GeekWorld

Can You Hear Me Now?

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32  72% 28% 0mph WNW  bar29.83 rises windchill32 Winter

                 New Moon

Inching closer.  I now have sound through the av receiver and into the surround sound speakers from the DVD player.  That’s a step in the right direction.  But.  After I plugged in the HD box from Comcast, I noticed it has coaxial outlet–coax to coax on the AV receiver.  That would be the coax cable I returned this morning.  Hmmmmmm……  So, maybe one trip.  This is a lot like plumbing except I don’t understand plumbing.  This I get; it’s just more complexity than I’ve dealt with for awhile in terms of externals like wires and connections.

Took a nap, feeling somewhat refreshed.  Gonna workout now.  Faery and the Gunflint Trail has become a fascination to me, carrying me places I didn’t know existed.  Which is the fun of writing. 

Faith and Spirituality

We Stand at the Jabbok Ford Many Times

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30  96%  30%  omph WSW bar 29.85 rises windchill30  Winter

                     New Moon

At 2 AM this morning I finished Ken Follett’s, Triple.  Don’t know whether it was Turkish tea, an unusually large meal or envy over the traveling and work related adventures of my fellow Woollys, but I couldn’t get to sleep last night and woke up at 6 AM today.  I hope it’s not envy, the other two I can handle.  Envy is a monster that makes you miserable through a combination of self-flagellation and jealousy.  Each time I feel I’ve wrestled the demon ambition back into the pit from which He springs, it seems instead I’ve wound the crank on a jack in the box.  Or not.

Could be I’m feeling this way because I’m tired, lost sleep and can’t decide why.  In fact, as I write this, as often happens, the words provide their own catharis.  I’m happy for Mark, Paul and Stefan, not envious.  They make me proud to be a Woolly and their friend.  I’ve chosen a different path for my later life, one with its own benefits and downsides, not a worse one. 

Just occurred to me the Jacob at the Jabbok ford nature of the demon wrestling metaphor.  We may wrestle demons as well as angels and to equal affect.  If we hold a demon at the ford, we prevent them from crossing over into our spiritual lives; we keep them on their side of the river.  There is no reason to believe, either, that we will only have one match in a lifetime.  If history serves, we will all stand at the Jabbok ford many times in our lives, arms wrapped round one adversary or another, devil or angel. 

Had a strange dream last night. 

I was in charge of a storage room in a hospital.  It had shelf after shelf of boxes, equipment, various light bulbs all of which were there when I came to the job.  At some point I left the room, maybe to go home for the day, and returned to find it turned into an employee lounge.  When I asked where all the stuff went, I was led into a small laboratory where one row of three shelves held the pared down contents of the room. 

Deflated, I asked if I still had a job.

Oh, yes.

A tub of silverware appeared in my hands. 

I carried it through the hospital to the kitchen area, through two automatic doors only to discover when I got to the dishwasher that the tub was empty.  When I tracked back, looking for the silverware, a woman I knew came up to me and said I had dumped it in the wastebasket of a woman’s hospital room.  Sheepish, I went to the room and retrieved the silverware. To make sure I got it all, I flipped on the light and the woman in the hospital bed said, “Can’t you see I’m sick?”

I turned off the light and got out of the room as quickly as possible.

Art and Culture, Politics, Woolly Mammoths

The Buddhist After-Life and the Killing Fields

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25  93%  27%  omph NNW bar 29.77 windchill25  Winter

                  New Moon

Had a summary of our gathering (Woollies) at the Istanbul Bistro, but lost in a multiple cascading of Internet Explorer browser pages.  Probably a sign I should go back to Firefox.  I used to use it, then I abandoned it, used it again, and abandoned it again.  Just like Darth Vader I keep coming back to the evil empire.

Mark, Warren, Paul, Tom, Frank, Bill and Stefan showed up.  We spoke of politics and Rome, of Green Knights present and long dead. A brief comment was made about the Istanbul not being a sportsbar, a positive.  It’s quiet and it has a round table around which this latter day collection of Knights Errant can sit.  That does mean knights in error, doesn’t it?

Mark has a gig in Bangkok designing teen sex exhibitions for Unesco/Thailand.  It’s a campaign to promote safe sex in a nation where AIDS among youngsters has become a problem again.  After that he will return to the US, then go back to Cambodia to construct an exhibit near the killing fields, one dealing with the Buddhist afterlife.  To continue the international theme Paul Strickland will host a trip to Syria in November and his organization will co-host a trip with the Hindu Temple of Maple Grove to Southern India.  Stefan chimed in with the fact that he’s taking his kids to Rome to visit a person he knows who works in the American Embassy there.  Makes for good dinner table conversation.  Those who’d been to Rome all agreed the most memorable moment was the first coffee. 

We discussed the political scene.  All of us were happy with the real choices represented by the candidates.  Of course, SuperTuesday will eliminate any chance for us to pariticipate in candidate selection and after we will have 7 months of attack ads, but right now it is glorious.  Tom wondered if any of us had supported any candidates financially.  Frank said, yes, he and Mary had sent money to Obama.

Warren reported good news about his mom and dad.    

 The retreat and a theme came up, but we put it off until Paul’s.  Mark will not attend since he’s got to be in Thailand the first week of February.  I’m leaving early for Hawai’i.  One of those years.

 Forgot to mention here I watched Jean Cocteau’s Beauty and the Beast the other night. It’s one of the Janus Films collection I got for my 60th birthday, 50 films from 50 years of their distribution of foreign films in the US.  This movie floats across the mind like a dream, a fairy tale given form and substance.  It’s images have remained with me.  It sat in my DVD player for a long time because I didn’t want to watch it; but, like each one of the films from the collection I’ve watched it had its own unique charm.

Art and Culture, Family, GeekWorld

Lovecraft Meets Sigurd Olson

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39  74%  29%  0mph NNW  bar29.59 steady 39windchill  Winter

               New Moon

New technology takes some time to absorb.  This setup has optical links, which I’ve never used before, and the cables I have don’t work with the receptacles situated on the DVD player, TV and audio receiver.  So, back to Ultimate Electronics.  Then, since I’m using an HDMI connector with the cable HD service the box Comcast has with the HDMI cable is the DVR which costs more.  Of course.  And so on into acronym chaos.

As luck would have it, however, the Woollies meet in Minnetonka tonight at the Istanbul Bistro.  The route to there from here takes me both both Comcast and Ultimate so I should have all the supplies necessary to put this puppy to bed by tomorrow.  The speaker connections are all in place, the subwoofer is ready to woof and I’m ready to hear the damn raindrops.

No joy on the Asia tour as a result though I do have a plan:  faith traditions of Asia.  I’ll hit the Ghandara Buddha, the Mandala (tour requested), Poet Contemplating the Waterfall, Confucius, Kuan Yin, Pocket Buddha, Jizo and the Divine Rainmaking Boy.  

The Gunflint story progresses nicely.  Sort of HP Lovecraft meets Sigurd Olson.

Kate’s off today.  Nice having her around.  She’s finishing up the second curtain for the living room, a red brocade with a pale gold dragon fly motif.

General, Politics

Is Obama the Liberal Reagan?

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33 90%  31%  1mph  NNW  bar29.75  falls windchill31  Winter

                     New Moon

The speakers first, then the short story.  Then my Asia tour.  May take until Tuesday with the Woollies tonight at the Istanbul Cafe and my workout.  Made a decision last night to shift the resistance and flexibility work to T/Th/Sat which will put aerobics only on Monday and Friday, the days I have the most conflicts with working out.  The aerobics are easier to time.

This chilly, humid weather I left Indiana to avoid.  I feel about this in-between weather the same as Martin Luther did about sin.  He said, “If you’re going to sin, sin boldly.”  I say, “If it’s going to be cold, let it be cold.  And snowy.  And all the other appropriate winter stuff, not this melty coldish yuck.”

Tomorrow New Hampshire.  A Gallup poll release yesterday showed Obama out in front of Clinton 41% to 29%.  He will probably do well in South Carolina, the next primary.  I can feel the optimism of the African-American community viscerally.  The analysis I’ve read, however, says even wins in all 3 races may not be enough.  The SuperTuesday primaries are states where the Clinton organization has built solid leads, according to reporters on the ground.  We’ll see. 

David Brooks, of all people, suggested what might happen.  If enough independents find Obama to be the liberal Reagan, an optimistic voice helping to redefine America in a time of shattered national confidence, and African-Americans and young people do, too, then it will become Obama with the sense of inevitability, knocking the dull, hack-type politics of Hilary out of the race.  As far as issues go, I’m a Kucinich guy, and in the three way race, Edwards gives voice to what I believe, but the prospect of electing an African-American or a woman moves me, too.  Feels good to have legitimate choices for a change.

Speaker wire here I come, awake and opposable thumbs in the right places. 

GeekWorld, General

Lashed to the Mast

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31  91%  29%  omph WSW bar29.75 rises windchill31  Winter

                             New Moon

There is something seductive about the large screen TV experience, seductive in an Ulysses lashed to the mast sense.  The visual image is close to movies in a theatre, though not the same.  Hard to describe, but it makes me want to keep watching.  I don’t like this part of it and will have to pay attention so I don’t fade into the couch and become one with the fabric.

On the other hand the picture is fantastic.  The set has so many different bells and whistles that it can accomodate different formats with ease and its easy to use.   Well, sort of easy.  I’ve still got the manual to read.  RTFM as my cello playing significant other in law likes to say.  The HD DVD player upconverts and it does make non-HD DVD’s look great, not HD great, but crisp and clear.  Since DVD’s are my main interest in the large screen, not sports (though I do watch football if the Vikings co-operate and win games), this set will take my interest in cinema to a different level.

I’ve gone down two belt notches since the middle of December when Kate and I started Nutrisystem.  I’m already scanning for maintenance after we finish with it at the end of January.  At the end of twenty-eight days I’ll get on the scale and take my blood glucose.  I expect both will show positive trends.  It’s the blood glucose level I really want to manage; so if it’s down, it will be a great reinforcer for maintaining a lower weight.

The New Year has begun well: some weight loss, workouts going well, writing in the AM underway with a good story happening, the new TV, the video calls with the kids and plenty of snow.  That last, unfortunately, has melted some over the last couple of days.  I hope we get some more snow soon. 

 Asia tour work tomorrow, finish the speaker setup, work some more on the Gunflint Faeries.  Good night and good luck.

                       -30-

Family, GeekWorld

The Fun in Making Things Work

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32  91%  30%  omph bar29.72 steep rise windchill32  Ephiphany

                              New Moon

Long ago in a lifetime faraway I learned mechanical projects and I don’t go together well.  Connecting the $#%!~& speakers has me mumbling to myself, but I have made headway.  It’s straight forward intellectually but when the finger meets the wire to connect the speakers to the receiver, not a pretty picture.  Feels my fingers become non-opposable thumbs.  But just think of the satisfaction I’ll feel when I’m done.

Just got off the video phone (skype) with Ruth, Jon and Jen and +.  Thursday is ultrasound day when we find out if the Olson line will continue with a male heir or whether we have to start saving for another dowry. 

I’ve seen a man on the moon, picture phones, video on telephones and computers at home far more powerful than the room-sized behemoths of yesteryear.  Clones, cell phones, test tube babies.  Geez.  Seems like immortality is not too much to ask.

GeekWorld

One Good Ear, Five Speakers and A Subwoofer Later

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39  78%  29%  0mph WSW  bar 29.60 steep rise  windchill39  Epiphany

                                    New Moon

Worked some more this morning on Faeries on the Gunflint Trail.  This story has legs. 

After the morning writing session, I set out on a quest to finish the installation of the 50″ Panasonic which now sits astride our Stickley coffee table turned TV stand like a colossus.  Speaker stands.  As I passed the $400 mark in post-purchase expenditures (a few really expensive cables, some new DVD’s and these damned speaker stands), I realized I hadn’t thought through this purchase quite as well as I thought as I had.

Best Buy (near by) have speaker stands?  Oh, yes.  Stands that fit my speakers?  Oh, no.  So, instead of working on my Taste of Asia tour for next Friday, the little red car headed across country to the Maple Grove temple to I just gotta have it now and turned in at the now familiar Ultimate Electronics store.  Clutching my tiny satellite speaker I walked in and a few minutes later walked back out with the four omni-post speaker stands.

Back home.  All the while listening to the adventures of poor Charlotte Simmons as she matriculates to Dupont University.  She’s sure out of her element in the co-ed dorm.

Up from my nap I have renewed determination to wire up everything and those speakers pounding so I can hear the rain drops in the opening scene of the Bourne Identity which the installer yesterday assured me I could hear once I had the speakers set up.  I’m no audiophile, hell, I’m barely able to hear with one good ear and the high sounds going in that one, but those rain drops.  Soon.

Faith and Spirituality, Great Wheel

And then I knew: earth is the “Blessed Sacrament,” and always has been.

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28 93% 25% 0mph ESE bar 29.66 steady  windchill27  Yuletide

            Waning Crescent of the Cold Moon

We have come to the Twelfth night of Yuletide.  Epiphany is tomorrow and tonight is the end of the Yuletide season.  Our neighbors, the Perlicks, are Orthodox Christians.  They celebrate Christmas according to the old liturgical calendar which put the nativity on the same day as the Epiphany.  We bought cheese, bread and wine for their Christmas gift today at the grocery store.

Tips for the day

Preparing for Twelfth Night: For generations, at least since medieval times, Epiphany has been the day the season of Christmas traditionally comes to an end. A final night of feasting and merriment, gift-giving in some cultures to echo the gift-giving of the Three Kings, plays and mummery that echoed ancient ways. Then the decorations come down and we set forth into the new year.

And in a custom dating back to at least to the 12th century, and possibly as far back as Saturnalia, a King Cake is baked, containing a pea or a bean. This traditional continues in New Orleans with King Cakes baked from now through Mardi Gras (February 5 this year). Candlegrove contains one such recipe, here are others.

Next year I want to be more intentional about two seasonal things:  celebrating Yule and sending holiday gifts in time for New Years.  Both will reduce stress and deepen the occasion for me.

Here is an interesting paragraph from MythingLinks, by Kathleen Jenks.  It tells of her spiritual journey, which feels, and has felt for some time, a lot like my own.  The whole essay gives the context:  

And then I knew: earth is the “Blessed Sacrament,” and always has been. When Jesus, born in Bethlehem (bet lehem, “house of bread”), later took bread from earth’s threshed grain and wine from earth’s fermented grapes, and said, “This is my body which will be broken for you…this is my blood which will be shed for you,” there was no transubstantiation after all. That would have been an unecessary extra step. I think he meant it literally. Like the ancient Egyptian male earth-god, Nun, I think Jesus was saying that he is earth, and all that comes from it — thus, the wheat, the grapes, the olives, the maples, the sparrows, the fishes are literally his body and blood. They are, and always have been, of the substance of the divine, manifesting some 2000 years ago on the temporal plane as a specific male, Jesus, who was Earth’s emanation, avatar, deva, or emissary, for only a few decades, but now, since he has been “transubstantiated” back into the earth which birthed him, earth has grown as anguished as he once was — torn, abused, polluted, ravaged, broken and bleeding-out at a perilous rate.

Faith and Spirituality

Are You a Green Knight?

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22  86% 27% 0mph S  bar 29.72 falls windchill 22 Yuletide

            Waning Crescent of the Cold Moon

This day has been a slow one for AncienTrails.  In the morning I’ve begun writing first, that is, working in this case on a short story, Faeries on the Gunflint Trail.   If I start here first, I waste some of my writing energy and I’m trying to steer the force of that back into the creative end of things.  So, I wrote until 10:30, then had to get ready to go into the museum.  Wore my blue corduroys, pants I haven’t been able to wear for at least 2 years.  Felt good.

I also didn’t put out my Yuletide lore, so I’m going to continue a bit with the Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.  The more I think about it, the more SGGK, as the folks who write about it abbreviate it, seems central for our time.  This happens with old texts because the rhythms and oscillations of the human community repeat themselves over time.

In this case it may that our time is in the reverse situation from the SGGK.  In SGGK Christian civilization had begun to make inroads in European society, but a strong pagan faith lived on, especially in the rural areas.  Pagan=rural.  Today we have a post-Christian society, a world in which the Christian church, once dominant and interlaced with political power, has begun to weaken.  Thus, today the Green Knight might ride into a corporate boardroom, or up the Capital steps and into Congress.  The natural world has begun to move its tendrils into the corridors of power all around the world:  governments, corporations, political parties.  It will be difficult to find the Gawains, those willing to literally put their heads on the chopping block for Mother Earth, but they exist; they may display the same reluctance and fear. 

Maybe, just maybe, we no longer have to rely on Morgan La Fey at Hautdesert’s castle.  The pagan spirit that loves the land first and places that loyalty above all others appears from time to time all over the globe.  We need not one Green Knight, but many, many willing to take the challenge to those who must take the primacy of Mother Earth as a serious, even deadly duty. 

This is not as clear as I want it, but it’s late and I’m a bit fuzzy.  Still, it’s in the right area.