Wajd

Ecstasy is called Wajd by Sufis: it is especially cultivated among the Chishtis. Sufis generally enjoy Wajd while listening to music called Qawwali, special music producing emotions of love, fear, desire, repentance, etc.

http://wikipedia.org/wiki/Qawwali

Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan:

Push the Button

Excuse me

I love excuses. I can conjour them for any occasion. This morning I had to make one up to tell a mortgage holding company to keep me from working for them, because I'd much rather work for the greeting card company, so I came up with an elaborate and not entirely untrue excuse.

The secret of the excuse, as with all deceptions, is the deep but simple shading of truth. You don't want to pepper an excuse with too much truth, because it's hard enough to remember how real reality should be working, nevermind this marbled fish-story you've layed on this unwitting rube. Lies are blunt and final. but the excuse implies an ongoing relationship, so you have to remember all the line-items in the contract. My grandpa Staufenbiel might have told me once "Keep your tall tales tiny", and I might tell you the same. My grandpa Smith definitely told me that all jews are rats, but I would never tell you that.

I make excuses to visit St. Louis, when really I just want to see my friends, my home, and my mum and dad. I make excuses to put off chores, when really I just wanna listen to these 2 records. I make excuses to put off calling girls, because I'm just really bashful. But still, all of it gets done. I'm just tired of telling myself I need to make excuses.

Gone Missin' !

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_who_have_disappeared

Axing! OR My Time as a Confidence Man

I was included in the decapitation of 8 people at my job, including executives! Good thing I started looking for a new job a week ago. But where to go and what to do? Apparently the dweeb sector isn't hurting as bad as the rest of the planet (we never do, our technocratic grip is tight). This might make for an exciting spring. I could use some vacation and unemployment cash. There are lots of expenses and other things that will need bolting down in the next week though.

Lots to do, and time to do it.

And now, Tommy Cooper jokes:

"Police arrested two kids yesterday, one was drinking battery acid, the other was eating fireworks. They charged one and let the other one off."

"You know, somebody actually complimented me on my driving today. They left a little note on the windscreen, it said 'Parking Fine'. So that was nice."

These ladies are hysterical.

New Feelings that Aren't Your Own

Masculine Manlog pt. 2

After weeks of holidays and shows and very fast times, I've taken a few off in the cave. A series of seven hour sleeps in a CO free home pays off. Today I was up at 7 AM ready to punch the face off the world!

My friend Megan and I are in a new band together, so last night was slouched down trying to muscle through the cadences of some of these songs. I never realized what a challenge it is writing lyrics for someone else, because someone else is always so picky.

It's the first project I've really run in Kansas City, writing a style that I've never attempted. I'm surprising myself. What's sticking hard is conjouring a name that doesn't make everyone at practice frown. I believe in the power of band names, although most of my favorite bands have the dumbest. I now accept it's one of those things that can be good enough.

And now, pictures of pretty ladies:

Sorts in the streets

Thrill seekers

Home coming, Home going

This xmas trip to STL was one of the most romantic I've had in a long time. I don't mean that I touched a girl, I mean betwixt me and the city. Some questionably warm days and nice sit downs with friends. Not one moment spent in bullshit. There was much idle chatter but it was the real kind, and a couple of once-in-a-decade talks with all of my parents.

This year has been trying, probably the hardest of my life. I feel tested. I've had to face down crucial shit that most men go all their lives without confronting. My survival has been dependent on a number of very loving friends, friends whom I owe a long debt of gratitude. I also survived because I'm fucking tough as nails.

I'm like an eXtreme sPorts guy, but instead of basejumping, I'm into eXtreme tRagedy. I'm going to get a cat just so I can look forward to the day when it's found lifeless under the basement stairs! EYYYEAH!

Oh cheese, I forgot to tell the blog that I've been increasingly poisoned by my home for the past 2 years. The doctor says it's been slowly constricting my perception of reality that entire time, to the point of near suffocation. It'll work it's way out of my nervous system in the next 5 weeks. So, call me then when my third eye has reopened. We'll go get a slice of pie, and have our own chat.

Aptitude

Dehnadi and Bornat's thesis is that the single biggest predictor of likely aptitude for programming is a deep comfort with meaninglessness:

To write a computer program you have to come to terms with this, to accept that whatever you might want the program to mean, the machine will blindly follow its meaningless rules and come to some meaningless conclusion. In the test the consistent group showed a pre-acceptance of this fact: they are capable of seeing mathematical calculation problems in terms of rules, and can follow those rules wheresoever they may lead. The inconsistent group, on the other hand, looks for meaning where it is not. The blank group knows that it is looking at meaninglessness, and refuses to deal with it.

Dehnadi and Bornat's programming aptitude research