Eradicating blindness from Nepal

Second Suns by 

Tsampa with Butter tea.
Second son into monkhood. How to understand a country's culture? We know in some countries first sons go to fight for the country. Especially in smaller countries.
Father Mackey of Education
Low altitude sickness

Round Kanchenjunga: Narrative of Mountain Travel and Exploration

Where Art and Life intersect

What art is by Arthur C Danto

Lebenswelt

Sausage series

Yesterday I was standing aside having ordered an icecream dipped in chocolate and almonds at Costco. The staff went about fulfilling a previous order of the hot dogs. The receptacle was steaming. when she opened it, she brought out a sausage with the tongs. Later she opened a two tier metal cabinet which held the bread for the hot dogs.


Paint job

While searching for 'Paint Job' by Fischli and Weiss, I read of the blind that had been laid on the floor in that exhibit of 'Paint job'. The blind had been stolen. Oh, so thats why many ordinary objects go missing?

I went online to see Blinds for sliding doors and followed to the store for the ideas in the article. Oh my god, the ideas were so expensive. Does anybody use blue carpet?

Fat chair

I was going to say I am 30% art after reading of Fat Chair as art but not after some smarts from the above link.

Reading art

Saving art

Get a sense of

along with a Cate Blanchett movie on the topic.

Comedians

I will soon be reading

I want to read a related 

Painting landscape

Wendy Jelbert

Recently I made a water painting of an ox relaxing on a beach with palm trees behind and a blue sky from a photo on the net.
after I got done with the ox, I no longer wanted the ground to be sand, I wanted it to be muddy water and then came the light sky. And now I was left with middle ground and didnt know what to do with it. Then I imagined a scene from my childhood where there was a mild high land cliffing into water pool. I went fr with the imagination to put in our ancstral home but not enough to realise that it would make an interesting subject for another painting all by itself.
To cut long story short, 'Creative Acrylic Landscapes' by Wendy Jelbert encourages such changing, mix and match of elements of in your landscape to get at a powerful painting.
'Contrasts in tone' shows how tones alter the perception and feel of a landscape. The book explains the basic quipment and techniques that are needed to make a landscape painting.
There is a detailed snapshot by snapshot of making of a half dozen landscapes with snapshots ranging from 30 to 50, explaining, the method and feel sought after with each step.

If you are afraid of Angela's ashes

If you wimped out reading 'Angela's Ashes' by Frank McCourt, here's another chance at reading on Irish childhood. With 'I'll give you something to cry about' chapter, I read in another book 'Stuck in the Middle with you' by Jennifer Finney Boylan where the author goes to Ireland with her family and in one of the irate moments says the same 'I'll give you something to cry about'. so it is true Irish childhood.
In some chapters, the author tries to show us incidents where his childhood innocence was peeled by doing away with a litter of dogs. I watched a similar thing where a litter of cats were left in a sack very far away from house but at a much younger age than the author. Then there's the mom not letting you go to excursions even after having paid the trip expenses. I could relate well with some of the experiences.
The TV Reporters snippets in most of the chapters recreate the family dinner table setting and unleash the 'Troubles' second-hand in an easy medium to the readers.
Author ate custard cream biscuits in the break time of turning turf.
Custard cream wiki
Nigella custard cream biscuits

The man behind Jeeves

Not until reading of Pears soap in the P. G Wodehouse Life in letters, I hadnt realised how much British life is mixed into the Indian life.
Eno - sat isabgol - Hajmola

Townsend - Townend. Our ancestral house was at the outskirts of the village.

Books Wodehouse read as a child

Anstey books

As wise as Teresias

Before reading this book, if you asked me how many kinds of parenthood there are. I would say mother, father, adopted, surrogate. But now I wonder if I am already in the midst of the future modern world where like one of the writer says, where one day you can choose to be a man and another a woman.
It is amazing to read of the emotions related to birth from the mother's perspective who gave birth but didn't get to see the moments of the baby growing, from the mother who gave labour, funeral and grieving to the baby who couldn't live.
The greatest surprise in the book is the interviews with various writers who have a different angle to bring to parenting. Not how to raise children but what it means to have children, how their childhood affected their views on having children, to be a parent - mother or father or somewhere in between.

10 Ways to write interesting poems

1. Begin with Only now

101 internet businesses

Susan Sweeney

From the eyes of a camel

Camel wrestling.

The camel knows its history of Cleopatra died.

Not many can say that their stomachs are uncomfortable.

Even they notice things like women in veil.

Texas camel corps

Camels were used in mining.

The most I have learnt of camels is the sheikh's camel which puts in all his legs into the tent by asking for just a little space to begin with. The book began with the single voice reminiscent of `Black Beauty' the horse.
I learnt a lot about camels in the book. Its interesting that the book is historical fiction of a caravan of camels brought to Texas to make roads. Since the book is from the camel's perspective, each time the word man beast occurs, I'm made to think of us differently.
Unlike the goosey goosey gander, Ali says his prayers. Ali is a role model.

Not all your problems are your own

The book starts with a court scene which is resumed after 2/3d of the book. In between you learn of a dad with cool abilities like fixing up cool old cars, coming up with unbelievable stories. And his kid with extreme passion for cards and chemistry. And all the fun things they do together riding trains and fast cars. While you are happy for the duo for managing the life well despite Aspergers, you are jolted back to the nasty court scene.

In ‘My Dyslexia’  Philip Schultz found very late that he suffers dyslexia like his son. With that understanding of their and their kids problems, the fathers were able to understand their kids and support them.

The Big Wave

It definitely is poetry. 'Earth is not water. Earth is a bell'.
A good blend of Japanese culture, literature and the tsunami tragedy.
I recall this particular tsunami effects in Japan. Huge boats on tops of houses. loads of cars washed off. The author talks to many people in the wake of the disaster and helps many of them. And were the animals forgotten. Basho poems. Poems about the wave.
there is a reference to Tendenko where you run to the higher land instead of looking out for others in the face of tsunami. This is how 'Wave' by Sonali Deraniyagala begins.

Glitter wand

Two little birds sat on a wall
one named peter, one named Paul
Fly away Peter, Fly away Paul
Come back Peter, come back paul

After the analysis of baa baa black sheep in

I started thinking about this rhyme and thought

Two little birds, peter and Paul

sat on a wall

Come back Peter, Come back Paul

Fly away Peter, Fly away Paul

In the rearranging the rhyming ends, obviously the sequence of come back - fly away didnt work unless you moved away from the wall and did another round of come back after the fly away.

Fly away Beater

Fly away cheater

Fly away Eater

Fly away Feater

Fly away Heater

Fly away Jeter (you know somebody by that name?)

Fly away Kiter

Fly away Lighter

Fly away Mighter

Fly away Nighter

Fly away Righter

Fly away Sighter

Fly away Tighter

Fly away Whiter

Fly away Fighter

Fly away Xaxor (from Escape from Pipemen)

Ahoy

Science fiction has come a long way from Tommy and Margie in ‘The Fun they had’ wondering of a human teacher to Ryan and Becky in ‘Escape from the Pipemen’, very comfortable traveling in the space.

The initial salutations reminded me of yoga poses and an ad with five eyed monsters helped me imagine the 16 eyed monster.  Your entry into the book will be denied if you do not accept yourself as a  from (like muggles of Harry Potter). If you can leap to become the ‘from’, then joy ride is at your behest.

The different font for the aliens made the book live like a play. Like the absence of illustrations, leaving the imagination to work full throttle. After reading the book, kids can be encouraged to enact part of it, draw their versions of the characters or design them for Halloween costume.