Where I've been...not much of anywhere.

Courtesy of Joe Napalm, here is a map of all the places I've been...in the world. Period.No joke. That's it. And the majority of those don't really count, since I was only in Texas for a duration of 2 weeks following my birth (which I don't remember), and a lot of the other states I've merely gone through to get somewhere else. Basically, the places to which I actually remember going include Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, Washington D.C. and Ontario, Canada.

I need to get out more.

Lord Byron says:

This is a poem a ran across today, and I liked it so much, I decided to include it. It has a lot of the same themes this blog deals with, so I figured it'd be right at home here. The past is no more. The future is not yet.

They say that Hope is happiness

Felix qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas.*

--Virgil

They say that Hope is happiness--
But genuine Love must prize the past;
And Mem'ry wakes the thoughts that bless:
They rose the first--they set the last.

And all that mem'ry loves the most
Was once our only hope to be:
And all that hope adored and lost
Hath melted into memory.

Alas! it is delusion all--
The future cheats us from afar:
Nor can we be what we recall,
Nor dare we think on what we are.

*"Happy is he who has been able to learn the cause of things."

--Lord Byron, 1829.

61st & 20.5th!

I figured it was about time to celebrate the uncelebrated.
This just happens to be the 61st post on this blog! I am quite pleased. It is not uncommon for bloggers to post a "YIPPEE!" for their 100th blog, or even their 50th blog (the latter being a former post of mine and the former being a latter post of mine, which I have yet to make). But why not the 61st? I mean, I don't think anyone has ever celebrated the 61st blog before! And of course, why would they? What's so special about blog-post 61? What reason could there possibly be for such spontaneous frivolity? Well, I have a reason:
It's my half-birthday!!! I am 20.5 today! And you can't tell me that's not a good enough reason to celebrate. I don't think we celebrate half-birthday's enough. I mean, I've made it, not just 20 years, but twenty-point-five!!! I'm gonna go find some cake and do some 20.5th birthday-partying. I guess I'll only eat half the cake, though.

Magnetic Poetry #4: Autumn

the season is out of color
like red blood feeling as blue as frost

leaves rain softly to the earth

I could never know all there is
but if morning must taste night
you are here by me

our love has life
we see only light
and give every day to Him
who makes Good live long

winter snow
summer sun
spring or no
fall will come

but let you and I always be more

than a flower after full bloom
dying too soon

Magnetic Poetry #3: Summer

summer has come with a wild wind
she says to me I give you my love
our eyes grow heavy from the dance they do
we taste a too ripe kiss and I ask her
why was it so hard to wait and make this live
that long want for the vine
Blooming

Magnetic Poetry #2: Spring

You taste a morning rain cloud
fermented by the spring sunshine,
fuller than red wine or a soft kiss.

It is hard for me to wait here,
but I must.

I wish this cracked window
could let my eyes see you
and make happy the dream too long in coming.

But we have thick blue air between
and no street to walk as night falls.

Almost soon,
love will be.

Shards of Light and Moon Rings

I was walking along, the sun high in the sky, and I squinted at the pieces of sunshine that resided on the sidewalk in front of me. Slivers of silver and shattered red seemed to have fallen from above and landed there, piercing my eyes with blinding white light. But they weren't drops of molten sun at all. They were shards of glass--a broken Christmas bobble, perhaps. There the pieces rested, reflecting the sunlight from below, leaving dancing green and purple spots on my eyes. The brightness they held was the kind you long to contain somehow--to put into your mind and keep it there for those dark days where white light is exactly the sort of thing you need to brighten your frown or evaporate your tears...or perhaps do the same for someone else. If light could heal wounds, those shards would have been medicinally perfect--an ideal perscription for any light-less day.
But light is not kept--it is simply experienced. And light is not only for day. The other night, I walked with friends along a darkened street, the woods around us stretching upwards to form a night-time tunnel of black branches silhouetted against the moonlit sky. But the moon was not alone in the sky. Nor were the stars. Encircling the moon was a ring of shadow-light, almost as if the clouds had learned how to keep brightness in one place, geometrically unblemished.

Overhead it looms;
Ring around the moon;
Brilliant faded circle rounds the light.

Off the silent creek
Flow reflected beams.

Living comes so soon;
Intangible yet Right,
Full and Real and Bright,
Eternal soul that gleams.

(There's some attempted poetry for you, if you like. Something simple and full of meaning for whoever would see it there or put it there.)

For a scientific explanation of moon rings (halos), go to http://home.hiwaay.net/~krcool/Astro/moon/moonring/

Magnetic Poetry #1: Winter

A while ago, one of my friends gave me a set of magnetic poetry. As a self-declared writer, I am one who loves playing with words. Well, magnetic poetry allows me such pleasure. So, from now on you may see one of these "magnetic poetry" posts every once and awhile, when I slap some magnets down and form spontaneous lines of verse with provided words. You may derive your own meaning.
Here's the first:

I live in a frosty blue dream of life.
I long for the music so soft and full.
Come wind or light to a winter night
And give me the taste that grows from want.

Fargas

What do you see here?
A picture of a few of those cold, metal folding chairs taken on Dec. 14, 2003. Now, it may just be coincidence, but you know how sometimes if you use these chairs to reach high places (for lack of a stool), they inadvertently fold in on you? Or perhaps, as you're folding them, you pinch yourself. Or what about when you stack them up against each other, and they fall down when you are certain you stacked them up perfectly well? Sometimes it seems as though there is some force of mischief that is working against you. And it's not just with metal folding-chairs either, as I'm sure you know.
This picture was actually taken from the archives of IRIS (Investigative Research of Invisible Species). This organization specializes in discovering, analyzing, and documenting the effects of "optically-elusive" creatures on the visible environment, most importantly concerning their influence on humans. It just so happens that in this picture, there is photographed one of the sneakiest, most conniving creatures unknown to man. Invisible to the naked eye, the creature is easily seen when viewed through X-ray:
What you see in this picture is known as a farga. Farga's are notorious for one thing and one thing only: chaos. You stack boxes in the garage and as soon as you turn around, they fall over. You organize the papers on your desk only to have a breeze fly in and disorganize. You're running and suddenly you trip over...nothing. Or is it nothing?
What you are experiencing when these or like- circumstances occur is the fargas themselves in action. Fargas feed off of chaos. They will deliberately cause whatever meyhem they can lay their big, luggish hands on. As you can see in these renderings (based on the x-ray), they are the epitome of mischief and havoc. Knocking over things, causing objects to fall, tampering with car engines, shorting electrical devices, and throwing-off human stability in any shape, form, or fashion is their niche. It is what they do. And they absolutely love computers. They have been known to be behind over 4,989,784,865 computer problems in the past year.
Why hasn't anyone done anything about them?, you ask. Why hasn't IRIS or other organizations of the same nature routed out and undermined the little chaos-maker devils? So far, the only thing found to work against them is ignoring them. If they don't receive recognition for their chaos, it decreases the food source, causing them occasionally to look for food elsewhere. As for further efforts--well, you try circumventing a farga and see if your life gets any easier! I tried, and in the past 3 hours I've had 4 spills, 9 objects fall over, my computer has crashed twice, and I tripped over my own nose. MY NOSE! How does someone trip over their nose?
One word: Farga.
Be on the lookout. They're everywhere.