Saturday, August 11, 2012

Gaffe, as a Relief Valve

Every once in a while they try to discredit Wikipedia, like in the current attempt of joking with Romney's page. The wicked pedal. But they cannot reedit all the pages as they cannot alter our memory, the temple of our existence. "Despite his campaign's blunders, Ford managed to close the remaining gap in the polls and by election day the race was judged to be even."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_1976#Results

It seems there are politicians that are professional candidates. They always successfully candidate, giving us the illusion that our favorite party actually has a fair chance.

And then there's the relief valve, the pacifier, the great balancer, when pressure is build up too high. Blunder in the past, now polished and re wrapped with the word gaffe and brought to an art, cause of course, you have to know how to do it without raising probable suspicion in a hopeful but weary elector. But for that they have polls and more modern feedback institutions.

And the symbolism of course. The parallel paradigmatic reality that governs our subconscient with its own logic and sequence of events.

Dole. It almost sound like doll or dull.

Anybody remember what senator Bob Dole did after his last campaign? What kind of advertisements? It looked to me at the time like he was the perfect candidate for those, bringing a bitter smile.

Almost as hermetic as Gorbachev's add for Pizza Hutt. Remember?



http://media.oregonlive.com/ohman_impact/photo/ohman080312jpg-95cede99a25bcb74.jpg

High Windows

Today i cleaned the vaulted ceiling windows above the couch where i watch TV and sometimes i sleep. (The other day i went to bed in bedroom and woke up on the couch). Haven't done it yet, in a couple of years. (I painted that area with an extension for the brush, the ladder was too short. The only time when the handyman came, when i moved, he sealed the windows with the silicon i bought. But i was too sick to the stomach to get up there on his ladder.) Full of dead bugs, spiders and ceiling pop corn. It stank like the primordial stink in the apartment, when  i worked a month before i moved and continued until today. So now it all still stinks inside from disturbing that shit. First i tried with a duster, then the vacuum cleaner. They are at least 4 meters above the floor so i had to improvise an extension for the vacuum. After that i took pictures with a camera tied at the end of a pole because i don't have a ladder that long and i cannot see in there. This is the left one, the one above the couch where i watch TV and sleep, with the cracked window, after vacuuming. But there are a lot of people around making noises and trying to suggest i was doing something else in here. Never heard a single kid yelling at the neighbors' pool after 8 PM. Today it was until after 9 or more. Especially when i was taking pictures of the vaulted ceiling windows.






Ambushed, by Crows

I saw several films and videos both on TV and youtube about the inteligence of Corvidae. Jays, crows, ravens. Their intelligence is compared to that of humans. To me it was very intriguing judging by the size of their brains. And yet i just saw a crow on youtube learning to use a tool.

Today i went again at Tryon creek. It is the only park when you can walk on hills for miles on a radius of many miles. There's shadow and it's cool when outside is hot. And today i needed it because i was feelling numb and paralyzed after that smoke came inside when my neighbor made some big noises like moving furniture and left.

But on the road there i saw a crow diving in a weird almost calculated way in front of my car then going back in the same tree or a close one visible on a branch. The same happened in the park near the entrance when i started walking.

And then i said to myself what if some people believed what the first paragraph says and took a chance and train  them to do different things. Like dolphins.

Earlier i saw a couple of jays from the balcony being buzzed by the tiny hummingbirds that visit my wife's flowers hourly. And i was thinking, what other places are they visiting before mine? I heard they also have a good memory and do the same route daily or many times a day.

I remember at the last place i was living a noisy, almost deafening fight between two groups of crows that took place for hours. And how i learned what an American Robin is by listening one for 8 hours a day for months, in each spring. One night i was awake and heard one of my neighbors at 3 AM whistling on a high pitch until awoke the poor robin that started to sing and then it kept singing until noon. (There must have been some other tricks involved like bird hormones i don't know).

And then of course there's the humans with kids that i meet on trails in the most unexpected ways and places. Almost always where there are tiny freshly bent branches that always make me bow in the last moment in order to avoid them getting in my eyes. Today, it happened to me twice, once immediately after the entrance after the crow episode and once deep in the forest on a sloppy trail with many trees and branches.