Author: Warren Tang

I write about linguistics and philosophy. I also write poetry and take photographs.

Blogging anniversary

Warren Tang1 Comment

Until recently I didn’t know when wordpress.com (not wordpress.org) started – late 2005.

And this blog, signature103, was my first blog anywhere online. I started it on this day in February 2006. This makes me a kind of early adopter here.

The blog is older than my daughter so it’s a kind of journal and journey of this time.

Many of my most important thoughts are made public here. and sometimes I have been affected, both positively and negatively, by comments and interactions. But it was important to be open to the public. Withdrawing from the world is a form of fear.

I started this blog because I had read an article about a lady (whose name I don’t remember) who had put her life into the public domain. It came with dangers of course but it also was freeing. It helped her engage with the world.

I too wanted to engage with the world. And I am thankful to have done so with this blog.

Blogging hasn’t been best social media to engage with the world though but it is still an important one. It has its purpose among all the other ways we engage with the now.

So, thank you, wordpress.com. Thank you, readers.

twentieth reply

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with you
love was simple
effortless
without doubt

straight
and immediate
that was all
love needed to be

to answer your love
was easy, it was pure
from some place
called the heart

it asked for nothing
but gave everything
and still it is the
same doubtless love

uncomplicated
and has remained
as easy to replied to
as twenty years ago

cubism

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not necessarily blocks
different facets
in view, visible
unnaturally folded
like paper then unfolded

creases can never be uncreased
frozen colours shades shadows
the painter’s shift shown
delineated merged into
something called cubist art

picasso

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blue cubic
lovers
unfold easily

creased flesh
of beauty
he knows
how to show

a secret
we now
understand
all too well

Originally published in 2013.

reduce

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You cannot throw out what you have not bought. This is the purest form of reduction. Choose not to reduce use of something but rather stop usage from the beginning.

Just a thought.

Thoughts on Konmari and sustainability

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In a causal conversation that went to the topic of Kondo Mariko the famous cleaner upper guru it was said she quit her system because it cannot cope with the variable of children.

This to me is hilarious and a sad truth of systems we set up. As long as the parameters are within limits it works. Beyond the limits and the system fails.

This, I think, is a great analogy for sustainability. Every since I have had kids the idea of sustainability has been thrown out the window. I simply cannot cope. The effort to bring things within sustainable means will, I believe, end with divorce or in death. I am not saying this jokingly. Today’s reality is without exaggeration beyond sustainability.

Poetry hack for WordPress

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Problem: in the iOS app, the “return” key gives you a new paragraph when you only want a single line return.

Solution:

  • click the “…” icon on the bottom right;
  • choose “Transform block” > “Verse”;
  • type your poem;
  • choose “Transform block” > “Paragraph”.

This way, you have complete control of the layout of the poem.

inseparable

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you three
are inseparable
as it were

from the very
beginning and until
the very end

as dramatic as it sounds
take away one and the world
will come to an end

a triangle
like no other
their names –

matter
space &
time

Changing metaphors

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If you do change the metaphor half way through the poem the change should represent change itself. Starting with LOVE IS A JOURNEY e may change the metaphor to LOVE IS A LONG DISTANCE RACE with images of struggle, uphill battles, not lasting the distance, rivalry, etc.