MOTHER NATURE'S ARMORY

A mail flyer for a whizbang new composting method reminded me of the walk Joy and I took last weekend thru the Arboretum. We walked around the way back and saw these 2 giant compost piles within a cinderblock enclosure to section it off.

I noticed that there was steam coming off these giant hills and Joy mentioned it was from the natural gases reacting during the composting process.

I'm sure in Joy's mind, it made her think of girlie things like how wonderful nature is that it can recycle, rejuvenate, and create even more fertile material for new life.

I thought "Ya know, I'll bet McGyver probably rigged one of these to explode naturally right when the enemy's Jeep came banking around it."

Surgery To Become A Virgin Again.

Ya know, seeing this kind of thing happening gives a little legitimacy to the argument of fanatical Eastern religions who see Western culture as depraved, spoiled, and completely obsessed with sex.

It just gives them more reason to believe it's right to keep their wives and mothers bound and controlled so they can't eventually get this frickin stupid. Save your money, buy him some new golf clubs and do some Kegel exercises for Pete's sake...

As buddy Jan says:
"If you read carefully, you'll see that the main client for this is muslim women who've been fooling around before marriage and want to appear as if they've behaved like proper muslim ladies... or be put to death when their new husband finds out. Chalk another one up for the "Religion of Peace"!"

Testing.


 You can use ⌘-B and ⌘-I to make text bold and
italic.

'W' as in Talk.

I think a reason older couples/happily married couples make it routine to go on walks is because for one it lets any discussion be had outside the house, so the house/home/HQ can be left to be a place of comfort and refuge from bullshit. Figure out stuff away from there. Let home be the safe spot -- where you work the plans you devised while walking outside/planning the work that might have needed doing.

And secondly, when you walk and talk, you actively expend the energy that you normally may have to allow for quick tempers, conclusion jumping, or overthinking the talker's words when you talk while still in the house. Sitting and sharing thoughts about something, it's alot easier to over compensate and interrupt or something. When you walk, your body(s) either want to walk and talk, or walk and listen. To talk at the same time is really fatigueing, add trudging along a path and it's really old.

That's the long version of: when you need to talk, do it by going for a walk.

You can't retreat to a room, you can't sulk in a couch, you can't possibly seem to ignore the other person doing kitchen stuff. It's just the 2 of you, moving. And I think subconciously the act of 'moving forward' helps any discussion had while walking. There's a tangible concept being exhibited that I think encourages better discussion. Move forward by walking, move forward in thought by talking while you walk. There's a physical manifestation of 'moving forward'. You just feel like you're getting somewhere in the conversation, even when you're confused or upset or feeling stuck in your mind. But you can feel progress in your body.

Also, talking about things while walking reinforces a dimension of perspective. If you're walking in the outside world, the world at large (and it is large) is surrounding you. Thus, the issue or discussion you're having is somewhat "smaller" in comparison. I.e. a problem doesn't seem so big in the scheme of things when it's a chat with an audible range of 20 feet -- a chat of 20 feet among AN ENTIRE PLANET of earth and air. There's your issue, then there's the entire world. Let the outside world help you remember that it is possible to contain this conversation and it's qualities. Let the overhead of the planet help you get your head around a problem. There's you, the issue, the world around it. Not some issue overhwhelming you and filling up your pad with bad joojoo energy. Or good joojoo energy. (Depends on the conversation.)

Another cool thing about it: when you hit a point walking/talking where you have to stop for a second to get a thought out, it really emphasizes the point; body language says "Hold on, I need to stop and stand and deliver this." No raised voice, no harsh word choices. Being stuck in a certain thought will stop the body. Your partner not only hears this but sees the physical "takeover" of the thought in you. They have to stop too. (Like a Jedi mind trick without instructing the action.) So the stoppage really brings home the point of "this is important, this a real blockage for me because it can't come out while walking. It needs a non-moving foundation to state itself from".

So you stop, get it out, make some comments. But when you take your time to slowly drive over that conversational bump so as not to wreck the undercarriage of the discussion per se, it feels even better when you start walking again. Because you *will* start walking again when your mind and body truly feel it's right to resume moving foward. Then immediatley you feel better. Your mind and body knows that you indeed moved on and are now progressing from the point that held you up.

Didn't the Romans or Greek elder councils walk among the columns in their togas while discussing major matters? Or was that some filmmakers's artistic license?


:*************************:


I don't know what your feelings on the band Train are, but in referring a friend to their new album, some stuff flowed out.

--

If you liked the Drops of Jupiter album that I raved about years ago, this new Train is back to that level being good. Just out this week.

To me they got the Sophomore Success Replication Anxiety out of their system and back to taking their time the way they naturally did. It breathes just right for what they do/are about. ('Calling All Angels' was ok). In Eastern thought and medicine, getting in touch with the natural rhythm of how you breathe is a huge key to personal balance and effectiveness. Music also breathes per the bandmembers input/execution of it and how their energy (while creating/feeling/performingit) flows and 'breathes' too.

The personalities of the songs/bandmembers are back in full again, not being consolidated and generically streamlined into a pale impersonation of itself by a label lackey producer on hire to deliver another hit album to the shareholders.

Which ironically, will let this album be a hit. So I'm calling it.
(Proof how many businessmen don't understand art and learn).

Just really good stuff. Better band than most people know. They're singles lumped them in Matchbox 20 stigma land (who by the way are an excellent group too.) Years ago Train made some headlines on some MTV tribute show where bands covered songs while the band that wrote them sat and watched. Train played 'Dream On' with Aerosmith in attendance and really brought the house down. Like even the paid/trained beautiful kids brought off the street to go nuts on cue for the bands even realized they saw something extraordinary. Steven Tyler remarked something along lines of "Holy Shit, and we wrote that?"

Train is a great band. Period.
Enjoy the new album.

A Polish immigrant goes to the Illinois Department of Motor Vehicles in S. Chicago to apply for a driver's license and is told he has to take an eye test. The examiner shows him a card with the letters:

C Z J W I X N O S T A C Z

"Can you read this?" the examiner asks.

"Read it?" the Polish guy replies, "I drink beer with him."


::***************::


Uncle Owen died.

A bunch of Indiana Jones'es found a new tomb in Egypt full of goodies and mummies.
Hearing they found a new chamber of the 'Valley of Kings' is just way cool. This is the first tomb like this found since King Tut's in 1922.


::***************::

Keeping with the Lucasfilm theme, if you thought terrible lame tie-ins with pop music acts and movies is a recent thing, here's a clip of Jefferson Starship playing Light The Sky On Fire from the 1978 Star Wars Holiday Special.

I always heard Grace Slick never said no to anything. Add "Wookie MTV" to the list of hallucinogens and anonymous groupie penis.

You can also hear Princess Leia and Bea Arthur sing their numbers from the special too if you follow the link above.

Sammy Hagar and David Lee reuniting in space.


The original Asia is reuniting. Wetton, Downes, Palmer, and Howe.


Facts on Farts


Turn the volume down, jerko.
Timmy says the iPod is defectively designed and causes hearing loss, so thus, give him money.

If you ever got to play the ultra cool and fun Xbox game Lego Star Wars, there's a new one coming that stays in just the original trilogy. (The first game covered all 6 movies.) Follow the link to see a sweet Lego mockup of the original classic Star Wars movie poster.

Speaking of which, my oldest friend 'Star Wars Mike' (since Kindergarten so 30 years now) had a birthday today/yesterday I guess now. Feb 2, which is Groundhog Day and also Farrah Fawcett's birthday. Sharing a birthday with her was a pretty big deal back in 6th grade/1982.