I really like the idea of the Meme as a tool for self exploration. It allows me to sit back and truly evaluate
my views of the world. I especially love
to read the meme's of other people, as I inevitably find that there’s some new way of seeing
things that I hadn’t previously experienced.

So when Running2K’s meme’d me a week or so ago, I was excited. I copy/pasted the questions into my word
program and stared at them…for a
week. Nothing came to me. Eventually, I
began to think that I’d lost my gift of gab. Frustrated I read the questions to Chris. His response was, “That’s pretty
negative.” “Well”, I thought, “maybe.”
I reread the list and realized why I’d been stuck. Most of the questions were pertaining to
ideas that I just don’t foster very often. Things like - the three stupidest
things I’ve ever done, what I regret my hometown not having or would warn
people against, etc. I think that on some level simply couldn't relate to some of the questions, so I
blanked out with it.
(I want to be sure to say that I know that
R2K's did not write this meme. I have no idea who did. & I in no
way want to pass judgement upon the person who did. We may simply have
different interests.)
Therefore, I’ve decided to only answer the questions that didn’t make me
cringe. If that’s not enough, well, I’m
sorry, but it is my blog.
O.K.
Here are the questions I have answers for:
If you were given a time
machine that functioned, and you were allowed to only pick up five people to
dine with, who would you pick?
Albert
Einstein
Physicist
1879 -1955
Imagination is more important than knowledge.
—Albert
Einstein
Albert Einstein was born on March
14, 1879 in Ulm, Wurttemberg, Germany.
Einstein contributed more than any other scientist since Sir Isaac Newton
to our understanding of physical reality.
Einstein worked at the patent office in Bern, Switzerland
from 1902 to 1909. During this period he completed an astonishing range of
theoretical physics publications, written in his spare time, without the
benefit of close contact with scientific literature or colleagues.
The most well known of these works is Einstein's 1905 paper proposing "the
special theory of relativity." He based his new theory on the principle
that the laws of physics are in the same form in any frame of reference. As a
second fundamental hypothesis, Einstein assumed that the speed of light
remained constant in all frames of reference.
Later in 1905 Einstein showed
how mass and energy were equivalent expressing it in the famous equation:
E=mc2 (energy equals mass times the velocity of light squared). This equation
became a cornerstone in the development of nuclear
energy.
Einstein received the Nobel Prize
in 1921 but not for relativity, rather for his 1905 work on the photoelectric
effect. He worked on at
Princeton until the end of his
life on an attempt to unify the laws of physics.
A human being is a part of the whole,
called by us the 'Universe', a part limited in time and space. He experiences
himself, his thoughts and feelings, as something separate from the rest - a
kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of
prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a
few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison
by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the
whole of nature in its beauty. Nobody is able to achieve this completely, but
the striving for such achievement is in itself a part of the liberation and a
foundation for inner security. - New
York Post, 28 November 1972
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Buddha
Religious Figure
- Born: c. 563 B.C.
- Birthplace: Kapilvastu, Nepal
- Death: c. 483 B.C.
(possibly food poisoning)
- Best Known As: The
founder of Buddhism
Name at birth: Siddhartha Gautama
Buddha ("the awakened") was the title given to Siddhartha Guatama,
the son of a Nepalese rajah. According to tradition, Guatama left a life of
luxury at age 30 and devoted himself to years of contemplation and self-denial,
finally reaching enlightenment while sitting beneath a tree. Henceforth known
as Buddha, he spent his life teaching disciples about his beliefs (embodied in
the Four Noble Truths) and the goal of achieving the enlightened state of
Nirvana.
Teachings
- The Four Noble Truths: that suffering is an inherent part of existence; that suffering is caused by craving; that craving can be
ceased; and that following the Eightfold Path will lead to the cessation
of craving (and suffering).
- The Eightfold Path: proper understanding, proper thought, proper speech, proper action, proper livelihood, proper effort, proper mindfulness, and proper concentration.
- The law of dependent causation: that events are not predestined, nor are they random, but that events are caused by the actions that preceded them.
- Rejection of the infallibility of accepted scripture: teachings should not be accepted unless they are borne out by our experiences.
- Anicca: That all things are impermanent.
- Anatta: That the perception of a constant "self" is an illusion.

Richard
Brautigan
Author
Richard Gary Brautigan (January 30 1935 – September 1984) was an American writer, best known for the novel Trout Fishing in America.
Brautigan was born in Tacoma, Washington and is best known for the works he
produced while living in San Francisco in the 1960s. In the spring of 1967, Brautigan was Poet-in-Residence at the California Institute of Technology. At age 49, Richard
Brautigan died of a self-inflicted .44 gunshot wound to the head in Bolinas, California. The exact date of his suicide is
unknown, but it is speculated that Brautigan ended his life on September 14, 1984 after talking to
Marcia Clay on the telephone. Robert Yench found Brautigan’s body in Brautigan’s
house on the living room floor on October
25, 1984.
(http://www.brautigan.net/brautigan/chronology1980.html)
Brautigan’s prose and poetry often dealt with the tenuous and often
impossible relationships a person tries to form with the world. Whether it is
by history (A Confederate General from Big Sur), geography and time (The
Tokyo-Montana Express), or memory (Sombrero Fallout), Brautigan’s
gentle protagonist/narrators often find their plans thwarted by the sometimes
inexplicable vicissitudes of existence. Sometimes solace can be found in either
a new love (The Abortion) or just a casual participation in the world (In
Watermelon Sugar).
Brautigan’s writings are also characterized by a remarkable and humorous
imagination. The permeation of inventive metaphors lend even his prose works
the feeling of poetry. Brautigan’s work became identified with the
counterculture youth movement of the late 1960s even though it is noted that
Brautigan was contemptuous of hippies (see Lawrence Wright article in Rolling
Stone Apr. 11, 1985
(http://www.brautigan.net/brautigan/obituaries.html#wright)).
Brautigan’s eccentric appearance and manner did not help to dissuade this
conception of him and his work. During the 1960’s several of Brautigan’s short
stories appeared in Rolling Stone and were later collected in Brautigan’s
The Revenge of the Lawn. The critical backlash of the late 1970s and early 1980s did much to hasten his suicide despite Brautigan’s
literary fame in
Japan
in the late 1970’s. Brautigan once wrote, “All of us have a place in history.
Mine is clouds.”
Books
Fiction:
Poetry:
- The Galilee Hitch-Hiker, 1958
- Lay the Marble Tea, 1959
- The Octopus Frontier, 1960
- All Watched Over by
Machines of Loving Grace, 1963
- Please Plant This Book, 1968
- The Pill versus the Springhill Mine Disaster, 1968
- Rommel Drives on Deep into Egypt,
1970
- Loading Mercury with a Pitchfork, (1971 ISBN 0671222635. 0671222716 pbk)
- June 30th, June 30th, (1978 ISBN 044004295X)
- The Edna Webster Collection of Undiscovered Writings, (1999 ISBN 0395974690)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jimmy Carter
President
and more
(1924- ), thirty-ninth president of the United States. When Carter took the oath of office
in 1977, he inherited a nation divided by the social turmoil of the 1960s and
disillusioned by the cynical political practices of the Nixon White House.
Within minutes after his inauguration, Carter left his heavily armored
limousine and, holding hands with his wife, Rosalyn, walked the parade route to
the cheers of spectators. Carter's stroll down Pennsylvania
Avenue seemed to symbolize the end of one era and
the beginning of another. In retrospect, however, the Democratic victory in
1976 was a historical anomaly in an era of Republican domination of the
presidency.
Carter, the son of a Georgia landowner and businessman, was part of the first generation of moderate
southern politicians who emerged in the aftermath of the civil rights movement.
His term as Georgia
governor (1971-1975) was a modest success, marked by an emphasis upon
governmental reorganization and aggressive actions to end racial discrimination.
Still, it hardly seemed a springboard to the White House, and his announcement
in December 1975 that he would seek the presidency evoked incredulity or
amusement from most knowledgeable political observers.
But they underestimated Carter. American voters were disgusted by the
Watergate revelations of corruption, and they responded warmly to the
soft-spoken southerner with his perpetual smile and his often repeated promise:
"I'll never lie to you." His moderate economic views, his commitment
to civil rights, and his background as a southerner helped him assemble a
coalition of traditional Democrats, blacks, and southern whites who had become
increasingly alienated from the Democratic party. Carter narrowly defeated
incumbent Gerald Ford with 50.1 percent of the vote.
Carter's administration was not without achievements. The drive and focused
intelligence that carried him to the White House made it possible for him to
push through (by one vote) the Panama Canal Treaty in 1978 and to broker a
peace agreement between Israel's
Menachem Begin and Egypt's
Anwar Sadat in the fall of 1978.
But failures in domestic and foreign policy overshadowed these
accomplishments. He had been elected as an outsider, and he often proved inept
in dealing with his own party. He also seemed unable to mobilize public support
for his policies of restraint and sacrifice.
He was dogged, too, by events beyond his control: the energy crisis that
triggered double-digit inflation, the fall of the shah and the seizure of
hostages in Iran,
and the chill in Soviet-American relations following the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
In retrospect, many of the crises Carter confronted were insoluble, but his
style of hands-on management led a restive American public to hold him
personally responsible for failure. The seizure of American hostages proved his
final undoing. Americans' increasing frustration over the nation's inability to
effect their release focused upon Carter. When an attempted rescue ended in
ignominious failure in 1980, his fate as president was sealed. He went down to
a smashing defeat at the hands of Ronald Reagan.
In 1986 Carter founded the Carter Center of Emory University, an institution
devoted to mediating international conflict and ameliorating health problems in
the world's developing nations. In a departure from the usual quiet retirement
of presidents, Carter has played an active role in numerous diplomatic and
domestic efforts after leaving office. In this, he is especially known for his
successful international mediations in countries such as North Korea and Haiti.
Jimmy Carter has been a relatively prolific author. He has written the
following:
- Why Not the Best? (1975 and 1996)
- A Government as Good as Its People (1977 and 1996)
- Keeping Faith: Memoirs of a President (1982 and 1995)
- Negotiation: The Alternative to Hostility (1984)
- The Blood of Abraham (1985 and 1993)
- Everything to Gain: Making the Most of the Rest of Your Life (1987 and 1995), with Rosalynn Carter
- An Outdoor Journal (1988 and 1994)
- Turning Point: A Candidate, a State, and a Nation Come of Age (1992)
- Talking Peace: A Vision for the Next Generation (1993 and 1995)
- Always a Reckoning (1995), a collection of poetry, illustrated by his granddaughter
- The Little Baby Snoogle-Fleejer (1995), a children's book, illustrated by his daughter
- Living Faith (1996)
- Sources of Strength: Meditations on Scripture for a Living Faith (1997)
- The Virtues of Aging (1998)
- An Hour before Daylight: Memories of a Rural Boyhood (2001)
- Christmas in Plains:
Memories (2001)
- The Nobel Peace Prize
Lecture (2002)
- The Hornet's Nest (2003), a historical novel and the first work of fiction written by a U.S. President
- Sharing Good Times (2004)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Isaac Asimov
Writer / Chemist
- Born: 2 January 1920
- Birthplace:
Petrovichi, U.S.S.R.
- Death: 6 April 1992 (AIDS)
- Best Known As: Prolific writer of popular science and science fiction
Isaac Asimov was born in the former Soviet Union, but
grew up in Brooklyn, New York.
He taught biochemistry at Boston University until he retired in 1958 to become a full-time writer. Asimov had been
publishing short stories since the late 1930s, and in 1952 published his first
novel. The author of the classic I, Robot series and The Foundation
Trilogy, Asimov wrote more than 400 books and won every major science
fiction award. He also wrote popular books and essays on science and
technology, earning him the nickname "The Great Explainer."
According to the Isaac Asimov FAQ, the author died of "heart and kidney
failure, which were complications of the HIV infection he contracted from a
transfusion of tainted blood during his December 1983 triple-bypass
operation." HIV was not revealed as the cause of his death until 2002, when
his widow Janet published the memoir It's Been a Good Life.
Asimov Quotes
- "If my doctor told me I had only six minutes to live, I wouldn't brood. I'd type a little faster."
- "Early in my school career, I turned out to be an incorrigible disciplinary problem. I could understand what the teacher was saying as fast as she could say it, I found time hanging heavy, so I would occasionally talk to my neighbor. That was my great crime, I talked."
- "I prefer rationalism to atheism. The question of God and other objects-of-faith are outside reason and play no part in rationalism, thus you don't have to waste your time in
either attacking or defending."
- "If I could trace my origins to Judas Maccabaeus or King David, that would not add one inch to my stature. It may well be that many East European Jews are descended from Khazars, I may be one of them. Who knows? And who
cares?"
- "In 1936, I first wrote science fiction. It was a
long-winded attempt at writing an endless novel...which died. I remember one sentence, 'Whole forests stood sere and brown in midsummer.'. That was the
first Asimovian science-fiction sentence."
- "Writing, to me, is simply thinking through my fingers."
- "Night was a wonderful time in Brooklyn in the 1930s. Air conditioning was unknown except in movie houses, and so was television. There was nothing to keep one in the house. Furthermore, few people owned automobiles, so there was nothing to carry one away. That left the streets and the stoops. The very fullness served as an inhibition to crime."
- "No one can possibly have lived through the Great Depression without being scarred by it. No amount of experience since the Depression can convince someone who has lived through it that the world is safe economically."
- "True literacy is becoming an arcane art and the United States is steadily dumbing down."
- "Until I became a published writer, I remained completely ignorant of books on how to write and courses on the subject...they would have spoiled my natural style; made me observe caution; would have hedged me with rules."
- "When I read about the way in which library funds are being cut and cut, I can only think that American society has found one more way to destroy itself."
- "What I will be remembered for are the Foundation Trilogy and the Three Laws of Robotics. What I want to be remembered for is no one book, or no dozen books. Any single thing I have written can be paralleled or even surpassed by something someone else has done. However, my total corpus for quantity, quality and variety can be duplicated by no one else. That is what I want to be remembered for", September 20, 1973
If you
had three wishes that were not supernatural, what would they be?
1. That both of my daughters would
grow up healthy, happy and fulfilled.
2. That we could find a way
to stop make enemies of the rest of the world.
3. That more research would be put
into renewable resources such as solar, wind, and water – thereby making fossil
fuels and nuclear energy obsolete.
Name one event that has changed your
life.

Getting a massage in 1995.
When Maya was three, I was
working in a car repair shop, when my boss died of lung cancer. Granted he smoked Camel straights non-stop
and sniffed tail pipes to troubleshoot. But, generally the whole environment was fairly unhealthy. I didn’t think that this was the way I wanted
to present myself as a role model for my daughter. So, I was definitely searching for a new
job.
A friend of mine’s
girlfriend was going to school to be a massage therapist, and needed to do some
homework. Naturally I volunteered. As I lay on the table, I thought to myself,
“I can do this.” The next day I called Seattle Massage School and was enrolled later that week. Over
the course of the next year, I gradually lost touch with some of my more
unhealthy acquaintances and realized that I loved the more scientific aspects
of massage … kinesiology, anatomy, physiology, etc.
I started tutoring at the
school and eventually became an instructor. It was during this time that I met a massage
student named Chris. We became friends
during his last quarter of school, and I asked him out immediately following
his final test.
We were married a few years
later. Five years later, we have a
lovely family. Maya is now thirteen and
Kajsa, two.
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