Stranded Verses

Saturday, February 28, 2009

// 11:56 PM

I heart Dolly

Hey ya'll

I know I haven't been updating lately and I'm beginning to think if I'm not being too dsicriminative in my posting. Anyway, I hope ya'll read the title right, because I don't want anybody (looks pointedly at a *certain someone*) to misintepret that and run off tellin' the world that I've got a thing for blow-up dollies...

Or worse...

Regular dollies (shudder!)!!!!

But yeah, I believe you read it right - as my friends from last year's American Music can tell you - I heart the singer Dolly Parton. Now, I know she's no Pamela Anderson and her voice and lyrics are not exactly as groundbreaking as that of the Beatles (another one of my classic favourites by the way) but I suppose the very thing that I fell in love with, In Dolly, was the very whimsical and carefree quality of her Country Western tunes.

"It takes a lot of money to look this cheap!" Dolly Parton

There is the saying, that you can tell a man's personality by the CDs you find in his car or...as progress will see to...the songs on his active playlist on his Ipod, and I suppose the songs of Dolly are a representation to the jolly, bright and happy side of me, on days when I just want to close my eyes and run down a hill as fast as I can, without worrying squat about how the world's turned to shit or how complicated life can get. Country music in general, actually, is always the tune I have got playing in my head on a happy day.

Let me leave Lennon for when I'm feeling particularly contemplative, The Cranberries when I'm emotional, and Queen when I'm feeling angsty.

Dolly Parton and all 500 pounds of her hair will always dominate my happy place

Dolly Performing her self-written "I Will Always Love You" in 1974

PEACE OUT

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I got 100 percent on the ABC Striptease Quiz!

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

// 1:39 AM

68 days and counting

It's been 68 days and counting since I first threw out the books and decided to have myself an awesome holiday. "One like no other!" I'd promised myself. "The holiday to cap all holidays!" which made perfect sense at the time. After all, what else would I do with close to four months of unscheduled, unplanned time on my hands? But the bigger reason behind my enthusiasm, behind my solemn pledge to have absolutely nothing but fun was really quite simple.

It was, you see, simply the very last holiday I would be spending with someone who has become pretty close to me over the past two years or so. Now, I know it's quite impossible to make close friends, what more best friends in any fixed period of time, and I'm a staunch believer in that. I think it takes so much more than hanging out with a person and liking the same movies and going for the same concerts and stuff like that to make someone your best friend.

But the truth is, I've never been to any concerts, I'd probably go to the movies with my cousins maybe, and when Terri and I started going to different colleges, I almost stopped hanging out completely. I suppose I felt at that very moment the way a barnacle must have felt when it lost its piece of driftwood and that if felt that it would be imposing on the driftwood's new life if it had returned.

Besides, I felt that it was about time I started living my own life and stop forcing others to be involved in it! Also, from that day I stopped asking for things unless absolutey necessary. Even when I had to ask for cash to pay my semester fee, I'd have to work myself up to say it. No one may have noticed it, but from that moment I swore that I would no longer be a nuisance (though I daresay I failed in other aspects of keeping my nose in my own beeswax!)

I suppose it would only be fair to admit that when group occasions arose, such as someone's birthday party, I'd usually turn up along with everyone else. Still, there was a part of me that longed for the days when I could actually relate to someone and not merely be a part of a group of people who probably didn't even know what my favourite cartoon was!

Of course, officially Caryn and I would've known each other for slightly more than two years now, yet the truth is we've only been friends for about slightly more than half of that but in that short time, I'm pleased to say that I could never have asked for anything more!

In fact, she's the only person I know whom, besides Terri, can call me an "Frickin' Himbo" and would mean it in the nicest way possible.

To which I could retort "Well, your voice is so damned annoying honey! Especially over the phone!" also, meant in the nicest way possible.

No proof needed.

Now, I never actually called her my best friend...nor did she, me. We were above that sort of thing, you see. Or at least we believed it. Now, I might be dunking for apples in cider at a halloween gig here but what I think is that we had both probably gotten out of similar situations. I suppose the circumstances of our lives had been almost entirely remote and different from one another, but the fact remained that I don't think either of us have had that sense of truly belonging anywhere ever before. She said herself that she had always been the girl who drooled over boybands just so she could fit into a clique. And I...well, I was the guy who didn't even have a clique!

"Don't believe in best friends." I'd say.

"yeah," she'd retort. "me too!"

"Yup!

And so, I suppose it's understandable, our caution, at so casually flinging the term "best friend"...or even "friend" for that matter around. In fact, if memory serves me the closest thing we've ever gotten to admit it was when I was mad at a certain someone for spamming the cbox in my old blog and he had approached her with the question "hey, is Cyren pissed at me or something?"

"How would i know?" She'd said

to which he had replied

"Well, aren't you his best friend or something?!"

to which she simply said

"Yeah, I suppose so."

That's that for you. Nothing more. Not even a clarrification as to which question she was answering. But when she told me about it much later I knew. She didn't have to tell which it was.

Didn't need to. You just learn to pick these things up after awhile.

Judging from this, I suppose you can guess that there were times when we kept things from each other, which in my opinion was fine.

They say that best friends are supposed to have no secrets from each other. Well, I beg to differ. I think everyone, including family and best friends alike should have their healthy share of secrets.

Of course, there are some things that you can share here and there,but I sincerely do not believe that it is possible to completely share everything with any single person at any single time.

Even after marriage, there will be something you neglect to tell your partner from your past. Even if it is a small pointless little detail like the first time you had kissed a girl. So screw what they say and, if you will not take this as arrogance on my part, listen to what I say;

I say, that it is okay for best friends to keep secrets from each other. And the true beauty of friendship is in one friend's ability, no self control (because it's really difficult sometimes) , in respecting the other's need for privacy. A man's secret is, after all his past. And a man's past, is after all, his own business. Think about it.

Anyways, now she's in Australia, not exactly where I'd be in a couple of months time but most definitely the same country. And It's been 68 days and counting since we first threw out the books and decided to have ourselves an awesome holiday.

"A roadtrip!" I had said.

"And like, who is gonna drive us ?!" she retorted.

"I want to go to the beach!"

"No I want to go camping!"

"Let's call just a few people, my boyfriend, maybe Elaine, Rachel...her boyfriend maybe?"

"Can I bring some really good MPAC friends too!"

"Sure. How about we go somewhere where we can camp on the beach?"

"Great idea!"

"Pangkor!"

"No...Langkawi!"

"You know, I'd settle with Penang."

And on it went of course, leading up to...absolutely nothing. Or...almost nothing I suppose. Caryn, got to spend the better part of the last 68 days in the Swiss Alps with her family and I, after a rather brief family vacation to Singapore, ended up working in my dead end job with a rather pleasant woman named Veronica.

In the meantime though Caryn's abscence meant that I had began socializing with my three pals from MPAC more and more and eventually, too, they seemed awesome!

"They're so cool!" I told Caryn just before she left. "And I wouldn't have asked for a more awesome group of people to hang out with now that I'm not gonna see you for the next two years or so!!!!"

"Don't be stupid." was all she had said. With no reference to whether it was the former or the latter she was referring to.

But she didn't need to. I already knew. You just learn to pick these things up after awhile.

"We're so psychic!" our favourite catchphrase.

It's funny, how life can sometimes take you away from the things you had planned and yet keep you so near as well. 68 days ago, and counting, I had swore to have the awesomeest vacation in the world! And though it didn't exactly turn out the way I had wished for it to be, I can't say that I'm unhappy with the results.

So while the scoreboard might still read that I had spent the better part of 68 days,and counting, behind a wooden desk doing absolutely nothing for five bucks and hour, I will still leave the triumphant player with three totally awesome new friends. (That's you guys, Bags, Bernie and Vic)

And although we've gone a long way from one and a half years back, I don't think she's going to personally tell me what a best friend I've been. Not that I'd do anything like that either. In fact, I didn't even go to see her off at the airport.

But then again, I never felt the need to. You see, there's just some things you learn to naturally pick up after awhile.

"And who do you expect to stand by my side when I fight for animal rights now that you're gone?"

There's loads of people...

...right.

PEACE OUT

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Tuesday, February 24, 2009

// 10:23 PM

Ink not Mink

Ami James (Miami Ink) in support of PETA

Be comfortable in your own skin and let animals keep theirs

you know, I'm gonna be on an add like this someday. I don't know when exactly...I just know I will. And between now and then, I've gotta get hot first! It's harsh but let's face it...no one wants to see a fifty foot billboard of an ugly person no matter how good the cause!

PEACE OUT

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// 9:13 PM

Mystery of the Dragon

Hey ya'll

Once again I am back with more breathtaking revelations into the mysterious and ambiguous world of cryptozoology. And this time, the case is not any little winged people or mysterious out-of-focus ufo footage, but what appears to be a perfectly preserved feotal dragon.

*note, I got this out of a newspaper dating all the way back to February 2004*

Check it out.

With its smallest detail intact, the baby dragon sits in a jar, pickled since the 1890s. Its little teeth and umbilical cord are almost too real to be true. "It's flawless," says Allistair Mitchell in the United Kingdom's Daily Telegraph newspaper.

Mitchell runs a marketing company in Oxford, UK. His friend David Hart discovered the baby dragon in his garage and passed it to Mitchell to investigate. According to Hart, the metal tin containing the dragon and paperwork were probably left behind by his grandfather who was a porter at the Natural History Museum.

The documents found with it were written in old-fashioned German...

*which was all I managed to get out of the article which is already saying something because of the paper's horrible state. Anyway, would love to read the remainder of the article as there's one huge portion missing from it.*

The magnetic pull of the story here, at least for me, I believe is the very subject of the dragon itself. Creatures that, despite regional dissimilarities, have been sighted and purported since earliest known recorded history. Perhaps, if nothing else, the serpentine Chinese dragon was a relative to the sea-serpents mentioned so often in sea-faring logs around the world?

Of course as with anything in the field of cryptozoology, there could be a hundred (possibly more) different ways how this baby dragon could be nothing more than yet another one of those elaborate hoaxes.

However, I believe that just the thought of the possibility of discovering the existence of a creature once thought to be entirely mythical could be the spark to many more discoveries in the future. Just think about it, how many creatures do we know about which are still living out there or had once lived which gave rise to some of the most beautiful and wondrous legends in the world.

Who knows, perhaps someday dragons will grace our biology textbooks along with once-cryptid creatures like the Stellar Sea-Cow, Megamouth Shark, Ceolocanth and even the giant Hoan Kiem Turtle so rare that it was (until recently) believed to be nothing more than a mythical legend.

In a perhaps unrelated case, I managed to discover, on one of my trips to Taiwan, a turtle so huge and ferocious that it was dubbed simply The Dragon Turtle. And indeed, to see it sitting there, in all its monstrous glory, so still that vegetation grew on its ferociously spiked shell was indeed a sight I will not soon forget. It's origins, similar to that of the Hoan Kiem Turtle, were linked to the lake upon which the temple it was confined in was situated.

According to the locals and temple personel, the turtle that lives in the enclosure today, was the very same one that had purportedly descended from the heavens along with a deity the day the temple was build some couple of hundreds of years back.

Some strange things happen in our world all the time, most often under our noses, and it will probably be another century or so before we can truly understand them, if ever...

But until then, let the dragons and their counterparts grace simply our hollywood films and bedtime storybooks.

PEACE OUT

1 comments

Monday, February 23, 2009

// 3:09 PM

Don't you believe in fairies? (a little something from my previous blog)

well check this out...

In the early morning, on the 7th of May 2007, an old man walking his dog in a small English town stumbled upon a hole in the ground...

I saw, in the side of the barrow, a fissure as if a section of ground had subsided or opened up...I knelt down and looked inside the dark hole. The hill seemed to be hollow like a cave as I could feel a cool draught against my skin. I used the small led torch on my car keys to see...I saw something that startled me.

2 or 3 feet in front of me I could see a human like form only this was much smaller. My initial instinct was to call the police as I thought it may be the body of a small child but as I looked closer I could see that this was not the case.
It was too small...and more importantly, it had...wings.

I looked down and saw a tiny but perfect mummified human body with hair, dark brown skin and more disturbingly, wings. I know what it looks like, but how can it be? And there's not just one. I've had another look inside that hole in the ground and there are more!

On closer inspection, the barrow appeared to contain more than 20 fairy bodies all in varying states of mummification. The dry cave like interior has preserved the remains to such a degree that some bodies even have tiny finger nails and eyebrows.

I have returned since then to document the find as much as possible. On one particular occasion I was shocked to discover that some attempt had been made to reseal the barrow...but by whom?

How could such creatures exist without detection for so many years? Whether they still exist is another question, but the remains found have laid thousands of years of folklore to rest.

So you don't believe in faeries?
How about now?

*The 8 inch mummies were tested by anthropologists and forensic experts who are able to ascertain the validity of the fairy mummy. The X-rays of the mummy show that its skeleton has the anatomical structure of a human child but the bones are hollow (like bird's) which makes them especially light. The presence of a navel could lead to the assumption that the beings reproduced much like us.*

PEACE OUT

2 comments

// 9:46 AM

Mysterious stains and peculiar smells
Bham Bham Bham!
Thinner than sliced ham!

Mysterious stains when viewed through a black light

PEACE OUT

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Sunday, February 22, 2009

// 11:44 AM

The Devil

I read my Tarot earlier this week and I got The Devil for my culmination.

"Blocked sexual energy and a lack of vision."

Now there's absolutely not ONE word I liked in that entire sentence.

Goodness knows the former has been going on long enough already, and I'm most definitely not looking forward to experiencing the latter, though, I am beginning to wonder if it has not happened already.

There was also a hint of a warning though which ran like

"Get back into the swing of things, don't let your negativity hold you back."

I did, however, also get the Knight of Swords which translated to

"The Balance of Power in my favour"

Followed by The World which basically means

"Success! Attainment!"

For which I am rather thankful though I have a feeling that the success won't be monumental.

Again there was a warning but this time, more distinct then before. It simply said

"Fears! Carrying the weight of the world on your shoulders"

Which I can translate into a myriad of different possibilities though, I'm pretty certain it's the obvious one.

Amongst the other cards which I had drawn, and not in any particular order, were

The Chariot

Which pointed out that by Nature I am, or was at any rate, a caring and nurturing person which I cannot quite vouch for (if only to avoid blowing my own horn) but that I should be careful to

"Focus on my objectives and not get sidetracked by the needs of others"

Which was mistake number one this year when I was not more precise and forceful about my resignition from the workplace, which then brought along scenario depicted in The Devil.

I also managed to draw The Star which was a distinct beacon that translated as

"Realization, hope and inspiration"

which in my opinion hardly need be decpihered at all. This is, perhaps the first entirely positive result I'd had gotten so far, considering the ambiguity of "The Balance of Power is in your favour"

Not counting the other four Minor Arcana, the last card of note was The Emperor which fell in place of my Present Position . It read;

"The struggle for personal independence."

which is perhaps the first thing that confirmed, despite a long absence, still in sync with the connection between my psyche and the cards as a channeling medium considering that that is the thought which had been dominating my mind for the past three or four months which, in turn led to my taking up of the job, followed by my inability to put my foot down about my resignation and so on and so forth.

All in all, a pretty good reading, if by "good" I mean accuracy, but I would say that my prospects are only just o-kay, what with the threat of a continuing block of sexual energy looming in the corner, waiting to pounce in a moment of negativity.

But at least I am in the loop.

PEACE OUT

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Thursday, February 19, 2009

// 11:43 PM

Channeling the Spirit of a Square.

Hey ya'll,

I've been browsing through a seemingly endles list of subjects for the past thirty minutes or so, skimming through a jumble of course codes and fancy names and feeling pretty good about myself for enroling in such a flexible course as to give me area to branch out into any number of subjects that may have caught my interest.

I started planning out all the fancy names and jumbed course codes I would take during my one and a half (hopefully longer if I get to do my Honours) stay in Australia and was debating between Musical Theatre, Professional Writing, and Witchcraft in The Modern World when realisation hit me like a big, fat, Dummies book. "What on Earth am I going to do with all of this when I graduate?!"

Of course at that very moment, realisation struck me again, this time like an entire sack of big fat Dummies books. "When the Hell have I turned into...well, THIS!" But try as I might to deny myself the contempt of admitting that I have no doubt embarked on the first step of becoming as square as the squares I detest so much, I must admit that it still nags in the back of my mind....like a relentless concerned Mother. Maybe even worse!

"It's natural to be doubtful!" I tried to reassure myself. "I mean...it's only my ENTIRE FUTURE after all!"

"But whose to say your future won't consist of something you like? A stage performer maybe...or a lecturer of anthropology. Perhaps a career in the zoo?!" says the tiny cricket sitting on the wall.

to which (before I can stop myself) I retort,"Yeah right! And I suppose the bills will pay themselves!"

And that's when I knew that there was no point denying it anymore....I'm channelling the spirit of a Square. Who this particular Square was or indeed if he were a spirit of the kind that never was human I will never know. But then again, there are, I suppose many other things in the world that I will never know for sure. Like, if I would indeed be able to pay the bills and live a happy existence as a zookeeper or stage performer for instance.

And that, ladies and gentlemen is where the spirit of the Square has been exorcised, and while I may not have liked it very much, or enjoyed the words that came out of my mouth during its influence, I will still admit (out of rationality if nothing else) that they did make sense and that I suppose a part of me would like to just kick it back and play it safe.

Also, why do they call spongebob Squarepants when he (and his pants) are actually rectangles!?

PEACE OUT

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Tuesday, February 17, 2009

// 1:34 AM

Bunny (1998) a short film

a beautiful story of hope for anyone whose ever experienced Death.

PEACE OUT

1 comments

Monday, February 16, 2009

// 2:43 PM

When in lack of words, simply quote others'

A little kingdom I possess,
Where thoughts and feelings dwell;
And very hard the task I find
Of governing it well

Louisa May Alcott

0 comments

// 9:07 AM

Future

Hey ya'll

I started writing this based on what Terri commented not too long ago. "babe i think the caterpillar should be facing the butterfly/moth. you know, like it's looking at it punya future. =D"

It's rather romantic, isn't it, to think of one looking forward to his future the way the lowly caterpillar may look at the graceful butterfly or moth and dream of stateliness and beauty.

But then again, it's easy to do many things when we don't really know what is going on around us. I know, for example, that after many caterpillars turn into moths, they loose their mouths and are, from thence, unable to feed.

And you know everything has a future really because nothing we know off as of yet can withstand the flow of time. Even the seemingly unchanging rock travels through time

I wonder, if the caterpillar could think, that it knew what was in store for it when it wished for so bright a future. What do you think? What if you were the caterpillar and you possessed all the ammount of sentience which you possessed now.

Would it be worth it then, giving up life, for wings?

But maybe the main difference here is that our unceasingly questioning natures have inhibitted us from accepting (or knowing) our purposes in life.

PEACE OUT

1 comments

Thursday, February 12, 2009

// 10:52 PM

Siren

I always find it ironic, that Sirens are portrayed as beautiful creatures.

Now, if they were really as enchantingly beautiful as people say they were, there would certainly be no need for singing to draw lust-ridden sailors out to sea.

PEACE OUT

0 comments

// 10:31 PM

How fitting, that on Valentine's Day...

It would be me and not any other working the entire day shift. Fitting, simply because, after an intense moment in the shop not one hour ago, I discovered the gruesome revelation that I'm the only employee who is still stuck in the

And don't get me wrong, really, it wasn't as though the shift was forced on to me or anything like that. Then again, don't get the impression that I volunteered myself either. No, in fact it was all entirely a coincidence, that my shift should happen to fall on Valentine's day. Well, I suppose it can only seem that fate has yet again conspired that I should not even be allowed to spend Valentine's Day loving myself for lack of someone else to love.

Misery loves company they say, so maybe this year some repressed goth wannabee will stroll into the shop and perhaps I could get lucky. But I'm not hoping.

Also, there is no cure for misery. It is literally like having a mental toothache. Even after you've got it "fixed", some sick repressed part of your mind will keep reminding you it's there.

Even when the PAIN is gone, you will find that you still (invariably) steel yourself for the mind numbing PAIN that will follow when you take a lick from your favourite cookies and cream Cornetto.

Even when you find no PAIN as the cold, creamy, chunky goodness grazes the side of your once afflicted teeth do you still flinch involuntarily.

The actual PAIN may be gone, but it will always still linger, as a threat.

And the reason why it's always sooo bad, a toothache hurts on the inside, someplace almost unreal, unreachable.

That's a toothache...but also misery.

PEACE OUT

0 comments

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

// 9:31 PM

Exhiliration

In life,

there are but a few tactile pleasures more liberating,

than blasting a rampaging demon straight in the gonads.

PEACE OUT

0 comments

Friday, February 6, 2009

// 4:01 PM

Birds of a Feather

Sometimes I feel as a feather must feel looking at a bird...we are essentially the same being, capable of the same opportunities and possess the potential to do the same things. It's just that the bird can fly with a dignified purpose and I can only ride upon the draft that blows over from it's glorious wings...

When baby birds develop their wings,
they are supposed to fl y away from the nest.
Every now and then a baby bird will be too scared to jump.
But then it is just a matter of the parent to give it a push.

So what happens, when it is the parent bird who refuses to let go?
Does the baby bird jump anyway?
What happens when it can't? When the parent bird unwittingly cages its young in?
What then?

I like feathers, I really do. It doesn't matter what kind really or from what bird they came from. Chicken, goose, peacock, pheasant...you name it, I'll like it. Still, I can't help but wonder, is liking feathers as bad as liking to wear fur? Am I doing something abhorrent here? Or perhaps is feathers like leather, okay if the animal was killed to serve another purpose other than some snotty woman's vanity? Like for food per-say.

Then again, who am I, or any of us to say why it is okay to kill some animals over others? Why is it justified to kill in some instance and not in others? Is killing a mink for a fur coat any different than killing the cow to feed some empty stomachs. Right now I will tell you "yes, there is a difference." but the more I think about it, the more confused I get.

I'm just not as motivated anymore. The more I think about things, just things, the more I wonder "why?". Why do I bother doing things anymore and more importantly, to what ends? Is the whole scheme of things we do just to live up to the expectations of others? Why do we do what we do? Why do we live the way we live? There is no real answer here, at least, not one that I haven't heard already that I liked.

Sometimes I wonder if we are not like feathers in the wind, unable to control our paths, sometimes I wonder if we aren't at all like them, with at least some semblance of purpose to our otherwise erratic and meaningless movements. At the same time, looking at others, I can't help but feel maybe I'm the only one, or at least one of a few.

Sometimes I feel as a feather must feel looking at a bird...we are essentially the same being, capable of the same opportunities and possess the potential to do the same things. It's just that the bird can fly with a dignified purpose and I can only ride upon the draft that blows over from it's glorious wings...

Sometimes I can't help but wonder,

why I am the feather, and you are the bird.

PEACE OUT

2 comments