Test Clip

Testing yet another! web app called Clipmarks which allows me to take "clips" from other websites and post them directly to Mental Blog. I can also email them to anybody I want, print them or save them.

This clip refers to the new browser just launched by Google, called Chrome. I downloaded it and started using it. So far I like it, but not as much as Firefox. Mainly because of the lack of add-ons (like Clipmarks and ScribeFire and a whole bunch of other gizmos that I've loaded on to Firefox).

One big advantage to Chrome is that it's quite fast. That's because it's not loaded down with addons (like Clipmarks and ScribeFire and a whole bunch of other gizmos that I've loaded on to Firefox).

clipped from www.techcrunch.com Chrome, the Webkit-based Google browser that launches tomorrow at Google.com/chrome, will give them a real foothold on the desktop and way more control over how web applications perform. While it seems that Chrome is aimed at IE and Firefox, the target is really Windows. Expect to see millions of web devices, even desktop web devices, in the coming years that completely strip out the Windows layer and use the browser as the only operating system the user needs. That was going to happen anyway, but Chrome + Gears just made the decision a whole lot easier for hardware manufacturers to make.

13 Questions to Ask Before Publishing a Post On Your Blog

I like reading Darren Rowse over at ProBlogger. He's an excellent writer. He knows his stuff when it comes to blogging.

Many of his posts are instructional or informative. They cover topics like...ummm....how to write, for example, which is not strictly blogging but something good bloggers cannot do without. Or he writes about how to increase traffic to your blog. Among other things, that is one of the probloggers goals, cuz more traffic means more potential revenue. See, I've learned a little bit by reading Darren, altho if he looks at Mental Blog, he'll probably question that assertion.

Since I'm such a web/social flutterby (too erratic for me own good) I don't read everything that Darren posts. Not enough time. But now and then something really catches my eye.

So it was with his post of Jan.30, the one entitled: 13 Questions to Ask Before Publishing a Post On Your Blog. Well, I just thought I'd better go through them and see how I fared. I answered the questions not by checking any specific posting of mine, but the general trend of my bloggishness.

1. What was the main point of this post? have I made it clearly?

I'm a ramblin' guy. I meander. I wander. I hum. I haw. I engage in interminable preambles. Sometimes the post has no point. But often it does. And when I do get around to making my point, I usually manage to say, "Here's the point." And I have enough practise that I can generally make it clear. However, you, dear reader, often have to wade thru extraneous material. In such cases, I hope to be entertaining, at least.

2. What do I want readers of this post to do? have I led them to this action?

Hmmm...what do I want readers to do? Laugh. Cry. Piss their pants. Sign a petition. See, a problogger wants readers to follow some advice, or click on an ad, or end up on the Checkout page. I ain't got none of that. Sometimes I ask readers to do something. Sometimes I just want them to ponder.

3. Have I written something useful?

Huh! If I had mastered "useful" I'd be on the best-seller list.

4. Have I written something unique?

This one I can lay claim to. Much of what I write is utterly, fantastically unique.

5. Has what I’ve written taken me closer or further away from my blog’s goals?

This is another problogger question. Goals? If I had mastered goals, I'd be hiring Tony Robbins as my valet.

6. Have I used a title that draws people into my post?

I think I'm a pretty good headline writer. (Just look at the title of this post, eh?)

7. Are my spelling and grammar correct?

Huh! Look at my profile blurb. Spelling and grammar are anathema. They are why I am here in this Yoni School for Wayward Poets! Having said that, my rebellion is calculated and deliberate. I can spell write when I wants to, and my grammar is impeccable when it's not execrable. It's the oppositionist in me that refuses to spell.

8. Could I have said it more succinctly?

No. Or yes. Depends.

9. Have I credited sources of quotes and inspiration?

I try to be scrupulous about crediting sources...even when I have to make the names up.

10. Have I written something previously that relates to this post that I could link to? has someone else?

If I have something on Mental Blog that I can link to, I do. (Assuming I remember...) If someone else has something, and I know about it, I link. Link Love. Spread the positive vibes around, man. The positive electrons. Recycle, reuse, repeat, repeat, repeat.

11. Have I left room for my readers to add something to this post? have I invited them to?

That's a good question. My comments section is wide open. They's always room, brotha. On the more philosophical level, have I left room? I dunno. When I'm expressing my opinion, there are always gaps. Things I haven't thought of. Or I'm open to hearing the opposite view. But have I invited them? Not always. I've probably assumed that readers assumed they could comment if they wished.

12. What keywords will people search Google for on this topic? have I optimized this post for those words?

Keywords...hmmm...my tags are highly individual. Most of them, anyway. Which is not to say I don't use the standard ones in some cases. (Or maybe I don't really. If somebody was looking for a piece on the US election, would they find it with my tag: US Election Watch?)

13. How could I follow this post up with another that extends it?

Another good question. For the most part, I don't follow any particular narrative. So my posts are not necessarily connected. I write about whatever grabs me at a given moment. Sometimes there's room for extension or follow-up, but I don't often take advantage of it.

There it is. My conclusion? I am not a problogger. I am definitely a Mental Blogger. A problogger has discipline. I have chronic Mental Blog. But I have to say this. Darren asks some very good questions. And if I ever acquire the necessary ambition to axe this Blogger blog and play with the big boys on some other platform like maybe WordPress, or finally take the real plunge and work up an honest-to-goodness website, part of what I'll be doing will be following Darren's example and advice.

Meanwhile, I've managed to link to every post that Darren linked to in his post. Now that's what I call Link Love, and if it weren't so much fun making Link Love, I'd say he should probably be paying me.

Tom Cruise Scientology Video

How many of you have seen that video? Go here if you're interested.

I searched it out because the Web has been all abuzz about it for the last few days, what with hackers hacking confidential Scientology documents, and the omnipresent, omniscient, omniomni Anonymous releasing apocalyptic videos threatening the infiltration and destruction of Scientology. Why, it's even broken out into the mainstream media. Hoo Ha!

So I found the video. Here's what I have to say about that.

Personally, I think Scientology is a crock. (Full of cash.) I have one friend who got involved many years ago when he was much younger, and it nearly broke up his family. And I wouldn't touch it with a ten-foot barge pole. Still, there are some very successful, very talented people who are Scientologists, and if it worked for them, more power to 'em, I guess. It's not for me.

But the video...People have been commenting on Tom Cruise's bizarre behaviour for some time now, starting, I think, with his couch romp on Oprah. OK, he's exuberant. Manic? He's an actor fer gawdsake! Perception is a funny thing...quite subjective, you know? Everybody seems to think Cruise's performance on this video is a bit loony.

I don't think so. And here's why. It's a promotional video produced for internal consumption among fellow Scientologists and students. In other words, it's meant not for the public at large but for people who have some understanding of the concepts being discussed. So Cruise uses jargon...Scientology jargon...without worrying about whether he is being intelligible, because he assumes he will be. (I do think it's a bit weird that the video is so one-sided...you never hear the questions he's answering. I think that would explain a lot. But you have to figure the producers made the same assumption as Cruise...that the potential viewers already understood the references.)

Now, you all know I am Buddhist person. How many of you have ever really looked at film of a Tibetan Buddhist ritual? Have you seen the scene in Kundun where they consult the oracle? To an outsider, it's bizarre. Furthermore, some of the stuff I've been reading in the last few months, readings about Highest Yoga Tantra, sounds pretty whacked if you don't have some knowledge of the references. That's why it's called esoteric! The whispered lineage. It's not supposed to be fully intelligible to the uninitiated. And if you saw some of it, you might say, "What the hell has Larry got himself into?" I'll tell you this. Damn if I know. Some of it's still unintelligible to me too. String theory sounds whacked to most of us too. Until we study it enough to make some sense of what string theorists mean.

For me, and maybe most of us, Scientology still carries the whiff of something slightly sinister. Years ago, the Hill Commission in Ontariario declared Scientology to be a cult. For some, Tibetan Buddhism smacks of cultishness. Lamaism! Shamanism! Let me toss out just one phrase: Guru Devotion. (For the uninitiated, that could well mean manipulation, abuse. Sometimes, us all being more or less human, it has, but mostly not.)

So look at the video. Aside from the jargon, if you listen to the actual words Cruise says, the sentiments he expresses, there's not much to be scared or outraged about. For us outsiders looking in, it's risky to make snap judgments.

WebRing Navbar

Yeah, I know, the title sounds like some Norwegian guy's name. "Hello, I'd like you to meet my Viking friend, Webring Navbar!"

But no, it's not like that. If you've visited the blog in the last few months you may have noticed an item that says WebRing in the sidebar. That indicates that Mental Blog is a member of the Buddhist Bloggers webring. From this bar you can navigate to the WebRing home page or find Buddhist blogs at random by clicking on "Next" or "Previous" or whatever.

I can't honestly say how much traffic belonging to the WebRing has brought, but at this point, that's not really the point. (I was pleasantly surprised when the Buddhist Blogs admin decided that I had enough Buddhist content to qualify because at the time I applied I think I had posted several quite political items. Anyway...they approved me, so I was grateful.)

However, now in the last few days, something has changed. The WebRing Navbar. That's what changed! How did it change? Well, it got bigger, somehow. The setup changed. And it no longer fit properly in the sidebar. How did this happen? Damned if I know.

I went to the WebRing admin site to see if I could figure out what was going on with it. Now, for those of you who don't know, the whole WebRing thing is really technical. Too much for me. I'm not really technical. I wandered around for an hour, then went to the "Contact Us for Help" button, where I was redirected for another hour by the admonition to check out the Forums first cuz I might find the answer there. Nothing doing.

I finally decided I was going to have to display my profound ignorance of WebRing admin and codes and all that stuff, and send them an email. But then I had another idea. I moved the Navbar. It's now down at the bottom of the blog page. It fits nicely there. Not quite so visible as it was before, but it's now where most sites actually have it. And there it will stay.

Anyway, that was a long-winded way of saying I've changed the position of the WebRing Navbar. I am fairly certain that everyone and their brother wants to know this.

Temporary Testing Post

This is a temporary posting cuz I just installed Windows Live Writer and I'm trying it out. Let's see what happens with it.

I make picture now:

Lovely.

UPDATE: Jan.25/08, 5:20pm

I was so pleased with the results I decided to leave it up.

MyBlogLog Stats

I'm sure other members of MyBlogLog have noticed this when they check their stats. Somebody does a Google search and Google calls up one of their blog posts as a relevant reference.

Sometimes the associations are weird. Today someone did this Google search: can body lice drown in the bathtub.

Google served up several sites, but also listed Mental Blog sixth with this entry: What's Bugging Me Now.

The words "lice" and "drown" are mentioned in the comments. Go figger.

Spam Spam Spam Spam Spam

I've had a minor plague of spam comments in the last few days. I dunno how that shit works, but the spammers are choosing only three of my posts: Altitude Song, Mental Health Hotline, and Spam Comments!

Isn't there some kind of stupid irony in putting spam comments on a post about spam comments?

The English is very bad, too. (Says Larry, incarcerated in the Yoni School for Wayward Poets, convicted of phelonious misspelling...)

Of course, I've deleted these comments, because I don't want unsuspecting visitors to click on the stupid links they're promoting. However! I've provided links to the original posts because.
Especially Altitude Song. (Soon to be available!....Patent Pending!...Ask for it at your nearest Audio Outlet!)

Two Additions to Mental Blog

I've added two new things to Mental Blog. One is the IM Larry widget. Yes, another bloody widget. With this, when it says I'm online, you can send me an instant message. We can chat! Oh my, what a concept!

The second is Online Bookmarks. This is a service I've been using as a backup for my Firefox bookmarks. The Online Bookmark Manager gives you the option of making bookmarks public or private. Most of my bookmarks are private, but the few public ones are now available to you too. Over the next while, I'll make more of them public bookmarks.

I don't know if anybody really cares what I'm bookmarking. If you're like me, you've got hundreds, including some you'll probably never look at again. (Or some that aren't valid anymore.) Anyway, here they are. Another sort of Link List. Maybe you'll find something interesting.

Online Bookmark Manager is a Firefox plugin, but you can also get it as a module for your Google or Netvibes page.

Evil Blog Contest

I'm not ordinarily quite so mercenary, but hey! For a chance at a 24" monitor, I think I can do this. Enter a contest. Especially one that's not too technically demanding. (I am, however, a little lazy. I just copied the text that John provided in his rules for the contest. Here it is:

John Chow dot Com, a blog that helps you make money is giving away a 24″ wide screen LCD monitor! To enter, you just have to write about it. This is my entry. Now give me the monitor! The contest is sponsored by BluFur, who wants to let you know that they’re hosting Canada and the rest of the world.

OK, that's a lot of links (advertising) for one short paragraph. How you think he makes money, eh? Anyway, I like John, even tho he's evil. He's also Canajun, which must count for something. And he has way cool cars on his masthead. He always has some sort of buzz happening, and lots of advice about how to make money blogging. What I say is, if you want to learn about promoting yourself & your blog, read John Chow dot Com.

By the way, deadline for the contest is July 31/07.

Song of the Day Revisited

Camille Crawford has become Mental Blog's music faerie. She expressed a desire to be able to hear the Song of the Day, and I agreed that would be nice. Especially a song like Dégénérations, which is not instantly recognizable.

Well, she found a service (and very kindly let me know about it) that provides exactly that, called DivShare, where you can upload files (free!) and embed them in your site. So I'm doing that with Breakout by Soulive now, and over time I'll fill in all the Songs of the Day that I can. I must say that I desperately tried to get Dégénérations on here, but for some reason I couldn't get it to work. I've tried about six different versions of it and only one of them even played...at Chipmunk speed. I have no idea why that particular song refuses to let itself be heard. Other uploads have worked fine.

So no Dégénérations. For now anyway. Soulive instead. Over the next few days check out other Songs of the Day...if you don't already know them...or if you just wanna hear them again.

Thanks to Camille...and DivShare. Enjoy.

Link Love Logo Identified

OK, the mystery she has been solved. Thanks so much to MarkK who left a comment on my earlier post. He didn't have his lawyers send me a "cease and desist" letter, so I guess it's OK to use the pitcher, eh?

I promised link love for the originator of the pitcher, so here goes. MarkK manages 3 blogs. I must admit that I didn't read them in depth. Geez, I barely have time to read my own in depth! But I checked em all out. Each one has items of interest for eclectic readers. The LinkLove graphic appeared in The Next Post, which is a blog about blogging, and other things that interest Mark. Common Sense With Mark K focuses more intently on blogging and internet thingies. And finally WiredHound Blog is a more of a mix of topics, video, travel, what he calls buzz and trends.

Now you all go and look at MarkK's blogs and spread that link love.

Update on "Larry's Head in the Clouds"

Ain't the blogosphere a marvellous thing, eh? A while back I asked for some help to turn my label/tag list into a label cloud. Sure enough, a couple people responded. (Which is pretty good, I think, considering that some days only two people actually read Mental Blog...me and HWSRN.)

Static Brain found my post, God knows how cuz she didn't say, but left me a link to Phydeaux3 which has step by step instructions to change the Blogger template and the code you need to do it.

Now, I have this private blog which I use to test new stuff sometimes, so I tried it on there. The cloud worked, except that pieces of the code showed up at the top of the page. So I hesitated. I was leery. Not Timothy Leary, only Somewhat Leery (Timothy's naked half-brother.)

Finally, I just decided to try it out on Mental Blog (since you can preview it without actually setting it in stone (or bits or bytes or whatever this electronicity is set in...) And, by Gawd, it worked! Like a charm.

So now I have my Label Cloud. It's very sparkly. I still don't understand the code, although there are other instructions on the Phydeaux3 page to tweak things if you want. But I did figure out...all by myself...what line to edit that would change the title of the Cloud. I've called it "Cloud-Hidden Whereabouts Unknown" which is the title of a book by Alan Watts, and also a couple of lines in a song by Van Morrison about Alan Watts called, not surprisingly, Alan Watts Blues.

So anyway, thanks to Static Brain for the tip, and also to John Gillespie at Sensitivity to Things, who provided code which looks to me like something which will let me insert an image of my choice in the sidebar. I haven't tried that yet. I'll play with it on the test blog first.

And with this post, I'm introducing a new category to put in the clouds, Link Love, as you can see by the graphic above. I stole that graphic from somebody's blog and I can't remember who, so if you recognize it or if it's yours, let me know. I'll make more Link Love.

I've Just Joined My Own Community!

One thing you can say about MyBogLog...it doesn't discriminate. You can join any old community you like, even your own. Here's the message that was in my Inbox this morning. (Fortunately it wasn't out of my inbox or I never would have found it. Or in my Outbox...if it had been in my Outbox that would have meant I'd already read it...which I hadn't. And then I'd start worrying that somebody was reading my mail and you never can be too careful these days. Especially here in the Yoni School where everybody is so damn nosy and in fact it's part of the job description to make clandestine attempts to read everybody else's mail even when it's marked Top Secret and encrypted and passworded and has a skull & crossbones on it where the skull figure is sticking his tongue out at you just daring you to try and slip one past him and somebody usually does because we're nothing if not devious here at the Yoni School where Wayward Poets pass the time dreaming up new flights of imagination as if the mail were only an excuse to create po-tree...)

Umm...the email from MyBlogLog:

Hi LarryKeiler!

Part of what makes MyBlogLog so special is our ability to automatically add you
to communities in which you have shown a repeated interest.  We have just added
you to the following communities:

1) Mental Blog
http://www.mybloglog.com/buzz/community/Mental_Blog/

Bonus -- The "Hot in My Communities" box on your My Home page will keep getting
better and better with each community you join.

Note: If you decide one or more of these communities is not for you, simply
visit that community's page on MyBlogLog and click the "Leave Community" button.

Rock on,
MyBlogLog

See, when you join MyBlogLog your member's settings allows you to set how many visits you make to a particular site before you automatically become a member of that community. Mine are set at the default...10. So this email means that I've visited Mental Blog at least 10 times from my MyBlogLog home page.

Why would I do this? I don't know. Maybe I haven't been doing it! Maybe it's whoever has been reading my mail! Maybe it's Nurse Ratchet...looking for ways to extend my stay at the Yoni School. She really has it in for me! Maybe it's Suzy Homemaker! Or LaLaLeo! OMG maybe it's CosmiCat! She's always trying to get into my room...even when I'm there!

I can't help thinking of Groucho Marx, who said he wouldn't want to belong to any club that would have him as a member...

I've looked. Groucho Marx is not currently a member of the Mental Blog community. Karl isn't either. What does that mean? Should I resign from my own community? I mean, I know Karl said "Bloggers of the World Unite!" but I don't think he meant unite with yourself! Doesn't it look sort of stupid when you go to the "View All My Communities" page on MyBlogLog and you see there that Mental Blog is a member of the Mental Blog community? In fact, it's sitting there right up in first place! How vain ist das?

Did I just slip into German? Oh man, I'm really losing it...I'm not supposed to let anyone know I have a slight familiarity with German...Affecting an accent is OK, but if they think you actually know the language, then they start jabbering at you and you have to stand there slack-jawed and perplexed until they're done and then finally admit that you haven't got the slightest idea what they were just saying and could they please repeat that in Mandarin or Sanskrit and when they do you have to repeat the whole charade again because you don't understand Mandarin or Sanskrit either...

Well, I'm just so worried now. The email says RockOn at the end. What do they mean by that? Do they think I'm old or something? Like "old rockin' chair's got me..."? Do they think I'm a geologist? Oh God, I hope not. Anything but a geologist! I'll even let them call me Officially Wayward as long as they don't make me be a geologist.

Please! Tell me what to do! Is there anyone else out there who has inadvertently joined their own community? Probably not. I'm probably the only one who's ever done this. That would be typical. Typical Larry Keiler. Can't even join a group without joining himself. Well, at least there's somebody he knows in the community.

Another Bloody Widget

OK, so one day I was on Billy Warhol's site and there was music playing. I've lusted to have music...maybe...on Mental Blog for some time. So I asked Billy how he did that and he steered me to a service called finetune.

But I've been hesitating, cuz I find that I'm usually annoyed when music appears unexpectedly on a website. I don't even necessarily like it when I'm on a "musical" website. So I wasn't too sure about this.

Well, I decided to give it a try. Why? Because it appears that the finetune embedded player doesn't start automatically. You actually have to click on it. Now, that I like. It means that you, dear reader won't be assaulted without warning by someone else's idea of a good song. Unless you want to be.

So, while I'm composing this post, I'm listening to the playlist I created. finetune lets you create a playlist of 45 songs. You can choose any artist (in their catalogue) but only 3 songs from each artist. Every time you choose an artist, a list of "related" artists appears. I guess the idea is to help you have some sort of consistency.

I'm not entirely sure it worked in the case of the playlist which is currently embedded on Mental Blog. Of course, you can edit the playlist, but only within certain parameters. For example, there doesn't seem to be any way to change (or even choose) the order in which the songs play. Oh well, it's free ain't it? And legal too.

So, I've called the embedded player Another Bloody Widget and it's down right at the bottom of the sidebar. Click on it to hear the rather wonky selection of tunes, mostly from the 70s and 80s because, ultimately, Larry is a nostalgic SOB. And don't forget, if you clicked on it, you asked for it.

Larry's Head in the Clouds

Can anyone tell me how to change my label list to a nice fluffy cloud?

Larry Hits the Goals Post

As I said in an earlier posting, I was tagged by Camille Crawford to participate in the Gotta Get Goals meme initiated by Alex Shalman. I do believe this is the original graphic from Alex Shalman's blog, in which he challenged denizens of the international blogomat to list their goals and link back to him so he could compile results. I agreed to do this, but it's taken some time to get my act together. But finally, I'm ready. I include this graphic here because it's related in a way to one of the goals described below.


For starters, I think it's fair to say I'm not really a goal-oriented person. Maybe that's a flaw. I can tell you that it has contributed to a certain sense of drift throughout the course of my life, to the point that I have not accomplished all I am capable of. But I have noticed that if I write things down, for example on a ToDo list, I tend ToDo them. Otherwise they get shuffled around and sometimes shuffled right off the agenda. So a nudge from Camille is a good thing.

As I thought about these goals it became apparent that some are short or medium-term. Others are more long term, almost wishful-thinking. I don't think any of them are "wildest dreams over the top" as Alex suggests. But some are definitely more...metaphysical, let's say.

So here are the more immediate goals:

1. Finish and promote my CD of spoken word & music, called Wordsong. This is a combination of poetry and some prose set to music that I've composed. Much of it is done, but there are loose ends.

2. Publish the book of poetry I've been working on for some time.

3. Two novels are in the works. One is Larry Keiler: The Unauthorized Autobiography, pieces of which you can read here. The other is one in which Pablo Picasso is the central character. Both of these are unfinished. I let them go for a long time, for reasons I won't go into here, but I feel as if I'm getting close to being ready to tackle them again. Writing this blog plays a part in that.

All of the above are things I expect to be wildly popular and successful
thanks to the support of all you bloggers and blogettes out there.

4. Learn more about website design, website construction, you know, like code & style sheets & all that, including how to make graphics like the one in Alex's blog, so that at some point in the near future I really can be master of my domain.

5. Improve and deepen my relationship with my partner, Suzy Homemaker.

And now for the longer-term goals:

5. I'm not really a wealth-seeking kind of person. I just need enough, that's all. Having said that, though, how fantastic it would be to have the wealth of Bill Gates. How fantastic to have one-fiftieth the wealth of Bill Gates. But, as a Buddhist person, I can only think of one reason to have that much money, and that is to use it for the benefit of others. What else? I can only drive one car at a time. I can only live in one place at a time. I can only sit in one hot tub until my skin gets wrinkly. In fact, if I were as wealthy as Bill Gates, I wouldn't need to own anything (except for whatever it is that brings in that wealth.) I could afford to be homeless. I could afford to be without a car, a plane, a boat. I could afford to support the Dharma and the spread of Buddha's teachings, and the lives of dedicated Buddhists everywhere. I could build temples, stupas, universities, monasteries, retreat centres. Call that a goal. One of my wildest ones.

The Dharma, for that matter any religious movement, has always depended on the support of wealthy patrons. The Buddha received support from many rich people, including kings. The park where the Buddha spent a good portion of every year was donated to him and his followers by a fabulously wealthy man named Anathapindika. Lama Zopa Rinpoche has a project to build a statue of Maitreya, the future Buddha, the largest statue in the world. I'd like to be able to pull the cheque out of my pocket that pays for the whole thing.

6. To fulfill what are called in Tibetan Buddhism The Four Immeasurables:

How wonderful it would be if all sentient beings were to abide in equanimity,
Free of hatred and attachment!
May they abide in equanimity!
I myself will cause them to abide in equanimity!
Please, guru-Buddha, grant me blessings to be able to do this.

How wonderful it would be if all sentient beings had happiness and the cause of happiness!
May they have happiness and its cause!
I shall cause them to have these!
Please, guru-Buddha, grant me blessings to be able to do this.

How wonderful it would be if all sentient beings were free of suffering and its cause!
May they be free of suffering and its cause!
I myself will free them from suffering and its cause!
Please, guru-Buddha, grant me blessings to be able to do this.

How wonderful it would be if all sentient beings were never separated from the happiness of higher rebirth and liberation!
May they never separated from the happiness of higher rebirth and liberation!
I myself will cause them never to be separated from these!
Please, guru-Buddha, grant me blessings to be able to do this.

7. To achieve Buddhahood. (Not too ambitious for someone who's not too ambitious, eh?) Ever since I was quite young, I've believed in the perfectibility of the human race, if not in the physical sense, then in the metaphysical. I've felt that mankind could evolve or develop into perfection, something akin to god. Buddhism holds out that promise for me.

That's it. That's all for now. Except that since we're playing tag, I think I'm supposed to suggest this idea to someone else. So, if they are willing to play along, here are two:

John Gillespie at Sensitivity to Things

Awannabe at The Missing Blog Meets the Big Bad World

Gotta Get Goals Meme

Camille Crawford over at Now has invited me to participate in a meme, based on an original posting by Alex Shalman entitled Gotta Get Goals.

All you veteran bloggers probably know what a meme is. Basically, I don't, except for what I've gleaned from reading (very quickly) the original post and Camille's, which she called Goals...A Meme. The theme of this meme is evident in the title. You write about your goals. And link back to the other blogs. And forward to someone else. Sort of a chain blog (as opposed to letter) with velvet links.

So this post is just to announce that I'm going to participate. But I need some time to write that post. Cuz I take it seriously. And I have a busy few days ahead so I can't say how long it will take.

But here's a teaser:
Goal #1: Write a post for the Gotta Get Goals meme.

Help Me With This #!%? Template

Any techies out there (or just savvy people with Blogger blogs) who can tell me which part of the template code puts this stupid dotted line in that separates the sidebar from the main page? It makes the sidebar look like some kind of coupon you should cut out of the page and send to Google to redeem it for a WordPress installation!

Larry is Lord of His Domain

OK, if you're reading this blog now (which I guess you are or else you wouldn't be seeing this), look up to the address bar. What you'll see there is http://www.earrationalideas.com/. For those of you who notice such things, this is different from what it used to be. The former address was http://vajrasattva1.blogspot.com/. EarrationalIdeas is a brand new domain and Larry is lord of the manor. (Now, if you've clicked on these links, you'll see that they bring you...right here.)

How did this come about, you ask? Well, I'll tell ya. It's really due in good measure to the energy and persistence of a new MyBlogLog friend, GoogleTutor. You can find his website here, and his MyBlogLog member's page here.

Last week, GoogleTutor ran a contest on his blog offering to buy a domain for anybody running a blog on Blogspot (like me) if they were members of MyBlogLog, had PayPal, and put a comment on his blog with a link to their own blog...and he would help them switch their blogs to the new domain. I saw this post early on (cuz I put GoogleTutor's RSS feed on my Netvibes home page) but was too busy at the time to pay much attention to it. Later on, when I did have some time, I saw that he had updated the post to extend the deadline. I left a comment saying I was interested but I didn't have PayPal, and besides, from scanning the comments it looked like I hadn't made the cut. I said I would appreciate some help moving the blog when I managed to get all the other stuff worked out...like actually acquiring a domain...

GoogleTutor has more energy than I do, I think, or more drive. He sent me a message encouraging me to move on this because there was still an opportunity. So I did. I signed up for PayPal and posted my comment on his blog. And I squeaked in just under the wire.

GoogleTutor sent 10 bucks US to my account, which worked out to a little more than 10 bucks Cdn after PayPal got their cut. Enough to buy a domain for a year, anyway. Then I went and registered the domain. But I paid for two years cuz, you know, this ain't no party, this ain't no disco, this ain't no foolin' around...(or maybe it is...) And earlier today (yesterday now) Google Tutor and I hooked up online and he shepherded me through the process of switching from Blogspot to EarrationalIdeas. (Truth to tell, he ended up doing most of it cuz I futzed it up near the beginning, but we won't go into too much detail there...)

So this is a big thankew to GoogleTutor for his help and encouragement cuz he nudged me into something I'd been considering, but I was suffering some trepidation and inertia. Plus, did I mention that he paid for the domain? Yer in the will, buddy! (But don't get yer hopes up...)

Now here's a list of all the winners:

The 6 *spam free* domain winners are:

1. Vic http://www.mybloglog.com/buzz/community/2007032320511136/
2. Nancy http://www.mybloglog.com/buzz/community/2007030309484090/
3. Gdog http://www.mybloglog.com/buzz/community/thedailykimchi/
4. Don http://www.mybloglog.com/buzz/community/2006121510123411/
5. Billy http://www.mybloglog.com/buzz/community/BillionDollarBaloney/
6. Larry http://www.mybloglog.com/buzz/community/Mental_Blog/

(I confess I haven't checked them all out myself yet, but I will before too long.)

So there you have it. Larry may be locked up in the Yoni School for Wayward Poets, but he is still master of all he surveys in his domain of EarrationalIdeas.

Online Petition Re: Climate Change

I suppose I take a rather un-nuanced view of environment and global warming or climate change or whatever the heck it's called. There are a lot of people coming out of the woodwork these days to criticize David Suzuki and even my dark-horse saviour of the Democrats Al Gore. Junk science, they say. A bunch of bureaucrats pushing an agenda, they say. A con job, they say.

I don't really know. Here's what I know. It doesn't seem right that we can keep pulling shit out of the earth's bowels and then burning it and pouring it into the earth's lungs at the rate we've been doing, and expecting to increase this besides. Is man affecting the environment? Hell yes! So we probably need to be doing something about it.

Having said that, I get emails. Yes, Larry doesn't have much to do with online petitions. But he's pushed this group before. So one more time...

Dear friends,

Last week, Avaaz campaigners hand-delivered our 100,000-signature climate change petition to the environment ministers of the world's most polluting countries. It worked. The chair of the meeting waved the petition in the air, calling on his fellow ministers to act--and they agreed that climate change would be the #1 issue at the G8 summit in June.

The momentum is on our side. Let's build on it. Next Tuesday, another high-level group will meet to move forward with G8 planning -- and we can keep the focus on the climate issue by showing that the call for action is growing. Can you help us reach our ambitious goal of 150,000 signatures by Tuesday by forwarding this email to ten friends? Your friends can sign the petition here:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/climate_action_g8

Here's how our campaigner Iain Keith, who presented the petition, describes his experience:

When my turn came to speak to the Environment ministers, I was so nervous that I thought my voice would quiver. But I wasn't just speaking for myself--I was there on behalf of 100,000 Avaaz members, and I couldn't let them down. I walked to the microphone, took a deep breath, and said, "Dear Ministers, ladies and gentlemen, m y name is Iain Keith and I'm here on behalf of the 1 Million members of Avaaz. Avaaz is a new online community where global citizens can go to take action on the biggest issues facing our world. I have here, in my hands, a petition from our members who would like to tell you that they are scared of climate change, and the lack of action being taken. The countries represented in this room are responsible for the majority of global greenhouse gas emissions. As ministers of the environment you are in an excellent position to persuade your leaders to make tackling climate change the number one priority for the next G8 summit. Our members humbly request that you accept this petition as a reminder of your responsibilities, and to help persuade your leaders."

I handed the petition to the German environment minister, Sigmar Gabriel. The meeting continued, with speeches on other issues from other organizations. I wondered if all of the work had been worth it.

And then came Minister Gabriel's closing speech.

I could hardly believe it: he was saying that climate change must be the number one priority at the G8 summit. And he was holding our petition.

"Thanks to increased pressure from people around the world," he said, "the tide is turning. When an international NGO can gather this many signatures" (here he holds up the petition), "we cannot ignore this problem anymore... As Environmental ministers, we have a responsibility both to the environment and our voters to make sure our heads of state act!"

And a few days later, German Chancellor and G8 President Angela Merkel vowed to put climate change at the top of the agenda for the G8 Leaders Summit.

We did it!!

Iain's right. And we can do even more. Can you forward this email to ten friends, and help us reach our goal of 150,000 signatures by Tuesday?

http://www.avaaz.org/en/climate_action_g8

It's amazing what can happen when we work together. Thanks for all that you do.

With hope,

Ben, Iain, Ricken, Lee-Sean, Galit, Graziela, and the rest of the Avaaz team

P.S. For a more detailed report of the meeting, including photos, visit the Avaaz blog