I tripped

Today Chun sent me some mind-blowing stuff. And also this cool optical illusion:

Blow My Mind

I spent the next half an hour staring at that woman, trying to place what movie I'd seen her in, and then another half an hour trying to get her to spin the way I wanted. Needless to say, this was very frustrating. I'm used to women unquestioningly doing what I tell them. But practice paid off.

Good news: 50% of the time, she does my bidding 100% of the time. I say the magic word and she switches direction.
Bad news: the other 50% of the time, she does the exact opposite.
More Good news: Chun says she will be learning this optical illusion move in her next dance class.

I sent this to Gene and he's now torturing all of his co-workers. If they're half as excited about it as he is, by nighttime I'll probably be receiving an IM from my friend in Shanghai: "Dude, friend send me link. You should to see this, it make crazy to brain."

And, changing the subject...1...2...3...

Gene has a severe case of spiritual ADD. Every month or so, he tells me about the latest greatest get-enlightened-quick scheme. By that moment, he's bursting at the seams with enthusiasm, and lives and breathes the new idea if not in life, then on AIM or the telephone.

Anyway, his newest philosophy is roughly this: "You can't do anything to get rid of your own ego. The best you can do is surrender every occuring thought to Buddha/Christ/Insert Other Messiah, and let it be taken away from you."

Necessary background: ego is THE obstacle to enlightenment.

Anyway, in terms of practice, this means: you think about your grandma in the shower - you surrender it to Buddha, you think about my grandma in the shower - you damn well surrender it to Buddha, you think about how depressed you are - you surrender it to Buddha, you memorize Pi to 2,000 places - you surrender your elitist ass to Buddha, you think about how good you are at this surrendering business - you surrender that too. To Buddha.

But since it's Gene, he's so enthusiastic that he's willing not only to surrender his own ideas, but other people's ideas and other people themselves.

Mark: i'm impressed they made this image (see above)
Gene: i am impressed more than u
Gene: because i surrendered your impression
Mark: haha
Mark: too funny
Gene: not too funny for me - i surrendered it too
...
Gene: mom surrendered it to me
Mark: ya'll are a bunch of cowards
...
Gene: your thought is false
Mark: not as false as urs!
Mark: surrender urs immediately
Gene: i surrender u
Mark: oh shit
Gene: and shit too
...
Mark: u sure love being an ass
Gene: why not - i surrendered my shit
Gene: this morning for an hour
Mark: you just surrendered this conversation to my next blog entry
...
I'm afraid the rest is unprintable.