Jo S. Wun's Blog, page 4
January 14, 2012
Lethargy
A cloak of darkness drapes upon
This fragile mind of mine
So heavy and opaque it is
That through it no light shines
The infiltrator slithers in
With whitewash in her hand
Obliterating all desire
To do what I had planned
These words do not come easily
They seem a waste of time
What do I think they will achieve?
Just so much pantomime
I am going through the motions
A mimic's overture
It's little more than handwaving
A transparent caricature
I can't be bothered now, you know
To finish this 'ere poem
You'll have to make the last line up
...
January 13, 2012
Should It Be This Hard?
How hard it is to love you
when you poison the well of my emotions
with your random anger
How hard it is to love you
when you assign the worst possible motives
to acts of kindness
How hard it is to love you
when you punish the victims of circumstance
with righteous disdain
How hard it is to love you
when your reaction to misfortune is to point
the finger of blame
How hard it is to love you
when you perceive an attempt at compromise
as a sign of weakness
How hard it is to love you
when you engineer another pointless fight
to fuel your fury
How hard it is to love you
when my attempts so often reward me
with a chest full of pain
Should it be this hard to love you?
Should I be grateful for this opportunity
to experience heartache?
Should it really be this hard?
January 12, 2012
Now That's Funky!
I almost feel guilty because I'd never heard of Stephanie McKay until a friend pointed me to this video. I'm off to check out a few more of her videos on You Tube
January 11, 2012
Miss Communication
I've been missing my chosen channels of communication. I know my inability to make a decent post over recent days probably hasn't had much affect on the world at large, but nevertheless, I've been suffering withdrawal symptoms (a slight exaggeration, but not entirely unfounded). And even when I got my hardware problems sorted (with a nice, shiny, new LED monitor), there was the need to catch up with correspondence before I could get back to my normal habits, not to mention rewriting my backup scripts so that they blink the keyboard LEDs when the backup is completed.
You may have guessed from the above, that my monitor failed while a backup was underway, and, without any visual information to go by, I (incorrectly) guessed that it had completed (because there was not much hard drive activity), so powered down my PC. Yes, I know what you're thinking: I should have pressed Alt+F4, then Return, to get Windows to close down properly, and avoid the corrupted backup which powering off caused.
However, due to the fact that I use a custom AutoHotKey script which controls a series of utilities to achieve the backup, even shutting down Windows in the normal way is likely to result in an undesirable outcome. On initiating shutdown, Windows would ask, then demand, that the script, and any process started by it, close immediately, cutting short any pending communication between them, leaving the backup in an indeterminate state.
Talking of miscommunication (groan), in my enforced idle time I was thinking about how common it is for people to engage in miscommunication. Sometimes it's deliberate, but sometimes it seems to take on a life of its own, like a cloud which descends upon the participants in a conversation, causing them to flounder about in it, often colliding with miscommunication's sister, misconstrue. Unfortunately, it often results in arguments where none of the participants are listening to what the others are saying, and the miscommunication grows exponentially.
Sometimes it results in farce, and sometimes the farce is funny. I remember watching Brian Rix acting in farces. They were shown on British television back in Nineteen-SomethigOrOther, when everything was black and white. I couldn't find a Brian Rix farce (although I did find this rather odd, very short video), but I'll give this one a go which is an earlier version of the genre, according to the You Tube notes.
January 7, 2012
When Hardware And Software Conspire
If you have become accustomed to daily posts from me, then apologies
for the break in service. I'm back, but not restored to full
capabilities.
my PC since January 3. Thats the hardware I was referring to in the
title. The software, which I hasten to point out is not actually
conspiring (but it made a good title), is partly of the human brain
type, and partly of the computer type. I might do a post about human brain software at some time in the
future, but suffice it to say, I'm not in the mood to tackle it now.
The computer software is that which runs on my smart phone, or perhaps
a better description would be computer software which doesn't run on
my not-very-smart phone. It's my own fault, of course. What else should I expect if I continue
to use a Nokia N95 which is more than three years old! Goodness
gracious! What a bad little consumer I am!
The thing is that up until now, it's served my needs more than
adequately. It plays my music files, lets me take reasonably good
quality pictures, has GPS, Bluetooth and wifi, and on rare occasions I
can even use it for voice calls and text messages. What it doesn't do
is let me compose, or edit, posts on the Posterous website in the
Opera Mini web browser I installed on it. I won't bore you with the technical details, but what it means is
that, at present, I can only post via email, which gives me very
little control over how this post will display when it's published. It
also means my thumb is aching. Normal service will be resumed as soon
as possible!
January 3, 2012
Imagining The Infinite
Actually, I don't think it can be done. Infinity is one of those weird things which I can understand, logically, but which I can't picture or imagine. Trying to imagine it is a bit like that thing with peripheral vision where you think you see something out of the corner of your eye, but when you turn your focus on it, there's nothing there.
I was, and probably still am, fairly average at mathematics, but nevertheless it fascinates me. There's a kind of beauty in how it all fits together so perfectly. Perhaps that's part of its beauty - it has to be perfect or it wouldn't be mathematics.
I had to do some calculations today. Just a straightforward addition of a list of numbers written on a piece of paper. I calculated the result in my head, rather than using a calculator, because I enjoy looking for patterns which make the task easier. I scanned the list and found pairs which, when added together, gave a 'round number' result.
As an example, I saw 1400 near the top, and then further down the list, 1600, so I paired them to make 3000. If I'm doing it in my head, I can only use the technique on number lists which are visible in their entirety. Does it confirm that I am in fact a sad old nerd, because I get enjoyment from doing it? Who cares? I certainly don't.
While on the subject of the beauty of mathematics, here's a video which shows that beauty magnificently. It was posted on Diaspora by an internet friend, and it was the thing that got me thinking, and prompted this post. Enjoy.
January 2, 2012
Completely Off His Trolley!
For anyone who is not familiar with the expression "off your trolley", it's a British slang phrase with a similar meaning to "lost your marbles". Now that I've cleared that up, I expect you want to know who is off his trolley. Is it me?
Possibly, because the title of this post is a tenuous link to a post I wrote years ago (definitely before I moved to Posterous) about the famous trolley problem. It's a tenuous link because I can't find the post, but I was reminded of it as I watched a series of five You Tube videos today, in which the trolley problem was discussed.
I became aware of the videos via the RSS feed from the website of that shrill-and-strident-chap-whose-name-must-not-be-mentioned, I have long been of the opinion that all gods, without exception, are figments of human imagination, so the title of the video series prompted me to view them. Here's the first in the series of five (the links to the other four are below, and if you want to go straight to the trolley problem discussion, it's in part 3).
January 1, 2012
I Have A Message For You
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God spoke to me, and said: "You are a conduit from me to the world! You must spread my message! Tell the world they have misunderstood my nature! Tell those who claim to represent me that they got it wrong; they have been duped, and in turn they dupe their followers! Tell them that I am intelligent beyond their understanding! Tell them this universe is but one of many I choose to oversee! Tell them to listen to the truth in these words!!!"
Completely off my rocker, right? Definitely out in the cold.
God spoke to me, and said: "You are a conduit from me to the world. You must spread my message! Tell the world they have veered from the true path. Tell them that they must open their hearts to me, for I will fill them with grace and understanding. Give this message to all who would know me."
A little warmer?
God spoke to me, and said: "You are a conduit from me to the world. You must spread my message. Tell the world I sacrificed my only begotten Son to atone for the sins of man. That sacrifice must never be forgotten! Accept my Son's offer of salvation, repent of your sins! Follow Him, and you will find your place at My side in eternal joy!"
Now we're cookin'!
God spoke to me, and said: "You are a conduit from me to the world. You must spread my message. I want to correct a few errors in my book. Lord knows there are enough of them! Finding a good proof reader shouldn't be so difficult - especially for a god like me! Anyway, let's start with Matthew and Luke. That Luke, boy did he have a few flights of fancy! I only turned my back for a moment and, lo and behold, he'd got Mary literally singing my praises, while she was at Liz's place, and then he invented a completely different version of events, nothing like Matthew's. Oh, hang on...I'll have to get back to you on this. Something's just come up."
Oh dear, bridges burnt to a cinder.
Isn't it strange that Christians who believe that gods could, and do, speak to us, would probably find the middle two messages perfectly acceptable, and wouldn't question the veracity of my claim that 'God' (which they would translate to mean Yahwey - although they probably don't use the name) had spoken to me. And yet they would dismiss my claims, out of hand, with regard to the first and last messages. If I thought he existed, I'd feel sorry for Yahwey. Poor old chap has been ring-fenced. He can't say anything his followers don't want to hear. I suppose that's omnipotence for you?
By the way, if you happen to label yourself a Christian, and you are tempted to say something like, "you wouldn't say that about Muslims!" (as if that somehow invalidated what I've written?), the same thing applies to all people who believe in the existence of gods-who-can-speak-to-us. I just happen to be more familiar with Christian stuff than any of the others. Had I been born somewhere else, it's quite likely that I would be more familiar with the stuff from one of the others.
~:~
First day of 2012, and it's a Sunday. No prizes for guessing where I was this morning. Yep. In the car, in the car park, outside the church, listening to randomly selected music tracks on my phone. I was especially glad to have a pair of noise excluding ear buds today. The bloke doing the preaching was either shouting, or had the amplifier for the roof mounted speakers turned up to 11. Either way, Gillian Welch's Look At Miss Ohio (the first one out of the trap) couldn't entirely block it out, even at full volume.
I couldn't understand exactly what the preacherman was saying, because he was speaking in a language which I only know a little, but it was pretty clear he was giving his congregation a bit of an ear bashing. Was I glad when the next track turned out to be The Killing Stone by Hootie & The Blowfish. It seemed so appropriate! One might be tempted to think it was divine providence.
But not this one.
The Killing Stone by Hootie & The Blowfish
Listen on Posterous
December 31, 2011
Happy New Year
To those of you who organise your lives around the Gregorian calendar (as I do), then today is the last day of 2011. I never tire of sunsets, and here's my last for this year.
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There'll be noisy celebrations later (in fact there are some eager people letting off fireworks already here), so no matter what calendar you live by, enjoy the camaraderie, the smiling faces, and the hugs. Cherish those hugs, and seek out more of them during 2012.
Happy New Year
(and if it's not the time of your new year, be happy anyway)
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December 30, 2011
Women: It's All Their Fault, Right?
You might remember a post from a few weeks ago in which I featured black and white photographs by Vivian Maier. There was one photo in her collection which really stood out, but I decided not to feature it because I knew I would write this post at some point, and would feature her photo in it.
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1954, New York, NY
What are these women doing? Hmmm...1954...they must be communists, lined up against the wall having been outed by McCarthy's acolytes. Perhaps not, but then, if McCarthy's acolytes were not involved, then who did put them there, and for what reason? That's the puzzle.
Vivian Maier's work shows her to have been a street photographer who photographed what she saw, not someone who used models to pose for her, so it's highly unlikely that she put these women against that wall. They don't look like criminals, either, and they don't appear to have that much in common. What on earth could be the reason for them being put there?
I hope you are metaphorically jumping up and down by now, yelling, "nobody put them there!" If you are not, then perhaps you should ask yourself why not? I think I can answer for you - it's because we are quite accustomed to seeing and thinking of women as second class citizens who could be put there, even when there is no evidence to suggest that it's the case. Why is that?
Maybe it's because we have been taught that it was a woman who was taken in by a talking snake (after having been made out of a superfluous bit of a man's body).
Maybe it's because Confucius said: "The female was inferior by nature, she was dark as the moon and changeable as water, jealous, narrow-minded and insinuating. She was indiscreet, unintelligent, and dominated by emotion. Her beauty was a snare for the unwary male, the ruination of states."
Maybe it's because, even in 'well-balanced' Yin and Yang, Yin is described as, "a principle in Chinese philosophy associated with negative, dark, and feminine attributes."
Maybe it's because, under Sharia 'law', a woman's testimony is worth only half that of a man's.
There's plenty more of that sort of shit floating around the world, polluting people's minds. Maybe we should be doing more to flush it down the toilet of history. I suppose you could label me a feminist. I wouldn't necessarily argue with that, as long as feminism is defined like this:
Feminism ≠ female superiority, but rather a drive for gender equality, and eradication of gender-based discrimination, in both directions.
Here's a song which is as relevant today as it was when it was released. John Lennon took a lot of flack from people who were unable (unwilling?) to listen to the whole song rather than just one word. Of course, it was all Yoko's fault! Sigh
John_&_Yoko_-_Woman_Is_The_Nigger_Of_The_World.mp3
Listen on Posterous
