Well... I had to start some time

I have decided to write a song. Just for myself for now :) Maybe, if it goes well, I'll record it and put it on YouTube.

I have most of the melody, still need some harmonies.

The lyrics (for now) are as follows... please do insult me, if they are too awful.

- Midnight in Antarctica

Reflections on ice

Shivering cold

Deep and dark waters

Land by itself

All on my own

Quieting heart

Winds turn to storms

Stars bright and near

Pure and protected

Death closer than life

Beauty in stills

Last of the olds

Never left you

Never missed you

More than right now

Always been here

Constant abstracts

Fragile as snow

Darkness in white

End of a world

Beginning of mine now

Away from the noise

Emptiness screams

Into crystallized air.

Is it just me?

I often start some really really random trains of thought during the day and end up somewhere really interesting. And then I go like "huh. never thought of that before." and 5 min later I totally forgot what it was about.

I should take a recording device with me at all times. Or some papers and a pencil. Those things might do well in a blog. Or a book :P

No, honestly... I sometimes lose myself in a labyrinth of thoughts and end up somewhere over the rainbow. This could probably be a psychological condition and there are pills for it, but I don't really care :)

Just a little recommendation

Listen to this video and enjoy that there are still real artists on YouTube.

With YouTube, the possibilities for starting artists have changed. There are many now, who don't have labels, they produce their own CDs, put them on iTunes and earn money. It's great, because the indie scene especially can profit of these ways of distribution. There will always be labels to promote people like Britney Spears, but for artists like Pomplamoose or Danielle ate the sandwich, YouTube is a great way of getting known.

I frikkin' love that.

Nerdom

I'm a bit embarrassed to say... I can't wait for the new iLife '09. I really need a good iPhoto (I only have iPhoto 6 on my desktop) because my 5000 pics are not loading the way I'd like them to and I can't wait for the Facebook and Flickr interaction. I would like to use Facebook more and an organized Flickr account would also be nice.

Is it wrong to be excited about something like a new software version? I don't really care ;)

As we are on the topic... I'm also looking forward to MacOSX Snow Leopard, Starcraft2, and some more :)

I would love to change my online life as well.... less videos, more blogs, less covering songs, more writing my own. Maybe write some stories? Put some photos on Flickr? We will see what time will bring.

Toodles.

Some days are diamonds

You might not know this about me, but... Well, in fact, you probably don't know this about me ;)

I have been meditating from the age of... 11? 12? something like that. I have done light meditation, sword meditation, chacra meditation. za-zen, Tai-Qi, Qi-Gong, ... and why not. It's fun to do :) But meditation is more than a pastime for me, it's a necessity. I get restless and depressed if I don't meditate regularly... I know it's a bit weird.

These days, meditation gets... how do I put it ... socially acceptable (?). It's in magazines, in the news. People do it because it's fashionable. It's cool to say "Hey, I meditate." But people don't really get it. It's not about reading a bunch of books, about knowing everything the Dalai Lama said in an interview. It's not about sitting somewhere and either a) sleep or b) think about all the stuff you have to do tomorrow.

Meditation is frightening. It's not puppies and roses. It's not sitting somewhere with a happy face and rainbows shooting out of your eyes. To get to know yourself in that way is terrifying. We have a huge amount of energy at our disposal as humans and this can be tricky. This is the reason why you should take it slowly. Meditate for a few minutes, start with some breathing, some heart rate control and most important of all: stop when you feel that your not really into it. It makes absolutely no sense to sit somewhere and "meditate" and hate every minute of it.

I have really no good advice for you here. I think everyone should meditate, but I suppose most people don't really know how to do it. The key is to try again and again. To not let your psyche and your fears get the best of you. Meditation is not about knowing stuff. Not about talent. It's about stamina. You have to come back again and again. If you get distracted, try again. If you get interrupted, try again. This is not for the faint of heart ;) or the impatient.

I had problems with my meditations for about 10 years now. They've been erratic and jumpy... but I think today has been a turning point. We will see if that holds true :)

I could recommend books to you, but that wouldn't make much sense. Everyone is drawn to different kinds of meditation.

Good luck.

Complex simplicity

I got to thinking today.... Humans are pretty complex creatures, but in their core really simple. I mean, what do we really want. Really, really want. We want to be happy. To love and be loved. I think that's about it. Some might say we want power. Or money. Or money to gain power... but I think they are mistaken. Those people just think that with power comes happiness. Some screwed up people might think that with money comes love.

We have these really simple needs. Everybody can love/be loved. We need nothing for that. We can do that without any special abilities. Without intelligence or genius. We can do that from our first day on this earth and although we might seem to forget that we can.......

Now. People are complex. How do these complexities arouse from simple needs? I think it's dishonesty with ourselves that puts us in these predicaments. We tell ourselves things that aren't true.

We say that we want stuff we don't need or want. We say that we have to do stuff we don't want or have to do. We say that we like people we don't really like in the absurd notion that this would make them like us and thereby make our lives better.

I could write pages and pages about the tragedy of everyday life and its connection to dishonesty, but I won't.

All I want to tell you is this: If you are aware of the simple things that make us human, it might be simpler than you think to a) achieve them and b) simplify your complex life.

Virtue is bold and goodness never fearful.

It's a Shakespeare quote from "Measure for measure" and it reminds me of why I love him so much. Noone knew how to construct entertaining plots like he did and then to enrich it with language like that? 

Thank the light that he lived in an era where art was written down... we lost too much music because the selfish people in the antiquity were to lazy to do just that ;)