Monthly Archives: February 2011

Picked up the “Disciplines of the Beautiful Woman” by Anne Ortlund from the shelf while talking to Leo yesterday. Remembered how much I liked the book when I first read it in my single days. I started reading it again and finished it in one night. It is a simple book and yet I can see why I was so impressed by it then. It was one of the first how to be organized book I read. In it she talked about using a ‘notebook’ with sections to keep the calendar, receipts, journals and reading notes. I started my own notebook after reading this book and had used it for a long while. I still like its functions but have not found away to incorporate the paper system with the electronic system together.

I like to type my notes and journal entries on a keyboard, but it’s still much quicker to jot down a calendar entry by flipping to the calendar page or to put a receipt or ticket on the day I need it. Now, the todo list is easier to maintain electronically as I can check off the completed items and the rest will automatically be carried forward without having to be copied again for the next day. But again I can’t attach pieces of paper to the todo list as I can with a paper system. Can I find a method to combine these two together seamlessly and easily?

I went on the web to look for a song that Anne Ortlund talked about in her book and accidentally found an interview her husband and her did in 2005 on youtube. They certainly were a dedicated couple to do God’s work and their bond was obviously deep with each other. She waited and let her husband be the one to start the topics, and filled in the details when needed. Very lovingly and respectifully. Just like what a christian woman should be. Her husband died in 2007 I found out and I saw another youtube interview of their son Ray Jr also a pastor. A christian family. Wonder how she is doing now.

Had a lesson with Tim but the one with Tony was mysteriously gone and instead he has two lessons with a couple that are Esther’s students at that time slot. I don’t really mind but I do in a way when I wasn’t notified or talked to when my lesson was cancelled. Anyway, nobody knew what happened between Monday when Tony last saw it and today when it’s replaced by someone else.

Tony talked about doing some group dances with me and a funny dance for Tim, him and I like the one in the commercial where three people were doing the tango together. That sounds like fun.

Going to Azteca with Sandy and Daniel tonight. She and I both like Sakura better but the men like the mexican food. We decided to have mexican tonight and plan for a sushi outing soon. We’ve been having dinner together for a few times lately. It’s great and I’m happy about it. But on the other hand, I haven’t got together with Connie for a long time. This is one of those things that a good notebook/calendar system will be good to remind myself about making plans with friends and keep in touch. Friendships take time and need time to cultivate. I often let them slide too much. One of those things I need to work on like my exercise or the lack of exercise. Good intention sometimes is not enough, or I should say it’s never enough.

Another complicated dream right before I woke up this morning. I was exhausted from the dream. But now I can’t remember what it was about. Made me tired all day. My eyes are killing me at work. Can’t wait to go home and take a nap.

Another day of not much success in the webcam world. GoogleTV won’t display the picture in 1280 x 960 resolution. Well, it does but you have to scroll down to see the whole picture. It’s supposed to have 1080 resolution though. It doesn’t make sense and a regular pc monitor will display it (albeit not the whole length either) but at least truer to the real size. A 640×480 picture fills most of the Google TV screen on the Sony 24″. Not nice. Don’t like these cutting edge technology, there is always something that doesn’t work right and yet there is nothing you can find when you google on it.

Two half day work sounds great but it is still wearing me out. The 4-5 hours kill the whole day, by the time I get home, I am as tired as if I worked a whole 8 hour day. The rest of the day is just finished, not productive or even fun. A nap will guarantee a late night and mess up the schedule again. oh well. Just one more year of this.

Jailbroke my iPhone yesterday and have been playing with it. The mywi does work and will probably shell out the $20 for it eventually. Other free apps are nice, the 5-column icons and the sbsettings I like. It saves the screen and fit all the icons on one page. The categories allows me to put more than 12 in a folder, I like that too. The sbsettings put the date and the memory on the top status area. And the mxtube allows me to download my own youtube video so I don’t have to rely on the 3g when I need to play them. That’s nice. I’m sure there are more I’ll find.

Got my two dance lessons today. One with Tim, and we worked on some new moves. One with Tony, he tried to teach me using my hip not just my feet and legs. The swinging motion. I probably got the idea but haven’t been able to put it in action consistently yet. I’m not used to him yet. It always takes a few times before I am used to the teaching style and methods of a new instructor. But I know I would learn stuff from him.

C got me new Arbon and it’s different from the ones she got me before. I will see if they are any different. I had nutrimin c before and now it’s RE 9 I think. I like the new bottles and they look better. It’s probably just new packaging. She said she and t may go to holiday inn tonight. I want to go but I had too much wine for dinner and enjoyed the conversation with Leo. So I am settled in and going to read and browse away.

Looked into the Free Books app and found Throreau’s Walking. Read a little in it. I think I like it. Wish I can speed read, there are so many books I’d like to read and I read so slow. So now I have the kindle, the ipad to read anything I like. It’s such a luxury.

Woke to a call from Joe, he explained what I need to know and prepare for mom’s legal affairs. That started the mad chase for papers and documents. Fortunately, I was able to find everything I need. Next, I needed to scan them. Went to the printer/scanner now next to Leo’s iMac, the scanner tried but won’t work. Spent half an hour trying and fixing, finally it scanned. Did about 30 pages or more of scanning. Put them on the dydns website so it’s easier for them to grab. Then put the rest of the documents in an envelop and out to the post office and mailed it. It took a few hours but finally it’s done. It has bugged me for a few weeks now about this whole affair. Every time my thoughts touched it, I get a minor anxiety attack. I’m so relieved that at least this round is finished. There will be a lot more to come I’m sure, but I am breathing a little better now and can read and do other things without this feeling of guilt hanging over my head.

After the post office, I went to Target and got a kindle case, a bluetooth keyboard (that I’m using now) for the iPad, and a sony clock radio/iphone player for the office. Everything works and I’m really happy. This means, I can now go anywhere and read and type with relative ease. And at a wifi hotspot, I can also surf the net. Life is so wonderful.

The Zaggmate keyboard is a bit small and would take some getting used to. But I think I’ll stick with it and take my time to practice typing on the smaller keys.

Since I didn’t go into work today, will have to do that tomorrow. But for the rest of the day, I’m going to enjoy some reading, meditating and maybe some spinning. yea!

I think the keyboard is finally fully charged. The blue charge light went off. At first, it wont pair with ipad and I almost thought it’s defective. I used another micro usb cord to charge and that may be a problem. So I used the one that came with the keyboard and within minutes, the blue light went off. And it paired fine with the ipad. Pretty happy about it. But I’m still hitting b for v.

Started on ‘Cutting for Stone” on audible and knitted for a couple of hours tonight. Interesting book. Watched the movie about Henri Nouwen. Surprised to learn that he was gay. Doesn’t change my fondness of his writings but a surprise to learn still.

6:15am
Just had a hiccup in the WordPress app on the iPad. It took an old post and published it instead of the one I edited. Good thing I subscribed to myself and was able to cut and paste it back using the browser for Monday. But then when I went back to the app and refreshed and saw two Monday posts, the deleted one magically appeared and two versions showed up. Not sure what happened, but at least it’s fine now.

Manfred woke me up at 5 and decided to get up and feed them and make some coffee. Tido had some can food and moments later, he threw up. I should know better than give him too much. Made coffee and when Leo took benny for his walk, I brought the coffee back to bed and tried to catch some thoughts from reading Griffin’s Ecstasy last night. I was too lazy to reach and get the iPad when thoughts hit me and now it will be hard to catch all of them again.

Read till almost two. The reading was good and it was about the love affair between Merton and his nurse Margie Smith. In Griffins own journal, he talked about the decision to include this in the biography and said he would use Merton’s own words for the story. He did and it was very honest and filled with conflicts between desire and conscience. The emotions in a love affair can be strong and irrational in the beginning for lay people, it can be devastating for a monk who has been kept away from women for over 25 years. He was human and it was hard to escape the human feelings. But he did manage to control the urges and desire and went back to the hermit life. And that must have taken a very strong resolve and self discipline. And the grace from God.

7:13pm
Leo never had the skyline chili, we talked about it in the morning and decidied to go there for brunch. I had a five way and he had one and two hotdogs. He really liked it and couldn’t stop talking about it afterwards. I think we just found another place to eat in the future.

Since yesterday when I saw the new Kindle in Target, I can’t get it off my mind. Leo picked it up and said he would buy it as a valentines present for me. I was ecstatic, and tried to persuade him to go and get it today. After trying to sway me in vain, he gave in and we went and got it. I have this little thing in my hand right now reading Griffins ecstasy with it. I do like the small size and the clear read. Tried out the text to speech and it is decent. We got the wifi one, I can’t see the necessity of having the 3G. I only need it for syncing books and I can easily do that at home and load it up if I need to go on a trip or something. Leo is using the old kindle. And my talks about the kindle got him interested in getting the guttenberg books on his knidle to read. He asked for the USB cable and went searching.

Did the evening prayer with the Divine Office app. Will start listening to the new audible book later. I am starting to make good use of all the gadgets now and it’s a good thing. I am so lucky to live in a time when technology is at it’s fastest growth and so many products are available to make life so much easier.

One advantage I noticed for the iPad kindle app is the ease of touching a word to look it up in the dictionary. On the kindle, I need to move the cursor to the line and then to the word. A lot more cumbersome. So for Merton’s book, it might be easier for me to read on the iPad, but for Griffins book, kindle would be a lot easier. Having options is a good thing.

I am so happy that my life allows me to read, play, knit or spin and dance. I do not spend most of my awake time at a job any more, instead I can decide on a daily basis what to do and need not feel guilty about it. It is almost like a monks life but better. I do not need to follow a schedule decided by a superior, I get to explore my own interest and read the books I like to read. But I come closer to a life that is spent in reading, contemplation than any other time in my life. How lucky I am!!!

7:30am
Woke up when all three pets were pestering Leo for food. Then remembered the toilet that wouldn’t flush for e yesterday that I forgot about. That thought was enough to get me out of bed, eyes half closed although mind pretty clear to address the problem. Do not want to create a frustration for Leo so early in the morning. Plunging and cleaning solved the problem, then saw the dishes in the sink and a near full dish washer and a full trash can. Can’t resist the urge to clean them and start the dish washer. Made the first pot of coffee when Leo came back from walking Benny. Very thankful for him walking the dog twice a day religiously even when he is tired in the morning, he gets up no matter what to feed and walk the dog no later than 6am.

Reading Merton’s “Dancing in the water of life” this morning. Have to check a few words on every page to make sense of what I’m reading. Came to realize the deficiency of my vocabularies when I attempt to read these books. Even so, I still like this book. Jumping in to one of his later journals doesn’t help I’m sure. But this is the period closest to griffins biography, it’s a good base for that book.

Also in Nouwen’s gracias journal. It’s interesting but not as much into contemplative life as the genesee diary. Totally different subject though. I avoid reading about political oppression or social injustice as much as listening to some classical music. The unease created in me disturbs the peace and quiet I seek. An ostrich behavior yet unable to conquer.

2:12pm
Went to Target to get a small heater for the downstairs office.  It gets really chilly down there with the big window.  Of course, I got side tracked as soon as I passed the electronic department.   Lingered by the kindle section for a while, the new model is a lot thinner and slick, there is a red cover for it too.  I was reallly tempted.  However, the iPad still has so much more functions than the mere kindle, I am not toally convinced yet.  Then the iPad section has the Zagg case and keyboard that is very interesting.  But for $99 it is locked on the display and I couldn’t really take a good look at it and decide whether I really like it or not.  The section with the iphone speaker/alarm was equally interesting.  It would be nice to have one in the downstairs office.    So I ended up spending an hour and a half in the store.  I did find my little space heater, a pair of trimfit thick platform walking tennis shoes, and a pair of slippers for the house. 

Came downstairs and finally moved the stuff that don’t belong to the office to the storage area.  It looks a lot better although it is work in progress.  It still needs a lot of work to get it totally functional and organized.  Started the second tape copying for C, so glad that the VHS on the DVD/VHS combo works even though the DVD died.   I just need the VHS anyway to do the copying.  Will have to remember to return C’s double VHS player next time I meet her.  And hopefully finish the copying and have something for her.  It’s been a while since she gave me the tapes.

Love, love this office with the new, white, L-shaped desk.  What a pleasure to work on it.   There is a wintery scene out the window now.  So serene.  Have an idea to make it a prayer room too.  Have mom and dad’s ash tower here with me anyway.  It’s a natural place for prayer.  Feel so content in here. 

3:30pm
It finally got chilly for me after staying down here for a while, I turned the heater on.  The fan blows the warm air out quite nicely.  And Tido is now sitting in front of it enjoying the warmth too.  Once in a while, he turns around to warm his back too.  Now rendering the movie, time to go read for a while.