Marathon Monks of Mount Hiei.

They run every day for 1000 days.
After 700 days they fast for 9 days: No water, no food, no rest.
Last 100 days they run twice the distance of marathon every day.
By the time they finish they cover the distance of the circumference of the Earth.

I have finished painting, starting tomorrow it will be all about the furniture and moving.

Today I actually met a person who said "I am reading [books] only when I have to, it is a vacation, so I am not reading any...]

I have 7 boxes of books packed, ready to move, and I cannot even see any difference on the shelves. I think I will need 70 boxes to move all my books.

Shall I comment on that person? Maybe not, not worth it.

Dear readers, I am sorry, you will die from the boredom -- yes, I spent another day painting with Maja's help. The good news are that tomorrow morning I will be done and maybe I will take a picture of the new place. I am so excited.

I spent some more time on the pool, my new place really feels like a resort place to me, life is a vacation! Except maybe that the painting was very taxing and all my muscles are in pain. I am really getting in shape, I did not loose any weight, but I can see and feel the difference.

Other than that I am reading a book about marathon monks from Japanese Mount Hiei. I will write up on that when I am done (this is my second read of that book).

After a day of painting I got a first swim in the swimming pool. Nice! Water is much nicer than most of the pools I experienced before, deep, 8 ft. at the deep end. Most of the folk at the pool are Polish. I guess I landed Poland-town. Tomorrow, I hope will the last day of painting the walls. Wooden furniture is next.

I spent my time reading about male circumcision, a thought provoked by my recent baby-care class and a slight possibility that the girl I am expecting will be a boy.

The only reason I even waste my time reading up is because of the possible social pressure a young boy may experience in certain parts of USA (currently 60% circumcision and dropping).

It is no longer an issue elsewhere, and never has been in Europe. Except of Jewish and Muslim faiths.

After reading the pros and cons, I did not change my mind about the procedure. It does not take a genius to figure out that being born in Europe I am NOT circumsized, which never really bothered me (mostly showers in USMC, or the gyms).

My opinion?

It is a BARBARIC customary mutilation that should be illegal in the same degree as female circumcision is today.

http://www.cirp.org/pages/parents/FAQ/

This is not to propagate hate, but as a food-for-though...

There are millions of very good people who claim to be muslim, let them live long in peace. Then again there are millions of fanatics.

Who is a religious fanatic? That, I will let you answer yourself.

I found this on the Internet, it had a very strong effect on me, don't take it as a hate message, rather as an alert that religion that takes over the life, instead embracing it is highly DANGEROUS.

quote......

REMEMBER the MUSLIM bombing of PanAm Flight 103!

REMEMBER the MUSLIM bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993!

REMEMBER the MUSLIM bombing of the Marine barracks in Lebanon!

REMEMBER the MUSLIM bombing of the military barracks in Saudi Arabia!

REMEMBER the MUSLIM bombing of the American Embassies in Kenya, East Africa!

REMEMBER the MUSLIM bombing of the USS COLE!

REMEMBER the MUSLIM attack on the Twin Towers on 9/11/2001!

REMEMBER all the AMERICAN lives that were lost in those vicious MUSLIM attacks!

Now the United States Postal Service REMEMBERS and HONORS the EID MUSLIM holiday season with a commemorative first class holiday postage stamp.

REMEMBER to adamantly and vocally BOYCOTT this stamp when purchasing your stamps at the post office. To use this stamp would be a slap in the face to all those AMERICANS who died at the hands of those whom this stamp honors.




REMEMBER to pass this along to every patriotic AMERICAN you know.�

I found interesting and easy to follow history of Nichiren.

http://la.nichirenshu.org/nav/edenstart.shtml

Another day of painting. Kinga & Jacek helped in the morning, Maja and Konrad in the evening. We took a baby-care class in the afternoon, very interesting. Came back home at midnight.

Spent whole day painting the new place. I managed to put a first layer of ceiling flat white paint in both bedrooms and the living room. I am using a roller with its own paint storage in the handle. This makes for no splash painting with few trips to the paint can, but it is a heavy workout painting ceilings like that. Kinga and Jacek helped.

I updated my site with several items...

http://www.greenteasilks.com/

Ji was walking by the lake today and the bird shit on her head. Not a big pile of shit, I guess, but funny shit, that is sure.

People say for good luck.

I run 5 miles today in 40 minutes, I wish I could drop it to 35 minutes, that would bring me to my "normal" health level.

If I drop it to 30 minutes, I will be good with the USMC standards.

Long ways, my heart wanted to jump out of my chest.

We closed on the deal on the condo today. Went without major events. Took about 1.5 hours. Our lawer John T. is pretty cool guy. He also has a '86 Toy Supra.
I am getting the posession of the place tomorrow night, really cannot wait! Especially the swimming pool sounds good.

So with the previous post the Adexs, formerly MSDSonline, formerly fob, becomes an empty vessel to me. Three years of a very hard work and nothing to look back to.

Out of the many people I hired and/or trained almost nobody is left, Ting Zheng is hanging there as the DBA.

Here are the people that came to my team and are gone:

- Kareem, Maya, Rahul, Vincent, Ann, Surabh, Padmaja, Gameboy, Scott

also:
- three Chief Technology Officers (my bosses: Adrian, Pat and Atul),
- one Chief Executive Officer (I followed from RollingStone.com),
- two administrative assistants (Jeanine and Brenda, whom I credit for this job)
- two founders of MSDSonline: Adrian and Kyle Pope who hired me...

so with Kareem quitting this shall be the end of that chapter for me, no (good) legacy left.

Goodbye ADEXS, aka fob, aka MSDSonline.com!

Kareem is going back to Nigeria.

What a talented and hard working young man. I hope his life is good and everything goes well. I hope he will find the religious answers he has been seeking for so long.

Good luck Kareem, you have brought so much to our lives... thank you very much for all that you have done for us. I hope we will meet many more times in our lives, always in the good circumstamences.

Best of luck!

Spent most of the day taking the pictures of, Photo-chopping, and posting to the Web, the few types halter tops we got from Vietnam.

http://www.greenteasilks.com/html/en/P7222129.html

I just have seen the French movie "Amelie" with Audrey Tautou. Wonderful movie, full of those little things that make up the life. The head and the soul are so full of those. They come from the childhood, they live with us, yet our peers hardly, or never, see them. Things that are inside of us, invisible, hidden behind of the dust blankets of the adulthood's years of amnesia.

Does the romantic love last? It surely does in the vacum of time, but if it doesn't in the real life then still, we should cherish it. One of the most beatiful of our traits. Like all in the life it is just a moment that comes and goes, but sometimes that moment cements it's image in our memories and stays there forever. Those images build up, and build our personalities.
How many people have seen even and inch of the mile long iceberg that froze my memories into my soul? All they see is a dark calm waters, endless abyss, occasional stir. As if I had no past, no life inside, as if I was a piece of machinery designed to exist in the present, as if I was a furniture that is being moved from one corner of the room to another.
Buddhist minds try to live here-and-now, I do too, but without the past we are nothing, do not exist, are worthless. We can understand now only in the context of the past. We can only see ourselves only in that context. Without that perspective we are no better than machines, bio-phisical bodies, flesh, dirt...

Who remembers the most romantic moments of my life, my wife, my ex-girlfriends, no! None of them do have any idea. My best friends might, but maybe not. What a shame since those are the fundamental memories of my life, a ruler I measure everything else by.

Today, I measured the movie by that rule and it scored high. Little things that make us alive and make as want to live and dream.

I have just finished an excellent book, I would highly recomment the read to anybody. It is lifting and inpiring. The title is "Ultimate High - My Everest Odyssey" by Goran Kropp. It is very unfortunate to find out that the author died in the accident four years after the book's action takes place. You can find additional information at http://www.kroppaventyr.se/

Today I have run about 7 miles and walked additional one. Bryn Mawr - Belmont Harbour and back. The heart, lungs, joints and muscles did not complain at all.
I decided not to starve the body. After the last run I decided to carry a Powerbar with me and eat it at the mid-point.
The sun and the heat really got to me. Even with plenty of water drank, I started to have cold-chills which are a sign of the heat exhaustion. I had the headache until the late evening. After the run I spent some time sitting in the lake's shallow water enjoying the cool water and a nice sunny day. Got some sun-tan, too.

Soka Gakkai

Yesterday, on Wednesday, I went to the meeting to the local chapter of the Soka Gakkai. The meeting was held in one of the member's apartament in the Sheridan Towers. The meeting was a full-house. The people were nice.

It appears to me that the SGI is aiming at the average folk with their own daily problems. There was not much of in-depth Buddism's understanting, just a faith that chants will bring you the answers in life.
During the meeting, and after the chants, the bowl with various buddhist quotations was passed around to be discussed.

Since that was my first visit I dicided to speak about the quote I have gotten and therefore introduce myself.

"We grow strong when tested by fierce winds. They kindle our fighting spirit into vigorous flame. This is the essence of Soka Gakkai spirit."

I spoke of the bodhisattva Fudo-myo-o, a dweler of the realm of hell, that came in the vision to the Nichiren (patriarch of SGI) as he meditated. I stressed the importance of the visualization of the Fudo-myo-o's cutting sword as a way of cutting thru the delusions of this life and achieving clarity thru our meditations.

Fudo-myo-o is a fierce looking bodhisattva sitting in the throne of fire and holding the sword, it is frequently called upon in the difficult moments when one has to get thru a particularly difficult and stressful time. There is no problem in Buddhism to call upon such visualizations, yet we shall remember that the full enlightenment we will achive only after we put all the delusions behind, after we cut thru the problems. Buddha was teaching to his deciples, "be your own lantern"...

I hope that at least some of the people understood.

Today, I studied the life of Hakuin and his struggle with ego. That understanding would help me to transend from the realm of realization to the realm of bodhisattvas.

I am trying to get back to top-notch shape for the little competition we planned with my younger step-brother. All is fine, but he is a varsity gymnist, and very good at it, he looks like the Hulk, and I, on the other hand, spent last several years in front of the computers.

Yesterday I run from the Hollywood beach to the North Beach, and back. I am not sure how far but I think total of 10-12 miles. I am hurting today, really hurting.

from The Red Queen book...

"Two industries relentlessly exploit the sexual fantasizing of men and women: pornography and the publishing of romance novels." Nota bene, both equally detached from reality of life.

"[...] whereas pictures of naked (anonymous) men are not especially arousing to women. "A propensity to be aroused merely by the sight of males would promote random matings from which female would have nothing to gain reproductively and a great deal to loose."

Interestingly, in studies, both men and women are a aroused by lesbian scenes, as men are interested in active sex and women are interested in their own responses.

from Red Queen...
genetically, universally, "[...] while women pay attention to clues of wealth and power, men pay attention to clues of health and youth."

I am glad that sociologists finally get that out of the way because people can only go so far on the guilt of not being so-and-so, such-and-such...

Believe, or not, as much as we all dream about long vacation away from the desk, it is not that rosy as it appears.

Yes, it has been almost 2 months since I had a job. I spend my days washing dishes and cleaning house, reading smart books and magazines, buying "tall mocha coconut frapuchinos" in Starbucks and sitting there for hours.

the www.greenTeaSilks.com is not doing great, it is selling few sexy Havaiana flip-flops, but otherwise it is stagnant, no great hopes there to get rich.

I've bought a 2 bedroom condominium, which took a lot of time and effort, but it is done now, I am waiting for closing.

So, other than educating myself in bio-informatics/genetics, which may take years before I am any good, there is not much (productive) for me to do.

Suma-sumarum, I am thinking to join the workforce again.

Wife is the only person I talk to on the daily bases and, sorry to say, that is not enough, I need stimulation, books, chats are OK, but they will not do. I need challenge and purpose in life.

Camp Sheridan, USMC

There are few things as refreshing as a mid-week lake shore in a remote place. 

Fortunately, I know such place. Ever since the Marines and my Reserves duty that followed I was visiting the beach in Camp Sheridan. 

42°13'21.7"N 87°48'27.0"W

Previously, it had the vehicle access the the beach, but now they closed it off with the big signs "Government Property" and the chain across the road, so it became nice and quiet.

Today, on it's two miles of the shore there was only on person there, locals occassionally come, but over all it is an assylum from the city crowd.

 
Welcome nature!

P.S. The area of Camp Sheridan was subsequently converted to suburb development, which is good, but it lost some mystique to me.

I am reading a book by Matt Ridley, "Red Queen", 4 out of 5 kids are not of the right father. The book is very informative, witty, and entertaining, I highly recommend it. Out of today's chat with a friend... "[...] So, Ann if you find out that all the good ones are taken, do not despair, many generations of our grand-mothers came to the same point and see -- you are such a wonderful specimen".