1st Year Anniversary

Well, it's done. It's been 1 full year since I officially smoked the last cigarette of my life. I haven't posted on this since the six month mark, but I've stayed 100% nicotine free since. Not a single puff or drag off a cigarette, and now that I live in a city without smoke-filled bars, it means my lungs have been clean of second-hand smoke as well. Although I am a believer in personal will-power, I know from prior failed attempts that it's not a will-power over the desire to smoke. Just as you can't make a person do something -- you can only make him want to do something -- you can't make yourself not smoke. But you can make yourself want to stop. Cheap psychology tricks aren't effective. Neither are scare tactics. Those anxiety inducing techniques only give rise to one and the same urge they're trying to quell -- albeit in their own perverted way. No, what's necessarily is to literally reprogram the conditioning that created those urges in the first place.

Following a saying I'm quite fond of, "That looks interesting/I want to try that/I wonder how that works....I think I'll pick up a book on it," the title of this post, just as with every post on the topic, is linked to amazon.com product page for The Easy Way to Quit Smoking, by Allen Carr. It looks hokey. It sounds hokey. I'll grant that, at times, it even reads a little hokey. But it's damn intelligent, not preachy, and works with wherever you're at in your attempt to quit. I decided I was being a hypocrite by giving up meat for my health and yet still smoking nearly a pack-a-day. But whatever the reason, it does get better. The first three weeks you think about it, the first few months it crosses your mind, and every now and then it comes up. But Carr talks about a moment when you know it's just done. Well, I had that moment at about the end of the first month, but it's good to say it again at the 1 year anniversary (and every once and awhile, for that matter): it's done.

Namaste' and good health to all.

Confidence and Wisdom

In this world the wise one holds onto confidence and wisdom. Those are the greatest treasures; all other riches are pushed aside.

- Buddha

What do you think about this quote?

An Excellent Professional Networking Tool

Facebook, friendster (anyone remember that), Quxo (or that?), myspace, and all the rest of the online networking sites had a great idea; to get people connected and, in effect, show how one is connected to others who aren't necessarily their immediate friends. How do we use such sites? To give running commentary on the mediocrities of life (and, yes, I participate in these commentaries as much as the next guy) and to proposition people to come to our adult only sites (for those interested, my adult only site is linked from the title of this post).

There's nothing inherently wrong about these systems; after all, they are designed specifically for bootycalls. But there is now a system that networks even better than the social sites only it's geared towards professionals. LinkedIn allows you to create a profile that, in essence, is a personal resume'. In constructing your profile, you have the opprotunity to not only list current and prior jobs, but also what field or industry defines your profession. It is even possible to give and receive recommendations, thus providing second or third tier connections knowledge of who is and who is not reliable in their performance. In my experience with the system so far, I haven't come across anything lacking -- they've even got locations categorized. Oh, and its free. We all recognize the expression, "It's not what you know, but who you know." I think this site is finally a positive, productive, and practical (the three holy p's, in my book) step forward to utilizing the power of the search engine to full throttle.

"They Remind Me of Who I AM"

Another beautiful film, spliced from the longer version of Ashes and Snow.

Fear or Laziness?

or, Impeccably Imperfect

"Actually, the gap between, say, Plato or Nietzsche and the average human is greater than the gap between that [super-]chimpanzee and the average human. The realm of the real spirit -- the true artist, the saint, the philosopher -- is rarely achieved. Why so few?"

I've been wrestling with a comment SLC left me a few posts ago. In the most convivial manner, I have no doubt, SLC lovingly suggested I not be so hard on myself. In her words, I seem to forget that I'm not a deity. While I'll readily admit I'm increadibly demanding of myself, I view it more as an attempt to be impeccable rather than to be perfect.

The difference is subtle, but, at least for me, it is exceedingly important. To be impeccable, as I use the term, is to have no internal, self-derived faults. In the words of dictionary.com, it's to be flawless; irreproachable; not liable to sin; or even incapable of sin (sin here referring to its original usage meaning "missing the mark"). To be perfect, on the otherhand, is to have no faults, simpliciter. Both outside and inside factors go into that notion, both things one can control and those one cannot, at least how I'll be using it to differentiate between the two concepts.

Now, as always, I must preface any discussion of human potential with a clear and direct caveat that I do not consider myself to be on par with deities, Plato, Nietzsche, or any of the greats. However, I think there is another distinction to be drawn with individuals such as these, of which I do hold myself to be at least near par; there's a difference between the production of great works of art, truth, and life and that of the motivation or the internal constitution to always strive towards the production of such works.

The difference, then, lies within the causes, not the effects, of our rational will. If I am prevented by fate or luck or disaster, so be it. But if it such great works of truth are prevented from coming to fruition by some cause internal to my own design (even if that be in a deterministic understanding of my "free will", so long as that cause passes through my own reasoning), then I am responsible for not doing more and, hence, the lack of such beauty coming into the physical realm of reality.

I might be charged with holding myself to some supererogatory level of existence; but I'm not saying I can't go see a movie or relax with friends. My life is what is in question, here, not the philosophical products of my career, alone. When the common greats that come to mind -- Plato, Beethoven, Einstein, Goethe -- there is some definitive, well-known contribution to the world. But there are those we know personally who have reached even higher potentials, because they do so with a harmony amongst all aspects of their life. Where Mozart may have been a rake despite his art, the archetypal mother in the neighborhood full of wandering kids who treats each with respect and loving appreciation has contributed her due potential of truth and beauty to the world. All aspects of life, then -- be it intellectual, physical, interpersonal, or otherwise -- could and, in my opinion, should be examined with this aim at impeccability. "An unexamined life..." so they say.

So, SLC knows me well; in a sense, I was back the next day "pursuing immortality." Not in any sense aiming at perfection, but with a constant drive towards impeccability. Do I fail at this aim? Often. I fully embrace my "moments of weakness," but I feel that I accomplish so much more with such a greater depth of experience when this is my aim, not necessarily what I'm able to achieve. Instead of turning a blind eye to sleeping in late when I'm not actually tired or watching sitcoms that I don't even find that entertaining, I think I end up with a more interactive life lived and, if nothing else, better stories to tell on DW. It's more of a constant awareness of my actions and the persistent questioning of my motivation behind them; is this what I really want to be doing right now, or am I doing it merely as a default/easy way to pass the time I've got this go around?

Was that a little over the top? I hope not. Either way, I'd appriciate comments and reactions to that. In the meantime...

Namaste'.