How vivid are your dreams? August 14, 2008 9:19 am
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Daily Life, Health, Mental, Poetry , add a commentMy dreams are filled with color, details, and sound. Last night I was watching a well machine, straight as an arrow, perfectly round one inch thick steel bar. While I looked at the bar from close distance, it hung in the air with no apparent forces being applied to the bar then without warning it snapped in the middle with an incredible, piercing pop! I flinched to miss any shrapnel, and in the process bolted upright in bed, wide awake, with my ears ringing and heart racing.
No interpretation needed. That dream is as clear as the single, ear splitting pop which came out of the dream and into the real world.
add a commentInsomnia July 17, 2008 8:24 am
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Health, Mental , 2comments14 Reasons You’re Not Sleeping I scored like an 11! The story is in pictures. Strange presentation.
Of course, napping helps creativity.
2commentsHow stressed? July 17, 2008 3:40 am
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Daily Life, Health, Mental , add a commentOn a scale of 1 to 10, my stress level is hovering right around 57 currently.
add a commentTop 10 Ways to have a happy marriage July 10, 2008 12:24 pm
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Health, Humor, Love, Mental, Philosophy, Sex, Touchy Subjects , 3comments@RandomChick asks "what’s the key to a successful/happy marriage?"
- Never let your wives find out about each other.
- Having a twin brother, never telling anyone, one works/one is at home, and the two of you can never be seen together.
- Lots of money. Because money can buy you happiness! And it can buy you love. But if you want happiness in marriage, never use your money to buy love.
- Nannies, babysitters, Mary Poppins, Oh My!
- Two houses. She should be living in the one you aren’t remodeling.
- Date nights! Just because you are married doesn’t mean you should quit dating. Get a babysitter for the children and act like you did before you said, "I do!" And don’t talk about todo lists, appointments, or other issues on your date!
- Remember small things add up. Leave a note, scrub a back, do one of your spouses chores (that is unless she hates the way you fold clothes and in that case just stay away from the laundry!), or knock something off that honey do list you’ve been ignoring.
- Viagra + Zoloft + Depakote
- Read The Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman
and practice it.
- Be married to my wife! (But be aware you’ll have to support me as well as the five children too)
Quote of the Day June 24, 2008 8:11 am
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Health, Mental, Philosophy, Quote , add a commentFrom Les Jones who got it from Random Nuclear Strikes:
"Most people are just about as happy as they make up their minds to be."
— Abraham Lincoln
I always question whether or not these famous people really said these things, but it doesn’t matter because I really like the message.
add a commentAmbivalence from Too Much June 22, 2008 10:57 am
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Health, Mental, Of Interest , 2commentsEver feel overwhelmed? Sometimes we have too much on our plates and cannot decide what to do. I have just returned from the beach and feel very relaxed. Nonetheless, I look at my desk and my todo list and know that I should be doing something productive. Instead of doing anything, I hid in bed and pondered what to do. It is vicious because the more you think about it the more you can raise your anxiety level and still accomplish nothing. A half an hour later you may still be under those covers having accomplished nothing and still unable to decide what to do.
I don’t want to lose my peace, the relaxed state of being I achieved over this past week. So how do you break this ambivalence? Easy! Achieve and succeed! Pick something small and achievable and do it! You must succeed so make sure the task can be done in a brief time. For me, I am going to clean out the car. For others, that may be too much. Perhaps for someone else, the task might be "make a cup of coffee." But set a goal that can be done in a brief time, focus only on it, and get it done quickly. Welcome back!
2commentsWaking Exhausted June 12, 2008 7:18 am
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Daily Life, Health, Juggling, Mental , add a commentWhat’s tickling my arm? Oh, the cat is on the bed sniffing me to wakefulness. Look at the time! This house is hot. Why am I so tired after such deep sleep? My dreams. Tossing and turning. Programming in my head. All night I saw code and solutions to the programming challenges I have during the day. Do I really need to get up? I feel like I worked all night long.
I must work harder at calming my mind before laying down for sleep at night. I am not a practitioner of meditation. I have always wanted to be. Jason Jarrett helped me understand the Nichiren Daishonin Buddhist chant of NAM-MYO-HO-REN-GE-KYO and that’s brought me closer to a meditative calm than anything else I have tried. Chapter 9 of the book You Are Psychic!: The Free Soul Method
Disturbing News of the Day May 29, 2008 11:29 am
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Mental, News, Of Interest , add a commentCan you say "psychotherapy?" I knew you could!
A 12-year-old girl has testified in court that she saw her father kill her mother and he then forced her to help dismember the body with a circular saw. [Source, WBIR]
Now that’s some authoritative parenting! I can’t even get my children to sweep the floors! I wonder what that girls career will become. And the grossness continues…
Police said James Hawkins cleaned the saw and returned it to a store where he had obtained it. [Source, WBIR]
…which means someone else bought that circular saw and is cheerfully using it to build their bookshelves in their house. Of course, they’ll never understand why the books seem to rearrange themselves, occasionally jump off the shelf, and exhibit symmetrical book stacking just like the Philadelphia mass turbulence of 1947.
I don’t get how someone could do this to another human being much less include their child in the act!
add a commentOversleeping May 29, 2008 10:18 am
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Daily Life, Health, Mental , 1 comment so farOversleeping takes on whole definition when the person you are working with is 5 hours (or 14) ahead of you!
Stress seems to make it worse wearing the body down. I have written before that the stress reaction used to make sense. You are on the savanna, a lion pops out of the tall grass and begins chasing you, stress kicks in causing an adrenaline rush, and you bolt into the forest to escape becoming a picnic dinner. The stress is short lived. But ongoing stress (days, weeks, years) beats the dickens out of you! Then add to it that I have been staying up past midnight and waking up with or before the roosters and the body feels run over. I suppose those conditions beg for a collapse. Why couldn’t it have come in two days instead of this morning?!
1 comment so farIJA Festival 2008 is in Lexington! April 16, 2008 11:13 pm
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Daily Life, Health, Juggling, Mental, Of Interest , add a commentOh serendipity! This is the closest I have ever been to the International Jugglers’ Association festival! I have video tapes from renegade shows from a couple of decades ago that just look like a blast. Years ago, young and bullheaded, I had attitude toward the IJA as being the evil juggling overloads (for profit) that popularized that horrid 4-4-10 nonsense. In truth, I just wasn’t innovative enough to get myself to one of the festivals. Groundhog Day Juggler’s convention in Atlanta and the one Neil Stammer (Andrew J. Allen) hosted in D.C. were the ones I was able to attend.
Juggling festivals are wonderful. You learn so much. And there’s nothing to really describe the sensation of walking into a gymnasium filled with a few hundred people throwing things at each other. And when you get some really talent passers together, the juggling is like clockwork, everything around you fades away, and you are in a single group mind defying gravity!
I went to the Knoxville Juggler’s Club night last night. It was thrilling but my skills have faded and long since been surpassed by superior jugglers. I never uttered that I was the best juggler in Knoxville; that would be wrong, lacking humility, egotistical, and arrogant. But years ago I heard it, and secretly I didn’t think it was too far off base not because I was talented but because Knoxville just didn’t have that many die-hard jugglers. Of course back then I’d blow off classes to go listen to Jimmy Buffett, The Grateful Dead, reggae, and the occasional acoustic guitar player while juggling barefoot in the grass at the World’s Fair Park. Met one of my best friends and has wife on one of their first dates while skipping class to juggle in that park. I want to keep going to the club and I want my juggling fire back. I doubt I will catch up to these guys. As the has-been juggler, I wonder how I would hold my own at the IJA Festival. I feel a bit like Fast Eddie Felson; there was then and there is now.
add a comment61st IJA Festival
July 14-20, 2008
Lexington, Kentucky [Source, juggle.org]
For my wife, I’ll sing of sushi March 30, 2008 6:07 pm
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Health, Humor, Love, Mental, Philosophy , 4commentsNext time I’m at West Town Mall, for my wife, I’ll break into song in the food court and sing of sushi!
4commentsAwareness Test March 26, 2008 10:49 pm
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Health, Mental, Of Interest , add a commentTry to count the number of passes the team in white makes.
http://view.break.com/470052 - Watch more free videos
Thanks to DwingDwang.
add a commentQuit teaching fractions! February 24, 2008 9:04 pm
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Education, Mental, Of Interest , 5commentsDennis DeTurck believes that we should not teach fractions until they can be appreciated which may be after calculus. Watch it below.
USA Today had an article last month noting some people disagree vehemently.
5commentsRight brain left brain February 11, 2008 10:47 pm
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Cool Sites, Games/Puzzles, Health, Mental, Of Interest, Philosophy , 2commentsI can make her spin either direction at will. So they call her a dancer? Must be a mighty cold dance room!
2commentsKnoxville Juggling Club relauches February 3, 2008 10:35 pm
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Daily Life, Health, Juggling, Mental, Of Interest , 9commentsI had to take a break from the tech. I don’t exercise anymore. Cannot remember the last time I stretched. I find myself wanting to sleep more.
When I used to exercise and stretch regularly, I slept less and felt more alive. So tonight, I committed myself to meeting with the Knoxville Juggler’s Club.
Jan Sanders Hall at Cokesbury United Methodist Church will be open to jugglers from 7 to 9 p.m. on the first Sunday and the third Tuesday of each month.
I am going to do my best to show up to both meetings. And I promise not to make any more naked jokes in the church… There were some very talented jugglers there tonight! Dave juggled 5 rings beautifully with ease, a feat I cannot personally replicate. He also juggled five crystal balls without a sweat. Kevin, Jimmy and Doug (not me…the other one) were doing artistic passing. My loud mouth came in and talked them into throwing lots of clubs at the floor. Noah practiced diablo and the rola bola. And we indoctrinated a bystander into 3 ball juggling. I had a blast!
What type of people attend juggling clubs? A high school math teacher, a nuclear engineer (okay..I don’t really know what he does but its got "engineer" in the title and his job is in Oak Ridge so I’m sure its top secret!), a finish carpenter who runs his own business, a middle schooler, a web application developer aka computer geek (yeah that’s me), and an IT guy (yes, that’s a computer guy too).
Why juggle? Because juggling is fun! And so much more. For me, juggling is almost spiritual! Juggling is good for the body as it is very aerobic. Juggling is better than coffee for waking you up as it gets the blood flowing and more oxygen to the brain. Juggling is a social activity. When a person juggles, be it a child or a shy person or anybody, people take notice and often converse and ask questions. Juggling will break you out of your shell! Juggling is good for the mind. You cannot juggle distracted. When you focus on juggling, your worries and the clutter in your mind slip away allowing you to find serenity. This is why corporations have seminars to teach their executives to juggle (aside from the wealth of productivity metaphors that can be thrown into the juggling lessons). In short, juggling is good for the mind, body and soul!
Who can juggle? Anybody! I’ve seen a one handed man juggle. Children can be taught at a very early age. Typically the hand eye coordination required develops around 8 to 10 years old but with patience, a 5 year old could learn. And everyone knows that as soon as I can (usually around 10 months), I teach my children to balance in my hand. I hear people say, "I am too clumsy." Well, that is a perfect reason to learn to juggle! Juggling makes you more aware of things around you and can help make someone less clumsy. Juggling teaches hand/eye coordination and teaches the mind to handle a state of chaos as well as predicting the paths of objects in motion. Jugglers are better drivers! Another excuse is "I don’t have the coordination." Yes you do! Anyone that truly wants to learn to juggle, I can teach in about 10 minutes. As Gusto’s cousin, Marso, says, "Anyone can juggle!"
