YCQ #14: Going to the Moon

Well folks, we've come around again to that best of times, time for the wonderful widely acclaimed program, back by popular demand -- The Yellow Card Question Show!

The theme song of the day is 十月 (October) by that underground sensation 阿楼 (A Lou). Hit the button to start that going, and you can read my translation of the lyrics here.



Are you ready for this?! Can I hear you say "yeah"?! No? Is that not how this medium works? Oh. There are some really cool people who have a plugin to do voice comments. But I think that's just for Wordpress. Livejournal has voice posts, but I don't think they have voice comments. So yeah, I guess I'm not going to hear you say "yeah". I'll have settle for hallucinating it then.

Are you ready for this?! Can I hallucinate hearing you say "yeah"?! Maybe with a little more coffee and candy canes?!! Or maybe not. Okay I'll settle for a comment after the fact. Go ahead and type "yeah".

Um. So where were we? Yeah! The moment you've been waiting all month for, the all new Yellow Card Question! Here you go folks, the one and only Yellow Card that can cure all your ills and give you new ones, write your tests, take them, and grade them for you!

Well, if I could go on vacation to the moon for free, I think I might like that, but otherwise there are other things I would rather spend my time and money on, and other places I would rather be. You can go, and send me a postcard.

YCQ #10: Om

Good evening, my children. The time has come once again, that special time when we stop to meditate on the omissions of the past and the looming shadow of deadlines to come. Today we celebrate this time of the month by the ritual of the yellow card question, when I reach into that fabled stack of digital question cards, and enlighten you with random bits of wisdom.

The theme song of the hour is 轮回 (Reincarnation) by 盛噶仁波切 (Singa Rinpoche), a Tibetan lama and living Buddha.¹ Calm your mind by listening to him chant.



I don't understand the lyrics, but I think there was more to that song than a mantra. How am I ever going to reach enlightenment when they make such complicated poems for meditation?

Okay, so now that our minds are at one with the universe, it's time for the yellow card!



And the teacher replied to the student, "Tweet tweet!"


1. Did you know Steven Seagal is a living Buddha too?

YCQ #8

I am clearly not doing a very good job of keeping up with my posting quota, so I am resurrecting the yellow card questions. Yay!

And we need a new theme song! I nominate "我愿意" ("I am willing") originally sung by Wang Fei (王菲, aka Faye Wong), but lots of others have done covers. I recommend you start the video playing, but don't look at it for a minute, just listen. Then listen and watch for a very different experience.

I have a translation posted on my other blog, if you're curious.

And now, the moment you've all been waiting for, eagerly anticipating for the past umpteen months, willing to read, wanting to read, waiting to read: the all new 8th yellow card question! (Okay so it's not all new, since it's been there in the virtual deck this whole time, but it's the all new time it is appearing here, on this blog, in special blockquoted yellow on green background, as opposed to the black on yellow background, see. Believe me, it really is kinda all new, so be excited.)

And here it is!

If the whole world were listening, what would you say?

I honestly haven't a clue what I should say, but from the perspective of behavioral observation, I think a highly relevant data set is the corpus of blog posts I have written. Now, we must qualify this by noting that in practice, the whole world is not listening, or even reading, but in principle, any member of the world population on this side of the digital divide could wander through, and in fact a non-negligible portion of site hits come from foreign lands like Tennessee and Canada. They come looking for pictures of chickens or donkey riders, and seeking information about "umlatt" and holey jeans, and we do our best to meet their critical needs. It is for this reason (the benefit of lost internet travellers) that we have devoted so much of our time to wandering, the internet, and the world, alongside the essentials like food and underwear. Always be prepared, as they say. And I do all I can time and weather permitting, to help the whole world out.

Welcome to my humble abode

Here is a tour of my new digs. Outside in the brightness is a nice little balcony.

I think I'm going to find out this morning how soon I start teaching and, more importantly, where to find food.

And I do indeed have good internet. So skype me! (user: lucien.carroll)

Sanborn Clan Reunion Photos

Conversation
Originally uploaded by serapio.

I've uploaded my some of my photos of the Tahoe reunion.

And here's some movies too.

Tempos Brasileiros

I've been playing with iMovie.

Ducal Ceiling Movie

DucalCeiling

I am super hip because I am posting a video clip to my blog. I think there's a super hip name for this, like 'vieblogging' or 'vidlogging'. So just like, imagine that I used that super hip word here too.

(You have to click on the photo to see the movie.)