How to be alone

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I'm a guy who loves a bit of poetry. When I mention this to people, I get the occassional jab about my lack of manliness (apparently back hair only grows where poetry doesn't) but I feel pretty confident that real men appreciate beauty in the written and spoken word. I remember when I was in Cleveland attending med school and a friend was catching a ride from me after class and noticed a copy of the book "Poems That Make Grown Men Cry" sitting on my front seat. This discovery led to being offered a tampon which I graciously declined since I have a stash in my car in case my wife should need one.

I don't mind being teased about my love for poetry. There are times when it strikes me right in the heart muscles and grabs me tight. I'm not too macho to admit that I my face peed a bit while reading Ben Jonson's 'On My First Sonne':

Farewell, thou child of my right hand, and joy;My sin was too much hope of thee, lov'd boy.Seven years tho' wert lent to me, and I thee pay,Exacted by thy fate, on the just day.O, could I lose all father now! For whyWill man lament the state he should envy?To have so soon 'scap'd world's and flesh's rage,And if no other misery, yet age?Rest in soft peace, and, ask'd, say, "Here doth lieBen Jonson his best piece of poetry."For whose sake henceforth all his vows be such,As what he loves may never like too much.

If that doesn't get you, then there is something wrong with you.

Well, as much as I love poetry, I have to admit that there is a lot of it that I just don't get. A small bundle of it speaks to me while the rest bounces around my mind like random words thrown together on a page. But when a poem speaks to me, it often REALLY speaks to me. Such is one I found on YouTube of all places.

Many people automatically assume that I'm a natural extrovert because I get chatty with people quickly. On the contrary, I am quite introverted and get a bit of anxiety when I'm in crowds. I just hide it better than some. I actually enjoy doing things alone. I go to movies alone. I walk around the mall alone. I often sit up late alone. I do like people too but there are times when I just want to be by myself. So, Andrea Dorfman's poem 'How To Be Alone' really got me. Check it out:

The Making of a Modern Roman Gladius Sword

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I think every boy (perhaps every girl, for all I know) has at some point fantasized about wielding a brutal sword and tearing something to shreds. I've begged my wife to let me buy a sword in the past and eventually gave up on my fantasy for the sake of staying married. However, this video may resurrect a source of marital contention.....

#WhatADame

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My crush on Wonder Woman has just resurfaced.

The news is better with autotune

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I rarely watch the news anymore because I always know that within a few days someone will make it more interesting by applying autotune effects to it. Case and point:

Get your cosplay on

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There are few things as awesomely nerdy as cosplay... although my thoughts of Lollipop Chainsaw have made me forget what those things are.

What if money was no object?

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Transcript:

What do you desire? What makes you itch? What sort of a situaion would you like?

Let's suppose -- I do this often in vocational guidence of students. They come to me and say, "Well, uh, we're getting out of college, and we haven't the faintest idea of what we want to do."

So I always ask the question, "What would you like to do if money were no object? How would you really enjoy spending your life?"

Well, it's so amazing. As a result of our kind of educational system, crowds of students say, "Well, we'd like to be painters, we'd like to be poets, we'd like to be writers. But as everybody knows you can't earn any money that way."

Or another person says, "I'd like to live an out-of-doors life and ride horses."

I said, "Do you want to teach at a riding school? Let's go through with it. What do you want to do?"

When we finally got down to something which the individual says he really wants to do. I will say to him, "you do that, and forget the money. Because if you say that getting the money is the most important thing, you will spend your life completely wasting your time. You will be doing things you don't like doing in order to go on living that is to go on doing things you don't like doing. Which is STUPID! Better to have a short life that is full of what you like doing than a long life spent in a miserable way."

And after all, if you do really like what your'e doing, it doesn't matter what it is, you can eventually become a master of it. It's the only way to become a master of something, to be really with it. And then you'll be able to get a good fee for whatever it is. So don't worry too much. Somebody's interested in everything. And anything you can be interested in, you'll find others who are.

But it's absolutely stupid to spend your time doing things you don't like in order to go on doing things you don't like and to teach your children to follow in the same track. See, what we're doing is we're bringing up children, and educating them to live the same sort of lives we're living in order that they may justify themselves and find satisfaction in life by bringing up their children to bring up their children to do the same thing. It's all wretch and no vomit. It never gets there!

And so therefore it's so important to consider this question. "What do I desire?"

History of Wooing Men

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Which song matches your wife/girlfriend's wooing method?

tune worth listening to

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Holy poop this gal's voice is angelic. Nice tune.

Just good business sense.

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Ever had a really good teacher?

Pin It I hope I can be half as good a father as this. I dare you not to cry.

Sleeping in class is all kinds of fun

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Perhaps this is why most of our class stays home and sleeps rather than going to lecture.

This made me wet myself. In the eyes.

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I think we need to install one of these in my house. My kids need to start telling me why I'm so awesome - mostly so they remain aware of it. Okay, they're pretty decent too. Oh, and Chera's alright as well.

Hot wheels for Dr. P

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After I get out of my hamburger sheets and start my day, this is the car I plan to drive to work in...

Sorry kids, I ate all your Halloween candy....

Pin It I got an email telling me that the kids will be on Jimmy Kimmel tonight! Awesome!

Geeks are awesome.

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Everything is incredible

Pin It Definitely makes me want to build a helicopter....



Everything is Incredible from Tyler Bastian on Vimeo.

Mother Nature is kind of awesome

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Ascendance from Henry Jun Wah Lee / Evosia on Vimeo.

The amazing human brain

Pin It It's not too often that those of us who study the human body get to see it's magic happen from the inside out - in our own body.

 Jill Bolte Taylor is one of those lucky (or perhaps unlucky, depending on your perspective) people who experienced the very thing she was studying. She is a neuroanatomist affiliated with the Indiana University School of Medicine and the author of the book My Stroke of Insight. During her study of the way the brain processes information she experienced a stroke in the left hemisphere of her brain. This is a mind-blowing talk she gave at TED which is inspirational to me no matter how many times I watch it: