More Long Walks

I took more long walks this month.  On one walk, I ducked into the subway to dodge a storm.  From then on, I used the subway to extend my range from the hotel.

I used my mobile phone to take these photos.  I also used Google Maps on my phone to navigate.  Smart phones make us smart.  We should have them implanted.

Long Walk

Within the last year or so, I started thinking about taking up hiking as a hobby.  I bought an internal frame backpack and the gear to go inside it.  I never found the free time to actually use it on the trail, however.

I have been cooped up in a hotel recently for work.  Yesterday I finally got out and took a long walk, about six and a half miles round-trip.  I got a bad sunburn and some good pictures.  Click on a photo to see all of the photos in full-screen scrollable mode.

How I Quit Smoking

I quit smoking for good back in 1999 after smoking for about a decade.  This is a story I tell smokers when I am hanging outside with them while they finish up a cigarette.

I had developed some sort of lung infection, bronchitis or somesuch, but I kept on smoking even though I was sick. Smoking in that condition was unpleasant as I was deeply congested. I soon associated smoking with retching.

Eventually I became so ill that I was bedridden.  To relieve my symptoms, I took the over-the-counter drug Nyquil or the generic equivalent.  The primary effect of this drug is to put you to sleep.  Whenever I awoke, I would take some more Nyquil.  I slept for three days straight.

When I recovered, I noted that I had not had a cigarette the whole time I was in bed.  I had made it through the worst of the nicotine addiction withdrawal period by simply sleeping through it.  I realized that I had an opportunity there so I never smoked again.  After about two years, the craving stopped completely.

In summary, here is a tongue-in-cheek retrospective three-step plan for how to quit smoking:

1. Get a lung infection
2. Attempt to smoke while sick to develop an association of nausea with cigarettes
3. Drug yourself so that you sleep through the worst of the withdrawal period

By inadvertently removing my ability to choose to smoke, I freed myself from an addiction.

Esse Quam Videri

A historical family motto of those named Croft and many other surnames is "Esse quam videri". Translated from Latin, this is "To be, rather than to seem (to be)".

My original interpretation of this was "To be (who you present yourself as), rather than to seem (to be someone who you are not)".  In other words, "Don't be a poser".  Or, if you prefer to re-dignify this translation from Latin into common English, "Don't be a poseur".

My second interpretation of this was "To be (prepared for battle), rather than to seem (to be prepared for battle)".  My assumption was that this motto originated in feudal England where knights swore to fight for their kings in exchange for grants of land.  Certainly it would be good to honor this contract by maintaining military preparedness at all times rather than to simply reap the benefits of the land and the honor of the position while under-resourcing training and arms.

With these interpretations, the family motto could mean representing your experiences and skills on your résumé accurately.  It could also mean not denying your own beliefs and values when in the company of those you know disagree.  Or it could mean living up to the expectations that you have set for yourself.

While all of these are good, it turns out that original phrase comes from ancient Greek and Roman literature.  An interpretation based on these earliest usages is closer to something like "To (actually want to) be (virtuous), rather than to (merely want to) seem (to be virtuous)".  In my opinion, this shifts emphasis from who someone is to how someone is.

---

"Virtue" is a word with a deep history which has meant different things to different people at different times.  I used the word "Virtue" in the title of my sermon "The Virtue of Selfish Genes", a play upon the title of the Objectivist book The Virtue of Selfishness.  In searching for books on "Virtue" just now, I see some of the same titles that I came across a few weeks ago while browsing for "Stoicism".  I am starting to think that it would be worthwhile to explore the commonalities between Objectivism and Stoicism.

Purpose of an Acorn

The following is the transcript of a brief random conversation that took place late at night in our kitchen on 2013 April 13th Saturday:

• Father is at the kitchen sink cleaning the coffee pot.
• Son enters kitchen.
• Son:  I don't get it.
• Father (without turning around):  What is the purpose of an acorn?
• Son:  To become a tree.
• Father:  And what is the purpose of a tree?
• Son:  To make more acorns.
• Father:  Now you got it.
• Silent pause; Father continues cleaning coffee pot.
• Son:  Cool, ... I guess.
• Son leaves kitchen.

Our Father Sun

Our Father Sun
And Mother Earth
We thank you for
Your gift of birth

From simple things
We used to be
We rise up in
Complexity

The stars are Ours
The first Our Sun
We've come so far
Yet just begun

We know Our names
And We can see
Where We will go
Our destiny

We leave Our home
New worlds to find
To plant Our seeds
New life new mind

The stars are Ours
The first Our Sun
We've come so far
Yet just begun

Our Children go
Before Us now
Our lessons learned
We do endow

We say goodbye
We stay behind
We hope to meet
Again some time

The stars are Ours
The first Our Sun
We've come so far
Yet just begun

Our Father Sun © 2013, 2014 David Wallace Croft.
This song is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

Update 2014-10-06
I updated the original line in the first verse from "Giving Us birth" to "Your gift of birth".

Godless Documentary

A few years back, I was interviewed for a Canadian documentary on atheist communities in the United States. In the interview, I talked about our church-state separation activism with regard to the lawsuits we filed asking Federal courts to rule as unconstitutional the Texas laws mandating a state "under God" pledge and daily silent prayer in public schools.

The documentary aired in Canada but was not accessible in the United States so I had no chance to see what became of it until just recently. Thanks to a blog posting by Aron Ra, I became aware just this month that the 2011 documentary "Godless" by Craig Goodwill and Patricia Bush is now available on YouTube. My interview can be found at 34 minutes and 50 seconds into Part 2.

"Godless" does a great job of covering the Dallas area atheist community. When I was interviewed, I had mentioned our earlier efforts with the Humanist Fellowship of North Texas and our current progress with the Dallas Brights Family Meetup but that footage was not used in the documentary. I was pleased to see included video of my children participating in Fellowship of Freethought and Camp Quest educational and recreational activities.

Resolution Day

For my New Year's Resolution last year, I resolved to stop watching television at night so I could dedicate that time toward achieving my ambition of reading the many books that I collect. This was fairly effective, especially at first.

For my New Year's Resolution this year, I resolved to stop watching television at night by removing the television from my bedroom. This has been much more effective. I think there is a lesson there about achieving your goals by making compliance a path of least resistance rather than a test of willpower.

Our family celebrates New Year's Eve by writing our Resolutions on flying wish paper. In turn, each of us sets alight the paper bearing our personal aspirations for the future. With the lights dimmed, our family watches together as the glowing paper rises toward the ceiling and then falls again as ash. As our tradition holds, if the flying wish paper does not rise, an entirely new Resolution is required.

There is always something sacred about a flame in the dark. The ritual of the New Year's Resolution has religious origins that date back to ancient times. In addition to self improvement, it incorporates concepts of repentance, forgiveness, and renewal. In that spirit, I am adopting Resolution Day, to be celebrated on the eve before the month of Janus, as a new Optihumanist Holiday.

Optihumanist Principles 2012

My addition to the Optihumanist Principles for 2012 is as follows:

The skeptics inspect and inquire;
the gullible accept and expire.

Magnet Checklist Revised

In a previous blog entry, I documented using a Magnet Checklist for my daily maintenance tasks. Previously, I had mounted my magnet checklist to the side of a steel bookcase because that was the only ferromagnetic vertical surface in my bedroom. Unfortunately, I was not using the checklist on a daily basis as intended. I suspect this was partly because I had positioned it around a corner out of sight of the bedroom entrance and partly because I had to lean over the corner of a desk to reach the magnets.

A few months ago I moved my daily maintenance checklist to the inside of my bedroom closet door. Now I can display the checklist or put it away just by opening or closing the door. It is also much more accessible.

The catch was that I had to mount a magnetic surface to the wooden door. To prevent the surface of the door from being marred when I remove the checklist in the future, I used 3M Command strips instead of the adhesive backing that came with the magnetic whiteboard. Command strips are adhesives which separate from the surface cleanly when you stretch them by pulling on a tab.

I could have just marked the lines for the rows on the whiteboard using a dry erase marker but instead I stuck to using painters tape. Previously I have had problems with marker lines smearing when I slid the magnets back and forth between the "To-Do" and the "Done" columns. The tape also makes it easier to reorder the rows.

However, it did take excessively long to position and evenly space out the paint strips. For my new daily diet checklist on the side of my fridge, I just printed out the rows on a piece of paper. This made everything very easy, especially with regard to changing or reordering the rows in that all I have to do now is to edit the document and print another copy.

The other improvement was that I switched from using round disc magnets to push pin magnets are they are easier to manipulate. With push pin magnets, I now lift instead of slide. It is a wee bit quicker and probably reduces wear on the checklist surface.

This is my revised recommendation for building magnet checklists. It seems a bit funny that you might buy a magnetic dry erase whiteboard with no intent to actually write on its surface with a dry erase marker. I am not currently aware of a better magnetic surface to use for this purpose, however.

On a related note, I also have some travel preparation checklists which I maintain in Google Drive as electronic documents. I have discovered that if I just read the checklists online, I will sometimes gloss over an item and only notice that I skipped it later when I open my suitcase in my hotel room and find that I forgot to pack my shaving kit. I think this emphasizes the point the checklists should be checked. Now I print out the document each time I travel and check off, circle, or cross out items with a pen to make sure that nothing is overlooked.

The Stars Are Ours

The stars are ours,
The first our Sun,
We've come so far,
Yet just begun.

The Stars Are Ours © 2012 David Wallace Croft.
This poem is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.