Energy

"When we cling to past experiences we keep giving them energy ... and we do not have much energy to spare."

"Until we embrace our personal ability to shape our lives we will be like leaves caught in the wind."

--My iPhone's Ponder app.

Impermanence

In an attempt to make myself blog more, I plan on posting some of my favorite quotes. At least maybe this will keep people from wanting my domain

"We should not complain about impermanence,
because without impermanence, nothing is possible."
--Buddist teachings

JUST SLOW DOWN!!

Every morning I see people crossing the street when they shouldn't. You know the "do not cross" red hand is up and there is a green light for the cars. Invariably, the person crosses the street just as the people in the cars realize they have a green light, honking ensues, and everyone is stressed out. Except, usually, for the person who crossed the street. Either they pretend like nothing is going on or I've seen a few actually hit a car that's honking at them and cusses the person in the car out. Which always makes me think, don't you realize you were in the wrong? Maybe they do, maybe they don't. People make mistakes and think they have a walk signal not a do not cross signal sometimes, I suppose. And yes, the pedestrian is always supposed to have the right-away, but what about the people who KNOW they weren't supposed to cross? Do they feel guilty or just sneaky? Like they got away with something?

I think the root of this has to do with people always being in a hurry. Someone crosses the street when they're not supposed to because they're late to this or that. Or maybe they're not late - they just figure, why wait my turn when I don't have to? I almost get run over by other pedestrians daily, because I'm a slow walker. I can sometimes imagine what they're thinking. "Hurry up! Go faster! Get out of my way!"

And I'm guilty of this too. I've gotten right up on other walkers' shoulders before who were going slowly. I've been impatient. I've even crossed the street when the red hand was up (but only if I've checked a both ways to make sure there's not a car nearby.)

But usually when I'm all crazy and frenzied, I try to think, "Why am I in such a hurry?" Do I have a good reason? If not, what's wrong with slowing down a little bit? Taking in the scenery?

Why are people (especially in urban environments) always in such a hurry? It reminds me of when I was 16 and heard people talking about speeding vs. not speeding (it usually happened after one of us got a speeding ticket.) You speed one day and then you don't speed the other day. The day you speed, you only get there like five minutes before the day when you don't speed. So you might be a little bit tardy, but is it that big of a deal? Not usually. You just say, I hit traffic, and I'm sorry I'm late. Then you leave five minutes earlier the next day.

So is it worth stressing yourself and everyone else out around you to get someplace a measly five minutes early? Is it worth possibly getting hit by a bus or getting in a car wreck?

Why do we humans rush so much? What in our psychology causes us to do that? Or is it simply societal pressure? If more emphasis was made on slowing down, would we have fewer accidents and less incidents of stress-related disease? How do we advocate for people to JUST SLOW DOWN?? If anyone has any ideas, let me know.

Obama Rally

Now that I've posted those other albums, here's my Obama Rally photos. Taken Nov. 4, 2008, in Grant Park in Chicago.

Obama Rally

The rally was amazing. I've said it several times, and there were tons of descriptions of this on the news, but it was so great -- all kinds of people (black, white, Asian, Hispanic, gay, straight, young, old, etc.) -- and everyone was smiling. It really made me feel hopeful for the future.

Photos I haven't posted

My mom reminded me that I never update my blog. Yes, it's true. That's why I've decided I have to start doing it again. So, here are some photos I've put up on Picasa that I haven't posted here on the 'Nest.

First, photos from this summer, including my trip to Colorado and Lollapalooza.

Colorado, Lollapalooza

Second, pictures I took at a Halloween Dogs Parade in my neighborhood. I took them with my iPhone, so some of them aren't the best.

Halloween dogs!!

I'm so happy an adult is back in charge.

Fireworks

Here are some pictures my brother took Thursday night at the big fireworks celebration in Chicago. The show was really awesome -- but it was freakin' freezing!!

White Sox game from May

I meant to post these a long time ago. My friend Erin's aunt works for the White Sox. She's a very good person to know. The seats we got to this game were on the front row, right next to the Twins' dugout. It was awesome!!!

Is Google Making Us Stoopid?

Atlantic Magazine poses an interesting question this issue. Is Google making us stupid?
I've often thought how different my life would be if I didn't have the internet close at hand. I use it to read the news, communicate, check my bank account, shop, find phone numbers, restaurant reviews, etc., etc. I don't really feel the need to remember anything because I can just quickly look up anything I need.

Ironically, the internet went down in my office this morning. I couldn't do anything! I had to call a money management firm and couldn't find its number. I didn't even know where to look -- we don't have phone books anymore! Basically, I sat around and waited for the internet to come back up. The Atlantic article argues (in part) that the internet has made it much more difficult for us to focus for long periods of time on a singular text. We want to jump around all the time. The Wikipedia of the brain, so to say. I definitely find myself having difficulty focusing on a long article (such as the Google article.) This isn't too far off what Neil Postman argued in Amusing Oursevles to Death.

Wrigley tour

I went on a tour of Wrigley Field with the KU Alumni Association yesterday. It was really interesting. There's so much history at Wrigley. It's a rare thing to see. And the other great thing about Wrigley is that it's in the middle of a neighborhood, not surrounded by parking and highways. It just feels so accessible. A treat for sure!

The Cubs' locker room

Carlos Zambrano's locker

Going into the locker room

My friend Scott hanging out by Tom Glavine's locker

Look at how much stuff they have in the visitor's locker room bathroom!

In the press room

Kaitlin and Scott out on the field.

It's been some time

So, I got an e-mail offering me $50 for this address since I hadn't updated it in eons. It could have been a scam, but I needed it to get my butt motivated to blog again! I was like, oh no dude, Jbyrdie's Nest is mine!! I stopped blogging for a long time because my old computer was moving so slow. But now that I have a new one and have actually settled down in a place to live, I'm out of excuses.

Well, very sad news today. Tim Russert died. I used to love watching Meet the Press. I kind of stopped for a while when I got disenchanted with politics but I always thought Tim was great. Of course the first thing that came to my mind when I heard the news was that his death was probably a heart attack and must have had something to do with the stress of the news business. One of my friends pointed out that it also probably had a lot to do with all the medium rare steaks! Everyone has stress in their jobs. It's just so important to let it not be all consuming. But at least Tim seemed to LOVE what he did. So, RIP, Tim Russert.