I’ve enjoyed watching all of the Chicago Cubs games I can watch using the MLB “At Bat App” since it’s beginning. For the number of games and the one year price, it has been a good deal. Sadly, it looks like that is not going to last because in a few years the “At Bat App” will go away in place for ESPN’s crappy app. And I bet they’ll double the price. Because greedy capitalism means we can’t have anything nice.
On Joy
I think the best advice I can give anyone is to learn the difference between happiness and joy. Most may think this is not good advice because they think happiness and joy are the same, but they are not.
Happiness is an emotion, joy is a state of being. Happiness relies on externalities, what makes us happy are those things outside of our self that trigger the emotion that we call happiness. Because happiness relies on things other than ourselves, our happiness and unhappiness is outside of our control.
How is it then that some people who are in situations most would consider unhappy such as poverty, starvation, or war, seem happy? It might be that what it is needed for them to be happy is much different than yourself, or what you think you see as happiness is really joy. People in joy choose to see the world differently, to practice gratitude (another choice) for what they have and for who they are, than to be unhappy for want.
Joy is a state of being.
Joy is what comes to mind when I read this blog post by Joan Westenberg that asks this question:
Imagine your 80-year-old self looking back at the day you’re having right now. What would they give to inhabit your body again, to have your knees that don’t ache, your schedule that seems so overwhelmingly full, your problems that feel so urgent?
Joan goes on the write:
We have pretty good data on what actually happens to people’s subjective wellbeing as they age. The U-shaped curve of happiness is one of the most robust findings in social science: people report being happiest in their twenties, hit a low point somewhere in their forties or fifties, and then happiness increases again in later life. The interpretation of this finding is contested - are older people actually happier or just better at regulating their emotions? Do they compare themselves to worse alternatives or have they genuinely figured something out?
And continues:
Does this mean the thought experiment is useless? Not quite. Its value is in what it reveals about your current priorities. When you imagine an elderly version of yourself looking back, you’re running a sort of values clarification exercise. You’re asking which parts of your current life would seem precious from a distance, which anxieties would seem trivial, which opportunities would seem worth taking.
I commend the entire post for your reading. I also recommend The Book of Joy by the Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu.
Currently reading: The Notebook by Roland Allen 📚
I am really enjoying this book, it is a historical account of the development and usage of notebooks. I’ve come to realize that practice of using notebooks described in this book is the first instance of personal computing, which I think of more as process than product.
I’ve noticed this trend with hotel reservations in which you must cancel a reservation at least three days prior in order to avoid paying. I do have to wonder why it is legal to charge customers for something that a company does not provide.
Copying Blog Posts To Day One
Manton has added cross posting of what I write here to a Day One Journal. I also learned via his post about this feature that there is a way to export blog posts to a Journal using the Day One CLI, which I did. Unfortunately, it looks like the export function doesn’t handle post titles. I am hoping that by getting my posts in to Day One I can find a way to get a nice hard copy version for archival.
In a country in which greed rules, is pedophilia the line that cannot be crossed? (Probably not) We all know the real problem in our country is that greed for wealth and power, an idol, drives us to not accept constraints on anything, but most of us in the United States are conditioned to not address, let alone recognize, the problem. Heck, we allow people elected to Congress to get wealthy by trading stocks no matter the clear conflicts of interest and likely insider trading that sends the likes of Martha Stewart to jail. The idea that any person can have too much money is heresy of the American religion, which itself is a heresy of the teachings of Jesus. And some dare to claim that the United States is a Christian nation?
I now see the source:markdownitems in the rss feed for my main blog. I am wondering if this can be used to provide a better import in to DayOne.
A while back in search for different coffee to drink I found Angelino’s and I have been drinking their bold coffees for a little more than a year. My favorite is their Italian Roast, though I also like their Expresso roast, but in my most recent order I added a new coffee, the Mad Professor that might be my new favorite. I am not a coffee connoisseur so I can not properly describe the taste, but I find it bold enough for my palate while being different. Here is a video on YouTube that has more information about the origins of this roast.
Kyle Hendricks is retiring from pitching in Major League Baseball, he played a critical role in the Cubs winning the World Series in 2016. He is now on the MLB coaching clock.
Last night was the 50th anniversary of the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald. I was in middle school at the time and don’t recall the event when it happened but I do recall hearing Gordon Lightfoot’s ballad about it for the first time a year later on the school bus one morning.