The Ramblings of An Eternal Student of Life

Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Technology ...

I have not yet gotten myself a smart phone, and I don’t think I will anytime soon. I’ve seen many of the Androids and I-Phones out there, very impressive. They do all kinds of things; view pictures, take pictures, surf the Internet, figure out your location with GPS, tell you where restaurants and other stuff is in your vicinity, record voices, view and send e-mail and text messages, on and on. But you know what? Aside from the e-mail and texting, these smart phones remind me of Leatherman tools. I.e., those all-in-one things that look like a mutant pair of pliers; they have all sorts of mini-tools folding out from them. Akin to a Swiss knife on steroids!

But as with the Leatherman, almost none of the tools on a smart phone are the best possible forms of that tool. The I-Phone screens, although getting bigger, » continue reading …

◊ posted by Jim G @ 9:15 pm Read Comments (2) / Leave a Comment

Saturday, February 2, 2013

◊ Railroad Voices: Women and Trains in a Changing World

Current Affairs ... Society ...

Knowing that I was once a serious railroad enthusiast (and still am, to some degree), a friend from my Zen community recently loaned me a photo book relating to railroads, Railroad Voices by Linda Neimann and Lina Bertucci. This was not the usual dry historical tome or railroad photo album aimed at buffs and modelers. Railroad Voices tells a story of two women who encountered modern railroad life in the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s, a time of much change and contraction in the railroad industry. The book speaks to an artistic and intellectually engaged audience; both women have unusual combination of academic achievement (PhD’s) and experience as train crew employees, being among the first women to break the male-only barrier in that job category. Their book does not assume any particular interest in the railroad industry; the railroad serves mostly as a stage for the unfolding of various social vignettes. The railfan can come along for the ride, but shouldn’t expect that hobbiest interests and sensibilities will be catered to.

Thus, from a railfan perspective, I was initially disappointed with Railroad Voices (but not to say that its stories and photographs are entirely devoid of technical interest). Also, as a former switch tower operator, I would have liked some pictures and stories from inside the switch towers (like the ones seen in Ms. Bertucci’s photos from Milwaukee). Ditto for the dispatchers who directed train movements, plus the signal maintainers who kept the switches and signals working.

But no, this is a train crew’s story told in words and photos. A story well told, albeit from a somewhat unusual perspective — i.e., from the eyes and ears of women » continue reading …

◊ posted by Jim G @ 9:10 pm Read Comment (1) / Leave a Comment

Saturday, January 26, 2013

◊ The Buddha Rabbit in Winter

Photo ... Zen ...

We just got through a week of real winter weather here in New Jersey, temps in the teens and low 20s and a bit of snow. It may not last; temps may hit 50 next week. We’re probably not through yet with snow and sub-freezing winds, but I get the feeling that we won’t have another full week of Arctic conditions here (well, “Arctic-ish”; I realize that in many places, the low 20’s are like a heat wave in January; it’s all relative).

While eating my steel-cut oatmeal this morning, I looked out the window and saw a scene in the front yard that said “WINTER”, loud and clear. So, here is a stone rabbit with snow between its ears, sitting in silent meditation like a frozen Buddha. Above him looms a remnant from the spring and summer before, some stalks of brown meadowgrass, framing his contemplative resolve. The shadows are long in the low winter sun, while the Buddha Rabbit transcends the autumn before and the spring and summer yet to come with the power of his simple being.

Simply existing, here and now — a power that we all share, as we are all Buddha!

◊ posted by Jim G @ 3:29 pm Read Comments (3) / Leave a Comment

Thursday, January 24, 2013

◊ All For The Cause

Personal Reflections ... Society ...

If you go on Bing or Ask.com or . . . you know, that web site that starts with the “G” . . . and search on “the cause of desire”, you can find some interesting perspectives from various points of view, including consumerism and, of course, love and sex. But what about “the desire for a cause”? I couldn’t find anything about that.

And yet, many and perhaps most humans hold a desire to be part of a cause of one sort or another. Being part of a “cause” usually creates association and community, an affiliation with others of like mind. However, for a “cause” to happen, that “like mind” first has to happen. Causes are usually about ideas and beliefs. They mix communal experience with some ideology, an ideology that in some fashion challenges something about the world as it is today. The desire and cause for change might be something as momentous as the downfall of western civilization, or as benign as a fundraising effort to buy more books for school children in impoverished areas.

Actually, though, sometimes maintaining or defending the status quo is enough of a cause. Conservative causes are still » continue reading …

◊ posted by Jim G @ 8:58 pm Read Comment (1) / Leave a Comment

Saturday, January 19, 2013

◊ Understanding Old Man Winter

Nature ... Science ...

Wintertime is never fun, at least not for me. If you are really into winter skiing or live way down south or don’t need to drive back and forth most every day (with a place to live big enough to prevent cabin fever), then you might enjoy a long season of arctic cold. Let it snow, let it snow! But when you have to wait outside early every morning for a bus or train, or push your car over miles of dangerous roadways every day, the winter season gets old real fast. Given that I am a fan of short, mild winters (like we got here in NJ last year), I constantly scan the radio and TV stations for forecasts and the papers and web-sites for articles on what to expect in January, February and March.

There are two times of year when the weather gets a lot of attention from me: during the mid and late-summer months, when thunderstorms and sometimes even hurricanes (as in 2011 and 2012) become atmospheric events here in Jersey. And in winter, when cold blasts and monster snowstorms threatens my own comfort and safety. Between the two, I still favor summer’s humid discomfort over winter’s dirty snow and bitter winds. At least there is a lot more daylight in summer, and if something unexpected were to happen where you had to stay outdoors for a long time, most summer weather wouldn’t kill you. Whereas a 10 degree night truly does put your life on the line, if you can’t successfully find a way to insulate yourself sufficiently from the cold. Most homeless people and street people learn ways to survive, but once in a while one of them doesn’t and the body is removed from the street in the morning.

So it’s become a point of interest for me to understand a bit more about winter weather and what are the signs of its longer-term trends. Yes, I’ve heard of the folk wisdom about the tails of squirrels and bird migration patterns. In fact, » continue reading …

◊ posted by Jim G @ 4:53 pm Read Comment (1) / Leave a Comment

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

◊ Best Political Philosophy: Go (Mostly) With The Flow

Philosophy ... Politics ...

I’m not a big fan these days of modern conservative pundits. I can respect the classic Burkeian conservatives with their emphasis on encouraging human self-reliance, initiative and achievement. Conservatism as a philosophy makes some sense. But it gets quite yucky when it becomes a political orthodoxy.

So when I come across an article by a conservative writer, I generally stop reading after a few sentences. But I recently came across a rather interesting article by Thomas Sowell, one of the few black conservatives out there. I usually avoid his writings too, but he made a good point recently about San Francisco and places like it. San Fran is quite a “liberal progressive” place, and its citizens and politicians continue to express much concern over the historical and continuing unfairness that has been experienced by people of color in America. However, Mr. Sowell makes the point that over the past 40 years, blacks have been moving out of San Francisco; the black population there has been cut in half. Mr. Sowell goes on to say that a lot of liberal ideas intended to help the oppressed and protect the public have backfired and have instead made things worse.

Yes, well. That does happen given human imperfection. But come on, there have also been government policy successes, which Mr. Sowell » continue reading …

◊ posted by Jim G @ 10:44 pm Read Comment (1) / Leave a Comment

Wednesday, January 9, 2013

◊ Coffee Roasting At Home

Photo ...

I haven’t quite yet taken the plunge into buying green coffee beans to roast at home. But I have experimented a bit by pouring regular brown coffee beans bought at the local supermarket onto a pan and popping them into a 400 degree oven. I felt that the results were rather good. After grounding up some of the darkened beans and brewing up a cup, the end-product was generally quite satisfying. Once or twice I had over-darkened the beans such that the liquid end-product tasted mostly like tar. But there is a middle zone where the brew becomes more chary and robust but is still full of coffee flavor. Any sour notes are drowned out.

As a rough guildline, it would be good to get the beans that are being re-roasted out of the oven once you can hear them popping. Yes, you literally hear them popping. Pretty neat.

I haven’t had any great, deep or worldly thoughts to discuss (or attempt to discuss) lately; roasting coffee beans is about the best I can do right now. Perhaps I’m in an early-winter / post-holiday funk. Perhaps I need a good pick-me-up. Like a good cup of double-roasted coffee!!

(But wait — the more roasting, the less caffeine in coffee. So, my brain certainly won’t be kicked back into high gear by these wintertime coffee roasting experiments!)

◊ posted by Jim G @ 8:20 pm Read Comments (2) / Leave a Comment

Tuesday, January 1, 2013

◊ Political Dysfunction

Politics ...

There’s a lot of disgust with our government leaders and our political system here in the USA these days. All the wrangling over the fiscal cliff and the borrowing cap is making a lot of people wonder if our country is becoming dysfunctional. Our leaders can’t seem to face up to big issues and make decisions on solutions; they have become experts in short-term stopgaps, “kicking the can down the road”.

We have all sorts of collective problems coming over the hill: immigration, global warming, economic competitiveness, education, the broadening gap between poor and rich (and the shrinking middle class), health care . . . With regard to the latter, it’s a miracle that the President was able to start a major federal initiative to make health care more broadly available and help control skyrocketing costs. But the political hurdles were so great that an extremely disjointed and bureaucratic system was cobbled together and brought into law by divisive “one time only” parliamentary tactics. As such, many doubts remain as to the long-term effectiveness and viability of Obamacare.

Increasingly, America seems like a deer frozen in the road at night as a tractor trailer approaches at 70 mph. Our decision-making system just isn’t making decisions. » continue reading …

◊ posted by Jim G @ 10:18 pm Read Comment (1) / Leave a Comment

Sunday, December 23, 2012

◊ Why Is This Sensei Smiling?

Spirituality ... Zen ...

I made my usual Sunday morning trek this morning to my local zendo for our weekly zazen. The sensei gave a teisho (i.e., a “wisdom talk”, aka “sermon”) as he usually does. But he made a somewhat unusual observation today in his teisho. He said that he recently decided during one of our sitting periods to observe the sangha members around him, as they sat on their cushions and focused their over-active minds on breath, as per his teachings (even if it was OK for him to take a break from it as to look around). He noticed how serious everyone looked; he described our expressions as being “like people in a cancer ward”.

Yes, well . . . sitting in silence, a person can sometimes sense the texture of being, of sheer existence itself. (That is, if the meditator is not looking around at her or his fellow meditators). One can almost hear the clock of one’s life ticking. One comes face to face with one’s mortality. It is serious business.

But according to our teacher (and his friend, a fellow sensei from a sister Zen sangha in the next county), we should focus on joy during our sittings; we should be smiling. » continue reading …

◊ posted by Jim G @ 8:51 pm Read Comment (1) / Leave a Comment

Wednesday, December 19, 2012

◊ Trendy Articles

Current Affairs ... Public Policy ...

For today, I’m going to list some recent articles that caught my attention, with a short comment on why I think they are worth reading.

First, an article on a conservative commentary site, saying that there is a “new government class” consisting of government workers and retirees, Social Security / Medicare / Medicaid recipients, food stamp recipients, TANF recipients, veterans receiving long-term benefits, etc. These people (including myself) have a vested financial interest in the existence of a government, one that goes over and above the usual social benefits of law and order, military defense, education, keeping the streets clean, putting out fires and responding to other emergencies, etc. I think this all relates to Mitt Romney’s famed “47 percent that won’t consider voting for me” comments at the fund-raising dinner in Florida.

This “government class” is opposed, I would guess, to the entrepreneurial class, who are supposedly burdened and slowed down by the government hordes, given the taxes that they need to pay in order to let us get our checks and benefits. Of course, the article author accuses Barack Obama and the Democrats with trying to expand the “government dependency class” as much as possible, so as to make it politically impossible to reduce government and taxes. This would assure that the entrepreneurial class will be forever limited, such that our economy’s growth rate and overall well-being will not reach full potential; thus, our nation will be poorer and weaker overall than it otherwise would have to be, solely because of the short-sighted political machinations of the Dems.

I gather that this is a popular notion amidst Republicans and conservatives these days. Actually, it is a rather bogus dichotomy. » continue reading …

◊ posted by Jim G @ 9:27 pm Read Comment (1) / Leave a Comment

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