Picture from wikipedia entry on Z's

I saw an oder model Z in the Century City parking lot.  It was definitely a 70's model and it looked a lot like the FairLady in the picture above.  I am not an enthusiast enough to know what stage in restoration the car was but I know I was quite taken by it.  I walked around the car admiring it.  My age was in the one-digits in the seventies but I remember this being one of the more prominent cars of the time.  By prominent I mean seeing it often.  I think the design easily rivals a car that was dramatically less accessible to the average consumer; the Porsche 911 was around at the same time.

The Nissan looks a lot more sleek, I think.  The shape communicates function better.

I think I'll leave car critiques to experts.  But my point is that I might just walk by the latter but stop and awe at the former.

Have a nice week!

 

angels and ambiguities

It is starting to get cold.

What are you looking at?

So I took this great picture of wind chimes in front of a setting sun:

It is an angel praying.  I used a flash to defeat the backlighting unfortuneately the formats on this blog do not flatter the pic.  So I attached the pic to my invitation in case you are curious.

Not much going on here.  Working a lot.  I realized that I am getting a bit lazy in terms of self-edification.  So I took some steps toward fixing that.  First off I went to the library and checked out a book.  I was originally going to check out Ben Franklin's autobiography but I started reading the first page and skimming further and realized that I have too long been removed from literal pursuits.  I then caroused to the fiction section and found the Vonnegut area.  Satirical sci-fi is a good genre to start my pathway towards the land of the Litteratti.  Just not ready for anything to heavy right now.

I also bought a Nintendo DS and a couple of their brain games.  I hope those synapses are still firing.

But essential to any progress will be my engaging more physical activity.  And for that I have to limit my time in front of the television and, alas, the computer.  I will start scheduling more workouts and walks.  One can only hope.

Ambiguities?  I was listening to a radio commercial the other day and at the end a disclaimer stated that the product was " not available in all states."  Why advertise at all then?

Time Article

Anyone else intrigued by the cover story in Time the week of 10/28?  I was, so I bought a copy.  I learned something.  Did you know that Shirley Maclaine and Warren Beatty are siblings?                                               

I didn't. 

The article is really quite fascinating to anyone who suscribes more to "nurture" than to "nature" in regards to social development.  I wouldn't want to hurt Time sales by paraphrasing the article here, but I would like to mention one point the article made that struck a chord with me; that elder siblings "(enjoy) on average a three-point IQ advantage over the next eldest-probably a result of the intellectual boost that comes from mentoring younger siblings and helping them in day-to-day tasks."  I have always believed that you better comprehend things when you have to explain or teach them to someone else.  It is the difference between comprehending a process and doing it by rote or mechanically.  When I was going to school whenever I couldn't really get a grasp on something I would pretend that I needed to teach it to a class of my peers the next day.  That would help.

Real fun article.  There are some examples from the animal and plant world of parental prefference geared towards elder offspring.  Fun facts, fun facts, pick up the issue. 

  Some week huh?

All the smoke in the air made it possible for me to take this picture of a setting sun without the use of filters.  Unfortuneately, I didn't have a tripod so there is a little bit of tracing above the sun caused by my pushing the shutter button. 

I hope anyone whose life was affected by the winds and fires will soon be able to put things in order.  Maria, Milo and myself had to go stay with my parents because the power was out for two daysat our place.  But, most wicked of all, I had to cancel any outdoor activities on my day off because the smoke could damage my eyes and lungs.  That hurt!  It brings to mind how much we take for granted the fact that 95% of the time our lives are pretty much okay.

  Take care!

October already!?

Wow, it is October!  The scary thing is we don't know how Curious George got up there. 

Sometimes at night I hear little feet scrambling in the living room and I think I know why now.

I haven't been able to play with "sono in transito" lately and I feel bad.  Even right now I feel the same as when I come home tired and obligate myself to play with Milo; who waits for me at the top of the stairs cause the dead air which escapes the space between the steps forbids him from coming down.  He has no problem going up the stairs though.  Back to my point, I feel like I am forcing it.  I enjoy writting, contemplating the most precise use of diction and syntax to convey meaning is an activity I have been drawn to since I was a child.  Not unlike the artist trying to capture his world and mind through paint on canvass, I feel a pleasureable release of energy when an idea has been most-effectively communicated.  Yet it is hard for me to make time for it.  I am not blaming my busy schedule cause if you really want to do something you do it whether it is five minutes you can squeeze in in-between obligations or in the middle of the night when you have sacrificed an hour of sleep towards this activity which you realize enriches your soul.  You just do it. 

And so, as the clock continues forward and warns me that I only have 30 minutes to walk Milo before getting ready for work, I wonder if the sacrifice has been worth it.  Was what I said meaningful or pertinent?  You tell me.  I will see it as a mental warm up, a way of re-affirming processes of the mind much like you would movements of the body.

"YOU'RE GIVING ME DOG FOOD!?"

Milo is having a problem eating anything that doesn't come from a human's plate.  He is spoiled and I can't help but spoil him cause of his charming demeanor.

                                          

He is a great dog though.  We definitely feel blessed to have him in our lives.  Having something to take care of really kicks meaning into life.  This might sound corny or melodramatic but I sincerely feel an obligation to make the world a better place so that Milo will be safe and happy.  Those are definitely the relationships you want to nurture in your lives the ones that make you a better human.

 

It always catches my eye

There has been a whole lot of home improvement going on in North Atwater, Los Angeles.  This is just one of four homes within 100 feet of each other being re-built.  I am hopeful for the area because of this because it shows a willingness by the village's inhabitants to stay. These are people building homes not turning a profit.  No one makes money tearing it down and building it up again.  It is too much of an investment to make a financial gain in the end.  Flippers make small repairs and cheap cosmetic fixes.  Flippers are the gypsies of the modern real estate market.  Kudos to those who buy houses and invest their heart and soul to the betterment (never thought I would use that word) of a home and neighborhood. 

I gave myself some advice a few moments ago; "If you want people to remember what you say, don't say much.  Most people don't have great memories."  It is kinda like ninth grade English tautology concerning writing; KISS! Keep It Simple Stupid!

The pictures?  I love the way a wall looks when it's surrounding walls and ceilings are no longer there, especially when there is a window.  It is a window that lets you see what you can already see but frames it for you.  There is something deep in that. 

Post Script.  I used Gypsy in a derogatory fashion earlier.  I used it generically as a reference to people who migrate from place to place using thievery to maintain a morally questionable lifestyle.  In no way did I mean to offend any true Gypsy or person with origins tracing back to a certain ethnicity.  Gypsy is not always negative.  Fleetwood Mac has a song called Gypsy describing a 'poetic soul'.    "Into the Mystic" by Van Morrison (the best song EVER!) has the lyrics " I wanna rock your gypsy soul" I don't think that was meant in a negative tone.  Finally, there was a movie called Chocolat some years back where Johny Depp plays a very cool and good looking gypsy who helps the protagonist discover her bohemian nature.  Gypsy is not always negative.

Wow KISS is hard to maintain. 

BTW 'gypped' as in "he gypped me" is derived from the word Gypsy. So every time it is used it is insulting a certain ethnicity.

Have a Good Day! 

 

childhood friends

My photographic theme the last months has been Our World as Interpeted through Fences.  Do we see through fences or is the fence part of what we see?

Walking by my old elementary school, I think about how much it has changed since I left it in June of 1980.  There are many more bungalows and the playground has been re-configured.  The handball court revives many memories.

Handball was always a fun game.  We of course played it with an inflatable rubber ball the size of a woman's volleyball.  It was one on one, one set was played and the winner went on to play the next person in line.  Simple and orderly as children's games should be.  There were times,when supersvision was (how do you say) not up to par, we would then play a game called Suicide.  Suicide involved everyone (usually about 12 boys) standing in the court while one boy threw a tennis ball at the wall.  The tennis ball would bounce back from the wall and someone would try to catch it.  Catching it meant you got to throw the ball.  There was a caveat involved, in its bounce back from the wall if the ball touched you and you did not catch it everyone was obligated to hurt you until you made it to safety by touching the wall.  There were so many ways to make someone drop the ball.  Conspiracies arose like the one where one child would stand in front of someone and without warning deflect the rebounding ball onto that someone.  The deflector would be able to reach safety since all the other kids would have focused their blows and energies on he who last touched the ball. 

Oh, the HUMANITY! 

When we were forced to, my friends and I would play Suicide.  We never admitted that we didn't like it; not out loud anyway.  But we did have a game we played when it was just us that was similar to Suicide.  It was called Tags Up.  It possessed the same rules except that the person who dropped the ball was merely tagged out.  No physical pain was involved in our game.  My friends and I were not tough kids.  We lived our lives pretty safely. 

Today the inventor of Tags Up turns 39.  I want thank him for all the fun times in our youth, he always knew how to turn bland times into fun times.  Happy Birthday and my best to you and your family!  Though it is rare we see each other, things like a handball court or a Mitsubishi Cordia ("MITSUBISHI CORDIA!") always bring you to mind. 

Childhood provides our 'a priori' experiences.  The rest of our lives we sort out our moments according to those of our early years.  I thank God for giving me such happy tags to organize my folders with.

 

video store

Remember American Gigolo?  I was trying to recreate the effect they produced with Venetian Blinds in this picture using the shadows cast by a chain link fence.  Maybe Richard Gere is just a little bit more handsome than I am.

So today's blog concerns an incident at the Video Store last week.  I went in to rent a video which is something I do on my days off.  When I got to the counter with The Peaceful Warrior, the girl who works there told me that I owed $3.50 for a movie that I returned late the week before.  She said that I returned The Last Mimzy on Saturday and it was due on Friday.  At first I didn't question the delinquent return but when I thought about it I realized that the last time I was in that part of town was Friday not Saturday.  I worked Saturday so I had no time to drop the video off on Saturday.  Friday was the only day I was able to return the video and that was the day it was due.  She tells me she is going to double check and she says her records show the video being checked in on Saturday.  Furthermore she adds that the computer went down those days but it would not account for when I dropped off the movie.  I heard this and I thought, if your computer went down how can you be so sure of your records, so sure that you would argue with a regular customer about a $3.50 discrepancy.  I got mad and told her I would pay the late fee but would no longer be renting videos there.  Me getting mad is not as bad as it sounds.  As you can see I was passive-agressive in that I was going to pay the late fee but no longer going to patronize them.  So she says she would waive the late fee but "just try to get your videos in on time".  I thought this isn't about a late fee.  I have never argued about being late before, if I am late I pay.  This was about her not believing me when I told her I returned it on time.  I asked if I could see what my account looked like.  She showed me the screen and since she had waived the late fee there was nothing outstanding on the account.  She asked if I still wanted The Peaceful Warrior (ironic huh?) and I said no and walked out of the establishment for the last time. 

At work a lot of people come up to me and begin thier adress with " I also work with people and I know how you are supposed to treat customers".  This usually means "give me what I want or else!"  The incident at the video store showed real bad business sense by my antagonist.  Maybe I only spent $15 a month there so I wasn't a valuable customer.  I think it is a shame that they would lose me for a $3.50 disagreement.  And, I REALLY DID RETURN THAT VIDEO ON TIME!!!

Do I sound stressed?

June/July 2007

June/July 2007

I needed to update sono in transito.  Decided to do it with a video.  Click on the box and enjoy.

Last burned C.D.

I hate having to use a flash.  But Milo is so darn dark!  Here he is on one of his favorite perches- throw-blankets above the sofa.  I think he is part cat.

So... I am planning to buy an IPod soon.  But I gotta tell you, I am sure going to miss burning CD's.  So I am burning one last CD.  The CD to end all CD's.  The quintessential Erick CD!!!  So what tracks will I use?  I haven't decided on the order but the following list is a list of songs that made the cut:

1.  The Police, Every Breath You Take.  The best love song that was really about a stalker.

2.  U2, Beautiful Day.  The best U2 song since Desire (just kidding Desire is a terrible song.  I would rather listen to a J. Geils track than Desire) since B.A.D.  I will forever associate that song with my trip to Europe.  It came out around the same time and parts were filmed at Charle De Gaulle Airport where I first set foot on that old continent. 

3.  The English Beat, I Confess.  There is a line in that song, "I know I am shouting and I LIKE TO SHOUT!".  I LOVE THAT LINE!!!

4.  New Order, Bizarre Love Triangle.  Can you use the same word twice in one blog entry?  The quintessential eighties song.  If you looked up the eighties in a mixed media Dictionary, that song would be playing.

5.  Depeche Mode, But Not Tonight.  Let's talk about the elephant in the room.  I came of age in the eighties and a lot of my favorite music came from that period.  Had I been born 10 years prior, you would see bands from the 70's on this list; Blue Oyster Cult, Boston, Yes, Genesis, ELO or Supertramp.  That is not the case and this song, this song I have a special memory associated with it:  Windy night, souped up japanese cars in an indoor parking lot in Westwood and my high school buddies waiting for a dance to begin in a hotel on Wilshire, I remember hearing this song that night and it brought to mind how special that moment was.  It still is.

6.  Peter Gabriel, Salisbury Hill.  No explanation needed.

7.  Psychadelic Furs, Heaven.  There are rules to burning a good mix C.D.  One of them is not to use the same artist twice.  If I could break this rule I would use Love My Way and Heaven by this group.  Heaven wins out because it is not as played out as Love My Way.  I can still remember the video with Richard Butler spinning in the rain.

8.  Gordon Lightfoot, If You Could Read My Mind.  Don't laugh, I am serious.  This is classic sadness, the kind you want to bottle so you can have it handy for those moments when you feel a need for catharsis.

9.  Doobie Brothers, What a Fool Believes.  This song always bring to mind that 'road not taken'.  And I wonder how she's doing.

10.  Simple Minds, Someone Somewhere in Summertime.  A perfect blend of nostalgia and drama.

11.  Earth Wind and Fire, Fantasy.  Ever listen to this song while driving at night on an empty freeway? :)

12.  The Killers, When You Were Young.  This song had the same appeal  as Beautiful Day by U2.  Inspirational?

13.  When In Rome, The Promise.  It is everything I ever wanted to say to a girl but didn't.

14.  Fleetwood Mac, Sarah.  Stevie Nicks has a hypnotic voice.  This song and Dreams capture best that talent.  I like Sarah for the lyrics, "if you build your house... then call me...home."

15.  Led Zeppelin, Going To California.  It is a song about resolve and starting over.  Don't you wish you could just resolve and start over?

16.  Led Zepellin,  Over the Hills and Far Away.  I always break the rule limiting one song to each artist. Both Plant and Page strut their stuff in this existential ballad, "I live for my dream and a pocket full of gold."

17.  Van Morrison, Into the Mystic.  If I use Roxio to burn my CD I will not be limitted to the 16 track ITunes allows me.  In a dictionary of mixed media the word "Sublime" would be defined by this song.

If you read this far, thank you!

 

Pictures of Griffith Park

Anyone else saddened by the fire 3 weeks ago?  I walk Milo by the wash.  Now the once lush hills of Griffith park are charred landscapes with little green to offer.

I missed the actual fire.  I was at work.  When I came home that night, the hillsides looked like lava was flowing down.  It was quite spectacular.  I found some pretty cool pictures on Flicker (click here) 

One of the things to note about such occurences is how the whole city becomes involved and worried about the possible loss.  No matter what strata you fulfill or think you fulfill, something is happening that you realize affects everyone, including you.  Like Jury Duty, catastrophes are good equalizers.

I have seen fires on the hills before.  The worst one I hear is one that occured in 1933.  The park usually recovers.  I hope it does so soon.  I miss the green. 

Have a good week.

editing sound

editing sound

I am working on a video with an actual story line.  This was an experiment in that direction.  Click on Alaina to see!  plus the bonus of seeing Milo sit.  BTW anyone got any tips on housetraining a chihuahua?  Number 2 is under control.  But we can spend an hour outside and nothing.  But as soon as we come in, it's straight to the carpet.  Frustrating it is.

Virginnia Tech Massacre

Sorry to bug. 

I left work on Monday afternoon at 2p.m.  Driving home I heard the news report on the Virginnia Tech massacre.  It, of course, made me sad and reflective.  During the course of the week it has been difficult to avoid the story both within and without myself.  Last night driving home from work I caught a newscast where the reporter was reading a letter written by the Seung-Hoi Cho's sister.  It expressed apologies to the victims.  I couldn't help feeling sorry for this family that has to take responsibity for the acts of its son and brother.  I thought of something that my good friend Ron said when we were kids: "Even Hitler had a mother."  I thought of the people I love and what I could and couldn't forgive of them.  That is a mind blowing exersise.

One hopes that in every tragedy we learn how to avoid or mitigate loss in the future.  How could we have stopped it?  Gun Control?  More Guns?  Those seem to be the first issues that come to mind.  Then you hear how deviant behavior should have been caught earlier and not allowed its fruition.  Many, many things to ponder.

I sat at home with these thoughts in the back of my head and the television in front of my face (soma-holiday, if you will) when this skit from Saturday Night Live comes on.  This is one link I think you should check out.  It aired two days before the massacre and had it been scheduled for this week, it would have been cut for being innapropriate.  I think SNL is funny and enjoy watching the show.  I will continue to do so.  But this skit brings to mind how unhallowed human life has become.  Is it funny when six individuals kill each other? 

Though I don't believe that senseless acts of cruelty are isolated to our current culture and times.  They've been around since Cain.  I do think that elements of our current media and taste have de-sensitized us to the glory involved in just being alive.  Everyday I go out and view this great thing that is man, I am humbled when I realize how fragile we really are.  End.

Superstition

My Odometer hit a very special landmark on Friday.

When I was in grade school I had an obligatory shower I took before bed at 7 pm.  I developed a ritual then.  I liked coming out of the shower and stepping into the bedroom when the digital display on the clock read 7:17.  If this was accomplished the next day would be a good day.  Does that sound like OCD to you?  If you hit the link, point 2 under compulsions makes the most sense in my case.  In a nutshell, the child-me was trying to assert some power over a world that could prove itself cruel and lacking in certainty.  I eventually outgrew the ritual but the number 17 remained a talisman foreshadowing good things.  From middle school and up until my early thirties my fixation with the number was dormant in the background of my psyche (mixed metaphor?).  In my early thirties the importance of 17 returned.  But instead of the clock display, license plates and odometer readings is where the number started to once again 'speak' to me.  This may be due to my increased time in traffic.  License plates that have 717 on them mean 'good day'.  Conversely, 313 means 'be careful' (this is an invention of my newly burgeoning psychosis).  The trip odometer reads 717 seventy one point seven miles after every trip to the gas station where it is reset.  The main odometer will only read 717 once.  And I didn't own the car when that happened. But the number in the picture, a pallindrome, will also only happen once.  I was exited about reaching this mileage point and took my camera with me to capture that magical moment which would transcend me into an era of good fortune.  Ironically, it occured on Friday the Thirteenth.  "Can't Win For Losing" as they say.

I was saddened to see that Kurt Vonnegut passed away this week.  I was never forced to read his work when I was in school so I had the opportunity to read it at my own leisure when I was older and could absorb it better.  Breakfast of Champions  is like The Little Princefor adults.  If you are ever allowed the opportunity, read it.

 

Oh, the Places You'll Go!

Oh, the Places You'll Go!

Happy Birthday Blog!

The link above will direct you to my latest epic.  I thank God for blessing me with four special cherubs (unfortuneately Trevor had school this week and could not accompany us) who put up with a rather peculiar uncle.  Of all children's literature the title above has always struck me as uncontrivingly deep.  Enjoy if you can.

Well of all the subjects I thought about for today; Blog as offspring, how the blog has changed me, where the blog goes now or I blog therefore I am, none would have solely accounted for the pleasure I have derived from this endeavor.  It has helped me step outside of myself and act as a narrator to an otherwise random sequence of events.  That's nice.  But most importantly it has helped me keep in touch with you and there is nothing more special than that.

Other titles that meant a lot to me when I was a child:

The Giving Tree

Frog and Toad are Friends

looking back on it all...

does anyone remember the picture above?  It is a tree I see during my bike ride to the gym in Hollywood.  It is a tree I used to see on my bike ride to Hollywood.  Today I saw that the tree had been chopped down (see pictures 2 and 3).  I blogged about said tree last year.  It helped me make a point and for some reason I found that endearing.  Though I wouldn't go as far as to call the tree an eye sore, I could see how the owner of the property on which the tree stood could see it as a de-valuating factor to his real estate investment.  And maybe, I know I don't know the whole story, the tree may have been a liability.  If it was diseased, rotting or dead, one would worry that it carried the potential to cause property damage, or worse, physical damage.  My good friend who was also familiar to the tree likened it to a cell tower.  And that may be the way the local residents felt towards it; unsightly (I am not bothered by cell towers but have a feeling that this is the general consensus towards them.)  The fact that it was chopped down saddens me because it was something that caught my eye; something I got used to looking at that will no longer be there.  Pretty or ugly, it was there.  And now it isn't.  Its absence emphasizes the fact that certainty is never permanent. 

Tomorrow is Easter Sunday and YES, I would like to be religious but know that I fall short the mark.  But in regards to Easter I have always thought that John's gospel put it best (for me) when he said, " and the Word was made flesh".    To me, belief in the Ressurection is belief that the flesh was made Word again.  The materials of this world including ourselves will change and eventually perish but that Word will always be.  That is why Easter holds a particular message for me; the promise of a certain certainty.

But whatever you believe or don't believe I hope that you have a nice Easter or had a nice Passover, or just enjoy your Sunday with the people you hold dear. 

Last week's bike ride may be my last

As promised here is the picture I wanted to take last week on my bike ride.  BTW, I posted a short video about that bike ride here.  It was a boring day but one I enjoyed just for that reason.  Unfortuneately, I am afraid it might be the last time I take on such an endeavor.  I am getting old.  My reaction time is not as sharp as it once was.  Los Angeles is becoming very congested and traffic conditions are not the best for bicycle riding.  At one time I was able to take in the sights and sounds of my journey.  Now, my focus needs to be maintained on avoiding the dangers made possible by too many in-attentive drivers driving too many cars.  Also, I am no spring chicken.  About two thirds into my ride my lower back began to ache.  I have had trouble with my hip abductors before (muscles which bring your legs up as in a climbing motion) and the trouble seems ready to return.  From a cost versus benefit viewpoint the long bike ride through the city does not provide the rewards worth the risks taken. 

The picture?  Well I drive by this street and love them trees.  But when I got there I realized that the best vantage point is from the middle of the intersection.  I was not going to stand in the middle of the street to take a picture.  Once again, too dangerous.  Also I realized that I always have sunglasses on when I drive and the tint of the glasses I wear complement the scene.  So I put my a sunglasses in front of the lens to take the picture above.  I uploaded a second picture.  I love taking pictures of the sky with tree branches in the foreground. 

Have a nice week.

Tuesday was my father's birthday.  He turned 68.  This would be a great place to insert some biographical notes and mention my feelings towards him but maybe a bit too much off the intended topic.  Just know that my dad is great person, part of the first generation of our family to migrate to this country and build a home and a life in this 'brave new world' that is America.  I am proud of my dad and couldn't imagine a life without him nor do I want to.  ANYWAYS, at 2 am. Wednesday I knew there was cake in the fridge so I journeyed to the Laundry Room where a fridge holds articles which don't fit in the kitchen refrigerator.  The Laundry Room has many things scattered about the floor; things like gallons of bleach and detergent, empty buckets and utility towels.  I had cake in the mind so I was unwary of anything else.  I was just about to open the fridge door when BAM!!! my left foot kicked a two gallon bleach container.  Actually, it was more like the smallest toe on that foot kicked the bleach.  It hurt like a (matriarchal expletive).  I think either the nail was pulled off it's root, or it was pushed in so hard it stabbed down onto the flesh of the toe.  Whatever happened to it, it was bleeding.  I took the picture above Wednesday morning about 5 hours later.  Today, thursday, the nail is still intact but I don't think conventional shoes are going to 'feel right'.  So I am not going to do my normal routine that is go to the gym and use stand up eliptical trainers.  This in a way gives me a chance to take a vacation from myself.  Myself being the guy with the routine.  So what am I doing today?  Walkabout!  I am going to hop on my bike and trek to Santa Monica Beach.  I will take along a camera, tripod and a wide angle lens.  The intention is to have no purpose and in that sense of no-direction connect with myself.  I must admit that I do have in mind a tree lined street in Beverly Hills as a good subject for a picture, so I am not completely sans itenerary.  But for all practical purposes, 'sono in transito senza destinazione'.  And that's okay!

Got lemons, make lemonade.

Travel related words used in entry: migrate, journeyed, vacation, walkabout, trek and transito.  I love when you encounter travellers from other countries who tell you they are on 'holiday'.  It sounds so much nicer than 'vacation'.

Today is the first day of my thirty-ninth year of life.  Next year I will be in my forties.  Pretty, pretty, pretty scary!!  Late thirties provides no welcome sound as it is.  But is it  that bad?  Sometimes I think of it as getting closer to what they call "the golden years."  I am pretty sure that I will be a great old person.  I saw this elderly man some time ago reading the paper while he ate his breakfast at a restaurant.  He was in no hurry and it showed.  A feeling of peace surrounded him.  I thought, "that'll be nice." 

Pigeons on wires?  I took a walk alongside the L.A. river sometime last week and saw these pigeons basking in the late afternoon sun.  Just sitting there together was their thing.  I thought, cool.  Someday soon, maybe I will just sit.  But today?  I can only quote one of my favorite poems by Robert Frost, "...I have miles to go before I sleep, miles to go before I sleep."

Happy Birthday to ME!!!

Unicycle part 2

Unicycle part 2

You ever do something once then go back to do it again only to find that you have forgotten how you did it the first time?  It took me a while to figure out how I could embed the link to my video within my blog.  You should have seen what this page looked like the first time I tried.  Something like //em//eiiiej/uncut//$& across the whole page.  Well if you click on the rectangle above you will see how I am doing in terms of riding the unicycle.  I would say I am better at it but not as good as I would have liked to be by this time.  On one of the websites I visited searching for tips on how to ride, it said that it would take a total of fifteen hours to actually begin to feel some confidence in riding one of these.  So far I have probably spent about seven.  I am halfway there.  It's fun and I feel that I have sustained the worst possible injuries.  Future injuries will be mitigated by my competence. (I hope.)

Well I hope you all are ready for many of these tangential messages from me.  I have given up a certain habit of mine for Lent and find myself once again a victim of Time.  I will elaborate more on this particular habit (nothing illicit) as the time goes on.  I will also elaborate on Lent and what it means to me.  Of course this is not said to anger anyone who might find the preceding comment irreverent towards a certain dogma.  My existence has always been far to subjective.  Hence, I have always felt that in interpreting my own experiences I learn more about myself and come closer to "universal truths".  I tried and tried but could not dismiss the quotation marks.  Let me end it this way; You and I may agree that the object is orange but how do I know that what is orange to you is actually purple to me. 

You may wonder how I am going to survive the remaining 44 days till Easter Sunday?

Quien Sabe!

Devolution

Anyone remember the Sid & Marty Kroft show called "Land Of The Lost"?  I think that the show was at one time on prime time but I would watch it when it was shown in the afternoons after primary school.  It is about this dad, his son and daughter who go rafting when an earthquake sends them to what you think may be a previous time but soon suspect is another reality altogether.  The three get chased by dinosaurs and befriend cave people.  In one episode they find the ruins of an ancient city henceforth refered to as the Lost City.  In this Lost City they encounter these really, really dumb creatures called Sleestaks who shoot Nerf Arrows at them.  The production on this show was so bad it was funny.  The Sleestak are lizard like hominids, though not necessarily mamallian.  What their reason for being is is forgotten by this blogger.  Rick, Will and Holly Marshall, the three rafters who accidentally are sent to this forgotten land, meet one Sleestak who does not chase them or shoot them with Nerf artillery.  This sleestak speaks English and seems to know a lot about where they are.  But he is also there accidentally.  His name is Enik and he is pictured above.  Enik is aware of the fact that he is different from the other Sleestak in that he is intelligent and friendly.  He erroneously speculates that these differences are due to the fact that he thinks that he was sent back in time and the Sleestak he sees are ancestors to his race.  When the Marshalls show him the that the place he inhabits is the ruins of an ancient city, he realizes that it is the city of his home and he has gone into the future not the past.  To his horror he realizes that his species has devolved into the dumb creatures he sees around him. 

So why am I retelling this story?  I watched a film last night called "Idiocracy" which dealt with just that particular theme; Devolution.  Evolution is defined as the reproductive success of the 'winners' in a given species.  The loosers just don't get the opportunity to pass on their genes.  The film supposes that that is no longer the truth.  Those with the poorest genes seem to be the ones reproducing the most.  Hence society, America is society in the film, is dumbing down.  "Idiocracy" is written by Mike Judge of Beavis and Butthead fame and is full of that particular kind of humor that made Beavis and Butthead popular.  But it is worth watching if only to ponder the premise it is based on. 

I have run out of time but if you are interested in more Land Of The Lost info, click here

'Idiocracy' should be available at your renter with the new releases.

smog inspection

I had to put my favorite jacket away.  What is it,70 outside?

Real quick thought before I go off and do adult things again...

I just took my car in for a smog inspection and passed.  But the whole time I am waiting for the technician to finish I am thinking about how it is just pass or fail.  I take good care of my car.  I would love to see the guy come up to me and tell me that my car is in the top three percent in terms of emmissions.  He'd come up to me and say in his eastern european accent, "I haven't seen anything like this in a long time... what are you doing... what kind of gas you use.  There has to be something you do, your emissions are INCREDIBLY free of pollutants."  He would shake my hand with a grin that says, can I be your friend.  I don't know I guess I just want recognition for doing things that normal people do regardless of how well they do them.  Kinda like the Alcoholic who wants credit when he goes a night without a binge.

Do you think that would be a good theme for a "Curb Your Enthusiasm"? 

If you're wondering how I take good pictures.  Well, I don't know how to frame and for some reason it complements my shots.  Go figure.

Bye.

bottle caps

What is that?

Those are the bottle caps from my favorite beer.  It is an amber ale made by the Fischer brewing company in Alsace, France.  It is a French beer but could have easily have been considered a German beer had things gone differently in World War I and II.  The ownership of the area it comes from has been contested since Charlemagne.  Also, it is an area where High German not French is spoken according to Wikipedia.  I would like to think that I enjoy a german beer not a french one.  This is because I don't think the French have a reputation for good beer. 

Anyway,  I took the picture cause the image struck me as, well, different.  It is common to see like things together. But bottle tops?  What happened is that my dad who is the world's most motivated recycler was told that he would have to remove the bottle tops from the bottles to redeem the glass.  The tops are a dense plastic stopper with a rubber seal which connects to the bottle with a metal clip.  My dad seperates the tops now from the bottles before he takes them to recycling.  But he can't bring himself to throw away the tops.  Hence, he has started tying them aroung this gate post.  The result is this hive of bottle tops which simultaeneously endear my father to me in a comical way and remind me that I drink too much. 

I uploaded another picture today (when you look at my picture you will see that it is 1 of 2) for this blog because it is indicative of how my life is going.  In this picture I am fixing a flat tire.  That's my life right now!  No forward progress just taking care of the things that will convey me into my future.

Hope everything is well.  I, by the way, am suffering through my third cold in 5 months.  It's just not like me to get sick so often.  The last time I was this sickly was before a major transition.  Change is scary, I think?

 

fanciful whim of the first degree

fanciful whim of the first degree

what was that phrase we used in high school when we wanted to make fun of what others wanted to do?

was it "whimsical flamboyancies"?

Happy New Year and all that...

Everyday on my way to work I read this sign on the elevator in the employee parking lot.  It's funny cause it tells you not to become "alarmed" if the elevator stops.  But then goes on to say that if the elevator does stop use the button which happens to be labeled "ALARM" to summon aid.  I kinda get a mixed message there.  If I am hitting a button called "ALARM", I have a feeling that that will be my general mood.

So I am thinking about the new year and these lyrics come to mind:

Now everybodys talking about this new decade
Like you say the magic numbers
Then just say goodbye to
The stupid mistakes you made
Oh my memory serves me far too well

They come from a George Michael song called "Waiting for that Day".  It was released back in 1990, hence the reference to "new decade".  By the way if you don't like George Michael, you just haven't been "listening without prejudice."  This is a guy who suffered one of the most embarrassing dramas a person can go through without going into seclusion.  Furthermore, he was able to make fun of it.  That deserves loads of respect.

Anyway, the lyrics.  It is so natural to feel that the start of the new year is like the reset button on an Atari 2600 (please, someone remember that!)  You are starting fresh and all your lives are intact.  You are not going to make the same mistakes this session that you did last.  But like that former boy from Wham, your memory will "serve you far too well."  I think the happiest people are those with the poorest memory.  Unfortunately a poor memory makes for a poor soul.  There's the Rub!

The New Year?  There are things I would love to change.  There are plenty of things I would love to see remain the same.  This was my 39th new year.  I am proud of my strengths and achievements.  At the same time my weaknesses and vices have been around so long that they seem like old friends. 

This brings me to my other old friends (like the segue?), I pray that the new year brings you many blessings and few tears.

Thank you so much for putting up with this blog.  I hope to see all of you soon.  If I have one resolution this year, it is to connect with those beings that have made these 38+ years worth it.