R E F L E C T I O N S

Last week I bought a Pressure Cooker at Walmart to celebrate our 36th wedding anniversary. It's a Farberware 6 quart " 7-1 programmable pressure cooker".  I like it because it can also be used as a crock pot slow cooker. The first thing we cooked was a pork roast.  It fell apart but tasted great. Next we want to try the slow crock pot setting, maybe on chicken cutlets. It's a new toy for old folks.  I even want to try and cook, which is something I usually leave for Lynette who loves to cook. Any favorite recipes you'd like to share?  Strange or funny experiences you've had and want to comment about?

I've never seen these interesting spiders myself but I'd love to see one up close in real life. Here are a few videos. Their eyes are special. This Wednesday I have an appointment to see my neurologist about the small seizure I had last week.  It always happens while I'm asleep so I should be okay during the day.  Maybe a medication adjustment might help.  Thanks for your encouraging comments.

I usually take 3 tablets of Lamictal 100mg in the evening and 2 tablets in the morning.  I was on 3 tablets twice a day but it was too much.  It made me too groggy.  So I went to taking 3 at night and 2 in the morning. Now after the seizure I added another half tablet to make it 2 and 1/2 in the morning and 3 at night.  I felt like I was "drunk" all day.  I could not drive. Caffeine from coffee and tea helped. That's all I can think of for now.

I had a seizure this morning, nothing major.  Four men and a woman who was in charge came to the house.  The four men must have come because Lynette said I was acting strange.  I don't remember it. I remember Lynette talking on the phone and locking herself in another bedroom.  I asked what she was doing and she told me about the seizure.  I couldn't believe it.  I was sure she was overreacting to a nightmare I must have had but I didn't remember any dream.   When the medics arrived they took my blood pressure and some other physical exams.  Then they asked me several questions which was very disturbing. I could not remember my daughter and granddaughter's names for a while.  The year and day of the week was difficult.  The name of the president was a mystery. But after a few minutes it all came back to me, thank God. They asked me if I wanted to go the the hospital but I did not want to go.  I decided to call my neurologist...

The Brooklyn Bridge in New York is my favorite.  For me it's a work of art with much history behind it. For more information follow this link: Brooklyn Bridge - Wikipedia Video: Construction of the Brooklyn Bridge (I found these photos on the web)

I tried doing this several years ago and just could not keep up with it.  Maybe I just lost interest.  My guess is that I started a 30 day project then learned that it was not for me.  It was a mistake. It was something I really did not want to do. Even so, I felt like I had failed at it.  This discouragement led me to just drop the whole 30-Day thing. Here's the video about trying something new for 30 days: For my next attempt I'll try to: 1. Give the project a few days to try out.  If I feel it's worthwhile I'll continue.  Otherwise I'll choose some other goal. There's no shame in stopping a goal that's a mistake.  If I'm going the wrong way there's no shame in correcting course.  (As an example I need about 8 hours of sleep.  If I try to get by on less I'll feel miserable.  So I'll stop and  just switch to another project.) 2.  The goal must be realistic, not almost impossible to do.  (A bad habit mig...

I'd like to share this wonderful yet sad old English ballad that Lynette found on the web.

There are many similarities but I believe there is still time to set things right. Here are some opinions I found from a few articles on the web.  I'll try to condense them and leave a link in case you want to read more. From Salon: 8 striking parallels between the U.S. and the Roman Empire - Salon.com 1 — Staggering Increase in the Cost of Elections, with Dubious Campaign Funding Sources. Our 2012 election reportedly cost $3 billion. All of it was raised from private sources – often creating the appearance, or the reality, that our leaders are beholden to special interest groups. 2 — Politics as the Road to Personal Wealth. “Their focus is therefore not so much on the people who sent them to Washington. Their focus is instead on those who will make them rich.” ( Republic Lost ) 3 — Continuous War: A national state of security arises, distracting attention from domestic challenges with foreign wars. Similar to the late Roman Republic, the US – for the past 100 years ...

" National Button Day is observed annually on November 16.  Founded in 1938,  the  National Button Society   recognized button collecting as an organized hobby.  Both novice and advanced button collectors celebrate  the enjoyment collecting on this day." Quote from the site: Who knew?  I've never heard about this hobby but it does make sense.  If you can collect coins and stamps, why not buttons?  I don't think I'll start collecting buttons myself though.

I found this video on the Plowing Through Life Blog.  It was on an excellent post about Remembrance Day (Veterans Day in USA). Enjoy the video and visit the blog post: Plowing Through Life: Remembrance Day

"Ernst Florens Friedrich Chladni was a German physicist and musician. His most important work, for which he is sometimes labeled the father of acoustics, included research on vibrating plates and the ..."   Wikipedia These videos have very annoying sounds! Please turn down the volume. On this site the author shows some of the patterns he found. Physics demonstrations: Chladni patterns | Skulls in the Stars Watch these two videos for an explanation. 

At Clearbrook Park they're starting to decorate for Christmas.   It seems a bit early but maybe they need the time. Looks like Santa needs more time to practice. Or maybe he's celebrating early.

Yesterday My wife and I took a ride to the Holy Cross Monastery.  It was a pleasant unusually warm November day. The Abbey is set back down a long road. I felt a quiet peacefulness. I wish I had a stronger faith. The monks help support themselves by baking and making jams.  We bought a couple of jars and some candy at the gift shop. I wasn't able to take a picture of the building or chapel but you can find them on the web if you like. Here's a video featuring the very same monk we bought the jams from.  He's explaining how he became a monk. Video

Comparing the true size of Australia vs Greenland "The Mercator projection is a cylindrical map projection presented by the Flemish geographer and cartographer Gerardus Mercator in 1569. It became the standard map projection." This is the map I'm used to but it has major distortions. "The ‘authagraph’, a world map designed by hajime narukawa that aims to fix the problems with our current maps — distorted land and sea sizes and political and geographical misunderstandings." Link:  authgraph wins 2015 japan GOOD DESIGN grand award I don't like this map.  It doesn't seem like much of an improvement to me. THE TRUE SIZE OF MAP "The True Size" map lets you move countries around the globe,  to show how big they really are. Now this is my favorite map.  There seem to be fewer distortions and you can superimpose countries to see their relative sizes.  Each state and country's fl...