February 3, 2002

"An Explanation"

WHY have there not been so much words of late? There is an explanation. I received an interesting email telling me about an article concerning the LACE made by prisoners at the old Yuma prison. I sought out PIECEWORK, the magazine in which the article ran, and read it while at Barnes and Noble last week. A fascinating read, those prisoners made some quality neck pieces, shawls, and various other items. That magazine also featured an article about embroidery samplers through out the ages. It was particularly the thing for young ladies to do in the seventeenth, eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. There were photos of some of them, absolutely gorgeous in their detail, complexity and variety of patterns. Girls as young as ten and thirteen created them.

Young girls don't do things like that anymore. (Well, maybe there's one or two in the world, but precious few.) I told the email coorespondent there's a reason WHY this is the case. For one thing, entertainments in those ancient centuries were rare and hard to come by. There's ever so much more to attract the attention of those young girls these days. It's not just TV, an activity that can somewhat be followed while stitching. Oh no, it's a more recent invention that distracts them these days: Computer games! Those girls may now, rather than show off their creations, brag about their 'Enchanter' which has just achieved 24th level, or how Gelu, the ranger, has just tracked down the 'ring of vitality'.

It's not just young girls who are distracted by such diversions. Middle aged women have been known to spend many a hour at computer games, THIS ONE in particular.

Thus, I have not gathered many words this week, but, oh, yes, Gelu has indeed found the 'ring of vitality', and now is progressing towards uncovering the 'ring of life' before the big, bad nasty Necromancers get it.

Gelu:

of the special archery skills,
and ability to make sharpshooters out of his elven archer troops:

And, of course, he is an excellant leader:

This diversion is by way of the 'Heroes of Might and Magic' game. Besides being busy in Erathia, I've also been busy in the 'Everquestian' world of Norrath as well. Aye, and now the real world begins again for me Monday morning tomorrow.

 

February 5, 2002

"Beats Chasing One's Tail"

Ain't Gelu pretty?

I do like those pretty Elven boys, don't I? First there was the Elven wizard in Might and Magic. Then there was the Elven wizard in Everquest. After him, I tried an Elven cleric. He REALLY looks pretty in his Tismak. It's all good fun.

It beats the diversions small furry mammals have, for instance. They are left to chasing small things such as flies, shadows and their own TAILS. Bantus, the cat who stayed with us briefly and now is with Richard, a friend of ours, has taken to chasing his tail with a vengence. More than just silly play, the tail has become a foe to defeat, ''To the extent that I've seen her actually hiss at her own tail, and growl when she manages to catch it,'' Richard reports in an email. ''To date, all of her efforts to exorcise whatever demons are in possession of her nethermost appendage have proved fruitless. Chasing, catching, hissing, growling, nothing will rid her of the meddlesome pest. In desperation, I thinks she's found a new way of expressing her contempt for the plagues that follow her, as you can see.''

Phfftt!

sticking his TONGUE out at the ever present beastie!

 

February 6, 2002

"Errata"

Ah, I've made a mistake. It's not BANTUS, who's convinced his tail is a spawn of Satan. It's his house-mate Muffin! (If you were reading the last entry carefully, you might have noticed the change of gender. Richard is referring to a FEMALE cat. Duh!) Now, the two cats look alike, so it's easy to see why I made the mistake. I never quite checked the NAME of the particular peculiar feline. Bantus has only had the most exuberant fun with the art of tail chasing.

clearly, this is fun

Oh, well, the analogy still fits. In those computer games I play too often, I am battling enemies, and I can get quite ferocious about it. It's just poor Muffin thinks her TAIL is an enemy. Or maybe she's just PRETENDING it is, to make a game of it. Who knows the mind of cats? Perhaps she thinks of herself as human, and if her TAIL were removed, she'd be the equal of any non-furry mammal? That would, indeed, run counter to normal cat thinking, for most think they're superior to humans. ''Feed me,'', you human. ''Pet me! (when I'm in the mood for it) I'll be aloof until I want you.'' I'm not saying all kitties are possessed of such snobbery. It's just that I've met a few. Certainly, BANTUS isn't like that. He's simply a 'good-time' fella.

I am not the only one to make a error lately. I recieved a 'pop up' ad, those annoying things you find when you close all your browser's windows. I knew it was so, for it must have been done in frames. The thing advertised was named in the title bar. However, the body of the page was a stark white with only the words that I was 'not authorized to read' this page. Fine by me. Fine by me. I never wanted to read it anyway.

 

February 7, 2002

"More Serious Matters"

It's the early of the morning, I've a sinus headache, and yet I think I'm chatty. We'll soon find out if I'm chatty. Let's see, it's Thursday. Two more days until the weekend. Maybe this weekend we'll do something other than just play computer games.

I've not much wanted to be serious lately, even though there are serious matters I can discuss. Laura's found a primary doctor here at last. The lung doctor advised her if her ankles were to become swollen, her lung troubles may be heart related. Last Friday, or was it Thursday?, we noticed Laura's ankles had indeed become wide and spongy, with only a faint indication of bone. Monday, she saw the primary care doctor, and now she has a diuretic (and potassium) to take. The flat little round white pills are working, for the day after she took the first one, her ankles regained their shape and firmness.

Laura also has an appointment to see a heart doctor. The nice thing is, all these doctors are close. No more long travels. Also, no more waiting for approval to see a doctor. The bad thing, ewww, the COST of the medicine! We'll manage, somehow.
<rant>
Still, I must say a few cranky words about the republican administration, and the fact it wouldn't fund the HMOs at the same rate it does Medicare. Thus, the HMOs find it unprofitable and shut down. I do wish Clinton had made progress with that national health care plan. There's something wrong with an administration that cuts basic health care to funnel more money into tax cuts for the wealthy.
</rant>

I've discovered many people here have their own solution to some of the costs of health care. They are in the habit of going to nearby Mexico for medicines and even doctors. Reportedly, it is much cheaper. If the quality is equal, there is some merit to it.

We have visited Algodones, the Mexican town not far from here, a couple of times. Once, I got a very nice silver rope chain there for cheap. The other time was in the dead of summer, and all I remember is getting intensely heat sick, while tranversing the border on feet. The town, however, is much nicer than Nogales. I remember the roads seemed straighter and wider. The buildings seemed more orderly placed. One even had black marble walls.

Ah, I just glanced at the nearby clock. It is not so early now. Still, early for those who like to sleep late. But quarter after six is when I must begin preparations for the day ahead.

As I assemble breakfast and lunch, mixed vegetables and chicken, I wonder ''What will this day, still new, hold?''

 

February 9, 2002

"Crises Like These"

Okay, what happened on the 7th, the day I approached so wonderingly in my last entry? As the day wore on, I felt increasingly sticky eyed and sneezy. By day's end, I was had by a bug. To the 'quarantine' for me! Laura doesn't need my bugs, so we blow kisses from a distance. Anything I touch is sprayed down with Lysol after I'm done with it.

We hope all this quarantining works. She successfully escaped Julia's bugs, and they seemed more virulant than mine. But it's necessary to try. Laura's had some weird heart episodes lately. Early one morning, she felt like she was fading away. It reminded her of the time she faded away on the table during an angiogram. It lasted only a short time, as gauged by events transpiring on 'Everquest'. But any time like that is scary.

So she's feeling quite fragile. The diuretics are helping. Laura did go for a short walk with Julia to the post office yesterday. We love that everything is so close in this new city. However, she felt really tired and short of breath in the evening, so maybe today, she will take it easy.

I upgraded our website to the 'Sweet Dreams' version, which will allow more elbow room. I'd already begun getting the disk usage warnings of having exceeded the alloted 30mgs of the smaller package. Dreamhost is having a special on it, however the upgrade didn't go through right, is my guess. I can't access the pages, nor the FTP. It's frustrating. They are usually quite good at responding to crises like this, though. Which is important to me, who is eager to update and EXPAND those files.

I added three new journals to the links page. Okay, I think two of the writers call their daily entries BLOGS, but that is just the terminology fashion of the date. The bloggers tend to attach their entries end-to-beginning, as I do, but in reverse chronological order. Most journallers snip their entries into a separate html for each day. Me, I gotta be different. This chronological end-to-beginning has always worked, so I've seen no reason to change it. Besides, it greatly simplifies the number of files. Anyway, 'C.Throckmorton', 'Shauny' and 'Streams of Consciousness' are all worthy reads.

WHEN I get web-access again, I'll upload the linkpage and this entry. Until then, I might as well go play 'Everquest'. My Dark Elf enchanter is level six already. Laura and I are talking of sharing one druid between us. I might. Until then, I'll go see what trouble 'Amarra' can get into. Those rattlesnakes, skeltons and large spiders are tough for a sixth level to kill.

 

February 10, 2002 - A

"Good, That Diversity"

What to say at the first? I didn't want to get up early and go with Laura and Julia to the Unitarian Universalist meeting. I felt lazy. But Laura goaded me into going, and I am quite glad I did.

Surprised, we were, to see a familiar face from the chess club. Nick shares many of Laura's outspoken anti-religious views, as we discovered in the discussion after the lecture. Ah, it is good that diversity should grow and prosper, one flower aside another of a different hue.

For is it not so that we are all after the same thing: peace, security, love? But, oh, how we go about it all differently. We pondered the Tootsie pops the lecturer had given us, analogy to us all having that 'chocolate center', despite our different wrappers and outer flavorings.

Tasty chocolate center, to the point of it. I found a defination, applicable to the U.U.s, which rather fits me: FREETHINKING MYSTIC. Actually, the leader spoke from a book called ''Freethinking Mystics With Hands'', this to be the defination of U.U.s. Ah, the Thinking is important, but then the Action must follow it. The mysticism is not to be confused with the 'magical thinking' which Laura hates so, the 'wave a magic wand', and all is magically solved, without any concrete effort on the person's part sort of wishfulness. Indeed, that sort of thinking has only caused ruination. But perhaps even this defination does not fit me, as found in the dictionary for 'mysticism': ''The belief that knowledge of divine truth or the soul's union with the divine is attainable by spiritual insight or ecstatic contemplation WITHOUT THE MEDIUM OF THE SENSES OR REASON''. No reason at all? That could get you into trouble. Have the intuitive ecstatic contemplation, but don't throw out the REASON, for sanity's sake!

To that end, SCIENCE has done much to relieve suffering, of which the sages hope also to do. Still, that 'center', the desire to remove suffering, this is what all wise people seek.

Ah, but is this all trite generalizations? Still diversity, and the atmosphere in which it prospers is good.

While hunting quotes about 'mysticism' in (The Great Quotations), a book we have, I found one by Albert Schweitzer about spirituality which rather MORE fits what I'd thought was mysticism:

''Affirmation of life is the spiritual act by which man ceases to live unreflectively and begins to devote himself to his life with reverance in order to raise it to its true value. To affirm life is to deepen, to make more inward, and to exalt the will-to-live.''

(Schweitzer's days were from 1875 to 1965 and thus he had the use of MALE pronouns, the OLD use of English. In his day, it was not meant to be exclusive. Maybe. )

But do I agree with Schweitzer that ''The city of truth cannot be built on the swampy ground of skepticism.''? I don't think so. In determining truth, a certain amount of skepticism is necessary, or you'll be at the mercy of every crack pot ideology that rears its ugly head. Skepticism is not 'swampy'. Lack of it leads to piss-poor foundations, and the whole structure will fall down. It's maybe okay, if you like a city of only grass huts.

Truth needs the OUTWARD LOOK as well as the INWARD LOOK. We need the eyes of reason AND the eyes of intuition. It is only in merging the picture that each gives us that the whole can be obtained.

The meeting was good. And the meal with the other attendees afterwards was good, too - 'Fish and chips' at the Yuma Landing, a restaurant with lots of old pictures of early Yuma which I'll examine at another visit. Lots of small various colored planes hung from the sky blue painted ceiling, in one hall would surely intrigue my Mother, who is wild about planes. That is, if she would ever come out here.

 

February 10, 2002 - B

"Freethinking Mystics With Hands"

Freethinking Mystics With Hands

 

February 11, 2002

"Joan Writes A Bad Poem"

Halfway through recitation, well, not EVEN halfway through, it WAS l o n g, of what I was certain was a GREAT poem, Laura stopped me abruptly, ''STOP, I don't want to hear ANY more . . .''

''HUH??''

Now I must say Laura is my best poetry fan. ''Greatness,'' she says, ''lurks in some of them.''

NOT in this one. So I roused Julia from bed. ''Come read this thing. I need your perspective.'' She read it. Now she usually likes anything, not effusively usually, but never NOT.

''Ugh, it's a nice attempt. But there's something missing. Something's just not clear.''

So I pondered this poem later whilst I pushed fabric underneath a rapidly moving needle all day.

''GAK! Even Julia doesn't like it, maybe it is bad. Yes, it did have the trite wordings, lazy fall back to phrases and terms usurped by others and forever thus corrupted. And, yes, I DID say X, when I meant Y. And . . .''

Push. ''ROAR!'' (The motor is quite loud.) Push. ''ROAR!'' The clothes pile was gradually diminished, and I was done for the day. I quickly walked to the red car, in which Laura and Julia awaited.

Going down Fourth Avenue (yes, the two cities I love both have 4th avenues. Probably, too, the ones I hate. PHEE-nix in all its meglaplexity certainly has a 4th avenue. Who cares about PHEE-nix, though? Anyway, going down 4th avenue, I saw that lovely ice cream shop. You know the one, right next to the video shop. Sigh. My eyes kept darting there, as if by darking there, they could somehow steer the car (and Laura) there. Didn't want to mention it in case Laura was of a mind to be diet-fierce.

Past by it, we did, when Laura exclaimed, ''Where is it? I passed it by. Sun must have been in my eye . . .''

Yes, the ICE CREAM SHOP! A large serving of cheese cake ice cream, with strawberries mixed in, with a dipped waffle bowl (dipped in chocolate and coated with almonds . . .)

Ah, it was heavenly!

I'd nearly forgotten about that BAD poem awaiting perusal. Once home, however, I HAD to look. I opened the drawer and pulled out the yellow notepad. The first line went down like lumpy oatmeal. Each line got lumpier and lumpier . . .

GAK! It was horrible! I shoved the rubbish back in the drawer. The bad taste of it quickly subsided, however, for I had the happy purr of a belly full of cheese cake ice cream.