Archive for May, 2008

May Guild Meeting


2008
05.27

May’s GLASG meeting was another fun-filled and informative one. It was good to get out of the house and stop thinking (worrying) about what’s happening in the family. Too bad the Jills weren’t there.

The highlight of the meeting was Janel’s lecture on dyeing and color theory. She is a chemist, and she brought to us so many interesting facts. I can honestly say that it was actually FUN talking about chemistry and how our eyes perceive colors. Who’d knew! :-) Janel also announced her new book, The Eclectic Sole, which is available on Amazon. How exciting for her!

April Guild Meeting


2008
05.23

Tomorrow is GLASG’s May meeting, and… HOLY SMOKES! I forgot to post last month’s photos. And, it was such a fun, colorful event that I just have to get a few pictures up.

We had a “Kitchen Sink Batt” class with Janel. We carded scraps of leftover fiber together into colorful batts to be spun into unique yarn. (I’d bet there will be a lot of interesting yarn in tomorrow’s show and tell.) Guild members brought in their drum carders to share with the whole group. People donated TONS of fiber for the class. It was so much fun. And so much fiber! But it also fed my desire of owning my own drum carder. Tempting, tempting, tempting!!!

See more photos here.

Theme Update


2008
05.22

A little theme update. I think this one is easier to read. What do you think? Last theme was clean and simple. But it was quite difficult to read the post, I think.

In other news, there’s a big family conflict going on right now. It’s BIG. Sibling rivalry. It can affect the outcome of the hotel project. I feel caught in the middle. That’s all that can be said now. Things change so fast that I can just wait and see.

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Visakha Puja (Buddha Day)


2008
05.20

Namo tassa bhagavato arahato sammā-sambuddhassa.

Above is a picture of the holy relics of the Buddha. A small portion of it was installed in a large Buddha image in the sala last night. I think this is the first time that I post any image of Buddhist relics on this blog. I hesitate to write about their mystery and wonders. Maybe it’s because of my extreme introverted personality that cause me not wanting to catch attention. Maybe because of the risk of possibly causing disbelief in those who had not experienced these holy relics. One thing is sure, I have very high respect for them and do not want to make any mistake. Since I still feel reluctant to elaborate on them in this blog, I’ll just give you a couple of links. This one is a very short explanation, but from a tradition that’s close to mine. Here’s one that’s quite famous actually, from a different tradition’s understanding. Just to give you some ideas. You’ll have to research if you want to know more.

Visakha Pjua (Buddha Day), a full-moon day, is a day that commemorates three key events in the Buddha’s life: his birth, Awakening, and final Unbinding (parinibbana). We started with the main ceremony of special chants, Dhamma talk, and followed by everyone walking around the main shrine room three times, holding flowers, candle and incense. Some of us even saw a shooting star (including me :-D ).

After the main event we gathered at the sala for the installation of the holy relics in the head of the large Buddha image.

After the installation, some of us gathered at the site of the future Holy Pagoda for silent meditation. Sorry, no pictures. We only had the moon and the stars for light source. Not good for picture taking. Also, I just wanted to meditate without interruptions. :-)

It is our plan to build a Thai style Pagoda in the next few months. It will eventually house 108 different relics of various Awakened Ones, so that people can visit and pay respect, and feel inspired to look at one’s self and to purify one’s mind.

Announcement


2008
05.16

Call me crazy. Yesterday I registered a new domain jasonknits.com. There’s a good reason. I want to separate the personal blog content from the Buddhist content. The goal is to give instructions to the web bots, spiders and crawlers that these belong to different domains. Anyway, the url will probably change next week from jasonknits.com/ to jasonknits.com. The feed should stay the same for RSS readers. (An advantage of using FeedBurner.) Will update on the approximate time of the move. :-)

Update, 5.17.08, 10:40am: Think I am going to work on moving the blog today. Nothing like the present moment. :-) There SHOULD be a redirecting message that informs people to update the URL. I don’t foresee any difficulties.

Update, 5.17.08, 6:56pm: Blog transfer complete. Please make a note of the new URL. I am looking to implement a redirect that will announce the change. Now it works automatically without giving any information.

Taiwan In Pictures


2008
05.16

Hi there! I’ve been back in the States since Tuesday night. It was a good trip. A productive (I think) board meeting. Although my schedule to China is kinda in the air now. It’s likely to be in September again. But I am not going to believe it until it is confirmed. I can’t stand this waiting game.

Here are some pictures of my Taiwan trip:

Chiang Kai-shek International Airport:

Taiwan High Speed Rail:

Visiting Mom at the Temple in Kaohsiung:

Night Market:

【點水樓】Dim Sum Restaurant:

DOZO Neo-Japanese Restaurant:

Taipei 101 Building:

More photos here.

Heading To Taipei


2008
05.09

Just a quick note. Got an urgent request to have a meeting in Taiwan. Wicked sister is causing havoc. Am going there to support the good sister, and to finalize the details of my upcoming trip to China.

Leaving in 10 minutes. Will be back on 5/13. Later!