Images Photos

Are You Getting Enough?

This is how the conversation went:

"So how are you; you getting enough?"

"Could you be more specific?"

"Any noun that could possibly end that question will do."

"For instance . . . "

"Are you getting enough sleep, sex, peace, calm, tranquility, bacon . . . "

She laughed and answered - no.

I took her for breakfast at The Pork Store, it would be hubris to suggest I could conjure peace.

Late April in The Netherlands

Today a visual extravaganza. I received these pictures a couple of months ago, makes one want to visit in the season of the bloom.

Yes those are all tulips.

and more tulips

with the obligatory windmill

My favorite, I like the sea of orange.

too much?

Did you know that after the spring bloom, all of the bulbs are taken out of the ground and vegetables are planted.

--
Thanks to Jan Marks for the forwarded photos

Saturation Saturday: Orange

I found the offerings in orange to be more esoteric
than the other colors so far.

Everyone's favorite glass artist, Dale Chihuly likes to work in orange. This is a painted piece to suggest a glass creation to his associates.

an orange bird

an orange box

an orange Warhol by Warhol

an orange alligator

and finally, you know how much I like kittens. . .

and an orange one at that!

Fractals of the Past

Fractals of My Past: Serial Cerebral Eruptions in Both Hypnagogic

and Hypnopompic States of Consciousness.

Sometimes the olde academic creeps out and we must have long titles with a strategically placed colon. What that jumble of mumble title refers to is a series of events I encountered not long ago, in which I experienced for several days a recurring pattern of thought. These thoughts occurred just as I was falling asleep, that transitional phase between wakefulness and sleep is called the hypnagogic state. They also happened in the early morning as I transitioned back from sleep to wakefulness or what is labeled the hypnopompic state.

Now we all experience some fairly jumbled mind-space imagery at times in the spaces between sleep and not-sleep. This is not unusual at all. But for two days, both morning and night I had a series of remembrances that were all of a very similar content. I vividly recalled incidents from my life in which I was either guilty of a social faux pas or some form of minor embarrassment. All of these events I regret but only in the incrementally smallest manner possible; anything less and I would not even be able to recall them. They were what are known clinically in the psychological profession as minor oopsies.

Yet time after time I would wake or drift towards sleep and find myself reliving yet another such memory. After several such incidents, I shook myself and began to consciously imprint a mental suggestion to avoid such cerebral cobwebs; a little shrink trick you can use when you start thinking about snakes or spiders or old girlfriends. But I stopped myself and decided to let the silly string play out on this one.

There was that too flippant comeback to the nice married lady at the Manhattan Beach party.

The rude slip of the tongue to the nun on the playground in third grade.

The unintentional sexual innuendo to that redhead and instead of politely withdrawing I followed-up, I wonder if she ever forgave me.

That tiny white lie that exploded in West Hollywood, how was I to know she had been to that motel?

I estimate that over two days there were at least ten or twelve of these mental machinations that welled up from the depths of my subconscious. The last was so vivid it awoke me at 3 a.m. but it was the last. The parade of mortification was gone as suddenly as it had begun and I was left with run of the mill prurient fantasies to lull me to sleep.

Strange what goes bump in the near night and dark mornings.

Who Do You Think You Are?

An unlikely source led to this recommendation. I just do not keep up with contemporary music, haven't in many years. Yes, I am stuck in the 60's & 70's. Then I get a musical suggestion from a friend who I never would have expected to be so current - except that his job has him hanging out with high school kids, so I guess the music would seep into him by proximity osmosis.

Anyway, for those who like me are not in synch with modern music, that's Christina Perri in the photograph. I have been sampling a wide range of her work and I strongly recommend the her video Jar of Hearts, not only do I like her voice but the lyrics are evocative and the imagery is wonderful. Watch carefully for the incremental theft of her soul and the final recovery.

Who do you think you are

Running round leaving scars

Collecting your jar of hearts

and tearing love apart

You're gonna catch a cold

from the ice inside your soul

Don't come back for me

Don't come back at all

eReader

Consider this a double sided review, sort of like going to see a good movie at the drive-in. A twofer so to speak. First, the eReader I am reviewing is not the Kindle. I had my first experience with a Nook, the Barnes & Noble eReader.

I must say I am not tempted to buy an eReader at this time but only because every tech prognosticator says they will be obsolete in a few short years, which in tech talk could mean next month. My personal experience with the Nook was very positive. The weight was more than a typical paperback but less than a hardcover book of any decent length. Holding it was no more or less cumbersome than holding the equivalent book. Being able to adjust the font size is a huge plus, I mean HUGE.

I did use an added clip-on light for late night reading but it's the same one I use to read a book, so no big disadvantage there. The charge lasted a good long time even if I forgot to give it morning nursing time from the electronic nipple. Truly an all around positive experience, if I wasn't sure every laptop, tablet and device to be named later will not have the same capacity by the next holiday cycle, I would buy one.

Now to the books I read on the Nook. I know you know that Arthur C. Clarke wrote 2001; you probably also know he wrote a sequel 2010 made into the Roy Scheider and John Lithgow movie, which Clarke was not associated with. Sir Arthur also wrote 2061 and I have recently learned 3001. I read as far as 2061. However, he along with Stephen Baxter wrote another three novels that "will do for time what 2001 did for space." Well sort of, that's a big boot to fill, but I will concede that the three "time books" are worth the read for SF fans of Clarke. Titles: Time's Eye, Sunstorm, First Born. I do strongly suggest that you not read any reviews; they all want to give away the big turn in the first book, which really needs to be experienced in the context of the story.

I must add one caveat: if you are a reader who is disappointed when a well written book fails to deliver an ending that gives you complete story closure then this series may not be your cup of tea. But for sheer SF entertainment, I would put them on my Nook or Kindle or beach blanket.

Hang In There

If you know anything about cats, you know this was not his first attempt to get into that hanging nest. You also know the first try did not end well.

After the loud crash coming from the closet, you know there was a cat sitting on the floor next to a pile of pants and hangers saying - "I meant to do that, no really I just wanted to show you how unstable those hangers can be."

But not only are cats curious, they also can be persistent, that's his permanent bed now or at least until you notice and get a picture to put on the web. And just think all those slacks now have a nice even vertical fur crease on one leg.

I know the "Hang In There" slogan has prompted a lot of dangling photos, so rather than have you labor at finding them. I have given you what I think are some prime examples.