Older blog entries for MarkAtwood (starting at number 914)

Dream Notes, from last night

Rose kept turning up, but she was always in a hurry going someplace else

I was climbing down a flight of stairs while thinking "if this was a dream, i would be losing track of weight, and would just float down there, that would make this so much easier"

there was an old ruined bank building where my family used to go to church back in NC, but a organic food co-op had been built next to it

i was in a toystore looking at a book and this big beefy guy comes right up, starts talking about how neat the book looked, and started trying to pull it from my hands so he could see it, and then he looked really embarrassed, muttered an apology, and rushed off

there were a couple of people, women, who i knew i knew, but on waking, i cant remember who they are, that i was going someplace to meet

i was changing clothes in a back room, and a bunch of people come in just as im nude and about to start to redress, and i was a bit annoyed at them

Most of the time, I was wearing my heavy duster and a heavy wool blanket over it as well, and I could always feel the weight of it, and it rubbing against sensitive and touch hungry skin

Walked into a room, but couldnt at first see the person in it because she was wearing all bright red, with touches of white. She looked great in it, once I was able to see her.

Syndicated 2009-06-18 16:18:25 from Mark Atwood

Adrienne, in a Beehive Hairdo

Adrienne has dressed up as an old-school school teacher for a drama class presentation as part of her ASL courses. Thus, the hairspray based beehive hairdo.

Syndicated 2009-06-17 17:08:17 from Mark Atwood

10 Jun 2009 (updated 11 Jun 2009 at 01:08 UTC) »

Thoughts on Attachment, and thoughts on avoiding it

While I was in Hawaii, I was reading about and practicing meditation.

One of the texts described a technique about attachment.

When you have something you like very much, be it an item, an experience, or a relationship, you should always already remember that it is already broken, lost, ended, or over. So that when it does become so, well, it always was so in your mind.

This seems sad to me, especially about relationships.

Even though it was expressed as "then you will have all the more joy when its there, because it is then a double gift".

Such a lack of attachment, especially in relationships, seems beside the point of a relationship. Unless it's one of just pure mutual use of each other.

It turns being with someone into little more than a longer term form of being in a group line or country dance: "Move to your next partner in the circle, take her hands, and do the steps again."


Am I just being obstinent, "unenlightened", or just entirely missing the point?

Syndicated 2009-06-10 22:38:11 (Updated 2009-06-11 00:27:50) from Mark Atwood

I remember this ad

I remember seeing this ad while I was in SF for JavaOne last week.

Syndicated 2009-06-10 18:50:44 from Mark Atwood

Walking downtown

I am walking down to 6th & Pine to watch Up

Syndicated 2009-06-07 04:50:05 from Mark Atwood

Memorial Day Weekend. Parties, Flirting, Hiking, Grilling Meat, learning Pidgen, and more Social The

Last Saturday, Tigris and I went to Buddy's Birthday Party. He is a local personality and friend of hers. I think I recall that I almost met him the last time I was here, but that it didn't work out. The party was fun, especially after people started setting fire to grapes in the microwave oven. The house was big and lovely. It surrounded an open courtyard of a zen garden, such that the house's inner courtyard walls could be rolled open, a common design for nice houses here. The was a large collection of tuned bells and gongs and xylophones, all of various asian styles, that the guests had much fun playing with.

I met a lovely japanese lady named Momo, I should find out what her "proper" given name is. She and I chatted a fair amount, and set up to go hiking the next day.



The next morning, she picked me up from my cafe in her little VW bug, and we drove east, to and past Hawaii Kai, along the Kalanianaole Hwy.. I had done that same drive last time, but that time it was pitch black and kind of scary, being a poorly marked windy road next to the crashing surf. This time was very different, the day was blazingly bright, and the views of the ocean, of the mountains, and of the rich neighborhoods of Hawaii Kai were astounding. We stopped at Kapu' Head, and walked over to Pele's Chair. That was a fun scramble. I climbed up to the base of the chair, about a 10.3. If I had brought my shoes, I probably could have climbed to the top of the formation (if I had dared do it without a rope).

Then we hiked up the Makapu'u Lighthouse Trail. The main trail is a gentle smooth paved path. Which we didn't use much of. Instead we would often go off the main trail, and hike the actual ridgeline. Much more interesting, much more challenging. A couple of times I found myself scrambling and bouldering, instead of just hiking. This may have been unwise, since there were several places where a slipped hand or foot would have sent me bouncing down a steep slope of hundreds of feet of rough volcanic stones, and I would have woken up in an ICU, if ever. But still, it was exciting and I felt very alive.

We reached the pillboxes at the top of the ridge, then hiked down to the top of the "official trail", and then headed back.

Looking down over the edge, I could see some tide pools and a few blowholes. We took a detour, and scrambled down the 45 degree plus face. Standing over the blowholes was amazing, many hundreds of cubic feet of air pushed and pulled though holes in the rock by the surf. And the tidepools were full of brightly colored fish and other sealife. I finally got to see for real what big store aquariums are trying to fake. Then climb and scramble back up the face to the trail. Wow, if I do that every day, I would have the build of the local boys.

Then we hiked back down to the car, then drove west back to Honolulu, stopping for some raman, where I got complemented for my chopstick skills.


That evening, Tigris and I dressed up and dressed down, and headed out to a party being hosted by her friend Amber Ricci. Again, a bunch of interesting people, swimming in the pool, potluck food, and social games. The evening ended on a slightly sour note, in that someone accidently took Tigris's bag with her when they left early, taking her car keys, wallet, house keys, and street-safe clothing. Many messages were left with the early leavers, and then someone gave us a ride back home. From there, we broke into Tigris's house</font>, and then went to sleep, hoping that her stuff would turn up the next day.



The next Monday, Memorial Day, after working in the morning at "my" cafe (disturbed only a little by the sounds of the overflying military jets playing their part in the day's celebration), I walked down to Waikiki, and had lunch with Momo at Lulu's Restaurant. It was interesting to see how the city is knitting together in my head, from the time I've been here this trip, and memories of the last trip.

Tigris's stuff did turn up, and she was able to hitch a ride with her friend Mark Wood back to Amber's to get her car.

That evening, her neighbors invited us out to join their communal grill. The affordable neighborhoods here smell like a meat rosteria every evening, as people come out, and communially grill and socialize. I could follow snippets of the conversation around me, depending on how much Hawaiian and how much Pidgen that people were speaking.

Then later that evening, a bunch of people came over for a "Lafayette Morehouse 'Mark Group'" evening. This is something that I did last time, and enjoyed, even though it's a bit out of my standard comfort zone. Basically it's a set of communication exercise "games", teaching and exercising interpersonal communication skills. Most of the people there remembered me from last time, and some of the questions and interactions were about that, and about the time between, which was a bit draining. And then critique of my "interested question" engagement ability was pointed, but also useful. They are right, it's a skill I need to develop, to communicate and learn by asking interested questions, instead of just sitting back and silently listening.

Syndicated 2009-05-26 21:45:51 from Mark Atwood

26 May 2009 (updated 26 May 2009 at 02:11 UTC) »

Bonsi Banyan

It turns out that the what Tigris's neighbor does is grow bonsai banyan!

Cool.

There will be pictures.

Syndicated 2009-05-26 00:26:15 (Updated 2009-05-26 01:55:16) from Mark Atwood

Wanted, a fast gui lj client app for editing old entries

Wanted, a LiveJournal client that can easily load and display old entries, and allow me to edit them and change the read permissions for them. Must run on the Mac.

Loading the .NET or the Air framework is not an answer.

Is there any such thing?



Or am I going to have to hack something together in elisp?

Syndicated 2009-05-24 04:01:46 from Mark Atwood

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