June 6-12, 2009

Here we go again! A week mostly of just posting, posting, posting. (And walking.)

We did a few things last weekend, though.

On Saturday I had lunch with our friends Stefano and Farah and their kids at Taj, a great Indian restaurant. Stef's yoga guru also joined us; Lila was working. Then Lila arrived from her weekday place in Dongguan (one city to the north), and the family and I met her at Luohu Commercial City, a massive shopping complex near the Hong Kong border.

We went to another mall (Holiday Plaza) and shopped in Ole, an over-priced "foreigners' food" market. Then home.

Sunday we went to Stefano and Farah's. The plan was to do a "Kung Fu Tribute" to David Carradine (I bought all three years of the series in Hong Kong a few years ago, at full price--around $125US!) But technical difficulties prevented the screening, so we've put that off to another day. Still, Stefano made a couple of fine pizzas, and we had a great time just relaxing (and Lila saw "The Blues Brothers" for the first time).

It's so great to be friends with this family. Stefano is Italian, and is deeply interested in the same sort of spiritual things I am. Farah is Indonesian, and she and Lila hit it off great. They often compare vocabulary; there's a surprising amount of overlap between Bahasa Indonesia and Pilipino. And it's so nice to be around kids! Their three little girls keep things lively.

We also watched one other film at home, "Chandni Chowk to China." Great fun, a collision of the two major culture complexes of the East (India and China). As the tagline says, "This Diwali, two great civilizations... will wish they had never met!"

The rest of the week was just a few episodes of Buffy, boring work, and exciting posting on www.JamesBaquet.com.

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Here are the results:

Wisdom Blogs:

☼ 365 Secrets of Happiness: 7 new posts: Listen to an "Old Favorite" Album or CD, Have a Mini-Reunion, Create a Plan to Save Some Money, Start a Collection, Stop the Noise, Go to Starbucks, and Build a Bridge. We're starting to get comments from the "fans" on Facebook (around 90 fans so far), but no comments on the page yet.

☼ At the Feet of Sri Ramakrishna: 2 posts: Red or Green? (about the many ways God appears) and The Blind Men and the Elephant (ditto).

☼ Buddhism Simplified: 2 more posts on the life of the Buddha: Siddhartha and the Sages and The Death of Maya.

☼ Meet Joe Campbell: 1 more post on Campbell's ideas: Idea #3: What Exactly is a Myth?

☼ Aphorisms of a Derelict Yogi: 2 posts: "You gotta scratch your own balls" and "Blah f*cking blah." (No nasty letters yet; is anybody reading this stuff?)

Projects:

☼ Meatless/Mooless Monday: 2 posts: More "Meatless Monday" on Facebook about other Facebook MM pages, and Mega-Meatless Monday Resource about a major "Meatless Monday" homepage. Don't miss my Meatless/Mooless Monday page on Facebook either.

About James:

☼ My Bio and more: Post on Hannah and Her Sitter (Lila's niece and I read in a mall)

Places:

☼ America: Post on The sign of refreshment, Rock Springs, WY (a Coke ad)

☼ Japan: Post on The Froggie is In (dance and mental health?)

☼ China: Post on Under a Spreading Chestnut Tree... (what is this strange set-up?)

☼ Philippines: Post on Banaue Elders (I mean really elder)

☼ Asia: Post on Guia Fortress Chapel, Macau (I break the law on the highest point in Macau)