Friday, October 12, 2007

the rain on queen elizabeths head

turn left
on the rain
reach back for
some left behind emotion
seek not
grasshopper
feng shui
means
wind water
put a data logger on
that

baring essential
magazine reading
wearing a pearl earring
being pregnant
and on BART
say something
queen elizabeth
say something to the
rain
and how you will
wear your hair
and where you will get it cut
and who is that?
it's just a woman that looks like
a dirt path through
the woods
and the hounds
are sitting
in the rain
and barking

Thursday, July 26, 2007

a rusty lawnmower

mowing down the embryonic
statistician
counting the dots on
the ceiling of a 63 volkswagen
sitting in the way way-back
all wool scratchy and weird smelling like
phony wool
waiting for the forest men to take
back their felt hat
-found at the edge of a treeless
circle of grass and branches but
all I wanted was a
basketball coming from the east coast
into the heat
of California

Friday, July 13, 2007

Thursday, May 10, 2007

Onibaba




Mmm, women living in the reeds killing samurai and throwing them into a big hole in the ground.

Japanese 1964

Sunday, April 29, 2007

joshua tree


nick huard shot this photo that displays jim's ability to sleep anywhere, including a pile of rocks. Nick's caption was 'who farted?'

Thursday, April 12, 2007

Kurt Vonnegut




He also shared with Twain a profound pessimism. “Mark Twain,” Mr. Vonnegut wrote in his 1991 book, “Fates Worse Than Death: An Autobiographical Collage,” “finally stopped laughing at his own agony and that of those around him. He denounced life on this planet as a crock. He died.”

heh-heh

Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Monday, March 05, 2007

somehow

dreadful sorry about all that
cant be held responsible
for your lack of
centrifugal awareness

the unredeemed still
seek sustenance amongst
chimps with spears

moving back in time
with flourescent bars and coffee tables
cracked and written on

leaning toward the violin she was
not very clear about
what was going on
and the tv was still on

fighting with a latte and trying
to perceive fashions dormant
blow she wound
up wearing only
what she could steal

if we should argue
was our mantra
we didn't look for self portraits
but were them

somehow fortune cookies were
involved
and shwag

Friday, March 02, 2007

Switzerland accidentally invades Liechtenstein


ZURICH, Switzerland (AP) -- What began as a routine training exercise almost ended in an embarrassing diplomatic incident after a company of Swiss soldiers got lost at night and marched into neighboring Liechtenstein.

According to Swiss daily Blick, the 170 infantry soldiers wandered 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) across an unmarked border into the tiny principality early Thursday before realizing their mistake and turning back.

A spokesman for the Swiss army confirmed the story but said that there were unlikely to be any serious repercussions for the mistaken invasion.

''We've spoken to the authorities in Liechtenstein and it's not a problem,'' Daniel Reist told The Associated Press.

Officials in Liechtenstein also played down the incident.

Interior ministry spokesman Markus Amman said nobody in Liechtenstein had even noticed the soldiers, who were carrying assault rifles but no ammunition. ''It's not like they stormed over here with attack helicopters or something,'' he said.

Liechtenstein, which has about 34,000 inhabitants and is slightly smaller than Washington DC, doesn't have an army.

Monday, February 26, 2007

Parrot's oratory stuns scientists (bbc)

BBC-.co.uk--by alex kirby--
The finding of a parrot with an almost unparalleled power to communicate with people has brought scientists up short.
The bird, a captive African grey called N'kisi, has a vocabulary of 950 words, and shows signs of a sense of humour.

He invents his own words and phrases if he is confronted with novel ideas with which his existing repertoire cannot cope - just as a human child would do.

N'kisi's remarkable abilities feature in the latest BBC Wildlife Magazine.

N'kisi is believed to be one of the most advanced users of human language in the animal world.

About 100 words are needed for half of all reading in English, so if N'kisi could read he would be able to cope with a wide range of material.

Polished wordsmith

He uses words in context, with past, present and future tenses, and is often inventive.

One N'kisi-ism was "flied" for "flew", and another "pretty smell medicine" to describe the aromatherapy oils used by his owner, an artist based in New York.

When he first met Dr Jane Goodall, the renowned chimpanzee expert, after seeing her in a picture with apes, N'kisi said: "Got a chimp?"He appears to fancy himself as a humourist. When another parrot hung upside down from its perch, he commented: "You got to put this bird on the camera."

Dr Goodall says N'kisi's verbal fireworks are an "outstanding example of interspecies communication".

In an experiment, the bird and his owner were put in separate rooms and filmed as the artist opened random envelopes containing picture cards.Analysis showed the parrot had used appropriate keywords three times more often than would be likely by chance.

Captives' frustrations

This was despite the researchers discounting responses like "What ya doing on the phone?" when N'kisi saw a card of a man with a telephone, and "Can I give you a hug?" with one of a couple embracing.

Professor Donald Broom, of the University of Cambridge's School of Veterinary Medicine, said: "The more we look at the cognitive abilities of animals, the more advanced they appear, and the biggest leap of all has been with parrots."

Alison Hales, of the World Parrot Trust, told BBC News Online: "N'kisi's amazing vocabulary and sense of humour should make everyone who has a pet parrot consider whether they are meeting its needs.

"They may not be able to ask directly, but parrots are long-lived, and a bit of research now could mean an improved quality of life for years."

Friday, February 16, 2007

some local place

on the copper
storm
waiting for an earth
i seem to believe
nothing
but i'm not
i'm watching the serial
typist
she's got a great shoes and
sunken memories
run your fingers along the bark
the cherry blossom season is
like snow or dreams
of cocaine

Tuesday, February 13, 2007

my pet project



I've been recording some songs on my computer, classic music retard, sitting in my room cranking out bad music and recording it. Unfortunately the latest version of itunes doesn't let me convert the songs from aifs to mp3's only apple brand aac's so i haven't been able to upload any of them. I did upload some old ones to my myspace music site- New Glarus Farm & Feed.

Monday, February 05, 2007

In a wig and trenchcoat, carrying a steel mallet, rubber tubing, and wearing diapers so she wouldn't have to stop on her long space flight, er, drive.

AP-
ORLANDO, Fla. - An astronaut drove 900 miles and donned a disguise to confront a woman she believed was her rival for the affections of a space shuttle pilot, police said. She was arrested Monday and charged with attempted kidnapping and other counts.
U.S. Navy Capt. Lisa Nowak, 43, who flew last July on a shuttle mission to the international space station, was also charged with attempted vehicle burglary with battery, destruction of evidence and battery. She was denied bail.

Police said Nowak drove from her home in Houston to the Orlando International Airport to confront Colleen Shipman.

Nowak believed Shipman was romantically involved with Navy Cmdr. William Oefelein, a pilot during space shuttle Discovery's trip to the space station last December, police said.

Nowak told police that her relationship with Oefelein was "more than a working relationship but less than a romantic relationship," according to an arrest affidavit. Police officers recovered a love letter to Oefelein in her car.

NASA spokesman James Hartsfield in Houston said that, as of Monday, Nowak's status with the astronaut corps remained unchanged.

"What will happen beyond that, I will not speculate," he said.

Hartsfield said he couldn't recall the last time an astronaut was arrested and said there were no rules against fraternizing among astronauts.

When she found out that Shipman was flying to Orlando from Houston, Nowak decided to confront her, according to the arrest affidavit. Nowak raced from Houston to Orlando wearing diapers so she wouldn't have to stop to urinate, authorities said.

Astronauts wear diapers during launch and re-entry.

Dressed in a wig and a trench coat, Nowak boarded an airport bus that Shipman took to her car in an airport parking lot. Shipman told police she noticed someone following her, hurried inside the car and locked the doors, according to the arrest affidavit.

Nowak rapped on the window, tried to open the car door and asked for a ride. Shipman refused but rolled down the car window a few inches when Nowak started crying. Nowak then sprayed a chemical into Shipman's car, the affidavit said.

Shipman drove to the parking lot booth, and the police were called.

During a check of the parking lot, an officer followed Nowak and watched her throw away a bag containing the wig and BB gun. They also found a steel mallet, a 4-inch folding knife, rubber tubing, $600 and garbage bags inside a bag Nowak was carrying when she was arrested, authorities said.

Inside Nowak's vehicle, which was parked at a nearby motel, authorities uncovered a pepper spray package, an unused BB-gun cartridge, latex gloves and e-mails between Shipman and Oefelein. They also found a letter "that indicated how much Mrs. Nowak loved Mr. Oefelein," an opened package for a buck knife, Shipman's home address and hand written directions to the address, the arrest affidavit said.

Police said Nowak told them that she only wanted to scare Shipman into talking to her about her relationship with Oefelein and didn't want to harm her physically.

"If you were just going to talk to someone, I don't know that you would need a wig, a trench coat, an air cartridge BB gun and pepper spray," said Sgt. Barbara Jones, a spokeswoman for the Orlando Police Department. "It's just really a very sad case. ... Now she ends up finding herself on the other side of the law with some very serious charges."

Thursday, February 01, 2007

The Sweet Wine of Victory



I went all the way and took the victory at the single elimination Rock, Paper, Scissors Costa Rican Schoolkids Benefit.

Rochambeau is a worldwide game with many different names.

In Japan, instead of the traditional elements, there is apparently a variation involving the chief of a village, a tiger, and the mother of the chief of a village (not surprisingly, the mother of the chief beats the chief). One of the most humorous variations comes from Indonesia and involves an elephant, a person, and an ant. The elephant can crush the person, the person can crush the ant, but how can the ant win against the elephant? It crawls in the elephant's ear and drives it crazy. (straight dope)

The World RPS Society [1] has been holding the world championships in Canada for the past 5 years. Hundreds of competitors from all over the world come to compete in these championships and during the first 4 years, home grown Canadian talent won the coveted trophy.
The latest winner is Bob 'The Rock' Cooper, from London, UK. He defeated 496 competitors to take the title, winning with a pair of scissors. (wikipedia)

In the final and semifinal games my competitors and I hit the same sign consecutively many times. I really didn't have a strategy, i just played it instinctually. This bottle of wine was the top prize (from the roshambo winery).