Pollywogs!

“The most heinous and the cruelest crimes of which history has record have been committed under the cover of religion or equally noble motives.”
~ Mohandas Gandhi

Green Living Tip: Conserve water! Always try to be conscious of this at all times, especially while doing things such as brushing your teeth (please tell me you do NOT let the water run while you brush) & washing your hands. Does the water really need to be on full blast? Also, while doing laundry try to use the small load setting as often as possible…as there really is much more water used on the large load setting (at least in my washer there isn’t). If you think you can stand it, installing a low flow shower head will save a tremendous amount of water…really its’ not as bad as you may think. You can pick one up at Lowes for around six bucks. Oh and if it’s yellow let it mellow, if it’s brown flush it down. Have a good weekend!!!!

- K

—

Garrett says that it costs a pile of money and energy to heat water, so treat hot water even more preciously than you treat cold water!

There are themes in life, themes created by humans, expanded by humans, perpetuated by humans…belief, conviction, desire, want, need…structures, concepts, ideas…Humans are unusual animals.

I sometimes wish I lived hundreds of years in the future, because all of the things I can catch taste of and brush lightly upon are so poorly understood, so inadequately explained. It is like dragging your fingertips in a cool lake on a summer day, unable to swim…

I guess I’ve made the assumption that the future will be a place worth living in…

I sometimes feel like there are gigantic whales and scores of dolphins swimming in the ocean of the collective unconscious, if there is such a thing. Occasionally, it will feel like I’ve seen a dolphin breach, see something on TV that resonates, hear an anecdotal story from a friend which rings familiar, and I feel like I’m swimming in deep currents. I don’t know how much I believe in Jungian theory, but I do know that the current psychological models are woefully, woefully inadequate. This article on a potential unification of the laws of physics is very interesting, I’m hoping there are deep implications for the human mind: I suspect our minds would be operating in six dimensions if there is any vaildity to the more unconventional aspects of Jungian theory…

—

I’ve touched before on the concept that we’re all led blindly around by those very few who have enough power and control to warp reality to their purpose. How is such a thing possible, is it simply dumb belief that they’ve wrested control away from the common man? Do we have no common dreams anymore? No hope for the future, no desire to continually improve?

http://www.memri.org/bin/latestnews.cgi?ID=IA39807:

Cartoon No. 6: The figure on the left is labeled “Al-Qaeda,” and the one on the right is labeled “Terrorist”; the banner says “Promises of reaching Paradise.”

It isn’t simply weak minded fools like the kind who become extremist suicide bombers or Blackwater employees who are being blindly led by those few drumming the beat. The entire world is marching like lemmings, blind of the common good, blind to the future, blind to anything which doesn’t concern them at this moment. It is good to appreciate the moment, but it is simple folly to pretend the future doesn’t exist.

I read in Time recently that John McCain recently said that he believed the Constitution established the United States as a Christian nation. John McCain, my baseball bat is still craving your anus, I’d be careful about spouting off shit you obviously know nothing about. For fucks sake, man, you’re running for president and you don’t have a simple clue about the Constitution of the nation you are proposing to lead? Richard Dawkins noticed this and has a much nicer post than mine, here.
You want something shocking? How close are we to finding some amazingly potent and inexpensive source of energy? Ten, twenty years away? What happens to the world when all the sheeple suddenly realize what has been obvious from day one, that the world is finite, 99% of energy resources are finite, and there are a fucking boatload of people on a very small raft?

Ignorant, foolish people. These are the things we concern ourselves with, the trivialities of modern existence. The war on terror, the war on drugs…

Why do I hate authority? Thank Regan, and thank The Bomb. Thank the Gilded Age, and thank Enron. Thank Bush, and thank Cheney. Thank the Soviets, and thank McCarthyism. Thank the Iraq War and the Vietnam war. Thank God.

—

I don’t care for the Tears for Fears version, but I am deeply enamored of the Gary Jules version of Mad World…

All around me are familiar faces
Worn out places, worn out faces
Bright and early for their daily races
Going nowhere, going nowhere
Their tears are filling up their glasses
No expression, no expression
Hide my head I want to drown my sorrow
No tomorrow, no tomorrow
And I find it kind of funny
I find it kind of sad
The dreams in which I’m dying
Are the best I’ve ever had
I find it hard to tell you
I find it hard to take
When people run in circles
It’s a very, very
Mad World
Mad world

Children waiting for the day they feel good
Happy Birthday, Happy Birthday
And I feel the way that every child should
Sit and listen, sit and listen
Went to school and I was very nervous
No one knew me, no one knew me
Hello teacher tell me what’s my lesson
Look right through me, look right through me
And I find it kind of funny
I find it kind of sad
The dreams in which I’m dying
Are the best I’ve ever had
I find it hard to tell you
I find it hard to take
When people run in circles
It’s a very, very
Mad World
Mad World
Enlarging your world
Mad World.

—

When I was young, my attitude and perceptions were significantly different. What I knew was possible was significantly different. What I believed to be true was much larger…I just remembered something I had forgotten for over a decade. I think this is a very very…common thing…this reduction of the world as you become an adult, giving up your own personal view for the larger view, your own personal dreams and aspirations for the larger, more common goals and objectives.

Somehow, I have become subverted. From the Encyclopedia Britannica:

‘Main Entry: sub·vert
Pronunciation: s&b-'v&rt
Function: transitive verb
Etymology: Middle English, from Middle French subvertir, from Latin subvertere, literally, to turn from beneath, from sub- + vertere to turn — more at WORTH
1 : to overturn or overthrow from the foundation : RUIN
2 : to pervert or corrupt by an undermining of morals, allegiance, or faith
- sub·vert·er noun’

I’ll be the first to admit I have grown and matured as I march steadily towards my death.

At what cost? Does loping off entire branches of thought, of swallowing the party line, of toeing the mark and running when the signal is thrown…is the exchange fair? We are certainly led to believe that this is all ‘normal’, led to buy into the package, regardless of the fact my common sense is SCREAMING AND SCREAMING that this is certainly NOT an acceptable way for things to be going…

The world is a much bigger place than any one little (or fucking earth rending) issue, and it seems wherever I look and see humans involved, they’ve gone and fucked things up…

Limberlost Trail – After our little hike up the hill to stretch our legs, we decided to re-think our hiking plans. Looking at the map, there is a wheelchair accessible trail about 1.2 miles long that sounded right up our alley. It turned out to be pretty nice, we appreciated being able to hike without watching every step, it felt pretty relaxing. Took a pile of pictures, and ended with a content feeling that we’d be able to leave the park after getting a good appreciation of it. We stopped at the last supply store (as in, occasionally there were these little country store type things Aramak ran to rape visitors, apparently the state can’t figure out how to run a simple convenience store or lodge) and bought a couple drinks and a trinket or two. Want to know something odd? You can buy beer and wine in these stores, INSIDE the national park. And the lodges had bars in them. Seems to me when I was younger any time you visited a state park alcohol was strictly prohibited. I guess the federal park regulatory board isn’t as tight-assed as Pennsylvania’s?

Headed down out of the mountain, and across country. Took a little road from I81 to Route 220. Let me say this right here: That Senator or whatever cocksucker Byrd can lick my left nut. West Virginia has the nicest, largest, smoothest roads from and to nowhere that I’ve ever seen. We took Route 55 and it was a four fucking lane divided highway (think I180 from Williamsport to I80) except it WENT FROM NOWHERE TO NOWHERE. Literally, it went from being a quiet two lane country highway into this massive fucking project, and twenty miles later back to Route 220, a quiet country highway. Everywhere you go in W. Virgina, you see signs of how they are fucking over the rest of the country. “Your tax dollars at work: Federal contribution, $27.2 Million. State contribution, $3.4 Million.” Fuck you too, Byrd. Who’s tax dollars at work???

Oh, and while I’m in the bitching mood, WHAT THE FUCK EVER HAPPENED TO THE (NO) VACANCY SIGN? Jesus, the only places that ever have it anymore are small mom & pop places. The high and mighty corporate cocksuckers want you to come begging even if they have no rooms, apparently. Let me tell you what: as a traveler, trying six full hotels in a row while navigating a crowded unfamiliar tumor (as in, the town would have practically no existence without the Interstate feeding it a constant flow of fresh nutrients) at the end of a long day in the dark IS A FUCKING PAIN IN MY ASS. Please, you cockheads, bring back the (No) Vacancy sign…

—

I’m experimenting with a different way to organize my photos, I’ve created a collection called ‘Virginia Fall 2007‘ and stuck all of the individual sets inside. Check it.

Two bears, actually.

So, speaking of the walk in the woods (see previous post) we hiked a bunch today. You know how people go off in the woods completely unprepared and end up getting rescued three days later? It was nearly like that. We set off on an 8.8 mile hike described as ‘strenuous’ with a liter of water and two protein bars, the Cedar Run / Whiteoaks Canyon loop (our pics from it are here). It was billed as having tons of beautiful waterfalls, but this place hasn’t had a decent rain in forever so there were trickles of water here and there, maybe a puddle, but that was about it. Apparently, that is a good thing from a friction standpoint as the trail is much more treacherous (< incredibly hard to spell) if it is damp with all of the worn rocks. The guidebook said it would take fit folks six hours, but you should plan on it being a day hike. I scoffed and said it should take us four hours…more on that later…

About halfway down the descent, we see this little bear. I guess it was just old enough to leave its mom, looked like a largish dog. It was curious about us, and Kelley was ecstatic. She wanted to see a bear the whole time, kept saying so on the hike down. I said “I guess if I had to choose getting bitten by a rattlesnake or seeing a bear, I’d take seeing a bear”. It was just curious enough to not immediately run away, skittish enough not to follow, and pretty small, all excellent attributes in a bear.

Lots of pictures and three miles later, just as we reach the bottom of the hike, my left knee decides its had enough abuse and starts bitching at me. I didn’t tell Kelley immediately how uneasy this made me feel, but with five miles up uphill ahead, I was in very very low spirits. Despair comes to mind, when you are confronted with something that you strongly suspect is impossible…

The pain most of the time while we were walking was a dull throb, but that was only if I walked like a gimp without his cane: keeping my knee straight, not bending it the slightest, and swinging my foot in an arc to the left. If I made the mistake of asking my knee to support the weight of my calf and foot, bringing it back in front of me from behind, it felt like someone driving a nail in between my lower and upper knee joints. Terrible, terrible pain, pain that makes my knee uselessly weak and my gut feeling like throwing up. We passed a lot of people at the bottom of the trail, gave me a lot of excuses to stop and rest it.

It makes me pretty sad that my body wants to give out like that. I love hiking. I love being outdoors in the quiet. I love the exertion, the views, moving, being. We passed through this quiet spot after seeing the little bear that felt ancient. At first I said it felt like ghosts, but that isn’t the right term. It felt like it had never seen a man for longer than a few minutes. It felt like it was so far isolated as to be wild. It felt spooky and huge. I think I’m going to get a doctors opinion on my knee, it would break my heart if I hurt myself enough that I’d never again be able to hike through the woods.

Climbing uphill is much better as the lower leg isn’t behind my body, so as we started to climb out, I started to feel better. I took 500mg of caffeine Kelley had in her purse (along with our quickly disappearing liter of water) and was soon high on a heady mix of endorphins and caffeine. Occasionally my knee would hurt, other times I wouldn’t notice a thing for a quarter mile. It was a long hard climb, but soon we reached what we assumed was ‘right next’ to the top. We see this little sign and it says ‘You are now at the halfway point of the Whiteoak trail’, and warned of not exceeding your limits. Let me tell you what, while we were having a very nice hike, a completely perfect day for a walk (60′F tops, perfectly blue sky, an occasional light breeze), and I was only in mild pain, we were not ready for another two and a half miles of uphill. I think the last mile and a half was the worst. It was uphill, but not enough to really get your heart pumping and built-in drugs flowing. Just enough to slowly sap your strength.

Luckily we saw another bear just as we were thinking of sitting down for a couple minutes, and that got the old endorphine/caffeine mix pumping anew with a healthy shot of adrenaline. This was not a small bear. It was a healthy, full sized adult. Kelley immediately stopped and started staring, saying ‘It is running away’, she was tickled pink. I caught sight of it ambling along parallel to our track and said ‘fuck no let’s move’, it was close enough I didn’t even want to take a picture. Yea, you could say I was wide awake and felt like jogging up the hill after that point. I’m sure she wanted to stop and watch for a while, but the absolute last thing I wanted was the bear to get curious about us. So, I was pretty amped up, scanning the forest left and right, moving pretty briskly…well, for about a half hour or so at least…

We kept sloggin away, and a mile and a half later we emerged victorious. We had left at 12:30 and got back at 6. If my leg hadn’t decided to raise a stink I’m pretty sure we could have hammered it out in four hours. If the waterfalls were going, or the trail more treacherous, I’m sure it would have taken much longer. Somehow instead of continually getting worse and worse, my knee almost felt normal. Definitely a little tender, but if it had gotten bad at mile 3 and stayed bad for the next 5…well, we might still not be out of the woods, I’d have to splint my left and crawl out on my ass. And we were basically out of water by the time we started the steepest part of our ascent. And out of food. Oh, we were wearing shorts and tee shirts, and I’d be suprised if it was much warmer than 50′F for most of the hike. Yea, even though we were sweating, our hands were pretty cold…

Anyway, a warm shower and a delicious meal later, looking back, it was a mighty fine day.

—

October 15, 2007. The morning brings a new feeling to our legs. Kelley has some sore spots on her feet. My legs, especially my calf, feel very strange. My knee feels odd too. There isn’t much if any pain, just what I must assume are the muscles fixing tens of thousands of broken connections…we had a delicious breakfast (fruit smoothy for me, plus some turkey bacon, eggbeaters and grilled vegetables; Kelley had eggs over hard and real bacon) and went for a short ten minute walk. I’m trying to talk her into a two hour hike out to a vista, apparently a moderate at best hike, should be good to stretch the old abused muscles out and keep us from cripping up (cripping being ‘getting crippled’…is that a real word?).

After that, the drive back into reality. One thing I haven’t mentioned is how nice the Blue Ridge Parkway and road through the park is. The Blue Ridge Parkway speed limit is 45, and there is practically no one on it. It is heaven to drive compared to 81. So beautiful, in excellent shape, so relaxing. Same goes for the road through the Shenandoah National Park, but it costs $15 to get in (or $30 for a year pass) and the speed limit is 35. Of course, with all of the vistas, you end up going slower yet, but after a while you get jaded to the beauty. Sounds impossible, I know…

We’re out!

A Sunday in the Park

Writing this one old-fashioned style on October 14, 2007, in notepad to upload later. Staying at Big Meadow Lodge in the park tonight, no internet access. Very nice lodge, very nice park, FUCKING AWESOME DINNER! I had this crazy meal, it was listed on the menu as a ‘sustainable’ meal. There very big on that up here, all over you read about the park service trying to keep the place exactly as it is for the rest of time. It is very nice getting that message, you hardly ever hear about the hard fact of continuity. Like global warming, the scientists were wrong about global warming, but you never hear about that in the media. They said it would take years or decades longer for the poles to melt as much as they have already. The past is tied to the future, and we’re driving 90 in a 35…

I was walking in the woods today, looking at the chasm the water had cut in the hill over the past hundred million years or whatever, and thought about the industrial revolution. It seems to me to be both a damn good thing and a terribly horrific raping that they cut down all of the forests over the past two hundred years here in the United States. The agricultural revolution of the past hundred years has helped I guess by allowing a lot of the farmland return to seed. The end result of both events are that nearly ever last square inch of our forests are babies, immature forest, rapidly growing and turning carbon dioxide into trunks and branches and leaves. Practically none of it is left alone to fully mature (not as an individual tree, but mature as a forest, an event which takes much, much longer) left alone either, folks harvest trees as soon as someone will buy the log. I can’t help but think that ‘the shit’ would have hit the fan decades ago if billions of tons of trees weren’t rapidly growing all over the United States over the past hundred years. This has bought us a couple decades perhaps, but that borrowed time rapidly running out.

Continuity, cause and effect…my dinner was organic greens (including beets, which I ate a couple of, they were not terrible), farm raised Tilapia in an amazing coating (definitely not Chinese Tilapia either, it was delicious like wild panfish), and a weird orgasmic blackberry tart dessert. Apparently the entire meal was fashioned from start to finish in a way that didn’t rape the earth, and that one small thing I did made me so very happy in its deliciousness and so very sad in its inaudible whimper amid the vast roar of destruction…