Just saw this in The Guardian as part of a series of absolutely special photographs taken by Clarke Little.
Friday 27 February 2009
A quick splash of beauty
Just saw this in The Guardian as part of a series of absolutely special photographs taken by Clarke Little.
Wednesday 25 February 2009
How can one get lost if one knows the way?
Before i get on with this, for this occasion I'm not thinking metaphorically. As i know that the only routes and paths i know are those that i take on a daily basis to get to my office, those city roads I've memorised through my lifetime. And that's about it, those are the only paths and ways i truly know. My life path, is unknown. Now, i can proceed to the literal description of my experience from today.
Well, that is the point for this post. I happen to get lost (or get confused if you want to call it that) in several occasions when I go to work or come back home. I've been living in this city for ten good months, but I always take the same routes to work, come on, there cannot be several many routes anyway. So they have become more than routinised in me.
Having said that, I've got lost several times. There have been times when i have no clue where i am, and on how to find my way to where i was going. Hum, that confusion, sometimes is truly scary. I get feelings of uncertainty. I am used to get lost when finding my way in new routes, I don't feel angst about it like other people do. I understand that if i get lost, I'll find my way eventually. However, when i do not recognise where I am, that can be quite scary, especially when I'm supposed to know where I am and where I'm going. It only last for a fraction of a minute.
Today, something else happened. A car almost ran over me. This was the third time that happened in the past year. The other two times i was on my bike. This time I was on my bloody feet. I was walking on the middle of the road, and didn't see the car coming straight towards me. I heard a car coming, but i didn't see it. I had the headphones on, but i still heard the car... and didn't do a thing. Completely absent.
My husband asked me, 'but why were you walking on the middle of the road?'
I said: 'I don't know; I did wonder that though...'
Although it would be so easy to blame it on my absent mind, i would like to think that the inertia of my everyday life is responsible for that. Doing things in automatic cannot be good for the brain. Having newer things to do, more often than not, has to be the best way to get around that. I can understand that such a request is rather impossible. We all need the routine to satisfy the social need for settlement. As social actors we need the sense of security about things that we do and that may take place. However, the inertia must not exert as much power as it does on me. I know, most of the people live that way, and get by fine. Yet, this does not seem to be my case.
My only solution, as of this moment, is to remember to be alert. I think that army people could tell me that such should be a way of life. To be alert at all times, no matter what. Not to take anything for granted. Observe the surrounding stimuli; and always look to the right, to the left, to the front, and to the back. And if I kind of hear a flipping car coming over, I should respond to that!
Well, that is the point for this post. I happen to get lost (or get confused if you want to call it that) in several occasions when I go to work or come back home. I've been living in this city for ten good months, but I always take the same routes to work, come on, there cannot be several many routes anyway. So they have become more than routinised in me.
Having said that, I've got lost several times. There have been times when i have no clue where i am, and on how to find my way to where i was going. Hum, that confusion, sometimes is truly scary. I get feelings of uncertainty. I am used to get lost when finding my way in new routes, I don't feel angst about it like other people do. I understand that if i get lost, I'll find my way eventually. However, when i do not recognise where I am, that can be quite scary, especially when I'm supposed to know where I am and where I'm going. It only last for a fraction of a minute.
Today, something else happened. A car almost ran over me. This was the third time that happened in the past year. The other two times i was on my bike. This time I was on my bloody feet. I was walking on the middle of the road, and didn't see the car coming straight towards me. I heard a car coming, but i didn't see it. I had the headphones on, but i still heard the car... and didn't do a thing. Completely absent.
My husband asked me, 'but why were you walking on the middle of the road?'
I said: 'I don't know; I did wonder that though...'
Although it would be so easy to blame it on my absent mind, i would like to think that the inertia of my everyday life is responsible for that. Doing things in automatic cannot be good for the brain. Having newer things to do, more often than not, has to be the best way to get around that. I can understand that such a request is rather impossible. We all need the routine to satisfy the social need for settlement. As social actors we need the sense of security about things that we do and that may take place. However, the inertia must not exert as much power as it does on me. I know, most of the people live that way, and get by fine. Yet, this does not seem to be my case.
My only solution, as of this moment, is to remember to be alert. I think that army people could tell me that such should be a way of life. To be alert at all times, no matter what. Not to take anything for granted. Observe the surrounding stimuli; and always look to the right, to the left, to the front, and to the back. And if I kind of hear a flipping car coming over, I should respond to that!
Friday 20 February 2009
Cuál es la distinción entre chemistry & it's reaction, emotions, and pensamientos?
One of the things that I've been interested in for this blog, and ma vie, has been the relationship between el ser/personality/alma/mind/coeur and the chemistry of the human body. The 'belly butterflies', the 'shaky hands', the insomnia, as well as much more complex misunderstandings labelled under the notions of psychiatric conditions, mental illnesses, have configured my questioning.
My initial training was in psychology, and back then I was rather uncritical of the condition of labelling, as I applied it to myself as much as to others for the fun of it. Although i say that I was uncritical, I wasn't satisfied and although i didn't elaborate that in a very conscious nor verbal manner, I was on the right track since then. Moving on, i took another journey, one in which i developed further my initial training, new studies/discipline, and diverse other ways of thinking about the social and the human. In other words, I got hands on my life. During this time, I have come to realise that things become more complex the more we look at them, and jugamos con las ideas por medio del diálogo interno y externo. I know, i'm just talking about mon trajet de la naïveté.
I'm thinking about this at this moment because i've had an edgy week within me, I've experienced it in a rather jumpy way. Probably I was sensing something, but wasn't sure what that was. Nothing special going on in my routinised life. Work's been peaceful for the past two weeks, so that's nice. Home's been without much turmoil. But then, here they come, the important issues: money, family, the present and a vision of a worsening future on money matters. Things that are happening in my family worry me, and I know i can't do a thing about it. My man has had a hard pill to swallow, and I carry that in my belly, and my mind cannot focus on anything anymore. Just want to go away from here and stare at the ceiling. Am I upset? probably. And then, I have to pretend with the people that surround me. So, I take them as therapeutic, or so that's the way i want to see them like. Would that work out well? Would I be able to 'relax', and 'concentrate' on things? Don't want to write more about this because the more i do it, the more 'obsessed' i grow and my shoulders 'feel stiff'.
There is an interrelation between the social-human mind-human body, and would not want to separate them to attend at them as domains particuliers. Doing that would lead me to the arbitrary labelling of phenomena. Thus how could I approach them?
La réponse être inconnu.
My initial training was in psychology, and back then I was rather uncritical of the condition of labelling, as I applied it to myself as much as to others for the fun of it. Although i say that I was uncritical, I wasn't satisfied and although i didn't elaborate that in a very conscious nor verbal manner, I was on the right track since then. Moving on, i took another journey, one in which i developed further my initial training, new studies/discipline, and diverse other ways of thinking about the social and the human. In other words, I got hands on my life. During this time, I have come to realise that things become more complex the more we look at them, and jugamos con las ideas por medio del diálogo interno y externo. I know, i'm just talking about mon trajet de la naïveté.
I'm thinking about this at this moment because i've had an edgy week within me, I've experienced it in a rather jumpy way. Probably I was sensing something, but wasn't sure what that was. Nothing special going on in my routinised life. Work's been peaceful for the past two weeks, so that's nice. Home's been without much turmoil. But then, here they come, the important issues: money, family, the present and a vision of a worsening future on money matters. Things that are happening in my family worry me, and I know i can't do a thing about it. My man has had a hard pill to swallow, and I carry that in my belly, and my mind cannot focus on anything anymore. Just want to go away from here and stare at the ceiling. Am I upset? probably. And then, I have to pretend with the people that surround me. So, I take them as therapeutic, or so that's the way i want to see them like. Would that work out well? Would I be able to 'relax', and 'concentrate' on things? Don't want to write more about this because the more i do it, the more 'obsessed' i grow and my shoulders 'feel stiff'.
There is an interrelation between the social-human mind-human body, and would not want to separate them to attend at them as domains particuliers. Doing that would lead me to the arbitrary labelling of phenomena. Thus how could I approach them?
La réponse être inconnu.
Wednesday 18 February 2009
Somos la Gente
We Are The People
Briefly, without unnecessary comments. Being enjoying Empire of the Sun since last year, I want to share this video. It's filmed in Mexico showing my favourite imagery. Looks so mad!
Briefly, without unnecessary comments. Being enjoying Empire of the Sun since last year, I want to share this video. It's filmed in Mexico showing my favourite imagery. Looks so mad!
Darkness gives, Light...
On the 30th of December, I was by the Norfolk coast in a very cold night. I took this picture of the sky, star and the moon (with a lighted house ruining the picture). It was a after 4:30pm.
Yesterday evening, arriving home later than usual, I noticed the dramatic change that has been coming over. There was light in the sky. I remembered then that the day before i shut the music off just to listen to the birds from my neighbours' gardens. It simply felt nice. I thought, hum, it's been dark for so long that I forgot it could only get lighter.
In all these years away from the tropical country, where the earliest darkness means 7pm at its worst, I've heard that people struggle to get over the common winter darkness. As we know there has even been denominated a winter syndrome explaining that we people need to be shed some sun light, with a dash of UV to feel right. What puzzles me, is that while we 'know', 'are aware', and most likely genetically informed by these geographical changes in the provision of sunlight, we react strongly to it. What could this possibly mean?
In the simplest way, i see this as body/nature beats enlightenment. This is a thing that I will applaud when it's recognised as such. The way I have experienced this darkness/lightness events have been in the rawest possible way. Coming from the tropics, where sun baths us constantly, where i had a skin colour rather than 'ill shade', I ignorantly took for granted that only in territories of the very north darkness falls without mercy for six months, and light for other six months. Nop, I didn't do my homework here.
My very first winter in England, I noticed the gradual darkening of the sky by October. Then I was told that by November/December it was going to be dark at 5:30pm. It then got dark by 4:30pm, and I felt so down and got the blues without noticing them. It took me a good three years or maybe even four years to semi-adapt to this. Now, I try to experience this just like walking into the tube during the rush-hour: it's something that just happens. Indeed, I've become rather rational about the phenomenon. Nonetheless, when light comes back, I've noticed that I go mental about it. Every single sunshine, I want to take it inside of me. And so, I think that I want to keep it this way. Don't want to be rational about this, only to the extent of wearing UV protection.
Sunday 1 February 2009
An Enblem
Ok, I'm not sure if this is the right name but the signpost is for The Massachusetts Turnpike. I liked it for two reasons. We went to Boston all the way from England(yes, the drama), and then one thing i first saw was the signpost to NY... Hum, I'm somewhere new, and then i feel like I should be looking for the next place to go! I know, this is only one way for interpreting things. The other reason why I loved the sign was because of the pilgrim hat, probably symbolising the witches of Salem and the trials.
Well, we had a fantastic trip, great cold weather, nice parks, riverside walking, market sneaking, millions of italian food restaurants, and delicious cheesecake. What else can one possibly want? ah, and a nice token of Mexican food: fresh tomatillos!
The highlights are many. The fulfilment of certain stereotypes: big cars, big food portions, ultra polite service people, people dressed properly according to the weather, massive sense of space. Some ideas were challenged: almost no one was fat (probably because it was Boston where everybody seem to be jogging).
A very surprising thing was that it felt like there were not many people around. Difficult to explain this. Not that we had any expectation whatsoever, but coming from the UK, where many places, including small towns and villages, feel very crowded on a Saturday afternoon, we did not get that feel anywhere we went in Boston. There was always a sensation that there were not many people around. The only places that were crowded were the food joints (bars and restaurants alike). Otherwise, you could as well walk comfortably on the streets, not people skipping at all. Maybe only in the T (the subway and bus transport services). Not queueing anywhere either, only when arriving to a restaurant. Anyway, the city felt like a place i would like living in.
Obviously, a feature that I most likely was going to appreciate was the multicultural past and present history of Boston. While in the past it was mainly home to Irish, Italians and Africans (an others), it is now also home to people from the Latin American Caribbean, Central and South America. I could not clearly differentiate between them; however, i could notice the presence of Peruvians and Brazilians, which is very interesting. Also, in some places -closer to the MIT- the smell of curry reminded me of my current home.
Where do I intend to get with this post? I really don't know. Probably, all I want to say is that this trip was quite symbolic for many reasons. However, it was mainly because it is the first new place I visit in three years. Having the opportunity, once more, to visit a different country showed me how comfortably numb I've gone. I know, it was only a matter of time to realise about this.
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