Hello, Hello, Welcome, Welcome.
This is the non-graphical (well, usually...) half of my site. Here is where I post ramblings, essays, news, thoughts, ideas, experiences-- whatever's been runnin' through my head lately. Hope you enjoy it and don't be afraid to comment with your own thoughts!
What are your favorite colors?
I like black and blue, but I'm one of those accident-prone types...go figure.
For the sake of readabilty, the site is now available in different colors, or lack thereof.
Click here for black on white.
Click here for white on grey.
Or here for my favorite: blue on black.
You like pictures better? Here's a link back to Blink!.
Special Limited Edition Offer - Expires Yesterday: free popcorn with the photos!
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October 20, 2006
I
I have exceptional bread slicing skills. I untangle strings and wires with more ease when I look somewhere else and listen. The feelings of those around me pass through my body as though they were mine, insecurities and joys alike. I have conversations with myself, mostly nugatory (that means insignificant) debates and play-outs of words never spoken. The characters I know in life play the parts I cast in my head. The sound of music does wonders for my well-being. There is a soundtrack for every day, a color for every song. I am perpetually hungry. The smell of basil is just as good when it's dry. A bowl of cereal in the morning is my only religion. Some may learn from others mistakes. I used to feel like I was one of the others. A worldly man named Erich Fromm said "Love is the only sane and satisfactory answer to the problem of human existence." I don't consider my existence a problem, but when I wonder about the meaning of life, love is supremely natural in a way nothing else compares to. Funny he said "sane" though, haha. Dance is important to me, choreography is not for me. I have no enemies (I killed them all already). I like to joke about the silly and the not so silly. Some of my favorite jokes to tell are the groaners. I like when someone can put my mind in a new place all of the sudden, even if it doesn't make a lick of sense. I like when the nonsense in my head falls into words one by one like the rolling of the bingo machine. N42. I want to know you.
Posted by Tom Bodhi at 05:20 PM | Comments (0)
September 19, 2006
You Might Think I'm Crazy
So I just took a bunch of photos in my room with the most ridiculously homemade lighting set-up you've ever seen. Over time, I've also been sorting through a large collection of music (I'm at 6662 tracks, ooh... watchu got?) giving them each a rating as they go by. Well, that's the idea anyway. As I'm doing whatever it is --taking photos in this instance, --these periods of time go by where my senses shift their energy into particular areas like those dynamic all-wheel brake systems in cars these days, except it's dynamic all-sense. My mind dives head first into the clean free-fall that is turning an idea into an action of reality-- at least that's a really fun way to put it. So then a song comes on like "You Might Think" by The Cars that triggers something in the humor lobe of my brain (or would it be the crazy lobe?). I smiled, looked around, and with the press of a button gave it three stars out of five (it's good, but not that good). Then realized how long I'd been out. Fifteen songs went by that I paid not even a conscious flicker of interest towards. I still went back and ended up giving them some very endearing ratings, which makes me believe the music I enjoy the most is the kind that flows through my toes, not into my head. Although, I believe there's a time and a place for anything musical... here and now is best.
Posted by Tom Bodhi at 11:44 PM | Comments (0)
November 29, 2005
The Invitation
Here is one of the most beautiful pieces of writing I've laid eyes on.
It was written by Oriah Mountain Dreamer in her book The Invitation:
It doesn’t interest me what you do for a living.
I want to know what you ache for
and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart’s longing.
It doesn’t interest me how old you are.
I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool
for love, for your dream, for the adventure of being alive.
It doesn’t interest me what planets are squaring your moon...
I want to know if you have touched the centre of your own sorrow
if you have been opened by life’s betrayals
or have become shrivelled and closed from fear of further pain.
I want to know if you can sit with pain, mine or your own,
without moving to hide it or fade it or fix it.
I want to know if you can be with joy, mine or your own,
if you can dance with wildness and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your fingers and toes
without cautioning us to be careful, be realistic, remember the limitations of being human.
It doesn’t interest me if the story you are telling me is true.
I want to know if you can disappoint another to be true to yourself.
If you can bear the accusation of betrayal and not betray your own soul.
If you can be faithless and therefore trustworthy.
I want to know if you can see beauty even when it is not pretty every day.
And if you can source your own life from its presence.
I want to know if you can live with failure, yours and mine,
and still stand at the edge of the lake and shout to the silver of the full moon,
“Yes.”
It doesn’t interest me to know where you live or how much money you have.
I want to know if you can get up after the night of grief and despair,
weary and bruised to the bone, and do what needs to be done to feed the children.
It doesn’t interest me who you know or how you came to be here.
I want to know if you will stand in the centre of the fire with me and not shrink back.
It doesn’t interest me where or what or with whom you have studied.
I want to know what sustains you from the inside when all else falls away.
I want to know if you can be alone with yourself
and if you truly like the company you keep in the empty moments.
Posted by Tom Bodhi at 05:22 PM | Comments (1)
November 21, 2005
The Warm Side
So everybody's gotta deal with some shit sometimes... Things might not always appear like they're going so good, but if you look deep enough through the fog you can see truths in hiding. I get pissed off at my car's heater fan because if I turn it up, it screams at me like a dying banshee. It tears my ears off to hear, but it's the warmest car in town. This automobile needs $2500 of work done in order to get it into decent shape according to the mechanic. According to me it runs smooth, starts every time, the seats are comfortable, there's a futon in the back for nice camping, and it's a Volvo--the very car I hated so much growing up in Waldorf school. I love it.
Last week I got a paycheck for the first time in over a year. It felt good, but extremely small for what I thought was a three-week period. I was worried for a bit that I was living to work, instead of working to live. Turns out the paycheck was only for two weeks. Silly me, I'm going grocery shopping.
I like to stay optimistic, even though I have a habit of accepting the bad news before checking its sources. That's the problem with being an easy-going person, but being one means that there are no problems... ahhhh.
Posted by Tom Bodhi at 12:31 AM | Comments (2)
November 15, 2005
ExxonMobil
"Gas prices are off the charts and this could be the most expensive winter for home heating to date. While we're feeling the pinch of a full blown energy crisis, ExxonMobil is reporting the largest quarterly profits, $9.9 billion, of any American corporation in history. The only answer to the current crisis is investing in a clean energy future and ExxonMobil is the biggest and most powerful obstacle in our way. They spend their record profits fighting virtually all meaningful efforts towards ending our dependence on oil and bankrolling top Republicans to ensure that meaningful progress towards energy independence will always be killed in Congress."
Doesn't that just make you sick? Not that I care about cheap gas all that much, but to make the most money of any US corporation this quarter and then use it to actually fight efforts to prevent global warming... I mean, what the fuck?
Will you help me expose their dirty deeds by signing this petition?
http://political.moveon.org/exxon
Posted by Tom Bodhi at 08:47 AM | Comments (0)
October 31, 2005
Ring of Fire
After five months in jail and almost six months of house arrest for getting caught lying, Martha Stewart has this to say:
"I have learned that I really cannot be destroyed."
Oh shit. Um, and on an unrelated matter, for the first time in over a year, I'm a workin' man again. On the Eve of the Eve of Halloween Eve, I got an interview and was hired on-the-spot at the best Thai restaurant in Eugene! Then I got all dressed up and went out dancing with the girlfriend of Sasquatch, a waterfall, two ninjas, a penguin, and Stewart from MadTV.
So my first day, they offered me a double shift. Who was I to say no? :) After 12 hours of bussing tables and a 45-minute lunch break for some of the best food I've had in months, I was ready to collapse. Tired but happy-- I work with great people in a well-run company and bring people delicious food and get to water down their steaming heads after they order a dish with a "FireEater" rating. Wish me luck!
Got the night off so that I can give sugar to all the wild things that will undoubtedly come banging down the door tonight, and I'm off to buy big bags of the stuff right now. Happy Halloween, and go easy on the milk duds, they're terrible.
Posted by Tom Bodhi at 07:16 PM | Comments (0)
October 11, 2005
Footprints
I am settling into the next footprint of my life as the cute little kids play in the park outside the window of our (also cute) house on Lawrence Street in Eugene. Having your own house is kinda like having your own project. Renting your own house is kinda like having your own project-- except it's all gotta be torn down and handed back in the end. At least it's not like having a project at Burning Man, where it's all going up in flames after a week. Hah. Wait, that's not funny. Anyway, I love our house and I'm so stoked to be in this awesome town. I can't wait to go cruising on my bike with the camera, wandering aimlessly along the river, up through the forest, and back along the quiet leaf-filled streets-- seeing the beauty of it all. Keep a lookout for the first photo on Blink that was taken by a true Eugene resident. Whoohoo that's me! :) Peace, all.
Posted by Tom Bodhi at 04:48 PM | Comments (1)