Florence, Italy

Fabric Market

We all wear masks, and the time comes when we
cannot remove them without removing some of our own skin.
-- André Berthiaume

"You can change or stay the same...We can make the best or the worst of it. And I hope you make the best of it. 

I hope you see things that startle you. I hope you feel things you never felt before. I hope you meet people with a different point of view. I hope you live a life you're proud of. 

And if you find that you're not, I hope you have the strength to start all over again."

-- Benjamin B.

"I said to my soul, be still and wait without hope, for hope would be hope for the wrong thing; wait without love, for love would be love of the wrong thing; there is yet faith, but faith and the love are all in the waiting. Wait without thought, for you are not ready for thought. So the darkness shall be the light, and the stillness the dancing." -- TSEliot

quote:

the grass is always greener on the other side,
but you can bet the water bill is higher too ;)

quote#39.
"You cannot discover new lands without losing sight of what you are familiar with."
- Unknown.

The heart has its own reasons which reason knows nothing of.
-- Blaise Pascal

note:

It is easy to take liberty for granted, when you have never had it taken from you.

- Unknown.

Sometimes I can hear my bones straining under the weight of all the lives I'm not living.
-Jonathan Safran Foer

The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the
iniquities of the selfish, and the tyranny of evil men.

Blessed is he who in the name of charity and goodwill
shepherds the weak through the valley of darkness, for
he is truly his brothers keeper and the finder of lost children.

And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance
and furious anger, those who attempt to poison and destroy
my brothers.

And you will know my name is the Lord,
when I lay my vengeance upon thee.

(Ezekiel, 25:17)

 

Sometimes you got to get away, to want to go back home again.
- Sheryl Crow

@Lanai, Hawaii

excuse me, but
who are you to judge the life I live?
I know I'm not perfect and I don't live to be,
but before you start pointing fingers,
make sure your hands are clean.
- Bob Marley 

From a certain Mr. R --


"What is your greatest ambition in life?"
"...To become immortal. And then die."

post birthday contemplations.

"My frustrations are a spider web --
the edges trace to the center
only to find more extensions.

I want to find the center from where this unhappiness spreads --
where the spider lurks --
adding more silk to its web.

I want to kill that spider."
- http://in-the-streets.blogspot.com/

This was something I found in an old archive from almost two years ago.



what a flashback.

Two years.
A lot can change in two years.

I look back at where I was at the end of 2008: who I was, the things I did, the people I met, and look at where I am today.

Its strange, isn't it? How experience and age can change you. How, at times, it can leave you more jaded, more cynical, but at the same time -- more optimistic and more appreciative. How you wish you'd known then what you know now. I look back at myself in awe; I am a stranger to my past self. Unrecognizable. What seemed so important to me then now seems so trivial.

I used to believe everything in life amounted to timing -- to fate and chance. Now, I realize it is about yourself. Your will, your determination. Your motivation. Nothing is gained without working hard, without sacrifice. The spider is back, true. It is larger than ever, ominous and threatening. It has returned with a vengeance. However, I see this as a test -- a test of wills, a test of values, a test that everything I've worked for in the past will not lead me to regress into a person I will regret in the future.

And so I leave this as a sobering reminder to myself, and to you, that

They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself. When people are ready to, they change. They never do it before then, and sometimes they die before they get around to it. You can’t make them change if they don’t want to, just like when they do want to, you can’t stop them. 

– Andy Warhol

3 am watching Boondock Saints on my day off from work--

such a good idea

"We all must fear evil, but the evil we must fear 

the most is the indifference of good men."

did you know:

if you can make a girl laugh, you can make her do anything.

- Marilyn Monroe 

"When autumn comes, it doesn't ask. 

It just walks in, where it left you last. 

And you never know, when it starts. 

Until there's fog inside the glass 

around your summer heart." 

-- John Mayer, Something's Missing

it's the change of seasons.

*note: Don't listen to his music much, but you've got to appreciate the man's lyrics. Respect

"What we have here is a dreamer; someone completely out of touch with reality."

Only sometimes

RED: But there are times I curse him for the dreams he left behind... dreams where I am lost in a warm place with no memory. An ocean so big it strikes me dumb. Waves so quiet they strike me deaf. Sunshine so bright it strikes me blind. It is a place that is blue beyond reason. Bluer than can possibly exist. Bluer than my mind can possibly grasp. I am terrified. There is no way home.

The Shawshank Redemption: 9.2/10 rating = must watch

quote #142.

"Later, much later, back in Paris, each harrowing ordeal will become an adventure. For some idiotic reason, your most horrific experiences are the stories you most love to tell."  

- L'auberge Espagnole