Perspective II (poem)
A second take, if you read the first one. Please find it here.
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Perspective (poem) by Misheel Chuluun
A little frustrated over here...
http://www.poetrysoup.com/poems_poets/poems_by_poet_read.aspx?ID=16938
A unique solution to parking garage signage
via de-war.de
For a garage in Melbourne, designer Axel Peemoeller created innovative signage that appears distorted from all but one angle. To navigate the garage, drivers follow anamorphic signs; stand (or drive through) that spot, and the intact word appears superimposed across all surfaces.
Oh, and I don’t speak Japanese. Yet.
I’ve been in Japan for three months. This means I’m starting my blog three months late. It also means I’ve been very busy living in the moment, as they say, which is all the rage these days and is, more importantly, something I typically have trouble doing but have become more at ease with this past revolutionary year.
Here are my goals for this blog:
1. To write, in a not-too-serious manner (I often take writing way too seriously)
2. To give myself a formal (and informal) place to record assorted memories in Japan. These memories will revolve around my three main priorities in Japan (and in general!): food, traveling, writing.
3. To have a place to collect and share my pictures—more and more, I’m becoming an avid photographer
4. To have an informal place to keep in touch with friends, colleagues, and family
5. To create one more piece to my life in Japan, and a writing piece, no less!
I want to write with heart, and to be as funny as I humbly think I can be. And to have fun. Loads.
Inset: The start of the Magome-Tsumago hiking trail, in Magome, Kiso Valley, Japan.
Stop murdering the enviroment with your gas guzzling dog
via good.is
I thought the above image was an interesting exercise in perspective. You hear environmentalists ranting about gas guzzling SUVs and lobbying for higher emission and gas mileage standards, but you don't see them going around murdering dogs left and right. Well, at least not yet.
However, I'm not sure I completely agree with the methodology used here. 10,000 kilometers is a little over 6,200 miles. That's not exactly average use, at least not here in the United States. But even if you double the annual driving distance, the carbon footprint is still less than that of a medium-sized dog.
I think the one thing we can be sure of is this: We are on the eve of an epic battle between PETA and Greenpeace. It will be bloody. There will be many casualties. And when the dust settles after the storm, there will be a lot less smelly people getting up in your face trying to get you to sign something when you walk out of Whole Foods.
This study also proves the superiority of cats. This has been known by most digital natives for some time though. Lolcats over Faildogs any day of the week. Twice on Caturday.
Finding Your Zen
beautiful advice from a friend today:
"Try taking a walk sometime to a bridge. Look first at the water leaving from the bridge going away from you. Either drop some leaves in the water or fix your gaze to things moving in the water away from you. Transfer things you want to get rid of emotionally onto those leaves, and just let them go down the river. Try to capture that image so you can remember it forever. Whenever there are people, problems, worries or anything out of your control but that you no longer want to hold onto, gently think of them floating down that river.
Then switch your view to the other side of the bridge. Think of the water coming to you as life's journeys coming at you, of which you have little to no control. Yet there is something wonderful there in welcoming what comes naturally. Prepare yourself to welcome these people, images, experiences like an open book. You are in the present. Always. Anything in the past or in the future belongs on the other side of the bridge. But this is you being "here" and free of those stresses. The better you get at this, the more time you'll spend here - looking at the splendor and mystery of life.That, to me, is the essence of Zen."
Beautiful Mess
In the last week, four people have cycled back into my life in one way or another - and I've had some surprising realizations as a result.
I've always considered myself a pretty perceptive person and someone who's a reasonably good judge of character - and yet, after this week, I have to take a step back. Unusual for me is that I was able to walk into all of these interactions without carrying a lot of baggage (all four were people that I've dated at some point) and without having any expectations - but instead having an open mind and a genuine interest in simply being present in the moment. I realized that I was - for the first time in a long time - not just talking and listening - but actually seeing and hearing. What a revelation. These people that I thought I knew - whose roles, quirks, and shortcomings I had long ago assigned - were so much more complex, fragile, and alive to me -- and human in the most beautiful but messy way. Sometimes it's too easy to make that snap judgment and just write people off -- to find justifications for not dealing with their imperfections and issues (perhaps because they uncomfortably remind us of our own). I see now that I've been too hasty. I bet life would be a lot more joyful if I could spend less time shutting or pushing people out of my life and more on being accepting and letting them in.messyimperfectscaredbeautifullonelyalive
The "God view":...where everything interacts
This summer, I traveled to St. Louis and I visited the Gateway Arch, which has a beautiful museum . But the main attraction is the view from its very top. Standing about 630 feet tall, the view is amazing to say the very least.
On one side of the Gateway Arch is the amazing view of the city, with high-rise buildings, roads, and bridges intertwined; it's a distinctive sight that is highlighted by the St. Louis Cardinals Stadium.
On the other side sits possibly the only thing you cannot view in its entirety from the top, the Mississippi River--2,320 miles in length--the second largest river in the United States. Seemingly the whole world around you shrinks and you get close to possessing what I term the “God view.”
The “God view” is the ultimate unreachable perception of the world in its entirety, with everything and anything being in sight. The idea of the "God view" came to me as I stood on the ninth floor of Teacher’s College (TC), a building on the BSU campus. I looked out the windows on the side of the building, with a view down N. McKinley Avenue.
I immediately noticed the vast difference from the experiences I have during my everyday walks on campus. I saw everything beneath me in its entirety and not just in little tidbits. For instance, you see the Atrium as it relates to the sidewalks, the sidewalks as they relate to the streets, the streets as they relate to the people, the people as they relate to the cars--as the Atrium relates to the library, as the library relates to the Bell Tower, and the interrelationship never ends.
Everything felt like it had a more defined relationship, and I began to realize how much the environment and surroundings affect our being and our movement. My one question remains what is the ultimate reachable “God view”?
