Quiet Desperation

"Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them".

Henry David Thoreau

"By a seeming fate, commonly called necessity, they are employed, as it says in an old book, laying up treasures which moth and rust will corrupt and thieves break through and steal. It is a fool's life, as they will find when they get to the end of it, if not before."

Needs - what are they?
Multiplication of "needs" beyond these basics results from the progressive discounting of possibilities

Living a life
You don't have to live a life of quiet desperation - you identify your mental spectators — and your interaction with them — you can move beyond vanquished and into the role of victor, a gladiator who rules your spectators in every battle.

The trouble is............

..........

If you don't risk anything then you risk everything.



Comfirt and Risk.

4 Days in Iceland

The trip

• Reykjavik
• The Blue Lagoon
• The Golden Circle
• Reykjavik

Remembering

The great coffee
The green green fields
The cars, so many cars in town
The cool autumn air and mountain streams and steam vents in the distance
The cleanness and the keeping it clean
The style of the people and the place
The people - young and blond and blue eyed, confident and quiet
The surname conventions with son and daughter
The history and the recent growth
The grass feed beef.....
The farming - heavily subsidized
The seafood (The salted Cod, fish and chips and Lobster)
The tough short horses
The silent organization

The history

Christian in 900
Split from Rome in 1542
Under Denmark rule
"invaded" by Britain in 1940.
independent in June, 1944

Rumi for Today

................

Look again, and see how much I need you;
Watch the long nights that I lie here awake.
No, I am wrong: the distance between us
Will not let me live to see you again............

The English Armada

The English Armada (also known as the Counter Armada) was a fleet of warships sent to the Iberian coast by Queen Elizabeth I in 1589, during the Anglo-Spanish War(1585–1604) in an attempt to drive home the advantage won upon the defeat and dispersal of the Spanish Armada in the previous year.

The expedition was led by Sir Francis Drake as admiral and Sir John Norreys as general, and is also referred to as The Drake-Norris Expedition, 1589.

- Was a complete failure
- Over ambitious
- In the spanish Armada most of the ships that where lost where armed merchant ships not the main gallery fleet
- Expedition was floated as a joint stock company, with capital of about £80,000 (1 qtr from the queen, 1/8 from the dutch and rest from private hands)


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_Armada

5 days in Vegas

Le Cirque, David Copperfield, O, The Grand Canyon, The fountain bar, The Beatles, Wolfgang Puck.

Some crazing sights and sounds....

The jingle in the casino. The noise of people of people winning and the silence of the loss.
The oxygen and the energy.
The noise relentless and ignored

The brain buzz from the shows. Disappointing Copperfield, somehow I expected more
The surprising Isisband

Meeting new people in Donne and Sandra and Milka, getting to know Jean, John, gary, Chris and Karen.

La cirque (Las Vegas)

Tasting Menu:

• Oyster Amuse bouch
• Warm Maine Lobster Salad
• Foie Gras Torchon with Mustard, Fruits, Dates, Onion Compote and Champagne Jelly
• Sorbet
• Truffle Resotto
• Petrole Sole with Braised Endive, Summer Vegetables and Herb Coulis
• Beef Short Ribs
• Dessert

Wines to match..........

Service and Food where excellent. A little showy, did they have to use Foie gras and truffles to make the food tasted great? Truffle Resotto was amazing.

Film Festival 2006

CANDY

Sweeeeet Candy

Heath Ledger and Abbie Cornish do a great job of living and loving in addiction. Can’t help think that it is somewhat sanitized version of what really goes on, but the desperation and the highs and lows seem real enough.

Ten Canoes

Really well told story. The humour and the sense of the culture shines though. A bit of a gods must be crazy. The use of black and white and colour really worked in the Australian outback with its Olive greats and dry browns.

The Way I Spent the End of the World

Czeck Repiblic with the fall of Choucheque. A story of glowing up in the communist state.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Velvet_Revolution

Venus

A 70 year old falls in love with a 20 year old. Nicely and sensitively told. Great humour and a slight sense of desperation and sadness. It kept reminding me that I was getting old and perhaps I would end up like this in a good and a bad way.

Language Limits thought, I think, perhaps, I don't know

Does Language limit thought?
Does the way a language is structured affect how and what is thought?
Does the lack of words for a specific feeling or experience reduce there impact or invalidate them?

What part do other forms of expression play?
In what language do we think about them?
What is art?
What is music and dance?
How do they help us?
Do they tap some place that we cannot find with words?
Why would we have such a place, if we do?

Cava Chris

This restaurant just seems to miss the mark.

• The waitress/server/bar tender person thought she should explan serano Ham to us (very poorly)
• The place is cold feeling with no pictures on the wall and white uninviting walls
  
• There is not enough bread to eat withhte dishes that need bread
• Food was generally good, but not sparkling, not innovative particular
• It is not Avalon
• Busy it is and I hope that it is successful, not sure it is a place to travel too
  

Market Forces at Work

Bon Cop, Bad Cop - the Movie

Good parts

• The humor
• The banter between the two cops
• the opening scene, Quebec or Ontario
  
• In the cops office the first time
  
• The acting, particularly the main to characters
  
• the way the languages are integrated
  

Not so good parts

• The way the story just does not hang together
• The ridicious TV scene
• The final boat scene, just not believable
  

Overall a good time, say 3 out of 5

Canada as Home or Hotel

Canada is, I think, diverse, accommodating, difficult to define, hollow, polite, sterile, warm, homely and more...

Does a country ever feel like home really when you are not from here? Is it only ever just a place to rest for a while on a journey? A nice place that is comfortable to relax and feels safe and warm where the services are all readily available, where there are a few pleasure surprises, new things other people of thought of and now sharing, also a little sterile where everyone is friendly but no one really connects and are actually a like afraid to.

Culture less, but full of culture. Is Tolerance a cultural icon? Where is the faith, what faith and how does it play? How will it live up to the tests that life will bring?

hummmmmmm....