Cool Inventions

Time Magazine just did a review of some of the cool inventions of 2005. Here is a list of my favorites:
(1) A very cool alarm watch that will only wake you during your light sleep cycle.
(2) Sport shade contact lenses for street hockey (and other outdoor sports).
(3) Space ants(!), for all astronauts with an interest in myrmecology.
(4) More automatic vacuums. Humans weren’t meant to clean.
(5) Dancing robots, for those of us who can’t find human partners.
(6) Vehicles that run on something else, what took them so long?
(7) Transportable pianos… although Marsha was skeptical of their functionality.

... The future will certainly be an interesting place. I hope I live to see much of it.

Reading, Working, & Meditating

So what have I been doing in all the time since my last post? Well, the title says it all.

Meditation

What I’d really like to know is:

Readers, what do you know about meditating? Especially, transcendental meditation (TM)?

I’ve been to the main websites, so I already know most of that, but I’m curious: Have any of you had first-hand experience with it? Either meditate, or know someone who does?

I’m considering paying to learn TM, but it’s a little pricey, so I’d appreciate a little more info on the matter before I go spending my money.

Reading

I’m reading at least 5 books simultaneously, because I find I get more enjoyment from reading that way. Two are health related, and the other three are more spiritual sort of books. Here is what is on my reading list:

Health

1. Fantastic Voyage: Live Long enough to Live Forever by Ray Kurzweil & Terry Grossman (2004)
2. The Okinawa Diet Plan: Get Leaner, Live Longer, and Never Feel Hungry by Bradley Willcox, D. Craig Willcox (2003ish?)

Spiritual

3. The Problem of the Soul: Two Visions of Mind and How to Reconcile Them by Owen Flanagan’s (2002).
4. Cosmic Voyage: A Scientific Discovery of Extraterrestrials visiting Earth (e-book), by Courtney Brown (1996)
5. Message given by ETs & Extra-Terrestrials took me to their Planet (e-books) by Rael (1998)

Of all five books, I think I am probably enjoying book 2 and 4 the most. I would write more, but I have work to get back to. Feel free to ask me for more information on any of these books.

Work

Sigh… hi ho, hi ho, off I go!