Life On A B-I7

Stoic Thought of the Day — Day 66

“It is better to do your own duty badly
than to perfectly do another’s.”

The Bhagavad Gita

Good Advice

Here is some good advice, creative and otherwise, taken from Austin Kleon after he took it from the Bhagavad Gita:

“It is better to do your own duty badly
than to perfectly do another’s.”

That’s probably why I get the same comment over and over again from my editor. “It would have been much better if you had said it this way…” It should be noted my editor rarely reads my posts, either before or after they go up!

Stoic Thought of the Day — Day 65

Everything in the universe is part of a larger whole. We are citizens of the world, not just the United States. What harms the individual harms the community, what harms the community harms the individual.

Lying

It’s very disturbing to have a President that lies to the public on a daily basis… and does it with venom.

As a single example, he told more lies in a single one hour news interview on NBC’s “Meet The Press.” than most people tell in a lifetime (not my words). If you ask him something he doesn’t like (or understand) he turns on you and says things like “that’s not a very nice question.” Apparently you are only supposed to ask him questions that allow him to use a lie from his vast repertoire.

When will all this sociopathic lying end? When the sociopath no longer has the bully pulpit. That’s going to be awhile. I hope it’s not too long for all of us that are living on a fixed income.

Stoic Thought of the Day — Day 64

Meditate often. All things are connected. The more effort you put into seeing this truth, the better you will be able to handle adversity. We are all related to our fellow human beings and to the environment. We must never forget that.

What is a Delusion?

Trump hates Obama. He bitterly complains about him every chance he gets. He is clearly prejudiced. He is also obsessed with the Nobel Peace Prize. He has made it a goal of his Presidency above almost all others. A goal he does not have the capacity to understand let alone achieve. Are you making the connection? I don’t understand why this is so difficult for his supporters to figure out, unless of course they take the same dim view of people that don’t look like they do…

Stoic Thought of the Day — Day 63

If you invest in being good and wise, you will never have to fear the market or fear a relationship disaster. Being good and wise are virtues that will never abandon you.

Four Favorite People

Well maybe not my favorite, but pretty close, especially when you compare them to certain people in similar positions of judicial, science, health and political leadership today.

These paintings were done by artist, and I’m proud to say my friend, Adam Hansen out of Seattle. He specializes in urban and pop art. You can learn more about Adam at Addicted To Paint

Stoic Thought of the Day — Day 62

Does not a lamp shine until it runs out of fuel? Why not let your light shine brightly without interruption until you run out of fuel?

Add Four Half Width Photos to a MicroBlog Post

To do this trick, you will need to use the GIMP image editor. This is not a simple application but, 1) it’s free, and 2) it’s the simplest way I have found to do this.

1. Export 4 photos each with width 300 to desired working directory.
2. Create a 590 x 790 blank canvas in GIMP.
3. Open all four photos using “File Open as Layers…”
4. Select the Move tool (M) and drag each photo to its desired position.
5. “Export As…” naming the file and choosing PNG file format.
6. Open the PNG file in Preview.
7. Export as JPG (best quality). Use extension JPEG.
8. Delete temporary files. Move new file to desired directory.

Here’s what you get. In case you hadn’t guessed it, this is my cat…

Stoic Thought of the Day — Day 61

Most people set as their goal the acquisition of money, success, adulation, or love for love’s sake, or some combination of these. If you see someone fixated on one of these, you have found an example of a life that you should shun. There is only one true goal to strive for, that is virtue. Virtue is found in the pursuit of honesty, the exercise of discipline, and a life of courage. Virtue and true love are the only goals worth striving for.

Add Two Half Width Photos to a MicroBlog Post

To do this trick, you will need to use the GIMP image editor. This is not a simple application but, 1) it’s free, and 2) it’s the simplest way I have found to do this.

1. Export 2 photos each width 300 to desired working directory.
2. Create a 590 x 390 blank canvas in GIMP.
3. Open both photos using “File Open as Layers…”
4. Select the Move tool (M) and drag each photo to its desired position.
5. “Export As…” naming the file and choosing PNG file format.
6. Open the PNG file in Preview.
7. Export as JPG (best quality). Use extension JPEG.
8. Delete temporary files. Move new file to desired directory.

Here’s what you get. In case you hadn’t guessed it, this is my cat…

Stoic Thought of the Day — Day 60

The old saying, “all evil needs to prevail is for good men to do nothing,” is true. We must not only not do evil, we must actively work for good. Whatever form that takes, take the time to become involved.

Add One Full Width Photo to a MicroBlog Post

Why not? This assumes you are on a Mac, but that’s probably not a big deal.

1. Open Photos.
2. Select desired photo.
3. Select “File” + “Export” + “Export 1 Photo”.
4. Choose JPEG width 600.
5. Click “Export”. Select desired directory.
6. Navigate to chosen directory.
7. Rename exported image.
8. Go to post in Ulysses (my writing app).
9. Select “Markup” + “Image”.
10. Select “Files”.
11. Select image from the chosen directory.

Here’s what you get. In case you hadn’t guessed it, this is my cat…

Stoic Thought of the Day — Day 59

Accomplishments can be good and even noble endeavors. One must be careful of the price paid for accomplishment. Avoid letting it come at the cost of neglect of family, or selfish behavior, or love of fame. The ability to work hard is good, but remember Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s words:

Work is what horses die of. Everybody should remember that.

The FIrst Amendment

“When they own the information, they can bend it all they want.” —Keb’ Mo’

That pretty much sums up what the FCC wants to do to the broadcast media. The lawsuits filed by the Administration against the New York Times and other print outlets and universities are clearly in violation of the First Amendment. As concerned citizens we need to speak out against these overt attempts to take away our rights.

Stoic Thought of the Day — Day 58

On receiving bad news, it does no good for anyone, yourself or your listener, to complain about the news with no real purpose to your show of emotion. Your purpose should be to do something to help yourself and those that are the bearers of the bad news. If you complain, that only hurts yourself and those around you. Your first obligation in all situations is to self, then to family, then to country.

Stoic Thought of the Day — Day 57

How should you receive an honor? How should you receive an insult? The answer to both is they should be received the same way… When you hit a home run, don’t dance all the way from third to home. When you strike out, don’t throw your bat.

Do Not Hate

There are people out there that want us to hate each other. Don’t let them convince you that is an answer. That is not an answer. Hate as a path to solving problems is a dead end. Some people will use hate as a path to power. That is not an answer either. Anyone that espouses hate should be shunned.

What’s Wrong with DJT

Why am I the only person in the United States that has Donald Trump figured out? What can possibly explain cutting spending for cancer research?(1) The answer to that question is simple, mental illness.

He has spent his entire life obsessed with one thing, making money. Making money for himself. He can’t look at money spent that is not for the purpose of making more money as anything other than wasteful. Not only that, his obsessive focus on himself makes it impossible for him to appreciate the welfare of others as a stabilizing force in a strong democracy.

I challenge the psychologists out there to spend time on the couch with Donald to prove me wrong.(2)

(1) Cutting funding for cancer research is not the only social welfare objective being undermined.

(2) The phrase “prove me wrong” is a phrase of dominance and not an invitation to a read discussion. It showed very poor taste for me to use that phrase in a context complaining about Donald Trump.)

Stoic Thought of the Day — Day 56

To quote Seneca, “every noble deed is voluntary.” You always have the option to do the wrong thing, the selfish thing. (We see this often in the political arena.) To quote another famous person, it’s easier to “break bad” than it is to do the noble deed. Doing the right thing comes out of wanting to do the right thing, and thinking of it as an opportunity for self-improvement.

Go, Rust, Swift, Perl

Looking at my computer programming bookshelf, I see I have books on Go, Rust, Swift and Perl. I’m asking myself why do I need all these any longer The answer is, I don’t. At this point in my programming journey (retired programming journey) Go will accomplish everything I need to worry about. Rust is overkill since I won’t be building any compilers. Swift won’t be of any use since I don’t plan on writing any native Apple apps. Who uses Perl anymore?

You might be wondering, what the hell do I need programming for?! After all, I’ve been retired for almost seven years and my daily routine consists largely of things that are antithetical to computing. (Among them this blog, Pickleball, Cycling, Skiing, and a bit of travel and camping thrown in now and then for good measure.) The only answer I can give you is I’m not ready to let “Go” (no pun intended) of 1995 yet.

Stoic Thought of the Day — Day 55

As humans, we have a higher obligation to serve one another. All true success and self-worth comes from that work. So rise from bed each morning, don’t linger there, rise confident in the knowledge that others are depending on you.

Teaching is Not Learning

History has much to teach us if we are only willing to listen. In the words of one observer of the events in the streets of Paris in February 1848, political unrest is always the same. It is “initiated by simpletons, helped along by fools, pushed through by rogues then taken over by the opportunists who do very nicely out of it.”

It doesn’t take a huge imagination to see this same formula played out in the events of January 6 and those events that have followed since.

Stoic Thought of the Day — Day 54

Justice is agreeing that certain things are natural and right and should be preserved and cherished. Injustice is allowing our darker nature to overwhelm our sense of what is just. We should always be mindful to support our natural sense of justice at all times.