It is based on Warhammer 40k if you want to know.

It is the 21^st millennium.

Mankind has evolved

Due to nano technology,  Stem cell resource  and so on we rid ourselves of diseases  and  prolonged our lives with hundreds of years.

Peace was settled amongst the once rivaling nations of Terra, formally named Earth. And a golden age for mankind had begun.

Working together as one united race we bettered ourselves and war was considered a part of history.

But resources started to diminish on Terra an so the United Nations of the Earth set out for the stars to colonize planets and take for our self all of the vast riches of the Universe.  Starting off with Mars and then the rest of our solar system.

But a threat was lurking.

From our isolated corner of the Universe we set forth and colonized planet after planet  system after system, terra-forming and mining all what we could find. The great counsel of the Nations became the Coalition of planets

Man was advancing in technology prosperity and size for thousands of years. And then we discovered the WARP.

The WARP. The parallel dimension allowing mankind to travel great distances of space, in a very short time.

It was then that we met the other species.

In our ignorance we openly sent out a meeting party consisting of top Scientists, Philosophers and diplomats. They never returned.

Soon after, we were at war loosing colony after colony to the new races. A man rose from our midst The emperor of man.

We used our technology and ingenuity and created war machines and weapons to defend us and to recon cur the lost colonies. We created war machines as great as mountains called Titans and started a campaign to free ourselves. But the enemies of man where cunning, they where losing the battle to mankind. So they devised a plan.

The moon of IO, known as the great library of man. A library stretching out over the entire surface of the moon. A Library holding all the accumulated knowledge of Man was their target

They attacked the moon with one decisive blow with only one reason to destroy all knowledge of Man.

In a desperate attempt  the Librarians and ground personnel fled the moon with as much knowledge as they could! Most of them ran into the guns of our hated adversaries and the knowledge they held was gone….. forever!

Man repelled the aliens But it was too late IO was in ruins and Mankind was hurled back into the dark ages.  The knowledge that was saved was sent  across space in huge space ships bastions of power capable of fending off all enemy attacks. Or so we thought.

In retaliation, the Emperor of man  issued a crusade against all enemies of man eradicating them from the universe.

But a new enemy was rising one far more dangerous than the foes man had encountered. Within the WARP man had awoken an ancient threat. Imprisoned their by a race unknown.  The Powers of Chaos where put there for releasing untold horrors upon the universe. Creatures of such power that they  are capable of changing the matter and fabric of space itself.

They watched us. Scrutinized us and made their plan the greater powers set out and started to corrupt the travelers of the WARP. Championing those they thought worthy to fight their course.

Heresy, heresy to mankind!

All hail to the Emperor, All hail to mankind.

For there is only WAR

Codex Maximus MXCDCVII  paragraph DVII

Got your attention didn’t I? Yes , I’m still alive. Just a bit busy of late, doing stuff.  Stuff? All kinds of stuff you know the kind of stuff we all have in our daily life. Work, paying bills, parenting, hobbies, birthdays and all kinds of social obligations. You know, stuff!

Writing requires a subject, the will to write it down, A PC, pen, etc. when you have that story in your head, the time and state of mind to put it all down.  Here I am putting it down again.

While I was killing time the last 10 minutes before the end of a long working day(no sense starting something you have to quit 10 minutes later, is there?) I went to my Facebook page to see a friend of mine had added me to his list. As I watched his info screen I saw Buddhism as his faith. I clicked my profile and saw Gnostic. I Clicked it and found a bunch of groups about the subject. The one first on the list catch ‘d my eye.  It’s avatar of a picture of an ancient damaged book intrigued me.

Click, Click.

I scrolled through the page and found that some one posted a question: How does one practice the faith of Gnosticism.

To me at first, the question was a bit odd. But as it started drifting about in my mind, I could feel the urge for someone to pop it.

Most religions have a certain amount of rites or rituals to practice it’s faith. So what about gnosticism. We’ll it works a bit differently with Gnosticism.  Yes you can preform all kinds of silly rituals each day or week, like praying or blowing candles, eating bread and wine or whatever other thing you can think off. The essence of Gnosticism isn’t like that at all. To tell you the truth in Gnosticism It doesn’t really matter.  Gnostic’s do not have to go to church each week or turn to the east. Gnostic’s don’t have to do any of these foolish silly rituals.

Au contraire, the last thing a gnostic wants is to let his faith be distracted or clouded by rituals or rites that  can get him of the track or get him worshiping a demigod of some sort. Not that it isn’t allowed for a gnostic to get a little of track from time to time(will get there).  A Gnostic connection to god, the All  or the supreme being is very personal. It is the basis of a Gnostic ‘s faith. Being a Gnostic means that you practice your faith 24/7.  A Gnostic believes that one can come closer to God by living.  A Gnostic ponders about what he has seen heard or experienced and makes his conclusions accordingly.

A Gnostic should be  a skeptic about religions; Christianity, Buddhism, COFSM, Atheism(Yes you believers in the absence of a deity, it’s a religion too, there is just as much proof of the absence off a deity, as there is off one), but foremost of his own faith and his own conclusions.  Christians and most other major religions want exactly the opposite. To just simply believe what they want you to believe. This is the fundamental difference that separates Gnosticism from most off the other religions.

As a matter of fact most Gnostic ‘s will get of track a few times in a life, because of their skepticism. (See ) A Gnostic does not believe it can achieve enlightenment in one lifetime.  But he does believe each of his lives will bring him closer to the All.  Now I am not able to write a blog about the All. It’s impossible because of the size of it. The all is the grand design, the Alfa and Omega, God, Nature. The All is… the all is the omnipotent, neither good or bad, ying and yang, left and right, up and down, in and out. The All basically just is and also isn’t. (See why I can’t blog about the all?).

So how does a Gnostic practice it’s faith. The question is as easy as the answer.

He or she just simply does!

Jezus of Nazareth( The most famous Gnostic), once said. Love another like yourself and God above all. This is the thing a Gnostic tries to achieve.  Which I must say is challenging enough for a mere human being. The only other thing a Gnostic does is try to learn, learn  from the lessons of life itself and learn from the experiences of the lives of others.  A Gnostic lives his live,experiences and watches.

A Gnostic will try to rethink every moment, every interaction, every feeling and thought and look for it’s learnings. A gnostic handles in the believe that he is responsible for all of his actions and their consequences, however small they might be. They realize that every action has a reaction. Every cause has an effect. A Gnostic tries to be aware of all that he or she does.  A Gnostic realizes that life in general is sacred and will always try to avoid hurting the soul of a fellow human being.  A failure to do so, shows a gnostic how insignificant he is and how much he has still to learn. Love another like yourself a daring task indeed.  A gnostic should know that in order to  love another he or she must first love himself. If a gnostic does not love him- or her- self, he should first learn how to achieve this.  Gnosticism isn’t practiced in a church.  For a gnostic the true church is life itself.

Maybe now you understand why I found the question a bit odd. Why? because of the answer: A  Gnostic practices his faith all the time.

After 7 months of hard work we are here. The day that we have to do it.  A deadline as hard as a brick wall, unmovable and inevitable.  It is now or nothing. There is no second try. There is only this one shot and it must hit it’s mark. If it doesn’t this could be the end of Global Jam. If it does at another gig will come.

Rehearsal

We have come a long way October last year we started out. Calmly, at ease we all picked the songs we liked to perform. Then at the end of the December the voting began. By the end of January the song-list was there. Practicing at home in the car or wherever, we learned our parts, wrote sheets and scrutinized the songs until we  all new what to play. Conferencing on sunday, each 2 weeks about our progress with the group and in smaller groups about individual songs.  Skype, Youtube, Wiki, chat, etc. All collaborative tools available were used to get us working together and making sure we all knew our parts.  2 days ago we all met again. face to face. For some it was the first time, to others it was a most welcome reunion of friends and family. Global Jam is family in it’s own way. It’s family because of this, here and now. The gig! knowing our limited rehearsing time before the gig we started Sunday 10am. Our practice room in a remote corner at the conferencing center of the hotel started to fill.

After the cacophony of sounds you get from tuning instruments and testing them we started. Song after song after song. Only stopping for a quick bite. until late in the evening. Blisters formed, muscles ached, blood flewed from swollen lips and  throats hurted.  We literally played until we couldn’t play no more.  2 days of intense rehearsal. We are up against what most musicians will think off as being impossible. Getting a gig together with 2 and a half days worth of practice time.  Most bands will tell you it is  not possible. But we know it is possible. We did it before and we will do it again.

7:55 pm Bill goes to the stage.  This is it. We’re on. A few words of comfort, a soft yell, a few high fives follow. After the short blinding effect of the stage lights we see our crowd.  over a thousand of our companies colleagues, clients and partners gaze upon us. The introduction.  Quickly the people not on the first song go backstage again. tick, tick, tick the sound of the drummers sticks tick the first beat. one, two, three, four and the train starts. Global Jam 201o is a go.  The first notes of Mustang Sally sound through the speakers.  34 songs to go.  As we watch our colleagues on the back of the projector screens from backstage we await our own appearances on stage.

David going at it on his axe

I’m up on the fourth song. Disco inferno. I test my voice which still feels a little soar. I will just have to do extra. Blue suede shoes follows Mustang Sally and then Tin tho a Vietnamese song. We deliberately added these foreign songs to exclaim our global nature.  A few minutes later I stand next to Detlef my German co worker, dressed up all in black with only a white tie and white shoes to uncover my rebellious nature.   We ‘re backing up on this song. As the baseline of Disco inferno is played by my Australian colleague Bill. We count for our cue. ‘Burn baby burn’ , we go. The first sound of your voice over the stage monitors is always a bit awkward. As if somehow startled by your own voice. But there is ample time to cope. ‘Burn baby burn!’, ‘Burn baby burn!,”Burn baby burn!’. It has to be on count to work. As the song  ends I experience the applause for the first time this night. But there is no time to enjoy it. There is a lot more work to be done.

Our arena

I quickly  grab my D harp out of my harp case and clam it and my hands around the green bullet( a harmonica’s microphone).  1 the first beat of the bass drum goes. 2 the guitar kicks in. 3. the rest of the instruments now. 4. the intro. As the drummer does his first riff into the first chorus I wail my harp making it sound like a train horn ready to depart  and where off ‘Call me the Breeze!’, Joe sings.  The wail liberated me. What first felt like as reservation is now gone.  As I let the music get into my bones I harp a lick or 2 here and there. I feel great.  a few more notes and a grand chord exits the song.  Now I need to be fast. In order to play my clarinet on baker street I have to switch Marks trombone mike and adjust it for my woodwind. There is only the time of the next song to do it. 30 seconds later I slip past Julian who’s going at it with his saxophone.  I quickly drink some water and when the song ends I follow some others back on.

Now this is a hard part for me . My first ever performance playing the clarinet. I would not have dreamed about it before 1 day ago. We started rehearsing Baker street. I knew there was a clarinet on it so I secretly studied it. And when we started rehearsing I tagged along.  But now I had to do it in front of all those people.  I must admit I had a slight fear over there. Not being able to play the Artissimo notes on the intro before yesterday. But they went smooth as a whistle. I can only imagine the smile on my face after that song. Here we go! Suddenly a short shriek. Standing to close to the monitors can cause resonance which causes a terrible shriek. Manu our stage sound guy. Cuts the mike to my clarinet. As I back away from the monitor he turns it up again. The song goes by in what feels like seconds. Next Superstition.  Vivek is made for these songs. We watch him back stage. Hitting every note. Brilliant.

Rocking at the Jam!

The next song for me is on lead vocal. We will rock you!  company style. As I clear my throath  Bill heads up next to me. Clap! Clap! Thud! Clap Clap THUD! Oh man this is so great. We should do this every day I think. The lyrics are sung according to the song and then, ‘ HIT IT!!!!’. Charles Kicks in with a guitar solo. The crowd goes wild!  Now comes official part. As the song ends we are ordered to introduce ourselves.  Most of us hate this part. We just want to play! luckilly this is over fast. We’re on a tight schedule here.

Next the beautiful Brasilian Elaine sings Girl from Ipanima. As she sings it she moves just like the girl from Ipanima sensual and on count.  You can feel how she catches the crowd. As the song finishes and she comes backstage again we cheer for her. This was her first time.  Song after song  pass by Chan Chan, by Axel and David, As with its massive choir part. Taking care of business and before you know it there are only 6 songs left on the setlist. Summertime. Some of the musicians  have been looking forward to this. With Lem on lead guitar You never know what will happen so it is jam time.  Stretching the song to over 6 minutes we play and all  do our solo parts. terrific that was fun.  Then it is time to end it. As we finish our last song we tell the crowd that this is it. We want more, we want more it sounds. Of course! We always save a few songs for the encore.  Love shack starts. Sung perfectly by Jill and Seth 2 veterans on the band. With everyone on stage for the last 2 songs it is pretty crowded.  Peopl not playing or singing just dance.  As we play our last song Picking up the Pieces Jeroen steps down the catwalk and plays his trombone In the middle of all the people.  Then on the final chord. It becomes sillent.  We are engulfed in thunderous applause and cheers! as we thank our audience.  We did it. We did it again. As we come back stage we hug and kiss each other over the success we just had. All engulfed in this wonderful feeling of fulfillment. We quickly stow away our instruments and head off.

From left to right: First row: Axel (Peru), Huy (Vietnam), Mark (Australia), Jeroen (Netherlands), Jim (US), Julian (UK), David (Australia), Joe (US), Lem (US), Detlef (Germany), Bill (Australia), Pavel (Denmark), Charles (Australia) Second row: Elaine (Brasil), Brad (US) , Me (Netherlands), Seth (US), Vivek (Australia) Third row: Gwennie (US), Fred (US), Sharon (US), Alicia (Singapore), Nick (South Africa) Fourth row: Jill (US)

Time for a beer!

P.S.: I want to thank all my fellow band mates and our company to making this thing possible. You’re great guys (and Galls) I love you all!

One of the fires I helped put out. I was on the other side getting ready for an in house assault

OMS in Dutch stands for Openbaar Meld Systeem which roughly translates to  public alarm system.  When you have a building or business of reasonable size an OMS is mandatory. But there are a lot of smaller companies who have them.

Fire-panel

Smoke and fire detectors are connected to a fire panel.Whenever a detector detects something, smoke, dust or whatever triggers it, the fire-panel responds usually by sounding the evacuation alarm. This for a section or an entire building.   and signals the appropriate personnel, that there is a detection in progress ( Detection, keep it in the back of your head for now)

When a company is connected to the OMS the detection also triggers an event at the emergency control center.  The control center will respond by dispatching the nearest fire truck or multiple trucks to the address of the connected system. The size of the rescue force is entirely dependent on the size and  nature of the property which is connected to the OMS.

Unfortunately Smoke detectors sometime detect dust, or steam, or whatever. Or the just detect for no apparent reason. So in 90-something percent of the time the calls are fake, bogus or just plain annoying.

Smoke detector

Imagine getting paged out of your bed at 3 am. during a working day,  dress up, race to the fire-station, get your gear on, race to the address and inspect a detection on the 10th floor of an office building, which unfortunately has to be reached by the stairs. Because the use of elevators is prohibited until their is a clear picture of the  situation. So there you go up the stairs packed with breathing apparel and all.  Flashlights and a bunch of other stuff that increase your weight.  ( Keep in mind that a firesuit, breathing gear, helmet, boots, flashlight and firefly weighs approximately 15kg(33 pounds) And that’s for starters)

You can probably imagine that we are less pleased with the OMS system, when we reach the 10th out of breath and then find, that there is absolutely nothing going on.  If you are lucky the system can be reseted and you can use the elevator down. But mostly the detector is faulty and you’re only option is the staircase,Again!  Great fun indeed.

It may not come as a surprise that these OMS calls make up the most of  our callouts in the Netherlands and since there is always the chance of an OMS call being genuine we have to treat all of them seriously. Yes! All of them.

I often moaned in the middle of the night reading my pager, first 3 letters OMS.

Until recently I never experienced a genuine OMS call. But then a few weeks ago we had one.  We where rushing to the address.  Together with a mate I was putting on the breathing gear, whilst twisting and turning through alleys and corners.

All of a sudden I had 3 other firemen on my lap while I was squeezed against the side of the firetruck.  The driver forgot to shout corner so they and me with them, never saw it coming. I pushed my colleagues back and we laughed while we thanked the driver for the lack of communication.  A few seconds later we where at the address and me and my mate jumped out of the car.  As we rendezvoused with the fire chief in front of an apartment building for elderly people we where greeted by the nurse a small woman in her late 40ies, with red dyed hair.

Well…. greeted….  more like. She was hysterical. Together with another nurse they had entered the room to check if the call was genuine and found an ashtray engulfed in flames.  She had picked it up and had thrown it in the kitchen sink. She had turned open the tap.  quick thinking had saved the room which otherwise would be blazing right now.

‘It’s ok, it’s ok she screamed. I put it out. I put it out’, she could hardly believe it herself. The women hardly took time to breath between sentences. It was the ashtray on the 4th floor room 413, psychiatric wing. ‘She tried to catch breath. ‘Calm down, calm down’, I said we’ll take it from here.’ You did excellent’. ‘The hall, the hall is covered in smoke. me and my colleague’.'….. Calm down’ ,the chief said, ‘ Guys,  go have a look. Take a heat camera. ‘

We already had  it and run inside, up the stairs. On the 4th we met the other nurse. Quite  a sight for sour eyes,  if I do say so myself.  A young woman in her mid 20-ies.  Well proportionated and a nice face.  Her ebony brown hair, dark eyes, an slightly tinted skin gave away her Arabic ethnicity. Hell, she looked like she had just fallen out of  1001 nights, except for the  nurses costume that was.

There was no time to get a better look. we rushed to the wing we where pointed to which was covered in smoke. Yup!  something went down here.  409,410,412,413. The door was open and the lights where on.  On the right we saw the ashtray in the sink.  It was out, no more fires. But we had to check for hidden ones. As I pointed the heat camera around the apartment, you could clearly see where the ashtray had stood on the table as it lighted up brightly on the camera.  A scan around showed that there where no other heat spots in the room. All clear.

I had 2 freshman with me. One just graduated for his exams in fire-training. I pressed the button on my Walkie-talkie. ’110, here 111′, I said. ’111,here 110′, the chief replied back. ‘ 110, all clear, but we need a ventilator to get the smoke out. We are heading back your way’, I said. ‘ Roger, I’m coming up for a closer look.’, the chief replied. We have to get a ventilator I said to my mates come on.  Halfway down the stairs I met up with the chief. we walked back as my mates went down to get the fan.   Come with me I said.

Together with the chief we examined the room and then looked for a suitable spot to setup the overpressure ventilator.  we walked back to center spot where the staircase and elevator met. As we got there my mates just had brought up the ventilator. Taking it all the way up by the  stairs. A nasty 20kg (44lbs) contraption with a  moped engine and a huge fan.  I took the guys to the spot and lighted the display of the ventilator. Gas open, Choke on.  pull the chord. a few seconds later a huge noise came out of the engine. Choke back and throttle open.  The sound of a huge lawnmower roared through the hallway of the psychiatric wing.  blowing away the smoke through the open door and open windows of room 413.

We had put the ventilator outside on a small balcony at the other end of the hallway and within minutes the smoke was gone. Some curious inhabitants where peeking out of the door to see where the noise was coming from.   ‘ It might have been easier to use the elevator to take the fan up’, I said to my mates as I smiled sarcastically. ‘, ‘ It is a fire elevator’. I could see in their eyes they got the message.’ Think about it next time. there is no damage to the elevator shaft’.   I walked down to room 413 to see if the smoke had cleared.

I noticed the table where the ashtray stood. Next to it there where 9 half empty cigarette cartons and 6 open packets of shag. Jeezz this guy was a chain smoker. Apparently the old man living there had left his burning cigarette on the full ashtray and went to sleep.  the smoke detector had saved his life. The nurses successfully evacuated the man and put out the fire.

‘Great invention the smoke detector. They should give the inventor a nobel prize, if you ask me.’, I said to my mate who just entered. He nodded. I pointed out to the smoking apparel on the table. ‘ My God!, that’s crazy’, he replied. ‘Well we are on the psychiatric wing’, I replied. My mate could not suppress the grin.

Under the cartons and a news paper I saw a worn out bible. The entire table was covered in ash and was full of burn marks from cigarettes. It was a sober room.  On the sill where a few succulents and a picture of an old woman.  Probably his deceased wife I thought.  for the rest there was a wall cabinet in the room with a small TV in it  a few books and some trumpery filled the rest of the cabinet. There where  a few simple chairs and a bed. Nothing else, very sober. ‘Poor sod’ , I whispered and sighed. ‘ Come on lets shut the fan down where done here.’, i said to my mate. A shiver went down my spine as I thought to  myself I did not hope to end out like that.

We saw our other mate at the end of the hall. ‘Kill it’, I shouted and beckoned it by slicing my hand in front of my throat.  He nodded and went to the fan.  When we got there he was looking for the off switch. I turned on my mag-lite and pointed my finger to the switch whilst shining at it. ‘ Over there’, I said.  I picked up my walkie-talkie again.’ 110 here 111. All clear here. You can reset the system so we can use the elevator.’. ‘Ok, I’m coming up for a final check’, the chief replied.

I went down back to the lobby by the stairs together with the chief, while my colleagues took the elevator. The nurse had calmed down. Her boss had also arrived to assess the situation. She told us that the Arabian beauty was on her first night here. ‘Lucky you’, I joked as I looked at her. She shyly smiled back at my. ‘ You all did a great job. Keen thinking on the kitchen sink. I said to them. They nodded.

It was keen thinking, nurses are trained for this, but still. It could have been much worse. That would have meant the entire building would have been  evacuated and the entire room would have gone up in smoke.  We packed our stuff back in the fire truck and went off again. Another job well done. Back at the station  we told the stories. the cartons of cigarettes the hysterical nurse.  The Arabian princess. We told all about it.  Then we finished our soda’s and went back to bed again.

Business as usual

The ultimate drama. I had this nice post, all prepped and ready for you guys to read and then……. Well It’s gone, I forgot to save it, It got lost while saving?. Whatever the reason, it’s gone.  It was called Final preparations. And so now I leave you the reader to imagine the contents of the post.

Feel free to comment your findings

The word Gnostic means knowledge or secret knowledge to be precise. Gnostics believe that Jesus  (the one from the bible, from a historical perspective) thought his closest followers, more than is proclaimed in the bible. Take in mind that I say followers and not say disciples which are spoken of in the bible .  These teachings where not for all of his  followers, but only the ones in his inner circle. Both the men and the women.

First a little history

Now, the bibles new testament contains 4 gospels and 23 other text. The content of the New testament was decided on, in the Concile of Nicaea around 325 AD*. At this same date Jesus was declared a deity and the Roman catholic church was founded.  In those times the empire of Rome was in turmoil and was plagued by countless civil unrests.  Because of it’s size and structure all kinds of religions had mingled and the traditional Roman faith was  no longer the most practiced religion in the empire. Emperor Constantine had his handful on religious feuds and things where spinning quite out of control. Especially a new fate had began to gather followers in a tremendous rate. This fate embraced martyrdom as the largest act of fate. This, primarily because the most important figure in this fate had been crucified. Constantine’s predecessors had tried to squash this fate down relentlessly, but the harder they tried the faster the faith grew.  Constantine was in trouble.  He had to do something.  So he got together with a few prominent leaders of that faith, men he could talk to. And a plan grew. Soon after he proclaimed Christianity as the new faith of the empire and together with these prominent figures (Church fathers)founded the church.

Now in the sametime, there where two main factions in Christianity. On the one hand you had the conservationists, followers of Peter.  Who took the words of the disciples literally,  proclaiming them as the sacred few and believing them to the letter.  Believing in the resurrection of the flesh of Jesus. The other factions called themselves Gnostics. Gnostics believed that all the words of Jesus  had a hidden meaning. Teachings which had to be scrutinized and thought of to come to the true meanings of what he said. In other words the hidden knowledge. Gnostics do did not narrow themselves to just the words of the 12 disciples but also to the women(Like Mary of Magdalene) and other persons around Jesus.

Notice that I say 12 disciples Gnostics include Judas as one of his disciples, which is utter blasphemy for regular Christians. In fact Judas, according to various Gnostics texts, received more of the secret knowledge thought by Jesus, than the other disciples because he understood better than the other 11 the true meaning of his teachings. Some Gnostic text even state that Judas was asked by Jesus to fulfill the destiny of Jesus and was asked to make sure Jesus got arrested. For a fact, The Gospel of Judas is interesting stuff to read indeed.

To a Gnostic the traditional view of Jesus being reborn in the flesh is preposterous. No Gnostic believes Jesus body has been raised from the grave.  They do however believe Jesus returned to the disciples in his astral form or as a spirit.  Gnostics also believe, that Jesus was but a regular human being and no deity as the Christians do. They believe Jesus was the first son  and a teacher. Not the only son of God, but a son of God. Like we are all sons and daughters of God. A reference to this can be found in the bible e.g.: ‘ Jesus loves all his children’ , ‘ There is a place in my fathers heaven for all of Gods Children’, ‘ If your faith would be as great as a mustard seed, you could all perform my miracles’ .

Just before I continue Gnostics don’t think of God as a man in a beard or women in a white dress figure. God to a Gnostic is the All. The force driving all and everything. (Not going further into that on this post. Defining the All can’t be blogged or written, to much to consider for that)

Now I can keep on continuing about why a Gnostic believes all this but that is just to much for a single post. In fact I believe it is to much for an entire blog. If you really want to know I suggest you start reading the Nag hammadi or, if you just want to establish if you want to read more, try the stuff from some scholars like, Elaine Pagels.Who actually study for it and read The Gnostic gospels for instance.

I can discuss about this subject for ages if needs be, but basically being a gnostic to me, comes down to the following:

• Love one other like you love yourself.
• Love the all (life in general ) above all else.
• The truth can be found in one’s self
• Question all matters of faith even you own.
• Knowing leads to enlightenment

When I feel up to it I will blog more about this subject. Enough food for thought now I guess.

* I can be a little of on the dates it has been quite a while since I last researched it and I was never hot on the exact dates.  In fact there where a few of these Concilia. I just wanted to tell you how the church was founded.

Uzazi Spellgazer.  Looked up after gazing at the liquid substance in her glass. Ixian ale, they say the recipe dated back a few hundred years. The early settlers of Eve took it with them from earth. They called it beer over there. Earth, did it exist. She probably would never know.  But this ale thing, this ale thing was pretty good.  She looked around the bar, canteen, diner or whatever you could call it.  She didn’t like it very much. In fact she didn’t like the facilities in any space station very much. She was rather drifting somewhere in space.

The stars, how she loved them. If she could afford it she would never dock again on a space station. The  air reeked of to much recycling and  the Neon lights of the facilities hurt her eyes. She was used to the empty darkness of space. Only used to the dim lights  of her spaceship. Dim to save power. Ships these days had an near unlimited amount of energy when taken care of well.  But she had learned it this way and was used to it. When she just started hauling cargo the ships power supplies where less reliant and the only way you could make sure that you had enough power was by saving as much as possible.

Dimming the lights was one of the less painful ways to do this.  She could still remember that one time as a crew member that they had to set life support below 100%.  Rather dim the lights.  These days it wasn’t necessary anymore but she still did it. Better safe then sorry, she thought. All this meaningless power consumption on the station bothered her.

She took a sip off the glass and relaxed for a minute. Damn this was good stuff. She would get her hands on some traversing from station to station once every while but she hardly ever drank it. So by the time she did it was past the storage life.  Drinking in space was dangerous. Getting drunk or drowsy could give a raider or thief the edge they needed. In space there was a constant threat. Even in protected space you could be hit by a hit and run raider.

That’s  how she lost her missile barge. Her great and powerful battle cruiser. She named it Kite of doom. But she was drowsy that day and accidentally shot  someones cargo. mistaking it by a nearby thug she was hunting. Within seconds federation ships where all over her and blast her to D.  She was lucky enough to end off in her life-pod. Luckily she hadn’t sold her Caracal.  But she still felt bad about loosing it. Federation troops did not listen to mistakes.  Laws where laws and she broke them resulting in the destruction of her ship.  She sighed while thinking of it.

The bar was reasonably quiet and no one was paying attention to her. No young guy trying his luck this day.  If it where up to her she would never have come here.  In fact if it weren’t for Aaron she wouldn’t even have docked here. But she had to. Aaron send her a message that he was in her part of space for a cargo drop off. Aaron. Aaron was her twin brother.

The only family she had, they were both orphans since they where very young. their mom an dad died in  corporate war. innocent bystanders just at the wrong place at the wrong time. They jumped out of hyperspace and where in the middle of a violent corp war a few seconds later and it was over for them. They didn’t even had time to raise their shields. The life pod with her and her brother in it was picked up a few days later.  they had almost starved to death by then.  Aaron was nothing like her. He lived on the other side of the Eve universe and was a small time cargo hauler. He even found a girl on one of the planets over there and married here.  Marriage ,  Uzazi could not think of such a thing. Anyway it was a special occasion if Aaron and Uzazi where near to each other and since the last time was over 2 years ago she was anxious to see him again. Sure, they spoke a few time each year over comm but that was scarce. They did mail each few weeks over interstellar comm. But the times they met up where special  indeed.

Here she was, waiting. She had arranged to meet at this awful place this evening. Making a more accurate appointment would be foolish the both knew what space travel could be like.  She gazed back into her glass thinking about Aaron. She always had treated him as her baby brother. Even though she was as old Uzazi was always keeping her brother out of trouble as a young girl. Oh Aaron. She was indeed  very pleased that she would see him again.

She didn’t notice the guy entering the bar. He was slim and  had bright blue colored eyes which stood out quite distinct under his black eye browse.  He looked around as if he was looking for someone. Then he spotted the girl sitting lonely at a table gazing into her glass of ale. He smiled and approached her. Then he lay his hand on her shoulder. As the girl  woke up from her trance and was startled, he said:’ Hey Uuz, How ‘ve you been’.

It was Aaron he had finally arrived.

Other posts on Uzazi Spellgazer :

Another day

I did it. Last week I reached the mental border of 80 kilos. (176 pound according to the converter). Last year around this time I was weighing around 100Kg (220 pounds) so I lost about 20Kg (45 pounds) since then and I must say I’m more than a little proud of that.  How did I do it ? Read on.

First I just let nature walk it’s course. for months I kept swinging between 98 and 97Kg. Gradually it started to annoy me and then the second week of January I put my fist down. I would lose it all again. Go back to the weight from before I met Chantal.

A devious task indeed.  At least it seemed that way.  I reality there was actually nothing to it.  The start was the most difficult and only because I thought it would be.  I started out with a strict diet. I could only eat low fat low calorie food. with a daily calorie intake of about 1400 or less.  But I made a promise to myself. Just because I restricted myself to low fat, low calorie It did not mean I did not have to enjoy myself.

Luckily for me and my family I am a creative hobby cook and I read a lot about dishes and cooking.  I googled some dishes and I was off.  Slightly changing the otherwise boring and tasteless food prescribed by the various health sites with my knowhow of herbs and spices.  Carfully selecting ingredients by their food values. I made tasty low calorie low fat dishes.

Now the average male with some sort of physical effort can eat up to 2000 Kcal a day without gaining weight. Since going to work and lunch in between is at least a 1 and a half our a day for me I was on the clear for that. I just had to stay below that to loose weight.  So I started out the day with to loafs of bread with sweet stuff counting to about 3 to 400 hundred Kcal then have a lunch about 500Kcal  I still could eat 1100 Kcal.

I tried to make dinner below 500 Kcal and that would leave the room for some snacks. and there’s the catch.  As long as you eat from time to time during the day your  metabolism keeps active. Which means more Kcal burning and also means you cut yourself some slack.  The trick is in the snacks. just eat low fat low Kcal snacks halfway between a normal meal and make sure it does not reach over 200 Kcal  per snack and your there. Instant weight loss.

After I figured that out I could easily cut myself some slack and I found out I could eat more during the weekends and still loose plenty. The first 6 weeks where great I lost about 2 kilos  a week.  until I reached mid 80-ies, and then It suddenly stopped. My bodies way of saying what the hell are you up to.

I didn’t lose weight for the next 2 to 4 weeks. actually I lost some but only marginal. I was starting to get worried. No matter what I did I just didn’t loose anything. Luckily for me Chantal was an expert on weight loss and she ensured me it was just the natural reaction of my body and urged me to not give up. I almost did.

I didn’t and then Gradually it started again. loosing half a kilo each week as long as I kept to my eat at least 6 times a day schedule.  In the weekends I ate all the stuff I wanted only less of it. And during the week while I was working, keeping to strict amounts of calorie intake. This meant I could eat anything as long as I watched the calories of the food I was eating. Fatter food meant less to eat. It’s as simple as that.

Next to the food intake I started going to the gym. At first I did cardio losing weight by not getting my heart-rate over 140 which is makes sure your body burns calories and not makes muscles which are heavier than fat.  Then as I got smarter and read more about training schemes I switched to mild cardio and heavy muscle training. More muscles mean that your body requires more calories to sustain them and then I went to full cardio and full muscle training. Increasing my need for calories and burning them at the same time.

So how did I do it. Looking back  there are 4 ingredients to loss of weight, being:

• Discipline It all comes down to this. As long as you discipline yourself you will succeed. Discipline is crucial for success. You have to remain disciplined or else you will fail.

• Don’t go on a diet which deviates to much from your natural food habits. Dieting does not mean you can’t enjoy your food.  Not enjoying makes everything harder and means a threat to your discipline.
• Calculate.  Make a rough estimate about what you are going to eat. before you eat it. It doesn’t have to be on the Kcal but it has to be give or take.  Remember you can eat bad food. but you will have to balance it out later on in some way.
• Excersise.  Physical effort is crucial it makes  you lose weight and makes you keep losing weight if your further down the road.
• Knowledge, Don’t be deceived by miracle diets,  read about what food does and what training does. Examine your food consumption and start to adapt to that first. Then just read about what does what. educate yourself.  You will find out what your body needs and make sure it gets it.

It’s as easy as 1-2-3

Really it is!

My first Clarinet

When I was a kid I was sent to do clarinet lessons. I survived those for about a year and then quit. But my love for the instrument never went away. I don’t know what set me off. But I have been meaning to pick it up again for quite some time. years a go I got an old clarinet from a fair but the mouthpiece was broken.  I nagged my family for years that, what I really wanted was a mouthpiece  to try if I could  still play.

Then about 4 years ago they gave me one for my birthday. When I tried to play the instrument all it did was squeak. Of course at first I thought I’d lost my touch and the thought of playing again faded away again. Then last year I tried it again. Squeak again! I still wasn’t totally convinced it was all my fault. Specialists ( my brother and sister) told me that it was a crappy instrument anyway and that it wasn’t much good except as a wall decoration.  Stubborn old me of course wanted to make sure.  A month or so later the ghost of the clarinet visited me again in my sleep. And the next morning I remembered.

Mouthpiece

I Googled a bit and found a Youtube lesson on basic clarinet blowing techniques. They told me to first get the mouthpiece off and get a sound out of it. So I did and what do you know, a sound. Not just any sound but the right sound. Next I added the barrel and tried again. A slightly lower sound emerged. I was on the JAZZ!. So I assembled the clarinet and a perfect A came out of the instrument I placed my finger on the first hole , G! second finger on second hole an F! Third finger  a E!  I was feeling so proud of myself.  now to play the scale further down in one breath I thought. AGFEDCBAG. YES! It works.  And now the other way.

I placed all my fingers on the holes planning to go upscale and…. Squeeeeeek!!!!!!. What the….. ! Again.. Squeeek!!!!!!. Again!!!! G!!!!!!! Huh????? It’s an octave to high. Something fishy was going on here. Again from top to bottom A…G..F…E…D…C…SQUEEEEAK!…… Again AGFEDCBA…. I was totally flabbergasted.   Again F..E..D..C..SQUEEEEK!!!, FEDCB….

Clarinet barrel

What the hell was going on here. Every-time I played a note on the second part of my clarinet it either squeaked was an octave to high or was on key.  Luckily  for me I am an excellent troubleshooter it’s part of my job.

So let me see what happens here. when I play a notes apart the lower register squeaks. When I play them top to bottom all is ok and when I play from button up it behaves as if I have closed the register key.  I disassembled my clarinet and there it was. the upper and lower piece only fit because there was a piece of tape closing the difference. This clarinet is made out of 2 different clarinets.  Well that was it. I owned a clarinet that was unplayable. built out of different clarinet parts from different vendors.  I tried some more But the only thing I could practice was blowing technique.  Bummer! How would I ever learn to play the clarinet again.

Luckily I am not born yesterday.  I know I would not be able to fund a new clarinet on my own. So I started searching the web for clarinets. They where all too bloody expensive. I phoned my brother, who works in a respectable music store. I asked if they had anything cheap laying about. After I told him what I thought was cheap I had to wait another  5 minutes before he stopped laughing and then he told me to forget about it.  As I hang up I realized I saw my ignominious defeat. I was back in my corner still down 3 to 1.

So I let it fare for a few days.  NO! I would not be defeated.  I would still learn to play the clarinet.  But what where my options. I could rent one.  Google again.  My amazement grew as I saw the ludicrous prices on the screen of my laptop.  I decided I would not be ripped of by the people that displayed these rentals. No Sir! No way!.  Maybe I could go and take ….. Gulp…. lessons and get a rental through a music school.  In a flash, memory was back.

My clarinet lessons,  I can still remember going to the local brass band with my dad. I could not go to regular music school because I never went to general music school ( read more on this on my previous post Blowing the reed) But I still wanted to play. So my dad used his connections and got me into lessons at the brass band.  They handed me a clarinet and told me when my lessons would start. I was very happy.  Then I met my tutor as I watched him and shook his hand he avoided eye contact.

Clarinet Construction

Trouble! I don’t trust people that are scared to look you in the eye. Never have never will.  Shivers went down my spine as an early warning system. What would happen next.  I was in class with one other student a girl of about my age. She had been playing for a while and we would practice together. At first all was fine and I played my notes. Practiced for at

least an hour each weeks and soon I was able to blow in the correct way and able to play some tunes. The I noticed it. At first I wasn’t really consciously aware of it but then I started paying attention a bit more.  Now Usually I would sit on the left then the other  girl and next to that the teacher.  I would play my notes and then would hear that it was of mediocre quality and then she would play. As she was playing I watched the teacher.  Did he just stare at her breasts?

Now I  started playing at age 13 and my fellow student was 14 the time a woman starts to look as a woman  if you catch my drift.  I played another time. I did not get any response and then she played.  Nooo! He is… that  bastard……  The next week I started to pay more attention and yes. He was constantly paying attention not to me or my play. Not to her or her play. But to her body.  Of course she did everything well. He did not want to lose his view of the landscape and me, well he did not really give a damn what I did. So I started to lose interest. It was of no concern to him. My mom got upset with me for lacking the interest to practice.  To avoid arguments I taped my practicing on my cassette deck and played it for half an hour.  Meanwhile I’d read a comic or play a video game.  Soon after I told my parents I wanted to stop.  I was glad to be rid of that pervert and life went on.

My new Clarinet

Lessons, lessons would be my last resort. They where to expensive anyway. Prices were rated based on income which placed me in the most expensive category.  So how would I go from here. I still wanted to play summertime and other cool Jazz licks or some mesmerizing classical piece.  I figured there was but one thing to do. Play on my crappy Clarinet practicing what I could and find sponsors for my clarinet.

So last January I started to tell all my family and friends of my plan and told them to give me money for my birthday instead of a regular gift. I told them this money would go into my clarinet fund.  Last month on the 20th Chantal and I gave our birthday party. We always celebrate together because our birthdays are only 10 days apart.  The next  morning I counted the winnings and phoned my brother. I told him my wishes and my new budget.  He wasn’t to pleased but he would try to arrange something. Not really satisfied I started looking for clarinets on the Internet.

I then phoned him I could get one for 1third of the prices he was talking about. Then last Tuesday I phoned him that I needed a decent proposition by Wednesday morning or else I would buy one from the web for ‘el cheapo’.  He phoned back. Now I don’t know what or how he did it but he really came through for me this time. He got me a wooden clarinet of reasonable quality for a great prize.  This morning we went to Nijmegen to get it.

I already studied my first hour. It’s a different system than I practiced on when I was a kid, making the fingering completely new and meaning that I have to start as an absolute beginner again.  After watching some Youtube lessons

I can play au claire de la lune and when the saints already. I also started practicing my scales. That definitely needs work after a basic C to C , I will go and play chromatic.

It’s a new beginning and it’s fun.

P.S.: Thanks all for making this possible and thanks Bro your the greatest!

I already wrote about the Matthaus Passion in my post Aus Liebe. Traditonally the date to listen to this is the week before easter. Preferably on Good Friday.  Which is coming friday. I can blog all about Bachs masterpiece and it’s beauty but it would never do right to the music. So I found this good registration on youtube and added it to a nice playlist for you to enjoy.

For the ones that can appreciate the finer things in life I present to you.

BWV 244 by Johan Sebastian Bach:

Der Matthäus Passion

The Matthaus Passion

Click the Image to start or click HERE

Lyrics can be found Here

Happy easter!