When you come full circle

Click on the photos to read them full sized.

When you come full circle, it makes a ring.

This guy's web comic, The DM of The Rings, is really funny.

Well, funny if you love Lord of the Rings and D&D.

OK, its funny if you are a complete geeky dork like me.

Check it out: http://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/?p=612

Signs and Portents...

What does that say? Balrog Trucking? No fishing from Bridge of Khazad-dum?
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"From out of the shadow a red sword leapt flaming."
You really ought to keep better control of your sword near shadow-filled bottomless pits...

Can’t Take It Back

Where do all the played songs go?
Lost in the stacks
Folding chairs
Chalk dust erasers
Wish I could see you through
Bible Black
Where do all the said prayers go?
There once was a spark
Smothered is sack cloth
Drowned in sacrament
Wish I could see that light
Instead of
Bible Black
Where do all the old secrets go?
Leather covers crack
Left on walls while
We played in parking lots
Blacktop laughter
Weeds that refuse to die
Refuse to be lost in
Bible Black

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Credits:

Poem and Collage by Jay Larsen

It wasn't until after I wrote this that Google informed me that Bible Black is a sleezy anime/video game, a bad heavy metal song, and a band from the 80s. I didn't know.

Phantom Pains Long After the Amputation

America hates explanations that take longer than 30 seconds. Or at least our current Corporate Media and our current Politicians hide behind the excuse that Americans can’t sit through explanations that take longer than 30 seconds. So the majority of what we are offered in the media and in politics are sound-bite and bumper-sticker worthy slogans that are easily consumed, like junk food, even if the long term effects are chronic life-threatening problems. Arrgh!!!

Yet we keep wanting to believe that we are informed citizens in a healthy democracy, because, as Matt Taibbi puts it, “like an amputee, you can still sort of feel things that are no longer there.” Matt’s latest article “The Great American Bubble Machine” in the new Rolling Stone should be required reading for all citizens. He lays out an incredible outline of all the Wall Street bubbles and crashes of the last hundred years and the common elements in all of those catastrophes: Goldman Sachs. Unfortunately, Matt’s explanations take longer than 30 seconds to recount. So I won’t rehash them all here, and I am sure most Americans won’t read the whole 12 page article. But you should.

Investment Trusts, Tech Stocks, IPOs, Mortgage based Securities, Credit Default Swaps, Commodities Futures, TARP are all bubbles that have been created and inflated by Goldman Sachs while luring dollars into the system from ordinary people, siphoning off billions of dollars, and then running for cover before the bubbles burst, and then putting the cost of the clean up on the taxpayer.. And next, Goldman Sachs wants to do the same to Carbon Credits. It is astounding the list of current and ex Goldman employees who “run” the agencies that set policy for these issues and the list of politicians they contribute to, including President Obama whose cabinet is loaded with these guys.

Read the Rolling Stone Article. http://zerohedge.blogspot.com/2009/06/goldman-sachs-engineering-every-major.html Matt has put together a compelling narrative. I have always found his research to be compelling and he is seldom off base.

I’m getting a little bit tired of being told I live in the greatest democracy on earth and yet finding out that the facts don’t match the advertising. I’m sick of being a democratic amputee with phantom pains of accountability and participation. We are human beings after all. Our ancestors built the pyramids, went to the moon, discovered music and dance. We invented the concept of civilization. And I for one think it is time to do some hardcore triage and identify the diseases that have infected our institutions our bodies and our psyches and then DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!

Let’s cut the crap. Fool me once Goldman Sachs, shame on you. Fool me twice, no eight, no ten times, shame on me. Fraud is not a good business model. Debt is not a good investment. Rebranding does not change the product. And real commodities and real people are not there for your gambling pleasure. I don’t think you ought to be able to buy and sell a barrel of oil an average of 27 times (driving the price up each time) before I am allowed to purchase my gas. And you should definitely not be allowed to do that with our food supplies. Nor should you be allowed to run the government agencies that are supposed to keep you honest. This Goldman Sachs Mafia needs to get dragged into the light, that place where vampires never like to be.

3 Cheers for Music!!!

Let's hear it for 35,000 years plus of humans making music.

Probably music is our most redeeming quality.

"A bird-bone flute unearthed in a German cave was carved some 35,000 years ago and is the oldest handcrafted musical instrument yet discovered, archaeologists say, offering the latest evidence that early modern humans in Europe had established a complex and creative culture.
A team led by University of Tuebingen archaeologist Nicholas Conard assembled the flute from 12 pieces of griffon vulture bone scattered in a small plot of the Hohle Fels cave in southern Germany.
Together, the pieces comprise a 8.6-inch (22-centimeter) instrument with five holes and a notched end. Conard said the flute was 35,000 years old.

...

Conard's team excavated the flute in September 2008, the same month they recovered six ivory fragments from the Hohle Fels cave that form a female figurine they believe is the oldest known sculpture of the human form.
Together, the flute and the figure _ found in the same layer of sediment _ suggest that modern humans had established an advanced culture in Europe 35,000 years ago, said Wil Roebroeks, an archaeologist at Leiden University in the Netherlands who didn't participate in Conard's study.
Roebroeks said it's difficult to say how cognitively and socially advanced these people were. But the physical trappings of their lives _ including musical instruments, personal decorations and figurative art _ match the objects we associate with modern human behavior, Roebroeks said.
"It shows that from the moment that modern humans enter Europe ... it is as modern in terms of material culture as it can get," Roebroeks told The AP. He agreed with Conard's assertion that the flute appears to be the earliest known musical instrument in the world."

More Here

Great Vacation

Had a great trip to Sun Lakes in the Grand Coulee in Eastern Washington.

Camping at the State Park. Fishing in the lakes. Telling stories round the fire. Almost drowning the dog.

Loved it.

More photos at: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=125971&id=544444151&l=e56048ff83

(and no, I didn't take the picture of the bears earlier. Or the hyena.)

On Vacation - Day 6

Back to work and the week day commute, tomorrow...

On Vacation - Day 5

Taking it slow...

On Vacation - Day 4

Yes we took the dogs with us...

On Vacation - Day 3

The Captain of my boat is much cuter...

I'm On Vacation - Day 2

Where the bears know kung fu...

I'm On Vacation-Day 1

I just had to get out of my work clothes...

8th Grade Graduation

The tiny ant with the bright red hair is Chani graduating from Middle School with a 3.5 gpa. Congrats Chani.
Now lets go camping.

Jay Larsen

Sent from my Windows Mobile phone

Train of Thought

Very Red, Very Chani

Chani wanted her hair colored for 8th grade graduation. This what she ended up with...

Jay Larsen

Sent from my Windows Mobile phone

What is that on your head?

Curiouser and Curiouser

The Bureau of Communications

Click the Image to see a larger version
These guys post forms for everyday situations, to help us communicate. Because nothing says heartfelt communications like a form letter...
Click the link to visit their site: http://bureauofcommunication.com/

Waiting for the Ninjas

I've been watching for the ninjas.
There, I think I saw one.
Nope, I'm still breathing...

That was a No Entry sign orginally, until the Ninjas modified it.

Dark Corners

In dark corner stands
A howling wind of shame,
Unrepentant still...
--Jay

Booty Call

Yeah! I'm home!
With my suitcase full of booty. Well samples from the vendors anyway.
None of the bottles leaked, which is all you can hope for when transporting strange spices and sauces from around the world.

Just One

Not as busy as it might have been
Before the turmoil economic
I find myself one of a gypsy caravan
Wearing comfortable clothes
With an over stuffed bag
Cell phone messanger pidgeon
MP3-player tamborine
But without trusted companions
To share this shuffling dance
With the halting steps
One of many nameless travelers
One man headed home
Just one...
---------
Jay Larsen
From the Dallas airport
Seattle here I come
Sent from my Windows Mobile phone

My Girls...

My girls look nothing like this. Although Chani does some fun things with her hair. But I am ready to go home and see my girls again.
Love

Jay Larsen

Sent from my Windows Mobile phone

Mr Corp Put Up That Wall

A bit of corporate strangeness in the courtyard of the Dallas Hilton. They have section of the Berlin Wall decorated with spray paint, rebar showing at the edges.
I wonder what it costs to ship from Germany?
Then they hide it in the back of the hotel by the kitchen entrance, so the mostly Mexican workers walk past it on their way to work every day. It is a small strange world we live in.

Jay Larsen

Sent from my Windows Mobile phone

Just like that

Just like that the show dies and there is nothing left but the Bones and boxes.
The vendors all trade samples and the rest of the food goes to the local food bank.
I'm tired and ready to go home.
But one more dinner with my biggest customer...

Jay Larsen

Sent from my Windows Mobile phone

Cheese anybody

Can i intrest you in a 50lb cheese sculpture then?

Jay Larsen

Sent from my Windows Mobile phone

Table for 1,000 please

They are setting up for dinner below my window. Texas BBQ followed by the Doobie Brothers.

Jay Larsen

Sent from my Windows Mobile phone

I Might Be a Redneck if...

Open bar.
Steak dinner.
And a live performance from Jeff Foxworthy.
He was pretty damn funny actually.
But it is ironic listening to hillbilly humor under huge chandeliers in the Chantilly Ballroom.
You might be a redneck if you get 6 figures to tell jokes for 90 minutes.

Jay Larsen

Sent from my Windows Mobile phone

TOL Show is Really Big

I wasnt expecting so many vendors. But I have arrived. Let the schmoozing begin.

Jay Larsen

Sent from my Windows Mobile phone

On the road again

President Obama is on the road in the Middle East. I am on my way to Texas. I am not sure there are any parralels to draw here.
Had to hit the hiway at 3am for an early flight because the Texans insist on starting their day 2 hours early.
Time to board the plane.

Jay Larsen

Sent from my Windows Mobile phone

Hit the Road, Jayck

I'm heading for the airport to attempt a docking maneuver with my corporate comrades in Dallas Texas. So my posts for the rest of the week will be from the road. Meaning mostly from my phone. And I find it difficult to compose poetry on my phone. Many of you will see that as a blessing, I'm sure. And I haven't found good photo collage software for my phone yet either, so plain old snap shots will have to suffice.
So, if you are going to the Tree of Life National Show in Dallas, I will be the corporate clone with the headphones on. Wish me luck...

8th Grade Band Concert

The last concert of Middle School. Chani moves on to high school next year. I hope she sticks with the music.
Blow that horn, Kiddo.

Jay Larsen

Sent from my Windows Mobile phone

Unknowable

Heaven and Hell
Share the same root
Travel the same route
People these days
See reward and suffering
As if they are in a dream
Some delusions are uncowable
These things are not unknowable
Knowable and unknowable
Heaven and Hell
Are just Earth
Stuck beneath my nails
And between my toes
Amazing!

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Credits: Collage and Poetry by Jay Larsen

Sometimes You Need an Extra Set of Hands

Sometimes you need an extra set of hands to get everything done.
But I'm not so sure my girl would look at me the same way
If I actually had that second set of multitasking digits.
Play on my limited set of manipulators, play on...----------------------
Collage and Complaint by Jay "Ain't Messin' With Texas Yet, But I'm Fixin' To" Larsen

Give Me Code

I gotta go to Texas.
Give me those last minute code changes, Mike.

Sent from my Windows Mobile phone