DAILY PHOTO: Murals of Barrio Getsemaní, Cartagena
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PROMPT: Online Course
What’s the best online course you’ve ever taken?
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I’m doing a TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) course presently that is well done. However, I wouldn’t say that I’ve had sufficient experience to make any comparative statements. Most of my education was in the days when you went to the same room the person teaching you was and at the same time they were there. But I knew when self-checkouts came along that we were weaning ourselves away from the last vestiges of non-optional human contact.
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FIVE WISE LINES [October 2026]
You can never plan the future by the past.
Edmund burke
In the garden of gentle sanity,
Chögyam Trungpa; Timely Rain
may you be bombarded by
coconuts of wakefulness
…the most fruitful developments
Werner heisenberg
frequently take place at those points
where two different lines of thought meet.
My miracle is that when I feel hungry I eat, and when I feel thirsty I drink.
Bankei (Upon being challenged to produce a miracle during his lecture at Ryumon-ji Temple)
We cannot catch the fleeting minute
Arthur Milne
and put it alongside a later minute.
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BOOK: “Bruce Springsteen’s America” ed. by Robert Coles
Bruce Springsteen’s America: The People Listening, A Poet Singing by Robert ColesMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
Publisher Site
This book assembles ten reflections upon the role that Bruce Springsteen’s songs have played in the lives and thoughts of everyday Americans. It’s presented as the views of Harvard Psychiatrist and Pulitzer Prize winner, Robert Coles, but while Coles contributed both front- and back-matter as well as editing, the bulk of the book consists of the thoughts of a diverse assemblage of Americans — a lawyer, a teacher, a police officer, a grandmother, a student, a salesman, etc.
The degree to which Bruce Springsteen’s music is central to the book varies both in Cole’s contributions and in those of his contributors. Sometimes, it’s heavily about those songs, but other times it drifts into territory in which Springsteen seems to have little relevance. That’s okay… unless one bought the book primarily to read about Springsteen’s cultural influence, and one might easily be forgiven for thinking that’s the book one was getting.
Few, if any, musicians have images more intertwined with what it means to be American than Bruce Springsteen. This is, therefore, an interesting topic, though it may have been more interesting with a bit more focus.
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BOOK: “Weirdnosis” by The Rogue Hypnotist
Weirdnosis – Astounding confessions of a Rogue Hypnotist. by The Rogue HypnotistMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
Author Amazon Page
This book examines a range of strange ways that suggestibility is exploited, whether or not the usual methods of hypnotic induction are employed. Its contents range from advertising to generating emotional attraction to building a hypnosis busking act. It covers a lot of fascinating ground.
My view of how informative this book was roller-coastered as I read. On the one hand, the author debunked many a popular myth or misconception about hypnosis. This made his arguments sound more measured, tested, and valuable. On the other hand, he (I assume, he) was quite opinionated – often presenting an opinion or hypothesis as established fact – and this had the opposite impact, making his arguments seem ill-considered. At one point, he went on an extended rant against romance novel authors that seemed a bit personal, like maybe his wife left him for one (author or novel? not sure.)
If you are interested in suggestibility and how it is exploited, there aren’t many “games in town” (at least not books that have an ounce of veracity,) so you might want to check it out — but have your grain of salt ready.
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DAILY PHOTO: Three-Sectional Buses of Bogota
PROMPT: Celebrity
Which celebrity would you love to meet, and what would you talk about?
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Anne Carson just won the Nobel Prize for Literature. Does that count as a celebrity? She’s still in the 15 minutes of fame that comes from the recent announcement. She’d be interesting to talk to about poetry.
If it does not count, I would have to say that the more clearly a celebrity would count, probably the less interested I am in talking to them. I can’t think of any A-list actors / actresses or pop stars that appeal. Maybe a few rock stars and standup comedians — e.g. Bruce Springsteen to talk about lyrics or Louis C.K. about jokes.
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DAILY PHOTO: Bird on a Brick
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PROMPT: Good Person
What does it mean to be a good person?
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I don’t know that it has a meaning. I tend to consider dualities in Taoist terms. Every Yang has a seed of Yin; the Yang flows into Yin and back again.
