Week of 13 January

I can't count the times I'd walked past this thing. The Astor Cube, actually named Alamo by its creator Tony Rosenthal, had a prank played on it. Click the Astor Cube link to find out some pointless stuff.

This, or something similar, will be next on my list of "saving for" after I make the move to Reno.

Hey! Nice. A Copyright Crash Course.

Ever wonder what working on a pot farm would be like? Well, here are 7 Things I Learned Working on a Pot Farm. [No. Not me. I've never done anything like this.]

Street photography differs: You jam camera nearly into subject's face, snap, don't ask permission

-Bruce Gilden. Interesting. Guess he has no fear of beatings -- or lawsuits.

Let the lover be disgraceful, crazy,
absentminded. Someone sober
will worry about things going badly.
Let the lover be.
-Rumi

Not so sure this is true (the author says he got it from an urban legends site & even links to it), but fans of forensics television will enjoy 1994's Most Bizarre Suicide.

And here's the Museum of Ancient Inventions. Sure wish I could remember how to use an abacus. It's only been about thirty years!

Too cool! And even "experts" can't explain them. But these appear to be a natural phenomena.

Some of us are old enough to remember the more sinister &/or gruesome endings to fairy tales. While we may not all remember the details of these tales, we recognize how much more twisted they've become by cleaning them up. Here are the Top 10 Gruesome Fairy Tale Origins as well as what's happened to them.

Found this on the Reno Sparks Connection:

Just so you know: My Interweb Travels blahg will now be going the way of all my other blahgs, that is to say, it will now be an intermittent blahg. The next couple of weeks will mostly be dedicated to packing, then, after I arrive in Reno, unpacking & looking for work. Once I do find work, I won't likely have the time I have this past year & a half to spend surfing. But do not despair, not only will my Lux Obscurus blahg be getting new entries soon, all my blahgs will still be getting updated as inspiration strikes.

Ah, yes!

Week of 6 January

This is fun. Of course, there's at least one woman in my past who was in the last three sets of days all the fucking time.

Why is it always the psychos who get all the women?

I Am Not Yours

I am not yours, not lost in you,
Not lost, although I long to be
Lost as a candle lit at noon,
Lost as a snowflake in the sea.

You love me, and I find you still
A spirit beautiful and bright,
Yet I am I, who long to be
Lost as a light is lost in light.

Oh plunge me deep in love -- put out
My senses, leave me deaf and blind,
Swept by the tempest of your love,
A taper in a rushing wind.
-Sarah Teasdale

Oh, there's an idea. Let's all put radium up our asses. OK, so there are times when the old ways may not be best.

Just another day on Canal St.

Found this at Gangsters from London East End. I'd met this man when I was living in London. He claimed to be known as the "Godfather" & had, in his drunken stream of consciousness, offered to look out for me -- for a quid. Earl's Court in the 1980's, as well as (I'm sure) now, was not very safe. After returning to NYC, I'd described this man to a woman I knew who'd frequently stayed in Earl's Court on her way to Scotland (she'd made pilgrimages there every other year for many years), & she said that when she was last in Earl's Court, he claimed to be none other than Ian Anderson's "Aqualung". Remind me to tell you about the time I was negotiating renting an apartment from the "Teflon Don" John Gotti.

If I didn't care for fun and such,
I'd probably amount to much.
But I shall stay the way I am,
Because I do not give a damn.
-Dorothy Parker

Some of these subliminal ads are either well known or, in some cases, a stretch, but they are fun.

Do you know a magic poon...? I know one. I hear it's doing stand-up at a club in the Catskills.

Well, just click the image, eh?

Save the squirrels! Nothing new in many parts of this country, but Britain suddenly all for it.

I still wanna try this stuff.

I'll be reading The Recently Deflowered Girl later, but I'm in it more for the pictures -- they're illustrations by one Edward Gorey.

The Medieval.Net has lots of info -- including: Recipes people may have once eaten in Medieval History [note the use of may].

Here are some lovely ways scientists are predicting our race may experience extinction.

Yes, I agree the Israelis should defend the land they were given, but I also agree that Palestinians have the right to be free of the ghettos they've been herded into. Who's really suffering, here? Not the politicians. I firmly believe that as long as we're doing away with the rich & the corporations, we really need to do away with that other menace to peace & freedom. [If you'd like to see more images of the devastation & suffering -- many very graphic images -- see Gaza Kill Photos.]

Week of 30 Dec

Just what I need, now I'm moving to Reno: Five Best Online Job Search Sites.

Won't be long, now.

While I only watch a few television shows, I was pleased some time ago to cancel my cable account. Sure, my television reception (only good till sometime February) sucks, but I'd found many more shows than I actually watch are available free on-line either from the network Web sites or countless other sites where users record & upload shows also for free. This & my Netflix account -- that's three dvd's a week plus unlimited viewing on-line free with my account -- has made life not only easier, but much more flexible, as I can watch these programs when I choose. Of course, it does require a high-speed Internet connection, but check out LifeHacker's Ditch Satellite TV for Online Alternatives and Save.

In honor of my new ability to legally marry people (for good or ill -- can you imagine?):

A Marriage of Two
A marriage of two
is for love that is true

A marriage of two
is always something new

A marriage of two
happens sometimes out of the blue

A marriage of two
is worth it when its due

A marriage of two
is a marriage of trust
Many can find themselves lost
It can be an expensive cost

They are only very few
who have a clue
of when love accrues

A marriage of two
is about love making
It is not about
money raking

A marriage of two
can be bad
A marriage of two
can be sad
You should only be glad if
A marriage of two
is for love that is true
-Sylvia Chidi

Hey, is that Simon Templar...?

Know when to go.

Broad and Yellow Is the Evening Light

Broad and yellow is the evening light,
The coolness of April is dear.
You, of course, are several years late,
Even so, I'm happy you're here.

Sit close at hand and look at me,
With those eyes, so cheerful and mild:
This blue notebook is full, you see,
Full of poems I wrote as a child.

Forgive me, forgive me, for having grieved
For ignoring the sunlight, too.
And especially for having believed
That so many others were you.
-Anna Akhamatova

The lovely Rhyanna had recently posted some images of Nice, France. While I had noticed that these images -- images of, quite possibly, the most beautiful city I've ever seen -- were in a folder entitled Nice, I hadn't made the connection. I remember well that Rhyanna is French, as well as intelligent, sweet & sometimes wonderfully intense...& those eyes (hey, she's married, so I'm not trying looking to date her, besides, I'm moving far away from Seattle very, very soon -- as if she'd have any interest in the likes of me, anyway), but had actually asked her where it is. And now, little did I know that a city I've read of countless times in many texts on many ancient (or, at least, old) subjects, that Nice is the wondrous city of Nissa, Nίκαια & Nicaea! Dopey me.

Now, my plan involves living comfortably in a decent sized older house in the country, forest or desert -- in another country altogether -- but Cheap RV Living has the right idea about freeing oneself from the unreality in which we find ourselves.

Any site which starts with a link to learning Tantra is certainly worth a look -- besides, it's mostly of the Divine Feminine at Body of the Goddess. How can one go wrong?

OK, so the author of the 50 Mistakes WOMEN make when having sex with a MAN sounds awfully bitter, he is actually making some good sense. I might add that your crying after the first time with a new guy is very confusing to us. It doesn't matter that some of us realize how emotional that new bond may be -- we still feel that we've done something that maybe we shouldn't have. If they're good tears or bad, please say so! Oh, & asking for juice or a cigarette afterward is great, but do you all see this as part of some ritual, or are we more slaves to women than even I know...?

I must remember:
It is illegal for any member of the Nevada
Legislature to conduct official business
wearing a penis costume while the legislature
is in session. [Guess I won't be running, now.]
Want more Strange US Sex Laws?

Wouldn't you love to have one of these in your back yard...?

They're all dead now.

Look familiar? This is Galaxian, a game I used to play a lot -- particularly when I at a bar back in...what 1979/1980 (& maybe later). What I liked most about the game was that the more I drank, the better I got. Really. I held the highest score, which I would beat each time I was, at one bar. What's more, there are 94 more of these "old-time" favorites you can play right on the Web.

The Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) spends taxpayer money producing propaganda that is intended to keep people afraid of marijuana, but instead produces theater. This breach of trust is dangerous. It is the real gateway.

And speaking of grass...check out the The Great Tennessee Marijuana Cave. Wow! This was no stingy operation.

I remember days like this, only the trees were pine.

For those who remember Laura Palmer, you'll enjoy The Secret Diary of Laura Palmer. Come on, I know there are some Twin Peaks freaks out there.

If you've watched the science programs on PBS in the past few years (I forget when I'd seen a science doc which covered much of this in theory), you may find this article of interest:

"Somehow each [subatomic] particle always seems to know what the other is doing. The problem with this feat is that it violates Einstein's long-held tenet that no communication can travel faster than the speed of light. Since traveling faster than the speed of light is tantamount to breaking the time barrier, this daunting prospect has caused some physicists to try to come up with elaborate ways to explain away Aspect's findings."

Aspect's, as well as the author of The Amazing Holographic Universe are much easier to understand than another physicist, David Bohm, illustrates later in the article, but, as far as science goes, this is pretty cool.

I've mentioned previously that I take issue, essentially, with parents pressuring their children -- even when they're teens -- to decide what they want to do with their lives. Really, would you seek financial advice from your auto mechanic, or medical advice from a florist? While each of these examples may know something -- or even a great deal -- about what they do for a living, they wouldn't necessarily be of much use as financial or medical advisers.

So, you're asking your child, who knows absolutely nothing about life or what opportunities my be presented to them to make a choice? What a sad world we are living in. What I'm on about is that kids need to experience more, & in their own time. This brings me to the link I'm leading to, concerning homework. Why was homework always a chore? I admit that English & science homework was much more interesting to me than the homework in other classes. We, naturally, need to teach children some basics, but why aren't their interests & inclinations more encouraged?

My mother encouraged some, but not all of my interests. But where I praise her is in her doing no more than express a dissatisfaction once, & only once, with any new thing I wanted to do or study with which she'd disagreed -- & I really thought, way back when, that she'd forbid my study of the occult, witchcraft & even Satanism when I was in third or fourth grade! She didn't. She also didn't like the books I brought home. But above all, these subjects taught me things, combined with her tolerance, that have made me a pretty decent individual, now in my old age.

So, you -- & teachers as well -- should read The Truth About Homework. Then sit quietly & think before you tell your children to blindly follow directions. And, I ask, why do those who make academic decisions think that piling more homework on kids will make them smarter, or even more knowledgeable? Sheesh! It's like an employer who cuts your hours & demands you produce even more than you had before your hours were cut -- at the same, or even decreased, wages.