Random thoughts Stray memories

Monday, October 30, 2006

I know you're special, we're special.
I know it because life now is about being the best persons we can be, without doubting each other and wondering if we can reconcile our differences.
If it makes any sense at all, I want to cross the road more carefully now because of you. I want to run forever with you, and if my knee gives way, I'll be glad to have you walking by my side. I can see us as an old couple holding hands (and still wrestling to have the dominant thumb on top).

Thank you for showing me how simple it can actually be.

Everybody has one thing they keep, one thing that matters to them more than anything else. Life is just a process of elimination, figuring out what that one thing is. You may figure it out right at the end, just as you're losing it. If you're lucky.
- Terry Bisson, The Pickup Artist

Sunday, October 29, 2006

Because of you, we watched "An Inconvenient Truth" on its first day of screening here. We weren't sure how long a run this movie would get, and we didn't want to push our luck.

Watch this film if you've not already done so. It puts your priorities into perspective.

In the film "The Professor and his Beloved Equation", the professor gave the nickname "Root" to a little boy, because Root is the most generous symbol which welcomes all numbers, whole or otherwise.

It will be good to be noble as a Root.

Wednesday, October 25, 2006

Just finished reading the section on MMPI in the book on Personality Testing. I remember being asked to take such a test this year, and was so indignant that I wrote comments next to nearly every question (but yes, I answered them anyway).

I wonder what trait scale I got assigned to. Probably quite nasty.

Monday, October 23, 2006

I've been walking slower and slower. I don't know if it's the haze or an unconscious laziness that has descended upon me.

Seven blunders of the world that lead to violence: wealth without work, pleasure without conscience, knowledge without character, commerce without morality, science without humanity, worship without sacrifice, politics without principle.
- Mahatma Gandhi

Monday, October 16, 2006

I secretly think it's a great job to optimise the delivery flow of packages round the world. Just imagine, spending your day thinking up ways to shave seconds off routes. What's not to like about a job which sole purpose is to save time?

There's a playground that we used to run on
The penny-drop that broke her arm
The monkey bars that you fell from
The swingset chain that stuck with my tongue
It's thirty below and we're far gone
If you plant yourself here I wouldn't miss you for long
But then comes the day when you leave town
I'm back to the way I was when you weren't around

If you want to know what that was like
I'll tell you first, it was way too quiet
It rained a hundred nineteen days of the year
I spent my time falling down the stairs
I know I can't tie you to a leash
But something tells me you'd go further than Greece
And then I'll have to figure out what to do
I'm kind of afraid I'm co-dependent on you

I'm freaking out that we've started breaking down
Before momentum picked up
Now all these doors are locked
The trees trick you 'cause they're always standing still
If time was really racing by
You could see it when you drive

There's a rooftop deck where we still hang out
A couple of bars where we're not allowed
The roller-skates that threw you on your face
The park on the hill which was our only space
The fog is fast and it rolls right in
About the time I struck my first fifth of gin
I really don't mean to complain too much
But this is turning me into quite the lush

I'm freaking out that we're running out of time
But to do what?
Should I stop and think of that?
Is there something I could do to slow it down?
Live in a day for once
Instead of watch it screaming by

You're a dandelion seed
That flies through the air
And lands randomly
Then disappears
x2

I'm freaking out that we've started breaking down
Before momentum picked up
Now all these doors are locked
The trees trick you 'cause they're always standing still
If time was really racing by
You could see it when you drive

- Loquat, Swingset Chain

Today's unlikely gems:
Loquat's song "Swingset Chain", which I've forgotten I own until my iPod shuffled it out.
A Belgium film called "Any Way the Wind Blows" which has a wonderful end-to-end soundtrack.

Sometimes we just need the small things to buoy us through.

This morning I was putting on earstuds before I left for work, and found one of a pair missing. I rummaged through my entire earring collection before I thought to feel my ear. And there it was, just like the stale joke people make about hunting for spectacles perched on top of their heads. It seemed that I forgot to remove it last night, which goes to show what not using a mirror and having 3 earholes does to you.

We make a strange pair when we remove our contact lenses simultaneously before the mirror.
I, who don't need the mirror but need both hands: one to pry my eye open, the other to pinch the contact lens out.
You, who need the mirror but deftly slide the contact lens from each eye using only the forefinger of the arm on that same side.

It amuses me to think that I can make a movie scene from this.

Sunday, October 15, 2006

Sundays have become a comfortable routine. You'll work from home and I'll read alongside, and when it's not hazy, we'll go for a run and cook afterwards. Your friend called us Lazy Daisies and I'm actually quite happy to be one.

So to answer a friend: no, I guess my feet still haven't touched the ground yet.

Tuesday, October 10, 2006

Added another 512MB RAM to my 3+ year old laptop and it's now zipping along so much faster. The sales person who upgraded my RAM told me there are customers who are still using their IBM thinkpads after 7 years. Wow.

Sunday, October 08, 2006

Exhausted. Too many tasks to do and people to meet, and too little sleep.

Monday, October 02, 2006

We had our first photo together. Just the 2 of us. It wasn't planned. Even when we travel, we don't take pictures of ourselves or even each other. We were drinking with friends, and a friend used my mobile phone camera to take pictures. We weren't even looking at the camera, but were focusing on a conversation with someone off-frame.