filial piety and patriotism in the tao te ching

I am furthering my Taoism practice right now, with qigong and also some Taoist reading. From 1994, when I moved to Los Angeles, until it closed a few months ago, I frequented a used book store on Wilshire Boulevard in Santa Monica.

/Angelino mode on: The place is across from Jerry's liquor (with the big old fashioned sign. Around 26th street. /Angelino mode off

This bookstore had a section on Eastern philosophy and I got in the habit in the mid 1990s of buying every translation or thoughtful analysis of the I Ching, Tao Te Ching, and other texts. So now I have a collection of unread Taoist works to read and refer to. Right now one of the books I am reading is a translation of the Tao Te Ching, by Stephen Mitchell, ISBN 0-06-016001-7

Oooh, I thought the book was out of print, but found it. Here is the link I shall be buying another copy.

I found particular relevance in the third and fourth stanzas of the chapter I read just now:

When the great Tao is forgotten,
goodness and piety appear.
When the body's intelligence declines,
cleverness and knowledge step forth.
When there is no peace in the family,
filial piety begins.
When the country falls into chaos,
patriotism is born.

My Openid

Signed up for an Openid

http://yclept.myopenid.com/

Posting it to remember.

Purposing Blogs

Mirroring a post on my new Tumblr blog, http://shawntom.tumblr.com/ I am posting this to set out the purpose of my various blogs. While I am figuring which will work for me, and frankly, just becoming a "blogger," which I never thought I would do. But maybe I'm just a person who has blogs? That sounds better. Anyhow, this blog will be for me to talk about me and family etc. See you soon!

I did a mini self-shot photo shoot today. I'll upload the rest of the photos for comment and fun. I really just needed something for LinkedIn that had a tie. At this point in the shoot we're in the backyard, after I think I have the real image in the bag.

You can see my Soloflex in the left side of the shot, set up for pull ups, and bookshelves too tall to fit into the office on the right. My office is the building. Here is a link to the Picasa album. Here is a link to my Flikr photstream.

Back to work

After the weekend alone, it is great to get back to the normal routine here. Plus, I have creative work to do, so that makes for extra ordinary fun. And anxiety.

Powerpoint this week. Last week was Word. Now I'm going to take my other work and transcribe into a master layout.

Next comes brainstorming for the rest of the pages, while filling in on what I have already imagined.

My client has a strong social message and component to their business, which makes for some great images, at least in my head so far. We shall see. Powerpoint Ho!

Leaves Changing Color

As I walked to the garage to hunt for some boxed items, I was struck by the light on the tree across the street. We don't get too many leaves changing color in the hot Southern California Autumn, so I cherish those I see. I'm happy they are not near enough to my yard that I am capable of cherishing them too ;-)

I'm still getting the hang of linking and posting etc, so I beg forgiveness in advance. Advice welcome.

Here is a the URL of my shots of the front yard, including a panoramic series!

http://picasaweb.google.com/yclepped/FrontOfHouse#

Picture post technical fixings

OK, so it is tough to see the fishnet, but it is there. Note also the black leggings. And the shoes! The horror.

OK, I'm sorry.

Lady, I'm sorry.

Excuse me

This lady walked into the bank ahead of me, stopped abruptly, then when I walked by her, huffed and huffed to try and get past me. Then she huffed some more on line behind me.

When we both first reached the front of the line, there was no one ahead of me, but the first available teller asked us to wait. Immediately after that the other teller called me up, so I moved along.

After I got up to the window, I noticed the woman come chugging up around the other side of the barrier...she actually got out of line to look for someone else, before finally going around to the window to plaintively whine to the first teller, are you open yet?

Lastly, sigh, I first noticed this woman because of the fishnet top. OMFG.

Picture added, pullup achievements

Jesum Crow, that profile picture I made for Twitter is ragged. But I don't feel like making another. So there it is. In other news, I am up to 1 pull up.

Woohoo.!

That's at a time. I can do a few a day.

But the difference between 0 and 1 is HUGE when dealing in pullups.

For that matter, I'm at 0.90 of a pullup, really. I can get my eyes and nose above the bar, but not my chin. I guess I'm not talking about chinups, but I'm pretty sure I've got some more to go before I really hit 1. By that time I'll be at 5!

Back to blogging

I need someplace to write down things that may only interest me, but that I insist on inflicting upon the world. I have a few blogging options. Maybe Blogger is the right one. We shall see.

First post

Oh my.