Quotes

"The heart has its reasons that reason does not know." - Blaise Pascal

"We all want to fall in love. Why? Because that experience makes us feel completely alive. Where every sense is heightened, every emotion is magnified, our everyday reality is shattered and we are flying into the heavens. It may only last a moment, an hour, an afternoon. But that doesn't diminish its value. Because we are left with memories that we treasure for the rest of our lives." - The mirror has two faces

"A dream makes perfect sense until you wake up. Then it is often recalled as illogical, bizarre and disjointed." - Laurie Richards

Vocal displacement

Old man in young boy.


Black woman in white woman.

  

I think the one thing I have retained from this semester is that Bob Marley died of acral melanoma. A useful fact for any medical exam - it's why I always ace them. (For the Sheldons (Big Bang Theory) who read this blog, I am now holding a 'This is sarcasm' sign)

“You may not be her first, her last, or her only. She loved before she may love again. But if she loves you now, what else matters? She’s not perfect - you aren’t either, and the two of you may never be perfect together but if she can make you laugh, cause you to think twice, and admit to being human and making mistakes, hold onto her and give her the most you can. She may not be thinking about you every second of the day, but she will give you a part of her that she knows you can break - her heart. So don’t hurt her, don’t change her, don’t analyze and don’t expect more than she can give. Smile when she makes you happy, let her know when she makes you mad, and miss her when she’s not there.”

- allegedly by Bob Marley

The little pickle jar, it

The little pickle jar, it stood

quite far back on the shelf,

receding from your line of view.

The stock on top is slow to clear,

when middle shelves are not as dear

and easier to get at

from the aisle-way here.

So by the time a hand reached up

and swiped it off the shelf,

the pickles were a little past

the sell-by date,

and not worth the price per weight -

the consumer put it back instead.

The little pickle jar, it had hoped

that that would be the journey home.

It never knew it had gone past

the time when you could use it last.

Instead it was left on its own,

uncertainty its only company.

Where will it go? Will it be thrown?

You may not care, you'll never know -

if it poisons someone else

that's their loss to make:

we only learn from past mistakes.

The little pickle jar is after all

nothing more than condiment

gone uselessly awry.

Yes, I am now a bionic woman.

After recently reconstructing a crucial ligament in my knee (my ACL - anterior cruciate ligament), I haven't had a very full calendar, so I've had more time to pursue other interests, such as The Big Bang Theory. Or Aimee Mullins.

They have this block of text that flashes by at the end of each episode, called a vanity card, which, as it turns out, has some pretty cool stuff on it.

Demon in my veins

Oh caffeine, caffeine -

exalted guanine degenerate,

won't you please release your hold on me?

Without you I am but a daytime walking zombie -

brain-dead, I am poor company,

paying attention to naught but

your absence from my body.

Yet with you,

my nights are passed sleeplessly -

where I am only relieved of you

in the spewing of badly rhyming poetry.

Caffeine, caffeine,

held in your stimulating thrall,

I am powerless with or without you.

Beatitudes

1. Sunlight shining on a white picket fence against a backdrop of green
2. A cool breeze on a sunny day
3. Running against the wind
4. Running with the wind
5. Realising you're not alone
6. Dancing cheek to cheek
7. The smell of freshly laundered linen
8. The smell of someone who's just had a bath
9. The feeling of Hazeline Snow on dry skin
10. The whoosh of air in a flying leap or in the angular momentum of turning
11. An anticipated meeting of old friends
12. Colours in the afternoon sun
13. Being a part of the music
14. Good group/team dynamics
15. Meaningful conversation
16. Getting something, really understanding it, for the first time
17. The salty smell of the sea
18. Holding a stuffed toy
19. Having your hair stroked
20. Being held
21. Making someone's day
22. Finding God in the small things

A minute of silence

Interesting thing happened in the library today. I was studying when it was suddenly announced,

"It is customary that at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month we observe a minute of silence for those who have died in the war..."

Oh glucose, glucose!

Specially for the chemistry geeks out there, I present:

Acronymn of the day: FAAK

No, it's not a four letter f-word.  OK, it is, but it's got nothing besides aural similarity in common with that.

Used to end late-night MSN/Skype conversations, FAAK stands for falling asleep at keyboard.  As in, OK FAAK TTYL.  Or, I'm FAAKed out.  

Dance therapy

I was doing some research for my latest assignment, and I found out about Trudi Schoop, this really interesting dance therapist. :)

When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie

I like checking out the sky whenever I come home at night. Lately the moon's been big, bold and beautiful.

Why doesn't time listen when I say stop?

This year has passed so quickly - it's already the last six weeks before the next year begins. Already I feel the year looming ahead, rising like mist after the rain. It's full of potential, like all unused things - a fresh sheet of paper, a new pair of shoes, the beginning part of a relationship - it has that special magic. A promise, perhaps, of something good on the horizon.

It's naive and cliched perhaps, especially when all nice, clean new things eventually get stained and dirty with use. Mistakes are made, and cannot be erased.

Perhaps it's tempting fate to say this, but I don't think I made too many mistakes (edit: I mean major mistakes, the kind that make you go 'What was I thinking?' when you think back on them. Not the making-funny-faces-in-lift-mirrors-when-the-door-opens sort) this year. I think I was spending to much time dwelling on the mistakes of the past, trying to recoup my losses, I suppose.

In the last leg of this transitory phase, before I leave on my jet plane, I want to experience something I've never experienced before. Too bad it's too late to plan something like climbing a mountain or something.

Maybe next year.

Class act

It's finally dawned on me (I saw dawned on me as opposed to something like hit me because I am rather slow, and I don't think any of my thoughts would move fast enough to hit me) that language is the human way of classifying things. Classifying objects, people, ideas. Everything. We classify to communicate. Golly gee, right now, I am classifying!

It's a rather strange realisation, when you think about it. Everything we are saying is a classification. We understand things only through classification. Definition, explanation, organisation all stem from classification.

You may argue, how can that be? The only way I can reasonably continue my own argument is by defining my concept of classification, which is really just classifying the word using more classifications. Anyway, just for the record, my definition of classifcation is putting everything into some sort of category, or place, such that it will be potentially easier, or more convenient for us to grasp.

Maybe, the reason we will never be able to understand our universe is not because it is inifinite. Or at least, not just because of that. Maybe the reason we won't be able to understand it is because we cannot classify it. Perhaps a better statement might be: maybe the universe isn't meant to be understood. Because to understand it, or at least to understand it in a way in which it is possible for us to share our understanding, we must classify it. And we can't classify it because perhaps the universe just won't fit into our classifications. Just like some organisms won't fit properly into our plant and animal kingdoms, planting a foot into the plant kingdom, and another into the animal kingdom, our universe will never be able to fit nicely in whatever classifications, however evolved they may become, neatly.

It feels weird to think that all this time I've just been classifying...

Dedication to my toilet

Ever since I moved house, my favourite place has been (drumroll please) the toilet! I love it, man! Anyway, that's why I'm dedicating this entry to my toilet. It's a beautiful place.

As you walk in from the dance studio, a beautiful glass folding door greets you, and in case you're so blind that you can't see the profile of the toilet bowl from behind the glass, the word "Bathroom" is sandblasted onto the door. The glass is coloured marine blue, so light entering via the door gives the room a slighly bluish tinge, reminding you of the sea. 

As you enter, you see a beautiful square sink with a unique looking tap (the handle is in the shape of an X, the initial of my first name). A good-sized mirror is flanked by two sleek, shiny white shelf units.  As you take another step, you come within an inch of the toilet! And it's a beautiful toilet. It has a graceful, curvaceous profile, and its seat is made of plastic and contoured to your butt. A nice place to contemplate on life, or enjoy a good book. As you enjoy the delicious experience on sitting on an ergonomic toilet seat that's not too cold or hot, you'll notice that the floor looks like the place has been carved out from a limestone mountain. The walls are tiled in a matt white, which if you didn't know by now, is my favourite colour. 

Directly in front of you lies the shower. It's quite spacious, though not quite big enough to do a full arabesque. Maybe an attitude and some battement jetes. The heater is really really cool (I mean hot - wait never mind, terrible pun) and you can adjust the temperature of the water to an exact degree (Centigrade). The heater also feature a digital clock, so you won't be late for school on those dreadful Monday mornings. 

After a shower, you'll notice that the towels are readily accessible from a stylish shiny towel rack, all you have to do is partially - not even fully - slide open the shower door, and you can stick your arm out and grab it. Close by also, are the hand and face towels racks, situated conviently near both the sink and the shower, which you can swivel to a convenient position for use.

Snippets and sawdust

World's closing in around me,
I wish I'd never come here.
Soon the tears will fall,

big, clumsy blobs -
like Humpty Dumpty from the wall.
Then when it all ends,
the sawdust covers all.

I'm typing on a sawdust filled keyboard and looking at a sawdust coated screen, for the IKEA people came today to drill in the cupboards on the wall. Now everything, everywhere in the study, is covered with sawdust.

A conversation I had with myself recently went as follows:
me: Read between the lines. 

myself: But there's nothing between the lines, only whiteness. 

me: Read that, then.

Greatest things God created

The other day I was in the bathroom observing the way dot patterns on the window netting made interesting lines and pictures and it got me appreciating the role of atoms.

The greatest thing god ever created is dots or, scientifically, atoms. The fact that these tiny, perfect - well - dots could come together and make up everything in the cosmos is mind-blowing. 

The second greatest thing god greated is water.  I think that without God's hand, those dots would never have combined to become water. Water is life-giving, life-taking, and has many anomalies that make it unique. 

I think angels are an extension from water. When water evaporates, it leaves behind whatever impurities that were in the water. When angels go in to heaven, they bring us along! Angels are beautiful, amazing, formless, anomalous.