Tag: haircut

Caterpillar Youth – 31st October 2023

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 7 Comments

Your youth breaks your heart
Trying to make someone love you
Push together and pull apart
As one returns to two

In the wake of all that came
As the stories were often repeated
It’s easy to lay the blame
At the child so easily defeated

Dazzling colours hide the truth
That a butterfly is waiting
To leave behind its caterpillar youth
To a life of constant recreating

Inspired by words and parts of this post at Spinning Visions
Submitted to dVerse ‘young and green’

Today I’m feeling:

Positive and relaxed. The calm before the storm. Back in the classroom tomorrow. Looking forward to it.

Today I’m grateful for:

All the folks who have been diligently working on putting together the Jornada Del Muerta 12” over in Turkey. I can see it has been difficult for them to organise and all I’ve had to do is just send money when necessary. Hopefully, the packages turn up safely though I don’t expect to have anything for Friday which is the release date.

The best thing about today was:

Getting a haircut. My winter cut. The Lady was very busy today as the locals were all bringing their kids in, as many go back to school tomorrow.

What was out of your control today and how did you handle it?

Amy and I went up to the book fair at the University this afternoon. Before we left I’m sure I heard her say it was at the library so when we arrived nearby I headed off in that direction. When we got there there was nothing on and Amy asked me why I came to the library!

She was annoyed with me but at the same time didn’t know where the fair was either. We got pointed in the right direction and as Amy grumpily walked back I was happily enjoying the perfect temperature and the beautiful smell of evening flowers in the air. It was good to be able to walk anyway.

Something I learned today?

Leaked documents show that Israel deliberately shot its own people when Hamas attacked them on October 7th, blaming Hamas for all the deaths. Just to justify the genocide they are now carrying out in what is left of Palestine. Other documents show plans to remove all Palestinians from Gaza and into Egypt.

I took this picture because MFU sure is photogenic at this time.

New Wombs – 17th March 2023

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

We’ll birth our babies from sacs
So our mothers feel no pain
Patting ourselves on our backs
With this technological gain

A matrix of unborn babies
Hanging up in store
We take away one suffering
Perhaps replaced by more

A matrix of millions
Spat from artificial wombs
Why not exploit them further
In this society that consumes

Mothers now free of pain
Have more time for shopping
Acceptance is hard to explain
When there’s no sign of stopping

Today I’m feeling:

A tinge of sadness but in general pretty happy. I was sad when I got to school and walked around but found no students. An empty school reminds me that at other times these are just useless buildings.

I miss my students already though I know I will be over it soon enough, maybe even already!

Today I’m grateful for:

The staff who fixed my iMac and called me at 11 am, just as I was about to head home. It was ready to pick up. Great timing.

I’m happy to have a working machine again and looking forward to getting it back into the shape that works for me.

The best thing about today was:

Getting a quick haircut was pretty satisfying as it’s getting too hot to have a thick head of thinning hair.

Sitting at Daytripper and putting together another lesson was fun too.

Also, whilst there, watching the highlights of the first game of the AFL season on my laptop and watching students come and go.

What was out of your control today and how did you handle it?

I struggled to find all the software I needed to reinstall on my refurbished iMac. I’ll probably have to fiddle around a fair bit more before it’s really back in the shape I want. But that’s all right, this kind of annoying challenge suits me.

Something I learned today?

I watched a little Al Jazeera segment on the state of Iraq since the Western allies’ illegal war there. It seems that the little hope Iraqis had at the removal of Saddam Hussein was very short-lived and one has to wonder how much is the fault of the allies and how much the Iraqis themselves.

Money, power and religion make for a terrible mix when it comes to governance.

What is something in my life that I feel “lucky” to have?

Trying to think how to answer this. In one way I feel lucky for everything I have. In another, I feel like it wasn’t luck at all. So I’m trying to think of something that was just luck.

So after five minutes, I’ve decided all the things I have were not due to luck. Except for one thing.

I’m reminded by my student who told me her story of her parent’s rejection and asking ‘if they didn’t want me then why did they have me?’ We didn’t ask to be born, yet here we are.

So the one thing in my life that I feel lucky to have is life itself.

I took this picture because I’m at the hairdresser again. To get a haircut, not to just take a picture of their cat.

Famous For Less Than 15 Minutes – 19th November 2022

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

His name is in the papers
Overcome with joy
Running around excited
As a little boy
There, upon a page
Was indeed his name
A minor accident
Bought a day of fame
It surely won’t last
As other events soon came
But it was still a source
Of pride just the same

inspired by an Anton Chekov short story

Coould be worse, think of all those poor people who have to answer emails in an office all day.

from Soaring Twenties Social Club newsletter

Today I’m feeling:
Exhausted
Today I’m grateful for:
Our old vacuum cleaner that still soldiers on despite all the cat hair and mummified lizards. The floor will look good for five minutes. As soon as the cats come in from outside bringing dust, dirt and grass with them it will be back to normal.
The best thing about today was:
Talking to Hayden for a good thirty minutes. He’d received the blog posts that I’d printed out for him and we chatted about those amongst other things. It was good to share with him and I think he appreciated my sending them.
Daily thought
What would you do with the ring of Gyges?
I’d like to think I would be a guiding hand for good. Stop cats and dogs from getting run over, and somehow help people make better decisions and not get stuck with problems. Perhaps I would be a little Robin Hood too though. Try to spread the wealth and happiness around further. It’s all perilous though. Maybe there’s a set balance in the world and for every good in one place something bad would still happen somewhere else. Maybe if just be a voyeur and trying to understand the ways people think about things.
Write about your favourite/worst haircut.
I liked my hair when it covered more of my head. I liked it when it was shaggy. I always like it messy too. I liked when it was blue too but that was only for one day as Amy refused to be seen with me with my hair that way. Haha.

I took this picture because Pi’ti was looking cute here and the only places I went today we’re here at Utopia and the car wash. Not many photo opportunities there.

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.

The Week That Was – 29th July 1979

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 1 Comment

Record of the week: The Dickies – Poodle Party, Paranoid, Rondo (The Midget’s Revenge)
Highest entry: Sham 69 – Hersham Boys
Entries: The Boss, Telex, The Bitch, Showaddywaddy, Spyro Gyra, EWF

19th May 2022 – Days when Sham 69 were the highest entry in the charts! In the big scheme of things, punk was a flash in the pan. I’m a flash in the pan. Humanity is a flash in the pan! I was all about the Dickies this week.

29th July 1979
From Tues
Last week was great
Part 7 of the Dickies saga
Haven’t stopped playing the album.
2p

30th July 1979
Part 8
As you can see my records of this week and next are off the album.
2p 2p

31st July 1979
‘ad me ‘air dun
Part 9
Got the single Paranoid. The B-side is I’m OK You’re OK.
2p

19th May 2022 – This new Dickies song was a little bit of a let-down when compared with the album but it was still great. I wonder what madness I tried to get the hairdresser to perform this time?

1st August 1979
1 – Going to get the Dickies LP The Incredible Shrinking Dickies – False
2 – I’ll get it on 27th July – False
3 – 20th July
2p

19th May 2022 – When plans come early.

2nd August 1979
1. Boomtown Rats
2. Police
3. Dooleys
4. Dave Edmunds
5. Abba
6. Janet Kay
7. Tubeway Army
8. Knack
9. Supertramp
10. Sparks
2p
Going to Johnny’s.

19th May 2022 – Probably stayed at Graeme’s for a night or two. At the back of his house, which was above the pub, there was a camping and caravanning area, with shower and toilet blocks. Graeme had an air rifle and we took it out around the woods to ‘play’ with as the sun was coming down. We got back to the campsite not yet satisfied with shooting at things. I think we’d scared a few birds by this point. In the dark, Graeme said that there was a garbage bin next to the toilet block and we should shoot across the car park and see if we could hit it. So, with no thought or care for anyone else, that’s what we did. And we did hit the garbage can! And no one was hurt.

Little did I know that in my future I would come very close to being killed with an air rifle!

3rd August 1979
Part 10 of the Dickies saga
I’m going to try and play the album every day until the Eve of Destruction. Get it?
2p

4th August 1979
Hope Ipswich sign Ray Wilkins. That’s for 930,000 pounds.
2p 10p 107p*

19th May 2022 – I had to look up Ray Wilkins. Not sure why I was that excited about this possibility but I obviously rated him at the time. He ended up at Manchester United and so I soon forgot about him!