I also got to watch game two of the Lakers v. Celtics Finals Championship Series. The first two games were horribly officiated. Ridiculous calls were made on both sides, and it’s hard to tell what the reason for it was. Conspiracy theorists will blather about how the NBA as a business profits more from longer series since there is so much advertising money at stake. There is probably some truth to that, but I think it would be something of a miracle to produce any kind of evidence to support that, or any other related notion. Regardless, I have enjoyed watching the games, frustrating though they may be at times.

I also recently had an interesting discussion with somebody, and by “discussion”, I mean internet post. The premise was: “God loves violence…Why else would there be so much of it?”

My response was:

“The basic premise of this goes back to question, “If God was a loving God, why would He allow suffering in the world?” I mean, you could really apply this to anything, right? God loves Coke. God loves drugs. God loves porn. God loves murder. God does not love these things, and so, the mere existence of a thing does not solely merit God’s love. This, of course, presumes the existence of God, so that is not in question.

At the heart of this question is why do these things exist? And the question before that is, do you believe in free will? I believe in free will, as well as God, and therefore I believe that many things exist in this world because mankind has chosen to do them. Violence is one of them. It is easy. It is powerful. At times, it is effective. To subdue someone with violence is far easier than to subdue someone with love because the body is so much more easily broken then the soul is. We as humans have a knack for wanting results regardless of cost.

It is an act of the greatest love that God allows us the option to love or not to love. What would love be unless the possibility to hate existed? We would have to call it something else altogether.

As for acts of nature, death is a part of life. It only stands to reason that some acts of nature birth life, and others death.

In the end, God loves us so much that he allows us the ability to make mistakes, and mistakes we have made.”

Looking back at the response, I believe it communicates what I had intended, even if the wording is a bit clumsy at times. Perhaps I will write a book one day…

Tags: violence, God, Lakers vs Celtics, basketball

This just brings me back to the fact that for all our efforts, mankind’s ability to circumvent the way our body responds to nature is still limited in many ways. This news comes nearly 75 years after the invention of sunscreen in 1936. It would be interesting to read the news 75 years from today to see what things that we think are good for us today actually turn out to be bad for us.

Of course, the world doesn’t come crashing down with this news. Indeed, it’s just a reminder that we all need perspective in life, so we may effectively discern what is genuinely important. Otherwise, we may end up not getting what we want out of life, or not living at all.

And just to show I’m not just a harbinger of bad news, my mom actually sent me this other link. I’m not sure what’s funnier, the post itself, or the fact that my mom actually sends me stuff like this.

Tags: sunscreen, cancer, bad news, yoga, being drunk

I took their suggestion and went to “Laughter Yoga on the Phone.com”, as this was one of the recommended resources they gave out during the call. Well, I was pleasantly surprised to find out there was a laughter session on the phone at that very moment.

Can you guess what I did? You bet! I dialed into the call and had a good 10-minute laughing fit with one other person. I didn’t even know who she was, I didn’t know her name, what she looked like, or where in the world she was. She didn’t say “hi” to aknowledge I was even there.

When I first got on the call, the phone service announced there was only one other person on the phone, so I figured it might be kind of a quiet call, but when I was connected, it was all laughter, nothing but laughter and then more fun and giggles.

I didn’t know how much I would really be able to just dive right in without any silly exercises or stimulators, but the longer I just sat there listening to this woman laughing (while it sounded as she was in the car driving somewhere), the more I couldn’t help but to laugh right along with her. At first I was kind of laughing at her because here she was all alone before I got there just having a laughing fit.

Then, almost uncontrollably, I joined right on in with her. We must have laughed for a good 10 minutes straight before she announced that we had only two minutes left (incidentally, those were the first words she had spoken to me).

What? Wait, where can I get another token to plug the meter, I don’t want it to end. But rest assured, there’s another session starting up in only 40 minutes. So I guess I’ll go grab a bite to eat and dial back into the phone to enjoy another laughing fit with some more total strangers. How fun Very good, Very good, Yeah!

Tags: Laughter Yoga, Jill and Dan Johnson, laughter workshop, laughter yoga on the phone

There is just no time to catch a cold; however, the other day I began to feel like I had the beginning of a cold. That weekend, I was scheduled to shoot a film, so I canceled all my meetings that filled every evening after work for the week and stayed home to prevent the cold from become worse.

I didn’t feel so bad, except for my nose. Even though some of my friends have been strongly recommending using Neti Wash Plus, I avoided trying it for a long time because of the rumor that Zinc may cause to lose the sense of smell or something like that. But I decided that this was a good time to try and see how it worked. So I planned to use a very small amount of drops for a couple of nights. It made me think that it shouldn’t affect my body badly.

I asked my friend to let me use her Neti Wash and tried a few drops that night. WOW! My nose got immediately clearer and I found it much easier to breathe! It’s amazing how it worked.

I used it for about a week and then returned it back to my friend because I felt much better. Now I miss the Neti Wash but I don’t want to be addicted to it. Luckily, we have other kinds of Neti Wash such as Neti Wash Flu and Neti Wash Silver. I believe those two Neti Wash don’t carry any Zinc. So I am thinking that I shall buy one of them and use it every night so that I can breathe and sleep better!

Tags: neti pot, neti pot plus, neti pot silver, neti pot flu

This got me thinking about other, different ways to use non-toxic household products. Another good example is baking soda! Not only does it keep unpleasant odors out of the freezer and refrigerator – or even put out the occasional grease fire – but baking soda has many other uses as well. For example, you can use baking soda to avoid clogged drains and as a multi-purpose cleaning agent!

I remember some years back there was a show on PBS called Haley’s Hints, which offered inexpensive and unique tips for cleaning and organizing. Of course, due to the wonders of the internet, there are also some good websites out there that offer a lot of helpful tips for cleaning and organizing. My favorite website is, “The Frugal Life: Living Well with What You Have.” Especially in today’s economy, where money is scarce for everyone, these small things can be a huge money saver. Not only that, but it teaches you to respect what you already have.

Tags: frugal life, living well, cleaning, cleaning up with vinegar, baking soda

One of my softball teams had our final game of the season last night. After two home runs in my last game, I was a disappointing 1 for 3. One of those could have been a base hit because I hit it so hard the fielder couldn’t make a clean play on it. I ended up on base, but I felt it was a field-able ball, so I don’t count it as a hit. Defensively, I had a great game, but sadly our team fell after leading most of the game. A personal highlight for me was hitting six home runs in eight games. Not bad for not having played in about four years. Just means the bar is higher for next season, which starts in three weeks. Woohoo!

I will also be heading out of town in a couple of weeks to witness my brother’s graduation from medical school. Smart kid that one…

Tags: acting class, softball game, home run, wushu, martial arts

For my other class, I’m going to begin work on a scene from “Brilliant Traces” next week. I’m looking forward to it, as it is really deep material and should be quite a challenge.

As an update on my softball endeavors, I made the Howard Fine studio team! I’m looking forward to playing on this team because they made the finals last year, and so it should be fairly competitive. I consider myself a competitive person, but not so much that I forget it’s all in fun. And I do leave it all out on the field, as it should be.

Oh and I also finished my taxes! High five!

Tags: softball, ball game, baseball, softball team, howard fine, acting, scene study

Softball is my first love. Well, actually baseball is, but I settle for softball these days. I don’t get paid millions of dollars to put excessive strain on my body parts, and I do plan on being an active old man one day. So, I played my first game in a long time a few weeks ago, and my first hit was a home run. I’ve hit two more in the five games since, giving me three in six games. Now, one home run every two games in softball is actually poor. I’ve had to shake some of the rust off my swing, and I feel it’s just starting to get there. I will be trying out for the Entertainment League Softball team run by Howard Fine Studio. I do expect to make the team, but in the event that I don’t, I have this other league to satisfy my need to run around in circles!

Tags: acting, softball, howard fine studio, exercise, joy, baseball, baseball games

Reflecting on this whole journey, I think there were a lot of things that my teammates, Christina and Segovia, had to go through. There were many hurdles to jump over, but I think the rewards were definitely worth it. Emotions and stress levels ran high, but we all pulled through. Good call by Christina to have daily yoga in the morning to Shantha’s music, to help center and focus us on the tasks at hand.

The week leading up to the Conference was a roller coaster ride for everyone: working late hours, trying to repair equipment that was not working, and getting up in the early hours of the morning. For me, this journey was not only a physical journey, but a mental one as well. I think I surprised myself at what I am capable of doing.

For those who have listened to the calls (as I did), there was A LOT of information to absorb in such a short period of time! Hopefully, I can get through all the replays and ask questions in the forum. Such a wealth of knowledge was given to us in only a few days, and it’s going to take a while to absorb it all. The speakers were amazing! And the feedback we got from participants has been overwhelming (in a positive way).
Thank you to all those who joined on this crazy journey with us!

Tags: shanti, yoga conference, yoga event, virtual conference, virtual yoga conference, teleconference

Through the years with this laptop, the amount of grief, anger, and heartache Vista has caused me has been just about unbearable, almost to the point where I was extremely tempted to throw my laptop out of the window and run it over with my car.

Finally, I decided to take my laptop to my brother-in-law so that he could erase all traces of Vista on my laptop and put in a decent operating system.

He downgraded it to XP.

And thank goodness for that! Now I can work much more efficiently without having to worry about those annoying Vista widgets that get in the way. Also, I know where everything is!

Vista has truly caused a lot of heartache for me! That just goes to show…sometimes old is better than new.

Tags: vista, xp, windows, microsoft, IT, laptop, new software, new version of microsoft