Tag: quote

Sure – 24th October 2022

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

Why does what you believe make you so mad?
If something else was true would it really be so bad?
So angry at the skies you take it out on the clouds
So oblivious to yourself as you fight amongst the crowds

Was it something that you lost that others took away?
Did someone take their ball so that you couldn’t play?
Divided we are conquered, that’s the way it’s been
Let’s celebrate our diversity to realise our dream

When looking back at your life, you will see that the moments which seemed to be great failures followed by wreckage were the incidents that shaped the life you have now.

Joseph Campbell

Today I’m feeling:
Dozy and happy
Today I’m grateful for:
The coconut lip balm I have. I think I’m missing something in my diet that is causing me dry lips and this balm works wonders.
The best thing about today was:
The brilliant 4-hour afternoon nap I had. It was a light sleep and could feel myself enjoying it! Sounds played on my thoughts and influenced my semi-lucid state. I didn’t want it to end!
If you could be a character from a book or film, who would you be? Why?
This answer would change over time. I identify a lot with Dostoevsky’s Underground Man but that is a me from the past. I recognise the thoughts but no longer think like that. Me, now? I don’t know. Alice? As I often contemplate the wonder in the world around me.
…I realise I’m reading the question wrong. If I could be a character…. I suppose when reading a good book or watching a great movie you become the characters in them. If I could choose though…? I’m struggling to think of an answer. I think it may pop into my head when I come across it in the future. Perhaps I’ll return to this question then.

I took this picture because this is the valley I live in. My house is near the mountains there on the horizon to the right. Behind me are mountains on the other side of the valley, a similar distance away. Zooming in you can see three levels of mountains with smaller valleys in between, places where I’ve ridden my bike around many times. Now I’m enjoying the discovery of the big wide valley. It’s beautiful and I’m lucky and grateful and can’t believe I’ve ended up here.

Change Your Mind – 23rd October 2022

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 9 Comments

When evidence is not compelling
Even though it’s fishy-smelling
A balance is easy to find
What will it take to change your mind?

To update your view is noble
Even if it’s not seen as global
To admit you were wrongly inclined
What will it take to change your mind?

7th Oct 2024 – Shared with Reena’s Xploration Challenge #350

See the fruits of discipline and skill as the richest pleasures of all.

Robert Greene

Today I’m feeling:
am: flat – pm: happy and enthusiastic
Today I’m grateful for:
Being able to fix the number plate on my bike for just 69 baht. The first shop I tried the guy just pointed down an aisle but didn’t help me at all. I couldn’t find the part I needed so went to another shop instead and the lady there went and got what I needed. She gets my money. I guess I’m also grateful that I never got stopped whilst riding around without the plate for the previous 24 hours.
The best thing about today was:
Finally sitting down to play guitar again after a couple of lazy days. I figured I’d give it ten minutes but ended playing for an hour and a half. Currently reading the Clash bio and hearing about how quickly they became skilled has motivated me a bit more.
Take a selfie.
Not a selfie type.

This is from yesterday. I took this picture because this was the destination that I marked on my map that I almost gave up on a couple of times on the way. I want to go back and I want to keep going!

Wildfire – 22nd October 2022

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

Taking hold, inspiring
Vague truths based on fear
Idle minds, enquiring
Further spread the idea

Like Chinese whispering
Messages manipulated
Open wounds blistering
New slogans, proudly stated

Moses pleads, dividing
The confusion reigns supreme
A past of deciding
Put an end to the dream

Barren earth, burning
Bushes dry for fuel
To darkness now returning
Death before the school

15th Jun 2024 – Submitted to Ragtag Daily Prompt

The law of progress holds that everything now must be better than what was there before. If you want something better, and better, and better, you lose the good. The good is no longer even being measured.

Hanna Arendt

Today I’m feeling:
Excited, thoughtful and dizzy
Today I’m grateful for:
Sunscreen. Thank you for protecting me today when it was impossible to escape the sun. Your smell does make me miss the beach though.
The best thing about today was:
My long long long ass bike ride to mountains previously unexplored. So much beauty along the way. It’s a paradise. For me, for now.
What brand best represents your values?
Hmmm…weird question. I don’t know what values brands have. Perhaps they promote themselves with having a particular value… I don’t know. What most folks identify with brands I feel no affinity with at all. To me, brands value one thing and one thing only and that is money. If their products are good then good because they fucking should be!

I took this picture because this magnificent tree stood out after turning back towards the temple from the river at Toeng. So much shade, in my mind I transported it back to our garden and I could sit under it all day.

All We Have – 21st October 2022

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

A coin to gain entry
A seat for the sunset, sir?
Do not trust the dawn
For it may never occur
Take your pick of the tables
Or perhaps up there in the tree?
The smartest trick the Devil
Sold to you that which is free

inspired by a passage from Titus Alone by Mervyn Peake

We say that at home, we can ‘be ourselves.’ Everywhere else, we are someone else.

Matthew Desmond

Today I’m feeling:
Relaxed
Today I’m grateful for:
Amy finding a new place to move to already, just 2 days after finding out she would have to move. One of her housemates was crying that Amy will leave so soon. That is the effect Amy has on people. I’m so lucky she is part of my life.
The best thing about today was:
Reading comics and finding more to read. I’m trying to catch up on 2000AD and Judge Dredd and after about 5 years (maybe more) I’m still only up to 1995! Can this be considered a long-term goal?
Sometimes, when I’m high I consider how trivial, inconsequential and boring the things I’m interested in are! Then I think that I’m not alone. Almost everyone’s interests these days are insubstantial and niche. It makes it hard to get enthusiastic apart promoting music through tenzenmen sometimes. Sometimes it feels like me and three other people really dig something and I don’t have the energy to try and break through to others who have their own particular niche interests.
If you had a freeway billboard, what would it say?
I would take it down. What a blight!
I would sell it for advertising. What is one more ad in the scheme of things?
I would have it display a new positive quote every day.
I would paint it the same colour as what is behind it.

I took this picture because I went on a little bike ride past Hacienda where there used to be a rubbish-burning collection point. It’s gone now and the land is slowly being dug out to fill in reclaimed rice fields for new buildings. This clump of bamboo sits atop a last piece of the old land and will soon be gone too. I found a track opposite that wasn’t marked on the map but when I switched to satellite view was clearly a proper dirt road at one point though now it was covered with grass again. I ponder about contacting Google to send me a camera so they can update their maps but the only person who benefits from this would be me. All the locals already know these tracks and paths and it’s only stupid me that goes off exploring and getting fucked up by google maps leading me into rivers or walls.

Lazy Princess – 20th October 2022

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

Princess Amy, she’s so lazy
She will never become the queen
Made her teacher really crazy
Because she lives inside a dream

Princess Amy still never learns
But all her friends are growing
They are all taking their turns
Off to bright futures going

Will the princess ever see
The wisdom of work instead?
Will the princess ever be
Able to get out of her bed?

a poem for one of my students

The laws that govern circumstances are abolished by new circumstances.

Napoleon

Today I’m feeling:
Happy
Today I’m grateful for:
Amy’s parents bringing me food again. I was out at the time, at Daytripper, doing more lesson preparation and dropped by the market to pick up some dinner. A stall was selling pla duk foo which I hadn’t seen there before so I grabbed that and some bananas. When I got home I saw that Amy’s parents had left some food and when I checked the bag it was pla duk foo and bananas! I’ve got a lot of eating to do!
The best thing about today was:
Reading some random text from a teaching English book and being able to add an idea to make my lessons more interesting for my students next semester. Doesn’t sound too exciting I know but I was inspired enough to update all my lessons immediately.
Another thing was coming across a KLS video from 2016 that was fantastic to see and got my little brain running again about organising a tour for them here. I think it would go really well. I need to start looking into this more.
If you started a sports team, what would the colours and mascot be?
I suppose I might pick blue after my childhood soccer passion for Ipswich Town and Italy. The red and white of Sydney Swans would perhaps remind too much of Arsenal. As for a mascot, I don’t know. I must admit I would not be a good person to make these decisions as I consider them to be irrelevant though I understand their purpose, it’s just not something I’m interested in.

I took this picture because I was surprised to find Kim here on Amy’s pillow. I also find it cute to see cats sleep in this position. In fact it makes me envious. Unfortunately, rockets from the funeral next door sent her off hiding behind the bed again soon after I took this.

Day Trip – 19th October 2022

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

One tooth hag with leather jacket
Brown from bent back stooping
In exposed fields of watery weed
Where crucified shirts scare birds swooping

Every home with a lemonade stand
Auntie and child in hammock swinging
Dancing girls adorn a bamboo stage
Drunken uncles make attempts at singing

Families ring the rubber trees
Teenage boys ride off for fishing
In ditches and streams formed in rainy season
Sat in sun, waiting, hoping, wishing

Up towards the tree-lined tops
Down to the valley fires are burning
The circle of life that never stops
Just as the water wheels are turning

What does the money machine eat? It eats youth, spontaneity, life, beauty, and, above all, it eats creativity. It eats quality and shits quantity.

William Burroughs

Today I’m feeling:
Very relaxed, almost too relaxed.
Today I’m grateful for:
Being able to order food delivery for lunch and eating delicious rice with pineapple and cashew nuts. I feel old because I still marvel at being able to order food through app, that is connected to Amy’s bank to pay and then watch a map in real-time of the driver getting lost along our soi.
The best thing about today was:
I didn’t do a whole lot so it’s a choice between, getting up early again, unblocking the sink or buying and planting a bush and a potted plant.
Have you ever benefitted from alternative medicines?
Nope.

I took this picture because I received a parcel today with these inside! I realized they’d come from Amy’s friend Fon. Such a nice unexpected surprise. Considering splashling out on Vegemite for a taste of (another) home.

Derelict – 18th October 2022

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

Smashed windows and roof decayed
A place where memories were once made
Now hidden to the exploring eye
Possibilities came here now gone by

One day the love in my own home
Will be left to explorers unknown
Pondered upon with little idea
Of all the things that happened here

The tiles will crack and ceilings fall
Jungle vines will creep up the wall
The once-pretty garden overrun
Plastic disintegrates in the sun

The roaming ghosts of our happy cats
No longer worry the scurrying rats
Body broken as the irons rust
Will all be blown away as dust

I think perfection is ugly. Somewhere in the things humans make, I want to see scars, failure, disorcer, distortion.

Yohji Yamamoto

Today I’m feeling:
Chill chill
Today I’m grateful for:
A long catch-up sleep with interesting but forgotten dreams. I also woke up with no pain in my neck but that didn’t last for too long.
The best thing about today was:
Its simplicity and feeling contented with a day of non-excitement. A little bit of this and that counters any possibility of boredom. I feel free!
In what ways are you “just like your parents?”
I am just like my mum now. It’s scary how much I look like her. Right now I live by myself (practically) and love to read books, much like she did. I don’t need to be around people often and happy in my own company, just as I saw her. I don’t think I can be much like my dad as I have no idea if he had any influence over me in my first 18 months before he died. I wonder though if there was a residual sadness that brushed on me in that short time…?

I took this picture because it just looked idyllic as I was speeding by and had to turn back to take a quick picture. This one is from yesterday. I didn’t really do anything today.

Our Dark Side – 17th October 2022

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

You are a nice and pleasant person
Loath to admit or examine your dark side
As your fallibilities may worsen
Deep insecurities, desires to hurt people
Fantasies of revenge, suspicious of others
Your hunger for power and attention
Attempts to place you above your brothers
This dark side haunts your dreams
Leading to inexplicable depression
And blame laid on circumstances
As you fail to understand the lesson

inspired by a Robert Greene piece from Daily Laws

If their work is satisfying, people don’t need leisure in the old-fashioned sense. No one ever asks what Newton or Darwin did to relax, or how Bach spent his weekends.

J.G. Ballard

Today I’m feeling:
Happy
Today I’m grateful for:
The new frozen veggie microwave meal option at the 7-11. It wasn’t bad and at 45 baht pretty reasonable too.
The best thing about today was:
2 hours guitar? 3rd day in a row walking to Utopia? Golden hour bike ride again? Finish watching After Life? The sounds, the smells, everything…
What would your life be like without music?
Could it even be called a life? Music is everywhere. Imagine no music! We have it so I guess it’s possible to imagine not having it. What do we not have then, what things unimagined yet? I don’t know anyone who doesn’t have music in their life somehow. Everyone must in some way or another.

I took this picture because I waited for golden hour again to go for a ride but just to counter sunburn rather than for good pictures. However, I was lucky enough to get some good pictures too.

You Won’t Believe Number Four – 16th October 2022

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

Here’s a list of things you must see
There’s something here to set you free
And you won’t believe number one
Something no one else has ever done

If that really doesn’t tickle your fancy
Number two will surely make you antsy
And number three has so much more
But you’ll never believe number four

Scroll on through to five and six
You’ll start to see these amazing tricks
Manipulations to make you laugh and lol
To make sure the way on the infinite scroll

One can only live while one is intoxicated with life; as soon as one is sober it is impossible not to see that it is all a mere fraud and a stupid fraud! That is precisely what it is…it is simply cruel and stupid.

Leo Tolstoy, A Confession

Today I’m feeling:

Happy and contemplative.

Today I’m grateful for:

The gardeners. Whenever they come they will appear here. They do all the hard work that I’m lazy to do and they can have it done quickly. I wonder if I would ever be in a position to hire a full-time gardener or maid or similar, would I actually do it? It seems like a weird thing to do though there are actually people who would appreciate the opportunity. One of Amy’s mum’s friends has two ‘workers’ though she does own and run a substantial property with guest houses. It just seems strange that you would be the boss of your house and get your staff to do the actual work. Cooking cleaning or gardening etc…

The best thing about today was:

Picking up the guitar after a three-day break, almost stopping after only seven minutes, carrying on and then realizing an hour had gone by.

Write about your work/life balance.

My work/life balance feels perfect at the moment. I’m loving being on holiday right now but I also love being in the middle of another semester. I love my time at school and away from it. I rush to get to school and I rush to get home. It’s great.

I took this picture because these ‘fruit’ from our palm trees caught my eye this morning as I opened the gate after walking back from Utopia. They remind me of music and dancing somehow. In this mono edit, they still pop. A few hours after this the grass was cut and the garden tidy again.
Fatman report

Both Worlds Paradox – 15th October 2022

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

Beauty fades as knowledge grows
And wisdom comes too late
To understand what the old one knows
As the acceptance of this fate

When a person can’t find a deep sense of meaning, they distract themselves with pleasure.

Viktor Frankl

Today I’m feeling:
Happy and chilled
Today I’m grateful for:
The lady in the print shop helping me to print out a few things I needed. Some for school but also printouts from my blog which I will send to Hayden.
The best thing about today was:
Finishing reading a couple of books. I love the anticipation of starting a new book, a new journey, new knowledge.
What movies do you need to watch?
This is easy. There are NO movies that I NEED to watch. I have a hard-drive full of movies that I’d like to watch along with many DVDs, Netflix and YouTube. And perhaps, hopefully, one day I will. I may even try it tomorrow, now that it is in my head.

I took this picture because as I was enjoying my walk home this morning I recalled when I did my first exploratory motorbike ride around the village and came down here, where the sign seems to indicate no entry. I sat on my bike undecided whether to go forward or turn back and as I looked around a lady outside the adjacent house called out and waved me through. I soon discovered that everyone used this shortcut and they just didn’t want cars coming through. Today though, I noticed that someone has taken the trouble to re-gravel the track so there are no more puddles and potholes. Wish this had been done before the rainy season.