Ms. Blogfish's Happy Dance

I don't know what she's so happy about, but you can see the joy oozing out of every pore in her body, or it would be if blobfishes had pores.

FOR THE WORLD IS HOLLOW AND I HAVE TOUCHED THE SKY - A Shabad

sRIrwgu mhlw 5 ]
nwmu iDAwey so suKI iqsu muKu aUjlu hoie ]
pUry gur qy pweIAY prgtu sBnI loie ]
swDsMgiq kY Gir vsY eyko scw soie ]1]
myry mn hir hir nwmu iDAwie ]
nwmu shweI sdw sMig AwgY ley Cfwie ]1] rhwau ]
dunIAw kIAw vifAweIAw kvnY Awvih kwim ]
mwieAw kw rMgu sBu iPkw jwqo ibnis indwin ]
jw kY ihrdY hir vsY so pUrw prDwnu ]2]
swDU kI hohu ryxukw Apxw Awpu iqAwig ]
aupwv isAwxp sgl Cif gur kI crxI lwgu ]
iqsih prwpiq rqnu hoie ijsu msqik hovY Bwgu ]3]
iqsY prwpiq BweIho ijsu dyvY pRBu Awip ]
siqgur kI syvw so kry ijsu ibnsY haumY qwpu ]
nwnk kau guru ByitAw ibnsy sgl sMqwp ]4]8]78]

sreeraag mehalaa 5 ||
naam dhhiaaeae so sukhee this mukh oojal hoe ||
poorae gur thae paaeeai paragatt sabhanee loe ||
saadhhasa(n)gath kai ghar vasai eaeko sachaa soe ||1||
maerae man har har naam dhhiaae ||
naam sehaaee sadhaa sa(n)g aagai leae shhaddaae ||1|| rehaao ||
dhuneeaa keeaa vaddiaaeeaa kavanai aavehi kaam ||
maaeiaa kaa ra(n)g sabh fikaa jaatho binas nidhaan ||
jaa kai hiradhai har vasai so pooraa paradhhaan ||2||
saadhhoo kee hohu raenukaa apanaa aap thiaag ||
oupaav siaanap sagal shhadd gur kee charanee laag ||
thisehi paraapath rathan hoe jis masathak hovai bhaag ||3||
thisai paraapath bhaaeeho jis dhaevai prabh aap ||
sathigur kee saevaa so karae jis binasai houmai thaap ||
naanak ko gur bhaettiaa binasae sagal sa(n)thaap ||4||8||78||


Siree Raag, Fifth Mehla:
One who meditates on the Naam is at peace; his face is radiant and bright.
Obtaining it from the Perfect Guru, he is honored all over the world.
In the Company of the Holy, the One True Lord comes to abide within the home of the self. ||1||
O my mind, meditate on the Name of the Lord, Har, Har.
The Naam is your Companion; it shall always be with you. It shall save you in the world hereafter. ||1||Pause||
What good is worldly greatness?
All the pleasures of Maya are tasteless and insipid. In the end, they shall all fade away.
Perfectly fulfilled and supremely acclaimed is the one, in whose heart the Lord abides. ||2||
Become the dust of the Saints; renounce your selfishness and conceit.
Give up all your schemes and your clever mental tricks, and fall at the Feet of the Guru.
He alone receives the Jewel, upon whose forehead such wondrous destiny is written. ||3||
O Siblings of Destiny, it is received only when God Himself bestows it.
People serve the True Guru only when the fever of egotism has been eradicated.
Nanak has met the Guru; all his sufferings have come to an end. ||4||8||78||

Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji p.44

Yes, I am a Trekkie, a nerd of the classical variety. Although not as knowledgeable as some – I'd have to look up France Nuyen's middle name – I am nonetheless a huge fan. More importantly, Star Trek has integrated itself into my life.

In the episode whose name shares this piece's title, a group of people are, unknown to them, living inside a spaceship hurling toward a paradisaical promised land. One man, now very old, once climbed a mountain, an act strictly forbidden, reached up and felt the edge of the spaceship. Telling about this, he falls dead, his act of disobedience costing him his life.

This might all be allegorical (much of Star Trek is), but I'm not sure if this has anything to do with this shabad or why I am writing this Whatever the case the background may be interesting to some. It is to me.

I have made this picture to illustrate one of the meanings of this shabad to me. There are many other meanings, of course. This is just one. I am no scholar and I am certain others get deeper meanings from this; this is what I see now. I am not writing a line-by-line analysis; I leave that to others.

Every time I read this shabad that line comes to my mind; for me it sums up one of the meanings it sometimes has for me. After all is said and done, the world of Maya is shallow and meaningless, hollow. How sad would it be if that were all there were!

As I see it, Siri Guru Granth Sahib ji and Sikhi, in general, and this shabad, in particular, show us the ultimate meaninglessness of Maya and the soaring delight, the peace and joy that await us when we are able to accept it.

From the hollowness of Maya, we are called upon to stop trying to find any lasting fulfillment within the fleeting confines of our mundane consciousness, to fall at the feet of the Guru and in doing so, to move beyond the ordinary, to touch the sky.

Part of the genius of Sikhi is that we are able to reach these heights while still living in the world of action, still doing the things people do everyday. This is where we are and what we do, all the time learning to overcome our fevered ego, learning to rest peacefully at the feet of Waheguru, experiencing the extraordinary in the ordinary, touching the sky while our own feet remain on the ground of the hollow world in which we live.

FOR THE WORLD IS HOLLOW AND I HAVE TOUCHED THE SKY - A Shabad

JIMI On A Bieber Hunt!

Be honest. Is Bieber really any more obnoxious than Bobby Sherman or Donny Osmand?

Seeing Stars From the Gutter

An AHA Moment

I AM I

Just a picture I made illustrating my approach to life.  And perhaps an explanation.

My Telephone Bill

A commentary on 21st century life or just my telephone bill put through various filters? Meaningful art or just a waste of time? What is art, anyway? What is its purpose? I must be really tired. I think I'll go to sleep now. BTW, I pixelated all the personal stuff before I did the transformations, although I suppose anyone from military intelligence could decode it, if they really wanted to waste their time.

I AM THE 99% WHO ARE YOU?

In Which I Out Stubborn A Cat

This might be a stupid story, but I am telling it by special request, so don't criticize, OK?

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"Never try to out stubborn a cat"  Lazarus Long in R. A. Heinlein, Time Enough For Love

I did not follow the above advice.  I out stubborned a cat.  I'll follow my friend Harry's advice and leave out all the extra stuff.

Kitty was sitting where I wanted to sit.  I stared at her until she jumped down.  

That's the story without any unnecessary words, just getting down to business. 

That's what happened.   Not very interesting, I think, but if you are satisfied, go do something else while I tell the story.
 
When I was a kid, we used to have a cat named "Kitty."  I did not name that cat, obviously.  I love cats, but Kitty and I had issues, and neither of us liked the other.  In fact, to my eternal shame, I had been quite rough with her and was forbidden to touch her.  

Kitty, sort of

I went to the family room where she had taken up permanent residence in my favorite chair.  She looked up at me with that superior smirk seen only on cats' faces.  She knew I was not supposed to touch her, I'm sure she did.  Stupid cat!

I am not one to give up so I just stood and stared at her.  She stated back for a while.  Then she laid down and tucked her head between her front legs.

I stared.

She quit pretending to sleep and sat up.

We both stared.

She decided it was time to take a bath, a common displacement activity of cats.

 
I stared.


 
She continued bathing.

By this time, a couple of other family members had come in and were watching our duel.

She finished her bath and lay down, making one of those low-pitched mrow sound that cats make.  

I stared.





 



"Give it up!"  I was ordered.

I stared.

Kitty abruptly stood up, hissed at me menacingly and

 
 















...And jumped down.

And stalked off as cats do.

 That is how I out stubborned a cat.  I was about 10 or 11, I think.  I have no idea how old Kitty was.

Illustrations:  All adapted from Public Domain. 

PHOTOSHOP CS 5.1 and the HIPPIES

I really was having trouble describing what I was doing, so I put it in this video.  The techniques really have nothing to do with hippies or Scott Mackenzie or even 1968, but the brushes fit well into that very strange era.

I was not a hippie.  My life at that time was filled with weightier matters and I was far too political to be a hippie.  Nonetheless, I really liked the hippies.  I didn't much like their drugs and the refusal of some of them to bathe, and their sexual antics frankly embarrassed me, but they seemed to be the embodiment of a kind of freedom that has always attracted me, a sort of benevolent anarchy overflowing with chardi kala.  (OK, I know the reality was not quite that pretty, but it was 44 years ago and time has blurred the edges, as time should.) 

And the music!  I may have turned away from the sex and drugs (at least in the literal sense), but the rock 'n' roll was irresistible.  Even today, decades later, the music remains.  

RADICAL FREE SPEECH

Radical free speech

WHAT did she say?

I believe in the concept of radical free speech. 

I am in favour of minimal control,  only disallowing overt threats to life and limb and certain types of slander, with truth being an absolute defence against charges of slander.  I am opposed to any curb on people expressing themselves on issues, however obnoxious I consider their opinions. Yes, I would allow hate speech, as long as it did not contain threats to life and limb. I have a strong belief in radical free speech that is not shared even by my Canadian compatriots. I do not believe that suppressing ideas stops them; it only makes them invisible, underground, hard to spot and even more dangerous.

This non-control pertains only to governmental control. Individual sites and groups have the right to set their own TOS (Terms of Service). For example FB has the right to ban porn and hate speech if they choose. I will continue - as an individual - to report sites I find hateful to the FB administration, but I will not report them to any government. This dovetails with the law (USA), which mandates the government not to infringe on free speech, but I am still free to control what is said in my home. A religious house is free to kick out a proselytizer from another religion. An atheist group has the right to ban proreligion speech within their own group.; they are not free to silence me in the public arena.  Voltaire summed up my stand perfectly:

"Je ne suis pas d'accord avec ce que vous dites, mais je me battrai jusqu'à la mort pour que vous ayez le droit de le dire."

[I do not agree with what you are saying, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."]

-- 
[Note: I had earlier listed child pornography in the exceptions because, while I completely 100% believe it should be outlawed, it is a different issue, not speech.]

THE CREATION CONTINUED

Please shield this post from the snoopy eyes of all Christian fundamentalists.  I don't carry to have the Rev. Huzzit issuing fatwas against me.
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THE EIGHTH DAY

"On the eighth day, Yahweh fully rested, resumed creating. He created the PC and the MacIntosh and the Internet and Photoshop and Facebook and a host of other cybercreations, and, lo, He saw that it was very good. And it was evening and it was morning, the eighth day." 

Chapter 9
THE INTERNET
http://ops.fhwa.dot.gov/publications/telecomm_handbook/chapter9.htm

 

Signs