Jordan, ‘10

I’m glad my mother not so subtly reminded me about Father’s Day (two days ago for me).  I would have completely blanked, which I did until she gave me a blank to fill.  “Hmm, what could today possibly be, Jordan?”  hehe.  I appreciate her sometimes.

I watched a comedian, Dylan Moran.  He was talking about Eastern religions and he said:

“You know, I’ve always found the parables from eastern religions dense and hard to penetrate.  Two monks were walking over a bridge, cherry blossoms falling down around them.  One monk says, ‘I’m quite thirsty.’ and the other monk replies, ‘yes, but I’m quite tall.”

I love it.  Guess you have to see him perform the piece for it to be funny but it is.  This is how I occupy my time between binges of studying bacteria.

My parents leave on Tuesday to come to Australia and they’ll get here on Thursday.  I’m actually excited to see them.  Thought I would still be on a Melbourne high at this point in the trip, but I’m ready to head up to the Great Barrier Reef and go snorkeling. 

 On the tram coming back from St. Kilda the other day I ran into a Canadian actor and his wife.  Obviously he was trying to avoid being identified (probably by me because I was snapping pictures of him without permission) because he only spoke in whispers and looked at me several times to make sure I wasn’t going to say anything.  I did take a picture, though, when he wasn’t looking and I’ve posted it.  Shame on me.  Yes, I’m sneaky…and silly come to that.  His name is Bruce Greenwood and he starred in such movies as:  National Treasure:  Book of Secrets (as the President), I, Robot (the guy who owns the Robot-building company), The Core (the commander before Hilary Swank), and Double Jeopardy (the husband who fakes his own death and sends Ashley Judd to prison for his murder).  Yeah, I watch way too many movies, but it was ABSOLUTELY him.  AH!  Pretty cool. 

This is my quickly taken picture of Bruce Greenwood.  It’s pretty bad, but it was definitely him.

In other school-related news, I completed my first final on Friday.  Eighteen questions and 70% of my grade later, I think I did pretty well.  But we’ll have to wait until July to see just how well. 

 Gonna go study now.  Being responsible is hard for the last week of my study abroad experience.  But I will be responsible, I guess, hehe,

Jordan

random picture of St. Kilda…bye!

Quotes of the week:

“For peace of mind, we need to resign as general manager of the universe.”
- Larry Eisenberg

 “When your sense of self is no longer tied to thought, is no longer conceptual, there is a depth of feeling, of sensing, of compassion, of loving, that was not there when you were trapped in mental concepts. You are that depth.”
- Eckhart Tolle

“As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world - that is the myth of the ‘atomic age’ - as in being able to remake ourselves.”
- Gandhi

“If you could get rid of yourself just once, the secret of secrets would open to you. The face of the unknown, hidden beyond the universe would appear on the mirror of your perception.”
- Rumi

“Possession of material riches, without inner peace, is like dying of thirst while bathing in a lake.”
- Paramahansa Yogananda

“Meditation is not a way to enlightenment, Nor is it a method of achieving anything at all. It is peace itself. It is the actualization of wisdom, The ultimate truth of the oneness of all things.”
- Dogen