posted October 22, 2009 11:05 AM              

Little Girl Loves Aphex Twin

Aphex Twin "On"

Zappa "Peaches en Regalia"

posted March 16, 2010 03:47 PM            

I'm especially appreciative of your piece on "Karma and the Grace of God." I also have no qualms of telling my Grace of God stories. In fact, I rather enjoy the often silent reactions I receive from people. Hopefully, I am igniting their own contemplative process.

I wish only great things for you!

Ecclesiasticus 42:23
O how desirable are all his works, and what we can know, is but as a spark!

posted March 17, 2010 03:57 AM              

Thank you both
for your beautiful words.

posted March 17, 2010 06:59 AM            

To qualify you must have 5 or more of the following...

Has a grandiose sense of self-importance (e.g., exaggerates achievements and talents, expects to be recognized as superior without commensurate achievements)

Is preoccupied with fantasies of unlimited success, power, brilliance, beauty, or ideal love

Believes that he or she is "special" and unique and can only be understood by, or should associate with, other special or high-status people (or institutions)

Requires excessive admiration

Has a sense of entitlement, i.e., unreasonable expectations of especially favorable treatment or automatic compliance with his or her expectations

Is interpersonally exploitative, i.e., takes advantage of others to achieve his or her own ends

Lacks empathy: Is unwilling to recognize or identify with the feelings and needs of others

Is often envious of others or believes others are envious of him or her

Shows arrogant, haughty behaviors or attitudes

These people are also referred to as emotional vampires.

posted March 18, 2010 02:32 PM              

John Tavener's "Mother of God"

The Parable of the Prodigal Son from "Jesus of Nazareth"

posted May 15, 2010 05:18 AM              

The melancholic-choleric is a leader with the potential to accomplish great works. However, where the choleric-melancholic is driven by the challenge and the opportunity, the melancholic-choleric is inspired more by the nobility of the task. The introverted nature of the melancholic, combined with the focused and unempathic nature of the choleric, can result in an individual who is highly motivated by noble ideals (even humanitarian ones), but who prefers to work alone, rather than with people. The melancholic side of both temperament mixtures results in the project being organized, ethical, and high-minded, while the choleric aspect is the driving and demanding force.

If you are melancholic-choleric, you are somewhat less pragmatic (or utilitarian) than a pure choleric, just as persevering and determined, and with a greater emphasis on the ideal. Likely to be motivated by the most noble and demanding of causes, you are capable of founding a humanitarian society, composing a symphony, founding a school, or discovering a cure. You are organized, perfectionist, introspective, driven, and moody (though less so than a pure melancholic). You will be less active than a choleric-melancholic and less extraverted, more internally focused.

But your weaknesses include a tendency to excessive self-criticism and criticism of others, being dismissive or overly judgmental, exhibiting a tendency to self-absorption, and possessing an untrustful and controlling nature. You tend to be inflexible, can bear grudges for a long time and may be prone to discouragement. A melancholic-choleric who is not attentive to his spiritual life, and does not keep his eye assiduously on the truly important things of life can become a cross to those around him, through his nit-picking, perfectionism, disdain, bitterness, resentfulness, spitefulness when crossed, and even haughtiness.

If your temperament is melancholic-choleric, for a better understanding of your temperament it is recommended that you read the full descriptions of the melancholic and choleric.

posted May 16, 2010 02:47 AM              

That's why I'm easy
I'm easy like Sunday morning
That's why I'm easy
I'm easy like Sunday morning
Because I'm easy
Easy like Sunday morning
Because I'm easy
Easy like Sunday morning

by lionel richie

posted May 16, 2010 03:26 AM              

In the philosophy of Arthur Schopenhauer, a genius is someone in whom intellect predominates over "will" much more than within the average person. In Schopenhauer's aesthetics, this predominance of the intellect over the will allows the genius to create artistic or academic works that are objects of pure, disinterested contemplation, the chief criterion of the aesthetic experience for Schopenhauer. Their remoteness from mundane concerns means that Schopenhauer's geniuses often display maladaptive traits in more mundane concerns; in Schopenhauer's words, they fall into the mire while gazing at the stars.

"Talent hits a target no one else can hit; Genius hits a target no one else can see."

— Arthur Schopenhauer

In the philosophy of Immanuel Kant, genius is the ability to independently arrive at and understand concepts that would normally have to be taught by another person. For Kant, originality was the essential character of genius. This genius is a talent for producing ideas which can be described as non-imitative. Kant's discussion of the characteristics of genius is largely contained within the Critique of Judgement and was well received by the Romantics of the early 19th century.

In the philosophy of David Hume, the way society perceives genius is similar to the way society perceives the ignorant. Hume states that a person with the characteristics of a genius is looked at as a person disconnected from society, as well as a person who works remotely, at a distance, away from the rest of the world...

In the philosophy of Nietzsche, genius is merely the context which leads us to consider someone a genius. In Twilight of the Idols, Nietzsche writes,

"Great men, like great epochs, are explosive material in whom tremendous energy has been accumulated; their prerequisite has always been, historically and physiologically, that a protracted assembling, accumulating, economizing and preserving has preceded them -- that there has been no explosion for a long time."

[— Friedrich Nietzsche]

In this way, Nietzsche follows in the line of German Idealism.

posted May 16, 2010 04:24 AM              

A sage is enlightened by the words of a fool,
but a fool is confused by the words of a sage.

You have to love Dostoyevski, that rambling, boiling, barreling genius. The characters he created are fuller, and more interesting, than many of the people you meet. And so many of them, like their creator, burn with a heart on fire, anxious, not for salvation, but for sainthood.

If I love only the ones closest to me, let me gather everyone into my heart.

I don't think I'm above them. I just think their ceiling is my floor.

Can we fix our hearts on a single object, person, or ideal? Perhaps. But can we fix them on the Whole? How do we fix them? Where do we drive the nails? Who wants to hang on the cross?

Where God ends, the true religious life of man begins. God has done His part, so that we may do ours. He is incomplete, so that we may choose either to curse Him, or to get on with the business of living and healing one another. We blame God until we learn to take responsibility for the things we wrongly believe to be His concerns. Our real gripe is not with our Creator, but with ourselves. When we do what we think God should've done, there's nothing left undone, and nothing left to do.

posted May 16, 2010 04:41 AM              

A delicious hunger inspires the seeker.
The golden belly is always fed, and never full.

There are thoughts that disappear into the heart,
where only a lover may follow them.

We are haunted by the ghosts of idle hours passed,
and guided by the spirits of hours well spent.

Women have flowers. Men have women.

How fragile is the crystal cup? How frail, the age'd vine?
With just a word, the dream is cut -- and all who dream it die!

The Virgin wears blue because the sky is blue.
Her shawl is white because clouds are white.
She is holy, too, because they are.

To be thankful for your blessings
is the highest blessing you receive.

Even if the whole universe refuted it,
Christ alone would be proof of God's Love.

I have always been a huge fan of Christianity.
One day it occured to me, "Maybe I'm a Christian."

Truth is always just beyond the thing you are looking at.

Do unto animals as you would have God do unto you.

Animals are children who never grow up.

There are more inventors than there are
people who allow themselves to invent.

Many people have children as a substitute
for releasing their inner child.

If they control the drugs you take,
they control the thoughts you think.

Some won't drink, but want a drunk.

For men of action, simplicity is character;
for men of thought, it is suicide.

My passion is tame.
It's my reason that's wild.

Courage is ripeness of will.

The watering of your favorite virtue
brings the flowering of all the virtues.

There is one philosophy: Philosophize!

What we call the universal is another particular.

There is nothing deeper than an apple. Scratch that.
There is nothing deeper than an apple -- given away.