Wow, it’s been *months* since I’ve posted on or read Xanga, but this isn’t something that’s suitable for Facebook.  I took an actual, positive step toward changing careers yesterday.  Don’t know if it will pan out, but unless I try, I’ll never succeed.  I submitted my resume package to the American Association of Law Schools for distribution.  Every law school in the country uses this data base to screen candidates for teaching positions.  If they’re interested, they set up an interview during a three day “job fair” (not so affectionately known as The Meat Market) held in October or November of each year.  If you get enough requests for interviews, it’s worth your time and money to fly to Washington DC to interview.  I’m really only interested in the new law school that opening in downtown Dallas, but going through this process is the only way my resume will be considered.  Seems weird that I’d have to fly to Washington to interview with a law school in Dallas, but that’s the way it works.  Distribution of the resume packages occurs on September 1.  Hopefully, I’ll hear from the school I’m interested in soon thereafter!

If this doesn’t pan out, it’s OK.  I’m liking my job now that Xerox has bought ACS and canned the crazy man who was our General Counsel.  It’s just that I’ve wanted to teach for years, and with a new law school opening in my home town, it would be really stupid not to take the chance!

I posted a protected entry last night, and today it doesn’t show up at all (and it was *long* damnit – I don’t wanna have to reconstitute!).  I don’t post on Xanga very often, so I guess I’m going to have to explore and see if I did something wrong when I submitted it.  Sigh.

You are The Wheel of Fortune

Good fortune and happiness but sometimes a species of intoxication with success

The Wheel of Fortune is all about big things, luck, change, fortune. Almost always good fortune. You are lucky in all things that you do and happy with the things that come to you. Be careful that success does not go to your head however. Sometimes luck can change.

What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.

I’ve been doing a lot of reading lately, including some Buddhist philosophy.  One thing that has begun to strike a chord with me is the concept of the Noble Eightfold Path, as divided into three basic divisions: wisdom, ethical conduct, and concentration.  A *very* short summary of each would be:

Wisdom:

      Right view (the right way of looking at life, nature, and the world as they really are; to understand how reality works),

      Right resolve (the idea that one should constantly aspire to rid themselves of whatever qualities they know to be wrong and immoral)

Ethical Conduct:

      Right speech (abstaining from lying, from divisive speech, from abusive speech, and from idle chatter)

      Right action (being morally upright in one’s activities, not acting in ways that would be corrupt or bring harm to oneself or to others)

      Right livelihood (not engaging in trades or occupations which, either directly or indirectly, result in harm for other living beings)

Concentration:

      Right effort (make a persisting effort to abandon wrong and harmful thoughts, words, and deeds, instead persisting in giving rise to what would be good and useful to themselves and others in their thoughts, words, and deeds, without a thought for the difficulty or weariness involved)

      Right mindfulness (being mindful and deliberate, making sure not to act or speak due to inattention or forgetfulness)

      Right concentration (concentration on an object of attention until reaching full concentration and a state of meditative absorption)

Cultivation of the Noble Eightfold Path leads to the development of two further factors, falling under the category of Wisdom.  Right Knowledge is seeing things as they really are by direct experience, not as they appear to be, nor as you want them to be, but as they truly are. A result of Right Knowledge is the tenth factor – Right Liberation, which is where self-awakening occurs and the practitioner has reached the pinnacle of their practice.  The bottom line for all these practices is to control our mind and intentions; to change our behavior into not harming others, but helping them instead.

“Conquer the angry man by love.  Conquer the ill-natured man by goodness.  Conquer the miser with generosity.  Conquer the liar with truth.”  The Buddha (The Dhammapada)

I’ve known for years that being negative takes a lot more energy (for me, anyway) than being positive or letting bad things just slide off.  But, I’ve noticed lately that I’ve become fairly rigid in my thinking in various areas, holding on to negative thoughts, emotions and memories.  So, I think I need to concentrate a bit more on the Noble Eightfold Path, especially Right Resolve, Right Speech, Right Action and Right Effort. 

I need to let some past wrongs go and maybe try to get to know better some people I’ve dismissed as (for lack of a better word) jerks because of something or some things they’ve done that I’ve internalized as wrongs.  Not that I’m going to go all mooshie and roll over if someone is rude or hurtful, but there’s lots of stuff  I’ve been holding onto that is years old that really just needs to go away so that I can look at certain people and events with a fresh perspective.  I’d rather be a good person than spend my energy proving (if only to myself) that someone else is a bad person.  Does that make sense?  Anyway, it does to me, so I’ll see what I can do to keep working on making myself.

It has been quite a while since I’ve posted anything on here.  No special reason except that most of what I’d post, I’m not willing to write in a public forum, even protected.  So, instead, I just read everyone else’s posts and am happy to keep up with you all that way.  Hmmm, let’s see.  My nephew is going to be baptized over the 4th of July holiday, so my plans to head up to JP/Gilyan’s for a great time have been changed, and I’ll be doing the family thing instead (also for a great time, just different).  I’ve replanted/repotted all the plants in my enclosed patio, and it’s quite a pleasant place to sit in the evenings now.  I’m gonna have to replace my back yard fence soon – the posts are rotting, and it’s going to fall any week now.  I guess that’s all the innocuous stuff that’s happening in my life lately.   Later!

Why is it that I always need a week to recover from my vacations?  Well, OK, not every vacation since Canyon Ranch is all about relaxation, but I’m only now starting to get back on a “normal” schedule after a fabulous trip to Las Vegas with MCC.  Unfortunately, things are even worse for her – she’s come down with a bad case of bronchitis.  Sigh.  Need to check on her later today . . .

It was a damn near perfect vacation though.  Flights were on time both ways.  We went to one show each evening (Cirque du Soleil’s “O” and “Mystere”, Penn & Teller and Blue Man Group), and we had just about the best possible seats you could get at each show.  All of them were great, although I’m not sure we did “O” justice because we each had an Oreo Martini just before the show and were pretty loopy.  Besides the shows, there was shopping.  And shopping.  And art galleries.  And shopping.  And food, OMG the food!  And (trumpets) the spa day, which continued with champagne on a terrace over-looking dancing fountains, and wrapped up with front row, center seats for Mystere.  I even got serenaded by a bunch of drunk Aussies on the terrace.  Oh, and we did spend all of 5 minutes gambling, during which time, we both lost $20.  The only unhappy thing I can think of was that we did way too much walking before getting smart and buying a day pass on the Deuce (a bus that serves the strip).  But, hey, if you didn’t have something bad, how would you measure the good?

Anyway, I had a great time and was sorry to be back at work.  It’s end of quarter, so it’s very hectic right now, with everyone demanding my attention “right now!”  I’ll have to sit down and get some work done this afternoon so I’m not too swamped tomorrow.  But, then my whirlpool bath beckons . . . maybe I’ll open a bottle of champagne and wax nostalgic over last weekend!

Nicked this from JennyLynnMonkey.  If you go to this web site:

http://www.joshhosler.biz/NumberOneInHistory/SelectMonth.htm

you can find out what song was Billboard’s #1 song on the day you were born.  To my everlasting horror, on my day of birth, it was The Chipmunk Song.  I can’t help it that my birthday is the week before Christmas!

That’s really all I have to say.  Except that I was part of that really cool crowd that MCC went with to see it the second time.   

Bold – Movies I’ve seen
Italics – Movies I want to see
Strike Through – Movies I hated or you couldn’t pay me to see

1980. Ordinary People, Coal Miner’s Daughter, The Elephant Man, Raging Bull, Tess

1981. Chariots of Fire, Reds, Atlantic City, On Golden Pond, Raiders of the Lost Ark

1982. Gandhi, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Missing, Tootsie, The Verdict

1983. Terms of Endearment, The Big Chill, The Dresser, The Right Stuff, Tender Mercies

1984. Amadeus, The Killing Fields, A Passage to India, Places in the Heart, A Soldier’s Story

1985. Out of Africa, The Color Purple, Kiss of the Spider Woman, Prizzi’s Honor, Witness

1986. Platoon, Children of a Lesser God, Hannah and Her Sisters, The Mission, A Room with a View

1987. The Last Emperor, Broadcast News, Fatal Attraction, Hope and Glory, Moonstruck

1988. Rain Man, The Accidental Tourist, Dangerous Liaisons, Mississippi Burning, Working Girl

1989. Driving Miss Daisy, Born on the Fourth of July, Dead Poets Society, Field of Dreams, My Left Foot

1990. Dances with Wolves, Awakenings, Ghost, The Godfather Part III, Goodfellas

1991. The Silence of the Lambs, Beauty and the Beast, Bugsy, JFK, The Prince of Tides

1992. Unforgiven, The Crying Game, A Few Good Men, Howards End, Scent of a Woman

1993. Schindler’s List, The Fugitive, In the Name of the Father, The Piano, The Remains of the Day

1994. Forrest Gump, Four Weddings and a Funeral, Pulp Fiction, Quiz Show, The Shawshank Redemption

1995. Braveheart, Apollo 13, Babe, Il Postino (The Postman), Sense and Sensibility

1996. The English Patient, Fargo, Jerry Maguire, Secrets & Lies, Shine

1997. Titanic, As Good as It Gets, The Full Monty, Good Will Hunting, L.A. Confidential

1998. Shakespeare in Love, Elizabeth, Life Is Beautiful (La vita è bella), Saving Private Ryan, The Thin Red Line

1999. American Beauty, The Cider House Rules, The Green Mile, The Insider, The Sixth Sense

2000. Gladiator, Chocolat, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Erin Brockovich, Traffic

2001. A Beautiful Mind, Gosford Park, In the Bedroom, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, Moulin Rouge

2002. Chicago, Gangs of New York, The Hours, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, The Pianist

2003. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, Lost in Translation, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, Mystic River, Seabiscuit

2004. Million Dollar Baby, The Aviator, Finding Neverland, Ray, Sideways

2005. Crash, Brokeback Mountain, Capote, Good Night and Good Luck, Munich

2006. The Departed, Babel, Letters from Iwo Jima, Little Miss Sunshine, The Queen

2007. No Country for Old Men, Atonement, Michael Clayton, There Will Be Blood, Juno

2008. Slumdog Millionaire, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Frost/Nixon, Milk, The Reader

My Political Views
I am a center-left social libertarian
Left: 2.26, Libertarian: 3.66

Political Spectrum Quiz