A moment of humor that saddened me

Mentor teacher: "So, maybe you'd like to go out with the highschool tomorrow on a field trip. They'll be painting in the valley."
Me: "Al-fresco?*"
Mentor teacher: "No, just outside."

*: For those of you that don't know why I chuckled to myself, I have this link.

are you a dynamic character?

In literature, dynamic characters are defined as those that change.

Are you dynamic or static?
What wisdom have you gained, and how have you increased your capacity to love?
----
On Hearing Jun the Buddhist Monk from Shu Play his Lute

The monk from Shu with his green silk lute-case,
Walking west down Omei Mountain,
Has brought me by one touch of the strings
The breath of pines in a thousand valleys.
I hear him in the cleansing brook,
I hear him in the icy bells;
And I feel no change though the mountain darken
And cloudy autumn heaps the sky.
-- The ancient poet Li Bai

Are you wearing sparkle-lipstick?

Finally saw Shrek 2. Was startled to see that prince Charming looks like me...

the resemblance is uncanny. Look at the chins, lips, and noses! Even similar stubble and our eyes are the same color (hard to tell from the photos, I know).
You may all address me as price charming now.
Oh and before you even finish that thought, let me beat you to it: I have way too big an ego.
I'm gonna have to work on the hair.

guess that poem part 3

"I'm no good at poetry. Rather, I'm good at doing prose that sounds like poetry" --Me, to Ben

Guess this poem's title and author (one of my favorite poets)
The small world of the car
Plunges through the deep fields of the night,
On the road from Willmar to Milan.
This solitude covered with iron
Moves through the fields of night
Penetrated by the noise of crickets.

Photo dump of me in the shirt Julia gave me

I recommend click-zooming on these.

Wow I look cute in an effeminate way here. This one looks like a picture you would see on the wall of a hair salon in the 80s 

this one looks plain cool 

painted variation made me look evil 

it's harder than you think to make someone look scary...

:D 

Test your EQ the Clay way

I made a quiz that can tell what your emotional intellence quotient is in just two questions! Be sure to click one of the choices for each picture and push the results button when you are done.


this girl seems to be expressing...

Remorse for eating too much chocolate and blaming it on the dog, whom she fed chocolate to cover up her tracks, and now the dog is convulsing on the floor.
Discomfort over seeing her dad kissing his new boyfriend Gary.
Confusion at her appearance in an online quiz she is taking.
Disgust at your sinning ways, heathen.


This old man is experiencing...

A hysterectomy by a very confused doctor.
A heart attack, and all you are doing is laughing at him.
His son's new boyfriend Gary.
The dissapointment that comes with seeing the old folks' home where his children have decided to stash him away and never talk about him.

As long as we're posting as many quiz results as a sixteen year old girl with a livejournal account...

Took the inkblot test

clay, your subconscious mind is driven most by Peace

You are driven by a higher purpose than most people. You have a deeply-rooted desire to facilitate peacefulness in the world. Whether through subtle interactions with love ones, or through getting involved in social causes, it is important to you to influence the world.

You are driven by a desire to encourage others to think about the positive side of things instead of focusing on the negative. The reason your unconscious is consumed by this might stem from an innate fear of war and turmoil. Thus, to avoid that uncomfortable place for you, your unconscious seeks out the peace in your environment.

Usually, the thing that underlies this unconscious drive is a deep respect for humankind. You care about the future of the world, even beyond your own involvement in it. As a result, your personal integrity acts as a surrogate for your deeper drive toward peace and guides you in daily life towards decisions that are respectful toward yourself and others.

Though your unconscious mind is driven most strongly by Peace, there is much more to who you are at your core.

Japanese name

EDIT From Years in the future: I now recognize that this is totally a girl's name.

My japanese name is 秋本 Akimoto (autumn book) 久美子 Kumiko (eternal beautiful child).
Take your real japanese name generator! today!
Created with Rum and Monkey's Name Generator Generator.

Israelites

Desmond Dekker-Israelites. One of my current flavors.
I've also been listening to dead can dance. One of those obscure genius groupings of music. Those of you that enjoyed the music in the background of my vampire game will like this (Tessa).

Last night the walmart click (as we are soon to become known if we keep the late-night shopping up) decided to make Dr. Pepper by combinging dry ice and prune juice. Results were more bitter than we expected, but it sure was fun making it. 

here we see the cauldron/sink in which we dumped the remaining dry ice 

musings and annoyances

When slings and arrows are directed my way because of what I am and what I choose to belive, I rember this:

Bigotry is its own punishment

why are you smiling at me?

Why are you smiling at me?

Am I really that funny?
Does my charisma preceed me?
Does my witty repartee tickle your intellect?
Are my features stimulating your desire?
Or is it simply that my face amuses you?

so you know

The commitee got together and decided that I am in fact a cat.

I caught this thing foraging in my back yard--should I be concerned? 

guess that poem part 2

quick on the heels of the last one, and in honor of not seeing my Dad in a long time. This time you have to name the play it's from as well as the author.

Full fathom five thy father lies;
Of his bones are coral made;
Those are pearls that were his eyes;
Nothing of him that doth fade
But doth suffer a sea-change
Into something rich and strange.

guess that poem

In honor of Tessa and Mark joining the blogosphere, we have a new contest. Guess this poem's title and author:
A fool I was to sleep at noon,
And wake when night is chilly
Beneath the comfortless cold moon;
A fool to pluck my rose too soon,
A fool to snap my lily.

My garden-plot I have not kept;
Faded and all-forsaken,
I weep as I have never wept:
Oh it was summer when I slept,
It's winter now I waken.

Talk what you please of future spring
And sun-warm'd sweet to-morrow:—
Stripp'd bare of hope and everything,
No more to laugh, no more to sing,
I sit alone with sorrow.

alone

From childhood's hour I have not been
As others were — I have not seen
As others saw — I could not bring
My passions from a common spring —
From the same source I have not taken
My sorrow — I could not awaken
My heart to joy at the same tone —
And all I lov'd — I lov'd alone —
--Edgar Allen Poe

----
If I could do it all over again, I would have kept more to myself.
It is the mystery that lingers...

I caught a fellow student tight rope walking today!
I was so inspired I decide to magnify my own talent and sat down to sketch the trees around us in the sketchbook Ben gave me as an early birthday gift.
It felt good to draw alfresco, with the sun at my back and the fresh air all around.

First day bleck aside, this is shaping out to be a beautiful semester.

Tulpa

Have you created one today?



TULPA CREATION


The word Tulpa is from the Tibetan language and refers to any entity that attains reality solely by the act of imagination. The entity is created entirely within the confines of ones own mind, not drawn out, written down or even verbally described.

If its creator wishes, this "Tulpa Creation" may become physical reality through intense concentration and visualization. However, care must be taken to only bring to reality what is beneficial to the world, lest it's destruction becomes more problematic than its creation (see related account on Alexandra David-Neel)

When Alexandra David-Neel journeyed through Tibet, one of the many mystical techniques she studied was that of tulpa creation. A tulpa, according to traditional Tibetan doctrines, is an entity created by an act of imagination, rather like the fictional characters of a novelist, except that tulpas are not written down. David-Neel became so interested in the concept that she decided to try to create one.

The method involved was essentially intense concentration and visualization. David-Neel's tulpa began its existence as a plump, benign little monk, similar to Friar Tuck. It was at first entirely subjective, but gradually, with practice, she was able to visualize the tulpa out there, like an imaginary ghost flitting about the real world.

In time the vision grew in clarity and substance until it was indistinguishable from physical reality-a sort of self-induced hallucination. But the day came when the hallucination slipped from her conscious control. She discovered that the monk would appear from time to time when she had not willed it. Furthermore her friendly little figure was slimming down and taking on a distinctly sinister aspect.

Eventually her companions, who where unaware of the mental disciplines she was practicing, began to ask about the "stranger" who had turned up in their camp-a clear indication that a creature which was no more that solidified imagination had definite objective reality.

At this point, David-Neel decided things had gone too far and applied different lamaist techniques to reabsorb the creature into her own mind. The tulpa proved very unwillling to face destruction in this way so that the process took several weeks and left its creator exhausted.

- Excerpt from "Body, Mind & Spirit - A Dictionary of New Age Ideas"