A Test For Determining How You Feel About Someone
Just Because
How Much Data?
Byte – one grain of rice
Kilobyte – one cup of rice
Megabyte – 8 bags of rice
Gigabyte – 3 container trucks
Terabyte – 2 container ships
Petabyte – covers Manhattan
Exabyte – covers the UK (3 times)
Zettabyte – fills the Pacific Ocean
(h/t to David Wellman at Myriad Genetics)
Oh, Hai!
You Know The Drill
Sunday Evening
Monday
I'm Gonna Go With 1 and 6
Just Because
This image has always appealed to me. Unfortunately I can't find a high-resolution copy worth printing and framing.
Many years ago I had a past life regression. The vision that came to me was stepping off an egg-shaped shuttlecraft into a deserted field of waist-high grass. In the distance there was a single tree, and beyond that, rolling, forested hills. I was part of a galactic survey team and we'd just touched down on a previously unmapped planet. It was my first surface recon mission and what struck me was how green everything was—because apparently wherever I'd called home the vegetation wasn't green. I was dressed in some sort of white leather-like suit with a simple breathing apparatus attached to my face. As far as I could tell, I was human (or at least very human-like). I didn't actually see my face at any point, but I had two arms, two legs, and five fingers on each hand. I got nothing more from the regression than that, but it kind of shook me nonetheless.
I interpret this picture as the crew of just such a mission aboard their main starship.
Who Were These People?
Since I was a child, I have always been fascinated by ancient Egypt. It started one summer while at my grandparents' house when looking through an issue of National Geographic. In that issue, the disassembly and relocation of the Temple of Abu Simbel was documented, prompted by the rising waters of the Nile after the creation of the Aswan Dam. It was probably the greatest archeological preservation in history and I was captivated. I took the magazine to my mom and showed her, asking, "When did we go here?"
She tried to tell me that we had never been to Egypt, yet I remained convinced that I had visited the temple at some point. (One of the many things that have happened over the course of my life that—despite my professed atheism—makes me remain a closet believer in reincarnation).
My interest never really waned, and in fact in the mid 80s I fantasized about visiting in this life. I said I wanted to be able to see the Great Pyramid while I was still young enough and nimble enough to able to crawl around inside. I never got around to it for a multitude of reasons (most notably the unrest in the middle east and more importantly a simple lack of funds) and now, sadly, that time has long passed.
Since the height of my interest in the 80s, many new discoveries have been made, and I am now among those who believe that because of water erosion present on the Giza plateau, both the Sphinx and the great pyramids located there are much older than traditional dating would have you believe. Combined with the knowledge being gleaned of the Younger Dryas event (a meteorite swarm that hit Earth approximately 12,000 years ago) I'd go so far as to say they date from that period, if not earlier.
Furthermore, it is postulated that there was a worldwide civilization in existence prior to the impacts; a civilization as advanced as our own, yet one built on a technology that it shared many aspects of modern civilization, also possessed some wholly different and as yet un-discovered.
I mean, are we to believe the precision rock cutting and finishing found in Egypt—seen in several of the photos above (and in fact across the world, all dating from essentially the same period) was done with copper chisels?
If you're interested in going down this particular rabbit hole, all you need to do is Google Younger-Dryas and pack a lunch.
All I know for sure is that these images elicit something on a very gut level. The meanings (and I'm not just referring to the individual hieroglyphs) of all these things is so close—and yet just out of reach. We'll probably never fully understand what motivated the Egyptians, so instead we're simply left appreciating their incredible art.
Just a Thought
Maybe I'm a goddamned bleeding heart liberal hippie, but I would gladly pay $0.50 more—oh hell, I'd pay $1.50 more—for fries if it meant enough of a pay increase for the person making those fries that they didn't have to work 3 jobs to survive.
Knowledge is Power
Pratt Pratt Pratt
I keep forgetting that Chris Pratt's character has an actual name in Jurassic World.
To me it's just Chris Pratt.
Doing his job.
Saving the world.
Guarding the galaxy.
Wednesday
Submitted Without Comment
Friday and Payday
Thursday
Monday
Monday
Working From Home Realness, Day 18
Only minimal Photoshop required today. Guess I slept okay after all.
Monday
Just Because
I Broke Down Last Night
I thought I'd been handling this self-quarantine, lockdown, whatever-you-wanna-call-it thing pretty well. I'm a homebody at heart, so I figured going into this not leaving the house lifestyle would be a walk in the park.
Well, that was proven wrong last night. It started with a mild headache yesterday afternoon and progressed to an upset stomach. Ben started making dinner and the smells that were coming into the den sent my headache into overdrive. I wanted to wretch. I told him I wasn't at all interested in eating at the time and closed the door.
After Ben had eaten I ventured into the kitchen, where he joined me. I turned to him and started crying. He came in for a hug and I just let loose. I didn't cry when my mom died. I didn't cry when my dad passed. And yet now—for seeming no reason at all, I lost it.
Amazingly after that good cry, the headache was gone as well as my upset stomach.
In his wisdom, Ben suggested we both get out of the house for a while, either together or separately. Cabin Fever was setting in. And you know I'm stressed when I reach the point I can't spend one more second in front of a screen of any kind, which was exactly where I was.
We didn't make it out last night because it was too late by the time I'd finished dinner, but when we woke today Ben said, "We need to take a drive."
Since the world is on lockdown, we really couldn't—nor did we want to—go anywhere that we'd run into masses of humanity, so we settled on one of the public spaces still open: White Tank Mountain Regional Park.
Back in the early 1970s after moving into our new home at 47th Avenue and Bethany Home Road, my family and I had an unobstructed view of the White Tank Mountains to the west. I often said that once I had my own car, my first destination would be driving out west to see them up close.
It took 42-some years to do it, but I finally did when I drove out a few years ago to photograph the White Tank Library. While there I contemplated driving into the park, but for a variety of reasons decided to put it off for another time. It took an additional three and a half years beyond that, but I finally fulfilled my teenage dream of visiting those mountains today.
We both felt much better—much relieved—when we arrived back home this afternoon. Ready to face another week of self-quarantine…
GPOY
I realized it's been three weeks since Rabbit arrived and I hadn't even taken a single gratuitous well-photoshopped selfie in the new ride!
#Mood
I think everything is finally catching up with me. In a deep funk tonight. I thought I was doing a pretty good job of keeping everything in check, but when we made a brief run to Target this morning it all started falling apart. Whereas a week ago, with the exception of the paper products aisle and anything disinfectant-related being sold out, pretty much everything else was the same as always. There were fresh veggies, meat, frozen items, and ready-to-eat products in quantity. Not so today. It was as if a swarm of locusts moved through the store. And it still makes absolutely no sense to me at the items that are sold out. We were able to get the items we needed, but it was just…sad.
So then we came home to another rambling bather-fest by the orange menace in the White House. When are these news organizations just going to stop broadcasting his every dim-witted word salad? We need leadership, not bullshit.
And it doesn't help that AutoNation is still dicking around with my financing. I was told a week ago the loan had been approved by Belco Credit Union and I'd shortly be getting a welcome call from them. Lies. AutoNation's finance guy called this morning asking me to send them proof of employment because Belco was asking for it—even though I'd sent this to my salesman earlier in the week when he requested it. I swear one hand doesn't know what the other is doing at that place.
Frankly, I don't mind being cooped up in the house. Truth be told I was looking forward to this scenario as my retirement. You know, not having to go out and deal with people on a daily basis. The dogs obviously love it, even if they seem a bit confused why Ben and I are home all day. And they're certainly enjoying their evening walks (because neither Ben or I are used to just sitting at a desk all day; even I am used to walking to and from the parking garage, walking across the building to hit the restroom, and going to lunch).
So that's where we stand at the moment. I'm in a deep Sunday evening funk (deeper than my usual Sunday evening funk). I know there's a light at the end of this tunnel, but no one can see it yet, and the Federal Government is doing nothing to install confidence that they even know what they're doing. Thankfully local and state governments seem to be stepping up as best they can.
So how are y'all doing? Leave a comment below…
Friday
It is a Monday, After All…
