ARTICLE: New York Times. "Look for magical moments."

She’s 103 and Just Ran the 100-Meter Dash. Her Life Advice? ‘Look for Magic Moments’

Wow!  If this short, New York Times article, doesn't demonstrate that one's outlook on life has a major impact on everything. 

Briefly, at age 103, Julia Hawkins is still competing in the hundred metre dash. Moreover, she is articulate and enthusiastic. When did she start running?… Oh, at the young age of one hundred years. This is the kind of news that we should all receive in our inbox once or twice a day. It helps balance out the onslaught of all the advertising and negativity. There was also a short 20 second clip of her on the track.  

I sincerely hope the New York Times never takes this article down, or better yet, places it in its entirety in the public domain. Because we all need good news like this :-)

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/20/sports/julia-hawkins-running.html

 

The Power of Habits

Habits are an incredibly human facility. It is an evolutionary efficiency adaption by the brain. For example: you see a hungry tiger-you run away from it! There is no thinking involved, it is evolution's way of keeping you alive! If you had to think about it, chances are by the time you decided to flee the Lions caloric intake would've increased.

Some say that it can take just three seconds to form a habit, but three weeks to break one. If we accept, for the sake of this discourse, that this is true then the question becomes "How can we ensure that the habits are positive and assisting us in some way?" Before that question can be answered, we must understand that habits come in a variety of forms. Some are automatic answers to situations and questions like "Donald Trump is a…". That politician has been around long enough that you probably had an automatic answer, along with an emotional response.  The emotional response is what ingraines the answer and usually colours the rest of your thinking for the moment. This usually happened so fast that you are not aware of it mentally although there may be many other reactions.

The trick of course is to become aware of all the automated reactions we have. Then critique them "is this making me feel better or worse? Etc.". Powerful habits can be formed also when were caught off guard, not watching our own barn doors so to speak and allowing the habit to fly right in. These are the ones that do take a lot of work, but I find, one way to lessen their impact is to again critique them and if they are no use to you, challenge them. Easier said than done, but over time this does work.

Keep track of positive and negative habits. Big and small. The moment the positives are greater than the negatives you may just feel a little better. Take each day one step at a time.

Because Independence, First and Foremost, Occurs in My Head…

Independence is, after all is a perception, and once I understood this concept, no one could ever again limit me again. I choose, what the word "independence" means to me, therefore, I have:

The Independence Of Thought.-Free to think and perceive anyway I wish. To see beyond the normal limits of  “No, you can’t do that.” Everything can be accomplished in a multitude of ways. Who would want to do it the normal way, anyway?

Independence To Take Action - The "independence of thought" gives me the power to take action, because I see that there is no limit. True it may be difficult and take some time to achieve. But it involves me with life, keeps me connected, and that can only be good.

From the "Independence to Take Action" - Comes joy, and from joy comes freedom.  All because , “independence, first and foremost, occurs in my head.”  It is a perception and an interpretation which I can change at any time. That is true independence in my book. Because, as long as one is thinking and feeling freely, they are most likely, more independent than those who accept the limitations of normal perception.

From "Joy and Freedom" - Comes New Ideas and Fun. Is it any wonder, that I seek out challenge and enjoy the road less travelled on? For me, being different is a gift, and I have the independence to see it that way.

Patrick 

Definition Normal

Definition: Normal
"Conforming to a standard; usual, typical, or expected. "

It is my own personal belief, that too much "Normal" is not a good thing, because it indicates a lack of change. The world evolves constantly in all aspects imaginable, both subtle and gross. Without change people tend to become disconnected as their world get smaller and less diversified. I am very lucky, because inherently I am a rebel, but do not rely on the act of rebellion as being my normal-state, because becoming overly reliant on anything limits the opportunity for growth. So I have a life composed of bits of normal combined with everything else. It is this mixture of things which keeps me engaged in growing. Like never before in history, people can choose to be exposed to so many different things. Literally, access to new ideas is only a search engine away.

So why do I see so many people out in public with blank expressions, who appear totally not engaged with the world around them? I do not have an answer… I sometimes get off the local public transit feeling a little shellshocked. Depending on the time of day, everyone appears to where darker colours, has a headset on and is aimlessly surfing on their smart phone. Judging by the numbers, I would say this is the current state of normal.

What is your experience, and how can we redefine "normal" so that it is a growth factor and not something just apathetic, for lack of a better word?

One foot inside the Matrix

In the movie The Matrix the story and plot revolve around the idea that people live in the dream world created by machines. This solution has a purpose, to keep individuals and entire populations distracted and self-involved. This stops humanity from rebelling and facing the all the truth that humanity only exists as if energy source to power the machines. Indeed, when one of the secondary characters is freed from the dream they ultimately make a deal with the machines to once again enter the dream world, despite knowing the truth about why humans are kept alive. The movie was a smash hit.

In the last few years I have begun to wonder just how close we are in reality to the matrix concept and what rights, freedoms, and responsibilities societies as a whole might be unwittingly giving up in exchange for evermore intoxicating technology, which on the surface seems to make one's life easier, but in so doing also forms and alters our  behaviour. In doing so our perceptions of what is acceptable, and normal are altered . Are we as a society becoming more apathetic and easier to manage? The question may not be as outlandish as it first seems. I recently saw a documentary on Dr. Martin Luther King which vividly recounted the early civil rights struggle and specifically the year-long boycott, by the Afro-American community, of riding public buses. This was a nonviolent response to the accepted norm of having segregated public transit. What was amazing was, not only were thousands of people in revolt, but the community kept up the pressure for a continuous year before the issue was resolved. This was not the end of people struggle for basic human rights, just one of many chapters, in a struggle which continues to this day in a variety of ways across many communities. But have societies in large lost the ability to have such long term focus and foresight? The rapid feedback we all expect from everyone and everything in the modern world seems to on the surface have shortened our attention span and sense of what a long struggle is. If the civil rights movement started today with it gather and sustain such momentum, or would people get distracted after a few weeks? Allowing the issue to become lost. Which stagnates change and the growth of people.

I have seen quite a few things in the last years, which would make my personal answer "Yes.", And hence the title of this blog entry "One foot inside the Matrix". Before we can extract our foot. We must first clearly understand the subtle ways in which people are subtly (and sometimes not) encouraged to join this this Matrix Of Behavior.

That is what this ongoing blog entry will be about. Comments are always welcome.

Firefox and Blogger Usefulness Versus Security.

The very first item: Firefox and Blogger: Usefulness Versus Security.

Being a geek my home system is quite secure. One day a friend of mine was using one of my computers to surf a blog hosted by Blogger and noticed they couldn't post a comment. The moment they hit the submit button, all of their text in the comment box simply disappeared. No error was generated and this happened regardless of whether or not most of the security on the computer was turned on, or off... We had ourselves a little mystery. Which is just the kind of thing I love. Here's what's going on with Firefox as it relates to posting on blogs hosted by Blogger.

Firefox is rejecting cookies from websites that are third-party and providing services to the blog you are posting on. In this situation, I believe Blogger is using another company's service to provide the random phrase they ask you to type in when posting your comment. If Firefox rejects the cookie from this company then the post is just dropped. No error message is generated because this might enable someone using software to spam the site to develop a workaround for the security. By default Firefox excepts all cookies, so for most people posting a message won't be a problem.  But,if you're having this problem, it's a good sign that someone has set up your computer properly, and here's the reason:

Normally, it's a very good idea to have your browser, Firefox or otherwise, set up to reject these cookies from offsite companies. It helps limit your information from being misused by other parties.

This information is for a very early version of Firefox back in 2012. It is probably not accurate or relevant anymore. This article is maintained here strictly as an archival copy.

Although I don't recommend you doing this, here's how to turn off this security feature:

1. Open your Firefox options [the method varies by the version of Firefox you have. Look around your menus.]
2. Go to the privacy tab and put a checkmark in the item that reads: "Except third-party cookies."
3. Then click the okay button at the bottom of the window.

Please make sure after your posting to disable third-party cookies once again.