I HATE DYING
However, I recently had a rehearsal of that very thing when I experienced a heart attack on my body. Woke up early in the morning feeling really lousy, told Joy about it. She immediately went into speed mode, gave me an aspirin and drove me over to the nearby hospital. It didn’t take them long to realize I needed to get to the cardiac unit in Santa Rosa. While zooming on the freeway with sirens blaring I began to think that this could be serious. By the time I was on the table, it was probably only two hours since it started. They gave me a local anaesthetic in my leg, managed to get a bunch of wires up to my vein that was blocked, hoovered out the blockage and installed a couple of tiny stents to keep it open. Amazingly, I was watching the procedure on two TV monitors all the time. However, the stent looked really big as it was magnified on screen. They’re made in Santa Rosa so I feel good about buying local products. They kept me in the hospital for three days, trying to see if I could survive the miserable food they sent up. Here’s a tip. Try not to order anything that has to be cooked, no matter what kind of French fancy name they give it. Just stick with cornflakes & canned peaches. Upon release, I pressed the doc to allow some wine with dinner. He finally agreed on a glass so I took that to mean two. In France, the doc would have prescribed to cut back to a bottle a day.
Having dodged that bullet, I’m back to work full time, feel just as good as before this mishap, and am back to Tai Chi Chuan three times a week for a couple of hours.
And sneaking a spot of Whaler’s Rum once in a while.
HISTORY OF INVENTIONS
I keep forgetting to tell you about my list of inventions. I’ve been collecting dates of inventions from partial lists I’ve come across but mine has it all (Well, almost).
It’s about four pages long but so interesting to me anyway. I only started about 30,000 BC to the 20th century , but you’ll need it if you need to know when the stirrup was invented and how it changed history. (I’m not going to tell you).
COLLEGE MONEY PROBLEMS
If our higher education industry is in financial trouble, let me put out there a couple of simple ideas to rekieve the crisis.
Firstly, eliminate the football, basketball & baseball sports programs. Students should have left that juvinile behavior behind in high school. After all, isn’t this supposed to be Higher Education?
Next, take a hard look at the classes that are being offered that have no relevance to getting a real job when you graduate. The following is my list from Sonoma State University.
Fondue Fun!
Pressure Cooking (Does anyone have one anymore?)
Magnificent Cookies
Baking Bread at Home
Feng Shui your Home
Faux Finishing (or Fake Finishing)
Ukulele for Beginners
Health Harmonics
Peaceful Parenting (There is no such thing)
Personal Development (Do it on your own time)
Yoga (Find a Guru)
What ever happened to calculus and trigonometry?
While your at it, stop sending me those expensive brochures, I graduated fifty years ago!
CAMPARI
One of my favorite apertifs is Campari, a bitter, bright red 23% alcoholic drink. Concocted by one Gaspare Campari in 1867, a master bartender when he was 14 years old, it contains 60 natural ingredients, originally colored with Carmine Dye from crushed cochineal insects. I can only hope they have changed to red dye nowadays. Supposedly only one person has the entire recipe at a time, to make sure no one else copies it. (Why would they want to?). Containing quinine, it makes me realize why I’ve never contacted malaria.
YELLOW RIBBONS
Why does it bother me so much to see so many motorists sticking on decals of a ribbon? It re-surfaced soon after we got embroiled in another Crusade in the Middle East recently (Eight years ago?). I suppose originally it began during the Civil war, everyone hanging a yellow ribbon on the tailgate of their wagon. At first, it was a distorted American flag to support the war in Iraq. Were these supplied by the Bush gang? Soon the anti-war folks got their own ribbon to support our military but please bring them home (How does that work?). It wasn’t long before the women got theirs, pink, to fight breast cancer (I’m on their side on that issue!). Not to be outdone, the critter folks had a cute white ribbon with little paw prints on it (Awwwwr). The best one I saw was a camouflage ribbon, but didn’t get any real message from it. In a country where most voters get their political information from television, I suppose they believe sticking a ribbon on their new gas guzzling SUV will change my views. Right!
BUREAUCRACY
Once you get to know how to spell the damn word, it may be constructive to see how it affects our lives. It is apparent that as a corporation gets large enough, the wheels of efficiency begin to slow exponentially. We can all understand that governments, even small ones, gather togethe an apparatus so unwieldily that doing business with them is a virtual catastrophe. I spend a lot of time dealing with building departments here in Sonoma County and other areas. This is the side of architecture and building that almost negates the whole idea of fun. Or try to get CalTrans to OK your new drive way if you are so unfortunate to be on a state highway (and they’re all over!). Even worse, try to get PG&E to move a power pole. Months & months of inactivity will go by and yet it’s still there, impeding your work. It doesn’t take you long to realize that it isn’t the organization so much but the people that you are dealing with. Their job is secure, by some union or other, so that not doing too much becomes the status quo, If you are a motivated person, you will eventually be ground up into hamburger by your co-workers, who can’t stand the fact that you are making them look like slugs or morons. You will be ostracized and gotten out of the way. Although I can’t imagine how, as it is virtually impossible to fire anyone in these positions of tenure.
SOUL FOOD
The current “Burning question of the hour” usually is “Is there a God”. Of course, first, you have to go through the whole thing of whether religion is relevant these days before you get to the basic question. I have long ago left organized religion behind me but am still struggling to meet “God”. While contemplating that one, I am first and foremost confronted with the concept of soul. Now humans have probably considered the concept of such transubstantiation as far back as 30,000 years ago (or 32,009) since they began burying the dead along with precious objects from their life (Mammoth tooth?). Let’s think about this for a moment. Is my life animated by a “soul”, a kind of energizer bunny, and when we die, does the battery keep on going?
However, since it appears that there is only a finite amount of material on earth and the universe, all the atoms of my body will be transformed into heat, smoke and other atoms, to be reconstituted or reincarnated into another baby or some other part of the earth fauna of foliage. This is where it really gets sticky. Since the number of atoms are constant, where would we get extra atoms if we needed them? Let’s assume we have souls. At what point did a soul attach itself to a Neanderthal? Or do all living things (Lichen, plants, bugs, birds, animals and fish have souls? Is a soul the actual battery/life force that keeps us alive? Does our close relative, Mr. Chimpansee have a soul?
SUICIDE IS PAINLESS
I talked with a doctor recently who had a teenager come into his ER after drinking some poison as she was having a bad hair day. Her actions kept several professionals working feverishly all night, incurring a large hospital/Doctor fee. If she just wanted to “show her parents/boyfriend/etc.” that her life was miserable” or did she seriously want to end it all? Allow me to make one of my pithy suggestions here. Why not set up a “Suicide Hotline” where these kids could call and get some real information on how to kill yourself? You could point out graphically what happens when you suck on a 12 gauge shotgun and your entire brain box is splattered all over the room,(Like Hemingway). Point out the best, and cleanest, way to whack yourself, like maybe putting a hose in your car from the exhaust. Don’t be so damn selfish but think of your loved one (or hated ones) and friends who have to clean up your mess.
Let’s leave the desperate and misguided and look at the old infirm folks, those who are at life’s end, standing on the abyss, but are stuck in a situation of extreme pain which is soon terminal (of course, life is terminal). I am always reminded of the movie “Soylent Green”, where Edward G. Robinson is determined that his useful life time is up(He was the last librarian), so they put him in a room with his favorite music, and a large TV screen of a serene pastoral scene. A lethal but delicious cocktail thus ended his miserable life. However, I don’t support using his body in a reconstituted wafer (Soylent Green), even if it is nutritious and tasty.
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Friday, July 17, 2009
CURMUDGEON
CURMUDGEON
1. Archic: a crusty , ill tempered , churlish old man.
2. Modern: anyone who hates hypocrisy and pretense and has the temerity to say so; anyone with the habit of pointing out unpleasant facts in an engaging and humorous manner.
GOVERNATOR
It’s always fun to watch Arnold’s movie PUMPING IRON where he smokes up a pot storm, in between lifting weights.
ELECTION
When 80% of precinct reported, a total of 53,000,000 voted for Obama ( 51%), while 49,000,000 voted for McCain, (49%). I don’t get it, that seems pretty close, yet the Electorial College, whatever the fuck that is, landslided the guy. I don’t care, I didn’t vote for either of them. That’s 102 million of 300 million, where are the rest of the voters? Let’s see, 2% for Peace & Freedom, etc. 60% of voters in Sonoma County voted absentee. These didn’t get counted for weeks, can’t we figure out a system with computers?!
MEANING OF LIFE
Here’s your burning question of the hour (or lifetime).
Is the life of mankind necessary for the earth to survive? Do we contribute any sort of maintenance of the earth? Or are we just trashing it. Maybe that’s our job?
CYBER CAFES
Do we have Cyber Cafes here in USA? How come they’re all over Europe, even in small towns? Do we just assume all tourists from around the world carry their laptops around all the time? Do we even have any Tourist centers? I don’t understand how tourists find their way around in the US, Every town in Europe has directions to a information center (Icon is a large i).
BOTTLED WATER
When I was a youngster in San Diego, Alhambra sold bottled water to businesses in 5 gal. glass bottles. I suppose Perrier was available here if you were rich and stupid enough. I still don’t get why everyone has to always be sucking on a bottle when it doesn’t even have any alcohol, although it may contain arsenic like Perrier. Tap water may be held to higher standards, but with so many not drinking tap water with fluoride, the dentists are going to have a field day soon, when all the drinker’s teeth start falling out. The downside of all this is the huge environmental damage it causes. 90% of bottles are not recycled, it takes 17 million barrels of oil to make all the bottles, creating more than 25 million tons of carbon dioxide. How about all the energy to transport all this around the US in tanker trucks, trains and even ships! Remember, 40% of all bottled water began as tap water.
POST OFFICE
They’re raising the stamp fee again. Are they going broke? How did a government agency spend millions on subsidizing the US Postal bike team? Next they’ll be buying NFL football teams. They take out full page adds in hundreds of newspapers to get their story across to us that they are a giant monopoly and no one can compete with them. Did they replace all the delivery vans in the US with their little custom made van? How much did that cost? Why not buy thousands of British small vans (Production car) with right hand drive. That’s what the French do, use those cool little vans from Reynault and paint ‘em La Poste yellow.
THIS MAKES ME BERSERK!
Those slick little envelopes that you have to tear off the ends and one side in order to open. Except it tears the shit out of the contents that it’s welded to. I finally just get a pair of fucking scissors to open it. Guess what? It’s a God-damned solicitation! Awwrg!
AUTOCAT
We’ve finally automated our cat, Francie. Whenever we go anywhere, we had to hire someone to feed her and clean the litterbox. Although she does prowl around all night outside, she has to come inside the house to eat and shit. Well, we bought an expensive litterbox that automatically cleans the litter up and dumps it in a little tray after she does her thing, along with a rotary feeder that’s good for 8 days. She amazed us by accepting the technology readily, something I can’t say for most of the population who are anti-technology. (Stem cell, etc.).
WAR ON DRUGS
First of all, here’s a thought. Drug use is not drug abuse. If our government hasn’t determined smoking pot is illegal, then the abuse is you not conforming to the rules. It’s part of what is called ‘Victimless Crime’, except the victim is you, especially when you get thrown in the slammer, your wife and kids are on their own for a few years only because you are doing something to yourself. No matter that nation’s culture. However, if you lived in another country such as Arabia, where smoking drugs is just fine with everyone, you can end up in jail for drinking alcohol.
This is known as the great lost war of the 20th century (Along with the Vietnam War, Iraqi Civil War, The Afghanistan....etc.). I know I’m always harping on this, but in reality, it is really in the realm of religion interfering with government (Similar to the abortion issue). Drugs are merely a means to artificially help us through the day, or in other words, help us feel better by ingesting some external substance. No matter what the draconian punishments are, humans will always find a way to obtain it. We must have a little more faith in our fellow man, allowing him to make his own decision whether or not he wants to completely ruin his life or take control of it and temper his use of such drugs. As we spend about 30 Billion a year on this war, it cannot be all because we want us to be “good citizens”, there must be other agendas to keep this up and ruin lives of productive folks who consider such laws as silly.
Granted, trying to keep heroin, crack, etc. out of our hands may seem like the right thing to do, but just look at the results after 75 years, it has merely fed the rise of gangs, violence in the same magnitude of our great failed prohibition of alcohol, led by a small cadre of religious fanatics. Is there is too much money to be made to admit the ‘experiment’ has been a failure? There’s got to be some rational reason, isn’t there?
Well, if as long as we keep this war going, I have a suggestion for the DEA. Just as our government has stopped using large denominations of currency ($500, $1000 bills), to make it more burdensome for the bad guys to do business as they have to carry around all these $100 bills, My solution is to stop all currency except for the quarter. This will really put the brakes on drug dealing, believe me. Can you imagine a drug deal where the buyer has to hand over one million dollars all in quarters? They would need a fleet of Brinks trucks to make it happen. Well, it could be good for the armored truck industry.
1. Archic: a crusty , ill tempered , churlish old man.
2. Modern: anyone who hates hypocrisy and pretense and has the temerity to say so; anyone with the habit of pointing out unpleasant facts in an engaging and humorous manner.
GOVERNATOR
It’s always fun to watch Arnold’s movie PUMPING IRON where he smokes up a pot storm, in between lifting weights.
ELECTION
When 80% of precinct reported, a total of 53,000,000 voted for Obama ( 51%), while 49,000,000 voted for McCain, (49%). I don’t get it, that seems pretty close, yet the Electorial College, whatever the fuck that is, landslided the guy. I don’t care, I didn’t vote for either of them. That’s 102 million of 300 million, where are the rest of the voters? Let’s see, 2% for Peace & Freedom, etc. 60% of voters in Sonoma County voted absentee. These didn’t get counted for weeks, can’t we figure out a system with computers?!
MEANING OF LIFE
Here’s your burning question of the hour (or lifetime).
Is the life of mankind necessary for the earth to survive? Do we contribute any sort of maintenance of the earth? Or are we just trashing it. Maybe that’s our job?
CYBER CAFES
Do we have Cyber Cafes here in USA? How come they’re all over Europe, even in small towns? Do we just assume all tourists from around the world carry their laptops around all the time? Do we even have any Tourist centers? I don’t understand how tourists find their way around in the US, Every town in Europe has directions to a information center (Icon is a large i).
BOTTLED WATER
When I was a youngster in San Diego, Alhambra sold bottled water to businesses in 5 gal. glass bottles. I suppose Perrier was available here if you were rich and stupid enough. I still don’t get why everyone has to always be sucking on a bottle when it doesn’t even have any alcohol, although it may contain arsenic like Perrier. Tap water may be held to higher standards, but with so many not drinking tap water with fluoride, the dentists are going to have a field day soon, when all the drinker’s teeth start falling out. The downside of all this is the huge environmental damage it causes. 90% of bottles are not recycled, it takes 17 million barrels of oil to make all the bottles, creating more than 25 million tons of carbon dioxide. How about all the energy to transport all this around the US in tanker trucks, trains and even ships! Remember, 40% of all bottled water began as tap water.
POST OFFICE
They’re raising the stamp fee again. Are they going broke? How did a government agency spend millions on subsidizing the US Postal bike team? Next they’ll be buying NFL football teams. They take out full page adds in hundreds of newspapers to get their story across to us that they are a giant monopoly and no one can compete with them. Did they replace all the delivery vans in the US with their little custom made van? How much did that cost? Why not buy thousands of British small vans (Production car) with right hand drive. That’s what the French do, use those cool little vans from Reynault and paint ‘em La Poste yellow.
THIS MAKES ME BERSERK!
Those slick little envelopes that you have to tear off the ends and one side in order to open. Except it tears the shit out of the contents that it’s welded to. I finally just get a pair of fucking scissors to open it. Guess what? It’s a God-damned solicitation! Awwrg!
AUTOCAT
We’ve finally automated our cat, Francie. Whenever we go anywhere, we had to hire someone to feed her and clean the litterbox. Although she does prowl around all night outside, she has to come inside the house to eat and shit. Well, we bought an expensive litterbox that automatically cleans the litter up and dumps it in a little tray after she does her thing, along with a rotary feeder that’s good for 8 days. She amazed us by accepting the technology readily, something I can’t say for most of the population who are anti-technology. (Stem cell, etc.).
WAR ON DRUGS
First of all, here’s a thought. Drug use is not drug abuse. If our government hasn’t determined smoking pot is illegal, then the abuse is you not conforming to the rules. It’s part of what is called ‘Victimless Crime’, except the victim is you, especially when you get thrown in the slammer, your wife and kids are on their own for a few years only because you are doing something to yourself. No matter that nation’s culture. However, if you lived in another country such as Arabia, where smoking drugs is just fine with everyone, you can end up in jail for drinking alcohol.
This is known as the great lost war of the 20th century (Along with the Vietnam War, Iraqi Civil War, The Afghanistan....etc.). I know I’m always harping on this, but in reality, it is really in the realm of religion interfering with government (Similar to the abortion issue). Drugs are merely a means to artificially help us through the day, or in other words, help us feel better by ingesting some external substance. No matter what the draconian punishments are, humans will always find a way to obtain it. We must have a little more faith in our fellow man, allowing him to make his own decision whether or not he wants to completely ruin his life or take control of it and temper his use of such drugs. As we spend about 30 Billion a year on this war, it cannot be all because we want us to be “good citizens”, there must be other agendas to keep this up and ruin lives of productive folks who consider such laws as silly.
Granted, trying to keep heroin, crack, etc. out of our hands may seem like the right thing to do, but just look at the results after 75 years, it has merely fed the rise of gangs, violence in the same magnitude of our great failed prohibition of alcohol, led by a small cadre of religious fanatics. Is there is too much money to be made to admit the ‘experiment’ has been a failure? There’s got to be some rational reason, isn’t there?
Well, if as long as we keep this war going, I have a suggestion for the DEA. Just as our government has stopped using large denominations of currency ($500, $1000 bills), to make it more burdensome for the bad guys to do business as they have to carry around all these $100 bills, My solution is to stop all currency except for the quarter. This will really put the brakes on drug dealing, believe me. Can you imagine a drug deal where the buyer has to hand over one million dollars all in quarters? They would need a fleet of Brinks trucks to make it happen. Well, it could be good for the armored truck industry.
Wednesday, June 03, 2009
JOURNEY'S END
As we enter the realm of the Autumn of our life, we have to accept the fact of our mortality, the end of our life on Earth, our demise, or to put it bluntly, our personal Death. In our culture, we seldom talk about such things, or ever even see a dead body, unless they’ve been gussied up and put on display in an expensive, beautiful coffin, where they look really comfy for their trip underground.
Since my work has involved research into ramifications on each project I’ve begun, I have finally begun to research my own death. How does one do that in this environment? After we’ve answered the main question: “What is the Meaning of Life?”, ( Monty Python’s movie of this didn’t really answer my question.) , then we begin to ask what happens to our miserable body when confronted with the actuality of it? Aside from exloring that question, there is also the problem of the degradation of the body, especially if it takes a long time to die.
Many years ago I read lots of esoteric tomes such as “The Tibetan Book of the Dead”, “The Egyptian Book of the Dead”, Kubler-Ross’s “Life after Death”, and many other dissertation on what occurs after our physical form expires. I recently came across a similar book of Kubler Ross, “Life after Life”, which is a compilation of near death experiences related to a doctor by his patients. It’s pretty amazing that most of these experiences are fairly similar, traveling in a dark tunnel to a light, beings kind of around you, looking at your body and the real world activity happening around it. Most of these people had been clinically dead for several minutes, but somehow regained their tenuous hold on Life. These experiences were similar to one I had while on a particular peyote trip. There I was, all of a sudden, floating up on the ceiling, ( it seemed about twenty feet high), looking down upon my body, lying there on the bed. I had no idea how I had gotten there, but more important, how I was to get back into my body down there. I remembered that we (Who’s we?) are connected to our bodies with what is called the Aka Thread, but wasn’t sure if I was cogniscent of it. Needless to say, I did get reconnected but after reading all these experiences, was I in a near death experience? But also, most of these experiences are very similar to what the Masters of India have been describing for centuries, the experience of the final stages of meditations, where one can experience “Death while Living”, kind of a resolution of “The Question”.
But I digress. What I really want to find out are the problems that occur during the dying process, especially when it is a prolonged affair. However, I would like a really quick death, like a heart attack, like my friend, Dick Osborn, who had a heart attack while on vacation in Hawaii. Since we can’t program such ends, I do have to look at long hospital stays, with all the financial miseries that could entail.
A book that has been very helpful has been “Talking about Death Won’t Kill You”, which, after reading I bought another copy to send to my children, who will have to make those decisions that most of us don’t want to make. I’m assuming my wife will be totally useless during this time, as she refuses to talk about all this, my kids will have to cover for her. She may be getting the message as she now is beginning to realize our relationship someday may end, which switches on her Koala Bear mode to my Eucalyptus mode and wants to hug a lot more. I sometimes have to move her next to the refrigerator in order to scrape her off on the door handle so I can do my kitchen chores.
Although I’ve written out a “Do Not Resusicate” form, it seems even with that, you could be kept alive for long periods. And I never knew what putting you on a ventilator meant, which I now understand that they have to cut your throat and stick it in your windpipe, which means that you have lost the power to speak forever. Or , as most doctors aren’t trained to deal with patients dying, they may keep you alive even as the poor patient is really wanting to die as they know their time is up. And maybe dying at home with your family would be really neat, well, better than a hospital.
How about when our work is done here and our old body is in bad shape, instead of dragging it out, we go into the “End Room” as in the great movie “Soylent Green”. You are given a great drug that will let you ease into the unconscious and finally death. However, we needn’t go so far as to recycle the body into a green potato chip like food in order to keep the rest of the living alive.
Is there some significance that one of the only galleries that sells & displays artistic funery urns is located in my building here in Graton? Funeria, has gained an international following in the short time it has been extant. I have taken advantage of this and procured my art urn so that Joy can have my ashes on the shelf, displayed as a significant piece of art.
Since my work has involved research into ramifications on each project I’ve begun, I have finally begun to research my own death. How does one do that in this environment? After we’ve answered the main question: “What is the Meaning of Life?”, ( Monty Python’s movie of this didn’t really answer my question.) , then we begin to ask what happens to our miserable body when confronted with the actuality of it? Aside from exloring that question, there is also the problem of the degradation of the body, especially if it takes a long time to die.
Many years ago I read lots of esoteric tomes such as “The Tibetan Book of the Dead”, “The Egyptian Book of the Dead”, Kubler-Ross’s “Life after Death”, and many other dissertation on what occurs after our physical form expires. I recently came across a similar book of Kubler Ross, “Life after Life”, which is a compilation of near death experiences related to a doctor by his patients. It’s pretty amazing that most of these experiences are fairly similar, traveling in a dark tunnel to a light, beings kind of around you, looking at your body and the real world activity happening around it. Most of these people had been clinically dead for several minutes, but somehow regained their tenuous hold on Life. These experiences were similar to one I had while on a particular peyote trip. There I was, all of a sudden, floating up on the ceiling, ( it seemed about twenty feet high), looking down upon my body, lying there on the bed. I had no idea how I had gotten there, but more important, how I was to get back into my body down there. I remembered that we (Who’s we?) are connected to our bodies with what is called the Aka Thread, but wasn’t sure if I was cogniscent of it. Needless to say, I did get reconnected but after reading all these experiences, was I in a near death experience? But also, most of these experiences are very similar to what the Masters of India have been describing for centuries, the experience of the final stages of meditations, where one can experience “Death while Living”, kind of a resolution of “The Question”.
But I digress. What I really want to find out are the problems that occur during the dying process, especially when it is a prolonged affair. However, I would like a really quick death, like a heart attack, like my friend, Dick Osborn, who had a heart attack while on vacation in Hawaii. Since we can’t program such ends, I do have to look at long hospital stays, with all the financial miseries that could entail.
A book that has been very helpful has been “Talking about Death Won’t Kill You”, which, after reading I bought another copy to send to my children, who will have to make those decisions that most of us don’t want to make. I’m assuming my wife will be totally useless during this time, as she refuses to talk about all this, my kids will have to cover for her. She may be getting the message as she now is beginning to realize our relationship someday may end, which switches on her Koala Bear mode to my Eucalyptus mode and wants to hug a lot more. I sometimes have to move her next to the refrigerator in order to scrape her off on the door handle so I can do my kitchen chores.
Although I’ve written out a “Do Not Resusicate” form, it seems even with that, you could be kept alive for long periods. And I never knew what putting you on a ventilator meant, which I now understand that they have to cut your throat and stick it in your windpipe, which means that you have lost the power to speak forever. Or , as most doctors aren’t trained to deal with patients dying, they may keep you alive even as the poor patient is really wanting to die as they know their time is up. And maybe dying at home with your family would be really neat, well, better than a hospital.
How about when our work is done here and our old body is in bad shape, instead of dragging it out, we go into the “End Room” as in the great movie “Soylent Green”. You are given a great drug that will let you ease into the unconscious and finally death. However, we needn’t go so far as to recycle the body into a green potato chip like food in order to keep the rest of the living alive.
Is there some significance that one of the only galleries that sells & displays artistic funery urns is located in my building here in Graton? Funeria, has gained an international following in the short time it has been extant. I have taken advantage of this and procured my art urn so that Joy can have my ashes on the shelf, displayed as a significant piece of art.
Saturday, April 25, 2009
PUBLISHING!
REFLECTIONS
My latest book, EDUCATION OF AN ARCHITECT, has been finally published, after a couple of false starts,( like inadvertently leaving out chapter 5, one of the best).
Sex, drugs, Bebop, etc, are all part of the learning experience. Critics say “Smut, pure smut” (At least my wife did). Written at the Willowwood Café (with copious amounts of zindfandel) in Graton. Initial sales will be from there until I have time to get an ISBN number & get it to Amazon.com.
Meanwhile, you can also order from me direct, send cash, check or money to :
J.L. Langworthy, PO Box 528 , Graton, CA 95444 ($22 + $2.50 postage).
Remember that my first book, HILLSIDE HOMES, I initially sold for $10, but recently was selling on e-bay & Amazon for $280!
You also have the opportunity to purchase my CD (Windows PC only) for $22. This consists of photos of most of my significant work, consisting of for parts;
About forty residences
Some of my furniture
Forty years of unbuilt projects (Drawings)
My modular housing projects (3D, Components, Panels)
SPEAKING OF BOOKS. I want to recommend a couple that I’ve come across. THE EMPIRE HAS NO CLOTHES by Ivan Eland , who makes a strong case that we have developed into an Empire but refuse to admit it. That we just think it’s our job (Ordained by God) to make every country a democracy whether it kills them or not. Probably only a small percentage of Americans actually support the concept while the rest of us don’t give a shit.
The other book is Jon Stewart’s AMERICA. Like his Daily Show, I actually learned how our government is put together, how lobbyists work (They own it!), all with an incredibly humorous viewpoint. The guys a genius.
Speaking of America, I cannot believe the ads for recruiting by the Army. Have you seen the poor farm boy, all outfitted in his tailor maid uniform with his smashed down beret over his right eye? Hey, I always thought berets were cool and I was glad when I saw our guys sporting them, but these guys look crazy! I’ve also seen photos of our boys home on leave (or in the obituary) with the same kookie look.
And while we’re at it, (Remember this blog began as “Things I Hate”!) What about all our pseudo “Patriots” who drive around with American flags on their vehicles (trucks & cycles) who treat it with total disrespect as they are supposed to take it in at night unless they keep it illuminated. These eventually get all tattered up like a relic from Iwo Jima.
I know it’s a touchy subject, but am I the only person on the planet that has a problem with the design of our flag? Most of all the other nations have cool designs for their flags, but ours is a mish mash of stripes & stars, really complicated due the the adding on process over a couple hundred years. I suppose the best you can say for it is it represents our over complicated method of government (Democracelerosis). Anyway, we are probably out of space to add any more stars(or countries: Iraq? Afghanistan?) to it so maybe it’s time to re-design. (The same goes for our money, but that’s another bitch of mine). Since I’m a doer and not a blabber I set out to redesign it myself. After several sketches & designs I came up with one I thought was pretty simple with just a couple of stripes and one big star. However, when I looked through my encyclopedia on flags, it seems mine was the exact one that Cuba uses (and maybe Texas).
CHURCH GOING. It’s time to bring back temple prostitution, like the Greeks and Romans as well as India had. That should lift up the sagging church attendance, don’t you think? Strictly for the religious experience, mind you.
My latest book, EDUCATION OF AN ARCHITECT, has been finally published, after a couple of false starts,( like inadvertently leaving out chapter 5, one of the best).
Sex, drugs, Bebop, etc, are all part of the learning experience. Critics say “Smut, pure smut” (At least my wife did). Written at the Willowwood Café (with copious amounts of zindfandel) in Graton. Initial sales will be from there until I have time to get an ISBN number & get it to Amazon.com.
Meanwhile, you can also order from me direct, send cash, check or money to :
J.L. Langworthy, PO Box 528 , Graton, CA 95444 ($22 + $2.50 postage).
Remember that my first book, HILLSIDE HOMES, I initially sold for $10, but recently was selling on e-bay & Amazon for $280!
You also have the opportunity to purchase my CD (Windows PC only) for $22. This consists of photos of most of my significant work, consisting of for parts;
About forty residences
Some of my furniture
Forty years of unbuilt projects (Drawings)
My modular housing projects (3D, Components, Panels)
SPEAKING OF BOOKS. I want to recommend a couple that I’ve come across. THE EMPIRE HAS NO CLOTHES by Ivan Eland , who makes a strong case that we have developed into an Empire but refuse to admit it. That we just think it’s our job (Ordained by God) to make every country a democracy whether it kills them or not. Probably only a small percentage of Americans actually support the concept while the rest of us don’t give a shit.
The other book is Jon Stewart’s AMERICA. Like his Daily Show, I actually learned how our government is put together, how lobbyists work (They own it!), all with an incredibly humorous viewpoint. The guys a genius.
Speaking of America, I cannot believe the ads for recruiting by the Army. Have you seen the poor farm boy, all outfitted in his tailor maid uniform with his smashed down beret over his right eye? Hey, I always thought berets were cool and I was glad when I saw our guys sporting them, but these guys look crazy! I’ve also seen photos of our boys home on leave (or in the obituary) with the same kookie look.
And while we’re at it, (Remember this blog began as “Things I Hate”!) What about all our pseudo “Patriots” who drive around with American flags on their vehicles (trucks & cycles) who treat it with total disrespect as they are supposed to take it in at night unless they keep it illuminated. These eventually get all tattered up like a relic from Iwo Jima.
I know it’s a touchy subject, but am I the only person on the planet that has a problem with the design of our flag? Most of all the other nations have cool designs for their flags, but ours is a mish mash of stripes & stars, really complicated due the the adding on process over a couple hundred years. I suppose the best you can say for it is it represents our over complicated method of government (Democracelerosis). Anyway, we are probably out of space to add any more stars(or countries: Iraq? Afghanistan?) to it so maybe it’s time to re-design. (The same goes for our money, but that’s another bitch of mine). Since I’m a doer and not a blabber I set out to redesign it myself. After several sketches & designs I came up with one I thought was pretty simple with just a couple of stripes and one big star. However, when I looked through my encyclopedia on flags, it seems mine was the exact one that Cuba uses (and maybe Texas).
CHURCH GOING. It’s time to bring back temple prostitution, like the Greeks and Romans as well as India had. That should lift up the sagging church attendance, don’t you think? Strictly for the religious experience, mind you.
Monday, March 02, 2009
$$$$$
MONEY
As the USA wallows in design conservatism our monetary system, the Dutch have shown how many light years they are in front of us in that area. They recently had a competition (What a concept!) for the design of a new 5e coin. It is only good in the Netherlands. The interesting part is that it is called the “Architecture Fiver” and is a pretty far out coin. The front contains the names of 109 Dutch architects, past & present, rendered in a single line that coils to create the likeness of Queen Beatrix (The real Queen, not a pop idol), The back features Dutch architecture books arranged to form an outline of the country. Check out the designer’s blog at www.pythonide.blogspot.com for a really interesting discourse about how he designed it.
MONEY MYSTERY SOLVED!
I’ve been ranting all over the place about how gas stations still use the mill, or 1/10th of a cent on all their pricing. I’m probably the only person I know who actually has an actual mill, a tiny miniature copper penny, let alone even knowing what it is. It’s the ultimate pricing scam, like pricing everything like $9,999.99, which, in effect is $10,000. This reflects our mass stupidity as if we can’t relate to the fact that it really is basically $10,000. I get so tired of all the God damned 9's! Anyway, it seems that the government is responsible for the gas pricing fiasco. I should have known. In 1932 the Feds passed the Revenue Act which imposed a penny per gallon tax on gas. It is now 18.4 cents per gallon. This probably made sense when gas was 20 cents a gallon but is meaningless now. Whole numbers should have replaced the pricing but have you ever tried to remove a government program, no matter how obsolete?
GREG REITAN
Greg has lived in one of my modular houses that I designed & built in LA for 10 years. He has just released a CD of his swingin’ trio, titled “SOME OTHER TIME”. Very mellow and very cool stuff. Read about how he recorded it in his redwood pad at www.sunnysiderecords.com/release_detail.php?releaseID=423.
He’s working on another titled “ANTIBES” and it’s also very groovey, man.
Greg is about the only pianist (Other than Theolonious Monk) that uses all the keys & even could use a couple more at the top of the keyboard. His music is not background music, it’s the type where it demands you really listen to it, just as if you were hearing it in a studio or Jazz club, which is similar to Dave Brubeck’s , where your enjoyment is the music, no matter how many times you hear it.
As the USA wallows in design conservatism our monetary system, the Dutch have shown how many light years they are in front of us in that area. They recently had a competition (What a concept!) for the design of a new 5e coin. It is only good in the Netherlands. The interesting part is that it is called the “Architecture Fiver” and is a pretty far out coin. The front contains the names of 109 Dutch architects, past & present, rendered in a single line that coils to create the likeness of Queen Beatrix (The real Queen, not a pop idol), The back features Dutch architecture books arranged to form an outline of the country. Check out the designer’s blog at www.pythonide.blogspot.com for a really interesting discourse about how he designed it.
MONEY MYSTERY SOLVED!
I’ve been ranting all over the place about how gas stations still use the mill, or 1/10th of a cent on all their pricing. I’m probably the only person I know who actually has an actual mill, a tiny miniature copper penny, let alone even knowing what it is. It’s the ultimate pricing scam, like pricing everything like $9,999.99, which, in effect is $10,000. This reflects our mass stupidity as if we can’t relate to the fact that it really is basically $10,000. I get so tired of all the God damned 9's! Anyway, it seems that the government is responsible for the gas pricing fiasco. I should have known. In 1932 the Feds passed the Revenue Act which imposed a penny per gallon tax on gas. It is now 18.4 cents per gallon. This probably made sense when gas was 20 cents a gallon but is meaningless now. Whole numbers should have replaced the pricing but have you ever tried to remove a government program, no matter how obsolete?
GREG REITAN
Greg has lived in one of my modular houses that I designed & built in LA for 10 years. He has just released a CD of his swingin’ trio, titled “SOME OTHER TIME”. Very mellow and very cool stuff. Read about how he recorded it in his redwood pad at www.sunnysiderecords.com/release_detail.php?releaseID=423.
He’s working on another titled “ANTIBES” and it’s also very groovey, man.
Greg is about the only pianist (Other than Theolonious Monk) that uses all the keys & even could use a couple more at the top of the keyboard. His music is not background music, it’s the type where it demands you really listen to it, just as if you were hearing it in a studio or Jazz club, which is similar to Dave Brubeck’s , where your enjoyment is the music, no matter how many times you hear it.
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
SINCE I HAVE NOTHING TO DO
DETRITUS OF CIVILIZATION
I was always curious why ancient ruins in Europe were below the street level, at least in cities like Rome and Athens. It finally occurred to me that the town just builds up around old ruins by piling their trash around. You can almost tell how old a ruin is by measuring how much below the street level it lies. Now ancient Athens’s ruins are about 20 feet of more below. That means they’re from about 500 BC. Except there is a small Greek Orthodox church there and it is only about 8 feet below, which means it is from around 1500 AD. Old ruins in Rome from about 2000 years ago are generally about 20 feet below current level. The recent Metro station in Athens has a wall behind glass of a record of their history, even a burial sarcophagus cut in half. Now that station is probably 30' below street level. Can you imagine the problems of digging a subway around Athens and running into all this history? We freak out if we find an arrowhead when digging a foundation 12" deep.
AFGHANISTAN
I am planning to write Obama about our war in Afghanistan and how to make it a little more profitable. Before we invaded the country, poppy cultivation was a major industry there. The Taliban (Fundamentalist Muslims) grow it to fund their war against the infidels (Us). Let’s take it away from them and grow it ourselves. Someone has to grow it as it is the world’s best pain killer. It isn’t all smoked, you know. Actual doctors prescribe it all the time. Anyway, think about it, with the profits from growing half the world’s opium we could probably pay for the entire war effort there, simultaneously depriving the nasty Taliban of much needed money for their war effort. After all, that’s what the Brits did in the mid-1800's, running opium to China..
MIRACLES
I just came across an article about Thomas Jefferson and how he pasted up an entire bible but cut out all references to miracles. I didn’t think anyone would believe in a religion that didn’t have a bunch of miracles sprinkled here and there.
Let’s look at a few;
Christians - Raise a dead man to be alive again
Change a few loaves of bread into hundreds of fish
Change water into wine by the amphoras full
Walking around on top of the water
Getting back into his body after being dead for a few days
Curing leprosy
Jewish - The old testament didn’t seem to do many personal miracles, they were mostly big ones like destroying Jericho, turning a few people into salt, flooding the entire world except for Noah and about 100 species. I always wondered how he got a pair of Llamas, and where were the penguins?.
Muslims - Mohammed flying through the air on his white horse half way across Arabia
The Kaaba black stone (asteroid?) Who knows where they think that came from?
I suppose that frolicking with 72 virgins if you die in battle for the cause could be construed as a miracle. Recently when women started being suicide bombers I wondered what their reword could possibly be. A friend reminded me what could be better for a lesbian than 72 virgins. Point well taken.
Allah (God?) wrote the Koran thru Mohammed , no errors in it nor contradictions.
Buddhism - I don’t recall any miracles in their myths.
HOLIDAYS, a primer
We need to clean up our holidays. Here’s a few reccommendations:
New Years -Jan 1 - Winter Soltice - I suppose this is valid as we’ve been celebrating it for thousands of years. Always need an excuse to get blind drunk.
M L King - Jan 19 -This type of thing is a bunch of bullshit. If he hadn’t been shot he probably would not have been made into such a hero. Don’t we have any sort of criteria about who gets his name forever on a day when all bureaucrats get off? Next it’ll be Britney Spears Day!
President’s day - Feb 16 -Lincoln’s & Washington’s days were too close together so some brilliant idiot combined them, So the message here is all president’s are to honored that day. Nixon, Clinton, Bush II, etc.
Labor Day -May 1 - How did May Day ever evolve into honoring workers? Is it so unusual for us to work? Actually it was started by a Labor Union who wanted the day off. The It was made official two months after the Labor Day Riots of 1894. May Day used to be kind of a festive day honoring Spring, then the Commies took it over and became a big parade day showing all your weapons of mass destruction.
Memorial Day -May 25 - Formerly know as Decoration Day, in honor of Union soldiers who died in that war. Kind of signifies the beginning of summer. I guess now we are honoring all the millions of soldiers who have died in all our wars, usually the current one. The red poppies sold by old warriors signified the bloody fields in Flanders, France, as they have those beautiful red poppies all over. The poem by LtCol John McCrae should be read by all of us year.
Independence Day - 4th of July! I guess this one is OK. Although it represents when we proclaimed our independence and not when we actually got it, years later. Every free country has one.
Columbus Day - Oct 13 -We’re really reaching here. How did we ever set a day aside for Columbus? Well, the Italian Americans were a pesky lot and made it official in 1892 for the 400th anniversary. He never did get to the US. To bad the French didn’t promote Champlaininstead, who would have at least gotten here to the US.
Veterans Day - Nov 11 -Originally Armistice Day to commemorate the end of WW One in 1919. In 1954 it became Vets day due to some shoe saleman vet in Kansas. I thought Memorial day took care of all us vets.
Thanksgiving - Nov 26 -Who are we kidding? This is historically a time when people all over the world celebrate the harvest, an important time in most cultures. Why did we have to take a mythical dinner of the Pilgims & Indians as a baseline?
Christmas -Dec 25 -If you’re a Christian country, you can’t just have a solstice day. Fortunately, this is one of the few religious holidays in the U.S. France has 8 out of their 12 that are Catholic. But this is also Passover time & now Kwanzaa,( everyone’s getting in on the act.) Of course, us pagans still put up an evergreen to continue a thousand year tradition.
DAYS THAT ARE PSUEDO HOLIDAYS
Valentine’s Day - Feb 14 - The scourge of all men, pussy whipped into buying crap for their woman.
Halloween - Oct 31- Derived from All Saint’s Day. End of the harvest, an old Celtic party with masks, & costumes worn to copy or placate evil spirits. Used to be for kids here in US but now most idiot adults have to dress up and go to their jobs.
Easter - Apr 12 - Marks the exact day & hour when Jesus became alive after being dead for a couple of days.
Somehow worked in to the Jew’s Passover. At least it’s not a legal holiday (Yet).
St. Patrick’s - Mar 17 - The Irish had to reach back to 433 AD to find a really good excuse to get blind drunk.
Mother’s Day - May 10 - Ancient Greeks & Romans did give gifts to one of their Gods of motherhood. But in 1912 Anne Jarvis trademarked “Mothers Day”. She must have been working for Hallmark cards.
Father’s Day - Who give’s a shit?
.
HERE’S MY RECOMMENDATIONS
First off, drop Mr. King’s day, that’s a given.
If we’re not celebrating the great presidents, just forget the whole thing.
Veteran’s Day is redundant as Memorial Day takes care of us.
Let’s combine Christmas with New Years Eve. Maybe we could get away from spending all that money on presents for everyone we know.
Give Halloween back to the little kids, and don’t spend hundreds of dollars on their stupid store bought costumes.
Mother’s day has got to go.
PHOTO VOLTAICS (PV)
I’m hearing everyone talk about the fabulous revolution in PV’s that will replace our reliance on fossil fuels. But wait, most of our fuel comes from the middle east. It seems we are reluctant to use our own reserves due to “environmental concerns”. If you think renewable energy sources will replace current usage and we’ll be wonderfully clean, take a look at some statistics at electric generation for US;
Coal 48%
Gas 22%
Nuclear 20%
Hydo 7%
Wind <1%
Solar/PV <1%
OK, so if Wind & Solar double every two years, you can see what a great effect that might have on the grid. Nada. Let’s not forget that it takes two years for PV panels to offset the energy it took to make them in the first place. Surprised that we do so much Nuke generation? Since the public has been set against them we have not built a new one for 30 years. I agree that there is still a problem over what to do with the waste. But the tremendous amount of pollutants that are generated by fossil plants are probably a lot more harmful that the nukes. When we zip around Europe on their fabulous fast trains at a couple of hundred MPH, we forget they are powered by 80% nuclear plants, the same as Japan.
We never hear that you have to clean the PV collectors once in a while as the efficiency goes way down when they’re dirty, and that is an expensive proposition.
But as long as State, Feds & utilities can subsidize installations, we might be able to afford it as long as we have enough to last out the payback time of many years.
VEHICLE EFFICIENCY
We’re still hearing about electric cars but I’ve always had a hard time with their use. Several things bother me. First of all, you may be making the air cleaner where you’re driving but you are polluting the Four Corners country where the fossil plant is spewing forth. Second, I’ve heard that the batteries last about 10 years, what then? Naturally, this question is never mentioned by the electric car industry. Throw the car away as the technology is defunct by then, or pay $10,000 for new batteries? I’m sure there are a few uses where it would work for short usages. Of course, Hybrids are looking pretty good and they are getting better, at least you can go further than 100 miles. And sure, in America, you can buy a hybrid SUV, naturally.
.
I was always curious why ancient ruins in Europe were below the street level, at least in cities like Rome and Athens. It finally occurred to me that the town just builds up around old ruins by piling their trash around. You can almost tell how old a ruin is by measuring how much below the street level it lies. Now ancient Athens’s ruins are about 20 feet of more below. That means they’re from about 500 BC. Except there is a small Greek Orthodox church there and it is only about 8 feet below, which means it is from around 1500 AD. Old ruins in Rome from about 2000 years ago are generally about 20 feet below current level. The recent Metro station in Athens has a wall behind glass of a record of their history, even a burial sarcophagus cut in half. Now that station is probably 30' below street level. Can you imagine the problems of digging a subway around Athens and running into all this history? We freak out if we find an arrowhead when digging a foundation 12" deep.
AFGHANISTAN
I am planning to write Obama about our war in Afghanistan and how to make it a little more profitable. Before we invaded the country, poppy cultivation was a major industry there. The Taliban (Fundamentalist Muslims) grow it to fund their war against the infidels (Us). Let’s take it away from them and grow it ourselves. Someone has to grow it as it is the world’s best pain killer. It isn’t all smoked, you know. Actual doctors prescribe it all the time. Anyway, think about it, with the profits from growing half the world’s opium we could probably pay for the entire war effort there, simultaneously depriving the nasty Taliban of much needed money for their war effort. After all, that’s what the Brits did in the mid-1800's, running opium to China..
MIRACLES
I just came across an article about Thomas Jefferson and how he pasted up an entire bible but cut out all references to miracles. I didn’t think anyone would believe in a religion that didn’t have a bunch of miracles sprinkled here and there.
Let’s look at a few;
Christians - Raise a dead man to be alive again
Change a few loaves of bread into hundreds of fish
Change water into wine by the amphoras full
Walking around on top of the water
Getting back into his body after being dead for a few days
Curing leprosy
Jewish - The old testament didn’t seem to do many personal miracles, they were mostly big ones like destroying Jericho, turning a few people into salt, flooding the entire world except for Noah and about 100 species. I always wondered how he got a pair of Llamas, and where were the penguins?.
Muslims - Mohammed flying through the air on his white horse half way across Arabia
The Kaaba black stone (asteroid?) Who knows where they think that came from?
I suppose that frolicking with 72 virgins if you die in battle for the cause could be construed as a miracle. Recently when women started being suicide bombers I wondered what their reword could possibly be. A friend reminded me what could be better for a lesbian than 72 virgins. Point well taken.
Allah (God?) wrote the Koran thru Mohammed , no errors in it nor contradictions.
Buddhism - I don’t recall any miracles in their myths.
HOLIDAYS, a primer
We need to clean up our holidays. Here’s a few reccommendations:
New Years -Jan 1 - Winter Soltice - I suppose this is valid as we’ve been celebrating it for thousands of years. Always need an excuse to get blind drunk.
M L King - Jan 19 -This type of thing is a bunch of bullshit. If he hadn’t been shot he probably would not have been made into such a hero. Don’t we have any sort of criteria about who gets his name forever on a day when all bureaucrats get off? Next it’ll be Britney Spears Day!
President’s day - Feb 16 -Lincoln’s & Washington’s days were too close together so some brilliant idiot combined them, So the message here is all president’s are to honored that day. Nixon, Clinton, Bush II, etc.
Labor Day -May 1 - How did May Day ever evolve into honoring workers? Is it so unusual for us to work? Actually it was started by a Labor Union who wanted the day off. The It was made official two months after the Labor Day Riots of 1894. May Day used to be kind of a festive day honoring Spring, then the Commies took it over and became a big parade day showing all your weapons of mass destruction.
Memorial Day -May 25 - Formerly know as Decoration Day, in honor of Union soldiers who died in that war. Kind of signifies the beginning of summer. I guess now we are honoring all the millions of soldiers who have died in all our wars, usually the current one. The red poppies sold by old warriors signified the bloody fields in Flanders, France, as they have those beautiful red poppies all over. The poem by LtCol John McCrae should be read by all of us year.
Independence Day - 4th of July! I guess this one is OK. Although it represents when we proclaimed our independence and not when we actually got it, years later. Every free country has one.
Columbus Day - Oct 13 -We’re really reaching here. How did we ever set a day aside for Columbus? Well, the Italian Americans were a pesky lot and made it official in 1892 for the 400th anniversary. He never did get to the US. To bad the French didn’t promote Champlaininstead, who would have at least gotten here to the US.
Veterans Day - Nov 11 -Originally Armistice Day to commemorate the end of WW One in 1919. In 1954 it became Vets day due to some shoe saleman vet in Kansas. I thought Memorial day took care of all us vets.
Thanksgiving - Nov 26 -Who are we kidding? This is historically a time when people all over the world celebrate the harvest, an important time in most cultures. Why did we have to take a mythical dinner of the Pilgims & Indians as a baseline?
Christmas -Dec 25 -If you’re a Christian country, you can’t just have a solstice day. Fortunately, this is one of the few religious holidays in the U.S. France has 8 out of their 12 that are Catholic. But this is also Passover time & now Kwanzaa,( everyone’s getting in on the act.) Of course, us pagans still put up an evergreen to continue a thousand year tradition.
DAYS THAT ARE PSUEDO HOLIDAYS
Valentine’s Day - Feb 14 - The scourge of all men, pussy whipped into buying crap for their woman.
Halloween - Oct 31- Derived from All Saint’s Day. End of the harvest, an old Celtic party with masks, & costumes worn to copy or placate evil spirits. Used to be for kids here in US but now most idiot adults have to dress up and go to their jobs.
Easter - Apr 12 - Marks the exact day & hour when Jesus became alive after being dead for a couple of days.
Somehow worked in to the Jew’s Passover. At least it’s not a legal holiday (Yet).
St. Patrick’s - Mar 17 - The Irish had to reach back to 433 AD to find a really good excuse to get blind drunk.
Mother’s Day - May 10 - Ancient Greeks & Romans did give gifts to one of their Gods of motherhood. But in 1912 Anne Jarvis trademarked “Mothers Day”. She must have been working for Hallmark cards.
Father’s Day - Who give’s a shit?
.
HERE’S MY RECOMMENDATIONS
First off, drop Mr. King’s day, that’s a given.
If we’re not celebrating the great presidents, just forget the whole thing.
Veteran’s Day is redundant as Memorial Day takes care of us.
Let’s combine Christmas with New Years Eve. Maybe we could get away from spending all that money on presents for everyone we know.
Give Halloween back to the little kids, and don’t spend hundreds of dollars on their stupid store bought costumes.
Mother’s day has got to go.
PHOTO VOLTAICS (PV)
I’m hearing everyone talk about the fabulous revolution in PV’s that will replace our reliance on fossil fuels. But wait, most of our fuel comes from the middle east. It seems we are reluctant to use our own reserves due to “environmental concerns”. If you think renewable energy sources will replace current usage and we’ll be wonderfully clean, take a look at some statistics at electric generation for US;
Coal 48%
Gas 22%
Nuclear 20%
Hydo 7%
Wind <1%
Solar/PV <1%
OK, so if Wind & Solar double every two years, you can see what a great effect that might have on the grid. Nada. Let’s not forget that it takes two years for PV panels to offset the energy it took to make them in the first place. Surprised that we do so much Nuke generation? Since the public has been set against them we have not built a new one for 30 years. I agree that there is still a problem over what to do with the waste. But the tremendous amount of pollutants that are generated by fossil plants are probably a lot more harmful that the nukes. When we zip around Europe on their fabulous fast trains at a couple of hundred MPH, we forget they are powered by 80% nuclear plants, the same as Japan.
We never hear that you have to clean the PV collectors once in a while as the efficiency goes way down when they’re dirty, and that is an expensive proposition.
But as long as State, Feds & utilities can subsidize installations, we might be able to afford it as long as we have enough to last out the payback time of many years.
VEHICLE EFFICIENCY
We’re still hearing about electric cars but I’ve always had a hard time with their use. Several things bother me. First of all, you may be making the air cleaner where you’re driving but you are polluting the Four Corners country where the fossil plant is spewing forth. Second, I’ve heard that the batteries last about 10 years, what then? Naturally, this question is never mentioned by the electric car industry. Throw the car away as the technology is defunct by then, or pay $10,000 for new batteries? I’m sure there are a few uses where it would work for short usages. Of course, Hybrids are looking pretty good and they are getting better, at least you can go further than 100 miles. And sure, in America, you can buy a hybrid SUV, naturally.
.
Tuesday, January 06, 2009
JUST FORGET 2008
ELECTION
When 80% of precinct reported, a total of 53,000,000 voted for Obama ( 51%), while 49,000,000 voted for McCain, (49%). I don’t get it, that seems pretty close, yet the Electorial College, whatever the fuck that is, landslided the guy. I don’t care, I didn’t vote for either of them. That’s 102 million of 300 million, where are the rest of the voters? Let’s see, 2% for Peace & Freedom, etc. 60% of voters in Sonoma County voted absentee. These didn’t get counted for weeks, can’t we figure out a system with computers?!
MEANING OF LIFE
Here’s your burning question of the hour (or lifetime).
Is the life of mankind necessary for the earth to survive? Do we contribute any sort of maintenance of the earth? Or are we just trashing it.
CYBER CAFES
Do we have Cyber Cafes here in USA? How come they’re all over Europe, even in small towns? Do we just assume all tourists from around the world carry their laptops around all the time? Do we even have any Tourist centers? I don’t understand how tourists find their way around in the US, Every town in Europe has directions to a information center (Icon is a large i).
BOTTLED WATER
When I was a youngster in San Diego, Alhambra sold bottled water to businesses in 5 gal. glass bottles. I suppose Perrier was available here if you were rich and stupid enough. I still don’t get why everyone has to always be sucking on a bottle when it doesn’t even have any alcohol, although it may contain arsenic like Perrier. Tap water may be held to higher standards, but with so many not drinking tap water with fluoride, the dentists are going to have a field day soon, when all the drinker’s teeth start falling out. The downside of all this is the huge environmental damage it causes. 90% of bottles are not recycled, it takes 17 million barrels of oil to make all the bottles, creating more than 25 million tons of carbon dioxide. How about all the energy to transport all this around the US in tanker trucks, trains and even ships! Remember, 40% of all bottled water began as tap water.
POST OFFICE
They’re raising the stamp fee again. Are they going broke? How did a government agency spend millions on subsidizing the US Postal bike team? Next they’ll be buying NFL football teams. They take out full page adds in hundreds of newspapers to get their story across to us that they are a giant monopoly and no one can compete with them. Did they replace all the delivery vans in the US with their little custom made van? How much did that cost? Why not buy thousands of British small vans (Production car) with right hand drive. That’s what the French do, use those cool little vans from Reynault and paint ‘em La Poste yellow.
THIS MAKES ME BERSERK!
Those slick little envelopes that you have to tear off the ends and one side in order to open. Except it tears the shit out of the contents that it’s welded to. I finally just get a pair of fucking scissors to open it. Guess what? It’s a God-damned solicitation! Awwrg!
AUTOCAT
We’ve finally automated our cat, Francie. Whenever we go anywhere, we had to hire someone to feed her and clean the litterbox. Although she does prowl around all night outside, she has to come inside the house to eat and shit. Well, we bought an expensive litterbox that automatically cleans the litter up and dumps it in a little tray after she does her thing, along with a rotary feeder that’s good for 8 days. She amazed us by accepting the technology readily, something I can’t say for most of the population who are anti-technology. (Stem cell, etc.).
When 80% of precinct reported, a total of 53,000,000 voted for Obama ( 51%), while 49,000,000 voted for McCain, (49%). I don’t get it, that seems pretty close, yet the Electorial College, whatever the fuck that is, landslided the guy. I don’t care, I didn’t vote for either of them. That’s 102 million of 300 million, where are the rest of the voters? Let’s see, 2% for Peace & Freedom, etc. 60% of voters in Sonoma County voted absentee. These didn’t get counted for weeks, can’t we figure out a system with computers?!
MEANING OF LIFE
Here’s your burning question of the hour (or lifetime).
Is the life of mankind necessary for the earth to survive? Do we contribute any sort of maintenance of the earth? Or are we just trashing it.
CYBER CAFES
Do we have Cyber Cafes here in USA? How come they’re all over Europe, even in small towns? Do we just assume all tourists from around the world carry their laptops around all the time? Do we even have any Tourist centers? I don’t understand how tourists find their way around in the US, Every town in Europe has directions to a information center (Icon is a large i).
BOTTLED WATER
When I was a youngster in San Diego, Alhambra sold bottled water to businesses in 5 gal. glass bottles. I suppose Perrier was available here if you were rich and stupid enough. I still don’t get why everyone has to always be sucking on a bottle when it doesn’t even have any alcohol, although it may contain arsenic like Perrier. Tap water may be held to higher standards, but with so many not drinking tap water with fluoride, the dentists are going to have a field day soon, when all the drinker’s teeth start falling out. The downside of all this is the huge environmental damage it causes. 90% of bottles are not recycled, it takes 17 million barrels of oil to make all the bottles, creating more than 25 million tons of carbon dioxide. How about all the energy to transport all this around the US in tanker trucks, trains and even ships! Remember, 40% of all bottled water began as tap water.
POST OFFICE
They’re raising the stamp fee again. Are they going broke? How did a government agency spend millions on subsidizing the US Postal bike team? Next they’ll be buying NFL football teams. They take out full page adds in hundreds of newspapers to get their story across to us that they are a giant monopoly and no one can compete with them. Did they replace all the delivery vans in the US with their little custom made van? How much did that cost? Why not buy thousands of British small vans (Production car) with right hand drive. That’s what the French do, use those cool little vans from Reynault and paint ‘em La Poste yellow.
THIS MAKES ME BERSERK!
Those slick little envelopes that you have to tear off the ends and one side in order to open. Except it tears the shit out of the contents that it’s welded to. I finally just get a pair of fucking scissors to open it. Guess what? It’s a God-damned solicitation! Awwrg!
AUTOCAT
We’ve finally automated our cat, Francie. Whenever we go anywhere, we had to hire someone to feed her and clean the litterbox. Although she does prowl around all night outside, she has to come inside the house to eat and shit. Well, we bought an expensive litterbox that automatically cleans the litter up and dumps it in a little tray after she does her thing, along with a rotary feeder that’s good for 8 days. She amazed us by accepting the technology readily, something I can’t say for most of the population who are anti-technology. (Stem cell, etc.).
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