Wednesday December 7, 2016

I read more of Arcanum Unbounded: The Cosmere Collection by Brandon Sanderson. and am now to page 446. 

I continued re-reading The War of Art by Steven Pressfield and shared it with some people at the Brewery. The Brewery (named in the fine tradition of millennial church groups everywhere) is the interfaith mostly-bible study I go on Wednesday nights.

While there I also raved over the work of Neal Stephenson. I originally meant to talk about the magical book in Diamond Age but got carried away giving brief book talks about pretty much his entire bibliography. 

I also talked about the Enneagram again and how my type, 9s work better with the idea of "grooves" rather than "passions." 

At the end of work Charlie and I talked about the up coming movie Passengers. 

 and how it reminded us of Event Horizon...

and Sphere.

But then looking at these trailers other than abandonment and strange goings on, perhaps they are not all that similar.

Teusday, December 6, 2016

Well, I finished Luke Cage on netflix, watching  Episodes 12 and 13 of season 1. I am enjoying the more normal person centered marvel shows on netflix in general. Not so much melodrama and soap opera feel as you get from the DC comic shows. Though there are bits of it here and there. They are superhero shows after all.

I also read more of Arcanum Unbounded: The Cosmere Collection by Brandon Sanderson. and am now to page 322. 

I started re-reading The War of Art by Steven Pressfield, but only got a few pages into it. 

I also did another yoga class this time from Do Yoga With Me.

Monday, December 5, 2016

This morning I listened to a talk by Ajahn Sumedho on inner listening. 

I have read to page 280 of Arcanum Unbounded: The Cosmere Collection by Brandon Sanderson.
 I had read up to 148 at yesterday's post. Sanderson is hard to put down and easy to read so even when you are reading his 1000 page epic fantasy, you just fly through it.

 I listened to most of this talk by Ram Dass:

And started this talk by Stephen Wolinsky who reminds me of a friendly Rasputin so I am never sure if I like him or not, but what he says is interesting and he talks about advaita vendanta quite clearly. 

That is it for the day. It was quiet at the library though we did get to make lego robot race cars.

 
 

Sunday, December 4, 2016

So I did not go to church this morning so you will not see a whole bunch of church references.

Instead I stayed home:

Read more  Arcanum Unbounded: The Cosmere Collection by Brandon Sanderson and finished the first story "The Emperors Soul" which was predicated on magical "chops."

I did some yoga for the first time in months. I used this video from Namaste Yoga, which was her first and probably my all time favorite.

I got to use my new tablet to watch it with, which was even more convenient than I had imagined it being.

I finished watching Contact. I watched some of it on my tablet at my breakfast table, and can now say that I feel I am living in the future. 

I watched Aldnoah.Zero Episodes: S1E9-12 and S2E1. 

I listened to this talk by Ram Dass:

and this talk by Ajahn Sumedho.
 

Saturday, December 3, 2016

Wow this has been going for a solid week now!

Today I finished Green Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson which ends on page 624.

So I started reading Arcanum Unbounded: The Cosmere Collection by Brandon Sanderson and got to page 36.

I also browsed through The Enneagram: A Christian Perspective by Fr. Richard Rhor O.F.M. "O.F.M." stands for "Order of Friar's Minor." The "Fr." stands for "Father" which is the honorific for Roman Catholic priest. 

I watched Arrival for the second time in theaters. It was like deja vu all over again. This is an incredibly clever thing to say about it which you will know if you have seen it. 

 







At the library, mostly what I did was build lots of Lego robots. Also ordered a GED study book for a patron.

Friday, December 2, 2016

Another late night annotation. This time because of meditation at Huong Dam Temple in Corpus Christi.

I am at page 586 in Green Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson.
 
I watched this Ajahn Brahm dharma talk, essentially a Buddhist sermon, live this morning. Mostly. I did my morning meditation in the first part of the talk.

I also listened to some of Awareness By Anthony De Mello:

 

The library was fairly quiet today.

Thursday, December 1, 2016

The major feature of today was that I was Santa Claus at the library for the county tree lighting ceremony. I got to ride in a fire truck. It was a smaller one, basically a modified dullay. I can see how people do this every year for hours on end. The kids who are extremely excited to see you, more than make up for the kids who are not. You just soak in their joy and excitement and you hardly do anything. Amazing. I will get pictures.

I have also watched more of Contact.

Read to page 532 of Green Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson.

I received a Samsung Galaxy Tab E Tablet in the mail that I had broken down and ordered on Cyber Monday (note: this links to wikipedia which I have been trying to avoid, but most cyber monday results are about cybe monday deals, not about cyber monday.)
I have my excuses. (E-reader! Yoga videos! Chess practice!)

I also received Arcanum Unbounded: The Cosmere Collection by Brandon Sanderson

What's the Cosmere? Why I am glad you asked! Basically it is the meta setting for most all his settings in his novels. I think I heard him say something about planning to write 38 books set in the Cosmere at Worldcon a few years ago. But I know he is already writing more that he hadn't planned. Fortunately for us all, he writes and publishes fast. He has released six books so far this year!

One final thing then bed:

Did you know that Santa Clause is a official bodisattva in Budhism?! I have been thinking about this all day.