december 13th , 2005
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Oblique Strategies

worthwhile dilemmas

"don't be afraid of things because they're easy to do"

"repitition is a form of change"

Summary:
Oblique Strategies is a deck of cards with words on them. These words are intended to inspire the mind and excite the creative energies in an artist, engineer, or anyone who is grappling with a problem they can't solve. The intent of the cards is to offer a completely random, wholly objective and interpersonal source from which to bounce off ideas. The cards have no alterior motive. Their only real purpose is to get one to look at any dilemma from a new and innovative direction. The cards are not supposed to solve problems, but they can be used as a tool to help one get to that solution to any given problem. At least in theory.

http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=20337
http://www.rtqe.net/ObliqueStrategies/
http://music.hyperreal.org/artists/brian_eno/oblique/oblique.html
http://stoney.sb.org/eno/oblique.html
http://curvedspace.org/software/oblique.html

word instructions:

Accept
Ask your body
A fold is an organised crumple
Allow an easement (an easement is the abandonment of a structure)
Accretion
A line has two sides
Ask people to work against their better judgement
Abandon normal instruments
Accept advice
Are there sections? Consider transitions
Abandon normal instruments
Accept advice
Accretion
A line has two sides
Allow an easement (an easement is the abandonment of a stricture)
Are there sections? Consider transitions
Ask people to work against their better judgement
Ask your body
Assemble some of the instruments in a group and treat the group
Always first steps
Always give yourself credit for having more than personality
A very small object -Its centre
Abandon desire
Abandon normal instructions
Adding on
Ask a brain besides your own.
Ask the envelope if it wants to be pushed.
Assume for a moment that your teachers were wrong.
Attack that which divides.

Bridges -build -burn
Balance the consistency principle with the inconsistency principle
Breathe more deeply
blank white card
Be dirty
Be extravagant
Be less critical more often
Back up a few steps. What else could you have done?
Build it all just the same. Just to show 'em.
Beginnings and endings are one and the same.
Burn one bridge and build another.
Blue always applies

Change instrument roles
Consult other sources -promising -unpromising
Cascades
Courage!
Cluster analysis
Consider different fading systems
Change nothing and continue with immaculate consistency
Change nothing and continue consistently
Cascades
Change instrument roles
Children's voices -speaking -singing
Cluster analysis
Consider different fading systems
Consult other sources -promising -unpromising
Convert a melodic element into a rhythmic element
Cut a vital connection
Change ambiguities to specifics
Change specifics to ambiguities
Consider transitions
Call your mother and ask her what to do.
Can you dance to it?
Change the order of events to find new meaning.
Color outside the lines.
Combine something with the nothing.
Complicate things.
Compromise can lead to constrictions
Commit to the next thing that occurs to you

Disconnect from desire
Don't be frightened of cliches
Don't be afraid of things because they're easy to do
Don't avoid what is easy
Don't be frightened to display your talents
Display your talent
Do nothing for as long as possible
Do the words need changing?
Discard an axiom
Decorate, decorate
Distorting time
Don't break the silence
Discover the recipes you are using and abandon them
Discover your formulas and abandon them
Do we need holes?
Do something boring
Define an area as `safe' and use it as an anchor
Don't stress one thing more than another
Destroy -nothing -the most important thing
Disconnect from desire
Do the washing up
Disciplined self-indulgence
Don't stress *one* thing more than another
Do the last thing first
Describe the landscape in which this belongs
Don't be such a baby.
Describe the intent.
Destroy the conventional.
Discover that which is not yet known.
Discover what you were really trying to say.
Do it twice and keep the better one.
Do what has not been done before.
Don't you think you've put it off long enough?
Doodle.
Doors serve no purpose unless used.

Emphasize repetitions
Emphasize differences
Emphasize the flaws
Emphasize differences
Escape more dramatically
Embrace the negative space.
Everything has already been done. But not by you.
Examine the patterns and change them.
Explore with caution that which is most feared.
Expect Delays - Use Alternate Routes
Enjoy the absence of a clear solution
Explain the last minute of your life
Express nothing

Fill every beat with something
Faced with a choice, do both
Feedback recordings into an acoustic situation
Feed the recording back out of the medium
From nothing to more than nothing
First work alone, then work in unusual pairs.Fear is poorly channeled courage.
Find the laughter.
Focus on the distractions.
Freedom hides in limitations

Get your neck massaged
Ghost echoes
Give the game away
Give way to your worst impulse
Go slowly all the way round the outside
Go outside. Shut the door.
Go to an extreme, move back to a more comfortable place
Go to an extreme, come part way back
Go with your gut.
Grotesque can be a form of beauty.

Heaven is dependent on individual perception.
Honor thy error as a hidden intention
How would you have done it?
Humanize something free of error
How would someone else do it?
Hold the tension

Is it finished?
Into the impossible
Infinitesimal gradations
Is there something missing?
It is quite possible (after all)
Imagine the music as a moving chain or caterpillar
Imagine the music as a set of disconnected events
Infinitesimal gradations
Intentions -credibility of -nobility of -humility of
Is the tuning appropriate?
Idiot glee
In total darkness, or in a very large room, very quietly
Is the tuning intonation correct?
Is the style right?
Instead of changing the thing, change the world around it.
It doesn't matter.
Include silence.
Increase the level of importance.
I am what I think I am.
Imperfection as it's own reward
If in doubt, improvise.
If you can be anything, be calm

Just carry on
Jettison what is perceived as most necessary
Just because you can, doesn't mean you should

Kindling is unrealized fire.
Know much that is hidden.

Listen to the quiet voice
Look at the order in which you do things
Look closely at the most embarrassing details and amplify them
Left channel, right channel, centre channel
Listen in total darkness, or in a very large room, very quietly
Listen to the quiet voice
Look at a very small object, look at its centre
Look at the order in which you do things
Look closely at the most embarrassing details and amplify them
Lowest common denominator check -single beat -single note -single riff
Left channel, right channel, centre channel
Lost in useless territory
Lowest common denominator
List the qualities it has. List those you'd like.
Let us taunt it. It may become so cross that it will make a mistake.
Look at the bones
Let inspiration sneak up on you.
Listen to the silence.
Look before the beginning.
Look at the window instead of through it.
Leave a hole for someone else to fill

Make do with what is available.
Make friends with the enemy.
Make it hold water.
Make sure you have all the ingredients before you start cooking.
Make a sudden, destructive unpredictable action; incorporate
Make a blank valuable by putting it in an exquisite frame
Mechanicalize something idiosyncratic
Mute and continue
Make an exhaustive list of everything you might do and do the last thing on the list
Magnify the most difficult details
Make it more sensual
Make what's perfect more human
Move towards the unimportant

Not building a wall but making a brick
Not embracing the tree but touching a leaf.
Never run if you can walk

(Organic) machinery
Only one element of each kind
Overtly resist change
Openly resist change
Once the search has begun, something will be found
Only a part, not the whole
Oh! Go get a glass of water.
Over the now are tasks that do not yet matter.
Obstacles can be tools to one's advantage.

Put in earplugs
Pay attention to distractions
Partners can simulate both engines and anchors.
Perspective is more than lines stretching to infinity.
Play hide and seek with the original intentions.
Pretend it isn't what you think.
Procrastination is an action.
Punchlines usually belong at the end of the joke.
Put down the brush and use your hands.
Put it off until tomorrow.
Put something new in the center
Put two things that don't work together together

Question the predictable.
Quick strokes. Slow strides.
Question the heroic approach

Remove specifics and convert to ambiguities
Repetition is a form of change
Reverse
Remove ambiguities and convert to specifics
Remember. those quiet evenings
Revaluation (a warm feeling)
Retrace your steps
Remove a restriction
Remove the middle, extend the edges
Remove the supports.
Run away!
Read into it.
Reflect on the context.
Reinforce the supports.
Retreat can be going forward from a more knowledgable perspective.
Reference distinctions between structure and ornament
Repeat yourself. Don't be afraid to repeat yourself."

Simple subtraction
Short circuit (example; a man eating peas with the idea that they will improve his virility shovels them straight into his lap)
Shut the door and listen from outside
Spectrum analysis
Simply a matter of work
State the problem in words as simply as possible
State the problem as clearly as possible
Steal a solution.
Say something unimportant.
Skip a beat.
Simplify.
Something old something new something borrowed something blue.
Structure is simply something to hold onto while you reach outside, and not intended to confine one to the inside.
Summon the angels and demons; let them fight it out
Submit
Seek out the ordinary and make it extraordinary

Turn it upside down
Think of the radio
Take away the elements in order of apparent non-importance
Tidy up
Trust in the you of now
The inconsistency principle
Take a break
The tape is now the music
Tape your mouth
Twist the spine
Tape your mouth
The most important thing is the thing most easily forgotten
Towards the insignificant
Take away the important parts
Try faking it
Take away as much mystery as possible. What is left?
Time doesn't exist.
Take a break from it and come back.
There are no mistakes.
Too much is always better than not enough.
Trust your instincts.
The smartest will know what you mean right away.

Use `unqualified' people
Use an unacceptable color
Use filters
Use fewer notes
Use an old idea
Use something nearby as a model
Use your own ideas
Use all of the space.
Use the implements wrong, but with purpose.
Utilize great energy while standing still
Unexpect the expected
Upon reaching comfort, abandon it.

Voice your suspicions
Visible is in.

What is the reality of the situation?
Water
What wouldn't you do?
What would your closest friend do?
What mistakes did you make last time?
Work at a different speed
What are you really thinking about just now? Incorporate
What are the sections sections of? Imagine a caterpillar moving
What context would look right?
What is the simplest solution?
What to increase? What to reduce? What to maintain?
When is it for?
Where is the edge?
Which parts can be grouped?
What else is this like?
What were the branch points in the evolution of this entity
When is it for? Who is it for?
What do you do? Now, what do you do best?
What most recently impressed you? How is it similar? What can you learn from it? What could you take from it?
Withdrawing in disgust is not the same thing as apathy.
What do you really want?
What will they see?
Words with the letter K in them are funny
What problem is it we are trying to solve
What seems impossible is usually the simplest form of discipline

Years of objective and intent can lead to nanoseconds of accomplishment
You can only make one dot at a time
You are an engineer
You don't have to be ashamed of using your own ideas
Your mistake was a hidden intention
You can't look at something without changing it.
You're fooling yourself.
You must try to relax.

Zero in on the message, then exploit it.

9:07pm

i was crabby today. so cold , so windy.
had to delete a creepy guy from ana2 because he sent me a photo of his erect penis and i told him to stop emailing me and he just wouldn't. just now he send me some tasteless joke with a big photo of women's breasts that were not actually breasts but a baby's butt. haha. funny. NOT.
NOT the thing to email me right after you send me a photo of your fucking penis and i tell you to leave me alone.
and he fwd it to me with all these other emails on there he was fwding it to. people whose emails are like horny4u or sexxxyhoney etc, and stuff.
and just REPLIED TO ALL that i deleted him and that i will file a sexual harassment suit against him if he tries to contact me ever again. i hope everyone on his "list" reads it and i hope he is good and embarrassed by his immature actions. i'm made sure everyone on his list knew what he was doing and that i wanted it to stop IMMEDIATELY. maybe he was harrassing some of those other women, too. who knows. CREEP. people need to grow the fuck up.

i'm also upset because women being burned alive is on the rise.
in france women are being torched to death and kerosene is now the #1 way that men physical abuse their wives in india now.

i don't know what the fuck is going on with this world.

i don't need to be worried about being burned alive on TOP of all the other atrocities done to women, too.
now i can't even go to france and take the bus without worrying that someone is going to douse me with gasoline and light me on fire???

arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgh.

don't light me on fire, don't send me photos of your penis, and don't continue to email me if i tell you to stop.
is that too much to ask?

apparently it is.

so i am just like GRRRRRR today.

i'm going to crawl into bed and read now.
i think i will try to read "the third policeman"it is a science fiction comedy sort of book so that will be good.

tomorrow i will be more productive.

oh, and that lost horizon movie (from 1973) IS terrible.
just godawful.
but i can see why i liked it when i was 7 years old.
it has kind of a barney the purple dinosaur from indonesia feel to it.
i can see why it is not released on dvd now.

i'll have to see the original movie from the 30's which is supposedly much better!
and marcus sent me the book!

7:35pm

the wind is howling through my windows making horible whistling sounds. i have my heater on full blast, the oven and candles, a winter hat and sweater.

6:25pm

my reply to rebershy:
http://www.livejournal.com/community/kabbalah_101/38972.html

"Sarah dressed up, Reb Elimelech tells us again, to beautify herself with the purest of kavanot, not to make herself desirable to her husband, not to make an impact on others, but to celebrate herself. That is the kavanah that glorifies the Shechina, the divine likeness."

yes!
this is something so many people do not understand.
and it causes so much suffering.

it would be nice (to generalize here) if men could celebrate the "shock and awe" they feel when they see beauty that moves them in their body as well as their spirit and mind. instead of be so ashamed of it and instead of AWE (reverence and respect) it is FEAR (hate and shame).
and this leads to rape and the oppression of women in all it's forms.

and of course it is the oppression of men not allowing to see the "shock and awe" they feel and experience is being part of the DIVINE.

there is a huge disconnection there that needs to be reconnected.

men (and women, too) need to see/know/understand/feel/experience that shechina is divine, as well. not lower or higher. not opposite, polar, dark, or lesser...

they need to let it BE.

to dwell in "shock and awe" , with reverence , respect, and delight.
and stop trying to cover it's light and smash it down or hide it in veils and berkahs.

de-light :) i like that word :)

i'm also glad i was able to take "shock and awe" and turn it around into it's positive form again.

shock is good because it makes us stop everything we are doing and thinking and it makes us BE in the moment.

to be in shock is maybe to be in the now or maybe to be suspended, like the yod. shahk Ra's...(chakras)...whirling shock-Ras suspended and d-well-ing and being deLIGHTed :)

d well ing
the door to the well of light? :)

5:51pm

under the bed restored! (thanks jason!)
it's freezing in my house.
i have the heater on full blast and was even wearing a winter coat on for most of the day.

--

tattoos

http://www.tattoojewmovie.com/

i want to see this movie.
it's interesting because the #1 reason it was very hard for me to get my (1st and only...so far) tattoo (of the red S on my left inner wrist in memory of sonia5) was that i was afraid that someday i may have to go into hiding and that getting a tattoo would mark me and identify me forever, so that if ever i needed to escape and become "invisible" i would not be able to.
i know this is from my "past" life as a jew. but i escaped the concentration camps.
i remember being a child and being by the trains and everyone being boarded into the trains.
and then my intuition kicked in that this was a death trap or someone told me to run, and i ran...and ran and ran and ran.
and i remained in hiding for probably the rest of my life.
i remember not know WHY i had to hide (being a child i did not understand why someone would hate me in that way and want to hunt me down and they did not even know me). i remember hiding in the woods for a long time.
i think i may have had a sibling with me who i took care of.
i then had to just "melt in" to society and become invisible as much as possible and i did not speak much for the rest of my life for fear i would say something that would give away my true identity.

so it was hard for me to become "marked". it was hard and beautiul and a right of passage for me.
it was not only my tribute to sonia, but it was also about me healing that part of my "past" life...standing up and allowing myself to be marked and identified forever. knowing that this tattoo could someday be the one thing that gets me killed.
but to stand up and say "this is me, this is who i am, here is my identifying mark. i am not afraid of you. i am not afraid to be identified, even if it will cause my death. i am going to stand up and say "here i am, this is me" even if this means death".

so it was very hardcore for me to get tattooed.

i remember sonia had tattoos for similiar reasons. but it was because she wanted to be identified in case she was ever lost from her family. they came up with kind of a family seal and got tattooed so that in case they were ever separated and needed to be identified, or identify the body, they would know. she had a fear of being lost and i had a fear of being found. but it was both rooted in the same thing. she also had an M on her wrist to remind herself of her 2 favourite people whose names started with M, and "me" (me standing for sonia, herself).

that is why i wanted to get a tattoo of her letter on my wrist. because that is where she had her tattoo.
and she felt like she was part of my spiritual family.

in marking myself with her name, it is my connection to her. i guess so that i never "lose" her as she never wanted to be lost.
and so many other things....

it's interesting as time has gone by, the S on my wrist is taking on so many new meanings, too.
the font (i wish i knew the name of the font) i chose for the S looks like to polarities coming together in unison.
and my life is so much about harmonizing opposites and bringing them to union in me.
so it's just taking on whole new levels of meanings in so many ways.
it also is very much like an 8 or symbol for infinity..the S for the snake in the garden of eden,
the spiralling kundalini energy, shakti...and the julia set and fractals...

---

Shechinah

today i want to learn about Shechina.
(alternative transliterations Shekinah, Shechinah, Shekina, Shechina, Schechinah)

if anyone has any good links to read about what this is, please share :)

"Kabbalists placed the concept of the SHEKHINAH at the center of their mystical system. The SHEKHINAH also called Malkhut (Kingship), Princess, Daughter, Bride, Wisdom, and Divine Speech is the tenth and most immanent of the Sefirot and radiates it upon the earth.

According to Kabbalistic theory, the original divine unity was shattered at the beginning of Creation so that God's masculine aspects ( the Sefirot, called Tiferet and Yesod) were separated from the feminine, the SHEKHINAH. Our task is to bring together through prayer, study of Torah, and performance of the mitzvot (commandments) the ten separate Sefirot, thereby restoring that original divine unity. "

http://www.hebrewletters.com/item.cfm?itemid=29475

Shechinah
Literally, "dwelling" (the act, not the building) or "presence." In early rabbinic literature, "Shechinah" refers to God's presence: that 'aspect' of God, or of our experience of God, that seems near and accessible to us. In the later mystical tradition, the Shechinah was considered the tenth and last of the divine emanations called "sefirot" that form a divine bridge between the absolutely transcendent and unknowable Godhead and the created world. The Shechinah is, in the mystical tradition, a female aspect of God.

http://www.kolel.org/pages/glossary/S.html

+++

http://www.kabbalah.info/engkab/zohar/the_book_of_zohar/commandment/the_eighth_commandment.htm

"Malchut, Nukva de ZA is called Shechina because it does not move away from us even when our properties are opposite to it, as it is said: WHEREVER YOU ARE BANISHED, SHECHINA WILL BE WITH YOU, and IT ABIDES IN THEIR IMPURITY. ZA is called Shochen and Nukva is called Shechina.

The revelation of the Creator in Malchut, of Shochen in Shechina, of ZA in Malchut of the world of Atzilut, is possible only by means of a face-to-face Zivug of ZON in Gadlut, because the Light of this Zivug is so great that it reveals unity even in the most remote and concealed places, in the opposite and uncorrected desires. "

+++

Horoscope for Aries (December 13 2005)

Good times are headed your way, so stop being so afraid to make a move. Now is not the time to hold back or have a wait-and-see attitude. Get your courage back and take control.

and

Hold it all steady for the first part of the day because everything can fall apart by mid-afternoon. This may not be as chaotic as it sounds, for you will be invigorated by the movement around you. Respond to whatever unfolds with a high level of interest; you won't be able to tell what's most important until after the fact.

and

Clear and precise
Valid during several weeks: This is an excellent time for making plans, thinking things over or communicating in any way with others. Your thinking is clear and precise. This influence should also arouse your curiosity about the world around you and make you want to learn about a new subject, either through study or direct encounter. You might want to spend the day reading, or you might go out to a museum, art exhibit or other event that will stimulate your mind. Even a conversation with friends could be the source of a new idea that your mind can latch onto. This is a good time to get a point across to others, although your primary motive will probably be to communicate rather than to score debate points. Your attitude is much more objective than at other times, and you only want to get at the facts.


The interpretation above is for your transit selected for today:
Mercury Trine Mercury exact at 10:16
activity period from end of October 2005 until 14 December 2005.