Friday, January 27, 2012

Being Better #4 - The Problem with Being Limitless



I have done it! After much hand wringing, wailing indecision and some thoroughly embarrassing hiding under the covers with a tub of peanut butter, I have set a limit! Ok...just a second...give me some air...





Whoa, what happened?

I'm sure you have been there. Most everyone has had someone in your life who presumed too much. Someone who asked for things you didn't really want to give or

Monday, January 23, 2012

Hack Yourself with Your Other Hand



Which hand do you use the most? You know... the one you use to open doors or to write, or to do that thing that.... yeah, that hand.

I have recently started working my way through How to Train a Wild Elephant: And Other Adventures in Mindfulness, and thus far it has been an adventure with some unexpected benefits which don't have anything to do with either mindfulness or being embarrassed when your mother walks in. They have to do with boosting creativity.

But first let me roll back a bit and

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Darkness at Noon - Wikipedia, SOPA, PIPA and the Deputizing of the Internet




As you may have already heard, tomorrow Wikipedia and a number of other sites will go dark. Ok...so, it probably won't happen at noon, nor is it likely to be accompanied by the jingle of spurs or the screams of horses. However, if things go as planned it is likely to have as big an impact as the proverbial old west showdown. 

And we should hope so too because there is a lot at stake. The central issue is piracy, be it music, movies or ...books? *sniff*  If people want to

Monday, January 16, 2012

Being Better #3 - Say Hello to Your Inner Demons



Cognitive dissonance has negative power in our lives because of the lies we tell ourselves. 

For a moment think of life as a dinner date. Here we sit. Maybe we still have a half glass red wine dangling dangerously in one hand and one or two empty green bottles at our feet. We talk about about the ways in which the world has given us a raw deal and how things would be so much better if it wasn't for x,y and z holding us down. We may even expound on our own awesomeness and what a crime it is that the world is missing out on our personal greatness. 

What we don't want to talk about is

Monday, January 9, 2012

Toe-Curling Flavors #1 - Toasted Sesame Oil




New series! I spend a lot of my time thinking about how to be a better person, and how to make the world a better place. But other times I just want to enjoy something amazing. In this series I'm going to focus on food. Sweet, savory, biting, briny, bordellos for the taste buds, bring it on!  Let's face it, even for the most randy among us, we are all going to eat a heck of a lot more often than we are ever going to have sex. Why not make it a phenomenal experience!

To begin...in an earlier incarnation of my life I worked for about a decade in the restaurant industry, culminating in a stint as a pastry/dessert chef. The most important thing that I learned

Monday, January 2, 2012

Being Better #2 - Admitting Failure - Why is it So Hard?



How many times have you caught yourself saying, "I know I was the one driving, but if she hadn't walked out into the road, she never would have been hit. I mean, who just steps into a crosswalk without looking thoroughly? Do you trust those 'walk now' signs? I know I don't."

Mercy. Say I'm an a-hole, just don't say I'm wrong.

Ok, so that was an exaggeration, but it does show how our thinking often goes when we run smack dab into a failure. And why is that? What makes it so hard to just say