Russell Smithers"Experience is the only teacher we have" – Swami Vivekananda

“The Daily WTF” (TDWTF) website is one that most people I know probably wouldn’t want to read on a daily basis, but I follow it with the help of an RSS feed. However, there are two stories on the TDWTF that I have to share, because you don’t need to be techy or geek to understand them, and they are fab!

The Proven Fix – I like this because it goes to show that actually testing something is 110% better than working through some intelectual process that suggests it might work!

Lacking Knowledge Essentials – Just when you think a company is so bad they will go out of business, they work with another business who makes them look organised! lol fantastic!

Here is a recipe, I just made it up. Well I kind of have been playing with the idea over a few cooking sessions. I am afraid it’s not the usual recipe, just guidelines, cooking by eye.

Sweat Potato in oven for 45 mins

Parsnip cut into wedge chunks oven for 30 mins

Boil Quinoa for 20 minutes (after washed)

The veg mix: Veg cut up into small bits, not finely chopped but getting close, I used carrots, broccoli and brussel sprouts (whatever you like). Add to this red onion, crushed almonds and whole cashew nuts.

Prepare a big saucepan with virgin olive oil and warm up. Add the veg mix and let it warm but not fry, so the oil stops sticking, but isn’t frying.

The quinoa, parsnip and sweet potato should finish cooking at the same time if you worked out the time offsets leaving the veg mix (but not ignoring) and making sure it’s not burning (not too hot, has enough oil and is stirred occasionally). Now throw in the parsnip and quinoa, then being careful not to burn you’re self, cut the parsnip in two, and strip off the skin, then cut into slithers. Throw the sweat potato into the mix and leave for a few minutes, stirring etc.

Then serve and enjoy, of course add salt and pepper and stuff to taste

Yum yum yum

“Every portrait that is painted with feeling is a portrait of the artist, not of the sitter.” – Oscar Wilde

Having been a dedicated photographer for many years, the same is true of photography. The photograph is the result of a meeting between person, subject and how the photographer was being in that moment. But mostly it is a manifestation of how that person was when they were taking the picture.

Copyright © 2008 by Russell Smithers

I have just finished watching an episode of South Pacific on BBC Television, and the two things that strike me are 1) the shots of earth from space and nature, and 2) some of the ways man has meddled in nature and upset the natural balance and harmony to bad effect. Nature is so beautiful, modern life distracts us, and mankind meddles in what it may never understand. We harness nature at our peril. We are part of nature not separate, and yet the way mankind arrogantly behaves and treats nature, is creating a man made bubble that must surly burst some day.

A friend (on Facebook) just introduced me to Fabian Perez, wow, what an awesome artist.

I love art because it’s a form of communication. The artist in creating the art say something about themselves, and most importantly, for what feelings, thoughts, inspirations and imaginations the art reveals to me, a voyeur of art and the inner realms. It helps me understand myself and feel different things, just like if you were to close your eyes and with attention caress the surface of some object, in order to understand it sensually.

Lets start with “Selling Pleasures“, I first saw this out of context and hadn’t seen the title of the picture, so my comments are based from that perspective. I like this picture because of the smile and ambiance. My imagination is sparked in the way taste buds reveal flavor when food is eaten. Whats happening around her and with her? If I were to meet her in that situation, what would she be like to chat with? This would be excellent to use in a writing class. Im sure time permitting I could write an entire short story around this one picture.

“Selling Pleasures II“, I love this one because the smile on the attractive face, combined with the posture and surroundings invokes feelings of happiness and intrigue, intrigue because im wondering what has caused her to feel that way? What would it be like to be involved in the social situation that precipitated that moment, and of course what happens next?

So here are some others I like;

• Sunflower – Soft natural gentleness with the added intrigue on what could she be feeling and thinking
• Flamenco Dancer – The mystery, what does she look like? how will she dance and express her self?
• Dancer in Red – Just the moment of interplay between possibly arriving and leaving
• Samurai – This represents visually, my inner strength, discernment and focus on whats important in life.
• Old Self Portrait – The picture says it all.

I also love modern art and sculpture, and of course, written art.

“She stood up, and I rose with her. Under the street lamp her green eyes were jewels of desire, wet with light. Her lips widened in a half-smile that was mine – a moment that was mine alone – and the beggar, my heart , began to hope and plead.”

Gregory David Roberts from the book Shantaram.

Awen Celtic Spirit is one of the most friendly and happening places you could go too. It’s not just a shop, it’s the dynamic culture around it and the friendly staff that make it more of an event than a shop.

Here are three web based resources for people who use KCML, KFORM and KDB.

1. A group on LinkedIn called The KCML Programming Language
2. Forums for the entire KCML tool set; www.kcmlhelp.co.uk
3. A group on Facebook; http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=83435884572

Hi

I have just started to read a book called Shantaram (Gregory David Roberts). The first paragraph is amazing, I get the feeling that this will be like Star Maker (Olaf Stapldon) not because of the content, but because the first paragraph in both books are awsom, and in Star Maker each page was no decent from the original greatness of the first paragraph. Maybe Shantaram will be like that, according to the reviews it will be. Third time lucky, he wrote this book 3 times in prison, 1000 pages (nearly), the first two copies the guards in his prison trashed. Amazing, I shall read on.

All the best
Russell

Last night I watched “South Pacific” (episode 1) on BB2 which is a “documentary series looking at the remote South Pacific islands” (www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00jq11g). This  episode looks at the  Anuta (pronounces anootoo) and the story of Easter Island. It has been my opinion for some time that Easter island is a history lesson the world is ignoring at it’s peril. This program demonstrated to me opposite ends of a spectrum of how man can choose to live.

The Easter islanders chose a competitive way of life. Different tribes on the island trying to out do each other by creating larger and larger stone statues. This behaviour used up all their trees which were a vital natural resource for them. Once a enough trees had been cut down for moving huge stone carvings, life on the isolated island became impossible for human peoples to live. The upshot was that the peoples of Easter Island died off, all because they allowed the ego to rule their culture.

The other end of the spectrum shows the Anutans (pronounced anootans) living on an area 1/6 of a sqaure mile in size, and has one of the highest population densities found. The have the largest variety of ways to fish. They succeed because there is no competition, there can’t be, the island is too small and there are too many, they all co-operate and live as one harmonious group of peoples, living in harmony with their environment.

As a global culture which of these two do you think more closely resembles our current global culture? and, which one do you think we should attempt to be more like? I know which way I would choose to live. I think our current global culture is in danger of going the way of Easter Island.

We could call this potential disaster Easter Planet!!!

Copyright © 2009 by Russell Smithers