I’ve been ridiculously busy and ill for most of the last month.
Had a week off work with a migraine-giving virus that still has its claws in me.
Lots of things going on and ideas bubbling.
Currently looking at an essay on Buddhism and Depression from the inside, I was making comments on a site and had my comments pulled two or three times so decided I was’t going to bother trying to help people there any more. I will create a platform where I can share my own experiences and hopefully help others without being censored.
I also think that someone who has taken the prescription drugs may have things to say that others can’t see from the outside.
Other stuff in the pot is a site to learn the Tibetan alphabet and another essay on Buddhism and Science (half wrote the introduction a while ago).
I’m trying to clear the decks and finish the beta Pharmarketeer site – it’s not far off, I just need to rekindle my enthusiasm long enough.
Got myself a Jesus Phone (iPhone to those who have’t read the sarky articles). I quite like it but the mail client is awful and wo’t display conversation threads like gmail does, so you keep reading the same mail over and over again – very annoying if you are a member of a discussion group. It also wo’t go to wide mode when you turn the device. I got round this by loading the free Google application and using Safari to save the gmail bookmark it creates onto the desktop. Now I read my mail using that bookmark, Google have kindly set it up to work well on an iPhone and it will go wide.
Other things I have discovered is the free Stanza app, that lets you read e-books and will download them from various free sites. Almost all the way through the whole Oz series (as in the Wizard of Oz etc.). There are about 12 of them.
Trying to learn Tibetan again, 3rd time lucky, maybe. Went to a class at Kagyu Ling last Saturday. It’s fun and mentally stretching without being work. So I think I will stick with it now. Interestingly they’ve kept the spellings from when the writing system was invented, so a lot of words are spelt with, say, g’s but pronounced with d’s. Plus the usual slurring and removal of s’s over time as happens with all spoken languages. Quite a few letters sound the same to a European ear – interesting and useful for my Dharma studies. This is like English-speaking people keeping spellings from Chaucer.
It was also my 49th Birthday last month – not sure how I feel about that, to be honest.
I’ve also been listening to a lot of podcasts – really recommend those by the Venerable Robina Courtin – several hours of explanation of some basic Buddhist ideas in her own inimitable style. She is’t in the same Tibetan school as me, but really knows her stuff. Have a hunt on iTunes for them.
Better get back to living a life!
Blessings to all.