Romance is sipping lemon tea alone in an old red armchair while remembering blissful moments forever passed; it’s the untarnished love for lost spirits and hope for eternities with dear souls.

Romance is an afternoon by a river eating dried apple slices and creating stories for the trees on the opposite bank.
Romance is awkward dancing before the end of the world, falling to the grass and laughing at the fullness of life.
Romance is fallen tears on a bed of leaves, sparks from a campfire and four lives interwoven beneath a starless night sky.
Romance is vanilla on our tongues, summer shade on our bodies and wind licking our limbs.
Romance is ever-walking through starlight with the ones you love, hands held and eyes soft-lit by Vulpecula and Lyra.
Romance is a stolen moment on a couch, with sugary tongues and reaching fingers, drinking flavours of all the world’s real lovers.
Romance is a night on a frozen lake, letting the ice melt beneath us and counting reflected glimmers cast down by moon and stars.
Romance is floating in the cool, white-flickering lake, hands joined and devotion sworn; now a union of lovers illuminated by the moon’s direct care.

I’m stuck on a Lisa Loeb song, “Would You Wander,” tonight. It’s uncanny how songs can creep into our heads and dig up memories and brave new notions. This one is conjuring up great journeys and greater loves. I couldn’t ask for a better bridging theme to take me into this last day of May.

I made some ambitious goals earlier in the month, including a website redesign and preparing for a writing project to work on for the next year. I’ve finished up the redesign but the planning has fallen short of my target. I had hoped to have a rewrite of the opening piece ready for the launch on June 1st but that doesn’t look likely. I could blame it on the added distraction that changing jobs is bringing, but I’ll be honest and admit it’s a task that needs plenty of thinking and breathing (and daydreaming) time, not the headlong rush I intended. That’s ok, though, because I really want to make this a project I’ll be passionate about and see through to the end.

What is worse than a wanderlusting romantic? A wanderlusting, romantic would-be storyteller.

So, with less than 24 hours left I’m trying to tie up as many loose ends as I can. I’d like to have something somewhat substantial to mention on the first day of my new year so I may dig out an article I’ve been keeping in my bookmarks for months waiting to comment on it. Or I may write something dealing with commonism and open source. I just now had the thought of including my running “Romance” fragments as a sidebar item on the new site, so maybe that’s something I can craft for those few who stumble across the new site in its infancy.

When I arrived here tonight the hotel manager, who happens to be married to my cousin, was working late and stayed for a couple hours. Before she left she related to me a woeful tale of her daughter being cut from a soccer (football for you proper English folks) team. She’s been playing for four years and loved the game but the poor girl was one of three to not make the team and was quite heartbroken. She simply loved to play. I can’t help but feel sorry for her having her hopes dashed so, especially knowing how sensitive the poor lass is (and she’s also one of the most empathic people I’ve met of any age).

I began my evening of work with a bit of inspiring reading in the form of a couple Neil Gaiman graphic novels. Little did I know when I picked them out that they’d both be fantastic explorations of memory, storytelling and childhood. Violent Cases dealt with violence, oddly enough, but was also an incredibly genuine look at childhood and perception.

It was definitely one of the strongest graphic stories I’ve ever read; the visual work by Mr. McKean was incredibly evocative and fits Gaiman’s autobiographical story perfectly. Mr. Punch entwines a dark (it’s about marital disharmony and in this version includes murders), old puppet story that has spread worldwide and the story of a young boy.

The photo work for the puppets added a great deal of creepiness to the story and once again McKean delivered artwork that matched Gaiman’s prose. These two books increased my already immense respect of both men and gave me an inspiring opening to the evening.

I’ve noticed that my ring finger often ends up marked by ink when I write a letter. Perhaps I need to stop resting my hand on the page when I write. Am I alone with this affliction?

Thursday night I went to see a couple movies with my friend Nathan, who so generously uses his theatre worker privileges to get us into free showings.

Star Wars: Ep. 3 surprised me by actually living up to the original trilogy and having less terrible lines than I expected; I left satisfied because, even though it wasn’t an amazing film, I had my admittedly moderate expectations surpassed. The action was as tight as any of Lucas’ work, but the dialogue was most often mediocre, though good for such a film. Even the watered down Buddhism that Yoda and other Jedi spoke was amusing.

After that we watched Crash, which I knew nothing about before hand. It’s a film dealing with racism in L.A. through various perspectives with characters tied together though coincidences. It’s gritty, touching and powerful. I must say I was blown away buy the overall quality of this film; acting, cinematography, plot and dialogue were all incredibly well crafted. I would not at all be surprised if this receives nods for many awards.

After looking all over for the new Collective Soul EP, From The Ground Up, I was able to find it and was rewarded with an incredible accoustic recording with some of the most beautiful packaging I’ve ever seen. The disc has high production quality and brings new life to some of the band’s finest songs. You can’t miss the crisp guitar work or Ed Roland’s distinct voice on the standouts “Youth,” “She Said” and “December.” This band was long my favourite and never fail to release wonderful albums, so be sure to give this new release a listen (There’s a reason it has gotten no less than 4 stars on Amazon and overwhelmingly often gets 5).

Hello, I’m Apollo. I’m a soft revolutionary, a wearer of a patchwork of spiritual beliefs, a book worm, a music lover, an environmentalist and nature lover, a minimalist, a socialist and a writer. I hope you’ll take a look into my life and the ways I’m working to understand and benefit the greater spheres.

External profiles: Tribe.net, Live Journal, 43 Things, 43 Places, WAYN?, Friendster, My Space, Hi5, OK Cupid, Last.FM, Stumbleupon

Name: Apollo Lemmon
D.o.B.: December 10, 1982
Location: Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
E-mail: frozentruth@frozentruth.com
Personality Type: INF(P/J) (Introverted iNtuitive Feeling PerceivingJudging)
Spirituality: patchwork, with strong Buddhist leanings
Political: Socialist (Political Compass: -8.00,-7.90)
Passtimes: writing, reading, meditation, photography, listening to music

I’m 22 and have lived in beautiful Nova Scotia, Canada all my life; I grew up in Dean and now live in Halifax, one of my three favourite cities (alongside Ottawa and Montreal). As grand as Canada is, I’m certainly not a patriot or nationalist; I value the world as a whole and feel nationalism is very harmful.

I’m about to make a transition from working as a watchman to being an auditor. I don’t take much of my identity from work but seeing that the experiences from it may sometimes pop up here, I decided to give it mention.

My spirituality is a healthy mix of Buddhism with secular humanism and various other religious traditions. I practice meditation and live in accordance with the core of Buddhist teachings (The Four Noble Truths) as much as I am able to. Complementing this, I take time to explore holism and find integral thought to hold much that helps me to understand the world, especially the human mind and spirituality.

Writing is my greatest interest; I’m facinated with storytelling in all its forms but especially in how it can influence us as written words. I’ve had a strong interest in speculative fiction for nearly all my life but have, in recent years, begun to especially appreciate (auto)biographical, historical, spiritual and philosophical works. I do like to wander off anywhere, though, so you might find me reading just about any wholesome piece of prose or poetry.

Music is another love of mine. I find gems in just about every genre, from folk to classical; hip hop to rock; jazz to post-rock; and country to electronic. You’ll have to see my Audioscrobbler profile to learn more about specifics because I can’t type out the hundreds of artists I’ve been enchanted by.

Politically, I’m deeply committed to socialism and the related areas of environmentalism, human rights, and equality. In the Canadian political systems I vote for the NDP almost exclusively (I’ll vote Liberal if there is no NDP candidate or none with a chance of defeating cons).

There are so many other facets to this life I’m living. I hope you’ll take the time to read my journal and get to know some of them. I’m really quite a friendly introvert, so please feel free to ask about anything you’d like to know.

Here I’m hoping those who know me will say something about me. I’m not very good at writing about myself so lets see if my friends can shed some light on who I am.

Do you know me? Why not say a few words and let those who are still strangers in on my secrets and hidden traits?

Tuesday afternoon I received a call offering me the job I had an interview for last week. I’m off into the great web of change that is starting a new job. I’ll be leaving the best job I’ve ever had for uncertainty in a few weeks and I must confess mixed feelings about the move. Working as a night watchman has been quite a blessing; I’ve loved the work, hours, wage and time to read and write it offered me. My new job as an auditor will be a challenge and offer me advancement, though, and those features are all my current job lacked. Here’s to change.
Who’d have thought a year ago two I’d have two jobs I can take pride in? For those of you who haven’t followed my exciting ride from rags to cleaner rags, I was unemployed for much of 2004, caught in one tangled mess of stagnation and simply far worse off in nearly every respect than where I am now. Here’s hoping my luck will continue. If not, I’ll still be further on the path than before and my thankfulness for that will not end.

I’m a big fan of The Hipless Boy, one hell of an amusing and often insightful blog. The other day, after pushing aside my enthusiasm for his Scrabble pins, I read a recent entry detailing his time at the Montreal Anarkissed Book Fair. One paragraph I found especially amusing and I’d like to share it here in hope you’ll check out his site.

This made me think on my own introversion and my deep wish to benefit the world. I’m certainly more of a socialist than an anarchist (or even an anarkissed, seeing that romance has been fleeting – ok, non-existant – of late for me), and I’m not one for going out, but I do find myself compelled by activism and take part in it when I’m able to. I must say I’m moved by and driven to contribute to the community building and artistic side of movement toward compassion (which is ultimately what I view as the motivation of both socialist and anarchist thought), and perhaps that leaves me more amid the zines-makers as invisioned in that excerpt. Either way, I’m up for killing hate with love and other cliché truths.

Another site I regualarly read, WoodMoor Village Zendo, shared an freshingly direct open letter from a Christian university taking on George Bush Jr.’s policy as opposed to core Christian values. Nacho also helped to disect the contradiction of Bush’s sneaky use of the metaphor “army of compassion.” To the point, he said, “armies are not engines of compassion.” Give the entry, “Of Armies, Compassion, and Calvin College,” a read.

Jizo is a Japanese divinity, perhaps the most popular, who acts as a saviour for those in hell and protector of expectant mothers, firemen and travellers. His (note that the god underwent a change in sex as it came from India) significance and story is quite facinating and he’s a jolly, benevolent fellow. Jizos for Peace is a project that is using the image of Jizo to mark the 60th anniversary of the tragedies of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which left nearly 270,000 men, women and children dead soon after and countless others with shortened or impaired lives.

I’ll be at least creating a Jizo image soon and perhaps contributing to the 270,000 the project is intending to take to the sites of the bombings. Meditating on peace is always important and doing so in such a creative and involving fashion is especially rewarding. Just looking at the submissions at this site is heartwarming.

I’ve finished making a batch of mixed CD’s for ten of my friends who asked for one. I’ve had a lot of fun trying to piece together songs that they haven’t heard but that should still fall into their range of taste. It’s been harder for some of my friends who I’m less familiar with as far as their musical inclinations go, but I’ve found it a challenge to my own tastes and collection to be able to pick from it mindfully. Narrowing down to 80 minutes of music for the audio CD’s was really tough since I’m used to planning out playlists that go on for days, often with blocks of full albums. If there’s one thing I’ve learned from this project, it’s that my personal collection is far less expansive than I thought, though compared to most folks’ libraries it’s vast. I think I need more blues, country and new wave.

This entry was written as part of my 43 Things goal to make mixed CD’s for my friends. If you’d like to see more of my goals you can in my 43 Things profile.

After every year I’ve kept a journal I retire it (I keep it accessable in an archive) and create a new layout. I’m coming up to the end of my second year of keeping journals at Frozen Truth . com and so I’ve been working on a layout to unveil on June 1st. So far I’m very happy with how it’s turned out, though there are a couple minor aspects I’ll be cleaning up soon. I’d very much appreciate it if you could take a look at the new layout’s demo and let me know what you think of it and tell me if you see something you think I should consider changng. Thanks.

This entry was written as part of my 43 Things goal to re-design my website. If you’d like to see more of my goals you can in my 43 Things profile.

I always write with music playing; it’s the wind that gets my mnd’s windmill cogs turning. It’s often hard to find the proper music to fit the mood I intend for writing and especially so when I’m in the planning mode I am at the moment. I’m creating the outline for what I’m calling a pre-apocalyptic socialist love story and I couldn’t seem to get in the headspace for disaster and struggle (becuase I’m in good spirits at the moment and would write happy, inane things if not constricted by my aims). Who should come to my auditory rescue but a familiar voice of adversity and who had been in a happy headspace himself in recent years?
Today I lucked into an advance EP of Billy Corgan‘s (formerly of a little band called The Smashing Pumpkins) new album, The Future Embrace. Judging from the four songs I’ve heard from this new album, Billy has returned from the too-happy days of Zwan with an album that’s both closer to his work with The Smashing Pumpkins and fresh and invigorating. At the moment, the track “Mina Loy (M.O.H.),” a song based on the thought of Chicago being hit by a dirty bomb, is helping to move my cogs in the right direction for dreaming up the events of my story and some characters’ features.

On the topics of Billy Corgan and creation, I’ve been enjoying his “Confessions.” On his site he has been posting frequent pieces about his life before and during his time with The Smashing Pumpkins that are quite insightful and well written. If you’re at all interested in the creative process, music making or the contrast between being poor and being a star, you may find yourself captivated there. Today I read “5 Years” and was able to relate to Billy’s experience in the search for work quite a lot (though my hair, unlike his, is not to be cut).

I’ve often lamented the death of radio, or at least the death of my interest in radio. There’s so rarely anything new or interesting on the local broadcast radio stations (there’s one rock station that is not completely terrible and a university station that I enjoy sometimes but can’t receive a signal from here) so that fell away as an avenue for discovering new music. I’ve relied on suggestions from friends and what I can find through bursts of curiosity. Today, however, my love for the wonderful service Audioscrobbler lead me to its sister site, a radio site that matches my taste remarkably well.
Last.FM is listener-driven radio that integrates with an Audioscrobbler profile (if you have one, which you should) or works on its own to provide you with music that you’ll like by analyzing what you listen to and what similar people choose. It also allows for some bare bones social networking and lets you keep up with what your friends are listening to. For instance, I know my friend Nathan just played Hope Of The States‘ “Sadness On My Back.”

I’ve fallen head over heels in love with Last.FM and some of the new tunes it’s brought to my attention (Zero 7 is one project I like a couple songs from). If you want to give radio one last chance to save your soul then go listen.