"A cursed race.."

                                                  DON'T PANIC!...found this concert t-shirt at the thrift for a buck...it is from the "death of  a bachelor" tour don't know what year...i don't really like t-shirts or skulls but i might wear this sometime out of solidarity for the unwed...and good riddance to disco!

i know it is difficult to not panic in these times...however this too shall pass...off to the blood takers this morning after fasting for 8 hours except for black coffee...

have to keep my music brain well supplied every day so i went to "Dippermouth" from the secret six jazz band....always invigorating...then saw the offering "American Dream" from the rainbow girls @rainbowgirlsmusic (5min)...the lyrics would indicate they are looking for "a piece of land"...well OK the nesting instinct is strong in many folks...Emanuela Hutter has a new solo offering called "Goose Bumps"...creative stuff... i would like to see a video offering of these songs

then i looked at "The culture industry"@Plastic Pill which is about the work of adorno/horkheimer and is somewhat slanted but i think "YOUTUBE" is mostly "free range" information and as long as you have an off switch you can't get hurt too bad...

i notice that the two brothers Andrew and Tristan Tate who seem to have got a living as "toxic maleness" personified are being incarcerated...kick boxers huh...i think too many blows to head has messed up their brain function... 

I was watching some women crouched and sifting rubble looking for? this was on the BBC news...they had gone to Iran to see the school where more than 150 school girls were blown to smithereens on the first day of the...what are they calling it now...anyhow i noticed the childrens drawings on the walls that were still standing...kids are the same everywhere...can the all mighty USA maybe cough up $150 million (less than a days military expense in Iran) and pay the families of the innocent dead?

"A cursed race, all you who seek honor through demagoguery. May not you be known to me, you who think nothing of harming your friends-if only you might say something pleasing to the mob" Euripides from the play "Hecuba" 

 

 
 

"Move along...

a shadow of my former self?...

used to ride hard every day...gathered a lot of aluminum...

now that i am getting my social security ($1014 per month) i give the aluminum to the recycle people...not enough recycle people...

i would like to modify something i wrote about a while back concerning sanctuary immigrants from australia....i think it is the height of stupidity and callousness to reject all persons entry into this or any country without close scrutiny of said persons needs and assets...i think there should be an organized attempt to qualify people based on what they can or might provide to this or any country...it has been my experience that people who are motivated enough to make the effort to try to better their situation usually are productive citizens...

this youtube presentation recommendation should be viewed only by persons who are somewhat solidly positioned psychologically..."The day you realize no one is coming" @jungthoughts (32 min)...statement after statement reveals the lie that most people live leaving them raw and bare and ready for new growth...

febuary 8th 1956...president eisenhower recomends major increase of immigrants from eastern and southern europe...

"The universe isn't random-it's something stranger"(10 min) @the well and 2 more...Stephen Wolfram has some very interesting things to say about life and evolution...

interestingly enough i heard this blog mentioned at the thrift store today...hadn't even published it yet...there is a law about "computer invasion" or some such thing...law and order my ass...had a meeting with my new primary care physician today...he had an "assistant" with him (think policeman)...i was described by the so called security as possibly becoming violent...yeah the 72 year old guy with cancer, COPD and ostero-arthritis poses a real security risk...i am losing faith in the constabulary at all levels...

i have noticed that many people who post things on youtube seem to find it necessary "embelish" the contents of their posts with alarming hyperbole...best!...oldest!...biggest!...etc etc etc...even the science presenters feel they need to hype their work...sooooo...in the spirit of "show biz"...

"Move along...nothing to see here...."
 

 

  
 

"The world is very complicated..."

a plethora of ironing boards at the thrift store...ironing is become less popular than it was

but i do have an ironing board story from when ironing was much more "required" in polite society...i think i was in the third grade of elementary school...there was a dis-agreement between the household ironer (mama) and the wearer of ironed shirts (daddy)...both of these folks were somewhat disfunctional in their relationship...mama decided she did not want the job of "chief groom" anymore and put the ironing board into the 1956 pontiac with the 4 kids and headed out to her mamas house in michigan...a long way from south louisiana...we almost made it...but the motor burnt up somewhere in indiana...and her mother had to send her husband down to get us...we did not bring the ironing board...this behavior was a precursor to what was to eventually to be diagnosed as manic etc. etc. etc...mental health issues were poorly understood then as now...anyhow, ironed clothes still kind of ruffle me even today...

had to hunker down in a rather populated spot for the last 3 days waiting out the rain...good long life-giving rain...the phone reception was excellent...the neighbor ahead of me was...shall we say...determined...he spent 3 hours describing his life as a...what the hell was he? he said he had to "belly crawl" into north korea to do assasinations and he was good friends with fidel castro and he single-handed his 65 foot choi lee sailboat to a lot of spots...and on and on and on...the last fellow who i encountered in my campsite said he was drafted into the army in 1968 and he showed me a photo of himself with a hat that said ARMY... damn!...he said he had climbed mount kilamonjaro...etc.etc etc...maybe i should take it all with a grain...a very large grain of salt...

i am currently under surveillance due to my being a suspect...i am sure the crimes are serious and far be it from me to make light of such serious crimes...whatever they are...i think Kafka wrote about this situation...police types doing police type undercover type intimidation type stuff...reserved for persons who are suspected of doing criminal stuff...

well besides being a suspect i also watched some intellectually stimulating youtube presentations....one of the better ones is "A society with no purpose beyond money"(45 min) about the philosophy of Max Horkheimer....also "How the language you speak changes how you see the world" (16 min) this is an interview with Lera Buroditsky @ the institute of art and ideas...this woman was born in russia and teaches in san diego now...since she left russia at age 12 she spoke two languages and she explains how this lead to her interest in languages...she wants to learn the language of the indigeonous people of southern california....what with all the computer programing going on now i wonder if the "language' a computer program is written in has any bearing on what it can do...there is an interesting view of "life in russia"in "Typical family apartment tour" (how russians really live) 19 min....

new monkey species in the congo...a colobus species....and "Exploring the alien insects of the amazon river" has some great video of mainly treehoppers...(44min) @all out wildlife...

well according to the weather report on WWOZ radio from New Orleans the heat index will be about 118 degrees during the day...that will kill you...

on sept. 25, 1926 henry ford adopted an 8 hour day and a 5 day week for his factory workers....100 years ago...and in 1946 the supreme court ruled that it was not required for a person who applied for citizenship to swear to a willingness to take up arms...april 22 1946...

"The world is very complicated and there is an infinite set of things we can potentially pay attention to and our ability to process that information is quite limited..." Lera Buroditsky
 

"Soul ,take they risk..."

what would this plant be worth on Mars?...nature heals the mind...

 getting in the last of my blogger therapy...need more nature therapy now and some guitar plucking therapy and music therapy...watching Dave Mason sing his song"We just disagree"...good medicine...also watched "Everyday People" on Playing for change...these folks have put together some great videos from musicians around the world...also watched Colt Clark and family newest video "Sultans of Swing'...pretty ambitious to try out M. Knoflers guitar but mr cash pulls it off...i predict that Ms. B. will soon start belting out some lyrics...move over and give the girl a chance mr clark....

i looked at another 20 minutes or so of what E.musk et al have to say on twitter...decided lack of variety...so far it seems that all the tasks assigned to AI deal with perfect replicas of roulette tables, driving people to places they may or may not need to go and things that really seem unimportant and even banal...cantaloupes never get mentioned...you can eat cantaloupes....they taste good...the important things in life are alive...a few minutes ago the computer asked me if i was looking for salad recipes...unprompted...is it rude to not respond?...for the first time last week i asked the phone where my appointment with the doctor was..."turn left here into the parking lot"...wrong parking lot!...i have decided the answers are not as important as the questions.

"Soul, take thy risk/ With Death to be/We're better than be not with thee."----Emily Dickenson 
 

"Livin' easy..."

the top image is from a chapter in a book called "Gone Primative-Savage Intellects, Modern Lives by Marianna Torgovnick....the bottom image is the cover of a dust jacket on the 1955 3rd edition of a book by Sir John Woodroffe "Studies in the Mantra-Shastra

i have seen the "what elon musk said today on X" from yesterday i think...the launch of the space x rocket was aborted at the last seconds...live and learn...one of the major topics...THE major topic! on this site is about artificial intelligence...and the future value of said technology...i came across a small book called "the hidden lives and strange origins of common and not so common words" by Anu Garg...the word GROK is defined as "to understand something thoroughly and intuitively"...and NO! i do not want to subsidize his sisters $10 pickle!...i was listening to a C-SPAN program this morning and there was a caller...an elderly fellow who was in a panic about data centers being built which caused the cattle to have no babies and the birds to quit singing and other devilish things...the single most disturbing thing i am seeing in all of the evaluations of the world and society and everything under the sun is the extent to which people lump everyone together...there are 8 billion people on earth...give or take...and folks have the habit of saying humanity this and humanity that and humanity the other thing...this is especially obvious in political commentary...liberals this and conservatives that and women this and men that and it never ends...humans and human experiences are varied and complex...AND humans have the capacity to change their minds...which brings me to the youtube presentaion "10 ancient drug epidemics which erased entire civilizations"@ health with Henry (50 min) this title is misleading as there were no civilizations which were erased...the last part is especially interesting as it deals with the idea that alcohol consumption drove humans to settle in one spot to brew beer thousands of years before there was agriculture for food consumption...you make up your own mind about whether humanity is driven by the need to get a buzz...also i found a great interview @steveioe... "ER nurse shares her wildest stories"(37 min)...this woman is an emergency room nurse in a hospital on the Mississippi gulf coast...she is young and strong...and recounts how many dumb ass moves people can make to endanger their own lives...it makes me cynical about how much energy is put into saving people who perhaps should not be saved...on "soft white underbelly" there is an interview with a prison psych doctor who obviously has PTSD and she recounts how much time and expense is given to stopping a prisoner who wants to cut off his penis...there are people who can and will reform their behaviors and these should be afforded the opportunity to do so...the rest are using valuable resources which could be better utilized elsewhere...humanity needs to understand the meaning of triage...testosterone is in the news recently...i can speak with some authority on this subject...having had much testosterone and then having little testosterone...i think it would better serve humanity to have more men with less testosterone...especially in prison!...better living through chemistry!...i recently paid off a medical bill after 3 years and asked for an itemized account of said bill and was saddened but not surprised when i saw that i was charged for 6 injections of leuprolide acetate at more than $1000 per injection when i had only been given one injection of this drug...not surprisingly the medical mafia has completely taken over health care and the multi-trillion dollar ripoff continues without anyone in government getting off their lazy overpaid butts to address these scams...

I've been listening to a lot of Rita Payes (trombone and vocals) and Andrea Motis (trumpet and vocals) both from spain and excellent jazz musicians...

"Livin' easy livin' free/ Season ticket on a one way ride....Bon Scott 

 

"Trust through total transparency.."

ancient tin cup found near campsite...better rusty cup than plastic cup

made my way to the radiology unit to have sinuses imaged...fast efficient and professional...

i must confess to perusing yet another thrift store or two...i have concluded after half a century or more of shopping thrift stores that perhaps my reasoning was a bit flawed...as a small child i used to sit with my siblings looking at a sears catalogue which was between us and play "look what i got!"...seemed pretty harmless at the time...however as most compulsive/addictive behaviors seem to be rooted in some experiences from ones past i imagine that being in a household with a dearth of money and therefore a dearth of possessions established the idea that more stuff was more better...i met a couple of men who as children faced near starvation as children  during WW2...these men were both quite fat due to the uncontrolable urge to eat...however if you are interested in compulsive behavior modification HubermanLab has a great youtube presentation "the treatment of obsessive compulsive disorder" (OCD)(32min)...

where was i?...oh yes i have decided that "collecting" only exacerbates my OCD tendencies so i have determined that the only thing worth "collecting" is ideas...it has been said (i think in buddhism) that the only thing a person owns is their "deeds"...whoa buddy!...that's a lot of heavy lifting...i did pick up a very nice pair of Steiner 12X40 binoculars for $10 at the thrift today but not for collecting...

ok lets get down to the "nut cuttin'"...i often read "what elon musk said today on twitter" which is very revealing...i like Mr. Musk but i think his evaluation of certain aspects of his relationship to the environment is flawed...he suffers from "nature deficit disorder"...and going into space will probably make it much much worse...throughout the history of humanity Homo sapians et. al. have oriented themselves by comparison to the nature that surrounded them...more and more of humanity have less and less nature to relate to...i think this makes humans too "machine-like"...but i spent so much time in the zoo business i became imbued with a respect, even a reverence for nature...BUT i came to realize that the animals i encountered in the zoos were separated from the environment in which they evolved...therefore they were other than what their species had evolved into over many millions of years...soooo for someone to say that more people is more better strikes me as being oblivious to the inevitable result...which is more people equals less nature...and more "machines"....now i am only a wheelbarrow and shovel guy...but my orientation to the planet on which i live includes all the plants, animals and "undecided" entities. i do however applaude the musk ethos that self driving vehicles would  make humans lives better...perhaps there will be an opportunity to obtain a musk financed used EV...recycle or die Elon!...

"Trust through total transparency is the only thing that should be believed."   ELON MUSK

"I've watched the summer evening pass by..."

birthday morning...72 years behind me...one day at a time ahead of me

 
 the mon-sooner or later has been a bit less than generous with the precipitation...

i am not a person who feels that "the public" has any right or expectation to be protected from the truth...this youtube presentation is pretty abrupt...."North America is Heating Up"@ Climate Emergency Forum (30 min)...

had to move due to road construction which is soon to begin...the spot i moved to is the same place where i found the yellow ants and the orange fox...not a bad spot but a steady stream of vehicles is often present..

the first day several raucus  ravens came to see me and i think it was the family i befriended a couple of years ago... truly lovely creatures...

the reception on the phone was pretty intermittant so i watched some of the movies i have on a mini-SD...and read some articles in my periodicals...

i was pleased that my "aroma" (stink) became apparent to me after several months of no olfactory awareness...perhaps it was the prednisone which made my smell ability re-appear...i also experienced extreme headaches for reasons un-known...i decided it might be my water supply as some of the water in my gallon jugs was several months old...i trashed the old bottles and bought new water for $1.37 a gallon...i have not had headaches since i changed my water source...

as i try to look objectively at my life i realize that an insurance actuarial table can accurately predict my longevity...never imagined myself at 72 years...life is good...but not forever...

"I've watched the summer evening pass by                                           I've heard the rattle in my bronchi                                                        Someday I'll have a disappearing hairline                                               Someday I'll wear pajamas in the daytime...                                            from Crash test dummies song"Afternoons and Coffeespoons"