Tales of Ordinary Madness

I totally want to hang out with Satan.

I could watch it over and over and over again

So, I’m not sure that I totally understand the usefulness of “micro-blogging”, but given the immense amount of interest around it, I’ve decided to give it a try. I know twitter is the most popular site right now, but I refuse to use it for several reasons. Mainly because the service seems to be down more than it is up, but also because once your content is put into twitter, it’s theirs. They have been given a ton of venture capital money and the only way they can make money is with YOUR content.

Identi.ca is different. Identi.ca is based upon an Open Source application called laconica licensed under the GNU AGPL. You control and own all your content. Don’t like Identi.ca? Fine, grab your data and set-up your own Laconica server.

We’ll see how my micro-blogging experience goes. Right now Identi.ca is still rough around the edges and they are still in the process of adding some features that Twitter has had for a while.

If you’d like to see my Identi.ca feed, you can see it here: http://identi.ca/cteodorski/all

Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo.

This video moved me in a way I can’t explain. It’s so easy to be us versus them, but so easy to forget it when you see people together sharing the same silly experience.

I used to practice with my Sanghavery regularly. I would regularly attend Tuesday night sittings and wouldn’t miss an opportunity to attend the twice yearly retreats.

And then something happened….

Part of what happened was the Sangha moved to a new home. The home they found puts them in a part of town that is far from convenient for me, it’s very difficult for me to get from work to sitting in a reasonable time, especially if I have any thoughts of eating dinner beforehand.

Part of what happened was that I allowed myself to get too busy. I’ve started back to school, working on my Masters, I’ve become a father, and we bought a house — all within the last year. Balancing this all with a job that often requires more than 40 hours a week is difficult.

Lately, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about the practice and how much I feel I benefited from it. I’ve also been reading “The Art of Power by Thich Nhat Hahn” which has me longing again for the practice and for my Sangha.

Unfortunately, my schedule in the near future doesn’t look like it will allow.

What is a busy Buddhist to do?

Power is good for one thing only: to increase our happiness and the happiness of others.

A wonderful quote from my teacher, Thich Nhat Hanh. I’ve been thinking about this quote a lot, wondering how I can apply this in my life and in my work.

http://dvlabs.tippingpoint.com/blog/2008/03/28/pwn-to-own-final-day-and-wrap-up

The gory details can be read at the link above, but here is what happened.

Day One: nuffin’
Day Two: MacBook PWNED
Day Three: Vista SP1 PWNED

Last man standing and UNHACKED by the end of the 3 day contest, Ubuntu.

I’m a bit suprised the Macbook fell first… I’m not surprised that Linux stayed strong.