All things happy

I hope everyone in the world is happy. I am happy. Let me show you why I am happy.
That's right weones y weonas... THE HAPPY LIST

If you are new to this blog or new to the concept of the Happy List, why let me explain: I was introduced to the happy list by a friend who was introduced by a friend who got it from his friend from his other friend and she got is from some guy named Adam. There is a little facebook group (one of the only reasons I check my facebook) that is the hub for all things happy. The description is simple:

All those who participate and want to share the healing properties of the happy list, a daily practice invlolving the recording of fifteen things that make you happy and shareing with freinds! Introduced to me by adam drummer the true creator of the happy list.

Here is an older post of my happy list. And with out further ado... here is my September edition.

1.) Singing 'Buenos Dias' with Mina (our cook/maid) during breakfast that welcomes the day
2.) Baking sweet apple pie 'squintchy' muffin tops at 11:30pm
3.) "Siempre me quedara, la voz suave del mar..."
4.) Hippie Cerros and pizza plans
5.) Belting Bob Dylan and screamin' them harmonies
6.) The feeling of walking on steamy tile after getting a much needed shower.
7.) Receiving back massages as an apology for telling sarcastic jokes in a foreign language
8.) Teaching precious Chilean teenage boys English
9.) Mountains, mountains, mountains
10.) Conducting an orchestra during dope presentations while drinking yerba tea
11.) That's the way it goes, traveling on
12.) Let's see the sea because ocean dog does what ocean dog wants
13.) Lemongrass warming tea
14.) Living here, not there or there, but here, now
15.) The following pictures...

Panda dance? 

share the road!!

super long syntax problems. 

just trying to write a poem with sancho poncho. 

 lots of lub,
rach

today does not belong to me

I have a tidal-wave of words that are stuck in my brain and tingling in my hand. I cannot write them fast enough. Thoughts about religion and people and moving and staying and leaving and arriving and being and disappearing and politics and right and wrong and left and right and write has been last on that list.

So what does one do when they are tongue-tied twisted? Well, we use the words of another. Or at least I do, this could be a cop out, call me a liar, call me a fake, but if it is with pure intent (see article below) what can go wrong, right?

I am feeling a little bit selfish. Before blogging was cool, this man had a blog. He inspired me to start my own blog (not this one) And as much as he inspired me, I am afraid he will inspire you too, and can two people have the same inspiration. Well, of course they can. But it's human emotion to think you lay claim to something, like taking over native land, or claiming this blog is 'mine' because it was written by a friend of mine's far distant cousin. I have never met this mysterious hIrSch and probably never will.

So here I am, sharing with you my personal writing inspiration, but the action is not pure of heart, it makes me feel better to do something hard, even if I don't want to. Can hIrSch relate?

friday, april 11th 2008

and it's not only the chain because there was a cup too and here's the story of the cup and i was drinking tea with these very kind men and they were all smoking and i was coughing and they had so many questions (and me with no answers) but the bulwark of the language barrier allowed none of them to be asked and that's how it goes and so i just sat there sipping the tea and then this man gets up and he goes into a nearby shop and comes out with the saddest insulated red mug you could ever imagine and he walks right up to me and gives it to me and i have no use for it and don't want it at all because it's just another thing and i hate all these things because life becomes full of things.

we just constantly go out and buy things and the only things i ever want to buy are items of food because this is the only thing i need because with duct tape and some needle and thread you can repair any thing you already have so you don't need more of them and so i just don't like things and curse each and every thing i have and have recently really begun contemplating just getting rid of all these disgusting things i have and just leaving it all behind and going and feeling that freedom of disengagement from things but i don't yet have the nerve so he comes right up to me with that red cup and hands it to me and as i just explained i don't want it and initially i try to kindly refuse it but then i realize, and i say to myself, hirsch, it's not about whether you (i.e. i) want or need this cup it's about the fact that this man wants to give it to you, it's something he wants to do and so just take the thing because by doing so you will make him happy and that is what it's all about.

so i took the cup and lashed it down with a bungee and he was so pleased and that man and that cup taught me something and i cycled off - but the story of the cup continues - because i cycled off and the fact that i didn't need or want this cup had not changed and a couple of clicks down the road i saw this sad little school boy standing on the side of the road perhaps waiting for a bus or perhaps meditating and i pulled over and kicked my kickstand and unlashed the cup being careful with the bungee because a man in norway told me more people go blind from getting whap-bap-schlapped in the eye with the end of a bungee than for any other reason and i walked up to that little boy hoping he was just waiting on a bus and not meditating because if he were meditating he might have been on the brink of samadhi and were i to interrupt that there would be no forgiveness for me (which there might not be any forgiveness for me anyway) and i held out that cup and as soon as i did and he realized what was happening and he saw how shiny and how round and how red that cup was and how that that cup was no longer mine but was now his well that sad little boy was happy and he smiled and he looked around a bit nervously (i, for some reason, make people nervous which is another (of many) contributing factor of my need to be alone) and i smiled and for some reason sort of bowed (because i think he had reached the level of samadhi) 

then i cycled away and then, post facto of course, i realized what i had done was "bad" or at least misrepresented because that kid doesn't fully understand (as you do) the source of that cup, he doesn't understand that i did not give him that cup out of the goodness of my heart but out of my non-need for it and how really i was doing myself a favor rather than doing one for him and so i began to feel awful about the cup because even though it made a sad boy happy the source of that happiness was not purely driven.

(all photos were STOLEN from hIrSch's blog) 

thoughts to think about, 

rach (and hIrSch)

i'll give it a shot

this is what happens when you don't get along with technology. i have tried, oh believe me, to become tech-savvy. but no cigar.
don't get me wrong, i like technology (for the most part) i do hate the fact that our printer will not print out my final papers that are due tomorrow morning, incurring an unnecessary trip to the library early in the morning. but there are some thing i really enjoy about the modern tech.

1. Blogging. Duh.
2. Pintrest. Too much fun
3. Instagram (for iPhones)

now, i am not smart enough to have an iPhone, nor do i have enough money. but if i did, i would take so many pictures all of the time.

but seeing as i have a LD/MR (is that insensitive?) phone, i decided that i needed to find my own way to 'instagram' my photos. i am not crazy about online photo editing and always feel like others over-do-it.

my goal was to find a way to alter my photographs in a natural way, one that would still showcase the natural beauty of the photo and ability of the photographer. so i was looking around theindieattic for things with texture, mainly to just take photos with and i stumbled upon my large collection of tights... yes, i have too many, now that's out there in the open, we can proceed and see what i came up with...

purple lace tights gives a sepia-like tone

i stretched tights of multiple shades and patterns over the lens of my camera , enough to play with the color but not mess with the focus. not bad iPhone, eh?

theindieattic through black lace tights

some more lace, a bit more abstract, why not?

purple haze, inside the attic

go get your imagination on

take a picture, call me lata, duh.
rach