Life

Mindset is everything – continued

/ hsoi

After a shooting class I wrote about how mindset is everything. How it’s important to convey what you want to do (not what you don’t want).

When competition shooter BJ Norris reflected back on his performance at the 2008 US Steel Nationals, he found this exact same mindset approach helped his performance. Folks, it’s a real thing… mindset is everything.

I can even reflect back on my performance at work this past week. I’ve had so many other things in life going on that it’s been difficult to accomplish the tasks I’ve needed to complete. I found myself frustrated with all the things I hadn’t been able to do, and focusing on that merely accentuated my frustrations. I changed my mindset to focus on the things I wanted to do and viola… the things that needed to get done got done.

Focus on what to do.

Car burglaries and how to deal with it

/ hsoi

Apparently car burglaries are on the rise in Austin.

I’ve had my car broken into twice in my lifetime. It’s not a fun experience… the feeling of violation, the anger that some punk asshole decided instead of working hard they’d hardly work and just take something of mine.

I used to work with a guy that spent time working in the Maine legal system. We were going to lunch together and I was surprised when we got to the parking lot and his car doors were unlocked. I asked him about it. He told me that in the end, it doesn’t matter. The key thing to do if you want to avoid getting your car broken into is to not leave anything in the car. The thief is looking for easy targets and desirable things: money, cigarettes, CD’s, things they can quickly rip off and sell or directly consume themselves. So if you basically leave nothing in your car but your car, there’s not much to worry about. If they want the car itself (or just want to vandalize), then there’s just not much you can do period. He said in his time he’d seen all sorts of cars come in… steering wheel locks are easily defeated. If the criminal wants it bad enough, they’ll get it and that’s why you keep your insurance paid up. In the end it still sucks to have such assholes existing in the world and that we even have to modify our lives and behavior to avoid and minimize the impacts from these assholes, but such is life.

Flu Control? Gun Swine?

/ hsoi

Howard Nemerov notes an interesting common thread between the way gun control and the swine flu are presented.

He’s right. It’s all about presenting fear, preying upon fear, and that government is the only one who can save us! Didn’t Ronald Reagan say “The nine most terrifying words in the English language are, ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help.'” How soon we forget.

Roy Batty was right. Living in fear is what it is to be a slave.

Memorization, Precision, Smoothness

/ hsoi / 2 Comments

I’ve heard Master Harmon say this before, but he brought it up again in yesterday’s seminar, and it struck me deeper than it has in the past. I figure this is because there’s a growing harmony in the various aspects of my life, and it’s great when things flow and harmonize this way. Let me explain.

Continue reading →

Be the change you want to see in the world

/ hsoi

Mahatma Gandhi said “Be the change you want to see in the world.” A wonderful and noble thought.

Reading this from Roberta X reminded me of a thought I had a few weeks ago.

Driving around town with Family, Wife noticed a car with a bumper sticker that had the Gandhi quote on it. I do think it’s a beautiful thought, but I started to wonder how many people actually do that.

For instance, I wish to see people being more responsible for themselves, so I work to be more responsible for myself. I work to teach my children and other children in my care (e.g. my work as a Cub Scout Den Leader) about being responsible for themselves. I want to see people that work hard to be rewarded for their efforts, so I work hard, climb the ladder, save my money, and teach my children the same. I don’t want to see people go hungry, so I use my hard-earned money to buy food for my church’s food pantry.

Then I see people that want to spread the wealth. But then I ask them to spread some of their wealth directly to me, and they never seem to pull out their wallets. If the change (and hope) you wish to see in the world is to spread the wealth, then shouldn’t you be that change and start by spreading your wealth?

I see people that want others to pay for their health care or their groceries or their gas or whatever. But again they never seem to want to pay for mine when I ask them to.

I see people demanding mandated volunteer service (ignore the fact that makes no sense, or that it’s akin to slave labor), but I never see those same people volunteering.

Oh I see. You want *ME* to do that, but the gander just wants to sit back and reap the benefits. I see. Sow nothing, reap something. I see. Don’t consider the sustainability of that course of action, since you just want your big screen TV now. I guess someone didn’t have The Little Red Hen read to them as a child. Maybe that’s why some of us get a wee upset at such propositions of hope and change.

If you want to see change in the world, it starts with you. You need to change yourself and be that change. If you can’t be that change, maybe it’s not such a great change. If you can be that change, I can at least say I’ll have more respect for you.

Quite an experience to live in fear…

/ hsoi / 1 Comment

A couple hours ago I finished watching the movie Blade Runner. Never seen it before, so it was about time that I did. Interesting movie, and I should probably watch it again to more fully appreciate it. While the movie wasn’t quite what I expected, in a good way, there was one line that jumped out at me. Roy Batty said:

Quite an experience to live in fear, isn’t it? That’s what it is to be a slave.

True, so true.

Twitter is informational malnutrition

/ hsoi

Twitter is informational malnutrition.

Witness.

George Carlin had a small rant about “sound bytes”, basically equating them to malnutrition. Twitter, the sound byte of 140 characters or less.

Latest on the orange cat

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As mentioned previously, the orange cat has problems. Finally got the blood tests back.

I believe the wife said intestinal lymphoma. 

Nothing we can do.

Some things could be done to address symptoms, but more or less he’s on his way out.

Sad.

This is Wife’s cat. She’s broken up and very torn. The diarrhea all over the house is driving her crazy, but she’s not ready to say goodbye. It’s a big mixed bag of emotions.

Stay tuned.

Mixed Martial Arts Serendipity

/ hsoi / 3 Comments

Of course, in my world “mixed martial arts” combines something other than the “muay thai, wrestling, bjj” formula. 🙂

As I’ve mentioned before here and here, when it comes to shooting I need to back off my speed and improve my accuracy. At the dojang today we were emphasizing a similar thing: smoothness of movement. As the saying goes, “slow is smooth, smooth is fast”. I’ve been working on my handgun presentation, the “punch” I refer to in my AT-4 class writeup, and that’s all about slowing down, being smooth.

So it was nice that my work today at the dojang was also about backing off speed a bit and improving correctness and accuracy. It’s always a great thing in my book when different things in my life end up with overlaps like this. It’s a signal to me that I need to work on it in those realms, but also what else can I apply it to? How about just general living? To slow down a bit. Cruise on my motorcycle at 55 MPH… sure the speed limit is 70, but go at 55 and get techniques right and enjoy the scenery going by. Don’t rush around to various things, just mellow out with the kids around the house. Whatever.

Slow down. Smooth things out. Do things correctly. No one cares about the first one to get the wrong answer. All those things that I keep telling myself. Gotta work on them more. Heck, it’s worth it for me to remember Tao Te Ching #48.