My World Is Crumbling

I told myself and therapist #2 that I was going to do a nice blog post today on the PC as I am not at band and have all day and the desktop WordPress is worlds better than this stupid app.. Well, I have till 5 anyway.

So I started pretty early… It is now 6 minutes to 2 and the damn PC only just loaded the page. Over 2 hours. I am so stressed out I can hardly scream or cry though those reactions might help.

I am thinking that it is the prehistoric PC that I am stuck with. XP, Pentium 4 2.8 – really old like over 10 years. It was nice back then and it’s outlived the custom handmade BOXX workstation, but it is just so frustrating… All that time wasted and time is not very available without compromising my aunt’s care which I just won’t do.

So I gave up with it and am writing this on the very limited android app. So I am so sorry readers, but imagery and suchlike will be uncommon treats which upsets me as I love doing that for myself as well as for you.

Dammit.

I think in the second to last post, a simple YT video with a paragraph took about 45 minutes and that was “good.”

Basically I have been trying these days to see the good in life and try to convince myself that I should not snuff it when my aunt goes home. There are quite a few folks trying to get me to see as well. Some rare friends on Facebook, the hospice coordinator and care volunteer and the hospice chaplain as well as the home care aide who comes over every day.

Forty five years of depression and bad experiences limit the ability to see any good things… I have never been happy, for example, I just do not know what that means. I can not relate when people tell me I should be so.

For the past few weeks now I have been trying hard to get my thoughts going in the direction most say they should go… towards a positive attitude regarding the future and what it might bring. It is slow going, to be sure as I have convinced myself over the decades that nothing good would or even could happen to me, if only because it never had. That of course is not counting the handful of real friends I have, who I treasure and love deeply. There have been so many more false people who did their level best to hurt me and always succeeded.

I believe I can change that standard line of self destructive thinking and replace it with positivity, but it is going to take some effort. I am grateful for my strengths… people are always saying that they can’t fathom how I do what I have done these past few years. That must be a positive thing I think. So, yeah, dammit I am going to do it.

Maybe I won’t have to die alone, even.

That’d be nice, but, breath holding is not advised.

I don’t know… hopefully it will all work out… I am pretty much convinced though that I will be starting anew with not a dime once the state and the feds get through sucking the life out of what’s left.

Anyway, peace and I thank you for still being there.

Peace.

And What Of The Future?

Oh dear. When I went upstairs this morning, the PC was in a terrible state. I tried to get her going a few times for a half hour or so, then resigned myself to the fact that it’s now officially dead.

Not sure just what that means, really, but things will be a lot different. I am in a worry state in regards to work.

Oh dear.

I just got WordPress on my new Android phone, but it looks a bit limited. Maybe not… Will need to explore more.

Peace.

Through A Fog, I Travel.

Wow. Life has been getting more surreal on an almost daily basis. For the lack of stuff to read that this has caused you all, I apologize. There is less time available and time management has not been a strong suit. But I stumble forth.

Auntie’s in home hospice now. Regulars will be able to twig the significance of that. Coming upstairs to write and find things happens less often and to be here it must do as I am not equipped with a smart mobile or laptop.

Fabulously silly new governmental regulatory flaws have been frequently revealed which have left me simultaneously bemused and disappointed. There are non-governmental issues at work as well with obviously unvetted and unprofessional firms in the hired caregiver sector. It’s rude andtakes advantage but it’s not as bad as it could be, so there’s that, I guess.

One of the ambulance crew, obviously experienced, once told me, “I don’t like “I guess”.” Wish I’d not had to find out about the truth of his conviction for myself. Good man, that fellow.

This machine was showing it’s age, too and was down for nearly a week all told. And I mean seriously down. More of that to come I’m sure.

But I do get to see some long lost loved ones who’s company I am enjoying rather a lot. Friends are there as well. They make the banality and the angst a bit easier to see roll by.

Okay this has taken way too long and I best get downstairs.

Peace.

Life… Endings… Beginnings…

Laurel and Hardy

 

Oh Man, I wish I was as happy as these two guys. Who happen to be heroes of mine. Come to think of it, I’m not sure that I have ever experienced a state of true “Happy.” Maybe I have, I just don’t really know. Doesn’t feel like it.

Things have been so weird these past three months or so. All sorts of things have gone wrong.

I can’t even remember what some of them were! Such is the state of my mind. Not so good.

This past month especially has featured the rapid decline of my aunt, who as some of you know is the focus of my full time care giving these past several years. To make it real short, she’s coming home on Monday from a stay of a week and a bit in hospital to start in on her hospice. Yeah. Pretty awful.

I can hardly imagine what’s going to happen in the next month or so… let alone what the aftermath will be like for me.

It’s going to be very strange.

Of this I am certain.

I can’t help but think that everything will come to a halt.

I hope that is false and the predictions of the many that claim that I will be rewarded are right.

So much has drained out of me.

I await my fate and will attempt to influence it.

Peace.

Midnight Blues – Joe Bonamassa

I am so sorry that I’ve not been around. My mind’s been going through some changes* and I have felt incredibly blue these past few weeks. Really bad and funky. The relentless snowfall has not helped, either and I am sore all over. And we’re supposed to get another foot in a couple of days. God.

But…

Something really nice happened just the other day.

Something that has potential, the chance to get rid of some really awful feelings roiling inside me.

So I thought I would celebrate my hopeful return with you all with this beautiful song I got in Mr. Bonamassa’s newsletter.

It seemed so ridiculously appropriate.

Peace unto you all.

* (Sorry, Buddy.)

Drive On – Johnny Cash – For All Who’ve Served

Uploaded on Jan 16, 2009

Great version of Drive On from Nashville Now, 1993

dasboot19801 3 years ago

Johnny Cash was the real deal. He didn’t put airs on for anyone, and he called it the way he saw it. Mr Johnny Cash, American icon.

On this Memorial Day… I… don’t have many words, so I offer this.

To all those who have served us, this is for you…

and…

I thank you.

Peace.

Sample-Return Mission to Enceladus? Make It So!

Space.com – Enceladus vents water into space from its south polar region. The moon is lit by the Sun on the left, and backlit by the vast reflecting surface of its parent planet to the right. Icy crystals from these plumes are likely the source of Saturn’s nebulous E ring, within which Enceladus orbits. Mosaic composite photograph. Cassini, December 25, 2009.
CREDIT: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Michael Benson/Kinetikon Pictures. © All rights reserved.

From Saturn Moon Enceladus Eyed for Sample-Return Mission at Space.com:

SAN FRANCISCO — Scientists are developing a mission concept that would snag icy particles from Saturn’s moon Enceladus and return them to Earth, where they could be analyzed for signs of life.

The spacecraft would fly through the icy plume blasted into space by geysers near Enceladus’ south pole, then send the collected particles back to our planet in a return capsule. Enceladus may be capable of supporting life, and the flyby sample-return mission would bring pieces from its depths to Earth at a reasonable price, researchers said.

“This is really the low-hanging fruit” of sample-return missions, said study leader Peter Tsou of Sample Exploration Systems in La Canada, Calif., who presented the idea here Wednesday (Dec. 5) at the annual fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union. “It would be a shame not to pick it.”

[…]

If the mission is approved, it could probably be ready to launch by 2020, Tsou added. Samples from Enceladus’ plume would make it to Earth about 14 years later.

Enceladus is a great candidate for sample-return, Tsou said. Its geyser-blasted particles are fresh, having come right out of the moon’s subsurface ocean. The mission can be done without landing on and re-launching from another world, two costly and complicating extra steps. And Enceladus seems to have all the ingredients necessary to support life.

“That doesn’t mean life is there,” Tsou said. “But we want to find out.”

Well, dang, doc, I want to find out, too!

I mean, just think… !

Enceladus is an awesome place. Seriously, I have always had a gut feeling that there are critters there.

Too bad it will be so far off, man, seven long years… but

It would be awesome if a base could be established, robotic, no doubt, that would bore through the ice to the ocean below… and have streaming video. Should be able to sort out the streaming part by then, eh?

There’s a strange old post here from October ‘09 called The Critters Of Enceladus,

Ha! That was a fun one.

Here’s a pic…

Resident of Enceladus? image N00121336(crop) NASA/JPL

Yes, indeed, Enceladus is a fine place to get real and tangible material to study.

Peace.

P.S. This was a draft from way back in January… sigh.

 

So Ham – Spiral of Sound Crystal Bowl Choir

Uploaded on Mar 5, 2009

Oct. 2008, Atlanta. Candace Keach, director. Spiral of Sound Crystal Bowl Choir
www.SonicAngelMusic.com

Now for some harmonics.

Accompanied by a note that said simply “huge beautiful sound waves weaving in and out of phase . . . everything is vibration . . .,” this video arrived via a dear old friend.

Mighty good stuff. Interesting how they run the wands around the bowls to keep the sound going.

This is how this piece is described at the artist’s site:

“So Ham”, based on the six-pointed star, visually represents the sound of OM considered to be the sound of creation. You will want to join us in the So Ham breath, the prayer of life bridging body to spirit as we sound the Vedic creation story.

A lot going on in that summary. Ancient stuff. Need to listen a bit more to connect properly to those old Vedician concepts.

And this is their mantra, it seems… it is the only text on their homepage. Says a lot, though.:

“…the moment you notice that you are just an instrument of the Divine,

… the moment you become like a hollow flute,

… the wind will blow thru you and there will be music.”

I can dig it. It would be nice to able to relax the mind enough so that these swirling, phasing acoustical vibrations could sink in and do their stuff. A good goal… will work on that!

Ah well… enjoy!

Peace.

Strange Trees

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Trees are cool.

So… above are a few rather strange trees from around the world. My favorite tree of all time is shown… yay… if you guessed that it’s the one that looks remarkably like a young lady dancing in glorious happiness… you’d be right. That one is just way too cool.

See even more good weirdness at 10 Strangest-Trees On Earth, The “crooked forest” of Gryfino (Poland) – updated and at xinhuanet.

There’s the thread called Strangest Trees On Earth which was the impetus for this post.

Although things are better every day and preparations to transform into something or other are underway, I still haven’t been feeling 100% right in the head after the incident. Hence the lack of posts. Saw this surfing ATS and figured this’d be an entertaining quickie to hold WATT over until I can regroup and start up properly again.

More coming soonest…

Peace.

The Girl From Ipanema – Stan Getz, Astrud and João Gilberto

Uploaded on Mar 2, 2010

Originally from the 1964 verve album “Getz/Gilberto” featuring Antonio Carlos Jobim & Astrud Gilberto.

Stanley Gayetzky or Stanley Gayetsky (born February 2, 1927 June 6, 1991), usually known by his stage name Stan Getz, was an American jazz saxophone player. Getz was known as “The Sound” because of his warm, lyrical tone, his prime influence being the wispy, mellow tone of his idol, Lester Young

João Gilberto (born João Gilberto Prado Pereira de Oliveira on June 10, 1931 in Juazeiro, Bahia) is a Grammy Award-winning Brazilian singer and guitarist. He is credited with having created the bossa nova beat and is known as the “Father of Bossa Nova.” His seminal recordings, including many songs by Antonio Carlos Jobim and Vinicius de Moraes, established the new musical genre in the late 1950s.

Astrud Gilberto (born March 29, 1940) is a Brazilian singer best known for her samba and bossa nova music, most famously as the vocalist on the Grammy Award-winning song “The Girl from Ipanema”.

Astrud Gilberto was born as Astrud Weinert, the daughter of a Brazilian mother and a German father, in the state of Bahia, Brazil, and was raised in Rio de Janeiro. In 1959, she married João Gilberto, later emigrating to the United States in 1963. They eventually divorced in the mid-1960s.

She sang on the influential album Getz/Gilberto featuring João Gilberto, Stan Getz, and Antonio Carlos Jobim. She had never performed professionally, and sang on the recordings at the suggestion of her (then) husband, João Gilberto.

Antônio Carlos Brasileiro de Almeida Jobim (January 25, 1927 in Rio de Janeiro December 8, 1994 in New York), also known as Tom Jobim, was a Grammy Award-winning Brazilian songwriter, composer, arranger, singer, and pianist/guitarist. A primary force behind the creation of the bossa nova style, his songs have been performed by many singers and instrumentalists within Brazil and internationally.

Been playing this a lot lately, along with many other favorite songs to help alleviate the emotional pain running amok through my mind. It hurts… and some of it… the things I was compelled to do and especially the resultant messages… will haunt me for many, many years to come. There is no doubt. It is disturbing that this distress does not seem to be reciprocal in even the slightest way, but that is expected as, sadly, it is the nature of the affliction. Horrible.

Soothing, graceful songs like this one instill a calming effect, lots of old favorites from my youth do also, it seems the only way and it is working more and more with each play. Slow going, but going!
A few of these tunes can be found here at WATT by typing ‘music’ into the site search field on the left.

Science has found that music is embedded quite deeply in our genes (a good thing!) and it does help to listen. Seem to need a lot of it, though and non-stop to boot. Not a problem. WFUV is always on of late, even in my sleep (just in case).

Oh, yeah, if you like, here’s a link to Astrud Gilberto’s website.

I will learn to be at peace, to forgive, to cope.

Peace.

Baying At The Moon … A Cry For Help.

A strange post follows… from out of the blue… an attempt at inner peace through writing it out…

I can’t sleep. I usually can, but not tonight. It’s 6 in the morning… been up since 2:30. My mind’s racing. It always does. Always. Can’t stop it, or even slow it down. So many thoughts. Like cars on the highway, hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of them, all going fast, so fast. And I look at them all.

My friend Nelson’s getting help with the same thing and says it’s working. I need that same help. Need it so bad, so damn bad. And I have, for the first time, decided that I will get it.  Applying for SAGA state aid, even though they’ll hold me as a financial hostage. Awaiting the start of the second, much larger in scope therapy program. Reapplying at the hospital’s clinic.

Took some cig breaks outside as it’s warm… and cried at the end of the driveway. Short walks down the hill. Need to stop smoking tobacco, really. Thankfully, that thought at least is sinking in pretty well.

This new determination to make 2013 radically different and good is the direct result of the aftermath of what I have gone through over the past three months… something which went horribly wrong and left my heart and soul ripped right in half. That ripping overwhelmed me as it was the very manifestation of my inexperience and fears in living life.

My wonderful loving friends, who in my long-standing despair had not been called or visited in so very long, showed their true colors and helped me see clearly what had been happening in those months… and long before… and I have thus been able to cope and return to a place of relative calm. I thank God for them and love them dearly. One has suggested that I write up this experience and told of the healing and mental organization that will come of doing that. This post is somewhat of a preamble to that task… I think I should do it.

I am so alone; have been since the year dot. If only there was someone to love, someone to hold, to share life with, someone to help ease the pain. Someone who… in her heart… truly wants to be that person.

I don’t know how to find such a person. Not a clue.

When that last sentence got typed, I finally felt tired, very tired and fell asleep in the chair. Awoke at 8 and laid down. Up at 10:30, checked on my aunt and walked down the hill to Mario’s to get some egg, cheese and bacon sandwiches. Someone had taken a tear-off from my web design poster there. No one has contacted me, even from the last one. Saddens me. I think this one’s slightly better after editing. We’ll see, eh?

I’d been pacing and pacing and pacing, trying with no success to keep the angst down, puttering with no real aim and going outside as mentioned to feel the cool air. Nothing was working, not even music so I typed the blurb above. It did help. I hope you can forgive this deviation from WATT’s norm.

Taking comfort… knowing that this will be the start of inner peace and healing, a mere 50 years late.

I take comfort in you readers, too. You make the world seem that much less lonely. Thank you.

Peace to you.

Arctic “Frost Flowers” – Neato!

Check this out…

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On Christmas Day, an article was posted online called Warmer Arctic Waters Sprout Frost Flower Meadows. It had been posted before, on the 19th of December to the NPR website as Suddenly There’s A Meadow In The Ocean With ‘Flowers’ Everywhere.

Here’s a tantalizing little taste:

“I was absolutely astounded,” he says. They were little protrusions of ice, delicate, like snowflakes. They began growing in the dry, cold air “like a meadow spreading off in all directions. Every available surface was covered with them.” What are they?

“Frost flowers,” he was told. “I’d never heard of them,” Jeff says, “but they were everywhere.”

Whoa. I’ve never heard of them, either!

Nature is just amazing. These form when the water is warmer than the air and at the surface the conditions are such that these are sort of drawn out of the water carrying the salt with them forming delicate structures with three times the salinity of the water.

Also fascinating is that the team found that these little ‘flowers’ are teeming with life! Which they did not expect. Each one is a home for one million bacteria! One million!

Read the article! Either one, for the full story.

Gives more hope for finding critters in other unexpected places… places like moons and planets!

Let the search continue!

Peace.

Rest In Peace, Dave Brubeck… Fly High.

Another hero has moved on to that better place up there… sigh.

His genius, however… lives!

Dave Brubeck – Take Five – 1966

Uploaded by Astrotype on May 24, 2007

1966 in Germany

Dave Brubeck – piano
Paul Desmond – alto sax
Eugene Wright – bass
Joe Morello – drums

What wonderful music this man gave the world.

He has soothed my soul so many times… so many times.

Thank you, Sir.

Fly high through the stars.

Peace.

Doreen, Alligator Wrangler.

I thought this worthy of inclusion.

We certainly can get along just fine with ancient reptilian lifeforms.

And too much regulation spoils the fun.

Rock on, Doreen!

Peace.

Poacher’s snares in Africa disarmed by Gorillas!

Sweet!

I was delighted to learn that this is not a new phenomenon and I am even more satisfied in the knowledge that the kids have learned how to do it. While the traps are not intended for them, gorillas do get maimed and killed by the infernal things, so it is mostly for self-preservation that they do it, but I wonder if their concern extends to other creatures.

Betting it does, as some primates are known to kidnap puppies to raise as pets to guard their families and groups.

Believing that animals are beneath us is simply ignorance at its finest.

The following text and picture is an excerpt from the source article at the GrindTV Blog…

Two days after a young mountain gorilla was killed in a poacher’s snare trap in Rwanda, two juvenile gorillas were observed deactivating two similar snares.

It is the first time since African gorilla field research began more than 50 years ago that juvenile gorillas have ever been witnessed destroying snare traps, which are indiscriminately injuring and killing mountain gorillas.

“We knew that gorillas do this, but all of the reported cases in the past were carried out by adult gorillas, mostly silverbacks,” Veronica Vecellio of The Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International wrote on the fund’s blog.

“Today, two juveniles and one blackback from Kuryama’s group worked together to deactivate two snares, and how they did it demonstrated an impressive cognitive skill.”

According to Vecellio, field data coordinator John Ndayambaje of the fund’s Karisoke Research Center spotted a snare in the path of some gorillas and moved to disarm it. But Silverback Yuba “pig-grunted” a warning to him, as if to say, “Stay away, we’ve got it covered.”

At the same time, juveniles Dukore and Rwema, along with blackback Tetero, “ran toward the snare and together pulled the branch used to hold the rope. They saw another snare nearby and as quickly as before, they destroyed the second branch and pulled the rope out of the ground,” Vecellio wrote.

Unfortunately, the gorillas and trackers don’t find all the snares. In her blog, … [read more]

Peace.

Dolphins Greet Each Other – By Name!

I think we all had an inkling that things like this are very real. It also carries some deep implications.

The observant will note that most animals are sentient beings. Self aware beings. All it takes is having a cat or a dog and spending any amount of time with them. If you watch birds you will note the same. Even the oft-denigrated rat. It just seems so obvious to me.

Many people feel that dolphins are endowed with a spiritual nature. Of this I have no doubt. It is known, for example, that dolphins have empathy, even for other species… we have all read stories of dolphins rescuing humans who are in great peril.

Humans have been interacting with dolphins for a long time. The US Navy, since the early 60s has been training and using dolphins (and sea lions) to mark and recover mines and assist in other underwater operations through it’s U.S. Navy Marine Mammal Program (NMMP). In view of the above realizations from this new research finding and knowing of their empathic nature, I have a lot of reservations about their use (abuse?) by our military in having them participate in any way in humanity’s greed-induced bloodshed. I wonder if they would help us if they knew the real purpose of such activities, because, although marking mines seems legit, I can not imagine the military sends them out solely on benign missions.

All in all, this finding shows dolphins are not only fully self-aware and wholly sentient but able to tell others about it. And probably not just other dolphins, either. Think whales, sea lions, etc. As such, they are quite obviously on par with homo sapiens sapiens; and since they have had 50 million years of evolution under their belts, compared to our 250,000, they must be far in advance of our developmental level.

Noted are some recent rumblings related to giving dolphins the same rights as people. I agree! But governments are unlikely to adopt the measure as it would likely economically and legally affect fishing operations adversely. There’s that greed based culture we all suffer within for ya.

Thousands upon thousands of dolphins die in fishing nets. This is because they can’t see them. Dolphins use sonar and sound to see in a similay way to our use of light to see. The nets do not reflect their sound beams, as they are, well, nets. Hence they get caught unawares. It is tragic.

Perhaps a way around it could be if nets could be re-engineered and redesigned to allow enough reflectance so that the dolphins could see them… things would be alright for all concerned.

Anyway…

Some data on this research…

Via ATS member Nicolas Flamel in this thread:

It looks like dolphins have names for each other and when first meeting other dolphins will introduce themselves and ask them to come play.

When meeting strangers in the wild, dolphins whistle signature tunes that may be the animal equivalent of “Hello, my name is…” stickers.

These introductions include other information as well:

‘I’m so-and-so, and I’m interested in making contact in a friendly way, I’m not attacking,'” said study researcher Vincent Janik, an expert in animal communication at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland.

Janik calls these names “signature whistles” and he claims only humans and dolphins have personal “names” used to identify each other.

Non-human social primates do have identification calls however, so that other primates know who is calling. Janik says this is not the same as having names:

Social primates know each other from the sounds of their voices, but they don’t create signature identification calls. Dolphins, on the other hand, start developing their own whistles at just a few months of age.

Regardless, this does raise the bar on the self-awareness and intelligence of dolphins.

Source: Dolphin’s Unique Whistles Say, ‘Hey! Come Play!’ at livescience.com.

Here’s some information about the author of the study:

Dr. Vincent Janik is a member of the Sea Mammal Research Unit and the Centre for Social Learning and Cognitive Evolution (SLACE) at the University of St Andrews in Scotland.

Besides getting his PhD, he also did some work with the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, USA (whose members included Robert Ballard, discoverer of the Titanic). He’s also a Royal Society University Research Fellow (like Isaac Newton and Stephen Hawking among others).

biology.st-andrews.ac.uk…

His work with dolphins is ongoing:

Janik and his colleagues are now studying how the dolphins develop their personalized whistles. They’re also investigating the hypothesis that the whistles act as a dolphin’s name by recording wild dolphins’ signature whistles and playing them back to the animals.

www.livescience.com…

some dolphins already work for the U.S. Navy to help detect sea mines for example. I wonder how much they get paid?

science.howstuffworks.com…

Bottlenose dolphins have their own undersea weapons. They use echolocation, which is like active sonar, to not only locate or identify fish but also stun them with a sonic boom.

Indeed.

Oh, as a matter of interest, in searching for a picture for this thread, I ran across this fascinating piece: Translation technology may let humans speak with dolphins at a site called Digital Trends. Heres a taste:

Researchers have begun to create a new technology that could soon allow humans and dolphins to talk to each other.

Dolphins have long been considered by scientists to be the most intelligent animals on the planet (aside from humans, of course). But soon, with the help of newly developed underwater translation software, our two species may actually be able to talk to each other.

Armed with a waterproof computer, divers may soon be able to decipher the chirps of dolphins, then create and project an appropriate response, all in real time, reports New Scientist.

Dubbed Cetacean Hearing and Telemetry (CHAT), the project is being undertaken by Denise Herzing, founder of the Wild Dolphin Project, and Thad Starner, an artificial intelligence researcher at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta. The end-goal of the CHAT program is to “co-create” a language that uses the natural sounds of wild dolphins, which can then be employed to talk with our finned brethren.

Humans have been able to communicate with dolphins since the 1960′s. Studies have shown that dolphins can learn up to about 100 human words, and be able to decipher the difference between similar commands, like “bring the surfboard to the man” and “bring the man to the surfboard.” […]

What astounding things will they clue us in on? All about USOs, maybe?

Personally, to reiterate what I said above, I am of the opinion that they are, oh, just a tad smarter than us…

Peace.

Chapter 1: Memoria – A Short Film By Aaron Leaman.

Uploaded by aaronleaman on Feb 22, 2012

Journey.

Film: Aaron Leaman
Sound Track: The Living Sleep

Additional Footage: http://kuroiso.org/

Nice, Aaron, very nice! I think it’s beautiful. The cinematography, post, editing and score are all just wonderful and so smooth.

Sadness upon sadness – and then the long, forlorn journey to recapture and rebuild the spirit, the soul even — in the end finding, finally, happiness and purpose.

That’s my take on it. Those are the feelings that this short film invokes in my heart and in my mind.

How about you?

Read other people’s comments on this film over at Aaron’s blog.

I await Chapter 2…

Peace.

The Fastest Living Thing on the Planet!

I must say I was surprised… and I think you will be, too! Very cool.

Seriously, I simply would never have guessed.

You will no doubt agree that that was incredible!

Now, just imagine the technologies that we can achieve by studying and implementing this!

Hadda share… peace.

Mars Critter T Shirts And Gear!

Mars Critter by iggymak
View more Living martian creature T-Shirts

Nice, huh?

I’d like to thank Jamie for enthusiastically modeling my Mars Critter shirt. She is of course wearing the 3/4 sleeve raglan version which you can change the colors on or if you like put my little buddy on another style shirt, I’ve got tons, 70, I think – regular tees, “green” tees, basic tees, polos, spaghetti strap style, hoodies – all kinds and in a ton of colors.

The official blurb about the shirt Jamie has on:

Ladies 3/4 Sleeve Raglan (Fitted)

Cute and comfortable, this classic baseball jersey has been cut just for women. Made from 100% super-soft ring-spun cotton by Bella. Includes side-seams and double-needle stitched sleeve and bottom hems for lasting quality. NOTE: Sizes run extremely small. Order 1 to 2 sizes larger than normal. Imported.

You can personalize it, too, if you want; add text or pics to it, on the front or back… you can do that to all the gear.

My little Martian buddy can also be had on a Speck brand iPad Case, a variety of caps and coffee mugs, a key chain, greeting cards, post cards, a mousepad and a really nice quality print. If you might want it on something I have yet to make, like the little speakers that just got added, just let me know, no worries.

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It’s really a lot of fun making all these images in Photoshop and Fireworks and Apophysis and then arranging them as nicely as I can on the clothes and the gear… keeps me out of trouble and puts a smile on my face… and gives me an excuse to peruse NASA images looking for weird stuff… and to think that it’s all for sale, that I could make a couple of dollars if some like-minded wacko should actually buy something… what could be better than that?

Ha! If it actually happened, maybe! It does sometimes, but…

Don’t think I get rich off of this particular endeavor… it’s been 6 years now and I’ve yet to get to even half a K… in all that time. Any person buying anything is pretty much a hero in my eyes. I wonder sometimes, though, as a colleague of mine in Australia actually makes a living at this!    So prolific she is… just amazing! And talented. I really wish I could emulate that. Maybe someday I will figure it out… wish me luck!

Anyway, enjoy. There’s some strange stuff in my store that might trigger something inside you.

Peace.

Winnsboro Man Says There’s Life on Mars. Damn Straight, Man!

I’ve been meaning to post this for ages, but I am just well and truly shot, so, here it finally is. And I’ve got another one I’ve been meaning to post for ages, too. Sigh.

I used to spend many an hour totally absorbed in reading the discussions on and digesting the wonderful evidence contained within the fabulous forum on Charles Shults’ Xenotech Research website. That site went away during Shults’ time setting up his Spaceport America project.

Charles has told me that what once was will eventually again be, and indeed he has been posting his discoveries bit by bit onto his new site with linkage to the original science data. I sure hope that forum comes back.

Here’s a link to the original article that also has a very nice 7 minute video on it: Charles Shults presents his discoveries on WLTX-TV   April 29th, 2011

Winnsboro, SC (WLTX) — Charles Shults says there’s life on Mars, and he’s got the pictures he says proves it.

NASA announced the discovery of water on Mars in 2006, but Shults came to that conclusion in 2004.

“The date I was first certain was February 15, 2004,” Shults says.

Using the Freedom of information Act, Shults obtained more than 200,000 Mars images from NASA. After thousands of hours of reviewing the images, Shults came to a startling conclusion to some: not only is there water on Mars, but there are fossils too.

“Many of the things I’ve seen look clearly like the recent erosion, or presence of water on the surface, and many of the images show what appear to be fossil organisms, marine fossils,” Shults says. “Right now, the planet has extremely thin air, very tough living conditions, but it is wet on the surface in many areas, and it is covered with fossil remains from marine organisms.”

“Some of the fossils we found are seashells, and very clearly, they are identical to what we find on Earth,” he says. “There’s an absolute identical appearance to both of them.”

Shults’ research has the potential to change the way people think about the universe. He’s written numerous articles and books on the subject. The latest is A Fossil Hunter’s Guide to Mars.

Continue reading this article…

Don’t miss out on seeing some rather strange “rocks” on Mars, “rocks” bearing much, much more than a passing resemblance to Earthly marine fossils at Charles’ site: ShultsLaboratories.com