You are my validation.
I need your affirmation.
Of my existence.
That I should be who I am.

You are my deliverance.
I need your approval.
Of my being.
That am doing the right thing.

You are my hope.
I need your faith.
Of what I'm able.
That I can achieve destiny.

I have a number of French songs in my Finetune play list. (Check it out it's at the side bar!) One song that struck me was Les Mots, Les Gestes, which means "the words, the gestures" by Hélène Ségara. It's a mellow song. I loved the lyrics so I translated them. MY FIRST FRENCH TRANSLATION!!! Ok, maybe it was another midnight madness, but I hope you enjoy it. And please let me know if there are stuff that were lost in translation.

It took a bit of time for me and yes, I took help of online French-English dictionary as well as Google Translate and Babel Fish but they don't really give good results. They get confused with the feminine/masculine forms, especially when it comes to the possessive stuff. If you're studying French though, I would recommend that you listen to the song. There's a lot of transitive verbs. Of course, I'm completely lost when it comes to 'em transitives. So here are the translated lyrics.

Original (French) Lyrics: E. Aerts Music by: R. Lable Album: "Coeur de verre" (1996)

..........................................................
Written with Zyed
..........................................................

(When will you realize that I cannot be fit into a mold.)

There is no cup,
no retainer,
no shape or form.

It is only the abstract that exists
It is only the essence.
It is only the being.

There are no words,
There are no gestures,
No standards, no fixtures...

It is only the fluidity of my soul...
The flow of my emotions.

It is the abstraction that is me.
The intangible.
The illusive.

Language is only an accessory.

Let the silence speak.
Let's be primitive.
Let's undo the rules.

Don't hold me.
Don't mold me.
Don't fix, don't shackle.
Don't measure me up --

I wanted to write this post for a while now. Somehow life seemed crazy and I wasn't able to really have the time or the quietness of the mind. When I started "Notes Above Ground", I had a very clear picture. I wanted to shut down my other blog -- Stream of Conscious -- partly because it was under a pen name, and partly because I wanted to write more than poetry. That blog was all poetry. So what's the deal with this blog? Here goes:

Notes Above Ground is my PERSONAL blog. That means it's about things that I'm really interested in. That can translate to anything under the sun but I'm narrowing down that into loosely 'concentrated' areas.

This is a place that I jot down notes, thought processes, and keep references. They might be of use to others too. So here's a list of things that you'd be able to read about here:

• Photography
• Social/New media
• The Internet/Web 2.0/Web ++
• Book reviews
• Movie reviews
• Blog/Site reviews
• Travel
• Food
• Writing, writing, writing

As I turn on the TV and watch the news,
hope is a rare glimmer that can’t be found.

We see the world unraveling itself.
And words of my grandmother came into my head:
the world is going to end soon.

I was 13, getting ready to leave for the States.
There were wars, storms and disasters then.
There are wars, storms and disasters now.

Is the world really going to end soon?
These are all signs she said.

Well, maybe they are.

Maybe they’re not.

But I’m grateful.

I’m grateful that my friends encompass the world.
I’m grateful that a friend from Germany can send me post cards from Mexico.
I’m grateful I can meet lots of people from around the world by just sitting here in India.
I’m grateful that I can be in touch with most people from the other side of the world.

(Not to mention everyday, live and in person – well, as close as it can get – until we can teleport.)

I’m grateful that I can still enjoy the little freedoms some people can’t even imagine having.

Maybe thanksgiving is something that signified how the Native Americans were wiped off,
Maybe it’s raining on the parade.

But at least it still goes on. Doesn’t it?

That’s why I’m grateful.
The parade still goes on.
Family and friends still get together – even if it’s not thanksgiving.

So this thanksgiving, instead of bitching and moaning
I figured sending out this note
To friends and folks near and far.
To say a simple ‘thank you’…

In the words of a great friend:
“Thank you for being there, while I was there”
You all know who you are and how your work is important.

I think this is where my grandma got it wrong.
I don’t think the world is going to end very soon.

Not if we’re still around.
And not if we can help it.

Happy Thanksgiving.

...........................................................................
Note: This was written two years ago. I'm migrating my other blog on to here. Same stuff, just different packaging.
..........................................................................

Hey folks, I haven't written for Notes Above Ground for so long 'coz I've been really busy with some stuff. I've been researching on a manifesto (will post soon!). Essentially this is a quick post to let you know that I'm a participant in Script Frenzy. The idea is really simple -- one month, one script, 20,000 words. ^_^

I don't know if I'll be able to pull it off or not but I'll be posting my writerly journey over here on a regular basis. So more posts!

On the other hand, I've started a new blog -- Confederacy of the Dunces -- it's strictly a humor blog so that there's a place where I can put stuff on all the funny emails that come into my inbox.

That's all for now, more later...

It's Republic Day here in India. My neighborhood is bustling with people and children celebrating.
In another Republic in a galaxy far far away, however, a phone rings...

Do you ? I do. It's my new addiction. ^_^
How do I know? Here's a check list --

1. If you didn't Stumble Upon at least 10 sites, you didn't feel like you used the internet for the day.
2. Addictive games or activities on the internet catches only 10 seconds of your attention, afterwards, you keep on stumbling.
3. You don't surf anymore, you only stumble upon.
4. You keep a browser window just to 'stumble'.
5. You click on the Stumble! button to reload the page.

I haven't been able to update the blog lately – and I have a good reason. Let's recap what happened to me from the last weekend --

Saturday, on my way down town I folded my ankle and put my whole weight on top of it. I thought I had broken it. We did X-Rays, doc ordered me 3-4 days absolute bed rest. I did for about 2 days and went about with life. Ankle got better.

Thursday – I felt feverish, so I stayed home. Found a small blister type object on my palm. If you give a bubble wrap to a kid what do they do? They pop it. Naturally I popped my blister too.

Some itchiness started on my back.

Friday -- I went about what I had to do downtown, still feeling feverish. In the morning I felt something behind my right ear. Some little bump and the gland behind my ear was a bit hardened. Then my head was a bit itchy and prickly stuff was on my head. I got better after lunch and though nothing about it. As the evening approached, around 6, my friend realizes that she had the same problem once. Told me to go to the bathroom to see if there are red dots on my tummy.

I went to the bathroom and checked – small red dots – could've been mosquito bites. I went back to sit with her and told her that. Then I pulled up my shirt sleeve and there was another blister like bump. My friend told me to run to the doc right away.

Sure enough, the doc checked out and it was chicken pox. :(

So I'm down with chicken pox. Been on bed all these days.

I'm well above legal drinking age. I'm down with chicken pox. That means I'm still a kid? ^_^

Finally I found Blogger classic templates from Gecko&Fly that are hack... well, 'modified' for Blogger beta by Blogcrowds (Somehow I think they're the same people behind the scenes.) They're not as 'grown up' as MyBlogLog but they are pretty cool.

My favorite part is that they have a 'forum' format. Now, I'm not big on forums because I get lost easily like blog skins. I love the designs but I don't know where or what to click to get the template and take a peek. I don't have the time to go through all that. Recently I realized that I do need to sleep too.

I really wish MyBlogLog come up with a forum type of a thing so people can talk and converse in their communities instead of just leaving messages. I love the crowd in MyBlogLog, I love the people and the blogs that are there but I don't like the fact that you have to forever keep on clicking to get to one point to the next. And if you're like me, I'm sure you have so many tabs on your window to keep track of what's what. After that I get confused what opened where when I clicked on a person.

Hey this isn't just me ranting. I've seen people leave messages saying they're lost or can't understand what happens when you click something. When you click on the picture it doesn't go to the blog, it might go to the community page. That's why people get lost. We're hard wired in our brains so much we forget to look where we're clicking and expect something else.

Basically it's a usability issue. I hope they fix it soon, or else we're gonna loose newbies that come up and I'll not have the opportunities to 'meet' them and their blogs otherwise.

In other news -- My ankle is much better. I can walk with just a small limp that's hardly noticeable.

Oh, and about this template, I'll be doing changes slowly so I don't pull out my hair and I learn... it's going to be a process, not an over night thing -- see you around!

It's the weekend, you're supposed to be out enjoying the weather or something. If you're not, well, join the club -- I'm also addicted to blogs -- among other things like coffee, caffeine, chocolate, stationery, gadgets ... ok, you get the idea.

Right now, I have an excuse at least -- I sprang my ankle yesterday. I thought I had broken it initially but X-ray results said I hadn't. Either way, it's still hurting when I put my weight on it. The doc ordered me full ABSOLUTE bed rest for 2-3 days. I'm counting today as the second day. ^_^

Folks, I'm still experimenting with the template here so if it changes and stuff it's because I'm doing things to this baby. I'm still trying to get a hang of this widget stuff and how to code it. I was bored by the cookie cutter templates so I started experimenting with a couple of templates on new year's day. Now I'm just staring at the widget codes. The more I stare, the more I seem to understand but only time can tell whether I was dreaming or not.

If codes show up in my dream, then definitely I've understood -- it happened when I was learning Java and it happened with French too. Do you dream in java? Holla back!

Happy New Year! Just a test blog here to see how it looks...