2+2=0

Orange is the new red on recording-ppm metres, some say that 30 is the new 20 for age, and 50 is the new 40 and so on.

I was thinking... If 5 was the new 4, then 4 squared would be 2,236067977, and 4+4 would be 10. You could say you'd get a whole lot more value for money, so maybe it could prove to be a good monetary reform in a time of credit crisis. However if 2000 was the new 1700 I'd be 300 years older! I'm not sure whether that would give me extra credit and experience on my CV or simply less pension. Or maybe no pension at all since Otto von Bismarck had not had time to invent the system yet! So maybe we shouldn't go there, but it would be good fun to see Mozart perform live in Prague!

But lets not leave the numbers quite yet. For if we give the above mentioned 2,236067977 (and a few more digits) to the power of 4 we'd get 25. And since 25 is a product of 5 times 5, then for everyone who just became 300 years older, our 4*4 is 25 in a modern context. If anyone then should make the mistake as to take an old 4 and subtract 5 from it and label it "the new 2," we can easily see that 2+2 is 0.

There was a lot of noise when I walked through town tonight. Many people going out to party. One rule of leadership says that "leaders celebrate." It is true indeed that past milestones should be celebrated, but I don't believe all the party people are celebrating milestones.

After I ended high-school I told a friend that I was worried. I had ran away to the mountains every weekend thus far, to escape the clutches of boredom and many pointless classes by teachers who's knowledge was becoming pasé. I did vocational electronics and had many great teachers, but especially with a couple of them we spent a lot of time on irrelevant material from yester-years. ...if not yester-decades! I was worried. I didn't know if I had anything to "run away from anymore." My friend is wise and said that maybe it was on time for me to find something to "run to" instead of "from." I'm not sure if I have found it still. But more so, if milestones are celebrated... If the celebrations in town tonight are running away from the milestones, we reject the hights we have ascended; and if they are running towards them, people should be even higher on excitement by the end of the night and reasonably sober! And rightly we think that there are no milestones involved and people are running from the mundane at the most articulate, and where there is no articulation the celebration is becoming a mundane pattern itself. If cities were to bless us with the combined strengths of human society and support, division of labour, and entertainment; then the city has surprisingly many critics in our days. On the streets tonight it seemed like the "Big Issue" sellers and those who sell various party apparel were the only ones with an agenda. It seems like a lot of people need something to "run to!"

If kaleidoscopes were the new blue, I'd be dizzy when I looked at the sky.
If beer was the new water, a lot of English people would be happy.
If sparkling water was the new petrol, I'd be drinking petrol all night long baby!
If peace was the old war, then Charles 1st would not be decapitated.

I'm hungry...

Things that have made me very happy over the last few days

Lorraine visiting the UK and a great night with amazing people at my place to celebrate. That night I was really fired up afterwards and my rubbish Bible reading-progression lately just got blown to pieces at 4:30 am after the washing up, by a driving desire to dive into the Word! –and the music kept flowing!

When I needed speed and productivity more than in a long time it seems like my progression plan for my music productions are falling to pieces because of a current lack of access to manpower, but then new music starts pounding in my brain. Just when I need it the most! The first fact is sad, the latter is brilliant!

Sunshine outside Leeds City Art Gallery with Rose and Lorraine.

Thindwa/ Chikankheni retaliation dinner and subsequent picking of Blackberries in East End Park.

Amazing worship in Leeds and Bradford ALC!

Lenny Kravitz and Foo Fighters. Memories of early days and late nights of Lenny-sounds after Gospel Choir practice in days when mobile phones were the size of houses and were attached to cars. –days of more speaking and singing.

Buying new IK Multimedia plug-ins for Pro-Tools! Pretty happy-go-lucky, but man it’s fun! I like… so much!

But really: Dinners, Friends, Word, Music, Exciting!

Under Age 2

Can you believe it happened again?

I had a full beard when I was 15 and no one ever denied me purchasing anything! In fact, while attending air-shows I have been taken for a potential serious aeroplane-buyer. I can buy an aeroplane if I want it! No questions asked, transfer the money! "I'm sorry our Chief-Executive is in a meeting right now, can I take down your details and our Regional Sales Director will contact you in a couple of days." I'm not gonna name the company, cause you might well know them, and they were getting well interested in who I was in the end!

But this I can't buy...

I walked into Tesco's after Church one day. I found a couple of mini-bottles of red-wine that I wanted to have standing around the house as to marinade meat in whenever the occasion made itself present. Two small bottles of wine! Small! Very Small!

I walked up to the counter. The lady grabbed the bottles, scanned them, and with no hesitation she looked right at me and said: "Do you have any id with you?"

I started to laugh! Quite loud I believe. I reached back into my wallet and passed over a plastic-card and said: "Yes I do! Here is my drivers-liesence!" It says I was born in the late 70's, and that's a long time ago now. The old chap I met the last time probably had quite old eyes too, his glasses were thick and it was late in the day. This young lady had no excuse with the eye-sight for sure, since she hardly could have rounded 20 Winters yet. I was laughing to myself as I walked out of the shop. I think the lady saw it and it seemed like she caught the humor herself.

So what is it? I was never asked before, I could even buy an aircraft from one of the world's biggest manufacturers. But two small bottles of red-wine in a supermarket in England becomes a challenge!

Yes, I saw the Curios Case of Benjamin Button, but no, I was never that ugly as a baby!
What if I get any children? At the current development this is likely to happen: I rock up on first day of school with my boy and they try to enroll me! But whatever marriage produces of challenges, it presumably produces an answer to as well. I'll just send my wife! Ha-ha! But that's easy to say as a bachelor. What if she works in Father Christmas' administration at the North Pole and spend much of the year abroad? Then I'd have to go myself...

Man it's late... I should go to sleep.

Winter's Coming

I walked out on the balcony one evening. A friend of mine was sitting in the living room. I stepped outside and looked around. Then came a breeze from my left, from the river side. I turned my head and could see the fields on the outskirts of Leeds afar and I knew immediately what was happening. It was in the breeze, just in a tiny amount. "Autumn is coming!" I exclaimed, almost surprised to hear my own words. My friend in the living room started saying "No no no!" and telling me to keep my mouth shut! I didn't. I like the Autumn! I was born in the Autumn. In the Autumn, people come down from the mountains and I have them by myself.

Today, as I was walking from the cinema in Bradford I had the sensation again. Only different. I could feel the Winter! It's not very cold at the moment. Not cold at all in the days and I wondered what it was. That subtle bite of the chill after sundown marks the entrance to both seasons. But the air tonight was dead in that it had no sense of change to plants and greens in it. There was nothing apart from the background of the city. Few things can grow in the Winter and the air carries witness to this.

So is it because I'm an Autumn child? Is it the acquired skills of a trekking guide? Or maybe you think I am mad. I don't know, but I think the Autumn and Winter is so native to me that I can sense some of their traits. We will have many sunny and warm days before the seasons change still. They may not be sunny and warm by tropical standard, but by North-West European indeed! But the little tales of the change to come has made their presence noted. Change in many ways I presume since I graduate in October. Though my educational journey is not over, this journey I embarked on in Singapore in the Summer months of 2005 comes to a close. And that means that where next stop is determines how much of the chill I get to enjoy.

There is a native tribe up North in Norway that used to have an old practice I shared much respect for. They traditionally lived in tents and some still do. The practice was: if a child was born in the snowy seasons they would take the top off the tent on the third day and let it snow into the tent. The three day old newborn child would be held up naked against the opening and snow would fall on it. Not for long off course, but by doing so the loving parents believed they prepared the child to be extra resistant to chill for the rest of its life. To modern city people it may seem barbaric, but coming from someone who could run around in the snow in shorts and t-shirt it doesn't seem too bad at all. And I wonder! -had they ever found the chill resistance to be true throughout the life-span of a person? If they did maybe I should do it to my kids one day!

I used to think something like this had happened to me. I could cope with chill like a rock can, but in recent years I have found that I actually need clothes. If the change brings me back into the chill, maybe I'll regain some of my old winter-strength? If it keeps me where it is warmer I'm sure I'll gain or regain something else instead.

*

I have started to understand from the feedback that I have a few readers through Facebook. All these scripts are imported from my Bloger-account, so if you find your self reading this on another forum than Blogspot you are very welcome to click on "View original post" or the links to my external pages in my information-page for "the full monty!"

Under Age

22nd July 2009

Today Khule, Vanessa, Vanessa's cousin Wez and me went to Roundhay Park. Khule gave me a lift back to the city and we stopped by ASDA because I wanted to see if they had any special offers on Brandys. I found a quite ordinary French Brandy called Three Barrels. I had wanted to check it out for a while and now it was reduced (you know, students... :)

I was going to the tills to pay and I deliberately did not go to the self check-out because I know an attendant needs to come and see that you are not under age. That takes unnecessary time and I found a normal till with no queue. An elderly chap with thick glasses was operating it. I could see that he looked at me repeated times and when I was about to pay it came: "Do you have any i.d. with you?"

I had to laugh! -and gave him my drivers license through 11 years. Ok, I am young and beautiful! (maybe), but my face was full of beard stubs from not shaving for two days, and in a couple of months I'll turn 30.

It may be a nice compliment; or his glasses were very thick!

Where do dreams lead to?

Time stands still,
waiting for next action.
Action for time,
time passing but in my hands.

Sounds of dreams,
where to go?
Trail of the muted snare,
dream of the bigger sounds.

Open window,
sun making her beautiful way in.
Busy clouds,
slow evening.

Remember crawling under the bushes?
Childhood in the amazing maze?
Digging channels of snowcaves with sis?
Fumbling in the dark bringing no backup light?

Next cave,
next darkness followed by light.
Next cave,
between the bushes in the park.

Where do dreams lead you to?

The Rain

I came from the gym and was tired. After a shower I lay down on the bed. That was when I saw the blinking through the curtains. Thunder and lightning! I went to pull out the two plugs that supply my studio gear with power; just in case. There isn't much chance of something going wrong and it all should get well covered by the insurance, but you know: -deadlines coming up, and few backups. Ups! I opened the balcony door and walked outside. My balcony is shielded from the weather by the one above so I could stand out there barefoot and remain as dry as a newly showered can be. It's quite nice with the lights suddenly flaring through the sky! I went to get my SLR camera, found the settings I wanted and just stood there and waited. I missed a couple of blinks (they pass faster than I thought) and then I ran out of battery... -Had to put the project on ice and the battery is charging in the kitchen now.

I love the sound of the rain. I didn't realize how much I love it until recently. It's been rainy for a few days and I've been hearing the sound of cars and double decker busses on wet asphalt again. It reminds me about East Coast. Like, just when the rain is passing and all the streets of Singapore are super wet. Nighttime in Marine Crescent, open window, world falling asleep, me falling asleep, smell of the sea, colder air, smell of local mini "jungle" -kind of like cinnamon. No sea here in the middle of England. I don't think I would like the sounds so much if it wasn't for my days in Singapore.

I remember though, countless times, falling asleep to the sound of rain or snow falling on my tent. If it's not a psycho-storm and a whole new level in noise it's quite nice. Makes me fall asleep quite easily. I used to say that rain against my tent was one of the nicest sounds I knew. I think that can be applied to wet streets sounding like Asia too now.

My windows are almost all going from floor till roof so I drew the curtains aside and sat down in my bed writing this while watching the roofs of the town. And the occasional blinking from the lightning off course. The kitchen window is slightly open so I can hear the street still. Kind of like being in my room on East Coast with the window open in the living room when the tropical showers dies out.

Someone were shouting at each other down at the street. Flippin' Europe! Happens all the time, fights and all sorts of things. Yesterday, some schmock set it in his mind to take the trashcan's various content and components and spread it out across the street while roaring. Ok, I can hear you laughing, but we don't have that kind of wackos here often though. But drunk people fighting in the weekends and other people screaming at each other at random times. Too much poverty, too much alcohol! I'm not used to this. What? Get used to it spoiled Norwegian! No, never! They get used to behaving dignified and properly and balancing their alcohol intake. I'll never leave who I am. I'll always be different. Abroad I have an excuse, and if I need one at home it is just that I am me.

The sun is going down later and slower now. The rain has stopped and everything is getting darker. Just liked the sounds, still tired. Night. Soon.