SRD and Music

Yesterday my Dad and a guy named Sayed Al-Junid came up to Battambang to prime its inhabitants about the idea of engaging in a discourse (Keith, an ex-wildlife biologist, came to see the presentations). The main idea is to get groups of people to engage various sectors to talk about the conceptual frameworks within which they operate. Basically, getting diffeerent sectors to do some soul-searching and find out what the assumptions are they they are operating on; socratic philosphy for organizations...or something of the sort.

The presentations were great and the new concept of development, which proposes a very integrated approach, is pretty exciting for a development novice such as myself.

I also bought a guitar yesterday. It cost $20, but the nice old chinese lady gave me a $1 discount. This is, I assume, becuae I bought a badminton raquette from her before with seng-tchie (who spoke some mandarin with her)...and she now considers me an honorary recipient of the "chinese discount". I discovered, a while ago, that chinese businesspeople will not budge, unless the buyer is chinese, in which case they show solidarity by providing token discounts. Lovely.

While my guitar skills have failed ot improve beyond the depth (or even the scope) of the afore-posted video, I am keen to learn new chords and, eventually, songs. I also intend to train myself to switch cords swiftly, so that it sounds like music instead of 'a collection of badly-strummed chords'.

I rode to the CORDE building today, one hand on my bicycle steering, one hand grasping my guitar. On the girly bike that I bought, I imagine I looked particularly spectactular (spectacular here meaning "of, or pertaining to a spectacle" [aka making a scene], as opposed to the more positive and flattering vernacular).

I feel energized today, and have decided to come in and work even though its a sunday. I figure I should really 'hoist the sails' while the wind is blowing.

Hope y'alls enjoying life,

Ashraf.