Sunday, May 26, 2013

cloud escort

cloud escort
raining on me with every step
large sparse droplets
wetting my hair and darkening my jeans
what does this all mean?
there's no double rainbows
or yellow umbrellas
just grey skies
a boy
and a song is his heart

This cloud totally followed me as I walked to church last night.  I like walking in the rain BUT only walking home in the rain.  Walking to somewhere in the rain just means you get to be wet when everyone else is probably dry because they took their dinosaur-powered boxes... haha.

I wanted to write about rain because I wanted to share two thoughts I had about rain as it has been raining here quite a bit lately.  I would bet that more umbrellas are thrown away when it's raining then when it's sunny.  That's quite contrary to what I know about supply and demand but I guess umbrellas only break when it's raining.  My second thought is that whenever it rains, I always wish I'd spent more money on my umbrella.  With even a slight breeze, I feel my umbrella doubt its desire to remain umbrella shaped.  Where does one buy a confident umbrella?  Peace out.

Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Twin Primes

We belong together
There are no factors
Alone in a sea of products
We are twin primes
Unique but not all that special
I'm not trying to be adversarial
You couldn't picture us visually
Our population is infinity

I wanted to write something super lame today.  Yesterday I came across a story about how this dude, Yitang Zhang, mathematically proved that for N < 70 million, there are an infinite number of paired primes that differ by N.  Twin primes are primes that differ by 2. e.g., 3 and 5, 11 and 13.  Although there are supposedly an infinite number of twin primes, the distance between these twin primes gets larger and larger until they can barely see each other.  It's an interesting concept.  It sorta reminds me of the imagery used in C. S. Lewis' "The Great Divorce" and how people in hell just keep moving further and further apart from each other because they can't stand being close to other people... like I said, it "sorta" reminds me of that.  Peace out.

Monday, May 20, 2013

Investments

I drew a line
and took it back unsure of the angle
I threw a ball
and it came up short 
because my muscles lacked the memory
I tried to add
but was forced to subtract to make the bottom line look right
I practiced all these skills for a night
and it has yet to pay off

I'm currently listening to an audiobook about basic economics.  (Last week, I had someone search in google for "poems about conditional statement" and it lead the user to my poem "conditional statements"... haha.  Now I will have something for "poem about economics".)  Anyways, I think the author is in love with "market forces" but I am learning some cool things here and there as I listen to it while running or working out.

Something that stuck out to me so far was the idea of recouping initial investments.  When I was in Paris all those years ago and Montreal some years ago, I saw artists on the street that were drawing portraits for quite a lot of money.  I'm not sure why both cities I'm referencing are french, but whatever. I remember thinking, "wow, it would be nice to get paid $X dollars for such a short amount of work".  It only takes the artists a few minutes to do the drawing, but it took them years to develop the eyes and hands to be able to draw.  In the same way other professionals and athletes must invest in their skills before they can make the big dollar for what looks like easy/short work.

It begs the question: "what should I invest in?"  I dunno.  I think the world would be such a different place if everyone knew their answer to this personal question.  Peace out.

Monday, May 6, 2013

prince's island

hot sun
rolled up sleeves
ice cream melting on the sidewalk
went for a walk today
prince's island
runners of all varying degrees
pounding pavement
wearing out knees
buskers singing for change
but things always stay the same

Went with a co-worker for a walk today along the river.  It was the first real hot day in Calgary and people were out in force trying to enjoy it.  I should have changed into my runners.  My toes hurt from my dress shoes. :(  I don't ever really walk in them. Peace out.

Sunday, May 5, 2013

dangerous

don't trust the smart, beautiful blonde they said
she's dangerous
her hair a mess and finger nails painted black
i lacked the will to divert my eyes
i tried and i tried but failed
i couldn't capitalize on that split second of time
when my mind's alarmed sounded
i should have picked up my things
but instead
i looked for a ring on her finger

This was not what I intended to write about at all today.  When I was walking to church yesterday, I had this idea to write about forgetting things so that you learn them again from the start... without any bad habits that you may have picked up along the way.  Something about not trusting yourself and starting fresh again.  I think this piece was a result of watching too many Ed Sheeran videos today... like 3.

Lately, I've been thinking about going back to the basics.  Maybe even do some guitar drills daily or something.  That's the problem with being self taught: you pick up bad habits and no one's there to correct you.  I wish I could lose some of my bad guitar habits.  I've recently wanted to get back into drawing and start painting so I was watching some videos online for some drills that would help beginners.  Apparently, I have to hold my pencil differently.  Haha.  I wish myself luck holding a pencil differently.  I even bought a book a few months ago about how to improve your penmanship.  I've started noticing people writing "incorrectly" and judge them for it.  I want to explain to them that their penmanship is poor because the way they write their Bs is wrong.

People learn wrong things as they grow up.  They start believing things that people tell them about themselves that may or may not be true.  Wouldn't it be great if we could start all over?  With the wisdom we have with age?

BTW.  They usually have a ring.  Peace out.

Thursday, May 2, 2013

Linger

A girl smiled at me today I think
I might have accidentally given her a wink
To deflect her perplexed look
I held up a book
as if I was proud that I could read
or that reading books made me special

Why am I still thinking about her?
I guess some thoughts just like to linger

I love Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.  I started watching it on Netflix the night before I left for Troy.  I only got about 25 minutes in, but it was enough to see one of my favourite lines from the movie... which is easy because I think it comes super early in the movie.  "Why do I fall in love with every woman I see who shows me the least bit of attention?"  Was in my 2nd meeting with this girl at work today.  Found out that she went to the UofM.  Probably co-existed there for a few years.  I wonder if that's why she looked familiar to me.  Or maybe I'm just deflecting.  Peace out.