On painting my Mandala

Care needs to be taken, to visualise, protect, nurture the pattern and patterns that form into my mandala, not for its own sake or to be the alter but for the impact on being that it has. Necessarily symbolic and metaphysical and anacdotal not to be symbolized for all.

Meditation and self examination are key to reflect and draw down and out as the unconscious becomes known. It is not creating it is discovering and plotting and peacing together, eaking out an picture was the world grows and changes.

........ more is required

Writers to watch out for

Great writers of today:

David E. Kelley - Boston legal, Ally McBeal, The Practice, Chicago hope, LA Law
Amy Sherman - for Gilmore Girls
Bill Lawrence - for Scrubs and spin city
David Shore - House MD and Due South
David Warry-Smith - Due South

Privacy policies and respect

Increasingly privacy policies seam to be about explaining how little privacy you will have and giving you no choice if you want to buy the product.

Interesting points of concern:

• A note that information will not be sold, but will be shared with other vendors from time to time as concerned necessary by the company
  
• Requests for non relevant information as required for the transaction
  
• requirements that it information is not provided the sales transaction will not be completed

Examples:

An insurance company requires that its customer information be shared with all subsidiaries
Honda declaring that they will share your information with "various other companies"

Privacy policies should be about respect and choice. Requiring only actually necessary information for the transactions and letting he customer decide how much other information is shared.

Personal Guidelines:

1. Never give out Post Code, Address, Phone number or date of birth
2. Web sites requiring this information will get false information unless it is necessary for the credit card transaction
3. All Web site that automatically enroll you in update emails get cancelled or reported as junk.
4. Actively avoid organisation with poor privac policies when buying
5. Low likihood of buying more from an organisation that have insisted on sharing my information as a condition of the sale
6. Addition information has to be purchased in some reasonable direct way eg 15% discount if...

On pruning Olive trees

Summary:

1. Pruning happens all the time, you never stop pruning
2. Step back and look at the overall picture, keep the main structure correct and don't worry about the small branches.
3. It is the new growth that flowers and carries the fruit, prune the old wood mostly to allow the new to flurrish
4. Stress the plant to ensure the fruit, but leave it strong enough to carry the fruit
5. Keep balance, look to develop 3 main branches. More at it is to crowded, less it has to little fruit
6. Think about the prevailing wide direction and prune according to encourage the tree into the wind.

Other factors in growth of Olive tree:

1. too much watering and the plant grows quickly and the wood is weak and bends easily so will not support the fruit
2. The tree needs to be free to flex and bend with the weather, this will create string roots

Crudely Crude Awakening

Certainly learned a lot, and I get the message, we are in deep shit, we are running out of oil and there is almost no political leadership or practical alternatives.

Oil is amazing, it is cheap for the work that it can do and this has driven the world economy more than any other single thing. 70% of oil product is used in transportation. Around about now (2007) oil production is peeking and the way it declines is unclear. Quickly, slowing who knows.

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

The result may well be war, depression and worse

This movie was crudely done, constantly being bombarded with facts and predictions and reminders of the short life expectancy of hydro carbon man. (http://www.lifeaftertheoilcrash.net/). Deliberately pessimistic, hopeless and depressing.

Thought for today

Go confidently in the direction of your dreams, live the life you're imagined


Henry David Thoreau
http://thoreau.eserver.org/

The Goat or Who is Sylvia?

Middle-aged life crumbles when the main character falls in love with a goat.

Edward Albee is a master at manipulating your feel. It is funny, awkward, unsettling, real, shocking, enlightening and as I left the theatre I had a silly grin on my face that could not be removed despite all my efforts and some guilt.

Exploring and challenging the limits of society and what “normal” is what the arts should do that this does it very well. A truly great play of our time, when this liberal society has so may rules and is so closed minded.

Each character is real, even the goat. Everything changes in moments, perhaps, we are all only moments away from world changing moments. The family reaction is primitive and challenging and unexpected, but clear and understandable. The detail in the word games and shows an amazing understanding of the human brain. What is really going on here?

Apparently "Who is Silvia" from Shakespeare's play The Two Gentlemen of Verona. Proteus is in love with Julia but then falls for Silvia and will do anything to win Silvia over. Silvia’s intentions naturally lie elsewhere, but Proteus is blind to this, and schemes and calculates. Julia does not give up here pursuit of Proteus. humm. (from Wikipedia)

Thought for the day -

It is our earth, not yours or mine or his. We are meant to live on it, helping each other, not destroying each other.

- J. Krishnamurti

Australia: Other First Impressions

• Clouds, who would believe the clouds could be so different
• Suspicion of anything new or different. These people can be remarkable closed minded. Had an interesting discussion with a young, asian, female, mine project manager who admitted she preferred to hire locals who new the mine vs the experienced overseas workers. To her credit she acknowledged that it was not great, but the risk seems to high to hire the unknown and somehow knowing the person had local knowledge was valued. Interesting. She believed her own position as a mine project manager was earned and not the result of anyone taking a "risk" on a person that did not fit the mold. Interesting, human nature everywhere.
  
• The postal systems that really works. Posted late today, gets there tomorrow morning, in Canada the same thing took 3 days.
• AFL, this is a great game, very entertaining
• Ageism, they appear to be trying to figure out issues of age that seem obvious to me.
  
• Carrots and Eggs. Carrots are refrigerated but the eggs on the the shelf next to the tins? Does that sound correct.
• Mrs or Miss or just Ms. I heard someone say that their doctor was irritated when a patient would not give her title. The doctor insisted that it was important her medical treatment, when pushed is suggested that it tells him if she is sexually active. What planet is this doctor from? How does it ask the men?
  

Candy again and Lantana

These moving show the strength of the Oz film industry.

Lantana is a neat suspense thriller with Anthony LaPaglia. Its your usual tail of unrelated stories slowing interconnecting with inevitable consquences. It is all to tidy in its mess for it to really be a great thriller.

In Candy the end to seems slowly inevitable. It is easy to relate and follow the difficult path. The screen smells. Overall nicely done.

The Power of Direct to Consumer Advertising - Example

Per Freakenomics blog -

"The advent of television, and particularly TV advertising, is what turned the toy industry into a juggernaut. Why? Because, for the first time, manufacturers could market their goods directly to the customers — that is, to children.

Mattel was apparently the first company to grasp this phenomenon, and saw its sales increase from $6 million to $49 million in the space of six years. (I have no idea how accurate this information is, nor do we learn how much money Mattel spent on its TV advertising; but still … the DTC point seems valid.)"

Interesting - what next

Broken Flowers

Don revisits past relationships. He is apparently successful and alone, having thrown away a relationship. He appears not to feel much or give much.

What does he learn?

• No one seams that happy
• He only comes alight when talking to Women
• His ex's are a odd group, who seem to long for the past also in some way
• All the Ex's seem important to him and him to them, although they where apparently only short relationships. Do we all need to believe that we are important to people?
• The flowers have a strange effect on the females
  

Overall

• Nicely written
• Bill Murray does an ok job
• Nice directed. The filming and the silences give you a good feeling or being there in the moments.
• Strange and unexplained relationship with the neighbour

Australia: Toilet Rolls and other first impressions (part 1)

Observations

• The toilet roles are sturdy, far to good for the single journey they take. The actual paper however seems appropriately designed, but the roll core is robust to say the least. What is behind this? Are children still making their first trains from toilet roles and washing up liquid bottles still? I hope so.
  
• The men like there sheds, sheds are everywhere, sheds are a goal, they are advertised in full page ads. Sheds are big, like little houses almost, like caves. What does this say about the family and the social structures?
• The people are diverse, obviously.
• Why are the toilets all separate from the bathrooms, you sit in your own little room looking at the door 0.5 metres from your nose. They like there privacy here apparently. Although it is cozy after a while. I can take my laptop in and write blogs......
  
• Oh yes the metric system. Its great to see a country actually and completely implementing this. Not even the old coggers use ft and inches. A lesson for others here.
  
• The sky is blue, very blue, against the olive green eucalyptus there is beauty on the scape. This colour palette is going to take a while to get used to (hopefully).
  
• The Tin roofs or the Clay tiles and the brick built homes. The sense of confidence and security and longevity that that brings is nice. No wood framing here that would be blown down or eaten by white ants (termites).
• Wine cheaper than beer
• The cool winds
• People are friendly, kind of. They seem easily to take offence, perhaps that's just me?
• The number of small shops everywhere it great.
• The coffee, better than that french roast that North America likes
• Its not just the water in the sink that goes the other way the revolving doors go clockwise (or do the clocks go round the other way here to). This is important to remember for obvious reasons
  
• Counter meals and paying on the way out. No waiting around for the server to serve.
  
• Great local cheeses and wine and beers
• The Entrepreneurial spirit and optimism about the future is just really great and very catching
• The Ocean and early morning walks by the ocean. It is rejuvenating to live by the sea again