Changing of the Guard

Well, here's a personal update for those tired of quotes.

My GM got fired today. Yup, a bit of a shock. Though I won't go into the office politics, we all new the place was on thin ice, but didn't expect something this drastic, this soon.

And though the GM was a friend of mine, and I think it's pretty shady how it happened, it did change around some of the scheduled vacation time in July. As a result, I no longer have to be acting manager for the weekend of the 22nd. That, in turn, means that I will be traveling to Glennedith's wedding! Now, if I could just find a date...{{wink, wink, nudge, nudge}}

Without Aspriration Towards...

The man in whom Tao
Acts without impediment
Does not bother with his own interests
And does not despise
Others who do.
He does not struggle to make money
And does not make a virture of poverty.
He goes his way
Without relying on others
And does not pride himself
On walking alone.
While he does not follow the crowd
He won't complain of those who do.
Rank and reward
Make no appeal to him;
Disgrace and shame
Do not deter him.
He is not always looking
For right and wrong
Always deciding "Yes" or "No."

--Thomas Merton
The Way of Chuang Tzu

In Dreams Begin Responsibilities

Love is the most difficult and dangerous form of courage. Courage is the most desperate, admirable and noble kind of love.

-Delmore Schwartz, American poet and writer

Wiki-Stumble

First off, if you don't use Firefox, you should. It's not only more user-friendly than explorer, it's also a lot more intelligent with downloads and favorites. But, more importantly, you should get it so that you can install the "stumble" button. It's surfing the web without searching. You have interests, you click the stumble button, and it takes you to a page that may be of interest to you. Then, you get to rate the pages it sends you to, and the program redefines what you'd likely be interested in. The kicker, they recently up-graded the program, and now it's tailored to wiki-specific pages (or news-specific, photo-, video-, or your general, broad interest catagories).

So I've been wiki-stumbling, which I think is the best thing ever. And I came across Alan Watts. A link off this wiki-article was to the wiki-quotes page, where I found the following;

"Running away from fear is fear; fighting pain is pain; trying to be brave is being scared. If the mind is in pain, the mind is pain. The thinker has no other form than his thought."

"It is, indeed, a remarkable circumstance that when Western civilization discovers Relativity it applies it to the manufacture of atom-bombs, whereas this Oriental civilization applies it to the development of new states of consciousness."

"Faith is a state of openness or trust. To have faith is to trust yourself to the water. When you swim you don't grab hold of the water, because if you do you will sink and drown. Instead you relax, and float. And the attitude of faith is the very opposite of clinging to belief, of holding on. In other words, a person who is fanatic in matters of religion, and clings to certain ideas about the nature of God and the universe, becomes a person who has no faith at all. Instead they are holding tight. But the attitude of faith is to let go, and become open to truth, whatever it might turn out to be."

"I have realized that the past and future are real illusions, that they exist in the present, which is what there is and all there is."

"Life is a game, the first rule of which is that it is not a game."

Demons

Yeah, I know I was promising stories from my trip home. But something is amiss lately. I'll be back when it's killed.

-----

Under the monster’s claws
And in between his teeth
Was the shadow and a silhouette
Of what I thought I’d be

home from Home

Thanks to AKW, this is a precursor to a post regarding my trip home. Unfortunately, I will be working tonight till around 1 or so, but when I have a few moments, I'll put up a post about, quite literally, the best trip Home I've ever had. I spent some serious quality time with everyone I'm still close to back there, and it was definitely just what I needed. But, as I still have to iron two shirts (switching to manager halfway through the night), I'd better leave you with merely the promise of entertainment. Till then...

Namaste'.