Waking up at the Crack of the Comfort Zone

Left: Canine Comfort Zzzzone.


6:10 AM. Begin simply: simply begin. Or, as Neil Fiore recommends in his book The Now Habit, “practice starting." I got up to pee this morning around 5:50 and, as I had last night, asked myself if I might just get up early. Lots of good reasons for doing so, I reckon, one of which is my upcoming planned trip to see my folks and to fish down in Louisiana. My dad gets up before the sun, and we can have unimpeded conversation then. When I fish with Mike Hebert, we get up at about the same dark hour. So, I’m getting a head start in shifting my sleep schedule.



And so here I am pecking away at the keys, our cat Honey purring on the doormat, the fan bringing in some of the post-storm, 67F degree air as the mockingbird tells it like it is. I can imagine being back in bed, falling back to sleep, on my back to black. A pleasant daydream. As it is, I’m feeling a little crapulous after drinking more last night than I think and experience as beneficial to body and mind. “Habits,” I’ve heard, “are excellent servants, but terrible masters.” I’m working at changing that particular habit. Part of that change work is observing what is so about it without moralizing. A primary question about that, or any habit, is “does this behavior enhance my joy and well-being?” In this case, the answer is along the lines of “not in the current configuration.”



This early morning waking and writing is outside, or at least near the border, of my “comfort zone.” Habits are part of the border of The Comfort Zone; the Default Doldrums. What else might I do today that would “enrich life,” as Marshall Rosenberg says in Nonviolent Communication? I notice that I’m quoting other people, and that I also have a thought that maybe I’d be better off telling my own truth. And another thought that telling my own truth is not just my truth, since, after all, I have as much in common with the rest of humanity as I have unique to myself (never mind the exact proportion). I could put that in better and more accurate words, but for Pete’s sake, it’s early, and this is my journal. It also makes sense that quoting others is similar to having a conversation: In their absence, I’m letting the other participants have a say by weaving their words into my text as they occur to me.


I could post these musings to my blog. I think I would be risking something. The thing at risk that comes to mind prominently is my report about drinking more than the experts and I think is wise. I’m concerned that someone will read this and it will disqualify me from something beneficial. I don’t have any particular thing in mind, but something like a job or some other opportunity, maybe being President or mayor.


All the same, what I write here is genuine, and I suspect that a kind of risky honesty, with myself as well as others, is a key ingredient in changing for good. I am going to post this. It’s not like The New York Times subscribes to my blog and is eagerly waiting to broadcast my intemperance. Or that my habits are particularly egregious.


Check out the chart below. I got this data after I checked the spelling. I don't know enough about the details to be comforted or discomforted by them. At least now we know that there were 17.7 words per paragraph.

Learning to Make & Manage Web Sites

I've got another iron in the fire these days, and more fish to fry on that fire. Part of me would rather have fewer of both. At the same time, I appreciate having the fire, the fish, and all the rest, including singed eyelashes. The latest project is learning how to make changes to the website at The Arkansas Yoga Center, my wife's business at which I'm employed as the B.T.S. Director. More on what that title means in my next post.

So, I’m climbing up, and slip-sliding down, the learning curve: reading and applying Building a Web Site for Dummies, learning to use iWeb on the Mac, and scratching my noggin quite often. You can click here DavidFournet.com to see my draft welcome page. That is, unless you’ve already been there. I plan to quickly integrate and simplify the various web thingamajigs I’ve makeshifted together so far. It’s a bit befuddling, but worth the effort in order to create an easy and enjoyable experience for you, my fellow explorer.

Be well.

Fournet's Fast Fish Chowder

I’ve never posted, nor even thought of posting a recipe, but the following spontaneous combination was so tasty and quick that I felt I really should share it.

I got a hankering Friday for some protein and we were fresh out of franks. We were also low on some other key provisions, so I started scrounging around the pantry and the Frigidaire. I rustled up the ingredients in the photo here, including a pot o' brown rice I’d cooked earlier. When I saw the foil pack of Salmon, an idea popped into my brain that it would go well with the potato & leek soup. So I put them all together, added a dash of Tabasco, and commenced chowing down on Fournet’s Fast Fish Chowder. Oh, yeah!

That evening, Andrea steamed up some broccoli and cauliflower and added that to a bigger batch on the same basic theme. I thought of adding canned crab, but we were out. The proportions of ingredients are as you like it.

In case the photo isn't clear, the ingredients are:

Wild caught pink salmon in foil pack
Creamy potato leek soup
Brown Rice
Pepper and/or hot sauce to taste
Vegetables (optional)

The crackers were served on the side.

My wife Andrea and I spent a delightful time Friday and Saturday (Nov. 2 & 3) as guests of the Bracken’s at The Canebake on Fort Gibson Lake in northeastern Oklahoma. Andrea and Bryan, her senior yoga teacher at The Arkansas Yoga Center will be conducting a “New Year’s Revolution” workshop there in January.

We ambled down the hill Saturday morning to a series of clear, quiet ponds. I caught about a dozen bass and sunfish as the kingfishers performed aerobatic stunts over the pond named after them. We love Fayetteville, but we didn't want to leave. Part of me is still on that dock.

The maples are starting to blush in northwest Arkansas. I've heard the distinctive call of the migrating white-throated sparrows recently. I think they're hanging around until the colors peak and the temperature gets frostier. This is my first experiment with an e-mail blog posting, a feature pointed out to me in preparation for a Barbara Sher WriteSpeak teleconference workshop tomorrow. The workshop has already begun.

My wife and I found a shower door latch today at Home Depot for $1.87 + tax. The old one had broken. The shower door would come open even when we weren’t making whoopee in the shower. We’ve never done that in the shower, but it was annoying all the same. We estimate that the door and latch are 52 years old, about the same age as she and I. We high-fived the clerk and made loud and joyful sounds when he directed us to the new one. He was pleased. We were pleased. It was a pleasant experience. Our shower door stays shut again. I had previously cleaned the cancerous oxidation on the door using a wire brush and Diet Pepsi. My wife was satisfied. We saved over a hundred or two dollars by keeping the original door. Yee ha. This is my first posting in 8 months. I'm as rusty as that old latch. This was an old latch dispatch from Dave. Have mercy.

Any guesses what this might be?

The follow-up photo will reveal what it is, but probably not why it is.

As part of my ongoing multi-media education, one of my goals is to post a video or a link to a video on this blog. It's a seven second clip from family movies (with the end cut off for some unknown reason. Perhaps the YouTube was tied).

I'll try a link first:

An early duet with Adele & Dave

O.K. that worked for me. Let's see if I can embed the video.



Well, I'll be. It's a start. Maybe tomorrow I can shoot some video of the snow-covered landscape of Fayetteville, Arkansas, my hometown.

I came across these enlightening opportunities. If I don’t figure out how to make the links lively, you can cut and paste one at a time into your browser for more information:

"World Wide Mind," the premiere episode of 22nd Century, a new PBS series, will air Wednesday, January 17, 2007, at 8:00 p.m. EST.

[7 p.m. CST on AETN in Arkansas.]

In the first episode, surgeons have implanted an electrode in an injured man's brain to allow him to communicate just by thinking about what he wants to say.

In another segment, a neurophysicist tells how he has developed bundles of wires thinner than spider webs that can be inserted into the blood vessels of human brains.

22nd Century is an innovative new PBS series about technological advances taking place today that within our lifetimes will significantly change the way humans live and interact.

http://www.pbs.org/22ndcentury/about.html


How to go to M.I.T. for free
Christian Science Monitor Jan. 4, 2007
*************************
By the end of this year, the
contents of all 1,800 courses taught
at MIT will be available online to
anyone in the world. Learners won't
have to register for the classes,
and everyone is accepted. The
OpenCourseWare movement, begun at
MIT in 2002, has now spread to some
120 other universities...

http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0104/p13s02-legn.html

I’m typing this on my improvised stand-up computer desk. My back complains when I sit too much, so I’m designing a computer arrangement that allows for both sitting and standing. I’ll probably build something out of wood once I figure out what heights and proportions work well. The two coolers are working well so far. There are books inside for stability.

I met with my amigo John on Thursday to compare notes on various projects and aspects of our lives. We have a lot in common and figure we can coach each other to be more productive. I found it very encouraging. This post is a direct result of our meeting. He asked me, among other things, what would be the very next action I would take if I were going to develop my skills as some kind of innovative journalist. I’m currently researching that sort of adventure as a venue for some of my creative energies.

The first thing that came to mind in response to his question was: “posting to the blog I started a while back and have ignored for months.” This is that blog and this is that posting.

If I were ultimately wise and effective, my wish would be that every thing I wrote or uploaded to this web log would be enormously life-enhancing to every reader. Short of that ideal, my intent is to put things on this page that are useful and entertaining. For now, though, I’m simply publishing this to end the drought.

Northwest Arkansas is under an ice-storm warning as I type this. My thermometer says 36F, so I don’t think the icing is imminent here. Oklahoma is apparently a bit colder and is getting quite a glazing.

Be well.

Bayou Dularge, La (south of Houma) on Dave's Redfish expedition with Miguel Hebert in June, 2006

On Jul 10, 2006, at 11:24 AM, RHenry wrote:


Excerpted from The Log from the Sea of Cortez, Chapter 6.

We wonder whether in the present pattern the pieces are not straining to
fall out of line; whether the paradoxes of our times are not finally
mounting to a conclusion of ridiculousness that will make the whole
structure collapse. For the paradoxes are becoming so great that leaders
of people must be less and less intelligent to stand their own leadership.

-- John Steinbeck


Roger,

Thanks for that.
Have you seen this web site? www.seaofcortez.org


“Back to the Sea of Cortez:
Sailing with the Spirits of John Steinbeck and Ed Ricketts
On a New Journey of Discovery Around Baja California

By Jon Christensen
Steinbeck Fellow
San Jose State University



In the spring of 1940, John Steinbeck and his friend, marine biologist Edward Ricketts, embarked on a voyage they had long dreamed of making together, and not a season too soon. As the storms of war engulfed Europe and the Far East threatening to bring the United States into World War II, they sailed on the Western Flyer, a sardine fishing boat, from Monterey Bay south around Baja California to the Sea of Cortez.”

[Now Dave’s two cents/sense]:

How often in our past do you think people have felt like things were going to hell (like Steinbeck 60-odd years ago)? I think it’s usually wise, and maybe inevitable, given human nature, that we’re looking ahead to the possible consequences to see if harm might be imminent. Thankfully, as Mark Twain said, “my life has been a series of catastrophes [or some similar word], most of which never happened.”

We clearly have more capacity for havoc than ever before, along with a surveillance system (including “One Whirled View”)[Roger & Dan's show on public access television] that tips us off about important goings on pretty damn quickly in just about any part of the planet. We do “live in interesting times.”

Along those lines, I’m educating myself in more depth about climate change. I know that you have been a proponent of the global cooling hypothesis. What is your perspective now? What, where, and who do you find to be the best sources of accurate and reasonable information on the subject?

Yo coozan,
Da Veed

Robert Wright, author of The Moral Animal (highly recommended), has a free, streaming-video collection of stimulating interviews. The link is on the left side of this page. I just finished watching the latest one with Edward O. Wilson, who is fascinating and down to earth. I watched it over several sessions, usually while eating a meal or snack. Each interview is about an hour long, but indexed by topic so you can hear only the parts that look promising to you. When I stopped after each feast, I wrote down the elapsed time on a post-it. I scrolled back to that place when I next came to nourish my body and soul.

My pants still fit after a series of parties this week. This, not owing to any particular self-control, but the simple fact that I wear my pants just below my belly roll. Also to the fact that said pants have an elastic waistband. Paul and I are going to partially atone for our holiday excesses by playing Smash Ball (known variously as "beach tennis," "beach ping-pong," and "frescobal" --in South America) for the next 18 hours.

I’ve been writing of late, motivated to get my act together, to “get cracking,” by the prospect of enrolling in Ellen Gilchrist’s Creative Nonfiction class at the U of A this spring. I started a piece on piloting/narrating circle-island airplane tours in Hawaii. Gary suggested that I post whatever I come up with when they’re at least half-baked. This I plan to do. Meanwhile, to lubricate the wheels of production and uninhibitedness, I offer the following piece that I cooked up a couple of years ago:


FICTION FRICTION


9.25.03 Thor’s day.

When my daughter Adele was a young girl, she would often say to me at bedtime, “tell me a story, daddy.” Just as often, I would feel this very uneasy feeling in my stomach, very much like the butterflies I usually get when I’m called to speak in front of a group. Still, she was asking so earnestly that it was pretty easy to just plow ahead. Once I got going, I usually found myself enjoying the story as much as she seemed to. It amazed me how the story seemed to take on a life of its own. The general outline, something along these lines: A sad little girl sits on her back porch after some stressful event or the other. A huge bird swoops out of the sky and stands next to her. Somehow she knows he is a friend and she’s not afraid. The bird speaks to her and explains who he is. The next thing we know she’s on his back flying up to meet the Cloud Kids who live their entire lives in the clouds.

It now occurs to me that I’d have to explain where they went on cloudless days, or maybe I did come up with some sort of explanation back then, 14 or so years ago.

I wonder what it is about making up a story that frightens me. Am I afraid of being judged as inadequate, as a poor teller of tales? Or maybe just of the unknown, of not having the answers ahead of time. A related bunch of questions and feelings concerns writing or telling stories as a whole. I have mixed feelings and thoughts about creative writing, about inventing stories that may or may not be based on what has actually happened.

Of course, now that I’m writing this, it occurs to me that stories have to be based on reality to some degree or they wouldn’t be understandable at all. Suppose I told a story that began something like: “The snarfle bleemed outside and around because the tooble sank quickly.” It actually might get your curiosity up, but I predict that if you just couldn’t make any sense out of it, you’d give up. Even that sample beginning is based on a recognizable order or syntax of words and parts of speech.

Still, I have misgivings about fiction, about stories that are invented. I don’t think I’m alone by any stretch of the mind; I didn’t make up the idea that fiction can be considered a waste of time, an indulgence, both in the writing and the reading. And I can make arguments to support that claim.

On the other hand, I enjoy a good story; both the writing and the reading or listening. And where is the line between fact and fiction anyway. Psychologists have repeatedly demonstrated that even the most honest and well-intentioned witnesses to events regularly include inaccuracies in their accounts of what happened. I also find that writing and reading stories often brings concepts, patterns, and other elements of understanding life to my conscious awareness.
It’s one thing to read from a scientific book that humans are genetically inclined to treat members of their own group with much greater regard than those of other groups. Often a deeper sense of the truth is gotten in reading a story that realistically tells the same truth implicitly, by demonstrating the principle in action rather than stating it outright.

I could go on about this. I am ambivalent. I know others feel similarly. I’ve heard them say so. I’ve heard my father say, more than once, that fiction is a waste of time. I feel and think similar thoughts about music, which I also enjoy creating and experiencing. I probably feel that way about any sort of human activity that has little or no utilitarian function, that doesn’t address our basic needs. I know there are societal roots behind these ideas, but that’s an entire book in itself.

What I do know, and my heart swells a bit in thinking back on it, is that my little girl relished the stories I made up for her and so did I. Maybe that’s all the explanation and understanding I need.


To tell of things that that never were
can stretch our minds, it’s true.
And warm our hearts and other parts
and make us feel brand new.

12.3.SAT
To say “no” to various options, various actions we might take, including mental actions, is an essential part of managing ourselves. That’s obvious enough, I suppose, but it’s valuable to me to repeat it for my own benefit. I tend to get distracted, literally “thrown off the tracks.” This can be a creative thing to do, of course, a getting out of our ruts, boxes, habits and the like. But it has its own (opportunity) costs. Truth is, I say “yes” to more things than I can manage. Most of these tasks are of my own design, which is to say, the ideas spring from my own mind, and then the executive branch of my mind either says “sure, let’s do it,” or the “ship of Dave” turns that way while the captain is looking through his telescope at the mermaids on yonder rocks, snoozing, boozing, or otherwise inattentive. Actually, the captain is sometimes aware, but has this rule of thumb that suggests that he’d better do or pay attention to this or that because we’ve got to keep our bases covered, ducks in a row, and stay on top of things. I think it’s a kind of compensation, an attempt to be acceptable, good enough, worthy, a good boy/man, perceived as in control, etc. And good to a point, but after that: diminishing returns.

I think this lack of discernment, this underdeveloped ability to steer clear of options that, while worthwhile, take time and energy away from more worthy tasks and projects, and burden the captain to the point of disorientation, stress, and strong need for heavy doses of Fukitol (the new miracle "insouciogenic" euphoriant). Stop. That sentence simply got out of hand. It’s probably a good example of trying to do too much. Here. Let’s practice brevity.
I usually try to do and think more than I can manage.
I can and will be more discerning, choosy, and discriminating about what I do and what I think about.
I don't think my cousins who see ADHD in every other person are right when they suggest that I have attention deficit disorder as well. I think I simply need to get better at being choosier about what and how much I put on my plate (in the dining room of my ship, walking down the road of life...O.K., maybe a mild case, if it even actually exists)


I’m going to post that to “Dave’s Deliberations,” the blog I set up quickly and without a great deal of planning, evaluation, or dithering. That’s another aspect of steering our ships: "who's to navigate and who's to steer?" as Dan Fogelberg put it. Nevertheless, I think only Paul is reading the blog, and he already knows that I often overflow the banks of the river. “A friend is one who knows all about you and loves you anyway.”
One more thing. These thoughts were catalyzed while I was reading in “The Simple Living Guide” by Janet Luhrs. I put the title in quotation marks because I’ve yet to discover how to italicize or underline when posting to this blog.

I'm getting ready to get ready to go, in this case, to visit my folks and extended family in Lafayette, LA, for a few days. Have you ever noticed how an upcoming trip, or visitors coming, can be good motivators and prioritizers? If so, you'll understand why this entry is brief. I feel somewhat exposed at this point in my blogging "prowess," but I'm practicing these days the fine art of taking action, when appropriate, before I've got my act completely together.

I leave you with another thought from the collection:

"The good life is one guided by reason and inspired by love." --Bertrand Russell (this is my paraphrase; I don't know exactly what he said or wrote, but it was close to that. If you find out, please let me know. I think I've enabled this blog to allow for comments by any and all)

I’m currently engaged in a thorough reorganization of my “exploratorio,” the provisional name for my studio/office/library/room of my own that we added to the northeast corner of our home back in 1995. This is the first time I’ve taken/made the time to deliberately arrange my main working, thinking, writing, etc. space since I moved in. I’m also collaborating with my wife Andrea in doing the same thing for the whole house.
After reviewing and perusing a number of books on simplifying, organizing, streamlining, etc., I wound up with a few that I checked out of the library. The one that really clicked with us was Organizing From the Inside Out by Julie Morgenstern. The book wasn’t available, so I got the video. One important aspect of her method is that it honors our idiosyncratic ways of categorizing and doing. There’s still a good bit of work to be done, and times when I and we sit and scratch our heads for a while. Still, I’m following her basic method and it’s working (with modifications and adaptations, which she encourages).

So, since the streamlining project is the main focus, I’m not reading or writing much just now. The following is another excerpt from my collection of quotes and observations that I’ve named “Worthwhile Words:”


You see, we are all ordinary. But a master, rather than condemning himself for his "ordinariness", will embrace it and use it as a foundation for building the extraordinary. Rather than using it as an excuse for inactivity, he will use it as a vehicle for correcting, which is essential in the process of attaining mastery. You must be able to correct yourself without invalidating or condemning yourself, to accept results and improve upon them. Correct, don't protect. Correction is essential to power and mastery.

-Stewart Emery


Answers to complex questions should end with semicolons, not exclamation points. --Daniel N. Robinson (Great Ideas of Psychology lectures)

“Does it matter where you sail if you’re uncomfortable on your ship?”
--Dave Fournet 6.19.03

IF I HAD MY LIFE TO LIVE OVER

I'd dare to make more mistakes next time.
I'd relax, I would limber up.
I would be sillier than I have been this trip.
I would take fewer things seriously.
I would take more chances.

--Nadine Stair,
85 years old.

(This passage is actually longer, but I’ll just post those first few lines) I’m planning to put the whole collection of quotes on my web site, probably after Thanksgiving.)

First, something possibly edifying:


 "" There comes a time when you have to stand up and shout:
This is me damn it! I look the way I look, think the way I think, feel the way I feel, love the way I love! I am a whole complex package. Take me... or leave me. Accept me - or walk away! Do not try to make me feel like less of a person, just because I don't fit your idea of who I should be and don't try to change me to fit your mold. If I need to change, I alone will make that decision.
When you are strong enough to love yourself 100%, good and bad - you will be amazed at the opportunities that life presents you."

--- Copyright © 2000 Stacey Charter"
http://en.thinkexist.com/

And then something....

borborygmus
grumbling of stomach, intestines, etc. Our dog Daimin has this in a big way. It showed up tonight just after he ate. I’ve never heard anything that loud coming out of any animal, humans included. At first, I didn’t realize it was coming from the dog. It sounded like kids talking outside or something. When I realized it was coming from him, and just about every five seconds or so, I got scared that he was going to let it rip any second, from one opening and/or the other. As I listened, the thought actually occurred to me that he’d swallowed some small rodent without killing it and that the little Jonah was yelling for help. With further listening and thought, I ruled out that hypothesis and went to get the leash to walk him.
He showed his usual elation at the first hint of going for a walk. We strolled around the block and he showed no signs of anything wrong apart from the car-wreck sounds emanating from his posterior half. There was no pooping or even flatulence, as best I could tell or smell. We got back home just as large rain drops began rattling the leaves. I put him out in the back yard as insurance against any untimely evacuation. He has a dry house that he uses and apparently likes, but he’s out there giving me his let-me-in bark right now as the rain abates. After I go chase my own tail on the stationery bike at the exercise center, I’ll give him a listen to see if the storm has passed, so to speak.

Borborygmus: Bowel sounds, the gurgling, rumbling, or growling noise from the abdomen caused by the muscular contractions of peristalsis, the process that moves the contents of the stomach and intestines downward. The plural is borborygmi.

Bowel sounds are normal. Their absence can indicate intestinal obstruction. Bowel sounds may also be temporarily absent after abdominal surgery.

The word "borborygmus" has been rumbling around the English language for some 200 years. Its earliest known use in English dates to 1796. The word arrived from New Latin, but traces its way back to the Greek "borboryzein," which means "to rumble."
[New Latin, from Greek borborugmos, of imitative origin.]


12:42 a.m. on the next day. Getting ready to shut down the electronics as the thunder rolls. Daimin the Noisy Dog came back inside soaking wet after his temporary exile, and was thankfully boroborygmus free.
This post is just what happened to get written today, apart from a few e-mails. I’m in the midst of the first thorough reorganization ever organized in our Shady Lane home since we moved here a dozen years ago. More on that, and the philosophical, economical, and taxonomical ramifications thereof, later.

So, I tell Gary Weidner that I'm thinking about creating a blog. He tells me it's very simple. We head to my computer. We bring up Google.com. >>more>>tools>>blogs. It looks simple. The page tells me that I can set it in 5 minutes. That was last night. Today I went back and set this up. Apart from this typing, it took well under five minutes, and would have even been faster had I not deliberated so long on choosing the template, the name, the URL, and such. I found those choices a bit uncomfortable, mostly out of concern that I'd do something that would look goofy, or dumb or something unfavorable like that. Pretty petty, but there it is. I've read that in various surveys public speaking ranks as the most feared thing amongst people in the U.S. I get nervous myself doing that, and right now, with not a soul in sight, and me typing rather than speaking, I'm still getting close to the edge of my comfort zone.

I'm planning to see if I might put things into the public conversation and inquiry that might actually encourage others, be useful to them, enlightening to some degree, etc.