Tag: hypocritical

A Box Full Of Cubans – 6th November 2024

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 6 Comments

Blue and red both arm an expansion
Desperate to maintain and hide inside
Sighs at sixty years of sanction
When a box of darkness opens wide

Despite the embargo, we’ll flip this lid
Set fire to watch the ashes emerge
Behind the masks the ravaged skins did
Weave around the desire to purge

So let’s puff away and soak in glory
The winners crush dust into the floor
The fat man claims to make the story
And blockade away forever more

Written for an AllPoetry.com assonance assignment and using the Poets and Storytellers United prompt – “a box full of darkness”, as well as The Sunday Whirl Wordle #679 – sighs fire flip ravaged blue floor emerge masks ashes soak skin weave

Today I’m feeling:

Tired on waking as I didn’t sleep well. Not sure why, just felt uncomfortable through the night. Still, I got through exercise and hanging and took the time to grab a coffee at Utopia, which has helped get my brain moving.

A random thought that I had last night:

Thai teachers are children pretending to be adults

Foreign teachers are adults pretending to be children.

(When I say ‘Thai teachers’ I am, of course, being facetious and tarring them all with the same brush but it is something I feel at certain times. And when I say ‘foreign teachers,’ I was just talking about myself!)

Health:

Physical: 7
Mental: 7

Today I’m grateful for:

Amy’s family for accepting me into their family and tonight to enjoy a meal together for Dad’s 73rd birthday.

The best thing about today was:

My one 50-minute class for the day, in which I got energetic, berating late students, pushing students to quickly get some notes down, practice the grammar point until I felt like they had got it, all the while having fun and keeping everyone on their toes.

Slow internet connection meant that we ran out of time to play a quiz, so I assigned them to do it later and sent them off to their next class. Fast and furious.

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

For some reason, the method that we get paid has changed and now we have to fill out a form to get the remainder of our wages in cash! Dangerous!

Luckily, since I use my phone to pay for things 98% of the time, I usually end up forgetting that I have any cash at all.

I should go to the optometrist and give this cash over as a deposit for new glasses before anything untoward comes of it!

Something I learned today?

The movie “Gravity” was more expensive to produce than the entire Indian Mars mission. That is just stupid! I’m all for art and movies but imagine what we could be doing with that money instead. Knowing the USA, though, it would be killing more brown people.

Review your acts, Good and bad.

Drunk Amy stole my thunder at the restaurant as I was ready to give our waitress a tip at the end of the meal but Amy decided she wanted to tip her when she brought two more beers and to make it worse, she had no cash, so it was me who gave it to Amy to give to her! Oh well!

I was still going to tip the waitress with the money I had ready but she had disappeared when we were leaving.

Sarah took this picture when she grabbed my phone and caught this action shot of Baitoey as she was running around.

4/6 Time – 1st August 2023

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

Keep the rhythm
Hold onto harmony
No sleepwalking

Meditate on
Presence and principles
Mindful essence

Stop pulling strings
No imagination
Confine yourself

To the present
All with objective calm
It’s up to us

inspired by a recent Stoa Letter newsletter

9th Jun 2024 – Submitted to the Word of the Day Challenge

Today I’m feeling:

A bit more lively and with it. Forgotten now, I know that I had a few different but quite realistic dreams. I was happy to enjoy them. I also managed to push through 75 star jumps and ride my pushie to Utopia for coffee. If I could tell myself every morning that a good day always starts with exercise perhaps I could motivate myself to do it at weekends.

Today I’m grateful for:

The digging tool we have for working in the garden. I guess it’s a hoe of some sort as it can be used for that too. Swing it high and hard enough though and it can dig. I’m also grateful for the recent rains making the ground a little easier to dig too. The two little trees were quickly in the ground and I look forward to watching them mature.

The best thing about today was:

Watching Amy bravely battle an arm-sized tokay in the kitchen and work room. I knew she wouldn’t rest until it was caught and outside. We had to chase it a bit and move some furniture but eventually, I managed to trap it in a plastic bin against the wall and Amy slid a mat across the top and quickly carried it outside where it finally ran off. 

I think the lizards look amazing and they are pretty shy. They only get agitated if you bother them. They do shit everywhere though, along with all the little geckos that are running around our house. 

I’m going to buy some lizard repellent sometime, though Amy said she read reviews that they can actually attract more lizards rather than get rid of them!

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

Amy had a few requests for jobs for me to do during the day but as I was in an improved mood I just did them happily.

Something I learned today?

I chuckled at a report today of the EU sending warships to the South China Sea to protect trade routes from Chinese interference. More than 80% of the shipping through the SCS are ships coming from and going to China! The spin of the hypocrites in the West is amazing. Is there another agenda?

What do I want to focus on this month?

Focus? I’m not sure to be honest. Trying to save a little money would be useful because I have to buy a lot of cat food and get the car serviced this month. But basically, it is business as usual. Teaching, learning, reading, writing, guitar, cleaning, coffee, exercise.

Amy took this picture because she was quite proud of her carrot cakes. They look great but we haven’t tasted them yet. I’m sure they will taste great too though.

With Open Arms – 6th July 2023

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

The immigrant children complain of immigration
They think they own the land
Never taught their history, or easily forgotten
They offer no helping hand

The suburbs are full of lawnmowers and cars
This happy life must not be disturbed
New arrivals collect glasses in the downtown bars
Where lines of demarcation become blurred

A drink to our new friends here to find a way
To live a long-forgotten dream once told
To all who struggled in an effort to stay
To seek the world their movies sold

20th Nov 2024 – Shared with Word of the Day Challenge – downtown

Today I’m feeling:

I had to talk myself into exercising this morning but I pushed through with my mini ab workout. I’m glad I did because it got me awake and settled into a reasonable mood. I know I’m tired but also not craving rest. My left eye is aching still and whilst meditating this morning wondered if I’d had a stroke. I looked in the mirror and there were no obvious changes to my face. I should perhaps go to the local optometrist and get them to have a closer look inside.

Today I’m grateful for:

Our crazy school schedule that means I only have one class tomorrow afternoon at 2.30 so I’ve made the decision to sleep in and not sign in tomorrow and head to school around 1.30. Great!

The best thing about today was:

Watching some reluctant students stand up and speak in English and overcome some of their fears and hesitations. I made sure to commend them after class to lift their confidence further.

Before my last class of the day, I was playing volleyball and saw some of my students heading to class that included the three ‘bad’ boys, including the porn kid from yesterday. I roped them in to come and play and we bonded a little further. Enough so that we had a comfortable lesson without incident. I was happy with that result.

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

Things are humming along smoothly as of now.

Something I learned today?

Some folks in the West are railing against the Taliban because they have once again made opium production illegal and reduced it by 80% just as they did before the US invaded twenty years ago, when they made it legal again. Somehow drug production is okay in other countries but not in their own. The West is doomsaying all the negative outcomes that will arise from a country’s government implementing their own law. Hmmm… Hypocritical much?

How am I different than I was a year ago?

Differences year to year feel more slight than in my youth. If there’s anything that I can really feel it’s just a general improvement in well-being and contentment. My health has also improved though I can also feel my age as more time passes.

I took this picture because this simple little plant is growing in the parking space at the back of House and as I was walking by the sunlight was hitting at an angle that made the leaf shapes jump out at me.