anamnesis

Click here to see my very own tooooon. Removed it to a link cause it was being too obnoxious to stay with the other blog posts.

For you adventuresome souls, here are two things I've been experimenting with of late. ZMA This is a blend (they are trying to patent) of Zinc, Magnesium and vitamin B6 in specific proportions. It's popular with athletes because it increases muscle strength. But it had two side-effects that caught my attention. On the body builder forums people were complaining about the wild and vivid dreams it produced. Seemed to be a well known effect in those circles. That peaked my interest, so I gave it whirl. And indeed it did. Vivid and wild dreams ---but it also gave me the deepest sleep I'd had in years. I woke up completely restored. Been using it off and on for several weeks, and the nights I take it before bed, I can wake up with less sleep and in a remarkably rested state. It had another weird property though. I didn't exactly feel mentally dull, more like mentally relaxed, which was ok, but found I needed to hone my brain a little if I was going to be doing any mentally h...

Some curious new research about how kids that have been told (justifiably or not) that they are smart, may be handicapped from developing abilities that aren't immediately easy. Some quotes and references follow. But the timing is interesting. I've been doing more research lately on some new currents in psychology. May inflict a write-up on ya later, but a short synopsis on one aspect of it pertinent to this thread are some thoughts on self-esteem. Self-esteem is a type of "immune system" for the psyche. It's how we feel about ourselves and appears to operate on two poles. Well-being at one end of the pole and Confidence on the other; an optimal place being a good balance of each. Well-being type esteem is connected with assertiveness and a good sense of boundaries. The more awareness someone has of what is controlled by them (their own thoughts, body, emotions), that is 100% theirs, versus what they don't control (others, environment, politics, weather, etc....

Last night I rolled into bed around 3:00am; just as I was getting cozy, I became aware of a conversation going on outside. Between dogs. It reminded me of online chat; a series of 4 or 5 barks from a little fellow to the west, a response from the north, a short comment from the south west, a skeptical question from the north east. They were trying to keep their voices down. But I wondered about their lifes; most of them didn't have much contact with their fellow-kind. Perhaps they remember siblings and a mother, when the were very young, before adoption by their human hosts, whisked away into isolation. Living with their "owners", maybe seeing their own kind briefly in passing during walks or a drive to town. Not like the villages of old, or even the country-sides. I listened curiously, trying to pick-up the nuances. To my human ears, the bark of a single dog didn't seem to vary much, but perhaps with their broader range of hearing all sorts of inflection was hap...

Bright-eyes was sorting through some stuff to clear off shelf space and came across this card to us from the Energizer Bunny's Mom. It gave us both pause for thought.

You may not know about this, in fact, most judges and attorneys wish you didn't. Just knowing that this option exists can get you kicked off of many juries. As a juror, you have the right not only to judge the case but to judge the law itself. If you have doubts about the legitimacy of a law, regardless of whether the defendant is guilty or not, the jury can throw out the case. Even if it is a "established" law, it can still be judged as stupid by the people. Only don't let the people know they have this power , seems to be the judiciary consensus. --- "In 2006 there were an estimated 9.3 million people in prison worldwide at any one time. Half of them were held in just 3 territories: the United States 24%, China 17% and the Russian Federation 9%. Worldwide 0.15% of the population are in prison, that is one person in every 670. The highest percentages of population that are imprisoned are in the United States, at 0.75%, and the Russian Federation, at 0.60%. ...

In the context of Ger's post on feeling tired, and the previous post here on enjoyment vs pleasure, I'd like to talk about a little tool I stumbled across around junior high. Took me years to learn how to use it; but in my early 20s, with a little guidance from those who handled it well, it became a potent ally. If you'd like to try it, I'd be honored to help you get off on the right foot; I've been around the block a few times on the wrong one and it's not nearly as much fun. In fact, it's kind of worthless. Done right, it's awesome. This flies in the face of our modern PC, anything goes, do it your way zeitgeist; but there are specific ways to do this right and innumerable ways to do it wrong and the difference is in the results. The good news is, it's not hard to do right; 90% of which is knowing what it's not. Meditation is not sitting and thinking about stuff. Unfortunately, people sometimes make it synonymous with "thinking", li...

A useful and powerful distinction, methinks. From the author of Flow (follow the link to the rest of the short but insightful article, particularly in relation to flow in family systems.) "One must particularly achieve control over instinctive drives to achieve a healthy independence of society, for as long as we respond predictably to what feels good and what feels bad, it is easy for others to exploit our preferences for their own ends. The knowledge - or wisdom - one needs for emancipating consciousness is not cumulative. It is not a cognitive skill and, as well as intelligence, requires commitment of emotions and will. It is not enough to know how to do it, one must do it consistently and it is a painfully slow process to modify our own habits and desires. Pleasure by itself does not bring happiness. We can experience pleasure (e.g. eating, sleeping, sex) without an investment of psychic energy. Enjoyment on the other hand, happens only as a result of an unusual amount of...

Well, I meant to post this earlier for those of you curious about Mew's journey. He arrived at his destination around 3am after a 6 hour delay in Easton waiting for crews to clear a 50 car pile-up on Snoqaulmie pass. I kept watch on the site with webcams and status updates until after midnight and Mew cleared the "mountain" (tho I still can't believe they call a 3,000ft bump a "mountain pass.") They had chain/snow tire requirements in effect after they cleared the way, and Mew had neither, but he does have experience driving on snow and ice.