Life is too busy, too hectic, too disorganized and ...frantic...right now, to be worrying about blogging about 'mirror images' and 'how I see myself'.
So that idea is on hold, and possibly on permanent hold.
And now, a quote, from Stephen R. Donaldson's masterpiece work, A Man Rides Through .
"Father," Myste replied like the sun, "all children must be risked. Mother knows that. How else are we to discover ourselves?"
Thursday, November 23, 2006
Saturday, November 18, 2006
How Is Your Mirror Today?
Okay, with a title like that, you will probably want some explanation.
Well, so do I.
Unfortunately, I am still working out all of the details.
Suffice it to say, that I plan on doing some thinking and some blogging this weekend. Both of these activities may even extend on through the week, if needed.
'Why, thinking and blogging of what, oh great Dredd Sweet", you innocently ask of me.
'Good question', reply I.
Hmm...now I need to think of an answer.
Well, it is like this. I have something of a puzzle that i wish to work out.
The puzzle goes something like this...
We all know what we look like. As long as we have the capacity to see, the gift of vision, most of us have a pretty good idea of what we look like. Everytime we look in a mirror or otherwise see our reflections, we know that we see ourselves. And this helps to define us to us.
Now, what if we lived in a society where mirrors were not allowed? Where it was wrong to see a reflection of oneself.
What, my puzzle asks of myself, what would i think of myself then? How would i describe myself, never having seen myself? If the way that i thought of myself was totally independant from what i looked like, because i did not know what i looked like, how might that change my perception of who i am to me?
How would i describe myself? My traits, would they be any more important? Would comparisons come into play less? What things about myself might i be able to see more clearly, or less clearly, if i had no true idea of what my features looked like? If i had no idea how i compared, physically, with those around me, how would that change my views about myself?
And that is what i aim to tackle.
How?
Truthfully, i am not sure. And i am not overly sure where this is leading, or what it may or may not dredge up.
But at the very least, it will be an exercise of sorts that will expand my thinking about myself, force me to examine some things a little differently than i normally would.
And perhaps it may help us all to see ourselves a little differently.
So, keep reading, and look forward eagerly to reading what i go through as i examine a personal view of myself from a world without physical reflections...
Well, so do I.
Unfortunately, I am still working out all of the details.
Suffice it to say, that I plan on doing some thinking and some blogging this weekend. Both of these activities may even extend on through the week, if needed.
'Why, thinking and blogging of what, oh great Dredd Sweet", you innocently ask of me.
'Good question', reply I.
Hmm...now I need to think of an answer.
Well, it is like this. I have something of a puzzle that i wish to work out.
The puzzle goes something like this...
We all know what we look like. As long as we have the capacity to see, the gift of vision, most of us have a pretty good idea of what we look like. Everytime we look in a mirror or otherwise see our reflections, we know that we see ourselves. And this helps to define us to us.
Now, what if we lived in a society where mirrors were not allowed? Where it was wrong to see a reflection of oneself.
What, my puzzle asks of myself, what would i think of myself then? How would i describe myself, never having seen myself? If the way that i thought of myself was totally independant from what i looked like, because i did not know what i looked like, how might that change my perception of who i am to me?
How would i describe myself? My traits, would they be any more important? Would comparisons come into play less? What things about myself might i be able to see more clearly, or less clearly, if i had no true idea of what my features looked like? If i had no idea how i compared, physically, with those around me, how would that change my views about myself?
And that is what i aim to tackle.
How?
Truthfully, i am not sure. And i am not overly sure where this is leading, or what it may or may not dredge up.
But at the very least, it will be an exercise of sorts that will expand my thinking about myself, force me to examine some things a little differently than i normally would.
And perhaps it may help us all to see ourselves a little differently.
So, keep reading, and look forward eagerly to reading what i go through as i examine a personal view of myself from a world without physical reflections...
Saturday, November 11, 2006
I Will Remember
Remembrance day. Here in Canada, the day that we honour all those who have fought for our freedom, both the living and the now deceased.
Two things seems appropriate for me to do on this day. The first is a quote from a book, the second a famous poem. Firstly, i present for you a fitting quote, from the work of fiction called Into The Fire, by Dennis L. McKiernan (who just happens to be my favourite author).
And he turned to the gathering, and a hush fell over them all. And then he said, “The King has told you of the terrible cost of the war – lost comrades, lost friends, lost brothers and cousins and fathers and mothers and daughters and sons.” Tipperton held the pewter coin between finger and thumb and looked down on it on it’s thong, and then he looked up at the faces of the lords and ladies and honoured guests waiting and said, “Know this, my friends: freedom is not free, for in times of darkness, in the fires of war, freedom is forged of iron, iron oft quenched by the blood of the innocent, a terrible price to pay. Yet to let evil rule is even more costly. No, my friends, freedom is not free, so cherish it and know its true value, for it is paid for by the highest coin of all.”
And now, I present this...
In Flanders Field
By: Lieutenant Colonel John McRae, MD (1872-1918)
Canadian Army
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
McCrae's "In Flanders Fields" remains to this day one of the most memorable war poems ever written. It is a lasting legacy of the terrible battle in the Ypres salient in the spring of 1915. Here is the story of the making of that poem:
Although he had been a doctor for years and had served in the South African War, it was impossible to get used to the suffering, the screams, and the blood here, and Major John McCrae had seen and heard enough in his dressing station to last him a lifetime.
As a surgeon attached to the 1st Field Artillery Brigade, Major McCrae, who had joined the McGill faculty in 1900 after graduating from the University of Toronto, had spent seventeen days treating injured men -- Canadians, British, Indians, French, and Germans -- in the Ypres salient.
It had been an ordeal that he had hardly thought possible. McCrae later wrote of it:
"I wish I could embody on paper some of the varied sensations of that seventeen days... Seventeen days of Hades! At the end of the first day if anyone had told us we had to spend seventeen days there, we would have folded our hands and said it could not have been done."
One death particularly affected McCrae. A young friend and former student, Lieut. Alexis Helmer of Ottawa, had been killed by a shell burst on 2 May 1915. Lieutenant Helmer was buried later that day in the little cemetery outside McCrae's dressing station, and McCrae had performed the funeral ceremony in the absence of the chaplain.
The next day, sitting on the back of an ambulance parked near the dressing station beside the Canal de l'Yser, just a few hundred yards north of Ypres, McCrae vented his anguish by composing a poem. The major was no stranger to writing, having authored several medical texts besides dabbling in poetry.
In the nearby cemetery, McCrae could see the wild poppies that sprang up in the ditches in that part of Europe, and he spent twenty minutes of precious rest time scribbling fifteen lines of verse in a notebook.
A young soldier watched him write it. Cyril Allinson, a twenty-two year old sergeant-major, was delivering mail that day when he spotted McCrae. The major looked up as Allinson approached, then went on writing while the sergeant-major stood there quietly. "His face was very tired but calm as we wrote," Allinson recalled. "He looked around from time to time, his eyes straying to Helmer's grave."
When McCrae finished five minutes later, he took his mail from Allinson and, without saying a word, handed his pad to the young NCO. Allinson was moved by what he read:
"The poem was exactly an exact description of the scene in front of us both. He used the word blow in that line because the poppies actually were being blown that morning by a gentle east wind. It never occurred to me at that time that it would ever be published. It seemed to me just an exact description of the scene."
In fact, it was very nearly not published. Dissatisfied with it, McCrae tossed the poem away, but a fellow officer retrieved it and sent it to newspapers in England. The Spectator, in London, rejected it, but Punch published it on 8 December 1915.
- We thank all the veterans who fought for our freedom, this day and all days. Also, our thanks go out to the brave men and women who fight the good fight around the world today. Special Thanks go out to the Canadians soldiers serving in Afghanistan and other areas. May God keep you safe, and grant you strength. -
Two things seems appropriate for me to do on this day. The first is a quote from a book, the second a famous poem. Firstly, i present for you a fitting quote, from the work of fiction called Into The Fire, by Dennis L. McKiernan (who just happens to be my favourite author).
And he turned to the gathering, and a hush fell over them all. And then he said, “The King has told you of the terrible cost of the war – lost comrades, lost friends, lost brothers and cousins and fathers and mothers and daughters and sons.” Tipperton held the pewter coin between finger and thumb and looked down on it on it’s thong, and then he looked up at the faces of the lords and ladies and honoured guests waiting and said, “Know this, my friends: freedom is not free, for in times of darkness, in the fires of war, freedom is forged of iron, iron oft quenched by the blood of the innocent, a terrible price to pay. Yet to let evil rule is even more costly. No, my friends, freedom is not free, so cherish it and know its true value, for it is paid for by the highest coin of all.”
And now, I present this...
In Flanders Field
By: Lieutenant Colonel John McRae, MD (1872-1918)
Canadian Army
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
McCrae's "In Flanders Fields" remains to this day one of the most memorable war poems ever written. It is a lasting legacy of the terrible battle in the Ypres salient in the spring of 1915. Here is the story of the making of that poem:
Although he had been a doctor for years and had served in the South African War, it was impossible to get used to the suffering, the screams, and the blood here, and Major John McCrae had seen and heard enough in his dressing station to last him a lifetime.
As a surgeon attached to the 1st Field Artillery Brigade, Major McCrae, who had joined the McGill faculty in 1900 after graduating from the University of Toronto, had spent seventeen days treating injured men -- Canadians, British, Indians, French, and Germans -- in the Ypres salient.
It had been an ordeal that he had hardly thought possible. McCrae later wrote of it:
"I wish I could embody on paper some of the varied sensations of that seventeen days... Seventeen days of Hades! At the end of the first day if anyone had told us we had to spend seventeen days there, we would have folded our hands and said it could not have been done."
One death particularly affected McCrae. A young friend and former student, Lieut. Alexis Helmer of Ottawa, had been killed by a shell burst on 2 May 1915. Lieutenant Helmer was buried later that day in the little cemetery outside McCrae's dressing station, and McCrae had performed the funeral ceremony in the absence of the chaplain.
The next day, sitting on the back of an ambulance parked near the dressing station beside the Canal de l'Yser, just a few hundred yards north of Ypres, McCrae vented his anguish by composing a poem. The major was no stranger to writing, having authored several medical texts besides dabbling in poetry.
In the nearby cemetery, McCrae could see the wild poppies that sprang up in the ditches in that part of Europe, and he spent twenty minutes of precious rest time scribbling fifteen lines of verse in a notebook.
A young soldier watched him write it. Cyril Allinson, a twenty-two year old sergeant-major, was delivering mail that day when he spotted McCrae. The major looked up as Allinson approached, then went on writing while the sergeant-major stood there quietly. "His face was very tired but calm as we wrote," Allinson recalled. "He looked around from time to time, his eyes straying to Helmer's grave."
When McCrae finished five minutes later, he took his mail from Allinson and, without saying a word, handed his pad to the young NCO. Allinson was moved by what he read:
"The poem was exactly an exact description of the scene in front of us both. He used the word blow in that line because the poppies actually were being blown that morning by a gentle east wind. It never occurred to me at that time that it would ever be published. It seemed to me just an exact description of the scene."
In fact, it was very nearly not published. Dissatisfied with it, McCrae tossed the poem away, but a fellow officer retrieved it and sent it to newspapers in England. The Spectator, in London, rejected it, but Punch published it on 8 December 1915.
- We thank all the veterans who fought for our freedom, this day and all days. Also, our thanks go out to the brave men and women who fight the good fight around the world today. Special Thanks go out to the Canadians soldiers serving in Afghanistan and other areas. May God keep you safe, and grant you strength. -
Sunday, November 5, 2006
Cooper's Garage
ALICE COOPER - "THE ROLLING STONES Are The Ultimate Garage
Band"
More than three decades into his enormously successful rock
career, the Valley’s own ALICE COOPER is still reaching goals
he set long ago.
“Get a star on Hollywood Boulevard, have a platinum album, go
to No. 1 and open for THE ROLLING STONES,” Cooper says by
phone from a Connecticut stop on his tour after a round of
golf in which the scratch player shot a 75.
Cooper has his star in Hollywood, has hit No. 1 on the album
charts and has gone platinum several times over. On Sept. 23
in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Cooper got to open for The Rolling
Stones, and he’ll do it again Wednesday when The Stones play
University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, AZ.
“It’s one of the things I get to scratch off my list,” Cooper
laughs.
Like millions of others, Cooper is a die-hard Stones fan and,
in a roundabout way, it was The Rolling Stones that got a
track star at Phoenix’s Cortez High School named Vince
Furnier and his teammates to form a band called The Spiders.
“In those days you didn’t play original material,” Cooper
explains of the Valley music scene in 1966. “So we were the
Rolling Stones band and it would say, ‘Tonight at the V.I.P.,
THE SPIDERS will be doing “19th Nervous Breakdown.” ’ That’s
all we did. We were expected to do Rolling Stones just like
the record and, honestly, that’s why people came. Everybody
was doing BEATLES, so we were the band that ventured out and
started playing the Stones.”
And when The Spiders undertook the task of writing their own
material, the Stones’ music was a touchstone for the young
band that would later change its name to Alice Cooper (when
the group split in 1974, Furnier legally changed his own name
to Alice Cooper).
“The Stones are so good — they are the prototype garage
band,” Cooper says. “And I say that in all great respect
because AEROSMITH is a garage band, Alice Cooper is a garage
band and The Rolling Stones are a garage band, but they are
the ultimate garage band. You take their band and you could
put them in 70,000-seat (arenas) or you could put them in a
club, and it’s still the same music and it still works.”
Cooper, who will begin recording his 29th album in January to
be followed by another world tour — he has done five global
treks in the last five years — after the disc is released in
April, is still influenced by The Stones.
“To this day,” Cooper says. “On my last album (2005’s ‘Dirty
Diamonds’) we did two songs — ‘Sunset Babies (All Got
Rabies)’ and ‘Zombie Dance’ — that were absolute, pure
Rolling Stones.”
Band"
More than three decades into his enormously successful rock
career, the Valley’s own ALICE COOPER is still reaching goals
he set long ago.
“Get a star on Hollywood Boulevard, have a platinum album, go
to No. 1 and open for THE ROLLING STONES,” Cooper says by
phone from a Connecticut stop on his tour after a round of
golf in which the scratch player shot a 75.
Cooper has his star in Hollywood, has hit No. 1 on the album
charts and has gone platinum several times over. On Sept. 23
in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Cooper got to open for The Rolling
Stones, and he’ll do it again Wednesday when The Stones play
University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, AZ.
“It’s one of the things I get to scratch off my list,” Cooper
laughs.
Like millions of others, Cooper is a die-hard Stones fan and,
in a roundabout way, it was The Rolling Stones that got a
track star at Phoenix’s Cortez High School named Vince
Furnier and his teammates to form a band called The Spiders.
“In those days you didn’t play original material,” Cooper
explains of the Valley music scene in 1966. “So we were the
Rolling Stones band and it would say, ‘Tonight at the V.I.P.,
THE SPIDERS will be doing “19th Nervous Breakdown.” ’ That’s
all we did. We were expected to do Rolling Stones just like
the record and, honestly, that’s why people came. Everybody
was doing BEATLES, so we were the band that ventured out and
started playing the Stones.”
And when The Spiders undertook the task of writing their own
material, the Stones’ music was a touchstone for the young
band that would later change its name to Alice Cooper (when
the group split in 1974, Furnier legally changed his own name
to Alice Cooper).
“The Stones are so good — they are the prototype garage
band,” Cooper says. “And I say that in all great respect
because AEROSMITH is a garage band, Alice Cooper is a garage
band and The Rolling Stones are a garage band, but they are
the ultimate garage band. You take their band and you could
put them in 70,000-seat (arenas) or you could put them in a
club, and it’s still the same music and it still works.”
Cooper, who will begin recording his 29th album in January to
be followed by another world tour — he has done five global
treks in the last five years — after the disc is released in
April, is still influenced by The Stones.
“To this day,” Cooper says. “On my last album (2005’s ‘Dirty
Diamonds’) we did two songs — ‘Sunset Babies (All Got
Rabies)’ and ‘Zombie Dance’ — that were absolute, pure
Rolling Stones.”
Saturday, November 4, 2006
Work-Related Musings
Hey Y'all!
Seems to be quite a while since i have posted here. Sorry about that!
Well, a few weeks back i had my yearly evaluation at work. This is my third one, as I have now been at my job for three years.
My evaluation marks directly affect the percentage pay raise that i get for the coming work year, as well as the performance-based bonus that i receive.
I finally managed to discover what my marks were like. Well, actually, i already knew that my marks on the Eval were fairly high, but i was unaware of how exactly that affected my pay raise and bonus. THOSE are the figures that i finally'figured out' (pun intended).
Okay. Without giving away too much personal financial detail over my blog, let me just say this; Wow!
Apparently, i got the second highest possible mark. To my knowledge, nobody has ever gotten that high before at my workplace. So, i now co-share a record here , although unofficially since nobody else is supposed to know what other people at work got for marks. And I say co-share because i am knowing that one other person, one whom i work with on an almost daily basis, got the same mark as me on this year's Eval.
Although the pay-raise involved is only percentage based, and therefore is not very large at all, still, it is a lot more than i have gotten in any other evaluations, and hey! , a little something is better than nothing, right?
As for the bonus - again, i do not want to give away any financial details of my life. It is not a huge amount of money. That being said, if the bonus was out of ten dollars, with a ten being the highest possible denomination that one could get, and if the bonuses paid out were only paid in ones (thus, there were only 10 possible bonus amounts to get), then i would have gotten 9 bucks. Again, as far as i am aware, nobody has EVER gotten more than eight bucks from the Eval Bonus. And that has only happened once in the last three or four years. And i, and a workmate of mine, both now hold the record (unofficially) of nine bucks for a bonus. Wa-hoo!
So, it just goes to show me. As goofy and frustrating as my job can be...and no matter how many times i complain that i never get noticed, that too many people have their heads up their own butts to have any idea about the rest of us employees...yet it just goes to prove that as long as the Right Person or two have their eyes on you, and can see your passion for the job and your efforts and your level of competence, and as long as God is for you and you do all that you do as if you were working for God, then good things can still happen.
My faith has been restored. And i continue to pray for some good changes to happen in my workplace. If THIS can happen, most unexpectedly, then anything good Can and Should be expected.
Seems to be quite a while since i have posted here. Sorry about that!
Well, a few weeks back i had my yearly evaluation at work. This is my third one, as I have now been at my job for three years.
My evaluation marks directly affect the percentage pay raise that i get for the coming work year, as well as the performance-based bonus that i receive.
I finally managed to discover what my marks were like. Well, actually, i already knew that my marks on the Eval were fairly high, but i was unaware of how exactly that affected my pay raise and bonus. THOSE are the figures that i finally'figured out' (pun intended).
Okay. Without giving away too much personal financial detail over my blog, let me just say this; Wow!
Apparently, i got the second highest possible mark. To my knowledge, nobody has ever gotten that high before at my workplace. So, i now co-share a record here , although unofficially since nobody else is supposed to know what other people at work got for marks. And I say co-share because i am knowing that one other person, one whom i work with on an almost daily basis, got the same mark as me on this year's Eval.
Although the pay-raise involved is only percentage based, and therefore is not very large at all, still, it is a lot more than i have gotten in any other evaluations, and hey! , a little something is better than nothing, right?
As for the bonus - again, i do not want to give away any financial details of my life. It is not a huge amount of money. That being said, if the bonus was out of ten dollars, with a ten being the highest possible denomination that one could get, and if the bonuses paid out were only paid in ones (thus, there were only 10 possible bonus amounts to get), then i would have gotten 9 bucks. Again, as far as i am aware, nobody has EVER gotten more than eight bucks from the Eval Bonus. And that has only happened once in the last three or four years. And i, and a workmate of mine, both now hold the record (unofficially) of nine bucks for a bonus. Wa-hoo!
So, it just goes to show me. As goofy and frustrating as my job can be...and no matter how many times i complain that i never get noticed, that too many people have their heads up their own butts to have any idea about the rest of us employees...yet it just goes to prove that as long as the Right Person or two have their eyes on you, and can see your passion for the job and your efforts and your level of competence, and as long as God is for you and you do all that you do as if you were working for God, then good things can still happen.
My faith has been restored. And i continue to pray for some good changes to happen in my workplace. If THIS can happen, most unexpectedly, then anything good Can and Should be expected.
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