Good tech: Netvibes is fantastic and a great way to organise your online life, Web 2.0 at it's best.
Bad tech: ITunes (in my experience at least) is the most buggy, crash-happy software I have ever had the misfortune of having on my PC. It really is appaling and shows up this Apple love-fest for what it is...blather.
Hmmm, I have to have a little go at Apple once in a while, it always stirs up a few bees ;)
What else? I thought the Integral Naked interview with Caroline Myss was a mess. KW didn't challenge her on this weird 'ego-spirit-soul' model she writes about in her new book, it didn't make any sense to me and completely contradicts his own ego-soul-spirit model.
On other hand, the IN interview with Helen Titchen Beeth was inspiring, exhilarating even.
Wow, I had a lucid dream last night. I just love lucid dreams, there are few things more fun in this world than lucid dreaming, and it's free and healthy!
It's the strangest thing, there I am having an ordinary, run-of-the-mill dream and then...there's a sudden realisation, as if you've suddenly just realised that someone's being playing a trick on you...it's a dream! But the thing is you don't wake up (not this time at least), and then comes the wonderful thought...'oh, I can do anything I want'. This is where it gets tricky...what to do? It's important to act swiftly because, in my experience, lucidity does not last for long.
So this time I decided to fly, I had an audience of friends from the non-lucid part of the dream already in attendance. 'Look at me' I shouted (just like my five year old says to me), I ran down a beautifully manicured lawn, threw my arms up into the air, Superman style, and launched myself gracefully into the air.
Thirty, forty, fifty feet into the sky. I turn around, my friends are all looking...I then feel the dream start to fade, everything gets blurred, I wake up, nighttime, in bed, exhilarated.
It's the strangest thing, there I am having an ordinary, run-of-the-mill dream and then...there's a sudden realisation, as if you've suddenly just realised that someone's being playing a trick on you...it's a dream! But the thing is you don't wake up (not this time at least), and then comes the wonderful thought...'oh, I can do anything I want'. This is where it gets tricky...what to do? It's important to act swiftly because, in my experience, lucidity does not last for long.
So this time I decided to fly, I had an audience of friends from the non-lucid part of the dream already in attendance. 'Look at me' I shouted (just like my five year old says to me), I ran down a beautifully manicured lawn, threw my arms up into the air, Superman style, and launched myself gracefully into the air.
Thirty, forty, fifty feet into the sky. I turn around, my friends are all looking...I then feel the dream start to fade, everything gets blurred, I wake up, nighttime, in bed, exhilarated.
This is my one hundreth post since starting this blog, who would have thought I'd manage to keep it up?
To celebrate the occasion, I'm drinking a bottle of 'Rabbit Poacher' ale that I purchased at the farmer's market today in Ely. Rabbit Poacher is brewed by the 'Fenland (Isle of Ely) Brewery' and is really quite lovely. The man at the stall told me they've managed to get the beer into a few local supermarkets and pubs and have stalls at the various markets throughout the region.
Mmmm, I will most definitely have to buy some more.
The only downer is their website: www.elybeer.co.uk, which is not well designed and fails to work in Firefox, not a good marketing move when you consider the amount of geeks who like a good bitter, or four.
To celebrate the occasion, I'm drinking a bottle of 'Rabbit Poacher' ale that I purchased at the farmer's market today in Ely. Rabbit Poacher is brewed by the 'Fenland (Isle of Ely) Brewery' and is really quite lovely. The man at the stall told me they've managed to get the beer into a few local supermarkets and pubs and have stalls at the various markets throughout the region.
Mmmm, I will most definitely have to buy some more.
The only downer is their website: www.elybeer.co.uk, which is not well designed and fails to work in Firefox, not a good marketing move when you consider the amount of geeks who like a good bitter, or four.
I saw the film High Fidelity for the second time last night. It's a great movie and a pretty much accurate portrayal of poor sods like me who go on and on, and on, and on, about obscure music for hours on end.
Just to prove how geeky I am, I'm proud to say I spotted a mistake they made in the film. In the scene where one of the record shop workers is chatting-up a punter, he refers to Stiff Little Fingers as 'The Stiff Little Fingers', well, please! Perhaps in Chicago they added the definite article but here, in western Europe, it was always Stiff Little Fingers, or SLF to their fans.
Jeez, am I sad or what?
Just to prove how geeky I am, I'm proud to say I spotted a mistake they made in the film. In the scene where one of the record shop workers is chatting-up a punter, he refers to Stiff Little Fingers as 'The Stiff Little Fingers', well, please! Perhaps in Chicago they added the definite article but here, in western Europe, it was always Stiff Little Fingers, or SLF to their fans.
Jeez, am I sad or what?
Pinpoint were formed in London sometime in 1978 and were comprised of ex. Lurker Arturo Bassick (guitar and vocals), Dave Allen (bass and vocals) and Hugh Griffiths (drums).The single Richmond was released in 1979 and is a little punk gem. The song concerns the wealthy London suburb of Richmond and its young rich inhabitants, later know as 'yuppies'. It is a blistering little number with snappy lyrics, the sort of thing you really want to hear very loud after three of so cans of Stella.
The b-side is rubbish, everything they did after this single (one awful album and a brace of terrible singles) is rubbish. The record is also responsible for causing the first major argument between me and my then girlfriend (now wife) who protested (reasonably) that she knew a number of very nice people in the royal borough and it was thus unfair to tarnish the whole town with this punk rock slur.
Whatever...it's a superb single. Pinpoint were never heard of again, Richmond is still very rich.
Listen: Pinpoint - Richmond
A few interesting points:
- The line in the song: 'in Richmond, where the cigarettes are menthol'. Funny how menthol cigs are considered posh by Pinpoint while the Clash, at more or less the same time, sang nostalgically about 'smoking menthol' on the track 'Stay Free' from the 'Give em Enough Rope LP'.
- The line 'holiday in Malta': that sunny isle was also referenced, at more or less the same time' by the Members on their first album, 'At the Chelsea Nightclub'.
- The single was apparently covered by Die Toten Hosen, I'd love to hear an MP3 of this if anyone has it.
So I have this viral thingy that's keeping me off work. It's kind of spooky, I feel kind of bi-polar in an ill sort of way. One minute I'm feeling fine and full of great plans and energy, the next thing I know I feel like I've a horrible hangover, one of those ones you know will only get worse. The doc reckons it could last for up to six weeks, I can't believe this, I absolutely refuse to believe it, it is not possible, it will not happen.
I'm reading Jung's autobiography 'Memories, Dreams, Reflections'. It's an inspiring read and pretty much essential for anyone interested in dreamwork and innerwork of any kind. I'm particularly interested in his experiences of the anima, one area I'm looking at in some detail at the moment.
I recently had a series of dreams involving fierce animals, specifically a gorilla and an alligator, not sure what to make of it all as yet.
Football season has started, do I care? Yes and no.
I'm on the wagon for this month, hard work but it's giving me time to get down to other, more urgent work.
I recently had a series of dreams involving fierce animals, specifically a gorilla and an alligator, not sure what to make of it all as yet.
Football season has started, do I care? Yes and no.
I'm on the wagon for this month, hard work but it's giving me time to get down to other, more urgent work.
So, I was walking up the road to my home. My mind was fretting away about this and that. I felt unhappy with my thoughts, not only for their content but also for their repetitive nature, as if I had known the same endless cycle for decades.
In exasperation, or perhaps desperation, I put down my shopping bags and looked up at the clear sky. Suddenly the thoughts dropped from my mind and for a few seconds...nothing...my mind and the wide open sky appeared to be one boundless continuum. Then a question appeared, 'how would it feel to live life like this?'.
I knew the answer immediately. I felt open, light, free and untroubled, without need for defense or judgment. Yes, this would be a wonderful way to live.
It didn't last for long and quickly I could feel myself coming back to the narrow confines of my everyday mind, locked in it's little skull, sulking and bitching about this and that.
But...I know it's there, something infinitely bigger and brighter...it's a matter of not forgetting...and practice.
In exasperation, or perhaps desperation, I put down my shopping bags and looked up at the clear sky. Suddenly the thoughts dropped from my mind and for a few seconds...nothing...my mind and the wide open sky appeared to be one boundless continuum. Then a question appeared, 'how would it feel to live life like this?'.
I knew the answer immediately. I felt open, light, free and untroubled, without need for defense or judgment. Yes, this would be a wonderful way to live.
It didn't last for long and quickly I could feel myself coming back to the narrow confines of my everyday mind, locked in it's little skull, sulking and bitching about this and that.
But...I know it's there, something infinitely bigger and brighter...it's a matter of not forgetting...and practice.
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