Category Archives: Rants and Raves

joz' tidbits, Lessons, Love, Rants and Raves

Life/Love/the Universe

In my first year of university, more than a full decade ago, my drama professor would often conclude class discussions with:  “any questions about life, love, the universe?”.

It’s strange that despite my rather limited (somewhat sheltered middle-income white prairie girl) life, I could never think of anything to ask. Though the universe is vast, life is long and ravenous, and love is complex, I managed to draw a  blank every time.

Ah, back when I thought I knew everything I needed to know! When I thought things were just as they seemed and life was just what it could be! I thought treating myself to designer things would incite an automatic sense of self-worth in the invisible dark parts of me, I thought decisions about love and ideals could be cut and dried.

Not that now I am a cynical old maid or anything. Life, I think is more interesting now than it was then; more layered, more curious. Things that seemed obvious are now clouded with feelings and histories and beauty in their own right. I see that human relationships get entwined and complex and irrational and illogical. And I think that that is ok.

For this, the last week of my 29 years, Saturn is in full Return. I look back and I look forward, I look out and I look in. I guess I still don’t have any questions about life/love/the universe. It seems that they have revealed a lot about themselves over the years that I thought I knew already or had never thought to ask, and I suppose I can only expect them to keep doing just that. Same goes for the people who have drifted into my life and stayed… Same with myself too, I guess. Learning through doing, like I always have.

Here’s to turning THIRTY! Let’s have a ball.

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joz' tidbits, Rants and Raves

Breaking Habits

I bought a bottle of Minute Maid Cranberry Cocktail today. Only to read the label and find that it is “not a significant source of fibre, vitamin A, vitamin C, calcium or iron.”

Well pardon me for expecting any of those from a bottle of juice. I suppose I should know it as a bottle of Coca Cola in disguise.

It seems that life is one big bottle of Cranberry Cocktail these days, nothing is ever a significant source of anything, it’s all marketing and mis-packaged promises. All I want to do is burrow down into the ground in the woods and hide from it all.  Forget tv and especially forget Twitter and Facebook and Vine and Instagram and all the rest of the great BS machine out there.

But hey, the world is better than some of the alternatives, right? It’s all relative, so let’s be grateful that we have access to fake cranberry juice and real cranberry juice and freedom to choose for ourselves. If the margin of error is small enough does that mean we just disregard the losses for the sake of the whole?

Now you don’t know what I’m talking about. The world is upsetting and that’s all I can really express clearly at the moment.

Thanks for listening.

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joz' tidbits, Random, Rants and Raves

Anytime, anyplace, anywhere, anyway!

I like the telephone.

Remember in the ’80′s and ’90′s when we talked to EVERYone via the phone: personal calls, business calls, party invitations, reminders, wake-up calls, and plain old “how was your day?” calls?

But we’re in the future! We have no need for it anymore! We use convenient, texting, reductionist methods of communication!

- “C U l8ter fone!” -

But, oh! the landline!

That coiled rubber plastic finger slinky game while mind wanders and voice chatters!

Full silences where the tongue gives up its lost race with the mind, and thought completes the final lap alone.

Or the words have reached warp speed and the mind has to follow in their tracks.

And finally then, a wordless satisfied sigh from the one who reaches the finish line.

I, for one, still prefer the telephone to the everyday multi-tasking frenzy of poly-texting-chat. What can I say?

Phoning people far away and dear to my heart is somewhat like the old days; intangible ties completing our communication. Hours of talk that cover all manners of detail and use all levels of intellect.

But I mostly use the phone to talk to strangers… Up to 65 of them daily, in fact, averaging 3 min. and 44 sec. each. – To make each day bearable, I list the crazy names (Isme Butt and Janizelle and Zakarias Zakaburikaz) and I savour my share of sweet connections that keep my soul satiated. (Like the woman who lived at 1150 Haro in Vancouver, just a block from my old Haro Flat.)

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Maybe Siri will learn to have a “how was your day?” conversation soon. Until then I’m with Blondie, I guess I’m just 2 legit 2 quit.

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Rants and Raves, Art and Beauty, joz' tidbits

Everyone wants someone for Valentines’ Day.

Sounds obvious, I know. But may I just point out to you, the odd few that come to visit my random tidbits, that love is a year-long blessing that we get. And that even to say that today is just “a reason to celebrate love” is to blaspheme everything I believe in!

That’s not to say I think we shouldn’t love each other today, but that rather we should strive every day to love ourselves and each other, with the kind of love that lets us be who we are now, doing the best we can with what we have.

Too much expectation in this world, even when we pretend it isn’t there.

So Happy UNvalentines’ Day! may we strive to know ourselves ever deeper as powerful individuals despite this superficial corporate bullshit holiday that shoves outward Romance and Relationships down our throats.

xo

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Philosophy, Random, Rants and Raves

Leap Day 2012: making up for missed time

The Leap Year as defined by Wikipedia:

Although most years of the modern calendar have 365 days, a complete revolution around the sun takes approximately 365 days and 6 hours. Every four years, during which an extra 24 hours have accumulated, one extra day is added to keep the count coordinated with the sun’s apparent position.

And so here we are, Feb. 29, 2012, trying to compensate for an inaccuracy in the basic system we use for measuring time. A mathematician said: “Wait! it doesn’t add up! 365 days is 6 hrs too short! but I don’t want to start again, so let’s just tack on an extra day every four years. Simple and effective. Plus that way I can finally move on to my next project.” But wait! There’s more!

It is, however, slightly inaccurate to calculate an additional 6 hours each year. A better approximation, derived from the Alfonsine tables, is that the Earth makes a complete revolution around the sun in 365 days, 5 hours, 49 minutes, and 16 seconds. To compensate for the difference, an end-of-century year is not a leap year unless it is also exactly divisible by 400. This means that the years 1600 and 2000 were leap years, as will be 2400 and 2800, but the years 1700, 1800 and 1900 were not, nor will 2100, 2200 and 2300.

But it makes my brain hurt to think how limited this approach is. If you’ve discovered an inaccuracy in your formula, shouldn’t you start again rather than create a more complicated formula? otherwise, your result is always founded on a weak theory.

Time is a mathematical concept, and as Einstein said: As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain; and as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality.

So rather than forgetting about it again until feb. 29, 2016, let’s start a Leap Day Resolution – where we resolve to remember that time is more than mere squares on a calendar, and less than a definition of age or experience.

The idea for Metric Time is an interesting one to look into.

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Once you can accept the universe as matter expanding into nothing that is something, wearing stripes with plaid comes easy. - A. Einstein

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Rants and Raves, Philosophy, joz' tidbits

It’s funny

It’s funny to me that we get so caught up in our minds, in our perceptions, in our ruts.

We forget how many ways something can be considered, how many factors can change from one moment to the next. We repeat an opinion to ourselves in between all the opportunities we take to state that opinion out loud to those we know.

Why are we so afraid of being surprised by ourselves? by others? by the world in general? It’s true that it can seem so comforting to feel like I have a “handle” on a situation, like I know something about how it will all turn out.

The truth is that no matter how many similar situations I’ve seen or how much I feel I know myself or the others involved, there is always an uncontrolled variable, one ingredient that I cannot account for – new revelation of information.

I am starting to understand that despite my greatest efforts otherwise, I am constantly evolving – self-actualizing… whether or not I am doing anything, my senses are gathering insight and information on various levels – my skills and sensibilities develop of their own accord, and my internal emotions and fears are rumbling around waiting for particular moments to be made visible in order to be properly processed and expressed.

Being a human being is already a whole lot of crazy from one day to the next, without even considering the world that exists outside of those seven layers of skin. Let’s strive to be gentle with ourselves (and others) as we dig ever deeper and become (ideally) ever wiser.

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Spirituality, Rants and Raves, Philosophy, joz' tidbits, travel

something i wrote 4 yrs 5 mos ago.

back when I thought I knew stuff.

May 21st 2007

Just as a pebble is polished by years and years of tumbling along the riverbeds and up and down beaches, so must we allow ourselves to be shaped by the elements throwing us around.

First the boulder falls from the highest peak of a mountain, then crumbles as it falls. More often than not it is carried down to a stream by another avalanche and a series of rain falls. Once it has reached a stream, it must roll along the bottom, to be left at dams, or left at points that join a larger river, or even left on the bottom the ocean. Years can pass at different phases – the whole span of transformation takes hundreds of years. The stone must allow itself to be tumbled about and finally thrown up and down sandy beaches by the volition of the tides.

So it is with the effect of life on our human souls. Every fall brings us to a new bump that we can smooth out if we so choose.

The individual does have free will: to decide whether or not she wants to follow the stream or fight against it. Whether or not he chooses to be tossed around until he is smooth of bumps and imperfections. We can decide to stay on the mountain continually abused by falling debris, or we can decide to keep our bumps and scratches even though nature will constantly hustle and bustle us. We cannot change the course of nature, but we do get to choose to let these events shape and mold us into soft, beautiful pebbles, finally collected by a sweet mother and her five-year-old staying at the cottage for the summer.

In life, we must expect to be thrown up against each other, dropped and carried at random by passers by. Every piece of the journey holds obstacles, yet to reach the most desired state, we must be patient with our little pebble-souls. Not all of our bumps can be worn down after merely one avalanche, risen tide, or waterfall. Only with patience and the passing of time does a pebble begin to achieve a somewhat smooth surface.

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Random, Rants and Raves

Passive Optimism

Sometimes the thermostat at work breaks, and you wind up working in 89 degrees fahrenheit. You think you might faint. And nice-looking people are cranky and rude.

However perturbing those things can be, at least you don’t work in a real sweatshop.

On the other hand, sometimes you realize in the middle of your day that no matter where you are or what you’re doing, it’s easy to be happy about it: there’s money on the ground, a quick line-up, pleasant service, or generous strangers.

I don’t know about you, but I am always open to the possibility of being pleasantly surprised. Those other surprises, I see as passing moments rather than status quo for the entire day.

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General, Rants and Raves

Touch and Go, I find you very attractive

I forgot to mention in my Random Moment post that once Zak went off to find the CD and the European man realized what we thought he’d said, he turned and said “I wouldn’t say that to him,” meaning Zak, “but I would say that to you. I do find you very attractive.” I didn’t quite have an answer for him, so I got very interested in an ABBA DVD that was close at hand.

I am not bringing this up just to tell you that an older man found me attractive. Really, we all know that youth alone is alluring, and it is definitely not the first time a bold middle-aged (or older) man said something vaguely inappropriate or directly inappropriate to me. (although it has decreased in the last few years).

What is it about being older that makes a man so bold? And how long do I have to wait before a man I am vaguely interested in has the gumption to flatter me like that?

What’s wrong with a little old-fashioned wooing?

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Love, Music, Rants and Raves

Express Yourself

A co-worker of mine has a weblog about relationships. I was intrigued by his post “on Passion and saying I Love You “.

He starts the article with a conversation that he overheard:

“Woman 1: So has he said it yet?

Woman 2: No. I wish that he would.

Woman 1: Why don’t you say it?

Woman 2: Because it’s too soon.

Woman 1: You’re probably right.

Woman 2: I don’t mind waiting…”

It reminds me of a couple I knew who broke up recently. They’d been together for over 2 years but had never exchanged the Three Words. The guy never said it because he never felt it, and the woman never said it because the guy had never said it. She did love him and if she’d said it, he would not have been able to ignore the position they were in. The position where one feels more strongly than the other. The moment of “where do we go from here?”
When it did all finally come out, she was quite hurt that he’d stayed with her even though he knew he would never fall in love with her.

It is perfectly natural to be afraid of being vulnerable, however once the realization of Love has happened,whether expressed or not, the level of investment is set. Your fate is sealed.

However, you cannot expect someone to read your mind.

You are responsible for your own happiness!

So in Madonna’s fine words:

You deserve the best in life / So if the time isn’t right then move on /

Second best is never enough / You’d do much better, Baby on your own

Don’t go for second best, baby / Put your love to the test.

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