Tag: guitar

Make It – 17th May 2022

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 2 Comments

Yeah, we’re gonna make it
But only by the skin of our teeth
Possibly we’ll break it
But somewhere we have to find belief
Maybe we’ll mistake it
For an eternity all too brief
Probably we’ll fake it
Wallowing in an illusion of relief

The more you have to lose, the more fragile you are.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Gratitude Journal

I am so happy and grateful for an extra day off school. I could get a lot of writing, reading and guitaring done. Bonus.

The Week That Was – 15th July 1979
The Week That Was – 22nd July 1979

In Tune – 11th December 2021

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

Maybe you’ll never get old
Death attained so soon
Treat each day
In this way
And live your life in tune

Gratitude Journal

I am so happy and grateful to have the app Capo that gives me a good idea of the chords to play guitar for any song I have. So yesterday I spent a couple of hours playing – enough to cramp my hands!

Yesterday I took advantage of an extra day off. Got up late, drank coffee at Utopia, reading more of the fun Slash biography, got a quick haircut at my usual local auntie hairdresser, had a quick pep talk with Na, Amy went out for lunch so I picked up some friend rice and veggies at the aharn damsang in our soi and tried out the Busabee wheat beer, which was delicious, though I struggled a little with it and having to go to the toilet all the time was annoying!

Sat in my hammock under the passionfruit until it got too hot and then slowly kept drinking in my room and ended up playing guitar for a couple of hours, trying to play along to familiar songs, got hand cramps, then switched to listening to Nomeansno really fucking loud, which was great and something I don’t do enough of.

Listening to music loud is the best way to appreciate it.

At the hairdresser, the auntie used a razor to tidy up my ear hair and it struck me what a weirdly intimate act it was, though enacted in a professional environment. I compared it to sex work – an intimate act that for the worker is just part of the job. Yes – I’m comparing sex work to a haircut! Why is sex work so demeaned?

Due to my own upbringing and environment, I don’t understand or comprehend the rationale behind people who want to adopt the profession but at the same time, it’s not my business and as there is a huge calling for work of this sort then workers should be treated with the respect they deserve.

The abundance of online pornography available should change attitudes towards sex and find a way to make the whole thing more equal and less exploitative. Less religion – more openness.

Tall Tales Told – 16th November 2021

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

The stories we tell always change
To suit the audience being told
Fake news has been around forever
The preposterous tales of old

Legends live on in our minds
To moralise for the present
Made obvious for the new generation
Who is bad and who is pleasant

Gratitude Journal

I am so happy and grateful to the two guys who make the You Don’t Know Mojack podcast as they have introduced me to good music that I would maybe never hear otherwise.

I don’t know how many months now that it has been that I have been trying to play Scarborough Fair 100% accurately on guitar. It made me mad and then I got all ‘whatever’, thinking that one day it will come. I’m still waiting for that day. The chord change from Dm to F was/is the main stumbling block and when I do manage it I end up not quite nailing something else. Never give up. I do fucking hate this song now though.

I’m out in my room and can hear Amy screaming inside. I don’t mean screaming scared but just drunkenly emoting loudly on the phone. She does get excited after a couple of wines.

Good classes today. Some testing students but not too bad. I’m pretty calm most of the time now.

The Gift – 14th September 2021

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

Your head games and offensive words
Spewing out your hole like stinking turds
The two-faced smiles and stinking breath
Your finagling towards friendship death

Daggers raised at those honest necks
A passive-aggressive sweep of the decks
The bitter change of heart so swift
Beyond the tears, you gave me a gift

Gratitude Journal

I am so happy and grateful to have a nice deep sleep totally missing the storm that blew everything around in the night. Feel good this morning!

I forgot to mention yesterday that I finally managed to play the first part of Scarborough Fair after what seems like months of trying! Changing from Dm to F was so difficult and it was getting so frustrating. I was so happy to finally do it on Sunday. Now I have to complete the next two sections and advance to Level 6. It’s all starting to get a little more difficult now but I’m still enjoying it. I will try and find more old punk songs that I know to play along to. I think that will keep up my motivation.

Today I can celebrate Matt selling me his stash of Kratom and also giving me the rest of his weed tincture. I never tried these before, so let’s see what they are like.

I’m happy today. Tuesday is my easy teaching day and giving the student work ahead of time makes the class go quicker, although it kinda spreads the work out for me, making it longer. Anyway, I’m enjoying it at the moment. I am still looking forward to a break though.

Remembered – 18th August 2021

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 2 Comments

Dull light, half awake, in lucid dreams
Words arose to poem make, remembered as
‘An intimate melody to my ears reached
Through downy feathers, softened so
Was the tune of my fucking alarm clock!’

26th Aug 2024 – Submitted to Word of the Day Challenge – remember

Gratitude Journal

I am so happy and grateful to all the people who help keep our electricity supply constant. It is something I had always taken for granted but now that I live in a place where it can be unstable I must remember all those who made it happen and continue to make it happen.

Struggling to savour, I notice. Maybe forgetting how good everything is, or the constant good feeling I seem to have these days, is becoming too normal.

Spent a lazy morning filling in the visa forms and reading, while drinking coffee. Arranged for my morning class to do work ahead of time so that they could skip my class if they wished, which freed me up!

Re-connected with Big Tom, who is still living in Adelaide, though no longer working at DXC – made redundant due to offshoring. Good to chat with him even if only through Twitter messages.

Trying to nail Scarborough Fair on guitar so I can complete the level in Yousician is driving me crazy and torturing my fingers. But never give up! It’s cool to think that by moving some fingers on some strings that nice sounds can emanate.

Looking forward to more Louis XIV tonight and comparing it to our current situation in Thailand. Also, reading about being a ‘good’ Dad and considering how I have lived my life has affected Hayden. He is struggling with addiction and depression, and I can’t help but consider my role in that. He is going to have a difficult time ahead.

Fall From Grace – 9th July 2021

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

That time everyone worked together
Fighting for what was best
Made us leaders, held us up
A shining example to the rest
So it goes, the group divides
And no longer meets the test
From leaders to losers now
Others are no longer impressed
The fingers point at each other
As if each had so been blessed
Outside the insular echo chambers
The faults are easily guessed

Comment on the pandemic situation in Thailand, once kept well at bay and since gotten out of control.

You are just wandering around the goal with your monkey mind. Always looking for something without knowing what you are doing. If you want to see, you should open your eyes.

from Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind

Gratitude Journal

I am so happy and grateful that there is a guitar shop in town where I could buy the little tool to help pull out the plugs on my acoustic guitar. I enjoyed looking at the guitars there too.

We got that attitude! – 18th March 2021

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

I am so happy and grateful for my guitar and app for learning to play it. I’m feeling very positive about learning that even when something becomes very difficult I won’t give up and I’m even starting to remember some songs and practice them without the app. My aching hand and fingers remind me how much enjoyment I’m getting from it.

The best thing that happened today was finishing a drawing of Fern and Amy that I had really struggled with yesterday. It’s not perfect but it does at least look like them now.

I also started one of Jess and Amy which is going well. I plan to a jpg to each of Amy’s friends so they can send to Amy on our anniversary – now, if I could only remember the exact date of our anniversary! Is it the 9th or 11th? I just realised I can look in this diary or perhaps to my blog for a clue….Looks like the 9th – haha!

We got that attitude! – 12th February 2021

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

I am so happy and grateful for a day off work today. I was a bit tired yesterday – perhaps from working out too much and not enough protein – something I should fix. So I was beat when I got home and just watched TV and slept early – a nice long sleep.

I missed a day (of writing) because I didn’t come into my room yesterday evening – just lazed, watching TV and reading and then slept a lot – was even more tired.

I was fluctuating between happy and depressed depending on how I read into people’s reactions to me. I didn’t feel fully in control.

Today is a day off – now today has a day off for Chinese New Year and the urging to get people to go out and spend money again. There’s another long weekend in a couple of weeks too!

The best thing about today was meeting Aing and Manow again – it feels like a long time since we last saw them. Aing said she misses her old gang of boys (Nu, Gus and Mink) – her new gang is all girls and ladyboys. Nothing stays the same.

I enjoyed picking weeds our of the grass as the ground is still soft from the soaking earlier this week. My hands smell of green and dirt.

I’m also happily getting better at guitar – very slowly but I can see and hear the progress. I’m still enjoying the process. Slowly, slowly.

We got that attitude! – 31st January 2021

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

I am so happy and grateful for my enthusiasm to learn new things. It seems unbelievable to me that I am learning to play the guitar, learning to sketch and preparing to read War and Peace! My 20-year-old self would be sceptical and amazed.
I am so happy and grateful for the rain yesterday. It was a surprise and I thought it would never come. Now our plants are nourished again after about 3 months of dry. They will green up again before going back to yellow and pale for the next few dry months. There’s a beautiful cold fog this morning.