coming home from nice cream on Vimeo.

video and music by me. all rights reserved. even the less professional parts of both. :)

xo to you.

Labels: music, something of my own, video

I'm still working on my layout and design. You'll probably see a few versions in the next few weeks. :) It's still me. Just in different colors.

I wonder if I'm opening a can of worms here. Maybe blogs are like family dinners in which you shouldn't discuss god, religion, politics or money. If so, just ignore this blog entry. I'll get back to regular programming soon enough.

Just for context, I am spiritually confused. This basically means that I cannot actually rationalize spiritual belief and am pretty much cynical about a lot of beliefs. But somehow this doesn't stop me from thinking about things and wondering if I'm wrong.

I find it really hard to talk with people about spirituality or the possibility of anything but the physical world as we know it since I don't want to express my own disbelieving thoughts to others. . . and I find myself saying negative things when I don't mean to. It is not my place to mess with other people's faith. And I envy them.

All of this said, somehow in a blog I don't mind imposing at all... So tell me what you think (if you want to and this type of post doesn't make you go screaming away from your computer). (Disclaimer: these are biased and loaded questions.)

1. Have you ever said, and meant, the phrase, "It was meant to be." Do you believe in fate? Does this apply equally to good and bad things in your life? Do you take this phrase literally or do you think that it just means that you have to take things as they come?
   
2. If your answer to 1 was Yes, does this mean that you believe in an all powerful (or semi-powerful) being who controls what happens? If not, the word "meant" seems to imply purpose and will. Who meant it to be?
   
3. If your answer to 2 was Yes, what about free will? Do you feel that this makes you a puppet at the whim of an all powerful being? (Sorry. That was a totally loaded question filled with my own bias. What I mean is, if an all powerful being enforced its will on circumstances and people, this seems to violate the typically accompanying belief that we have free will and a sense of personal responsibility to be accountable for. I basically get confused when I see a belief in both an intervening god and free will.)
   
4. If you didn't answer 2 or 3 because your answer to 1 was No (following me still?) ... do you believe in god/other? If so, why? (i.e. Where does your belief come from? Was it upbringing? Was it experiential? Cultural?) If not, why? (i.e. Did your family believe? Have you had no sense of interaction with an "outside force"? Do you just find it all irrational?)
5. Alternately, do you know what you believe about these things or are you figuring it out? What do you think of this guy?

Yeah. I know. You're never coming back. I mean, who wants to read and reply to a blog post about spiritual beliefs?

Please come back. I won't do it again (I don't think.)

Labels: getting to know you

Walked around in the Jordaan today and saw many remnants of New Year's celebrations.

I have to remember that the beginning of a new year is no more significant than any other day. That a new day is any day. Any time.

More pictures from today.

Labels: interpreting and reinterpreting, photos

Are you still on vacation? Or are you back to work? Because I really should only be wasting your time if you should otherwise be working. I'm just sayin'...

Here are some things I found on the wonderweb lately:

I am totally transfixed by the notion of container housing; that is, housing that is made from shipping containers. It seems efficient and compact and I like it. I had heard that student housing in Amsterdam had been made from these containers, but now it seems that more luxurious uses are also possible. I love this idea.

The Pursebuckle is a great idea with an expensive execution. I don't really like carrying my purse around. Partly because it is bigger than I actually need and things are always getting lost in its hugeness. It's pretty empty, and I think that the pursebuckle would do it for me. "But where would you put your mobile phone?" You ask. I just smile.

Aly Lenon came up with this most spectacular idea of making snow prints by pushing themselves into fresh snow on cars. V. cool 3d effect with the right lighting.

One Two Fiver is a writer's warm-up page. You start by writing one word, then two, then five, and so on, up to 500 words. I think that the idea behind it is that you gradually get yourself moving. I'm going to try it later today and I'll post the results here. Find out more about the idea behind this strategy here.

Ridiculously, I like this coat. I'd look like an idiot in it, but I'd feel great. I can just imagine skipping my 40 year old bones down the street. I think I'd need knee socks and pink patent shoes to go with it (or even better, pink patent knee-high boots). And maybe pink hair too. I have a definite advantage over the dummy that they put the coat on, in that I have a head. I think that the hood would look totally cuter on me. (What's happening to me? I don't wear pink! Eeek!)

And finally and image that made me think all kinds of things. Sad and happy.



As you know, I've been hoping for a puppy. But I think that a fish dog would be way cooler (see vid):



Have a wonderful day.

Labels: aly lenon, bucklette, fishdog, keetwonen, pursebuckle

xo
ingrid

Janet was scatterbrained. No one knew it because she hid her inability to hold a thought for more than five minutes at a time by writing copious notes to herself and by formulating her life around lists and schedules. People around her described her as type-A, anal, rigid and inflexible but also productive, reliable and necessary.

In the minds of others Janet was incredibly organized and in fact, she was. As long as she stayed with the lists. She knew it was an illusion held together by moment-to-moment decisions that kept her bound to this regimen.

One vacation she decided to abandon her structure. She was tired. And unhappy. She shut off her phone and computer and shut her door to the business of the real world.

Instead, she slept 12 hour days, from 4 a.m. to 4 p.m, going to bed only when she saw a glimmer of the sun lighting the horizon. She liked the quietness of the night and she liked its smell. She ate only the crackers, pickles and spreadable cheese and only when she was hungry. She wore pajamas (with a print of pink jumping bunnies on a blue background) for a week. She let her mind go where it wanted to go and dreamed, imagined, and floated in a world that wasn't physical. She read and read and read and then in her naps on a quilt on the balcony floor in the sun she would continue to dream the stories, creating new plots and characters. And in these dreams she was the hero who filled the world with beauty. She let the hair on her legs grow and would examine it while lying in the bathtub for hours, occasionally refilling and then sinking back into its warm womb and thinking that it was nice not to shave.

She didn't know how she would get back to her lists, since she had lost her way. And she liked being a little lost.

Labels: janet, mini mini story, vacation is risky