The reasons we’re headed for trouble...
Category: News and Politics

Hmmm...interesting new feature. Just listening to KCBS radio and one of the commentators said, we "might be in a recession"...hahaha... had to laugh, denial is not a river in Egypt! From the Prez on down...liars or fools or both?!
So, why are we in this situation? Doesn't take rocket science to figure it out. A bazillion dollars on and endless war to make George W. Bush feel like his is bigger and longer than anyone else in the world and the predatory, no make that criminal, behavior on the part of most of the lending institutions in America. That's all it takes folks...to destroy us from within, false pride and greed. I would like to see any politician with a set of balls, press for an immediate end of the war and prosecution of any and all persons in the lending institutions who were/are practicing predatory practices. (like making loans to people who have no business having any kind of loan).

8:37 PM - 2 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment

Random thoughts..
Current mood: amused

Hmmm...great way to start my latest entry! Sitting here listening to Sirius SatRadio on my computer boom out the Beatles...Saw Her Standing There...good vibes!

Rockin' out! yeah...yeah....yeah!

So, lately, I've gotten into Tevana teas and have been brewing up a storm of at least 15 different varieties of tea..kinda fun to combine them and see what happens; sometimes it's just plain ugly what happens!!  But then you get a rare combination that will knock your socks off!  Kiwi-Strawberry and Roobius Peach with a little German Rock Sugar...yeah!

Oh, yes, before I forget again, listening to Dean Koontz's latest book, "Door to December" and have to admit that I'm a little disappointed in terms of plot transparency... oh, well...maybe I'll be surprised?

okay...gotta jet...more later ((the question is how much later!))

9:38 PM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

Try out Wizard's Quiz... ;-)

Take My Quiz - on - QuizYourFriends.com!

12:49 PM - 1 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment

Magic...
Current mood: bouncy
Category: Dreams and the Supernatural

Back again to Blogville... So Harry Potter is going to be winning the tri-wizard tournament and other exciting stuff on the big screen soon...and the kid inside of me can hardly wait!  Not so excited as I would get one of the midnight showing tickets and stand in a line (like I did with a friend for the first Lord of the Rings movies), but excited nonetheless!  Did you know I practiced magic from the age of 8 to almost 15 and even participated in the local faire talent show doing some magic for the audience? You know, linking rings, floating orbs, liquid disappearing into nowhwere, scarves and flowers appearing from nowhere and even psychic powers! hahahahaha....too funny, but sure enjoyed it and of course Harry Houdini was my absolute hero...one of his quotes comes to mind as I remember this ancient history, "...safes are designed to keep you out, not in...".
So, Harry Potter is coming and while a bit dark in places, the book should translate well to the big screen and special effects should be awesome...hope I'm not disappointed.  During a physical therapy session for my healing back, the massage therapist asked me why I thought so many people were intrigued and interested in Harry Potter.  Aside from the entire unfolding tale being well written and well integrated, the notion of mystery and magic holds people's attention and probably makes them wishful...wave a wand and make your life better and solve all the problems...hmmmm....but then I'm probably projecting here.
Of course I am...this is a blog isn't it...??? Is it not all about what I THINK and WANNA SAY???? Hmmmmm????
Mind off rolling around trying to think up clever translation of
B...
L...
O...
G...
Okay, so can you think of a funny/witty acronym for BLOG???
Mo later...back to work!

1:41 PM - 2 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

Bookish thoughts...
Current mood: artistic
Category: Writing and Poetry

Hey all of you blog readers and my buddies on this insane venture...stream of consciousness addicts...welcome back to inside my head. 
So, over the years of being a therapist, I have, at various times, had patients say to me, Doc, you ought to write a book...the narcissistic ones though the book ought to be about them, but the others generally thought I had helpful thoughts and perspective on life, which was helpful to them... in response to them, I would say, I have no idea about what to say or present that has not already been said and by better writers than I.  In fact, when patients ask me if I've read a particular book about say, dealing with depression, I DON'T need to read it, having read many books on dealing with depression and not finding any of them particularily original or more helpful than any other one.  But wow, the other day I got a call from JFK University and they had seen my web site and decided I was just the person for them to teach a graduate class survery course on psychological testing, something I've done a great deal...like thousands.
So, it occured to me that this may be my "big chance" to write a book, but in this case a survey course on psychological testing...it would be fun and would force me to "get current" on the latest research on various testing instruments.  They don't really change much, but sometimes there are new correlations for their subscales and prediction of future behavior...always of interest.
Okay, so, this may be it...my brain is beginning to churn, which is my cue to get ready for some new project.  I was beginning to teach my self JAVA2 (a programming language for those who are not complete computer geeks), which I will probably continue doing, but this writing idea has really struck me for the grad course.
Okay, that's it...latest news from Robert's brain...

10:56 PM - 1 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment

Wow...have to stop spending so much time blogging...

Hmmm...looks like it's been a year almost since I last posted here...man time flies when you're hospitalized twice and in surgery three times!

E-gads, I have had more health problems in the past 18 months than in my entire life!
Dec.04-Jan.05 ...deep vein thrombosis with blood clots to my lungs; DVT kills about 40 percent of those so afflicted.
Mar.-April 05 ...ulnar nerve surgery to relieve pain (similar to carpal tunnel release surgery).
July 05 ...another titanium implant in skull.
Sept.-Oct.05 ...Laminectomy on L4-5 (back surgery for herniated disc).

Wow...scary just to type it out... guess the old body warranty must have run out and can no longer take it back to the manufacture.

So, other than being in pain for the past 18 months to one degree or another, I've not been up to much.  The only interesting things that have been happening are with going to the theatre, concerts at Shoreline and testifying in Superior Court in San Jose in a capital case; the guy got 2nd degree murder and it now AWAY! Asshole murdered his wife and now he's doing his time.

So, what's in your wallet?  God, I hate TV ads... and believe TIVO is a gift from God to be sure. Divinely inspired person invented this wonderful gift. 

Hey, read the book "Blink" and see how easily manipulated your unconscious mind can be!  Why would anyone spend BILLIONS of dollars on advertising if it didn't work!!!??

Got an interesting and thought and emotion provoking book summary from one of my women patients the other day in email, check it out:

It's premise is how would your life be different if when you were sorrowful you were held by a motherly woman who encouraged you to cry it all out.  If the first time you were depressed someone came and sat with you and kept you company without judgment.  If the first time you felt your ego say that I'm me and not part of you, you were hugged and praised.  If the first time you expressed anger you were praised and supported in being in touch with your feelings.  What if depression was looked upon as a gift to motivate you to delve deep into the dark parts of yourself and know yourself at last.

Excellent.
Hope you're having fun...I'm about to.

11:21 PM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

Too much free time...
Current mood: contemplative

Hmmm...so, I'm sitting here rereading my posts and wondering why I bothered to post?  Who is going to read them...and besides, I already know what I think about most things!  Okay, perhaps one day in the future, someone will come across them and say, "...oh, he was too clever by one half..." or something... NOT! ;-)  Anyway, I'm blogging coz it's therapeutic and it is kinda interesting to see just what pops up with I'm in this open thought mode...

So, I should be reading through the voting issues for the California election, but will probably not do much but skim them to gather the intent. NO on the Indian Casinos (I knew that one day they would take their revenge) and YES on mental health for essentially everyone (courtesy of the rich!)...hahaha.. who better to pay for it!  Would not think that at all if I was rich of course!

Now, back to the aging thing again...coz I'm thinking about what it might be like to have dual citizenship in Mexico or Canada or Australia?  I wonder if it will even be possible?  I know people who have dual citizenship; however, it's from birth and early travel and special circumstances of their parents.  Hmmm... well, I should just go check it out on the government sites/embassy sites.  Aging means I stop working, despite how much I enjoy it, and have to make due...well, IF Bush gets re-elected, which I think is likely, then we'll need to leave the US and be expatriots in one country or another to survive financially.  I wonder if other people are thinking about these sorts of things?

Well, more later.

7:27 PM - 2 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

Mo thoughts on Bush boy...

Upon giving more thought to GWB giving a lecture to the UN and further alienating the UN and the world in general, I decided to write a letter of apology to the UN General Assembly, stating that NOT ALL Americans are as arrogant and disrespectful of the UN and it's member nations! Now, if everyone who's a citizen of the US were to write to the UN and make such an apology, it would perhaps make a big difference in what the world thinks of America.

12:21 PM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

Post wedding thoughts (and events)

So, my blogging has been pretty limited given that I was hit the day after my last post with what they think (for now) is West Nile Virus...yeah, was a pretty sick puppy for more than a week and almost missed my daugher's wedding, which would have really and completely sucked! So, haven't thought about my previous posts other than to muse about how I still don't know about the soul thing...and am grateful to not find out first hand over the weekend!
So, when they think you have West Nile Virus, or mennigitis or ecephalitis, they do all kinds of mean nasty medical tests, like imaging your brain and then follow that with a spinal tap...yeah, just what it sounds like, a needle into your spine, pushing past your vertebrae and into your spinal cord, to suck out a little fluid, which gives you the worst headache of your entire life. It's 8 days since this procedure and I still feel like I have broken shards of glass shifting around inside my head, which occasionally takes my breathe away!
But the important thing is my daugher's marriage to a truly fine man and my feeling that I have never seen her happier in her entire life. A most wonderful event indeed!!! And despite being ill as hell, I was able to pull it together, push the pain aside, and be there for her and her man.
One of my patients today asked me after I described the glass in head thing, whether I was worried that it was not going to get any better...I laughed and said, it never occured to me that it would not improve beyond this state. I am the eternal optimist!
I am really looking forward to the wedding pix, since it was a magnificent day and it will be fun to see everyone again! I'll post some links for anyone interested. ;-)
Okay...now back to work...since I still am at work!
(have a great boss... ;-) ...did I say I'm self-employed?!)

5:39 PM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

More thoughts on the memory thing...

Okay, no dreams, as usual...but woke up with some thoughts on my blog from last evening.

So, if you look at someone who has a severe brain disease like Alzheimer's, who doesn't remember anyone in their life or anything in their whole life then what could you say about their "personality"? As if they were suffering from both retrograde and anterograde amnesia at the same time...how could you have a personality if you had no memory, including remote memory? You might have "temperment", like babies each have different temperments, but definitely no personality. Babies don't have personalities because they are blank slates and have no sense of themselves, no language, no concepts, only emotion and sensation. Without memory ability the person is back to the status of a baby and living literally in each and every moment, their current moment of sensation and emotion in reaction to the one preceeding it, but never cummulative. It would be like being stuck in some sort of emotional loop and completely dependent upon one's environment, with whatever happens at any one point reverberating through one's conscious moments. A series of dream images of a disturbing nature could follow this person out of sleep and reverberate all day long, until some other external stimuli where to cause a change. The concept of choice, the ability to even think would be wiped away. So, no personality, no thought, only reaction and sensation with complete dependency upon society of survival. Then what of the "soul"? The religious types usually pose that the soul really has nothing to do with the body, the personality, etc. So, does the soul carry it's own sense of any kind of being? Any of it's own memories or identity? Some folks talk about the soul making choices about what lives to lead with some higher, albeit unknown, purpose to achieve. But if there is no connection or perhaps like a diode, only a one way connection to memory of a life, then there is nothing lost? Is some soul occupying my body and mind at present? How could I possibly call it MY soul if I have no memory of it, can't communicate with it and IT was here BEFORE I was even aware (requires memory) of myself? And when I die, it leaves, and I'm still dead, right? I can't possibly remember it (didn't know it when it was "there" and now I'm dead), so what's the point. It's like a kind of energy-hitchhiker who I call MY soul. It's there (if at all) for it's benefit, not mine. Would I be alive without a soul? The religious types do have fun with this one. "Selling" your soul for some now related advantage...like selling a hundred acres on planet Pluto to someone, you don't know it, not going to know it, but assume it's there because someone said that it was. And just WHO developed this notion of SOUL? And why would we need one? Was it developed to medicate for the utter fear of dying and the knowledge that your life was completely pointless? Interesting place this business of examing my thoughts about memory has landed me this fine morning. So, it occurs to me that what I have thought about life for a very long time is probably a good and workable view; that you should live each day to your most full enjoyment and do as little harm as possible. ;-)
more on this later...

9:17 AM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment