Pollywogs!

Pollywogs!
A thought without words




No motivation…

June 7th, 2008

Always something else to do, some excuse.  Hell, with this heat insouciance combined with sloth sounds like a grand idea…

Just finished Oryx and Crake, a very good book.  However, I think after reading two post-apocolypse Margaret Atwood books, and the delicate state of current affairs, I’m beginning to feel seriously pessimistic about our future as human beings…

Man is it hot.  We had summer in springtime, but that was a nice pleasant dry heat.  This is deep July in early June.  Went swimming in Pine Creek today and the water felt like mid July as well.

“This neck of the woods” seems to have had its cicada population emerge.  We aren’t part of the large, well known cicada cycles, but whatever cycle we are on (Brood XIV?), it came up fierce here.  Our’s aren’t making any noise, however, and when they emerge they just sorta hang out.  Apparently down the road a bit they’re making an impressive racket, but here the trees are silent.  It is sad and spooky, I feel bad for the little alien fuckers.

What is wrong with the Sycamore trees?  They’re all wilted and blighted. Hell, even one out in the Nippenose Valley is blighted, so whatever is wrong is very wide spread.  Strange and stranger…

Here are my bookmarks:

The unkindest cut | Salon Life

I went to the usual source for village elders who are trying to solve a tough ethical problem: An article in Mothering magazine. Regina had helpfully supplied the link for me. It said that Western cultures, until the nineteenth century, had no tradition of circumcision. The Greeks and the Romans passed laws forbidding “sexual mutilation” after coming into contact with the cultures of the Middle East. It became more common during the anti-masturbation hysteria of the Victorian era. Doctors claimed that circumcision cured everything from epilepsy and tuberculosis to headaches, eczema, and bed-wetting. At this point, the article became truly interesting and relevant, if a bit didactic and terrifying. It called circumcision a “radical practice” that didn’t begin until the cold war era, “part of the same movement that pathologized and medicalized birth and actively discouraged breastfeeding.” Until the 1970s, hospitals didn’t even have to seek parental permission to perform the surgery.

Yes.  Sexual mutilation.  You’d be disgusted and outraged to hear of some barbaric tribe cutting the clits off of young girls?  As I recently wrote on reddit, “people are too crazy for you to point out just how crazy they are, the truth has to be revealed slowly and gently…”

Read this and this.

Now, read this and this.

What do you think?  I think it is time to throw Bush and Cheney in fucking Guantanamo until they spill the beans.

This is out of date considering the recent and happy turn of events, but still relevant in the way it forces you to view “news” in the correct perspective: a bunch of clueless dick-wads spouting garbage diarrhea:

Here’s a rule I would like every political reporter, campaign official, TV talking head, and politician in the United States to follow. Go ahead and say, if you like, that Hillary Clinton retains a serious chance of winning the Democratic nomination. If you say this, however, you must describe a set of circumstances whereby this could happen. Try not to make it sound like a fairy tale.

You know that lady who had all the dirt on the politicians in Washington who were utilizing her services?  You know she ‘turned up dead‘ one day?  This is one of those little things that gets swept under the rug and everyone expects you to just forget and keep going about your day-to-day.  You know, sorta like the Anthrax fun after 9/11 and the reason we went to war with Iraq…

Oh propaganda, how difficult it would be for the Bush Administration without you:

Michael Gordon, the military writer for The New York Times who contributed several false stories about Iraqi WMD in the runup to the U.S. attack on Iraq in 2002, has written several articles in the past year about Iran’s alleged training of Iraqi insurgents — or supplying them with weapons to kill Americans. He produced another major report on this subject for today’s Times – based solely on unnamed sources — which is at odds with an account from McClatchy’s Baghdad bureau…

Truth dies cold and lonely…

I love The Daily Show.   You already know that, don’t you?  Best thing I’ve seen on TV lately (the two or three hours I’ve seen in the past couple weeks) was Jon Stewart grilling Scott McClellan over exactly what goes on inside the Bush Administration, basically arguing our case that Bush and Cheney are intentionally doing evil and harm, impeachable and prosecutiable offenses.  Thank you, thank you, thank you!

California is the new Amsterdam:

Finding a medical marijuana distributor is shockingly easy, as Times columnist Sandy Banks noted in her recent columns on getting pot to treat arthritis. Sprinkled innocuously around L.A. County are more than 200 dispensaries that look like health food stores or pharmacies — including three just at the intersection of Fairfax and Santa Monica. To shop at these places, though, you need a doctor’s recommendation on an official form. Once you have that, no California cop can arrest you for holding up to eight ounces. That amount, I’m guessing, was based on conservative medical estimates of how much Snoop Dogg would need if he came down with glaucoma at the same time Animal Planet aired a “Meerkat Manor” marathon.

The horror, having the war on drugs emasculated like that.  What is next, legalizing prostitution?  DAMN YOU NEVADA!

Alright.  I’m tired, and I still have a fucking shit ton of bookmarks left…maybe I’ll still be here tomorrow, I’ll try then.

Alright.

A short note to Barack Obama

May 10th, 2008

Submitted via his campaign website…

RE: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/05/08/obama-camp-faces-major-ob_n_100928.html

As a small, repeat donor, I just want to say that I absolutely DO NOT support having the money I donated to BARACK OBAMA being used to pay back Hillary Clinton money that she should have never loaned her own campaign.

Absolutely.

Unequivocally.

Entirely.

Wholly.

NO.

It was a bad decision: it was her decision.  Now that her campaign has effectively ended, she gambled AND LOST.  She did not lose MY money, she lost HER money.

I donated to support Barack Obama.  Not the Democratic National Committee, not the Democrats in general, and most certainly not Hillary Clinton.

I SUPPORT BARACK OBAMA.

Sincerely,
Garrett Socling

America’s Mass Consumption

April 26th, 2008

A Blog Post by Kell


Have you ever stopped to think about all the stuff you have, all the food you consume, all the waste you make?  Have you thought about it for more than one second at a time?  Have you thought about how much you “need”, how much you want, how much you use in a week, a month, a year?  How about your entire lifetime?  Do you have any idea how many tubes of toothpaste you will go through during the span of your life?  Do you even care?

Over the past couple years I have been taking notice of my consumption, I have been making conscious efforts to reduce my wants and “needs”.  I have been restraining my urges to buy, buy, buy…every time I decide I might “need” something, I try to scrutinize that “need” from all angles. Do I really need that new pair of shoes, do I need that new lip gloss, do I really need another pair of earrings?  And so on.  It usually turns out that the “need” is actually a want.  When you start to realize that you don’t “need” all this superficial stuff, the shopping urges slowly fade and you start to understand what you really “need”.

I have become more aware of the impact my consumption has on Earth.  Every time I use a paper towel (made w/ recycled paper of course) I cringe and wonder if I really needed to do that…could I have used a rag or a sponge?  Every time I take a shower I think about all the water I’m using…and how lucky I am to even have fresh water to use (even if it is stinky)…not to mention the soap and chemicals that may be washing down the drain.  Which is part of the reason why we have decided to use all natural soaps, shampoo & conditioners, laundry detergent, fabric softener, dish soap and cleaners.

Anyway, back to the tubes of toothpastes.  Although I have been taking note of my consumption on a day to day basis, I have never actually thought about my weekly, monthly or yearly consumption until the other day when I watched Human Footprint on the National Geographic Channel.  For example, do you know that one typical American, throughout his/her entire life will:  use 1,200,000 gallons of water (not including showers); 31,350 gallons of gas; have owned 10 televisions, 12 vehicles, drank over 43,000 cans of soda, have eaten 6 full sized pigs, 5 cows and it goes on and on.  Think about this, Americans are only 5% of the world’s population YET we use 25% of the world’s resources.  WTF??????  Something is wrong here.

Everyone should watch this show!  It was an eye opener let me tell ya.  It struck a nerve and by the end of the hour I was ashamed, I was sad, I was wracked with guilt…I had suddenly realized that America has turned into a gluttonous pig.  What America originally stood for doesn’t exist anymore…the America of today is not about family, values, hard work, freedom.  The America of today is all about money…our “need” to live in big houses, drive big vehicles, have good paying jobs, expensive vacations…it’s all about stuff, stuff that we have been tricked into believing that we “need”. We don’t have freedom, we are slaves…we are in a jail with no bars, we are never free from our incessant desires to have more, to make more, to be better, our desires to consume, to buy, our desires to keep up with the Jones’.  We are not free.  We are lost, we have gone astray.  The roads (although not paved with gold) were paved with good intentions but something has led us off the map. Something has taken us over, something has gone terribly wrong.

All my life I’ve wondered why I’m here, here in Pennsylvania.  Why wasn’t I born elsewhere?  How did I get so lucky to be born in this great country, the best (?), most powerful country in the world?  Why wasn’t I born in Africa or Russia, Mexico or Cambodia?  I have always felt so lucky and so grateful for all that I have, for my so-called  freedom, for having access to plenty of food and clean water, for having access to stores, malls, restaurants, having a car, going to school, etc.  I have always  felt so extremely lucky, so grateful…up until the other night.  The other night, after watching Human Footprint, I started to think that maybe I’m not lucky…maybe I would be better off without having so much, without having plenty of “things” to desire for, choices available.  It’s hard to explain…but I am starting to get the feeling that I might actually be able to understand why the Amish live the way they do, why there are still so many primitive peoples that remain in the jungles…away from the trappings of modern society.  Away from the variety, away from the constant desires and yearnings to have this, have that…away from it all.  They are free. Think about it…not knowing all that is out there, all the variety, all that is available…just might be the most the most free you could ever be.  If you don’t know that your life could be different, better (?) or more satisfying (?) then you wouldn’t feel bad about its current state.  We wouldn’t have all these desires for the “things” that we think will make us happy.  We wouldn’t be on a constant search for the perfect “thing”, the “thing” that will make a difference, the “thing” that will satisfy…..the “thing” that will inevitably let us down, it won’t hold our attention for long.  And then search starts all over again.

Anyway, geez, back to the show…Human Footprint.  Wonderful.  Powerful.  Watch it.

Unlimited calling in the US & Canada for $54 a year…

April 22nd, 2008

…through Skype.

Skype recently lowered the price on its unlimited calling plan, and I pulled the trigger. For $2.95 a month you get unlimited (ok, 7 days straight per month) calling to any cell or landline in the United States and Canada. No long term contract, no cancellation fees. Call forwarding, voice mail, all that good shit.

What is the catch? You need a computer and a microphone (and preferably some decent headphones) to make calls with no initial investment. Otherwise you need a Skype phone to walk around your house in the ‘conventional’ sense. AND, if you are planning on getting rid of your land line, it is only good for calling out. To buy what they call a SkypeIn number is another $30 (was $60). So, when you get a year’s subscription you get four months free ($24) and then a SkypeIn number (in the 570 area code) and you have a complete phone solution for the modern set for $54 a year. Caller ID, voicemail that you can access anywhere you have your laptop + wifi, and unlimited nationwide calling. Not too bad?

Check it:

If you leave your computer on 24/7 and/or do not have a wireless router: http://www.newegg.com….87612700 $61 buys you a cordless Skype phone!

If you do not leave your computer on and do not have a wireless network: http://www.newegg.com….6833249006 $120 buys you an Ethernet enabled cordless Skype phone!

If you do not leave your computer on and do have a wireless network: http://accessories.skype.com…032700 $130+ buys you a wifi enabled cordless Skype phone! (the wifi phones need to spend all their life on the charger, they aren’t like cell phones)

So it definitely isn’t for everyone, but it is a shit-ton cheaper than $250-500 for a plain-jane landline. I’m pretty sure we’re shutting ours off here shortly (and pocketing the change!), and just use Skype as our ‘landline’ and the cell as a backup…

Wierd…

April 21st, 2008

I recently added a stats plugin to my WordPress install, and found I get the oddest Google search placement.

Search for “Hello to my friends in national security”, and I’m the #1 result.

Search for “Fuck you garrett”, same story…

What else do folks search for and somehow end up here?

Today

Search Views
2005 toyota corolla s 2
corolla s 2
dumbfuckistan 2
2007 toyota corolla s white 2
pollywogs inserts 2
corolla rims 2
rims on a 2007 toyota corolla s 1
what is the shelf life of motor oil 1
hello to my friends in national security 1
operating synergy walmart 2007 1

Yesterday

Search Views
toyota corolla s 2005 3
weird guy 2
sexy feet 2
“body modification video” 2
batshit insane 1
gay shit 1
2005 toyota corolla s 1
lycoming animal protection society 1
fuck you garrett 1
“no decency” public whore pic 1

Strange…#8 result when searching for Dumbfuckistan…man that Dumbfuckistan post is good shit…I continually feel like my previous work is vastly superior to my current work.  I guess as an artist (in a gross fashion) that is a good feeling to be running doggedly in front of…

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