"Penser, c'est penser la difference"

large swarm of honey bees landed about 40 yards from the truck...much to my alarm

first i saw many things flying by...thought it was the reurn of the moths...but too much buzzing

this very small red flower was only seen because i was laying in the sand looking at another flower

this is the most abundant flower (besides the creosote bush) and there are only a few of these

this lizard was enjoying the sun on a nice stump in the desert...did not look up the species in the book yet

the foxes visited again this morning before dawn and did a lot of barking only a few yards from my head as i lay asleep in the beggars tomb...they visited about 5 days ago but in the evening after i had gone to sleep...i arose and put clean water in the water bowl so they would have some water to drink...the raven flew near-by and said hello yesterday...i was alarmed that the bees made a landing only 40 yards from where i sleep with thousands of acres of open desert all around...i never harm the bees anywhere and i usually have to rescue some from the water bowl...they are not good swimmers...

i have limited my listening to the news as so much of it is about violence against non-combatants...i sometimes wonder how i should consider the fact that i eat well every day and some folks will starve to death even as i am full...i wonder how to view the fact that my life has no wars taking place all around me but so many are subjected to terrors of war daily....i listen to the "Philosophize This" lectures and last night i listened to one entitled "Optimism"...it was good...also there is one about Hannah Arendt called "The banality of evil"...it was good...i like to listen to these lectures as i sit in the front seat of the truck with the lights off and the moon shining on the desert...i have been watching  a lot of youtube stuff...my favorites are "Detectorists" and "Hamish MacBeth" both british...one of my favorite youtubers is called "Little Chinese Everywhere" by a chinese woman who travels around asia...mostly china...and films the people and the villages and how they live and what they eat...my entire view of china has changed...the woman is an expert with a drone and drives around on a 125 suzuki scooter...wonderful you-tube site and very informative...i also read in several books every day...one of the better things i have read recently is a biography about Sigmund Freud...also i am nearing the end of boswells life of johnson...and a have a large dictionary of american women...Antoinette Perry (1888-1946) was an actor and a director and the "Tony" award is named after her...who knew!?

"Pense, c'est penser la difference"= "To think is to think about differences"

"Intelligence is about awareness, and about testing ..."

 the rain in the desert has promoted the growth of the cactus and the flowers and the seeds...hooray!

i was shocked... SHOCKED! to hear of the death of alexei navalny at the hands of the russian prison system...not really...the man was stupid to return to russia and allow putin to finish the job of his assassination...putin did his job....world thug and gangster...navalny dropped the ball big time...

i nearly died last week at the hands of flu germs...damn near shuffled off this mortal coil...lay prostate without eatting for three days...this seems to have hit the reset button for my body as well as my mind...then i went to the pharmacist and got three vaccines...a bit late...

 mardi gras came and went last week...i heard that 2.6 million tons of garbage was generated by this little party...maybe they should throw pot gummies and leave off with the plastic beads... 

i see where the usa is using the "knife of lichtenberg" to stop Israeli slaughter of the innocents...

"Intelligence is about awareness, and about testing responses in the head rather than the "real" world, where such activity may be time consuming, harmful, or fatal"  "Mind of the raven" chapter 25

"Sir, executions are intended to draw spectators..."

 sometimes simple is beautiful

waited for the deluge from the west...slept in the drivers side of the truck last night up near the interstate...no rain until this morning and not much...prefer to sleep poorly.(or very little) rather than be stuck in place with no exit...every now and then i have a flashback to my deckhand days and awake in the middle of the night screaming "GOD DAMN THAT BOW THRUSTER!" you had to be there i suppose...what we do to put gas in the tanks of our engines...anyhow i was going to take a picture of an opened dozen brown eggs with a sign on it that said "ALBUMEN OF THE YEAR" for BEYONCE...calm down mr."Z"...bought another guitar...all metal REGAL resonator..like new...$363 bucks...with a nice hard case...couldn't help myself ...once more let me say this "PAWN SHOPS. YARD SALES, THRIFT STORES AND FLEA MARKETS"...RECYCLE OR DIE!...there was an execution of a prisoner recently who had been in prison for over 30 years...nitrogen gas was used...his lawyer said it was cruel...whatever...there was a prisoner released recently who had served 38 years after being wrongly convicted...serious bummer..."Sir, executions are intended to draw spectators. If they do not draw spectators they don't answer their purpose. The old method was most satisfactory to all parties; the public was gratified by a procession: the criminal was supported by it."  Samuel Johnson

"We have to live bravely..."

 

 this is a daytime image of a rodent with big ears...there is what appears to be a pack-rat den behind this animal

as i sat on my 5 gallon bucket taking a poop i spotted this rock with what appears to be an ancient marking

i found another spider cocoon and cut it open for the sake of "science"?

this is the spider that was in the cocoon which was left to die in the cold for....?
 

had to do a lot of soul-searching this week...when i cut open the spider cocoon the spider crawled out and tried to hide between my fingers to protect itself from the cold...the cocoon looks very insulated and cozy...when i hear the term "sacrificed for the sake of science" i usually wonder if those that are "sacrificed" agree...i heard a story about a young child that was walking along the beach after a storm and was picking up starfish on the beach and throwing them back into the ocean...an adult came by and said that there were so many starfish that it made no difference...the child looked at the adult and said..."it makes a difference to this one"...and tossed it back into the ocean..

 i pulled up my pants and delicately picked up the rock with what seemed to be markings from some  ancient people...i put it up near to my eyes and observed the delicate design...then i gently passed my finger over the design and it rubbed away and i realized that it was the imprint from the bottom of my new "free box at the thrift store" shoes...damn...another scientific observation gone bad...

picked up a criterion collection copy of "seven samurai" at the flea market...i would not attempt to watch this 3 hour and 26 minute film without the commentary of the expert...i also picked up "kill bill" one and two...and a Japanese film (from the 80's i think" about a female swords-person...i find these films rather tedious...but with good "production values"...but tedious....

"We have to live bravely in order to truly feel alive, and that means not being ruled by our greatest fears."   Taylor Swift...(this woman has to travel with military grade medical supplies in case she is a victim of violence..."

"suppose we believe one half..."

                                  this beautiful camel was working in quartzsite...his name is "freckles" 

                               this beautiful beagle dog was at the flea market in quartzsite...his name is "freckles"

                                                  it's a sign!...or not...

well the usual poopyness is in place in this desert paradise (compared to large snow drifts)...it rained and was very overcast for about three days and i am sure the desert flora nd fauna are loving it...no solar power but the honda 500 generator worked well for about 5 hours with no problems...and all the electrical stuff got charged and i got some fair reception on the phone for yooptoop....i found a presentation that was so informative that i will try to download it and listen to it frequently...it is entitled "Avoiding Toxic Relationships" which deals with stoicism and the strength of WALKING AWAY...about 25 minutes long...great information...the situation seems to be that the candidates for the head of the executive branch of government are both...well....flawed shall we say...i have a hankering for a younger more vibrant chief executive...actually i was thinking a 15 year old female might fit the bill...you know a bit of attitude and sarcasm without the baggage...anyhow the dismal reality is that the "ship of state" is listing heavily and is underway but not making way...we be dead in the water...bummer...

watched a few DVD's lately...0ne of which was "Waterworld"...the so called "extended" version...the shorter version was "chopped" and this really reduced the quality of the film...i heard that all the money mr. costner made on "dances with wolves" (i have not viewed this film yet) he spent on "waterworld" which i think is a great movie...the long version is worth seeing (almost 3 hours) ..."Don't blame him, survival is all he knows. That's why someday there will be so many like him, and probably so few of us"

"Suppose we believe one half of what he tells us?                                                                                        Johnson-"Ay; but we don't know which half to believe. By his lying we lose not only our reverence for him, but all comfort in his conversation" (from boswells"life of johnson"
 

"A place is a piece..."

 

                                              brighteyes wants to invite rabbit to dinner

                                            rare rabbit image...first night then never again...too many foxes

                                    fox gets curious about red light in camera

59% "deficiency" in "tracking" $1.7 billion bucks worth of "defense gear" intended to prevent "misuse" or theft of stuff sent to Ukraine...sounds about right...billions stolen from the USA government but they spend more billions of bucks to catch people who are impoverished...heard the latest must have item is an insulated coffee cup...made by stanley corp....i just bought an insulated stainless mug for a buck at the thrift...works very well...read in archeology magazine that mr. alexander koch proposed in his Ph.D thesis that European  colonization of north america caused climate change...seems he figures 56 million native people died due to diseases and therefore less crops were planted and therefore more trees grew back and therefore carbon dioxide levels dropped therefore temperatures cooled off therefore the "little ice age" happened therefore crops failed and people suffered...whatever!...first commercial mission to the moon a flop...no dog ashes to be spread...hooray!... secretary of defense has prostate removed...that procedure was not recommended to me...the radiation was less radical...and the "chemical castration" (seems they could come up with a better name for this injection) i was hoping to see the secretary of defense get "the shot" to see if a country can be safe with a head of military with no testosterone...i think they would be more save...much more safe....

"we're here to discover heresy and criminal licentiousness..if there's bacon involved I dread to imagine the depths of depravity that we'll find here in Venice." ???

"A place is a piece of the whole environment that has been claimed by feelings." Alan Gussow "A sense of place" 1971

"I cannot and will not..."

this is a painting about how the first sculpture was supposed to be made...a woman outlines the image of her lover as he sleeps and her father (a potter) fills the outline with clay and the first sculpture was made

 every now and then a great image appears on the game camera...the date and time are correct

this is a picture of a pile of rabbit poop and the edge of a cactus which has been nibbled...which is why driving over the cactus deprives the wildlife of life sustaining moisture in the hot hot summers

Missouri governor signs into law a statute which makes it un-legal for Chinese nationals to own agricultural land near a military base...DeSantis made it un-legal to for Chinese to own land in Florida,,,in Arkansas the government took over 160 acres of land owned by the Chinese government and their pesticide and seed company Syngenta...i think i heard that there are several thousand companies owned by Americans in china...sooo....i see where the queen of Denmark gave up her job and gave it to her son...well i hear al gore refer to himself as a "recovering politician"...there is a lot of that going around...it seems to me that after  certain amount of time people just become inert and do not recognize that staying in a job...think ginsberg supreme court...is a bad plan for the big picture..the thing to do is change the play and change the players..."every junkies like the setting sun..." right about now this country needs dynamic leadership and loyalty be damned...

"I cannot and will not cut my conscious to fit this years fashion." Lillian Hellman...she was the first person to refuse to implicate others when asked to testify before the House Committee on Un_American activities...(1952)