Via this via this.

This.

Oprah recently scolded Jay Leno for a joke about Letterman. She did not scold herself for promoting a sweat lodge spiritualist recently indicted for the sweat lodge deaths last year. I went on her website to see what she is promoting. Quick run through find a yoga activist who recalls how she was ministered to in a gay sex club in an old church by a man with AIDS who showed her God or the soul. Maybe this yoga activist woman who hangs with shamans will take the place of the Sweat Lodge Spiritualist Guru. This preachy woman falls for anything. I believe that one can find God in anyplace. Evidently Oprah was running a contest to find out who found God in the most bizarre place. Instant Guru. Climb on the bandwagon. Sign the publishing contract. Here we go again.

I’ve never been one to remember my dreams much. Here & there… Very much there…

I have a number of friends who are crazy with the dreams they remember. An old work friend has had ridiculous dreams, many which have involved me in some way, shape or form. The dreams he’s had were crazy! Scary, even.

But lately, since I’m not working, I’ve noticed I remember my dreams more. And I’ve had or three two over the past few days that have stuck with me.

I’m going to start with Dream #2, because it’s easier.

I was visiting My Little C. And she was much older. About as old as some of my other little friends, I’d guess around 4.

Here is what I remember: She was sooooo excited to see me when I showed up. And she was overly excited to play with me every day I visited… But OMG the meltdown when I left was unreal…

I miss My Little C so much. However, I hope that meltdown never happens… I’d never wish that on Lili. Wowza.

Let’s hope that’s some kind of wishful thinking on my brain’s end… Lordy.

Decision on Dream #2? A bad nightmare of what could happen. And what I don’t wish to have happen… Hopefully Skype visits will make this NOT happen. I don’t want Lili to deal with that meltdown…

Dream #1, was slightly more disagreeable for me. I woke up freezing and nearly about to cry:

I had agreed to babysit for someone. Not sure whom… And shortly before, I was with my parents, somewhere in Pittsburgh. Keep in mind here that my parents live, full time, in Florida, and visit once maybe in 2 years… I was in their car. Rather than have them drop me off at my home – I had them drop me off somewhere that I believed to be near Carnegie Mellon, except in the dream, CMU was on a gigantic hilltop… In real life they would have adamantly refused to drop me off anywhere but MY home… But, why didn’t I have them take me home? To MY car? Or drop me off at the babysitting location? I have NO idea…

So they drop me off at some random house, (a house which I ran through,) apparently near CMU. And I have maybe an hour to get to the babysitting thing. And to my house. So I start jogging down this hillside. There were steps of some sort. Through woods. And next thing I know, I’m at a building. I have to go through this building to get lower on the campus to get to where I need to be.

So I enter the building, except for this building and the next three I went through, I couldn’t find my way down & out. Most buildings were like the entrance way to random ice hockey arenas or hotel rooms that I went to when I was oh, three or four & my dad coached hockey?! Huh???

And in each building, I had to search for the stairs down. I also ended up in some kind of natatorium (read: swimming pool). What the heck is going on in my brain?

Also, I ended up making a random friend during this experience. I have no idea who he was. I don’t remember his face, but he kept trying to tell me something throughout the whole ordeal. And he was totally ok with helping me figure out where to go, but he had no idea where to go either… And I never found out what he wanted to tell me…

So, my random friend and I walked out a door at one point and onto what I think was a metal sidewalk alongside a building or something. And it led to some crazy, wicked stairs. Metal stairs. And I swear to god, they were like 35 flights up. All metal, with slats so even on the stairwell, you could see to the bottom.

The last thing I recall was going to the top of the stairwell, looking down over the railing and through the slats, and freaking the heck out…

Dream #1? Well, the start of it? I have no dang idea. I do remember some really strange things from when I was between the ages of 3 and 5. Things that my mom is shocked by… But the end is all about my random, irrational fear of heights and any open stairwells… Or railings.

It’s totally irrational, but I DO have a crazy fear of railings, steel sidewalk type things, bridges, and those metal grates over things that you have to walk over on the sidewalk…  They terrify me to no end. I have yet to figure out the where and why. I’ve climbed mountains, and stood on rocky overlooks and been okay… I don’t get it…

Dream #3 was some kind of dream about a dog… I have no idea. My dog buddy D? She doesn’t bark. Ever. But in dream #3 all I know is a dog barked. Loud! I thought someone broke into my apartment with a dog. I heard the bark that loud.

Result of dream #3? Yeah, no dog, but it was my phone announcing a new text message which I somehow heard as a bark in my dream… No clue why I thought dogs were in my apartment… Granted, we can’t have pets, and I do wish I had a sweet little pooch like my doggy friend, D….

Insights? All are welcome… Oy.

Only the past few years has this one bothered me, because I have realized that it was impossible.

Roger and I were always playing together in the woods and in the yard, some times we would take a picnic with us to the secret rock, and we would have tons of fun. Laddie would watch over us, he knew the woods as well as we did.

One day while playing in the woods, we saw a little girl. We went over and talked to her, she played with us for a few hours then she said her mom had made cookies “Did we want some?” Sure we loved home made cookies, so we went with her to her home. It was smack dab in the middle of the woods. No road, no drive way. I looked at Roger and said “I didn’t know anyone lived out here” But we went inside, and the house was big. It even had an upstairs. My house didn’t.

We washed our hands, and drank the milk and ate cookies. It was fun. We then told her we would come back the next day and bring the ball, so we could play even more. We never saw her mom we just figured she had gone shopping.

The next day we sat out to go play in the woods, we went straight to the little girls house, she came out and we went playing, She told us we could have a snack later after we were done playing. We sure did, and it was good, home made warm cookies and cold milk were the best.

My brother came with us one day and he to enjoyed himself, we all had fun playing. We even played hide and seek.

One night though my dad asked us why we spent so much time in the woods, we told him, and he shook his head and said he wanted to see the little girl, because no one lived in the woods. As we began walking with my dad out into the woods, he kept saying there was no one out there, then he saw the girl to. He was happy to know that we hadn’t made it up and he went back home and left us to play.

I don’t know when it stopped but it seemed like for some reason she just stopped coming to play, and we never thought about her much after that.

But what gets me, is there was never any parents around, and they had lights in there house, they also had a fridge, and a stove. As well as running water. Yet that far out in the woods there was no electric.

For those of us living on a Need-To-Know Basis, here is a bit of fluff that has all the basis of what we need to know:

Apparently, Tropical America is the small pond for the big fish with four eyes.  This creature swims half in the water and half out, searching for meals using one eye like a telescope — one eye like an all seeing submarine — while using the other two eyes to roam freely every which way like loose marbles.  They say that the lens of these eyes are shaped so that they can focus in both, air and water — but what concerns me is what does a fish brain do with so many images?  Many boys 2 men who shall not be named have trouble multitasking with one set of sights, much less two.  Perhaps all these four-eyed fish are female and they are unimaginably able to procreate without any males? Stranger things have been known to happen… for example, Avatar?  Really?

© agw

My brother and I sat down in the living room across from each other and we were talking about the early morning thunder shower. My mom was still in the bed.  We had already unplugged the TV, and we had made sure that the phone was unhooked. As we sat there talking the thunder was just booming away outside.

Lady came in and I told her to go lay down, she didn’t need to go outside in this weather. She went back in with mom, and I looked up at my brother, when I saw it. A huge ball that looked like a huge eye ball came through the closed window, slowly took it’s time to go through the room then stopped.

Right there between the 2 of us was this pulsating eye ball, or whatever that it was. It didn’t have any sparks coming from it, but it was beautiful, and it also seemed to be sitting there for a long time, I had seen ball lightening before but this wasn’t the same.

It began moving slowly all of a sudden towards the other windows, it then went out and we both heard a big loud boom. Pete and I both stared at each other, we couldn’t believe what we had just seen. Nearly 3 or 4 minutes it had just sat there in the middle of the room not moving.

When mom got up we told her what we had seen, but she swore we were crazy because ball lightening would have blown the house apart had it of stopped. What it was I still don’t know, but I dont think it was real ball lightening.

I have seen many strange things happen this year. Things I never imagined.

I have seen my beloved Saints play thirteen games in a row without a lost. I have seen people that have never had any respect for them mumble that they might go to the Super Bowl.

I turned sixty this year. When I was young, I could not even imagine being sixty. It was simply something my brain could not compute. I have no idea when I thought I would die but living to be sixty just simply was not in my future. Thank God, not only did I make it in one piece. I am healthy enough to enjoy it. Now that is a blessing.

I saw a black man become president in the last twelve months. When I was young a black man couldn’t even drink at certain water fountains. I only wish one could have been elected I liked. Still more people liked him than didn’t. That is what America is all about.

To be honest with you I don’t like his ideas on politics. He seems like a good guy. Like someone, you could argue with for a while and at the end agree to disagree. I have many friends like that. They come in all colors.

I never thought I would see what we consider an old man retire from football, renegotiate and come back. Then retire again and come back still another year. He did this and managed to bring his team to New Orléans this Saturday.

Nothing-personal Mr. Favre but I hope you lose.

Let’s not forget Haiti. I never thought I would see that and I hope never to again. Seeing that reminds me of how the end times are going to be. If you don’t get a wake up call from that disaster, you may have a problem.

Last but certainly not least. I never would have thought that I would see a republican win Ted Kennedy’s home town or his seat.

As many strange things as I have seen in the last fifteen or sixteen months I have a feeling there are even stranger ones on the way.

Have a great day this could be your last.

ggs

ü      Intelligent people have more zinc and copper in their hair.

ü      The world’s youngest parents were 8 and 9 and lived in China in 1910.

 ü      Our eyes remain the same size from birth onward, but our noses and ears never stop growing.

 ü      You burn more calories sleeping than you do watching TV.

 ü      A person will die from total lack of sleep sooner than from starvation.

 ü      Death will occur about 10 days without sleep, while starvation takes a few weeks.

ü      Chewing gum while peeling onions will keep you from crying.

 ü      The Mona Lisa has no eyebrows.

 ü      When the moon is directly overhead, you weigh slightly less.

 ü      Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone, never telephoned his wife or mother because they were both deaf.

 ü      A psychology student in New York rented out her spare room to a carpenter in order to nag him constantly and study his reactions. After weeks of needling, he snapped and beat her repeatedly with an axe leaving her mentally retarded

 ü      “I am.” is the shortest complete sentence in the English language.

 ü      Colgate faced a big obstacle marketing toothpaste in Spanish speaking countries because Colgate translates into the command “go hang yourself.”

 ü      The smallest unit of time is the yoctosecond.

 ü      Like fingerprints, everyone’s tongue print is different.

 ü      “Bookkeeper” is the only word in English language with three consecutive double letters.

ü      Right handed people live, on average, nine years longer than left handed people do.

 ü      The sentence “the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog” uses every letter in the English language.

 ü      If the population of China walked past you in single line, the line would never end because of the rate of reproduction

 ü      China has more English speakers than the United States.

 ü      Every human spent about half an hour as a single cell.

 ü      Each square inch of human skin consists of twenty feet of blood vessels.

 ü      An average person uses the bathroom 6 times per day.

ü      Babies are born with 300 bones, but by adulthood we have only 206 in our bodies.

 ü      Beards are the fastest growing hairs on the human body. If the average man never trimmed his beard, it would grow to nearly 30 feet long in his lifetime.

 ü      According to Genesis 1:20-22, the chicken came before the egg.

 ü      The longest place name still in use is:

ü      Taumatawhakatangihangaoauauotameteaturi-pukakpikimaungahoronukupokaiwhenuakitanatahu – a New Zealand hill.

ü      If you leave Tokyo by plane at 7:00am, you will arrive in Honolulu at approximately 4:30pm the previous day.

 ü      Scientists in Australia’s Parkes Observatory thought they had positive proof of alien life, when they began picking up radio-waves from space. However, after investigation, the radio emissions were traced to a microwave in the building.

 Strange-but-true

 ü      The average four year-old child asks over four hundred questions a day.

 ü      The average person presses the snooze button on their alarm clock three times each morning.

 ü      The three wealthiest families in the world have more assets than the combined wealth of the forty-eight poorest nations.

 ü      The first owner of the Marlboro cigarette Company died of lung cancer.

Cheerioo

For the last week, several blogs and tv programs have features this new book, Game Change. For the first 5 days or so, all I heard about was the “revelation” regarding Sarah Palin calling Joe Biden “O’Biden”, something that Palin herself had already written about in Going Rogue. This story has been passed around as proof positive that Palin is an idiot. Whatever, not real proof or real earth shattering. But now, I have read an excerpt from the book regarding the Edwards Campaign. OMG!! I am now certain that the press will knock over a real story to pursue a non story to discredit Sarah Palin.

I have heard for several years about the long suffering Elizabeth Edwards. How wonderful she is. If 1/10th of this story is true, she is a nut-case just like her husband’s mistress and all the people who witnessed this stuff firsthand should thank their lucky stars that Obama won. I am not thankful that Obama won, but given the Edward’s saga, better Obama than John. At least I was wise enough to vote for Hillary in the primary.

Top Albums of December 2009

This month saw the return of the “Cool Ruler” Gregory Isaacs with his new album Brand New Me. And on the Texas side of things Norah Jones released The Fall.

1. Gregory Isaacs – Brand New Me [Tad’s Records 2009]
2. Norah Jones – The Fall [Blue Note 2009]
3. Various Artists – KGSR Broadcast Volume 17 [2009]
4. Bost & Bim - The Bombing: The Very Best of Bost & Bim [Bombist 2009]
5. Brother Ali – Us [Rhymesayers 2009]
6. The Senior All Stars – Hazard [Skycab 2009]
7. Chezidek – I Grade [Tabou Records 2009]
8. Kiddus I – Rocking Rebel [2009]
9. Various Artists – Strictly The Best Vol. 40 [VP Records 2009]
10. Blackroc – Blakroc [Blackroc Project 2009]
11. Various Artists – Strictly The Best Vol. 41 [VP Records 2009]
12. Various Artists - Joe Gibbs 12 Inch Reggae Disco Mixes, Volume 3 [17 North Parade 2009]
13. Various Artists – Joe Gibbs 12 Inch Reggae Disco Mixes, Volume 1 [17 North Parade 2009]
14. Various Artists – Joe Gibbs 12 Inch Reggae Disco Mixes, Volume 2 [17 North Parade 2009]
15. Black Sheep Dres – From The Black Pool Of Genius: The Prelude [Bum Rush/T-Stylz Wreck 2009]
16. Guy Clark – Somedays The Song Writes You [Dualtone 2009]
17. Various Artists – Strange Things Riddim [Ire Ites 2009]
18. Gift of Gab – Escape 2 Mars [Cornerstone Ras 2009]
19. Junior Dan – Reggae Road Map [Hi-Try 2009]
20. Various Artists – Sugar Riddim [Sugar 2009]

I have decided to breathe out half as often in order to reduce my ecological footprint. I do not want the EPA to regulate me.

PLAYBOY: So Saldana’s character was specifically designed to appeal to guys’ ids?
CAMERON: And they won’t be able to control themselves. They will have actual lust for a character that consists of pixels of ones and zeros.

WHAT THE FUCK, JAMES CAMERON.

long dark/short hell

And then this:

But then I go to the source and:

Strange things happen when you take animals out of their natural environment.

1. A Chindogu cannot be for real use:
It is fundamental to the spirit of Chindogu that inventions claiming Chindogu status must be, from a practical point of view, (almost) completely useless. If you invent something which turns out to be so handy that you use it all the time, then you have failed to make a Chindogu. Try the Patent Office.

2. A Chindogu must exist:
You’re not allowed to use a Chindogu, but it must be made. You have to be able to hold it in your hand and think ‘I can actually imagine someone using this. Almost.’ In order to be useless, it must first be.

3. Inherent in every Chindogu is the spirit of anarchy:
Chindogu are man-made objects that have broken free from the chains of usefulness. They represent freedom of thought and action: the freedom to challenge the suffocating historical dominance of conservative utility; the freedom to be (almost) useless.

4. Chindogu are tools for everyday life:
Chindogu are a form of nonverbal communication understandable to everyone, everywhere. Specialised or technical inventions, like a threehandled sprocket loosener for drainpipes centred between two under-the-sink cabinet doors (the uselessness of which will only be appreciated by plumbers), do not count.

5. Chindogu are not for sale Chindogu are not tradable commodities:
If you accept money for one you surrender your purity. They must not even be sold as a joke.

6. Humour must not be the sole reason for creating a Chindogu
The creation of Chindogu is fundamentally a problem-solving activity. Humour is simply the by-product of finding an elaborate or unconventional solution to a problem that may not have been that pressing to begin with.
7. Chindogu is not propaganda, Chindogu are innocent:
They are made to be used, even though they cannot be used. They should not be created as a perverse or ironic comment on the sorry state of mankind.

8. Chindogu are never taboo:
The International Chindogu Society has established certain standards of social decency. Cheap sexual innuendo, humour of a vulgar nature, and sick or cruel jokes that debase the sanctity of living things are not allowed.

9. Chindogu cannot be patented:
Chindogu are offerings to the rest of the world – they are not therefore ideas to be copyrighted, patented, collected and owned. As they say in Spain, mi Chindogu es tu Chindogu.

10. Chindogu are without prejudice:
Chindogu must never favour one race or religion over another. Young and old, male and female, rich and poor – all should have a free and equal chance to enjoy each and every Chindogu.

Ibland drabbas man av gamla minnen. Idag var det mitt gamla arkeologliv som föll över mig. För en massa år sedan grävde jag i Gamlebyen i Oslo, dvs det medeltida Oslo. Det ligger inte där Karl Johan är utan mer österut om Jernbanestasjon.

Jag grävde i gatan, vilket innebar långa, smala, djupa schakt, med mycket avfall. Det fanns ett hatgöra, som vi alla byttes om med; att stå vid sållet med iskall vattenslang och spola säckar med schaktmassor. Det låter som om man skulle kunna hitta vad som helst, men det gjorde man inte…

Det man allra helst letade efter var runpinnar. Små meddelanden inristade på revben eller träpinnar. Meddelanden som inte fått sin jämlike förrän SMS:n såg dagens ljus. Social Media på 1200-talet!

Man ristade helt enkelt ett litet meddelande på en pinne och stack det i handen på mottagaren. Hade man tur kunde man hitta ett svar på baksidan. En runpinne från Lund ska ha haft följande dialog: “Jag älskar dig mer än allt annat”. På baksidan stod det ungefär: “Tro honom inte, han vill bara åt din kropp”. Man kan gissa att budbäraren lagt sig i dialogen.

Surfade runt på runpinnar och hittade ytterst lite, men fann i alla fall en norsk sajt. Vad sägs om dom här:

“Rikarðr á mik”  – På modern svenska: “Rikard äger mig”

“Benediktus á” - På modern svenska: “Benediktus äger“

“Kyss mik” - På modern svenska: “Kyss mig”

Nu används i o f s kanske inte ordet “äger” på samma sätt som på 1200-talet. Men kul blir det när man läser!

Den här dialogen, som finns på ett revben från Gamlebyen i Oslo, daterad till ca 1200, är lite av en favorit:

- hversu fór mál þat er þú reist i krosskirkju (Hur löd påståendet som du ristade i Heliga kors kyrka)

- óli er óskeyndr auk stroðinn í rassinn (Ole är torr i baken och knullad i röven)

- ??? vel fór þat (??? gott löd det eller kanske  Den var bra!)

http://www.arild-hauge.com/oslo.htm#osloruner

§

rainy day

the child is ill

dog sleeping

dusty will

∞

]]> http://collective1.wordpress.com/2009/11/13/strange-days/ Fri, 13 Nov 2009 13:19:59 +0000 coletivo1 http://collective1.wordpress.com/2009/11/13/strange-days/

Yes it’s a shocker isn’t it?

Then again it could just be a skeleton toy thrown onto the smoking shelter at Xscape…

It seems extremely ironic that last Thursday, as the home of the 1st Cavalry was being attacked (by and member of the Religion of Peace), Pres. Obama was meeting with the Indians/Original Americans/Native Americans.  He is now at the memorial service for the brave people in our military.  If he lectures us on not rushing to judgement, I will scream.  If he brings up Health Care, I will scream.

Many know of his short presser after the attack where he stupidly laughed and gave shout outs to some of the Indians in the audience.  He even incorrectly identified the honor that he recently gave to one of the Indians.  Not a Medal of Honor, but a Medal of Freedom.  If Bush had done this, we would never hear the end of it.

With the economy, health care, the environment, and two wars, as well as a drubbing on Election Day, I wonder what the conference with the Indians was and why it was some king of priority right now.