Young At Heart

Growing up, my father always played lovely vocal music on his record player
or he would search the air waves for a radio station that would play songs
from yesteryears - songs from the time he was a teenager. One of the songs I
remember most is a song by Frank Sinatra. The lyrics didn’t really make
sense to me at that time, but when you hear the violins intro followed by
the mellow voice of Frank— you would be swept away on a romantic haze.

Young at Heart
by Frank Sinatra

Fairy tales can come true, it can happen to you
If youre young at heart
For its hard, you will find, to be narrow of mind
If youre young at heart

You can go to extremes with impossible schemes
You can laugh when your dreams fall apart at the seams
And life gets more exciting with each passing day
And love is either in your heart or on its way

Dont you know that its worth every treasure on earth
To be young at heart
For as rich as you are its much better by far
To be young at heart

And if you should survive to 105
Look at all youll derive out of being alive
Then here is the best part
You have a head start
If you are among the very young at heart

And if you should survive to 105
Look at all youll derive out of being alive
Then here is the best part
You have a head start
If you are among the very young at heart

Song: The Search is Over

When I first began to enjoy music, pop and funk music was the rage but they were really not my cup of tea. I was more inclined to the sentimental songs. Although Survivor is considered more of a rock band, this song stands out in my mind. It is one of the few songs I learned by heart in my early years. I hope you enjoy the lyrics as much as I do.

The Search Is Over
by Survivor

            How can I convince you, what you see is real?
            Who am I to blame you for doubting what you feel?
            I was always reachin', you were just a girl I knew
            I took for granted the friend I have in you
         
            I was living for a dream, loving for a moment.
            Taking on the world, that was just my style
            Now I look into your eyes, I can see forever
            The search is over, you were with me all the while

            Can we last forever? Will we fall apart?
            At times it's so confusing, the questions of the heart
            You followed me through changes, and patiently you'd wait
            Till I came to my senses, through some miracle of fate

            I was living for a dream, loving for a moment
            Taking on the world, that was just my style
            Now I look into your eyes, I can see forever
            The search is over, you were with me all the while

            Now the miles stretch out behind me, loves that I have lost
            Broken hearts lie victims of the game
            Then good luck, it finally stuck like lightning from the blue
            Every highway's leading me back to you

            Now at last I hold you, now all is said and done
            The search has come full circle, our destinies are one
            So if you ever loved me, show me that you give a damn
            You'll know for certain the man I really am

            I was living for a dream, loving for a moment
            Taking on the world, that was just my style
            When I touched your hand, I could hear you whisper
            The search is over, love was right before my eyes

LED Car lights

For the life of me, I simply cannot understand why Filipino drivers have
changed their warm yellow headlights for eye-searing blue-white headlights.
I can understand if they need the extra light (fog light type) when there is
a heavy downpour or the smog is so thick that they can’t see 50 yards ahead.

But on clear nights those lights can be blinding! Every night after work, I
generally go home with eye strain and a headache because of those flashing
LED lights coming from the opposite lane. And I heard that there is a LAW
that PROHIBITS use of LEDs as headlights. WTF is happening?

Mermaids

Its been a long while since I drew mermaids. Like most people, I drew and imagined mermaids to be human-looking women who happen to have a scaly fish tale.

But I came across a story by Kurt Cagle a few years back called "Voyage of the Canto". In this story, a female scientist has stumbled across a sound process that changes the physical structure of humans, into any mythical being you can name - angel, centaur, cat-woman, satyr, mermaid.

In "Voyage", he tells how the lead scientist turns her crew of mainly female cadets into mermaids. He explores how the transformation from human to mermaid occurs, what changes, and gives some plausible explanations on why, um… they always have big breasts and the myths always revolve around having sex with them.

This story is the inspiration of my current mermaid project. But I'm not going for the big breasted sex symbol. Following the line of thought that Kurt Cagle made, I am drawing my own conclusion on what a mermaid would probably look like if she never ever went on land (for goodness sake what does a mermaid need a butt like ours for? She'd have an anatomy more like otters or seals and other water-mammalian species like dolphins.)

I went back to where I first saw the story and linked back to other Kurt Cagle sites but the "Voyage" is no longer there. I have been searching the net for this story but find no trace of it But he does have other fascinating mermaid tales. You can find them here:

Fanarchive - Stories by Kurt Cagle
"Gina" and "Sea Change" - Transformation Archives
"Bells of Ys" at http://seatails.blogspot.com/

Kurt Cagle's site in the making: Seatails

Note: the picture above is a link from the Yahoo! Group: Mermaid Stories. Beautiful picture!

Bridges

by Sergio Mendez
Sung by Kevyn Lattau; Sung by Dianne Reeves