Just Wow

It turns out that I took exactly10,000 steps today!  I actually feel kind of like I've been assimilated by the Borg.

When You've Got OCD (And Time)

[More than likely, this has been known for a long time, but hey, at least I re-discovered it on my own^]

I've noticed something fun about the nine o'clock hour.  Take any random minute of the hour -- say 9:23.  If you add the digits of the minutes together, numerology-style, the sum is 2+3=5.  Add the sum to the hour 9, and you get 9+5=14.  Add the digits of that sum together, 1+4, and the resulting sum is identical to the sum of the minute digits, 5.  Works for every minute of the nine o'clock hour.  Take 9:43, for another example.  4+3=7.  9+7 yields 16, and again, 1 and 6 add up to 7.

If the sum of the minute digits exceeds 10, add up the digits of that sum again, and that secondary sum will work the same.  For example, with 9:57 you have 5+7=12, exceeding 10, so add the digits up again: 1+2=3.  Then add the hour 9, and voila, you have 9+3=12!

And if you don't add up the digits of the 10+ minute sum (12 in this case), interestingly enough, this happens:  9+12=21, add the digits of that sum together, and you have 2+1=3, which is the same as the sum of the original minute digits:  5+7=12, and 1+2=3!

"Das Wandern"

Die schöne Müllerin is one of Schubert's most famous -- if not the best all around (to my mind anyway) -- song cycles. And this song, the first one in the series, is my personal favorite. I prefer songs and music, whether classical or pop, to be performed pretty straight, as the composer originally envisioned it, without too much in the way of artifice and ornamentation added on by the individual performer. This fine version sung by Thomas Quasthoff fits the bill nicely.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6S1js0SQbbA

The Glove Is Finally Gone

Some eight months later, building maintenance finally removed it from the awning.  Now I actually feel kind of wistful, having grown used to checking up on it every time I go out.

Related Posts:  I Found A Glove;  That Glove

Other "Glove" Posts:  Glove; Lost & Found;  Another Glove

Giant's Hand Imprint:  Giant's Handprint

Only The Physically Fit

May attend Gyeonggi University's Seoul campus. First you have to huff and puff your way up a long winding hill to get to the gate, and once there, you must climb these stairs to get to class.  And I don't know why, at the end of all that, that unwelcoming stone is placed there at the center of the top step.  To weed out those candidates who aren't truly motivated, perhaps?^

Dissolving Building

 

A Cafe With A (Possibly) Sinister Name

Only after opening up this photo for editing did I notice that the stairs lead to a cafe called "Morii".  The word looked familiar, but in a somewhat ominous way, as it reminded me of "Memento Mori".  So I looked it up, and interestingly enough, it has two meanings:  either "The desire to capture a fleeting experience", which is, fittingly enough, what I do when I photograph clouds and such;  or in Latin -- "I died".  My guess is the cafe was not named in Latin.

Chicxulub II

 

Giant comet about to hit us!  Another extinction event!?!

An Urgent Message

Or perhaps a Zen-like one.

Corner Of My Living Room

Above

 

and below

"Hungry Ghost" In The Parking Lot

I was just walking out of the lobby when I noticed this image of a 'ghost' imprinted in the pavement.  And not just an ordinary ghost, but a 'Preta', or 'Hungry Ghost', judging by that hole in its belly.  In the Buddhist universe the preta (아귀 / 餓鬼) are the unfortunate denizens of a realm ranked well below the level of the human world -- that is, those who in their previous lifetimes were afflicted with powerful appetites or acquisitive desires that were unrequited at death, and as a result are reborn as beastly beings whose defining characteristic is overwhelming hunger (stereotypically but not necessarily for food) that is permanently unsatiated.  In art they are traditionally portrayed as fairly human-like, as monsters go, except they've got huge swollen bellies that cannot ever be filled through their tiny throats.

But I don't know, is not the an empty hole in the belly a better representation of a 'hungry ghost'?

Here is where it gets personal:  when I moved from Los Angeles to Seoul, I had to sell off all my belongings, including many rare books and some 900 movies on DVD.  I miss them dearly.  Very dearly.  So much so that if I cannot overcome this regret over my past possessions, I fear I may face a certain risk in my future incarnation.

Snow Day At Gwanghwamun

 

Mother Cloud Found Me

Long ago, I posted this entry about an "oddly even" parallelogram cloud and how, months later, I found the hole it had left behind in the mother cloud when it broke free to roam about on its own.  And yesterday, I found that the mother cloud had followed me.  All the way from Los Angeles to Seoul.  Obviously, it still has not been able to find its rogue child after all this time.  Perhaps it thought it might gain some clues as to the whereabouts of its wayward child by following me, the one who originally found it.

 

Pigeon Tracks In The Snow

On the roof of the subway entrance.

A Small But Welcome Glimmer Of Lucidity

Early this morning I dreamt that I was in a hospital (not as a patient, whew^).  I was invited to sit at a table in a side hall off the main corridor and partake of the leftovers from some major formal meal served earlier.  It was a simple setting consisting of white rice, some little bulgogi, and kimchi.  There wasn't much bulgogi left, but I was hungry and I gladly dug in.  As I ate, I kept finding more bulgogi than I thought there was, and I was quite satisfied with the meal.  Then some flies flew in and started to swarm the food.  They were very annoying and I kept swatting them away, but then it occurred to me that since I was dreaming all this, I could make happen whatever I wished to happen -- so I dreamed into existence a small cloud of insecticide spray to engulf the flies, and it worked like a charm!  The flies at once fell dead and I was left to enjoy the rest of the meal in peace.

In retrospect, two things stand out about this dream:

#1. They say it's not so much the dream itself as the interpretation that really matters.  Well, then what an auspicious dream this is -- I was in a place of healing (the hospital), I got more of what I wanted (the bulgogi) than I'd expected, and the hurdles in the way (the flies) were easily overcome.  It's especially meaningful since I dreamt it on the morning of New Year's Day.  They say that dreaming of a pig is a sign of good things to come, pig being a symbol of prosperity -- well, I see my dream as a variant form of the "pig dream".

#2. And of course, the lucidity -- well, partial lucidity -- experienced within the dream.  It didn't manifest as a special, momentous recognition of my dreaming state, no "aha!" moment.  It was simply accepted as normal at the time.  I will endeavor to improve upon this state -- that is, toward that "aha!" moment of full, waking consciousness within the dream.