Esoterika

Patton Oswalt: " I remember, when 9/11 went down, my reaction was, 'Well, I've had it with humanity.'
"But I was wrong. I don't know what's going to be revealed to be behind all of this mayhem. One human insect or a poisonous mass of broken sociopaths.

"But here's what I DO know. If it's one person or a HUNDRED people, that number is not even a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of a percent of the population on this planet. You watch the videos of the carnage and there are people running TOWARDS the destruction to help out. This is a giant planet and we're lucky to live on it but there are prices and penalties incurred for the daily miracle of existence. One of them is, every once in awhile, the wiring of a tiny sliver of the species gets snarled and they're pointed towards darkness.

"But the vast majority stands against that darkness and, like white blood cells attacking a virus, they dilute and weaken and eventually wash away the evil doers and, more importantly, the damage they wreak. This is beyond religion or creed or nation. We would not be here if humanity were inherently evil. We'd have eaten ourselves alive long ago.

"So when you spot violence, or bigotry, or intolerance or fear or just garden-variety misogyny, hatred or ignorance, just look it in the eye and think, 'The good outnumber you, and we always will.'"

This man and his 100,000 toothpicks have now broken my brain. Because it wasn't enough to spend 35 years making a phantasmagorical symbological sculpture of the Bay Area out of toothpicks, he also had to make it interactively kinetic.

A district Boy Scout review board in California, overruling a local Scoutmaster, has challenged the national organization's ban on gays by formally recommending that an openly gay former Scout be awarded the top rank of Eagle Scout.

Ryan has received a "huge outpouring of support" nationwide, including from 20 or 30 Eagle Scouts who sent him their own Eagle medals.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/01/08/boy-scout-eagle-scout-gay-board-recommends/1817611/

It's sunny and 74˚ outside. In November.

??!??

What a great time I had at the last few hours of the Adiantum Harvest event! I only wish I could have attended the whole thing. It felt just like "the old days", in a good way... great range of local and out-of-town folks, nice cozy hall and excellent decorations, diverse workshops, interesting philosophical discussions, projects and socializing, courts and recognition. Everyone playing and working together to accomplish a good time, a delicious feast incorporating an amazing array of gleaned Baronial produce, a quick and efficient tear down. And one stupid irredeemable troll on the mailing list is not gonna spoil that glow for me! He obviously didn't get what real community is about, but we do, and that's what matters.

Workers at the Hermitage Museum have banded together to care for stray cats living in the cellars of the building. Thus they have learned one of the best lessons animals teach us: that caring for small beings increases our compassion. "“People here become kinder, because they have the possibility to show this kindness,” says director's assistant Maria Haltunen.

Read more at http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/culture/2012/09/russias-museum-cats.html

Discussion once more arose on the extraordinary quantities of fur Whiskers is capable of shedding at any time. Didn't he get the memo that he's a short-haired cat?

Karl says: "He's a long-haired cat in a short-haired cat's body. He's a trans-cat..."

(wait for it)


"He's transfurring!"

Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuugh!

Why watch a video of a man ironing a shirt? Because there is a compelling, zen-like beauty in an ordinary task done extraordinarily well.

Also, as someone who has ironed professionally, I learned some things!


And that is how it's done.

Oh yeah, time for the next draft recursion photo...

At last, time and weather allowed me to take my writing rig outdoors! The yard is hitting its peak of lush, extravagant beauty. I sat and marvelled amid the drifting fragrance of wisteria and white lilacs.

Whether I work indoors or outdoors, however, the question remains the same: where is it exactly that I think I'm going to sit?


The back yard's full glory will kick in as the English walnut leafs out over the next few weeks, creating complex woodland shade. Right now its seemingly lifeless twigs are just beginning to emit leaves:


The current lack of shade makes the laptop screen visibility extremely poor (I wish there was a way to fix that; what is a laptop for if not to take outside?), but the ambience is worth it. Later I changed locations to stay in the shade. Here's Mama keeping me company again amid her jungle...I wonder if she feels nostalgia for that corner, as I do, since that was where she and the kitten horde were living when we first met?



Meanwhile, in the bucolic land across the street...


(A few minutes before this, the horse looked for all the world like it was waiting at the bus stop next to this lot, but it moved by the time I got my camera.)