Making the Grade

Sittin' here in Kinko's/FedEx hoping that the print run of our marketing project paper comes out just how I want it. Almost makes me want to invest in a color laser printer so I can have complete control over the publishing process... Right, complete control! Who knows if this counter dude is grocking what I want, 'cause I know my requests are so vastly different and superior to anything he has ever encountered that I am challenging his little cranium (do I smell smoke? do I hear gears grinding??). Of course, my personal investment in this project is significant - my idea, my logo work, my editorializing - not to mention the buy-in of my fellow cohort members. We are all reaching exhaustion as this semester seems just to be revving up. The Sunday meetings, the individual time commitment, the intersection and juxtaposition of two master's classes, one an exercise in right-brain creativity while the other balancing on the opposite end of the see-saw jangling the mathy left-brain.

Yup, using ALL the brain this time around.

Happy B-Day to Me!!!

Another birthday come and gone. Very anti-climactic this year as it was overshadowed by Grandma's 80th on the following day. We all need our moment in the sun, and G-ma had a good one this year. She is basically healthy, happy and unperturbed by the tribulations of many her age. She didn't cry or fart or take her teeth out. She was witty and compelling, one of her true gifts being that of public speaking. I was glad to sit next to her and bask in the glowing compliments from her geriatric peers ("Just SO pretty"... Hmph, an intellect like mine cringes to be "pretty"). Nonetheless, a good time was had by all and it was nice to have something to keep me from dwelling on my own aging.

My New Ball

This is my new office chair. When my former chair was whisked away and given to my brother, this is what I insisted on. I've been using it for a couple of weeks and it is definitely making a difference - back muscles are sore and I spend much less time skulking around in my chair and surfing. It's also fun to bounce on in moments of frivolity.

Stage 2

Stage 1 & 2 of Project Incisors complete. (I didn't even report on Stage 1 (whitening) as it is so unremarkable other than the intense teeth sensitivity. But now I've pearly whites).

Yesterday found me reclining the afternoon away in the capable hands of Dr. Tom, dentist extraordinaire. The whitening took my natural teeth to brightest white and it was time for the offending 20-yr old bridge to meet its demise 'neath the spinning burr. Mouth parts fully loaded and charged with Speticaine, I drooled and gagged my way through 2+ hours of removal, impressions, grinding, scraping and packing. Am now sporting a brand new set of temps, little acrylic indicators of the monumental porcelains to come.

Upon reflecting, literally, I wonder whose mouth this is? (making chopping motions on the arm) How did I deserve these teeth? How will I be served by these teeth??

WEIRD! Probably one of the weirder happenings of my past 20 years.

Stay tuned for Stage 3 (and pics!)

Reluctant Bodhisattva

Someone much wiser about these things than I once told me I was "bodhisattva" - "...Bodhisattva practices not for her or his enlightenment alone, but for the enlightenment of all beings. The Bodhisattva vows to remain in this world of ignorance and confusion, vows to be willing to experience whatever living beings experience, until all beings are liberated."

I wasn't particularly convinced at the time because I never viewed myself as compassionate or truly altruistic. Lately I have put those "bodhi" thoughts into the hopper and have arrived at a couple of alternatives.

1) Imbued by the spirit of "bodhi" I am striving to fulfill that destiny

OR

2) The path of the "bodhi" is being enlightened to me so that I might change my kharma.

I can't decide if these two paths are mutually exclusive or complimentary - no doubt some combination, as enlightenment is rarely straightforward and uncomplicated by corollary issues. So if I am finding myself in similar and recurring situations, can I conclude that those situations are the fulfillment of my "bodhi" destiny or the chances to make change?

And Who Said Out-sourcing was All Bad...

Middle management email catfight from Indian tech firm With hope that phrases like "I will do needful" and "I have money and muscle power to FUCK you in your back side" will become as beloved as AllYourBase excerpts, I present to you the email thread known as "Indian Techie Flamewar." A few choice Engrish zingers:

* Yes my English is weak, that’s why I worked in Sentient under cheap person like you. But write now I have learned English especially for writing this mail. Mr. Rishi you are cheap person like Dog.

* Sentient has the money and muscle power to FUCK you in your back side so hard that your generations to come will be born defunct just the way you are mentally sick & defunct.

* This shows you are mad .because you always FUCK in back side. But if you want to learn How to fuck in front side contact me.

* as per me none are honest and I have every bludy right to complain

* I am WARNING you if you send another email to any Sentient personnel I will do needful.

* GOD WILL PUNISH YOU. Link (thanks, Numair!)

More Like This!

Someone discovered my blog... Go visit him and see the life of which I have only dreamt.

Middle English Spoken Here

Amazing how we remember weird things... when I was in highschool, we had to memorize and recite the first portion of the prologue to Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales." Easy enough you say! However, let's throw in that you have to say it not in Modern English, but in Middle English - a pony of a much different color indeed. (readings available to the priviledged few)


Whan that Aprill, with his shoures soote
The droghte of March hath perced to the roote
And bathed every veyne in swich licour,
Of which vertu engendred is the flour;

Whan Zephirus eek with his sweete breeth
Inspired hath in every holt and heeth
The tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne
Hath in the Ram his halfe cours yronne,
And smale foweles maken melodye,

That slepen al the nyght with open eye-
(So priketh hem Nature in hir corages);
Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages
And palmeres for to seken straunge strondes
To ferne halwes, kowthe in sondry londes;

And specially from every shires ende
Of Engelond, to Caunterbury they wende,
The hooly blisful martir for to seke
That hem hath holpen, whan that they were seeke.

Must be the Season...

Re-doings are a-foot. Perhaps something about the harvest season, or the passing into the dulcet autumnal tones of fall makes folks want to replenish, refurbish, e-constitute. I, for one, have a new tile floor (Oh, Joy of Joys!). Hence, new furniture placement, new art organization, new room sense.

Maybe even a new position!

Do We Ever Learn??

We talk of change, of becoming different, better, more self-actualized humans; but in our very essence do we, can we, change? Our nature is to become comfortable, content and static; fearing and avoiding change, minute or otherwise. We loudly bray our new-found knowledge and insight when struck with adversity or epiphany and yet does the core ever evolve? How limited are we by our genetic inherent heritage?

True evolution cannot exist in the individual, the single, the "one" state. Its elegance lies in the fact that there must be different and alternate, opposite and complimentary, commingling input to effect change, evolution, true morphing... so what we change is the phenotype, the expression, the outward appearance but that is not reliable, can only be upheld for discreet periods until the essence re-emerges as the un-evolved genotype.

Modification is what we mean, awareness and communication are the purveyors of the intent.

The Ephemeral Process

It's not really a plan like a CEO might forge, or a defense attorney might lay out. More of a gist, suggestion or vague waving-hand direction - that's more like my plans. And what's more, it's perfectly legal from a psychological and moral standpoint, as well as a personal goals standpoint, to operate in such a gossamer way. Often folks tsk, tsk and turn their collective noses up at the mere hint of fate, destiny or metaphysics, nonetheless they are functional aspects of existence. Whether we choose to focus on the banal, logical parameters set out for us by the "E"-stablishment gurus, follow our gutsy internal promptings, or whip up a concoction of both that sets us on the path, each of us has an infrastructure that predisposes one to certain kinds of modi operandae.

Obviously I am of the more intangible ilk, else why would I be posting as such, and find myself surrounded by micro-managing logical types that view progress and success in terms of a very defined yardstick. No sense trying to convince these slaves to paper that other modes can be just as productive, and infinitely more alluring in their diaphony (word??).

Ahhhhh... Readable again

After fiddly-diddlying with my template for a day and 1/2, I have finally got the body to squat nicely beside the sidebar - no fighting, you two!! Anywho, after that dismaying foray into the unknown (and now just mostly unknown) territory of page code, I can get back to the esoteric business of posting.

More genius from HBO originals...

Titus Pullo says to the Madame, "...and she should fuck him like Helen of Troy with her ass on fire!"

Brilliant!!!!

Japan Dolphin Day

This is one of those causes that goes beyond the animal... an indication of the wholesale ignorance and inhumanity that surrounds us.

http://www.earthisland.org/saveTaijiDolphins/japanDolphinDay.html