Fifteenkey

A place to indulge my narcissism... and write stuff...

Month: April 2017

She’s Not Lying

April 16, 2017 / / 0 Comments

Meditating this morning in the kitchen…

This was written weeks ago, but ended up as a “page,” and not a “post.” Anyway…

I was familiar with the name of novelist, Mary Karr when I decided to tune into her episode on the 10% Happier podcast with Dan Harris. She’s best known for the three-part memoir, “Cherry,” “The Liars’ Club,” and “Lit.” Right now, I don’t have any interest in reading any of them. She struck me as cold for most of the interview, but warmed up once she started talking about meditation and her latest book, ”The Art of Memoir.”  Maybe I’ll read that. She did say this:

“It works, and all you have to do is do it.
You don’t even have to do it well, or do it right.”
– Mary Karr on meditation

On that I agree 100%.

Affirmation Addiction

April 16, 2017 / / 1 Comment

“Where I was taken to, brothers, was like no cine I’d been in before. I was bound up in a straight-jacket and my gulliver was strapped to a headrest with like wires running away from it. Then they clamped like lidlocks on my eyes so I could not shut them no matter how hard I tried. It seemed a bit crazy to me, but I let them get on with what they wanted to get on with. If I was to be a free young malchick in a fortnight’s time, I would put up with much in the meantime, my brothers.” – A Clockwork Orange, written by Stanley Kubrick

I could not stomach the ultraviolence in the first part of the film, so I have never actually seen the famous scene depicted here. I thought of it, though, while I watched this “60 Minutes” segment on “Brain Hacking,” the programming technique that app developers like Facebook use to keep us hooked into staring at their (our) content. You know, like “hooked on drugs.” Picking up your phone every two minutes like Pavlov’s dog is no different than reaching for your next hit off a crack pipe or a syringe.

All the likes, winks, hearts, emoji’s, follows, and comments each deliver a little rush of dopamine, just like drugs do. And when we can’t pick up our phone to breathe in those affirmations? Cortisol seeps into our blood to make us anxious. That’s right. We need our fix.

You’ve heard the saying, “the first step to recovery is admitting you have a problem.” I know I do. On April 1, I deactivated the F-word of social media addictions. I’m not missing it too much, not even the pointless political arguments. Still, I’m picking up the phone an average of 66 times a day, clicking on 187 apps like Outlook, Gmail, LinkedIn, Instagram, News, Messenger, Podcast Addict, Salesforce, Camera, Phone, Spotify, Sonos, Pictures, Yelp, Ticketmaster, Sleepbot, and Google Keep, and spending 2:54 in them…

I’m using an Android app called Quality Time to help keep me sober. If you Jones for an iPhone, In the Moment can be your sponsor…

Or maybe you just need space. This little app for iOS or Android “loads a Moments of Zen before apps you need space from.” I’m going to give it a try.

Speaking of Zen, here’s a way to be more mindful about using your phone, and maybe we should pay more attention to how our kids are being sucked into the borg…

It must be weird if you just read this on your phone…

Dreamer in my Dreams

April 6, 2017 / / 0 Comments

Vivid dreams two nights in a row got me thinking about the song title from Wilco’s 1996 “Being There.” It’s been a while since I streamed those zeroes and ones. Seems so Far, Far Away.

My dreamy double-feature began Monday night when I had a customer on the phone seeking a warranty replacement for a printer he bought as part of a “Ready to Run” program I ran, oh, about ten years ago.

Dreamy Me: “Sir, how long did you expect this printer to last?”
Customer: “Seriously? Seriously?”

Being quite serious, I responded affirmatively. The customer went on to suggest a MTBF* of 60,000 hours. I couldn’t do math in my dream-head, but it comes out to just under 7 years. At that point, I dreamt to myself that I was in a customer-service nightmare, and didn’t have to provide the printer. Note: We didn’t sell printers as part of the program…

Tuesday evening put me in a bar/restaurant with my dearly departed best friend, Michael Gonnella. He was stirring up some dream trouble (absolutely not like him) at the bar, to the point the local Dream Police were called, and we were asked to leave. Suddenly, we were sitting at a table, where I asked, “What is the point you are trying to make here?” He didn’t answer, so I suggested we leave to avoid the lucid law enforcement on the way. I attempted to pay our tab at a host/hostess stand, but the man there said, “We’re way past that now.” In the next dream sequence, Dillard and I were running in the dark from the howl sirens. Again, I realized it was unlikely I was fleeing the law on foot with my dead best friend, so I woke up. Still, it was good to see him.

What will I dream up tonight?

* Mean Time Between Failure

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