As Time Goes By

I love movies. It has been a lifelong love affair for me. Over the course of my life I'm sure I've seen thousands of films. I've learned many things from them. So, when it came time to start 2014, I thought I would start with one of the things I love. Today, I watched one of the greatest movies ever made, Casablanca. I don't know how many times I have seen it. I would guess in the dozens at least. It's an amazing movie, simply amazing. A perfect way to start the new year.

I'm still a little bit behind the curve in my years end reflection. It was floating around in my mind all day. I started the day with the Rose Parade, then Tyrone and Tony for breakfast at the Hickory Pit. We had a nice breakfast, good food, good conversation. It was the first time Tyrone has been out in a while, he's been working two jobs trying to close some debt. It's an admirable choice. After breakfast we took a walk through the electronics store. I actually didn't buy anything, which is unusual for me, there is almost always something that catches my eye.

After the walk-through I dropped Tyrone off then picked Tony up over at the AMC 14 theater. We drove down San Tomas to the Barnes & Noble at Stevens Creek. We had about an hour to kill before the movie started and I wanted to start the new year doing something that I also enjoyed, browsing bookstores. I picked up an assortment of things to start the new year.

I picked up the book "Work" by Thich Nhat Hanh, The Teacher. The subtitle of the book is how to find joy and meaning in each hour of the day. I'm looking forward to reading it. Then, I picked up a small calendar for my living room wall next to the door. It's a Japanese woodblock print calendar from the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. I already have a Zen calendar for work and a classic pinup calendar for the home office (Elvgren mostly). I picked up the nonfiction, true crime book "Lost Girls", An Unsolved American Mystery by Robert Kolker. It was the book my brother was reading when he was here on vacation and I made the mistake of picking up and reading the first chapter, which got me hooked. I also got "A Lamp In The Darkness" by Jack Kornfield. That one, the author, was a recommendation from TR. Add in the latest copy of Heavy Magazine and a work-related book on Windows project and you rounded out the trip to the bookstore.

Oh, and one last thing, I got a new bookmark. The bookmark is black and gold and has a saying from Lao Tzu: "At the center of your being you have the answer; you know who you are and you know what you want." That is a good thing to be reminded of. In the strange synchronicity that drives our universe that sums up very neatly the over arching theme I'm going to try to stick to in 201

I've yet to complete my New Year's resolutions, I want to spend a little more time thinking about them. I've got a rough start, just a list of items that I'll be working on over the next couple of days. They're still a rough draft, a simple bullet list, so I'm not yet ready to publish them here. A little more polish. A little more thought. A little more reflection. It's about 4:30 PM here in California so the evenings just opening up. I'm looking forward to a conversation with TR tonight. I'm looking forward to a hot bath. I've yet to decide if I'm going to watch something off the DVR or spend the evening reading. Right now I'm sitting in the silence of my living room and is a very content place to be sitting.