Why are you still carrying her?

Zen Buddhist story of the day:


Two monks are walking from one monastery to another. Along the way they cross paths with a wealthy woman who is rude to them. They meet up with her party again at the river, where she clearly needs assistance to get across. The older monk offers to carry her across the water and at some risk to himself in the swirling waters, he gets her across. She doesn’t even say thank you properly, and leaves. The two monks continue walking for a few more hours until the younger one bursts out ‘how rude that woman was, first she didn’t acknowledge us properly and then she didn’t thank you after you carried her across the waters.’ And the older monk looked at him and replied, ‘I put her down hours ago, why are you still carrying her?’

Ah those elder monks.. always so wise!
 
(I couldn't find an image of a monk wading across a river,  but loved this misty one so included it.  I love how their saffron bright robes contrast with the surroundings)

Thoughts on Change

I was reading somewhere (who knows where, I read so many blogs and magazines and books, I really lose track) Anyways, I read that people’s memory today is appalling compared to those of trained folk in ancient Greek. Then actors, who were not always literate, could recall and declaim verses thousands of lines long. Today, we can barely remember the lyrics to an entire song, but we can find them, with two clicks on our iphone. In Holland, their high school graduates are being tested not on knowledge, but on access. They go into the test with all their computers and gadgets and then are given a topic about which they know nothing, and are timed to research and create a paper/discussion about it. I think that’s what future knowledge is going to be – not memory but access. I look at my son, all of 12, who checks on his phone what rating a restaurant received, and then matches his experience against the Zagat numbers, to see if he agrees or not. No one needs to remember phone numbers any more, we just press contacts and the name pops up. Even with Kindle, (which I just got and love, but more of that another day) my main problem with it is in the recall system – it relies on me remembering a book just by the title - without cover or blurb; and the title is rarely enough for me to remember the book. Sometimes it is, but not a new author, or a series author (I don’t know which Prey book is which, the titles are meaningless to me there.)

 So I think the future is all about knowledge and access. Stories that made sense even 25 years ago, don’t make sense anymore (he moved away so she couldn’t find him.. in today’s world, she could search for 30 mins on google and there he would be) People can aggregate around the weirdest/most poignant issues – read Sufi poets in a Midwestern town of 600? I can find you 600 likeminded friends, only a chat room away. As we become more and more individual in our quirks and needs, we are less and less alone, finding people just like us no matter where we (or they) live.

And I like that. This is change I can live with. You can buy the clothes you like, the books you like, even the food you like (steaks? Marshmallows? And williams Sonoma site will send you the most amazing things) You can find the information you need and the people like you,  and without being limited by geography.

Beading Frenzy

I've written about this a long time ago,  but a few years ago I found the perfect storm of hobbies for me - combining my love of color from make up and my love of small sugary tempting things from sweets - beads!  I love beads,  the potential that each bead has to create something amazing.  And this week,  I went on a beading frenzy,  creating 4 beautiful (imho) necklaces,  using my beads for the first time this year (very bad!)  When ever I go to a beading show (there are 2 of them a year in nyc) I shop very carefully,  making sure I don't go crazy, and when ever I get home,  I wonder why I didn't let myself buy more!  So here are some not great photos of my work this week:

this one is my current favorite, a nd took forever!  I think I worked on it for over 4 hours  but I'm very happy with it.

these are honey colored pearls, which make a very dramatic collar necklace

these are all very soft pink shades which the camera kind of washed out,  but looks very feminine and pretty.

and these are a gorgeous lavender blue rondell, with Italian glass accent beads.  I'm sorry the color didn't come out so well in these pictures!

and finally this is the one DS designed and strung,  very classic.

I also photographed some older stuff that I have made,  but I'll put them up another day,  the computer is being tricky and doesn't appear to like having so many images uploaded...

But busy and productive times!

So funny I cried...

Had a long day today... went to the Aquarium with DS and 100 other, mostly very well behaved children (the occassional stranglehold not withstanding) and 2 other lovely moms (one of whom is setting up the perfect fantasy band - The Suspicious Moms. I just loved it! 45+ rocker moms, belting it out and being right, can't get anything by those suspicious moms...) Anways, despite everything being as it should, I came home exhausted, it's just the energy of those 100 teens is wearying.

And then I came across this perfectly named site - Awkward Family Photos.  It had so many great images, that I was literally crying with laughter, so I'm sharing some of them now with you.  Some of them were just so revealing of the family dynamics,  others you wondered why anyone would set them up and still others were just so painfully,  truly funny.  Visit and enjoy

Dancing all the time

So a few blogs ago I mentioned discovering that the AMNH throws a party once every 2 months or so, to raise funds and get new bodies into the building. Without doing too much (or indeed, any!) research, I just got a small group of people together and we went. (as an aside, people tell you that they want to dance, but life inevitably gets in the way, in the end there were 5 of us, and that is actually a perfect number, enough for a group feel but not so many that we pulled in different directions)

Anyways, we were driven there, which is untold luxury in new york city by one of my friends, who then parked in the AMNH, really, I realize that I drive everywhere in Sydney and to non Manhattanites this may not be such a big deal, but I'm never driven anywhere within the city, so that added to our excitement.

We got there, and I realized that I had no idea what was meant to happen. I thought there would be a dj and lots of dancing. Instead there was some music, but there were 3 acts and a focal stage point. DH's immediate criticism was that the lighting was awful, especially when the potential was so high. The room is so interesting and you could do all sorts of things, but they did the most minimal, and it was way too light from the ordinary lights upstairs.

And then the first act came on. Everyone sang to click tracks, so they weren't bands strictly speaking. I thought that was a bit odd, but no one else seemed to mind, so they must be used to that concept.

The first act was called ninjasonik and they were just appalling. So bad they were like a send up. They had this kind of beat back ground and would shout 'fuck' every second word, and had lyrics like 'I want a fuck, someone's gonna get pregnant' and that was the entire song, just repeat for 3 mins.

I had that dreadful embarrassment you get when you set something up and it becomes your responsibility if it was good or bad. DH went and looked up on his iphone if there was somewhere better near by. But thankfully their set ended and some danceable if bland music came on, and so we bopped and waited to see what would happen next.


Thankfully the next guy - Theophilus London- was much better. He sang some songs that I actually liked, especially the humdrum town song, and had a lovely smooth voice and was danceable. So we stayed and danced some more and thought, well, that was an experience.



But then the third and final act came on - the Very Best (such a stupid name!) with people from all over, but with a real African flavor. So it was African hip hop and it was just amazing. We were all jumping by the end, they had such energy and an fantastic sound, so much better!

So I'm going to try for the next one... because I'll dance every chance I can get!

jobs I couldn't do

I have 2 new television passions - I'm so enjoying the newish series The Good Wife, and I've fallen in love Johnny Weir in Be Good Johnny Weir. So in total 21st century obsessed fan mode, I've become fans of them both on Facebook (yes, it's true)

And then today they had a puff piece with the Costume Designer of The Good Wife and I thought, that is a job I just could not do. It is just totallly outside my skill set. The obsessive attention to detail and shopping all day every day to clothe other characters just makes me feel exhausted and a bit sad. And yet meeting strangers and talking to large groups - no problem. Everyone has their strengths...



Johnny Weir also designs his own costumes, and I love the drama of them. His aesthetics is a cut above what I see all the other ice skaters wearing. He says he wants to be a fashion designer when he finishes with ice skating, and I think he would produce amazing stuff.

Enjoying my teenage passions...

new types of learning

So while encouraging my son to learn how to type we have this conversation:

'I learnt how to type using a book.' I inform him.
'Why would you use a book? Why didn't you go online?' he demanded
and I looked at him and started to laugh and said 'I learnt to type before the internet.'

Here I am, older by the minute!

In the meantime, I'm also on amazon, researching best learn to type cdroms. I didn't like any of the free downloadable stuff available. (for those who long to know, I eventually went with Typing Instructor Deluxe V17, doesn't that sound fancy!)

Also found this site and am now testing my speed and accuracy (neither of which were as good as I hoped, I'm averaging 70 with 5 mistakes, I thought I was faster than that!)