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Literature on the Road


One perk of my semi-nomadic wanderings is that I get to sample the daily lifestyles of the friends and family I visit, including their choice in literature and periodicals. Right now, here in Lake Shastina, California the magazine selection includes two of my favorites: National Geographic and Discover. And while I will go home with a box of older editions, I thought I would share with you the January/February lead story in Discover - The Year in Science: 100 Top Stories of 2010.

To pick my favorite story I had to skip a couple of NASA tales, which I am very fond of, particularly those with photographs from the Hubble. There were also several fossil finds, which made us several tens of millions of years older and set the dinosaurs back nine digits in human years. There were solar planes and green cities; avian optical illusions and rocks in Death Valley that move.

But being the anthropocentric fool that I am, I had to go with a finding from neuroscience about another capacity of the human brain. We know we can measure the neural response in the human brain to nearly any stimuli. So a test was done to first notice the neural activity via fMRI when someone told a vivid memory from their life. Next a group of volunteers were scanned as they listened to a tape of that same memory. 

Two results were discovered. First, the more closely a listener paid attention to the story the more their own brain activity mirrored that of the original story teller. Attention was measured by a follow-up questionnaire. Even more interesting was the discovery that among the most attentive listeners, "key brain regions lit up before the words even came out." Listeners were able to anticipate the coming direction of the story just as the original speaker would foretell their own tale. The short conclusion:

"The more you anticipate someone, the more you're able to enter their space."

For those interested this article is #78 in the top 100, titled: Good Listeners Get Inside Your Head.
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M&M Monday Vol. 1


Welcome to the first installment of M&M Monday. For awhile I have been feeling like I needed some artistic outlet other than my writing. However, I have discovered over the years that I have very little ability when it comes to singing, dancing, paint, clay, watercolors, musical instruments, sculpture and well the list goes on. Then last week two elements converged.

First were the on again off again Liz Lieu Tuesday offerings on my friend Pauly's blog. We all wish for more of those posts, they tend to be more frequent when Liz goes into the studio for a new photo shoot. But I really like the serial aspect of those posts and I consider Liz one of my best friends from my years around professional poker. She is the very hot lady in those pictures, yet I know her as someone completely different.

Then during a surfin' expedition, on an obscure blog, I ran across a several pieces of psychological art rendered using M&Ms as the medium. I immediately thought of half a dozen melt in your mouth tableaus.

Several days later I had six bowls of M&Ms in as many colors and sizes as I could find strewn across a glass top table and I began to assembly my first portfolio of chocolate infused art. You should not expect anything as brilliant as the piece at the top. Yes that is Eminem in M&Ms. But I think I can manage to be thought provoking at times and perhaps the slightest bit whimsical but always with the hint of a sugar high.

Here is my first piece of M&M art. In the future I promise more creativity but I thought I should begin with the source, the essence, the beginning, the alpha and the omega.


You can click to make it bigger if you have critical interest in the nuances of M&M art. My first rule of inspiration is that deconstruction be followed by consumption.
--
Eminem Art not by me
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Writing Lesson Learned

Reflection should be well-timed,
rather than time-consuming.
Elizabeth Kostova
The Historian


Back in the late 90s when I wrote my Ph.D. dissertation I stumbled on a little writing trick that has served me well ever since. I break up long projects into pieces (yes, dear writing teachers using an outline). Then I break the pieces into smaller pieces and if possible in to even tinier bits. For my dissertation I had 107 chunks of writing. Then each morning or evening when I sat down to write I would glance at the list and find something that interested me that particular day.

Now you might think that you would write the easy parts first or the ones that you really were interested in and that eventually you would be faced with a remaining pile of unwritten pieces that you had rejected several score of times in the past. For me, at least, that did not happen and has not happened since. I really try to avoid long projects that don't interest me through and through. So some mornings I am more than willing to take on the heavy dialog sections and some evenings the interior psychological musings seem to be ripe for the writing.

Recently I have discovered that thinking about my writing has a similar quality. It almost never works to try and think through a particularly troublesome section of a chapter. Best to leave it alone, not to reflect on it at all. I know the pieces of the puzzle are floating somewhere in my mind or occupying the nearby ether and they will come into view if left to themself and my unconscious receptors.

So don't push the reflection, it tis after all reflected brilliance and sometimes the reflecting surface is subject to cloud cover with the chance of partial eclipse.
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photo by Richard Adams
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Politicus Vomitus


An opinion is an opinion is an opinion. Yes, there is a difference between expressing an opinion based on fact versus one based on personal belief. Also facts are made to be altered, misunderstood, distorted and misinterpreted. It seems to me the larger question is -- does the first amendment mean what it says or only what current political winds interpret it to mean.

Some examples: 

Yesterday I was running errands and Rush Limbaugh showed up on the FM dial. I haven't listened into the olde Rush dog in awhile so I gave him his sixty seconds. It seems some sheriff in Arizona said that right wing commentators, specifically Rush rhetoric, had caused a 22 yr. old adult to open fire on those people in Tucson.*

*notice I have used some facts here. Tucson is a fact. People and open fire are facts. I have gleaned from the news that he was 22 yrs. old. I have added what I consider to be a fact that he is an adult not a "kid" or "disturbed youth" as some reports have characterized him. I would compromise on "young man" but that's as far as I would tolerate this stretching of the facts.

Back to Rush. Apparently the sheriff in question went on to say that one political party was trying to save America and the other was attempting to destroy it. So Rush asked whether he should turn the other cheek and not respond, after all the sheriff was speaking under some duress. But Rush being Rush suggested that the sheriff was being coached by 'democrat policy makers'. I have no problem with this Rushism, he is who he is. You know that first amendment thing I mentioned before, let them all speak I firmly believe.

Here is where Rush and I have issue. While ranting (I rant, you rant, he rants, we all rant...) Rush said that he clearly disagrees with the sheriff's characterization of the republican party and the good Rusher went on to make some good points about how the politics of the last two years illustrates the democrats may not actually be "saving the country". Again, no problem with the argument at all. Rush further said that making statements like that about the two parties only serves to divide us further at a time when everyone should be working together in a non-partisan way. Particularly, says Rush, on issues like the Arizona shootings. No place for inflammatory speech. Now I was a bit shocked to hear that out of the olde Shockmeister himself, so I stayed tuned.

Rush once again read the sheriff's statement verbatim; one party saving, one party destroying. Then, wait for it, you knew he would. Rush said: "Since I completely disagree with the sheriff and I happen to believe just the opposite is true about the two partys." Well so much for non-partisan, non-inflammatory, we're all in this together. Al Franken was wrong; Rush Limbaugh is not a big, fat liar; he is simply a bigot and he knows it.

Part two. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton tripping and falling down is not news. And no matter how much Wolf Blitzer, Hannity, Rather, Koppel or whomever is playing the role of talking head today protests-- you are not journalists. At best you host an infotainment show on cable, at worse you are a media whore hucking Toyotas and Subway foot longs for your corporate overseers. By the way, CNN (The Cable NEWS Network) did a montage this morning of dozens of politicians slipping and falling. You all remember Gerry Ford right. No not John Steward nor Steven Colbert but CNN, I assume Fox covered Hillary's pratfall as well, but possibly with some comment about Obama's foreign policy taking a fall.

Let me repeat - Not News!

Final part for today, I had six but three will be enough, I am beginning to feel better.

Sarah Palin, need I go on?

Seems Sarah had a 'hit list' for last fall's election. Seems Sarah has a graphic display of the U.S. with  gun sight superimposed on each congressional districts she was "targeting", seems Sarah does not think that was inflammatory. Now she could have approved something like a braying donkey or maybe a donkey sitting on his ass or even a big, bold red X over those congressional districts. Nope it was a gun sight.

Yesterday Sarah said linking that graphic to the violence in Tucson is ridiculous. I agree. Not that her ad was a good idea, but that she had the right to use it. However, Sarah also said yesterday that we should all be working together to lower the level of the political debate that has gotten so out of control Sarah Palin said that, no really Sarah Palin. Next thing you know Ann Coulter will be wearing flowers in her hair.

So to Sarah's speech writer, try this on for size.

"You know, sometimes things get by us when we have a big staff. In hindsight, we should not have used that graphic. We should be debating the merits of our positions and not demonizing our opponents who hold views different from our own. Using that image, which appears to be a gun sight was poorly conceived and I regret that we used it."

You see we call that lower the rhetoric, I believe that is what Sarah was suggesting we all do. I suggest leading by example.

I will now return to never-neverland where all the men are beautiful, all the women are strong and they all think I'm wonderful.
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US Map graphic -- NYTimes


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Whores of Convenience


Now that some of the noize around Wikileaks and Julian Assange has died down, I have a question of my many liberal friends and, of course, the liberal media. How is it that Julian Assange is some kind of hero, when he is charged with sex crimes against two women in Sweden? How does his leaking of governmental information obscure violence against women. Can't he be both your driveling hero in the great tradition of Ralph Nader and Daniel Ellsberg and still be a sexist and a criminal?

I would like to remind some of those same left leaning friends and all of the liberal press of how the Anita Hill/Clarence Thomas sides were chosen. No one on the left gave Thomas one iota of potential of being innocent 19 years ago. He was a pervert and a near rapist because of what he allegedly did to Anita Hill and it had nothing at all to do with his reactionary politics.

Did it?

So how do Julian Assange and Clarence Thomas end up on opposite sides of the liberal fence?

Or perhaps a better question. How do Anita Hill and Julian Assange end up under the same blue tent?

Just how convenient are the politics of sexism?
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December-January Link Dump


Last month while I took a break from blogging, I did not take a break from surfing. As usual I came across many websites I thought worth recommending. Here is a somewhat expanded link dump of cyber tidbits and morsels. I think nearly anyone who reads this blog on a regular basis will find something of interest here.

The first link refers to the picture above. Islamophobia Today is a great source for articles and incidents to throw at any closet bigots you might know. I understand all of your friends, like all of mine, are free of bigotry. But there is always a scapegoat of the moment that many consider deserving of what they would never admit to be prejudice or bigotry. These days it is Islam that fills the bottom rung in our collective psyche.

One of my favorite links from the past (three years ago) is the Ben Cohen BB video about nuclear arms using BBs to illustrate, yes this is Ben of Ben & Jerry's. Recently I found this one on the Obama $100 million budget cuts, this one uses pennies to provide the scope of the U.S. budget.

One final site with a political tinge. Not My Priorities. Not only do you get to express our views on how your tax dollars should be spent but they have free postcards to send to your representatives that give you the opportunity to vent a bit. I sent mine!

On a completely different plain I found Wisdom Bits - Nubbins of Wisdom from Everlasting Song Mavens.  A bit of quotable fun.

I remain amazed that JG Wentworth spends millions of dollars on television advertising to people who have structure legal settlements. I am amazed that it is so profitable for them meaning there are tens of thousands of lawsuit winners out there to be advertised to. Now I find that if you are in a really long divorce battle and your are running low on money to live and to continue to sue the bastard who left you for his 22 yr. old secretay, there is a company that will invest in your divorce settlement. Balance Point Divorce Funding will give you a lump sum to live on and to be able to continue the divorce proceedings. Their cut? Well they get a piece of the final divorce gouging.

How about a World Clock, not just of time or time zones but of world population, deaths worldwide, U.S. budget deficit, world wide energy, environmental numbers, food and more.


I point out this next website without looking in a mirror or trying to touch my toes. Fat is the new thin when it comes to male sexual performance or size does matter kind of. No not that size!

You know I seldom let a month go by without some photos from the Hubble Space Telescope. This is what NASA calls the Advent Calendar 2010. Twenty-five shots from Hubble, some old some new. The pictures are beautiful, the words will provide the wonder.

Final, two posts from friends of mine who also engage in this frustrating, egotistical adventure we call blogging. The I Don't Give a Crap Tax from Michelle Lewis and techno-bling and the demise of a Qigong Master by Mira. Interesting reading, admirable writing.

Welcome to the new year, remember the days really are getting longer but the nights are more inviting.



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Morning Routine


I was up just after dawn this morning, not my usual rising time but when a large black critter decides he wants breakfast and you are the only one with an open bedroom door. Well let's just say I pulled on a few pieces of cotton clothing and fed the cat. Then I was standing at the porch door still blurry eyed when I noticed the hummingbird feeder was a block of ice, so I put on a few more layers of garments and switched out the frozen feeder for the warm one from the kitchen counter.

That's when I noticed.

We have been having some deep fog layers the last few nights. In the frozen morning that translates to every branch, leaf, needle and stalk being hoarfrosted in the early morning. Lovely, beautiful, enchanting - pick your adjective. But something else happens if the morning dawns with direct sunlight as it did this morning. The ice crystals get dislodged and fall towards the earth catching the sunlight in all their facets as they do.

First one or two small motes of sparkle drift down. Then as the sun hits the trees more and more twinkles, flashes and sparks fly. Finally I walked out among a nestle of scrub pines and stood in a tinkerbelle fall of fairy dust.

I would tell you fair readers that I then rushed to my keyboard to share with you this bit of magical winter wonder but I did instead go back to my warm bed for another hour or so of blissfully cozy sleep.
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photo credit: Cyndy's shot of last evenings alpine glow on Mt. Shasta
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