Afternoon delight

The sound of maybe the last ice cream truck of the season does not interrupts my meditation so much as enhance it -- the sun though the grape leaves -- the taste of chai tea, and the sound of an airplane ...

The ancients compared random thoughts to a monkey jumping around -- to me today, it seems like random blogging or updates...

New Doctor. (Who?)

On Monday night, I went to see the big screen showing of the premiere of Doctor Who's 12th (?!) Doctor, Peter Capaldi.  It was the second time I had seen it: I could not wait, and saw it live on BBCA on Saturday night.  I thought that Peter was fantastic, as I had expected him to be.  My old friend, Ralph, also seemed impressed.  I liked the new Doctor's gravitas, humor, and especially his darkness and maturity.   Did he push the bad guy to his death?  Or did the cyborg kill himself?  Time will tell (or not).  I especially liked the eyebrows!  Seldom can a body part say so much.   

I never really warmed up to 11th Doctor Matt Smith.  He was great sometimes, and I didn't dislike him.  But her didn't fit my image of what the Doctor should or could be.    I am, incidentally, firmly that my opinion is of the minority, but that's okay.  So Matt didn't float my boat, so what?  One man's Dalek is another man's Cyberman... or something like that. 

Anyways, welcome Peter!  "Change my dear, and not a moment too soon"...

Fire

My wife had a hotdog party with her friends today, and I did my final meditation of the day in front of the fire she had built.  It had greatly decreased in size this late at night, and I had to sit quite close to even feel the warmth from the lackluster flames.  I tossed in a stick, which improved the situation slightly. 

Reflection upon my meditation

Eyes: Glowering embers, strobe-like flickers of light, the stars above, the glowing window of the house next door.  The stick burning down its meager length. Fire always seemed to me to be such a happy, enthusiastic force.  The flames blue close to the wood. 

Ears: Crickets, snap of flames, cars on the road.  Unknown animals moving through the trees and grass. 

Nose: Wood smoke, chill night air away from the flames.

Mouth: Nothing really.

Skin: Comfortable warmth.  One or two mosquitoes landing upon my skin.  A violent case of goosebumps. 

Mind: Irritation at my wife turning on the light and then interrupting my meditation with a reminder. Last night's season eight premiere of Doctor Who. The Buddha's Fire Sermon. 

Today...

Twenty minutes of mindfulness today while preparing lunch... why do my feet fall asleep in half lotus?  

Meditation Hour

 Twenty minutes three times a day: after 6 a.m, after 12 p.m, after 5 p.m. 

Small irritations (like itching) rise, crest, ebb, disappear... 

Ignoring my math homework
To write poetry instead --

Meanderings

Well, I'm sitting in a uni class with a laptop unsure of what I should be doing right now.  I'm caught up with my work in this class, and the teacher is somewhat unclear about what we should be doing next.  So, I'm just sitting here, but that's okay.

I got my subbing job tomorrow already: a city high school, so that should be fun.  I've  been to this high school before, but as a parapro sub, not a teacher sub, so that's different.  Different is good, though, right?  Unfortunately, I've got to be there by 7, so that's unfortunate.  But a job is a job is a job, and 8 hours of work + ten of the preteaching hours I need for my program, so that's nice too.  Plus I don't have to keep refreshing my computer tonight in search of tomorrow's work.

I'm currently slightly overworked, meaning I've got papers due.  Lots of papers.  I did two of them today, one on a volunteer assignment I had to complete (10 hours!) and the other on second language acquisition (SLA).  End of the semester madness, there's nothing quite like it.  I've got another big paper due next next Thursday, this one on the off-reservation Indian schools.  It's a straight historical piece, but around ten pages long.  I've got the introduction, the thesis, and the first section done, so that's something.  I'm supposed to have yet another paper due in the class I'm currently sitting in, but I"m not sure whats's involved with it (the parameters have been changed for it).

I visited a former local off-reservation school last week with my father, which was fun.  A one day mini-trip.  The building were all abandoned, with no trespassing signs all over the place.  Big, very spooky place, red-brick buildings, everything all boarded up.  The fact that is was an insane aslymn didn't help matters in the slightest

 Dark, rainy, and warm-ish today.  Nice.  But it's supposed to drop 30 degrees tomorrow.  Oh oh, the teacher is turning on a projector... something is in the offing... or is it?  He just walked out.