18 posts from 2005

After this, I see no reason to take any more personality tests. The pinnacle has been officially reached.

Yoda You scored 85% Jedi-ness, 52% Intelligence, 23% Bravery, and 41% Wisdom!

You are the wise, powerful Jedi master. Rock on, little green one!

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Taken 10/26/05 - This is Neal and Janelle's NEW BABY! (I'm the 1st non-relative to hold him!).

This is Neal, Abby, Me and Graham.

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And here's mom Janelle and brand new baby Graham!

More pictures of them can be found at http://homepage.mac.com/nealdirstine/PhotoAlbum18.html

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Today, I also got to speak to 2nd yr doctoral students on Alcoholism and then got to go to Jason and Amy's 4D ultrasound. It was AMAZING. **UPDATE** Here's a picture of the soon-to-be: James Ray Vallery!

Though I'm working at 6:00am tomorrow, I'm going to bed with the happiest heart imaginable. It is so incredible watching the people in my life bringing new life into the world.

Oh, yeah, today's day #8 of the cleanse and I'm walking on clouds I feel so good and have so much energy.

I'm doing the Master Cleanse again.

I can't believe that:
1. I haven't eaten in a week
2. That I have more energy today than I've had in MONTHS
3. That I've been to no less than FOUR dining occasions (including a wedding reception and a rehearsal dinner) and kept marching through and sticking with the fast.

This is my 3rd time doing it and it is SO unbelievably much easier this time. It's so interesting, you're NEVER hungry yet frequently wanting to eat out of attachment to food, flavors and smells.

Joining me are:
Lisa
Adam
Oren
Laurie
Saj
(plus three that may start soon and one that started and quit)

Other noteworthy things, Ali and I broke up 12 days ago. It's been extremely sad and difficult, though it was such the right thing.

In the VERY COOL category, I got to be a groomsman in a very traditional Jewish wedding ceremony on Sunday and got to have the honor of signing the Ketuba! The Ketuba is esssentially a contract between the couple, G-d and the witnesses that promises that the couple love each other and be committed to each other for eternity! Further, the winesses / signers of the Ketuba are RESPONSIBLE for making that happen! I guess in the older, more traditional days, it was customary for the witnesses / signers of the Ketuba to take a very active role as guardians of sorts of the marriage. It is somewhat akin to the Christian tradition of being a Godfather, but in this situation it's to protect the marriage into the afterlife rather than a child.

In the OMG COOL category, Neal and Janelle had their baby on Saturday!!!! They've been some of my best friends and central to my life for some 12 years now, and it's been so wonderful watching them grow up, get through college, get married, care for plants, care for pets and now have a little one!

Little Graham Dirstine is 6lbs 5.4 oz, 19.5 inches, and was born at 6:14pm Saturday at the Good Samaritan. Because the tall little guy had a ginormous 13 cm head, he had to be born C-Section, but he's healthy and mom and dad are happy and proud.

In the "who cares but I'm going to tell you anyway", I'm not working tomorrow so that I can speak on a panel at CU Psychiatric dept on the CU council on Alcoholism. Should be fun.

Jim, you'll be happy to see that I have not created a single, solitary link in this posting.

- G

I've got quite a story about my trip to Durango. Pretty drama-filled.

A few months ago, I got a speeding ticket in Boulder. I went in and paid it like a good citizen. All was well. The check cleared my account a few days later and that was that.

So, on my way to Durango (I was driving my boss Don's car, because I didn't want to put the mileage on mine), I tried using his cruise control, but it wasn't working. So, I lost my mindfulness for a bit and sped again. Well, a cop saw and pulled me over.

He got my info and took an inordinately long time to get out of the cop car and come back to me. As the interminable waiting continued, I got the suspicion that something was out-of-line.

He eventually came back and asked about the Boulder ticket. I told him that I'd paid it (and even retrieved the checkbook from my pocket to show the entry in my ledger where I'd paid it).

He grumbled and said that Boulder had never notified the Great State of Colorado that I'd resolved the matter, and therefore the state's current assessment was that I was driving without a license. That being the case, he said "I'm going to have to take you in". Pregnant pause...... "You're under arrest".

That's right. Saturday morning (if it had been a weekday, they could have called Boulder and settled the whole thing at roadside), I got handcuffed and hauled off to jail in the middle of Colorado.

I went through every emotion available to a human.... Fear of how this would look, rage at Boulder City and County, bewilderment that their mistake meant my punishment, frustration at my powerlessness, sympathetic disappointment on behalf of Brady and Adyan that I might now be late to be in the rehearsal dinner, and the list goes on and on and on.

I realized (with the help of the stuff I'd learned at Landmark) that I have an unlimited number of ways to react. I could act out of all the negative emotions I'd had, I could be disingenuine and try to schmooze the guy or, I could just be authentic and relate to him directly, human-to-human. When I did THAT, I realized, this cop was hoping to write a quick, routine ticket, make his county some money and be on with his day. Instead, he's about to have to haul me in, do a TON of paperwork, put me through the system, only to have the whole thing dismissed the day I show up in court and show them my receipt from Boulder County.

With this realization, I said, "I'm sorry for speeding and that this whole situation is causing you so much additional work". The cop was surprised-at-best! I got the distinct impression that this was an atypical response from a detainee.

When I went into the booking room, I started chatting with the booking officer. I asked how her day was, if it was busy, that sort of thing. She asked where I was going, and I told her that I was going to be in the wedding party of a friend's in Durango. After shooting the shit for awhile, it dawned on me to ask, "Since it appears that I'm going to be here awhile, could I possibly get a shower?". She laughed and said "OF COURSE!". So, I got all cleaned up for the wedding rehearsal (and even a souvenir deodorant stick that says "maximum security" on it!!!).

By this time, it was noon, and they said they'd feed me if I wanted. I said "sure, but, well, I'm a vegetarian". She hunched down close to me and whispered, "normally, they wouldn't do anything about that, but, let me see what I can do". Sure enough, about 10 minutes later, she emerged with a full vegetarian lunch!

We took my fingerprints and mug shots, and when she was done she was at her computer, clacking away the keyboard. After some frustration, she turned her furrowed brow toward my datasheet and asked "you work for a computer company, right?". I confirmed that I did and she explained that their new mug shot software wasn't working properly and asked if I could help.

Yes, it's true.... I troubleshot my very own booking agent's computer.

I didn't have enough bail money on me and had to hit the phones. *THEN*, she gave me SEVEN long-distance calls instead of the one local one I was entitled to. I was able to call mom to get her to post bail (calling mom to have her post bail is certainly an experience neither ONE of us thought we'd ever experience!!!). Soon after, Al, my new-bail-bondsman-on-retainer showed up and sprung me.

On the way out the door, the cop said, "you know that until you get this whole thing cleared up, you're not legally allowed to drive". Then, he said "however, when Al drops you off at your car, be careful." He then took out a map and said, "today's speed traps are here, here and here", pointing out the specific locations on the map as he went. Then, he capped it off with the kicker, "and if you come back through this county, I'm the only deputy on this weekend, so I'll turn a blind eye toward you."

With that, the whole staff stood there, waving at me and said "we hope you come back..... but under different circumstances!!".

So, other than having to take another day or two to get driven across the state to make my court date AND having to be "in the system" for good, I basically got one helluva story to tell the folks at the rehearsal dinner. I did show up about 2.5 hours late to the dinner, however some rain had caused a 3 hour delay on their end, so I arrived with enough time to eat, tell this very story a few times and get the rehearsal done without a hitch.

Lastly, during the toasts on Sunday, Brady said, "We'd like to thank everybody for all they went through to get here. Some people came from Missouri, some from California, some from Nova Scotia, and even my groomsman for getting arrested!".

Anyway, the result of this is that I'm having to get rides everywhere because I don't want to get pulled over for driving and get thrown in jail again, but this time because *I* did something wrong. I may be asking some-or-all of my friends for rides in the coming two weeks.

This incident, on top of my $7,000 dental bill sure made for a rough week for me. Nonetheless, I can now add "powerfully arrested" as a result that I've gotten out of my participation in the Landmark Form.

Over-and-out. =)

My Teacher, Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche, released his first book today, entitled "It's Up To You"! This is likely to be an extremely significant work in terms of bringing this view spirituality to the West.

If you've thought to yourself, "what is all that Buddhism stuff Greg's always doing?", please pick up a copy of this, as it will, with all best bets, be the best answer.

Additionally, the sales of a given book are most crucial in the first 7 days, as those sales form the basis for which the publisher decides to advertise. So, furthermore, please log on to Amazon and pick up a copy today!

Here's a quote:

"When we look into the mirror, the one thing we don't want to see is an ordinary human being. We would like to see someone special. Whether we are conscious of this or not, we are simply not content to see an ordinary human being with neuroses, obstacles, and problems. . . We are imprisoned in this pain by a sense of specialness, or self-importance. Self-importance is the underlying clinging we have to 'I, I, I, me, me, mine, mine,' which colors all of our experience. If we look closely, we find a strong element of self-importance in everything we think, say, and do. 'How can I feel good? What will others think? What will I gain? What will I lose?' These questions are all rooted in our self-importance. Even our feeling of not measuring up to who we think we should be is a form of self-importance."

Also, I spent 5.5 hours and $7,000 at the dentist's office yesterday (a root canal, a pulp cap, a bridge, an extraction and two crowns, but no implants. Sounds like a bad poker hand. Guh. Plus, I had my 2nd allergic reaction to SOMETHING and my face swelled up and my eyes were swollen to little slits, so I couldn't come in to work. I ended up getting Benadryl and a bunch of anti-biotics, so my face is down considerably now. It does turn out that most of this has been caused by shoddy dentistry from days gone past.

Yee haw.

Yours,

- Greg

Today is the 70-year Anniversary of the founding of Alcoholics Anonymous.

Interestingly, and in much confluence with the principles of AA, today is the day the SECOND alcoholic got sober.

The story goes something like this:

In early December, 1934, Bill W. got sober through an approximation of what came to be the 12 steps.

He tried carrying this message to lots of alcoholics but the only success to be had was that HE was staying sober.

In Akron on a failed business trip over Mother's Day weekend, 1935, Bill felt depressed and rather than getting a drink, make a call from the now infamous Mayflower Hotel and found a drunk he could talk to (to aid in the preservation of his own sobriety).

He ended up talking with Dr. Bob S., a very bad alcoholic. Bob kept drinking for the next two or three weeks, but finally the solution that Bill offered took root and Dr. Bob got sober June 10th, 1935.

This demonstrates AA's guiding principle of the need to help others. AA's founding date is NOT the day the first guy got sober, but rather the day that that the first guy successfully passed it on. THAT is what's really important, the highest aim in AA, the aim to pass the message on to the still-suffering-alcoholic.

Over and out.

Oh, Cheetah is looking to hire a top-notch person. The job announcement follows. Let me know if you know of anyone that sounds like a good fit:

Jack or Jacqueline of all Trades! Tech Support / QA / Customer Service with Sales Company: Cheetah International
Status: Active

Job Description

What we want:

Brilliant, kind people!

We are looking for:
- Dedication
- Stability
- Vision
- Flexibility
- Humility
- Technical Skills such as: MCSE, A+ certification. Great troubleshooting skills.
- The love to do "original research" and *digging in* to technical details to find out info to share with others, rather than being dependent on the original research of others.
- Someone who is and fits in with left-brained geeks that love to be with people.
- Someone that *enjoys* learning such that you will frequently reside outside the comfort zone of what you already know: i.e., being comfortable in the uncomfortable!

LANDMARK EDUCATION GRADS GIVEN VERY STRONG PREFERENCE.

We're a very small turn-around company that has a familial, fun, casual and REWARDING work-environment. There is tremendous opportunity for future leadership positions for those who doing work that is relevant and useful to doing work that is "cool"!

We take a step-wise, experimental and prototyping approach to learning and development.

What we don't want:
- Perfectionists that have to plan extensively before trying something
- People that are hesitant in getting on the phones
- Impatient people
- A jerk! We actually have a "no butthead" rule!
- Someone more interested in their story about what happened than what actually happened in any given scenario
- People who are not adaptable
- People that err on the side of asking rather than investigating
- You think about the future but base your idea of what is possible on the past.

Contact Information

Company: Cheetah International
Contact: Greg L. Richardson
Email: gregr@cheetahinternational.com
Phone: 303-468-7575 x.1022

Take care,

- Greg

Hello all,

So to start with, I have REALLY GOOD NEWS FOR NERDS.

Also, today is June 9th, my 13th year sobriety date.

Also, I have the details on when I'm going to be speaking in Toronto. I'll be speaking at the panel: "Archives: A Collective Vision II" at CCN 205 at 11:00am on July 2nd.

Have a good one everybody!

- Greg

So, when it rains, it pours. Last night, our server got rooted. My website, www.nyingjechochar.com will be down while Jason gets it restored. This means that, after guessing a password, someone was able to go in with administrator access to our personal sites and totally shut down the server.

Next, I just got back from the dentist's office. Estimate for the work to be completed? $13,000. That's right folks, no typo. Thirteen Thousand Dollars. This is an early estimate, so we'll see what it really turns out to be. Further, I've been to multiple dentists to get confirmation.

Supposedly in my teens and twenties the handful of fillings I had have now gotten cavaties underneath them. It's looking to be a series of veneers, bridges, crowns and possibly implant(s).

Oh, and a button on my one-day-old shirt came off.

Ugh.