I feel a bad winter coming on
by bradyb on Nov.23, 2007, under brady
Well, I’ve lived in Massachusetts now just over 5 years. Two of those years we have had pretty bad winters. Both of
those years it snowed on or before Thanksgiving Day.
For the last 2 years we’ve had pretty mild winters with nothing really worth noting as far as snowfall. It only snowed like one time last winter that was even sledable. That even didn’t last long.
On Tuesday the 19th before Thankgiving, it snowed just enough to dust the ground white. But it did snow before Thanksgiving! So, I am anticipating a massive snowfall this season. I can’t wait. I got a bit lazy in our first winter in our new house, that I didn’t make our own sledding trail. This year, I really plan on doing it.
We have a very sloping yard, and it should be possible to make a sledding trail that goes about 200 to 300 yards long. If I plan it right I can make it go right into the backyard of the of the kids my kids are friends with.
Bring on the Noreaster baby!
My Religion
by bradyb on Nov.15, 2007, under brady
On another blog of mine, I wrote about a story in a publication that I used to get. I rarely think about religion these days, nor do I ask what religion people are when I meet them. But lately I’ve thought a lot about mine and others in the world. I am not a Christian. I’m probably considered and atheist, as I don’t believe in God. I also don’t argue against the existence of a God. I was born into a more modern form of an old on called Buddhism. Nichiren Buddhism to be exact. Although I am not an actively participating member of my religion, I do believe in the message. To be a true practising member I would need to receive a Gohonzon. I don’t have that yet, nor do I know when I would have the opportunity to do so. The reasons are for another blog entry.
I pray nearly everyday, by chanting, the phrase na-mu-myÅ-hÅ-ren-ge-kyÅ, a phrase representing the ultimate Law or true entity of life permeating all phenomena in the universe. The practice of changing is what is called daimoku. If I am chanting while driving home or something from work and I’m alone, I will do it more loudly. Normally I am not so I do it internally in my heart of at a barely audible town. I do it to calm myself in very stressful situations and to help give me strength to overcome things. I really should pick up and begin practising my faith more faithfully. Here is a link to a page that will allow you to download an audio clip of it being done in a group. The organizational part of my religion is Soka Gakkai International. Here you will find a plethora of information about. There is a United States based version of the same site here.
Just thought I’d share a bit of information about myself and my religion. May happiness and peace come your way.
Eat More, Lose Weight
by bradyb on Jun.17, 2007, under brady
I was searching through my RSS feeds today and stumbled upon a post titled similarly to this one. The post actually made sense. I think I will certainly try the ‘technique’ described in article being blogged about. Thanks to The Medical Migrant for blogging about the study done by Penn State.
I have always struggled with my weight ever since getting out of the military. I am not entirely sure that it’s centered around my not being full or feeling hungry while on a diet. I love fruits and vegetables though, so this approach may very well be the one for me. I made a commitment to myself to lose weight some time ago, and really being lazy and unmotivated I have fallen off the wagon a few times. I think that starting tomorrow, my first day of vacation, I will start to eat more fruits and vegetables to stay full longer, so the cravings don’t come as easily. I recently started use of the new weight loss supplement called Alli, together with the information from this study, I should be able to conquer this weight!
Big Companies Are Stupid
by bradyb on May.12, 2007, under brady
I saw this post by LadyZ (a moderator on a fan site of mine) in someone elses blog:
Reminds me of the time I got a bill for 10 cents. They paid postage to tell me I owe 10 cents? Sheesh! Rolling Eyes
LOL. I got that one beat!
When we first moved into a rental here in Massachusetts. We called Verizon and said, hey set us up with phone service, they said SURE!
Four days came and went no phone service, no Verizon truck. Call them up, they said they had been there and hooked it up. I said, hmm that’s funny, I HAVE NO PHONE SERVICE! So, I told them to cancel the service, I had already gotten RCN to hook up phone and internet and all that jazz. So what does Verizon do? Send me a bill for the month for phone service, just like they had turned it on and it was working all along. So, we call and straighten that out, not paying anything, as we had no service with them for even a minute.
About 2 months later, what do we get? A check in the mail from Verizon for like 24 cents. A refund for our service we never had. Stupid much?
HEHE.
A slimey dream! About mold?
by bradyb on May.07, 2007, under brady
Originally uploaded by atypically_me.
I had a dream last night, where things that resembled these in this picture here would sense anything organic or living (like humans) and try to attach to it and feed off it. It wasn’t a particularly scary dream, but it was intense.
I was with a group of people, in a neighborhood I used to live in when I was about 10 years old. I could see that the ground, just the ground, not the pavement and the concrete sidewalks, just where the grass was, or where there was standing water, were completely covered in these things. Imagine a sea of little pink mushrooms packed in so tight that you couldn’t see anything under them at all. In the dream, I didn’t grow up in this changed world, I came from some other world, or time, and was getting briefed on what was going on by someone that was on top of the car with me trying to avoid these mushroom looking things of pink ooze. I was told to spit on them to see them come to life. So, I spit out into a bunch of them, and they all erupted into a frenzy of activity seemingly fighting for who was going to eat my spit.
After a bit of this we skipped and jumped our way to the front door of my old house, which led to an elevator. Well of course my old house didn’t have an elevator, but I wasn’t really in my house at this time. At the end of the elevator ride down, we emerged into something that resembled a command center that was set up into an old abandoned missile silo. Here I was shown that people were working on a way to combat this pink menace. I saw them trying to freeze them with a freeze gun of sorts. I also saw fake lightening bolts shooting into patches of them seeing the effects.
I woke up soon after this last part. This was a very vivid dream for me, and seemed too real. I wonder what in the heck it all meant!
