I Scrunch My Finger

I scrunch my finger.
It is at this point
in time and space
and no other.
It is my mind
that tells my brain
to scrunch my finger.
This finger
will exist
after my mind
is no more.
I scrunch my finger
because I want to.
No one tells me
to scrunch my finger.
No one but me.
I scrunch my finger
and that is my mark
in history.
My finger moves
through space.
It pushes unseen beings
out of its way
in order to complete
its journey.
It will never
scrunch at that time again.
I could scrunch my finger
in the same space again,
but never that same time.
It has been done
and that time is now gone.
I decided to spend that time
scrunching my finger.
I'll never get that time
back again.
My mind decided to spend
that time it was given
to scrunch my finger.
How shall I spend the rest of it?

Prologue

He sat there by the river, slowly stroking the smooth surface of the stone and tried hard to remember good times, or at least better times.  Things were different. He was different. The world was different. Everything he thought he knew was wrong.  He turned the stone over and over between his fingers and paid no attention to the hard rain that bombarded the back of his head. He didn’t care. That was the least of his worries. The battle that raged inside his mind was all that mattered to him.  He softly hummed a melancholy song.  He knew the tune well, but could not recall a single lyric.  He never could.  He had listened to that song countless times when he needed to think, but had never actually listened to the words.  It was the intensely solemn and sobering composition that constantly drew him back in when his mind decided it was time to contemplate life.  He had become so conditioned by this that it took him some time to even realize he was humming that tune.  It was this realization that made him remember what he was trying so hard to forget… he was alone.

I'm thinking about continuing this... what do you think?

Imaginary Reading

I have this issue where I talk about and imagine myself reading a lot more than I actually do. What are some good techniques you use to quiet your mind and focus on reading?

Hipstamatic HumpDays #5: The Fallen and the Falling...

Recently my uncle posted some photos of a cemetery in the fall, which always makes for stunning photographs. Autumn cemetery photos seem to evoke a certain emotion that's difficult to convey with words. The thought crossed my mind that perhaps it's the subconscious connection of the combination of the season in which arboreal and floral life seems to be fading away and the marble memorials that remind us of our own mortality.

These photos are nothing special. Danielle and I decided to stop by and take a walk through a cemetery by my house when we got out of class. I decided to snap a few quick photos with my iPhone because it's currently the only camera I own. My 35mm SLR is still a fantastic camera, but film is rare these days and I don't have the money to spend on the film or the processing, so I'm using this 3 megapixel camera in my phone until I can afford a digital SLR.

I really enjoyed the colorfulness of the leaves
on this tree...

I'm not big on taking photos of people, but I liked
this one of Danielle...



...and this will probably be the only photo of
myself that I'll ever post...



Bibliophile's Paradise

Well, this weekend I attended a "Friends of the Library" book sale at an expo center.  It was a monstrous building with wall-to-wall books lined up on tables... hundreds of thousands of books calling out my name. It truly was a bibliophile's paradise.  We went on Saturday because it was half-price day on all the books, so most were around $1.50! So, being the bibliophile that I am, I went all out.  Below is the list of books I acquired... in case you're interested... 

1.                  Mycenae – Dr. Schliemann



This weekend's book sale haul... seeing something
like this in front of me makes me smile...



2.                  Seven Pillars of Wisdom – T.E. Lawrence

3.                  The Concise Dictionary of Classical Mythology – Pierre Grimal

4.                  The Dictionary of Classical Mythology, Religion, Literature, and Art – Oskar Seyffert

5.                  The Works of Oscar Wilde

6.                  Moby Dick – Herman Melville



7.                  The Portable Cervantes (Don Quixote, 2 “Exemplary Novels”, & Cervantes’ Farewell to Life) – Samuel Putnam

8.                  The Hunchback of Notre Dame – Victor Hugo

9.                  Robin hood and His Merrie Men

10.              The Analects – Confucius



11.              Classics Greek and Romans­ – Meyer Reinhold

12.              History of the Peloponnesian War – Thucydides



13.              Tom Jones – Henry Fielding

14.              The Trojan Women and Other Plays – Euripides

15.              Voyage of the Beagle – Charles Darwin

16.              The Mutiny of the Elsinore – Jack London

17.              The Sea Wolf – Jack London

18.              White Fang – Jack London

19.              The Theban Plays – Sophocles

20.              The Rise and Fall of Athens: Nine Greek Lives – Plutarch

21.              Rob Roy – Sir Walter Scott

22.              On the Nature of Things – Lucretius

23.              Rubaiyat – Omar Khayyam

24.              Essays, Poems, Addresses – Ralph Waldo Emerson

25.              Essays and New Atlantis – Francis Bacon

26.              Utopia – Thomas More

27.              Selected Poems – Walt Whitman

28.              Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea – Jules Verne

29.              Bulfinch’s Mythology – Thomas Bulfinch



Hipstamatic HumpDay #4: Sunrise... Sunset...

I don't have much to say, so I'll just add the photos... Is that okay? Good...



Just a sunrise... no clouds, just pure light... I liked it.













I recently purchased these books from a lady in a farmhouse
in the middle of nowhere... I paid $50 for them and,
after some research, my suspicions were confirmed...
all the books you see here have a combined selling price of
$450! War & Peace alone is worth $250!
It's a rare 1st edition Inner Sanctum edition..
Needless to say, I was quite pleased...





 

Quarry near Sparta, MO... Autumn is certainly in full swing!



 



I began with a sunrise, so naturally, a sunset seems fitting

for the final photo of this Hipstamatic HumpDay...



Hipstamatic HumpDay #3: Miners Rising

These photos have absolutely nothing to do with the miners...
I am, however, sitting here, watching the miners in the San Jose Mine in Copiapo, Chile being rescued. As of the writing of this, 3 miners of the 33 have been pulled out.  The capsule used to bring them to the surface is called the "Fenix", named for the mythological bird rising from the ashes... very appropriate for such an occasion.  Two months in the bottom of a mine, with no sunlight... I can't imagine how I would respond to that. It makes me wonder, when they get back home, what their mental state will be... I'm sure there will be sentiments of not taking things for granted anymore, enjoying being outside, etc... but what other sorts of feelings will they experience in the coming days?  Either way, it'll be good to have them out...

Now for the photos:
This is a bit of a random collection of my shots through this week, but here ya go:

John Q. Hammons Fountain from the
Duane G. Meyer Library at Missouri State University



Reading Herodotus and enjoying some hot tea on my
balcony during a perfect autumn rainstorm



I recently bought a new corner bookshelf and,
as I was going to bed tonight,
I was quite taken with the way the light
shone through the curtains,
illuminating the books and my guitar







I have no idea why I took this, but I thought it interesting
the way the Hipstamatic app made my comforter look