July 26, 2002

anarchy means i litter

You have not lived until you’ve listened to Atom and His Package. Nerd-core punk rock done by a one man band and sequencer.

[side note: I was feeling very punk rock in thinking that this link broke the rules, however NPR has had a change of thought.]

posted @ 11:00 PM

July 23, 2002

yellowstone

My step-mom’s family reunion was this past weekend where the festivities were at the East Entrance to Yellowstone Nation Park. My aunt and uncle live there, where my uncle is the Sub-district ranger. It was a mildly short, but sweet stay. While we were there four of us climbed to the highest elevation I’ve been to outside of an airplane. It was a great time and being in an environment like that taught me a few things. I thought about the Dharma often being around (and on) these amazing mountains at the altitude of some of the flatlands of Tibet. What I came away feeling most though was that I need to be around a good teacher to really excel at Buddhism. One of my other uncles is currently a ranger at Sequoia National Park, but will be transferring to Mammoth in Yellowstone around August. When we arrived my uncle was giving my aunt a lesson on fileting fish. Fish recently caught in Yellowstone River. Sunday morning we made sour dough pancakes. The original receipt of which was made famous by my grandpa’s Sunday morning tradition of serving. The flour was measured “exactly like dad used to do. Remember that…” Both of these “arts” were perfected by a great teacher, who was also a Park ranger in Yellowstone and Glacier — among others.

We talked about the way he marked the trails in Glacier like they were in Yellowstone. “They take a piece of metal and nail it to the tree, then bend it back,” my step-mom told me. “That way they can carry them in their backpack. The only real use for them is in the winter when you can’t see the trail.” They don’t mark trails like this in Glacier, so if you are there and happen upon a trail that is marked in such a way, then you’ve come across a trail Bob Morey has marked.

My book sat at home, in the bag. Never touched. “You must find a teacher, one who kicks spiritual butt. And go, study with them.”

posted @ 10:19 AM

July 18, 2002

apple giveth, apple taketh away

Rumor has it that I’ll be loosing my .mac address. I’m not going to pay Apple for this service. Sorry, but I’m going to think different in this scenario. The estimated prices given are total B.S. Is Apple really trying to convince me that they are having trouble with storage space? Are they really trying to say that slaping a directory on their server would cost $60 a year (home page creation and hosting)? Come on. This would be is a Microsoft move. So, the search is on for a new server.

posted @ 8:03 PM

July 17, 2002

free tibet

Tanak Jigme Sangpo is now living in the United States. I’ve been doing some thinking about the Tibet situation lately and I’m just amazed by the lack of response given by the United Nations and the United States. I was not alive at the time, so maybe I don’t know the circumstances but I find it amazingly hard to believe and scary that nothing was done. The Dalai Lama was making a push for a democratic government. This was plenty to fight for Korea. Was it the religion, a sketchy history or was it really the fact that China was a growing trade nation? Back then China was without nuclear weapons. Today I think we are scared of a war. I really doubt intervention will happen from the world community at this point. Not real intervention (and I’m not advocating war per se, but I am insinuating the threat of war or lack of trade). Until their is a shift in US policy I don’t ever think we’ll see a free Tibet.

One word: splendiferous.

Now we’re talking.

posted @ 2:12 PM

July 13, 2002

connect the dots

“What have you been up to?”

“I connect the dots. I’ve done tons. I’m really good too. I connect them all and the picture looks like it’s supposed to.”

I love running into somebody I haven’t seen for 12 years and their sense of humor is so right on. It’s very weird how this particular circle of friends that I grew up with are so funny. They’re all different in their humor, but similar. And all hilarious. Must have been something in the water.

posted @ 8:09 AM

July 12, 2002

buddhist high school

Not sure why I never posted this before, but my sister-in-law sent me this article about the first Buddhist School in the United States a few months ago. Really feels like we are making some good progress when you hear stories like this.

posted @ 2:47 PM

July 8, 2002

missing karma

We even left 10 minutes early, but we weren’t able to make it on time to the teachings. I told myself that if we were later than 15 minutes then we would probably skip them because I didn’t want to disrupt the classes. Missoula is a crazy town. The story goes that two brothers founded the city and one brother wanted to layout the roads like a wagon wheel, the other wanted a traditional square city. They both did their own thing on opposite ends of town and the huge mess met in the middle. You’ll be traveling along a road and all of sudden realize you are right back where you started. You make a left and wind up further to the east, make a right and end up further to the east. Normally it stresses me out. I get super up tight whether I’m a passenger or the driver however this time I kept my cool. We drove around the city looking for the Dharma center, restaurants, bookstores. We had a really great time, despite the fact that we didn’t get to see Ven. Robina.

In other news, as you can probably tell, the site has received yet another face lift. I wouldn’t call it a “redesign” really, but some much needed touch up work was done. I’m pretty happy with the new look. Next on the list is improving that menu full of links. Speaking of links, all of the links now open in the same browser window. I work with a blind man and accessibility has now become very important to me. It should be to you as well.

posted @ 8:45 AM