a day in the life of piano monkey

*from flowmarket, designed by danish designer mad hagstrom at dansk design center;  http://www.theflowmarket.com/site.php with less than a week to christmas, there are some funny parallels i have been observing here in britain-canada-united states.  it's this thing called 'need to shop.'  i like buying things, especially if i have been looking for them with great sense of futility.  discovering amazon.com was something of a wonder and some sort of sign from god, because i would know that now, the world's merchants are on tip of my fingers!  with my first pay cheque from lincoln, i bought a tivoli raio, henry kloss model two, yes, from amazon, because there was a nil chance that i would find a tivoli dealer in the local area. the month after that, with my second pay cheque, i bought the subwooper for it.  and yep, ive been rugging them around home to home, as i traveled quite a bit since then. they have been the heart of my little dorm room, they have been...

a few thoughts during the days at the university as non-student and non-teacher.  it's a weird place to be a simple worker. as far as i am concerned, as skilled my work may be, for the social ranking, a casual employee falls somewhere between the regular employee (like the caretakers and office admins) and graduate assistants (as they are never in an objective position. thorny cushion really).  so you may be curious, how does monkey see the school social structure?  well, before i put it out there, i have to clarify that unlike the universities of the medieval period, the post-modern institution is... well, an institution. what is a university?  well, the word comes from the latin word universitas.  along with growth of towns, which made congregation of specialists and wanna-be-specialists possible, associations of various natures, much like guilds for tradesmen, came to existence.  the difference between the pre-medieval and medieval universities? one ma...

the world have been watching chilean miner rescue operation for weeks. and yes, it's a big relief that they are all out once again.  survival of thirty three roughneck miners in the depth of earth, only connection to the world as they know it by what can only be described as ephemeral means.  thousands praying, watching the rescue, forgetting their own suppers and tasks.  a human victory over seventy days of trial with no certainty for future. okay. i am being a bit sarcastic. but let me express my sincere relief on the completion of the rescue mission, if it was a bit tad dramatic (hence television worthy).  looks like all will be taken care by the government (at least for a bit), rejoining their families and the so-called-normal-life.  but it longer will be just normal life.  i am fully expecting at least several movie scripts and autobiographical book plans in transit ever since the case went global.  so why am i being so bitter on such joyous oc...

the world is a funny place in general. with all the different people and their views.  the influences and consequent confluences weaving in and out.  the only constant may be that nothing ever stays the same.  and more passionate or emotional one is related to the context of self, the feedbacks of the external world can be quite shocking, literally. often i think it would be very helpful for me to learn how to be oblivious to certain situations/phenomenons of life, as i understand that what i may/may not prefer is a personal opinion, that i can only see so far as i could, that what i believe is rightly acceptable/not is likely to be subjective. but one cannot help at times and i wish i could make my point with baseball bats at times.  that would be highly illegal.  and would be even more embarrassing IF i was wrong (as i am frequently changing my opinion on things all the time!) so it may as well be that i cannot go around bash people's kneecap...