Friday, March 2

 

Birds have resumed chirping this week and there are many ducks and bunnies in the neighborhood.

Saturday, March 3

My daughter rides a new horse today during her lesson, Irish is a big, red horse that caused one of the fellow parents to remark to me as the sun shone on them as they rode by, “your daughter looks very beautiful riding.”

Sunday, March 4

 

A glorious morning as spring hastens to arrive.  It is clear and bright and mild.  The sun rises and sun sets have been almost as spectacular as Jupiter and Venus shining near the crescent moon each night.

Monday, March 5

I am reading This Will Make You Smarter, edited by John Brockman.

Tuesday, February 28

 

If you want to trace the history of everything through the academic disciplines, begin with physics(universe) then chemistry(elements) then geology(earth) then biology(life) then human history(us).

Wednesday, February 29

Leap Day

Some of the greatest patterns ever organized or charts created are:

Maps of the full-sky by the COBE satellite showing the cosmic background radiation hot zones that help date the universe by Astrophysicists and Nobel Laureate George Smoot;

Chemist Dmitri Mendeleev’s periodic Table of the Elements; and

The United States Constitution.

 

Thursday, March 1

The scientific community calls the stuff that existed (matter and energy they believe) “stuff,” literally, that is what they call it, “stuff.”

Sunday, February 26

 

I hope I am at the top of my game at 82 like oldest ever Oscar winner Christopher Plummer.

Monday, February 27

Don’t leave spontaneity to chance.

                        Neil Peart, Drummer and Lyricist, RUSH

Friday, February 24

 

One of my favorite books is Maps of Time, An Introduction to Big History by David Christian.

The DVD series by the Teaching Company’s Great Courses series is equally good as Mr. Christian leads 13 lectures based on the book.

He covers everything from the Big Bang, life on Earth to the rise of humanity.

He describes the eight generally agreed to “layers of complexity:”

1)     the universe;

2)     stars;

3)     the chemical elements;

4)     Earth;

5)     life;

6)     species;

7)     agriculture; and

8)     the modern revolution.

Saturday, February 25

 

Girl Scout cookies!

Thursday, February 23

Professor James Galvin of the Iowa Writers' Workshop gives his students an exercise wherein he asks them to contemplate a blank sheet of paper and consider the effort involved in creating it from tree to what is in front of them.  Then he asks them to consider overnight writing something on it that is as beautiful.

Tuesday, February 21

 

John Fairfax passed on February 8 at 74. 

He had rowed across both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. 

His 1969 six month cross of the Atlantic was the only recorded solo rowing cross of an ocean.

He crossed the Pacific with his girlfriend Sylvia Cook in 1972.   They were the first people to row across the Pacific.  It took them 361 days to go the 8,000 miles.

Wednesday, February 22

 

Lent begins.  

It is the Christian faith’s period before Easter to meditate and fast.  

A time to take an interior journey of introspection and reflection.  

To cross the oceans of one’s soul.

Monday, February 20

 

The history of Presidents’ Day dates back to 1800 when February 22 was declared a federal holiday. Today, the third Monday of the month is used to honor our nation’s presidents, two of whom had birthdays in February, Washington and Lincoln.

Sunday, February 19
 

Paper requires the breaking-down and reconstitution of plant fibers.  It is often dated to A.D. 105 and linked to Ts’ai Lun, of the court of Emperor Han Ho Ti of China.

It soon replaced more primitive writing surfaces like stone, wood blocks, clay tablets, wax and sheets of laminated bark or matted papyrus stalks.

When cellulose fibers are separated from noncellulosic components of plants, beaten to a pulp, briefly suspended in water and spread onto a screen, the fibers bond together to form a sheet. A piece of paper is a plant re-engineered for specifically human purposes.

Friday, February 17

 

I have learned that the gene that causes Macular Degeneration was discovered at UT Southwestern Medical Center.  This is what happened to Mom’s eyesight.  She thinks it was passed to her by her great-grandmother who she seems to recall lost her sight later in life.

Saturday, February 18

The books or “library” passed to me from my parents includes Dad’s book on American history and culture which he studied from to get his United States citizenship in the late 1950s.  It was written in both English and Italian.  It has a hard cover with the words, “Prezzo $2.25” on the spine.  I also have the family Bible and Mom’s study aids from all her Bible study classes.

A book I have that Mom expressly bought for me is Success God’s Way.

Thursday, February 16

Lecture on the ethical implications of psychiatric medications for children.  Josephine Johnston of the Hastings Center spoke.  She is an attorney who trained in New Zealand where she also received her Masters in bioethics.  The Hastings Center in Hastings-on-the-Hudson, New York is the nation’s premier bioethical think tank.

One of her main points was that one needs to be aware that:

Drugs locate the problem in the child when the problem could also be the environment.  Her analogy was the child given a drug for diarrhea from drinking in a polluted river.  One should then work to clean the river.

Wednesday, February 15

My wife and I’s 20^th wedding anniversary.  We celebrate with a morning of exchanged cards and time with our daughter and beagle.  Then off to our jobs.

In the evening my daughter reads out loud her homework assignment, stories of myth and legend.   One story is of the creation of woman from Greek mythology, the story of Pandora and her box.  I had forgotten that she had managed to close it in time, after opening and releasing so much pestilence, that she did shut it on a creature that would have imbedded in humans the ability to know their future troubles in advance.  The story suggests that had this occurred we would have certainly been doomed, for to have known our future challenges would have destroyed hope and hope is what helps us survive.

Monday, February 13

Pitchers and catchers reported to the Seattle Mariner spring training camp.  The Mariners started the earliest this year of all Major League baseball teams, as they open in Japan and wanted to get a jump on conditioning before the trip.  Their opponents in Japan, the Oakland A’s chose not to start early.

 

Tuesday, February 14

The Drive to Love and Who We Choose | Helen Fisher, Ph.D.

What is love?  Why do we feel chemically drawn to one person rather than another?  Anthropologist Dr. Helen Fisher will discuss how three brain networks—sex drive, romantic love and attachment—interact in the brain.  Join her to learn about the joys and problems of marrying someone quite similar or different from one’s self and how to use biologically-based patterns of personality to find and keep lasting love.

Saturday, February 11

Watched last night George Clooney’s produced, written, directed and starring, Ides of March about lying and betrayal on the presidential campaign trail.  In the movie no one is loyal to anyone or anything.

I had read it was loosely inspired by Robert Redford’s 1970s films, The Candidate and Three Days of the Condor which dealt with the realities of running for higher office and conspiracies within the CIA, respectively.  These movies came out with Watergate fresh in our minds.

Today it almost seems obvious that people will lie and betray each other in all kinds of area, politics, government, business, you name it.  It is almost as if now people are surprised when they are not lied to or betrayed because they know they are doing these things to others weather they have been discovered yet or not so they just assume it will happen to them, too eventually.  “No hard feelings, right, everyone does it, it’s just ___________ fill in the blank, business, politics, etc.”

Sunday, February 12

Blessed is anyone who endures temptation.

                                    James 1:12

Friday, February 10

The soundtrack CD for the Oscar nominated movie the Descendants has, as one might expect for a story set in Hawaii, wonderful ukulele music.  What an unusual musical instrument…and word for that matter…ukulele.

Thursday, February 9

Lecture today at work regarding the mental health consequences of disasters, by Carol S. North, MD, Professor of Crisis Psychiatry.  She discussed many of her studies ranging from the Oklahoma City bombing to 9/11.

Wednesday, February 8

With presidential primary season in full swing it occurred to me I was not too familiar with the difference between a  election and a caucus.

The "caucus" is a system in which party members gather to discuss and declare their preferences for a candidate by writing a name on a piece of paper for hand-count by party officials.

It is believed to derive from the Algonquin Indian word caw-cawaasough - meaning "one who advises, a counselor."

Sunday, February 5

Mom shared that her unique name is from her father’s sister, Desolina.

Monday, February 6

A turning point in my father’s life, as recounted by Mom, was when he failed his exam for the priesthood and his father refused to send him back to retry.  Some of his friends who failed were allowed by their fathers to go back and retry as it was not uncommon to retake the exam.

Tuesday, February 7

The Association for the Advancement of Philosophy and Psychiatry (AAPP) was established in 1989 to promote cross-disciplinary research, educational initiatives, and graduate training programs in philosophy and psychiatry. Philosophical methods bring to psychiatry a kind of analysis and critique that are invaluable in their clarity of thought, meaning, and application to practice. But over the years, we also have found that, in addition to having its own philosophical problems, psychiatry also informs philosophical theorizing itself, and that the field of "philosophy and psychiatry" is developing into its own interdisciplinary field.

Thursday, February 2

To generalize…most of the classic novels I read from the past had protagonists dealing with challenges wrought by the outside world and how it changed them.  Today, most novels seem about challenges on protagonists that are self-inflicted or stemming from their interior lives and how it changes their approach to the outside world.

Friday, February 3

Up early to make breakfast for my wife and daughter who share the same birthday.

Saturday, February 4

Yesterday at work, I began participating in a research study about how depression can affect memory.  I was asked numerous interesting questions by the clinicians in the Psychiatry Department so as to confirm I do not have depression so as to be appropriate for the “normal” sample of 100 individuals they are looking for.  They will need 50 individuals with diagnosed depression to complete the study.

Wednesday, February 1

Some February events I look forward to each year include:

The Pebble Beach Pro Am Golf Classic;

Pitchers and catchers reporting to spring training; and

The Sports Illustrated swim suit issue.

Sunday, January 29

My 86 year old Italian mother and I watched the Andrea Bocelli concert on PBS, Live from Central Park.  He ran through the classic Italian musical catalogue from opera to movie soundtracks to pop standards including:

Puccini’s, La Donna e Mobile;

Puccini’s, Neccun Dorma;

Verdi’s, La Forza Del Destino;

O Sole Mio;

Volare; and

Quando, Quando, Quando.

Mom shared where she was and when she first remembered hearing some of the songs and the circumstances she found herself in at those times.  I found it especially poignant as she lay in her rehabilitation center bed as we watched on her room T.V. together.  Songs have a wonderful way of transporting you back to your youth and for three hours I watched the years roll back for Mom.

Monday, January 30

Some fun things going on in the month of January include the Sundance Film Festival; Fort Worth Stock Show and Australian Tennis Open.

Tuesday, January 31

If one has never listened to PBS radio’s:

A Way With Words;

Studio 360; and

Radio Lab;

treat yourself to some of the most witty and erudite discourse occurring in the media today.

Saturday, January 28

I watched Moneyball last night on Demand.  It was beautifully photographed and sharply written with just a couple plot points that were not very clear.  The screen writer, Adam Sorkin, won last year’s adapted screenplay Oscar for The Social Network, and is nominated again this year.  He was also the writer/creator of the television series West Wing.  

As a baseball fan, it was fun to be reminded about how unlikely the 2003 Oakland A’s were to break the major league record for consecutive wins with 20.  They were a team made up of few star players, but selected using sabermetrics (baseball statistical analysis using mathematical logarithms to predict on-base success of any given player), as invented by Bill James.  

The movie was really about patterns versus randomness and understanding what you are seeing.  In other words, an athlete may look physically very gifted but may not actually accomplish much towards his team’s success.  You can apply this in many life situations involving teamwork.

Friday, January 27

I was going through my Bible and removing some past service bulletins as they were making it very thick.  I ran across several from Dr. Gerald Turner’s sermons in late August when he annually took the pulpit to mark the return of students to SMU and the beginning of another school year.  He has done this the past 16 years and I do not think I have missed one.  He knows the Bible and came to SMU from Duke, another Methodist school.  SMU is celebrating its centennial.

I noticed the hymn sung after his sermon was, I Stand Amazed in His Presence, a favorite of mine.

Thursday, January 26

The Distinguished Alumni awards at the SMU School of Law this year includes, the Honorable H. Harjono, class of ’81 and Founding Justice of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Indonesia.

Wednesday, January 25

The Academy Award nominations were announced yesterday morning.  The films I will see in my ballot selection preparation for submission to my Oscar watching friends are all based on books I have read or would like to read:

Moneyball;

The Descendants; and

The Ides of March.