on your skin.
(but these all weigh only 3.5 oz due to the size difference)

It takes a village!
lol

"take care"

what a weird expression, no?

I mean, what?!?  Give me your care! no? then, I'll take it!
or
the dark wizard interpretation: a spell to "take" (in the chess sense, i.e. off the board, aka murder) someone who cares.

'who cares?'
and
'I don't care'
are similarly spoken, non literally, usually.
because
everyone cares about someone or something.
or, at least,
I can't conceive of being the only one who cares,
in a supposed world of universal hate, apathy, or mere self-interest.

I even care about this expression!
it's like hello, with hell in it.
or paint, with pain on the cross (a T) prompting memory of Jesus.
or evil being live, just as god can be conceived as a (loving) dog!
or death being hated, rearranged
or love being a part of evolution (and it is, too!  ha, that's interesting)

taking care, it seems like we should be giving care,
or letting care remain with those who do.

then, again, maybe universal self-interest, without worrying about everyone (or even anyone) else, is a saner outlook, both for the individual and society at large.  worth thinking about, I guess.

anyway,
this is how I "take care" of myself-
(in the sense of caring for myself, and being careful)
or being safe, and making myself good/better.

in the sense of reducing care for others (with musical echoes):
-live and let die
-yeah, whatever, nevermind
-do what you want

physical health, mental health, emotional health, spiritual health:
1)eat right
-less/no junk
-food pyramid, balanced nutrition, superfoods
-vegetarian (the China Study), or at least less meat
-drink (is it 8?) glasses of water a day
-enjoy restaurants, from time to time?

2)exercise
-be more active, less couch-potato, endorphins/natural "high"
-daily improvement, or -at least- daily maintenance,
health club membership?
break a sweat daily, a good rule of thumb to follow
lift, swim, bike, walk, run, hike, sport(s)
yoga

3)take meds
(well, you should probably purchase them, lol)
don't take -harmful- drugs (of course)
some can self-medicate, but most need a doctor to get it right.. 

4)hygiene
shower, brush your teeth
(your teeth are a good indicator of general health, they say)

5)be happy! (don't worry, says Bobby McFerrin and Bob Marley)
smile (happiness will follow, magically)
make others happy (e.g. tell jokes, give massages, be helpful)
surround yourself with happy people;
avoid "pills" (as my mom calls them)
listen to music, comedy
i like magic, juggling, circuses
I also like to write: my blog, for example; a hobby
meditation (for focus, clarity)

6)be engaged, social, curious
good books, interesting people, new activities (volunteer? travel?)
daily news, and answer questions (on wikipedia, for example)
(also, i get answers from ask.com, and j-archive)

7)and, of course, the Ideal: Love.
life is good!  you should enjoy life, even if you haven't found someone yet.
sex, I think, is optional, to happiness, and the source of much Un-.

note: I think it is interesting that, to take care of yourself
you can 1)take meds, 2)avoid "pills", and 3)meditate
ha!

Book Recommendations

a small selection of books I've read and liked

1)Tent of Miracles, by Jorge Amado
2)A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, by Alexander Solzhenitsyn
3)The Master and Margarita, by Mikhail Bulgakov
4)Good Omens, by Terry Pratchett/Neil Gaiman
5)House of Spirits, by Isabel Allende
6)The Lost Steps, by Alejo Carpentier
7)Neuromancer, by William Gibson
8)The Corrections, by Jonathan Franzen
9)Tom Sawyer, Huck Finn, The Prince and the Pauper, etc.
(anything by) -Mark Twain
12)Spite, Malice, and Revenge -Nelson Chunder and George Hayduke
13)The Vampire Chronicles, Anne Rice (6 books, I think)
14)Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy,("a 4 part-trilogy")
-etc., anything by Douglas Adams
15)The Sand County Almanac, Aldo Leopold
16)100 Years of Solitude, by Gabriel Garcia Marques

kids books my dad read to me:
17)The Fabulous Feats of Dr. Boox, by Andrew Davies
18)The Pushcart War, by Jean Merrill
19)The collected works of Robert Service
(great around campfires)
20)Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,
21)Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator,
22)James and the Giant Peach -Roald Dahl

other books I read when young:
23)The Call of the Wild -Jack London
24)The Prisoner of Zenda -Anthony Hope
25)Around the World in 80 Days -Jules Verne
26)The Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison
27)The Farside, cartoons by  Gary Larson

I also liked Crime and Punishment (Dostoevsky),
Lord of the Rings (JRR Tolkien trilogy),
The Chronicles of Corum, (Michael Moorcock series)
The Stranger, Albert Camus
Escape from New York, Ben Bova
Catch Me if You Can, Frank Abagnale jr.
The Millennium series, by Stieg Larsson (3 books)
The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror
(annual, 22 volumes/years -have only read a few)

short stories:
A Mother's Tale, by James Agee (about a cow)
Leiningen versus the Ants, by Carl Stephenson
Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck
Flowers for Algernon, by Daniel Keyes (very sad)
and, The Most Dangerous Game, by Richard Connell

I'm an Uncle!

Uncle Jess!

there's uncle sam, uncle tom, and, as of around 6 this morning, uncle jesse :)

picture to be added soon!
newest addition to the Teshara family, and my nephew,
son of my brother Greg and his wife Elizabeth (Liz).
8lb, 20oz, 20in, 5:56a,
BENJAMIN MATHEW TESHARA
(mathew w/ one t)

Everyone's healthy,
and Congratulations!

trivia
UNCLE also stands for United Network Command for Law Enforcement!
(in the 60's tv shows, before my time)
also
Jesse Duke, and Jesse Katsopolis
from Dukes of Hazzard, and Full House, respectively.

Random Data

lol

books
'CEO' (confessions of an english opium eater), by Tom De Quincey
finished Emma, by Jane Austen
finished Anna Karenina, by Leo Tolstoy
also, finished George Carlin's 'Napalm and Silly-putty'
also, am perusing The Onion Book of Known Knowledge

space
-the universe (ours, anyway) is 13.77 billion years old
(13.798 +/- 0.037B years, to be precise)
-the sun is 4.6B years old
-the earth is 4.54B +/- 0.05B
-mars, minimum distance from earth, is 34.6M miles away
-the OU (observable universe) is 46B light years in radius
(93B light years in diameter)
-200B galaxies, 300 sextillion stars (3x10 to the 23rd)
(each galaxy with between 10M to 1T stars)

population
- the population of the USA is 317M
-the population of Earth is 7.1B

penal system
-the jail/prison population (of the US) is 2.3M
 (behind bars/incarcerated, in federal or state prisons, or county jails)
-743/100,000 (highest rate in the world)
-7.2M are incarcerated, paroled, or on probation
-46% black (12% of which is black muslim), 36% white, 16% hispanic, 1% american indian
-12% of america's population is black

water
0.5% of earth's weight is water
70% of earth's surface is covered in water
97% salt, 2% glacier ice, 1% fresh
the human body is 60-70% water (55-65% of weight)
(up to 78% of infants)

globesity
u.s. 31% obese (1/3), 63% overweight (2/3)
earth, roughly 500M obese adults
(10%M, 14%F)
1.6B either overweight or obese, globally
overweight is bmi of 25-29.9
obese is bmi 30 or over
59% of non-hispanic black women are obese
33% of non-hispanic white women are obese
79.8% of american black women are overweight

U.S. debt

my recommendation? only buy what you can afford.

from wikipedia:
On December 12, 2013, debt held by the public was approximately $12.312 trillion or about 73% of Q3 2013 GDP^[5][6] Intragovernmental holdings stood at $4.9 trillion (29%), giving a combined total public debt of $17.226 trillion or over 100% GDP.^[7] As of January 2013, $5 trillion or approximately 47% of the debt held by the public was owned by foreign investors, the largest of which were the People's Republic of China and Japan at just over $1.1 trillion each.<sup>[8]

I just listened to the white house correspondent's dinner, and decided to fact check the comedian.

OVER 100% is too much, in my opinion.

Personally, I have no debt, and think the US should have Savings, not Debt.
Can we get to Zero debt?  Shouldn't we?</sup>