Gasping for Oxygen

It's such a shame she didn't say yes 
Melancholy waves of sadness rolled over me
The pretty girl with blue eyes went on staring blankly into the computer screen 
I asked her out to no avail although we chatted 

She said she didn't like boat parties 
they just weren't her thing 
oh well another polite rejection 

when I looked up deep into her eyes 
I saw she was almost tempted to say yes 
to take a chance on a menace of a man
i would've been so happy if she did 
you know say yes 

But in the end she didn't 
i quickly excused myself 
so i could hyperventilate in private 
in the library bathroom before regaining my composure 
and the remnants of my self-esteem

Thankfully I didn't feel to bad, happy even!

Try as I may and i did try i couldn't for the life of me
wrestle the beloved from the lofty windswept heights of adoration 
I thought how lonely it must be for her 
Up so high looking down on us mere mortals 
with our creaking limbs and flawed personalities 

I decided to go for a walk to shake 
off my feelings of mild despair and existential angst 
Not long into my pointless wandering 
I felt deeply depressed 
It wasn't the girls fault she was ever so tender at saying
No... to me     It was just my natural dissposition 
In a way I was glad I wouldn't have to inflict myself on her
Like a mad juggler grasping at straws to entertain her on a mad tug boat 
what a bloody disaster of a thought

Perhaps why it stung so badly but only for mere seconds was 
because it felt like my very spirit not to mention my decrepit body
had been weighed, judged and simply dismissed as superflourous 
With the ease of a seasoned bureaucrat she continued typing 
after our exchange

While I gasped for oxygen in a room with no sound
Then quickly resolved to buy some new sandals 
To take my mind off my triumphant failure 
As my feet sometimes do get sweaty laughs
Anyway at least I wasn't a coward or lacking a man's backbone 
And she was so close to saying yes I could feel it 
on the tip of her serpents tongue 
I would've died of happiness 
had she uttered those sweet perfumed words 

As i left her in peace to continue the secure monotony of her work 
marketing or something rather boring 
She flicked her hair out with both hands
I laughed to myself perhaps I disgusted her 
Oh how the lover usually has that sort of feeling on the beloved 

Why are adult love relationships so hard?

Why are adult love relationships so hard?

I think they are hard because they are dependent
on virtue to have a long-lasting and fulfilling one.
Aristotle himself believed that only when two virtuous
people meet can they have a successful and happy
relationship, this is true of love and friendship.

What then follows from this finding is that virtue although
in off itself a great good, also delivers a pivotal end being 
long-lasting and happy relationships for human beings.
This in many ways accounts for why the virtuous flourish
and achieve eudiamonia, while others don’t.

If Aristotle is correct the core reason for having a relationship
will be not to enjoy anothers wealth or good looks but to share
in each others virtues and increase our virtue and our partner theirs
from our shared contact and connection.

So it seems like flowers that never flourish and bloom in isolation, 

humanity also needs friends and lovers of a virtuous nature to share life

and experience with and only through long-lasting relationships 

can the good life be achieved by virtuous people and not persons.

Unknown Pink Flowers Spring to Life Outside Elam

I grabbed a photo of this tree showing off all its swaglicious flowers in the afternoon,

it's petals were all raining down like bone-tipped arrows set on fire. Almost every tree

to me is blooming in the city at the moment and it's really affecting my spirits in

a positive way making me happier. Not to say i didn't enjoy winter I really did

except for the two weeks when I was bed-ridden with a nightmare fever.

There's really nothing like sitting, waiting around eating a chocolate covered

energy bar and slowly seeing a beautiful tree snake into the corner of your

eye with dancing colours dripping from it's branches. Sadly I forgot to

read what type of tree and flowers I was staring at, i tried to smell the flowers

but there was no kick to them. I've also recently discovered a real fondness

for knowing Latin the proper botanical names for the plants i stumble across

especially the particular sub-species of a flower that catches my fancy.

Thankfully at Auckland university all the trees and plants tend to have their

ancient names encrusted upon a little bronze or steel plaque at the base of each

trunk or painfully nailed onto it's worn body. The tree from the photo I caught was

outside Elam the premier fine arts school in NZ, probably?

I usually hang out there outside after studying my books and eat something

to stabilise my sugar levels.

Sometimes I also study the people who come and go from

the art school with their easels and paints well more like macbook pro's

and new installed photoshop 10,0 now i guess. Sometimes I find myself

subconsciously analysing what they wear as my snack bar brings

my body and brain back to full functionality. I even imagine that I can

match their clothing style with the art they make behind closed doors!

often laughing to myself about what i guess is the art medium

for whom. And Contrary to what you might think of the next wave

of New Zealand artists on the big come up some of them dress

pretty low-key almost jock like which is a bit stale haha.

Of course you still do get the odd eccentric dressed up who could

the late David Bowie to shame. I like the manic free spirits the

best who turn their wardrobe and body into a moving talking

work of art thanks to throwaways of the last decades fashionistas.

Some of the art they come up with inside the dungeon of Elam

looks pretty sweet, bad and even great. I walked past late last

week and a girl was painting a vast canvas on easel while sitting

on a stool with her headphones blaring, she looked to be having

a blast although there was no real sign of paint on the canvas yet.

Which reminds me I once had a pretty acquaintance I knew

who was studying at Elam but seemed rather sad about the

prospects of not making much money from her chosen occupation.

I thought to myself 'I don't think real artists think that way about art'

not to say that some aren't driven by commerce the musician Handel

was a great composer and business man rinsing the aristocracy of

money, but for the most part they really don't care. Which reminds of

a great quote from the contemporary recording artist Kevin Parker of

psych-rock Tame Impala who dropped this gem recently;

"if you make great art, the wealth will come" my emphasis added.

-- Auckland University plans to close its doors to the public --

I'm saddened to hear that Auckland Uni is cracking down on people attending classes that they aren't enrolled in including current students. 

In the long-term I foresee such a neo-liberal policy directly hindering peoples ability to educate themselves. Although I have never sat in on a class I have never been enrolled in accept the odd class with a mate who was I don't think it's right. The New Zealand university education system shouldn't be reduced to a pay to play scheme.

There are to many bright vivacious youngsters and wise senior citizens that deserve to learn regardless of whether they are pursuing a recognised tertiary qualification. Have universities pride swelled to such an extent that they have forgotten members of society fund there very existence. 

Institutions of higher learning should be open to all. It's like the powers that be actively won't people to stay dumb and uneducated I wonder why that would be...i guess the myth of anti-intellectualism in New Zealand is alive and kicking a rugby ball.

A Battle Over Science - The Raging Theist VS the Nirvana T-shirt wearing Atheist

I went to a debate on science tonight with both an atheist and theist arguing for how they think science demands God's existence or not. I found both arguments fascinating. From a scholastic point of view I thought that the atheist had stronger arguments and engaged in the debate in a fair and more even temperament. The theist seem led to slip into a passive aggressive demeanour to strengthen his arguments that I thought significantly detracted from his points that were from the outset weak. 

The atheist in contrast chose a different sly tactic of underhanded put downs to his adversary and the room in general even if he tried to mask them with good jest. From my perspective I thought the whole thing was a bit of a joke as I tend to keep the areas of science and religion distinctly separated. The debate about science and God seemed to devolve into a convoluted mess. I mean on one hand science has given us modern medicine to improve our health and well being. 

While on the other hand religion in the wider sense of the term acknowledging some higher power in the world is fundamental for many overcoming addiction and harmful ways of life that science can not easily fix or help. 

The great scientist Einstein agreed that science and religion dealt with different essential areas of the human life one rational the other irrational yet people are still fighting about which one fits were. To Einstein and myself it seems rather clear science is rational to the point of being stale and meaningless, while the irrational risky nature of religious thinking is essentially its unique and beautiful singular charm - the other way round that the theist argued for is to my mind simply wrong. 

Nevertheless emotions run high and the debate rages on, while a slowly back away and run! 

A nice article on Einstein's thoughts about science and religion 
https://newrepublic.com/article/115821/einsteins-famous-quote-science-religion-didnt-mean-taught

An Ode to Billy Joe the Human Squirrel of ‘Pennys’

A man called Billy Joe liked to collect copper Penny’s in America. For 45 years

or so he picked up every penny that ever came across his path, it’s hard to imagine

he ever missed one. And yet every time he discovered a shiny strawberry relic 

pressed by some big coin machine in Washington he stared up high into the

heavens and thanked the universe and endless cosmos for his good fortune.

If someone ever dropped a nickel or a quarter dollar he would always run 

after them chasing them down a few blocks to give it back to them, 

but he would never do the same for a penny he was like a jealous lover

and wanted them all, all of the time. His magpie eyes would search out

even the slightest glint of red metal like a roving street sweeper he went

onto amass over 500,000 U.S certified legal tender pennies. 

Sadly one day the man who ran on pennies like a meaningless slot machine

that never payed out fell on hard times, due in part to the current economic

recession, old age and supporting his family. Facing destitution and homelessness

the man made the melancholic decision to cash in his life’s work, every good

damn penny, because he simply couldn’t afford to live, he was quoted as saying;

“Lord put some food upon the table, help me paya weeks rent,

I don’t really need no cable as long as my children been feed”  

Much later he conveyed to media how excruciatingly painful it had been to cash

up his life’s work for a measly $5000 dollars, a tiny cheque on flimsy paper 

could never fill the void left by losing his hard won mammoth coin collection.

He recounted how the saddest idea for him was the thought of all his beloved

penny’s sloshing around in the financial system only to be lost and taken for 

granted again, and how this time he didn’t have enough time to find them all 

because he was dying.

From a philosophical point of view isn’t it strange how the small amount of money

Billy earnt in the end was utterly dwarfed by his supreme joy even ecstasy of

chasing and hunting pennies such a simple act that he adored almost above 

everything else in life except his family. I’d be interested to know if the reader

thinks it’s a gift or a curse finding value were there really is none?

Despite Old Billy Joe succumbing to his phantom illness that struck him down

like a thunderbolt after selling his pennies I can still imagine him like the mad

human squirrel he once was and forever is; galloping down suburban pavements

in Los Angeles searching for worthless stained red gold, that only he could see.

  Never forget that there was once a poor humble human bean called Billy Joe

who treated unwanted pennies littered on the streets like lost magical talismans.                  

Hopefully we can all start discovering our ‘Pennys’ too, an action that brings us

untold joy with no real productive end just guided by our own free will, passion

and desires (now that sounds very millennial indeed).         By Moss 

"So What are we Worried About" - Jane Kelsey vs Mike Hosking The Painful TPPA interview

The real story behind the TPPA 6 main points:

1) NZ will make no money ssigning the TPPA agreement. The US government released a statement saying if all our trade barriers were removed i.e capital investment, foreign business regulations,  labour and wage laws and health and safety practices in the workplace the New Zealand economy stands to increase trade by 0.01% GDP in 2025, hip hip yeah nah

2) Pharmaceuticals and Medicine prices will sky rocket on Life saving drugs "Biologics"
costing NZ $25 million a year for each drug per year.

A Quick maths equation: 5 live saving cancer drugs
                                         at the price of $25 million dollars a year
                                         Over 10 years = $1,250,000,000 NZD  sound nice Pharmac I bet it does

3) Handcuffs will be placed on the Government hindering our abilities to make the laws of New Zealand

4) We don't even know what is in the agreement, and thats not normal

5) Foreign investment will be hard to regulate in our own country

6) The NZ Government will open itself up to being sued overseas by TPPA signees
    in shadow Kangaroo Courts

The Neo-Kalashnikovs Play Leigh Sawmill with Wendy Morris Band and Murray Haddow 16th March

 

Download The Neo-Kalashnikovs New Single "Gorgeous Baby" Below Instantly for free:

 

http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?szenaf1d1lme1g6