I’m wrapping up a pleasant night off, relaxing with my demonic Mithra in my lap. Earlier in the day I took some photos of him and I must say he’s damn photogenic, especially compared with the fellow in the photos with him, of course.

I mentioned a couple weeks ago that I’d ordered some Thai fisherman’s pants. Today my first pair arrived and they’re amazing. I’ve never worn a more comfortable pair of pants and I think they look sharp as well. The range of movement is very nice, and will certainly come in handy when I step into a yoga practice and begin a more disciplined weight routine. One cool aspect of the pants are that they are unisex and one size fits all. Again, I had to break out my camera and show them off. They’re the best pants I’ve ever had (I may have finally found an alternative to my much-loved black jeans) and are really affordable (these were $6), so I highly recommend you give them a try.

This weekend I had a visit from my parents. They were actually, along with 8 other relatives of mine, staying in the hotel I work at, so I was able to spend some time with them, my aunt Lucy, uncle Larry and some of my cousins before slipping down to work Saturday night. My mother, having come from a flea market on Sunday, brought me a really cool faux flower that she told me was made from some other plant. For the life of me I can’t remember what it was, but it’s a beautiful addition to my living room decore. My mother is convinced I need to teach Mithra to be a calm, sedate kitten, but I’m not so sure his energetic, though a bit violent, nature should be overridden.

I’m quite happy with my holiday preparation this year. Not only have I sent out all my Christmas cards (if you didn’t give me your address or receive a request for it, drop me a line), but tonight I bought the last of my Christmas presents, including one for my Secret Santa co-worker. I’m thinking I did well in picking out appropriate gifts, especially one really hilarious one for my future brother-in-law, Greg.

I’m trying to come up with a colour scheme for a new Frozen Truth . com layout by using Colour Lovers palettes. I want to shake up what I’ve been doing here in a number of ways, including a sharper, more integrated layout. I’d appreciate any suggestions you might have to offer, as I’m hoping to get the next incarnation ready this weekend.

Speaking of colours, I recently was reading about an amazing new toy that has some promising technology behind it. Zubbles is a new line of bubble solution that creates brilliantly coloured bubbles that become entirely clear when they pop. Popular Science has shared an excellent article on the 11 years it took the inventor to create a workable product. The quickly fading dye has a lot of inventive potential uses, as the article shares.

Word is that Zubbles will be the biggest toy of 2006, and I’m ready to believe it. If I’m excited by the prospect, how can kids everywhere not fall in love with the idea?

I recently tried out a test at LiveCareer that points out our work-related interest and aptitudes. I found it quite accurate, and I think it helps support my tentative decision to return to school part time to test the waters of a psychology degree. You can find my results in an entry in my About Me section.

I’ll leave you with some more pants-related fun. Here’s a tune my friend Nathan created under his Dead Smurf moniker, “Where Have My Pants Gone? (Because I Just Lost My Shorts)“. More can be found here.

Namaste.

LiveCareer is a website that offers a test that points out our career interests and aptitudes. Following are my results, which I believe are quite accurate.

The following chart shows your basic interest scores as percentiles. For example, a score of 80% means you scored more highly than 80 percent of people (more info). A high score (greater than 70) indicates strong interest. Low scores (less than 30) are just as important as high scores. These indicate lack of interest or dislike for certain activities. Click on the scale names for descriptions. The next page contains a written interpretation of your highest and lowest scores.

		Percentile Profile
Scale	Percentile
Writing	97
Teaching / Social Service	96
Personal Service	94
Art	82
Persuasive	76
Health Service	68
Food Service	64
Science	39
Outdoors	38
Sales	21
Assertive	20
Administration	13
Clerical	7
Industrial Art	6
Systematic	6

	Realistic (Doers) -
Realistic types like physical activity, working with their hands, and are mechanically-inclined. They enjoy working outdoors and do not mind dealing with physical risks on the job.
	Investigative (Thinkers) -
Investigative types enjoy the challenge of problem solving in mathematics, technology, and sciences, and the abstract and practical ideas related to these areas. Applied science, such as engineering, technology or computer science may also be of interest to them. They can be technically creative.
	Artistic (Creators) -
Artistic types are often thought of as original and creative by others. Such people enjoy expressing themselves in artistic ways such as acting, dancing, creating music or visual art, or by expressing their ideas either through discussion or debate.
	Social (Helpers) -
Social types are interested in helping to keep others emotionally or physically healthy, or in teaching others. They enjoy giving advice and working directly with people, either in groups or individually.
	Enterprising (Persuaders) -
Enterprising types are people-oriented. They like to talk to, influence and persuade others. They are confident, adventurous, assertive and show leadership.
	Conventional (Organisers) -
Conventional types enjoy supervising others in jobs where rules and tasks are well defined. They show careful attention to detail, are organized, follow instructions well and prefer jobs where their daily duties are regular and fixed.
	Attentive (Servers) -
Attentive types enjoy helping others, serving others’ personal needs and looking after the comfort and well-being of others. They are happy in jobs requiring sociability, politeness, patience and a happy disposition.

I’ve been undergoing some really exciting experimentation during the past couple days. I recently discovered Centerpointe Research Institute‘s Holosync program and began its initial stages. Holosync is a meditation enhancement that uses binaural sound to alter brain states. The science behind it is really quite promising, both to understand states of consciousness and to enable human evolution.

What this enables us to do is accentuate and accelerate meditation by enducing states that would otherwise take months and years to enter into. Not only do we attain states, but, though the same dedication required for meditative growth, reach actual higher stages of development.
Those of you who know me and have talked with me about dreams will remember that I’ve remembered very few of them in my life, no more than a couple in the course of the year. One of the most startling and immediate results of the Holosync work was the ability to remain lucid in a dream state reliably. After my second thirty minute session, I’ve been able to move through the theta state with clear awareness, somthing I haven’t encountered in my traditional meditation practice and rarely recall having had in actual sleep.
Yesterday I discovered that synchronicity was at work in my life once again when I found some conversation recordings (see Brainwaves and God, parts 1, 2 and 3) on Integral Naked between Ken Wilber and Bill Harris, the founder of Centerpointe, on the huge potential science has for enhancing consciousness. This should not belittle traditional meditation, of course, because masters such as Wilber are able to, while being measured accurately, control brain waves at will, even reducing them to unmeasurable levels.
I’ve experienced definite state changes very quickly, so I have no doubt the system works in that manner, but I’m still taking it with a healthy amount of skepticism. And even if this turns out to manifest all the promise I’ve heard of, I don’t want it to become a replacement for my traditional meditation, because I understand that there are some states that can only be accessed, as of now, though that discipline.

Tonight I made my very first tofurkey dinner and it was delicious. I didn’t manage to have one during Thanksgiving last month, so I decided to catch up when I spotted a tofurkey roast at a local grocery store. I’d forgotten just how wonderful it is to have roasted parsnips and carrots, but I’ll have enough leftovers to savour them for at least one more day.
I’ve been having wonderful foods lately as part of my drive to experience more cultural delights. I recently made some Thai red curry rice that I was especially proud of. Anyone who knows of the 20 pounds of rice I’ve been holding on to for many months will know it’s about time I started making a dent in that.

Through IN (yes, yes, I can’t stop writing about Integral) I’ve discovered the work of Saul Williams, an astounding artist who has worked in music, spoken word, fiction, acting, screen writing and who knows what else. His mastery of language is really inspiring and his delivery is so deft that both my co-work and I were floored when we watched a live performance that was broadcast on IN. What is especially exciting about Saul is his intent, to get us down with Spirit.

His most recent album, a self-titled effort, is a great place to start, and you can preview it at his site. I urge you to do so.

I’ve been pointed to a new site, Pandora, a couple times this past week. It’s a custom music station site that, through my experiences, tries to do what Last.fm has been doing much better for well over a year. It’s not a bad site at all; in fact, it’s one of the more promising music sites out there. It’s just not nearly as good as Last.fm, a site I’m entirely enamoured with. If you’ve already tried Pandora and want something more, be sure to check out the site which provides a greater leap in how we listen to music online.

Hi friends, have you missed me?
I’m currently fending off a violent attack from Mithra. He doesn’t seem to grasp that it’s not ok to bite and scratch me yet, and my left arm has a few marks to prove that. I may have to start wearing shirts around my apartment to act as armour against his claws. I’d be sad to do that, though, because I’m more comfortable being bare.

I love Integral Naked, that should be obvious. One of my favourite recordings shared there, via the podcast, is Ken’s “Hurts More, Bothers You Less,” a wonderful look at the paradox between the intense caring, extreme pleasure, exteme pain inherent in increasing awareness and the great calm of awakening to our divinity. One of the sections of this is beautifully direct and powerful.

The intersection of this is nicely tied into the suffering of Jesus on the cross a bit later in the talk, a moment I found quite meaningful and a point I think is valuable in expressing this paradox. One other really nice aspect of this is the glimpse of Ken’s wonderful sense of humour, which really helps bring his work out of the somewhat dry nature of his philosophical writings. He jokes that his new book, The Many Faces of Terrorism, is about his dating history, “It was disturbing to me because a poll of my previous girlfriends rated me slightly above Al Qaeda on the scary scale, and I was tryig to figure out why that was, because I hadn’t really blown up any buildings.”

I’ve been reading the articles and listening to the podcasts at Steve Pavlina‘s personal development website this week and I’ve found a good portion of it to be helpful in looking at my own unfolding. I did find some of his orientation to be a bit off, but he does provide some interesting tools. Today I decided to take on the activity encouraged in his “Truth and Awareness” podcast, a quarterly analysis of our current situation in various aspects of our lives. He suggests ranking 12 areas in our lives and writing a paragraph about each, asking, “how am I doing in this area right now?” I’ll close this entry with my personal analysis and hope this will help me focus my efforts.

Work [7]: I’m really quite content with my work right now. I find it satisfying in a number of ways, from providing a moderate challenge, having co-workers I like and having some nice benefits. My only real complaint I could come up with is that I don’t often have the chance to go to concerts and do other weekend-centric things.
Financial [6]: My financial situation is stable but limited. I make end’s meet, but I don’t have a lot of money for even little luxuries. I’m thankful to have the resources I do, but I’d certainly like to improve this aspect of my life to at least include the ability to travel more often.
Relationship [5]: I’m currently single, so this aspect of my life is stable, but one I’d like to see improve. I’m a romantic at heart, as most of you know, so I do have a wish to have a lover again. I’m not actively seeking that, but always am open to whatever will arise.
Home & Family [6]: I currently live alone, save for Mithra, my cat, so my interaction with my family is limited. I do enjoy spending time with my sister, parents and extended family, but that’s often not possible. My apartment is a very nice home for me, and more alive now that Mithra has filled some of the emptiness my livingroom used to hold.
Physical Health [7]: I’d say I’m quite physically healthy. I’m rarely sick and generally have plenty of energy. A change to a vegetarian diet has been very helpful in increasing my health through the first 8 months. I would like to continue to increase my physical well being, especially though a plan to have a routine of yoga, weight training and swimming as part of my days.
Mental [8]: This is likely the aspect of my life I feel most enriched and evolving lately. My study of all things integral has been expanding my cognitive understanding of the world termendously, and I can’t see that slowing down anytime soon. I certainly feel I’m undergoing a rebirth in this area.
Social [6]: I’m not an especially social person by natue; I’ve always been someone who preferred to have a handful of dear friends to having a large group of friends. I do, however, have a deep desire to become engaged with a community.
Emotional [7]: I think I’m doing well emotionally. I’m often happy and content and very seldom depressed or down at all.
Spiritual [7]: Spiritually, I feel I’ve come a long way, but I do need to apply myself more effectively to spiritual practice, especially in creating a daily meditative practice.
Character [6]: I’d say I have a strong character overall, but I definitely would like to become less of a procrastinatior and increase my impulse to create.
Contribution [5]: I feel I do contribute to society a fair amount, but I want to become more actively involved in the social movements that I feel strongly about, especially to promote integral thinking in ecology, politics and learning.
Fun & Adventure [6]: I find this part of my life to be one of the weaker parts of my life. I don’t often have the time or resources to have the fun I’d like. My wanderlust suffers from this more than anything else, and that’s definitely something I wish to remedy in the next year. if possible, I intend to travel outside Canada for the first time since the road trip I took across the continent when I was a kid.

P.S. Some of you might get a kick out of The Harry Potter Dancers, who combine the Footloose soundtrack and Harry Potter in a side-splitting work of something approaching art.
P.P.S. Riverbend recently offered up more insight from her native Iraq, including a look at the tragedy of increasing Iranian influence.

Here is a personal development exercise that I did, taken from Steve Pavlina‘s “Truth and Awareness” podcast. It’s a quarterly analysis of my current situation in various aspects of my life. I’ve ranked 12 areas of my life and written a paragraph about each, asking, “how am I doing in this area right now?”

Work [7]: I’m really quite content with my work right now. I find it satisfying in a number of ways, from providing a moderate challenge, having co-workers I like and having some nice benefits. My only real complaint I could come up with is that I don’t often have the chance to go to concerts and do other weekend-centric things.
Financial [6]: My financial situation is stable but limited. I make end’s meet, but I don’t have a lot of money for even little luxuries. I’m thankful to have the resources I do, but I’d certainly like to improve this aspect of my life to at least include the ability to travel more often.
Relationship [5]: I’m currently single, so this aspect of my life is stable, but one I’d like to see improve. I’m a romantic at heart, as most of you know, so I do have a wish to have a lover again. I’m not actively seeking that, but always am open to whatever will arise.
Home & Family [6]: I currently live alone, save for Mithra, my cat, so my interaction with my family is limited. I do enjoy spending time with my sister, parents and extended family, but that’s often not possible. My apartment is a very nice home for me, and more alive now that Mithra has filled some of the emptiness my livingroom used to hold.
Physical Health [7]: I’d say I’m quite physically healthy. I’m rarely sick and generally have plenty of energy. A change to a vegetarian diet has been very helpful in increasing my health through the first 8 months. I would like to continue to increase my physical well being, especially though a plan to have a routine of yoga, weight training and swimming as part of my days.
Mental [8]: This is likely the aspect of my life I feel most enriched and evolving lately. My study of all things integral has been expanding my cognitive understanding of the world termendously, and I can’t see that slowing down anytime soon. I certainly feel I’m undergoing a rebirth in this area.
Social [6]: I’m not an especially social person by natue; I’ve always been someone who preferred to have a handful of dear friends to having a large group of friends. I do, however, have a deep desire to become engaged with a community.
Emotional [7]: I think I’m doing well emotionally. I’m often happy and content and very seldom depressed or down at all.
Spiritual [7]: Spiritually, I feel I’ve come a long way, but I do need to apply myself more effectively to spiritual practice, especially in creating a daily meditative practice.
Character [6]: I’d say I have a strong character overall, but I definitely would like to become less of a procrastinatior and increase my impulse to create.
Contribution [5]: I feel I do contribute to society a fair amount, but I want to become more actively involved in the social movements that I feel strongly about, especially to promote integral thinking in ecology, politics and learning.
Fun & Adventure [6]: I find this part of my life to be one of the weaker parts of my life. I don’t often have the time or resources to have the fun I’d like. My wanderlust suffers from this more than anything else, and that’s definitely something I wish to remedy in the next year. if possible, I intend to travel outside Canada for the first time since the road trip I took across the continent when I was a kid.

Mithra and Apollo were both favourite gods of the Romans, gods of truth.

My cat and I, we’re still non-seeking that truth.

It’s not often that I buy new clothes. In fact, other than some dress clothes for work, I’ve only bought a couple cheap shirts in the past two years. I still wear many of the jeans and shirts I wore during my high school days. I keep with a basic style and look that has always served me well, so I don’t need to waste money on clothes, just when what I have wears out.
A week or so ago, when my dresser broke, I cleaned out a lot of clothes I don’t and couldn’t wear anymore, essentially cutting my wardrobe to 1/3 the size it was before. I’m happy with the change, in part because it moves me further along with my project of minimizing my possessions (I have a wish to eventually have everything I own fit into a space smaller than the trunk of a car). This has left me with some room to experiment with some new clothes, so I ordered some new webs tonight.
I’ve heard good things about Thai fisherman’s pants, so I decided to order three pairs today. I’m told they are incredibly comfortable and are excellent for activities such as yoga and martial arts. I found some good deals on the pants, paying around $10 for each. I’m looking forward to their arrival in the next couple weeks.  I also ended up getting a new shirt that should fill out my selection of winter clothes nicely. 
I’ll most likely be starting a yoga practice soon and may also try a martial art as well, so that’s something I want to consider for my leisure clothes. The spa located at this hotel will soon be offering yoga classes in its studio, and I’m hoping to start taking part after Christmas, assuming I can have my schedule adjusted slightly to accomodate the Tuesday evening introductory classes (or if there’s another intro class on a day better suited to me). The prices seem reasonable and it would be convenient to do the classes before or after work (there is a Saturday morning session that would follow one of my night shifts). I’ve been reading about yoga practices for the past couple weeks and I’m convinced I would benefit from them greatly.

I’ve been thinking a lot about the people I’ve been blessed to have in my life lately, from those I’ve lost some degree of closeness with to those who have been constant friends for years. I’m truly thankful for each of those people, if sad to have grown apart from some.
More and more I’m hoping to somehow connect with a community of people who are working on similar evolutions as myself and who share some of my interests in things such as Integral, spiritual practices and art. Even though I have some wonderful friends, I feel I lack a sangha, a truly engaged community. I’ve long wondered how to cultivate this, but haven’t found an answer that has satisfied me. Oh how I’d love to be in touch with some integral people nearby.

Taylor of GTMcKnight, one of the friends of Shiny Plastic Bag, recently pointed to a very well composed list of “What The Blogsphere Wants More Of.” I was quite impressed by the depth of the list, especially the inclusion of “constructive criticism, reaction, feedback” in what blog writers like to see, an aspect of online journal keeping and blogging that I find is most often absent. I know I’m guilty of not commenting as often as I should, and I know it’s an easy habit to fall into, but it definitely adds to the experience when we make blogging an interactive and engaging activity.

I’ve been in a steady busy state this week. Between meetings at work, getting Mithra settled into his new life and a night of gaming on Monday, I’ve had little time to relax or get much writing done. I think it’s safe to say I have to abort Nanowrimo again this year. I’m sad to do so, but I’ll keep working on the novel when I can give it proper attention.

A week ago I bought myself an MP3 player. I’d been without one for about a year and was tired of using my laptop for portable music so I decided it was time to get a new one. I ended up choosing a Creative Labs MuVo Slim, mostly because of size and sound quality considerations (Creative has the best sound quality on the market, as far as I’m aware, and as a music junkie I appreciate that). It’s a nice player, but I’m still disappointed that music players have not yet moved into the 100GB-120GB range beyond a couple products. I’d like to be able to have my entire music collection with me but that’s not yet possible in any reasonably priced models. I won’t be buying a higher end media player until they can hold my library fully.

One of my favourite online music stores is Zunior, which offers up some wonderful indie albums. Last night I decided to buy a spilt release from My Favorite and Entre Rios, the newest installment of Intercontinental Pop Exchange, Volume 7. It’s a really hip series of split EPs that bridge continents and genres. This album featured the New York ecclectic pop of My Favorite and the Aregentinian electronic pop chill of Entre Rios, which was a pleasant compliment and contrast. I’m looking forward to listening to some of the other installments, especially the Paper Moon and Leslies package.

Life with Mithra has been quite a mixed time of joy, pain and bafflement. This cat is beautiful, put perhaps just a little bit evil. He’s quickly made himself at home here in my apartment, giving some much needed life to my living room and some unappreciated gnaws to my bamboo plant. If I leave my bedroom door open he’ll not let me sleep, trying always to snuggle into my neck and chew on my hair. Oh, but he’s adorable and cute when he’s not being a demon. He’s sleeping beside me on the couch at the moment, finally tired from the chasing of strings and his stuffed ape.

It’s an interesting lesson to see Mithra taken with illusions, whether it’s his belief a moving curtain is alive or his inablity to discern the pattern of a string going around in circles on the floor. We humans are not free of delusions, by any means, and that’s one of the great challenges we have in evolving, to recognize and overcome our countless delusions. I have a feeling that Mithra will keep me mindful of my own limitations and push me to move forward with my realizations and practice. If nothing else, I must cultivate compassionate firmness when teaching him it’s not at all acceptable for him to bite and claw my hand when he wishes.

Tonight I had a new arrival in my home, Mithra, an awesome three month old kitten. My co-worker John needed a new home for the little fellow so I volunteered mine. He’s a wonderful cat, playful but generally well behaved. I decided to name him Mithra (he was formerly known as Boomer), after a lion-headed god.

My sister Ilea visited to see my new cat and we spent a while playing with it, watching it explore my apartment, snapping photos and then letting the tired fellow sleep. I must say I’m delighted to have such a wonderful kitten around. I just hope he’s remained so and not destroyed anything in my apartment.
The only down side so far is that this is yet another distraction from novel writing, however pleasant it may be.

Photos of Mithra can be found here.