So Much to Say

...but I'm really not sure where to begin.

Like many - if not all - of you, I've been in shock over the last week or so. The earthquake in Haiti has dominated the news, and the reports and images of massive amounts of suffering are numbing. I saw estimates on CNN this morning that have 75,000 dead and over a million homeless. Take into account the wounded, and those who will soon be affected by disease, dehydration, and starvation, and the result is staggering.

And that makes Pat Robertson's comments and Rush Limbaugh's rant even more evil, in my opinion. At a time when we need compassion and a massive outpouring of relief aid and financial support so Haiti may rebuild, we have pundits - certifiable ones at that - trying to grab the limelight with outrageous and uninformed statements. There is simply no excuse, either religious or secular, that can justify such behavior.

Granted, condemnation has come from every corner of the globe - at least the corners unfortunate enough to pick up Robertson and Limbaugh on their TVs or radios. But I feel I must add my voice to the outcry and a prayer that these two, and people like them, can rub two brain cells together and have a rational thought before they open their mouths.

I may post more today - hopefully a more enjoyable and light hearted post - but for the moment work is calling.

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Bring Me The Horizon!

Lke everyone else in the U.S., we're caught in that arctic air mass that's bringing the possibility of snow to Orlando and ice to everywhere else in the country. Currently it's snowing, as it did yesterday, but there's no accumulation. Of course, it's also cold as all get out, with temperatures in the single digits, once you factor in wind chill. The drive here was oh, so amusing, as I had to spend longer looking out for ice patches when on the secondary roads, and avoiding the fools who thought that it was still summer and drove like they were trying out for NASCAR. Also fun was the heat in my car, which, due to the extremes in temperatures, was a tad slower to respond to my needs than in other days this winter. This graph clearly shows this fact:




















So I was kinda grumpy when I arrived at work. Sleepy, too. One Ring and I stayed up late to watch the Crimson Tide win over the University of Texas. No, I didn't go to Alabama for college, but both of One Ring's parents did, so I am pretty much a fan by default. It doesn't help that Vanderbilt, where I got my masters degree, is also in the SEC, and is embarrassed on a yearly basis by the performance of its football team. So rooting for Alabama is a chance for me to cheer for a team that actually wins games.

But now with college bowl season over, that's one less thing that's nice about the winter time. Indeed, we are now in the doldrums of the season, and my body is feeling the change. I want to curl up under tons of blankets and not move for hours on end. Either that of travel / move somewhere warm. And that means going to the Caribbean, because that's the last place in the Northern Hemisphere that's still warm!

So I did the usual seek and find on the internet - jobs, houses, boats, possible competitive gangs of pirates, etc. And, as expected, no one is hiring. Let's face it, the Caribbean may be my dream home, but in terms of employment opportunities, there's not much there. Not only that, but it sadly appears that I'm roughly 300 years too late. Alas.

I've also burned up all of my vacation time during our trip to Virginia, so it looks like I'm staying put for a while. Still, though, one can dream of sunshine, clear blue waters, and freedom from work!

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I Want Some of This Here Rum!

I'm freezing my tail off at work - apparently someone higher up on the chain of command feels that cold workers work harder. And with the cold comes thoughts of the Carribean, a place I haven't been in far too long. I even tried to find a cruise that would get me away from here, but alas, there's not enough funds to get us on the way.

So the next step was to look at pirate sites to see what's going on with my favorite subject. And over at Bilgemunky.com, I found this:

Kraken Rum!

I have no idea what the stuff tastes like - it could be bilge water for all I know - but I'm tempted to pick up a bottle just for the marketing alone. Check out their website, and you'll see what I mean. Bilgemunky himself hasn't even tried it yet, but check out the package they sent him in order to get his review:

Like I said, brilliant marketing! Maybe some day this blog will be famous enough to rate this kind of service!

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And Life Returns to Normal ...

... whatever that is.

I'm finally back at work - which is why I'm blogging instead of doing what I'm supposed to be doing - and can finally put behind me the chaos that is the holiday season. And while chaos is better than a day at work - where I have more than enough chaos - it is nice to be able to get back into a routine.

But enough small talk. I have a review of a pirate exhibit par excellence!















A couple of days after Christmas, One Ring and I went to Nauticus, the otherwise unmentionable nautical museum in Norfolk, Virginia. However, the exhibit they brought in - the National Geographic sponsored showing of artifacts from the wreck of the pirate ship Whydah - was absolutely phenomenal.

Without going into too much detail about the story of the Whydah itself (there are two links to the right of this page that send you straight to the exhibit, and this one is about the recovery process), I can say that this exhibit was the most detailed of any I have ever seen. It opened with a short film that tells the tale of Sam Bellamy and his untimely death within 500 feet of the coast of Cape Cod. The screen then lifted up revealing the ship's bell, engraved with the name "Whydah," which was all the proof needed to show that this was the first (and thus far only) pirate shipwreck ever discovered.

Although the wreck is spread out over four miles of sea floor, a multitude of artifacts have been discovered. Everything from weapons - cannons, pistols, and sword hilts - to medical supplies. And let me tell you, the sight of those large metal syringes, with needles that looked more like harpoon tips than anything else, made me very queasy! There was even a large chest filled with silver coins. Much to my surprise, having grown up with movies showing pirate treasure being mostly perfectly minted gold coins, these were roughly cut and stamped pieces. Apparently keeping them round like the coins we have today was not so much an issue.

And since the Whydah was first a slave ship, before Bellamy and company took it as a prize, there was an astonishing amount of detail given to the slave trade - how it worked, how slave ships operated, even the shackles used to keep the slaves from jumping overboard and committing suicide (the local religious beliefs held that if one died near ones homeland, that person would be reincarnated as a member of the same tribe). It was very sobering, and actually made Bellamy seem like a hero to have at least taken the Whydah out of the business. In the final part of the exhibit, we read that one of Bellamy's crew, John Julian, who was half Mosquito Indian, was actually sold into slavery. He was hanged in 1733 after an escape attempt in which he killed a bounty hunter who attempted to capture him.

If you get a chance, check out the exhibit. The tour dates are on the website. It's worth every penny.

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Pirate Bliss!

I was informed recently that the nautical museum Nauticus in Norfolk, Virginia is having a pirate exhibit while One Ring and I will be in Virginia Beach for the Christmas holiday. As I was doing the happy dance (a sight not to be missed), further research revealed that the traveling exhibit is of the Whydah - the same exhibit that I've been trying to see for quite some time. Why the Whydah (sorry, couldn't resist)? Well, for one, it is the only pirate shipwreck every recovered. She went down off the coast of Cape Cod, Massachusetts in 1717. And since I was born in Massachusetts, I feel somewhat close to this particular ship and her captain, Sam Bellamy. His story is quite unique among the Brethren of the Coast - he fell in love with an upper class woman, and, unable to prove his "worth" to her family via wealth, took up piracy until he could raise the money. Once he had the sum needed, he quit the trade (very un-piratical) and tried to get back to Cape Cod. Unfortunately, his ship was caught in a storm - possibly a hurricane - and sank with all hands. So, in a way, it's a Romeo and Juliet kind of story.

Well, I need to get back to work. I just figured I'd post a quick note detailing one of the reasons why I'm looking forward to my vacation!

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It Arrived!

My early Christmas present came in yesterday, and it is beautiful! It's a Laguna LE300, and despite the lousy strings that came from the factory, it has an awesome sound. I spent the evening playing with the pickup settings (it has a 5-way switch), and continuing to work on my assignment from my lessons. I forgot to see if it could fit in my Epiphone case, though, so transporting it to lessons or to get the strings replaced may be a problem. I'll have to work on that tonight.

In other news, friends of ours had twins last night! It's a wonderful (obviously) event for them, made bittersweet only by the fact that this comes a little more than a year after they lost a baby girl at birth. But even with this in the back of our minds, we're all celebrating. One Ring and I will be heading over to the hospital to see the proud parents and meet the boys.

Well, group went off without a hitch today, and a minor crisis was avoided with another patient. This afternoon might get a little busy, but, for the most part, it will just be paperwork and cleaning the desk for an inspection that's supposed to take place tomorrow. The doctor comes back on Monday, so I'll have to write a memo to bring her up to speed on the chaos that's gone on while she's been in India and Los Angeles.

Okay, time to check on some other issues and get to work.

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Mu

I was reading Zen Guitar by Philip Toshio Sudo last night. While it seems like there's a "Zen and the art of ..." book for everything under the sun (Although Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance actually IS about Zen and not fixing your cycle), most really don't seem to grasp - in my humble opinion - either Zen or the topic the writer is trying to link to Zen. Zen Guitar, though, is the real deal.

The piece that I read last night dealt with the whole concept of "Mu," which literally translated means, "No" or "nothing." However, that is only part of the meaning of the word.

Mu occurs several times in Zen koans, which are proverbs or stories which on the surface seem nonsensical but are actually keys to understanding concepts. The most famous, perhaps, is "What is the sound of one hand clapping?" Anyway, there's another famous one, and that's where Mu comes in.

In ancient China, this monk walks up to his Zen master and asks, "Does a dog have Buddha nature?" In other words, is a dog capable of enlightenment? When I worked in the church, I was asked by one of my youth, "Does my dog have a soul?" While not exactly the same thing (and it would take far too long to explain the difference!), it's a good enough analogy for now.

So the monk asks his question, expecting a "yes or no" type of answer, because that's what everyone expects for a question like that. Either a dog has it, or the dog doesn't. No middle ground.

But the Zen master just says, "Mu." Now if mu meant no, the dog didn't have Buddha nature, that would be the end of it. But that's not what Mu in this context means. Here it means something akin to "no meaning." Or, in a quote I pulled from Wikipedia, "Your question cannot be answered because it depends on incorrect assumptions."

The goal of a koan is to open a door to the pathway of Zen. In this case it's to destroy the typical human habit of either / or thinking. Again, either the dog has it, or not. Either this is important, or it isn't. Either I'm working, or I'm not. But what Mu sets up is a way of thinking that removes either / or thinking. The dog has it and the dog doesn't, and it doesn't really matter either way. I'm working and at the same time writing this (There have been several pauses as I've written this to address various crises). Either / or thinking requires there to be absolutes - independent agents at work in the situation. Zen thought states that there is no such thing. "Dog" is an artificial construct; a name for a being that we gave it to distinguish it from other furry animals (of course, "furry" and "animals" are constructs as well, but bear with me!). "Buddha-nature" is also an artificial distinction between states of being. If one considers that nothing is independent of anything else, and everything came from something or a combination of things, which themselves have their origin in other things, then eventually one can go far enough back to see that "everything" just "is" and is connected to "everything else."

Take the guitar that I just purchased, which should arrive on my doorstep tomorrow (Joy!). When does a guitar stop being a guitar? When does a combination of wood, lacquer, wire strings, circuits and pickups, tuners and tremolo bridge, become a guitar? When assembled? When disassembled? Is there a difference? And more importantly, does it even matter? Follow the guitar through its coming into being, and you end up with trees, metal ore, and chemicals. Go back even further, and you have the big bang (or God speaking the universe into being, take your pick). So the guitar that's showing up on my doorstep tomorrow was in the big bang, as was everything else that is, was, and will be. Everything was connected, is connected and cannot be truly independent of anything else, for everything has its origin in everything else.

So, does the dog have Buddha-nature? Mu is indeed the right answer, for the dog does and does not exist at the same time, and Buddha-nature does and does not exist. It's a pointless, and unanswerable question, because to fall into yes and no categories is to miss out on what is reality itself.

What in the world does this have to do with playing the guitar? Well, last night I got frustrated with my level of playing. After practicing several times a week, and some weeks every single night, last night's lesson had some highs and lows. I'm still working on the second solo from "Comfortably Numb," where there's a lot of changes in terms of 8th notes, 16th notes, and 32nd notes. So I had to go over this one segment again and again and again, and occasionally came to feel like the cover of this Clash album:

But after finally getting it right, I came home, chilled out, and read the book I mentioned above. And in the section on Mu, there was this quote by Bruce Springsteen. I don't have it with me, but The Boss basically says this, "When you play guitar, you have to hold a lot of contradictory information in your brain and make it all work at the same time. On the one hand, when I'm playing, I'm playing like it's the most important thing in the world. And it is. On the other hand, I know that it's only rock and roll. And it is."

Both / And. Neither / Nor. Just is.

Hope this makes sense.

By the way, does anyone know where I can get a decal of the Japanese script that I put up here? I think it would look great painted on my Epiphone!

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