October 28, 2004
Stale cat fiction
Over at Antipasto, cat theories have been spawning and cross-breeding, beginning with: Theories about the black cat ...
Posted by sniffles at 10:51 PM
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The hidden treasure
Vaguely wandering through the McGill University book fair the other day, I found myself in the section of religious literature, so I rummaged around to see if I can find something on Judaism, my interest recently piqued by having read "Rodinsky's Room". This proved to be a near-impossible task given the sheer volume of Christian books. However, I did uncover a little gem called "72 Parables from Bagdad", an adapted collection of teachings by Chacham Yosef Chayim, which is turning out to be an enjoyable read. I thought I'd share one of my favourites:
A Talmud scholar was traveling on a ship bearing a group of merchants to a distant city. Thinking he was also a businessman, the merchants asked, "What kind of merchandise do you have with you?"
"Mine is invisible," he answered.
"Come on, let's see it!" they demanded.
"When we land I'll show it to you," said the scholar.
The merchants searched for the "invisible merchandise" among the packages and crates in the hold, but to no avail. Whereupon they started to make fun of the scholar.
The ship came into port at last, and the passengers had to go through customs with all their merchandise. The customs officials helped themselves to so much of the merchants' food and clothing that there was not even enough left for dinner or for a change of clothes.
Meanwhile, the scholar went straight to the city synagogue and it was not long before the Jewish community had him teaching and lecturing. The local people had great respect for him, and undertook to support him in style.
The merchants who had been his fellow passengers came to him and begged him to forgive their earlier disrespect. And they asked him to teach them Torah, for they now understood the value of the treasure that is hidden in the mind and the heart and which no one can steal.
Posted by sniffles at 10:28 PM
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October 26, 2004
What are you doing?
Stealing your soul, kitty!
Posted by sniffles at 09:21 PM
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October 21, 2004
Abort, retry, fail?
Late this afternoon, I thought I'd sit in on a talk at McGill University given by a representative from Google designed to recruit Computer Science graduates.
Initially, they appeared to be having some problems hooking up the laptop to the projector. So the speaker asked the audience, "Anyone know Windows here?" Some laughter rippled through the room full of soon-to-be-computer-science-grads. When he didn't get an answer, he ventured, "What do you do when ctrl-alt-delete doesn't work?"
Posted by sniffles at 09:45 PM
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October 19, 2004
Sometimes ...
This happened to me over instant messaging one day:
dude: i am a photographer in kingston
me: i'm a web developer in montreal, but i also like photography.
dude: ok
dude: i do nude forms
me: i do poetry
dude: nice
dude: i concentrate on blacks and asians
me: which means i take it you are neither
dude: correct
Oh well, okay.
Posted by sniffles at 10:21 PM
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October 15, 2004
Japan's 48th prefecture
The 48th prefecture:
The long Pacific archipelago that is Japan is divided into prefectures. Not unlike provinces, only much smaller, each has a government with elected officials that manage the affairs of the region. Officially there are 47 prefectures, but as everyone in Japan knows, there is one more: the 48th prefecture – Hawaii.
(from CBC News Viewpoint)
Posted by sniffles at 09:21 AM
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Sheep news
Farmers ridicule US wool ban:
Abercrombie and Fitch, with 749 stores and $US1.2 billion ($A1.66 billion) in annual revenue, introduced the boycott this week after the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) threatened to conduct a campaign against the retailer.
The controversy relates to both the live export of sheep and mulesing - a practice in which flesh is sliced-off from under the sheep to prevent the disease 'flystrike'. The sheep are not given painkillers during the process.
Honestly, I think there are other things (such as people) Howard needs to stop being cruel to ...
(Image and quotation from The Age)
Posted by sniffles at 09:02 AM
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October 05, 2004
Pebble
"You can tell autumn is on its way when the mornings are cold but the days still remain warm," he'd said.
But autumn has already begun, taking larger and larger strides into winter. The trees aren't fooled; they shuffle their yellowing tresses, shedding a little here, a little there, getting ready for the change in seasons. I feast my eyes on the greenery and remaining flowers which survived the summer, having travelled from winter to almost-winter, save for the flowering of southern sakura and deep purple magnolias, seven days in the tropics and the steamroll of late summer humidity in Tokyo.
The girl on the other table wears the same ring as yours, on the same finger, though in gold. She struggles to cut her steak, having long, manicured nails that didn't quite allow her a steady grip on her fork.
Late afternoon sun smiles through the leaves of dying tropical plants, rendering them a pale translucent green. The girl and her beau clink their glasses of sangria which look a little too pink.
Children in the playground, kicking up tiny sandstorms. I try to push away the thought that in some weeks the entire landscape will be transformed. White. It will be all white. The girl and her beau share a cigarette, curling dirty grey smoke into the air.
The thought is somehow daunting and comforting. Time is passing, wounds heal, old creases are ironed out as new ones form and things eventually move along and work themselves out. I remember the time my mother seemed to be more conscious of this.
"看开了", she said, after telling me some stories of her own troubled past. Certain things are not worth holding on to. She showed me the plants in her garden where we had both taken refuge, told me each of their stories over coffee and biscuits I found a little too sweet.
The sangria is as pink as the cardigan the girl tied around her waist, preferring to slink around in her spaghetti-strap singlet. She and her beau suddenly got up and left in a hurry, their glasses half-emptied, leaving pink shadows on the table.
I guess the afternoon must be moving on.
People keep asking me: "What made you move up here to Canada?" Australia is supposedly all sun and beach, you see — some kind of heaven, in other words. Well, if you disregard the wind from Antartica. Lately I've been telling people I'm trying to escape the hole in the ozone layer over the South Pole.
Posted by sniffles at 11:04 PM
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October 02, 2004
Tokyo's beating 'art
Warm congratulations to Olivier and Paul for hatching Tokyo Art Beat! Well done, fellas. :)
Posted by sniffles at 12:44 PM
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