Get that Quantum Vibe

I found the link to Quantum Vibe's website in a tweet from one of my online connections and have to admit, that, now, about two hours later, I am totally hooked. Anyone who claims that virtual media is killing the comic strip, just hasn't been looking around. The truth is that many good comic strips have migrated to the internet - and they have plenty of babies too, such as this one. Quantum Vibe follows the misadventures of Nicole, an average young female of the 26th century where one outfit fits all occasions simply by morphing to suit your needs, commuters travel by bubble, but heartbreak still hurts as much as it did 500 years ago.

Why we dream of broken things...

Last night I sat at the water's edge and wrote a dedication to someone who changed my life. I meant to throw it in the ocean that lay between my world and his, but then my family said we had to go... so the message remained poignantly unsent... it was typical of the incompleteness that plagues so many dreams... a singer would dream that his band was playing a new song. Everyone knew it except him. He had to get the lyrics but somehow, it was time to go on stage and he still didn't have them... we dream of wrong directions. We dream of broken things that never get fixed... Why... because our dreams are really our souls' message telling us, you are broken, you are not whole... And so when we close our eyes and our souls sees the truth of this reality... we dream the pieces... it disturbs us... we think it is our fears coming out... but meanwhile it is really the desires of our broken souls yearning to be complete, that is coming out...

The ownership of stories

Last sunday I began to write a fable about vultures. Literally, I sat down and began with the words "once upon a time", writing them in a tiny A6 sized exercize book that said Croxley on the outside cover. In another reality, I was sitting cross-legged on the floor, listening to the voice of my deceased twin soul telling a tale that began "once upon a time". The words flow easily, without hesitation. Although he takes breaks, there is no scratching out, no re-arrangement for the physical me that is taking dictation. The story 'happens' to me. It is not the first to to come in this way and won't be the last. Some stories come to me as movies or in snapshots and impressions, rather than physical words, but often the sentences surprise me. For me, writing has really become a form of listening...

Since his physical life ended more than two years ago, and since the stories will be sent out in my name, I suppose I should call them mine, but they feel like gifts...

Before he died, my twin soul created in much the same way as I do now.. and it occurs to me that perhaps its only on this side of the grave that we feel any need to go: mine. mine. mine. That is only the itching of our egos. In truth the stories belong to all of us. We ARE them and they are us.

One day they will bear another name, another mask, another disguise...

worlds under fire...

Does any remember the movie 'Dark City'? It came out around the time of the first Matrix movie and the theme was very similar, except there was no Keanu Reeves in it. The premise was this: Every night while we sleep, a shadowy group of aliens 'rearranged the furniture' of our world or reality and sometimes when we woke up, things were completely different. Looking around me, this seems like another truth hiding within a fiction. It would not surprise me to learn that the majority of people have their memories completely erased and their realities reset every three months or so. If you are cursed with the inconvenience of a longer memory or, heaven forbid, deaf to the magic pipes of the spindoctors they sold their souls to, they hate you for not seeing the emperor's new clothes...

Don't give in. Reality building should not be a spectator sport. Validation is for people who are unsure of their truths or too sure of their lies.

Nobody can claim supremacy over your reality - only you. Your reality is constructed of emotions much more than anything you touch and see and hear. Your emotions allow or dismiss what you perceive. Your emotions validates the input of one person and discards the input of another. You do play some role in building the reality of another person, but you have no control over how that person uses your contribution. An insult is never given, only taken. Same with a compliment. Reality truly is in the eye of the beholder. (t.y.m.)

Monkey

If you took a monkey
and dressed him in my clothes
would that make him me?

Would he think my thoughts
Would he dream my dreams
And tell you what I see?

(t.y.m. ~ thank you for sharing & caring)

Heaven... another definition

I don't know how to explain this, but heaven is when it's not "someday" or "somewhere" anymore. Heaven is when it's "here" and "now". Heaven is when your mind moves and your body stands still. Heaven is when your mind flies and leaves your flesh behind. Heaven is a secret room inside your mind. I don't know the way to yours. I only know the way to mine. There is a lock and there is a key... most people call them "reason" and "sanity". And you have to turn them.... have you ever tried to turn "reason" or "sanity" on its head... I'm telling you... it's not easy... not easy at all, but once they are upside down and fall on the ground, and the door is hanging on its hinges.... you might think you've died ... because heaven will rush out to meet you...

Roadkill anyone? A glimpse into the reasoning behind the freegan way of life...

(this piece also appears on my xomba account, but I suppose that is acceptible, in the general spirit of recycling)

I should warn you perhaps that a few people may be grossed out by some of the thoughts expressed in this article.

As a regular signer of online petitions, mostly via the petition site, avaaz and change.org, I also receive newsletters from all three of those organizations regarding alerts for new petitions and also the thoughts of various of their regular bloggers. One topic recently touched on, was the freegan lifestyle, particularly with regards to the eating of roadkill.

For those not familiar with the movement, freeganism embraces the concept of using resources gained through salvage, rather than economic activity. Freegans have no qualms about scraping plates, diving dumpsters, squatting or the creation of guerilla gardens. Although there are some health concerns about eating food gained in this way, these are sometimes balanced by the problems created through consumerism. For example, the growth hormones present in commercially produced meat are said to be a factor in causing cancer. Often supermarkets and food retailers reject perfectly suitable food only because it fails to meet standards regarding size or color.

Even if you do not agree with any of their strategies, take note of the economic problems inherrent in our consumer society that they point out:

- about TEN years ago, I attended a workshop at the premises of our national broadcaster. One announcer pointed out that afterwards that a row of houses situated at the back of their Cape premises have been vacated to be sold off as assets, but that this had, due to administrational mismanagement not yet been done. That was in 2001. Recently, those houses, located in a prime real estate area of Cape Town's Atlantic seaboard, were still empty, showing broken windows and general neglect. All due to corporate mismanagement.

- Recently, a customer to an upmarket clothing retailer in the States discovered that clothing she returned unused, was destroyed before her eyes, rather than being returned to the shelves for resale or donated to charity. With so many people in need, throwing away goods because of company policy should be unacceptable

- About five years ago I worked for a restaurant delivery company and during that time, they engaged in a marketing campaign with the diary company. I witnessed masses of milk products being thrown away on the whims of the bosses. Much later, the true reason behind the campaign became clearer when the company in question was implicated in a 'price-fixing' scheme which involved the artificial manipulation of available milk supplies.

The truth of the matter is, consumerism creates a lot of waste. Take the short life span of the average CD or DVD player, for example. A lot of non-biodegradable garbage is being generated for the sake of meeting sales figures and profits.

We are not always aware of this undeclared war between the 'sellers' and the 'buyers'of this world, although we are its foot soldiers. The world is divided between those who need and those who waste and the real challenge for all humanity should be the building of bridges in between the two. The recent earthquake disaster in Japan should have demonstrated to anyone how easy it is to slip from the latter group to the former one.