okcupid profile

what I've posted there

My Self-Summary
I walk two french bulldogs 3 or 4 times a day. I swim alot. I'm pursuing an 'athletic' body type. I love to read. I'm looking for someone both smart and happy -a good head on your shoulders with a positive attitude- to enjoy life with. I love music. All of it.

I have two projects I'm working on: 1)a booklist ('1001 books you must read before you die') and 2) my blog (a fun hobby). I have a disability, the upside of which is I don't have to work.

A quote I like is "I have always thought heaven to be a kind of library." I'm omnivorous: I read everything. If only there were time for it all (I should learn to speedread, eh?). Wouldn't it be cool if you could freeze time, and teleport, and time travel, and be immortal? I would totally read everything (and listen to all the music, too).

ANyway, I was an International Relations major at UCD (Third World studies emphasis, minor in spanish). I've been to China, and would love to travel more. Mostly, I love nature. I spent many childhood summers in the redwoods by the russian river. I haven't been hiking or camping in awhile, and would like to resume.

Among the things I like are documentaries, animation, nature shows, taiko drums, cirque du soleil, and of course good food. I bicycle everywhere. I grew up in San Francisco. I'm a Boar (which they say is most compatible with sheep or rabbits), but hopefully not boring.

What I'm Doing With My Life
Exercise (swimming, walking, bicycling), reading (I'm currently into Buddhism, short stories, and the hunger games), staying informed (I read the NYTimes daily, and try to read the Economist and Christian Science Monitor weeklies). Musically, I like college radio alot, like harvard's whrb, cal's kalx, or gdradio.net (the grateful dead).

let me know what you think of my blog?
Reading. And reading some more. Did I mention I like to read? Yup, reading.

I hope to live til I'm at least 120. That gives me another 80 years. Oh, yeah!

I'm Really Good At
I tested 140 iq once. I won a journalism award in high school. I got a scholarship to Cal. Staying busy. I'm told I'm the kind of personality that keeps on goin', no matter what trials and tribulations life throws at me. I was voted Most Kind in grammar school, back in '85, lol. Maybe writing. I like to write.

The First Things People Usually Notice About Me
My aura? I'm not sure to be honest. I have blue eyes. Probably the dogs. They're a lot of fun. But they get screamy whenever they see a cat, a squirrel, another dog...

Favorite Books, Movies, Music, Shows, and Food
-Douglas Adams, Isabel Allende, Dostoevsky, Jonathan Franzen, Gabriel Garcia Marques, Anne Rice, Kurt Vonnegut, Mark Twain. Tent of Miracles (Jorge Amado). The Lost Steps. The Sand County Almanac.-Fantastic Planet, Grave of the Fireflies.-I don't watch much tv. When I had cable (once upon a time), I enjoyed comedy, mostly (Daily Show, Dr. Katz, standup). I really miss Beevis and Butthead, heh heh.-I like to listen to music while I'm on the computer.-Thai, sushi, chinese, mexican... I like spicy.And sweets, a bit too much, probably: i.e. kerns, swedish fish, riesen, it's its, ben n jerrys, horchata, baklava, see's, mrs. field's...But I'm becoming more fit, lately, and therefore eat less sugar

The Six Things I Could Never Do Without
1)basic needs (food, shelter, clothing, clean water, sanitation)
2)others, people, pets, friends, family, community
3)happiness, humor, smiles, laughter, joy, bliss, fun
4)stimulus (i.e. books, magazines, music, movies, the internet, the library, my blog)...reading and writing.
5) Love (God? Truth? Reality?), or Liberty. Either one.
6)as David Bowie sings, love is not loving. So loving, too. Which is another way of saying Sex, which maybe I should call Intimacy.
Actually, on second thought, I should replace loving with life and health and strength. I can live without sex.

Of course, the Buddhists say these are cravings or 'attachments', so maybe I should just stick to life and health, if even that.

I Spend A Lot Of Time Thinking About
Spirituality and Religion
Health

I'm Looking For:
Girls who like guys
Ages 23–45
Near me
Who are single
For new friends, long-term dating, short-term dating, long-distance penpals

On a Typical Friday Night, I am:
I just moved, and I don't have a routine yet. Hopefully, dating!

The Most Private Thing I'm Willing to Admit
I'll tell you if you meet me in person.

You Should Message Me If:If you like what I wrote.If you want to roll the dice! (or know more about me)and, preferably:-You don't smoke-You are not a tv addict

Virgos are said to be most compatible with Pisces, Taurus, or Capricorn. (or another Virgo)

Jesse update

Be God, not Jesus

I know. The doctrine of the trinity, for christians, says there's a tripartite God (father, son, and holy spirit), but Jesus -as I understand him- is just a dead guy who was crucified. Who needs death and pain? Jesus said Don't call me good, Only God is good (implying he wasn't good/God.

So we shouldn't, in my view, consider each other as manifestations of Jesus, but rather God Himself. It's not THAT radical a concept, is it?

I just finished reading Adi Da's Knee of Listening. Good stuff. But he said "I am the only one who is", capital and underlined is. Which I disagree with totally.

Anyway,
I'm reading:
Dante's Cure, by Daniel Dorman, M.D.
Mockingjay, by Suzanne Collins (the third of the Hunger Games trilogy)
Alias Grace, by Margaret Atwood
Pen/O.Henry prize stories, 2011

and I updated my okcupid profile
I'm at http://www.okcupid.com/
under 'Jesswimmer'

It's Sunday. Have a great week!

Online Reading

(from a Practical Guide, by the NY Times)

10 sites:

http://www.bartleby.com/

http://www.bibliomania.com/

http://www.classicbook.info/

http://www.fiction.us/

http://www.fullbooks.com/

http://www.ipl.org/ (internet public library)

http://www.online-literature.com/

http://www.gutenberg.org/

http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/

http://readbookonline.net/

Great Luck

G.R.T. L.U.C.K., that is

God, Reality, Truth (the same thing, says Adi Da Samraj)

Love, Understanding, Compassion, Kindness

Loving-Kindness (Buddism)
Love-Bliss (Adi Da; I'm reading his book, Knee of Listening)
Happiness, Joy (happy, happy, joy, joy -Ren and Stimpy)
God is love, love is God (the bible, a movie title)
Kindness is my religion (-Dali Lama)

Love plus Peace =Happiness
(graffiti, using the symbols for each word, in the sidewalk in Berkeley)
(i.e. heart plus "footprint of the american chicken" equals smiley face)

I'm actually starting to get into a happier frame of mind/reference, of late
(sorry about saying you have to love depravity, etc.-
but hatin' is bad, they say- so just don't hate them negatives)
Some do, still, really think it's All Good, though.

It's like, says the Secret, don't be anti-war- Be Pro-Peace.
War against war only makes more war, you see.

Enlightened,
Awake, Aware
conscious light?
the way of the heart (from the right side?)
light-hearted, humor, The Bright (smart, too)

Holy Week

wholly weak

today, Palm Sunday, I actually attended a Catholic Mass, at
Holy Spirit Church
at Dwight and College, in Berkeley
at 9:30 am, near UCB campus.

"surely He is the son of God" -this struck me as somewhat funny.
who would actually say that?!? Someone brainwashed, I would guess.

Christianity, what a crazy religion.
Jesus, the poor guy, actually believed God was his father, it appears, and accepted crucifixion as being somehow what his dad wanted for him. Damn!

If only he didn't believe he was the "only son of the Father",
but rather a card-carrying member of Jessology-
and thus a God himself -like everyone else-
(making love is making God)(God is love/loving)
he wouldn't have felt so all alone and freakishly destined for suffering.
Jesus needed to feel powerful -one of a kind- and couldn't deal with my concept of equality, I'd say. People as sheep, meant to submit...

Holy Communion with the wine and wafer...actual transubstantiation, they say (!). Jesus' body and blood tastes remarkably like bread and wine, and not like meat, like you would expect, lol.
the wine glass gets wiped after every mouth that drinks from it,
but it still seems unhygienic to me. I drank, anyway, vampire that I am.

why does catholicism insist on Mary's virginity?
Belief in souls and afterlife and angels strikes me as equally ridiculous.
And the congregation sounds like a bunch of zombies reading their responses off the projection screen. Yuck. And the whole thing was utterly absurd! People will believe anything.

I'm a baptized Catholic, I attended 12 years of catholic school, and my mom's sister is a nun, but I believe hardly anything... Mass brought back memories of all my childhood sundays going to church with my family, thinking about everything.

What a mess of absurd silliness.
Nothing wrong with it, though, besides being so bizarre and patently false.
I'm not anti-Christ, I just think Jesus was deluded.

He thought, for example, that a temple would be rebuilt "not by human hands."

Allah, Obama, and God

some linguistic numerology weirdness

'GOD' is composed of
G, the 7th letter of the english alphabet
O, the 15th, and
D, the 4th

7+15+4=26. 2+6=8
(there are 26 letters in the english alphabet)

'Allah' sums to 7, as does 'Jesus Christ' (2,5)
But I wanted to point out that, Allah can be split into 'All-a-H'
which could be interpreted, substituting H for God, as
All a God (which is what my blog is saying: we're all (a) God)

Also,
Obama can be broken down into 'Am a OB'
OB sums to 8, too...am a God (my point, exactly)

some words that sum to 2:
hey, uh, on, jesus, christian, jew, beast, it, president, white, black, time, death, monkey, force, light, africa, etc...

H can also mean
hospital, harvard..
(honda, hydrogen, heroin, hannibal)
the floor plan of my jesuit high school (St. Ignatius in San Francisco)

Don't H8! Don't be a h8er!
heart, rearranged is hater..
death, rearranged, is hated..

It's unfortunate that 'Islam' can be split into 'I-slam'
(which evokes the WTC disaster on 9-11-01 over a decade ago)

by the way
Mitt Romney is 8, 9 (I can sum the letters pretty quick in my head).
'politics' is 4. The book of numbers it the 4th book of the bible. blah, blah, blah.

God is just a word

A rhetorical device

such as:

God-willing
God-forbid
In the name of God
What in God's name
please-God
praise-God
dear, God
godawful
Gawd!
goddamnit
omg

when something extreme happens: "Jesus, Christ!"

etc.
in music: "Good God!"

Obamacare

I'll weigh in

I believe access to quality healthcare should be a human right, not just in America, but throughout the world. What good is liberty, or even life itself in some cases, without health?

Shit happens, as they say. People who roll the dice by not having or paying for health insurance might save some money, but are doing society a disservice, in my opinion. If only some have it, the price goes way up (I've read)...

We should collectively, as humans, support everyone's life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness--a foundation of which is good health. I buy the argument that if we all chip in, society benefits.

I realize America is wedded to unhealth, such as obesity and smoking (aside: did you know 50% of Chinese men smoke?), and I also realize people don't want to pay for other people's irresponsibility, but we all benefit from lower healthcare costs if we all pitch in.

I have Kaiser, and I subscribe to the mottos of 1)thrive, 2)daily maintenance (diet and exercise), and 3)preventive medicine (a healthy lifestyle)

It's not socialism, from each according to his ability, to each according to his need- it's the greatest good for the greatest number, the most rational choice (if not common sense).

Submission

I submit (this to you):

Islam means "submission"
I do not perceive anything/anyone to submit to
except the law, or my own ideals (my conscience)

submission holds
can be useful

what's underneath the Massachusetts Institute of Technology?

submarines and subway sandwiches and Mitt Romney

okay, sorry

Stuck-Up

God on a post-it

Someone asked me "You're not one of those stuck-up people, are you?"
and I replied, maybe sometimes.

God is usually conceived as being up.
'who art in heaven' and all.

But I get down sometimes. Angrier, more often.
I'm tired of getting angry.
I give up. Anger is exhausting.

God is conceived to be/is:
-omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent, all-good
(all-knowing, all-powerful, always and everywhere, kind/loving/beneficent/compassionate/forgiving/merciful)
-immanent and transcendent (within and beyond/outside of? I think)
-loving/Love (itself)
-I am who am/ I am what shall prove to be/ I am
-YHWH, the "tetragrammaton"
-the Creator
-"Heavenly Father"
-One

that's all I can think of
I, on the other hand, am just Jesse
but I think that's enough

My Reading List

What I'm working on

I'm punctuating the list with other books I find interesting (which is most everything) that I grab off the library shelves.

I in fact checked out the source of my reading from a book entitled
'1001 Books to Read Before You Die'

on line list

I don't know how long it will take me.
A book a day for 3 years...
I'm reading Zadie Smith's On Beauty now.

Books not on the list I currently have checked out are:
-The Black Hole War, by Leonard Susskind
-Dog is my Copilot, by the Editors of BARk (Great Writers on the World's Oldest Friendship)
-The New York Times Practical Guide to Practically Everything
-The Best American Short Stories of the Century. John Updike, Editor; Katrina Kenison, co-editor

and, in the reference section at the public library, I've started
-The Encyclopedia of the Developing World (3 volumes)
and, at the gtu (Graduate Theological Union), in Berkeley, I've started
-Religion and Foreign Affairs, essential readings; 2012
Dennis R. Hoover and Douglas M. Johnson, editors

busy, busy!

abortion debate reductio ad absurdumb

I'm still pro-life

I found this quote in my email:
"I'm sorry, but all these 'life begins at conception' arguments are sheer nonsense. Killing a cluster of cells that has the potential of becoming human life is not the same as killing a human being. Here is a reductio ad absurdum argument for all the extreme pro-lifers. With modern cloning technology, a simple skin cell is a potential baby. Where do pro-life people stand on removing a wart or a mole? Are dermatologists the latest in the long list of baby killers?"Dialogue is Needed on Abortion; St. Petersburg Times (Florida); May 20, 2009.

I don't know the technology required to clone from a skin cell, but I imagine it requires some effort. I do know that warts and moles aren't commonly in the habit of becoming babies. A mole is not a baby. This I know.

But a life, whether conceived normally or cloned, starts at conception -which I'm sure has an analog in the cloning process. In fact, cloning seems to me to be a more deliberate process to create a new life than normal lovemaking. Killing a clone is the moral equivalent of abortion.

At first, I was tempted to think, gee well maybe all life is no different from a wart or mole, so killing, that is- murder-, is now as perfectly acceptable and as justifiable, morally, as shedding skin, a natural process that deserves no punishment. It would make a hell of a defense in court. That seems to be what the author implies. I'm not willing to take that stand.

Adoption is the loving option. Please don't forget about adoption.

Infinity

Physicists and cosmologists use this word too much/unthinkingly

Infinity should almost never be used to describe phenomena, I say.
What is an infinity?
It's bigger than a googolplex.
It's bigger than a googolplex googolplexes.
It's bigger than a googolplex to the googolplex power!

If something is infinite, there isn't anything else!
alright??

geez.

more quotes

from my Godfather's business' pocket calendar

-all your dreams come true if you have the courage to pursue them -Walt Disney

-anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new -Albert Einstein

-only love can be divided endlessly, and still not diminish -Anne Morrow Lindberg

-it's amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit -Harry S. Truman

-words, once printed, have a life of their own -Carol Burnett

-a day without laughter is a day wasted -Charlie Chaplin

-God could not be everywhere, and therefore he made mothers -Rudyard Kipling

-a goal without a plan is just a wish -Antoine de Saint-Exupery

-success is how high you bounce when you hit bottom -General George Patton

-forty is the old age of youth, fifty is the youth of old age -Victor Hugo

-it is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation -Herman Melville

-nobody will believe in you unless you believe in yourself -Liberace

-it's never too late to be what you might have been -George Eliot

-Being a full-time mother is one of the highest salaried jobs..since the payment is pure love -Mildred B. Vermont

-love is the greatest refreshment in life -Pablo Picasso

-nothing is as frustrating as arguing with someone who knows what he is talking about. -Sam Ewing

Excellence

some pithy sayings:

-It's hard to soar with the eagles when you're surrounded by a bunch of turkeys

-He who wakes up and finds himself famous hasn't been asleep.

-you should seek growth, not perfection

t-here will come a time when you believe everything is finished. That will be the beginning.
(Louis L'amour)

Private companies fighting hunger

from the Christian Science Monitor

"Pepsico, Kraft, Cargill, Land O' Lakes, and TNT Express are among many companies that have created nonprofit divisions to help alleviate hunger in developing countries."

I thought I'd reward them with some publicity in my blog.

link

Satan

in reality, not mythology..

I used wolfram alpha, and discovered:

1)satan eurystomus is the genus and species of the 'texas blind catfish' (Widemouth Blindcat)
(eurystomus is the only species of the genus satan)

also,
2)Satan is a city in Maguindanao, Phillipines. pop. 4,068

interesting, no?
again, I'd still like to know the backstory of how and why.

Love

Does anybody know the etymology of love?

(in tennis, I mean, as a score of zero)
help me out, wikipedia doesn't say..

okay, I answer my own question:
"The term 'love' in tennis, comes from the French word l'oeuf which means egg. The egg is shaped like a zero." -ask.com

I still want to know more, though..

still reading

latest reads, of yours truly, from the library

-The Bedwetter, stories of courage redemption and pee, by Sarah Silverman
-The Omega Theory, by Mark Alpert
-The Huffington Post complete guide to blogging
-Final Jeopardy, man vs. machine and the quest to know everything, by Stephen Baker
-The lean belly prescription, by Travis Stork, M.D.
-The case for books, by Robert Darnton
-Me talk pretty one day, by David Sedaris
-The science of evil, by Simon Baron-Cohen
-Man-made monsters, by Dr. Bob Curran
-Take it like a mom, by Stephanie Stiles
-Midnight in the garden of good and evil, by John Berendt
-The Cosmic Landscape, by Leonard Susskind

-Arrow of God, by Chinua Achebe
-The Man with the golden arm, by Nelson Algren
-Tent of Miracles, by Jorge Amado
-The Dark Frontier, by Eric Ambler
-The Portrait of a lady, by Henry James
-The Ambassadors, by Henry James
-One Day in the life of Ivan Denisovich, by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
-Fear of Flying, by Erica Jong
-White Teeth, by Zadie Smith

I'm resuming my quest to read the 1,001 novels from 'books you must read before you die'
(I'm off my schizophrenia and madness kick, for now)

I'll git 'r done, fo' sho'
Pedro Archanjo rules!

also
I'm excited about exploring the internet's Jeopardy question archive
(which I didn't know existed, until I read about J! in Final Jeopardy)
http://j-archive.com/ (218,283 clues, so far, it says!)

Happy (Chinese) New Year!

It's the year of the dragon

Put some fire in your belly!
Don't let things "drag on"...Don't smoke! Break from the past. Start anew.

Boars don't get along with dragons (maritally), the chinese restaurant placemat says.
Dragons fight, and slither, and have sharp claws, and wings

"do not pick fights with dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup!"
the bumper sticker says.

maybe you can tame a dragon, and ride the dragon, like in the movie Avatar
a dragoon is an armed cavalryman

what number year is it for the chinese, you ask?
4710,4709, or 4649 (because scholars can't agree)

Politics

why I'm disappointed with Barack

He sent me an email titled 'what would you ask Barack?', but there was no method for sending your questions...it was rhetorical. ugh. So I'm going to use my blog as my question forum. That was disappointment #1. Also, he had an online apparatus to submit recommendations during the 2008 election, but it was discontinued. That pissed me off, although I know anyone can just send him an email...anyway:

-Have you used your status to find out if space aliens exist? Do they? Have you seen one (or a cadaver of one)? That would be one of the first things I would do!

-Why do we have (any) nuclear weapons? Is it for a potential retaliation? Or is it for threats from space (e.g. asteroids/comets, or space alien invasion?) Isn't it hypocritical to have them, and then attack other countries for developing them?

-what are we doing to help the less developed countries meet the Millenium Development Goals?

-Can you dunk (a basketball)? I looked on youtube, but didn't find any video.

-Did you quit smoking? I think you should have publicized it, and made it a public process (i.e. quit with me!)

-Another disappointment is that he is not pro-life. He should at least go public to support a preference for adoption, in my opinion. Why not?

- In a related vein, the U.S. should join the ranks of other progressive nations who have abolished the death penalty. We all have the right to live, in liberty, and pursue happiness. No? Which brings me to my third point regarding life and quality of life:

-prisoners should have access to libraries, or maybe kindle-type readers with a pre-approved corpus of literature available to them. Prisoners should not be slaves, as the constitution says, but rather the constitution should be changed. You're the constitutional law expert; git 'r done! Just do it! Yes we can! (or are we saying prisoners just can't?)

aside
wikipedia says about Obama on religion, "Obama stated: "I am a Christian, and I am a devout Christian. I believe in the redemptive death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. I believe that that faith gives me a path to be cleansed of sin and have eternal life."

I want to say that I'm fairly certain that Jesus is dead, and sin is virtual (aside from deviating from one's own morality), and eternal life is just a pipe dream, and I suspect (and actually hope) that this is merely rhetoric and not a truly held conviction of the "leader of the free world."

But that's just me.

I feel for Barack (and Mitt). Poor deluded souls.
Show some spine, profess your belief is jessology!
in which case, you should say "poor deluded minds"
(I don't believe in souls)

greed, hatred, and delusion

aka craving, aversion, and ignorance

attachments
(positive)craving-passion, hunger, thirst for what is pleasant,
and seeking the causes of happiness

(negative)aversion-hatred for what is unpleasant, i.e. dukkha or suffering,
and severing oneself from its causes (e.g. sadists)

enlightenment, lasting happiness and contentment, nirvana
from right thoughts, words, and deeds
or just deeds (your thoughts and words are themselves actions), as is your job/career
with a view toward loving-kindness and compassion
(actions are karma...what comes around goes around)
i.e. helping others overcome suffering and find happiness
and knowing (from experience or instruction or meditation) what the causes of suffering are, and also what the causes of happiness are (what floats your boat, and also extinguishing gh&d)

buddhism is itself conditioned by attachment to peace, tranquility, wisdom, discernment, equanimity
(all part of Happiness)

although there are different strokes for different folks...

Personally, I don't buy the whole package.
I don't believe in rebirth/reincarnation (except as hypnosis for the cyclical nature of days and years...we can be reborn, psychologically. Even if you don't believe in the christian born again business. You can always start fresh, or as led zeppelin says, there's still time to change the road your on) Tomorrow is...another day!

Also, I'm skeptical of the reality of karma. Things can be random. Good things happen to less deserving people, and bad things happen to good people.

speaking of boats, Buddha said the tears from suffering in our past lives is greater than all the water of all the oceans..

and that cruise ship just went down off the coast of Italy

and people get dunked in rivers in the symbolism of being born again

we are mostly water..

anyway,
severing yourself from attachments (rather than relying on good relationships, or money, or things, like food/drink or "toys" i.e. computers, cars, books, music) is the only sure way to avoid the suffering that comes with their inevitable impermanence), but don't deny yourself simple pleasures! Create your own world! Be happy!

We are just blips in eternity, bubbles that pop in the froth of reality, all of us destined to cease/die, and decay back into the matter that is the food we eat, that comprises us, without consciousness or afterlife.

We are 99.999999999999% empty, already. And we were dead for an eternity before we were conceived and will be dead for another eternity after. Enjoy your substance and fleeting time. Be glad you're alive.

My philosophy is a bit different from buddism & other religions.
Am I creating a new religion, like L Ron Hubbard? jessology

Basic Needs

what every human being on earth should have

life, liberty, pursuit of happiness
health, strength, wealth (enough for survival and comfort)
food, shelter, clothing, clean water, sanitation
safety, security, peace
equality, human rights

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_rights

(from the american constitution):
-things like the rights to speech, petition, assembly, religion, and press (sparp)
-to not have slavery or involuntary servitude..
-no cruel punishment (e.g. torture)

I, personally, appreciate education and the access to a library and the internet...

I also think it should be a fundamental human right to refuse to kill; i.e. to be a conscientious objector.
Likewise, there shouldn't be a death penalty.

Sopa and Pipa are bad!

I uphold my right to share/produce content

Wikipedia has an (english language) blackout today, to protest this bad proposed legislation.
I watched the Ted lecture about it, too.
(not that I've actually read the legislation..)

Creativity feeds on other people's content, and we live in a hive mind, anyway.
Lawmakers shouldn't outlaw human nature.
And my name, too, is all about sharing (Teshara).
Go ahead, copy my blog...I want you to!

-Jesse

My latest reads

some library books

they are:
1) A Blue So Dark, by Holly Schindler
2)Welcome, Silence,by Carol North, M.D.
3)The Cloud of Unknowing, by Thomas H. Cook
4)Me, Myself, and Ike, By K.L. Denman
5)Inside Out, by Terry Trueman
6)Cage of Stars, by Jacquelyn Mitchard
7)Crazy, by Pete Earley
8)Divided Minds, by Carolyn Spiro and Pamela Spiro Wagner

They all deal with schizophrenia, some way, some how.
good stuff!

Mirror in the sky, what is love

I heard this on the radio, recently
it goes on to say, can the child in my heart rise above?

It's originally by Fleetwood Mac, but I heard it by Billy Corgan
Fits my theme, I think. I really like it.

Some other contrasts:
nogoola vs. elf:
No one gets out of life alive vs. everyone lives forever

"If I claim to be a wiseman, it surely means that I don't know"
-Kansas (carry on my wayward son)
which also says,
"surely heaven waits for you"

Transportation options

I've been here, and I've been there, and I've been in between
(hats off to King Crimson)

all the transportation options I can think of:

stroller, shoulders, piggyback
walking, jogging, sprinting (barefoot or shoed),
pogo, swim, rocketpack, hang glide, parachute
roller shoes, razor scooter, motorized scooter
skateboard, rollerskates, rollerblades
unicycle, bicycle, tricycle, go-kart
big wheel, pedal-chain tricycle, motorized trike
segway, moped, atv (all-terrain vehicle)
motorcycle, car, truck, van, bus, motorhome
train, tram, trolley, tank
plane, glider, helicopter , dirigible, hot air balloon
boat, waterski, parasail, jetski, hovercraft
snowshoe, snowboard, ski, ice skate
toboggans, snowmobile, sled, sleigh, luge
surf, windsurf, boogie/bodyboard
rocket, space shuttle, rickshaw, chariot
motorized unicycle (they exist!)
tube-car (faster than flying), -wikipedia 'ETT'

this is my 666th post. I almost forgot the beasts.
like burros, horses, elephants (and dragons!)

and, if you want to get philosophical, there's also:
womb, casket, imagination

Buddhism

I'm trying to reduce, if not eliminate, my own personal dukkha

via http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhism

maybe it can help you, too.

Merry Christmas, all

God Bless Us, Every One!

in the immortal words of Charles Dickens

(including the misanthropes)

We give thanks, again, for
health, happiness,
love, life, laughter
comfort, community, country, cheer
food, family, friends, fun
prosperity, peace, potential perfection,
and all our other blessings

or, in a less alliterative form:
-basic needs met
-life, health, strength,
-love, happiness, peace
-family, friends, community, country
-comfort, prosperity
-safety, security
-travel, diversity
-drugs/medications/pharmaceuticals/medicines
-technology like radio, computers, television, telephones
-transportation..
-stimulus:good taste, sound, sight, smell, touch:
-good food, music, movies, art, perfume, incense, massage, sex..
-books, magazines, blogs
-restaurants, libraries
-toys for all ages (e.g. bikes, cars)

Sorcery and Witchcraft

A Saudi woman is beheaded for this!?

I'm not sure I know what sorcery and witchcraft are...
In America, you can believe anything you want.
It sounds like something out of Buffy the vampire slayer.
It's all in good fun, no?
The word gospel is from God's spell...aren't spells a part of sorcery?

I am disturbed by both the punishment and the belief in the seriousness of the crime.

It seems very backward, if not stupid or silly, to me.

Love Everything

and everything includes...

sorrow, apathy, pain, death, regret, resentment, anger, hatred, sin, crime, disappointment, failure, poverty, misery, illness, torture, war, murder, violence, depravity, obesity, unhealthiness, addiction, ignorance, stupidity, foolishness, boredom, breakup, discomfort, slavery, powerlessness...

but...
EGGHEAD stands for Even Good God Hates Evil And Death
but that might not be all it's cracked up to be.. :-)

here's a good quote: "If you're going through hell, keep going"

what's in the word Berkeley?

yikes!

Berk or burk
means:
(british) a stupid person or fool,
shortened from Berkeley or Berkshire hunt,
rhyming slang for cunt

while berke (verb) means:
1.to murder, as by suffocation, to leave no or few marks of violence.
or
2.to suppress or get rid of by some indirect maneuver.

ley means law in spanish

lee means:
protective shelter (the lee of the rock gave us protection from the storm)

ley means:
a pewter made of 80%tin and 20%lead (from aley, obsolete of alloy)
or
a leu (literally, lion): the coin and monetary unit of Romania, equal to 100 bani

but wait, there's more:
ley also means, arable land put down to grass (grassland or pastureland)
or
used in "ley line", a line joining two prominent points in a landscape.

and of course don't forget URKEL!

kele means "to cool" (obsolete, from Chaucer). Brr. kele.

BER stands for Bit Error Rate, which means:
the fraction of a message or block of data which is wrong.
(such as, what is the BER of Christianity?)

So,
I like the meanings of Berkeley as
-shelter from stupidity
and
-shelter from cunning murderous violence

of course, there's also (George) Berkeley himself: link; (wikipedia)

video I like

genius physicality

juggling
martial arts
dance
magic

(but not sports, so much, for some reason...)
...unless it's a dunking contest, hole in one, or other masterful/supreme athleticism, like olympic perfection, or a world record (or something no one else can do).
I used to watch gymnastics and basketball while at Davis. I still like those.

a good example I came across on youtube is entitled 'people are awesome.'
I recommend it.

other things i like
books, music, movies (especially, documentaries and animation)
and, of course, tasty food (like sushi or thai)

i realize sex and porn are noticeably absent..
but I like them, too, of course.

some banality

about evil, that is

sympathy for the devil
the killer in me is the killer in you
that's why I say hey man nice shot

I like this music.

evil roles
devil, satan, antichrist -from the bible
hannibal lecter -by anthony harris
kaiser soze -the usual suspects, christopher mcquarrie
sauron -j.r.r. tolkien, lord of the rings trilogy
the joker -batman (jerry robinson, bill finger, bob kane)
dracula -bram stoker
the emperor -star wars, george lucas
it -stephen king

oh, and don't forget Voldemort, a riddle, from J.K. Rowling
and Freddy Krueger, by Wes Craven
and The Terminator, by James Cameron

but God is good

as Charles Manson said
If God is one, how can I be evil?

aside
rhyme crime
hannibal the cannibal, cyrus the virus
evel knieval

yum
"on a kaiser role"

link; wikipedia list of AFI's (American Film Institute's) favorite heroes and villains

Note: I believe God/Devil are just historical antecedants to the modern comic book and movie folklore of good guys/badguys; or heroes and villains. It's all just fun. Cultural creations (and therefore only virtually real). It's all good? It's all good :-)

an evil thought?: all life has the same claim to live, meat is murder...ants and even amoebas or rotifers are equal to a human life. We're scum of a film of life on the surface of planet earth (props to Stephen Hawking) in an infinite universe; everyone dies, all matter has a half-life, death is a universal fate; it's all good. If abortion is legal, akin to removing a mole, then so should be killing (of anyone at any age). Ugh. Or Muahaha. Take your pick.

Of course, vegetarians kill plants. You can't win.

New Library Reads

5 books on madness

I'm reading (from the library):
1) Madness: A brief history, by Roy Porter
2)The Center cannot hold, by Elyn R. Saks
3) Just like someone without mental illness, only more so, by Mark Vonnegut, M.D.
4)The Eden Express, by Mark Vonnegut
5)Anatomy of an Epidemic, by the author of Mad in America (which I have/have read), Robert Whitaker

also, Happy Birthday, Greg!

My opinion of football

Link; The Onion

Go Niners!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Gratitude for blessings

a prayer
We celebrate today, Thanksgiving, to express gratitude for our blessings and everything good in our lives, like health, happiness, and love.

I would say, also, that we should be grateful for the not-so-good things in our lives, as well.
By this, I mean, the Opportunities hardships (and even Evil, itself) present to Make Good, or as the christian song says, to show we are christians by our love.

I'm celebrating today with the nuns in Oakland. Should be fun.
I like how the white house allowed two turkeys to live, (a pardoning?) named Freedom and Liberty. Have a great day, everyone!

other good things besides health, happiness, and love:
peace, friendship, community, comfort, prosperity...

Mercy Ships

Good News for healthcare in Africa

link

I learned about them from the christian science monitor (www.csmonitor.com)

schizophrenia

means "split" "mind"

like when you're reading more than one book at a time? no, not really

when you have your "own" thoughts as well as the "other's" ?
(a voice). Yes, lol.
"there's someone in my head, but it's not me" -Pink Floyd
maybe it 's telepathy...

Anyway,
I'm reading 4 novels that have crazy characters:
1)Raveling, by Peter Moore Smith (a mystery)
2)The Moment She was Gone, by Evan Hunter
3)The Minotaur, by Barbara Vine
4)Sullivan's Law, by Nancy Taylor Rosenberg

Here's some interesting facts about schizophrenia:
after 10 years (from a diagnosis of schizophrenia)
-25% recover completely
-25% are much improved, and relatively independent
-25% improved, but require an extensive support network
-15% hospitalized, unimproved
-10% dead (mostly suicide)

after 30 years:
-25% completely recover
-35% much improved, relatively independent
-15% improved, requiring an extensive support network
-10% hospitalized, unimproved
and
-15% dead (mostly suicide)

from schizophrenia.com
I believe they also said that 40% of (diagnosed) women attempt suicide at least once
and that, of men, 60% do. Not cool. Not cool at all.

I just realized that schizophrenics make up 1% of the population. Hope that doesn't exclude us with the Occupy Movement. I take about 68 bucks worth of medication, daily.*

*this has since changed (thank goodness). olanzapine (zyprexa zydis) is about $390/mo, which works out to about 13 bucks a day.

Why the ocean is blue

Blue Oyster Cult
and
Blue whales
blue is said to mean sad, like my eyes

like 20 whales beached themselves recently in Australia, I believe.

I really like
Don't Fear the Reaper, by Blue Oyster Cult

lyrics

the cia says around 155,000 people die every day (in the world)
also, the ocean is wet because it's made of water. thought you might like to know.
salty, like tears.

also, maybe the ocean is blue because the "supercommittee" failed miserably. Ha.
Or maybe because GOD stands for Grain Of Dust.

The CIA

That's the Central Intelligence Agency (of the USA),
not The California Arts Institute,
or the Culinary Institute of America

In '96, a congressional report revealed that the CIA engages in breaking "extremely serious" laws easily 100,000 times a year. In fact, they are "directed" to commit crimes. Who knows what, now, right?

Which probably wouldn't be a very good excuse to tell a judge if you get arrested, although it's better than the dog ate my lawbook.

My book (100 things you're not supposed to know, by Russ Kick) says "no part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means...without the prior written permission of the publisher" ...which always makes me laugh because my head is a means of reproduction and transmission, right? So in this instance, I think the cia/mjf books should let it slide.
-Jesse

In God We Trust

aka, Self-Reliance

After all, in the American tradition, according to Ben Franklin:
"God helps those who help themselves"

everyone knows that joke about there being a flood...the priest refuses the first boat, saying God will save him, and then again, twice more, then he drowns, and asks god why he didn't save him and God says, I sent you a boat 3 times. Ha.

Transforming evil to good

It's all a part of God's plan.

Not that evil IS good, exactly, but it provides the opportunity to shine.
If I'm God, it's said
I'm responsible for everything...

or, in other words, it's All My Fault
and "must be the most hated person alive" -LVR
which must be why I want to be the most loved...
i.e. God
in fact, if you don't love God, it's a sin, and they say you'll be punished.
You've got to love love!

anyway, I found a book by Andrew Delbanco, entitled
The Death of Satan: How Americans Have Lost the Sense of Evil

which I'll check out after my hour is up on the library computer-
I'm not guilty, as much as someone playing the devil might like me to be...
The bible says God is One, and satan is 19,1,20,1,14
or 1,1,2,1,5
or 10
or 1
so, if you put any credence to numerology, (which I don't, lol),
then maybe you believe Satan is God.
Jesse could be J-esse, or 10-being (esse in latin)
which is like forensics (4&6)
Satan, after all, is also a child of God, I imagine...if you believe in such things.
He runs hell for him..God's prison.
Speaking of which, I now have a CELL phone (I've joined modern humanity, finally)
ANYway,
speaking of SATan, (say, ten) I read about Korea's SAT tests, which everybody there goes buggy about. That reminds me, satan is seen as a principle of learning, I read somewhere...
But devil is d-evil, or 4 evil, or FOR evil, which makes sense..
if not scents (Poison, maybe?).

-plus, I'd like to say, to be topical, Jerry Sandusky is an a-hole.

-also, I'm abstaining from following the upcoming presidential election:
anybody that wants to be commander-in-chief is already corrupt, I think. I think I'm turning JW, lol. Or Japanese. I really think so. God may be "a man of war", but war is evil, as killing is a sin. If I am absolutely powerful, the saying goes, I must also be corrupted absolutely. ugh. maybe not. At least I don't think I am.. Would there be no peace if there were no war? People always seem to think opposites entail each other, but I can imagine no war.

I will only support a candidate that promises to dismantle/eradicate all our nuclear weapons- I'll just say that (although I'm more than a one-issue voter). Why can't Barack do that now, though?

-Happy Veteran's Day... and, since I'm late, Halloween, too.
all for now, peace out! -Jess
(tomorrow is Sunday...maybe I'll attend Mass, for a change)

P.s. I should note the Economist tongue-in-cheek referred to Gus O'Donnell as GOD.
and Gray Davis' middle name is NOT Oliver; In fact his name is Joseph Graham Davis, Jr.
And Geena Davis' middle name is Elizabeth.

p.p.s.
It's the 40th anniversary of Stairway to Heaven (Led Zeppelin)
on npr with 7 covers, link
Only God knows why, by Kid Rock is a fun song.
(although the line "people get what they deserve" is only wishful thinking, in my opinion)
Who can say where the road goes, only time -Enya.
God=7,6,4=8. I was born in '71.
Harvard and History and Honda and Hospital are all H (8).
Neo=14,5,15=5,5,6=7
Jesus Christ=2,5=7. time=20,9,13,5=2,9,4,5=2
sorry, I am getting bored with myself. myself=8
it's not even summer, lol.
"love of 2 is 1" -Blue Oyster Cult

ppps- 2 modern Evils
-I heard about those thrill killing (dozen?) american soldiers in Afghanistan on the news.
-and Barack sending 100 soldiers, advisors, Army Special Forces, (to Uganda) to fight the Lord's Resistance Army, in Africa, led by Joseph Kony, who thinks he's special to me, the a-hole.
"The LRA is accused of widespread human rights violations, including murder, abduction, mutilation, sexual enslavement of women and children and forcing children to participate in hostilities.[18]" -Wikipedia. USA! Putting the 'defense' back in the DOD; that works for me. If only all our military actions were so noble..

(Barack's dad is from Kenya, and Barack's in Hawaii, on his way to Indonesia, all part of our president's personal history)

A new friend

Here's to you, mrs. Robinson...

Hi, Veronica!
You're famous. You're on my blog. Congratulations.
-Jess

sunny face

Petaflop

1,000 trillion (mathematical) operations per second

I just read about a newly developed chinese supercomputer that has this capacity.

Is zillion a real number? I kind of thought 1,000T was a Z.
Anyway,
there are (or will be) other supercomputers with even more capacity for awesomeness.

Kind of Godlike, no?
What is the capacity of the human brain, I wonder...
answer?

(is there a difference between an 'operation' and a 'calculation'?)

Christian Singles

I was raised Catholic

I attend Mass almost never. My church is Nature. I am 50-50 introverted-extroverted, according to that test. INTJ, too. I like to bicycle, swim, read, and listen to music (of all kinds). I have brown hair, blue eyes, am 6'1, 215, heterosexual, and have strange brain chemistry. Sushi, Thai, Chinese -yum. I was born in September of 1971, which makes me a Virgo and a Boar (and 40). I have a positive attitude, 2 french bulldogs, and frequent the library often. I have read the bible, but don't believe in souls or heaven. We have to make a heaven of earth, I believe. God is love.

I am in transition, and could move/live anywhere. Suggestions?
Maybe San Diego, or Santa Cruz.

Sex God

"sex" and "god" are the two most searched terms

so I better put up a link, for traffic, lol
sex is good
god is good

hatin' is bad
but there's alot to be mad at.
(but you don't want to be mad all the time)

I recommend my posts on vampires and genies.
I also like my post entitled, 'agnostic' (May, 2011).

A Case of Christianity

Heal! My Child...

God the father- Hi Larry T (hilarity)

like Santa Claus
or
The Tooth Fairy

God is a role (to PLAY)
play like children
did I get the part?

Madonna says "shine your heavenly body tonight"

update

I'm in Berkeley now

I use the library daily.
I haven't started swimming yet. But I've still lost some weight.
For news, I read the NY times daily,
and the Economist, Christian science monitor (weeklies)
Sometimes I use the library computer, where I check the wikipedia news, too.
Or if the NYtimes isn't available, I'll look at the WSJ.
I walk the dogs a couple times a day.
I read books, like Franzen's 'Freedom', and 'You've Got to Read This' (collection of shorts).
I'm working on The Year's Best Horror and Fantasy (2005).
I bought 3 books from Barnes & Noble:
-John Muir Laws' 'Guide to the Sierra Nevada'
-2011 Best American Short Stories
-100 things you are not supposed to know
whatever strikes my fancy from the reference area
(I'm looking at the Encyclopedia of Pseudoscience at the moment)
and
Foreign Affairs (every 2 months)
local Berkeley paper..

I really like it here.
I'm single, and I've updated my okcupid account to place me in the Bay Area.