| Facebook rant |
[Sep. 2nd, 2009|01:27 pm] |
I found myself identifying with much of the article on How Facebook Ruins Friendships. ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif?v=92.1) triath posted it, and I responded in a comment, but realized this is something I would like to share with the rest of you, my beloved LJ community. Here is my response to the article:
This is why I like LJ so much more than FB or Twitter, and why I still don't (and maybe never will) own a Twitter account, and am saddened that of all the friends whose LJ posts I have historically enjoyed reading, fewer of them now post to LJ (because, I suspect, that time is taken by uploading smaller, less interesting "word-bites" to FB or Twitter).
LJ is, to me, like reading a page from the book of someone's life. FB and Twitter are like getting a single sentence. You can't get as much intimacy, or cover as much ground, and even worse (to me) FB is extremely cluttered with all sorts of inane apps, polls, and other idiocy (why do I keep getting spammed by people sending me Fish?). I'm not good at multitasking; the benefit of this is that I have extremely good focus. Reading FB is bad for my focus. I can't get an in-depth look at any of my friends because their personality is scattered all over the site, in photos, wall writings, and status updates, very little of which is useful or insightful. I find it tragic, because FB has allowed me to connect with people I'd otherwise have no contact with or had lost track of, but I just don't find it to be a good way to share my life with my long-distance friends. I just hope LJ doesn't fail as a business because people can't stay focused enough to share a paragraph instead of just a few words.
What do you think? |
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| out of curiosity... |
[Aug. 21st, 2009|05:20 pm] |
I don't normally get all political on here, but I have a burning question about health care reform.
Why is anyone against the public option? It's an option, right? If no one wants it, no one will opt for it. But surely people want it, because it would (at least in theory) provide a new benefit for people (of whom I know several) badly in need of health care and unable to get it through current channels.
It seems really common-sense to me. Is it that it's expected to be really expensive? According to the whitehouse.gov document I read on health care reform, they're expecting the cost of the health care system to decrease after the reform by cutting out subsidies to insurance companies (who obviously, to me at least, don't need to be subsidized!). So again, what's the problem? |
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| Photo assault! |
[Jul. 17th, 2009|11:41 am] |
Sometimes being a mom is the same as being a bed.
Xavier the taxi driver.
Two parents + four kids + beach = heavy load to carry back to the car.
Sleepy siblings on the 4th of July!
My official triathlon finish photo.
Onty Fethr, may I present to you the Lily Ogre, complete with yogurt beard. |
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| (no subject) |
[Mar. 18th, 2009|01:18 pm] |
(Excerpted from Who Dies? by Stephen Levine.)
Once someone asked a well-known Thai meditation master, "In this world where everything changes, where nothing remains the same, where loss and grief are inherent in our very coming into existence, how can there be any happiness? How can we find security when we see that we can't count on anything being the way we want it to be?" The teacher, looking compassionately at this fellow, held up a drinking glass that had been given to him earlier in the morning and said, "You see this goblet? For me, this glass is already broken. I enjoy it. I drink out of it. It holds my water admirably, sometimes even reflecting the sun in beautiful patterns. If I should tap it, it has a lovely ring to it. But when I put this glass on a shelf and the wind knocks it over, or my elbow brushes it off the table and it falls to the ground and shatters, I say, 'Of course.' When I understand that this glass is already broken, every moment with it is precious. Every moment is just as it is, and nothing need be otherwise."
When we recognize that, just like that glass, our body is already broken, that indeed we are already dead, then life becomes precious, and we open to it just as it is, in the moment it is occurring. When we understand that all our loved ones are already dead -- our children, our mates, our friends -- how precious they become. How little fear can interpose; how little doubt can estrange us. When you live your life as though you're already dead, life takes on a new meaning. Each moment becomes a whole lifetime, a universe unto itself.
When we realize we are already dead, our priorities change, our heart opens, and our mind begins to clear of the fog of our holdings and pretendings. We watch all life in transit, and what matters becomes instantly apparent: the transmission of love; the letting go of obstacles to understanding; the relinquishment of our grasping, of our hiding from ourselves. Seeing the mercilessness of our self-strangulation, we begin to come gently into the light we share with all beings. If we take each teaching, each loss, each gain, each fear, each joy as it arises and experience it fully, life becomes workable. We are no longer a "victim of life." And then every experience, even the loss of our dearest one, becomes another opportunity for awakening.
If our only spiritual practice were to live as though we were already dead, relating to all we meet, to all we do, as though it were our final moments in the world, what time would there be for self-protection and the re-creation of ancient mirages? Only love would be appropriate, only the truth. |
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| I did it! |
[Feb. 16th, 2009|04:07 pm] |
Today is a day to feel proud.
First off, I got back to my pre-pregnancy weight (137 pounds), which was a goal I had set for today. (I actually got there a couple weeks ago.) I still am not my "original size," which is the size I was before I got pregnant with X; there are a couple pairs of pants I don't fit back into. My end goal (unrelated to weight) is to get back into those pants, or else to discover that the folklore that says your hips end up wider after you give birth is actually true (it kind of sounds like baloney made up to make moms feel better about being fat, to me, but we'll see).
Secondly, I got through my first year as a mother of two. The statement I read somewhere is that this was to be the hardest year of my life.... but actually, it wasn't as hard as the first year I was a mom. Well, so much for that. May all the parenting years before me be even easier.
And thirdly (but not leastly): I got my girl child through infancy! Happy first birthday, Lily, my sweet girl. |
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| Myers Briggs result |
[Jan. 31st, 2009|09:55 am] |
So I was chatting with someone recently and they asked what my Myers Briggs result is. I said ESFJ, and they were totally shocked. And it occurred to me that I haven't taken the test since before I was a parent, and I know I've changed a lot since having kids. So I'm interested to retake the test, but I don't want to pay mad bucks for the official version. I took a 4-page (or so) free test many years ago, but I can't find it online now. Anybody have a good online test they can share with me?
Thanks. |
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discontent
curious
energetic
accomplished
amused
peaceful