Tag: guitar

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.

There’s nothing that you stole from me that I didn’t give up willingly – 6th January 2021

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

My head is already at school and I’m not in the now. Bring it back. My body is in the morning routine and I need to have my head in it too. Practice – pay attention to that meditation.

Onwards to the shower and the rest of the day. Body feels good.

Gratitude Journal

I am so happy and grateful that I remember to keep a book in my car so that if I forget my headphones and can’t study in the morning at least I can read a book. Dostoyevsky this morning!

The best thing that happened to me today was putting together some lesson plans that I hope will go well for next year’s classes. I also met a lot of the Primary students this morning and they all still seem to really like me. That made me happy.

I have nearly finished level 4 of Yousician – I’m doing it very badly but once I’ve passed I will go back and practice more. I think I will be on level 4 for a while before I can advance any further. I’m still enjoying playing guitar though.