Persevere

As part of my annual update to my Optihumanist Principles a year ago, I added the following recommendation to the "We Choose" section:

When you are feeling trapped or stuck,
Then make a change and trust your luck

To clarify that I mean changing your strategies rather than giving up on your goals, this year I am prefacing it with the following:

When your endeavors fail to go,
Persevere though it be slow

Family Day

In Nevada, the Friday after Thanksgiving is Family Day, a day to eat supper with your children.  This official state holiday was promoted by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University.  They note that "frequent family dining is associated with lower rates of teen smoking, drinking, illegal drug use and prescription drug abuse".  I have added Family Day to my list of Optihumanist Holidays.

Just Rest

Just rest, baby, just rest
You know you’ve done your best

Your loving children near
Please tell them not to fear

Come back, baby, come back
Without you I will crack

This husband by your side
Will seek to join his bride

Just hush, baby, just hush
Don’t fret about that mush

You know I’ll carry on
To wait for your new dawn

Just Rest © 2014 David Wallace Croft.
This song is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

Vietnam Veterans Memorial

Yesterday my children participated in a presentation by the Children of the American Revolution honoring veterans at the Texas Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Fair Park, Dallas, Texas.  I am proud to state that two of my relatives are Vietnam Veterans:  my father Major Joseph Wallace Croft, Jr., United States Air Force (USAF), retired; and my great uncle Colonel Walter Morris Stischer, USAF, retired.

Calico

Yesterday morning I dreamt that I was in the backyard of my childhood home petting the family calico cat.  In my dream, I was thinking that I might have to bury our pet in that backyard someday when she died of old age.  It was puzzling to me how she had managed to live so long since she had been with us since I was a small boy.  Then as I awoke from the dream, I recalled that she was interred there over two decades ago.

Last night I saw the California Life Company (Calico) referenced in a conference announcement for the Society for Venturism.  The website at CalicoLabs.com states:

Calico is a research and development company whose mission is to harness advanced technologies to increase our understanding of the biology that controls lifespan.  We will use that knowledge to devise interventions that enable people to lead longer and healthier lives.  [...]  Through our research we're aiming to devise interventions that slow aging and counteract age‑related diseases.

Washington & Old Dominion

The Washington & Old Dominion was originally a railroad track that was later converted to a hiking and biking trail.  This 45 mile long linear park is sometimes just a few trees deep on either side but you frequently get the illusion that you are deep in nature rather than an urban area.  Click on any one of the photos to see them all in full-screen slideshow mode.

Jersey City Postcards

I was in Jersey City for a few months recently.  Here are some photos that I took that I consider postcard-worthy.  Click on any one of the photos to see them all in full-screen slideshow mode.

Memorial Day

On Memorial Day, we remember those who died while serving in the military.  Today I remember the Croft brothers Edward and Daniel who died fighting for Independence in the American Revolutionary War.  May we bear in mind their sacrifices as we practice our citizenship.

Today I walked by the Katyń Memorial, a gruesome reminder of the massacre of thousands of Polish prisoners by the Soviets.  For this Memorial Day, a wreath has been placed beneath the plaque that was added to the memorial for the 9/11 attacks.

Vitaspes

For awhile now, I have been looking for alternatives to traditional Christian holidays.  I have started collecting them on my Optihumanist Holidays webpage.

For a few years now on Easter Sundays, I have been inviting my family members to sign up for cryonics.  It seems fitting since Easter is about resurrection and new life.  So in addition to chocolate and hunting for colored eggs, I say a few words about attempting to cheat death.

I have come up with a new name for this holiday.  I was going to call it LifeHope but I thought it would work better in Latin.  Vita is Latin for life and spes is Latin for hope, hence Vitaspes.

Vita is either pronounced like "wheat-uh" or "whea-tuh".  It is supposed to sound breathy like "wheeze" since it relates to the breath of life.  Spes is either pronounced like "space" or "spayz", I am not sure which.  I am going with "whea-tuh-space" for now.

In addition to inviting others to sign up for cryonics, I think this holiday could be used to share our hope that someday our loved ones who have passed on will be returned to us.

Shared Series

I do not follow sports so I am often at a loss when acquaintances want to chat about it.  It could be the height of the World Series and someone will say something like, "Do you think the [franchise name] are going to win this year?"  I will then obliviously respond, "Is that a [type of sport] team?"  There is usually no follow-up.

I follow national and international news but many others do not so that does not reliably work as a conversation starter.  News would seem to be more relevant than sports but probably is actually not since most likely neither I nor anyone I communicate with will be directly affected by it or have any influence over the outcomes.  We also have no control over the weather but surprisingly this does work well as a conversation topic.

I think the key here is the shared experience.  If it is cold, hot, or wet outside, everyone around you can join in on the conversation.  They have the relevant facts at hand and can proffer multiple opinions as to what the weather might do next.

My wife Shannon and I enjoy talking about our shared experiences.  Obviously, our six children are the main topic of our real-life soap opera.  But I have also learned that a fictional series, when experienced together, can be a joy to discuss.

I first discovered this with the serial novel The Green Mile.  As each volume in the series was published, Shannon and I would read it together.  The sweetest part was in the staking of claims on the predictions for the next release.

We also enjoyed trying to figure out together the deeper underarching conspiracy of the television series The X-Files.  This was great until the television series was interrupted by the feature film.  Since neither Shannon nor I saw this mystery milestone at the movie theater, we lost the flow.

Speaking of losing the flow, the real reason I am writing this blog entry is another television series that Shannon and I experienced together recently, Breaking Bad.  This is a show where all of the characters "break bad" at some point in the series.  They make selfish decisions which directly or indirectly hurt those around them.  They attribute their gains to false achievements to enjoy the respect and pride of their loved ones.  They then do much worse in order to maintain their shams.  After watching four seasons of this, I had to take a break.

I did not watch the fifth and final season until many months later when Shannon got interested in watching it and caught up to me.  As we watched the episodes of the final season together in lock step, we enjoyed discussing themes and trying to guess how the series would end.  As Shannon shared with me foreshadowing details that I had missed, I came to the conclusion that the writers and my wife were geniuses.

Now that it is over, however, I feel a bit funny about it.  I enjoyed Breaking Bad but I am not sure I am a better person for having watched it.  I am also ambivalent about the ending as I am still trying to digest it emotionally with regard to my feelings about justice.

Maybe it is best that I stop thinking about that series and move on.  I might distract myself by finally getting around to watching The Red Wedding.

Dr. Cauller's Obituary

For most of my many years at the University of Texas at Dallas, I was a graduate student in the Neuroengineering Laboratory of Lawrence James Cauller, Ph.D.  He was an enthusiastic lecturer and I took or sat in on every class he taught whenever I possibly could.  His neuroprosthetics medical research excited me and I admired his endeavors as an inventor-entrepreneur.  Above all, I appreciated his warm personality.

A few years ago, the School notified me and the other students in his laboratory that Dr. Cauller had retired abruptly due to health reasons.  I came to learn that his condition was untreatable and that he had left to spend his final days traveling.  I was able to speak with him on the phone for one last time while he was on the road.

I discovered his obituary today.  Even though I had known that he must have passed away some time ago, I find myself suddenly in grief.  His death reminds me that medical research is perhaps our most important endeavor.

New Google+ Profile URL

I mentioned in a previous post why I quit Facebook.  I now use Google Plus (Google+) exclusively.  It is better because you can control who sees what posts by grouping your friends into "circles".  You can also "follow" someone without having to "friend" them.

As of tonight, I now have a custom URL for my Google+ profile:

google.com/+DavidWallaceCroft

Here is a picture of my son James Arthur in his favorite sleeping position: