"The certainty of a God..."

turned on the television to c-span this morning and listened to a fellow who was describing how many people were being removed from those government jobs which serve to help those who "served"...cuts in the veterans administration...now i am watching p. hegseth talk about putting the defense department back in the hands of the "war fighters"...a new term to me...i wonder if the "war fighters" ever take into consideration how many military vetrans commit suicide or end up washed up in the dregs of addiction or how their suicide is related to what they experienced while they "served"...also was surprised to learn of pope francis death today...obviously he was killed by v.p. vance...had an uncomfortable night after an encounter with a person who sought to harasse me...i mulled over the encounter and determined that i handled it poorly...i went into scream mode...i eventualy concluded that religion is not what a person believes but what they do...buddist think that the only thing a person owns is their actions... watched some interesting DVDs...i was amused to note that 'criminal minds" broached two subjects which are seldom discribed...necrophilia and canibalism...both probably against the law in most societies...but what about necrophilia by prior agreement or canibalism by prior agreement...can a person engage in these acts with legal impunity...just a thought. i saw an excellent interview called "Branford Marsailis on Jerry Garcia and the grateful dead" very well articulated...Branford was described as the "true musician" in the family "The certainty of a God giving meaning to life far surpases in attractiveness the ability to behave badly with impunity." albert camus (1942)

"This minority is great..."

bad day for a bike ride took off yesterday to the other side of town as the snow fell...and fell...and fell some more...stopped at the pawn and bought a DVD for a buck...the new clerk said i could just have the DVD for free...she suspected i would rob her if she opened the cash register...i laughed and put a dollar on the counter and told her i had bought s lot of DVDs from this pawn shop...(not to mention cameras, guitars and other items...thats one thing about having a beard...you are suspect...any old crime will do, you may be the perpertrator...i creeped along back towards the rented room as a blizzard coated the vehicles and the road...i kept my distance from the other vehicles and made it to the grocery store and picked up victuals then to the room and safety...more or less.... i found a youtube interview with robert rodriguez on lex fridman #465...i have listened to ram dass, ken kesey, and many other pundits but this interview was one of the most interesting and helpful i have ever heard...this interview with mr rodriguez is extraodinary in the amount of useful advice he imparts...not about film making as much as about creativity and how keep it in ones life...it is 3 and a half hours long ang i watched it in two sittings and will probably watch it several times...he used the term "three pound "ME" computer" which i had never heard before...there were several things that he said that i wanted to write down but i only wrote down "record it! record it!...an extraordinary guy indeed... i also watched an interview called "How FBI undercover agents really work" with scott payne who said something i had never heard...he said L. Freeh was the best FBI director ever...and did not care much for Mueller...he said the FBI drifted away from grass roots law enforcement...sounds true to me... a great you tube documentary is "The Floating fishermen of Havana"...it is about people desperate to get food and they float at night on inflated truck tires in the ocean,,,very interesting... "This minority is great and formidable, I do not know whether, if i aimed at the total overthrow of a kingdom, I should wish to be encunbered with a large body of partisans." E.Burke

"Courage is the greatest..."

there are few things in modern america more depressing than having ones vehicle disabled...even more so when one is living out of said vehicle...i went to craigslist to the services section and found a mechanic who would come to where my vehicle sat forlorn and un-drivable...eight in the morning he showed up with his son and his tools...an interesting fellow by any standards...after removing the cam position sensor we went to the auto parts store and got one for 25 bucks...that was not the problem however...he buried himself in the youtube mechanics presentations for 30 minutes and eventually said he thought he got a clue...off to the auto parts store again...VVT solinoid for 76 bucks...i bought two...one for each side...he repalced the left side one and i had little hope for success...VIOLA! THE TRUCK WAS FIXED!..i had been ready to give up actually...we spent three hours on the truck and two hours discussing religion...he is a reformed sinner and advocate for God...and had the most well used bible i have ever seen...he could turn to passages in the bible which illustrated questons i had time and time again...he ain't no pretender like so many bible thumpers...and a determined auto mechanic...and he lives in a motorhome with his family and puts mechanics ads on craigslist whereever he happens to be...ask for Joe its snowing again outside so i may postpone my departure...i went to the thrift yesterday and bought a bicycle for $21 bucks which had been rebuilt by the thrift mechanic...i will bring my old bike to him later...now i have some emergency transportation if the truck fails to work properly...speaking of which some years ago i found a book in a thrift near Naples florida which is a history of Rolls Royce automobiles...it was signed by the author... i was amused to learn that when a Rolls stops running they don't say it "broke down" but say it "failed to proceed"... i watched about 30 minutes of ann coulter on c-span this morning...she is not entrenched in her views and has a sense of humor also...i see where bill maher has kicked up a lot of dust with his views...more diversity in opinions is more better... i found some more good music on youtube...namely..."Amado Mio" by Storm Large with Pink Martini...excellent vocals and good musicians also...she has a small tatoo on her back which i am not sure what it says...also "Please don't talk about me when i'm gone" by san lyon swing jazz...it is three women and a man...excellent vocals and superbe guitar in the mode of django...they have several good presentations...the funnel kazoo is well represented here... i came across one of the best youtube presentations i have seen in "Alone in the wilderness" by dick proenneke (57 min)...this guy was working as a diesel mechanic in anchorage alaska when he got something splashed in his eyes which may have blinded him...but he recovered and came to realize that he wanted to use his eyes for better viewing so he packed up and went to a remote place 160 miles from anchorage and used his astounding skills to build a cabin and survive in style...he brought a movie camera and documented his life alone in the wilderness...i have not been able to find his presentation again as so many people have used his life to fuel their own presentaions...his is the best presentation and is worth watching... "Courage is the greatest of all virtues, because if you haven't courage. you may not have an opportunity to use any of the others." Samuel Johnson

"The wise determine..."

early spring brave flower...elk skeleton...sunset last night...very nice had a big day planned in the city...blood test...groceries...laundry...some thrift shopping...nothing special...then out of the blue the truck which was running so well...suddenly was not running so well...but i made it to the blood lab...then i made it to the grocery store...then i made it to the post office where i cashed some money orders...i did not cry or barf even though i had to keep focused because this situation is serious but all was not lost...but on the bright side the mechanics shop which was recommended to me was near the post office and the inexpensive motel was also...so got a room and unloaded some groceries and washed two loads of laundry and now i will research transmission repairs some more online... the television had a talk, speech, communication live from joe biden...ok joe adjust the meds and stay calm... i watched some good utube stuff this week..."camel trek across australia" by outback mike (20 min.) although this man is the one who posted this he is treking with Sophie Matterson who used 5 camels which she said she trained and they were some of the nicest camels i have ever seen...fat and well muscled...she has a great deal of baggage and is very concientious about how she handles her responsibilites i am very envious of people who can achieve this level of independence from "civilization"...ms matterson says she is living on a cow ranch now...she wrote a book about her trek called "The Crossing"...along the same camel theme i saw a great utube piece called "indias military still use camels...here's why"(9 min)...i have been a great proponent of the usa using camels to patrol the US mexican border... i watched DJtrump say in front of a television camera that he had people calling him to "KISS MY ASS" because of the tariffs...i hope that channeling of dave coe is repeated many times...pretty vogue to cuss with great enthusiasm...or it is now... i must say my stalkers seem to have become more numerous and obnoxious...AND i found 2 screws in my washing when i pulled it out of the machine...i suspect this is a warning of things to come...some more...again...damn! "The wise determine from the gravity of the case; the irritable, from sensibility to oppression; the high minded, from disdain and indignation at abusive power in unworthy hands." E. Burke

"Of all the cants..."

"...wider exposure..."

the images are the san fransisco peaks...the tallest in arizona and the other image is of me with my new (used) tripod...when i got it to the truck i realized it only has two legs...but it was on SALE!...HALF PRICE!...now i have 4 tripods, one bi-pod and two mono-pods...thats enough probably... last day in the room with a microwave and a refridgerator...no rain or snow predicted this week and warmer temperatures...got to watch a lot of C-Span and i must say my opinion of humanity did not become greater...perhaps even less...i watched a legislator named senator cotton bad-mouth "china" (the country not the dinerware) with a steady stream of accusations which sounded like the middle eastern radicals bad-mouthing the USA...first of all china has 1.3 billion people and they do not all look, think or act the same any more than the americans do the government of china does a lot to promote their own interest just like the american government does...i do not know how you can call a country with the number of billionaire capitalists they have truley communist...anyhow when i watched "little chinese everywhere today i did not see any rabid american haters...i found in my notes this information USA has 2.2 million people incarcerated or 690 out of every 100,000 citizens...china has 1.5 million incarcerated...russia has 440 citizens out of 100,000 incarcerated...damn! i think i have enemies that wish me ill...perhaps the "ROSKOMMADZOR" are the ones who mess with my blog...and me...i get stalked everywhere and now my arthritic shoulder has been targeted by being hit when someone walks by me...assault is what it is... i read that there are optical lattice clocks that are accurate to within one tenth of a second over the age of the universe...my watch is off by about 15 seconds...good enough... I picked up a DVD called "KAWEH" which is a group of excellent musicians playing international music i really like some of the documentaies i have picked up at the thrift stores etc...i finally took the time to figure out how to post videos on youtube and posted "2 TEXAS COWPUNCHER"...which is an excellent documentary about working cowboys (cowpunchers)...the best line in the documentary is..."I'm not punchy enough"...look for it... "...wider exposure gives you a keener sense that there is a war going on and you have to choose a side...which is "battlefield mentality"... if you take an even wider view you realize that you are an earthling and you do not have to choose a side!

"The nomads..."

I just finished watching the american national high school womens basketball championship...i rarely watch sports but this contest had none of the taint of money that so much of sports has...these women were expert level players and after one overtime IMG (i don't know what that stands for) outscored the other team by two points...i was going to say they beat the other team but it was a contest from begining to end...not just intertaining but engaging...probably builds character for the playes too The handsome lad in the photograph is a young Bix Beiderbecke renowned trumpet player and pretty good piano player also...he died at the age of 31 years...there is an extremely good interview called "louis Armstrong remembers Bix Beiderbecke" where armstrong is asked what killed his good friend Bix...and mr armstrong tells it without backing off...his friends killed Bix...a must hear for anyone who wants not to be a victim of "friends"... i read a good description of american consumer habits which recounted how J.C. Penny the department store decided to quit having sales and just lower prices and they dropped 4 billion dollars in sales and their stock share price dropped by half...the observation was that the psychological effect of taking advantage of a "SALE" is so powerful with shoppers that it is drives actions in a fundimental way...i have fallen victim to a lot of sales in my life and might be motivated by a few more by the way bird flu is why the price of eggs went way up...not political decisions...there is a lot of half truths and lies being bandied about these days...i heard one financial pundit call the drop in stock prices "a nasty correction"...yep it is that too... but there is still some desire for "quality" (snootyness) in some places...i saw an interview with a representative of NYC Innovates which has these health spas where you can join for $750 to $4500 per month and purchase a bottle of "Amazon water" $150...they condense the water from the air...sounds snooty to me...this spa says it helps to build better human relationships...snooty people like to hang with other snooty people and try to out-snoot one another...they should adopt a dog i highly recommend a listen to Steven West the philosphy sherpa who has posted some good presentations recently...Canus was a clear eyed "artist"(and a philosopher too) i watched the movie "Color out of Space" which is a science fiction/horror movie based on an H.P. Lovecraft story filmed in 2019 i would say staring Nicolas Cage but all the actors did remakable work and the three kids did exceptionaly well...tommy chong did a good "stoner in a cabin" act and it does not end well...not for those with a weak stomach... i also really liked "Just a dream on my mind" by the secret six jazz band...excellent vocals by the banjo player...i think the trumpet player my have taken a page from the Bix playbook as he looks wasted...but plays very well despite it... "The nomads tribal structures provided no central authority to destroy or negotiate with, and they had no cities, cities that could be taken nor crops to be burned" from "Historical Atlas of the Ancient World"