enjoy.
Author: Pete (Page 3 of 3)
I would recommend two things: Youtube: “Angry Kid”. Look for the clips with the wierd red-headed youth. And secondly, go to CBS.com and look at the Creature Comforts full episodes (20 minutes, approximately). Not quite as good as the British version, but nevertheless an interesting social commentary. There is a funny little bit about art in the last third. Enjoy.
There, I’ve said it. I think Harry is a Horcrux. discuss…
I attended the funeral service yesterday for Bob Hapgood, Sr. He was of course a neighbor of mine and the father to Tony and Bobby, childhood friends.
His death was sudden and unexpected, but the result ultimately of a food habit. Bob had heart surgery several years ago and had a recent heart attack. As his wife, Jeanne, said, “he went in for the surgery and never came home from the hospital.”
I admit it was a tougher loss than I thought it might be, to see the effects on the kids, my friends, eyes welling, but holding back the floods, bravely soldiering on. Bob was a local celebrity and apparently everyone’s friend; what seemed like the entire town reportedly showed for the viewing of the body the night before.  The wait was over two hours for the entire two hours the viewing was open. I saw the Shotts’ at the funeral service, which was a pleasant surprise.
I have been doing a lot of reflection as we are prone to do in these instances. Bob was 65 — just a couple of years older than my father. The boys are a year older and a year younger than myself. I wonder if I am putting enough into living for the moment, and putting enough of myself into all of the important relationships in my life.
I have also been thinking about the lyrics of the song on Deathcab’s CD, “What Sara Said” and what a powerful piece that is.
Two things today. First- I have been unsuccessful in reading the protected blogs even with the password. I get a blank screen when I attempt to look at them. If anyone else has had this problem or knows how to fix it regardless, I would be interested in some assistance. I am curious about who passed.
Secondly- about the Myers-Briggs. What I would like to do with these is more of a self-analysis piece. I think it would be really interesting and possibly a growth experience to be able to compare how we see ourselves compared to how our close friends see us. So with the information provided by the tests (which I must add, I am not qualified necessarily to interpret), I would encourage each of you to read the descriptions provided in the connected sites and find a few things you agree strongly with about yourselves and some things you might disagree with and, if willing, submit those to the rest of us to dialogue about. My thinking is that this will provide a little information to others about what we percieve about ourselves and also some feedback; so it may be beneficial both ways.
Another interesting thing I have come accross lately has to do with the show Gilligan’s Island. Which character do you most identify with and why. Will provide more on this later.
Here is the recipe you have all been pining for:
Earl Grey Tea Cookies (makes 6 dozen)
2 c. all purpose flour
1/2 c. granulated sugar
2 T. Earl Grey tea leaves (or two tea bags)
1/2 t. salt
1 t. pure vanilla extract
1 c. unsalted butter, cut into pieces
Heat oven to 375 degrees. Pulse together all the dry ingredients in a food processor until the tea leaves are pulverized. Add the vanilla, 1 t. water, and the butter. Pulse together until a dough is formed. Divide the dough in half. Place each half on a sheet of plastic wrap and roll into a 12 inch log, about 2 inches in diameter. Wrap and chill for 30 minutes. Slice each log into discs, 1/3 inch thick. Place on parchment or foil-lined baking sheets, 2 inches apart. Bake until the edges are just brown, about 12 minutes. Let cool on sheets for 5 minutes, then transfer to wire rack. Enjoy!
FYI, for our allergy-ridden friends, mangos are in the cashew family.
OK, so here is my first post in a while- a two-parter.
I have recently been thinking in systems theories, particularly as they partain to groups like ours. How closely does life imitate art, I ponder. In a system, each part of that system serves a function and hopefully the whole of the system is able to obtain homeostasis, that is to say, a conistancy in functioning. Our group, I would contend has been consistent over time to a degree, and has righted itself here and there over the years. So, when TV shows, movies, and theater is written, one wonders how much of what they are trying to capture could be represented in our little group. What I would suggest is that this may occur more than we think.
An interesting little experiment we might do here is to have each person consider the cast of a few shows and movies and submit them to me. Feel free to add shows, or movies we might all have some degree of familiarity with. What I would be interested in is:
1) how we see ourselves; what roles we envision ourselves in
2) how others see us
3) how well those match.
This may give us some clues as to some of the roles we fulfill with in the structure of our group. Some obvious shows: Star Trek (original and next generation), Lost, U2 (not a written cast, but a group whose members function as a system), Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, M*A*S*H*, the Office. Maybe we want to choose 2 or three to get started. Suggestions? Send them to me this week, and I will tally and report on them next Monday. I am also open to any suggestions on how to better this experiment.
The next line of business is not related with any intention to the first. I would submit that we all look at taking 5 minutes and filling out a Myers-Briggs test. Human Metrics has one that has a number of questions which should provide some validity to the project. This is strictly for fun only, and does not have any problematic mental health implications. This is a test used primarily by psychologists and is a fun way to compare what the test says about personality traits so we might compare how that measures up with observation of self and others. Really not much more than a conversation peice which may give everyone a little insight about themselves and how they function and work, what strengths they might have. I would be interested to get feedback on how whether or not everyone feels the tool is accurate or inaccurate and why. There are several of these on line, and they are not the actual test, but my experience has been that they are fairly predictive in capturing the flavor of the test. This one is a little longer than the others which should help create more validity. There are no right answers just how you feel. being honest with yourself and not playing to the bias that you feel the questionare is seeking is most likely to result in the most accurate tabulations. I took it and will take it again after I post to see if my result is consistent again. I was an INTJ.
Here is one more if you get bored or want to compare your result to another test.I am looking forward to hearing what you guys find out. By the way, Happy New Year to all.
OK, here’s the deal: We have been negotiating this to some extent and realize that we will not be able to please everyone. We realize that not everyone will be able to work this into their schedules, as busy as they all are, but we would like very much to extend a welcome to the Peters’ abode for some holdiay cheer. The date: 12-23-06. The time: anytime after lunch. I believe we will have some kind of dinner celebration in the evening and maybe play some games or bocce or visit Coronado or the Lester Raymer studio or something during the afternoon. Please let me how many of you are available so we can start to plan. We may have some very special plans, but those are still in the works and may not pan out. In the event you are unavailable, I wish you the best; otherwise please RSVP. If anyone has suggestions which do not include changing said date and time please feel free to let me know. Tob, please feel free to edit, format, and generally spruce up this document as you like. cheers. Looking forward to seeing as many of you as can make it.
For those who want a de ja vu moment- check this out: I decided to check out what website out there bears my name and went to www.jeffpeters.com. I found a strikingly familiar website. a blog that made me wonder if tob was running the universe, or if i was in an episode of Lost. I am serious give this thing a try before it changes up. strange.
I realize this comment will be lost on many of you, but it is time to make my annual appeal. I know TV ranks very low in most of our lists, but I have one guilty pleasure I wait all year for, the TV series, Lost.
Tob, help me out here.
Sept.27 is the first showing for the season (actually, a recapping of events so far.). Now, I am not a big fan of recap shows, but this would offer a chance to get in and get caught up (as well as one can be, the show has just too many layers, plots, subplots, and sub-subplots all related in an impacting way to the main plot.)
This show is written to be completed in a 5 year timeline and acts as a giant , multi-dimensional puzzle. Every show leaves you guessing, hypothesizing and re-hypothisizing. It is an incredible mental exercise, and I would encourage one and all to give it a trial run.
…No, the cheesy narration is not a show mainstay, but must be included to sum up actions which may have occured over several episodes, so bear with it.
Tob, would you agree that JE is the John Locke of the group?
Time is elastic, I heard once. I always believed this thought to have some merit.
Recent posts about time and how we spend it got me thinking. Is it truly about how we spend it, or how we experience it? Good times go quickly, bad times seem to move more slowly — that is, if you believe in good and bad times. Or is it all just time, experienced as we choose?
I have no answers, but I do have a recent observation: I should have been careful what I wished for, for now I have it. I have a job I love, a wife I love, a dog I love, and a dozen or so activities I wish I could spend more time doing. Every minute is marrow. There are no scraps anymore, and time feels as though it is whizzing by faster than I can experience it. No longer do I have the sour, which emphasizes the sweet. No longer is there a sweet anticipation of good things to come, simply because it is all good now. Is this a better quality of life?
I certainly never feel like there is an opportunity to rest and reflect; to enjoy the subtleties of my introversion. I think back to the days where I was in class, looking forward to evening activities, dinner, a bike ride. It was as though i got to savor those events, both in the mind and then the reality. Gone maybe is the savoring of the mind.
I am not saying I am unhappy, just that things were good in a very different way.
Thoughts???
Think about it, folks. Cheesy, campy, self-agrandising, astonishingly sub-par musical talent, a huge, I mean huge, cult following. Amanda pointed this out to me. I think it rings true.Â
 I noticed today that a real cool looking building in town here is for sale. It is the old baptist church building. I think you can view it on Rolanderrealty.com (or some such site). They want 140,000. Think about it, we could start our own artist colony, our own compound. We could raise our kids there, safe from the world. We could homeschool and buy all our crap at sam’s in bulk and have it delivered; shut ourselves in from the outside world while we slowly go insane!Â
…but safe from what scientists will refer to as the “hasslehoff effect”, that which brought upon us the end. With a whimper, indeed! My whimpering, and the whimpering of billions, whimpering away in choir of whimperieness. Or we could all just keep doing the stuff that makes us happy and pretend that hasslehoff isn’t real. Your choice, but I know he is real. I know what he is doing. slowly, to all of us.Â
Look at the hidden messages within the video, but don’t look to long, alas you will be sucked in, too. converted to his minions. stay safe tonight.   Â
I must begin as is the ritual now with, “very interesting”.Â
all the blogs so far are really, truly fascinating. So difficult to express so much in so few words.Â
I think the heart of the matter is context. it is nearly impossible, to dissect our time, analyse it, and make conclusions which really capture all there is to be captured in the subjective experience. A person can only write so many words to describe the indescribable, the billions of molecular-level interactions which make up any subjective experience. Is it a bike ride, or is it a moment of zen, a time when the subconscious goes on auto-pilot, freeing the mind and body to just experience.
Great stuff on the BTOP. I fear that there are many things we have loved that we can never go back to. Many movies, books, toys, games, etc (can read a lot into the etc) that just do not stand the test of time. How many times have we gone to the video store to fill our evenings with these visions of yesteryear, these fond memories of days gone by only to realize that our memories of such things are far superior than the actual product. And isn’t it a great awkward moment when we share these formerly retired gifts with our friends and loved ones only to find the levels of suckitude have risen steadily over the years. I think sometimes it is better to have the recollections versus the re-experience. I glad our friendships have endured and aged well. We are a little more like fine wine than, say, Krull, or Tron. Anyway, as I take this second to reflect on BTOP or G-Force or whatever it is, I wonder if we have or might consider notifying one Jerod C S Morris. This might be the kind of thing to reconnect some stray connections.
Tob- your proposal strikes me as inticing to say the least. We will be back from Boston around Oct. 13, so shouldn’t have problems making the trip.
One of you may have to clue this old technophobe into how to post photos and images. I want to play, too!
This is truly fantastic. What a wonderous tool! Ned, was great to see you, even briefly, while you were down. Thanks for stopping through. I have to admit that I am intrigued by your line of questions while at the Stieben’s and feel as though we did not get to finish the conversation. If you have additional questions, please let me know and I will get you any additional information/resources you need.
Tober- You da man! excellent work, my friend. Thanks for going the extra mile. As Shotts might say, you are the best of us.
Shotts- schedule is the following- Monday through friday (varies slightly) up at 6:30 or so, walk the dog, get ready for work and depart at 7:30. Arrive and begin work at 8. See 4-8 clients per day, have lunch with Amanda at noon and commute home at 5:30. Work in garden, read, ride my bike or make dinner from 6-9. Walk the puppy again. Watch “good eats” at 10 and asleep at 10:30. Weekends have been very different and there has been no steady routine. will let you know more when we get things settled. If you want more information, let me know.
Jeeves- I hope we get to see you over the holidays, and that all continues to be as well as possible with your family and Lizzo’s.
Cheers, Mates.
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