There are few drinks quite as nice as chocolate coffee, and none of those are available to me right now, so I’m making the best of my night by having some. It’s a perk of the job here to be able to make a fresh pot and then have a break with a steaming combo of hot chocolate mix and coffee. I don’t have coffee all that often, but a savour it when I do.

I’ve also been savouring my time with Gwen, who is wonderful beyond words. We gel on so many levels, but it’s still constantly surprising to me to discover new things we appreciate about each other. Watching Firefly, my new favourite TV show, playing board games (clothed and not), and cuddling have been so very nice. And I can’t complain about having a silly grin on my face half the time, but I’m sure other people are sick of it. Having a fantastic girlfriend is terribly nice.

Why use segues? Because they fall into place!

Today I learned that Matthew Sweet’s Girlfriend has been remastered and reissued with the rare Good Friend disc as a bonus. The album was the second of Matthew’s many superb recordings that I fell in love with, after 100% Fun hooked me in ’95. Girlfriend has been lauded as one of the finest albums of the 90′s, and I wouldn’t hesitate to agree. Expert songcraft, blissful melodies, ear-soothing harmonies, raging guitar and an exciting range of sound make this a true classic. Though Matthew has produced a body of work that is worth experiencing every corner of, this is undeniably his most accessable and immediate album. It’s a perfect place to dive in, especially with the richer sound and extra tracks now offered.

Oh, and Tuesday Weld, my favourite actress, graces the cover of Girlfriend. I have that cover to thank for introducing me to her, which also endears the album to me. I think some of us should hunt down a copy of Pretty Poison soon. In it, one of Tuesday’s lines, referring to sex, is, “You know, when grown-ups do it, it’s kind of dirty. That’s because there’s no one to punish them.”

Fluffy is a marvelous word. Seeing that entry reminds me that I really should join Zaadz.

I’ve been meaning to do so for weeks now, so it’s going up on my list of 43 Things I will do. Zaadz is a friend of I-I, so it is top notch fluffiness, to be sure.

Allow me to introduce you to The Rumbles, makers of beautiful sound.

I’ve been following the band’s various incarnations (last as The Squarewaves) for a few years now, always looking forward to new music. Scott was kind enough to e-mail me about some new songs he, Brian and Deirdre have recorded. The three you can listen to at the page above are from a larger collection of demos Scott plans to share, along with some Strawberry and The Squarewaves material once some technical issues are out of the way.

Update
Scott worked out the technical problems and has posted a ton of music for us to download over at The Ghost Says Boo. You’ll find The Rumbles demos, a Squarewaves collection and a number of Strawberry demos and final recordings. It’s a real treasure of good music. I know I’ll be spending my listening time for the next couple days with these songs.

Well, there’s big news for those of us hoping to spread Integral through the world. It looks like Ken Wilber’s Grace and Grit will be made into a feature film and include at least one big name. Jennifer Anniston has signed up to play Treya. Jennifer and Brad Pitt read Grace and Grit to each other while they were together.
What is most exciting about this isn’t the film itself, which may turn out to be a poor adaptation, but rather the increased mainstream exposure of the most important movement happening now. I’m passionately behind the Integral vision, and deeply believe that Treya’s story is so touching that it can move people toward Integral.
For more of the buzz, start with the entry from Ken’s blog. Fill in some more with “Jennifer Aniston to Star in Grace and Grit” and “Jennifer Aniston Getting Friendly With Ken Wilber“. Finally, scope ~C4Chaos’s post that includes speculation on who should play Ken. I’m not sure who to root for, but the Orlando Bloom and Johnny Depp suggestions elsewhere are amusing.

Integral Institute is preparing to engage the world more deeply, and I can’t wait to be part of this great adventure and the more radiant future it may bring. With Integral Spirituality about to be released, Integral Spiritual Center now live, and so much more happening in the Integral world, I can’t help but taste the promise. I think it’s about time we wake people up to the leading edge. If you wish to learn of Integral, Integral Naked, the media hub, and A Theory of Everything, an introduction to Ken’s work, are fantastic places to start.

I had a marvelous night at Gwen’s place tonight. She hosted an anime and food gathering of 8 of our friends, Jana, April, Nathan, Allison, Andrew, Sara and Pam. It turned out very well, with fantastic food and good times.
Allison made some very nice gumbo, while Gwen made delicious chocolate pudding cakes and banana nut loaf. My contribution was a variety of snacks, which came in handy during the preparation time.
When Sara arrived Gwen and I were in a chair making out, and she asked us how long we’d been “going out.” We’ve been seeing each other for a while, but pulled July 13th out of nowhere to be our day. I’ve really very happy and excited to be with Gwen; she’s been a joy to get to know. Witnessing her giddiness over Panda Go Panda was a highlight of the evening.
I was promised weekly sushi if I provide Gwen with a rice cooker, so that’s terribly exciting. She makes such delightful food and I’m ever so fond of sushi that it’s a deal I can’t resist.

In other happenings, it looks like I’ll be taking an online course in AJAX being offered by Sun. I studied computer science a few years ago at university, so I’m rusty, but I’m looking forward to exploring this emergent form.

The sun is shining, my stereo is singing and life is maple-sweet.

Before I get into this short entry, I’m going to go out on a limb and predict that Silversun Pickups will soon be one of my favourite bands. After hearing two songs I feel like I’m experiencing the best of mid-90s bands like Smashing Pumpkins and Limblifter afresh. It’s good.

Since my last entry sharing bits about my life, I’ve worked, battled off a cold with orange juice and tea, and spent portions of my days off over at Gwen’s place. Gwen’s terribly marvelous, beautiful and endlessly fun to make out with, so I seldom want to leave there. As you can see in the photo above, she’s stolen my mala, though.

What else have I been up to lately? I’ve been eating a lot of mushrooms. For the past 11 days I’ve had some mushrooms with at least one meal of the day. I’m getting hooked on the blissful fungi, and I’m not minding it. I just hope I don’t OD on them and end up disliking mushrooms.

This week I watched Firefly a couple times with Gwen. I’ve fallen in love with the show, and it may very well be my favourite series now. The dialogue is brilliant and the mix of western and sci-fi reminds me of my favourite cartoon from when I was a kid, Galaxy Rangers. How’d I take so long to discover it?

This past week marked the first year anniversary of starting work with the hotel I’m currently employed at. It’s hard to believe all the changes and events that have taken place in the past 12 months. I feel much more lucid because of my Practice, which I have to say is the biggest change. But comparing last July to this one, I can’t help but see parallels and be reminded that part of any year seems to be the most transformative and eventful for me.

Happy belated Firefox Day!

To keep myself focused on being fully engaged in my Integral Life Practice (ILP), I’ve decided to start afresh and write out the exercises I’m doing to map out my Practice. I’m very excited about this program and will be sharing my progress frequently here. I would encourage everyone to explore ILP, a truly exciting system for overall wellbeing. If you’d like to join in, you can order the ILP Starter Kit directly.
Following is my assessement of my current situation, including some gaps in my Practice.

Current Assessment:

Body – I maintain a healthy vegetarian diet, though I certainly want to increase my mindfulness and breadth of experimentation. I intend to introduce more fresh and raw foods to my diet. I can be rather lax when it comes to getting as much exercise as I would like. I infrequently do resistance training and yoga, though I do a fair amount of walking. This is an area I feel is an obvious place for improvement, because I do notice my procrastination and avoidance of the work that requires more commitment. The 3-Body Workout (not nearly as kinky as it sounds) and Focus Intensity Training both seem to be valuable additions to my routine of physical fitness.

Mind – I do a lot of reading on a wide range of topics and study when I am able to. I keep up with offerings from I-I projects such as Integral Naked and Integral Spiritual Center and am making my way through Ken Wilber’s books. Integral Framework or AQAL is a tool I use increasingly to remain mentally focused. I also try to keep my mind sharp through activities such as Brain Age and board games when I can. I hope to continue this aspect of my Practice and deepen my involvement as much as I can.

Spirit – I meditate several times each week in a rather unorganized fashion and practice a number of mindfulness exercises in every aspect of my life, from work to relationships. I would most like to have more consistancy in my meditation and to focus on one or two core techniques. I hope to incorporate Big Mind as a central part of this aspect of Practice.

Shadow: If there’s one aspect we could all use some work on, it’s our shadows or disowned psychological parts. I am becoming increasingly aware of my own shadow stuff and have begun some serious shadow work when I do notice shadow. Those dark, ugly, annoying things I notice need to be tidied up and embraced properly, and it’ll take a good deal of work, so I’d best keep on this. I need this to be a focus of my Practice, and the 3-2-1 Process is certainly going to be a part of this.

The four modules above are the essential parts of an ILP, but it also has auxilary modules that are optional but very valuable. I’ll run through some of my interests in these.

Ethics – I’ve been intuitively moving toward integral ethics for some time now, but with some guidance from IN dialogues I feel I’m able to start living with increasing ethical awareness. I would love to become more active in helping others in various ways and hope to find some avenues that will gel with the rest of my work.

Sex – I don’t have a regular romantic or sexual partner at the moment, so it’s a bit hard to judge where I am in this area. It figures that the one auxilary module I have the deepest interest in and take the most joy from would be the most difficult to practice. I do feel very compelled to explore more of practices such as Integral Sexual Yoga. How could I not want to know how to give great Godhead?

Work – I do my best to be mindful and engaged at work, though I am always challenged to do so. I’m also working on a project that I’m keeping quiet for now that would allow me to deeply integrate my work and Practice and that excites me a great deal.

Emotions – I tend to be fairly buoyant emotionally, but I would like to deepen my awareness of them. I wish to be more conscious of others’ emotions as well, and look forward to adding Tonglen to my meditation techniques once I become rooted in Practice. Some creative and expressive writing projects I’m working on will also be part of engaging my emotions and those of others.

Relationships – I do see a need to work more diligently on my relationships. Some neglect and unskillful communications have left me a bit disconnected with some people very dear to me, and that is a concern I’m always wanting to work with. I often allow my humour to go unchecked and let shadow slip in when I joke with some friends and I’ve recognized it bothers them. I intend to be more mindful of this specific bit of friction.

I had a couple days off at the first of the week and was lucky enough to spend them with three of the most fantastic people I know.
Monday night April and I headed over to Gwen’s, where we were also joined by Jana for a night of watching Buffy, playing Scrabble, eating brownies and eventually degenerating into a risqu? cuddle fest. In the morning, over-sugared coffee and pancakes were a pleasant way to wake up. I did learn not to trust Jana with choosing how much sugar goes in my coffee.
Later Tuesday we reconvened at Jana’s place where April, Jana and I watched anime and ate sushi before Gwen arrived so that we could start watching some Doctor Who. I had missed the second season of series, so it was nice to catch up some. It has to be solid to have been the only television show in the past 5 years I’ve watched an entire season of.

Aside from those two days of pleasant times, I’ve been mostly scheming on a number of things and doing some reading.
April, Jana and I are looking into getting a four (or more) bedroom place for September, which would be wonderful. I’d be living with badass people, paying about half as much for rent and utilities and possibly living in a nicer location.
If that goes through it looks like my November plans will be much more viable. I’m currently strongly considering enrolling in an I-WET training session in Toronto during the first weekend of my vacation (November 4-5). I-WET stands for Integral Weekend Experiential Training and is a structured immersion into an ILP or Integral Life Practice. Now that I’m renewing my dedication to my practice, I feel it’s only fitting that I take that next plunge in a few months. I’d love to go with someone else, so let me know if you’d be interested in joining me.

There have been few books I’ve read that have moved me so deeply that I have to recommend them to everyone I meet. In recent years it has been Mark Z. Danielewski’s House of Leaves and Craig Thompson’s Blankets. Now Ken Wilber’s Grace and Grit : Spirituality and Healing in the Life and Death of Treya Killam Wilber is the one book I’ll be insisting you all read.
Leaving my love for the work Ken does aside, this is clearly a beautiful book.

Grace and Grit is an exquisite blending of a great love story, the radiant life of a possibly enlightened woman and Ken’s keen approach to philosophy and spirituality. Combining Treya and Ken’s writings, it offers an intimate glimpse of experiences both heartbreaking and uplifting. Ken’s later philosophy is undoubtably more complete, but this book is as direct and emotionally stunning as anything I’ve read by him. If there’s any book I’d suggest for getting a feel for Ken’s work and motivation, this would be it.