Sora's Musings

Just down in Chinatown for lunch. Golden Happiness Bakery be gone. Most unhappy Badger, here. (FYI, it's the bakery on 2nd Ave. just east of Centre St., something like two doors down from the Golden Inn...)

Please, someone tell me they've just moved. And where.

Hey guys,

I know this gets asked every tax season. Bear with me.

Does anyone who e-filed late have their money yet? My uncle, who does my taxes, thinks I should have mine already. I think he has too much faith in the system. He e-filed on Apr 30th and I have direct deposit arranged.

This is making a difference to how much I'm going to be able to enjoy my upcoming trip ~grimace~ so I'm curious.

Thanks!

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/cbc/080514/canada/calgary_cgy_stingrays

The zoo struggled with maintaining the water's pH (8.2) and as a result the pH fluctuations continuously killed off the nitrifiying bacteria in the biological filter, so...

ammonia poisoning killed them because of the poorly establish biological filter.

I found this article in the Herald recently to be quite intriging - I wasn't aware that ACAD planned to move to a downtown location.

http://www.canada.com/calgaryherald/news/story.html?id=04e18081-aabd-442b-bb89-42c8a3a1123e

Well, I'm going to bite the bullet and in another month or so, buy a Dyson Upright Vacuum.

Anyone ever see those things go on sale?

Pros? Cons? Yays or Nays?

Someone on here once suggested that an LJ community should be started for Calgary Transit - looks like someone set up a site back in March for such complaints - http://www.screwcalgarytransit.com. Heh, I found myself Googling "Calgary Transit sucks" on my cell phone after the bus blew by the stop without stopping this morning. There was still some room on it, honest!

I have to get the windshield replaced on my older car and I was looking for some recommended places. Places to avoid? Especially looking for places in the north. Thanks! ^_^

Originally published at Exponential Nothingness. You can comment here or there.

 

I think this may, in fact, be true.

Take off your cynicsm hat, and put on your open-mind cap.  And dispose of any “psychological clap-trap” judgment meters.  This may push the boundaries of self-help, but give it a chance.

I was contemplating upon many things that have happened in my life, including my recent impending divorce.  PNC (Personal Negativity Coach) stepped in and said, ”Guess Love doesn’t really conquer all.”

And I felt down.  I felt like somehow I’d failed to do…whatever it was I was supposed to do to save my failed marriage.  That if I’d really “loved” this person, that it should have worked.  I felt as if I’d neglected to follow the blueprint for a successful marriage, and that I didn’t love “enough”.

Or - the converse - that love is really just sort of a nice thing to have in a relationship, but it isn’t necessary or dependable.  That “head-over-heels” will ultimately become “bending-over-backwards” and “laughing-all-the-way-to-the-bank”.  Furthermore, that love is only one aspect of many aspects of marriage that needs to be sound.

While I don’t disagree with the latter statement that love cannot be all you have in a relationship, it still doesn’t fit that whole idea that Love Conquers All.  So - there I was, feeling low for a moment in thinking that either A) I was a failure at Love or B) Love is not as powerful as it seems.

Option B is surprising to me.  I am moved to do so many things through Love, moved further than any other feeling moves me.  I sacrifice more, I give more, I am more vulnerable to fulfill the mandates of Love.  I would have once said that Love moves me to make poor choices, as well.  So, not only was I possibly a failure at Love, but it might be less worthwhile to pursue.  How depressing is that?

But something inside me disagreed.  I recognized a voice that was distinctly NOT PNC.

No.

It isn’t the lack of Love, or that Love is less powerful than believed to be.  It is the shifting of Love.  The balance of it.  Love does not push me towards poor choices.  Instead, I love the poor choice more than I love choosing something better.  I loved a man more than I loved myself, more than a healthy relationship.

It was only because I began to love myself again that I chose to leave. It seems odd, because in those dark moments you seem so very far from loving yourself.  In those stark times of making the final decision to leave, you wonder how you could love yourself, how the shattered pieces of what you had represent how UNlove-able you are. 

But in reality, you are making that decision to choose a better you.  To allow yourself to be loved - by you, by someone else.  To choose something healthy over something unhealthy, no matter how much it may seem to hurt you at this time.  Because you Love, you choose wisely.

This brings me to realize that many of those old axioms about fools and blindness in Love are missing something.  There are hundreds of sayings: I am two fools I know, for loving, and for saying so - Love is blind - To be wise and love is scarcely granted to the angels above.  And sure, many people who are experiencing the first light of Love seem to be heart-sick, unable to see someone’s faults, wearing rose-colored glasses and all the other trite phrases. 

Maybe Love really doesn’t grow until that “glowing” phase goes away.  Until you interweave yourself with this other person.  Or in the case of self, until you sit inside your own being and really feel.  Building a Love for yourself enables you to open up and truly Love others, beyond dependency, beyond allaying loneliness.

When you really Love, you see the person for who they are.  And you see yourself for who you are.  You make choices wisely for the good of both of you.    The sacrifices you make take into account the balance of Loving someone and Loving yourself.  Love helps you to see how you can be happy for yourself and with another.  And Love helps you see when it is time to move on.

That is the powerful nature of Love. 

Amor Vincit Omnia.  Love conquers all.

Hi there,

I'm a spinner, did a bit of wool dyeing back last year using Dylon, then moved on to natural dyes - thought you might like to see my most recent experiments!

( pics under cut )

Today is my birthday, so I figured I'd share some songs.
First is The Cruxshadows' aptly named Birthday from Dreamcypher. A nice goth/electronica/darkwave/whatever you want to call it song about how your birthday might be the last day of your life.
Then we have the acoustic version of Within Temptation's What Have You Done. Very piano heavy and no male vocals in this version.
D'espairs Ray's Garnet  from coll:set is an odd metal jrock song because has the most singalonable outro.
Nightwish's 7 Days to the Wolves from Dark Passion Play has grown on me so much since the album came out, the energy in the song just makes you want to sing/scream along and head bang.

Here are a bunch of things up for sale.
a couple of freebies tossed in there. I will take *reasonable* offers. More to come as I sort...
*EDIT* - More items added

( Read more... )

I really need to print something off of the internet and my printer has crapped out. Any idea what kind of place I could go to where I can go online and print a couple of pages?

Thank you

Hey all,
I just moved here and miss my Bikram's yoga. Do you know if Bikram's hot yoga is offered anywhere in the city, or any other kind of hot yoga? Bonus points if it's in the SW.

Thanks!

Hello everyone! There is a new art supplies store in town.

I am located downtown at the Art Central building. I've just received my order of Golden Acrylics in, and have limited supplies. Canvas is coming in next week. Oils, watercolours and drawing materials will be here the week after.

For anyone who lives in the downtown area, I am conveniently located at:

Studio Todorovic
Art Central, Main Level
#110, 100-7th Ave SW
Calgary, AB

Right on the 7th Ave C-train line for transit users. Get off at 1st street SW or Center street SW. Yay!

Come on down for First Thursday (June 5th) and check it out! Otherwise, I am open Mon-Sat 10 am to 6 pm.

- Luba

Hello everyone! There is a new art supplies store in town.

I am located downtown at the Art Central building. I've just received my order of Golden Acrylics in, and have limited supplies. Canvas is coming in next week. Oils, watercolours and drawing materials will be here the week after.

For anyone who lives in the downtown area, I am conveniently located at:

Studio Todorovic
Art Central, Main Level
#110, 100-7th Ave SW
Calgary, AB

Right on the 7th Ave C-train line for transit users. Get off at 1st street SW or Center street SW. Yay!

Come on down for First Thursday (June 5th) and check it out! Otherwise, I am open Mon-Sat 10 am to 6 pm.

- Luba

Originally published at Exponential Nothingness. You can comment here or there.

I would like to introduce you to someone.  Someone very personal to me, who knows everything about me, and is always ready to give an opinion …that will bring me down.

I’d like you to meet PNC, my Personal Negativity Coach.  PNC is the voice that exists in the back of my head that is always willing to negate my actions, goals and feelings.  PNC takes personal pleasure out of being judgmental, divisive and generally complaining.  PNC is bolstered to greater success when something truly negative does happen - a bad experience at work, negative feedback from a friend, or a car blowing up just as one gets onto the Beltway through Madison. 

In fact, PNC is resilient and ever-ready.  PNC takes paranoia to a new level by getting involved in my daily observation of the world and trying to classify everything - usually to my detriment.  That person talking quietly near you?  Obviously, they are talking about you.  That email you got with the ambigiously professional language?  That means the writer is upset with you and distancing themselves.  Truly, there is no end to the possibilities for PNC in Negativeland (which is also the name of an interesting band.)

Don’t paint me a freak.  I don’t follow PNC’s advice all the time, or even give him much of my attention.  It’s in those moments when I’m feeling low that I can hear the voice a little more clearly.  I’m actually a generally positive person. Many times, my hopeful and energetic nature impedes me from acknowledging the real difficulty of getting around obstacles until later.  Which is why it is always good that I sit with an idea or goal for a while before running ahead on it (as evidence, please take note of the tote of fabric I own, yet I still do not know how to sew and therefore have not completed any of the projects I was so excited to start).  I am generally open to new experiences and don’t let fears stop me from doing things I want to do…or at least initially trying them.

It’s just that when you are having major changes in your life, PNC feels he has a duty to raise his voice and question everything you think, do, say or feel. 

And PNC is not always wrong - which is why it is hard to just discredit him.  For example, I recently came to terms with the fact that I should work more on listening to people.  PNC has been telling me this in ways for years.  But now, I am realizing that what I thought was “listening” was really more like hearing.  That I may listen, but I am not a “good listener.”

And that means listening to PNC too.  Listening to what PNC has to say and connecting that with what feats I harbor about myself, my world, and my choices.  Hearing the inner voice, but not letting it rule me.  In fact, using it to undermine PNC by really making an effort to keep negativity from invading my life.

I know I’m not the only one that has ties with PNC.  PNC is known by others often as their “Inner Critic” and sometimes as “The Mind” if you read the Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle (yes, he does sort of remind me of a deranged elf.  Next question.)

Negativity exists, but dwelling on it can be damaging to yourself.  It’s been shown that negativity is easily absorbed and changes how your brain works.  Happy people are better able to think logically, as cited by Creating Passionate Users’ blog article on “Angry/Negative People Can Be Bad For Your Brain.”  Specifically interesting in this article is the reference to Mirror Neurons.  Mirror Neurons reveal so much potential for the individual that it would be crazy, nay, ludicrous to waste that potential with negativity.

And as proof that negativity affects your brain, and therefore your feelings and decisions, the AP reports that negative political ads actually work.  It causes a lot of philosophical ideas, including free will, into question. Personally, when I see negative ads, it makes me dislike the person putting them on the t.v. more.  Perhaps that classifies me as an independent.

Originally published at Exponential Nothingness. You can comment here or there.

I got a ton taken care of this weekend - many things done, bedroom final coat of paint on, artwork framed that I’ve owned for over 6 years, artwork frames that Jason’s owned for a long time too.  Awning fixed, walk taken through the park, breakfast eaten on the balcony, dishes done, aerator replaced in bathroom, visit to the BGB and discussion had there, friends renewed, games purchased and played, sickness overcome, magnetic paint obtained, magnets obtained, light switch fixed.  Good time had in general.

So, at 6pm I sat down to do some work, and I’m finding that the Network is down - or I just can’t connect to the Law Department’s files.  This is what I get for putting it off till Sunday night, but really, who wouldn’t have? 

And today is so sunny, beautiful.  The grill is popping and a chicken is being made for dinner with some homemade pilaf and roasted veggies.  I will try again later tonight, but really - what can I do?  I can work on my impromtu poems.

This is Just To Say

I did not work
from home
this weekend
as I promised 

network’s down
6pm on a sunny
Sunday
evening

Forgive me
the park beckoned
and I was
so happy.

Did anyone else catch Richard Florida tonight at the Jack Springer? What did you think?

Westbrook Walmart has 2 copies of Guitar Hero 3 for the Wii in stock right this very moment.