A world with out (a Mayan) end, i'm still alive, amen to that!

Hanging out at the cafe, by the farm

Well, it's been quite a year, i thought I'd pen a few words and let you know how things are going.

But first, how are you going? Is it going? It's certainly is going for me, you see i got a job, i started just before the Mayan end of the world prediction, the world didn't end, i had to go back to work, i think its a good thing!

So, to recap the year that was, i was in Melbourne, this time last year, things started to get a little cold towards May, this is called Autumn, one of my most favourite seasons, but do remember to wrap up, frolicking about the place in your board shorts could get a tad bit uncomfortable, just a tad.

I spent a weekend or 2 at my soon to be friend Marty and Yntie's place along the Burke and Wills track, one of the things that stuck in my mind while discussing my prospects for the future was a comment by Yntie, she said

Kieran, if i was you I'd go WWOOFING on an organic farm up north

Now, I'm a guy like me, so the idea was sewed in my mind and it wasn't long before i was starting to entertain new ideas a cultural shift, i voted with my feet, boxes were packed and it wasn't long before i was on the Gold Coast, courtesy of a $50 Tiger Airways flight, who loves you Tiger Airways? Actually, I'm probably the only person, but i digress...

Cycling over the Harbour bridge with the Critical mass crew

So, who do i meet at Australia's largest garage sale, but Marty, the whole community had a garage sale, he tells me to jump in the van and before long he tells me about pizza night at Jasper hall, and this is the place i eventually end up, for 5 months.

Weekdays, organic stuff, weekend stuff beer, burgers and party in Byron @Main beach backpackers, hitch hiking there and back, quite awesome times indeed, and mostly well behaved too!


Then things started to heat up all over the place, down south too and before long, better north than south, became a seasonal idea that had expired for the time being and off i went.

First stop, Sydney, i was going back to Melbourne again, i had a new energy, but then a funny thing happened, i got into a few groups here in Sydney, and started learning so much, and I'm kinda still here, i was here 12 years ago and I'm here again, whats changed?

A pig walks into a cafe in Redfern and heres the photo to prove it!

Well, I've changed, now i cycle everywhere, and that makes life so much more manageable, livable and i quite like it, i have been switched on to lots of interesting things, like technology groups, strategeies for getting a job, i now write a serious 'other' site

I have social media working for me, and i'm doing that, i bought a laptop for Automation testing and all up, i'm back in gear

And i got a contract with Xerox, i work with nice people, we figured out how to do the scope of the work, without losing all of my hair, and it looks like everything will be great.

Phil, Frank and myself, Upper Coopers creek

There could be an opportunity coming up in Hobart, i will be getting a strong recommendation, i have paid a deposit for an acting course with the ACA in the Surrey hills, 20 weeks, every Saturday, so if i stay or go, it will be great. 

 And i have just been introduced to something yesterday and i'm hooked, it's called 'Ocean Swimming', a group i joined swam from Manly beach to Shelly beach yesterday, about 1.5km, what a day for it, Ocean swimming is awesome, its free and i'm on it!

Boom, 2012 was a learning curve and 2013 will be even better!!!

p.s.
I love this video, a highlight of the year!

Living it large in Sydney and $$$ are not needed

Hi Sydney.

I'm back, remember me? I lived here about 12 years ago, it was fun but I've changed a lot over the years, and now I'm health concise, my passions are swimming, running and cycling.
It surprises me in some ways, things change and nothing changed, i’ve changed and now I'm back, better than ever and fit too

I no longer drive a car, you might be glad to know, one less car on the road holding you up in the morning as you getting where ever you need to go and I'm going places too, i go the back streets, on my bike.
Some of the reasons i could point as to why i do this might include, i get where i want to go fast, i don't have to wait for buses or trains, i get to explore back lanes, streets, cafes, back streets, new areas

Every day can be treated as a little mystery, i discover new parks, interesting lanes, i get to see your cat sitting up on the back fence, i say hello sometimes if I'm lucky i get a nod of approval.

You can see all kinds of things, if you look



See, even your cat agrees, this is real living, away for the hustle and bustle, noise, expense of getting to where i have to be, I'm free to be me, and i get to smell the roses, tulips too, i know a street that has some, it's not near any main road, it's a magical experience that can expand your perception of where you live

When i first got here cycling was only for people that were unemployed and hippies, people would point at you if you cycled and feel sorry for you, a lot has changed there over the years, for one thing, i got one here last week and i am beginning to see a new Sydney in a new way and all i had to do was be different and now hey presto, i am and it's great!

I can get to all the swimming pools, then maybe go along the river into the city along the river and see a side to life i never experienced before in a car or on foot

Swam here last week, maybe tomorrow too?

I used to tell myself that, 'Cycling is too dangerous here', and that's true if your on the main road, but the back streets have little or no traffic, full of interesting things to see and I'll get there quicker and feel better about eating that pizza last night

Cant afford a bike? There are groups around the city that will help you build one, fix one, service it, yes people, it's all happening here

p.s.
It’s good to be back Sydney!!

Byron to sin city...thats Sydney to you baby

Can i get an encore, do you want more....?




Well do you? The first line is lifted from Jay Z, who better, maybe that's just the hustler in me, it's been a few weeks since i wrote anything, i've been busy, but not too busy, but not too busy, i can see from the stats that lots of people check out the blog, so this is for you, you know who you are, let me explain reader.

Since i last posted, i began writing a novel, then the time came around, October time and it was time to go south, go south and dance with the devil.

And now i'm in Sydney, staying in the same area that was home 12 long years ago, but a much different person, everything changes and nothing changed, i've changed and that has made all the difference, it's made all the difference to me.

There is no way i could come back here as Kieran Version 1.5, now i think I'm up to about Version 12.6 and it gets better, I'm getting better, especially at saying 'No'

Newtown, one of my homes, homie

'No', i could never say no, last night i could hear all the people on the street, i even went o buy beer for a guy, being out with all the people i used to mingle with holds no appeal, if anything i can see what the lifestyle of drinking has done to some familiar faces and my only concern?

My only concern was to get up early and go swimming, and buy a bike.

A happy day, i can live a balanced life, in the old hood, a Melbourne back streets going from A to B, no one suspects the guy on the back streets, dum de dum, la la la, here i come baby, going to get yea!

Too true, while getting the bike, i found a community centre in Marrickville, just down the road, i never spent much time there, it's not near any beach, the old Kieran was only interested in waves, now I'm making waves in a different way, maybe a few splashes, maybe I'll splash a bit of aftershave?

Hell i didn't even bother exploring it much, how could you walking or in a car, it's not the same

Marrickville, but it's only full of hard working migrants, nothing you'll see in any fashion mag and there is a big festival on tomorrow, hardworking, honest, steal off of them and your in trouble my friend, big trouble!

Now i'm back, bringing you the words, but will the words turn into $$, i think there is a good chance, one of the major rules of blogging, your part of that too my friend, after all your the target customer, you and me, me any you, is 'Dont take too long break from blogging', the break is over.

That's it...as Jay Z would say, 'What mo can i say?'

And i was thinking, is Tom Robbin's from outer space?

There is something about Tom Robbins  that's very familiar, he reminds me of something, something resonates in me when i read his novels, he seems to like a lot of things i like and is not afraid of telling us so, he's not afraid to speak his mind, sometimes through his quirky characters, who are odd if downright outrageous and tries to educate us too through his stories of cultures, rituals, one of his inspirations is Osho, who's sole focus was to get people to wake up.

Tom does it all thought his distinctive style of writing, he's probably not the best and how would i know, i only know what i like and stuff like, rainbows have 7 colors and can only been seen in the morning or late afternoon. Am i making myself clear?

Like Carl Cox said a while back, now he is 50 years young and still doing it, Carl, you are an inspiration  too!

'The Rolling Stones aren't getting any better as a band, but they do have a following', Carl Cox has a following, everyone that listens to him, plus me. Tom Robbins has a cult following, his book readings apparently are like the Rolling Stones coming to town, the man is a literal Pied Piper, do you follow?

None of this is any reason to liking him, if i met him, in reality, but it works on paper.
Meeting him might be more akin to waking up a bit worse for wear , looking in the mirror (not the newspaper) and thinking, 'Fuckin hell, i've aged, i have to start looking after myself', which i am, sad but true and wondering if i could gleam any more insight by checking my horoscope.

And inspirational, Tom says, 'There is no such thing as writers block (would you include 'cock block' Tom?), just people with a lack of imagination

You could go to school to learn this stuff, pass classes in grammar to learn to write like Jane Austin to be categorized as 'History', but how could you learn about a Mythical Japanese raccoon dog called a 'Tanuki' sex manic, wild sake drinking all, cave dwelling, shape shifting to a human form all round good guy from a different time and place and that's only the beginning, you wouldn't be able to confess it to a priest!

Zoo's don't stock that kind of Tanuki's

Not 1, but 2 Tanuki, for the same price!

The first few pages of the first novel i read, 'Even cowgirls get the blues ', i remember thinking, that's exactly what i want to do, somehow i felt like he was ripping off, before i even started, and now i've started and i also a woman in the Galapagos saying to me, 'I read that novel when i was your age', it was written in 1977, i was 30 at the time, so it was pretty easy to figure out her age, it still is in fact, i guess some things dont change over time?

p.s.
I wonder if Tom likes killing chickens or choking the turkey?
I know what your thinking, 'What about doing both at the the same time?'

So, maybe we are alike too, in a funny kinda way?

Spellcheck is killing English, now check this...

I was reading recently how English, as a language has been hampered in in its evolution, it appears since people are using the spellcheck function a little bit too much and because of this there is a little bit of word death going on.

Now i will lit you in on a little secret, i'm sure some of you might have already known this, but i like spelling mistakes, if you understand the word, even though you spell the word incorrectly, it stands, on cricket, it's a score, it's in, chalk it up umpire!

How the human mind interprets a word, have you thought about it, you look at the first letter and the last letter, we dont read whole words, so why would spelling be important? Except if your a stickler for the details, now are you ?

Leonard Cohen says:

Drop perfection, there are cracks in everything, thats how the light gets in

Now, i will let you in on a little secret, i like Pigeon English, it's not business English, but i'm in the business of people, it counts, Tom Robbins uses characters that speak Pigeon English in his book,Villa Incognito, Chuck Palahniuk wrote a book in Pigeon English, it must of drove him bonkers, i love that he did it, but i couldn't read it, but i like the fact that he did it, it counts, respect and goal!!

Every now and again, i get a mail from a German guy i met in the Galapagos, which i love reading, and i put them here for you to read, maybe you might get a kick out of them too, maybe not. I think they are great and wholly original. Boom! No spellcheck, words evolve.

I like reading my old stuff and i can see mistakes and how i would do it different now, but i have evolved, since i started, and this is the point, i will get better and better and what you see is what you get, with very little editing, thats how i felt at that particular time.

Goal!!! The crowd roars!!!

Now check out Olaf, and watch some good old fashioned evolution, right before you very eyes!!

And i get a mention too!!

hello  my friends,

after long time i sign of my life.

yes i still life!

i hop everybody is okay and enjoy the life like me.

the life can be very,very nice!!!!!!!!

who is travel and where? who plan to travel and where?

same importen news?

i am okay!

yes my time on germany is almost over,after 4 months work i travel again around the big world.

this year i start my trip on hong kong and then i will try to get a visa for china,then i like to spend 1 or two months there.

china is a big challenge and i will see what is happen.

i dont plan to much!

but once is sure after the cold china i like to travel to the warm countrys,like phillipinen,thailand and mabay iran,it is possibel,turkei and back to germany.

i finish my trip agian next year end of mai.

now i have a importen reguest, from okt.2013 to mai 2014 i like to travel to australien.

but i know australian is very expensiv and for this i look long time on advance for 1 to 3 travelpartner.

my idear it is to buy i bus and to drive to australien direction nord on the eastcoast.

later about after 6 months i like to travel to papua newguinea.

who like to travel with my or had same importen hints or idears?

who australienguy like to guide my!!!!!!!!

like mike,luke,grazy irish guy and,and

if i travel on australien i hop same friend s can host my same days on your house.(like couchsurfing!!!!!!!)

so all my friends,now i finsh this mail,i have to work now,to save money for the next expensiv trip.

travel is ever time more expensiv,the last year was my expensiv holiday on my life.

for foreigner or with peopel is afrika very expensiv,if you like take adventure. 

afrika who can belief this!!!!!!!!!!

but i dont like to complain my good life.

i wish all the best and enjoy ver day.

the germanyguy olaf

At last. A politician with balls

A new hero of mine, introducing Michael D Higgins

Imagine my surprise this week when i saw a link for a interview with an Irish president, not that i knew he was the president? The last time i checked, there was a woman at the helm and another woman before that? I have never voted for anything, but my feet have, it's a good job i carry them with me all the days.

Maybe they did a little housekeeping in Ireland, now they have time spare, the boom times are over since i was last back. So 2 or 3 clicks later and I'm viewing this, his name is Michael D Higgins, i knew him as the minister for the arts, but now you can call him president of Ireland!

Michael D taking no prisoners



As a kid i once saw an Australian politician, by the name of Paul Keating put his hand on the queens ass, i saw video of him pulling no punches talking in the parliament and as a kid, it must have had a big effect on me, because all i remember thinking of this new country on the map of my world had broadened my horizon and i seemed to have made up my mind there and then, Australia would be the place i would live.
And I'm still here to tell the tale and I'm glad I'm alive too!

Paul talking about the size of his testicles

I thought as a nation Australians had a healthy disrespect for authority, which was right then, wrong now, the politicians are not in the same class, they should be in the circus, but that's another story

Dont laugh, but lets look at Tony Abbott, the village idiot makes it to the big time in Australia!


The next video i saw, that was on my list to watch was Charlie Chaplin, the greatest speech ever made. take a look for yourself.

Charlie could make a name for himself in politics



Sounds like a lot of humanitarian stuff? And I'll stop there before you start thinking I'm a nice guy, that would probably do 'nasty things' to you in the middle of the night to a good 50% of readers (under the cover of darkness, if you will and maybe some good old fashioned 'bonking', time permitting of course)?

Yes, i am that person, but you cant help but being positively effected by those 3 videos, the words, ideas that cut to the chase of what it means to be a human being and thank god I'm from a country that elects smart intelligent people anyone could be proud of, that even a dog with a spark of intelligence would vote for

Somehow, the 'balls to the wall, pull no punches' politics i liked as a kid, has gone to the polar opposite of the world, like an ice age every 100 thousand years. like Atlantis was under ice for many many decades, now believed to be under the north sea 


Barrys tea every day should have it's golden moment

And now, up steps the old minister for the Arts Michael D Higgins,  to address the mad hatter tea party and tell them what a nation of tea drinkers think, why it enough to make you change your mind about home, life, the world and go home for a cup of tea, Barry's Irish tea after all the whole country raves about it!

After all, they are right, Barry's tea is magic!!

Richard P Feynman and me...

(sighs...)
Another reason to be depressed about an Irish childhood (that included brutal education for the masses) Frank Mc Court listen up and add this one to your list!!

Now, when i was young, and i'm not saying that i'm old, but anything to do with education was boring, pointless and maybe even impossible!!

Mathematics, Physics? Forget it, you need to be a genius or prey to a god that was generous with brains, maybe i was abducted by space aliens and had my brains scooped out and i've been waiting many years for them to grow back and now this.

My world needed an education hero, where the hell was he... America?

It sometimes pains me to read about Richard Feynman and think, why oh why didn't i have a teacher like him, he was smart enough to know how people learn and would have done a better job than the half wit we had teaching us Physics

(Readers note: I was eternally grateful to the teacher i had at the time, he showed about as much interest teaching as i had in listening, it was a win win scenario, until you were expected to pass an exam
At the time i thought he was fab i could drift off into a slumber or check out what the birds were doing on the branches outside the window, mother nature is very active in Ireland sometimes, yea know?)

I recently read 'Surely you're joking Mr Feynman' and i would like to share a few memories

The most interesting thing i like about Richard Feynman is he didn't think he was a genius at all, he had a very different was of thinking, of seeing the world, he concentrated on what he was doing and didn't get too hot and bothered by what others were doing, there is a lesson there, work on yourself.

When it boils down to it, if you could model his approach to work and life, pretty soon everyone would think your a genius (even though you know your not!)

One of the first lectures he gave, Albert Einstein was at it, yep he was pretty smart!

Through learning to draw Richard saw how art teachers teach by osmosis and not by instruction, by learning to draw, he saw that kids absorb information little by little and not in one big gulp

By cross training in his field and having an interest in other non related fields, this gave him a 'differnt bag of tools' in his mind to work with, one time some scientists he talked to were working on a problem for 2 years, he merely suggested 'Why don't you try it this way?' and the problem was solved in half an hour.

The Pleasure Of Finding Things Out


A lot of the examples he gave, like mental arithmetic square root numbers, were things he did for fun, and anybody could do, but he had a vast collection of these and when needed he had a resource of data in his head he could apply to the task at hand where everybody else had to reach for a pen and paper

Richard would model his ideas, the when working on a problem, he would say, 'It's like...' and work on the issue visually and rather think about the issue, he would see it and the problem and then the solution.

He got that way of modeling thinking from his dad, when his dad was explaining about a kind of dinosaur he was telling him,
Do you see the top of the barn? It's head would have been at the top of the roof, this helped him see the dimensions and it made a dinosaur relative to a kid (no cousins were hurt here)

On Models he said:

Models don't have any money, if they did, they wouldn't be modeling

On Experts he said:

I'll never make a mistake again reading the expert opinions. Of course, you only live one life, and you make all your mistakes, and you learn what not to do, and thats the end of you

Through out his life he did fun experiment's, he liked playing with things and figuring out how they worked, he reached a point where he was burnt out, had enough and he decided to take a playful approach to work and life

In one of his other books he went to talk to his kids math teacher when she complained about his kid solving a maths problem using another method, the teacher looked at him and said 'What would you know about maths?' He said nothing and agreed with her

How would you decline a great job offer?

So i wrote them back a letter that said:
'After reading the salary, i've decided that i must refuse. The reason i have to refuse a salary like that is that i would be able to do what i've always wanted to do - get a wonderful mistress, put her up in an apartment, buy her nice things...with the salary you have offered, i could actually do that, i know what would happen to me.

I'd worry about her, what she's doing; i'd get into arguments when i came home, and so on
All this bother would make me uncomfortable and unhappy. I wouldn't be able to do physics well, and it would be a big mess. What i've always wanted to do would be bad for me, so i've decided i cant accept the offer'

At the time of reading about Richard i was having problems with the laptop i was using and instead of getting frustrated i was thinking

'What would Richard Feynman do? What would Richard say ? 

Yep, i started thinking like that and now i can report the laptop in a much better condition, all my hair is still on my head, some in my ears too, there no birds chirping, but the bats are flapping, school must be over?

All language is slang...

Slang, Yiddish slang?

About a month ago i attempted to read George Eliot's 'Middle march'.

Even thought i made it about halfway into 'Middle march' (and this was a serious effort for me or anybody who's not me to get that far) and i did learn a lot, i made notes and i will share them with you now.

One section she refers to social class structures and...

All choice of words is slang, it marks a class

Correct language is the slang of prigs who write history and essays. And the strongest slang of all is the slang of Prigs

A prig ( /ˈprɪɡ/),

Sometimes spelled prigg, is a person who shows an inordinately zealous approach to matters of form and propriety – especially where the prig has the ability to show superior knowledge to those who do not know the protocol.

They see little need to consider the feelings or intentions of others, relying instead on established order and rigid rules to resolve all questions. 

It is a narrow mind that cant look at a subject from various points of view

So, i thought, this is interesting, the words you use are unique to you like your fingerprint, spelling mistakes and all, from re-reading my old blog posts i can see where i would have formatted text differently and i can see how i have changed, you change over time and i can see it and feel it, who would want to stay the same anyways?

Your words are powerful, they convey your experience and this would apply to professions and the industries they belong to, when you talk to a:

• Lawyer he says the words to convey legal terms
• Project manager he says the words to convey project management ideas

If you meet a Project Manager and he doesn't know Project management terms, and refers to ideas as 'things' and 'stuff', you might want to check their back ground history a little closer.
 
Pay attention class

Spelling is over rated, i'm not the only one that thinks that and mistakes are fun, like hearing 'Pigeon English' in Asia.

Now scientists are saying that Spell check is killing English, if you an advocate of Spell check? Stop killing one of the friggin languages i speak!!

Professor Michael Cowling says...

"In this world, it will be more important to be connected than to be well-spelled. Spelling is an art form that the digital native just doesn't need any more and as academics we need to start accepting this."

And the argument for spelling wright?

Spelling might not matter, but punctuation and where you put commas can change the meaning of text.

A legal dispute over ...

a clause in Graham Greene’s will. The clause restricts access to his papers left to Georgetown

University in these words: “I, Graham Greene, grant permission to Norman Sherry, my authorized biographer, excluding any other to quote from my copyright material. . . .” On his deathbed Greene added a comma to this typed clause after the word other. Are all researchers denied the right to quote the material, or only other biographers?

Surely, as a sophisticated writer, Greene meant something by his comma. But the Georgetown librarian interpreted the clause to bar all but Sherry–biographers or not–the right to quote.
The appropriate rule of punctuation would have limited the exclusion to other biographers.

It gets tricky when it becomes legal?
Maybe the punctuation legal response could have been about 'The vibe' of the thing, from a movie called 'The castle'?

 The vibe of the thing?


I mentioned to someone how i felt my vocabulary was improving after reading 'Middlemarch', which is funny, i felt like i was i was getting more out of that novel than any other book i have read and i only understood a fraction of it?

But there were some bits of gold that made it all worthwhile where you could put the book down and spend the rest of the day mulling over.

Like...

But Fielding lived when our days were longer (for time like money, is measured by our needs) when Sunday afternoons were spacious and the clock ticked slowly in the winter evenings  

Or... 

What elegant historian would neglect a striking opportunity for pointing out that his hero's did not see the history of the world or even their own actions? For example Henry of Navarre, when a Protestant baby, thought little of being a Catholic monarch; or that Alfred the great, when he labored his laborious nights with burning candles, had no idea that future gentlemen would measure their idle days with watches.

Here is a mine of truth, which however vigorously it may be worked, is likely to outlast our coal

And...

 Lyngate was in love with the actress in the same way a man is in love with a woman whom he never expects to see

Irvine proved a point

Language (so it seems to me) helps us convey ideas, i think Irvine Walsh proved this idea in Trainspotting particularly (it's written in the language of the people of the story, phonetically too!)

Any of my teachers would have given Trainspotting a (- D), oh the spelling mistakes, terribble gwrammer!!

But it wasn't about the grammar, spellings, they were very believable characters, not the kind you wanted to meet (moms know what i'm talking about!)  
The phonetically written story, well...was part of the story.

Frank Mc Court wrote Angela's Ashes, a story about a kid, in words a kid could understand, this was the power of the story.

James Joyce's 'A portrait of an artist as a young man' wrote about a kid that becomes an adolescent, man and the writing style changes with the age of the character in the novel, this was the main theme of the novel, the language changed, so too did the grammar, it plotted the evolution of the artist

 James Joyce's Ulysses was nearly burnt before it was published, may of the leading 'writers' at the time thought he was destroying English, but what he was actually doing was 're inventing it',

Regurgitating English in vibrant colors, after it was forced down his throat, too bad the critics were color blind?

Joyce was reinventing the English language, little did the critics know in Ulysses he made up his own words too, or were thhey spelling mistakes?
 Shakespeare made up his own words too, so too did George W. Bush...i'll stop there

Not only this, but Joyce's Ulysses was used as a reference in lobbying for a reform on how legal cases are reported in English newspapers

With music, i guess you could compare slang to musical phrasing?
John Coltrane got heave criticism for destroying Jazz, but the critics didn't understand and he got a lot of criticism, little do critics know

Orsen Wells, Citizen Kane was nearly destroyed too, but that's another story...

Want to talk to a baby? No problem, just learn baby sign language, it's the new baby slang!

Put it in the air Snoop!

And there is Snoop Dogg, he has his own slang, if you want to communicate with Snoop, you might want to try this?

All words are slang, it just depends who you are talking to i guess?

Unity, zero and maybe the universe thrown in?

I was having a chat with a fellow called Tim, down by the pig run (its pig friendly around these here parts) about a month ago and we got to talking, as you might do, pig politics? Not on you Nelly!

Tim was saying how the vision for the organic farm is to be non ownership, to belong to one group a community as One It is sometimes referred to as unity  

  Unity

noun, plural u·ni·ties.

1. the state of being one; oneness.

2. a whole or totality as combining all its parts into one.

3. the state or fact of being united or combined into one, as of the parts of a whole; unification.

4. absence of diversity; unvaried or uniform character.

5. oneness of mind, feeling, etc., as among a number of persons; concord, harmony, or agreement.

And it got me to thinking of the number 1, there is a bit of history to the number 1. Then i was thinking of the universe, as you may or may know, is mostly empty, pretty much nothing. The universe is mostly empty

There is a history to the number 0, its the newest number of all the numbers and the most important, it originated in India, they made nothing a number!

 Language of the Matrix?

There are a lot of ones and zeros out there, too many sometimes, as you can see

Zero revolutionized navigation, for the first time longitude and latitude could be calculated, in fact the mathematicians in India calculated the circumference of the world, long before anyone else, it made the 'discovery' of America possible for instance

Remember this sly fox? Introducing Henry 

The real importance of 0 was in trading, commerce and the charging of interest and whats interesting is the Catholic church said charging interest was a sin, they called it 'Usury', so Roman numerals were A OK, remember Henry the VIII?

The catholic church wouldn't give him a divorce? The church of England is formed, Henry gets a divorce now that he's no longer Catholic and he says usury is ok, so this is where the big switch-aroo happened, out with the old, in with the new numbers, out go the Roman Numerals!!

0 and 1, made it possible to calculate compounding interest (the 8th wonder of the world), it was the beginning of capitalism, something the world is still suffering from!

'The most powerful force in the universe is compound interest"

The interesting thing about compounding interest is (after WWII, England sent an accountant over to the USA to arrange a loan, he never factored in the compounding interest, many say this is why England was involved in George Bush's little war in the middle east, since they will never pay that loan, England was pretty much hanging over a barrel.

But what's money when your dealing with your friends, if your friends help you, you help them, right?

Not the actual barrel England was hanging over, but i think you get the idea?

One and zero made infinitely big numbers and infinitely small numbers possible, it was sometimes the (.00000001 * 10000000000) calculations that made you in business or flat broke, these calculations were impossible with Roman Numerals or with an abacus  

It looks nice, but them little numbers just don't add up!

Why read this when you can watch it all here Part 1?

 
A spiritual tangent?

When you meditate, most people meditate on nothingness, or 'meditate without content', many believe

When you meditate on nothing, you can go home, to yourself

Interesting, your true being emerges, when you put aside your ego and mind, being of no mind in fact, reveals just who you really are.

Just how did the Buddhists know this? Because thats pretty much all there is, nothing with few illusions thrown in, maybe a sunrise here and there, a wave splashes, people having fun down on the beach?

Part 2


Everything is made of matter, everything is the matter, maybe this matters then? It's certainly been on my mind, the problem is presenting it and not sounding like a half wit?

Then i was thinking 'What percentage of the universe is not dark matter or ordinary matter?

Answer:

4.3% of the universe (~45 Billion Light year diameter) is Planets, Gases and Such. Dark Matter (WMP, or Weakly Interacting Mass Particle) is invisible. If my math is correct, (and i did it on a hitachi supercomputer) the universe should weigh around... 790 centillion centillion centillion centillion centillion centillion centillion centillion centillion centillion centillion centillion centillion centillion centillion centillion centillion centillion Tonnes, to the 947,304,691,120,161,109,425e+4964546546516548897984351th Power! I Guess About 74 followed by trllions of trillions of trillions of digits, pounds

I was thinking the number might look more like .00001? No joy there!

But lets continue...

Not that it's relevant, but i remember my Shaman in Bolivi Tulassi once said:

Things that are seen and unseen and in between there are windows... 

 A window is either open or closed, anything electrical is based on Boolean logic, 1 and 0
1 = 'TRUE'
0 = 'FALSE' 

1 = 'ON' or
0 ='OFF'

The switches are 'ON' or 'OFF', lights too, the switch was definately 'ON' in my brain...

And that pretty much what i was thinking looking at a pig...down on an Organic farm and i'm still here!

 Oh life?

Territory, War and what's Love got to do with it?

I finished reading yet another book, it was brown...

It was brown and more, it's a book written by Robert Ardrey called 'The territorial imperative' , if you get a chance to take a quick peek here, i suggest you do!!

His last chapter he reminds the reader, and so i will remind you that we (us humans) need to remember that we are animals...

Like i needed a reminder? Some times i feel part horse, part lobster...

Party Lobster

And our behavior, despite how ever you might think refined you are as you tweet your 'LOL' while you prance from shop to shop isn't far removed from the animal kingdom, yep you, your an animal!

Eminem says:

"We ain't nothing but mammals.." Well, some of us cannibals
Who cut other people open like cantaloupes [SLURP]
But if we can hump dead animals and antelopes
Then there's no reason that a man and another man can't elope
[*EWWW!*] But if you feel like I feel, I got the antidote...

Do you think Eminem read the Territorial imperative book too?

So according to Robert Ardrey, the motivation for territory is Psychological and it arises from the need for:

1. Security 
2. Stimulation
3. Identity

So, lets look at the opposites of these 3 psychological needs:

       Need                    Opposite

1. Identity       ->  Anonymity
2. Stimulation ->  Boredom
3. Security      ->  Anxiety  

It would appear that when a country is fighting a War and is presumably winning? If there are any winners, people feel Identity, Stimulation and Security

So too with Territory and who would believe Love? 

Womans day magazine listen up!!!

So War, Territory and Love are driven by the same psychological needs, Identity, Stimulation and Security?

War time presidents are immensely popular, Abraham Lincon knew this, so too did George W Bush (yep that guy)

Seen Charlie Wilsons war?


When people are in love, they are stimulated, they feel secure and the relationship forms their identity, no one will debate that one?

We live in areas that stimulate our needs, have you heard the term?

'Birds of a feather flock together'

It's true, too true, just look at the animal kingdom!


And i thought how interesting?
 What other things stimulate us Coffee, cigarettes, food, alcohol, sex

Outside stimulants?
Social media, internet, music, bright lights (ever notice when you go camping in the other real world you get tired after sunset?)

Maybe if we could integrate the 3 psychological quality's in a positive way in our daily life, would that not make us happier people?

Have you ever noticed that guys that are out with their girlfriends never get into fights, and guys with girls always get admitted into nightclubs? Bouncers know that those guys dont start fights (if you start a fight, that means no sex, for how long? Too long!!)

I know what your thinking, your thinking...

 'What does Osho think about this love war business?

Osho says that

"The society does not allow love because if a person is really in deep love he cannot be manipulated. You cannot send him to war; he will say: I am so happy! Where are you sending me? And why should I go and kill strangers who may be happy in their home? And we have no conflict, no clash of interests…"

I was thinking how these 3 psychological needs apply to me and this blog in fact?
Well, for starters:

• I have been blogging all these 'little ideas' for many years now, it's formed part of my identity
• Blogging helps me form the correct Perspective, i can see what i have done in the past few years, i am pretty secure in knowing i have tons for stories for rainy days
• I carry a notebook everywhere to capture my thoughts, it keeps me stimulated, it's like a job for me (one day i might get a real job, maybe?) 
  

  Behavior is not what we do, but why we do it

 Good to know you say and i'm pretty sure i blog to avoid Anonymity, Boredom and Anxiety

Only a boring person would say they are bored, i tell people if i was locked in a closet i would do zen breathing exercises, i might need to do some revision first before being placed in the any closet or else i might go crazy or worse feel bored?

Once your in a closet, who knows how long it might take to come out?

p.s.
If you do read the Territorial Imperative, i like the way he switches from animals to the rant about the people that flock together in Rome, Italy and their behavior and then back to wild animals
The Lonely planet for Rome, when i went  back in 1999 said that

'...people parked their cars like they spilled hot coffee on their laps'

 Classic and true

Bloggers, and whats it's really about?

On of the many 'little things' i stumbled on (the net of all places?) yesterday is video on blogging.

It was about the first bloggers, this medium (the internet), back to cave men.

A blog is defined (thanks google) as:

blog/blôg/

Noun:	A Web site on which an individual or group of users record opinions, information, etc. on a regular basis.
Verb:	Add new material to or regularly update a blog

This got me thinking of all the examples of blogging through different times in history? 

• Benjamin Franklin used to pen letter's to newspapers under the name 'Poor Richard'
• In Canada, the native Indians stacked stones on top of each other as signposts (the Lonely Planet of the day)
• Early stone writing in Egypt
• Hobos had a whole language which indicated important details to newcomers to the area  
• Dogs, peeing to mark their territory (do you need a link or picture?)
• Voice blogging, people calling each other on the phone and saying the same thing they said yesterday? Yakiety yak! (Then your government records it and put's your voice on their website, as evidence?)

Some Hobo's posted there messages where other hobos language lovers could read them (notice how 'Can you put the cat out' isn't there? Interesting yeah!)

It's all communication really. Lets take a look at the history of communication

Yeah, well who was it then, the first blogger?


But its more than this, one of the books i'm reading is about the animal kingdom refers to how animals that are territorial

If you can read this, that goes for you too!

Since i dont have assets, land, dog, house, my blog is about all i have, (besides a declining, not for profit, bank account) it's 'who i am' as opposed to who i thought i was, the blogging has helped me figure a lot of things out.

I've invested more time in this than any other hobby, therapy, it'd my domain, .net or otherwise, until death do me part, the domain will continue, i know this, i pay $10 a year for it!

The Rosetta stone (it was the translate.google.com of its time)

Blogging stimulates me (stimuate being the opposite of boredom), just like how animals seek out stimulation through interaction with each other in their environment

Are we done yet? I'm getting tired of writing this
No, just a little bit more? Ok, so...

Which gets me thinking, in the animal kingdom, animals co habit area in the same species as they stimulate each other in that environment, never a dull moment

The study of animal behavior is called Ethology
Did you know until the 1930's only birds and insects were researched

Dance like a bee

The most sophisticated investigation of this kind was the study on Bee's by Karl von Frisch of the so-called "bee dance language", when we begin to understand animal communication, we begin to understand another layer of just what makes us tick

Maybe should blogger's be aware of Fixed action pattern, it is an instinctive behavioral sequence that is indivisible and runs to completion, the animals senses are stimulated into operation, the animal in essence comes alive and becomes more aware of its self, maybe a bit like myself reading a woeful book by a well know author, to turn around and say 

'Right, i can do better than that novel and i'm going to start threading that path!'

When i was a caveman (i love this song)


My blog is my territory, it's my domain. My habitat, my habit, my environment, my world, you can shop and  buy something on Amazon (and i wish some one would, then maybe i could afford a sandwich, with cheese!)

My blog is my legacy to the world and since it's owned by Google, my hope is that it can be accessed long after i have set sail to the eternal never never land and who knows? Someone might get a laugh?

Some people buy a house and that's nice, i am making a home in my art (i dwell in the white space between the words, some spell checked too!)
I have bought a lot of art for my family, they have lots of walls to hang them up

Maybe i make the world a better place, maybe i wont? Maybe it takes time?
When you change yourself, you change your vibe, maybe you have to have a certain vibe to convey messages, whats the right vibe!!!? Oh, god, someone tell me soon!!

The writing's on the wall, or something?

Which reminds me of how Graffiti artists who do art installations (and then run like hell), when you look at graffiti art, environmental art, symbolic clues are there in the art and a messaged is being conveyed

Somehow, you dont see that vibe or see life that way when your pockets are loaded with cash, and you driving around in the latest Peugeot, pity?

Somehow?

And old people, you too don't get it, Graffiti artists are not trying to sell you anything (i just wish you would shop from this site and buy something really expensive, a sports car would be a good thing to get, it would make you look 40 years younger, the ladies will love it!)

All i know is, i have to blog, blog or go crazy, maybe if i bought land and lived on it, my desire to have my thoughts reside on a server somewhere out on the WWW as a series of 010101010101010001010010101....and it goes on... would cease?

Humans are forever evolving and learning to (for better or worse) finding new ways and mediums of communicating, now would be a good idea to look at those old episodes of Star Trek, it doesn't seem so far fetched now, does it?


Chris Smither, Origon of species

A novel idea...write a...novel?

If you familiar with Julia Cameron, you might know that she is of the opinion that you must be willing to make bad art to make good art.

Life, so it seems folks, rewards productivity, it all about doing, if you do it (Don't look down at your shoes, you might think this is a clear case of plagiarism)

It will come the desire, passion or if you like inspiration (in etymology 'to be of god'), so don't wait to be inspired, should we wait for god? What if he's just running late? Too late god, I'm inspired, I'm off!

Carpe Diem

The day you don't feel like producing, that's the day you really should do it, that was my inspiration for running yesterday and now another thought has crept into my universe.

I started reading Annie Proulx, her first first novel 'Postcards' and the first few chapters are difficult to grasp, it's was like the fat guy scrambling over the obstacle course in some war movie, minus the drill Sargent. Oh, you can laugh, but this is a serious novel, the review said good things, so why was it such an effort?

Read the damn novel!

I liked the post card idea, i send people postcards myself, they are such a novelty to send and receive, i just don't think the first few maximised the benefit of the idea for the story

Last night i was struggling with this novel before i put the light out for my grown up regular 6 hours sleep,  i put the light out as i prepared to put the world on pause for a period

And i switched the light back on and wrote this in my notebook:

First time novels

You must be prepared to make bad art to make good art, reading Annie Proulx and i think (sorry Annie) its rubbish, if this was organic matter you could fertilize your vegetable patch, but no, nothing much fertile there and if there was ever an incentive to start writing, this is it, which reminds me of Alexandre Dumas first novel, it was bad too.


 In the preface the young author did say he was 20 years old and didn't have much experience in the world yet and it took a lifetime to write a great character, and you could see signs of 'The count of Monte Cristo' in that first book

He needed to write it (the bad novel) for one of the greatest (and true) stories ever written to be wrote, its like it was somehow lurking within him, in the shadows, waiting to be exposed?

And like the first guy to run a mile in under 5 minutes, as soon as he did it everyone started to do it

 Well folks that's what i wrote last night, this morning i saw a video by Marcus du Sautoy on Ted.com about symmetry and the Marcus said this

In everything… uniformity is undesirable. Leaving something incomplete makes it interesting, and gives one the feeling that there is room for growth… Even when building the imperial palace, they always leave one place unfinished

— Japanese Essays In Idleness, 14th Century

 I had a definite feeling i could contribute (for better or worse, till death do us part) to the English language, it could grow, like some bread, that will soon be ready for the oven?

By pasting my series of words into translate.google.com, who knows? Others could gleam insights into the universe (internal and external) of only i made a start and got the writing circus on the road?


Roll up, roll up!!

And i have been quietly contemplating this all day, just how i would go about it, not in a conventional sense, but more in the idea that Tom Robbins would with quirky characters that cover Zen topics, and those topics are 'explored', through the characters or Émile Zola would have done in his Ragoun series.

Introducing Zola

For those not familiar with the Zolas Rougon series, there is 20 books in the series, each book explores a topics like:

• Workers conditions in coal mines at the time,
• Poverty
• Alcoholism,
• Interfering in human nature to prolong life with the book Dr Pascal

I'm pretty sure if i picked the right aspects i wanted to cover, like a mechanic looking at lots of small bits of metal on the floor, a purring engine would be heard in no time before you could get the milk from the fridge.
(i once saw a bus full of people in Laos that looked like they were going to go at any second with 2 guys looking at the entire engine out the front, the fact that they had little bits and parts in front of the bus seemed chaotic and hilarious, depending on which side of the steering wheel you were positioned)   

Tom Robbins

So i have been ticking this over during the day, reading Annie's Postcards and now that I'm half way through, the book has picked up tremendously, from the first few chapters i read when i had the burst of confidence till the middle of the book, it would appear Annie has found her writing voice, and i'm somewhat losing confidence.

Maybe her novel is like a new born horse struggling to walk and before you can say 'I love you in Helvetica', the novel idea is slowly galloping out of sight?

Who loves you?

I once read if you re write any novel eight times, you will have a best seller, Jeffery Archer writes his novels by pen and rewrites them a few times.

The lesson for me, i think as a reader is if Annie had rewritten the first few chapters in the same style she found her self writing midway, the experience as a reader would have been greatly enhanced

Like a great orator, you have to be considerate of the people that are listening to you, this means what ever i do, i should consider rewriting, so it's all consistent, now i know what it's like reading that, i wouldn't want anyone feeling like i did and having to turn any damn light on to write a commentary of my lack of consistency, or worse my careless string of words caused someone (including myself) a restless night  

So this is the idea, i will give it until September and until i will get producing
I think i will fashion myself a butterfly net, to get those words and catch me some words!

Coca leaf flashbacks

Coca leaf's

A guy on the farm yesterday said to me as i was sitting down to do a bit of 'habitual reading'

Hey Kieran, you've been to South America, you try the coca leaf

Does the pope wear a funny hat? I piratically lived on a diet of things consisting with the letter 'C', it wasn't an episode of Sesame st, i had food poisoning really bad, i at the time thought it was the chlli i had at the market, i remember ordering chicken soup, i got chicken and rice, since i was trained as a kid to eat what i was given, i ate.

Maybe i had a cookie here and there, probably there?

Big mistake, recently i was told it would have been the chicken that was responsible for the next month of non eating food, i was sure for the past 3 years it was the chili, how wrong was i?

I proceeded to 'lose weight' at such an alarming rate, it was actually a good thing, the food repulsion hit me so bad, the people i hung out with seemed to be always eating, just finished eating or about to eat.

I chewed the coca leaf and felt just fine and dandy and yesterday i had them again for the first time in 3 years and the memories all came back. As it turns out, coca leafs will set you back $120 in Australia for a small bag, in South America, only a few cents?

Particularly about my time at the end of Death road  and this too

A cat amongst the pigeons?

Whats interesting is how your senses are linked, this has been proven recently by a chef called Heston, your sight of food, hearing, taste, touch is all linked to how you experience eating and tasting food. By playing sea side sounds with one of his dishes, he had people in tears, such were the emotions he was able to stir. Sounds like an interesting guy, self taught too

I knew about this association this years ago, anyone that tries to give up smoking, that likes to drink coffee or beer, all of a sudden has to give up coffee and beer as the associations are linked in your brain, breaking the associations in your mind is the hard part of giving up.

When i was home in Cork, i used to walk the dogs every morning and listen to electronic music, but the experience was linked to the times i would party all weekend, i could re create the uphoria of those times, just by listening to the music and moving, so i would go for big walks, with the dogs.

The mouse at the controls in my brain looked a little like...

The dogs were small too, i was told later over exerting little dogs can kill them, after the walks (14kms) the dogs would sleep the rest of the day, it's a dogs life indeed, we would be back by 10am and they were done for the day, good night, not me, i was only starting off the day with a little exercise

The memories from a little leaf, it would make you wonder?