Mouse
Daily Photo Written with a loving hand by kitt some time around 17:54 on 16 February 2017
So, we are walking along the Stevens Creek trail, when Chase goes off into the bush. I think nothing of it, as I catch up, then pass the dog. When the leash goes taut behind me, though, I stopped to see what he was doing. He popped out of the grass, and started walking towards me. I watched him for a moment and saw he was chewing. "Great, he found some dog poop," was my thought. When he caught up to me, however, I looked to see what he was STILL chewing on.
Then made him spit it out.
I mean, great, the mighty hunter Chase caught a mouse, but he shouldn't be able to catch a mouse unless it was previously injured or, worse, sick. My thoughts ran through the stories I've heard about dogs dying by eating poisoned dog things, so I made him spit it out.
This is the mouse.
Golden Monkey
Blog Written with a loving hand by kitt some time around 14:34 on 16 February 2017Okay, one of my recent surprises has been the realization that I like black tea. I've always thought "black tea" was "English Breakfast" or "Earl Grey." It isn't. Those are flavored black teas.
And, unsurprising to anyone who likes tea, even black tea means variety.
Take, for example, Golden Monkey. I was at David's Tea last month and had a free "any flavor" tea coming to me. The name "golden monkey" caught my attention, along with the "organic" and "straight," which is to say "not flavored." David's has this thing about creating lots of flavored tea, all of which are okay for one sip, but just eh, and overwhelming for a cup. Given I drink tea by the liter, I'm not drinking flavored teas.
Golden monkey is described by David's Tea as:
Known as one of China’s finest black teas, this legendary brew comes straight from Fujian province near the mystical Wuyi Mountains. Legend has it, this rare tea grew so high up in the hills, locals had to train monkeys to go pluck the leaves. And during the drying process, the signature golden-tipped leaves are hand-crafted into the shape of a monkey's claw. The result? A rich tea with sweet aromas of cocoa, ripe fruit and baked brown sugar. Plus it’s low in astringency, making it the ideal everyday black tea. One sip is all it takes to go ape.
To me, it just tastes good.
I'm glad for this discovery. Makes me more likely to try other teas, but not the flavored ones.
Mindfulness in Plain English
Book Notes Posted by kitt at 11:55 on 16 February 2017
I f'ing love this book. If I could, I would have this as required reading for every school-aged kid (not just this country, every country). Well, no, I'd have it required reading for everyone, not just kids. Yeah. That.
I read this book a number of years ago after having it recommended to me by Tom Croucher. He had a stack of them at his place, and would hand them out when someone asked him for recommendations for books on how to meditate. I read the book, enjoyed it, practiced a bit, but wasn't nearly the student of the process that Tom is. Not then, likely not yet.
But when the student is ready, the teacher arrives. I've been more than a bit lost these last few years. I had the luck of being at the right place at the right time to help a friend through a rough patch, and he's returned the favor, reminding me that I will change only when I choose to change. And so, I picked up this book again.
Love this book. Highly recommended.
As is my way recently, parts of the book that caught my attention. This was hard, as pretty much the whole book had my engrossed attention.
It allows you to blow aside the illusions and free yourself from all the polite little lies you tell yourself all the time. What is there is there. You are who you are, and lying to yourself about your own weaknesses and motivations only binds you tighter to them.
MISCONCEPTION 7: MEDITATION IS RUNNING AWAY FROM REALITY. Page 25 · Location 424
Somewhere in this process, you will come face to face with the sudden and shocking realization that you are completely crazy. Your mind is a shrieking, gibbering madhouse on wheels barreling pellmell down the hill, utterly out of control and helpless. No problem. You are not crazier than you were yesterday. It has always been this way, and you just never noticed. You are also no crazier than everybody else around you. The only real difference is that you have confronted the situation; they have not. So they still feel relatively comfortable. That does not mean that they are better off. Ignorance may be bliss, but it does not lead to liberation.
What to Do with Your Mind, Page 75 · Location 1080
You must remember that you practice loving friendliness for the purification of your own mind, just as you practice meditation for your own attainment of peace and liberation from pain and suffering.
UNIVERSAL LOVING FRIENDLINESS > Page 93 · Location 1335
We humans are very odd beings. We like the taste of certain poisons, and we stubbornly continue to eat them even while they are killing us.
Dealing with Distractions II, Page 135 · Location 1903
Related: sugar.
Miniatures
Book Notes kitt decided around 11:17 on 14 February 2017 to publish this:
This is a collection of short stories by Scalzi. Unsurprisingly, I will read most anything this man writes, and this book is no exception. The man, and the fact they are short stories, of which I have a fondness, means I will read it.
Most of the works have been published before. All are pure Scalzi.
A quick, fun read. Normally, I'd be more inclined to seek out the stories elsewhere than buy the book, but I really want him to keep writing, and that means buying the things he writes, so, yeah, bought. Read. Entertained. If Scalzi is your thing, recommended.
Unrelated, my book reviews have to be a minimum number of lines long to format nicely on my site. As a result, I find myself padding some reviews to get to the minimum lengths.
Really, I should fix the design so that this isn't required.
Also unrelated, this sentence brings this review to the minimum. Sigh.