Slaughtering the idea of concept

b1-67er: How much meditation are you doing?

b1-66er: At least 20 minutes a day. I think my counter said the other day that I've done 88 straight days, something like that...

But it's been longer because it hasn't 'just' been within the HS app...

So, what? 

100 consecutive days.

40 physical hours.

That's right order of magnitude.

I don't remember if I told you...

I started meditating in my last MRI and I wasn't even trying•

I've chased The Dragon, on and off, for three decades and now it's my little frothy cuddle bunny...

... But here's the amazing part:

I was SHOCKED when it happened...

and i didn't even snap out of it...

<oh hmm. Look. I'm meditating. Isn't that odd? 

It's interesting• 

it's curious. 

It passes by me like it's on a moving sidewalk. 

I brush it away like a fleck of dust on the edge of a goblet with a feather duster. 

Now where was nothing? I know it's here someplace. Oh there it ...>

67: Great. The little bit of meditation I've done always took me a long time to get to The State. Like 20-25 minutes. I did have a sense I was getting better at getting there with practice though.

66: Yeah. I couldn't hit The Spot. 

COULD NOT HIT IT•

but I got this tiniest glimpse when I was back at AAPL...

Like a blowing wind briefly cracking a door to the outside in a dark room. 

A peek. Just for a second.

And I got so 'aroused' by the 'event' it IMMEDIATELY went away...

...it's like seeing a cougar across the Saratoga plain in the dust at night...

... just long enough to know it's there...

To know what it is that I'm looking for...

So when I hit the first time on Headspace, I knew what it was...

...I jumped back out of The Space, but tried again, almost immediately, and hit.

67: That's fly fishing.

66: Remarkably similar.

Maybe there're other things like that? 

Like, say, painting?

(...not writing or photography.)

67: There is a story in the works of Lau Tzu where his students are criticizing a town butcher everyone goes to for advice. He tells them the butcher is the real philosopher. The butcher does not try to be a philosopher, he just is one.  

... And a slight bouquet of road tar

K-π: Right now I have cracked open the second of the three fancy non-alcohol drink bottles I bought to celebrate my backgammon win. 

As with the first...I don't like it very much.  This drink is fizzy and fruity but not sweet. More said to contain vinegar, and that is the predominant flavor. 

b1-66er: BAD ONE!

Martinelli's must be the way to go.

Their stuff is so good.

π: I'd much prefer a sparkling grape juice. And that costs $3.00, not $19.99

b1: I suspect badger droppings have a complex flavor as well.

Double Zeros!

MArch: Geez. I keep seeing headlines about that building collapse in Florida. It seems so third world; full of dangerous bribery and poor construction.

It is really fucked up it is happening in the United States. Of all the places this kind of dangerous bullshit could have happened? 

Florida, of course!

All of the buildings inspected by the Building Official have got to be tested now. Someone is/was crooked as fuck, and the only problem is that it was in the 1980s.

I wonder if that evil person is still alive and living in the United States...

b1-66er: It's very strange.

I stayed away from sending it to you because I knew it would be part of a much larger discussion at some point.

It feels very very Bangladesh•

MA: It's the WORST.

b1: It's the darkest side of the capitalism die.

MA: I'm not sure Bangladesh is low enough on the Baksheesh-for-Building-Inspection scale.

It's lower than the third world because "we" don't operate according to those rules.

People are still missing. It's heartbreaking.

b1: They have a weird law in Bangladesh where property tax isn't assessed until a building is finished... So the tops of all their buildings are incomplete.

MA: Somewhere we traveled together had that rule.

b1: What a surprise to be IN that mofo when it started to come down!

You'd have NO IDEA what happened.

MA: It would be hideous. I imagine that ALL structural integrity will be lost. So... all your belongings go down when they implode it.

And...there are other buildings by the same developer.

b1: Oh GEEZ!

MA: It's a mess.

Hi-lo!

b1-66er: Fasting always makes time seem a bit longer.

Special K: Slow fasting. 

Get the dashboard vacuum

Entropy Dave: The Miley Cyrus cover, despite the impressive backing band, seems to me like a very small bag of lint.

The landers with wheel cutters

b1-66er: https://arstechnica.com/science/2021/06/nasa-administrator-to-defend-lunar-budget-before-a-skeptical-congress/

b1-67er: Good quick explanation of the politics of funding NASA.  It will be interesting to see how much China comes up in the conversation.

66: Yes.

It'll also be interesting going forward to see how China and Russia get along.

I already know why they want to.

67: I view them politically as different. There is nothing Russia won't do to serve their obvious, and usually stated, purpose. There is nothing China won't do, but they will lie every time about what they are doing and why. I can see them getting along in most things related to screwing with the US. But at some point it seems like it would become a knife fight over something they both want.  

The way you waddle

Kπ: 2π and his spouse gave me this card for Father's Day...

I don't get it.

(Lower 2 images ©2021 Jester Pin  Productions. Used by permission.)