If you look at the field of robotics today, you can say robots have been in the deepest oceans, they’ve been to Mars, you know? They’ve been all these places, but they’re just now starting to come into your living room. Your living room is the final frontier for robots. ~ Cynthia BreaZeal
Three Questions, January 12, 2025
What was the most beautiful thing I encountered today?
While out on my walk today I passed by the local Buddhist Temple, the gates were open for a change and I got a full view of two massive alters that they have. They were both absolutely spectacular, really beautiful.
What did I learn today?
Today I learned that they are making and selling personal robots with high level AI interfaces, interchangeable faces and personalities and that you can make the face off any photo, and build the AI to a specific person’s personality. All for the bargain price of $150,000.
What made me happy today?
Sometimes a nap can be absolutely perfect and I had one of those today. I’d eaten a large bowl of Mao Po Tofu and drank a coke and yes, it was a sugar coma for sure. But after a really big lunch, laying back on the couch with a football game on I crashed out hard for a nap. One of those naps where for a bit you’re half watching TV and aware of what’s happening then bam, you wake up and the game is over. Felt great and made me really happy.
Part of the secret of a success in life is to eat what you like and let the food fight it out inside. ~ Mark Twain
Three Questions, January 11, 2025
What was the most beautiful thing I encountered today?
The most beautiful thing I encountered today was a radio play. It was a short little play on the January 10th broadcast of This American Life, it was called The Big Nap. It’s a really funny play about a toddler detective from the perspective of the toddler.
What did I learn today?
Today I learned a lot about TVs. I love my old TV, I honestly don’t know how long I’ve had it but it’s easily over 10 years, the picture is still great but there’s an internal short now that means sometimes it doesn’t turn on til I jiggle some inputs. So it’s finally time to get a new one as it’s doing it often now. So, I’ve learned a lot about the different types of TVs, sound bars, etc… and Monday I buy the new TV.
What made me happy today?
I live in one of the best places in America to get authentic Asian food in general, Chinese food in specific. Where I live you just don’t get Chinese food, you have to be specific. Do you want Hong Kong, Taiwanese, Beijing style, Szechuan, etc… The other thing is the level of authenticity for these specific foods is impressive. But sometimes, I just want to get some Americanized Chinese food. Usually less authentic, less spicy and a little more focused on the presence of fried rice. I think, as a kid that grew up in upstate NY, it was what Chinese food was when I was younger, so there’s a bit of nostalgia connected to it. I’ve had this craving lately and today I hit Panda Express to get just that and it made me happy.
You can find the background to The Three Questions in my recent post about it. I’ll be answering the questions each day for the next year and putting this experience into a book. Here we go!
What was the most beautiful thing I encountered today?
It was simply a man choking up with tears. Our director of our undocumented student center was doing a presentation on his last day on campus before he takes a new job. In talking about his students and how his only thought was that they be protected and taken care of, he choked up and almost cried. It was really beautiful to see that kind of caring on display.
What did I learn today?
What I learned today was about all of the steps our campus and District are taking to protect and care for our undocumented students as we move through the next few years.
What made me happy today?
Seeing great attendance, great attention and real interest from faculty and staff in protecting some of our most vulnerable students.
You can find the background to The Three Questions in my recent post about it. I’ll be answering the questions each day for the next year and putting this experience into a book. Here we go!
What was the most beautiful thing I encountered today?
I am fortunate to work on a beautiful campus overlooking the Pacific Ocean. The most beautiful thing I saw today was the view from campus out over the Pacific Ocean.
What did I learn today?
Wearing a tie can reduce blood flow to your brain by 7.5% I KNEW IT!!! I always hated these damn things.
What made me happy today?
The semester started today and we had our District meeting on our campus. What made me happy today was connecting with some folks from across the District who I rarely see.
You can find the background to The Three Questions in my recent post about it. I’ll be answering the questions each day for the next year and putting this experience into a book. Here we go!
What was the most beautiful thing I encountered today?
Driving off campus tonight, as I passed the soccer field, the munchkins were out having soccer practice. As I was driving by something caught my eye, little legs flying like a cartoon character lifted off his feet and still running in air. It was completely comical, this little guy was flying across the field and was absolutely the most beautiful thing I saw today.
What did I learn today?
What I learned today was that Stephen Hawking threw a part for time travelers. The people he invited, he invited the day after the date of the party. His hope was that the invitations or the information would live on to the future. And that a future time traveler would find it and attend the party. Unfortunately, no one showed up.
What made me happy today?
A simple thing today, just the sun on my face on a beautiful morning as I did my walk. Sometimes the simplest things are the best.
My advice to you is not to inquire why or whither, but just enjoy your ice cream while it’s on your plate. ~ Thornton Wilder
Just a Happy Day
It’s been a rough few days, the fact is humanity has been kicking my ass, the uncertainty of what will happen with the next administration, returning to work and finally just dealing with the selfishness and impatience of humanity has really beat on me.
As I have preached on this blog for years, when you’re off you need to go back to basics, exercise, eat well, get enough sleep. That’s what I’ve been working on doing. It takes a couple of days to really have an impact and I woke up feeling pretty good today. I had a meeting to go to down near the airport that I really didn’t want to attend, it was kind of being dumped on me and my expectations were low. Currently I have to park on the top of the hill away from my apartment while they do seismic retrofits on our parking area in front of my building. So as I walked out this morning, the jack hammering had stopped, and when I hit the base of the stairs I quickly saw why. The trench they had dug to set the steel beam was being jack hammered out and they had jack hammered into the main water line. The two foot deep trench was full, water was bubbling in the middle like a fountain and guys we’re running around excitedly. I looked at a worker and said, “that’s not good.” He smiled, “no, no it’s not.” I got to my meeting and had to wait at security for over ten minutes before they came to get me. But that left me standing in the parking lot, looking out over the San Francisco Bay on a beautiful sunny morning watching geese fly into the bay, fantastic.
The meeting turned out to be really good. The folks I were meeting with were really competent and forward thinking, they even had reasonable timeline expectations for the projecct we’re contemplating putting together, it was great. Then as I was leaving they asked me about some other things I’d mentioned and I ended up picking up two potential side gigs and a management coaching client. So all in all a really great meeting.
I then had a coaching session with one of my favorite clients this afternoon and we had a really fantastic session. I had a great lunch and got in a short walk in campus. A couple of draggy afternoon meetings and then I made a decision. It had been such a good day I decided to reward myself and picked up ice cream on the way home and made a wonderful root beer float to celebrate a really good day.
It’s important when you’re not feeling great to take action. Address the triggers that you know impact your mood, lack of sleep is probably the number one trigger that I know tanks my mood. But action is important and finally, it really matters to celebrate good things. Even if it’s just a minor thing like a good day after a rough time, celebrate, be happy, this is your one and only life. Have a happy day my friends. ~ Rev Kane
We are tied to the ocean. And when we go back to the sea, whether it is to sail or to watch – we are going back from whence we came. ~ John F Kennedy
Three Questions, January 7, 2025
You can find the background to The Three Questions in my recent post about it. I’ll be answering the questions each day for the next year and putting this experience into a book. Here we go!
What was the most beautiful thing I encountered today?
This morning I had a meeting out near the airport with a local industry. They were delayed in coming to the front gate to get me for the meeting, so that left me standing in the parking lot looking out over the San Francisco Bay on a gorgeous sunny morning, geese honking and flying in, absolutely beautiful.
What did I learn today?
Today I nerded out on a topic that I really find fascinating, sending a craft to a nearby star system. The idea is that we could send a very small probe, like the size of Voyager 1, to Alpha Centauri in about 40 years by deploying wings that would catch light particles and then drive the probe to near the speed of light by hitting it with a high powered beam of light, amazing.
What made me happy today?
Today was a good day, I was sent to a meeting that everyone else bowed out from, it was essentially a dump on me because no one thought it was important. Well, turned out to be a really good meeting, and I definitely got the last laugh, I picked up two side gigs and a management coaching client from the meeting, cha ching! I decided to bracket the day and ended it with a root beer float, it was fantastic.
You can find the background to The Three Questions in my recent post about it. I’ll be answering the questions each day for the next year and putting this experience into a book. Here we go!
What was the most beautiful thing I encountered today?
It was a particularly active day at my hummingbird feeder and the most beautiful thing I saw today was a gorgeous ruby throated hummingbird at my feeder.
What did I learn today?
What I learned today was that in order to be a gargoyle there must be a water supply, if there’s no water supply it’s technically called a grotesque.
What made me happy today?
A really quiet Monday, first actual Monday back from vacation. No significant drama, no one drove me crazy just a day to get work done.
Real misanthropes are not found in solitude, but in the world; since it is experience of life, and not philosophy, which produces real hatred of mankind. ~ Giacomo Leopardi
a person who dislikeshumankind and avoids human society.”Scrooge wasn’t the mean-spirited misanthrope most of us believe him to be”
I start out with this definition tonight because honestly it’s who I am. And there are days, like the one on which I’m writing this post where my misanthropic nature takes over my mood and my life for a day. Honestly it’s not usually a large thing that tips me over the edge but the death of my soul by paper cuts. Over the last couple of days, it didn’t help that it was a super Monday. I digress, I call the first day back to work after a long weekend or vacation a super Monday, regardless of what day of the week it happens to be. So first it’s a super Monday, then someone was in my parking spot which forced me to park in a spot that I had to be out of very early in the morning. Which meant I didn’t get shit for sleep, woke up to rain that I didn’t expect. Went out for breakfast, server had no idea what they were doing and I made the error of giving them a twenty and change for a nineteen and change bill. They were baffled and gave me back completely incorrect change, honestly the change should have been a single dollar. Then there were all of the standard idiot drivers and it all just stacked up to kill my mood.
These are the days when staying happy is really hard. So you have to do the things you know you need to do. You eat well, you exercise and for me, most of all, you get enough sleep. And of course as an introvert and a raging misanthrope, you stay the hell away from people until you get right again. That’s where I’m at today.
This is one of the reasons that doing the three questions exercise is so important. On a day like today, it’s a heavy lift, but sitting down and writing that simple post was a good reminder, that even on a shitty, rainy, super Monday there was beauty, there was learning and I did find at least a little happiness. I hope you did as well today my friends. ~ Rev Kane
There’s no better feeling in the world than a warm pizza box on your lap.~ Kevin James
Three Questions, January 5, 2024
You can find the background to The Three Questions in my recent post about it. I’ll be answering the questions each day for the next year and putting this experience into a book. Here we go!
What was the most beautiful thing I encountered today?
Today on my walk around San Francisco I came across an amazing sculpture. It was an angel, but it was an imperfect angel which somehow made it all that more beautiful.
What did I learn today?
I don’t like what I learned today. A pizza place I really like shutdown one of it’s location and moved to a new one. I went to check it out today and it’s a takeout only place with no seating and there is nowhere near it to conveniently sit. They don’t serve slices so this was a real disappointment.
What made me happy today?
After my disappointing learning experience I did a five mile round trip walk to go to another location of this pizza place and have a very lovely pizza.
The Ministry of Happiness 