You guys already know about the ridiculous baggage fees airlines charge since oil-crisis in mid summer 2008. Airlines were losing tons of money from high oil prices and not enough consumer taking flights due to economic meltdown. I don’t blame them. They need us to fly so to make money, we’re the customers and consumers – there’s no other way airlines can make money.

When the baggage fees were first introduced in summer 2008, I thought it was a ridiculous idea. I was thinking “we’re not flying because it costs too much, and now you’re charging us more for our bags?” Southwest were clever by advertising “WE DON’T CHARGE YOU MORE” phrase and probably earned more profit (and stole tons of customers) last year.

Since I was a working for as a consultant, I didn’t have to worry about my airline tickets nor the baggage fee. But I did notice a long line in Southwest Booth but only handful people in the United or Delta every time I was at the airports. I thought it was so stupid of these airlines to charge for bags when they should be LOWERING prices to fight against Southwest. Well, I guess I was being little immature. These airline companies were actually able to generate large volume of revenues from extra baggage fees and in-flight beverage services (seriously! why do people keep paying for these?). I guess only the rich people flew with United, Delta or other airlines, because I certainly wouldn’t want to pay for those ridiculous fees when I know I can get those for free with Southwest!

It has been almost a year and oil price had calm down little bit. These big time airline companies aren’t losing tons of money nor firing their employees off. However, I believe they’re still struggling big time with smaller and clever airlines (JetBlue, SW, AirTran) eating up some market shares. The market isn’t an emerging market and you can only fight for so many customers. It’s a hard business market. I understand.

I was eating my breakfast from my hotel in San Diego one day and I read an article about airline passengers fighting for overhead bins for their carry-on luggage. The article goes on and say people are literally fighting for those spaces (by rushing into aircraft and pushing people around to secure overhead bins). As I was reading this, I thought about the flight I took to get to San Diego few days earlier. I flew from Washington DC to San Diego with a stop at Chicago. Both flights were 95% full – most people had at least one luggage and an extra bag. Some ladies had a purse as their 3rd carry-on, which isn’t allowed but they got by. It was an ugly scene. The flight attendances warned us that since we have full capacity and most of us having luggage, they encouraged us to hold onto our bags and purses. And yes, it was very crammed flight. Many people had their backpacks and other belongings on their laps for entire travel. People who were on board at the last minute even had to put his/her luggage at the end of aircraft where flight crew were sitting.

When I landed in San Diego and told my colleagues about the situation, they agreed that they too had similar problems coming in. The airline companies charging extra fee for luggage has made this into a total chaos and people are fighting for overhead bins and crowding the in-flight capacity. And you know what’s more funny? Airlines are thinking about charging more for fat people! They claim that you’re heavy thus need to pay more. How ridiculous!

I would also like to add that coach seats are no longer fit for big people. I remember reading article that these coach seats were set back in 1950s when people weren’t as big as today. Today, we have guys who are 6″2 and 210 lbs sitting in the middle. Forget the leg room, you almost have to hide your shoulders just to sit – doctors tell that this is very bad for your bone structure. However, the airlines refuse to change the lengths of seats – leaving only Asian women to enjoy coach seats. I’m not that big dude, but coach seat is small for me too. It’s time for airlines to adapt new coach seating. Make it bigger for us, please.

I often see airline advertisements on TV – how actors/actress look so comfortable, enjoying, flight attendance providing good services with smile. ALL FAKE! The reality is a very crammed seat, no leg room, crowded overhead bins, no services provided – oh wait, but we’ll sell Coke for $2. And they wonder why people don’t fly more often.

I can’t help myself but wonder what these airline executives are discussing during the so called “strategic business meeting”. The obvious reason we don’t fly more often is because you guys charge a ridiculous price for airline tickets, don’t provide any services, and now we have to pay more for other ridiculous fees. It just doesn’t make sense for us to fly. We’ll rather drive our car and save $250. Sure, it’ll take us more hours to get to our destination, but at least we can take stops to rest, take our foods, nice roomy car, and no bullshit from flight attendances.

Attention airline executives – when you meet in January for 2010 business strategy, consider us too. If you guys keep bullying us this way, we’ll eventually forget about you too. And without us, you aren’t living too long. Remember that.

I am often surprised by the difference a short amount of time can make.

Five more minutes of sleep can change the pace of the morning.

A two-second delay at a traffic light can throw off the rest of the commute.

Leaving a bagel in the toaster for a moment longer than usual can make it just too dark to eat.

Such little time…but such a difference!  I noticed a big difference in my day thanks to 30 minutes.  Typically, Mondays and Wednesdays are the hardest days of my week.  I start at nine am and I go until three pm, with just a 20 minute break in there around lunchtime.  Sure, it’s not a full eight hours, but…I start my day walking up three flights of stairs…the day continues with me sitting in a lecture hall…and then, sitting sideways, awkwardly, in a 90 minute class…not enjoyable.  That’s where the 20 minute break pops in.  But, during those 20 minutes, I have to: walk back to the dorm, switch out books, find something to eat, shove it in my mouth, go to the bathroom, feed my fish, walk to the next class.  You’d be surprised how quickly those 20 minutes will fly by.  And then, it’s on to an hour of math in a Russian accent and then an hour of ethical debates.  Fun stuff.

But, today went just a little bit differently.  Instead of that awkward, sideways sitting 90 minute class…we had a test in there today.  We talked for about fifteen minutes, then we took the test.  I was out of there around noon…which meant that I had thirty extra minutes to take care of “things.”  I had a decent lunch!  I got to do some leisure reading.  I chatted with one of my suite mates.

And, as I was just thinking about my day, I wondered to myself: “Why do I always hate on Mondays and Wednesdays?  They’re not so bad.”  Actually, they are.  But today was a great day…thanks to those thirty extra minutes.

Now if only we could have a test twice a week…nah.  Emmie

This morning I woke up and took my girlfriend to go to her English class on An Duong Vuong Street District 5 in Saigon. From there, I went straight to my student’s home to teach. When I just took off my shoes and greeted Lan’s husband Huong, he smiled with me and asked me ” isn’t it Thursday today?” Oh, Gosh. Yeah, it is. It’s Thursday and I don’t have any class with Lan today. I thought it was Friday. That’s bad after I spent about an hour riding on the motorbike just to know that how absent-minded I am.

I’ve work as a English tutor with that student for about nine months now. She and her husband and their two children are in the process of getting their Immigration Documents to go  live in Texas. She said she has relatives in L.A. and Texas or something and she would like to go there to meet them more often and want their children to have better education and future.

Her husband doesn’t seem like to go live there at all. He’s a music teacher and he can earn a lot of money – of course to most people in Vietnam or even in Saigon. Saigon is the most expensive city in Vietnam. He can earn two thousand dollars  even in Vietnam and would prefer to stay in Saigon after his wife and children would come there  and support them 1,500USD a month and live on the remaining 500 bucks. He doesn’t want to start it over.

It’s a nice teaching experience with Lan. Not because her English is good, but it’s just because she had no ideas about English before I started to work with her. In Vietnam, it’s better for you to teach a foreign language to the ones knowing nothing about it rather than those who know SOME thing about it. Usually, they’re crammed with the wrong useless and misleading knowledge about the language. Usually doesn’t mean all. I know there’re other teachers or language centers do a good job.

The students new to the language are often taught grammar and other nonsense stuffs even before they open their mouths to generate a real sentence. There’re so many grammar points taught and a great number of exercises assigned but little or none of the listening and speaking skill applied to produce the language. I’ve made some surveys myself about that just to see that high school graduates after seven years studying English can’t make it to the third sentence by an American. Yes, they’ve studied English for SEVEN years and can speak none.

Luckily, Lan doesn’t have anything like that. She’s been shown how to say a word, a phrase and sentence in English and listen to how they sound before she could have any ideas about grammar. She said that her daughter, a senior high school girl, sometimes shows her some but she couldn’t understand nothing about it. It’s so complicated to her and she didn’t have clear enough explanations. I replied to her that it’s better not to know them before you begin to speak and listen in English. She’ll learn some grammar some day but not now, before she can generate the language and hear how it’s spoken in reality.

Start with reproduce the language first, not to analyze it.

Cibelle é uma cantora paulistana radicada em Londres desde a década de 90. Lançada lá fora sob o mesmo selo de Bebel Gilberto, à primeira audição pode até parecer mais uma da turma do sussurro, mas, de cara, já é possível perceber um senso de aventura e experimentalismo que não se encontra em Bebel, nem em qualquer outra cantora brasileira da mesma geração.

A nítida influência da bossa-nova, em especial do maestro Tom Jobim, as colagens que lembram o tropicalismo de Caetano e a batida eletrônica da lounge music fazem do trabalho de Cibelle algo único na música moderna.

No youtube encontrei uma música que ela canta com o Devendra Banhart, chama-se “London, London” que por sinal ficou muito boa.

Segue o Link para download do álbum “The Shine of Dried Electric Leaves”

A reminder that before you rush into reading this that you take a nice, deep, gorgeous breath so you can take it all in… (no cheating now …..There! Doesn’t that feel “bettah”? Get ready to be inspired. You will feel lighter after reading this, promise!

I have one of the most fantastic neighbors in the world! Victoria is a very kind, funny soul whois always there when you need her and knows when to give space too. She is one of my biggest ButterflyMoms fans. Even though she lives next door and we have this amazing bond, I have not seen her in what could be weeks! Two days ago I sent her an email. It read, “Just so you know. I really, really love and miss you! I think about you all the time. Just not enough hours in the day for all that I’m trying to cram in so I’m uncluttering my time.”

When I read it back it shocked me. The words “crammed” and “uncluttering my time” hit me. What kind of life am I living here? What example am I giving my children? Here I was thinking I have a grip on my life’s flow and BOOM, sudden awareness of how I am not aligned with my desired life.

Moments like this are what life is all about if you want to live a happy one! Just like in meditation the goal is to focus on finding your goal(in this case wanting a happy, meaningful life) and then letting go. When your mind starts to wander GENTLY (Do not judge your behavior) bring it back. “Life” is the same way. When your life starts to wander GENTLY bring it back. Tomorrow I will write more about this topic because it is incredibly important!

In the meantime take wonderful care of yourself! Your children are learning how to treat themselves by WATCHING how you treat yourself!

Right now, take a deep cleansing breath. Start connecting yourself to the “now”. Nothing to buy, make, fix, borrow, shift…just being here and noticing what is around you. From the moment we wake up each day our brain replays the same questions over and over again. Many times these are the questions that we have picked up from family, society, and the Land of Should. It is in these “unserving” questions where many of us get “stuck”, much like a broken record. By noticing this and changing the questions you move your life into a collection of “nows” that when joined together create the life you always dreamed about but never thought you’d have (unless you won the lottery .

So today dust off your dreams. Get excited about living again! This is the EARTH SCHOOL! Your goal is to feel good, have fun, and learn. Imagine that! No, really imagine it! All it takes is being in the “now”. Want me to share something I’ve been doing that has really helped?

Over the past few days when I get up and put my feet on the floor I think of the ONE thing I want to accomplish that day. That’s right! I said “one”, not 10! I must admit that being a mom of four and business owner, only “one” was hard to come up with and actually it took me a couple of days to be able to do it. Picking only one is part of the exercise. It’s about trusting and not living a crammed life. We are always so “busy”. There is a quote out there that we are all rushing towards our graves. What is the big hurry? Where are we rushing to? It is in the non-rushing that we find joy. That is when you get to savor people, lives, food, books, children, gifts, moments.

At the end of the day I sit in the same position after I’m done reading and before I’m about to go to sleep. I think of the one thing in my day that I did that I’m most happy  about. It might have nothing to do with what I set out to do. This also helps because many of us go to sleep thinking about everything that went wrong in our day. When this happens all our negative thoughts “simmer” all night long in our brains and we wake up not-so-happy. By going to sleep with a happy feeling in our hearts and brains we re-align with the kind of life that gives us meaning and purpose and joy! After 10 days you will see a major happy shift. Beware though because if you collect enough of those shifts,  you are going to align yourself to a happy, meaningful life by default and before you know it will spread to your kids, friends, family and even total strangers! Joy is very contagious! You have been warned!

Originalmente conhecido como L’orchestre folklorique T.P. Konono N°1 de Mingiedi (T.P. significa “tout puissant”), o Konono N°1 foi fundado em 1965 por Mawangu Mingiedi, um virtuoso do likembé (conhecido no Brasil como “kalimba” ou ainda “mbira”) e ex-caminhoneiro. Basicamente o som do grupo articula influências musicais do Congo e de Angola (principalmente da música da etnia Bazombo, situada na fronteira entre os dois países) com a criação de instrumentos a partir de material retirado do ferro velho e a microfonação tão rudimentar quanto criativa das kalimbas, resultando em uma sonoridade dançante e peculiar. A primeira gravação do grupo foi realizada em 1978: a faixa “Mungua-Muanga” foi registrada para a compilação Zaire: Musiques Urbaines a Kinshasa. Anos mais tarde, mais precisamente em 2004, o grupo assinou com o selo belga Crammed e lançou o álbum Congotronics, alcançando êxito de púbico e crítica e constando das listas dos melhores daquele ano. (BO)

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Se existe algum caso onde a problemática local/global alcança sua expressão máxima, isto ocorre com o trabalho do Konono N°1. De um ponto de vista pragmático, alguns artistas e álbuns podem variar entre representar os sintomas de uma época ou a mais contundente extemporaneidade. Tanto num caso como no outro, podemos identificar a “vanguarda”, a “inovação”, aquele elemento que faz com que cogitemos a possibilidade de que algo mais venha a acontecer para além do que já é conhecido e assimilado. Entre um e outro porém, ocorre uma terceira modalidade perspectiva: quando o artista exprime não uma corrente, não uma sonoridade, mas define um contexto, um marco que tomará definitivamente as práticas e valores de toda uma época. Me refiro a capacidade de articular inovações técnicas e procedimentos artísticos em um todo a partir do qual as futuras gerações poderão criar outras linguagens etc. O exemplo mais corriqueiro é o do dub jamaicano, que concerne à criação e proliferação de técnicas de gravação e reprodução que se espraiaram pelas mais diversas searas da música mundial. Ou ainda o jazz, isto é, o modo específico com o qual os negros americanos se apropriaram dos instrumentos das fanfarras militares conferindo-lhes outra utilidade. Haveria então um ingrediente de superação nestes caso, pois os artistas em questão não exprimiram contextos nem o superaram, se não que eles sobrevoaram as condições técnicas e artísticas alterando a percepção musical da região e, no caso do dub e do jazz, do mundo. Nem local, nem global, portanto, mas uma tensão entre aspectos locais e globais.

É evidente que este é o caso do Konono N°1, embora o alcance de sua pequena revolução se reduza a Kinshasa, onde proliferam bandas semelhantes. Desenvolvendo um sistema de amplificação para as kalimbas e microfones feito com peças de carro, e articulando a sonoridade peculiar que daí resulta às percussões em pele e aço, o Konono N°1 criou uma das sonoridades mais espantosamente criativas e enérgicas da década. Para alguns críticos e mesmo no site do selo Crammed podemos ler que se trata de uma sonoridade “electro-tradicional”, ou ainda uma espécie de “trance music”… É claro que por razões comerciais e jornalísticas, as pessoas tendem a identificar o desconhecido a partir do que é conhecido, e geralmente o fazem alocando o desconhecido ou no curral do “primitivo-tradicional” ou na benevolência eurocêntrica que se flagra surpresa e quase pergunta “como eles puderam?…” Mas a questão é que, a despeito das sonoridades elétricas que caracterizam o Konono N°1, eles nada tem a ver nem com Jimi Hendrix, nem com o Can, nem com trance, nem com “música eletrônica”, muito menos com a preconceituosa alcunha “proto-techno”… Sua sonoridade é irredutível a estas manifestações européias e representa uma realidade cultural da qual nada conhecemos, sobre a qual nada podemos falar – a menos que tenhamos alguém por aí especializado na etnia bazombo… Como eu não quero aqui vender o grupo, arrisco uma primeira opinião sobre a peculiaridade de seu som: trata-se de uma expressão musical que, tal como o Kasai All-Stars, condensa uma série de contribuições musicais advindas de etnias próximas àquele contexto. Se o resultado se assemelha ao trance, pouco importa, na medida em que este álbum traz uma sonoridade particular e mil vezes mais interessante que qualquer trabalho trance… E mesmo levando em consideração a alusão ao transe, me parece mais uma vez que as coisas desandaram: não se trata de uma música para o transe, mas para a dança. Tanto é que o grupo incorpora as dançarinas nas apresentações ao vivo… Enfim, repito: ao contrário do que foi amplamente alardeado pela imprensa, o Konono N°1 é um grupo irredutível às expressões musicais americanas e européias. Trata-se de outra coisa. E, mais grave: dentro desta outra “coisa” eles também representam algo além.

Deixando de lado o enfoque exagerado na criatividade técnica desses músicos, tratemos da matéria sonora. Certa impessoalidade no resultado final advém da forma de captação, in loco, e a forma de disposição do álbum. O que a matéria fonográfica não permite entrever, a matéria musical integra: trata-se de um álbum coeso, graças a algumas características que não sei se podem ser atribuídas ao gênio desses músicos ou se a cultura que integram. O ritmo, por vezes semelhantes a um afoxé (em “Kule Kule”), em outras faixas como um kuduro acústico (“Lufuala Ndonga” e “Mama Liza”); o timbre dos instrumentos de percussão de ferro e das três kalimbas precariamente eletrificadas, emitindo uma energia ao mesmo tempo rascante e suave; algumas chamadas musicais de kalimba ou percussão que iniciam e terminam as faixas, que provavelmente funcionam como marcas para fins de orientação dos músicos; a forma de dispor os versos, que obedecem aos critérios de pergunta (cantor) e resposta (coro), característicos de muitas manifestações musicais africanas; a prosódia desses versos, que num certo sentido recortam o ritmo e resultam em um suingue que se poderia chamar “matador”; e uma certa afeição a repetições melódicas, que talvez tenha estimulado nos críticos a comparação com o trance e com a música eletrônica em geral. Com esses elementos, podemos afirmar com segurança que o Konono N°1 extrai uma sonoridade única, comparável somente a outras sonoridades contíguas, muitas delas apresentadas na série Congotronics II. Talvez por isso, por esta ausência total de familiaridade com a tradição local, aliada ao talento e a energia do grupo, que o Konono N°1 me fascina e, ao que parece, todo o resto do mundo.

Nem sintoma, nem vanguarda, o Konono N°1 é mais que isso: é expressão singular que define um campo de ação para os habitantes do Congo e de Angola. Como o dub e o jazz, o grupo expandiu as possibilidades de uma expressão sonora que possivelmente permaneceria atrelada aos rótulos etnocêntricos de admiradores e detratores. Tal como Coxsone Dodd e Lee Perry, que com suas experimentações inusitadas criaram um campo de ação técnico e estético, Mawangu Mingiedi e sua turma também propiciam aos jovens de todo mundo um exemplo fundamental: de que a criação do novo emerge da experimentação contínua e obstinada, por vezes em meio à precariedade, mas sempre antenada com todos os elementos que constituem a perspectiva do criador. (Bernardo Oliveira)

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Querendo ou não, Congotronics é um marco para essa década. Primeiro porque foi o disco que proporcionou uma redescoberta da música africana por parte do ocidente e, segundo, porque lançou tendências estéticas tanto na seara pop, quanto na experimental. E há motivos para tal coqueluche: os instrumentos que tecem as melodias e, em certa medida, os ritmos do Konono N° 1, são os quissanges (também chamados de kalimbas e likembés), tipos de idiofones, feitos de lamelas metálicas e tocados com os polegares. Esses instrumentos, até então exóticos para ouvidos ocidentais, causaram grande impressão ao soarem extremamente modernos, com timbres quase eletrônicos, embora sejam artefatos ancestrais do Zimbabwe e já empregados em estúdio por grupos britânicos como King Crimson e Penguin Cafe Orchestra. Logo em seguida a Congotronics, o quissange passou a ser utilizado de forma exaustiva na música pop e, muitas vezes, inapropriadamente, como se seu uso fosse sinônimo de que determinados artistas ou produtores estivessem apenas sintonizados com o decurso da música contemporânea, e pouco interessados nas inúmeras possibilidades de manipulação e aplicação que qualquer instrumento possa oferecer.

Entretanto, o lançamento de Congotronics pelo selo belga, Crammed, gerou mais prós que contras, a exemplo do turbilhão de coletâneas e selos que começaram a surgir em todos os cantos da Europa a partir da segunda metade da década, lançando, relançando e apresentando gêneros e artistas novos, velhos, esquecidos e fascinantes de toda a extensão do continente africano.  E se um único álbum ensejou tudo isso, este não poderia ser menos maravilhoso: após cinco anos, o primeiro volume da Congotronics permanece um dos momentos mais altos da produção fonográfica dos anos 00. Tudo no trabalho do Konono é assombroso: desde os instrumentos utilizados, que incluem três quissanges elétricos, megafones, microfones caseiros e percussão feita de peças de carro, até a dinâmica dos próprios instrumentos e das vozes, que se revezam e se sobrepõem com muita agilidade, num embalo contagiante. As pequenas sutilezas nos tons de baixo e a variedade incrível de timbres oferecidos pela percussão são impressionantes se tratando de um grupo que utiliza instrumentos rudimentares e improvisados. Numa década que ficou marcada pela inserção de novas ferramentas digitais de composição e edição na música, quem causou uma das grandes transformações estéticas foi o Konono, com seus instrumentos caseiros e milenares. (Thiago Filardi)

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O que dizer da descoberta de Konono Nº1, há quase cinco anos atrás? (Sim, porque fui correr atrás do grupo depois de vê-lo em infinitas listas de melhores do ano feitas ao final de 2005.) Um vulcão seria uma metáfora apropriada. Uma parte percussiva em que o que prevalece são os sons de lata sendo batida, uma dinâmica calorosa de canto e coro em resposta, apitos, andamento apressado, e sobretudo a misteriosa sonoridade desses preciosos instrumentos, os likembés tão comentados por suas possibilidades musicais e pela prodigiosa gênese que envolve astúcia e acaso (e, acima de tudo, sensibilidade). Mas vamos deixar isso pra depois.

Porque primeiro de tudo, há o êxtase. O êxtase tão bem representado pela música de abertura de Congotronics, “Lufuala Ndonga”, uma explosão de sons que a percepção inicialmente encontra dificuldade de juntar, tanto pela entrada da voz que se antecipa ao tipo de entrada tradicional quando pelos detalhes rítmicos (ou melódico-rímicos, já que mesmo os elementos melódicos assumem uma dimensão rítmica pregnante). Mas rapidamente a sensibilidade vai se orientando nessa profusão de sons imprevistos, inesperados talvez principalmente pela união de sonoridades até então consideradas divergentes: os likembés com uma impureza amplificada que sugerem o ápice de uma vanguarda exploratória da eletrônica, como os Silver Apples ou hoje o Black Dice, e uma contagiante batucada com toques requintados, mas guiada em especial por um insidioso som de lata batida, metálico, que se combina à perfeição com o som alienígena que vem dos likembés na construção de um som ao mesmo tempo direto, cru e incomum. Mas “Lufuala Ndonga” tem mais do que esse shape sonoro a ser elogiado. Existe também a estrutura da composição, que alterna os momentos cantados, em efusiva troca de voz solo masculina e coro feminino, com os momentos instrumentais em que os likembés assumem o controle.

Quanto a eles, resta dizer que Congotronics não é apenas o testemunho de uma invenção, mas a prova de uma enorme sabedoria em sua utilização, com fraseados curtos e precisos, eventualmente recorrendo à repetição enfática de duas notas, que fornecem um intenso apelo rítmico. A descoberta do instrumento é fenomenal, mas ela não pode ofuscar que é a sábia utilização dele o determinante no som do Konono Nº1.

Como com os Ramones, são os momentos de mais energia aqueles que mais cativam o ouvinte: além de “Lufuala Ndonga”, “Mama Liza” e “Ungudi Wele Wele” garantem festa completa e total deleite auditivo. Igual aos Ramones, o principal desafio a ser evitado é o risco de homogeneidade inerente ao projeto. Em resposta a isso, Congotronics sabe dosar a ordem das faixas alternando os andamentos, mas mantendo a mesma vibração. Entre as menos agitadas, destaque para “Paradiso”, que ao invés das percussões costumeiras utiliza uma bateria muito inspirada, algo soul, que aproveita o andamento mais lento para criar uma levada envolvente que rivaliza, em modo mais calmo, com a balbúrdia dos habituais ataques percussivos das outras faixas. Tudo isso serve para criar um disco impressionante, inesperado e profundamente inventivo, certamente dos mais imponentes e deliciosos dos últimos anos. (Ruy Gardnier)

–By Carla

On any given day, odds are that something totally ridiculous is clogging up my brain, taking up space where other, more useful stuff should go. Clogging up my brain right now, for instance (and in no particular order): I’d like to find a way to cover the jetted garden tub in the master bath and use that space for storage; how dangerous is chlorinated pool water?; where do June bugs go the rest of the year?; and currently topping my list: to buy a bigger house or not.

Yes, getting laid off and losing more than 50% of the household income normally would put a damper on buying a bigger house, but the way I see it, small is the new big right now and I’m more than 100% sure that we would make money on the sale AND be able to buy a bigger house for perhaps less money than we spent on this tiny little thing. I say “tiny” when I know that for others, it’s really not. It’s an 1,800 square foot home with 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms, but the real rub is the fact that the BIGGEST room in the house is the formal dining room, which we NEVER use for dining and which I’m currently using as a craft center.

Please pay no attention to the yoga ball in the corner. Thank you.

Great, I’m using my grandmother’s glorious antique furniture to hold Toddler Boy’s construction paper and my various “things that need to be done” projects.

The other BIG deal for me is the fact that we do not have a guest bedroom. I’m quite honestly a little ashamed of that fact. I mean, who doesn’t have a guest bedroom?

As best as I can tell, we never intended to stay here this long (going on 6 years now), but the housing market fell apart just as our 5 year goal approached. I’m not saying I want a gigantic home just to keep up with the others around us (we own the smallest home in our subdivision), I only want 1) a larger family area and 2) an extra bedroom. That’s it. It’s not a huge request, but because so many people were so very reckless with their money and greedy in their wants, we may be stuck here for a while.

Don’t even get me started on that school bus driver and her construction worker husband who bought an $800,000 home, then whined when it went into foreclosure. The fact that they were ever  approved for a loan that size boggles the mind and is a glimpse into just what was going on before the cards started to fall. Owning a home is not a right, it is a privilege, but somewhere along the way we started thinking and believing that we were owed a home and that part of the American dream included home ownership.

We could afford a larger home for around the same amount of money. Plus it’s a buyer’s market out there right now. (I’m the only one in the house who likes that idea, let’s say, so there are no plans at the moment)

But there is a part of me that wants to buck the conventional thinking about being in a bigger home. Part of me wants to stay just to make some sort of social commentary about wants versus needs, especially during this recession. The boys each have a bedroom, and no, we’re not running a Super 8, so in that respect, we’re fine.

The other part of me, however, is the part who grew up in a larger home and had relatives with much larger homes and is honestly feeling a little crammed in here at the moment.

And so the inner dialogue continues…what to do…? Go ahead…let me have it…

The landrover is SO full!

… but now my room is completely empty You can see, I left the keys on the table

Today at The Independent Online, Stephen Foley wrote:

It was meant to be Vanity Fair or Vogue for the international business set, a chunky monthly tome crammed to its glossy gills with ads for expensive watches, private jets and second or third homes. But, with the international business elite on their knees, amid the wreckage of the credit crisis, it is closing time too for Portfolio magazine, launched just two years ago by luxury publishers Cond…

Read the whole article

From The Independent Online. Here we go again:

It was meant to be Vanity Fair or Vogue for the international business set, a chunky monthly tome crammed to its glossy gills with ads for expensive watches, private jets and second or third homes. But, with the international business elite on their knees, amid the wreckage of the credit crisis, it is closing time too for Portfolio magazine, launched just two years ago by luxury publishers Cond…

Read the whole article

We work, we live, we travel and we complain. About exorbitant property rates, impossible jobs, crammed trains, traffic jams and bad road. We complain about the same things everyday and laugh about the “Shanghai Makeover Bullshit”.
But there’s one thing that we won’t do. We won’t share our space. Doesn’t matter if it leads to traffic snarls and allow ten thousand auto rickshaws to crawl on the roads. We will act oblivious; after all it’s my space. I won’t share.

Free Lift is an endeavour to unclog the city we live . All you have to do is lift people. Random strangers or office colleagues, people waiting for their bus or rickshaw, waiting to reach home early, little school kids, college girls, doctors, postman etc. anyone. Surprise someone, spread laughter, talk, chat, share a joke, it’s a small gesture, that’ll go a long way in healing the city.

All you have to do:

Download the FREE LIFT JPEG from the website and print it in color on an A4 paper.
Paste it with some glue on your windscreen whenever you feel like lifting.
Happy conversing, traveling and talking

These are the first pages I did...before I worked out what I was doing

 

Eureka!  I have found it! Again.  It was hidden in a box of papers in the cellar.  I have turned the house upside down for it.  Every time I find it and manage to do a couple of pages, it disappears again.  This time, I actually started 2 more books last week.  The first one, I soon started to realise wasn’t going to work as it wasn’t descriptive enough and the narrative was too ordinary.  The next one may or may not have turned out alright, but the pages were very thin for a hardback book.

So I have my old ‘Five Gates of Hell’ back now.  Already, I can see where I’ve gone wrong and ways of rectifying it.  One of the mistakes on the first couple of pages is that each page is a different colour and texture.  Although the narrative or the ‘story’ follows on logically (for me), the pages come across as separate entities.  Plus, a lot of information is being crammed into a relatively small space.  To rectify this, each page must consist of 2, giving a bigger page to work on.

I have been through the first dozen or so pages, marking down the sentences I am going to use.  Another mistake is to stick these sentences onto the page, before the background is done.  I have been writing in a journal which sentences I want to print out and which page they appear on.  I am using different fonts in various sizes.  This is yet another reason for preparing the background first.  When this is down, the text can be printed in a complimentary colour and appropriate size.  Very happy for now…but let’s see if it lasts or the book disappears yet again.

The band formed in 1977 by Crammed Discs founder Marc Hollander and his musical partner Vincent Kenis. The aesthetics of Aksak Maboul (deconstructing and fusing many different genres, from rock, jazz, and electronics to fake African, Balkan & minimal music) can retrospectively be viewed as a blueprint for most of the music which was released by Crammed during the next two decades.

Here.