Something About The Duality of Man Sir

Just to stir debate

controversy

argument

a bit of give

and take

I shall name my opinions of

"most influential..."

in these categories:

• Movie of the 90's: Pulp Fiction
• Album of the 90's: Nirvana - Nevermind
• TV show ever: The Simpsons
• Band: The Beatles

reminder: these are not my favourites

just my opinions, but they are the only

one's that matter, unless you wish to

insert yours below, by way of comment

otherwise I win and so does my shouting

Destroyed In Seconds

I don't condone the random destruction of people or their property...

But don't tell me there is no reasons or causes behind it,

no matter how misguided or opportunistic these acts are,

there must be something that has caused this situation

sort it out

best tweet I saw about this today:

JohnitoBlog John Ito

by Yossarian25

The UK riots are not revolutionary.In a revolution you bring down a corrupted elite,not your hardworking neighbours. #londonriots #UKriots

Features and Analysis (Only Joking)

humans thrive on conflict (don't we?)

what would Rome have been without Carthage

The state of the Union without the Confederacy

to spur things along, clash, compete, invent railways

atomic energy, radar, advances from warfare

competition motivates us to achieve

better ways to kill and fix the wounded

efficiency, economic growth, jobs, commerce

all that stuff that we can't live without

but unfortunately is slowly killing the planet

whoops-e-doodle, doodle do, don't

cash moves everything around me

money squawks and bullshit runs everything

capitalism is built on looting and plundering

colonisation diverts income to the core

slavery did happen and sweatshops exist

we've outsourced our manufacturing

to places without rights or labour laws

then wonder why nothing is made here

c#nts are still running the world (or well their money is)

tourists are (almost) (f*ck@n) EVERYWHERE!

especially when I go travelling...

all things move toward their end

you cannot kill what does not live

renegade master, power to the people

a life lived through sound bites

The Price of Milk

carbon

pollution

emissions

water quality

ozone protection

environmental purity

native forests/wetlands

gosh we're thirsty (for disaster)

I like bacon and non-sequiturs

what's you're carbon footprint?

Stop thinking! ...it will only get you thoughts...

No keep it up! ...it's not illegal yet!

find the white Pukeko

Gypsy Family Slugfest

settling scores

bare knuckle boxing

escalated Irish clan squabbles

feuds so old the origins are unknown

brothers and cousins fighting brothers and cousins

Tea and Crumpets

"The World's First Industrialised Ghetto" - shameless

I'm always (well usually) trying to find the balance...

between negative and positive.

Melancholy and Joy.

Success versus Anger.

Resentment against Contentment.

Happiness without Fear.

Anxiety tinged Euphoria.

Etc...

You can't completely have one without the other.

As life is a vivid mixture of the good and the shit.

Never completely wonderful if you look too far,

but not ever as depressing as brains can think.

Anything can be dealt with, it can just take time.

Nature kills without conscience, but that doesn't mean we should.

So what if we have done since the beginning of time...

I'm sure at least some of those were needed.

But we can change can't we?

Rationality away!

Choose 'Life'?

It might not be sunny, but I'm sure there's warmth somewhere...

They may not listen to you, but someone out there will...

sometimes just one more day is all it takes...

hold on for the next big adventure!

Next time I might try to be funny again or I might just try to be really deep and pretentious, so that I can alienate the mainstream. I seem to have writer's block, but it's only blocking the good stuff from coming out, so this is what you're left with. I love my life really, because I have made some good choices and been lucky. But I did make a few bad choices first that helped me learn and had to deal with some bad luck along the road. Blah blah blah, morals.

Hope you're well!

The Saturn Return

Curse of the 27 club...

" "Turning thirty is a big deal. Many experience the last years of their twenties as a transitional phase between youth and maturity. Thirty marks the real entry to adulthood—an age where most people have completed their university degrees, found their vocation, and are comfortably settled in a relationship—or not.

It takes the planet Saturn twenty-nine and a half years to return to the same position it occupied at the time we were born, a significant event as it marks the end of one cycle and the beginning of another.

Astrologers argue that Saturn Return is one of life’s most important thresholds as it intensifies one’s feelings of sadness, isolation, and purpose. In the words of Rob Hand, author of Planets In Transit, it’s “a time of endings and new beginnings,” a fitting characteristic for Saturnus, the Roman harvest god, the model for the grim reaper." "

http://www.the27club.net/saturn-return-27

Debt Crisis Sandwich

Things I thought or heard while watching the news one night...

Horrific crash, torrential deluge

Greek Tragedy, widespread panic

Record-breaking weather, anarchy

Bitter-sweet catastrophe, riots beaten

Negotiations deadlocked, scapegoat found

Space shuttles retire, adventure over

Ending the dreams of a generation

Barely visible in the dawn darkness

Milk prices sour, debris strewn

Just a few stories manipulating fear to get your attention. The "You just got infected with a virus and we'll give you the recipe for the antidote, plus a quick summary of the meaning of existence! AND the best way YOU can enjoy it! All coming up after some brief words (and imperative directions) from our generous corporate overlords, I mean sponsors..." scenario. Typical. All promises to be fulfilled, once credit card details verified.

By the way... (Security Warning:)

Have you noticed? (I'm guessing it's worldwide?) the increasing number of scams, (phishing or otherwise) going down everywhere? All the time I hear about fake emails (& phone calls, etc...) going out that can look/sound semi-legit and seem to sucker in the (possibly temporarily) gullible peeps to give their personal deets over,

bad news... funds transferred, game over. You lose.

Other bad news:

• that's not Microsoft ringing on the phone offering to fix a mystery "virus' on your computer for only $200.
• that Nigerian Prince won't pay you $3 million dollars if you send him a small amount of cash now.
• there is no expedition to find sunken treasure in the ocean that just needs your small investment to fund the expedition.
• you haven't suddenly got a tax refund for a business you don't actually have.
• giving credit card or personal details to anyone you don't trust or know is completely https-type trustworthy, can be really regretful
• the person you met online and wants you to bring a suitcase to another country, could be using you as a drug-mule.
• there is no such thing as a free lunch*
• official looking fake emails/websites/letterheads are easy to create.
• urban myths and rip-offs are common.

pretty much never trust an unsecured email or cold call, from a bank, Govt. dept or any other large institution, that ask you for details or promise you something, it could be a scam. Big business and Govt.. departments are usually careful enough to only contact you securely through online log-in or some verification mechanism, as they know how easy fraud is...

so don't get credit card or identity frauded people!!!

But the great irony (and conceit from me) is that if you reading this, than I guess your already smart enough to know all that stuff.

Better safe than sorry though, overkill rather than under kill isn't it?

Add your own safety warning/scam below as a comment if you wish!

*conditions apply.

_______________________________________________

“What is a cynic?

A man who knows the price of everything

and the value of nothing.” -- Oscar Wilde

--------------------------------------------------------------------

World of the News

The Truth is Lies

Lies are Commercial

Everyone has an Angle

Some better than Others

More rhetorical questions:

(I think I know the answer to one of these, due to a sociology lecture...)

• Is it possible to be Objective?
• What's the opposite of Homesick?
• What's the difference between 'sex' and 'gender'?
• Can Stress Be Controlled? (without meditation or medication)

Just got back from a bit of a road trip down south and noticed...

Macrocarpa can be used for/as makeshift:

hedges, windbreaks, perimeter markers

fences, barriers, great green walls

trees with tunnels, forts

Exit Cellar door

Schadenfreude in Your Face

Random intangibles of recent time:

I wanted to write a short story but haven't got round to it yet, may do that soon as I have a (road/ferry) trip coming up. Watched 'Bad Boy Bubby' again tonight, a very interesting movie indeed. I had forgot some stuff in it...

So I did another pic with paint again, is it a montage or a collage?

juxtaposition or partial superimposition?

by the way... (other misc. thoughts, loosely in the form of questions)

• When did the role of media change from reporting the facts to scandalising them? Distorting the to add excitement and intrigue, for no good reason...
• What would the history channel show if it wasn't for world war II?
• What were the eighties thinking? I mean really, the hair, etc....
• Ever noticed that Rupert Murdoch looks like Mr burns with glasses?
• Where is the next big thing hiding right now?
• Whatcha' doing?

Disfluency

Arial

Roman

times new

cognition

education

recognition

reeducation

comic sans italicised

easier is better?

complex is more substantial

certain types of difficulty can actually be beneficial

disfluency could improve learning

from rnz:

making something harder to read helps you remember more information

making things harder to read makes you remember more of the information.

So giving someone a textbook to read in a subtly unusual font will help learning.

It sounds a bit wacky

but it's been trialled in schools

and is an idea

that's being taken seriously.

Foreign Accent Syndrome

Seriously...

A 67 year-old woman of Blenheim who has never left New Zealand, has developed a rare condition after suffering a stroke in 2008. She now speaks with either Irish, Scottish or American accents randomly all of the time, due to the affect on the left side of the brain, which controls language.

Odd.

(quote)

"The impression of an accent is conveyed by the cluster of speech characteristics a person exhibits, such as prolonged vowels and alterations to speech rhythm patterns."

(unquote)

Q: When does an accent/colloquial phrases become a dialect?

NB: Rhythm is quite a weird word if you look at it, only a 'y' for a vowel in the first syllable (which ain't too rare), but definitely nothing but consonants in the second.

Hybrid Cloud

Personally...

I would have to say this one is a bit too busy for me, but I'm allowed to say that...

as I ripped it kicking and screaming onto the virtual world of accessible visual space...

that we have in here in the land of spam, hype, diversion, propaganda, promotion, etc...

not really something that you could handle having on your desktop, but so what eh?

I was trying to download paint shop or something new free... it didn't work,

so instead I stupidly played around with paint, that's right paint... :(

and decided to put that up here to share the pain with all of you,

by virtue of you clicking something somewhere

that brought you here, either intentionally...

or otherwise by blind co-incidence,

ohhhh! the laughs we had...

and by 'we' I mean me.

Enjoy it! or don't

don't look

filler

and now! without further adieu (or more precisely rambling about blah blah and drawing this post out slightly longer tha intended...) a picture/mess/digital image/creation/cop-out

copyright infringement/nonsense/a piece of.../palava/sight gag...

Sorry, wanted to offend your eyes :)

No Free Bees

Make Something From Nothing

oBey...

-Be lively...

-Bet little...

-Beat liars...

-Beaut listeners...

-Beauty lecturers...

-Beautify life...

-Beautiful Losers

"The greatest cultural accomplishments in history have never been the result of the brainstorms of marketing men, corporate focus groups, or any homogenized methods; they have always happened organically."

Thought Crime

Graveyard of Abandoned Fads

Eulogy to lost optimism

The desire for meaning and the quest for knowledge

Future measurements of current fortune

Addicted to targets and goals

Reduce the impact of negative stress

Knowledge dispels fear

Educate your self

Domination is strategy

A Leap Second

Doing...

planning, waiting

living, dreaming

hoping, voting

winning, leaving

giving, learning

sharing, being

tracing, mapping

looking, seeing

charting, graphing

minding, daring

using, asking

hiding, caring

Misplaced aggression

Death or Liberty or Convenience!!

lynch mob

band wagon

captive audience

target demographic

home detention

personality cult

gossip forum

rumour mill

social fabric

stalk fest

public outcry

fickle opinion

brand loyalty

freedom fighter

fan club

market forces

charity case

focus group

special interest

splinter cell

human resources

violent backlash

bloodless coup

criminal war

peace palace

judicial organ

legal minefield

execution summary

knuckle Sandwiches

pita perversions

fraudulent focaccia

fellatio fingers

carbo-carnage

bakery brewhaha

taco terrorists

bagette bangers

ciabatta cheats

sour-dough psychos

wholemeal hooligans

mixed-grain grifters

flatbread flick-knives

tortilla transgressions

wrap rumbles

naan nasties

roll rackets

rice revenge

pasta plunder

Nerdsack

personal ad for humanity (condition applies)

interests include:

seeking out new stuff, classifying all we see, chavanism

travel, study, breathing, complaining, manipulating, calculating

long walks on the beach, dinner, brunch, lego, birds, madness

reproduction, collecting, empire building, replication

sunsets, drinking, lunar eclipses, toys, distractions

fashion, fads, crazes, repetition, changing old stories

nostalgia, rewriting history to create a false past, myths

legends, oral traditions, poetry, rumours, tales, scadal, lies

apathy, mood-swings, revenge, remorse, redemption, relapse,

retirement, recovery, lethargy, cathassis, relocation

humour, aggression, leverage, politics, unrequited love

beverages, survival, competition, charity, greed, romance

lust, envy, speed, clarity, nonsense, flora and fauna

bragging, conciet, loathing, hoarding, flaunting, corruption

feathering our own nest at the expense of others at times,

shooting things, taking photos, sports, hate, ignorance, fear

order, debate, democracy, rules, restrictions, destruction

hope, predictions, gambling, destractions, theft, piracy

tools, cars, machinery, technology, speculation

rebellion, revolution, resistance, repetition,

and the rest

looking to meet similar

In My Happy Place

A series of cynical/simple haiku poems...

developed for the open-minded post-rational

non-conformist belligerent naive fools...

insecure yet non-selfish lovers...

surface-dwelling enablers.

Birth

beginning cycle

life coming into the world

thinking survival

Space

infinite expanse

where no one can hear you scream

the final frontier

Ocean

the source of life

amazing, vast and immense

blue place that we fish

Diversity

cosmopolitan

multilingual migration

globalisation

Nature

barbaric, wild

exotic and colourful

but lacks opinion

History

will never repeat

nor repent, beg, steal or lie

humans can do that

Health

under the weather

vitamins and supplements

faith in placebos

Patience

lacking in many

but needed to develop

I can't be bothered

Body

celebrity skin

DIY-work required

can't leave it alone

Time

flies, crawls, yearns, glides, stalks

steam-rolls, does not wait for us

however we feel

Knowledge

different from wisdom

accumulation of thoughts

I know more than you

Justice

massive expenses

adversarial system

deaf, dumb but not blind

Science

current hypothesis

experimenting with life

the path to doomsday

Co-operation

combined strength unit

alliance, syndicate, tribe

against all the rest

Mathematics

measured quantities

graphs, relationships, patterns

counting everything

Television

ubiquitous filth

mass media in the lounge

make the voices stop

These viscous attacks and undetermined narratives have not come cheap.

They devour their host from the inside, causing random outbursts and pessimistic thoughts, until his soul is crushed, then reborn as a cute wee kitten on an island of sherbet, with rainbows, etc.

This was my tribute to Wonder Showzen*

(the funniest, most darkly disturbing [in a nice way] and sickening non-children's humour show, I have ever had my funny bone giggled by...)

NEXT WEEK:

Limericks about existentialist toilet graffiti in the Middle-East...

Recycled Vatican gift shop homeless shelter, free holiday, give-away lies for the gullible.

Words won't end here.

You are elite!

Sorry for the fuss :)

*titles taken from their episode list, but Haiku made up by me on the couch at home.

Butterfly Kisses

Best quote I have heard about sex lately:

"It's a wonder that humankind

has constructed

any

kind of civilization

with this monumental distraction at hand."

From: Youth In Revolt (2009)

Enduring Nonsense

Permutations of human existence

affectionate combinations

live love life

life love live

love life live

life live love

love live life

live life love

3 x 2 = 6

Inspired by Knitting...

Knit-links:

• Knitta Plz (wiki) Homepage
• Knitted Landscapes
• Yarnbombing
• Knit Sea
• Micro-Fibre Militia

The Easy Answers

A B C D E F F S

Inappropriate two-word insult slogans for things/people you despise:

turkey galore

tool burger

wank station

monkey slut

cheese pie

bikini roulette

slut bucket

micro mini

sectarian slaughter

scorched earth

whale spew

super injunction

Cutetiful/National Trust

Stuff that is of extreme Importance/Does not matter: (click)

Things to look out for/take photos of...

when travelling by road through small NZ towns:

(if marginally bored or precocious)

• Four Square stores (see above)
• War memorials
• Fonterror signs
• Rural Graffitti
• Urban decay
• Old Train stations
• Welcome signs
• Kiwanis/Lions/Rotary Club logos* (pictured below)
• Quirky monuments e.g Giant Kiwifruit
• Misc. remnants of the past e.g old wharves.

Ideas I had for photo books that would no longer work:

• Churches of Christchurch
• Pictures of old MED (Municipal Electriciy Dept.) sub-station buildings.

*usually located on the welcome sign

Qunkadelic

"defiance, disobedience, dissent, heresy, insubordination, insurgence, insurgency, insurrection, nonconformity, revolution, rising, schism, uprising, rebellion

In law, sedition is overt conduct, such as speech and organization, that is deemed by the legal authority to tend toward insurrection against the established order. Sedition often includes subversion of a constitution and incitement of discontent (or resistance) to lawful authority. Sedition may include any commotion, though not aimed at direct and open violence against the laws. Seditious words in writing are seditious libel. A seditionist is one who engages in or promotes the interests of sedition."

Random Facts:

space stations are orbiting

bob dylan turned 70 today

jet planes look awesome

Obama is Irish

news is fake

Ectospasm

Throwing out thoughts; like they were ideas...

rock communication conflict primitive culture herbal news hunter tribal art consciousness pirate radio wave lunar psycho soup pie tampon bomb black market box burger lame stream media assassin twins ninja mess blade mixed vacation cannibalism spear lever market control consumer network mass excursion hoax backlash deception lies nouns remorse nonsense joy resolution achievement leisure contentment nostalgia hindsight regrets enlightenment truth peace justice space love

___ [ }{ }{} ]--------{[]{}[]}--------[ {}{ }{ ] ___

is our stress inherited?

how do we find balance?

are our minds controllable?

FOMO MOFO

digital natives

Oh my,

isn't the world getting so modern

so quickly?

The Sad, Beautiful Fact That We're All Going To Miss Almost Everything...

wanted

dead or alive

If "well-read" means "not missing anything," then nobody has a chance. If "well-read" means "making a genuine effort to explore thoughtfully," then yes, we can all be well-read. But what we've seen is always going to be a very small cup dipped out of a very big ocean, and turning your back on the ocean to stare into the cup can't change that.

Popular Misquotations

"Beam me up, Scotty" is similar to the phrase,

"Just the facts, ma'am",

attributed to Jack Webb's character of Joe Friday on Dragnet,

"It's elementary, my dear Watson",

attributed to Sherlock Holmes,

"Luke, I am your father",

attributed to Darth Vader, or

"Play it again, Sam",

attributed to Humphrey Bogart.

All four lines are the best known quotations from these works for many viewers,

but not one is an actual, direct quotation

An Ephemeral Nature

Conversation Topics for your next mind blank:

A.K.A: Oh god , not more bl00dy links to wiki articles I found slightly interesting or even enlightening....

Potsherd (Pottery shards)

Medeshamstede (Mede's house)

Benedictine (Ordo Sancti Benedicti)

Antiquarian (Past enthusiast's)

Angles (Early English)

Evel Knievel (Man of Legend)

Captain Morgan (Ambitious Privateer)

Port Royal (City That Sank)

Stonewall riots (Gay Uprising)

Franklin's Lost Expedition (Northwest Passengers)

Marshall McLuhan (Media Theorist)

Surface Tension

You're one

of us

or

you're

one of them?

better things

are on

their way

again!

people v land

mother v nature

environment or prosperity

values or security

economy or ecology

trees or jobs

present v future

action v thought

false dichotomies

we don't always have to choose...

Accidental Molecules

Watching Stephen Hawking documentaries before sleep...

...certain words cling to the page.

gravity

hydrogen

unevenness

fusion

helium

ejaculation

super massive

black hole

heavy minerals

burnt out

collections of dust

luck/coincidence

imperfection

self-replication

explosion

Gdnyt n Gdluk

Did You ever read/see 'The Crucible'?

\Broadcast journalist Edward R. Murrow:

Became known for broadcasts during WWII, followed by millions of Nth American listeners. Considered one of journalism's greatest figures, for honesty and integrity in delivering the news. A pioneer of TV news, produced a series of reports that led to the censure of Senator McCarthy. Used excerpts from McCarthy's own speeches and proclamations to criticize the senator and point out episodes where he had contradicted himself...

\Senator Joseph McCarthy:

Fueled fears of widespread Communist subversion, during high tension cold war years. Noted for making claims of large numbers of Communists, spies and sympathizers inside the US federal government, etc.. Inability to substantiate his claims led him to be censured by the Senate...

Lent his name to the political practice of "McCarthyism", character assassination masquerading as the exposure of a threat.

I'm Sorry, I Forgive You.

"There is no such thing as perfection...

weird to view complete normality

change as good as a holiday

everything is temporary

nothing lasts forever."

I heart nip slips?

Digital Natives Find Ancient Rebellion

Interesting:

Graffito (plural "graffiti"), in an archaeological context, has been created by humans since Homo sapiens have been traversing the Earth. There are even scratchings, doodlings, drawings, symbols, andart, etc. etched on bone pieces from prehistoric times.

Polyamory (from Greek πολύ [poly, meaning many or several] and Latin amor [love]) is the practice, desire, or acceptance of having more than one intimate relationship at a time with the knowledge and consent of everyone involved.

Culture jamming, coined in 1984,^[1][2][3] denotes a tactic used by many consumer social movements^[4] to disrupt or subvert mainstream cultural institutions, including corporate advertising. Culture jamming is often seen as a form of subvertising. Many culture jams are intended to expose apparently questionable political assumptions behind commercial culture. Common tactics include re-figuring logos, fashion statements, and product images as a means to challenge the idea of "what's cool" along with assumptions about the personal freedoms of consumption.^[5]

Street art is any art developed in public spaces — that is, "in the streets" — though the term usually refers to unsanctioned art, as opposed to government sponsored initiatives. The term can include traditional graffiti artwork, stencil graffiti, sticker art, wheatpasting and street poster art, video projection, art intervention, guerrilla art, flash mobbing and street installations. Typically, the term street art or the more specific post-graffiti is used to distinguish contemporary public-space artwork from territorial graffiti, vandalism, and corporate art.

Wheatpaste (also known as potato paste, flour paste, rice paste, Marxist glue, or simply paste) is a liquid adhesive made from vegetable starch and water. It has been used since ancient times for various arts and crafts such as book binding, decoupage, collage, and papier-mâché. It is also made for the purpose of adhering paper posters to walls and other surfaces (often in graffiti). Closely resembling wallpaper paste, it is often made by mixing roughly equal portions of flour and water and heating it until it thickens, or by smearing cooked rice into a paste. A similar flour and water formula is taught in elementary school minus the low heat simmer as an easy substitute for ready-made adhesive.

The Crying of Lot 49 (1966) is a novel by Thomas Pynchon. The shortest of Pynchon's novels, it is about a woman, Oedipa Maas, possibly unearthing the centuries-old conflict between two mail distribution companies, Thurn und Taxis and the Trystero (or Tristero). The former actually existed, and was the first firm to distribute postal mail; the latter is Pynchon's invention. The novel is often classified as a notable example of postmodern fiction.

The New Normal

The phrase finisher....

Whatever doesn't kill you...

• will let you live longer
• gives you something to think about when alone
• can only haunt your nightmares
• reminds you of priorities
• updates your mental bucket-list
• could encourage you to greatness
• jolts you back to reality
• adjusts your mode of thinking
• can stall progress momentarily
• can leave a nasty scar and/or rash
• will give you tales to tell when inebriated
• can alter your existence

A stitch in time...

• saves ninety nine
• keeps you in your prime
• brings the rest in line
• supports design
• fights decline
• turns water to wine
• adds lemon to lime
• sets off a mine
• tips with a dime
• smells like pine
• overthrows a swine
• talks like a mime
• doesn't drink wine
• makes up a stupid rhyme

People in Glass houses...

• are friends with gnomes
• don't live near piles of stones
• obliviously don't value privacy*
• should not detonate explosives
• sleep with the television on
• need to be mindful of nakedness
• can grow their own herbs and vegetables
• don't want to be alone or listen to Billy Joel
• see you before you ring the doorbell or knock
• hopefully have a nice view of an ocean or wildlife
• might wish to invest in double-glazing to prevent heat loss
• would be absolutely sick and tired of the premise of this post by now

*unless it's tinted glass

OMG WTF?

Is it just me, or is there a shit-load of random natural (or otherwise) disasters going on in recent times?

Or is it just that we have (excessively) more media, cameras and 24 'news' channels to draw our attention to such events?

Open for anyone to answer, thanks.

Stolen Extract

No Planet Is An Island

No Thought Is Isolated

No Thing Is Unconnected

I found this text very interesting, on the difference/relationship between 'Aloneness' and 'Loneliness'. Something to think about?

There is a fundamental difference between being lonely and being alone. Throughout the history of mankind, what we find is that excessive self-concern, self-occupation, is the outstanding feature of human behavior. Human life is anything but a matter of certainty, fulfillment, plenty. On the contrary, life is like an obstacle race.

We can see that our whole activity is self-centered. We keep thinking about ourselves endlessly: we must improve ourselves; we want a better job; we must fulfill ourselves; we want a better relationship; we want to achieve enlightenment. Our self-concern motivates all our activities. It is this pre-occupation with the self and rivalry with the 'other', which brings about isolation and loneliness. We try to escape from it in various ways, but such strategies cannot succeed.

When one is conforming to a pattern - religious, psychological or even self-imposed - there is bound to be a contradiction between 'what-is' and the pattern. The self becomes supremely important with the idea of self-improvement. One needs tremendous energy to see this situation in its truth and entirety. It demands utter honesty to recognize that 'what-should-be' is an avoidance from the actuality of 'what-is'.

It is only the urgency to see the truth that can make us accept the 'what-is' in the present moment. One needs to be completely alone in this investigation. The accumulation of conceptual knowledge must be totally set aside. And such aloneness certainly does not mean isolation: it does not mean building a wall around oneself. On the contrary, this means one is not alone but represents all humanity, a universal brotherhood, regarding all separate selves as merely instruments through which the Primal Energy - Consciousness - functions and brings about, at any moment, precisely that which is supposed to happen according to a Cosmic Law.

It is only such an awakening of Divine Intelligence, which ends selfishness - the cause of loneliness of the self.

NOTE: Reproduced without permission from The One in the Mirror: See What You Truly Are! By Ramesh S. Balsekar

Twisted by Seismic Activity Beyond Our Control

After the clean up

Not all bodies found

All feelings are normal

Not knowing how to react

From recovery to demolition

Tilted buildings in the distance

Others are fare worse off than us

complaining is a luxury the least affected

Playing pick up sticks with bookcases

Post traumatic stress Disorder

Unavailability of basic services

Fear of another earthquake

Glass on the carpet

Broken infrastructure

Deserted city

Soldiers guarding posts

Bridges Down

Traffic congestion

Survivor guilt

Everything changed forever

More billionaires than ever

Charlie Sheen is a disaster

I couldn't have done anything to stop it

would it be safer in space

the end of discovery

Glad I am not in Libya

I wish I had someone to blame

but it wouldn't change a thing

chit chat achieved

Another aftershock

At least I have Angel Hair

Inconceivable

Inigo Montoya: You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means

Does an electron have a substructure?

Does anyone know/care?