COMPASSION

Affirmation of life is the spiritual act by which man ceases to live thoughtlessly and begins to devote himself to his life
with reverence in order to give it true value.
— Albert Schweitzer

12/18/2024

Queen - These Are The Days Of Our Lives

 

Queen's song "These Are The Days Of Our Lives" strikes a chord with the universal experience of nostalgia, reflecting on youth, love, and memories12. Written by Roger Taylor, it took on new meaning when Freddie Mercury recorded it while battling AIDS2. The song serves as a gentle yet piercing reminder of mortality and the moments that define us3.


Queen - These Are The Days Of Our Lives ]


Sometimes I get to feelin' I was back in the old days, long ago

When we were kids, when we were young

Things seemed so perfect, you know?

The days were endless, we were crazy, we were young

The sun was always shinin', we just lived for fun

Sometimes it seems like lately, I just don't know

The rest of my life's been just a show


[Chorus]

Those were the days of our lives

The bad things in life were so few

Those days are all gone now, but one thing is true

When I look and I find I still love you


[Verse 2]

You can't turn back the clock, you can't turn back the tide

Ain't that a shame?

Ooh, I'd like to go back one time on a roller coaster ride

When life was just a game

No use in sittin' and thinkin' on what you did

When you can lay back and enjoy it through your kids

Sometimes it seems like lately, I just don't know

Better sit back and go with the flow


[Chorus]

'Cause these are the days of our lives

They've flown in the swiftness of time

These days are all gone now, but some things remain

When I look and I find no change

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12/16/2024

Eminem = Lose Yourself Lyrics

 

Eminem

Lose Yourself Lyrics

[Intro]

Look, if you had one shot or one opportunity

To seize everything you ever wanted in one moment

Would you capture it or just let it slip?

Yo


His palms are sweaty, knees weak, arms are heavy

There's vomit on his sweater already, mom's spaghetti

He's nervous, but on the surface, he looks calm and ready

To drop bombs, but he keeps on forgetting

What he wrote down, the whole crowd goes so loud

He opens his mouth, but the words won't come out

He's chokin', how? Everybody's jokin' now

The clock's run out, time's up, over, blaow

Snap back to reality, ope, there goes gravity

Ope, there goes Rabbit, he choked, he's so mad

But he won't give up that easy, no, he won't have it

He knows his whole back's to these ropes, it don't matter

He's dope, he knows that, but he's broke, he's so stagnant

He knows when he goes back to this mobile home, that's when it's

Back to the lab again, yo, this old rhapsody

Better go capture this moment and hope it don't pass him


[Chorus]

You better lose yourself in the music

The moment, you own it, you better never let it go (Go)

You only get one shot, do not miss your chance to blow

This opportunity comes once in a lifetime, yo

You better lose yourself in the music

The moment, you own it, you better never let it go (Go)

You only get one shot, do not miss your chance to blow

This opportunity comes once in a lifetime, yo

You bette




Lose Yourself is a song by Eminem that expresses the emotions and challenges of pursuing a rap career. The song is the theme song for the film 8 Mile, which is based on Eminem's own life story. The song is about having one shot and being able to take it, despite the fear and doubt that may arise. The song also reflects Eminem's determination to overcome his obstacles and achieve his dreams.

Carpe Diem

All in all, “Lose Yourself” is truly an inspirational song. Owing to this, the lyrics do nothing but motivate and inspire listeners. They encourage listeners to lose themselves in the moment and endeavor not to miss the golden opportunities that life presents them with.




 

Eminem

https://youtu.be/tR1ECf4sEpw



12/14/2024

William Burroughs

 


❝ To me the most unforgivable sin is lying because, like counterfeit money, it devalues the truth. ❞


 —William Burroughs



11/28/2024

Overcome Procrastination

 


In the eternal battle against procrastination, here are some tips to help you overcome it:


Set Clear Goals: Break down tasks into smaller, manageable steps. It’s easier to start on something small than to tackle a huge project all at once.


Create a Schedule: Plan your day and stick to it. Allocate specific times for work and breaks to maintain a balance.


Remove Distractions: Identify what typically distracts you (social media, TV, etc.) and find ways to minimize these interruptions while you work.


Prioritize Tasks: Focus on the most important tasks first. Sometimes starting with what’s most daunting can make everything else seem easier.


Use the Pomodoro Technique: Work for 25 minutes, then take a 5-minute break. Repeat this cycle four times, then take a longer break. This helps maintain focus and reduces burnout.


Find Motivation: Remind yourself of the reasons why you need to complete the task. Visualizing the end result can sometimes provide the push you need.


Reward Yourself: Give yourself small rewards for completing tasks. It can be something simple like a treat or a short break.


Stay Positive: Don’t beat yourself up for procrastinating. Instead, acknowledge it and focus on making progress from that point forward.


Seek Support: Sometimes, talking about your challenges with a friend or a mentor can provide new insights and encouragement.


Remember, it's all about building new habits and being kind to yourself during the process. You’ve got this!


Feel free to share if there's a specific task you're struggling with, and we can brainstorm more targeted strategies.




11/27/2024

Life Is Short:

 


  


 

 Dr. McGarey shares her six actionable secrets to enjoying lives that are long, happy, and purpose-driven:


-Spend your energy wildly: How to embrace your life fully and feel motivated every day.


-All life needs to move: How to move—spiritually, mentally, and physically—to help let go of trauma and other roadblocks.


-You are here for a reason: How to find the everyday “juice” that helps you stay oriented in your life’s purpose.


-You are never alone: How to build a community that’s meaningful to you.


-Everything is your teacher: Discover the deep learnings that come from pain and setbacks.


-Love is the most powerful medicine: Learn to love yourself—and others—into healing.


Life Is Short: 103-Year-Old Shares 5 Lessons For The Next 50 Years Of Your Life | Gladys McGarey




11/26/2024

“A goal is a dream with a deadline” Napoleon Hill



“A goal is a dream with a deadline” means that to increase the chances of achieving a dream you need to assign a deadline to it. You also need to get clear on what your dream looks like, so you can turn it into a goal, and then develop a specific plan for that goal.


Napoleon Hill



Warren Buffett

 


Warren Buffett: "I tell students ... if they just learn to communicate better — both in writing and in person — they increase their value at least 50%."


"If you can't communicate with somebody, it's like winking at a girl in the dark. Nothing happens."



11/24/2024

AI Can Save Humanity—Or End It

 


AI Can Save Humanity—Or End It

The age of Homo technicus could generate profound intellectual advances and solutions to our gravest problems. But first we need to ensure that it doesn’t kill us off.

Genesis: Artificial Intelligence, Hope, and the Human Spirit

By Henry A. Kissinger, Eric Schmidt, and Craig Mundie

In his final book, the late Henry Kissinger joins forces with two leading technologists to mount “a profound exploration” (Walter Isaacson) of the epochal challenges and opportunities presented by the revolution in Artificial Intelligence: a breakthrough that dramatically empowers people in all walks of life while also raising urgent questions about the future of humanity.

 

As it absorbs data, gains agency, and intermediates between humans and reality, AI (Artificial Intelligence) will help us to address enormous crises, from climate change to geopolitical conflicts to income inequality. It might well solve some of the greatest mysteries of our universe and elevate the human spirit to unimaginable heights. But it will also pose challenges on a scale and of an intensity that we have never seen—usurping our power of independent judgment and action, testing our relationship with the divine, and perhaps even spurring a new phase in human evolution.

 

The last book of elder statesman Henry Kissinger, written with technologists Craig Mundie and Eric Schmidt, Genesis charts a course between blind faith and unjustified fear as it outlines an effective strategy for navigating the age of AI.

https://www.amazon.ca/Genesis-Artificial-Intelligence-Human-Spirit/dp/0316581291/ref=sr_1_1?dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.yy8e7zhzKsnOo9Sp_Z0dww.vnB5tnOBEfqrAN8hbuyQDoJ5VVuQFmtudabYV80LUi8&dib_tag=se&qid=1732472172&refinements=p_27%3ACraig+Mundie&s=books&sr=1-1&text=Craig+Mundie

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2024/11/ai-genesis-excerpt-kissinger-schmidt-mundie/680619/



Bob Dylan - Visions of Johanna (Official Audio)









Bob Dylan - Visions of Johanna (Official Audio)

4.2M views · Mar. 11, 2019
YouTube · BobDylanVEVO

Lyrics

Ain't it just like the night to play tricks
When you're trying to be so quiet?
We sit here stranded though we're all doing our best to deny it
And Louise holds a handful of rain tempting you to defy it

Lights flicker from the opposite loft
In this room the heat pipes just cough
The country music station plays soft
But there's nothing, really nothing to turn off

Just Louise and her lover, so entwined
And these visions of Johanna that conquer my mind

In the empty lot where the ladies play
Blind man's bluff with the key chain
And the all-night girls
They whisper of escapades out on the D-train
We can hear the night-watch man click his flashlight
Ask himself if it's him or them that's insane

Louise, she's alright, she's just near
She's delicate and seems like the mirror
But she just makes it all to concise and too clear
That Johanna's not here

The ghost of electricity howls in the bones of her face
Where these visions of Johanna have now taken my place

And now little boy lost, he takes himself so seriously
He brags of his misery, he likes to live dangerously
And when bringing her name up, he speaks of a farewell kiss to me
He's sure got a lot of gall to be so useless and all
Muttering small talk at the wall while I'm in the hall

Oh, how can I explain, it's so hard to get on?
And these visions of Johanna, they've kept me up past the dawn

Inside the museums infinity goes up on trial
Voices echo, "This is what salvation must be like after a while"
But Mona Lisa must have had the highway blues
You can tell by the way she smiles

See the primitive wallflower freeze
When the jelly-faced women all sneeze
Hear the one with the mustache say
"Jeez, I can't find my knees"

Both jewels and binoculars hang from the head of the mule
But these visions of Johanna, they make it all seem so cruel

The peddler now speaks to the countess
Who's pretending to care for him
Saying, "Name me someone that's not a parasite
And I'll go out and say a prayer for him"
But like Louise always says, "You can't look at much, can you man as she herself prepares for him?"

And Madonna, she still has not showed
We see this empty cage now corrode
Where her cape of the stage once had flowed
The fiddler, he now steps to the road
He writes, "Everything's been returned which was owed"
On the back of the fish truck that loads while my conscience explodes

The harmonicas play the skeleton keys and the rain
And these visions of Johanna are now all that remain

Songwriters: Bob Dylan
For non-commercial use only.

https://youtu.be/AwuCF5lYqEE?si=8v3ZIlLCCR-wa7U6


11/08/2024

Envy

 


Charlie Munger liked to say, "Envy is a really stupid sin because it’s the only one you could never possibly have any fun at."



11/07/2024

There is always reason for Hope.

  


There is always reason for Hope.  For instance, it was during his decade-long period of intense creativity and writing, often marred by solitude and illness, that Nietzsche produced his most significant works and developed the philosophical ideas he’s known for today. 

Remind yourself that with hope there is always a way through the pain.

Freidrich Nietzsche’s quote, “He who has a why to live can bear almost any how,” is a reflection of these ideas. The ‘why’ represents our purpose in life – our driving force, our will to power. The ‘how’ signifies the means, the path, the challenges, and the sufferings we encounter in our journey towards that purpose. According to Nietzsche, if one has a purpose (‘why’), they can endure almost any difficulty or hardship (‘how’) in achieving it. This sentiment echoes his belief in the redemptive, empowering aspect of suffering and its essential role in human life.


The quote reinforces Nietzsche’s philosophy that life is not about the pursuit of happiness or avoidance of pain but about the pursuit of a purpose, of a meaningful existence. And it is through this pursuit that one exercises their will to power.


Even in a modern context, Nietzsche’s quote holds considerable relevance. In our fast-paced, often chaotic world, finding a ‘why’ – a purpose or goal – can provide a sense of direction, a framework to make sense of the chaos and adversity we may encounter.

The quote is especially poignant when considering contemporary discussions about mental health and resilience. Psychologists emphasize the importance of having a purpose or goal to motivate us, to give us reasons to overcome difficulties, much in the same vein as Nietzsche’s assertion. Furthermore, the idea that hardship and suffering can foster growth and resilience is a key component of many modern psychological theories, such as post-traumatic growth.

Nietzsche’s philosophy, encapsulated in this quote, continues to impact modern philosophical thought, psychological theories, and popular culture. His ideas challenge us to seek our purpose and embrace the struggles we face in its pursuit, emphasizing that our ‘why’ can empower us to endure any ‘how’. This thought has endured and will continue to inspire people to seek meaning beyond mere happiness or comfort, shaping our understanding of human existence and resilience.


Read more:

https://quotesexplained.com/he-who-has-a-why-to-live-can-bear-almost-any-how/


Agency Is the Highest Level of Personal Competence

 


 
Agency Is the Highest Level of Personal Competence

Whatever your level, you can hold steady, decline, or grow.

Feeling that you have agency is nice. But feeling agentic falls far short of exercising agency—thinking and behaving competently and making real progress toward your desired goals.

To exercise agency is to acquire significant control over your outcomes in life’s various arenas, including school, work, sports, physical health, and psychological well-being.


The Four Pillars of Personal Agency

Full-fledged agency requires believing you can achieve your goal and engaging in the following activities:

1. Forethought: deciding to take on a challenge, thinking ahead, setting goals, and making plans.
2. Implementation: taking first steps, enacting plans, and persisting toward success.

3. Self-management: taking care of yourself, dealing with emotions and stress, and maintaining good health to sustain your efforts.

4. Learning and adapting: monitoring progress, rethinking strategies and tactics, and making effective adjustments.

Thoughtfully executing all four pillars of agency contributes to your personal and professional growth while helping you perform over time. 
Agency is thus a vital source of power, a capability, a competence that can contribute to your overall well-being.
 

Read more:
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/getting-proactive/202203/agency-is-the-highest-level-personal-competence?msockid=1dd14bd34e546e2c051d5a524ff76f4f



10/29/2024

Robert A. Heinlein says, I alone am morally responsible for everything I do.

 



“I am free, no matter what rules surround me. If I find them tolerable, I tolerate them; if I find them too obnoxious, I break them. I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do.”

—Robert A. Heinlein



10/20/2024

Harry Belafonte - Try To Remember (live) 1997




  

Harry Belafonte - Try To Remember (live) 1997

https://youtu.be/IFaPImOyGa8?si=hBdF2v3dH2kyZDl1


Try to Remember 

Lyrics by Thomas Collins Jones (February 17, 1928 – August 11, 2023) was an American lyricist and librettist


Try to remember the kind of September

When life was slow and oh, so mellow

Try to remember the kind of September

When grass was green and grain was yellow

Try to remember the kind of September

When you were a tender and callow fellow

Try to remember and if you remember

Then follow, follow


Try to remember when life was so tender

That no one wept except the willow

Try to remember the kind of September

When love was an ember about to billow

Try to remember and if you remember

Then follow, follow


Deep in December, it's nice to remember

Although you know the snow will follow

Deep in December, it's nice to remember

The fire of September that made us mellow

Deep in December, our hearts should remember


"Try to Remember" is a song about nostalgia[1] from the musical comedy play The Fantasticks (1960). It is the first song performed in the show, encouraging the audience to imagine what the sparse set suggests. The words were written by the American lyricist Tom Jones while Harvey Schmidt composed the music.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Try_to_Remember

https://youtu.be/IFaPImOyGa8?si=hBdF2v3dH2kyZDl1


ADHD

 


ADHD can affect the brain's ability to plan, prioritise, focus and execute tasks. Key characteristics include inattentiveness, impulsivity and hyperactivity.



Civilized Life

 




“Civilized life, you know, is based on a huge number of illusions in which we all collaborate willingly. The trouble is we forget after a while that they are illusions and we are deeply shocked when reality is torn down around us.”

― J.G. Ballard