Category: Memory

Music…

Children

From Hell to Paradise

The Mavericks

and Words

Lyric excerpts from Musixmatch.

Last night as I managed my music library, I shuffled files from one computer to the next.  It’s all in how we now manage what spanned hundreds of discs in jewel cases into what fits into a USB flash drive.  I watched as the software meticulously scanned each file and folder spanning tens of gigabytes, quietly fetching metadata from the internet to enhance my listening enjoyment.  Meanwhile, each album cover magically appeared in my online collection.

Normally, these pictures flash, and I think little of them.  While I’ve structured this blog by reminiscing about a memory from music, the trigger is almost always hearing the music, not merely seeing the album cover.  However, one album cover causes me to stop and immediately transports me back to a moment, just like a scene from Somewhere in Time.  That album was The Maverick’s “From Hell to Paradise”.

Continue reading “A distant country serenade” →

Music…

Brown Eyed Girl

Blowin’ Your Mind!

Van Morrison

and Words

Hey, where did we go?
Days when the rains came
Down in the hollow
Playin’ a new game

Laughin’ and a-runnin’, hey, hey
Skippin’ and a-jumpin’
In the misty mornin’ fog with
Our, our hearts a-thumpin’ and you

Lyric excerpts from Musixmatch.

I adhere to a particular routine on each Friday morning.  They revolve around two tasks.  First, I focus on publishing any scheduled blog posts, such as this one.  Mechanically, it’s just pushing one button, but then comes the details of cross-posting into Facebook, resolving the preview so that it looks pretty, etc.  I alternate between two blogs, so on average you’ll see an update on a particular blog every other week.

Second, I put on a Hawaiian Shirt and take a selfie; those pictures automatically save onto OneDrive.  After waiting a couple minutes for the image to propagate, I’ll fire up Corel Painter.  I copy two different images: the aforementioned selfie and a picture of a tropical setting from past travels.  Next, I carefully edit my image wearing said Hawaiian Shirt and set it into the tropical scene.  Finally, I save it back onto OneDrive for the moment.

Continue reading “Hawaiian Shirt Fridays” →

Music…

100 Years

The Battle for Everything

Five for Fighting

and Words

I’m 15 for a moment
Caught in between ten and 20
And I’m just dreaming
Counting the ways to where you are

I’m 22 for a moment
And she feels better than ever
And we’re on fire
Making our way back from Mars

Lyric excerpts from Musixmatch.

A number of years ago a friend read through my Facebook posts and felt the angst and passion I poured into my thoughts.  While we didn’t agree on everything (no two people ever do), he both encouraged me to write but also suggested that I change my medium.  He observed that my writing may be better suited for a blog and pointed out that WordPress would make it fairly easy.

Spewing words about social justice and yearning for fairness and equality filled those early days when I started to find my voice.  I could’ve very easily diverted the firehouse from a Facebook post into a form on a website.  However, being the prototypical test engineer, that idea violated my sensibilities.  A blog couldn’t simply be a collection of disjointed posts; it yearns for cohesiveness, its own voice.

Continue reading “Turning 100” →

Music…

The NeverEnding Story

Don’t Suppose

Limahl

and Words

Turn around
Look at what you see
In her face
The mirror of your dreams

Make believe I’m everywhere
Hidden in the lines
Written on the pages
Is the answer to a never ending story
Ah-ah-ah-ah-ah

Lyric excerpts from Musixmatch.

In many times, I’ve told the story about my aspiration to write.  To be completely honest, I can’t tell you if this calling started upon learning English, though chronologically that’s when it happened.  Was it causal or merely correlational?  My early reading expanded my imagination and horizons.  It inspired me in the way that little else did.  Thus, I started awkwardly at first in high school, though I don’t know if there’s any copy of that writing anywhere.

Years later, I kept an online journal in Geocities.  I stopped writing in it, though it is also long gone now.  There are some services that have mirrors of it on their servers, though I can’t imagine why.  The vast majority of personal websites on Geocities were little more than garbage.  If you search hard enough, you’ll find a shadow of that page.

Continue reading “The Origin to my Story” →

Music…

Goody Two Shoes

Friend or Foe

Adam Ant

and Words

With your heartbreak open
So much you can’t hide
Put on a little makeup, makeup
Make sure they get your good side, good side

If the words unspoken
Get stuck in your throat
Send a treasure token, token
Write it on a pound note, pound note

Lyric excerpts from Musixmatch.

I’ve worked in technology for my entire career.  The technology industry often tolerates their employees dressing casually; I exploited that and often wore jeans, shorts, t-shirts, or even occasionally tank tops.  My friends from work mostly dressed the same.  An occasional peep may wear khakis and polo shirt to the office.  Raymond, who attended prep school, grew accustomed to wearing slacks, buttoned shirt, and tie; he continued this tradition at work.

As my (then) girlfriend and I settled into our lives, she received an invitation to a wedding from a friend; it would take place in Youngstown, OH.  She asked if I would consider attending the wedding with her, and I happily accepted.  However, the discussion did not turn to the logistics of arranging our time off or travel plans.  She marveled that I had never seen me really dressed up.  Therefore, she naturally asked if I had proper attire; I confirmed that I owned a suit.  She followed that question by asking about the shoes.

Continue reading “Angst over a pair of shoes” →

Music…

Ordinary World

Duran Duran (The Wedding Album)

Duran Duran

and Words

Came in from a rainy Thursday on the avenue
Thought I heard you talking softly
I turned on the lights, the TV, and the radio
Still I can’t escape the ghost of you

What has happened to it all?
Crazy, some’d say
Where is the life that I recognise? (Gone away)

But I won’t cry for yesterday, there’s an ordinary world
Somehow I have to find
And as I try to make my way to the ordinary world
I will learn to survive

Lyric excerpts from Musixmatch.

On an ordinary day in the mid-1990’s, a number of us shuffle down to the local Chili’s for a meal.  We, a collection of friends and colleagues from Microsoft, take a break from work and drive the short distance down the street to that restaurant.  We conduct this ritual with alarming regularly, nearly becoming our default place for meals.  I ordered my favorite food item from the menu (the Chicken Crispers), and we sit and chat.

Today, we change our routine and elect to walk around the plaza for a bit before returning to work.  Crossroads sits but a few minutes away.  It distinctively hosts a used bookstore, food court, and collection of tables.  Ever the music enthusiast, I wander into the music store immediately next to the Chili’s, by the name of Silver Platters.  This particular location is considerably smaller than their other locations.  As I browse the collection of CD’s neatly laid out in row after row.  And then this song comes on over the speakers.

“Who is this?!”, I exclaimed.

Continue reading “An unexpected find from a familiar face” →

Music…

I’m Alive

Sign of Angels

Issa

and Words

There’s a feeling deep inside me
Can’t describe it, but it made me see
That life is stronger than both you and me
Once a fire burned so brightly
But your heat turned our love into sand
Don’t ask me, baby
Why it has to end

I’m alive
Without you
And I’m better off alone
Like a queen on her throne

Lyric excerpts from Musixmatch.

Shortly after I arrive at Breakfast Club one morning, my friend Kelly turns to me and asks, “Are you okay?”  These days, we meet over Skype, and it’s currently just the two of us in the room.  He wasn’t asking in an ironic or sarcastic way; he asked genuinely.  While I’m touched by the gesture, I’m honestly a little perplexed.  I don’t post about every minutia of my life on social media, and we meet pretty regularly.  I mentally reflected on recent events and came up blank.

As it happens, it was a response to a recent post in this blog, where I wrote a personal experience towards the end of that post.  Those words genuinely expressed how we felt.  That night and that particular moment shattered us.  It remains to this day, one of the most devastating days in memory.  However, scribing these words have a magical healing, much like draining the poison off a snake bite.

Continue reading “Synergistic Negativity” →

Music…

Follow Your Heart

Thunder Seven

Triumph

and Words

People say
Don′t ever look behind
Happiness is just a state of mind
Rock and roll lives and breathes in the hearts of the young

So carry on
You’re runnin′ on borrowed time
Tryin’ hard to survive
Keep on runnin’
Your time is comin’
Keep your dreams alive

Lyric excerpts from Musixmatch.

As I entered my tenth grade English class in high school one morning, I realized that we had a test that completely slipped my mind.  This particular test was a simple vocabulary test.  Our workbook introduced us to a collection of new words and their definition, and for the test we simply needed to scribble down the definition and perhaps use it in a sentence.  Vocabulary lessons like this taught me words like ‘elicit’ and ‘illicit’ that may sound similar but are very different.

While I only needed about five or ten minutes to look over the words carefully preceding the test, I did not and thus I failed that test.  Following my disastrous first year, I changed my trajectory and transitioned to nearly a straight-A student.  Honestly, I didn’t worry about it.  I did the math in my head and understood that this failed test would not affect my grade at all.  It may bring my grade down 1-2%, but I consistently scored in the mid to high 90%.

Continue reading “Someone who believed” →

Music…

As I Lay Me Down

Whaler

Sophie B. Hawkins

and Words

It felt like spring time on this February morning

In a courtyard birds were singing your praise
I’m still recalling things you said to make me feel alright
I carried them with me today now

As I lay me down to sleep
This I pray
That you will hold me dear
Though I’m far away
I’ll whisper your name into the sky
And I will wake up happy

Lyric excerpts from Musixmatch.

In the mid-1990’s, a song captivated my ears.  Truthfully, her voice mesmerized me as much as the words she sang; that voice held a delicate femininity.  When I discovered that Sophie B. Hawkins would come to Seattle on tour, I simply needed to go.  I cast a wide net; I sent mails to many friends asking if any were interested.  These were the days before streaming music services (or really even the internet), so I copied a few sound files to a share and had them sample it.

I got one bite.  A Vietnamese friend who knew her by her music, but not her name agreed to join me.  While he was more familiar with her debut album, we still went and enjoyed the evening.  We also made plans to have dinner that evening, and it was a date, of sorts.  I was delighted to have seen her in concert.

Continue reading “The fragility of teen hood” →

Music…

Gimme Some Lovin’

The Best of the Spencer Davis Group

The Spencer Davis Group

and Words

Hey

Well, my temperature’s rising, and my feet on the floor
Crazy people knocking ’cause they’re wanting some more
Let me in, baby, I don’t know what you got
But you better take it easy, this place is hot

And I’m so glad we made it
So glad we made it
Why won’t you gimme some lovin’
Gimme some lovin’
Gimme some lovin’ every day

Lyric excerpts from Musixmatch.

As I closed my freshman year in high school, my trajectory steadily declined.  No, I sugarcoat it; I steered my future steadily into impending death, like a Kamikaze pilot.  Many high school friends likely don’t remember me from ninth grade, but that’s because I rarely attended.  My algebra teacher once shamed me with, “Mr. Wong, you’re out of school more often than you’re in school.”  Then everything abruptly changed.

One might easily conclude that this occurred between ninth and tenth grade.  It didn’t; it occurred as I took my final on World History.  Entering the final, I had a failing grade.  Our teacher, Mr. Beasley did one last review session, and I paid attention and aced that final.  For years, I struggled to decipher what motivated me to change.  Mrs. Broadwell, my English and Latin teacher, once asked me point blank as she praised me for the change, and I honestly responded with, “I don’t know.”

Continue reading “Rethinking my destiny” →