In
this neck of woods where the psyche is supposed to work like the
perfect outer world of trams and watches the price people are willing
for certainty is as high as death itself. It is not uncommon for some
to want to know when they will die - that knowing has great benefit for
them because they have not learned to live with insecurity --
everything imaginable is insured -- and suicide is the ultimate price
for security. Suicide rate is high here even among those who are
outwardly seemingly are stable and settled but inwardly there is chaos
and this educational system like most in the world says nothing about
how to deal with inner crisis. It teaches you to treat yourself like a
tram and a watch - in perfect order - and hpooing from one base of
certainty to another - hardly every not knowing - having
stuff planned years ahead of time...
It's perfect
as long as it works perfectly but it's isolating and separative as hell
because it's all thought-based and thought is limited and so divisive.
So it leads to isolation and realities made in isolation without much
room for direct communication or fact checks which could shatter those
realities. But images can easily shatter when fact checked and then
there's a rush into certainty in the form of conclusions which are
further isolating.
--------- Lai Chi wrote a nice mail and at the end said:
take care and Walk In Beauty, Truth & Peace
Dec 2011 -- Hedge Funds & Congress in Bed !
This is incredible but is true.
"Congressmen
aren’t the only ones trading on their inside info. A lucrative practice
has sprung up in Washington, in which hedge funds and other investors
pay handsomely for private meetings with top lawmakers or their aides,
who give them an early scoop on market-moving news, the Wall Street
Journal reports."
-
Rick Perry takes a big shift in his morality about abortion after
watching a DVD and talking to a woman for a few minutes. What a timing
- his poll numbers are hurting badly in Iowa - I think people see
through him and think we don't need another tough talking cowboy Texas
Governer as President -- Bush runied the world during his 8 years.
-
"Newt Gingrich says he has killed a chapter on climate change in a
post-election book of essays about the environment". Talk about
politicians going with the the way the wind blows.
- Kent Sorenson, Bachmann’s Iowa
chairman left her for Ron Paul and then said he told her on the phone
he got a lot of money for it (my word vs. your word). Kent Sorenson
Says Michele Bachmann Is Lying About Ron Paul Offering Him Money:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJhnwVqqx-U --"none knows about that
conversatin except ken and myself" -- while she was talking she
stuttered. Ken said she lied. I believe Ken.
-
Ron Paul seem to Republicans what Ralph Nader was to Dem's. Imagine the
world if Gore had won in 2000 !! We would be living in a MUCH better
world no doubt. -
Santorum is scary and the most closed minded fanatic of the bunch and
looks kind of constipated. John Stewart made a really funny remark
about his picture.
Dec 2011
Time will not make anything that's pushed under the carpet to go away.
People paid GW Bush $15M to speak since he left the Presidency office. Unbelievable !!
"SAC Capital May Have Lost $196 Million on Paper in Dendreon Stock Plunge".Let's call it karma!
26 Dec 2011 - News
The news is pathetic. If Plato had internet he's be even more depressed
at the end of his life reading all these horrible news. Humanity has
clearly not evolved psychologically a bit. Last night's news was about
Moslems killing Christians in Nigeria, and Shiehts and Sunnis killing
each other in Iraq. The fight is totally tribal. One tribe vs. another
tribe. And the one sub-tribe vs. another sub-tribe. The root of this is
directly in the thinking mind of human. Thinking which is divisive
because it is limited because it's rooted in past experience which is
limited and identification is the way the self which in itself built
from memory gives itself continuity... long story and the story has
been told many times by the few but who is to listen?
This is the kind of email I like to receive every day :)
Dear Reza,
I
would like to thank you for helping me make the best decision I ever
made in my life. Normally I never send emails like this, but you have
no idea how much you've done for me. I have been a smoker for
about six years. It was taking me down, day by day. You've probably
heard this before, but smoking really destroys a person. After a while,
you stop caring about your health, money, career, it's a downwards
spiral.
I stumbled upon a video of yours on youtube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtHwvCVuoV4)
which for me was a real eye-opener. I've been smoke-free now for about
2 months and living healthy, thanks to your view on life and the
ability to bring it across.
From the bottom of my heart, thank you!
Dec 2011 - Finally
"The trader agreed to pay more than $2 million to settle the
SEC’s charges. .. According to the SEC’s order instituting administrative
proceedings, Gary S. Bell violated the “locate” and “close out” requirements of
Regulation SHO, which require market participants to locate a source of
borrowable shares prior to selling short and to deliver those securities by a
specified date. Market makers who ensure liquidity in the market are excepted
from these requirements if they are engaged in bona-fide market making activities
in the security for which the exception is claimed."
So market makers still can naked short a stock to death and get away with it?
Dec 2011 - Beatles Breakup
John
Lennon thinks Maxwell's Silver Hammer was responsible for Beatles
Breakup. He sat through 3 days of Macca redoing the vocals and by the
end John says he hated Macca.
Restaurant
on the slope has main dishes that run around 50 to 180 bucks !! No
thanks. Munching on organic spice wrapped cheese sprouts and seeds did
the job.
Dec 2011 - Swiss Diversity
French Swiss regions teach high German in school so most can't speak Swiss German.
Close Swiss friend says "I hate talking high German - I either talk swiss German or English"
Dec 2011 - Energy
Debra
said she drinks energy drink because she needs energy. What energy?
Caffeine stimulation. If energy is not wasted we have much of it.
Remember as a kid how much energy you had? She did. Can we live without any chemical stimulation?
Watched
the presidential elections out of curiosity and because it's both
educational and entertaining. They all have good and bad ideas. Some
impressions from the last debate:
-
Gingrich - I don't like him - he has a smartass answer for everything and a good handle on issues
but I don't trust him at all, don't have regards for his ethics and
morality. Most if not all are anti-environment, pro-nukes, so I don't like any of them. - Romney - Competent in certain areas, moderate and pragmatic but too lightweight for the job. -
Ron Paul - too idealistic - but a genuine honest and good man I could trust. He is right
on in saying a country can not be strong unless it is economically
strong. - Santorum - I don't like him at all - he looks yobs (constipated). - Bachman - Better than Palin but she has no chance. -
Rick Perry - glad he's losing. It's not enough to be a tough talking
guy from Texas. After Bush's miserable 8 years I doubt another Texas
governor will be in the White House for a loooong time. -
Huntsman - is an effective manager and has good qualities - one of the
more decent ones but he has no chance. He is coming across stronger
than expected. So
which one will win the Republican nomination? Hard to say. I don't like
any of them. If I had to guess I guess Romney will win the primaries.
Dec 2011 - Freedom from glasses and contacts
-
Her eyes are completely healed from the chain of glasses and contacts.
It worked. Natural eye care works. Here's yet another account of it.
She saw fuzzy for a while but put away the glasses and now she even
doesn't wear them at work and has near perfect eye sight. Viva
Dr. Bates.
Physiotherapist tips: The
body tries to operate at optimum energy efficiency. But if something is
out of whack it compensates. So a muscle knot could last forever if not
treated and other parts of the back compensate for it (e.g. a knot may
develop in the neck). He said no-one can explain trigger points.
If
there's pain during the exercize and it gets worse or it stays when you
let go/come down - then it's bad - stop or lighten. if pain gets better
or is released when you let go/come down then it's ok.
8 Dec 2011 - Too late for remorse
- Blagojevich
gets 14 years in prison for corruption -- I am happy about this
sentence because it's yet another case of a criminal, an uncivil
person, who thinks he's above the law, breaks the law, and then thinks
he can manipulate justice (by arguing his innocence) and get away with
it - and then once found guilty he becomes remorseful. I've seen a
number of such cases in uncivil people I've had to deal with in my own
life, specially in cyber space where people think they can "get away
with murder". My dad had a lot of stories on this subject. Arrogant
bullies and criminals who became remorseful sorrow asses after getting
caught.
-
Watching the interview between good old Barbara Walters and Bashar
al-Assad was very disturbing. His denial of the torture and killings is
unbelievable.
4 Dec 2011 - Office 2010 Disaster
Outlook 2010 is a total disaster so are the rest
of Microsoft Office 2010 applications. Upgrades should be upgrades not
downgrades. Microsoft seems to have gone out of its way to make these
apps more difficult, less user friendly, and a dog to use.
- Their idea of having a good time and a party was drinking. He said he had at least 15 beers. How stupid!!
"food in Switzerland
remains around 45 per cent more expensive than the average in the rest of
western Europe" The main reason for this is not a lack of competition – “this increased
significantly following the arrival of the German discounters” – but the small
size of the market (lower purchasing volumes), market foreclosure for
agricultural products (customs duty and quotas) and technical barriers to trade
(declaration requirements).
“Consumer behaviour in Switzerland
is different from that in Germany,”
he said. “People here will happily pay a bit more for bio-labels or for better
quality.”
2 Dec 2011 - Suppressed Women
Referring to a Steve Jobs' quote in an email circulated with the subject "Steve Jobs and Ashrams" and "The Most Ancient Marketing", a friend wrote from India:
"This technique seems to work with most women too. The more you 'bash' them, the more their devotion towards you."
Reza Ganjavi's Response:
Reading
this line invoked ancient echoes in my mind, ideas that have been
ringing since childhood when I saw any form of inequality.
Women
have been suppressed throughout history by men who are weaker sexually
(in terms of endurance), are possessive, jealous, and have viewed women
as an object to be owned. In the East and the West it's the same story
just to different degrees. In Switzerland, one of the oldest
democracies, women were not allowed to vote until 1970's, no not 1570's
but 1970's! The rest of the world, we know the story already.
This
is a long chapter which I have previously written about but in summary,
women should have all the human rights a man has and no less. One of
the subtle things I observed at an early age and have written about
before is that a free woman does not need to shout for freedom, she can
live and think and act and feel as a free human, a human, not a man or
a woman, first. The main challenge is to live without an image, of
others as well as of oneself, and other's of one, and so on... , which
means not expecting different treatment due to gender -- just like a
"foreigner" who doesn't go around having an image of himself as a
foreigner, and therefore is not treated as one. In societies where laws
are discriminatory that's a different, unfortunate, story.
Now
coming back to S's comments about "bashing" women leading to devotion,
the first comment is, no, that is wrong, a man should never "bash",
suppress, or otherwise coerce a woman for any purpose. Secondly, if a
man like a woman who is more devoted to him as a result of such
"bashing", that man has psychological problems. Thirdly, the quality of
that kind of relationship is not what I ever want to have.
In
the old days, in high school in New York, we used to observe that the
jerks got the nicest women. How do you explain that? Guys who were
treating girls bad were getting the nicer ones, so there is some truth
to what S is saying but as man human, I never want such devotion which
is based on friction. I learned as I grew older that there are mature
women (independent of age) who appreciate being treated right, just,
equitably, lovingly, and that brings a quality of devotion which is
rooted in love and not coercion.
1 Dec 2011 - Rezangela, the band
This is how I feel about the band:
"How come the Mac group produced Mac and the people at IBM produced the PCjr? We think the Mac will sell zillions, but we didn’t build Mac for anybody else. We built it for ourselves. We were the group of people who were going to judge whether it was great or not. We weren’t going to go out and do market research. We just wanted to build the best thing we could build."
-- Steve Jobs, Feb.1985
30 Nov 2011 - Analyst Reiteration on AVNR
Canaccord Genuity reiterates a 'Buy' on Avanir Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: AVNR) price target of $6.00.
Canaccord
analyst, Ritu Baral, said, "Reiterate rating and price target on
Nuedexta steady growth, ultimate commercial potential. Nuedexta is
AVNR’s drug for pseudobulbar affect, emotional lability seen with
stroke, traumatic brain injury and other neurodegenerative disorders.
Launch has been modest but steady, and we see new positive trends in
long-term care use. We estimate peak annual sales of $350M US and $300M
EU."
29 Nov 2011 - Loss for the "conservatives" in Switzerland.
-
SVP (Swiss People's Party) which represents the most closed minded section of society, lost big in the elections.
- Michael
Hermann: I think they
overestimated their position. We had this initiative about foreign
criminals and they misinterpreted this success as a success for the
party, but it was only a success for the issue. There are those who
think that the People’s Party brings up a lot of important issues but
they don’t think this party – with this style – should rule the
country. I think a lot of people have had enough of this polarisation
and this aggressive style of politics. ... it was a big majority of
people who didn’t vote for the SVP... That’s problematic because the
People’s Party always pushes the strong argument that they have the
people on their side..
Nov 2011 - Avanir's Nuedexta
A
doctor posted this about Nuedexta: "I'm very impressed by its effect on
anger/agitation/irritibility; also of course effectiveness on some but
not all neuropathic pain, mostly in MS but still seeing how it treats
non-MS neuropathic pain (i don't personally see many diabetic pain
patients); I've seen it have antidepressant properties in some.
Overall, i've seen many cases where several meds could be reduced or
stopped and also, as posted, several of my own experiences of failed
SSRI's.........so in that sense, the "multiple treatment" is an effect
of coming off the unwarranted SSRI with all its side effects. Just
heard from a nursing home that a patient i started last week "has
totally stopped crying", importantly, this patient suffered cardiac
arrest post heart transplant (so has post anoxic/ischemic
encephalopathy)."
Jefferies Sends Out Huge Letter Claiming One Hedge Fund Is Spreading Lies About It http://articles.businessinsider.com/2011-11-21/wall_street/30424416_1_jefferies-mf-global-financial-crisis Jefferies
out of all companies claiming that IT is being attacked by hedge funds
!!! I guess "gahi zin be poshto gahi posht be zin"
28 Nov 2011 - Big rebound for Avanir
-
AVNR up 55 cents. 27.5% in one day after hitting low of 1.98 on Friday.
Weekly prescriptions showed a solid growth. And one loud short said he
covered.
- She loved the eggplant coconut dish. From a dream to the table. It was delicious. Added it to recipes on rezamusic.com
Nov 2011 - Dr. Anklin
I
had an accident for which I went to Dr. Bernhard Anklin in Zurich. It
was a SUVA case. One day Dr. Anklin told me that SUVA had
contacted him and they have said he should bring me back to the point
of before the accident and then finish the therapy. This is exactly
what he said. In fact on the same day he referred me to physiotherapy
(let alone it was for the wrong indication). On that same day I faxed
him and confirmed it that this is what you told me today. I did this
because he's so incredibly busy. He sees patients for a few minutes -
in and out - and often a big line waiting - great business and more
power to him but he's sometimes done things that appeared to me to be
guess work - for example a jaw adjustment which left me worse. He used
to be really good - 10 or more years ago. Even when the therapies don't
work, I don't have a problem with it necessarily but the statement he
made from SUVA was flat out false. SUVA denied having had any contact
with him in that period (I have this in writing) or having said
anything to him to that effect so as far as I can tell he just made
that up - which led to me continue therapy (I could have found a
cheaper alternative if I knew SUVA is not covering this) and then I was
liable for 1000 francs - which I paid anyway but I asked him to take
some responsibility for the misleading false statement but he did not
take any responsibility for it - zilch !! A lawyer told me I had a good
chance of winning if I fought it and recommended I don't pay the bill
but I paid it anyway because I believe legal fights should be avoided.
I
wrote to the Swiss Chiropractic association but that was completely
useless. They were clueless. This is from my response to their response: "You are completely
missing or ignoring the issue of misrepresentation. The point is not
whether I could have taken legal action against SUVA or not. The point
is an ethical issues of mis-representing SUVA's position. And then
taking no responsibility for it."
Nov 2011 - This & That
- She said people in Finland are generally quiet and shy. I find quietness beautiful and simplicity virtuous.
-
They said 10% of artists of a big label carry 90% of the artists. Big
labels are not good any more at building artists as CD sales have
dropped and they burn artists very fast. To have an album every 3 to 4
years is normal - now artists are forced to put out a record once a
year - and it all sounds the same.
- Watched the GOP
debate - Romney came out a clear winner. Gingrich was second - he is
polished but he's too political / seemingly cunning. Rick Perry screwed up again.
Jim Cramer is a complete waste of life - a clown and an unethical pig.
- many people look for outward changes in order to compensate for lack of inner change.
- Glad I'm not on Facebook: " Facebook
said Wednesday that it has stopped most of the spam that has flooded
many users' pages with pictures showing graphic sex and violence. The
social-networking company urged its 800 million-plus users to remain
vigilant to keep their accounts from being hijacked."
-
Swiss suicide rate is high. Just heard of 3 suicides in small village
where her uncle lives - 3 men in same family hung themselves at
different times - no explanation given but suspicion is around
economic stress etc...? who knows... -- A friend just said, "Lara said
2 weeks ago her neighbour shot himself in the forest - he was in
a party the day before and was joking - crazy - so crazy."
- Before they were
introduced to toxic financiers. Now “we’re being introduced to new
people who tend to focus on distressed [companies] or special
circumstances,’’ Capp said. “We hope to bring in new capital to
reorganize.’’Here's the funniest part: after running the company to
the ground with his "optimism", "Beacon Power chief executive Bill Capp
said he remains optimistic about his firm’s ability to attract new
investment and emerge from bankruptcy as a reorganized company." That's
one hell of a ineffective management. The track record speaks for
itself.
-
Casa Natura in Oerlikon, 8050 Zurich - the lady said the (overpriced)
dates with walnuts in them are bio (organic). But they're not. I said
where does it say? She said they're bio because I say so. But they're
not. She misrepresented the product by Sun Snack 9430.
Oct 2011 - There are judges and there are judges
My father, a great man and a great judge renowned for his fairness, compassion, and competence, never raised his hands on us.
Then
we get this Texan judge, Judge William Adams from Aransas County,
who beat his disabled daughter, Hillary Adams, into submission in the
most cruel manner. She held on to the video for 7 years before
publishing it.
Met 4 year old twins from Liverpool with their mom. Full of energy. They know The Beatles.
Being
in Penny Lane brought tears to my eyes. The great music that was
inspired by recalling childhood in this local neighbourhood
minutes to where John Lennon went to school.There is a barber
there but the guy said there was no barber there back then. There was a
bank there - and the fire station is not far away - it's all like a
fairy tail around what is important, the music.
Strawberry
fields has a new gate - color of strawberry - 4 guys had hopped the
fence and were shouting gibberish -- they were drinking in there and
were about to leave when we came. They were holding on to what they
called is Norwegian Wood. The place definitely has the same melancholic
feeling of the song.
Liverpoo's
only vegetarian restaurant (in proper English it's a cafe not
restaurant), is The Egg - a very cool place - Turkish owner - very loud
at night - wonderful food although I am highly skeptical of the cashier
saying most things are organic - I think most things probably are not.
And they use unhealthy aluminum take away boxes, use sugared maple
syrup, etc. - the pancakes are yummy - overdosed on buttery honey
soaked pancakes just before the train.
We had a nice performance last night in Liverpool.
In Scouse (Liverpool
language), goodbye is: Trah ("chrah"). Three is pronounced as "Fre" - very hard to understand but I like it
Lots
of Polish people working in UK - asked one to say something - she said
sonething :) - very typical and cute - reminds of my days in Poland. . Ship
workers are mostly from Latvia and Poland. They work 2 months - 4 times
a day between UK and Ireland and go home for 1 month and repeat. Total
8 months of work per year and they get for sea time.
Playing
the guitar almost the entire 3.x hours, I don't feel sick but most
others are. Even 1 minute on the laptop makes the stomach turn. I
wonder how work out will be like. Lots of complements poured in for the music.
The cabins are used mostly by truck drivers and most of the cargo are trucks.
------------ Aer
Lingus drama - the unfriendly woman said guitar doesn't fit - you have
to buy a seat for it. It's never a problem but they gave a hard time.
She tagged it. It's your responsibility if it breaks. She said no. This
is how you treat musicians - a country that boasts about love for
music. Then one of the cargo guys came and said, ok, take it, if it
doesn't fit we check it in. Took it in the cabin - the hostess was nice
and said if no room about put it next to you since you have a window
seat. And it worked out.
To be a non drinker is a strange ordeal in a place where Guiness is the god for some.
The
big Romanian busker band which has not even collected enough money for
a meal for the whole troop that they were (2 percussion guitar 3
accordeon horn section tamborine and a useless old drunk who danced and
not even nicely) -- we felt affection for them -- people were not
supportive of them and preferred a free show.
----------- hearing on Beatles radio: "Gerry Marsden and friends - ferry cross the mersey - in my
life" -- a terrible version of In My Life. Poor Lennon.
Oct 2011 - This & That
She
did not watch much TV till she was around 20. As a child she didn't
watch cartoons and other things her friends watched on TV. Her friends
who watched TV were afraid to go out even between houses as
it got a little dark but she had no fear. She thinks the reason was TV
was influencing the kids in a bad way.
"We
have enough to be
comfortable" she said and "there's no reason for war". "In the old days
people fought to have the comfort they didn't have". War is so
stupid. It is not a way to gain a solution. "How well a country runs is
not as important as whether it has peace of not" she said.
Saw picture of
slaves - on their chests letters were written which added to "merry
christmas". In their faces there was rage and pain while the brutal
white bosses sat there in their tyrannical way. Slavery was a
very dark chapter in human existence.
"Welcome to our cold bus stop" we welcomed the bus.
In
Liverpool we saw a bunch of women who were in outfits typically worm by
prostitutes but they didn't seem to be prostitutes -- who knows.
Only in Texas: some gun teacher ran an ad refusing to teach people who voted for Obama and Moslems. http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/ad-gun-training-bars-muslims-obama-voters-153954962.html
-
Tex Mex restaurant Badenerstr 503 Zurich run by an Indian guy - so
stingy - he charged 5 Francs for an empty plate and the rationale was
he didn't charge us for tap water (which is free in every restaurant in
Zurich).
28 Oct 2011 - Wall Street Protesters
The
Wall Street Protesters and their supporters around the world have some
valid point but such protest is not the way to do something about it.
First they have to propose a system that makes more sense. I am
not a pro-capitalist but you go to an American owned hotel and compared
it with any other hotel in the same catergory. The quality of the
service and product is noticeably superior. Customer service in the US
vs. the rest of
the world is incomparable. There are positive aspects to this system
and there are injustices as well. The main problem with
Capitalism is my opinion is corruption in the
financial market. People should be lobbying for a stronger regulation
and so
many rules that can be put in place to reduce corruption (e.g.
require a pre-borrow in short selling) and the relationships of big
hedge fund managers with members of congress should be examined.
The clueless Republican candidates who shout about less regulation
are promoting the exact opposite of what is needed. The religious
fanatics are being played just like they were in Rove/Bush/Cheney era
to vote for more corruption (i.e. less regulation) to help big
business. So people need to get themselves educated before they vote
and lobby their congresspeople to demand and end to corruption in
financial markets. So getting educated is more fundamental than shouting in the streets.
1 Dec 2011 - UBS Fined over improper short sales
It's about time FINRA did something.
Probably "tens of millions" of orders improper - FINRA
* "Naked" short sales a concern, more FINRA cases expected
Oct
25 (Reuters) - In the largest penalty of its type, Swiss bank UBS AG
was fined $12 million by a U.S. brokerage regulator over its "systemic"
failure to properly handle millions of short-sale orders.
The
Financial Industry Regulatory Authority said violations by the bank's
UBS Securities LLC broker-dealer unit caused the orders to be mismarked
or filled without reasonable grounds to believe the underlying
securities could be located.
FINRA said UBS's violations lasted
from 2005 to 2010, and that the bank likely processed "tens of
millions" of short sale orders for equities and exchange-traded funds
improperly.
FINRA said UBS violated Regulation SHO...
Oct 2011 - New Supported Charity
"Kind und Krebs" (Children & Cancer)
- As a singer, she gets warm energy from public but cold energy from judges.
Oct 2011 - New decadent fashion: leggings
In
their latest contribution to decadence, fashion designers are promoting
stockings (called leggings) worn as pants -- like walking around just
with stockings and no pants. Some women wear super mini skirts which are 1/2 the size of the 70's mini skirts (which
they would not have worn without the leggings because it would not be
socially acceptable as 1/2 of their behind would be exposed) on
top which doesn't help the vulgarity a bit. Leggings with a longer
skirt
can be very elegant. A fat woman I met wore this new fashion
which was disgusting to look at -- and even for thinner women I have
yet to see one which doesn't look cheap wearing this new fashion. The
underlying motive is attractiveness not knowing that a) attraction is
at a much deeper level - e.g., in lack of ego, and b) some women who
wear exposing clothes are looking for something, a partner, and
so for a fulfilled woman to dress so cheaply it is even more strange.
I
also saw a middle age woman wearing this new outfit with the leggings
and
half her bottom sticking out and then partly covered by a
ultra-mini-skirt which she would not have worn without the
legging. It was
extremely cheap looking.
The previous title of this entry was social disease in a sick society - but I toned it down.
---
H was wearing these long boots that maybe with her outfit, D said these are "F me boots" :)
20 Oct 2011 - Gaddafi Died
Another dictator got dug out of a hole and killed. Who's Next?
16 Oct 2011 - Lily Afshar
-
I listened to some of Dr. Lily Affshar, the Persian-American classical
guitar professor, after a long time, and I really like her sound - it's
one of the warmest and nicest sounds you hear these days among
classical guitar players. She's an amazing player and a good teacher -
I was at one of her master classes a long time ago. Check out her site www.lilyafshar.com
12 Oct 2011 - Shame
- A
very disturbing and shameful news was released for the Iranian
community. An Iranian-American person is accused of plotting to kill
the Saudi ambassador to the US along with others present in a
restaurant. The hitman was a DEA informant. What a vulgar criminal and
uncivil act. And how shameful that an Iranian is involved in it.
Oct 2011 - Rick Perry -- a Replay of Bush Disaster, And Cain isn't much better...
-
Rick Perry is scary. He keeps talking about energy industry., Big
Oil!!! Another Texas Governor has no chance no matter how much the
Exxons want it. Nobody wants a stupid macho president. One was too many
(George Bush, the man who ruined the world - anyone remembers the
economic prosperity before Bush?). Perry winning means continuing
Bush's disaster.
-
Rick Perry was under fire Friday after Texas was accused of censorship
for deleting references to climate change and sea-level rise from an
environmental report. He has come under increasing scrutiny for his
battles with scientists over issues of climate change as well as his
thoughts on evolution. ...The planned third edition of the "State of
Galveston Bay," a 200-page report that the state's environmental agency
commissioned a Houston research center to complete. But the scientists
who wrote the report have accused the agency for deleting references to
climate change, human impact on the environment and sea-level rise.
"It's censorship,"
-
"Gov. Rick Perry likes to say the best way to promote economic growth
is to reduce regulation. When it comes to the environment, Perry has
made Texas one of the most industry-friendly states in the nation.
Perry has cut funding for clean air programs and sued the Environmental
Protection Agency to avoid enforcing laws to make the air cleaner. As
part of his Republican presidential campaign, he routinely blasts the
White House for tightening environmental standards."
And Cain isn't much better. He keeps reciting his "9 9 9" Mantra but here are the facts:
-
"The 9-9-9 plan would translate into a tax cut for almost 71 percent of
Americans with cash income between $200,000 and $500,000, according to
an analysis by the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center in Washington that was
built around the assumption that the 2001 and 2003 federal tax cuts
will be extended permanently. About 95 percent of Americans with income
between $30,000 and $40,000 would pay more in taxes under Cain’s plan,
the analysis said, while about 95 percent of Americans with income
exceeding $1 million would receive a tax cut."
11 Oct 2011 - Salvation
Made a radical move towards salvation.
And at same time second cousin wrote a lovely email:
Dear Reza I have, after many
months, finally got round to watching your film with Baba. I just
wanted to say 'Thankyou' for emailing it to me - I really enjoyed
watching it and learned a lot I didn't know about my grandfather. It
is a wonderful thing for the family to have.
I hope you are well. I'm sorry I didn't get to see you at [X]'s in the Summer but I hope I will see you soon. Love
10 Oct 2011 - Facebook
I don't use Facebook because I don't need to tell the world what I ate today :)
8 Oct 2011 - Value of life
Mom recalled: Manna used to say, in days when having 100 toman meant a person was rich and they’d put
name his alley “kucheye 100 Tomani” (here is house of someone who has
100 toman), manna’s mother used to say, “joon mesghali 1000 toman
miarzeh (life/health, is worth 1000 toman per mesgha) – and even then
if you go with that kind of money no grocer has it for sale.
-
People regularly die from walking on rail lines (a stupid thing to do).
He saw one case and it was not pretty. Sometimes the train comes from a
direction you don't expect.
Sep 2011 -
-
Just singing one note while walking when the woman was approaching with
her bike - she smiled: Schone, Schone. Amazing how responsive the Swiss
are to nice sound / music. - My website is made out of around 2630 files. - His smoking girlfriend quit smoking and is drinking less, after he's been hanging out with us. -
Always look at what is else you're trying to make what is what it is
not based on what has been or what should be. [logged] - In
United States of America v. Oracle Corp., 07- cv-00529, U.S. District
Court, Eastern District of Virginia (Alexandria). -- Oracle Corp.
(ORCL) agreed to pay $199.5 million plus interest for failing to meet
contractual obligations to the federal General Services Administration,
the U.S. Justice Department said. It resolves claims that Oracle didn’t
provide complete information about its best prices.
Sep 2011 - Thought Love
Thought
pushes love right out. Things of the mind when applied to relationships
ruin it. Love is not a machine and it has no cause therefore can not be
controlled, formed, shaped, put in frameworks or restricted.
A retranslation of Confucius: A mediocre person marvels at the extraordinary. An
extraordinary person marvels at the ordinary.
Sep 2011 - Bullfighting is no sport
Catalonia
ended the cruel practice of bull fighting and the coward matadors there
are out of work. Ordinary people who see the scenes of torture of the
bull and the matador who prides himself of being a torturer and killer,
think it is cruel. But is it that different from killing animals for
food. Slaughter is slaughter. The cow waiting in line in slaughterhouse
sees and smells and feels death. There is no such thing as uncruel
killing. Killing is killing.
Viva Catalonia.
Sep 2011 - Swiss Pirate Party is Fundamentally Flawed.
I read in the news that the "Pirate Party" is expecting to do well
in the upcoming elections. I like to share with you why this
political party is hypocritical, out of touch, and fundamentally
flawed:
1) The Swiss Pirate Party arrogantly and falsely claims to be
representing the "digital generation". The majority of "digital
generation" would oppose this party if they understood that this
party is a joke.
2) These "me me" pirates whose open sea is hiding behind a screen,
claim to stand for "Protecting and improving personal privacy, personal
control of private data, and data security". Yet, these hypocritical
hackers support Julian Assange and his Wikileaks in exactly opposite to
their own charter of privacy, data security, and confidentiality. Some
members of Pirate Parties around the world engage in attacking websites
of private individuals like me, and government organizations, and
anyone who is against their mission to leak confidential information.
That is a breach of privacy which these punks supposedly stand for.
Check out this headline: "Julian Assange: 'I am – like all hackers – a
little bit autistic' The thrill of getting into top-secret websites
quickly became addictive for Julian Assange. Here he describes
all-night hacking sessions, a cat-and-mouse game with a computer
administrator and the arrival of the police..." Now let's talk about
protection of privacy guys.
3) They have some vague, obscure, ideological arguments around
reforming the intellectual property rights but no sound argument.
4) They want governments to use open source software. Come on grow
up guys. What does it matter if the Swiss Federal Government use MS
Office or Star Office? That is the decision of each government's own
IT department and not the business of a political party.
5) They promote "free access to knowledge and culture for all",
again, some nice sounding ideological jargon which violates the
intellectual property rights of authors of works of knowledge and
culture because some hackers want to have that work for free.
Sep 2011 - Debate
The
full Republican debate from a couple of days ago. Again, Perry &
Bachmann are dangerous. Romney has a chance. Paul is most
sensible.Gingrich is too political. The others have no chance. My guess
is, Romney will win this round and run against Obama. I will not count
out the idea of Democrats choosing another candidate than Obama.
Sep 2011 - Flawed SEC
Representative Spencer Bachus, the Alabama Republican who leads the
House Financial Services Committee which will hold today’s hearing,
said last month that the SEC “is structurally flawed and suffers from
operational inefficiencies and organizational incoherence.”
Sep 2011 - Is Sarah Palin a Fraud?
McGinniss,
who spent four months living in Wasilla, Alaska, in a rented house next
to Palin's, said he interviewed approximately 200 of Palin's former
associates, acquaintances and friends for the 318 page tell-all. The
book includes a number of bombshell claims that have already stirred
wide attention, including a report that Palin snorted cocaine, and
slept with former University of Michigan basketball star Glen Rice
while she was a sports reporter at a local Alaskan television station.
"An utter fraud," McGinniss said of the former Alaskan governor. "An absolute and utter fraud."
McGinniss
continued: "At best, she is a hypocrite. At worst, she is a vindictive
hypocrite. The thing that I found that really surprised me was that the
people who know her best like her least."
23 Sep 2011 - Night Out
A
night out after a long time despite being under the weather - the
movement (walking) etc. helps. Met PH and we went together - both had
to make a visit to the Apotheke, The bad district was too bad to
be in but the band was playing there. So many junkies and unhappy
people trying to find happiness in drugs, alcohol, paid sex, or money.
The
"band" - duo of aa good drummer and some freak "playing some drum pads
and pressing some computer button and dramatic body moves. Lasted
60 seconds there.
The ticket was from a different direction
but it was longer so can go the streight way and though 1 was 1st and 1
was 2nd he said ok to be in 1st b/c was nice...
He had some sort of a bossy incompetent egotistic confused woman singer trying to boss him around.
She's flying back tomorrow. Looking forward to seeing her.
Moeri
the cat died. She was old and had a dignified life in a good home. The
last night she was allowed to sleep in the bed of H. And before they
take her to doctor to get her killed b/c she had cancer and could not
breath - she went by A and U's room and meowed.
His girlfriend has stopped smoking and is drinking less alcohol after he was influenced by us.
All
the tabs of Age Yerooz Beri Safar by Faramarz Aslani which are on the
internet are wrong. I made a corrected version - if interested, email
me.
Beatles have some junk songs - specially McCartney, e.g., Why don't we do it in the road. (though I like the guitar part).
Beatles
Radio: http://www.beatlesradio.com/contactus.aspx Collective
Soul rendition of Jealous Guy is terrible. This Beatles radio
also plays Bowie's Fame which has nothing to do with Beatles. It played
some interesting stuff but had to turn if off -- radio means constant
noise.
Other songs I don't like Long & Winding Road - it's way over orchestrated against the Beatles wish.
Sep 2011 - Republican Presidential Debate
I
watched it for entertainment, in fact it's interesting to hear the
ideas of this so called "conservative" party which has been the most
reckless and ruined the US (8 years of disasterous Bush presidency). Ron
Paul is alright but he has
zero chance. Romney probably has the best chance but even he's a
disaster. The worst among them is Texas Governor Perry. After Bush's
disaster the country will never see a Texas governor again as
President. The Utah guy (Huntsman) is ok despite reminding me
of Bill Capp whom I don't trust. Ron Paul is the most intelligent
and best among
them but he's too idealist. Bachmann is disaster.
I think Democrats should have
another candidate because Obama stands to lose. Clinton has a better
chance. Today I read something I predicted 3 years ago: "Poll: A third
of Americans believe Clinton would’ve been a better president". Obama
is too roockie and he won the votes by hype. Hope and change is pure
hype and I've always said that. We have too many examples of disasters
around the world where just desire for change put people in a bigger
hole.
Fedex
Switzerland was so clueless. Sent the guitar back. Called them
immediately. They said no problem, send the invoice back. I did
immediately.
End result - lots of discussion - I had all paperwork - and had to pay a lot anyway to customs for an item I don't have!!
Fedex customer service in Switzerland is centuries ahead of US -- typical. Customer is wrong by default -- typical.
11 Sep 10 2011 - Churchbell Torture
In
Switzerland it's a crime to sleep past 9:15 am on Sunday morning -- at
least it's so around where I live -- because if you commit that sin
you're tortured by 15 minutes of incessant church bells ringing at a
mega decibel to make sure you're not enjoying your sin of sleeping in
Sunday morning after a week of hard work. Thank you God. Or is it men
of God who feel obliged to give themselves continuity and impose their
existence on the community. If it is an invitation, a call to come to
church, why is it so bloody imposing and long. You can send a gently
invitation and let it go -- would you go outside someone's house
with a powerful PA and shout for 15 minutes: you are invited? Or put
your finger on the bell and keep it down and not let it go in
order to tell them, you're invited to come to my place. Something is
fundamentally wrong with this.
And if they didn't manage to get you at 9:15 they start again an hour later and ring forever.
And now Mr. Frogman is blasting music at 9:30 Sunday morning.
Here comes the torture bells again at 10:55 -- it's the third time today.
-------------------- RESPONSE FROM KARL:
> Hi Reza, > In respones to your comment about bell ringing. where i live the church bell only rings to tell the time >
and occasionally when there is a wedding or something. In italy i heard
the church bells a lot more often ,like a kind of call to come to
church and it went on a lot longer, but it did,nt bother me.
Sunday morning is the traditional christian service time , so they must
feel a duty to let you know .But do you think > there is some
sort of imposition by the religion to obligate us to go to it? also
churches are now charging people to go in or they � suggest
“ a donation of say £4 .Its ridiculous when you think of it
and the wealth some of these religions have , popes living in palaces
etc. and bishops to. I,m not denying that some people benefit greatly
from the support of a church , and it can work in a community sense.
but i wonder do we really need some artificial man made entity to tell
us about God. it helped me what krishnamurti said about this , where he
mentioned resistance and why we resist anything. i think he said listen
to a sound for instance a dog barking and listen completely without
resistance. i think that helped a lot with me. thanks Reza and all the
best. >
regards >
karl
------------
- News came that Tony Matosich, friend from Ithaca High School, photographer has died.
-
Baden is suddenly full of beautiful women. It's very noticeable. Why?
Fantoche festival has attracted people from all over the place here. I
volunteered there a few years ago but it was generally nonsense. Maybe
9 out of 10 movies were just nonsense.
-------------- -
played guitar by the river - the new high tension strings are too
difficult to play - I don't like them - were trying them - (HT basses
normal trebles).
- Saw 1 year old oriental girl who just learned how to walk... perfect directions... still working on keeping balance...
-
Migro's: "your satisfaction or money back". This is a revolution
in CH and a far cry from days when if you wanted to return a defective
item you were treated like a criminal. This is the good part of
competition.
- Saw Domi - he's in Calif a lot - what are you doing? he named several parties he helps organize...!!
- Nice walk.
- Full moon - it explains it.
- Interesting video of Tehran in 1977 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zlr7h0eDUVA
- Video of commercials in Iran from 1969 to 1978 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jixk21hxXx8
Sep 2011
- Looking for old friend Dr. Professor Brij Khare but I can't.
- Talk with Peter Raitt after years!!!
-
Celebrating the completion of the project. On time and within budget.
We received praise from very senior management including the CIO. Regular use of nasal
steroid is damaging to people - I can see it in people who use it.
Ate nice organic olive bread and honey in the train (late night
desperation food but it was very yummy).
-
Republican debate where they all want government to not regulate and
let loose lobbyists and big pharma and big tobacco and wall street
wolves. 8 years of that was enough to ruin the US. At least, chances of
getting someone as dumb as Bush is almost zero. The moderator
said: - Texas ranks last among those who have completed high school. - There are only 8 other states with more living in poverty - No other state has more living at or below minimum wage.
3 Sep 2011
-
She's 10 months old and was forced woken up by the hostess to fasten
her seat belt. Whaling cries. I made a suggestion to the parents that
helped. They're from Afghanestan, speak Persian, but with a thick, cute
accent. The flight is full. It was a last minute decision to go. The
classical guitar got some attention -- it was healing and comforting.
Intense day of work - a big system we worked on for months is now in
production - big accomplishment for the team I led - some 80 people in
10 different locations globally.
-
A 2.5 year old is sitting in front - we played some Da-lli now she's
checking out the 10 month old and like 2 dogs who meet they're getting
aquanited by looks. The 2.5 year old has a pacifier that is very
important to her. Both kids look unhappy. Is the blank tablet there? Are they born out of and into the stream?
- They've been divorced for 21 years but still his death has devastated her.
-------
Mariah
Carey and Luciano Pavarotti - Hero -- her voice and singing technique
are inferior. she's also not listening to the master, just doing her
own thing. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BsvYT8QZRjE&NR=1
1 Sep 2011
-
He said she's the clumsiest person he'd known. There's a clean desk
policy so she throws everything in the drawer including the credit card
she couldn't find. Nice person but very disorderly and very loud.
- 80% of IT projects are late and overbudget or flat out fail. Part of success has to do with orderliness.
- Recovered from a hard disk crash within a day.
28 August 2011
-
Ironing there was meditation - awareness of thought movement, root of
it - limited movement in time and knowns - images - stopped - and
after being aware of it all - and insight - disorder turned to -
Ironing there was meditation - awareness of thought movement, root of
it - limited movement in time and knowns - images - stopped - and
after being aware of it all - and insight - disorder turned to order and brain quietened naturally.
- Went heads on with www.rezatv.com and embedded all the videos so they play. Big job but it's done. See the new www.rezaTV.com
27 August 2011
- Spent
a long time on getting Youtube to work off html and it didn't. Built
another site - and threw it away - back to old www.rezatv.com but added
instructions in case links don't work.
- A few days of warmth gave way to the dominating Swiss winter again in the middle of August.
- Worked without pay just to stay on top.
- She's been in a veg-state for 6 months. Doctors have given up hope.
-
AZ Tone played. As usual way too loud. Tinkabelle was special guest.
The whole thing is musically inferior. There was also a beauty pageant
by bus company. Not a single pretty girl there. Music and looks were
suffering but nature was booming with cold cozy feeling and loveliness
of greenery.
26 August 2011 - Beatles
16
year old girl said she loved the Beatles. Amazing.. Last week I
met 2 guys - both teenagers who were wearing Beatles / Lennon T shirts.
She likes a variety of things but she said she doesn't like rap. A sign of where things are going.
20 August 2011 - Lake
Had
to work today - unexpectedly - got a sms this morning that we need to
have a call. Migration issue. Lined up people. It was mission
impossible given the compliance requirements and the amount of work we
had to get done in a day but went through analysis, code change,
testing, SIT, UAT, and got someone to approve the changes.
Then
to ZH w/ the band - played at the main station - people loved it - but
smoke was intolerable. To lake - despite the terrible sound of the
Fender Ampcans, better call them Trashcans, people loved what we did.
Got a lot of complements.
20 August 2011 - Rick Perry
How
can Americans even think of Rick Perry after the disaster Bush was.
Another closed minded fundamentalist Texan in Whitehouse will seal
destruction of the legacy of the American dream forever -- a job which
started by Bush's stupidity together with the cunningness of Chaney
& the gang.
Frank,
we miss you. I could not imagine the day I'd write this but death and
life go hand in hand and the important thing is to live a good life
which you did. Frank, you are not gone. Your love is in our hearts and
the hearts of all those your laughter and joy, love and wisdom touched.
Frank was not my driver's ed teacher - I learned driving from
my dad when I was 11, but after moving to the US, Tom and I became best
friends and the Gibsons embraced me as member of their family. I never
forget their love and caring for a 16 year old emigrant.
Frank
was a joy. He was a light to himself and those around him. His great
sense of humor was rooted in the joy he felt inside. He was a happy
man. And truly happy people are rare in this world.
My deep condolences to Tom, his mom, bother, sister, and Michele, Katie, Kelly, and Kerry.
Love never dies. Reza Ganjavi www.rezamusic.com
-----------------
Second note:
August 19, 2011 Frank
was a great man. I already wrote an entry here. What other people wrote
about him is so beautiful that reading them brought tears of joy and
love to my eyes and heart.
I lost my dad last year and Frank and him were very similar in some ways. They also died at the same age. (this is a page about my dad: http://tinyurl.com/2wllf47).
Frank
loved. He loved the students, he loved people, he loved life. I did a
class mailing and glad more people got to express their love for him
here.
Love never dies
Reza
14 August 2011 - Singing
She said she's blocked from singing. - Part of the block is not you, it's cultural. How many swiss people do you know who walk in the street and sing? - Nobody.
----------
Bachmann
is so clueless – she advocated the catastrophic step of US defaulting
on its debt (she said debt ceiling should not have been raised). Why
are some of these Republican leaders so utterly stupid? I am not a
Democrat and I don’t belong to any party anywhere in the world
but stupidity among Democratic leaders is much less intense.
----------- she said it's not bad (the security) - it means it's bad (the Harlem hotel).
13 August 2011 - Beatles Power
We
met 18 year old girl on bus who saw our outfits and said she loved the
Beatles - so does her friend who's crazy about the Beatles. Magic! I think Beatles will outlast Beethoven and Bach ;-)
August 2011 - Obama should not re-run for the sake of the world
Imagine
for a moment any of those Republicans running the superpower! Obama
will lose to anybody. Democrats need a new candidate. Here's a good discussion: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/post/democrats-cool-to-a-primary-challenger-against-obama/2011/07/11/gIQANh2Y8I_blog.html
6 August 2011 - Playing in Marcel's birthday
We
played for 4 hours (excluding breaks) - total time there was 7 hours
including setup. We didn't play a single song twice. They loved it - we
received a lot of complements -- and very important ones that reflect
our view of our advantage is actually perceived and meets user demand.
After 4 hours of non repetitious music they still clapped to have us play more :)
-------- www.filenet-reunion.com updated.
Gosh,
have not heard this for ages: "Go-Go's - Turn To You". They're so 80's
-- totally. I don't miss the 80's. Our lips are sealed is a good
song, probably their only good song.
6 August 2011 - UK Violence
"Local
pharmacist Dipak Shah told the BBC he and his brother had barricaded
themselves in their shop after 15 youths smashed the window and tried
to break in. "It was very threatening. It felt as though they could
have actually killed or maimed somebody," he said. Politicians and
police blamed the violence on criminal thugs but residents attributed
it to local tensions and anger over hardship. Police said 26 officers
had been injured as rioters bombarded them with missiles and bottles,
looted buildings including banks, shops and council offices, and
torched three patrol cars near Tottenham police station."
Violnece
in UK youths is nothing new. This is just an opportunity for that deep
rooted violence and vulgarity to come out. It seems that it is part of
the culture and society in some ways. I've always seen this. One person
kicked and broke my guitar. Another one, almost wanted to kill me
for saying nothing significant. And there are many tales of fights and
deep rooted anger in the UK. So in a way these events are not too
surprising. The hooligans at the football games is another example.
I've observed certain other cultures like India and Iran and this inner anger is much less prevalent.
-------- he
said there are a lot of haves and have nots in the UK - big class
divide. money is tight for many - suppression - parent anger if
his contract suspended - "people tend to give anger to people they love
the most" - many people in UK live near poverty line.
August 2011 - The Market
Warren
Buffett, America’s most revered investor, says the nation’s credit
score is still sterling in his eyes. Barring other shocks like a new
problem in Europe, the S&P downgrade shouldn’t make a whit of
difference, he says.
“Think about it. The U.S., to my knowledge,
owes no money in currency other than the U.S. dollar, which it can
print at will,” Buffett told a media outlet in wake of the S&P
downgrade.
US AAA rated companies: Microsoft, Exxon Mobil, Johnson & Johnson and Automatic Data Processing.
---------
I don't like China a bit. But here's an interesting quote: "The
U.S. government has to come to terms with the painful fact that the
good old days when it could just borrow its way out of messes of its
own making are finally gone," China's official Xinhua news agency said
in a commentary.
---------
But
any losses might be short-lived. The threat of a downgrade is likely
already reflected in the plunge in stocks this week, said Harvey
Neiman, a portfolio manager of the Neiman Large Cap Value Fund.
"Investors
have voted and are saying the U.S. is going to pay them," said Mark
Zandi, chief economist of Moody's Analytics. "U.S. Treasurys are still
the gold standard."
Asia
tanked, futures are down, many believe Tea Party (the fanatic arm of
the Republican party) had influenced the S&P decision: "Axelrod
calls the action, in his words, "a tea party downgrade" and says it's
clearly on the backs of lawmakers who were willing to see the country
default to get their way."
Anyway, S&P itself doesn't have much credibility. “There is
no reason to take Friday’s downgrade of America seriously,” Nobel
Laureate Paul Krugman said in a New York Times column. “These are the
last people whose judgment we should trust.”
------- "They've
handled themselves very poorly. And they've shown a stunning lack of
knowledge about the basic U.S. fiscal budget math," Geithner said in
his first public comments about the credit rating decision
July 2011 - Gathering
I
feel love and good wishes for the gathering. Not there, but I know how
beautiful the mountains and the air can be. People can be complicated.
But love is ever so powerful. Rain is in the forecast but unlike last
year it's not deadly cold in August. I am not going because I
have no time for it - and neither really the inclination to see
some of the complicated ego trips there. I sent Gisele an email wishing
her well. Only because I felt love. If I had to think about it, and the
lies, it'd be different. But I had the mountains and the air in mind.
---------- On news it talked about millions meditating. And interviewed one artist who said, to meditate:
sit quietly bring attention to breath when mind goes away bring it back to paying attention to breath.
Meditation
is more than that, a lot more, but that is ok and good to do by itself
as long as there's no compulsion, effort, division..
---------- Bloomberg: "Birinyi,
whose Westport, Connecticut- based research firm Birinyi Associates
Inc. sees the bull market in U.S. equities lasting until 2013, based
upon the length of prior advances. Investors who sell after the S&P
500’s 6.8 percent loss since July 22 will miss out, he said in a
telephone interview yesterday. Biggs, managing partner and co-founder
of Traxis Partners LP, said U.S. stocks have become a “strong buy.”
S&P 500 futures climbed 0.3 percent at 7:57 a.m. in New York today."
July 2011 - London The Ripoff City
Tony Blair's famous statement is so true.
British
Rail tells tourists that the normal train from Gatwick to London is 45
minutes and the Gatwick Express which they charge almost double for, is
30 minutes. Fact is the normal train which we took takes 30 minutes --
we took 2 different services on the way and back and they both take 30
minutes. So Gatwick Express is expressly designed to rip off innocent
tourists.Shame on British Rail.
We had first row seats on
both EasyJet "DifficultJet" flights. Had our pre-soaked cereal
which I carried in my pocket at the restricted section using a glass
and spoon but the waiters, all of whom being foreigners, didn't care
after a plea of patience :)
Driving in UK was a nightmare --
these little streets and poorly designed roundabouts. A few times we
had to make adventurous maneuvers to get back on the path :)
There's
something about UK which I live. I don't know what it is. Afterall it's
the birthplace of the Gods of Music: The Beatles.
---------
Philip Hammond
Member of Parliament for Runnymede and Weybridge
Secretary of State for Transport
Tel: 01784 453544
55, Cherry Orchard, Staines, Middlesex,
England, TW18 2DQ
Right Honourable Philip Hammond:
Your Gatwick Express is a ripoff.
We were told by at least 2 British Rail staff that
it's much faster but it was only a few minutes faster at double the
price of the normal train. Shame! Your system I suppose tries to take
advantage of naive tourists who believe the recommendation of your staff
and pay double to save a few minutes. We were lied to about the time
savings and were cheated.
Regards
Reza Ganjavi
<contact details>
-----------------
Here's what a friend wrote:
Dear Reza,
The British railway system is the biggest rip off in Europe. We have
the most expensive and complicated rail fares in Europe. It was a
much better and fairly priced system when it was nationalised.
---------------------------------
later I got a response from them - a babbling letter. My response to them:
Hello. Thanks for the reply which is just a justification for a
criminal attitude. We don't only feel cheated. we feel insulted,
ripped off, and scammed by British Rail. Your system is designed to
cheat tourists. How could your staff who advised us, i.e., ticket
counter and information counter at Gatwick not know this scam? Why
did none of them tell us that for paying double we get to save a few
nominal minutes. Shame.
July 2011 - The Beatles: The Gods of Music
I
broke into tears at Abbey Road. After 40 years people still come, every
day, all day, to take pictures crossing the famous cross walk that The
Gods of Music walked. It's a pilgrimage, not of fanaticism but of love.
We met two Korean girls whose pilgrimage was taking them to
Liverpool. We met people of all ages from all over the world there. It
was very touching.
At the party we played young people,
teenagers were moved with this music too. Beatles Music is confirmed as
Classics and will never die. You don't need a symphony orchestra to
interpret it. You need Reza Angela & Peter: Rezangela, the hottest
Beatles Tribute Band. We don't wear the same customs or play the same
brand of guitars, but we're true to the spirit.
July 2011 - Roundabouts
Perhaps I never drove in the UK before -- I drove left handed in South Africa. UK
driving is a nightmare. The roads are designed so stupidly with all
these "Roundabouts". A major road is broken off by these circles
"roundabouts" which connect roads instead of having bridges, proper
exists, or stop signs for smaller junctions.
And they have all
these roads which is a one way lane designed for 2 ways so it's
extremely dangerous to drive on because the oncoming traffic can hit
you if you just stay in your own half of the road.
The party was great. Discovered new cousins. And they loved the singing.
The
Brits there criticized the Tea Party fanatic bigots, and how common
people are fooled into believing what the rich people want is good for
them. Republicans are experts at abusing people's lack of education.
Rove & Bush were experts at this - well not Bush - he was too
stupid to be a expert at anything - but Rove was a cunning animal and
expert in using fear to get common low educated people support his
agenda , using God and fear as excuses.
July 2011 - Credit
If
you think the Republican House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner is bad, what do
you say to those hardcore tea party idiots who are against him ?!
AllianceBernstein:
“If the only change between today and tomorrow is a credit-rating
downgrade, history suggests that the market won’t react severely,”
Fitch:
“Over the near-to-medium term, in a moderate downgrade scenario (e.g.,
to AA), U.S. Treasuries would likely retain their standing as the
benchmark security that anchors global fixed-income markets, given
their unparalleled liquidity, unique role in the financial system,
strong credit profile, and lack of a viable alternative,”
---------
"Shortly
before the House vote, ratings agency Moody's signaled it probably will
not downgrade the United States' triple-A credit rating immediately,
even if there is no deal to raise the debt ceiling, but a cut could
come in the medium term.
Rival ratings agency Standard &
Poor's has warned it could cut the rating soon if there is no deal to
address the underlying budget problems, a move which could push up U.S.
borrowing costs and further hobble the weak economic recovery."
July 2011 - Idiot Republicans in Congress
Moody's
cut Greece's credit rating further into junk territory on Monday and
said it was almost certain to slap a default tag on its debt as a
result of a new EU rescue package.
Republican
Senator Bob Corker from Tennessee talked 10 minutes and said pure
nonsense. All he said was that he is a bit optimistic. He can't even
speak correct English: "Let's don't let this opportunity pass by."
Where
were these Republican bozos when Bush was wasting so much money rushing
to a war in Iraq that cost billions and many lives?
Here comes
another bozo: Republican Senator Jeff Sessions from Alabama, also
talking nonsense, things everybody knows, and again, totally forgetting
why the deficit went up so much: because Bush destroyed a healthy
economy. He's so clueless it's no funny. He keeps talking about
reducing spending but surely doesn't understand macroeconomics. And he
forgets "the disasterous debt course we're on" was the action of Bush
& his gang. This bozo can't speak proper phrasing -- his ideas get
cut off like Bush's. Wasted too many brain cells like Bushy? Now he's
attacking Obama. These idiots are risking ruining the world economy by
their stupidity.
In contrast, Senator Kerry spoke -- and my God, he made sense, he was sensible, articulate, intelligent, rational , clear.
July 2011 - Village People
-
One night and day in the village can do the being magic. Can go out and
pick raspberries and blueberries. Best blueberries drop on the floor
when they're ready. Their nest is protected from birds with a green
net. Rolling fields of many colors to every direction. By dusk
light separates the trees from the fields in a magical contrast.
Long sleep helped the body and brain and nerves tremendously.
- Village kids are so simple and unfearful -- there's something special
about them vs. city kids -- they reflect the incredible natural beauty
they see and breath and wake up to every day. We passed by a group of
kids who were amusing over a flat bicycle tire. They talked to us
without the fears that shadow city people who live in crowded dwellings
and inhale toxins and see cars instead of fields of green.
- Nice to spend energy on music. went through 500 top songs and chose
which we want to play. Our list is now 200 songs. Many of which we
already know.
25 July 2011 -
Woke
up to the bad news that idiot Republican Congresspeople are still
holding up budget talks. They are trying to undermine Obama and save
money for super rich, but being idiots they don't understand that even
speculation of a default for the world's largest debtor can make the
entire world financial system jittery and hurt their own well being too.
"The irony of the situation at the moment, with markets opening
tomorrow morning, is that the biggest threat to the world financial
system comes from a few right-wing nutters in the American congress
rather than the euro zone," British Business Secretary Vince Cable. Nutters or nutcases indeed they are.
But
playing Carcassi and Bach in the early morning bus and a few yoga
postures at the station in the small village brought goodness and
beauty.
Monday morning smokers polluting themselves and the bus stations, must be in so much misery -- must be -- it's a physical law.
24 July 2011 - Norway Tragedy
In Norway "Police arrived at an island massacre about an hour and a
half after a gunman first opened fire" In Switzerland it's the same -- very slow response. In California, for a stolen wallet police arrived withing 5 minutes and already had the guy arrested !!
The
killer in Norway is a devout Christian - a fundamentalist which is
a polite way of saying a fanatic. Same movement as fanatics of every
other religion and political party and spiritual organization which
tyrannize others.
"Researchers
also doubt Breivik's claim that he is part of a wider far-right network
of anti-Islam "crusaders," seeing them as empty bragging by a
psychopathic fantasist who has written that exaggeration is a way to
sow confusion among investigators. ... Norway has felt a widening sense
of relief that 32-year-old Breivik seems to have been alone in his
drive to protect Europe from "cultural Marxism" and a "Muslim invasion"
by striking at Norway's ruling Labour Party."
22 July 2011 -
Found
a Blackberry smart phone on the train - the conductor was appreciative. I put
myself in the owner's shoes and how happy s/he will be to find it. The
Swiss train lost and found system is impeccable. He will have his
device, if he bothers to file a report, in a couple of days.
21 July 2011 -
Another very intense day at work.
Estimating is an art which many are afraid of.
Peter
went to the US - security caught him because his deodorant has
aluminum! Told him where he can buy healthy kind. Angela and I enjoy
hanging out with Peter -- we have a fun time together with lots of
laughter. The core of the band is friendship. This special spirit
communicates itself.
Sometimes people come with off the wall
stuff from the corners of their image making mind in order to impose on
you their illusion but if you don't take it and kindly point it out, if
they're decent, they'll get it and get off your case.
Against
the law, neighbour started construction work before 7 am. I filmed them
and will report them, They have no consideration for people's early
morning peace.
20 July 2011 - Tech & Internet
Techies
can dive deep in detail till the cows come home. One of the key roles
of a good project manager is to direct the discussions, ask good
questions, and bring the discussion to a productive level.
Internet has become everything I ever dreaded about TV (which made me not want to have one around) -- a waste of time.
17 July 2011 - Virtue of Quietness
Dear X: It's perfectly ok to be quiet.
The challenge is: can we live without any images of ourselves and images of other people's images of us etc. ? It's
a great challenge to put to work, to investigate, in daily life. It
requires understanding what images are made of: which is thoughts. To be internally quiet is to not have any image. Then
it's ok to sit there among all these highly educated highly intelligent
people who have been in university for 15+ years, and be quiet - to
listen - not just to outer conversations but also to inner ones - and
if something comes up one can say something, else, to be quiet. Not
everyone speaks only through words. Some are better at expressing in
writing, some through an instrument, some in more than one way, but in
any case, lack of sound, silence, is golden. It is something that's
missing in this world. So never think that just because you're in a
crowd and are quiet, that you're boring. If someone calls you shy, it's
just them speaking small talk -- that's all they can say to a quiet
person -- but it's never bad or a shame to be quiet. To sit there,
smiling, enjoying the moment, watching things, hearing things, seeing
the extra-ordinary in the ordinary, there can be a different dimension
that a mind that's always occupied can never come about.
17 July 2011 - Financial Safehaven : US? EU? CH?
US
has the biggest amount of treasuries in the world. EU is going through
serious questions with Spain and Italy threatening the fundamentals of
its currency. CH is the safest but too small for demands of China and
Russia for investment grade bonds. US remains the top pick in terms of
investment climate according to many economists. Corporate profits are
healthy, and it remains a hub of innovation and fruition of
dreams.
17 July 2011 - Another Major Republican Screwup (to put it politely)
Extract from an excellent article in the NY Times : http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/16/business/budget-cuts-to-sec-reduce-its-effectiveness.html?_r=1&hp
'the
Republican-controlled appropriations committee cut the Securities
and Exchange Commission’s fiscal 2012 budget request by $222.5 million,
to $1.19 billion... even though the S.E.C.’s
responsibilities were vastly expanded under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street
Reform and Consumer Protection Act...The report stressed, “With the
federal
debt exceeding $14 trillion, the committee is committed to reducing the
cost and size of government.” [anotherwords we let criminals get away
with it because government should be smaller so Wall Street can prosper
at expense of Main Street] ... the S.E.C. isn’t financed by
tax revenue, but rather by fees levied on those it regulates, which
include all the big securities firms. A little-noticed provision
in Dodd-Frank mandates that those fees can’t exceed the S.E.C.’s
budget. So cutting its requested budget by $222.5 million saves Wall
Street the same amount, and means regulated firms will pay $136 million
less in fiscal 2012 than they did the previous year, the S.E.C.
projects. [great! more favors for Wall Street by Republicans]. ...
Last year the S.E.C. turned over $2.2 billion to
victims of financial wrongdoing and paid hundreds of millions more to
the Treasury, helping to reduce the deficit.'
An
S.E.C. memo: “We may be forced to decline to prosecute certain persons
who violate the law; settle cases on terms we might otherwise not
prefer; name fewer defendants in a given action; restrict the types of
investigative techniques employed; or conclude investigations earlier
than we otherwise would.”
17 July 2011 - Tell Me Republican Lawmakers Are Not Evil
They
cut the budget of the most important police agency in the world, the
SEC, based on premise that it helps the budget deficit which is an
absolutely wrong premise. And they want to stop phasing out energy
inefficient light bulbs.
"An amendment to the bill would allow
companies to make and sell old 100-watt light bulbs after January 1,
when they are scheduled to be phased out. Republicans had previously
tried and failed to overturn a 2007 law requiring light bulbs to be
more energy efficient starting next year."
17 July 2011 -
-
Dalaman airport was soooo "Turkish" - security lets you take water
inside but not a volleyball. They wanted to keep the ball but we
checked it in. The taxi was too early so we had a lot of time and
played volleyball and football in the airport :) -- in Istanbul taking
water in the plane is not allowed but in Dalaman it's ok - but in
Istanbul, she said, honey is not allowed. But we had honey and they
didn't see it. How can you screen for just honey ? :-)
-
She was surprised that I guessed her age right - 22 - she does all her
communications with sms and facebook and only uses email for school.
- Both ways the flight had to wait looooong time in Istanbul. "Our parking spot is taken by another flight" !
-
We met a group of wonderful people who came to the wedding from Canada
- mostly psychiatrist and neurologists. And we had really good
discussions about the brain etc.
-
The concert Thursday night was a big success. Got lots of complements.
On Friday I had to work the whole day because of the project's demands.
And wasted energy discussing unnecessary things with a colleague who's
stuck on some past images. My personal values is that i don't escalate
things unless it's absolutely necessary and even then usually with
knowledge of the party involved. Some other people escalate every
little thing -- it all seems to be means to self perpetuation. I
assumed certain roles will just work itself out - and am still hopeful
- because I didn't want to demand for a role to be defined half way
through the project - but it confuses my team sometimes and is
sometimes counter productive - they get new inaccurate info in an
already turbulent environment and it costs me more energy to smoothen
things out. Many organizations spend a lot of money of many things but
not enough money on training their people on some interpersonal basics,
like, it is not ok to escalate things unnecessarily, that it is
important to move on and see what-is instead of being stuck in what
was, that if a person is not inside a project and not seeing all the
interactions and dynamics they have to be tentative in judging things.
I don't report micro-level and am perfectly capable of setting
priorities and deciding on things being inside the project. Another
common error in many IT organizations is to solution too early. As a
veteran analyst I am always wary of user saying do it this way - and I
was in this case too where user relationship manager says do it this
way: use this technology to solve this problem. I did mention but did
not insist since there was no space for that, that we need to first
understand the issue and then decide what technology (if any) is
needed. It turns out that the best solution is not the one we were told
to use because it's too expensive, unnecessary, and overkill.
Nevertheless, we had a good meeting, it is my policy to alway move
forward, swim forward, and am open to all suggestions, right and wrong,
and pick up what's good, leave the rest behind, and see people as they
are right there and then. This is something that is missing in many
organizations, and it is a critical element of good dynamic fresh
effective relationships. I do my part. I'm just there to get the job
done. I have no interest in power play, and I don't need to be somebody.
Organizations
should offer courses on relationship skills and teach their employees
things that are often not taught in schools or homes. The important of
not making images for psychological matters, etc.
12 July 2011 -
-
Cognitive dissonance is the leading cause of aging and distress.
Understanding what-is is essential to freedom from what-is.
-
When you have a strong morphic connection with someone even after they
die that connection is there. If a person does not end cravings and
desires and any thought based urges while they're alive, that goes on
after they die no matter how good they are. In fact the good part
perhaps does not continue and merges with the infinite pool of good.
But the cravings and desire part might continue. If there is a strong
morphic connection with a loved one, they may be able to work it off.
If not what? Does it go on? Does it attempt to manifest to work out?
Does it just join the stream of craving?
10 July 2011 - Facebook
I
really dislike Facebook - it's too unstructured and unnecessarily
complicated and I don't like the idea of some geeks or whomever
controlling your social networking infrastructure.
Here are some interesting quotes:
George Clooney
reportedly once remarked that he would rather have a prostate exam on
live television by a guy with very cold hands than have a Facebook page.
Jesse Eisenber: “I have to talk about myself all
the time... and don’t want to go home and
write about the breakfast I tried to eat.”
Aaron Sorkin thinks people use Facebook mostly to talk about what they ate.: “I don’t
have that much to share, and when I do, I’ll call somebody and say I
had a good cupcake today.”
10 July 2011 - Talk, Music
Finally had a chance to call a few friends I've wanted to call for a long time but hadn't the chance.
Good talk with Dr. Christian about Aristotle and Plato's logic. What a delight...
Amazing – Ringo doesn’t play any fills in all of "Things We Said Today". It has a special effect.
Ringo was a great drummer. What him and George added to the Lennon McCartney lineup was very much part of what made them great.
10 July 2011 - Exposé of another Wall Street Snake
My
speech -- I was the last person to talk, and by then it was getting
late and I tried to keep it short. I wrote this speech just before
going on stage -- I had ideas and notes from before but cleaned them up
and compiled this, as the gist of what I wanted to say, quickly during
other speakers' talks because I had no time before. The event was very
well organized - we worked hard at it and though there was some drama
internally before, I kept moving forward in the present and not got
stuck psychologically in the past, and others did the same and we had a
good cooperation and the event was stellar. People really enjoyed it.
It wasn't a morbid boring event that these Saal events usually are.
I
had insisted that the first speaker who charged something like $600 for
saying some generic stuff that had nothing to do with dad, and
promoting sorrow or what not, to finish earlier - but he kept going (he
was only invited to cater to tradition by mom who felt it would be
necessary) -
and the event got to be later than expected so I cut my speech very
short. But I had a lot more to say... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJAXMqmAwns Here's a fun one took during goodbyes: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8DvMbNDZGiU
This one is by Mr. Jandaghi, the head of the Iranian
National Bar Association - and old friend of dad, and his Vice
President, Mr. Mostofi, and one of the court administrators. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysX_9pvx3II And Amu Khosro, Dr. Mehrkhast: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQP4WWNtrGY . And there are other ones on that channel too.
-
Leaving Tehran the passport control guy gave me a hard time for not
having married yet "why aren't you married yet". I really wanted to
tell him it's none of his business but peacefully let it be.
10 July 2011 - Abuse of Krishnamurti's name
This
year the KFT sent a notice about the Murren gathering which I could
show proof that at times has nothing to do with Krishnamurti. At least
KFT called it "K inspired gathering". Kinfonet however, in their sloppy
reckless way as ever call it a "Krishnamurti Gathering".
There are people who are doing around K what he dreaded, in my opinion. They forget that K broke away from chains.
10 July 2011 - Swiss
70%
liquidation sale - shoes was 220 fcs originally. After 70% reduction I
got it at the same price I could normally get it in the US !!
The
cast system is strong in Switzerland - very hierarchical society - not
defined as such like in India but still. You're either smart or stupid.
That's the first categorization :) A great society though, no doubt.
10 July 2011 - Voice & confidence
you should also teach me what you've learned...
a good teacher helps deliver results you need.
you can get feedback from another musician for free instead of paying
for it. A good teacher teaches you things he knows and then you need to
teach yourself.
Self confidence is a societal misnomer. It's a totally useless concept
which is presented in the society as something very useful and
important. The self is more of a problem than it having to have
confidence. It's the lack of self which brings a quality of confidence
of innocence which is vastly different from the confidence of the ego..
Being "in your own middle" which you say is true, but that comes not as
a positive approach but negative. It's about getting rid of what is not
love, what is not emptiness, it's about purging the things of the mind
(and the tensions around the vocal chords)...
---------- Friend's response: i guess we understand the word self-confidence in different ways
for me it has nothing to do with self and me and I and egotristic things
for me it's a positiv thing to have
to flow with the energy which goes through you without blocking it with
thoughts like i'm not good enough, i can't, i'm stupid.....
i also don't mean the opposite, to think how good i am and blabla
i simply mean an unblocked flow of our energy
and the blocks are mainly made of our thoughts
so maybe i should say a deblocked mind instead of self-confidence
kiss
09 July 2011 - Terrible band: "One Day Remains"
I heard a TERRIBLE band tonight live.
they sucked from the first moment. the songs were BORING -- All sounded
the same -- the singer SUCKED. Terrible sound. No character. Shit music.
Dark, depressive. Nothing beautiful in it at all. Not even a nice
melody or a nice harmony. Zilch. Have people forgot what music is all
about? Here's their site: http://www.onedayremains.ch/
09 July 2011 - SEC Survey
The SEC asked me to fill out a survey. I'm sure they're sorry they did :)
SEC is doing nothing to protect the individual investors and small
companies against brutal attacks of short sellers. Nothing except lip
service. THE SEC NEEDS TO DISCLOSE WHO LARGE SHORT SELLERS ARE. IT
NEEDS TO MAKE PRE-BORROWING OF SHARES MANDATORY AND PUT A STOP TO THIS
CRIME OF SHORT SELLING under the pretense of "shorts are good because
they provide liquidity" that "shorts need to be protected for
competitive reasons". ***WAKE UP*** , we're getting killed and the cops
are protecting the bad guys who's got them fooled into believing
they're good guys. TELL US WHO THE LARGE SHAREHOLDERS ARE S.E.C., WHY
PROTECT THEM. WHY CAN WE KNOW THE LARGE LONGS BUT NOT THE LARGE SHORTS?
AND PUT A STOP TO THIS CRIME OF SELLING WHAT IS NOT YOURS WHICH
YOU HAVE NOT EVEN BORROWED. IT'S A CRIME AND SEC IS NOT DOING ANYTHING
ABOUT IT. THAT'S WHY I BELIEVE THE SEC IS TOTALLY USELESS. You must be
sorry you asked me to fill out a survey aren't you? But the frustration
I feel about this criminal market place is the frustration of millions
of people which the SEC has been ignoring as it protects these
criminals on Wall Street (selling what's not owned and not borrowed is
a crime under any and all justice systems except that of the SEC).
06 July 2011 - Song
Singing
at lunch brought instant unconditional fresh lovely joy. All past pains
were wiped out. Like last week during band practice at which time there
was immense joy.
I
have come to realize how incredibly music is in life. During hard times
specially. It brings to the present the power of the present. It digs
the mind out of the hole of the past and gives the person the sweet
taste of that quality of present which is joy love and immense
intelligence.
06 July 2011 - Waves
[This
started as a "dardo-del" ("darde-del") literally meaning telling
"pain of the heart" to my sister - but common use of dardo-del means to
confide or have an intimate talk with]
I am not superstitious - I don't believe in things that make no
scientific sense at all - like Tarot Cards etc. - but not that I
believe, but I've seen the power of energy - and luck is as real
phenomenon as love yet neither can be seen in themselves but only
consequences of. Love can be seen in a smile or a hug or in the eyes but
not itself. Luck is the same way. Neither can be approached positively
-- we can remove what they are not and then they may be, but we can't go
to them, demand them, or impose them.
Even one cigarette or one smoker can bring bad luck. Let alone a lot of
people - who are eager to shake your hand. Also jealous people bring
bad luck. The old superstitious way is called jinxing, or in Persian
"cheshm zadan" (hitting with eye).
Anger also bring bad luck. I am hardly ever angry. I might have moments
of frustration, like yesterday talking to post office, but it was not a
raging anger. Sometimes I play theater - and exaggerate emotions to get
points across but they're usually rooted in some sort of frustration at a
bad business deal or what not. Even when my rights were violated to the
most immense degree, I was not angry - anger doesn't help - it
prohibits rationality. In dealing with the offenders I did it rationally
and sanely, and not with anger -- otherwise I would have addressed the
problem at the level it was created -- which Einstein agrees is not a
good approach. It would take a lot for me to get angry for real. One
event was in Banglore bus station where after 4 hours of getting the run
around I was truly angry. That was 14 years ago. Once more a few years
ago and then recently in Tehran after contact with 209 people, some
smoker, some jealous, some loving, and some sincere and dealing with
tired, out of tune people, and one who got on a "turkish vein" and did
the very exact opposite of what I begged her not to do.
The consequence
was ripples of bad luck which not only cost me a ton of money, my bike
got stolen, project plan corrupted, the guitar I sent back lost the
label, and you name it. Picking up the pieces, trying to smile, music
helps, good friends help, a good project helps, rest yoga walk, etc.,
and there are good signs that begin to appear - like a trip that showed
up to the city of Lindens - my favorite tree - and the fragrance made me
cry walking around town - with Lindens everywhere. And meeting a blind
man who appreciated the help. This was not the first time I had fallen.
Hard times always teaches you to appreciate the good things you have.
This
of course does not imply that there is no learning about oneself and
others. Not all problems are because of "negative psychic forces" to
quote an Ayurveda book but those forces exist and a strong body can be
immune from them. This might sound very esoteric but I do believe in
angels and protectors, but sometimes their job is made difficult.
05 July 2011 - Steven
A good wave came. And also having a handle of phase 2 plan by the end of the day helped.
I
was late for train nevertheless stopped to offer a blind man help. He
didn't seem too fluid in finding his way. He said he's only been blind
for 5 years. He is 25. He got blind at age 20 doing bungy jumping. Led
him to Migro's - he was far from it - and got someone there who speaks
better German to help him shop. He's writing a book about his dreams
and aspirations. He was very appreciative and we became good friends
quickly. That was the best use of shoulder ever -- to help a person in
need.
04 July 2011 - New fans
Last
night met lady from Paraguay on the train. She said she loved the
Beatles
and loved our singing and wrote us an sms immediately afterwards saying
how much she loved it. Many Swiss people would never do that because
they're reserved - they're lovely but reserved. If you contact them
they like it, but they don't take initiative.
There were others on the train who enjoyed it too.
Today she sms'd again wanting to know when the date for our concert is.
She emailed 20 places for booking a concert hall.
03 July 2011 - Here Comes The Sun
-
Rehearsal was great. Peter learned all the vocals -- just wrote them
and sings them -- what an amazing drummer too -- best band I've ever
played with. Angela just learned HCTS -- a great songs -- and she plays
it incredibly smoothly - perfect tone and phrasing and articulation.
She's become the best bass player I've ever known.
02 July 2011 - Swiss vs. Turkish Airlines
-
On Swiss she says laptop, even a turned off one, can't be held on your
lap on takeoff and landing. Turkish Airlines landed totally ignoring
Captain's call for "prepare the cabin for landing", seat backs were
back, some tray tables open, many without seatbelts, and the flight
just landed waking the hell out of everyone :)
-
2 smokers next
to me on a 100% full flight - and being tired I was hoping to sleep but
luckily I was on emergency row so seat didn't bend so I asked to be
moved and I was - the seat back bends, and next to me is a non smoker.
The flight attendant was awesome in making the change instantly. I will
write a complement card for her -- I always do when I receive excellent
service. They have so many passengers who are not nice to them - men
who bother them etc. - (as per friends who are flight attendants) - why
not extend a kind gesture that helps their careers.
- A380 first class seats cost $14,000 !!
01 July 2011 -
Switzerland is cold in July.
- nice end to a very hectic and difficult and painful week. angel
massage. Three analysts confirmed solidity of Avanir's patents:
At
the festival many young people were drunk - a pity really - two guys at
the station were talking about having had 2 bottles of vodka each and 6
beers each - and energy drinks (caffeine) and their goal was to vomit
at the end of the night -- how much stupid can you get ??
24 June 2011 - More on the Bullying at Krishnamurti Foundation America
A few nights ago after
reading text of what Michael Krohnen said and his attack, I had a
nightmare about a dog attacking. Getting bullied at KFA out of all
places was beyond imagination and I still feel the pain.
I
had nothing against Michael Krohnen -- for a long time he was picking
on me and I always thought he has the right to have his opinions
however illusory and out of touch with reality they were -- I have
concrete examples of this -- and meanwhile when possible I tried to
communicate the side he was not seeing. But then it got worse and
culminated in him attacking me at the Krishnamurti Library. Poor
Krishnamurti! Poor Mary Zimbalist to witness such vulgar act in her own
living room where K hanged out often -- such an act of utter disrespect
for them let alone my rights to be there and be safe from verbal and
physical violence. It has taken me a while to come to grasp what his
intentions were but it is clear now that it must have been, in my
opinion, an intention to provoke me to react in the same vulgar way he
acted so that he has grounds for banning me from the place -- his
illusionary "almost not welcome" was just that, an almost, meaning he
had no grounds for unwelcoming me, that it was just a matter of dislike
for whatever stupid motives, and certainly, at the heart of it, as he
had stated, was his dislike that I speak my mind. But be was not alone
in carrying this act of aggression. He was backed, according to his own
declaration, by Mark Lee and James Paul who gave him the ok by saying
they'll support him if he confront me to effectively demand an apology
(or to make a declaration -- I can't remember off the top of my head
the exact text and I am not even sure if this is true because it is
reported by Michael Krohnen and it was not directly witnessed by me)
for which there is absolutely no grounds for such a
demand nor for such an apology as proven by Michael's own statement
after his plot was thawed: that it is not his business to stick his
nose in the subject of whatever I wrote which he was objecting to, I
suppose, in order to protect his rich friend. That was not his first
one. He tried to protect another rich friend and in fact provoked him
against me after I made statements showing inconsistencies and counter
productive contradictions in his organization. And that friend long
forgot that and we discussed and moved forward but Michael Krohnen
continued the subject and was apparently more upset than the friend
himself, for possibly as senseless reason as Gisele who discarded
my article as terrible without having bothered to read it because it
was, in her interpretation, an attack on Friedrich (which it wasn't
-- Friedrich is not his organization and even then characterizing
the statements as attacks is purely subjective -- a lot of facts were
documented along with opinions based on earnest research ). Judging
something without examining it first hand is as bad as it gets in these
circles, and then she has the nerves to tell people she told me not to
come back to her summer gathering as the reason I had not been back. It
is true that when she passed on that ignorant judgment she added to it
by saying I should not go there that year but I spoke with her later
and went to her public event which she still characterized as a
"Krishnamurti Gathering" and not some exclusive private club, only to
get bullied by another person who gets money from Friedrich's, Javier,
to a degree of unreasonable and vulgarity that Friedrich's own one or
two "gang" members as they refer to themselves, condemned Javier's
attack. I did not go back to that gathering for a number of reasons but
non whatsoever was any rejection from Gisele -- there was no such
rejection. I didn't go because I didn't want to get ganged up on again
by "the gang"'s Javier and his disgusting attitude. Sorry, I don't
worship him as some may do, and it was only after I wrote about the
subject of how KLI has such a prevalent presence in these Swiss summer
mountain gatherings that they toned down having KLI members as
facilitators and presenters and leaders. I also haven't gone because of
a number of other factors including inconvenient travel route, and not
being attracted to some of the regulars who are either extremely
complicated psychologically, or are confused by their own admission
after being at that work for years -- that quality of an elephant
missing the boat completely is not attractive. I come to new comers who
grasp this with a swift mind and unburdened heart like a robin outside
any of these circles and circuses. Don't forget, as far as I
understood, K was very much against circuses and organizations built
around him and almost dismantled his official organizations, but now we
have even more of them.
The
subject of Mark Lee and James Paul's support of Michael Krohnen's -- as reported by Krohnen himself --
attempted plot is a chapter by itself. If they had a case they could
have done it in a much more civilized way. Bullying at a organization
built around a guy who was so much against this kind of behavior is
totally unacceptable.
21 June 2011 -
Our new QA manager is from Madanapale - and knows that hectic bus stop in Bangalore.
Turkish
Airline is the funniest airline. They repeat the safety message (no
electronic devices, no electrical devices, and no devices working with
batteries (literally) and fasten seat belts etc etc - again and
again and again till take off. I asked her she said it's a company
policy "maybe you need to hear it just once but not others" :) Then there's the counting - - they've counted the flight at least 6 times by 5 different people and still counting. Their
website is a class act - it has a different concept of intuitiveness
and behaves unlike any other website I've ever seen :) The landing
was amazing -- the pilot hit the ground then the plane bounced back up
and then landed again -- like a donkey's joftak :-) or a surf board
hitting a big wave :) Easy
going all the way pretty much like Iran Air. No inspection of bags not
being under the seat, no inspection of seatbelts being fastened. You
could be standing while the flight is rolling and noone cares. Overall a very good flight -- and beautiful hostesses :)
Viva Turks; We Rule :)
6 tear old Milena was very sweet. Her dad and mom as well. Gentle people.
The
non alcoholic beer was like 10 bucks for a can - i don't drink canned
anyway but the old turkish gentleman insisted to buy me one - a show of
generous hospitality of the culture. Before I had given him the
internet code.
In a 2.5 hour flight Turkish airlines gives chelo kabaab (vegetarian in my case).
19 June 2011 - Awareness
Of course awareness of one's motives, thoughts and feelings, in this
and any process is more important than the process itself or the
ingredients of those thoughts and feelings. How we think is more
fundamental than what we think. Awareness to "what" can reveal the
"how" -- for example, if I think, what will so and so will think, I
feel fear, and I open that up , slow it down, look at it, without
judging it - but really put a spotlight on it and see, it may reveal
that I have fear of public opinion which in certain cases may be
warranted and in most cases be an extension of a whole bunch of
hypothetical imaginary pictures.
As a child, once I killed a big
fly (khar-magas "donkey fly") on my desk - remember the glass cover the
desk had - and I had a powerful desk lamp. I put the magnifying glass
rusteen was playing with on that dead fly. I saw that it was full of
tiny moving worms. Without such detailed attention I would have thought
it's just a dead fly.
Similarly an emotion or thought can come
and go and appear just to be so. But if it's attended to, examined, it
may turn out that it is not so or more or less than so or completely
baseless or solidly true. And that awareness can help us understand our
own limitations which I try to see, and it is up to you to check it out
or not if you haven't , that the fundamental limitation is in the
application of the most dominant tool in our lives: our brains.
We
have become very brainy people with less room for heart, spontaneity,
the unknown, the present moment, quietness, and love which is a totally
different type of movement than brain waves as thoughts.
And a
limited area being so dominant means trouble: means confusion, and most
critically, separation, isolation, division, which are the very nature
of limitation. This land has a border to that land, each land is
limited, and they're separate. But that other movement, of love, of
flying in the present, just paying attention to what is happening now,
instead of rehashing memories or imaginations on future projections of
what x and y might think, has an entirely different quality than the
head-based divisions that make a person suffer.
19 June 2011 -
You
know it when this is it. Peter is playing very well. Angie too. The
groove is incredible. The foreground can act freely when the background
is solid. The 3-part harmonies are earth-shaking.
18 June 2011 - The Self is An Abstraction
The
self desperately relies on abstractions in order to continue itself. It
is an abstraction in itself. Conclusions as powerful bundles of memory
prevent perception of the present and as such destroy the present.
Emotional melodrama is just a cover up for the self to not see its own
fictitious makeup.
It is easy to forgive and forget.
-------
His Aston Martin and his buddy's Red Convertible Ferrari got totaled.
17 June 2011 -
He
had millions and went through a divorce and lost most of it. Not that
the ex-wife took it - - the lawyers did - - because she failed to be
reasonable.
Mark Lee's email has the following signature:
"R.E. Mark Lee KFA Trustee, Oak Grove School Board former KFA Executive Director and OGS Head of School"
Maybe K should have signed his letter with a title from 60 years before: "former head of the Order of the Star in the East" :-)
Why
are titles so important, specially ex-titles, from decades ago, or
titles of jobs some believe, at best, a person was not very successful
at?
Maybe I should sign my letters as:
Reza Ganjavi IT Project Manager, Musician, Producer, Philosopher, Writer Former Software Engineer Former Business Analyst Former Management Consultant Former Systems Consultant Former Systems Analyst Former Senior Programmer Analyst Former Senior Adviser Former Software Specialist Former Volunteer at Oak Grove School Former Volunteer at Brockwood Park School Former Volunteer at K's Talks in Ojai (83, 84, 85) Former Solution Architect Former Volunteer & Poll Watcher, Coordinated Campaign, Michigan & Ohio
And I was not fired from any of these jobs.
16 June 2011 -
She's
so frikin loud - when she's on the phone it's impossible to do anything
-- even headphones with music doesn't block her loud voice. And she
holds these conference calls one after another and shouts out like a
kolfat who washes dishes loud to prove she's working. She says she
can't speak softer but she can. She's done it before when she doesn't
mind being a little less noticeable.
I can also shout on my calls but then I'd be doing the same wrong thing as her so I won't.
15 June 2011 -
He
said 95% of projects here are late - even those that don't have a
change of scope. I had heard of an 80% number before. Anyway fact
remains that IT projects are highly risky and it's extremely important
to do them right from the beginning which means a solid analysis and
design. In this case, the analysis they did was catastrophic and 2
weeks before go live date they're realizing that the solution will be
rejected so they're back to the drawing board and doing analysis which
should have been done months ago. One of the people involved early on
said they were looking at a perfect world ! so some key business
exceptions were not thought about. This is far far far away from the
quality of analysis I used to do which involves considering all
possibilities.
12 June 2011 - On Vitamin C
Extract from LPI -- copyright: Oregon State University
"Dr.
Pauling…based his own recommendations for vitamin C largely on
theoretical arguments… [new] data … have indicated that vitamin C
levels in plasma and circulating cells become fully saturated at
intakes of about 400 mg/day in young, healthy nonsmokers…. they are
based on a small number of young, healthy men and women. We currently
do not know how much vitamin C is required to achieve saturation of
cells and tissues in children, older adults, and diseased or stressed
individuals…. elderly require a substantially higher daily intake of
vitamin C to attain plasma concentrations that younger adults achieve
at a lower intake…. cellular uptake of vitamin C declines with age…
Thus, individuals suffering from certain diseases may require
substantially larger amounts of vitamin C to achieve optimum body
levels or derive therapeutic benefits…”
[lg]
8 June 2011 -
- operator knew connie was on the phone but she
says: let me
transfer you to the person who handles this. But she didn't do that.
She
transferred me to a machine knownigly. It's strange to expect to speak
to a person and be expected to talk to a machine - no thanks :)
- I do not like Parker guitars period. They sound bad and the action is always too low out of factory. PRS is much nicer.
5 June 2011 - Garbanzo Beans
Swiss
family didn't have much beans as the kids grew up. Now parents are
experimenting. They cooked garbanzo beans for 5 minutes, like
pasta - "it didn't feel like she cooked it at all" they were so hard.
And they had platefuls of it. (very funny).
5 June 2011 -
In Switzerland God punishes his creatures if they stay up late on
Saturday nights, by pounding 10000 decibel church bells in their ears
early Sunday morning, and when the 15 minute torture stops and you fall
sleep again it restarts after an hour again to make sure you pay the
high price for not having slept early!!!
4 June 2011 -
TinkaBelle (Tanja Bachmann) is a sweet person. She is positive and
wonderful and a good person. She wrote some songs which are so-so.
Record company picked her up and made her a star. I didn’t like her
music and the hype around her hit which is musically deficient and
reminds me too much of another song I don’t like which I believe has
influenced her in writing hers (similar staccato melody).
Today
she performed at ArgoviaFest. Crowd wasn’t moved. People around us were
saying it’s boring. I can understand why. Her best song was a cover
song, but hers, specially the first 3 or 4 were boring, and the sound
no good: drums were louder than vocals and the bank seemed unbalanced.
The band after her Baschi had a good sound except the vocals which were
very harsh (Rock sang in Swiss German with a thick “kh” sound is very
harsh on the ears.
Angela read a page of reviews of JingleBells and said it was brutal.
It
takes more than tight jeans and artificial blond hairs and a good voice
and a good body and a positive attitude to move people -- music needs
to be there. There was another band too that we escaped from
because they were so loud and obnoxious and the music was terrible -
filled with anger and rage. At the end, it's the quality of music
that matter and in much of pop music music quality is missing. In some
that make it really big the music is interesting.
2 June 2011 -
Endless
fields of rape plants changing color from yellow to brown - endless
fields of wheat smiling at the sky dancing to the breeze like a sports
parade in China - waiting for the bus the police asked for ID - they
were looking for some people who had committed crimes - I was surprised
to hear there are a lot of breakins and crimes around Brugg - even in
villages among such incredible beauty - suicide is also high in this
area despite material richness.
Goodness is so important for holding the world together.
This
must be the only bus in all of CH where the electronic timetables don't
reflect the 19 min delay for the 23:00 bus. The driver was a good
person. Simple and honest. There was love. I'll fill out a comments
card so maybe they'll fix the timetable.
Debugged From Me To You's vocals.
Rumney
is running for president - he has no chance - he's got money and now
wants to be in the news again. He's not as clueless as Palin or Bush
but still, pretty unfit for the job.
Nice
articles about problems with shorting by Walter Cruttenden
http://www.sec.gov/comments/4-627/4627-95.pdf ,
http://www.sec.gov/comments/4-627/4627-95.htm
2 June 2011 - More on Cellphone Dangers
"Cellphones a 'possible' carcinogen — like coffee" LONDON
– A respected international panel of scientists says cellphones are
possible cancer-causing agents, putting them in the same category as
the pesticide DDT, gasoline engine exhaust and coffee. [logged in "mobile phones.html"]
June 2011 - More Republican Disaster
House Republicans are pushing back against Obama administration efforts to promote healthier eating. ------------ AP:
Geithner spent part of his day meeting privately with freshmen House
members, mostly Republicans elected last fall with tea party support
and among the most committed to cutting spending. "I'm confident two
things are going to happen this summer," he said afterward. "One is
we're going to avoid a default crisis, and we're going to reach
agreement on our long-term fiscal plan."
Where were these 'tea party" rednecks when Bush rushed to a war that wasted so many lives and billions of dollars?
2 June 2011 - Only in Switzerland
"At the end of June, five young musicians at Zurich University of the
Arts will end their Masters diploma in pop music, the first to graduate
in the discipline. The young students – four men and a woman – hope to turn their talents into careers."
-------- compassionate society:
"The
researchers recommended penal institutions take measures to adapt to
the situation by setting up accommodation that corresponds to older
prisoners’ needs."
2 June 2011 - Who cares about FIFA
There's so much news about FIFA -- I am as uninterested as in all sport news. "Swiss President Micheline Calmy-Rey has called on the world football
governing body, Fifa, to fight corruption and be more transparent."
Sports are fun to play but boring to read about.
June 2011 - Can't Do at Swisscom
I
knew by the nature of the response that they had misinformed her --
they'd said can't do too immaturely which is typical in this neck of
wood.
So I pursued it further. Got a call from a manager there today - indeed they can do.
Good corporate communication is so important - many companies rely on intuition which is sometimes not enough.
1 June 2011 -
Another alleged sexual predator caught.
A friend wrote: "sexual abuse and rape became so common one case after each other seems to come into vogue they talk about but with every case it sounds less bad but they have no idea what a woman has to go through DISGUSTING ANIMALS!"
------------ a few months later, August 2011 it was proven that the woman was lying. Judge dismissed the defendant.
Strauss-Kahn
had consensual sex with the hotel maid who accused him of sexual
assault, his defense lawyer said on Tuesday, adding that their
comparative sizes would have ruled out a forcible encounter
"she towers over him."
"In a one-on-one she would probably win if this turned into a fist fight. She is not a small person,"
Diallo
never claimed Strauss-Kahn threatened her, Brafman said, making it hard
to believe that a silver-haired politician 30 years her senior could
have physically overpowered a taller woman with a job that requires
physical endurance.
The defense lawyer estimated Diallo is 5-foot-11 -- taller than Strauss-Kahn at 5-foot-7.
"The
fact that he doesn't have a mark on him, the fact that she does not
have any trauma of any kind makes it impossible for this to have
happened the way she claimed it happened," Brafman said.
-----------
4
weeks before go-live integration testing is red and analysts are just
gathering data that should go to a pre-design analysis !!!! Against
odds of IT projects this is a recipe for disaster. I took over as
PM after the analysis and design phases were "compete" - not complete!
31 May 2011 -
Rusteen
asked me to buy a speed racer for his birthday. His birthday is about a
year away :) -- so I got on Amazon and bought it for him and said it's
coming in post. He went out at night to look to see if there's post :)
-- then he said to his mom, oh, dayee zeze is in Switz and it's night
there - maybe he'll send it tomorrow. Later he told his mom: I heard
ding-dong (door bell) -- "nobody else heard it but let's go
look... no sorry, no package here, postman hasn't come". I
asked S to explain to him that's it's coming directly from the toy
seller and it takes a few days.
----
Paul Reed Smith Singlecut Hollowbody II Black Gold PRS 2011
Specs -- Piezo Included -- Bound Neck -- 57/08s
-----
Where
were all these Republicans who are opposed to increasing debt ceiling
and are calling for spending cuts when G W Bush was wasting billions in
Iraq?
----
D
made fun of the loud woman: "look at her drawer - she's been here
a month and it's a total mess - my drawer is empty and I've been here a
year". I said it's like some purses. He said he's "masculanized" [or
rather pragmatize] his wife to not carry so many things in her purse....
X said
she realizes she's loud but can't do anything about it. Maybe she has a
hearing problem - or is it too much coffee sugar and junk food?
Next
time she blasted on the phone I told her: you apologized this morning
for being loud - let me give you a tip b/c i'm a musician and work with
microphones and have tested these phones - they're very sensitive - all
you need is to speak softly and they pick it up - you're putting way
too many decibels in them. She first said: "I have a loud voice, i can't help it." Then she thanked. Later I noticed she's speaking softer.
29 May 2011 -
He
asked about feeling like a foreigner -- it's important to not have any
image of yourself or others etc. -- to be nothing -- you don't have to
be an Indian, etc etc. -- to have a quiet mind -- to just be human.
Isaac
Albéniz was born 151 years ago today. born on 29/5/1860 in
Camprodón, Cataluña, Spain died on 16/6/1909 in Cambo-les Bains,
Aquitaine, France
Writing
song about living in heaven riding bike a sparrow took off in front and
flew straight on the same path as the bicycle - we flew together.
29 May 2011 - Goodbye 110MB
110MB
sucks. they say they provide a free service but it's a service that's
down regularly. No thanks. Found another cool site and moved the
secondary part of site there. Promary part is still on vtx / datacomm /
tiscali. It was a big job moving but structured the files better
so another move will be a breeze.
Dumped
Koolserve.com also because it was down too many times. Moved into a
clustered environment. Spent hours on IT on a Sunday - Yuyks, But also
got to play volleyball after a long time.
28 May 2011 - Comments on File No. 4-627 Short Sale Reporting Study Required by Dodd-Frank Act Section 417(a)(2)
SEC's handling of the short sale data has been one huge failure. Let us
face it: SEC has failed the good hard working people in favor of Wall
Street. It's long overdue that the SEC stops this sympathy for short
sellers and require all large shorts to disclose their short position
to the public in a timely, not delayed manner just in the same way that
longs are obliged to do. The current setup despite all the senseless
excuses is clearly in favor of large hedge funds / short-sellers who
have power to even influence the congress, and in disfavor of a) small
companies and b) Main Street investors.
28 May 2011 -
Had
intuition that she needs help - called her - she was in the middle of
shopping for B's and needed help - so went there - walked out of the
dressing room with 4 B's (she didn't want) and handed them to cashier -
it was funny....
She wrote a research paper on psychiatric
drugs. She found out most people who are on these drugs get almost off
it but not completely -- they remain dependent even a little bit.
Why
is it so important to know what you want? Societies, specially the most
modern ones, demand that you know what you want -- all pop
psychologists talk about it. There is beauty in not knowing - in a
vacuum - in being open to inquiry, in art of wondering.
I hate the word vacuum - it's so hard to spell.
It is normal to be shy around one's parents -- there is nothing wrong with it -- why call it a block ? All
we can do is to see what we are and if any change will come it will
naturally -- but seeing is an art and judging is not seeing.
It was godly that the bottle broke – doctor said I don’t need to use it anymore.
May 2011 - Problem Architects
We
have many architects on our team: data architect, solution architect,
security architect, integration architect, and jokingly I said, problem architect. In a
way, many people are problem architects as our brains are used to
having problems, solving problems, and so, creating problems when we
don't have any. Awareness of habit brings freedom from it.
28 May 2011 - Dollar weakness: more consequences of Bush's screwups
But
the safe-haven Swiss franc was the day's top performer… the move
indicated investors were still worried about Europe's debt crisis and a
divisive U.S. budget debate… "Unlike Germany, Switzerland is not part
of the euro currency and therefore is not on the hook for bailing out
the periphery countries." Markets expect tepid growth in the world's
biggest economy to keep U.S. interest rates at zero well into 2012,
undermining the dollar's appeal to global investors.
May 2011 - Happiness & Money
On
Sunday we went to gig first class. On the way back, an old woman was
such a B: she was complaining why we put our bag on the seat. The
compartment was empty. And putting a bag on a seat is very
normal, accepted, and everyone does it -- the only time it's not ok,
obviously, is if the train is busy. We're not talking about a
luggage or a bucket or a big backpack but just a normal hand bag. She
she nagged and went away to sit somewhere else in the empty
compartment. Friend said, she's just an unhappy grumpy person -- and
perhaps arrogant -- maybe she didn't know we're one full Swiss and one
50% Swiss :)
First class is comfortable - I love it - I'm in
it again now, being knackered. But I like the people in second class
better. People in first class, generally speaking, are more stiff, and
more unhappy. Somehow money and happiness have a strong negative
correlation with each other yet people think money will bring happiness
so in search of happiness they search for money.
Oh God, now
an old woman came in first class -- one of those whose smell of perfume
and hairspray kills. Tried to move but a few seats back is another old
woman, reeking of cigarette small.
Meanwhile outside, the air is filled with a tender love.
Been
out of tune last three days -- not having walked much -- every day
wanting to do it but late night comes -- have worked hard and made
money but have not walked which always means not having slept good --
and sometimes to compensate one eats more -- healthy food but still --
when the triangle goes out of tune it goes all out of whack. But will
walk today and sleep early. The boss and his boss said they were very
happy with what I do for them. It's nice to hear. We passed a rigid
review and got a good mark -- all items were in compliance and my
project was deemed as well managed. I try but it takes a lot of
hours.... last week managed to play guitar almost every night to
prepare for Sunday. the gig was brilliant. People totally loved it.
Took V to dinner -- from a Brahmin family which means no meat and alcohol for generations -- that's great.
25 May 2011
Sitting
next to a frowning old woman on tram who looked like she was suffering,
the side of the body next to her began to hurt. I moved away.
22 May 2011 - World didn't end !!
"Believers
had spent months warning the world of the pending cataclysm. Some had
given away earthly belongings. Others took long journeys to be with
loved ones. And there were those who drained their savings accounts. All
were responding to the May 21 doomsday message by Harold Camping, an
89-year-old retired civil engineer who has built a multi-million-dollar
Christian media empire that publicizes his apocalyptic prediction." [another stupid failed prediction]
------------
And he's at it again - now he's claiming it'll be October. He was also wrong in predicting 1994 would be the end of the world.
22 May 2011 -
-
1992 "under suspicion" made in UK (not the American movie) with Liam
Neeson, is an excellent movie -- one of the best thrillers I've ever
seen.
-
90% of projects do not meet time/cost/quality targets. Only 9% of
large, 16% of medium and 28% of small company projects were completed
on time, within budget and delivered measurable business and
stakeholder benefits. [Standish Group Chaos Report, 1995] There are
many reasons for such failures. As per a KPMG survey of 252
organizations, technology is not the most critical factor. Inadequate
project management implementation constitutes 32% of project failures,
lack of communication constitutes 20% and unfamiliarity with scope and
complexity constitutes 17%. Accordingly 69% of project failures are due
to lack and/or improper implementation of project management
methodologies.
- Gig in Luzern was a nice accomplishment - it'd
been a while since I played classical guitar in an event. Angela's bass
lines were great.
- Paul McCartney really has some great bass
lines - in Something or With a Little Help. But in "If I Needed
Someone" his bass line is not good.
21 May 2011
Tired of C powder's inconvenience - moving back to pill form: A
more recent study examined the plasma levels of ascorbic acid in 59
male smokers supplemented for two months with either 500 mg/day of
slow-release ascorbic acid, 500 mg/day of plain ascorbic acid, or a
placebo. After two months of supplementation no significant differences
in plasma ascorbic acid levels between the slow-release and plain
ascorbic acid groups were found (5).
LPI's recommendation is based on more recent research than during Linus Pauling's time
WOW!!!!!!!!!!
managed to play some guitar before sleeping despite being very tired.
20 May 2011
Too busy at work - very intense project - very demanding. Found some time to play guitar at night which is healing...
17 May 2011
Scary
to read US is talking of default - that would be catastrophic for the
world economy. Now Republicans who wasted billions in a stupid war are
eager to cut spending !! The scary part is the if the republican
lawmakers too stupid they might let a default happen just to force
Obama out. And they don't want to cut the tax breaks for Big Oil!!
The
head of IMF is in jail on no bond. Is he guilty?
I think so. Why else would he not say a word to police during the first
10 hours in custody. A not guilty person would plead, beg, say it must
have been an error. He just sat there and shut up. And the victim has
had a consistent story. And the guy has had some history. It seems that
he thought he could get away with it. His lawyer must be happy as he'll
get rich defending him. ...... prosecutors say the have plenty of
evidence . 1/2 of French population are in disbelief and think it's a
set up - but it's not. It's for real.
15 May 2011
I don't know where the day went... Did a lot of work for CS. Changed strings to Savarez 500CRJ which sucked so I took them off and now I have to restring again.
Worked
a bit on the circular. But most of the time spent was watching the
entire first season of Trump's Apprentice which I started yesterday
while playing guitar. The actions themselves were kind of boring so I
fast forwarded through it but the decisions were fun to watch and some
of the episodes were cool. I am glad Amy (artificial blond from Texas with a big ego) got the realistic interview
results from the judges who all thought she was superficial -- good
looks can only go so far.
Donald Trump keeps boasting about his
luxuries and helicopter and jet and so on. Who cares !! None of that is
interesting to me -- I don't mind having Billions but not in order to
live in golden palaces. I
also find the giving so much importance to toughness is so ugly. And
Donald, while obviously a wise guy, is involved in what I find to be
the most boring of activities: realstate. I much prefer guitars.
In job interviews, he looks for brains and energy.
Good talk w/ Kamiar.
14 May 2011
Did
a lot of work for CS because the project is extremely
demanding and some weekend work is required to stay on top of it. But the weekend started well with a 2 hour guitar practice while watching Donald Trump's Apprentice. I
was honored to receive a response from Robert Lustig, M.D, Division of
Pediatric Endocrinology, UCSF -- he's a guru of research on white
poison *sugar* Woman who saw my laptop said: I love the title “The Beatles” – Super!
10 May 2011 onwards
Finding time to play a bit of guitar at nights and doing yoga which is life saving. It's
amazing how a guitar that walks into your life as a youngster grows
like a flower... it's 'always' been there -- with deep roots that is
evident of how it comes so naturally. Yoga is making the sinuses upside down for good. The team is great - very interesting project - power of questioning, thinking together, the power of now.
The
subtle end taste of yellow carrots brought took me to our first house
and Manna and those day. of childhood. Thought can create a regression
but it wasn't.
Organic
Buffalo Mozzarella is a blessing. He said the buffalos don't give much
milk. They have them near his house in Switzerland. B&S&S
visited for lunch. They were shocked at the price - - I took them to
Tibits - I paid around $120 for 4 salads at Tibits. B&I have a very
good chemistry and laugh a huge deal everytime we meet. It was hard to
get S out of shops - she bought dress, special Swiss acid face cleaner
etc. -- instead of acid face cleaner she could stop smoking which would
do more good for the skin than anything.
8 May 2011 - Old Guitar
The
old guitar gave one so much joy - streams of soothing balsam
poured over depth of being. Nice to find time to visit the old
kids - the old pieces - that are sometimes neglected due to busi-ness
of daily life and energy that's wasted as stupid people who don't
understand the concept of respecting others' rights take away your
freedom due to their craziness jealousies, etc.
Good talk with Beat -- looking forward to performing at his Wedding.
Maurice Steger's such a nice guy. He answered the sms immediately.
Discussions with young friend about career etc.
7 May 2011 - Transcriptions
Peter
Hasler is amazing -- we had dinner and went over many Beatles songs --
as I thought the Japanese transcriptions "Beatles Complete Scores" has
many errors - they must have been on Saki when they wrote it. We
checked the drum parts against the record and he corrected his notes --
amazing how handy a pen and pencil can be for a scholar.
For example, the main drum fill of WLHFMF is wrong. AML triples are not written, etc...
Managing
a great project - with resources in like 10 locations, almost 100
stakeholders, big team, very tight timeline, very diverse
organizationally, effects 1000's of users.
Alcohol brings the
worst out of people - these polite Swiss guys turned into hooligans in
Baden -- in Brugg it's a lot worse -- on a weekend when they finally
are free from the shackles of a job they hate, and pressures of
conformity. When there's inner freedom a person doesn't have to resort
to alcohol for fun.
She is in constant fight with herself.
What a shit life she must have. She's been wanting to quit smoking for
years but she can't. She is doing something she hates, she knows is
stupid, she knows it's unhealty, she knows it costs a lot, every day,
many times a day, against her will. Shit is the polite way of putting
it. And for her to pick fights with others and do crazy things is no
wonder. So if a woman like that does something stupid - like throwing
the blanket from the hanger on the floor - it's easy to move on.
4 May 2011 - KFA
KFA seems to me to be a nightmare, perhaps everything K ever dreaded in an organization.
Last time I visited there Michael Krohnen attacked me (verbally and physically) in the most
vulgar way based on no sound reason and totally unprovoked. I
wrote the incident but since then have found out more details that
makes me believe the management of the place is a nightmare. Dark Ages
is one way of putting it. "Fascist" was how a guy who saw what happened
put it. Management by bullying. I don't know what the hell these people
think or who they think they are to treat the public with bullying and
not with rationality reasonableness and respect for decency and goodness.
It's obvious that they had no case and that's why they resorted to
bullying. I have expanded on the reasoning behind this in an article
which at some point I will publish. Krishnamurti was very right to call
this foundation "idiotic". Poor guy wanted to dissolved these
foundation but he was stuck with them out of practical necessity. KFA
does good work with archival and publications but when it comes to
management, it's beyond disgusting.
4 May 2011 - Ethics
Reading
an article, a memory popped up. I was about 20 - she was about 30 -
beautiful woman. She was married and her husband was away on business
travel often. I suspect she suspected he was going with other women.
She wanted to have an affair with me but I refused because she was
married. That is still my ethics, and I am happy that I have never gone
with a married woman.
3 May 2011 - Dad
had a powerful dream one of those dreams that's more than a dream dad had come back in same clothes in that little room on his bed beautiful smiling unattached unassuming lovely loving simple shining how could he come back ? b/c he's an angel
even as i woke i could feel the love i was smiling i could feel him what a sweet meeting it was but it's not over he is of love and he is here
[logged in dad file]
2 May 2011 -
-
I told her that's not a good customer service behavior to tell a person
my manager will telly you the same thing. That's been proven so many
times. Again, today. Sure enough, the manager looked it up and instead
of "it's lost, initiate a trace" his answer was, "it's coming, with a
one day delay" !!
2 May 2011 - $1M Gain
-
RN said his friend made a $1M buying DNDN based on the tip I gave him.
2 May 2011 - Bin Laden Is Dead
-
Finally. A great news the world has been waiting for, for a long long time. - Osama is dead. The world can rejoice.
1 May 2011 -
After band practice and nice dinner i have a lot of energy.
Peter
and I communicate so well. Angela and I too anyway. I say A - Peter
know the whole story of the Apple I have in mind because he hears the
same thing.
30 April 2011 - New Article
-
Neighbour is playing Alphorn. Limited number of notes but it has a serene beautiful sound.
- "Are Krishnamurti Foundations Immune From Corruption?" Title of a new article which is flowing nicely.
27 April 2011 - Creativity at work
-
She wants to have a job that's creative. Not necessarily in arts but
one in which she can apply her own intelligence rather than acting like
a robot. Many jobs requires such independent thinking but the higher
one's grade and education the more likelihood of that.
22 April 2011 - Corruption in "spiritual" organizations
- Organizations
around psychological matters are very prone to corruption. Corruption
means resorting to dishonesty for personal (and psychological) gain (or
prevention of loss). I
have seen some cases of it recently. When people lie to protect their
ideologies, images, however far from facts those images may be, then
it's just corruption. The whole group mentality is possibly the
culprit. Put someone with a lot of money in the picture, it tends to
catalyze the matter by people who try to find importance by the
power of opposites. Or put a power hungry egomaniac in the picture and
people lie to win his support. An independent person does not need to
get engaged in these corrupt matters. This is why truth can not be
organized. Truth is too dynamic moving fresh to be put in boxes which
are bound to get stale and corrupted. Corruption has nothing to do with
spirituality. That is why some of these people in these organizations
who are corrupt, are hypocritical. There are also good people too. In
this case, the man with the money has good intentions and does good
work but the unphilosophic group pitfalls are still there.And the other
guy, the egomaniac who wants to have power at any price, has to stop
and think: what about 50 years from now!
- I wish them all
well. All I do is to say what I see. Sometimes it doesn't go across
well but to wish another ill, is another form of corruption.
23 April 2011 - Music Medicine
It
will be a miracle if I can perform today. But my being needs that more
than food. And my people need that as well. I took an Aleve because I
was out of sudafed and it dried up the system badly. It seems this
morning the (temporary intense stress related) cold is gone -- went for
a walk at 6:30 despite short sleep and now heavy steaming. Perhaps the
angels of music will bring some more sleep and open sinuses for a
performance.
I really need to get out there and play (it's the best medicine).
-----------
woke
up at 6:30 after a short night of sleep - went for a walk - time flew
by but managed to get a bit of rest - and yoga. Managed to be there for
perform at 1 pm - it was a miracle. And the miracle touched people and
their love touched us and was one with our love. They appreciated the
gift that these three people brought to the street and taught their
children to appreciate us too.
Lennon's spirit was there.
22 April 2011 - Institutional image making / corruption
Organizations
around psychological matters are very prone to corruption. Corruption
means resorting to dishonesty for personal (and psychological) gain (or
prevention of loss). I will publish an article later. If you want to get a glimpse of my latest writings on the subject you can email me: info (at) rezamusic (dot) com
March 2011 -
I had exact change. - It’s you? - No - Your hand? - No. it’s outside – and inside; nobody understands it.
April 2011 - Power of understanding not coercion
Kid: - I don’t want to empty my lunch box Reza: - who has to do it? Kid: - don't want to? Reza: - who should do it then? The possibilities are mom, sister.
he
got up and just did it with no force or coercion. I just allowed his
intelligence see, through the power of seeing and understanding, and silence (gave him space to look at the questions).
Tara: A gentleman is a man who's gentle in everything. Tara (6 year old).
20 April 2011 -
-
Worked late at night to finish an important letter to a
foundation inviting them to be philosophical. I may publish it in some
form at some point.
- They weren’t talking to us but after she saw the Ferrari she said: where do you guys go to have fun?!
- Work of one of my professors: The other brief by Alladi Venkatesh,
Debora Dunkle and Amanda Wortman, titled “Digitizing Physical Objects in
the Home” describes the extent to which digital replacement of common
physical objects is occurring in U.S. households. This report can be
accessed at http://crito.uci.edu/papers/2011/DigitizingPhysicalObjects.pdf
-
Bijan Pakzad died at age 67 from a stroke. "a legend in the fashion
and perfume biz -- famously suits up movie stars and world leaders. His
Rodeo Drive boutique is known as the most expensive store in the world."
- The mayor of Beverly Hills is Iranian.
- One puff of oxymetazoline did magic last night.
- Pitfalls can be turned into an opportunities.
15 April 2011 -
-
Great jam session. Peter coded several new Beatles songs and played
them perfectly the first time, reading the notes. That's the power of
education. Angela learned the new songs so easily -- she's incredibly
talented. We had Chinese / Thai food. So hard to get
non-meaty-non-fishy stuff. We had a nice time. Good chemistry.
-
She seemed somewhat depressive. She is back to Switzerland but wants to
go somewhere and she doesn't know where yet. She said this society is
very competitive etc. -- I said yes, but you have to turn your back to
any tradition otherwise it attempts to make us conform. You have to be
free, then you can live in the best of societies and not be bogged down
by the negative parts, like lack of emotion, pressure of becoming etc.
14 April 2011 -
Thank
God The Almighty that I can breath again - the sinuses are clearing.
Off the antibiotics. The combo of salt water and baking soda
really helps flush the mucus.
13 April 2011 - A Serious Writer
She recalls seeing arrays of notebooks in the old house. As a kid she thought to herself: “my cousin is a serious writer”. We
only play cover music that we love and then with the original spirit --
it doesn't have to be the same arrangement but the spirit has to be
there and certain essential components need to exist : e.g. the melody,
certain guitar and drum and bass riffs that people know.
12 April 2011 - Smoking Flower
Met
a flower who smoked. Reminded me of Vero - a couple of years older - 20
- a victim of Big Tobacco mafia. Even used the same excuse as Vero:
that when I am pregnant I will stop. Two kids later, Vero still smokes.
Psychological time is an illusion. What we are is what we will be
unless some change happens in the present. Smoking is so addictive that
it makes the mind plays tricks on itself and the most common trick is
deferral based on an excuse: some event that will happen in order to
make one change but when that event comes the mind makes other
excuses...
Despite her young age she knew The Beatles and likes them!
She
smokes in order to forget her occupations, in order to be in the
moment. She's obviously intelligent to recognize that, and that smoking
doesn't help anything and makes like more complicated. Specially as one
ages, living in constant conflict of having to do something stupid
against one's will just disintegrates the mind, aside from the physical
impact. And it invites negativity. I've discussed all this in : http://home.datacomm.ch/rezamusic/cig.html
It's possible to be in the present, to not carry burden of the past, without such destructive escapes.
It's
also possible to solve our problems if we really want to - by putting
energy into it, by attending to it, exploring the problem ... and the
solution is in the problem.
11 April 2011 - The Lame "Sex Sells" Conditioning
It's
summer time and many women feel obliged to let it all hang out. The
excuse is the summer. But if that's the case why aren't men feeling
obliged to walk around showing 3/4 of their chests? So that excuse is
just a lame excuse. The fact is, the clothing designers, manufacturers,
and buyers are all conditioned to think sex is all important. It's the
same lame conditioning which makes lady classical musicians resort to
exposing their intimate parts in order to gain attraction, let alone
other genres!! There is something fundamentally wrong with "sex sells"
approach. I believe it is the obligation of every free woman to not
fall for this futile shallow superficial conditioning of the mind.
10 April 2011 - Peter Hasler / Rezangela
-
Jam session with Peter Hasler was refreshing. He's a master of drums --
one of the best drummers I've ever played with. He has a big musical
mind. And a great, friendly attitude and a good heart. What a pleasure
to work with him. I was telling Angela afterwards that this was what I
had in mind -- this quality of drumming -- and that is why I could
never settle with any of the many many drummers we worked with in
Switzerland. I can trust him because he is intelligent and he is a
gentleman. And a nice icing on the cake is that he sings and he sings
well. We're now a singing group. It will still take work but we enjoy
it, and in some months' time, we'll be singing killer 3-part harmonies
and playing tight grooves; which will set crowds on fire. Angela is
also playing and singing very well.
- We're open to have the
name "Rezagela" change if we find a better name but we looked for a
better name before and it took a LOT of energy -- I don't want to go
through it again -- but if a better name is suggested we are certainly
open to it. But the name is not exclusive and doesn't exclude other
people -- we'll have our names in all advertisement anyway. If *you*,
the reader have a good idea for a band name, let me know, but for now,
"Rezangela" serves the purpose well, of doing Beatles and other
legends, as well as originals.
- Couple of funny videos (just added to rezatv.com)
- It was lovely hearing the sound of newborn birds singing in this blessed spring.
-
Justin Biber is in town. Flocks of young teenagers are out to see him -
mostly girls. They all love him. They even wrote that on their faces.
What an impact a person like that can have on these people's lives.
Does he? He can convey a lot through his lyrics. Through his speeches.
Through his life. If his face is turned to eternity, he could change
the world.
- Tradition is constantly wanting to shape the young in its corrupt
ways. It feels that it has the liberty to intervene in the lives of the
young to influence them to become materialistic, selfish, egotistic
creatures to fit the mold of tradition.
- In big companies, many just do time. I've known
consultants often who can get the work done in 2 hours but sit there
for 8 to bill for 8. That would be like living in a prison. My approach
is different. I give the customer best worth for his money. Deliver top
quality service at the fastest possible way.
-
Trying to talk to GlaxoSmithKline in Switzerland was like pulling
teeth. Stone-age customer service. They suck. Their product causes
bleeding. I called the US division, they're happy to refund the money
if bought in the US. What a difference! But need original receipt
sent in post. In Switzerland they hang up on you because even
mentioning a refund is like committing a crime. Not worth the hassle.
- Again, woke up with orientation of Orange in mind.
-
"MBA, MCT, BBIT, PMP, CISSP ... I have a dozen or so more that I
usually don't share: MCP, MCSE, MCSA, MCDST, MCTS:MBS, MCSA:Security,
MCSE:Security, SVEB, Security+, ..."
06 April 2011 -
-
The Spring has never been welcomed more. It is blessing everyone
and everything. The colorfully fragrant air brings bliss despite pains
associated with being a vehicle. - "Thought shattering itself against its own nothingness is the explosion of meditation." JK - Nice to see many old friends at CS. - An entire organic open market on Wednesdays!! Shame to eat that cafeteria non-bio food despite it being well made. - Late night ironing while hoping for sinus to open. - Extended taking antibiotic. - In-and-out dentistry - excellent place - business started by 2 Persian sisters. Went in. Got the work done quickly.
They all look like they just arrived from a far away star after a long inter-galactical surf-ride.
04 April 2011 - Support of artists
It
almost made me cry of joy seeing a Swiss mother insist on giving her
1.5 year old money and teaching the baby to give money to the musician
and appreciate fine values of life.
04 April 2011 -
- Spent long time planning summer weekend gift trip to the big city. Insight came during the walk and finalized the trip. -
Was looking for a solution for sinuses and in almost desperateness
pulled a new singing book off the shelf - opened it - and it was about
sinus care. Following the tips. Nice sign. - Tooth's thin crown popped out. Needs some glue :) -
She could really comprehend the talk about love never dying. She's very
'spiritual' and highly intelligent. She's a devout Christian but even
in her language and thinking love not dying makes sense as in her book
it says that God is love.
-
He said generally swiss don't like germany and were traditionally afraid of them because germany has wanted
to take over Switzerland for a long time but didn't succeed. Just as I
thought, probably the difference in the dialect was a result of this
desire to claim autonomy "we had distance by the language"...He
said after the war he was in Netherland with a group of Swiss. The
Dutch thought they were Germans and did not even serve them, but did,
once they found out they were Swiss.
-
Brugg's gotto have the biggest concentration of bigots in Switzerland.
The majority of people in Brugg are nice and civilized but there are
many who live on the vulgar side of the borderline of civility &
vulgarity.
-
It's been in effect for some time: "Congratulations! Your account is
now enabled for uploads longer than 15 minutes. Click the Upload button
below to select a video."
-
Steroid spray for the nose caused bleeding. She's right - I should just
leave the nose alone. When a nostril is congested I get afraid of
consequences. Things with body take time. This too shall pass.
-
His bothers didn't give any of the money left to all the kids by their
parents to their bother outside the country who had no money. This led
to the brother committing suicide. They've also cheated their other
brother. How ugly it is to put money before morales.
- Under
Iranian law the son inherits double the daughter. But I believe in
equality of sexes and therefore, if there's some money, I will only
take equal share as my sister.
- Travel.yahoo.com has really blown it. They've added these dynamic/high-res wallpapers which really hog the performance.
31 March 2011 - The World is NOT ending in 2012
- There's so much hype and noise and fear, perpetuated by media, about the world ending in 2012. It ain't happening folks.
- Sinus
bleeding is worrying. Death is always so close. As long as I have my
digital content encrypted and an updated will communicated to my
sister, I have no fear of death. I feel there's still plenty to do --
in helping minds heal themselves, in spreading message of peace harmony
and love, but we are so vulnerable...
-
10:39 pm - Thank God, the bleeding has stopped. An angel's healing
hands together with anti-biotics, lots of C, steam, and many other
therapeutic steps all help. Dairy and soy products are mucus forming.
Thick orange/brown phlegm seemed to have been hiding behind days of
clear phlegm. Let's hope they'll all get out.
28 March 2011 - Essence of psychological change
Had
a deep talk with X. About what conditioning means. The essence of
freedom from habit is in seeing what one is. Seeing itself can bing
change. Seeing is an art that requires seeing in silence, and not
moving away from what is to what should be which results in friction
which is a wastage of energy which is necessary for change. If one is
moving away, judging what is, then what is, includes that, and one can
see that, which brings change -- perhaps ends that moving away from the
original phenomenon...
Not knowing is a virtue. The
unintelligent wants to rush to a conclusion. She saw that. She doesn't
know. She's open. I reminded her that I have no inclination one way or
another, to sway her in any direction.
Tara played guitar on the phone. Will give them a lesson on skype. Rusteen is also playing...
26 March 2011 - Motherly love can never be denied by thought
She said when she goes to beheshte Zahra she asks the gone ones to pray for shadi and reza When mana would go to agha joon and maman bozorg’s grave she would ask them to pray for the kids. Such is motherly love which no thought’s divisive process can ever question.
27 March 2011 -
If we love someone fully, we are not saddened by their death, because love does not die.
26 March 2011 -
Started
taking anti-biotic. Augmentin really helped last year with a long
lasting sinus infection. I know why I got this: immune system got shot
from the stress of preparation for the big test (which I passed). Have
tried everything... Now it's time for antibiotics. Dr. M used to
propose antibiotics even in viral cases as preventative measure. Dr B
is also pro-anti-biotics. I try to avoid them as much as possible. But
one month of this blues is enough.
From
a scientific standpoint what puzzles me is how there can be so much
clear mucus but then underlying there be infection (from time to time -
specially after steam room - a hard piece of yellow-brown mucus pops
out).
25 March 2011 -
I've been totally miserable from this seemingly perennial cold or flu or whatever it is. I
still think it's a virus but a very persistent one. Rest really helps.
It's another late night and today I'm worse -- after steam room an old
colored mucus came but now congested - maybe should not have had the
yogurt. I am trying to be totally scientific. Trying everything.
Antihistamin is probably not a good idea but listened to advice to take
something that has that in it. Another hot shower. Another walk. Now
will do pushups and situps as my last resort and try to sleep.
22 March 2011 -
-
Jazz is too broad of a term. Some of the best music I've ever heard is a style of Jazz I love - and the exact opposite too!
19 March 2011 -
-
Thank God The Almighty and the healing powers of the universe and the
body and vitamin C and all other good things -- no infection in
sinuses. Took Pseudafeds yesterday - 3 doses - the last one kept me up
for several hours but slept enough and steamed this a.m. and on heavy
Vitamin C still (around 20 grams per day).
-
Dreamed of Tehran - so much love for the people and the place -
specially when I used to live there before age 15 when it was a
lot less polluted and crowded. The area around our house is so nice -
so broad so lovely. But now it's turned into one big junkyard of high
speed trucks and motorcycles -- always noisy and the air is not
breathable. Still, there is something magical in the air of the base of
that magic mountain, Alborz, and its peak Damavand 5,610 meter,
standing tall, symmetric and beautiful - snow capped all year despite
the catastrophic global warming (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/3d/Damavand_in_winter.jpg/280px-Damavand_in_winter.jpg).
There is something in the air -- perhaps from the many Chenar trees
whose leaves provide make for percussive walks in autumn and bring back
memories of a romantic fool. A sense of solidarity is still there among
people although many friends and families have been torn apart and live
in many places around the world. I love the people and the language of
Iran and everytime I go I feel very comfortable there at the heart
level -- except the air pollution which makes every moment bitter for
the lungs and the body/brain.
- As I had expected yoga helped the sinuses. Thermal baths also
helped. Body had stress from the German test and other recent
fluctuations which I am learning to deal with without anxiety if I am
to go on with. Tried to get the other nostril to open - and it did -
and then did a lot of swimming.
-
M committed suicide but they rescued her - now she's in a coma on life
support and hospital bill is $30,000 already and they say take her
home. Suicide is never a good option. It is perhaps the highest form of
violence and disrespect of life. X said Reza was right, that I should
not associate with them because they're negative and heavy smokers,
etc. -- I love J but can't stand being near them.
17 March 2011 -
-
10.5 hour sleep after many sleepless nights was a blessing. Managed to
keep the sinuses relatively open without medication today. This virus
is nasty -- one of those long-duration ones that other people I know
got but maybe should have taken medicine. Last night took a hit
of the decongestant spray which was helpful for sleeping..
-
Had a job interview recently. Interesting that most of the time I was
asking questions and learning about them. They were very good people.
The manager was very nice - 1/2 Italian, 1/2 Greek. He had read my
resume carefully. He asked what I could tell them, so I did a brief
sales pitch, obviously, always truthful. It seems like a good match.
They felt the same. Got the contract.
- Persistence and
perseverance is a very important characteristic. I've seen a lot get
accomplished with these qualities which would not have without them,
[logged]
-
Had correspondence with Swisscom CEO who personally emailed me back
thanking for the complements that I sent for his Urdorf division. They
were delighted needless to say. Very nice people there and the senior
technician there is amazing when it comes to repairing these extremely
complicated camcorders - and his boss, very nice guy who resolved a
somewhat complicated issue very well.
-
KFA resent their mass mail after I wrote them a hot letter about having
posted link to Ravi Ravindra's pathetic book. It's bad enough that he's
speaking there but to publicize his gossip book was a real shame.
- The new Yahoo Travel site sucks. They have all these high resolution images moving in the back which slows it down.
16 March 2011 -
-
Recovered fully from a hard disk physical error. Got a new one. Dealing
with Dell was like pulling teeth but managed to get what I wanted which
was only reasonable.
-
The SEC is still on the side of Wall Street and doesn't require large
shorts to publicly disclose their positions in a company. That really
sucks and totally puts the game against Main Street. Large longs need
to publicly disclose their position but shorts are protected by the
very cops who are supposed to protect us!! Why? Well the SEC says if
the disclose it then other shorts will know which stocks are shorted
and short them. Isn't it the exact things with longs? It is. So that
excuse is just rubbish. SEC is still pretty useless IMO when it comes
to giving Main Street a fair treatment.
13 March 2011 -
-
Thanks God I can breath again. A ton of vitamin C - and one thing that
helped a lot was getting a nose spray bottle and spraying sodium
chloride into the nose, and steaming, etc.
-
Dream of dad - he had not died fully but had come back from dead. It
was so nice to hug and kiss him. He was the tenderest and sweetest
person I ever met, like his mother who was also very kissable. There
was silence when I asked to tell us from the other side - he said a few
things first - and then there was silence. In the dream I thought it
might be a dream but it was reality. I was so convinced that it is
reality when I was dreaming -- maybe because it was -- maybe there was
a real element in it. Obviously kissing father so much was not real as
his flesh and beautiful sweet face is no longer alive but he had come
back in some way, repaired from the damage that had killed him -- the
frikin doctors who killed him with too many medications. As Pauling
points out, quoting WHO constitution: "health is a state of
complete physical, mental, and social well-being, and not merely the
absence of disease and infirmity" and "The enjoyment of the highest
attainable standard of health is one of the fundamental rights of every
human being...". Pauling goes on to point out that the terms "health
centers, health profession, health companies" is a misnomer because it
is really the sickness industry.
-
Despite being kind of sick still, went to friend's concert just to
provide support. A round trip ticket came as a gift -- a good
omen... Finished an important letter and got it off my desktop.
-
Zunft an old Zurich culture - places for people of different trades to
socialize. I ended up playing key role in the concert in getting the
performers to start sooner -- the carnival music was a big distraction
to the classical concert.
11 March 2011 -
-
The air was so soft today, like a cuddly cute creature whose every move
makes you want to adore it. The hills were calling. The air was saying,
Spring is on its way. It is bound to get cold again before spring comes
but then again the poor planet is very confused and abused by stupidity
and selfishness and carelessness and irresponsibility of humans.
Japan was just rattled by a 8.x earthquake.
- A nice
walk and hot shower did the sinuses a lot of good. Sinus issues require
a) keeping the congestion open whatever it takes -- a local spray is
much better than these frikin medication which actually make you sick
and you have to recover from the medications. b) drinking lots of water
c) lots of vitamin C (15+ grams/day) d) exercise e) rest f) hot
drinks.g) anything else that boosts the immune system.
- Dealing
with Schwab was like pulling teeth. After an hour of discussion finally
a manager listened to my rational argument and finally moved off his
chair and looked into the issue and came back and said everything I had
said was true. The so called expert at 3rd level support who kept
pointing the finger at client software in an arrogant fashion and
discarding my totally logical argument of why his hypothesis is false,
turned out to be wrong. So Schwab has two serious limitations: a) early
in the day the updates are delayed; they finally admitted it's them,
and has to do with data travel but they're clueless why it happens
early in the day and will probably never fix it. b) they are not able
to provide realtime data. What a lousy software; it must be a legacy
spaghetti code that's hard to maintain because otherwise the subject is
not rocket science.
9 March 2011 - Children
-
These brains are precious - adults have to be careful not to constantly
expose these kids to a state of having problems. Everything has become
a problem: sleeping, having breakfast, changing clothes, etc... Adults who have gone through a revolution like the Iranians have, have gotten used to being in a state of emergency. To
give value to silence is important. Adult should not issue statements
from a distance and then repeat it - kid gets used to having adult say
something 9 times before complying. If kid is playing s/he doesn't hear
the mother, or tunes her out. Instead of shooting statements while
washing dishes 9 times and then getting upset why the kid does't hear,
the adult can go to the kid once and get the attention and say it.
-
A child absorbs everything. An adult may babble like a robot unlike a
child who may still be free from programmed response. Condemning the
child is just as destructive as boosting his or her ego/sense of self.
Condemnation leads to inferiority complex. Boost of ego leads isolating
sense of self. Understanding is the alternative to struggle. A child
still has a sense of what silence is. An adult may have lost it in the
incessant noise of the world. The best an adult can do for a child is
to be in tune oneself, and from that, teach the child responsibility.
-
Peter and I see eye to eye -- I fully agree with him that a nice green
guitar or a gentle color is better than red. Since the red was
defective and I sent it back, a nice blue or green would be nice. No
hurry.
7 March 2011 -
- Took a 12 hour Aleve-D for the sinus -- it was like 10 cups of coffee -- I was up practically all night. [it happened again another night and I wrote them this: "I
bought a 20 caplet box. It's poison. Hell. I have such a terrible
reaction to it. Can't sleep - up all night - sweating - like having
drunk 10 cups of coffee -- and other reactions. I didn't keep my
receipt. Can I get a refund somehow? Thanks"
- The meeting went really well -- such lovely kind people. Nice gift at the right time. -
Also a sugar free perfect cake arrived -- it doesn't even have flour --
so the food combo is perfect (it has eggs). Incredibly delicious.
- He went there to meet a woman for the first time – met her
family, etc. – he was upset because she had not gone for a kiss after 4
days of meetings – but she sent a message apologizing. There’s nothing
to worry about – don’t read too much into it – we have a tendency to be
in a state of having a problem – it’s a habit many people have – and
it’s a result of giving thought too much importance and applying it
where it doesn’t belong. Give her time. You should be happy not in this
state of depression over nothing.
He invited me for a drink
but it was cold and I have a cold and a train. At Migro’s nice organic
plums, kale, banana, tofu, and even cheese welcomed me back to Switz.
You
have a bright future - I can see it. He left with a smile and appeared
to have found freedom from his self-induced problem. I didn’t help him,
I was just a mirror, a sounding board, he explained the story that was
bothering him, emptied himself, and I bounced back what I saw like a
good mirror should.
On the bus met two girls from Israel who had beautiful faces. They’d come to Switzerland to ski.
7 March 2011 - 2 good articles
Good story about
PBA: The man who can't stop crying: How a stroke changed the life of theatre director Max Stafford-Clark http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1160746/The-man-stop-crying-How-stroke-changed-life-theatre-director-Max-Stafford-Clark.html
Drug Firms Face Billions in Losses in ’11 as Patents End http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/07/business/07drug.html?_r=1&hp
March 2011 - Sound of Mother
-
Sound of mother is the first sound we hear, even before we are born.
It's no wonder how sheep communicate and find each other among so many
perfectly similar looking ones by the quality of voice. I realized,
talking to mom, how deep rooted the tone of her voice penetrates in my
being. There are many things that can keep people apart but love is not
partial.
- Sugarfree organic Ketchup brightened the dinner.
-
Amateur musicians have hit the streets with their amazingly colorful
happy and beautiful customs. The music is not great but the spirit of
it is. And it's great that all these people play music. -
A night walk revealed a town in disarray - drunks everywhere. Many in
the groups of colorfully dressed musicians were also drunk. It was a
scene and sound of decadence and not beauty. Perhaps earlier in
the night before they get so drunk it had been beautiful but alcohol
kind of ruins it. -
In the day time the colorful bands were amazing -- incredible costumes
and make up -- playing rock music with 2 or 3 bass drum players banging
them on both sides -- marching band of like 30 people -- from Basel,
Luzern, Wettingen, Baden, etc. -- an Italian lady was the only
one, among Swiss who danced. - 2 x 17 month old twins were incredibly cute.
4 March 2011 -
-
It's an enchanting day. Worked late into the night again and woke up
with the sound of street drills -- they start very early morning. -
The hills are inviting -- the marvelous Laegern which like a protector
stands tall just in our backyard is calling one to go for a long hike. - Waxed shoes, chatted in German with neighbour. -
Too tired to be too functional without a bit more rest. Napping I felt
the comfort of grandma's arms when we used to take naps together and
took a fast trip down the memory lane. -
Antonella is smoking again, no wonder. She promised herself to quit on
Dec 31 but nothing changes on new year's day. Psychological time is an
illusion. - Cleaning the house is always a requirement for doing something great. Inner and outer order are one and the same.
3 March 2011 -
-
I feel a bit more relaxed knowing the bull is under control. It took a
lot of struggele to grab it by the horns and it's surely not a done
deal yet but just gathering some energy for the next round in taming
the bull. Countdown is on.
-
She said Tehran metro was so full of people and heavy that it had a
hard time moving. She went to center of town and said the noise
pollution was unbearable.
2 March 2011 - Expensive Lessons
- If
I had saved all the money I paid for lessons all my life, I'd have a
nice Red Convertible Ferrari for it :) - or maybe two or three (no
thanks - I am not greedy). The important thing is this: if we
realize that the mistake we made has a price and learn from it, and
grow from it, and not make that mistake again, then the price was worth
every penny of it and we can be happy instead of being down that we
made a mistake.
2 March 2011 - Time & Change
A friend wrote: > PS: Your advices are working!
good.
you are right but just one point:
we also have a habit of thinking change takes time
psychological time is an illusion
we can talk about this later or if you have time to read I can recommend some good book ;-)
insight brings immediate change
psychological change doesn't require chronological time - it requires insight.
postponement of change is an illusion but that is the way we are taught:
that we change in the future. Yes, practically, but psychologically, we
will be in the future what we are now unless some change takes place in
a now. ...
[certain things do need time for change, surely, but those are practical / technical / material things].
take care Reza
March 2011 - Tiredness...
Been
driving the body and brain very hard. The driver is the driven. No
separation. It's just a linguistic limit to create duality.
Sent
the Parker back -- the back unit had discoloration and there were too
many buzzez in too many locations. Pity - nice guitar but ! And I'm not
sure if I like the pickups -- not much character.
March 2011 - Drugs can make the mind quiet but at what price?!
talked to a friend
long talk
no time for writing details but key points:
this drug makes the brain quiet when you're not doing things.
proposed one can naturally have that state
understanding is key w/o trying to change
emptying
awareness
mirror of relationship
natural quietness
he pushes the students too much
the society is too pushy in the direction of success and achievement
important to see habits / influences / conditioning
suggested once find stability in school ramp down the drug - this can be
done naturally - but said i am not a doctor and he should not follow my
advice blindly - i may say the wrong thing
to find things out first hand
society: second hand people -- relying on others to tell us how it is.
i therapist x y can point some things out
his job to see if true
and if found truth it's first hand
the only thing that is fresh is the now
everything else is of the past.
key to inner quietness, and key to change is to see what one is
when not on drug he thinks negative thoughts that maybe i am not good enough of a teacher etc b/c kids don't practice ...
suggested meeting the kids every day afresh.
no image is key.
if u don't react with the same buttons they push things can be different
high pressure societies also have high suicide rate.
drugs
can make the brain artificially quiet but when they wear off the
problems come back. And drugs have side effects - they make a person
insensitive.
-----------
managing stress is a big part of success
walking
yoga
avoiding added sugar
sleep
healthy food
and very importantly, avoiding caffeine (coffee chocolate and some teas...)
helps :)
March 2011 - Another nobody who pretended to be somebody and commited crimes on the internet
Another
case of a zero who made of himself a internet hero but was caught in
his fraud and went back to minus zero. I've known a few of these losers
on internet who pretend to be things they are not. Living like a pig in
a dog house while pretending to be some rich successful doctor and so
on. That's one of the many dangers of internet.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110301/ap_on_re_us/us_fake_psychologist_sex_abuse DETROIT
- In real life, Steven Demink didn't have children, a college degree or
a lasting career. Online, prosecutors say, he presented himself as
Dalton St. Clair, an attractive single father and psychologist — a
fantasy image authorities say the Michigan man used to persuade mothers
across the country to commit unspeakable acts on their children.
28 Feb 2011 -
-
Swisscom which does repair work for Canon agreed to work on the camera
- I had to walk up to the boss - he was a very nice, understanding guy. -
Some women pay a lot of money for makeup to make their cheeks red; some
have it naturally and don't like it! Same with curly and straight hair.
Strange creatures we are :) - Talked to Dave Forsyth - he said no
chance that the hard disk is damaged due to the cut LCD connector wire.
I hope so. I have total faith in him as a super engineer. - I am
in love with my German teacher -- I was in love with my English teacher
as a 7 year old. She was so lovely. It was such a strong feeling.
1 March 2011 - FIA Card Services sent me a customer satisfactin survey :)
FIA Card Services: the worst credit card service in the industry. No
wonder, it's Bank of America and I already know how terrible that can
get.
Ok, I called in to check the address correction because last time they had it wrong.
The
girl was totally clueless. She didn't see the Swiss address and said
it's not in the postal nor physical address. I asked to talk to
manager. She resisted. I had to ask 3 times. Finally a manager came.
Surpris: he could see it. Why she couldn't see, I have no idea.
Then
the clueless manager tried to feed me an obscure statement. He later
admitted he didn't understand himself but he was trying to tell me
something he didn't understand in hope of just getting me to accept it.
This is a real insult. For example saying something like on February x,
your address was changed to xxx on February Y. Hell, is it Feb X or Y ?
It
was like pulling teeth. Then he got off his butt and looked into it. He
came back this time with the facts: Your address was changed from USA
to Uganda !!! Uganda ?!?!?!?
In the beginning I asked the
manager what he sees, what-is. He said: "so you don't want me to
resolve the situation for you?" How can you resolve a situation that
you don't even understand. First we have to understand what-is, then
try to solve it.
This was more than a misunderstanding. Too
many errors, too poor of an attitude. No wonder I don't use the FIA
card that much. Chase and CITI beat them hands down.
27 Feb 2011 -
Studied over 7 hours of German. Yes we can!
27 Feb 2011 -
New article on conversation with person who takes medications so he thinks less:
- “Many men go fishing all of their lives without knowing it is not fish they are after.” ~ Henry David Thoreau
-
‘In this world I would rather live two days like a tiger, than two
hundred years like a sheep.’ [1800 A. Beatson View of Origin and
Conduct of War with Tippoo Sultaun x. 153]
- ML is a nice guy but he's so bad at email communication. I give people the respect they deserve in answering their
emails. He can also, specially now that he's a trustee, but he just
ignored them.
-
He sided with XX without even understanding
the issue and admitting that he hadn't even read the article he was
criticizing!! How can people denounce something they had not even read?
Blows my mind. And this is supposed to be a philosophical sphere. This
is not some sort of invasion of privacy or anything that was exchanged
behind closed doors. But it's not the first time. Gisele Balleys denounced the
article I wrote about KLI and I asked her if she'd read it and she said
no! Welcome to the human race where very few who are fishing know it's
not fish they're after.
26 Feb 2011 - Wells Fargo Has Gone Downhill Quick
First
experience since takeover of Wachovia -- they lied and cheated me. They
said they'll credit the account if I filled the survey -- I did but the
money never came. Months later I called, oh sorry, we forgot or
whatever -- ok then they credited the account -- then they reversed it
a week later. Then I call to ask why, their frikin clueless customer
service rep says "if a credit was reversed there's nothing I can do",
that was her first line. Two managers subsequently tried to look into
it -- both hung up I guess because they want to cheat me. The executive
office woman had zero grasp of the issue - another transfer - she is
now looking. A bunch of low educated, dumb morons acted as customer
service reps today. It'll be interesting what they come up with. They
just look at your account balance and determine how to treat you based
on your balance. I have very little money there -- just the minimum to
keep that account open, and for good reason. Wells Fargo Sucks Bigtime.
Oh,
and they lied again: they said every call is reported. Katherine
Jafferies from the Executive Office said that's not the case -- some
are recorded randomly.
And I wasted money calling these donkeys from Switzerland.
24 Feb 2011 - On Sleep Quality; On Alcohol
Thanks for your questions.
Regarding sleeping quality, I find a few things very important:
1) Exercise, and the best being walking, helps one sleep better at
night. When we go for a nice long brisk walk (30 minutes or more let's
say) the largest muscle of the body (legs) work and massage the nerves
and helps us relax.
2) Avoiding caffeine: even one cup of coffee or black tea (or other teas
that have stimulants) or chocolate can effect sleep quality, even if
it's taken earlier in the day -- best to avoid caffeine.
3) Stretching. Yoga or similar types of stretching are really good in improving sleep and relaxation quality.
4) Not eating late is important.
Regarding Alcohol and personality, yes it indeed changes personality -
at least while under the influence. I avoid alcohol because it is a
depressant and I don't need to depress my nervous system which would
make me tired, etc. -- it's also not good for the brain.We can go into these and other subjects when we meet.
23 Feb 2011 -
- "Twin babies takes a lot out of me. I have to wash them, dress them,
prepare food for them, feed them, clean them, entertain them, carry
them, hug them, love them, teach them, and much more. X2 Every day,
including weekends, Christmas Day, Easter, you name it THERE IS NO TIME
OFF. No breaks no holidays." Jackie
-
Dhruva's guru was "Surath Chacravarti" -- he died about 15 years ago.
He had Parkinson's. I met him once as well, we went to his class. Of
course, I was not and am not his follower.
20 Feb 2011 -
She had very strange energy -- a hand shake made my nail break!
18 Feb 2011 -
Repairing
a Canon HG-10 was not easy -- we spent a long time on it and it worked
at the end, until, at the end, friend twisted a cable the wrong way and
the whole effort got wasted. He said he's used to losing work in
technology area.
17 Feb 2011 -
Funny
to get an email from Mark Lee about a retreat -- he's now retired --
and the email address used is from the one Troy used to use for sending
circulars. It's true that Troy is no longer at the position he was at.
Now they have a 2.5 day retreat at $475 per person (excluding
accommodation and dinner), and it's run by Mark, Asha, and ... Diane
White!!
The speaker seems very credible.
Feb 2011 -
Italian Markbass bass amp 10 inch speaker box definitely doesn't have the low end boom and
the 15 inch's high ends suck. 12 inch speakers seem to be ideal
TS
said his business is so slow - that everyone's business is slow - the
whole world's economy slowed down - and it's clear that Bush and his
gang ruined it big for the world, and he said the amazing thing is a
lot of people want that again !!
Feb 2011 - Swiss Alps
"the view today in <> was unbelievable the sky was blue, pink, yellow and every single mountain from the Alps were visible I sat there for one hour and just watched that beautiful nature and feeling the power of that scene I felt so much beauty and love for our earth"
07 Feb 2011 - Video Game Junkies
- These young and not so young video game junkies look like they
live in a virtual world with the brain caught in reacting to the CPU.
It does not look healthy.
-
Children understand a lot more than the vain child psychologists claim.
Children should be given the opportunity to appreciate the power and
importance of silence, and be taught the importance of quietness and
gentleness. Understanding goes a long way
06 Feb 2011
-
"Optimistic bias is commonly defined as the mistaken belief that one’s
chances of experiencing a negative event are lower (or a positive event
higher) than that of one’s peers."
-
Her mother learned from her to bargain, so she did it for the first
time in her life and it worked. In Switzerland it's very strange to
bargain and vendors just quote list price and people just pay it. This
time she got a few hundred off the washing machine by just asking. Next
time she can do even better :)
-
Met another victim of psychologists and psychiatrists.. They put him on
drugs for 10 years without any indication of what's wrong with him.
Finally he set himself free. These drugs totally limited his every
experience, sensory and otherwise, to a very limited scope. Now he can
not tell he he is hungry or not - if he likes a taste of something or
not ... but the good news is he set himself free. and his body
will find new sensitivity. His last psychiatrist lied to him -
that insurance won't pay for a test to see if there's anything wrong.
He took the test, showed nothing wrong, insurance paid, and he never
went back to that psychiatrist. He said "I realized he has no interest
in me being happy". He went as far as saying "that's the system here -
they want to have you quiet". He told his doctor, you're having
me in therapy for you not for me. Once he pressed the doctor to tell
him what's wrong with him that he had to be on drugs for 10 years, the
doctor said "inferiority complex" !!!! We had good talks about
"holistic psychology".
- Eating choco by middle age woman seems
to be a fashion, a way of getting quick pleasure, but with it comes
blood sugar fluctuations, stress, and extra pounds.
-
Moonlight Sonata is a great piece but it has to be played on the piano.
On classical guitar it sounds really had no matter who plays it.
-
I'm skeptical about uprisings that demand change per-se without
incorporating change at a fundamental level which is in the human
psyche itself -- specially if it's done as something to do, as an
occupation for the unemployed, and entertainment.
Feb 2011 - Boring Blues
-
Blues
has the be the most boring type of music. They played it in the
restaurant - it was intolerable - painful - boring - 100% predictable
in every way. Some good rock uses blues progressions but is Rock and
not Blues and therefore can be a lot more interesting.
-
people criticized Obama for being a rookie. I am neither a fan nor an
opponent but am sure of one thing: a rookie that goes by the book is a
lot better than a idiot that goes against the book, in the name of the
book.
31 Jan 2011 - A message to S. as part of an email dialogue with a few friends
Dear S:
- "Reza, why do you think they considered it a necessity? or was it K who thought that it was necessary?"
Obviously K thought they were necessary, else he'd dissolved them like he was inclined to. I
liked what Sitansu said about not remembering it in response to you
saying don't be attached to the teachings. There's nothing to memorize
so there's no memory of it and no attachment. If we're truly earnest
students - of life - then we need to be philosophers and not settle for
anything less than truth - or at least attempt to find truth - and that
involves examining what anybody says - and if we find a truth
ourselves, there's nothing to memorize repeat, or get attached to.
"So
the foundations go around throwing seeds. What they dont realise is
that there was only one seed thrower and he left the world of mortals
twenty five years ago."
In the last circular I have a
section called "on dissemination" (see K section at bottom of
www.rezamusic.com) in which I discuss this subject. As K pointed out as
well, true dissemination of anything is living it. A person naturally
disseminates an insight by living it. Are the foundations living the
teachings? I've seen indications that KFA for example was not and was
caught in the same egotistic divisive state which K warns at length.
The other foundations I don't know - anyway, I view their dissemination
efforts are a less important than the preservation, and once everything
is preserved, the role of foundations, in my opinion, dwindles. Of
course they have egos and want themselves to continue for the sake of
continuity and not necessity, but maybe they'll have the insight to
minimize themselves. Just my views.
"Twenty five years later, they are alive & kicking."
KFA
which I am most familiar with is not particularly kicking. It has had
serious financial challenges after it lost a ton of money by
making speculative investments against K's specific wish.
Kind Regards Reza Ganjavi
30 Jan 2011
- Good talks w/ 21 year old friend / ex-Brockwood Park Student. He has a good sense of perception of silence. - Had a vision to make a yoga video. And did it this morning. -
Friend said in Italy far fewer people go to psychologist and
psychiatrist and take anti depressants than in Switzerland (per
capita).
27 Jan 2011 onwards
- Intense study of German - many hours.
-
Talked to Fender. Electronics have a 5 year warranty. Tubes never need
to be changed as long as they work. Better not to take them out while
moving. Supersonic head has no reverb. The combo has spring reverb
(much nicer than digital) and it's road sturdy. Mustang series are
solid state but I don't trust them. I should take another look at
Hotrod Delux III. He said 40 tube watt is plenty. I don't believe him.
The Roadstar guy was more right: to get sustained clean sound you need
the wattage.
-
Mesa Boogie 50:15 has a fatter sound - a bit rougher than the Fender
which has a sweeter sound. The Supersonic has a nicer sound than the
Fender Hotrod Delux III which doesn't have the horsepower and neither
the sweetness of sound. The shop had a sign on the Supersonic that's 80
Watts -- not cool. I told them it's 60 and they removed the false sign.
My short list is a Fender Supersonic 60 or a Blackstar Artisan 100 if it wins my heart (yet to hear it).
-
Restaurant has a big sign: Gerstensoup Vegetarische 8 Francs. I found
out they use beef broth. The chef said "we just use a little bit" Duh
!!! Told them this is dishonest and very Un-Swiss and misleading.
They changed the sign!
- The Fender Supersonic Blond is a top contender. It's very expensive but the sweet sound has me mesmerized.
27 Jan 2011 - Venezuela
-
Met a couple in the bus - they had an adorable 3.5 month daughter
"she's watching everything" the father said. They said in Venezuela
before Chavez people of different classes went to the same schools.
Then he brought hatred -- that the middle and upper class became the
hated ones and instead a new class, people close to him, became the new
rich. They said his idea of 21st century socialism is not working.
Despite the high oil price and country's rich oil reserves, the
economy's been on a heavy decline. I asked if people like him. They
said some who have nothing to do,with lower education, etc., like him
but most in mid- upper class don't.
26 Jan 2011 - Curse of Smoking in Switzerland
-
Big businesses sometimes abuse the goodness and trust of Swiss people.
Big Tobacco has a ball here. I've never seen so many young people
addicted to this drug in any advanced country. It's very hard to avoid
the spell and disgusting disease of smokers here. This morning having
to buy train ticket, I had to inhale the disgusting toxic fumes of the
two smokers standing right by the ticket machine. All smokers have
internal conflict if they have intelligence left or they just dull out
after years of ignoring their bodies' intelligence. To be in conflict
with oneself makes it easy to have conflict with others. I asked these
two smokers to move a bit because I have the right to buy a ticket
without getting smoke on my face. The pretty young girl was such a
bitch. She said they have the right to smoke anywhere they want. What
am I supposed to say? Not only they didn't move away, she threw her
cigarette butt right by the ticket machine. She's already in a fight
with herself. I can't and won't pick a fight with her. I bought the
ticket and moved away, feeling sorry for them to be such victims of Big
Tobacco's campaign to get as many people addicted as possible. That's a
criminal business model if you ask me. What these two youngsters don't
understand is that they have the right to smoke anywhere that's allowed
with by law but they need to respect other people's rights, e.g., to
buy a ticket without getting smoke blown in their face, but
unfortunately some people are not educated enough to understand this
simple principle.
-
Why do some people don't realize that staring at others is not polite.
Nobody likes to get stared at. Even animals, I believe are like that.
But some humans don't realize this. I told her the cinema costs her 5
francs :) but she wanted to continue watching for free so I moved away
:) -- they were too loud and inconsiderate anyway. Found a quieter seat
but their full volume can be heard from a distance away.
- Writing is the best therapy.
- Have finished 3 German books. This morning went heads on with another - an oldie but goodie text.
-
Offered to have their software engineer call me so I can show him how
to fix their bug -- this is a kind of thing I could do in my sleep and
these guys are twiddling their thumbs trying to figure out what to do.
-
Mesa boogie M Pulse Venture 1x15 amp is the best bass amp I've ever
seen. I loved the 15 inch speaker. I did not like the Blackstar Stage 60. The Stage 100 is ok but
for that price I can get an Artisan. I hate that trashy sound they
build into these amps. The Fender Supersonic was absolutely sweet. Best
thing I've played in a long time. I bet a Markbass CMD151P is awesome but haven't tried it.
- Haj Ahmad Agha has died too
-- brother of Haj Kobra Khanum - Manna's friend and relative. I
remember her clearly and the sound of her voice. Her daughter is Zar
Zar - mom saw her too. He was a great man - helped many people -
lots of charitable work - many came to his funeral - many disabled
people in wheel chairs too. Like dad, he also died very easily and in
peace. The ex-President Khatami had given him a medal of appreciation
for his good deeds and charitable works. He had said during dad's
funeral that this type of death "sar ghofli daare" -- that dad died
like this because he was so good "nikoo kar" (good deeded).
25 Jan 2011 -
Good
talk with Meg in California. She totally blames Bush & Cheney and
their gang for the economic hardship the US and the World are in. I
tend to agree. She said CP advised GWB that if you go to this war a lot
of new terrorists will be created but Bush didn't listen. And of course
there's the whole business side with Cheney and Haliburton etc. -- She
looked back at history and US's intervention in Iran and said we
deserve what's happening to us but often people are so cut off from the
government's ways - but now with information age people know more -
it's harder to hide things ( I still do not support that Australian's
organization in principle and his followers who are hypocrites (i.e.,
they say they're for freedom of speech but attack anyone whose speech
is against theirs; they say they're for protection of privacy but they
intrude into others' privacy; they say they are for protecting authors
but they're against copyright, and so on).
And the whole disaster of fanaticism (i.e., Palin, Bachmann, etc.)
20 Jan 2011 - C
10 grams of C is amazing healing. Great nap after Mellingen.
Superficial
media feed superficial minds and promote further superficiality. Now
they're gossiping about whether O died his head or not. This is as bad
as people in K circles gossiping about K's hairdo. Who cares ???
I'm
enjoying learning German -- a simplified way -- because a full way is
too big of an elephant. "Your, yours is dein, deine, deines, deiner,
deinem, deinen
"
20 Jan 2011 - Great quote
- Our problems - social, environmental, political, religious - are so
complex that we can solve them only by being simple, not by becoming
extraordinarily erudite and clever. Because, a simple person sees much
more directly, has a more direct experience, than the complex person.
And, our minds are so crowded with an infinite knowledge of facts of
what others have said that we have become incapable of being simple and
having direct experience ourselves. These problems demand a new
approach, and they can be so approached only when we are simple,
inwardly really simple. That simplicity comes only through
self-knowledge, through understanding ourselves: the ways of our
thinking and feeling, the movements of our thoughts, our responses, how
we conform through fear to public opinion, to what others say .... all of which indicates
our nature to conform, to be safe, to be secure. And, when one is
seeking security, one is obviously in a state of fear, and therefore
there is no simplicity. - Talks in Ojai, California, 1949
-
In the 24 hour she doesn't even have 30 minutes to do her own thing.
Having kids in any day and age is a full-time job but in this day
and age it's a double-full-time job.
- The grass is always
greener on the other side. A mind that compares only sees the green
grass. It doesn't see the work that needs to go in keeping it green,
and the yellow spots behind the house.
- The greatest bands in
history of pop music have a handful of great songs. In the case of
Rolling Stones, not even a handful. Led Zeppelin, Eagles, Beach Boys, Queen, 2 hand
fulls at most. Genesis and The Who, several handfuls. The Beatles are
the only band that had buckets and buckets of great songs.
-
The receptionist says: let me have you talk to the person who's
handling that - then she sends me to a flipping answering machine. I
called back: you told me you will have me talk to a person. "well she's
gone for the day". You knowingly sent me to a machine and told me I'll
be talking to a person. "well..." I prefer to complete my conversation
with a human than to get dumped into a machine :)
17 Jan 2011 - Balance; Ground Zero; Meditation
It's
important to find ground zero: point of balance. Otherwise there's
fragmentation and fragmented action leads to further fragmentation.
This applies to the physical world - body sleep exercize, cycles of
activities, etc., and psychologically with giving time to the timeless:
to sit quietly, as well as not carrying the burden of
imbalance, physiologically, so there's energy for attention and
"direction" throughout the day. It's important to gather all energy to
find out truth -- that is one definition of meditation.
-
Found a spoon for the vitamin c powder -- small is 2.61 gm; large is
5.65 gm. It's important to take the same amount each day - in
therapeutic or normal dose - otherwise there's rebound effect due to
enzymes that kick in.
- Good talk w/ Harald H., Peter H.
17 Jan 2011 - Learning German
I
am really motivated in learning German. Swiss German makes it easier as
it has simpler grammar than High German. There are many foreigners here
who speak fluent German but with very poor grammar.
Good talk w/ Kourosh F., Ali MB.
15 Jan 2011 - Love For Beatles' Music
Had
tears
of beauty and power while playing "we can work it out" -- the other
day, playing "paperback
writer" -- when they're played well. Such powerful music. It will last
100's of years like Beethoven, Bach, Brahms, Gilardino. We met Daniel -
nice guy - he wants to jam. He asked: why The Beatles? I said because
of love... Peter is an exceptional drummer. He said there’s so
much kindness in the music of the Beatles.
14 Jan 2011 - Vitamin C
The
Vitamin C Foundation is not that active. They tried to get funding but
couldn’t. They have a board of advisors. They think most of the vit c
in US comes from China. The only thing the foundation does now is to
maintain the website (Owen updates the links etc.) and they sell some
Pauling DVD’s etc.
They have an office in Texas where the
gentleman who runs it lives. He doesn’t get a salary. It’s non profit
foundation. Owen has a side company that sells vitamin C powder, from
Europe, pure high quality ascorbic acid.
Talked to Oscar
Falconi’s relative. Sustain release tablets may not get dissolved and
has additives. Forget about mineral ascorbates. Oscar’s 82 and has lost
his hearing.
Pauling institute says time release C is ok. Synthetic ascorbic acid is ok. DSM
may use Chinese material too. I get diff answers about how unchinese
VCF’s C really is but I don’t care. I trust DSM’s quality. Even if
Chinese it’s tested for purity (I assume).
Owen won the defamation lawsuit but spent 40k on lawyers.
Conclusion:
ascorbic powder straight up is best. Pauling buffered his 18 grams a
day with baking soda (disgusting taste). Owen takes it 500 gm every 4
hours with water or juice. Owen is a good man.
14 Jan 2011 - Emilia
-
Talked with Emilia - it was a blast - she's as intense as ever. Like
Kelly, she was wired differently. Still as energetic as she was when we
met in kindergarten. She said money is not a good thing because it
divides -- X who's a billionaire doesn't have time for them since he
became so rich. The two of us are the detectives who find old friends.
Now we're trying to find one. Emilia recalls that when he recited his
composition he'd pee in his pants :)
-
I found his picture today and sent it to friends -- from when we were 9
years old. Her voice was like music to me -- hearing it took me back to
Abane-Shomali, the neighbourhood of our old school, the old school days.
-
She likes the videos of discussions with Katie Gibson -- she shows it
to her friends. She said it/s nice to have a friend to show off with --
people like you are rare, you're really unique - working hard - someone
who keeps himself so healthy - lifestyle of no alcohol, no coffeee, no
meat, etc....
- Heard the subject of death -- Emilia and Tom
both talked about it -- that we will all die one day -- sure thing. She
said she wakes up every day and treats it as a new day. I had an
interesting idea. Life is like Angela. You enjoy the moments you're
with her. If it's ever over you look back at the sweet moments you
spent together - but you don't get stuck in the past. Life's to be
cherished and lived fully, healthily, with joy.
14 Jan 2011 - Love Libraries
-
Went to the city library to get German books. The ambiance of a
library is so peaceful, quiet, wise. I love it. I hope libraries don't
disappear when everything goes digital :)
-
Good talk with Erin Sellers who lived in my beloved O place. She is
very nice. I can feel the peace of the place in her voice.
-
Good talk with Phil Maynes. He often gives me good ideas. He said do
not spend the money on a Mesa Boogie. He's right. The Blackstar sounds
good and I liked it. And Mesa Boogie though sweet sounding is way over
priced, specially in Switzerland where they double the US price.
And if I buy it from the US the warranty doesn't apply here and
you have to also buy a big bulky 900 watt transformator and then
there's the issue of transport. But who knows, maybe. I'm not playing
out these days that much so I don't need new equipment. But a top of
the line Parker would be sweet :)
-
Lone Star (not the Special) is good clean sound. Combo has open back,
some people prefer cabinet because closed back cabinet has different
character (bigger/boomier maybe). The Swiss resellers get a 35%
discount and then have to pay MWST (sales tax) two times. 90 Watt
rating of speaker against 100 Watt of amp is no problem as speakers are
conservatively rated. Favorite is the 1x12 23" (the 27" is being
discontinued).
- MB says they have a 6 to 8 week wait time but
their shop says they can get it in a couple of weeks. Tubes are
changed every 2 years. Dirty sound (distortion) has more demand on
speakers so 2x12 makes more sense. But I play mostly clean. I don't
like the word dirty because nice distortion can be clean too but I play
mostly undistorted with a bit of tube effect except maybe a couple of
songs we use distortion in, discretely.
- Mark V is more suited for more high-end sounds (distortion / grunge).
-
Here's the key: when playing clean, for playing loud you need that
wattage. My Fender sucks at that: loud clean gets distorted. We don't
even really play loud.
- Mesa Boogie has 5 year warranty. Voided if taken out the country.
-
Because they're way over-priced in Europe, I will not buy one. Their
distributors are doing the company a disservice for doubling the retail
price which means on a $4000 amp the distributor is pocketing around, I
would only guess, 2000 markup + initial margin of I'd guess 700. No
thanks.
------------- -
TC Helicon VoiceLive 2 might be good but it's big bulky and too
expensive and can handle only 1 mic. One of the selling points is, you
can connect an MP3 player to it and sing along. Duh !! TC is a big
Danish company and leading company in voice effects. The guy said
almost every pop song he hears has pitch correction. TPain uses it
extremely as special effect.
-
Regarding Tech21 Sansamp, the guy I talked to at Tech21 he said he'd
use a real amp. So much for that idea. And for recording maybe Cubase's
built-in emulator is enough but I am not doing that now and don't need
it.
13 Jan 2011 -
-
Also the mega dose of ascorbic acid I've been taking feels good. Goes
right into the cells and the ascorbate is not necessary.
- She said they beat the Avodado tree to give fruit -- it thinks it's going to die and gives fruit !
-
Funny that I dreamed about Shirin, today Shadi said it's Dr. Yahyavi's
passing away anniversary. Some time ago dreamed of Fatieh - heard
afterwards that her sister had just died. I also had a flash dream of
Maryam. She had showed up and we hugged -- I was very happy to see her -- there was
love. S. said she had called today. Possibly the morphic connection
with mom is responsible for picking up the first 2 incidents (or just bad stomach). The
Maryam thing was out of the blue. I do love her and wrote to her as
such but her family has done terrible things and I do not know if she
had a hand in it or not. I've given them plenty of chance to come clean
but they never had the character to do so.
- It's like, you stay
cool for so long, and they think you're just cool and they throw
punches and you stay cool because you don't want confrontation, but at
some point, they throw a punch and they'll find out you're a black
belt! Oops :) [I'm talking about psychological stuff not
physical punches].
-
I also feel better that the vocals are deleted from FB (at my request)
because I had a
sinusitis / sinus infection for a long time, there were monitor
problems, played on other's equipment, virtually no rehearsals, tired
of always turning the other cheek :) -------- whatever his problem is,
I don't care, because I don't have to deal with him. If I had to
suspect, it's one or more of these: a) bitterness caused by
divorce and/or from minister father b) jealousy c)
insecurity which typically leads to polarizing behavior.
- Met someone who knows Alfredo E. Stüssi, the head of the Swiss Men's
Party. He was very cruel to her and reportedly said they hate women
because women can have children! Is this Afghanestan? No it's
Switzerland, where shamefully women are still considered second class
by some male Chauvinist pigs. Here's another quote by the pigs: "cows are more beautiful than women".
9 Jan 2011 - M-Audio
Research determined MAudio Fasttrack Ultra is the way to go. Found an amazing deal. Also
found another amazing deal just by asking seemingly impossible
question... i wasn't according to a formula but an act of Now. Good
talking with MB. Asked about our old friend DS - they talked yesterday.
I delight at people keeping in touch with each other... most people
don't as their net of thought=self-made isolation grows as they age.
He said he's an "old fart" now :) having hard time recovering
from an accident.
Been in touch with Owen Fonorow, he's a great guy and a disciple of the Pauling line, like me -- the Vitamin C guru.
9 Jan 2011 - Another Republican politician convicted and sentenced to prison
AUSTIN,
Texas – A judge ordered former U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay to
serve three years in prison Monday for his role in a scheme to
illegally funnel corporate money to Texas candidates in 2002.
The
sentence comes after a jury in November convicted DeLay on charges of
money laundering and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
The
Republican who represented the Houston area was once one of the most
powerful people in U.S. politics, ascending to the No. 2 job in the
House of Representatives.
8 Jan 2011 - Arizona: "mecca for prejudice and bigotry" & Republican's loose gun law & Sarah Palin: "reload"
Shooting in Arizona - conference call. Chief doctor spoke: 10 patients - 1 child - 5 critical in surgery - 5 stable. Congresswoman was shot in the head. Neurosurgeons are done with her. He's optimistic of his recovery. A 22 year old shot them all. One side of the head through and through - bullet went through side of her head - I'm as optimistic as it can get now.
"When
you look at unbalanced people, how they respond to the vitriol that
comes out of certain mouths about tearing down the government. The
anger, the hatred, the bigotry that goes on in this country is getting
to be outrageous," said the sheriff. "And unfortunately, Arizona I
think has become sort of the capital. We have become the mecca for
prejudice and bigotry." Sheriff Clarence Dupnik
Guess what!
"Favoring the constitutional right to bear arms over others' concerns
about gun safety, [Republican] Gov. Jan Brewer on Friday signed into law a bill
making Arizona the third state allowing people to carry a concealed
weapon without requiring a permit." And Brewer was on a news conference
yesterday crying and regretting what happened:
"All of Arizona is shocked
and deeply saddened by the horrific tragedy that transpired this
morning in Tucson. "I am just heartbroken. Gabby is more than just a
colleague, she is my friend. She has always been a noble public
servant. My thoughts and prayers are with Congresswoman Giffords and
her family, the Congresswoman's staff and their families, and well as
the other victims of this senseless and cruel violence."
Guess
what Governor: you put guns in people's hands, you allow people to
carry concealed weapons without a permit, you should expect this
"senseless and cruel violence."
Michael
Daly of NewYork Daily News linked it to Sarah Palin, an airhead bigot
and a symbol of what is wrong in America: "Rep. Gabrielle Giffords'
blood is on Sarah Palin's hands after putting cross hair over district:
Here is what Sarah Palin said on the Facebook page where she depicted
Gabrielle Giffords in the cross hairs of a rifle scope: "Don't retreat!
Instead - RELOAD!" Well, the guy who shot Giffords yesterday managed to
keep firing until he killed six, including a child, and wounded 13 .
Palin would no doubt say that she was only speaking in metaphor, that
she only meant her followers should work to unseat Giffords and 19
other Democrats who had roused her ire by voting for health care. But
anyone with any sense at all knows that violent language can incite
actual violence, that metaphor can incite murder. At the very least,
Palin added to a climate of violence."
------------------------ Shame
on Palin and the rest of airhead bigots for promoting violence by
spreading hatred and division in the country. Also shame on Arizon's
Republican governor for approving the new gun law that allows people
like that terrorist carry a concealed weapon without a permit. That was
a great article Michael, you keep up the good work. -------- Problem
with the airhead bigots is that they are so narrow minded that they
always think in terms of "liberal or not". So the bigots who post here
claim the terrorist was a "liberal". What you airhead bigots don't get
is that he was a terrorist and he was mentally not balanced and he was
obviously influenced by all the hatred that politicians are spreading
in their divisive thinking. And what makes Palin so dangerous is not
whether she's a liberal or not, but her extremely divisive attitude and
approach to politics. She is this way because she's an airhead and a
bigot. Now call me a "liberal" and give yourself comfort that this
binary title relieves you from having to start to think for yourself,
having to get out of your dumb way of thinking of "liberals vs. us
[bigots]".
-------- RBakerE:
"Liberal" is the new communist witch-hunting for the shallow, ignorant
nutjobs who think their view is the only American view. And "Animal
Farm" is good reading. "Four legs good, two legs bad." "Neocon good,
liberal bad." Maybe you should actually read Orwell's novel, it may
give you greater insight into yourself.
READERBOSS69: Souky: how
was he a liberal? please define what you base that on other than what
you heard on TV? how do you know he was a liberal? what does liberal
mean? someone who wants to treat people equally? someone who wants to
provide healthcare to the uninsured and underinsured? he was a nutjob
who was fueled by the anti-govt rantings of the teabaggers. EVEN if he
was liberal -- which i doubt anyone can really show -- the atmosphere
set by the "lock and reload" rhetoric of you and your kind is to blame.
May God NOT have mercy on any of your souls.
READERBOSS69:
Nobodiesfool: Your type of rhetoric is okay to continue on for years.
Lies. And more war. And attempts to block equal rights. And to take
away healthcare. That rhetoric is fine. But now that your rhetoric has
fostered an atmosphere of violence and vitriol -- and now that you and
your politics are being called on it -- now, suddenly you want us all
to pipe down. Ain't gonna happen.
ANOTHER
WRITER: No, Sarah Palin didn't kill these innocent people.but
she,Beck,Limbaugh,O'Reilly,and all other hate spewing talking heads on
the air waves,loaded the gun... Those in denial here who chastised the
writer of this articles,it's 100% political....This pot has been
boiling here for over two years with the election of President
Obama..I'm surprised this did not happen sooner..It was inevitable,.as
these nuts jobs have been worked into a frenzy by these right wing
zealets...SHAME ON YOU.. There are so many families today, who in a few
days will bury their love ones-never to be the same in their families
again...People gathered in front of the grocery store to speak with the
Congressman,stopping by on a Saturday to and from the stores or
whatever people do on a weekend--never to return home..
8 Jan 2011 - Energy Escape Intelligence:
Hi there: just be aware of your inner and outer movements. usually the
conflict between "i should study" and fact "i am not studying" is
enough to drain energy. Conflict is the biggest source of energy
wastage. Energy is necessary for intelligence to act, for the brain to
be quiet. Resorting to junk food as an escape for someone who knows
their harm is a sign of imbalance. But part of human growth is to learn
that even when there is imbalance, even when one escapes, one can
escape with healthy things instead of creating a wave that has further
consequence: further fluctuation in blood sugar, temporary addiction to
sugar (which like alcohol is highly addictive and brings dependence
quickly). So now that you've escaped, try to make it not get worse.
Drink lots of water. Eat healthy fun things. Your plan to do a liver
cleanse is an excellent one. It helps with everything.
Jan 2011 -
Some people are so inconsiderate or so shy or so stupid that they don't cover their mouth when they cough in the train.
News said Tehran has gotten 79% less rain this year than it has int he last 40 years.
"Capitalism:
A Love Story" -- a great movie by Michael Moore. I don't agree with all
Michael's stances on different issues but this work of his is
excellent.
Got
$15 just by the asking "i'm a loyal customer - came to your site w/o
shopping around - later found some items cheaper elsewhere - can you
consider a discount." and they did it ! (I was totally truthful). Also
took time to explain to them they should reduce waste and save energy
by giving customer option to minimize number of shipments.
Goggle was 70 Francs, on sale for 40 Francs. Did a google. Found it for $16 from an online merchant!!
Vitamin here is 40 Francs. I can get it from the US for 10 Francs, same thing dosage/quality !!
05 Jan 2011 - You never need to practice concentration
Practicing
concentration is never necessary. When there is interest the mind pays
attention to the subject. It never needs to be forced to concentrate.
The controller is the controlled.
Some people are so inconsiderate or so shy or so stupid that they don't cover their mouth when they cough in the train.
04 Jan 2011 - Freedom from experience
I have learned in life that i can never expect another to give me love all
i can do is to wipe out all the self-centered unnecessary thoughts
which divide and isolate and push out love and then love can be. The
reason psychological thought divides and isolates and causes suffering
is because it is rooted in the past experience, and experience is
limited, it has already occurred in a limited framework; being limited
it is divisive, it divides. For technology and practical life this is
important but psychologically it disables the mind and paralyzes the
heart by filling it with things of the mind.
Can a person be
free from this paralysis? Surely; not through analysis, but through
examining, doubting one's own conclusions; by being a philosopher:
which means to yearn to find truth, what is, and not settle by anything
less; and in relationship this requires communication, and
self-centered conclusions further paralyze the mind.
Emptying and order are essential to mental and emotional health. Writing is a great tool for one who loves truth.
02 Jan 2011 - Removing what is not love...
2 points in response to your mail:
1. getting influenced by others' opinion, vs., seeking advice and
opinion of others: we should be able to hear anything or read anything
and still think for ourselves. It's good to have a mind that is able to
doubt things, question things, and not accept things just because
they're said and written by someone else or because they're on a
colorful beautiful website or nicely packaged by an expert marketer,
yet, hear what others say and there may be something good in it -- to
take the good and leave the rest -- like Hamsa, the mythical bird that
can separate milk from water when milk and water are mixed :)
2. healing the mind is the most important aspect of healing... -- most
of the sickness of the world is because the minds of people are so
utterly confused and bogged by fragmented, divisive, limited thinking.
To love is easy. But our sick educational systems rooted in comparisons
and application of measurement to areas where measurement can not be
applied, and a decadent culture rooted in pursuit of pleasure, power,
riches, and the "more", like that drunk guy standing in front of the
stage, loving the music but after each son, shouting: more, give me
more. So to help people heal their minds is the most fundamental form of
healing, which must involve understanding the roots of suffering, which
are often society- tradition- and self-induced psychological walls,
fears, insecurities, anxieties, identifications, images, etc., which
push love right out the window. We do not need to teach people how to
love. Love is there once we remove that which is not love: which is
often the separative, divisive thought which is plaguing humanity.
If one's aim is to help society fundamentally, aside from living
correctly oneself, ending conflict in one's own life, being one with
oneself and not a bundle of fragmented mess inside one head and body, is
to become a teacher. But there are many other ways to help humanity
than holding official positions and jobs that are directly in the
healing field. Good music surely helps. Just being in harmony in oneself
helps the world. To live without anxiety in an anxious world helps the
world...
For me it doesn't mean much - just another day, another
year, another number, but why not... may it be a happy and healthy one for us
all.
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