The Next Project: Flyfishing

No, that's not me, but I want it to be. Anyone up for a flyfishing trip? (click image to enlarge)

Starbucks Gets Philosophical

My Starbucks "The Way I See It" #76 cup was particularly thought provoking and reminded me of a good friend who seems to be "liberating" himself lately.

"The irony of commitment is that it's deeply liberating - in work, in play, in
love. The act frees you from the tyranny of your internal critic, from the
fear that likes to dress itself up and parade around as rational
hesitation. To commit is to remove your head as the barrier to your life."

I was researching the whole Starbucks cup wisdom thing and found this website. Yep, there are people actively protesting about coffee cups.

My photo cut off the name of the author —Anne Morris, Starbucks customer from New York City. She described herself as an “organization builder, restless American citizen, optimist.”.

My Current Diversion

This is it! Creating a blog.

Was reading the April 3 issue of Newsweek Magazine...an in-depth cover story about many so-called Web 2.0 sites like MySpace, FaceBook, Flickr, and YouTube, plus some brand new sites like Plum, Digg, Sharpcast and FilmLoop that "are rocking the web." Plum - not yet publicly released - sounds exactly like what I've been looking for. It allows you to pull together collections of searches, emails, documents, photos, etc. all into one well-organized file that you can share. So the next time I want to go crazy with an in-depth surf and research about a vacation destination, for example, I can organize everything, including reservations, into one file that I can save and share. I'll be anxious to see how it improves upon just sticking everything in one folder on the desktop. Can't wait!

Anyway, all that tech stuff made me decide that I need a blog. Don't know who will read it, or why. Or how long I'll contribute to it. I'm already thinking it seems like a waste of time, but at least I did it.

So here it is. My current diversion from the things I should be doing. Blogging.

Mystical, Beautiful Sedona

Just back from 4 days in Sedona with Peggy.

Hiked Boynton Canyon, climbed Bell Rock, biked past Cathedral Rock. Drove to the Grand Canyon one day and spent at least five minutes at the South Rim, again. And tried to figure out what a "vortex" is.

Flew to Phoenix, rented a Nissan Murano (very nice little SUV) and drove the 2 hours north to Sedona. Stayed at the Hilton Resort in The Village of Oak Creek, 8 miles south of Sedona. The short drive into Sedona includes spectacular views and it was a pleasure to begin and end every day with such a scenic drive.

Rented the mountain bikes at a little place less than 1/4 mile from the Bell Rock trail head. Think it was called Bike & Bean. ("Bean" because they have a little coffee shop inside, too.) That was a lot of fun. Took that picture with a self-timer. Had to lay a little flat rock on the fork of a horizontal tree branch to provide a platform for the Canon Elf camera. (Next time, I'm going to have one of those cool little bendable tripods.)

Fantastic meal at Heartline Cafe...gorgonzola tort, spinach salad, pecan-encrusted trout (the house speciality), a bottle of Cakebread Sauvignon Blanc and yes, for desert, Kahlua mouse and coffee. I highly recommend it. Also had dinner at the Cowboy Cafe in "uptown." It was a good meal.

Sedona has become synonymous with vortexes, which are specific locations where human energy and spirtuality are supposedly enhanced.

I've come to the conclusion that the word "vortex" - now inexorably linked with "Sedona" - is basically a marketing term devised about 40 years ago by some local philosopher and promoted by the Chamber of Commerce. They claim there is something magical about certain locations - vortexes - that create within us amplified feelings of emotion and spirituality. I don't buy the attempts to scientifically measure increased magnetic or electical energy at those locations. Or that there are specific places where you can stand and "feel" the energy. But there is truth in the basic concept. These majestic surroundings do tend to lead you into a kind of soulful reflection about the important things in life. They tend to amplify whatever is going on inside you - for better or worse. Sedona definitely has the surroundings that lead to that kind of inward thought, but it doesn't have a corner on that market. The same thing happens to me standing on a beach at sunset watching the waves crashing ashore. What really causes that to happen to us? Hum.

OK, so I only made it to the second posting on my new blog before I tried to explain the meaning of life...as I see it. I'll try to keep it lighter and more materialistic from now on.