I Went To Tripoli, and All I Got Was This Bloody Hole In My T-Shirt!

REVERSE ENGINEERING - HOW DO THEY DO IT?

I'm not talking about the kind of reverse engineering like they do at Roswell and Area 51, where they take a captured UFO and figure out how to use its technology to build flying saucers for the military, or they take DNA from an alien, cross-breed it with beef jerky and a baboon and come up with Keith Richards. I'm talking about the technology at work right here at home in my kitchen sink. We have this drain basket; it has a strainer part, with holes in it, so the water can flow through but bits of food are caught before they clog up your drain. And it also has a plug part, which hangs down below the strainer. There's a cam system so that, by rotating the plug, you can either have it in the down position so it blocks the drain and you can fill the sink with water, or you can put it in the up position, so that it hangs above the drain and water can still flow through. You probably have one at home yourself. The problem here is that this device has a 100% record for doing the reverse of what I want it to do. This is beyond Murphy. 100% of the time, if I want to fill the sink up with water, the plug doesn't hold. 100% of the time, if I want the basket in place to catch food particles, it'll instead plug the drain, and the sink will fill with water! HOW DOES IT DO THAT????

Did you hear...

...about the mistrial in Jamaica? Yeah, the jury was dreadlocked.

Moments of Becoming

There are moments that slip by under our awareness. At what point does an unfamiliar place become familiar, for instance? I tested this out one day, back when I was a member of the Moonies.

We used to sell flowers and knick-knacks at traffic lights, sometimes standing on the center island, like homeless people do. One day I was dropped off at a particular location somewhere in Chicago, a left turn signal under a section of the L tracks. For some reason this particular morning I was thinking about this process, the gradual change in the way we see and look and things, and I resolved to stay conscious and aware of the change in my perception of surroundings I was going to be inhabiting for several hours.

As I began my shift, I carefully took mental note of the complete unfamiliarity of my little area. Each time I walked up and down my island, I tried to perceive the change in the appearance that had taken place in the objects around me over the last couple of minutes. I was in fact able to savor and enjoy the process of this change, which in reality was not a change in my surroundings, but a change in me, a change in my brain.

Something that seems related to me is the question: when do we decide we're going to dress like an old person? I think we all know what they dress like; we have no problem recognizing the native seniors of an area, decked out in their typical plumage of crooked sunglasses, mismatched sweater vests and plaid shirts, and shabby stretch pants. But at what point do we actually decide that it's a good thing to get up in the morning and put ON these clothes?

The strange thing is, dress code for seniors has been essentially the same for the last 60 years. I'm 54; all the septuagenerians that were around when I was 30 are probably dead now. But somehow, miraculously, a new crop of seniors is cavorting around, wearing the same clothes their previous generations did!

To begin...

...as of right now, I have nothing to say. Better luck tomorrow.

How fast the year turns...here I am again at the part of the year that has typically been lean, that slide of October 'round the bend into November and yikes! the holiday season...Summer, as usual, has been rife with work and creativity...I played in two musicals, performed at several festivals, finished a monster project of bringing a country house into compliance with state fire regulations...Now I'm poised to head off to play another festival, this time in Las Vegas, as the other half of Uffington Horse. 24 songs in the songlist, still haven't played through most of them...