Dingle Peninsula

I took that picture in Summer 2006 - Conor Pass - Dingle Peninsula

Falling Slowly

I don't know you
But I want you
All the more for that
Words fall through me
And always fool me
And I can't react
And games that never amount
To more than they're meant
Will play themselves out

Take this sinking boat and point it home
We've still got time
Raise your hopeful voice you have a choice
You've made it now

Falling slowly, eyes that know me
And I can't go back
Moods that take me and erase me
And I'm painted black
You have suffered enough
And warred with yourself
It's time that you won

Take this sinking boat and point it home
We've still got time
Raise your hopeful voice you had a choice
You've made it now

Take this sinking boat and point it home
We've still got time
Raise your hopeful voice you had a choice
You've made it now
Falling slowly sing your melody
I'll sing along

Amazing song by Glen Hansard - She actually got the Oscar for 'Falling Slowly'

For the eyes only

I took these pictures last year during my trip in Connemara.

Older chests

Older chests reveal themselves
Like a crack in a wall
Starting small, and grow in time
And we all seem to need the help
Of someone else
To mend that shelf
of too many books
Read me your favourite line

Papa went to other lands
And he found someone who understands
The ticking, and the western man's need to cry
He came back the other day, yeah you know
Some things in life may change
And some things
They stay the same

Like time, there's always time
On my mind
So pass me by, I'll be fine
Just give me time

Older gents sit on the fence
With their cap in hand
Looking grand
They watch their city change
Children scream, or so it seems,
Louder than before
Out of doors, into stores with bigger names
Mama tried to wash their faces
But these kids they lost their graces
And daddy lost at the races too many times

She broke down the other day, yeah you know
Some things in life may change
And some things they stay the same

Like time, time, there's always time
On my mind
So pass me by, I'll be fine
Just give me time,
Time, there's always time
On my mind
Pass me by, I'll be fine
Just give me time

Damien Rice - O

Back in the old days...

Swing...

I can hear laughs far far away. And, I want to swing, like a child. No need to think of tomorrow. The wind is pushing me and the Sun is rising. I keep swinging. My eyes are closed now.
Fr.

'Le Pont Mirabeau' by Guillaume Apollinaire

Sous le pont Mirabeau coule la Seine
Et nos amours
Faut-il qu'il m'en souvienne
La joie venait toujours après la peine

Vienne la nuit sonne l'heure
Les jours s'en vont je demeure

Les mains dans les mains restons face à face
Tandis que sous
Le pont de nos bras passe
Des éternels regards l'onde si lasse

Vienne la nuit sonne l'heure
Les jours s'en vont je demeure

L'amour s'en va comme cette eau courante
L'amour s'en va
Comme la vie est lente
Et comme l'Espérance est violente

Vienne la nuit sonne l'heure
Les jours s'en vont je demeure

Passent les jours et passent les semaines
Ni temps passé
Ni les amours reviennent
Sous le pont Mirabeau coule la Seine

Vienne la nuit sonne l'heure
Les jours s'en vont je demeure

Guillaume Apollinaire (1880 - 1918)

English translation by Richard Wilbur

Under the Mirabeau Bridge there flows the Seine
Must I recall
Our loves recall how then
After each sorrow joy came back again

Let night come on bells end the day
The days go by me still I stay

Hands joined and face to face let's stay just so
While underneath
The bridge of our arms shall go
Weary of endless looks the river's flow

Let night come on bells end the day
The days go by me still I stay

All love goes by as water to the sea
All love goes by
How slow life seems to me
How violent the hope of love can be


Let night come on bells end the day
The days go by me still I stay

The days the weeks pass by beyond our ken
Neither time past
Nor love comes back again
Under the Mirabeau Bridge there flows the Seine

Let night come on bells end the day
The days go by me still I stay

'Ma Bohême' by Arthur Rimbaud

Je m'en allais, les poings dans mes poches crevées
Mon paletot devenait aussi idéal.
J'allais sous le ciel,Muse, et j'étais ton féal:

Mon unique culotte avait un large trou.
Petit Poucet rêveur, j'égrenais dans ma course
Des rimes.Mon auberge était à la grande- ourse
Mes étoiles au ciel avaient un doux frou-frou.

Et je les écoutais,assis au bord des routes,
Ces bons soirs de septembre oû je sentaisdes gouttes
De rosée à mon front,comme un vin de vigueur

Oû, rimant au milieu des ombres fantastiques,
Comme des lyres je tirais les élastiques
De mes souliers blessés,un pied contre mon coeur!

English translation

I went off with my hands in my torn coat pockets;
my overcoat too was becoming ideal;

I travelled beneath the sky, Muse! and I was your vassel;
oh dear me! what marvellous loves I dreamed of!

My only pair of breeches had a big hole in them.
Stargazing Tom Thumb, I sowed rhymes along the way.

My tavern was at the Sign of the Great Bear.
My stars in the sky rustled softly.

And I listened to them, sitting on the road-sides on those pleasant
September evenings while I felt drops of dew on my forehead like
vigorous wine;

and while, rhyming among the fantastical shadows, I plucked like the
strings of a lyre the elastics of my tattered boots, one foot close to my
heart!

Arthur Rimbaud - Fantaisie Oct. 1870

High Flight

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds, — and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of — wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there,
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air...

Up, up the long, delirious burning blue
I've topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or ever eagle flew —
And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.

— John Gillespie Magee, Jr
No 412 squadron, RCAF
Killed 11 December 1941


The poem, High Flight, has over the years become a mantra to pilots of all generations.

I wish, I would have written this song...

And so it is
Just like you said it would be
Life goes easy on me
Most of the time
And so it is
The shorter story
No love, no glory
No hero in her sky

I can't take my eyes off of you
I can't take my eyes off you
I can't take my eyes off of you
I can't take my eyes off you
I can't take my eyes off you
I can't take my eyes...

And so it is
Just like you said it should be
We'll both forget the breeze
Most of the time
And so it is
The colder water
The blower's daughter
The pupil in denial

I can't take my eyes off of you
I can't take my eyes off you
I can't take my eyes off of you
I can't take my eyes off you
I can't take my eyes off you
I can't take my eyes...

Did I say that I loathe you?
Did I say that I want to
Leave it all behind?

I can't take my mind off of you
I can't take my mind off you
I can't take my mind off of you
I can't take my mind off you
I can't take my mind off you
I can't take my mind...
My mind...my mind...
'Til I find somebody new

Damien Rice - The Blower's daughter

'Bringing down the house' by Ben Mezrich

'Bringing Down the House': The Inside Story of Six MIT Students Who Took Vegas for Millions is a book by Ben Mezrich about a group of MIT card counters commonly known as the MIT Blackjack Team.

While represented as non-fiction by Mezrich and Free Press, the book contains significant fictional elements. Many of the key events propelling the drama did not occur at all; others were exaggerated greatly.

Synopsis

The book's main character is Kevin Lewis, an MIT graduate who was invited to join the MIT Blackjack Team in 1993. Lewis was recruited by two of the team's top players, Jason Fisher and Andre Martinez. The team was financed by a colorful character named Micky Rosa, who had organized at least one other team to play the Vegas strip. This new team was the most profitable yet. Personality conflicts and card counting deterrent efforts at the casinos eventually ended this incarnation of the MIT Blackjack Team.

Controversy

Boston Magazine and Boston Globe Articles

In its March, 2008 edition, Boston magazine ran an article investigating long-lingering claims that the book was substantially fictional. The Boston Globe followed up with a more detailed story on April 6, 2008.

Though published as a factual account and originally categorized under "Current Events" in the hardcover Free Press edition, Bringing Down the House "is not a work of 'nonfiction' in any meaningful sense of the word," according to Globe reporter Drake Bennett. Mezrich not only exaggerated freely, according to sources for both articles, but invented parts of the story out of whole cloth. Some pivotal events in the book never happened to anyone.

Disclaimer and Leeway

The book contains the following disclaimer:

The names of many of the characters and locations in this book have been changed, as have certain physical characteristics and other descriptive details. Some of the events and characters are also composites of several individual events or persons.

This disclaimer allows broad leeway to take real events and real people and alter them in any way the author sees fit. But Mezrich went further, both articles say.

Bogus Events

The following events described in Bringing Down the House did not occur:

* Underground Chinatown Casino. The underground casino used for Kevin's final test (pp. 55-59) is entirely imaginary, according to Mike Aponte and Dave Irvine.
* Use of Strippers to Cash Out Chips. Also according to Aponte and Irvine, strippers were never recruited to cash out the team's chips, as described on pp. 149-153.
* Shadowy Investors. The "shadowy investors" first referenced on p. 3 are a major source of intrigue for Mezrich's story, but did not exist, according to Aponte and Irvine. The investors in the team included the players, one of Kaplan's college roommates, a few of Kaplan's Harvard Business School section mates, and Kaplan's friends and family members.
* Physical Assault. The scene in which Fisher is beaten up (pp. 221-225) is imaginary. "No one was ever beaten up," according to Aponte and Irvine.
* Player Forced to Swallow Chip. In a scene on pp. 215-218, Micky Rosa recounts a story in which Vincent Cole -- a private investigator for Plymouth Investigations -- forces a member of a count team to swallow a purple casino chip while detaining the player in a back room. Sources in the Globe described the story as "implausible," and none recalled having heard it.
* Theft of $75,000. One MIT player, Kyle Schaffer, did lose $20,000 when it was stolen from a desk drawer. Mezrich inflates the amount of the theft by 375% and turns the desk drawer into a safe pried dramatically from a wall. Moreover, the robbery scene (pp. 240-244) creates the impression that a team member or Vincent Cole was the likely culprit. Schaffer says the theft was likely unrelated to blackjack, noting that $100,000 or more in casino chips also inside the drawer was left untouched ("strongly suggesting that the thieves had no idea of their worth").
* Forcible Entry to Kevin Lewis's Apartment. Kevin hurries from the scene of the robbery to his own apartment (pp. 244-245) to make sure all is well. Nothing has been stolen, but Kevin finds "a single purple casino chip sitting on his kitchen table." The implication is that the chip is a calling card left by Vincent Cole as a warning to Kevin. This scene again asks readers to accept that the chip-swallowing story is factual (or at least was actually in circulation among MIT counters as a myth).

French language

The French language (in French: français, pronounced /frawn-SAY/) is a Romance language, that was originally spoken in France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and Switzerland, that about 300 million people speak as a native or a second language, Like most Romance languages, its nouns have gender that are divided into male and female words.

In ancient times, the Celts lived in what is now France . In those days, the land was called Gaul (Gallia). The Romans spread their power to Gallia and made Gallia their provinces. Because the Romans spoke Latin, the local people learned Latin and began to speak it. Their own language, Gaulish, tended to be spoken less often, although Breton is a language still spoken today in the part of France called Brittany, that came from the old Celtic language.

After the Roman Empire fell and Germanic peoples swarmed the countryside, Latin was changing quickly; and in medieval France it changed into two accents or languages: langue d'oc and langue d'oïl. They both mean "language of yes", because oc was the word for "yes" in the south, and oïl meant "yes" in the north. Today, the word for yes in French is oui, pronounced like "we".

Langue d'oc is now called Occitan, and it is still spoken by many people in Southern France.

Here are some examples of French words and sentences :
Word Meaning
Oui Yes
Bonjour Hello (formal)
Salut Hi (informal)
Merci Thank you
Merci Beaucoup Thank you very much
Monsieur Sir, mister
Madame Madam, Mrs.
Homme Man
Femme Woman
Fille Girl
Garçon Boy
Poulet Chicken
Formidable Wonderful
En vacances On vacation
Eau Water
Manger To eat
Parlez-vous français? Do you speak French?
Je parle français. I speak French.
Comment allez-vous? How are you?
Je t'aime. I love you.
Où sont les toilettes s'il vous plaît ? Where are the toilets, please ?
Comment t'appelles-tu? What is your name?
Je m'appelle... (your name) My Name is... (your name)

Many French words are like English words (Because English took many words from Norman, a language very similar to French).

Places where French is spoken on the world. Dark blue countries have French as official language.
Source: Wikipedia

PARISien

A day with a Parisian skateboarder (Soy Panday). Music by Ohia "Farewell Transmission"

Emoticons (^_^),),),),)

An emoticon is a symbol or combination of symbols used to convey emotional content in written or message form. A list of some of the most common emoticons follows. As displayed here, they all use a relatively consistent form, but each of them can also be transformed by being rotated, having the hyphen omitted, and so on.

Icon	Meaning	Icon	Meaning
:-)	classic smile with nose	:'-)	happy crying (generally associated with mockery)
:-(	classic sad with nose	|-O	yawn
:)	classic smile without nose	:-D	laughter (originally 'Big smile', often used as that as well)
:(	classic sad without nose	%-( or :-S	confused
8)	smiley with glasses without nose (or 'Big eyes' smile)	=)	'smiley-face' eyes without nose
:-B	buck-tooth	B-)	Batman / smiley with glasses
:-#	with braces	T.T	crying, blinking
_-_	Asleep	:-@	scream
>:3	A lion, or an evil smile	:@	what??? (seriously?)
:-|	indifferent	:-0	surprised
>O	"Ouch"	:0]	smiling
;0]	winking and smiling at same time	;-)	winking smile with nose
;0	winking with open mouth	;)	winking smile without nose
(:-D	gossip, blabbermouth	`:-)	one eyebrow raised
8D	Awesome	:P	tongue sticking out (silly, or feeling lousy)
:-&	tongue tied	O:-)	I'm an angel
c^:3	Left Mouse	:-X	My lips are sealed, or "mum."
~:>	chicken	:-K	Fangs sticking out.
x-(	Angry, bummed out	=0	surprised
:-*	Kiss	XD or xD	Bubbly; happy; laughing hysterically
;:^)B>	Beard with buck teeth and nose:	(::[]::)	bandaid; offering help or support

Some funny ones:

._____. whale face (my favorite one)

(^_^),),),),) happy caterpillar

-^;-;^- bat

=^..^= cat

@}->-- rose/flower

La Ritournelle by Sebastien Tellier

Haïkus

First post... hopefully, there will be many more to come !!! I am warning you. What I am going to post will be an accumulation of stuff about almost everything from the latest results of the Peruvian soccer league ;-) to the recipe to make bread. A bit of science, philosophy, politics, gastronomy, photography, comics, literature. I might include some posts in French and German as well !! That will be the opportunity for some of you to practice the language of Victor Hugo and Goethe. First topic:

Haïkus or also called Zen poems

I warned you...it is going to be eclectic and surprising. If I can make you discover something new, then that will make me happy. New does not necessarily mean useful !!!

Zen stories are usually very short but incredibly deep with a clear message. Here is one of my favorite Haïkus. For information, Haïkus are Zen poems, following the 5-7-5 structure with seventeen syllabes.

Buddha of snow

Samuko to mo ro
hi ni na atari
yuki botoke

Cold you may be
but don't warm yourself by the fire,
Buddha of snow

Yamazi Sokan (1458-1546)

The story appears very trivial...but have look at it more closely. With clear influences from Zen Buddhism, there is an emphasis between the snow Buddha and the fire.

'The images themselves are also very simple, yet powerful. Simplicity is also one of the rules of Haiku, which state that there should be no more than two or three simple and immediate images present and that these should be able to be related to first hand experience.

There are two parts to the Haiku, the last line surprises the reader by telling us that the poet is talking not only to a Buddha but also to one made of snow. The poem also contains a kigo, or season word.

The use of alliteration and imagery has a powerful effect that adds to the feeling of simplicity (in line with the concept of ‘simplicity and momentariness’ in Zen Buddhism, which stresses that any given moment in time should be appreciated).

The use of the word ‘snow’ is especially powerful here, and also might relate to the idea of ‘change and impermanence’ in Buddhism, as the snow will not last as winter turns to spring.

The poem also conveys a sense of ‘sabi’ – the link between the simple and the profound that is common in Haiku poetry.' From the website: openlearn.open.ac.uk

Another famous and sarcastic Haiku:

O snail
Climb Mount Fuji,
But slowly, slowly!

Issa

PS: Average snail speed: 100 m/h

Mount Fuji height: 3373 m

Two other good Zen poets/philosophers: Bassui Tokusho and Ryokan.

So, that's it ! Now, you know, what Haïku means !!!!