There and Back Again

Spanish captain Iker Casillas and teammates celebrate after winning the UEFA EURO 2008 final between Germany and Spain at the Ernst Happel stadium in Vienna, Austria. (Image: © Daniel Dal Zennaro/epa/Corbis)

Pondering: Facing a mirror you see merely your own countenance; facing your child you finally understand how everyone else has seen you. (Daniel Raeburn)

One of the greatest songs ever written IMHO, and a great cover by one of my favorite bands of all time - Keane. (Sing it, Richard Hughes!)

Pondering: Aging is not ‘lost youth’ but a new stage of opportunity and strength. (Betty Friedan)

I am trying to get into the new Coldplay CD which I have been so excitied about for the past few weeks and it’s taking awhile. There are definitely songs that I instantly fell in love with - Lost and 42 - but the other songs aren’t registering that well especially Cemeteries of London. I doubt I’ll ever like that one.

On a different note but somewhat related to being lost, I am so lost at work. There is so much to do and learn, so much to stay on top off, so many new players I’ve never had to play with before, and so many things I would like to change but can’t. I’ve always enjoyed my work, always looked forward to going to work and getting things done albeit once in awhile, I wish I weren’t working and can sleep in some more.

Lately, I’ve been swimming with my head barely above water but I know it will get better soon. I will get better at this work, will know the ins and outs like the back of my hand. This stress I am feeling will soon be an easy stress to manage because I won’t be so new and lost.

Pondering: Just because your voice reaches halfway around the world doesn’t mean you are wiser than when it reached only to the end of the bar. (Edward R. Murrow)

Pondering: Tears fall in my heart like the rain on the town. (Paul Verlaine)

Showtime’s The Tudors Season 2 ended with a bang… I mean with a beheading. Poor little Anne Boleyn’s bad karma came full circle in tonight’s episode and her little head left her body while her father abandoned her and her husband prepared for his third marriage. What a way to go, regardless of how conniving she was. It was a very powerful episode, like most episodes have been this season but not as powerful - and painful - as the beheading of St. Thomas More in an earlier episode.

Who said this show was all about sex? It’s about violence, about drama and about treason too. All the spices of life. I can’t wait for season three now. Thank god, Henry Cavill’s character, Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, still has his head on. Cavill’s quite an eye-candy, if I may say so.

Pondering: I tend to live in the past because most of my life is there. (Herb Caen)

Coldplay performed for the first time, in a long time, at the MTV Movie Awards tonight. Let me just say, I CAN’T WAIT for the new CD and I can’t wait for the tour to reach our shores. I already have tickets to the Las Vegas show on July 19th and will be catching the San Jose show on July 24th too if I get lucky with tickets.

Bring it on, boys!

Pondering: When people meet me I think they’re surprised to find out I’m not always angst-ridden. (Martin L. Gore)

This one just cracked me up. Isn’t this just adorable?

Truly a replica of Martin L. Gore’s looks circa Playing the Angel tour in 2006. This gal created this and posted more pics in her Flickr site. Brilliant!

Pondering: “Take everything you like seriously, except yourself.” (Rudyard Kipling)
Listening to: And Your Bird Can Sing (The Beatles)

For the first time ever in my thirty four years of existence, I rode the ferris wheel. Pathetic, some would say. I’ve been on many rides but never the ferris wheel. I remember long time ago I started jotting down things I’d like to accomplish before I die and this was one of it. I can cross that off the list now…

I enjoyed it a lot - the feeling of going up and the fear of dropping that never really quite happens. You get a different perspective on things and life when you are suspended in air like that. Time seems to be of no relevance. The world below and all its little people don’t care about you and you don’t care about them. Up there, it’s just you and your thoughts and the wind kissing your face.

Pondering: Truth is beautiful, without doubt; but so are lies. (Ralph Waldo Emerson)

I had a very good morning walk today. To think, I started late; typically, I walk at 7:30 a.m. and be back at home around 8:15 a.m. but today I left the house at 8:00 a.m. As soon as I left my apartment, I thought about going back because I felt a raindrop on my cheek. It drizzled for awhile but it didn’t rain. It was cloudy and windy, but pleasantly warmer than I thought it would be.

I was a quarter of a mile into my one-mile landmark, Coldplay and Michael Stipe’s version of In the Sun playing in my ear, when I saw a bunch of baby deer running around. There must have been seven of them, I swear! Three were contemplating crossing the walkway to the other side but chickened-out when they saw us passersby. They were probably looking for the mother doe and the mother doe was probably looking for them. Anyway, they were such a pretty site to look at. They’re brown with perky ears and uneasy walk.

I walked away praying they stay safe and that soon they be back in their mother’s watchful eyes. They are so fragile, I worry the wild world will harm their innocence if they don’t find their mother soon.

Pondering: No matter how cynical you get, it is impossible to keep up. (Lily Tomlin)

Today I finished this huge salary survey project I’ve had hovering above me for almost four months now. It’s a grueling project of research, making calls, revising work plans because no one was providing me with the information I needed, making compaction analysis and market data comparisons. Through out, I had this nagging voice inside me saying, “you’re not doing this quickly enough!”

Well I am pretty glad to say that I am finally done with it. Yes sir, the recommendations have been made, reports written and submitted, and all the necessary meetings and haggling back and forth with the clients, is finally over and done with. OH, YEAH! And I can’t think of a better way to celebrate it than do nothing but REST this long weekend!

Thank God for small blessings, indeed.