i’m sick of the fence mentality. if it seems greener on the other side, it’s likely because you’ve stomped it into a muddy morass on this side.
It bums me out when i hear from folks: “Oh, it’s so great here, and i’m doing so well, and a few things are off, but they’ll only get better…”, then awhile later it’s, “Yeah, this scene is totally played out, i gotta get outta here, maybe back to where i was before…”. Stop it! i don’t even want to hear how happy you are if you’re just going to feel shitty about it a few months down the road.
Truth: No matter where you go, there you are. Scenery changes nothing. Other people can inspire, but they change nothing. You can’t have it both ways, but you can have it every way; expecting anything better than what you have is denying the greatness of the simple things. The air is good. The water is clean. Feel immense gratitude that you’re not one of 70,000+ rotting corpses in Pakistan. Feel immense gratitude that you didn’t just lose it all in a hurricane.
Hey you, the rest of the first-world elite: look in the mirror and just try to slap the hypocracy off your own face. You, the person who advocates “Kill Your TV!”, yet bemoans the cancellation of a favourite show. You, the person who’s “always broke”, but lives in Western Europe, or North America. And you, the person with the freedom to go anywhere, do anything, and yet always feels bored by it all.
i won the lottery the day i was born. Does that mean i should stop trying? Hell no. Should i complain when i hit those stumbling blocks? Hell no.
My friend Mose Malone here is 77 years old. He can barely walk these days. In his 40’s, he was totally paralyzed from the neck down in a workplace accident. He lived in a hospital bed for 4 years. 20 years of physical therapy later, and here he is, driving out to West end to visit, hobbling over from the car to sit with us under tha palms. When he asks me, “Bruthah! ‘ow you bin doin’ dis beautiful day?”, well fuck, i can’t much complain, can i? Actually, if i had anything to complain about, it’s gone, right then and there.
i guess those people are my heroes; the ones who remain positive and joyful in the face of adversity, and the people who got out there and ‘did it’, without first knowing how it would work out. And the people who avoided all the fences, and found the boundless fields…
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Another blogger i check from time to time wrote some lines about the connection of sense and memory, and i sent along a reccomendation for Diane Ackerman’s great book, “A Natural History of The Senses“; essentially a collection of essays on sense and sensiality. My favourite passages from that book were the bits of scent and memory, and on synthaesthia. My first indroduction to synthaesthsia was via an episode of CBC Radio’s “Ideas”, and it came to influence some of my own writing ideas. i don’t suppose that i exhibit much synthaesthia myself, although i’ve noted some sense/perception issues that are probably more linked to AS than anything else. For instance, most numbers evoke a definate character or sex in my mind; 1 is young and neuter, 2 is an adolescent female, 3 is a male baby, 4 is a young teenage boy, 5 is a middle-aged housewife, 6 is a conservative 50-ish male, 7 is a outgoing late-teen young woman, 8 is a quite late-20’s woman, 9 is a robust late 40’s gentleman, 10 is a bookish male college student, 11 is a an early-30’s woman, and 12 is a 70’s matriarchal grandmother. Numbers beyond 12 start to get muddled; some show characters of their own, while others are composites of their digits. If i look over a string of single digits, relationships often arise; typically, 2, 3, 4 and 7 are the children of 5 and 6, while 7 and 8 are friends, or at least aquaintances. With no effort, a telephone number becomes a row of people standing together. As far back as i can remember, these numbers have had the same sex and character in my mind, and i have no idea where it comes from. Curiously, it doesn’t work the other way. Scents and flavours evoke colours for me, but i don’t suppose any moreso than most everyone else. Wikipedia also now has a great Asperger Syndrome entry; one of the more well laid-out and comprehensive ones i’ve yet read. Synthaesthia has been linked to cases of autistic spectrum disorders, although there’s no firm connection. Still, all very fascinating, at least to me.
…is Ruthless Reviews. Crap-cutting bile, for the most part, but here and there a salient and worthy nugget. Reading other people bitch makes me feel better, as long as it’s humourous and not too blackly serious. This site fits the bill.
Been awhile since my last boat-building update. The reason? Well, i’m pretty much done. At this point, i’m waiting for sails. All previous ETA’s are out the window, as the sailcloth was backordered. Apparently the fabric is in Annapolis, getting cut this weekend, but who knows… At least Kevin hasn’t hassled me for any money! Other than sails, all that remains is to repaint the interior. And make up a tent to keep out the rain.
Anyways, today i affixed the nameplate on the stern. i made up a pattern in Photoshop, and milled up a neatly shaped piece of mahogany, then let Scott carve out the lettering. He’d been looking forward to getting into such work for awhile now, and really stoked to go at it. The results are pretty cool. i painted the inset letters with gold enamel, and after a final sand and wipe, gave the whole works a good coat of clear acrylic spray sealant. We went with the sealant instead of varnish as it would have been very difficult to brush on varnish cleanly without leaving drips and thick spots in the lettering.
The nameplate went on just this afternoon, and the glossy dark mahogany and bright gold lettering look really great set against the dark green hull. The name itself? Well, it’s pretty obvious now… Ripple. i have a long list of good boat names i’ve saved up over the years, and Ripple wasn’t on it. Still, while mulling it over right near the start of the whole project, Ripple (The Greatful Dead song, that is) came on the radio. i’ve always really liked that song, and later, reading the lyrics, i found that it really resonated with the whole small boat idea. Further research has shown it to be a fairly common traditional small boat name, but more importantly than being unoriginal, it simply fits the boat.
Good for Scott too, as it was the shortest name on the list, and a fun first carving project. To those of you who find the look of the lettering somehow familiar, i must admit that i totally ripped off the old Triumph motorcycle logo; that’s actually what i started with in Photoshop! The finished carving is a touch more rounded and “bubbly”, as Scott thought it looked better that way; he was right, and it does.
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