Words to Ponder: Feb. 17, 2010

“We are always getting ready to live, but never living.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Last week while working at the Pork Palace, I gashed my thumb open when a wine stem I was carrying broke in my hand. I was rushing to fill a drink order, and the next thing I knew I was hurriedly searching from something to stem the flow of blood and a broom to sweep up the broken glass. It was a messy cut, and I'm still not quite sure how it happened.

Although I may not know how the glass broke, I know for certain why. I was rushing to finish one task so I could get to another one, and not paying attention to what was right in front of me. A little more mindfulness, and I wouldn't be out twenty bucks for bandages, gauze, and topical antibiotic, and the Pork Palace would have one more wine glass in inventory.

Of course, the incident with my thumb is just one example of how attention and focus would have made my life a little easier. I'm guilty of not being mindful all the time, especially when I'm doing something that doesn't interest me or is in some ways a "mindless" task. I'll be washing the dishes, and my mind will wander off in all kinds of directions. I might start thinking of what I have to do next, or an old college friend, or who knows what else. In general, if I don't focus my attention, I'll think of anything and everything except what is right in front of me.

The funny thing is that when I'm actually focused on the task in front of me, whatever it is becomes more enjoyable and I do a better job. It is simply a matter of paying attention.

I think Emerson is saying much of the same. As humans, we're always looking for what's next instead of what's now, thinking of what else we have to do instead of being attentive to what's in front of us.

That kind of thinking keeps us from embracing the moment and living to the fullest. When we point our effort at the now, we actually start living. Being in the here and now is what it's all about.

So if I can offer any advice, it is this: Start paying attention and start living. Now. It's a great feeling.

Turning the FM dial yet again

Anyone from the Birmingham area reading this likely knows that Live 100.5 FM is going off the air. Citadel Communications, in a business move, is changing the station's format from adult alternative music to talk radio in an attempt to gain more listeners.

When news of the change hit facebook, a semi-uprising took place online and I am certain the powers that be at Citadel dread opening their e-mail inboxes these days. It was an impressive display, but despite the best efforts of the station's fans, I'm fairly certain I heard the last human being on the station yesterday when Scott register signed off from his "Reg's Coffeehouse" show.

It's a shame, plain and simple.

My favorite station from the past, K-99, went off the air when I was a teenager, and since then I've paid little attention to the Birmingham airwaves. Until Live 100.5 came on the air. That one station came the closest to bringing back the spirit of that old station, taking chances with music and exposing listeners to new music. It was a breath of fresh air in an atmosphere dominated by Bubbas and raving sports call-in hosts.

Of course, there are the obvious reasons why I'll miss the station. Live 100.5 broadcast good music for grown-ups. Scott Register is a fantastic on-air personality. The station brought bands to Birmingham that normally wouldn't give the town a second glance.

But losing the station reaches me on a deeper level as well. In a world that is so busy all the time, and with so much that people have to do, we all need a little joy and peace in our lives. Good music can help with that, like any other art. The derisiveness and hyperbole of talk radio (right wing radio, at that) doesn't fill that need. It's just more blather. We've got plenty of that already. But Citadel sees a chance to make a better return, so a city that needs all the joy it can get is losing it in favor of Sean Hannity. Sigh.

So, thanks, Live 100.5. You were a good station, and you'll be missed. I hope someone else will pick up your standard. We need it.

Five sites I can't live without(other than the obvious ones)

There are a lot of websites out there, but I wanted to list a few I can't live without (not counting e-mail, facebook, Twitter or Google -- those are given). Some of these are related to my creative endeavors, some are just for fun. But you will always find these in my bookmarks file.

1. last.fm

It seems like everybody is working with Pandora these days, but for now -- at least until I find time to let Pandora figure out my musical tastes -- last.fm is the internet radio station for me. Type in an artist, and bam! You get an entire radio station built around that artist. You can also create stations built around more than one artist. As far as internet radio goes, I'm first for last.

2. Dictionary.com

I know, I know, there's nothing like a giant-sized hardbound volume of the Oxford English Dictionary sitting on the shelf to impress people with your reference book collection. But when I'm working on the computer, dictionary.com does the job just fine. I use the thesaurus feature more often than the dictionary, and I find that it serves me well.

3. bit.ly

When I first got onto twitter, I sent a direct message to one of my friends asking what all the "bit.ly" links went to. There's nothing quite like showing your ignorance when you're first starting out. I quickly learned that if you're going to share your life in 140 characters, you need something to shorten your hyperlinks. Bit.ly is it. I love this link shortener, especially they way it tracks clicks on your links. It gives me a thrill to see people actually clicking on the link to this blog moments after I upload a new post.

4. Media Matters for America

Last year, when the healthcare debate started heating up, many of my conservative friends started spewing out all kinds of figures and rhetoric, much of it gleaned from talk radio and Fox News. Media Matters, headed by eminent journalist David Broder, takes conservative media to task for distortions and outright lies. I love this site. Keep callin' 'em out, lefties!

5. Scribd

I haven't used this site in a while (thanks to the ongoing-and-unannounced hiatus for "Committed"), but it is an incredibly effective tool for me when I'm posting episodes on my website. Thanks to scribd, I can output a PDF file directly from InDesign, upload it, and then get code for embedding in my site. I'm sure there are better ways to do this, but for a (mostly) non-technical guy like me, Scribd fits the bill.

Daily Quote for Feb. 9, 2010

Smiles give others hope, joy and strength. Don't forget to use yours today.

Sasha Azevedo

I am often responsible for answering the telephone as part of my duties at the Pork Palace, and I've been told that my telephone manner is very -- how to say this -- distinctive. Some have said my voice is like an answering machine recording, and I do my best to sound both professional and helpful.

Sometimes, I am professional and helpful. Other times, it only sounds like it to the person on the other end of the line.

I'll admit it here and now: I occasionally get very frustrated at my job. For me, it's difficult to be mindful when there are three customers in line at the register, a server wants change for a twenty-dollar-bill, two phone lines are ringing, and the couple at the end of the bar wants another round margaritas and more cheese biscuits. In fact, it's quite easy -- trust me, I've proven it -- at those times to become stressed, rushed and irritable.

The funny thing here is this: When things are at their most chaotic, when I am the most aggravated, that is when my telephone voice is at its most effective and friendliest. I am Mister Chipper Dipper on the phone, bright and professional and the model employee every employer dreams about and every customer wants to be served by. This state lasts until the exact moment when the receiver slams back down onto the cradle and I turn back to the seventy-five other items screaming for my attention.

My coworkers give me a hard time about this. "That's just so fake," they say when they hear me on the phone, and -- sometimes -- they're right. But I subscribe to the theory of "fake it until you make it". If I can act happy in the midst of chaos, that's one step closer to actually being happy in the midst of chaos -- and the rest of the time as well. And if my acting happy spreads a smile to someone else, all the better. Happiness is never diminished by sharing it. Even if I am having to grunt through it.

So use your smile today, even if you don't necessarily mean it. You never know what good might come from it. And it's good practice for when you do mean it.

Daily Quote for Feb. 8, 2010

“When walking, walk. When eating, eat."

Zen proverb

I consider myself a good driver. I've not had an accident since 2001, and that was the first one in years. I can't remember the last time I received a moving violation. Driving is, essentially, second nature to me.

Up until eighteen months ago, I had a habit of multi-tasking while driving. I would often be on my cell phone while simultaneously seat dancing to an old Grateful Dead song and smoking a cigarette. My thoughts were rarely on the driving itself.

All that changed when I purchased an old Mercedes-Benz with the intent of restoring it to its former glory. I have the car to the point where it starts, runs and stops, but the Benz is quirky. It's a 1987 model, which means it has lots of worn parts that like to break at the most inopportune times. I have to let it warm up for a good five minutes or so before pulling out of the driveway, or otherwise it will stall the first time I hit the accelerator. I constantly monitor the oil pressure, engine temperature and the tachometer for any readings that would indicate a problem, and I strain my ears for any sounds that are out of the ordinary.

In short, I must be attentive -- not only to the road and the traffic around me, but also to my vehicle -- if I want to get where I am going. When I am driving this car, I am focused on nothing else but driving.

It is difficult to maintain that kind of focus in daily life, but it is one of my goals. I want to be mindful of my tasks and how I do them; I want to be focused on the task at hand. When I'm writing, I need to write. When I'm making the bed, I need to the thinking about making the bed.

I think that kind of focus is the key to productivity and a mindful life. Be here in the present. Embrace the moment and experience it fully, no matter what you may be doing at the time.

And when you're driving, drive.

Daily Quote for Feb. 6, 2010

“Each morning we are born again. What we do today is what matters most.”

Buddha

I think this is a most excellent quote, full of truth. Each new day brings new opportunity. All we have is now, and we should make the most of it.

As part of my effort to live a more mindful life, I've been trying to focus on the "now" by paying attention to the moment. It's not always easy, for my mind likes to wander all over the place. I'll be washing the dishes when I start thinking about what kind of shift I might have at work, or I will be working on a writing piece and my brain will meander over to the concert I attended last week.

Of course, I can't know what might happen at work, and what happened last week is of little consequence to what's going on now. Worrying about the future is a gamble at best, and beating yourself up over the past is a useless exercise. You have to be here now.

In short, yesterday is gone. It's a new day. Embrace the moment in which you are living right now, and make the most of it. You'll be happy you did.

Daily Quote for Feb. 5, 2010

“You can't cross the sea merely by standing and staring at the water.”

Rabindranath Tagore

How simple and obvious the above seems, and how hard it is sometimes to achieve. If you want to cross the sea, you can't do it by looking at the ocean. Steps and action must be taken. Dreaming of crossing the sea won't get you from New York to Southampton, no matter how hard you visualize it. You actually have to cross!

In my personal life, I've often been the "victim" (can one truly be a victim if the victimization is self-inflicted?) of fantastic planning followed by piss-poor execution. Of course, to reach a goal one needs a plan, but if you don't follow the plan and do the work, you get nowhere.

For years, I had a dream of writing a novel. But until I sat down at the keyboard and actually typed the words, the dream was just that: a fantasy, a pleasant diversion, a "someday" thought. But then I got to work, and in a month, I had a first draft.

I don't know exactly what kept me from doing the work. I assume it was a number of things, including some fear, as well as laziness and a lack of self-discipline. But the truth has been knocked into me lately: If I want to reach the goals, I have to do the work -- even the hard, distasteful stuff that I sometimes dread.

As the old saying goes, "a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." If we take that first step, then follow it with another, then another after that, and so on, pretty soon we can look back in amazement at the progress we've made -- and that goal, that dream, that "someday" will be closer than we ever imagined.

The traveling Scot and Alabama's Glasgow

I wait on a lot of out-of-towners at the Pork Place. I suppose that shouldn't be surprising; the restaurant is near the interstate and a cluster of motels. On any given night one can find a business traveler from Ohio sipping on a cocktail at the bar while he reviews a proposal for a meeting the next morning, or perhaps a frustrated truck driver knocking back cheap beers while he waits for the shop next door to finish the repairs on his rig. Late fall and early spring bring snowbirds from the upper midwest who stop in for a bite to eat along their migratory route, and the races at Talledega draw people in from all over the country.

Foreign visitors, while not unheard of, are much more rare. Occasionally the snowbirds will include a couple from Ontario in an RV, and I've served wheelchair rugby teams from Canada and Australia who were in town for an event at the Lakeshore Foundation. But until now, I'd never served a Scot. And certainly not one on a quest.

That changed this week with the arrival of one Michael Slavin.

For the past three nights, I've had the pleasant duty of waiting on Mr. Slavin and introducing him to some of the finer craft beers the Deep South has to offer, while enjoying his tales of his journey (he likes Good People's IPA and Sweetwater 420). He has been in the states since April of 2009, on a quite particular mission: He is here to visit each and every locale in the United States that bears the name of his hometown of Glasgow.

At each stop, he does some historical research and writes about his travels in his blog. He's been from New York to California and back during his time here. Birmingham is his eighteenth stop, for there is a small hamlet near Adamsville named Glasgow. From here, he has two more Glasgows to visit before he heads back across the pond in April.

Mr. Slavin has been a pleasant addition to the bar lineup at the Pork Palace. His brogue charms each and every patron at the bar he's spoken with, and with his longish hair and full beard, he looks more the part of an anthropology professor than a retired software programmer. He always has a story, and is more than willing to share it to whomever will listen.

It has been an interesting week with Mr. Slavin holding court at the Pork Palace. I need more regulars like him; it would make the bar a much more intriguing place to work. I wish him well on the rest of his journey, and the bar will be a bit lessened when he heads back home.

Michael, may you successfully complete your quest, and may there always be a willing ear and a strong pint waiting for you at the bar at the end of the day. Come back again, y'hear?