Wake not a sleeping wolf

No Sweat

2011-12-30T10:45:00.001-08:00

If invention is one tenth inspiration and nine tenths perspiration, and painting is nine tenths preparation and one tenth pigmentation, and posession is nine tenths of the law, then...

I'm lost no matter how you slice it.

All of Me

2011-12-30T10:43:00.001-08:00

I always said I needed at least five of me to get everything done…

I never dreamt they would each want their own email address.

Picture This

2011-12-30T10:41:00.001-08:00

If a picture is worth a thousand words, yet a thousand moving pictures (from video surveillance cameras in London, on average) lead to the solving of only a single crime, then each crime should be worth a minimum of one million words.

Do even criminals get paid by the word nowadays?

Gish and the ghost of Enkidu

2011-09-05T10:41:00.001-07:00

“Tell me, my friend, tell me, my friend,
The law of the earth which thou hast experienced, tell me."

“I cannot tell thee, my friend, I cannot tell.”

Space Aliens

2010-10-24T19:53:00.001-07:00

Michael Page writes in New Scientist, 21 October 2010, that 'complex life probably evolved only once' -
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn18734-why-complex-life-probably-evolved-only-once.html -
and goes on to blind us with with the science behind his proposal.

Possibly it's my bias toward the existence of 'extraterrestrial intelligence', only I'm not buying Page's conclusion.

The likelihood that the extraordinarily rare and unlikely occurrence upon which the evolution of complex life on Earth is said to have crucially depended having occurred nowhere else, itself seems to me even more minute than the likelihood that it occurred here just the once. Too little is known about the circumstances under which the presumed singular earthly instance came about, and too many other circumstances might account for it happening elsewhere, even if we are to rule out the chance of multiple occurrences which later simply failed.

Page argues well, but I've seen too many strange things to accept that we are, after all, effectively alone in this universe.

Upper Crust

2010-08-21T00:17:00.000-07:00

Members of the upper classes are presumed never to display hunger when eating, comfort in seating, joy in sex or appreciation for music (until the perceive a signal from the conductor), however such is not the true case...

Electricity

2010-07-16T10:36:00.000-07:00

In electrics, we speak of Voltage, Amperage, Wattage, resistance, capacitance, inductance, interference… only there is yet another variable entirely overlooked in the laboratory and utterly unquantifiable in the field, which must necessarily still be taken into account. I call it 'reluctance'.

It is seen in the way that a circuit will carry on functioning, right up to the point where it suddenly does not, with no indication of trouble before and total failure following a complete non-event.

Subsequent examination in may reveal visible corrosion, our electrical arch enemy ('Absolute Power Corrodes Absolutely'), or not. Dismangling, cleaning and re-dissembly is still indicated, as spontaneous remission is seldom observed, even after delivering the requisite 'smart blow' to the intuited 'sweet spot'.

Reluctance. It is not in the text book. It is not in the service manual. It is not on the scale of any meter. It is seldom even whispered beneath the breath between hunched diagnosticians. [Di-Agnostic: One who disbelieves in both outcomes simultaneously.]

Reluctance - A Force Not to be Reckoned With.

Equation of Time, in terms of Money

2010-07-16T10:11:00.000-07:00

Always the way.

Money and no Time, versus Time and no Money.

Boom and bust.
Bullshit and bear shit.
Rock Fish to Hard Plaice.

Corner of Wall Street and Skid Row.
Do not pass. Do not collect.

Time is not Money.
They are perversely distortional.

The Default Position

2010-04-03T22:03:00.000-07:00

At the moment (as on several previous occasions), I find myself living in a house where the default position of the toilet seat is Up...

(Straight up though, unfortunately.)

The n Seasons

2009-11-30T07:15:00.000-08:00

The Five Seasons of New England (USA): Ski, Sugar, Mud, Bug and Foliage.

The Four Seasons of California (USA): Fire, Flood, Earthquake and Drought.

The Secret Lives of Cats

2009-09-26T00:10:00.000-07:00

English cats are said to have nine lives, whereas Italian cats have only seven.

What happened to the other two?

Best music album title?

2009-08-12T14:14:00.000-07:00

The best ever music album title I can think of also happens to be from one of my favourite artists:

'Pandemonium Shadow Show'
(Harry Nilsson, 1967 - in reference to an element of a story by Ray Bradbury)

Yes, even better than 'Surrealistic Pillow' (Jefferson Airplane, 1967)

Perhaps interestingly, both those records were produced by the same person.

Three Questions

2009-07-12T01:15:00.000-07:00

1. For you, what has this life been about, in a word (or two)?

2. At what point did you realise that?

3. In retrospect, when might you have known sooner?

My answers?

1. Friendship, Influence.

2. Friendship; about the third time I became infatuated with a straight guy. Influence; when I recognised my latent parenting skills?

3. Frienship; age 10, when my best friend's family moved far away and we fell out of touch. Influence; around the same time or shortly thereafter (age 11), when I began child-minding (babysitting).

The Secret of Life

2009-06-17T23:14:00.001-07:00

...it occurs to me now (well, one of them anyway) may just be to Ask the Right Questions. Or none at all? Ignorance may be bliss, but it does not constitute a legal defense. All things being equal, I'd sooner have my eyes open. I say this also because I find it helpful when people ask me the right questions.

And the flip side of and compliment to 'Asking the Right Question' must surely be making sure you extract a complete and satisfactory answer - easily overlooked, especially when seeking knowledge or guidance in a complex or unfamiliar field.

However, one of my favourite axioms is, 'Always answer a question with a question.' I find this a good policy as well, falling as it does more or less under the heading of 'Always Present a Moving Target.

To Do list item

2009-06-17T23:14:00.000-07:00

Postpone the inevitable.

Super Heroes

2009-05-06T17:51:00.000-07:00

Got to thinking about some of the difficulties of being a super hero in this day and age...

Take Superman for instance; he can fly, has x-ray vision, is massively strong and fast and has built-in body armour. Aside from the odd lead-lined box or extraterrestrial green crystal, there would appear to be few drawbacks or vulnerabilities to his powers - but let's look again.

So there Superman is, flying along minding his own business when along comes a supersonic jet fighter and signals him to follow. When they land, he's booked for speeding, having no registration, violating restricted airspace, going the wrong way in a one-way flight path, not carrying a radio, proper instrumentation or displaying warning lights, failure to file a flight plan and generally posing a hazard to navigation.

So then he's walking home, doing a bit of window shopping on the way but of course he can see through walls and stuff so things are happening all over on account of that - he's fogging all the film at the chemist, freaking out all sorts of sensitive equipment and exposing bunches of people and animals and everything to high doses of potentially harmful radiation, none of which sets too well with anyone. So now he's in even more hot water. I mean, that's a bad day in anybody's book.

And Superman is not alone. You can imagine pretty much all the super heroes running afoul of the law or society simply by exercising their super powers. 'So I guess we don't need you anymore. Sorry.' 'Don't call us - we'll call you.' and stuff. Who wants to hear that after all they've done? Bitter pill or what? Wow.

I guess what I'm saying is that it wouldn't be so easy being a super hero nowadays - there would be a lot more paperwork for one thing, and a load of restrictions - small wonder you hardly see them around anymore.

Sheesh!

The Flip Side

2009-04-09T23:13:00.000-07:00

In Tom Robbins' novel, 'Even Cowgirls Get the Blies', we are told that opposing sides of the guru's cave bear the complementary slogans: 'I believe in nothing, everything is sacred', and 'I believe in everything, nothing is sacred.'

Any superficial contradiction being left to the reader to resolve, I have a not dissimilar couplet. To whit; 'I may be cheap, bit I'm not easy', versus 'I may be easy, but I'm not cheap.'

Mind over Matter

2009-04-02T02:21:00.000-07:00

Mind over - or rather, divided by - matter... equals scatterbrain?

The Worst Thing

2009-04-02T01:58:00.000-07:00

The worst thing in life is not to know who your real friends are.

Hair

2009-04-02T01:55:00.000-07:00

What is it that happens to hair between the time when it's on someone's head, and when it's in the drain, to so alter our reaction to it?

Solanum Tuberosum

2009-03-22T04:16:00.000-07:00

(What Harry Potter says when he fancies some chips.)

Temptation

2009-03-21T03:21:00.000-07:00

The smoothly troweled slab of wet concrete pavement left unattended late on a Friday afternoon.

Tension

2009-03-19T12:18:00.011-07:00

I do not hold with the idea of total relaxation and a stress free existence. I find it neither realistic, nor attractive. A degree of tension and friction are required. These are what drive our senses and control our body movements. There can be no music without them - the taught string, stretched skin, vibrating air - and without them there is no wind, no tide, nothing. Might be someone's notion of heaven, but not mine. Two of life's essentials - sex, and rock and roll - not only depend, but thrive upon friction and tension. As, I might argue, do all other art forms. Wind me up and watch me go....

Old Irish Wisdom

2009-03-19T12:18:00.009-07:00

(From a grandfather to a grandchild.)

Don't save money for when you are old, because when you are old you can't spend it.

The only things you should be concerned about spending money on in life are a good pair of boots and a good bed, because if you are not in one you are in the other.

(To which I would add good tools, because much like the others, you will spend a lot of time with them.)

I never forget a face.

2009-03-19T12:18:00.008-07:00

I never really forget names either (especially if I get the awkward ones spelt out for me), only I do rather tend to lose track of which goes with which.

So I shall spare you the memory tricks.

No, I never forget a face. However I occasionally remember the wrong one. Such as when the one I recall is one I've not seen in years. When it has, for instance, formerly been framed by quite a lot of hair, or carried by (dare I say) a more lithe frame. Not all of us age equally well, after all, though many I know have, and I among them often heard until fairly recently that I look the same as ever.

Sorry, what's your name again?

Double Cross

2009-03-19T12:18:00.007-07:00

I came to think of myself as a double cross dresser - not as a boy going as a girl, but as a boy going as a girl going as a boy...

So, more of a tom-boy impersonator really.

Are rocks considered biodegradable?

2009-03-19T12:18:00.006-07:00

In the stone age, pretty much all the litter would have been rocks. OK, and bones and skin and shells and typical cooking waste - midden material - but mostly rocks. And rocks aren't a problem as litter, unless they are sharp or you find yourself tripping over them...

So much for progress.

What is in a name?

2009-03-19T12:18:00.005-07:00

One of my many names translates roughly as, 'Walks without Dogs'. (Only from what does it translate?)

Smoking

2009-03-19T12:18:00.004-07:00

It is a tad under three years since I again left off smoking cigarettes - the previous occasion being very nearly exactly twenty years ago. After the first year I no longer think about them every day. After two it is really quite seldom, and in a fashion more clinical than nostalgic. By three years I am hyper sensitive, and especially cannot tolerate being around anyone smoking tailor mades.

My first big hiatus endured five years, pretty much coinciding with a bout of strict vegetarism which lasted six. This could be my last disengagement from smoking, though if I were certainly dying more or less rapidly of something unrelated, I might again reach for the blue Rizlas and Golden Virginia....

The Game of Life

2009-03-19T12:18:00.003-07:00

The only rule I know is that if you die, you are either out of the game, or you have to start all over again or merge with another player, depending on your belief system. Play it anyway you like, and I hope you are pleased with the outcome. It is almost, but not quite, entirely unlike Sudoku.

Google Earth

2009-03-19T12:18:00.002-07:00

Google Earth gives me the same sensation now that I got when first surfing the World Wide Web back in the early 90s - that of zooming about a virtual candy shop of free information - only now it's visual. That the landscape of the Web has altered radically in the meantime is obvious - perhaps more remarkable is that Google alone seems to have all the tigers more or less fimly by the tail simultaneously. Yet, Chrome is insufficient motivation to switch to Microsoft and Vista. Can scarcely wait for the Macintosh version....

[Posted with hblogger 2.0 http://www.normsoft.com/hblogger/]

Art limitating Life

2009-03-19T12:18:00.001-07:00

Art has always been about working within limitations. If all restraints are removed, artists will impose their own. Artists frequently confine themselves in terms of format, medium, material, subject, mood, composition, expense and so forth. Even time is negotiable. Many if not most variables will be subject to a particular set of limitations associated with a certain piece, series, period or style. This holds true not only in the graphic and plastic (sculptural) arts, but as well for the empemeral arts, such as music.

[Posted with hblogger 2.0 http://www.normsoft.com/hblogger/]

Astrology

2009-03-19T12:18:00.000-07:00

The one thing I've never understood about astrology - as currently practiced, at any rate - is why it does not coincide with what we see; why the signs do not tally with the constellations. Or did you not know this? That, for instance, the sun at my birth is reckoned 'astrologically' to have been in the very beginnings of the sign of Pisces, when in fact it was smack in the middle of the constellation of Aquarius. Surely if we are to suppose that the interconnectedness of things exerts subtle yet far reaching effects, and no account is taken of the distances, the only measure can be observed phenomena. Certainly the ancients of most cultures, supposedly unaware of the vastness of space, set great store by, designed their architecture according to, and kept time with - amongst other things - the risings and settings of our sun and moon, visible neighbouring planets and bright stars, and in many cases drew the same constellations as one another, and ourselves. What you see is what you get. They would not for one moment contemplate differently.