Reflecting on life without travel but with knowledge

Its been a long time since I have posted anything on this now seemingly decrepit blog, the journey I was busy typing up at one point is now a memory of ups, downs and reverberations that have seemingly rippled through the past few months, with changes in living circumstances, mindset and relationship status taking place.

The incense that burns slowly on top of a borrowed record player is a brief olfactory escape from the grey sky that blankets this corner of Leeds and does nothing much to enhance the higgledy piggledy roofs or to brighten the bin-filled alleyway that this rented room looks down onto.

Although the scenario may seem somewhat desolate, with paperwork regarding council tax benefits and ideal freezer temperature's strewn around this work surface that hasn't seen much work at all, a time of change is ahead, internally and externally. Feeling less cloudy headed by spending more time sober and running again for the first time in years is a definite boost.

One thing about getting 'older' is that not only do you find out what you like and can actively pursue it, but you realise that opportunities are there to be had, or in some cases to be lost. I find myself waking up after a heavy night involving some form of intoxication, feeling as if I have wasted my time and that there could have been productive things to be done instead. Being pro-active is something that I think most people struggle with from time to time, and although I still haven't found any way to solve this, I do feel more ready for everyday life, having faced challenges that not everyone would normally go through in the past year.

Reading is something that helps me stay in a frame of mind to actually do things, in a way it's a form of escapism from the problems of day to day life, but at the same time it's almost as if it is a change from the dreary routine and offers a different perspective on real life by immersing in something fictional or otherworldly altogether.

This summer, Christina and I will be going on an adventure that has been a long time coming, ever since our long meandering talks around the Christmas period and our strolls out on Ilkley moor, where strange rock carvings and even more mesmerising frozen waterfalls tickled the moist moss below. Back to the paradise that is Southern Spain, to show somebody who will truly appreciate the rugged beauty, sustainable lifestyle and ultimate freedom that I now associate with this part of the world. Then on to Italy, where hopefully we will avoid places like Campania, where the powerful underworld runs everything and see some of the beautiful countryside surrounding Christina's sisters dilapidated abode, which we will be (skilfully) renovating, with her artists touch, which can be seen on The Opposite Wall.   

Then onto new pastures, in the form of Bulgaria, which, according to the HelpX website has an influx of alternative thinkers and radicals surviving there, in what can only be described as fluctuating and unsure times for a lot of people. Why this is, I don't know, perhaps cheap land, or reverting back to the old ways, which I assume are still practised to a certain extent in this part of Eastern Europe. Either way, I am curious to see how this part of the world is, after visiting and thoroughly enjoying Serbia in 2011.

Although as always, all plans are subject to drastic change, this is a basic layout for the period between June and September, after which studying will be a concern of mine again, after a couple of years studying life, and how to go about wanting to learn, which is the main priority.

I will keep posting general thoughts, possible new music, some political ramblings and other crunchy little bulbs of goodness over the next few weeks.

Take it nicely.

Chomsky and Hiphop..

''Consumption distracts people. You cannot control your own population by force, but it can be distracted by consumption. The business press has been quite explicit about this goal.'' Noam Chomsky
via Dedroidify

I have plunged myself right into the deep end of the spectrum (if a spectrum has a deep end?) with Noam Chomsky's 'Hopes and Prospects' which is a truly eye-opening read, albeit a bit hard to digest at my level of world political knowledge and its vocabulary, etc. But I am getting through it...slowly. It really does bring to light many of the aspects that are wrong with the world we live in.

This brings me onto another point...the fact that when you enter the world of 'esotericism' and suchlike, when you find out that the world isn't a happy jolly place where everybody lives happily side by side, slurping coke's, surfing facebook from their iPad (they've even got me doing that fucking capital P!) and eating a McDonalds, it is easy to get overwhelmed by it, I know I sure did, and still do find myself in this situation.

One of my friends, who partly got me into this alternative mode of thinking and looking at the world around me said that 'We all have keep our positive energy because their negativity will run you down'. Or something along those lines... and I think it is very true. Its so easy to think that because the world is so messed up, and it is messed up, that there is no point in trying to do anything about it. What is crucial to remember, I think, is that, yes you may seem insignificant, but even just knowing about something on a scale that big is a positive thing. Then its just about doing what you can in whatever way you can, in my case I tried to start a blog with the hope people might read it, tell their friends and perhaps gain a slightly better understand of whats really going on.

Referring back to one of my favourite musical artists; Akala. He states on his album 'DoubleThink' that 'every empire on this Earth has fallen'. This is a statement of great importance, to both the 'elite' and everybody else, as it holds the key to events that a substantial amount of people believe will happen this very calendar year...