excerpt 1

from June 29th, 2005

In today's excerpt, John Steinbeck eulogizes his recently deceased friend, Ed Ricketts:

I have tried to isolate and inspect the great talent that was in Ed Ricketts, that made him so loved and needed and makes him so missed now that he is dead. Certainly he was an interesting and charming man, but there was some other quality that far exceeded these. I have thought that it might be his ability to receive, to receive anything from anyone, to receive gracefully and thankfully, and to make the gift seem very fine. Because of this everyone felt good in giving to Ed--a present, a thought, anything. Perhaps the most overrated virtue in our list of shoddy virtues is that of giving. Giving builds up the ego of the giver, makes him superior and higher and larger than the receiver...It is so easy to give, so exquisitely rewarding. Receiving, on the other hand, if it is well-done, requires a fine balance of self-knowledge and kindness. It requires humility and tact and great understanding of relationships. In receiving, you cannot appear, even to yourself, better or stronger or wiser than the giver, although you must be wiser to do it well. It requires self-esteem to receive--not self-love but just a pleasant acquaintance and liking for oneself.

John Steinbeck, The Log from the Sea of Cortez, Appendix, ""About Ed Ricketts"", Penguin Books, 1951, pp. 272-3

I guess Sarah Carmen is the boy's dream and the man's nightmare.

The rumble of a train on the tracks, the purr of a hairdryer, the rhythmic drone of a photo-copier are all enough to make her go oh oh oh, ahhhhh. She had FIVE orgasms during the 40-minute interview.

Sarah, 24, suffers from Permanent Sexual Arousal Syndrome (PSAS), which increases blood flow to the sex organs. She was prescribed anti depressants at 19 and that is perhaps what got her on. "In six months I was having 150 orgasms a day—and it has been as many as 200." WOMEN who suffer PSAS constantly feel on the brink of the powerful and rhythmic muscular contractions that orgasms cause.
It may be that some inflammation or infection in the pelvic area is stimulating clitoral nerves.
Some psychiatrists believe PSAS is simply a psychological symptom of some emotional crisis—it's like a broken heart expressing itself as genital sensitivity.

aeroponics

Aeroponics - process of growing plants in air. The roots get more oxygen directly, it does need some mist though, and nutrients reaching the free floating roots.
(contrasted with geoponics)

no more old phone

of all the replies i received regarding my stolen phone, this was the sweetest -

bONES,

I would say that's perfect. They can take away your phone... not your moon.

Any illicit messages sent will be duly regarded.

you are in my neighbourhood - why aren't we meeting for lunch then?or coffee... muffin... sugarcane... what have you?

:_)

And then he forgot to send me his phone number.

etsy's art and ghosts

...sometimes they get along

sometimes they don't

it all depends, really...

stuff around india i want to do 1

Meet one of the amazing oceanswimming elephants of the Andamans.
Join them for a snorkel in the waters at Havelock island, at Beach No. 7.
Get photographed together under water.

ambiguity

ambiguity (am-bi-GYOO-i-tee) noun 1. Doubtfulness or uncertainty as regards interpretation. 2. Something of doubtful meaning.[From Latin ambiguus, uncertain, from ambigere, to go about : ambi-, around +agere, to drive.]


AMBIGUITY Ambiguity is one of a handful of English words whose meaningdescribes itself. In other words, "Ambiguity" is ambiguous. It refers, onthe one hand, to a situation of imprecision, of obscurity, because morethan one interpretation is possible. On the other hand, something ambiguous can be understood perfectly well - but from more than one point of view. We are amused at the fable of the elephant and the six blind men,each of whom understood the elephant to be a very different animal. But weseem to lose that good-natured perspective just in time to assume that ourown point of view on the world is more accurate than that of many of theother human beings on the planet. We avoid ambiguity as much as possible,feeling threatened that it may expose our own point of view as merely anoption. But we should embrace ambiguity. After all, each of our eyes sees aslightly different, two-dimensional, view of reality. Those two images aresynthesized by the brain into a single three-dimensional image, which wethink of as "more real" than a 2-D view. The more points of view we are ableto see, the more clearly we understand the world around us. Reality isambiguous. Ambiguity is synthesis. I like to think that looking at everything - not only words -from alternate points of view, can enhance our understanding of the worldaround us.


http://wordsmith.org/words/ambiguity.gif

sometimes they get along 1

"they tumbled to earth
without sound
softly
visitors in the night turning to day
though they had wished
to remain beyond the clouds
just for the turning
of the hours"

"it is not like the one you found at the treetop
but more like
the balloon
you have been chasing after
leading you to distant ports and harbors
taking you away from home"

from art and ghosts

From Secret girls #3 #12

nts

W - 8/4/08