Month: March 2003

I amGreat Cthulhu!

“And for them shall be set the greatest of the Star-Spawned, and he shall be their Priest!” or
so it is written in the Grimiore Helesh Nasheed. The being known as Great
Cthulhu is the intermediary between the aspirant and the other great
powers. He is envisioned as a towering giant with an eight-tentacled
face. His prodigious corpus is shrouded in wicked shadows cast by his
chiropteran wings. We believe he rests dreaming beneath this world’s
oceans emitting dreams to his chosen. The time of his awakening is known.
Which Great Old One are you?

Yeah, so I usually inundate my live journal with endless amounts of comics… Lately however, even the comics folks have been all serious about the war. I just don’t find that entertaining.

Here is the scant pickings of the week though:


1. Pop group which won the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest with
“Waterloo”.

2. Bandleader who had hits in the 1950s with “Rock Around the
Clock” and “Shake, Rattle and Roll”.

3. Former Beatle whose solo hits included “My Sweet Lord” and
“Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth)”.

4. American singer-songwriter who wrote “Leaving on a Jet Plane”
and had a hit with “Annie’s Song”.

5. Two singers who called themselves brothers (even though they
weren’t) and had hits with “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin'”
and “Unchained Melody”.

6. British singer (real name Mary O’Brien) whose sixties hits
included “I Only Want To Be With You” and “Son of a Preacher
Man”.

7. American songwriter and producer who had a hit with “The
Hustle” and wrote arrangements for the Stylistics.

8. American pop group which had hits in the 1960s with “Hanky
Panky” and “Mony Mony”.

9. Soul vocal group whose seventies hits included “Give More
Power to the People”, “Have You Seen Her?” and “Oh Girl”

10. Jamaican singer who had hits in the seventies with
“Everything I Own” and “Crying Over You”.

Zelda’s mine… aaw yeah. 2 boxes! Windwaker, and 2x Ocarina… one for the orig n64 game, the other is a redux called “master quest”… Sleep is no longer an option.

Delirium, the youngest of The Endless, you are the keeper of insanity, delusion and everything else that's just plain crazy. You make about as much sense as fish and telephone flavored ic
Delirium, the youngest of The Endless, you are the
keeper of insanity, delusion and everything
else that’s just plain crazy. You make about as
much sense as fish and telephone flavored ice
cream. You are truly your own person, and the
fact that your eyes don’t match, your hair is
three different colors, and you have a floating
fish following you doesn’t bother you any. You
have a truly unique perspective on the world,
and no one else knows what to think about it.

Which Endless are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

First off, I wasn’t trying to foster a discussion in my earlier post… I was posting my opinion. Many people I know who have done this on blogs or journals have disabled the ability to respond to the post when they did so. I did not take that step, as I felt people probably would have thoughts on what I think. Do not confuse my opinions with some sort of preaching to be heard and obeyed… I could care less if everyone just skimmed it, or noone even bothered to do that.

That out of the way, I’ll continue with your laundry list you are brining me to task for:

The history of the word war is central to part of the _statement_ I was making. No, Liverwurst is not central, nor am I vying for mental superiority. My _point_ is showing how the word evolved, and why I will not use it to describe the current conflict. What you label as preaching is just me expressing myself. I have innumerable contemplations like this that never get published to anyone… I decided to publish this one, so cut it with the guru allegory.

When I said Iraq was not our enemy, I meant it in the sense before the hostilities started. We are now their enemies by virtue of our invasion.

What I was posting were opinions, as I said… the entire post, fuck all, my entire journal is a mishmash of fact and opinion, useless links, and poetry/songs. You know just as well as I the dangers which can be created when words become THE WORD. The facts were the parts taken from the dictionary.

Opinion: Doing business with someone suggests a relationship which generally precludes open hostility. We sold them what they have for the most part, unless they were savvy enough to wheedle some things out of the Russians, or anyone else willing to peddle manifestations of ideas that simply have no place in our world.

We are, quite clearly, the aggressors in this conflict… that cannot be denied. When Iraq invaded Kuwait, we were defending our interests in Kuwait, and protecting our other interests from possible chain-of-events takeover. Now, we are just going in because Dubya wants justice, Cheney wants Oil, and Rummy likes the idea of being able to expand his spidery touch even further under wartime conditions; when the no contemplative of the nation will blindly follow “for the good of our boys over there”.

Note: I said BLINDLY and NONCONTEMPLATVE. If someone weighs all this and still thinks we are doing the right thing; bully for them! I have no beef if they put some thought into it… the amount of people who don’t though is what keeps me up at night sometimes.

The few items I cited about Saddam personally are what I “know” for circulation. I stated that I really have no interest in hanging out with him, and that he probably is a bad man.

However, in my book, there is a big difference between a bad man, and an enemy. A bad man can be dealt with to meet certain ends. An enemy is worthy of no break, no reprieve, and deserves nothing but the worst. May seem like intellectual hair-splitting, but it isn’t. Mussolini was a bad man, so was Stalin… didn’t stop the US from playing ball with them once they “saw the light”.

Hitler had no interest in changing his position on things… that made him an enemy. Who is to say that if the Brits hadn’t fallen that we wouldn’t have been working along with the man with the funny moustache to rid the world of communism forever? Who is to say if they would have needed our help?

It is within these bounds that I am labeling Saddam a non-enemy. He may have enough anthrax to take out the 48 continental states and Alaska, but if he isn’t _doing_ anything, he’s not an enemy… not yet. Wait, watch, do not commit the way we have, especially when others have been through and said “y’know, we aren’t really sure yet, but we don’t think he has enough anthrax to do even that…”

Saddam’s Arab support is good for him, but in terms of “winning” the conflict we have brought to him, it will do nothing other than irritate and prolong the eventual process.

I did not claim that the government planned September 11. I said they knew about it. Several branches did, with more than enough time that they could have implemented a silly color warning system before planes were taken over.

But wait, without ground zero, and a big hole in the Pentagon, who was going to vote to use all the $ needed, and the oversights on the Bill of Rights, and the Constitution?

I am not saying that the US government necessarily had a postit note or Outlook schedule detailing the exact plans that the terrorists were going to take.

I am suggesting that it is in their best interest to make sure they happened… looking at the last two years; I’d say 9/11 was like a happy steroid shot for federal executive power.

I’m suggesting there is a possibility that US funds were involved in the development of these people, and their organization. I did not even state it as fact.

My angst over this conflict is that we are not on a Crusade. We are out to take what we want, under the premise of international security; despite an overwhelming expression against the action by that international community. My angst is that one man can get before one of the most powerful empires in the history of the world (that we know of) and drop idealistic turds on the microphone, justifying what is clearly a grab for dough.

I am glad we see eye to eye on the POW’s though… and the fact that all this horse caca means spit in the ocean when all things come down to it.

I do not seek your respect in what I see as the best possibilities for humans, as a species, to attain harmony within itself, and with the environment. I have looked at the world, and tried to find scenarios for a “positive” method. What I find is corporate corruption, international oppression, terrorism, plague, starvation, near-slave labor, torture, rape, and unjust imprisonment and execution, in the name of “Freedom”.

You see my desire for the wanton destruction of what is as a negative solution. From a species point of view, the best thing that happened to us, ever, was the comet that wiped out the dinosaurs. Our legacy is built on the bones of our predecessors, which, after ages, are what we are going to war over.

I mock those who think that there is a way to save the world the same way I would mock someone who took sugar pills to cure aids. It is a nice hope, and it may create a sense of peace and well-being, but it is not a cure to the disease. Lessening the symptoms does not stop the enevitable breakdown. If you want peace and well being,and a symptom free world, go for it. I don’t… I want to see a cure, even if the treatment has a chance of killing the patient.

I find it distasteful that you see my attitude as apathetic or mentally/ethically lethargic. I have looked, read, soul searched, hunted, and searched again. Perhaps I am too pragmatic to pursue worldly philosophy in a way which jives with your way of looking at things. I don’t know…

LUKE 6:47-49 (KJV)

47 Whosoever cometh to me, and heareth my sayings, and doeth them, I will shew you to whom he is like:
48 He is like a man which built an house, and digged deep,and laid the foundation on a rock: and when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently upon that house, and could not shake it: for it was founded upon a rock.
49 But he that heareth, and doeth not, is like a man that without a foundation built an house upon the earth; against which the stream did beat vehemently, and immediately it fell; and the ruin of that house was great.

What I’m saying, is that I agee with whoever attributed this quote to JC, on a metaphorical level. I believe there is some rock in our species… but each successive generation after we turned into an agrarian society has been a layer of silt, sand, and earth. Anything we could build from what is, is going to be on that foundation. I think that to have any chance, we need to get back to the stone, or the flood which we are not at the helm of will ensure our ruin is great.

I am not saying that there will magically be a wonderful harmony between man and man and man and nature if things regress back to our formal fight for survival. I’m saying at least under those circumstances, there is a _chance_ for it. In the current tumorous state of our species, I see none, so I will waste no energy in developing and marketing sugar pills.

In the world I see — you’re stalking elk through the damp canyon forests around the ruins of Rockefeller Center. You will wear leather clothes that last you the rest of your life. You will climb the wrist-thick kudzu vines that wrap the Sears Tower. You will see tiny figures pounding corn and laying-strips of venison on the empty car pool lane of the ruins of a superhighway.

Everyone else is doing it… why shouldn’t I?

Except, I won’t call it a “war”.

Middle English warre, from Old North French werre, of Germanic origin. See wers- in Indo-European Roots.

Word History: The chaos of war is reflected in the semantic history of the word war. War can be traced back to the Indo-European root *wers-, to confuse, mix up. In the Germanic family of the Indo-European languages, this root gave rise to several words having to do with confusion or mixture of various kinds. One was the noun *werza-, confusion, which in a later form *werra- was borrowed into Old French, probably from Frankish, a largely unrecorded Germanic language that contributed about 200 words to the vocabulary of Old French. From the Germanic stem came both the form werre in Old North French, the form borrowed into English in the 12th century, and guerre (the source of guerrilla) in the rest of the Old French-speaking area. Both forms meant war. Meanwhile another form derived from the same Indo-European root had developed into a word denoting a more benign kind of mixture, Old High German wurst, meaning sausage. Modern German Wurst was borrowed into English in the 19th century, first by itself (recorded in 1855) and then as part of the word liverwurst (1869), the liver being a translation of German Leber in Leberwurst.

Where was I?

n 1: the waging of armed conflict against an enemy; “thousands of people were killed in the war” [syn: warfare] 2: a legal state created by a declaration of war and ended by official declaration during which the international rules of war apply; “war was declared in November but actual fighting did not begin until the following spring” [syn: state of war] [ant: peace] 3: an active struggle between competing entities; “a price war”; “a war of wits”; “diplomatic warfare” [syn: warfare] 4: a concerted campaign to end something that is injurious; “the war on poverty”; “the war against crime” v : make or wage war [ant: make peace]

Right, so anyhow… the invasion of Iraq.

Now, I refuse to label this as a war for the following reasons:
Iraq is not our enemy… we did business with them less than a generation ago. In fact, the only reason that we know they have “weapons of mass destruction” is because we kept the reciept on what we sold them! Those were only supposed to be used agains the enemies of our soverign nation though, never agianst us directly.

It is an armed conflict, but we are the agressors…

It is not a legal war, by the laws we helped establish after the last just war we fought in.

It is not a struggle between competing enteties… Saddam is not looking to outmuscle Detroit steel, sweep away our product trade with China, create a profitable tech sector…

He supposedly has huge stores of pure evil t his disposal. Why the hell isin’t he using them, if he has them?

Iraq is not injurious, not to Americans. MYOB America… let the world sort out its own problems. People love to cite the September 11th attacks as a repercussion of what happens when America “minds its own business”.

Bullshit. The government knew about the attacks, fuck all, they probably funded and fascilitated them. Our foreign policy 50 years ago is what started that fire burning anyhow.

Oh, but the Iraqis have oil. We want to have oil….especially now that we can’t torch our arctic refuge to get it!

Yup, they invaded Kuwait.
Yup, they did bad things to the Kurds.
Nope, I don’t think I’d like to spend time at length with Saddam… he’s probably not that nice a guy.
Yup, he is the head of a non-democratic nation.

So, for the last 11 years, what has he been doing? Is this like the reconstruction of germany post ww1? Why not bomb Japan again for working around thier naval restrictions by having a “sea security force”?

This is about money.

If Daddy Bush had felt threatened by Saddam’s deth threats, then he would have taken care of things last gulf war.

Bush jr. seems to think that threatneing daddy is just cause.
He thinks that the duct-tape links to the “terrah” organizations of the world are a just cause.
The Iraqui people, and thier precious oil must be liberated! Right, if they can live through the liberation process.
Howabout Cuba?
Howabout N. Korea?
Did we miss all the poor Tibetans?
Ooh, and lets not forget everything between the Panama Canal and tha Antarctic….
Bloody selective Cursades make me mad.

::sigh::

I’m ranting here, not at all being constructive.

I get so frustrated whenever I start thinking about this at length. That spills over any chance of consturctive thought.

Everyone is _appaled_ that they put POW’s on TV. Dit it occur to noone that the frezy the media pirahnnahs are having over this has piped the images of those POW’s into more pairs of eyes than if they had just lef the whole thing alone? I mean, really, how much of an audience does Iraqi TV have? Certainly not as big an audience as CNN, FOX, NBC, ABC, and CSPAN. Fucking MTV is doing war specials for christ’s sake!

So yeah, its bad that they filmed POW’s, its against the “Geneva Convention”. When I heard Rumsfeld giving that little speech, I nearly lost my lunch. How much better is it than the US media blazing pics of the “super Al-Queda agent” they nabbed a few weeks ago. I mean, if the war on terror is actually a war, as per the rules Bush is playing with, isin’t that making public the disgrace of a POW?

So yeah, nice coincidence that they film our soldiers, and that it ends up in every home in America as a “shocking tragedy”.

I hate hate HATE the war, I hate the media blitz about it. I hate the people who started it, and I hate the system that supports it.

I hate that anyone thinks that thier opinion is going to make a lick of difference. I don’t care if daddy fought in Vietnam, or Uncle Joe died when a cop got too weighty with a baton at a peace rally. This monster is going to jugernaut until we hit a wall, or establish our emperial way of thinking worldwide, bringing pupped democracies to all the countries whose dictators are unwilling to be puppets themselves.

The quote I opened with: there was a reason for it. I hope that Saddam has all kinds of shit, and is waiting until we get to Bagdhad to use them. I hope North Korea takes the ball and starts world war three. I hope we get nuked back to the stone age. That is, as I see it, the big hope, for our species, to find again the lsot synch we once had with our world. Not good odds on humanity…a pretty slim one indeed.

The apple is rotten… turn it in to sauce.

…left seattle WA at 6:04 am this morning. I should have just bought it at the damn store, but I am a sucker for good online promotions.

Soon, the precious will be here… soon.

‘Love and Tensor Algebra’

Come, let us hasten to a higher plane
Where dyads tread the fairy fields of Venn,
Their indices bedecked from one to n
Commingled in an endless Markov chain!

Come, every frustrum longs to be a cone
And every vector dreams of matrices.
Hark to the gentle gradient of the breeze:
It whispers of a more ergodic zone.

In Riemann, Hilbert or in Banach space
Let superscripts and subscripts go their ways.
Our asymptotes no longer out of phase,
We shall encounter, counting, face to face.

I’ll grant thee random access to my heart,
Thou’lt tell me all the constants of thy love;
And so we two shall all love’s lemmas prove,
And in our bound partition never part.

For what did Cauchy know, or Christoffel,
Or Fourier, or any Bools or Euler,
Wielding their compasses, their pens and rulers,
Of thy supernal sinusoidal spell?

Cancel me not – for what then shall remain?
Abscissas some mantissas, modules, modes,
A root or two, a torus and a node:
The inverse of my verse, a null domain.

Ellipse of bliss, converge, O lips divine!
the product o four scalars is defines!
Cyberiad draws nigh, and the skew mind
Cuts capers like a happy haversine.

I see the eigenvalue in thine eye,
I hear the tender tensor in thy sigh.
Bernoulli would have been content to die,
Had he but known such a^2 cos 2 phi!

(wasted youth)
(wasted youth)

I know that I will never be politically correct

And I don’t give a damn about my lack of etiquette
As far as I’m concerned the world could still be flat
And if the thrill is gone, then it’s time to take it back!
If the thrill is gone, then it’s time to take it back!
Who am I? Why am I here?
Forget the questions! Someone gimme another beer!
What’s the meaning of life? What’s the meaning of it all?
You gotta learn to dance before you learn to crawl!
You gotta learn to dance before you learn to crawl!
So sign up all you raw recruits
Throw away those designer suits
You got your weapons cocked and your targets in your sight
There’s a party raging somewhere in the world
You gotta serve your country, gotta service your girl
You’re all enlisted in the armies of the night
And I ain’t in it for the power,
and I ain’t in it for my health
I ain’t in it for the glory of anything at all,
and I sure ain’t in it for the wealth
But I’m in it ’till it’s over and I just can’t stop
If you wanna get it done, you gotta do it yourself,
and I like my music like I like my life
Everything louder than everything else!
Everything louder than everything else!
Everything louder than – everything else!
Everything louder than everything else!
Everything louder than everything else!
Everything louder than – everything else!
(wasted youth – wasted youth, ah)
(wasted youth – wasted youth, ah)
They got a file on me and it’s a mile long and they say that they got all of the proof,
that I’m just another case of arrested development and just another wasted youth
They say that I’m in need of some radical discipline, they say I gotta face the truth,
that I’m just another case of arrested development and just another wasted youth
They say I’m wild and I’m reckless
I should be acting my age
I’m an impressionable child in a tumultuous world,
and they say I’m at a difficult stage
But it seems to me to the contrary, of all the crap they’re going to put on the page,
that a wasted youth is better by far than a wise and productive old age!
A wasted youth is better by far than a wise and productive old age!
A wasted youth is better by far than a wise and productive old age!
A wasted youth is better by far than a wise and productive old age!
A wasted youth is better by far than a wise and productive old age!
(louder, louder, louder, louder, louder!)
If you want my views of hist’ry, then there’s something you should know;
the three men I admire most are Curly, Larry and Moe!
If you don’t worry about the future, sooner or later it’s the past
And if they say the thrill is gone, then it’s time to take it back
If the thrill is gone, then it’s time to take it back!
So sign up all you raw recruits
Throw away those two-bit suits
You got your weapons cocked and your targets in your sight
There’s a party raging somewhere in the world
You gotta serve your country, gotta service your girl
You’re all inducted in the armies of the night
And I ain’t in it for the power,
and I ain’t in it for my health
I ain’t in it for the glory of anything at all,
and I sure ain’t in it for the wealth
But I’m in it ’till it’s over and I just can’t stop
If you wanna get it done, you gotta fight for yourself,
and I like my music like I like my life
Everything louder than everything else!
Everything louder than everything else!
Everything louder than – everything else!
(repeat to fade and instrumental coda)

To: All Members of the Mount Sinai Community

From: Kenneth Davis, MD and Larry Hollier, MD

Subject: Emergency Readiness

Date: March 20, 2003

In these times of uncertainty and increased vigilance, we would like review with you the Medical Center’s preparedness.

Since the terrible events of 9/11, we have taken several steps to increase our readiness. These include:

Enhanced capability to protect and treat staff members potentially exposed to biological agents or radiation.
Comprehensive plans available on the intranet which can be accessed (on the Mount Sinai intranet home page by scrolling down to “Emergency Preparedness” in the list on the left-hand side of the home page.
Additional training for Emergency Department staff in the care of victims of possible terrorist actions. Hospital wide drills have been conducted and focused educational sessions have been presented to the professional and administrative staff.
Enhanced communications to ensure 24-hour-a-day notification capabilities of the implementation of the Emergency Preparedness Plan via priority phone lists, the pager system, public address, and e-mail.
Contingency plans for nuclear, biological and chemical agents that encompass mass casualties and surge capacities.
All these measures are continuously updated based on information from local and federal authorities. We feel confident that we are at a level of readiness to manage whatever may happen.

#@#@#@#@#@#@#@#@#@#@#@#@#@#

To: All Members of the Mount Sinai Community

From: Kenneth Davis, MD and Larry Hollier, MD

Subject: Emergency Preparedness: Important Steps to Keep in Mind

Date: March 20, 2003

To help ensure our readiness in these times of uncertainty and increased vigilance, we ask you to please wear your ID visibly at all times.

As reminders, the following steps are mandatory to assure patient and staff safety:

A page to 911 indicates the implementation of Plan E (Emergency Preparedness);
A page to 911000 indicates the implementation of Plan NBC (a Nuclear, Biological, or Chemical event has occurred);
Staff (i.e., physicians and nursing staff) who are required to respond to such pages should present to the Staffing Pool, relocated to the Hatch Auditorium (GP 2), NOT to the Emergency Department.
The Patient Service Center will be used as a Call Center to provide information to staff members who are off duty. Staff members should call 659-9880 to hear taped messages relative to staffing needs or directions.
We know that these are difficult times, and want to assure you of our determination to provide the safest possible environment for you, our students, our patients, and the residents of New York City.

Apparently Fox is covering the potential of “Terrorist Attacks” against our ships in our soon-to-be-born non-internationally sanctioned war. To that end, I have this image to answer the burning question, “If we go to war, how does defending yourself count as terror?”

President George Bush is visiting an elementary school, and he visits one of the classes. They are in the middle of a discussion related to words and their meanings. The teacher asks the President if he would like to lead the class in the discussion of the word, “tragedy.” So the illustrious leader asks the class for an example of a “tragedy.” One little boy stands up and offers, “If my best friend, who lives next door, is playing in the street and a car comes along and runs him over,that would be a tragedy.” “No,” says Bush, “that would be an ACCIDENT.” A little girl raises her hand: “If a school bus carrying 50 children drove off a cliff, killing everyone involved, that would be a tragedy.” “I’m afraid not,” explains Mr. President. “That’s what we would call a GREAT LOSS.” The room goes silent. No other children volunteer. President Bush searches the room. “Isn’t there someone here who can give me an example of a tragedy?” Finally, way in the back of the room, a small boy raises his hand. In a quiet voice he says, “If Air Force One, carrying Mr. Bush, were struck by a missile and blown up to smithereens, by terrorist like Osama bin Laden, that would be a tragedy.” “Fantastic,” exclaims Bush, “that’s right. And can you tell me WHY that would be a TRAGEDY?” “Well,” says the boy, “because it wouldn’t be an accident, and it certainly wouldn’t be a great loss.”

A panda walks into a restaurant, sits down, and orders a sandwich. He eats the sandwich, pulls out a gun, and shoots the waiter dead. As the panda stands up to go, the manager shouts, “Hey! Where are you going? You just shot my waiter, and you didn’t even pay for your sandwich!”

“Hey, man, I’m a PANDA!” the panda shouts back. “Look it up!”

The manager opens his dictionary and reads:

Panda: A tree-dwelling marsupial of Asian origin, characterized by distinct black and white coloring. Eats shoots and leaves.

1. How many lungs do humans normally have?

2. In which part of the body would you usually find varicose
veins?

3. What is dental “caries”?

4. In which part of the body would you find the incus or anvil?

5. What is the common name for what can be described as “a sharp
noise caused by a sudden spasm of the diaphragm with closing
of the windpipe, commonly caused by digestive disorder”?

6. What is the medical name for the kneecap?

7. In which parts of the body are the phalanges?

8. What is the popular name for what is scientifically known as
the scapula?

9. What is the largest glandular organ in the body?

10. If you divide a person’s weight in kilos by the square of
that person’s height in metres, you get an index which is
known by which three-word phrase?

HASH(0x86cb1ac)
You are Vlad the Impaler. The man behind the legend
of Dracula. You hanged your victims, stretched
them on the rack, burned them at the stake,
boiled them alive, but mostly impaled them.
Most of your killings were politically targeted
but sometimes you killed just because you were
bored. Your “reign of terror” lasted
from 1456 to 1462. Estimated numbers of victims
vary between 30,000 and more than 100,000.
Evil Evil man. Fie on you!

Which Imfamous criminal are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

so today…
We went to the Whitney, saw the “Listening Post” before it closed. A truly awesome display.

We went to a going away party for Rebecca. It is probably the last time I will see her, unless I visit her in Rome. I never realzied how much I missed her until today.

We learned that George, while good at planning, has the navigational skills of a 10th century cartographer, who still beleives that the world is shaped like the ark of toe covenant.

We ditched on a spot known as “The Blind Tiger”, preferring instead a sickening country bar known as “Cowgirs”.

They had OK margaritas, but jeez were they expensive.

A busy but otherwise good day.

Today is Ash Wednesday. There are all kinds of people running around with solemn looks and dirty foreheads. Having been born into the tradition which keeps this somewhat archaic appendage of the middle ages alive and well, I have an understanding of the significance behind it.

It is a tradition, to those followers of a Catholic, perhaps even a christian faith to smudge themselves with the burnt palms blessed the year before in celebration of Palm Sunday, as a sign of the sadness and solemnity of the season of lent.

Lent, for the unindoctrinated, is a period of time during which good christians are supposed to “give something up” as a reminder to themselves of the great sacrifices Jesus made in ensuring the potential of eternal salvation for the dearly departed.

The line between routine and ritual has always amazed me. I mean, some people have lucky rabbits feet, which they won’t place a bet without rubbing first. This is not routine, because they will not bet without the foot. Routine is something like a toothbrush, or toothpaste. There is no deeper significance in the act which would prevent one, generally speaking, from brushing teeth with any old toothbrush or toothpaste (Assuming the teeth needed it, and the brush was moderately vouch-for-able). I personally have used my fingers with some toothpaste in times of need. There is no depth in the act.

This leaves me wondering where rituals have a place in my life. I surely believe in the extra worldly, but simply as an area of existence we are unable to interact with any solid results on a regular basis. I do not believe in a god, or many gods. I do not believe in souls.

To whom should my traditions be bestowed upon?

I have some things to lean back on… traditions of the blood (my name for instance), the history of family which cites certain patterns which have been preserved over centuries. Meaningful perhaps, but in a very limiting way. The universality of traditions is what lends them strength. The fact that all these sourpusses walking around with smudgy foreheads, itching at the oil in the ash choking their pores, can call upon a greater unity in the act to give each other strength.

Perhaps this is an aspect of being an atheist I had never considered before.

As a social animal, humans strive to seek harmony or discord with their local population. It seems to me that aside from consumerism, these rituals hold the strongest ties to simply attained harmony. Perhaps I am too discordant for such trite connections.

I have often thought back on an argument my father and I, as well as an ex-girlfriend and I had. It had to do with the rearing of children, in regards to religion. I believe it possible to teach a right path to someone without delving into religious claptrap. It is, in my humble opinion, much easier to teach rights and wrongs, as they occur in the real world, as opposed to the hypocritical manner which religion usually presents them in. Black and white, even in the resoundingly simple tenets of a faith like the Rede of the Buddhist beliefs, is a necessity needed for those ideals to hold true.

The rituals that they depend upon as a pillar of unification for their respective faith is dependent on that black and white. The visual and physical aspects of the rituals of Ash Wednesday, and lent are meaningless if there is any “maybe” about who Jesus was, or what his death accomplished. The nullification of the resurrection does not necessarily invalidate all of Christian teachings and values, but it certainly knocks them down a peg.

How odd would it be for us to see the traditions of our ancestors, passed through the blood for generations before words were written. Their grasp of the supernatural was so much stronger, so much more raw than what we have today. We would probably gape or scowl in much the same manner I see some people reacting to the ash-heads wandering around the hospital today.

Long gone are the days where each one had some sort of spiritual significance. The TGIF generation would probably never survive in such a time, where each day was worthy of its own contemplation.

I do not, as one of my favorite authors put it, feel like too little butter spread over too much bread. I feel like a hapless typesetter, stuck in a machine with too many words to print, with enough ink and time, but not enough paper. The machine rushes on as the paper flies away into the bowels of the machine.

I long for an Armageddon. Humans have grown soft. We need to fear the thunder, and band together for survival, not argue over the spoils of our contrived plutocracies.

We need ritual in the day-to-day, that is meaningful in real way, not in a way that links to some event that may or may not have passed two millennia ago.

I fear having to raise children in a world where I have to explain all this to them.

Definitely a day I should have stayed in bed.
My PC at home is malfunctioning seriously. I am unsure as to what the cause, or the cure could be for that matter. It is power cycling endlessly, usually after a spontaneous reboot. I double checked the heat thresholds etc on the mobo as per the bios, and everything seemed in order. I think its probably a blown sensor. I dunno, wither way its money I really don’t want to piss away right now.

It smelled like spring today. I still think there is a little cold in store, but usually, once that smell hits, thats the end of things. I will miss the winter. I slipped in some water-covered ice on the way to work today, and seriously fucked up my ankle. At least it wasn’t my knees.

Richelle seems distracted; upset lately. I dunno what is up, or if there is anything I can do to help.

My mom’s technology woes continue. I am hoping today will be the last of them.

Work is not crazy yet, but I can see the wave about to crest… I counted 6, and 7 is about to swell.

I don’t get it. Not at all.

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