Jonathan Miller's Blog, page 16

John Y’s Musings from the Middle: Sometimes You Just Get Lucky

See this picture? To the discerning eye it is a catastrophic accident — and multi million dollar law suit — just waiting to happen.

Remember a few decades ago when McDonald’s served an extra hot coffee to an elderly customer — but did not seal the top when handing it to her — and she spilled it in her lap and suffered severe burns and made national news when she was later awarded several million dollars in damages?

Well, the exact same thing almost happened to me yesterday but instead of an uns...

Erica and Matt Chua: Romans in Jordan?

The Romans never cease to amaze me, here I am writing about Jordan and the Middle East yet the Romans have yet again inserted themselves into the history of the region. I shouldn´t be surprised considering that they were one of the largest empires in the ancient world. I guess it says more about my poor grasp of history than the Romans that Ididn´t realize they conquered the lands around the Mediterranean and beyond. Yet I was shocked to find one of the most important and well preserved citie...

John Y’s Musings from the Middle: What’s Your Song for 2015?

This morning, watching the sun rise and drinking my coffee as I absorbed the idea of a new year unfurling, I wondered what song I would pick to mark the occasion — to set the tone for the first hours of an entire new year.

A raft of different jazz and rock and jazz-rock songs came to mind along with a classical tune and one hip-hop piece.

I decided my song for 2015 would be Aja by Steely Dan. But as I listened to the first few seconds of that song I realized that wasn’t what I wanted or needed....

Saul Kaplan: Hourglass Theory Of Life

Theories of life are a dime a dozen. For what it’s worth, here’s mine:

Hourglass Theory Of Life:Start with broad learning, narrow focus for impact, return to generalized exploration before the sand runs out!

Every life takes a different path but as sand moves inexorably through our personalized hourglasses there are patterns worth considering.

The top of the hourglass represents unlimited potential. While full with life’s sand anything and everything seems possible. The future is brightest when...

John Y’s Musings from the Middle: New Year’s Resolutions

New Year’s Resolution (for pessimistic under achievers)

“To NOT live my life in such a way in 2015 that my New Year’s resolution for 2016 is to repair the damage I caused in 2015.”

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My New Year’s Resolution

To enjoy and celebrate the good qualities I already possess

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I hope my cell phone’s New Year’s resolution is to not die so often in 2015.

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I’m celebrating New Year’s in CA on Pacific time but live in KY which is on Eastern standard time.

That means all my friends in KY will be getting a 3...

John Y’s Musings from the Middle: Conversations with Ourselves

One of the most common ways we talk to ourselves —or are supposed to —is through “Positive Self Talk” I discovered this idea about 25 years ago. We say positive things to ourself in the bathroom mirror each morning before starting our day. It puts us in a better frame of mind and helps us to have a better day.

But lately I have to admit that positive self-talk in my bathroom mirror in the mornings is getting harder. And I think my real self is finally on to my positive self-talking self. In fa...

Josh Bowen: Eat This, Not That

Scenario..

It is January. You are out at night holiday shopping with your kids. It is cold and you are starving. You worked all day and rushed home to pick up the kids so you could go shopping. Traffic is awful. It is 9 pm at night and you have not eaten since your noon lunch break. You have screaming, hungry kids. You do not have protein powder because you left it at home and there is no where to get a Quest bar. What do you do?

The above happens all the time. It has happened to me (minus the...

John Y’s Musings from the Middle: I’m Mad

I am mad at my wife right now –at 12:50am — and am going to write about it on Facebook.

I am mad at Rebecca because she got a little exasperated with me for asking her a question again —and said I had asked her that same question 20 times and the answer was the same for the 20th time — that she didn’t know.

Then I decided I wouldn’t be talked to like that and pretended to go to sleep until Rebecca settled down and apologized for hurting my feelings.

For one thing, I didn’t really ask her that qu...

John Y’s Musings from the Middle: Facebook Exciting Announcement

I am not doing this to brag. But I just considered, in my mind, running a 5K race —someday. And meant it. Not for sure. But meant it in the sense of “I’m kinda serious this time. I could actually see it maybe happening. It’s only, like, 3.1 miles.” In that sense.

Admittedly, this isn’t a definitive proclamation. And, no, it is not a Facebook announcement about something significant I recently achieved. But it is about something. In the pastwhen I would think about running a 5k race one of thes...

Erica and Matt Chua: Da Lat | Where to Stay

The center of Da Lat is mostly accommodations, with a huge variety in quality. There are places from $5 to $200 per night, so you should be able to find anything you want. The backpacker area is near the market where the going rate is $10-12 a night, but there is a huge variation in quality. Make sure you check out several different hotels as price doesn’t dictate the quality of rooms.

We headed downhill on Đường 3 Tháng 2 from the market with a Canadian couple. After viewing rooms in 4 places...