Posts

Showing posts from August, 2006

Stringing the chords

Like Norah Jones would say...... "Here we go again....". Yesterday was my first day at the guitar class. With some motivation from my wife I finally decided to get out there and try it out. So I signed up for these lessons at an adult education centre. Four years ago there was a similar crisis in my life. I felt the need for music and went and bought myself a keyboard. I know you are wondering why I didn’t ust go and buy myself a music system instead. Something I wonder too. I was primarily inspired by a colleague of mine who used to play it effortlessly. Watching him play made be a bit jealous of the fact that I couldn't play any instrument. So with his help I went and bought myself a second hand keyboard. That was followed by the self teaching books. A few days went by and the interest waned. I guess it was discouraging that I was not making any progress in understanding the notes at all. I would be able to play a couple of tunes but I knew within myself that they were

In defense of the church.

The other day I got into church about five minutes late for the regular Sunday service. The church was full and I was left standing at the back of the church. The service was pretty ordinary, and things were going along as usual until I noticed somebody standing next to me. This was an old lady probably in her sixties. She was standing with her two grown sons. Nothing out of the ordinary really except that both the sons appeared to be suffering from something that resembled Down's syndrome. She went about her prayers and the sons stood there probably unaware of thier surroundings. They sometimes sat on the floor, sometimes stood up, sometimes glanced around and always greeted people who were walking by with a big smile. And yet the lady was unmoved. She seemed completely comfortable with the antics of her grown sons. She would only instruct them to be mindful of the alter when the really important parts of the service came along. Whenever I argue about the churches stand on abortio

Stem cells for the church?

The catholic church has been ferociously against stem cell research and anything to do with harming an embryo. To its credit it has been extremely consistent with its stance on abortion, stem cell research, artificial birth and many more. But stem cell hits a perticularly raw nerve for a lot of people since the research is targeted at curing some of the most dihabilitating diseases that are known to man. So why is the church against it? Well for obvious reasons since the creating of a stem cell line essentially destroys the embryo and kills what could possibly have turned out to be a baby. A couple of days back researchers announced that they have found a way to develop cell lines from embryos without actually destroying the embryo. For various reasons including testing the health of the future baby, scientists have been separating out cells from an embryo for years. When the embryo initially multiplies it forms blastomeres. Scientists detach a single blastomere from the embryo and tes

Latte or oil?

I walked into Starbucks today and bought myself a latte. Flipped out my wallet and casually paid out a princely sum of $3. I actually felt pretty good being in the coffee shop and enjoyed the latte as well. The whole experience is enjoyable from the time you step into the coffee shop. I guess that is why I pay the $3 for my small cup of latte. I am rather satisfied with my explanation. I then go to the gas station to fill gas in my car. $3.04. good lord I used to pay $0.91 in 1998 as a poor student. What has the world come to? This is definitely the oil companies price gauging. That $55000 a second profit making oil companies. They all deserve to be taxed and punished for manipulating the market like this. Unbelievable! The irony is that even after contrasting the two purchases I still feel I am justified in my thought process. Oil is an essential commodity and cannot be priced like the Latte that I had earlier in the day. Oil is what the economy runs on. If the price of oil was set li

Opening the lair

When I read other blogs I am astonished at the amount of things they have to say to the world. The interest with which people follow blogs and the amount of opinions that are out there on just about anything. Fascinating. So here I am out to make a little space for myself too. I have nothing specific in mind right now but I will try and make in interesting reading. I will not claim to try and change the world. Maybe it might just turn out to be just a place were I read out my thoughts. Either way I welcome all of you to read (whoever actually finds thier way here) and post any comments you might have. Maybe you might answer the questions I have.