Mitra-Man

This week was I had Mitra commitment ceremony. I wrote earlier about my decision to become a Mitra with the SFBC, and I was sort of expecting it to be a very basic ceremony, really a formality. But it actually surprised me how emotional and meaningful it was to me.

Luckily enough, Gabe and Dawn, who also meditate with me most mornings decided to also become Mitras. John who also is a morning regular also came, and I had invited my friend, Scott, who I had first suggested I give meditation a try. We went into the shrine room and there were special assigned cushions for the three of us making our commitments. I wasn't exactly sure what we were supposed to do, but Padmadarini gave a quick whispered run down, flower, candle, incense. But before any of that, we did a Meta practice. Then there was rejoicing in our merits, which was a surprise. There aren't that many opportunities in life where one gets praise for their spiritual growth and devotion, and it was a really nice feeling. It was also touching to be in the moment and really appreciate the true connections I've made in the SFBC sanga, with order members, mitras and others.

Next, one by one, me being the last, we made an offering of a flower, representing impermanence, a candle, representing the dharma, and incense, representing the permeation of the dharma and the sanga. Then we began a chant of "Om Vajrapani Hum", as other joined in make offering to the Buddha. A few hearty "SADHU!" and that was it, we were mitras.

My Apt: Now on Amazon

So I was looking for an address on Google and stumbled upon Amazon Yellow Pages. I think I had heard that they were driving around in a van taking street photos years ago, but had spaced it out. But now it's up in Beta and with a little searching I found my apartment building.

City Arts & Lectures present an evening with Spencer Wells

Last night I went with my brother and his wife to see Spencer Wells speak about his career and his research. Fascinating stuff, and I think it'll very interesting as the details on human dispersion and diversification become better understood. His Genographic project had a great write up in National Geographic a few months. Go figure, since they're funding it in part.

The other think that really impresses me about his Genographic project is how much innovative thinking has gone into it's planning. I think the idea selling genetic testing kits in the first world is absolutely brilliant. It's a great way to engage and educate while selling them a commodified product, and at the same time raising money to support the project's cultural preservation efforts. I'm curious about how it really works on the ground, so I just add his National Geographic documentary, The Journey of Man: A Genetic Odyssey to the top of my Netflix queue

Zero-Zero: Vindicated by the DMV

I was supposed to have my DMV license suspension telephone hearing at 8 AM this morning for my infamous sober DUI, but after waiting for 20 minutes there was still no call. So I called up the DMV and actually got connected to my case officer or whatever pretty quickly. She said that my blood test had come back all negative and my automatic suspension was being negated. Even though I knew the test would come back negative, it was still a huge relief to have that proved out. So now I've just have the legal charges to get dismissed.

Jeanne

Last night I went and saw my friend Jeanne do a feature performance at the Hotel Utah open Mic. I had never seen her play before and was mightily impressed. Her lyrics are charmingly clever, with a wry sense of humor that betray both a world-weariness and a tender hope. She has some MP3s available on her site and is working on putting together a full album in the near future.

It's Superman

I just finished Tom De Haven's novel It's Superman last night. A very wonderful book that re-tells the story of Superman in a more realistic 1930's America full of race problems, union battles and changing roles for women. This Clark Kent is a young, naive farmboy and who constantly spells things wrong and gets his facts muddled. But he's also earnest and compassionate and quickly learning to become something closer to the Superman most of us know.

I had heard of Tom De Haven before and knew he had written about comics in his Dugan series, but hadn't ever read any of his work before. Then I heard the CGS crew interview
him and was intrigued enough to pick his Superman book up. Now I'd really like to go back and read some of his other books.

New cameraphone

I got a new Treo phone for work this week. Still sort of playing with it and figuring out all the functions. But it's pretty fun so far