Island Living

An island beach house 

somewhere in the Caribbean

Lagoon Living

My second choice of location to live after the beach would be a lagoon.A friend of mine lives on a lake in Nassau. Its a really great pad, 

so peaceful and private.

This old wooden cabin,

sure feels like home.

A happy man could grow 

old in a place 

like this.

Islands in the Stream

Just back from a travel mission to the ialnds. I will write it up on TravelAgentM.

This Blogging Century in The Theatre of the Absurd

I just noticed i have written a 100 blogs. No big deal considering the output of the blogsphere, but it gave me pause to re evaluate what i am doing. 

Today i spent some time uploading photos from I Photo to Picasa so i could display them as a link on this blog. In the process i got to know this AirMac a little better and create a bank for future image publishing. Thanks be then to all the techno-creatives who like Guttenberg made it happen for the man in the street.

Technology is boon for us all, and as little as i know about it, it has given me the oppotunity of exercising my writing hand in an outlet that for better or for worse is available to the public.

I have to admit i am enjoying it, even this cyber - hyper public process, albeit with a cloak of invisibility, which i know is not the purpose of a blog , but anonymity has does have its benefits. 

Up until now i have been hesitant to having the blog becoming riddled with live links. So many i have seen are cluttered and conjested with hyperlinks.Its akin to a director making too many cuts in a film scene, sometimes you just want to stay with one shot and linger, and not get distracted by any other angle. Ditto with information. 

In our hyper linked culture I am sure there is a direct correlation between the speed and number of edits in a modern day movie, to the rise of Attention Deficit Disorder. Sufferers of this concentration lack would be well advised to watch a little Andrei Tarkovsky, of even a Kubrik or 2 might prove cinematically restorative. 

Now I am i have to admit an information junky, you should see my Bookmarks List, it stretches light years. But i am reluctant to link you with it as i suspect you might have information over load already. With my travel blog i have been a little more linkable and therefore in the blogsphere probably more likable.I guess i will probably begin to hyperlink this blog more as i go on with it, provided i can make a directors zen cut of the final edit. 

I have also noticed that looking through this century of postings there is little commentary on world affairs or what reports to be da news. My Agent M header text sort of sums it up 

'A world gone slightly mad'. 

End of commentary.

I mean where would you begin? 

I would rather use my giga bytes in this environment at least, coming up with a minimal shot montage to exit stage left, with a smile on my face, without creating too many lifetime hyper - links in the process. And playing my cameo in The Theatre of the Absurd with humor.

,-) 

'All the world's a stage.' as Will once said.....

pic - An invisible audience applauding an invisible actor.

 

IF

Now, as i have just mentioned it in the last blog, I suppose i had better post Kipling's IF. I used to be able to recite this by heart when i was a boy, if my memory serves me correct. 

-IF-

If you can keep your head when all about you 

Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,

But make allowance for their doubting too;

If you can wait and not be tired of waiting,

Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,

Or, being hated, don't give way to hating,

And yet don't look to good or talk too wise.

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;

If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;

If you can meet with triumph and disaster

And treat those two imposters just the same;

If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken

Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,

Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,

And stoop and build'em up with wornout tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings

And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,

And lose, and start again at your beginnings

And never breath a word about your loss;

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew

To serve your turn long after they are gone

And so hold on when there is nothing in you

Except the Will which says to them:"Hold on";

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,

Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch;

If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;

If all men count with you, but none too much;

If you can fill the unforgiving minute

With sixty seconds' worth of distance run -

Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,

And - which is more - you'll be a Man my son!

Ruyard Kipling

Half & Half

Interesting poem i just came across. Sort of a guideline for mid life. The Half & Half Song was written by Li Mi a 16 century Chinese poet.It is translated by Lin Yutang, and included in The Importance of Living a book Yutang wrote in 1937, which i read some years ago and must re read, as it is a wonderful entertaining polemic on our 100% over stressed lifestyles. 

Reminiscent of Kiplings 'If' written for a young man's benefit, the Half & Half is a mid life code of conduct for presumably granting you a second half, wiser lived. With exception of the 3rd verse which i did a double take on , with his reference to dresses, servants & choice of wives. I suppose you have to read it in the historical context of 16 Century China but still, I do appreciate smart women, no matter what the year. It takes a bit of unraveling to get where he is coming from. It's not really about is the glass half full or half empty? but i couldn't resist the pic 

Ok here it is:

The Half & Half Song 

By far the greater half have i seen through

This floating life - Ah,there's a magic word -

This 'half' - so rich in implications.

It bids us taste the joy of more than we

Can ever own. Halfway in life is a man's

Best state, when slackened pace allows him ease

A wide world lies halfway 'twixt heaven and earth;

To live halfway between the town and land,

have farms halfway between the stream and hills;

be half-a-scholar, and half- a-squire, and half

In business;half as gentry live,

And have a house that's half genteel,half plain,

Half elegantly furnished and half bare;

Dresses and gowns that are half old, half new,

And food half epicure's,half simple fare;

Have servants not too clever,nor too dull:

A wife who's not too simple,nor too smart.

So then,at heart, i feel i'm half a Buddha

And almost half a Taoist fairy blest.

One half myself to Father Heaven i

Return; the other half to children leave -

Half thinking how for my posterity

To plan and provide, and yet half minding how

To answer God when the body's laid to rest.

He is most wisely drunk who is half drunk;

And flowers in half-bloom look their prettiest;

As boats at half-sail sail the steadiest,

And horses held at half-slack reins trot best.

Who half too much has, adds anxiety,

But half too little,adds possession's zest.

Since life's of sweet and bitter compounded,

Who tastes but half is wise and cleverest.

Li Mi