A: I would never have dated him.
B: He's smart, cute and reasonably successful - why wouldn't you date him?
A: He's too cute and guys that cute can't be trusted.
Apparently A was right. Even the shrinks agree.
***
C: No, you shouldn't bring your Taylor to Jakarta!
D: Are you sure? I could just try labelling it as fragile or buy a hard case?
C: It's a Taylor and the way luggage gets handled......
Note for my non-guitar-y friends: Taylor is a brand of guitars.
C was right and the link to the video proof is here.
Friday, July 10, 2009
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Snippets
A:Yeah she has a really bad sense of direction. My fear is that she'll end up somewhere in Singapore.
B: Dude, Singapore is an island, of course she'll end up in Singapore! I doubt she'll end up in Malaysia - no passport.
A:(realizes mistake)......
***
Had a good run tonight - 10km - and a good long mull over some of the stuff happening in life, work,church etc.
Righto - in need of some levity. Silliness and crazy fun are the order of the day.No more serious poems; humour's on for tonight and to kick start that is an MV by the Wombats below. The lyrics are darker than the song seems but I like the kick-y beat and the irony.
***
B: Dude, Singapore is an island, of course she'll end up in Singapore! I doubt she'll end up in Malaysia - no passport.
A:(realizes mistake)......
***
Had a good run tonight - 10km - and a good long mull over some of the stuff happening in life, work,church etc.
Righto - in need of some levity. Silliness and crazy fun are the order of the day.No more serious poems; humour's on for tonight and to kick start that is an MV by the Wombats below. The lyrics are darker than the song seems but I like the kick-y beat and the irony.
***
Monday, July 6, 2009
The Pond
My friend J, who is currently situated in Shanghai and I had a series of conversations recently that revolved around
the general ugliness and lack of beauty in Chinese cities,
the destruction and marginalization of aesthetics in the mad rush of the Chinese toward development and capitalization and also
the dearth of creativity, culture and gentility amongst the Chinese.
Yes. Big topics – but mainly, I think he was tired. When your world is concrete and steel and shouting pushy people, it wears you down and it was wearing him down by slow degrees. When he left for a much needed vacation to his home in South California, I was glad. Enjoy the summer sunshine, friendliness and idealism, I told him. Enjoy.
I had no real answers for him. Just like I have no real answers when tasked about why I send out poetry to my friends, post up pieces of prose, poetry or music, on this blog and on my facebook notes. There is no real plan, no grandiose ideal about changing the world. I do not pretend to be better or worse than anyone else because I love poetry, song and story – conversely, the love for it makes me a dreamer, unfit for most jobs and definitely too impractical for the likes of my family.
I only know that it helps me, has always helped me. Francis Bacon once said that poetry 'has some participation of divineness' - and it does. I put it up here and out there because I love its beauty, its ability to awaken the mind, chart the inner landscape and set fire to the imagination.
This is why I set aside time for study - of the bible and other things my mind runs to. It is dark and–in the gracious silence afforded by early dawn or night - I look for a little light.
I was introduced to Mary Oliver via a blog I frequent and glad I am that she'd posted it up too. These days I am hungry for more - poetry, books, music, ideas - and reading Mary Oliver's collection of poetry cast a little divinity over my evening.
I've also posted the poem, because you never know, when some hungry folk might stop by your door, the way I stopped by hers, looking for - oh a little bread and milk,but also warmth, kinship and light for the path ahead.
*
The Pond
Every year
the lilies
are so perfect
I can hardly believe
their lapped light crowding
the black,
mid-summer ponds.
Nobody could count all of them-
the muskrats swimming
among the pads and the grasses
can reach out
their muscular arms and touch
only so many, they are that
rife and wild.
But what in this world is perfect?
I bend closer and see
how this one clearly lopsided -
and that one wears and orange blight -
and this one is a glossy cheek
half nibbled away-
and that one is a slumped purse
full of its own
unstoppable decay.
Still, what I want in my life
is to be willing
to be dazzled-
to cast aside the weight of facts
and maybe even to float a little
above this difficult world.
I want to believe I am looking
into the white fire of a great mystery.
I want to believe that the imperfections are nothing -
that the light is everything - that it is more then the sum
of each flawed blossom rising and fading. And I do.
By Mary Oliver
*
What profit has the worker from that in which he labors? I have seen the God-given task with which the sons of men are to be occupied. He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also He has put eternity in their hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end.
I know that nothing is better for them than to rejoice, and to do good in their lives, and also that every man should eat and drink and enjoy the good of all his labor—it is the gift of God.
I know that whatever God does,
It shall be forever.
Nothing can be added to it,
And nothing taken from it.
God does it, that men should fear before Him.
That which is has already been,
And what is to be has already been;
And God requires an account of what is past.
the general ugliness and lack of beauty in Chinese cities,
the destruction and marginalization of aesthetics in the mad rush of the Chinese toward development and capitalization and also
the dearth of creativity, culture and gentility amongst the Chinese.
Yes. Big topics – but mainly, I think he was tired. When your world is concrete and steel and shouting pushy people, it wears you down and it was wearing him down by slow degrees. When he left for a much needed vacation to his home in South California, I was glad. Enjoy the summer sunshine, friendliness and idealism, I told him. Enjoy.
I had no real answers for him. Just like I have no real answers when tasked about why I send out poetry to my friends, post up pieces of prose, poetry or music, on this blog and on my facebook notes. There is no real plan, no grandiose ideal about changing the world. I do not pretend to be better or worse than anyone else because I love poetry, song and story – conversely, the love for it makes me a dreamer, unfit for most jobs and definitely too impractical for the likes of my family.
I only know that it helps me, has always helped me. Francis Bacon once said that poetry 'has some participation of divineness' - and it does. I put it up here and out there because I love its beauty, its ability to awaken the mind, chart the inner landscape and set fire to the imagination.
This is why I set aside time for study - of the bible and other things my mind runs to. It is dark and–in the gracious silence afforded by early dawn or night - I look for a little light.
I was introduced to Mary Oliver via a blog I frequent and glad I am that she'd posted it up too. These days I am hungry for more - poetry, books, music, ideas - and reading Mary Oliver's collection of poetry cast a little divinity over my evening.
I've also posted the poem, because you never know, when some hungry folk might stop by your door, the way I stopped by hers, looking for - oh a little bread and milk,but also warmth, kinship and light for the path ahead.
*
The Pond
Every year
the lilies
are so perfect
I can hardly believe
their lapped light crowding
the black,
mid-summer ponds.
Nobody could count all of them-
the muskrats swimming
among the pads and the grasses
can reach out
their muscular arms and touch
only so many, they are that
rife and wild.
But what in this world is perfect?
I bend closer and see
how this one clearly lopsided -
and that one wears and orange blight -
and this one is a glossy cheek
half nibbled away-
and that one is a slumped purse
full of its own
unstoppable decay.
Still, what I want in my life
is to be willing
to be dazzled-
to cast aside the weight of facts
and maybe even to float a little
above this difficult world.
I want to believe I am looking
into the white fire of a great mystery.
I want to believe that the imperfections are nothing -
that the light is everything - that it is more then the sum
of each flawed blossom rising and fading. And I do.
By Mary Oliver
*
What profit has the worker from that in which he labors? I have seen the God-given task with which the sons of men are to be occupied. He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also He has put eternity in their hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end.
I know that nothing is better for them than to rejoice, and to do good in their lives, and also that every man should eat and drink and enjoy the good of all his labor—it is the gift of God.
I know that whatever God does,
It shall be forever.
Nothing can be added to it,
And nothing taken from it.
God does it, that men should fear before Him.
That which is has already been,
And what is to be has already been;
And God requires an account of what is past.
Thursday, July 2, 2009
Ask that your way be long
From W - who has been the source of much music and reading joy. Some poems are more than words on a page - they swirl about you in a glorious haze so much that inwardly,I stand in at the eye, light colour and sound in hurricane winds blowing about me.
This was one such poem and oh the richness - there's a reading of it by Sean Connery on Youtube.
I borrowed an anthology of poetry on journeys from the library this year and I'm amazed that this wasn't included.
Ithaca
When you set out for Ithaka
ask that your way be long,
full of adventure, full of instruction.
The Laistrygonians and the Cyclops,
angry Poseidon - do not fear them:
such as these you will never find
as long as your thought is lofty, as long as a rare
emotion touch your spirit and your body.
The Laistrygonians and the Cyclops,
angry Poseidon - you will not meet them
unless you carry them in your soul,
unless your soul raise them up before you.
Ask that your way be long.
At many a Summer dawn to enter
with what gratitude, what joy -
ports seen for the first time;
to stop at Phoenician trading centres,
and to buy good merchandise,
mother of pearl and coral, amber and ebony,
and sensuous perfumes of every kind,
sensuous perfumes as lavishly as you can;
to visit many Egyptian cities,
to gather stores of knowledge from the learned.
Have Ithaka always in your mind.
Your arrival there is what you are destined for.
But don't in the least hurry the journey.
Better it last for years,
so that when you reach the island you are old,
rich with all you have gained on the way,
not expecting Ithaka to give you wealth.
Ithaka gave you a splendid journey.
Without her you would not have set out.
She hasn't anything else to give you.
And if you find her poor, Ithaka hasn't deceived you.
So wise you have become, of such experience,
that already you'll have understood what these Ithakas mean.
- C.P Cavafy
This was one such poem and oh the richness - there's a reading of it by Sean Connery on Youtube.
I borrowed an anthology of poetry on journeys from the library this year and I'm amazed that this wasn't included.
Ithaca
When you set out for Ithaka
ask that your way be long,
full of adventure, full of instruction.
The Laistrygonians and the Cyclops,
angry Poseidon - do not fear them:
such as these you will never find
as long as your thought is lofty, as long as a rare
emotion touch your spirit and your body.
The Laistrygonians and the Cyclops,
angry Poseidon - you will not meet them
unless you carry them in your soul,
unless your soul raise them up before you.
Ask that your way be long.
At many a Summer dawn to enter
with what gratitude, what joy -
ports seen for the first time;
to stop at Phoenician trading centres,
and to buy good merchandise,
mother of pearl and coral, amber and ebony,
and sensuous perfumes of every kind,
sensuous perfumes as lavishly as you can;
to visit many Egyptian cities,
to gather stores of knowledge from the learned.
Have Ithaka always in your mind.
Your arrival there is what you are destined for.
But don't in the least hurry the journey.
Better it last for years,
so that when you reach the island you are old,
rich with all you have gained on the way,
not expecting Ithaka to give you wealth.
Ithaka gave you a splendid journey.
Without her you would not have set out.
She hasn't anything else to give you.
And if you find her poor, Ithaka hasn't deceived you.
So wise you have become, of such experience,
that already you'll have understood what these Ithakas mean.
- C.P Cavafy
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Heal the World
I don't know if it's a side effect of growing up, or if it's because I just never cared that much about crazy celebrities antics to start with. But as much as I tried, I couldn't call up much grief over MJ's death. In recent years, he had fallen too far from grace; the headlines over his child molestation charges were too disturbing and deeply entrenched to erase - even with the flood tide of sympathetic condolences and memorials. There are other sins, it seems, that all of neptune's oceans just cannot wash away.
The best quote I read about him was from his lawyer who said (and I paraphrase) -
His death did not come as a surprise. He was someone so uncomfortable with the norms of this world and no human being can withstand that kind of stress for a prolonged period.
There are other more pressing issues, personal and otherwise and I don't have the headspace for MJ's death. My spare headspace today is taken up with the question of how to reduce my use of plastic - bags, containers and otherwise. I don't think I've progressed enough since deciding to live in a more earth friendly way last year - and that worries me. But when reading Paul Krugman's article on the passing of the climate change bill, I remembered that my first ever single was - appropriately enough - MJ's Heal the World.
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Da Vinci the Genius Exhibition
Art is never finished, only abandoned.
- Leonardo Da Vinci
***
So I'm standing behind this woman waiting to see, up close, the model of an odometer designed by Da Vinci in the 1400s....
Woman (Loud tones to her partner): I find this so primitive!
..and I'm thinking: Dude, you're so completely missing the point that it's not even in the earth's stratosphere anymore.
Second thought: Man, you're never going to get that S$15 and 2 hours that you spent on this back either.
***
Started a new blog just for random study notes - don't expect complete sentences over there though, more like bullet points and scribbles - which is what my notebooks look like in real life.
Link is here.
- Leonardo Da Vinci
***
So I'm standing behind this woman waiting to see, up close, the model of an odometer designed by Da Vinci in the 1400s....
Woman (Loud tones to her partner): I find this so primitive!
..and I'm thinking: Dude, you're so completely missing the point that it's not even in the earth's stratosphere anymore.
Second thought: Man, you're never going to get that S$15 and 2 hours that you spent on this back either.
***
Started a new blog just for random study notes - don't expect complete sentences over there though, more like bullet points and scribbles - which is what my notebooks look like in real life.
Link is here.
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Tune my heart to sing thy praise
From the 2nd verse:-
"Here I raise mine Ebenezer;
hither by thy help I'm come;
and I hope, by thy good pleasure,
safely to arrive at home.
Jesus sought me when a stranger,
wandering from the fold of God;
he, to rescue me from danger,
interposed his precious blood"
I wondered what Ebenezer meant and looked it up:-
Meaning: Stone of Help
Etymology: Combination of the Hebrew word for stone is “even” and the Hebrew word for help “Haazer”
"And when the children of Israel heard of it, they were afraid of the Philistines. So the children of Israel said to Samuel, “Do not cease to cry out to the LORD our God for us, that He may save us from the hand of the Philistines.”
And Samuel took a suckling lamb and offered it as a whole burnt offering to the LORD. Then Samuel cried out to the LORD for Israel, and the LORD answered him. Now as Samuel was offering up the burnt offering, the Philistines drew near to battle against Israel. But the LORD thundered with a loud thunder upon the Philistines that day, and so confused them that they were overcome before Israel. And the men of Israel went out of Mizpah and pursued the Philistines, and drove them back as far as below Beth Car. Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen, and called its name Ebenezer,[c] saying, “Thus far the LORD has helped us.” (1 Sam 7:7-12)
Context:
This was during and/or just after (not sure which) a time when the Israelites had strayed from God, paying homage to other gods such as Baal and Ashtoreth (god of storm/lightning and goddess of fertility). (Cf Numbers 24 and 25)
Israel (the nation state) had suffered a crushing defeat in the hands of the Philistines. (1 Samuel 4:1). After the Israelites repented before God for their straying, God granted them victory over the Philistines, Samuel set up a stone as a marker and named it the stone of help.
The site then became called “Ebenezer”.
(Disclaimer: this is totally the cliff notes version of the context,historically and geographically but all I really set out to do was look up the meaning of the word.)
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