Thursday, November 30, 2006
I just read an article about knitting- and really enjoyed it. I giggled at a few statements, recognizing myself in the author’s words- then I realized what a freakin’ knitting nerd I am.
I mean, who “really enjoys” an article about knitting? Who even reads them? How many people out there (raise your hands) have ever “recognized themselves” in the words of article . . . about knitting?
Let me give you the address of the article so you may enjoy it yourself- but I know you won’t!
http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEwinter04/FEATdontgiveitaway.html
Let me give you a few quotes I loved:
“I sew up the seams of the poncho and rather innocently wear it to my local yarn store on a busy Sunday, for maximum effect, and receive a compliment from another customer.
"Why yes, I did make it," I respond with false modesty.
In turn, I eye what she's buying and ask, "What are you working on?" and maybe she'll say, "Some Nordic mittens" or "A knit bear" or "A tweedy cardigan" or "Oh, just a scarf. I only knit scarves." But I'll immediately sense the sophistication of the yarns she's knitting together for that scarf, or wish I had plans to knit mittens, or feel the sting of the inherent practicality of a cardigan or imagine how cute that bear would turn out. I'm consumed with jealousy.”
“I delight in the thought that selecting this particular yarn and pattern will mean that I will need to buy more needles.
Perfect.”
“I don't want that project over this one, or think the grass is greener on the other side. I think all the grass is green everywhere, and I want to be rolling in knitting projects. I suppose this is why people have stash problems.”
I have a stash problem and it’s not my fault! You know who you are who fed my addiction and sent way more yarn than I asked for! I’m not even going to talk about all the yarn I have in storage.
If knitting where my only hobby things might be . . . well not under control, but at least manageable- but no- I also like to glue things together and paint things and cut stuff up just to sew it back together; and cross stitch and look things up then write stuff down- and take pictures and tell stories- and although it may not be evident most of the I sometimes organize things for fun!
Let’s get back to knitting. My current knitting projects:
1. Shrug/wrap- almost finished, just need to sew up the arms
2. Three scarves two of the same pattern- neither of them using the suggested yarn in the pattern.
3. Sweater which I started the day God told Moses his personal name, no where near finished.
4. Christmas stocking I may actually finish this weekend.
5. A very very very small beaded purse which may never ever get finished.
I’m knitting with needles the size of tooth picks!
Knitting s trendy- has it always been trendy? My mother was a fantastic knitter. She could knit anything she had a picture of- for some reason she never got around to learning how to read a pattern.
I can read a pattern-sort of- and I have the modern miracle of the internet to show me how to do the rest.
I am not a fantastic knitter- but I’m working on it.
Wednesday, November 29, 2006
Tuesday, November 28, 2006
How I almost got killed and /or seriously injured this weekend:
1. Stepped in front of a vehicle- (Almost- very close this one.)
2. Got hit by a tanker truck- (Not hard, but still!)
3. Gas leak in the kitchen- gas line into the range burst into flames.
4. Got too close to a monkey-dog fight (I thought it was monkey dog- but it was really just dog-dog fight.) Here is a picture of me with the not monkey-dog-dog fight going on behind me.
I've never had a nose bleed.
I was watching a TV show where someone died of a nose bleed- I had to look it up to see if that was possible- it seems it is possible, but very rare.
Some nose bleed information which may come in handy some day:
If you get a nose bleed you should pinch your nostriles together and hold your head forward, while standing or sitting up.
If that doesn't work for you, you can use nasal sponges, nasal tampon or nasal balloon to apply pressure from the inside. (Nasal tampons-euuu!)
To reduce the chance of recurrent nose bleeds you can coat your sensitive nasal passages with vasiline or KY jelly. (KY jelly in you nose eeuuuu!)
You may also want to put more fiber in your diet- it causes blood to clot quicker.
In Japan old wives believe sexual arousement is sometimes a cause for a nose bleed.
If an anime character gets a nose bleed: it's a sex scene.
nose bleed
the anime version of an erection (well, in most anime thats appropriote for ages 16 and below), were a male character will bleed profusely from the nose when sexually excited. seeing that girls dont have erections and they cant show her panties getting wet, girls experience extremely red blush across their faces.
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=nose+bleed
Attila the Hun died of a nose bleed just after his wedding. (How embarrassing and tragic at the same time.) He was drunk and choked to death on his own blood because he didn't pinch his nostrils and sit up. (Or is this just a Japanese wives' tale?)
So remember kids, if your nose starts hemorrhaging: Don't be like Attila the Hun after his wedding!
I was watching a TV show where someone died of a nose bleed- I had to look it up to see if that was possible- it seems it is possible, but very rare.
Some nose bleed information which may come in handy some day:
If you get a nose bleed you should pinch your nostriles together and hold your head forward, while standing or sitting up.
If that doesn't work for you, you can use nasal sponges, nasal tampon or nasal balloon to apply pressure from the inside. (Nasal tampons-euuu!)
To reduce the chance of recurrent nose bleeds you can coat your sensitive nasal passages with vasiline or KY jelly. (KY jelly in you nose eeuuuu!)
You may also want to put more fiber in your diet- it causes blood to clot quicker.
In Japan old wives believe sexual arousement is sometimes a cause for a nose bleed.
If an anime character gets a nose bleed: it's a sex scene.
nose bleed
the anime version of an erection (well, in most anime thats appropriote for ages 16 and below), were a male character will bleed profusely from the nose when sexually excited. seeing that girls dont have erections and they cant show her panties getting wet, girls experience extremely red blush across their faces.
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=nose+bleed
Attila the Hun died of a nose bleed just after his wedding. (How embarrassing and tragic at the same time.) He was drunk and choked to death on his own blood because he didn't pinch his nostrils and sit up. (Or is this just a Japanese wives' tale?)
So remember kids, if your nose starts hemorrhaging: Don't be like Attila the Hun after his wedding!
Friday, November 24, 2006
NV: I actually thought the feather was a challenge to the void; something to the effect of: if I throw this feather at you, you won't be void anymore and, aren't chickens smarter than voids b/c voids are nothing.
PK: I don't think chickens are smarter than voids, but I do think if the chicken indeed threw the feather; it was to show the void that it could be destroyed, as you mentioned. It wasn’t a void anymore... chickens are the voids of the animal world, so I think it's a pretty close race. If you threw a feather at a chicken, it would run.
PK: I don't think chickens are smarter than voids, but I do think if the chicken indeed threw the feather; it was to show the void that it could be destroyed, as you mentioned. It wasn’t a void anymore... chickens are the voids of the animal world, so I think it's a pretty close race. If you threw a feather at a chicken, it would run.
Thursday, November 23, 2006
Shannon
I think the chicken symbolizes modern man in his attempt to fill his empty "void" life;
and the feather is the chicken's knowledge that he really doesn't know anything- knowing is really realizing you don't know.
I think if every chicken suddenly disappeared from earth, that would be confusing, but that's beside the point.
Sergio
I think the void symbolizes modern man and the chicken symbolizes all those that came before him and so we each have our chickens to face; many of those chickens are direct relatives
some are related by marriage. Others are food which makes things confusing,
but no more confusing than a egotistical void.
An egotistical void reads the New Yorker outdoors at coffee shops.
I guess such a void would be full of itself.
Shannon
If a void was full of it's self, would it still be void?
Sergio
It would be a void within a void.
Shannon
No, we are the chickens.
I think the chicken symbolizes modern man in his attempt to fill his empty "void" life;
and the feather is the chicken's knowledge that he really doesn't know anything- knowing is really realizing you don't know.
I think if every chicken suddenly disappeared from earth, that would be confusing, but that's beside the point.
Sergio
I think the void symbolizes modern man and the chicken symbolizes all those that came before him and so we each have our chickens to face; many of those chickens are direct relatives
some are related by marriage. Others are food which makes things confusing,
but no more confusing than a egotistical void.
An egotistical void reads the New Yorker outdoors at coffee shops.
I guess such a void would be full of itself.
Shannon
If a void was full of it's self, would it still be void?
Sergio
It would be a void within a void.
Shannon
No, we are the chickens.
The Chicken and the Void
The chicken stared into the void.
The void stared back.
The void said, “Chicken,
what do you see?”
The chicken said-
“nothing.”
“you’re a void.”
The void said, “Chicken,
you have much to learn.”
The chicken said,
“no, I don’t.”
“I’m a chicken.”
The chicken threw a single feather into the void.
Chicken = 1.
Void = 0.
What do the “chicken” and the “void” symbolize?
What do you think the author meant by the chicken’s gesture of throwing in the “single feather?”
What does “Chicken = 1” and “Void = 0” mean?
Why does the chicken tell the void he doesn’t have much to learn?
Why would the void ask the chicken what he saw in a void?
The chicken stared into the void.
The void stared back.
The void said, “Chicken,
what do you see?”
The chicken said-
“nothing.”
“you’re a void.”
The void said, “Chicken,
you have much to learn.”
The chicken said,
“no, I don’t.”
“I’m a chicken.”
The chicken threw a single feather into the void.
Chicken = 1.
Void = 0.
What do the “chicken” and the “void” symbolize?
What do you think the author meant by the chicken’s gesture of throwing in the “single feather?”
What does “Chicken = 1” and “Void = 0” mean?
Why does the chicken tell the void he doesn’t have much to learn?
Why would the void ask the chicken what he saw in a void?
Wednesday, November 22, 2006
I rented a scooter last week. I haven’t ridden it much though on account of: 1. I didn’t have a helmet and 2. I didn’t want to crack my melon on the streets of Bangalore.
A catalog of things I’ve almost run into with my scooter:
A car
A motorcycle
A motorcycle with a man on it
A bicycle with a man on it
A bus
A cow
A temple
An open sewage ditch
A gate
Two teenagers
I now have a helmet- I will avoid cracking my melon.
A catalog of things I’ve almost run into with my scooter:
A car
A motorcycle
A motorcycle with a man on it
A bicycle with a man on it
A bus
A cow
A temple
An open sewage ditch
A gate
Two teenagers
I now have a helmet- I will avoid cracking my melon.
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
Message from strange man:
hi
Message:
hello, i m manice from india, 29 years , male. I m married but i m seeking for a love affair realy. i m well qualified. if u have same mind set up and dont feel it as a taboo, then plz write me here **EMAIL ADDRESS BLOCKED**thnx
Message from me: No thanks hooker-man!
hi
Message:
hello, i m manice from india, 29 years , male. I m married but i m seeking for a love affair realy. i m well qualified. if u have same mind set up and dont feel it as a taboo, then plz write me here **EMAIL ADDRESS BLOCKED**thnx
Message from me: No thanks hooker-man!
Monday, November 20, 2006
mr.mohamadithe head of english institutemr
mohamadi willing to attract native english teachera and the maneger of this institute is eagerly abuot attration native english .this institute located in iran.facilitise:
1. free accomadtion
2. catering servise
3.sutible pay
4.50% is your ticket free(the institute pays it)
5. all facilitise do you need for comfortable life.
we wait for your cotacttanke a lot.
Mr. Mohamadithe,
I would do it (even with the obvious challenges) if only I were Canadian.
mohamadi willing to attract native english teachera and the maneger of this institute is eagerly abuot attration native english .this institute located in iran.facilitise:
1. free accomadtion
2. catering servise
3.sutible pay
4.50% is your ticket free(the institute pays it)
5. all facilitise do you need for comfortable life.
we wait for your cotacttanke a lot.
Mr. Mohamadithe,
I would do it (even with the obvious challenges) if only I were Canadian.
Thursday, November 16, 2006
The Thanksgiving information I gave the folks I work with- probably much more than they wanted to know- but I can't help it if I'm full of information!
____________________________________________________________________
You will all be happy to know that one week from today (next Thursday, November 23) is the American holiday of Thanksgiving!
Be thankful that your call volume should be way down; nobody in the USA wants to work on Thanksgiving!
I’m sure you know some things about American Thanksgiving already, but here is a short refresher and maybe some extra information:
Thanksgiving is celebrated every fourth Thursday of November. Traditionally it is held to remember the harvest feast shared by the Pilgrims (the first English settlers in North America) and the Native Americans, also known as “Indians” which was held in 1621.
Through the years many people privately celebrated Thanksgiving as a time to thank God for all the good things in their lives. In 1863 Abraham Lincoln declared the last Thursday in November to be Thanksgiving; and a national holiday.
In 1939 it was considered improper to start Christmas shopping and decorating before Thanksgiving. In the face of a national economic depression, President Franklin D. Roosevelt decided to move Thanksgiving from the last Thursday in November to the third Thursday in November to prolong the pre-Christmas sales season and help boost the economy.
Many Americans were unhappy with the change in the holiday’s date and continued to celebrate on the last Thursday of November, calling the third Thursday “Franksgiving” Day. In 1941 it was decided by the US Congress that Thanksgiving day would officially be the fourth Thursday in November, which means sometimes it is the last Thursday, and sometime it is the next to last Thursday.
Thanksgiving is celebrated by inviting friends and family over for a large feast. The feast traditionally includes turkey, pumpkin pie, potatoes and a large variety of other vegetables and breads. On Thanksgiving Day many people enjoy watching American football games and/or the Macy’s Day Parade on TV.
Every year the National Turkey Federation gives the White House four turkeys. Two are prepared for the feast and two are named and then “pardoned” or set free by the President.
Last year the pardoned turkeys were named Marshmallow and Yam.
The day after Thanksgiving us called “Black Friday.” It is usually given as a day off from work (Yeah for you) so that people can spend more time with their families or pursue other activities. The most popular activity is shopping. The day after Thanksgiving is the biggest shopping day of the year. It is the official kick of to the Christmas shopping season.
Feel free to greet your customers with “Happy Thanksgiving” next week, and you can ask them what plans they have for Thanksgiving for small talk, as well as what plans they have for the day after Thanksgiving.
See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thanksgiving for more information.
(Canadian Thanksgiving was last month.)
____________________________________________________________________
You will all be happy to know that one week from today (next Thursday, November 23) is the American holiday of Thanksgiving!
Be thankful that your call volume should be way down; nobody in the USA wants to work on Thanksgiving!
I’m sure you know some things about American Thanksgiving already, but here is a short refresher and maybe some extra information:
Thanksgiving is celebrated every fourth Thursday of November. Traditionally it is held to remember the harvest feast shared by the Pilgrims (the first English settlers in North America) and the Native Americans, also known as “Indians” which was held in 1621.
Through the years many people privately celebrated Thanksgiving as a time to thank God for all the good things in their lives. In 1863 Abraham Lincoln declared the last Thursday in November to be Thanksgiving; and a national holiday.
In 1939 it was considered improper to start Christmas shopping and decorating before Thanksgiving. In the face of a national economic depression, President Franklin D. Roosevelt decided to move Thanksgiving from the last Thursday in November to the third Thursday in November to prolong the pre-Christmas sales season and help boost the economy.
Many Americans were unhappy with the change in the holiday’s date and continued to celebrate on the last Thursday of November, calling the third Thursday “Franksgiving” Day. In 1941 it was decided by the US Congress that Thanksgiving day would officially be the fourth Thursday in November, which means sometimes it is the last Thursday, and sometime it is the next to last Thursday.
Thanksgiving is celebrated by inviting friends and family over for a large feast. The feast traditionally includes turkey, pumpkin pie, potatoes and a large variety of other vegetables and breads. On Thanksgiving Day many people enjoy watching American football games and/or the Macy’s Day Parade on TV.
Every year the National Turkey Federation gives the White House four turkeys. Two are prepared for the feast and two are named and then “pardoned” or set free by the President.
Last year the pardoned turkeys were named Marshmallow and Yam.
The day after Thanksgiving us called “Black Friday.” It is usually given as a day off from work (Yeah for you) so that people can spend more time with their families or pursue other activities. The most popular activity is shopping. The day after Thanksgiving is the biggest shopping day of the year. It is the official kick of to the Christmas shopping season.
Feel free to greet your customers with “Happy Thanksgiving” next week, and you can ask them what plans they have for Thanksgiving for small talk, as well as what plans they have for the day after Thanksgiving.
See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thanksgiving for more information.
(Canadian Thanksgiving was last month.)
Wednesday, November 15, 2006
Puggle: Noun is A. A pink, plush stuffed toy
B. A new dog breed which is a mix between a pug and a beagle
C. A baby platypus
D. All of the above
E. A word Shannon made up to mess with me
It’s a tough question, but don’t waste your time googling it, I’ll tell you the answer.
Believe it or not the answer is D.
I’m not lying, I have proof.
puggle 1
puggle 2
puggle 3
Well, that’s not really proof, but if you do google it, you will find these fine examples of puggles.
Puggle: An imaginary animal from the lost forest which eats slip peas and is apparently tasty in pies. Nearly extinct- lives in holes . . . and bags. For more information see:
Lost Forest
Puggle: a mixed breed of a Pug and a Beagle, gaining popularity- distained by real dog breeders. You never know what you’ll get with a puggle- maybe a mild mannered lap dog like a pug, maybe a hyper hunting dog like a beagle. Puggles like children (to play with, not to eat). Puggles make good apartment dogs, but you may also look into getting a “pocket puggle” if you have a very small apartment.
Puggle: a baby platypus.
Some unsolicited information on platypuses:
According to Aboriginal legend, the first platypus were born after a young female duck mated with a lonely and persuasive water-rat. The duck's offspring had their mother's bill and webbed feet and their father's four legs and handsome brown fur.
water rat
duck
Dr. George Shaw was pretty sure the platypus was an elaborate hoax (Played by . . . the duck and the water rat?) when he first encountered the animal in 1799. He named the strange animal platypus, unfortunately that name had already been used for some kind of bug, so the official name became “ornithorhynchus anatinus” meaning “bird-like snout whatchamacallit.”
You can have one platypus or two platypus or you can have two platypuses, but you cannot have a gaggle of platypi, that one is right out.
You can have a gaggle of geese, but there is no collective noun for a group of platypuses- they are loners and don’t want to talk about it further.
(The following is my favorite part.)
The term “puggle” is considered a colloquial term for a baby platypus, as there is no accepted term for platypus young. Puggle is considered unacceptable on account of it is a copyrighted word supposedly exclusively to be used for the above mentioned plush toy. If you insist on calling a baby platypus a puggle legal action just might be taken against you.
Let me repeat, calling a baby platypus a “puggle” is possibly (but I’m not for sure on this) illegal, but defiantly ill-informed.
Henceforth, when speaking to your friends and relations about baby platypuses, you should refer to them as “platy-pups.”
Other interesting things about platypuses:
Platypuses are monotremes, which means they find their food by means of electroperception. Which means they detect electrical fields generated by muscular contractions of their prey. “The platypuses electrorecption is the most sensitive of any monotreme.”
Wikipedia told me so.
Platypuses eat worms, insect larvae, freshwater shrimp and yabbies. (What the heck is a yabby?) A yabby is a crayfish, or crawfish, or crawdad, or as they say in Louisiana, a “mudbug.” I wonder if that is copyrighted.
When a female platypus is ready to lay eggs (the only mammal to lay eggs) she digs a burrow and makes bedding of fallen leaves which she picks up and brings in with her multipurpose tail.
The female platypus has two ovaries, but only the left one works. (Such personal information right here on the internet!)
The female platypus produces milk for her platy-pups, but she doesn’t have any teats.
Milk is released through pores in her skin. (So I’ve never been a boob fan, but given this alternative, I’ll stop complaining.)
Now you know.
B. A new dog breed which is a mix between a pug and a beagle
C. A baby platypus
D. All of the above
E. A word Shannon made up to mess with me
It’s a tough question, but don’t waste your time googling it, I’ll tell you the answer.
Believe it or not the answer is D.
I’m not lying, I have proof.
puggle 1
puggle 2
puggle 3
Well, that’s not really proof, but if you do google it, you will find these fine examples of puggles.
Puggle: An imaginary animal from the lost forest which eats slip peas and is apparently tasty in pies. Nearly extinct- lives in holes . . . and bags. For more information see:
Lost Forest
Puggle: a mixed breed of a Pug and a Beagle, gaining popularity- distained by real dog breeders. You never know what you’ll get with a puggle- maybe a mild mannered lap dog like a pug, maybe a hyper hunting dog like a beagle. Puggles like children (to play with, not to eat). Puggles make good apartment dogs, but you may also look into getting a “pocket puggle” if you have a very small apartment.
Puggle: a baby platypus.
Some unsolicited information on platypuses:
According to Aboriginal legend, the first platypus were born after a young female duck mated with a lonely and persuasive water-rat. The duck's offspring had their mother's bill and webbed feet and their father's four legs and handsome brown fur.
water rat
duck
Dr. George Shaw was pretty sure the platypus was an elaborate hoax (Played by . . . the duck and the water rat?) when he first encountered the animal in 1799. He named the strange animal platypus, unfortunately that name had already been used for some kind of bug, so the official name became “ornithorhynchus anatinus” meaning “bird-like snout whatchamacallit.”
You can have one platypus or two platypus or you can have two platypuses, but you cannot have a gaggle of platypi, that one is right out.
You can have a gaggle of geese, but there is no collective noun for a group of platypuses- they are loners and don’t want to talk about it further.
(The following is my favorite part.)
The term “puggle” is considered a colloquial term for a baby platypus, as there is no accepted term for platypus young. Puggle is considered unacceptable on account of it is a copyrighted word supposedly exclusively to be used for the above mentioned plush toy. If you insist on calling a baby platypus a puggle legal action just might be taken against you.
Let me repeat, calling a baby platypus a “puggle” is possibly (but I’m not for sure on this) illegal, but defiantly ill-informed.
Henceforth, when speaking to your friends and relations about baby platypuses, you should refer to them as “platy-pups.”
Other interesting things about platypuses:
Platypuses are monotremes, which means they find their food by means of electroperception. Which means they detect electrical fields generated by muscular contractions of their prey. “The platypuses electrorecption is the most sensitive of any monotreme.”
Wikipedia told me so.
Platypuses eat worms, insect larvae, freshwater shrimp and yabbies. (What the heck is a yabby?) A yabby is a crayfish, or crawfish, or crawdad, or as they say in Louisiana, a “mudbug.” I wonder if that is copyrighted.
When a female platypus is ready to lay eggs (the only mammal to lay eggs) she digs a burrow and makes bedding of fallen leaves which she picks up and brings in with her multipurpose tail.
The female platypus has two ovaries, but only the left one works. (Such personal information right here on the internet!)
The female platypus produces milk for her platy-pups, but she doesn’t have any teats.
Milk is released through pores in her skin. (So I’ve never been a boob fan, but given this alternative, I’ll stop complaining.)
Now you know.
Monday, November 13, 2006
There are some things which I, Shannon Peterson, will never understand. Among them:
Algebra
Why some “modern art” is acclaimed
Why my dog can’t stop himself from peeing in the house
The mysterious inner workings of the Indian Postal System.
I got a call this morning that I had a package to pick up at the post office and that I would have to pay 618 Rupees for customs. I haven’t had to pay for customs for any other packages (ignoring that ordeal with the FedEx package.)
So I went to pick up this special package that somehow got caught in the customs trap that all my other packages escaped. It was smallish- it looked innocent enough. The post office guy gave me all the forms- had me sign them, I gave him my money and he looked at the package and said, “What’s in there?” (Or something close to that, at least that’s what I think he meant when he pointed at the package and mumbled something unintelligible to me.) I got the indication that he was just as mystified about the special attention from customs as I was. I told him I didn’t know- I didn’t even know who it was from.
When I got the package I saw it was one of the long lost birthday packages mailed back in August. When I got home to open it I found two books and some Cheezits and Cheetos. Opening the box did not solve the customs mystery- I still have no idea why they pulled that one aside and decided to charge for it, nor can I understand why Buzz likes to pee on my dirty clothes . . . some mysteries may never be solved.
Algebra
Why some “modern art” is acclaimed
Why my dog can’t stop himself from peeing in the house
The mysterious inner workings of the Indian Postal System.
I got a call this morning that I had a package to pick up at the post office and that I would have to pay 618 Rupees for customs. I haven’t had to pay for customs for any other packages (ignoring that ordeal with the FedEx package.)
So I went to pick up this special package that somehow got caught in the customs trap that all my other packages escaped. It was smallish- it looked innocent enough. The post office guy gave me all the forms- had me sign them, I gave him my money and he looked at the package and said, “What’s in there?” (Or something close to that, at least that’s what I think he meant when he pointed at the package and mumbled something unintelligible to me.) I got the indication that he was just as mystified about the special attention from customs as I was. I told him I didn’t know- I didn’t even know who it was from.
When I got the package I saw it was one of the long lost birthday packages mailed back in August. When I got home to open it I found two books and some Cheezits and Cheetos. Opening the box did not solve the customs mystery- I still have no idea why they pulled that one aside and decided to charge for it, nor can I understand why Buzz likes to pee on my dirty clothes . . . some mysteries may never be solved.
Thursday, November 09, 2006
Here’s my Goa story:
Goa is the India beach hot spot- everyone agrees it’s the place to be on vacation- obviously I had to go.
I left Buzz with the son of my right hand and got out of town. I took the sea monkeys with me- I forgot to leave them with Buzz.
I had the guy from the guest house pick me up at the airport- he was also picking up another guest. When we both showed up we drove off to the village of Anjuna. Anjuna, it turns out, is where all the nouvue-hippies and Israelis hang out. When we got to the guest house it was dark. They showed us our rooms and I took stock of the situation 1. I had an attached bath, but no toilet paper. 2. I had large, well lit room, semi clean two beds, one outlet- no TV. 3. There was a market to one side of the house and a restaurant to the other side. 4. The beach was down the street. Everything seemed in order for a nice relaxing weekend of seclusion- I had my books, my knitting, my computer and some stationary.
The girl who came from the airport came into my room looking a little shocked and said, “Oh, your room is much nicer than mine!”
I said, “Huh, really?”
She said, “Yes!” and “Look at it!”
Well, it wasn’t quite as nice. Not so well lit- some cobwebs on the ceiling, but I didn’t want to volunteer to trade I was on vacation- my room was okay but I had no intention of down grading- mine was nicer after all but hers wasn’t so bad. She disagreed- she was sure she could not possibly sleep in such a room- anything could happen to her in that room.
She was nearing hysterics when she asked if we could share a room. I wasn’t sure- that hadn’t been the plan- but well I’m alone most of the time at home so why not share a room on vacation? So we became Goa buddies.
We were together the rest of the time. We went to eat- went to the market- went to the beach- then we went back to the guest house and started the cycle again. We got ripped off in the market, as should be expected in India. We laid around looking white at the beach- then we decided that Anjuna just wasn’t holding our attention.
We decided to go to Colva- it looked like a happening place on the map. So we packed up after the second night and taxi-ed down to South Goa. Colva is much larger than Anjuna- fewer hippies and Israelis. Beach-Food-Market.
The next day it was kind of cloudy so we decided to go to Old Goa- where the Portuguese used to hang out and force Indians to become Roman Catholics.
My new friend had met a friend on the flight to Goa. She contacted him and he took us to see the churches in Old Goa- and to an Island nearby. He was a local who had never bothered to look at the tourist places- apparently the task was taxing for him because he had to stop several times to take a few drags on his joint.
I was sitting in a car with two absolute strangers in India watching the driver smoke a joint, and listening to him reassure me that it was fine, he did it all the time and did I want some.
My Goa (Catholic) History:
The best church was Bom Jesus where the remains of St. Francis Xavier are present in a glass casket. (Ick.)
That guy- he was something else- he was about four feet tall, which goes to prove short people can do big things.
He was a cofounder of the Jesuits. In 1541 he left Spain to become a missionary in India. Then he was a missionary in Indonesia, Japan and China.
Now the weirdness.
He died on December 2, 1552. He was buried on a Chinese Island, then a few months later, dug up and moved to a church, then a year later moved to somebody’s house, then a few months later shipped to Goa, “having resisted extensive decay.”
Now- here’s what the tour guide told me, Xavier didn’t decay- first they buried him, but they decided that they were going to want to ship him off to India, so they dug him up he hadn’t decayed as expected so the dumped quick lime in his coffin. They expected after a few months that there would only be bones left making for easy shipping. But when they dug him out again he was still just laying there undecayed. So at that point it became a miracle the “living body” of a dead saint.
When they got him back to Goa they wrote to the Pope to ask for formal legislation concerning the sainthood. The Pope said he had to see it for himself and to send him to Rome. The converts in Goa said, “No! We don’t want to send him, India doesn’t get to keep anything!” (That’s what the guide said.) So they cut off his “blessing arm” which bore his signet ring and sent it off. The Pope agreed that it was Xavier’s arm and that it hadn’t decayed so he must be a saint.
The English get a bad rap in India- but from what I’ve read the Portuguese were a bunch of so-and-so’s too. Xavier requested an Inquisition in India in 1545. An Inquisition is bad news. It went on from 1560 to 1774- along the way thousands of Hindus were either converted to Christianity or tortured and killed. It wasn’t only Hindus, local Jews, Muslims and non-Catholic Christians were all so persecuted.
When the Portuguese got to India they were surprised to find Christians who didn’t know about the Pope. These were Christians using ancient practices and texts dating back to the first century- They referred to the tradition of Thomas the Apostle working in India. Those oh-so-curious Catholics burned the texts from these churches and killed the church leaders. “What followed was the literary holocaust of the St. Thomas Christian history and faith. Even the common prayer book was not spared. Every known item of literature was burnt and any priest professing independence was imprisoned.”
“The Portuguese let out their Negro slaves into the streets and as soon as they found a Hindu, they smeared the person's mouth with beef, making them untouchable in the eyes of other Hindus. Then they forcefully converted them.”
“The large Muslim population of Goa, was massacred and decimated by the Jesuits.”
“There was a large population of Jews in the Konkan region. Celebrating the Jewish Sabbath was enough to get a person burned at the stake.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goa_Inquisition
(I know wikipedia- but I've read the same stories in books and other web pages)
Goa is the India beach hot spot- everyone agrees it’s the place to be on vacation- obviously I had to go.
I left Buzz with the son of my right hand and got out of town. I took the sea monkeys with me- I forgot to leave them with Buzz.
I had the guy from the guest house pick me up at the airport- he was also picking up another guest. When we both showed up we drove off to the village of Anjuna. Anjuna, it turns out, is where all the nouvue-hippies and Israelis hang out. When we got to the guest house it was dark. They showed us our rooms and I took stock of the situation 1. I had an attached bath, but no toilet paper. 2. I had large, well lit room, semi clean two beds, one outlet- no TV. 3. There was a market to one side of the house and a restaurant to the other side. 4. The beach was down the street. Everything seemed in order for a nice relaxing weekend of seclusion- I had my books, my knitting, my computer and some stationary.
The girl who came from the airport came into my room looking a little shocked and said, “Oh, your room is much nicer than mine!”
I said, “Huh, really?”
She said, “Yes!” and “Look at it!”
Well, it wasn’t quite as nice. Not so well lit- some cobwebs on the ceiling, but I didn’t want to volunteer to trade I was on vacation- my room was okay but I had no intention of down grading- mine was nicer after all but hers wasn’t so bad. She disagreed- she was sure she could not possibly sleep in such a room- anything could happen to her in that room.
She was nearing hysterics when she asked if we could share a room. I wasn’t sure- that hadn’t been the plan- but well I’m alone most of the time at home so why not share a room on vacation? So we became Goa buddies.
We were together the rest of the time. We went to eat- went to the market- went to the beach- then we went back to the guest house and started the cycle again. We got ripped off in the market, as should be expected in India. We laid around looking white at the beach- then we decided that Anjuna just wasn’t holding our attention.
We decided to go to Colva- it looked like a happening place on the map. So we packed up after the second night and taxi-ed down to South Goa. Colva is much larger than Anjuna- fewer hippies and Israelis. Beach-Food-Market.
The next day it was kind of cloudy so we decided to go to Old Goa- where the Portuguese used to hang out and force Indians to become Roman Catholics.
My new friend had met a friend on the flight to Goa. She contacted him and he took us to see the churches in Old Goa- and to an Island nearby. He was a local who had never bothered to look at the tourist places- apparently the task was taxing for him because he had to stop several times to take a few drags on his joint.
I was sitting in a car with two absolute strangers in India watching the driver smoke a joint, and listening to him reassure me that it was fine, he did it all the time and did I want some.
My Goa (Catholic) History:
The best church was Bom Jesus where the remains of St. Francis Xavier are present in a glass casket. (Ick.)
That guy- he was something else- he was about four feet tall, which goes to prove short people can do big things.
He was a cofounder of the Jesuits. In 1541 he left Spain to become a missionary in India. Then he was a missionary in Indonesia, Japan and China.
Now the weirdness.
He died on December 2, 1552. He was buried on a Chinese Island, then a few months later, dug up and moved to a church, then a year later moved to somebody’s house, then a few months later shipped to Goa, “having resisted extensive decay.”
Now- here’s what the tour guide told me, Xavier didn’t decay- first they buried him, but they decided that they were going to want to ship him off to India, so they dug him up he hadn’t decayed as expected so the dumped quick lime in his coffin. They expected after a few months that there would only be bones left making for easy shipping. But when they dug him out again he was still just laying there undecayed. So at that point it became a miracle the “living body” of a dead saint.
When they got him back to Goa they wrote to the Pope to ask for formal legislation concerning the sainthood. The Pope said he had to see it for himself and to send him to Rome. The converts in Goa said, “No! We don’t want to send him, India doesn’t get to keep anything!” (That’s what the guide said.) So they cut off his “blessing arm” which bore his signet ring and sent it off. The Pope agreed that it was Xavier’s arm and that it hadn’t decayed so he must be a saint.
The English get a bad rap in India- but from what I’ve read the Portuguese were a bunch of so-and-so’s too. Xavier requested an Inquisition in India in 1545. An Inquisition is bad news. It went on from 1560 to 1774- along the way thousands of Hindus were either converted to Christianity or tortured and killed. It wasn’t only Hindus, local Jews, Muslims and non-Catholic Christians were all so persecuted.
When the Portuguese got to India they were surprised to find Christians who didn’t know about the Pope. These were Christians using ancient practices and texts dating back to the first century- They referred to the tradition of Thomas the Apostle working in India. Those oh-so-curious Catholics burned the texts from these churches and killed the church leaders. “What followed was the literary holocaust of the St. Thomas Christian history and faith. Even the common prayer book was not spared. Every known item of literature was burnt and any priest professing independence was imprisoned.”
“The Portuguese let out their Negro slaves into the streets and as soon as they found a Hindu, they smeared the person's mouth with beef, making them untouchable in the eyes of other Hindus. Then they forcefully converted them.”
“The large Muslim population of Goa, was massacred and decimated by the Jesuits.”
“There was a large population of Jews in the Konkan region. Celebrating the Jewish Sabbath was enough to get a person burned at the stake.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goa_Inquisition
(I know wikipedia- but I've read the same stories in books and other web pages)
Tuesday, November 07, 2006
I have received some “compliments” or perhaps just benign comments which remind me how other people view me.
Sometimes I look at people my age and think, “Do I look that old?” In my mind I don’t. Please no comments to the contrary- I like to believe my imagination on these matters.
I met a young woman while traveling and she asked me what kind of work I did. I told her I was a teacher. She said, “You look like a teacher.”
Now, in my opinion, there are some professions which may be noble and good and useful- I just don’t want to be pigeon-holed as “looking like” a stereo-typical member of .
On my list of professions I personally don’t want to “look like” are:
teacher
missionary
librarian
scientist
IHOP waitress
cafeteria lady
truck driver
I’ve worked as, or as assistant to all but two of the above professions. Actually I’ve known some very attractive people in these professions, but they are not the stereo-typical examples- they are a-typical, they are the ones about whom people say, “You’re a _________?! You don’t look like one.” And that is a compliment.
Similarly, there are some nationalities one may not want to be accused of being. This one varies from place to place and between situations. For example, in UAE I did not want to be called Russian- not because there was anything wrong with Russians, but because many of the Russian women in the area were known prostitutes.
This weekend someone asked me if I was from Finland. I said, “No.” He said that was funny because I look very Finnish. Honestly I don’t know what specific features Finnish people have, but in my imagination, which as I said, I like to believe, they are quite pale. Pale as in nearly see-through- hurts-your-eyes-in-the-sun pale with big blue veins. I get this image from seeing the tourists who would come to the beach in Cyprus, they were usually Scandinavian.
I know, I know not all Scandinavians are deathly pale and I’m sure there are some drop-dead gorgeous Finns- (can’t say I’ve known any personally) but the stereo-type . . .
Finally this Indian girl came up to me on the beach and said, “You are so milky.” It’s one of those things that yeah, okay-I know it’s a compliment in this culture- but it doesn’t translate well across cultures.
A white girl sitting on the beach doesn’t want to hear she is “milky.”
Indians have a large market for “fairness cream.” They take great pains to avoid getting darker skin. They use umbrellas on sunny days, they will fully cover to avoid the sun, the beach was more crowded at sunset than it was mid-day. Fair women in India are considered quite attractive. “Milky” is good, unless you are always “milky” and you are at the beach trying to look less Finnish and more Indian, when in fact you are neither one.
Sometimes I look at people my age and think, “Do I look that old?” In my mind I don’t. Please no comments to the contrary- I like to believe my imagination on these matters.
I met a young woman while traveling and she asked me what kind of work I did. I told her I was a teacher. She said, “You look like a teacher.”
Now, in my opinion, there are some professions which may be noble and good and useful- I just don’t want to be pigeon-holed as “looking like” a stereo-typical member of .
On my list of professions I personally don’t want to “look like” are:
teacher
missionary
librarian
scientist
IHOP waitress
cafeteria lady
truck driver
I’ve worked as, or as assistant to all but two of the above professions. Actually I’ve known some very attractive people in these professions, but they are not the stereo-typical examples- they are a-typical, they are the ones about whom people say, “You’re a _________?! You don’t look like one.” And that is a compliment.
Similarly, there are some nationalities one may not want to be accused of being. This one varies from place to place and between situations. For example, in UAE I did not want to be called Russian- not because there was anything wrong with Russians, but because many of the Russian women in the area were known prostitutes.
This weekend someone asked me if I was from Finland. I said, “No.” He said that was funny because I look very Finnish. Honestly I don’t know what specific features Finnish people have, but in my imagination, which as I said, I like to believe, they are quite pale. Pale as in nearly see-through- hurts-your-eyes-in-the-sun pale with big blue veins. I get this image from seeing the tourists who would come to the beach in Cyprus, they were usually Scandinavian.
I know, I know not all Scandinavians are deathly pale and I’m sure there are some drop-dead gorgeous Finns- (can’t say I’ve known any personally) but the stereo-type . . .
Finally this Indian girl came up to me on the beach and said, “You are so milky.” It’s one of those things that yeah, okay-I know it’s a compliment in this culture- but it doesn’t translate well across cultures.
A white girl sitting on the beach doesn’t want to hear she is “milky.”
Indians have a large market for “fairness cream.” They take great pains to avoid getting darker skin. They use umbrellas on sunny days, they will fully cover to avoid the sun, the beach was more crowded at sunset than it was mid-day. Fair women in India are considered quite attractive. “Milky” is good, unless you are always “milky” and you are at the beach trying to look less Finnish and more Indian, when in fact you are neither one.
Tickle says:
You are Balanced-brained
That means you are able to draw on the strengths of both the right and left hemispheres of your brain, depending upon a given situation. When you need to explain a complicated process to someone, or plan a detailed vacation, the left hemisphere of your brain, which is responsible for your ability to solve problems logically, might kick in. But if you were critiquing an art opening or coming up with an original way to file papers, the right side of your brain, which is responsible for noticing subtle details in things, might take over. While many people have clearly dominant left- or right-brained tendencies, you are able to draw on skills from both hemispheres of your brain. This rare combination makes you a very creative and flexible thinker. The down side to being balanced-brained is that you may sometimes feel paralyzed by indecision when the two hemispheres of your brain are competing to solve a problem in their own unique ways.
http://web.tickle.com/tests/brain/index_main.jsp
You are Balanced-brained
That means you are able to draw on the strengths of both the right and left hemispheres of your brain, depending upon a given situation. When you need to explain a complicated process to someone, or plan a detailed vacation, the left hemisphere of your brain, which is responsible for your ability to solve problems logically, might kick in. But if you were critiquing an art opening or coming up with an original way to file papers, the right side of your brain, which is responsible for noticing subtle details in things, might take over. While many people have clearly dominant left- or right-brained tendencies, you are able to draw on skills from both hemispheres of your brain. This rare combination makes you a very creative and flexible thinker. The down side to being balanced-brained is that you may sometimes feel paralyzed by indecision when the two hemispheres of your brain are competing to solve a problem in their own unique ways.
http://web.tickle.com/tests/brain/index_main.jsp
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
