Eyes on town
This week has been incredibly busy. I have been downtown, picking up supplies for my stay in Bangkok, getting visas (an Indian visa, for my friend's wedding in Kolkata - formerly Calcutta), and then trolling eBay and RedFlagDeals for sales on laptops, bags (got myself a Crumpler bag), and other bigger-ticket items. When I'm intent on buying something, I'll spend hours searching reviews, checking prices, contacting people, etc. It's pretty insane how Chinese-woman I can become when I start shopping around. I must have spent a total of 5-10 solid hours searching for a 3 band phone before I left for my second trip to China last year. Alan and I acknowledged how addicting it is to read through the pages of deals and for-sale listings in the forums. Forget the bling, for us geeks, it's all about our toys.
But of course, life is not all about the bling or the toys. It's very easy for me to get caught up in this different type of consumerism or materialism. I hope that I'm much better than say 5 to 10 years ago, when I obsessed about computer parts which I couldn't even afford. People knew I was the man to ask, "What should I buy?", "Do you think this thing is good?" For the last couple of years my answer has been simply, "I don't know. If it sounds reasonable, if you've got the need, and if you can afford it, get it." So I'm not up on my specs, but hey, I get to enjoy a fuller and broader world outside of bits and bytes. I'll still be a geek and techie at heart, but those characteristics now serve me to appreciate the beauty in God's creations. Beauty surrounds us, but we've become very adept in drowning it out, ignoring it, and perhaps even desecrating it. Well, here are some photos from the last little while.
You strong enough to be... beautiful
Have you the faith to be...
Sane enough to be...
Honest enough to stay...
- Beautiful by Marillion, from Afraid of Sunlight
