Overcoming Shyness Through Action

Posted on February 17, 2019 by admin

When it comes to meeting new people, some appear to be naturals at it. They open up right away, jump headfirst into a conversation, and act like they’re reconnecting with an old friend. I’m not like that. I’m much more comfortable meeting someone if I’m in a situation where I can do something other than simply talk to them. For example, I feel no shyness most of the time at work when I help a customer load up their purchase because I get to move heavy objects around while we talk. That helps me avoid thinking too much about what I say or what they might be thinking about me. This is also the case when I’m playing a sport, swing dancing, or juggling with someone else.

If I start a conversation with someone I’ve just met without doing something with them first, there are typically a lot of awkward silences and questions about work; I prefer to avoid both of those whenever possible, especially in introductory conversations. In contrast, when I meet someone in a situation where we start off with an activity that takes up most of our focus (even something that’s not very physical like a board game), I feel more relaxed and have an easier time socializing without feeling nervous or unsure of myself. This makes the exchange go much easier for both of us and avoids a lot of the awkwardness in situations that begin with a conversation.

I think this comes down to the fact that I rarely feel comfortable talking to someone if I don’t have a feel for their personality. Once I have an idea of how they act and find them likable, I feel much more at ease and then look forward to talking with them. I’ve met many of my closest friends through swing dancing and I don’t think I’d feel nearly as comfortable around them if we had met at a networking event or some other situation with a lot of talking and almost no fun activities. Realizing all of this has given me some great life hacks for avoiding awkwardness and becoming a better communicator, and I’m grateful for the major life improvements that have followed from making those changes.

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The Great Awakening

Posted on February 16, 2019 by admin

This is an exciting time to be alive. More people are finding out that they don’t have to be slaves to their minds and are waking up out of deep suffering to see the beauty in life. What’s more, those with more experience at this are showing others how to get there, though each person must choose to walk that path or avoid it. For many, tremendous pain is what points them toward presence and peace, and some put up with a great deal of pain before finally surrendering and being free. Although many people wake up when they’ve had enough, others only sink into deeper sleep and never find out for themselves what freedom is like.

More people are losing faith in old, corrupt systems and are looking for new ways of doing things. Instead of depending on someone else to create the world they want to live in, they’re taking matters into their own hands and creating that world themselves. Accordingly, they’re spending less time paying attention to distractions and things that don’t matter so that they can focus on the truly important things in life. The culture is slowly shifting into a higher place where meaning is valued above empty pleasure.

Glitches and holes in the conventional perspective of the world we live in are becoming increasingly more common and easier to notice. Seeing those inconsistencies helps us break through illusions and get closer to the truth of our reality. Knowing how our minds work and how to see (as well as fix) our own blindspots and weaknesses is paramount to getting along with each other. Realizing that we’re much stronger standing together and helping each other than we are when fighting with each other is the way out of the present suffering and into a future of harmony and wonder. I’m grateful to be around to see this great awakening and I’m excited to watch it unfold.

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Eric Weinstein’s Thoughts on Kung Fu Panda

Posted on February 15, 2019 by admin

Someone asked a question about the movie Kung Fu Pandaon Quora and Eric Weinstein wrote a fantastic response to it. I’ve seen the movie but never thought about it the way Weinstein so wonderfully put it. Both the question and his response are included below for your perusal.

“In Kung Fu Panda, how does Po end up developing the capability to be an awesome Kung Fu fighter? How does he shift from being a total fat slob to becoming capable of defeating Tai Lung?”

-Quora questioner

“This is an important question for our time and must therefore be considered carefully. 

First one must challenge the assumptions of the questioner. Po is not a slob. He is a panda with an appetite and lack of athleticism to match, and principally fat because of this. 

From a defensive perspective, we find out early that Po’s rolls of fat insulate his nerves from being easily accessed by Mantis’ acupuncture needles. We also learn that Tai Lung’s most impressive power is his perfection of various nerve attacks in the style that Master Oogway used against Tai Lung to keep him from the dragon scroll. Thus we see at the climax of the film that it is Po’s very fat that keeps Tai Lung’s nerve attacks from having any effect on Po beyond a tickling sensation. 

Next, Tai Lung underestimates Po as an opponent. The snow leopard is so contemptuous of Po that he never focuses on defeating him until it is too late. Instead, Tai Lung is focused exclusively on gaining the dragon scroll as he sees it as his rightful entitlement. This gives Po plenty of opportunity to understand Tai Lung as an opponent while Tai Lung chases the scroll and Po chases them both. 

Lastly, and most importantly, Po is not a classic ‘student’ of Kung Fu. There is no ‘bear style’ and Shifu, mindful of his failure with Tai Lung,  teaches no one techniques like the WuXi finger hold.  Thus Po is left to find the secrets of his own power as a self teacher. And this, in my opinion, is the real secret to the whole film. 

Oogway is a self-teacher. As a turtle, he is even less appropriate than a Panda as a Kung Fu archetype. But we learn that it is Oogway who, in apparent solitude at the pool of sacred tears, unravels the ‘secrets of harmony and focus’. Thus Oogway is a self-teacher trying to pass the secret of self-teaching. But how can he do this as to train a student risks crowding out the self-teaching modality? So he decides to pick a self-teacher by choosing the panda whose only  achievement is to break into a Kung Fu competition by turning a fireworks cart into a makeshift rocket to hop a wall. Yet this act of improvisation tells the great turtle that he is better off working with this humble unconventional maverick than with the overtrained tigress or other conventionally trained high achievers. 

Po then realizes that he can create without waiting to receive wisdom down the chain of masters. Po uses Tai Lung’s own power and vulnerabilities against the snow leopard and finishes him off with a trick that he realizes he can reverse engineer without needing to wait for a knowledge transfer from Shifu that will likely never come. 

This is a highly subversive,  deep, and subtle film. Pretending it is a comedic children’s cartoon with a simple ‘be yourself’ message is perhaps the ultimate Kung Fu move. You are so busy being distracted, you never really see it coming. 

Skadoosh.”

-Eric Weinstein
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All Work and No Play

Posted on February 14, 2019 by admin

I’ve never been into working for long, unbroken stretches of time. Whenever possible, I prefer to do a bit of work and then take a short break, alternating the two until my work is done. I find that to be much easier, less draining, and more effective when it comes to getting things accomplished. Sometimes I’m comfortable working for longer periods, such as when I have a deadline to meet, I’m feeling very inspired, or I love what I’m doing. Overall, though, I like to break large tasks down into smaller ones and spread them out.

This also gives my subconscious time to think through whatever I’m doing and come up with new or better ways to get it done. For example, I often get some of my best ideas for writing when I’m engaged in a fun, playful activity instead of sitting at the computer struggling to come up with something. Whenever I’ve hit a sticking point on a project, I always find a break helps me relax and overcome that obstacle when I return to work. In contrast, trying to force a solution more often than not only serves to make me more frustrated and less capable of being creative.

I think everyone would benefit from taking more regular breaks from work and having a little time to play. This could be facilitated by getting rid of “busy work”, which I consider to be tasks that serve no productive purpose and are only assigned to give people something to do. Along similar lines, eliminating the 20% of things that cause 80% of your problems and focusing on the 20% of things that provide 80% of your results (this is known as the Pareto principle, which Tim Ferriss talks about in The 4-Hour Workweek) can also free up time to play and take it easy. This would give coworkers more time to get to know each other and even become friends rather than just being workplace associates, which would make their time at work more enjoyable. I’d like to see some major changes that would allow more people have time for breaks at school, on the job, and anywhere else they work. This way, they can relax more, enjoy each other’s company, have time to pursue their interests, and avoid stress and all sorts of other negative things that come from too much work and not enough play.

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“If”

Posted on February 13, 2019 by admin

“If” is a short poem written by Rudyard Kipling about the importance of rising above difficult life situations. It’s a great reminder for me during challenging times and I hope it also serves you well.

If you can keep your head when all about you   
    Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,   
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
    But make allowance for their doubting too;   
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
    Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
    And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;   
    If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;   
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
    And treat those two impostors just the same;   
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
    Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
    And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
    And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
    And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
    To serve your turn long after they are gone,   
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
    Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,   
    Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
    If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
    With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,   
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,   
    And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!

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Review of The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra

Posted on February 12, 2019 by admin

Whenever I sit down to watch a movie, I try to pick one that I think I’ll enjoy because of its high quality. Sometimes, however, I’ll end up seeing a movie that I enjoy because of its poor quality. The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra is definitely in the latter category. Spoilers abound, so consider skipping this review if you want to see the movie first.

The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra was released in 2001 but looks and feels like one of the many B movies from the 1950’s and 1960’s. The creators clearly had very little money to work with but they still ended up making an incredibly entertaining movie. The plot (what little plot there is) involves a scientist and his wife, an alien couple, and another scientist all trying to get a meteorite that contains an element called atmosphereum. The first scientist wants to study it so he can become famous, the aliens want to use it to power their ship and return to their home planet of Marva, and the other scientist wants to use it to bring the “Lost Skeleton” back to life and rule the the world alongside it. There is also a mutant and a woman created by the aliens’ transmutatron from a combination of several different forest creatures.

As you might have guessed from the previous paragraph, this is one of the most bizarre movies I’ve ever seen. The effects were incredibly simple and fake-looking, the writing felt like something written by auto correct combined with predictive text, and the performances were as over the top as could be. And I had a blast watching it. I think there are a few reasons that I enjoyed it so much. First, it seemed to relish in its corniness, as if everyone involved tried to make it as fun and goofy as possible; it never felt like it took itself too seriously or acted as if it were anything spectacular. And second, I watched it with a group of friends and we mocked it in the style of Mystery Science Theater 3000 the whole time. I had never even heard of this movie until a few hours before I saw it and I don’t know how I would have felt about it if I’d seen it alone. This seems like it was made to be watched with other people who don’t take it seriously, and that made for an incredibly entertaining experience. This is one of the best bad movies I’ve watched and, if you enjoy movies that are so bad they’re good, give this one a watch with some of your friends. You’ll have a blast.

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Saturday Adventures

Posted on February 11, 2019 by admin

My Saturdays tend to either be quite relaxing and uneventful or action-packed and full of things to do. This past Saturday fell into the latter category for me and several of my friends. I got to visit with many of them, including a few I had not seen in a long time, at three different events. Here are some of the highlights from that awesome day.

I started off by going swing dancing for a while at the Riverside Arts Market. Bold City Swing typically goes out there one Saturday each month to dance and reach out to those interested in swing dancing. We had fun dancing and visiting with each other and talking to a few people who stopped to watch. I ended up leaving early to do a few more things at home, including getting ready for a friend’s baby shower. She invited me well in advance of the big day and, since it was on a Saturday (one of my days off from work), I accepted. I had already purchased the gifts but still had to wrap them up at home before heading back out. We played a few games, ate some good food, visited with people I had previously met and some I first met that day, and watched the main couple open their gifts. This is the first baby shower I’ve been to in several years and the third one for me overall. When the time came for me to go, I said my goodbyes and set out for my next stop.

For my final adventure of the day, I relaxed with another group of friends and watched a couple of B movies. Most of us had no idea what we’d be watching until that night; we ended up seeing The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra and Vampire Assassin. It was clear that both of them had almost no budget, but we all enjoyed watching and mocking them in the style of Mystery Science Theater 3000. Personally, I liked The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra much more than Vampire Assassin. The former seemed to relish in its corniness, as if everyone making it decided to make it as fun and goofy as possible, and it seemed like a parody of classic B movies from the 1950’s and 1960’s. On the other hand, the latter felt more like it was trying to be a cool, action-packed movie when it clearly wasn’t anything of the sort. Plus, we were all getting tired by the time Vampire Assassin started and had nearly laughed ourselves out during The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra, so that probably made the second movie less enjoyable. While we were there, we also had fun celebrating another friend’s birthday with a surprise party. It was a great way to finish off a wonderful Saturday, one that will stick with me for many years to come.

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“The Road Not Taken”

Posted on February 10, 2019 by admin

“The Road Not Taken” is a short poem written by Robert Frost. I think about it now and then, especially when making a major life decision. I see it as a reminder that sometimes it pays to take a less conventional path and that’s why it’s stood out in my mind for so many years.

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

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Sharing Lessons from the Mountain

Posted on February 9, 2019 by admin

Although I’ve almost always held an optimistic view of the future, there are times where I felt all was lost and I wanted to escape and live in a secluded area for the rest of my days. There are people who have done and continue to do this, such as deeply religious people who live simple lives in isolated regions. While that sounds interesting, I’ve never done anything like it. If I did, I probably would only do it for brief periods of time; I don’t think I could live like that indefinitely.

While I think people who live most or all of their lives in secluded regions are fascinating, I wonder how much they’re doing to change the world. That’s why I’m more interested in those who have spent a great deal of time living like that and then went back to their regular lives, often having been changed for the better by their time away from everything. Within the past few weeks, I realized how much I’ve benefited from these people who “went to the mountain” and brought back what they found. Some of them went on grand trips to exotic places, others stole away to their cabin or homestead, and still others simply spent a great deal of their free time alone with their thoughts while living an otherwise “normal” life. A few of them later shared their experiences by writing books, making videos, giving interviews, etc. Many of my biggest breakthroughs have come from learning about their revelations and applying those lessons to my life. I think my purpose in life is to do that very thing for others.

So far, my “mountain” has primarily consisted of reflecting on things I’ve learned from books and videos, relaxing in my hammock, healing past pain, and improving myself in as many ways as I can (along with an occasional brief vacation, which gives me a chance to “reset” myself). I’ve mainly used this blog and social media to share my experiences but I also talk about them in person or over the phone with a few close friends. I love having a blog because it allows me to share my ideas with nearly anyone, even if I don’t know them personally. I’ve always loved learning about a variety of things and then sharing my findings with others. Also, I’ve enjoyed trying to find connections between different things (such as in six degrees of separation and variations of that idea), including things I’ve been looking into for the past few years now.

Many of the books I’ve read have overlapped each other in many ways; this makes it easier to remember the information by reading it several times and it’s also cool to see different takes from authors writing about similar matters. Plus there may be a lesson in one book that strengthens a lesson from another, making the combined lessons much more powerful than either one would be by itself. The more I read, the more connections I find, and the easier I can see the image they create in my mind. It’s like putting together a puzzle, except in this case that puzzle is my place in the world. Right now, I’m focused on gathering a lot of information and ideas and putting together the puzzle pieces. I just sort of fell into this, so I take that as a sign that I’m where I should be. I want to leave the world better than I found it and my long-term plan for doing that is helping to create close-knit communities where people can live, work, play, and support each other in peace. I think the life lessons I’m learning will help me with that and I’m excited to see how everything plays out.

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Review of Beetlejuice

Posted on February 8, 2019 by admin

Beetlejuice is my favorite Tim Burton movie and it seems to get better every time I see it. I watched it on Wednesday and found a lot of little gems in it that I had either forgotten about or never noticed before. If you want to avoid major spoilers, then I suggest avoiding this review or skipping to the final paragraph.

The movie stars Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis as Adam and Barbara Maitland, a young couple taking some time off from running their hardware store to work on their house and enjoy each other’s company. On their way home, they swerve to avoid hitting a dog and are killed when their car falls into the river. It takes them a bit to realize they’re dead, but after noticing that they have no reflections in the mirror, can’t recall how they got back home, and get stuck in a large desert-like environment with strange creatures whenever they step foot outside the house, they accept their fate and try to figure out what to do about it.

While they try to navigate the strange, bureaucratic afterlife with the help of a caseworker named Juno and their Handbook for the Recently Deceased, they are distressed to see a family called the Deetzes move in and transform their house into something totally bizarre. The only living person who can see the Maitlands is the Deetz’s goth daughter, Lydia (played by Winona Ryder). Desperate to scare the Deetzes away and have the house to themselves again, the Maitlands give it their best before turning to a ghost named Betelgeuse (played by Michael Keaton) for help. When he proves to be more trouble than he’s worth, the Maitlands team up with Lydia and try to stop him and his crazy antics.

Like other Burton movies, Beetlejuice has a visual style that’s incredibly strange, twisted, and creative. A combination of practical effects, stop motion, and special effects, alongside highly intricate set pieces, gives this movie a highly recognizable and distinctive look. It also has a wacky sense of humor, which is probably the main reason I like it so much. To me, Beetlejuice is a fun, goofy movie with great characters and I always enjoy watching it, and I look forward to watching it again soon.

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