Mysteries of netiquette revealed

I have only bad things to say about people who include me in Cc'd group emails. An acquaintance did that recently, beginning her letter with something lame like, "Oops. Sorry for the Cc but I'm really busy". Yeah, well thanks a lot, bonehead. Now I am getting 200 to 300 pieces of spam a day. I'm furious. Before she tossed my email address into the shit river of spam, my inbox was virtually spam free.

So, in hopes this may spare someone else the misery, I'm posting something I found online that lays out, in plain language, why savvy people use the Bcc instead of the Cc. I don't know why people have such a hard time switching to the Bcc. I myself had an irrational fear of it and it took me several attempts before I was willing to try it. Big surprise. It worked just fine but so many people I have sent this to prefer to take me off their email list rather than Bcc me. It's weird.

"This came to me direct from a system administrator of very large corporate system. It is an excellent message that ABSOLUTELY applies to ALL of us who send e-mails.

Please read the text below....

Do you really know how to forward e-mails? 50% of us do; 50% do NOT. Do you wonder why you get viruses or junk mail? Do you hate it? Every time you forward an e-mail there is information left over from the people who got the message before you, namely their e-mail addresses & names. As the messages get forwarded along, the list of addresses builds, and builds, and builds, and all it takes is for some poor sap to get a virus, and his or her computer can send that virus to every E-mail address that has come across his computer. Or, someone can take all of those addresses and sell them or send junk mail to them in the hopes that you will go to the site and he will make five cents for each hit. That's right, all of that inconvenience over a nickel! How do you stop it? Well, there are two easy steps:

(1) When you forward an e-mail, DELETE all of the other addresses that appear in the body of the message and forward the message, NOT all the other forwards that came with it! For this reason, we must open multiple messages before we get to the real meat message. Just forward the message that's within the message and that's right, DELETE the email addresses. Highlight them and delete them, backspace them, cut them, whatever it is you know how to do. It only takes a second. You MUST click the "Forward" button first and then you will have full editing capabilities against the body and headers of the message.

If you don't click on "Forward" first, you won't be able to edit the message at all.

(2) Whenever you send an e-mail to more than one person, do NOT use the To: or Cc: columns for adding e-mail address.

Always use the BCC: (blind carbon copy) column for listing the e-mail addresses. This is the way that people you send to only see their own e-mail address. If you don't see your BCC: option click on where it says To: and your address list will appear. Highlight the address and choose BCC: and that's it, it's that easy. When you send to BCC: your message will automatically say "Undisclosed Recipients" in the "TO:" field of the people who receive it.
Have you ever gotten an email that is a petition? It states a position and asks you to add your name and address and to forward it to 10 or 15 people or your entire address book. The email can be forwarded on and on and can collect thousands of names and email addresses. A FACT: The completed petition is actually worth a couple of bucks to a professional spammer because of the wealth of valid names and email addresses contained therein. If you want to support the petition, send it as your own personal letter to the intended recipient. Your position may carry more weight as a personal letter than a laundry listname and email address on a petition.

So please, in the future, let's stop the junk mail and the viruses.

Finally, here's an idea!!! Let's send this to everyone we know (but strip my address off first). This is something that SHOULD be forwarded (via Bcc of course).

spam email netiquette

Conservatives / fascists

I found an intersting article today by Jack Fairweather published by a newspaper in Socorro, New Mexico called Mountain Mail. In it, Fairweather quotes Italian dictator Benito Mussolini saying,

"’Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the merger of state and corporate power.”

Speaking of his brand of fascism, Mussolini said, “Anti-individualistic, the Fascist conception of life stresses the importance of the State and accepts the individual only in so far as his interests coincide with those of the State.”

“The Fascist concept of the State is all-embracing -- outside of it no human or spiritual values can exist.”

He then adds a definition from the The American Heritage dictionary stating

fascism as a “system of government that exercises a dictatorship of the extreme right, typically through the merger of state and business leadership, together with a belligerent nationalism.”

It's a short, clear article, well worth the 2 minutes it takes to read but, if you don't want to do that, then here's my half minute recap,... fascism is the guiding principle of the modern day American conservative party. The radical right has hypnotized and enamored masses of people via media brainwashing but the sad and frightening reality is that these sleepers at the trough are guzzling poison and are drunk and belligerent on its false, fatal numbing comfort.


Photo: "America Fascist Mind Magazine" by artist Stephen Pitt at light-to-dark.com






fascism conservatism republican party politics right wing

Crows and canes

Every morning a crow does a fly-by of the Bird Park to see what's out, which lately hasn't been much due to my knee surgery. To his credit, Mr. Lee has been keeping seeds in the tubes for me but the crows like the marvel meal (veggie suet) I make so the last few days I've got gotten out there on my crutches and stuffed the suet cage with the delicious, peanutbuttery delight. Now, just yesterday, the doctor upgraded me to a cane and prescribed some physical therapy to get me moving so it's a lot easier getting out there plus it's a great relief not clicking around on those crutches. It made Mr. Lee nervous and that makes me nervous.

So, now it's afternoon and Minerva and her companion just showed up and they're nibbling on the marvel meal. Last year she had one gray feather on her right wing. This spring she had a couple of new gray feathers on her breast and just now I noticed that the gray has spread all over her breast, down onto the fluff at the top of her left leg and over onto her left wing. She must be a ancient. She's a regular here and I'm delighted she considers the Bird Park a friendly place to be.

Well, it's raining now and some pigeons have just arrived and are cold tubbing. Seems they prefer bathing in the rain. Go figure. Two are in one tub and a third is trying to crowd in but, combined, they are too fat for all three to fit. A fourth pigeon is in the second tub and has it all to herself. So it goes. Anyway, there's plenty of the marvel meal left in the feeder, seeds in tubes, fresh water in the tubs so, all and all, life is good again at the Bird Park.

Lucky Pierre arrives at last

Lucky Pierre arrived today. Actually Roy kindly mailed him to me weeks ago (thank you again, Roy) but, because of my recent knee surgery, I have yet to make it to the post office. Mr. Lee went there today for me.

After living under Roy's house for who knows how long I must say, Lucky Pierre is in great shape ... physically. But he's despondent. I couldn't get him to look at the camera. I understand. He's embarrassed to be seen in public dressed in a Santa clown suit. You must understand, Lucky Pierre is actually an artist, a Parisian and a very proud fellow. God knows what brought him down so low but better times are ahead.

Perhaps it was the nipping of the wormwood, the absinthe, as was so popular among the surrealists when he was still known as Lucky Pierre. Perhaps he had too many Pernod Fils too many times at the dark and smoky bistros. Something sent him on his downward spiral. To gig as a Santa? Ah, Pierre. But now you are found, my friend. It will be slow. Everything around here happens on ashatime but things are looking up my friend. Things are looking up.

Conservatives suck

Paul Waldman at TomPain.commonsense posted a clear-minded critique of conservativism on his website the other day, from which I quote:

"Conservatives supported slavery, conservatives opposed women'’s suffrage, conservatives supported Jim Crow, conservatives opposed the 40-hour work week and the abolishment of child labor, and conservatives supported McCarthyism. In short, all the major advancements of freedom and justice in our history were pushed by liberals and opposed by conservatives, no matter the party they inhabited at the time."

In his article, It's The Conservatism, Stupid, Walden elaborates on why conservatives suck in three bullet points. It's definitely worth a read.

1. Conservatism has failed.
2. Conservatism is the ideology of the past, a past we don'’t want to return to.
3. Conservatives are cowards, and they hope you are, too.

Thanks to Jodi at I cite for the link to Walden's article. I couldn't agree more. For all the chest pounding about how decisive they are, it's clear that conservatives have no spine. How can they? Their minds are closed to facts. They do not think for themselves, they believe what they are told to believe. They do what they are told, when they are told, the way they are told to do it. They are ready and willing at all times to sacrifice everybody else for the advancement of the conservative agenda. They ignore even the most blatantly criminal actions of their leaders because they are gray men and clone-like womem lapping up the "trickle down", clinging to a corrupt hierarchy chiggers on a dying dog.

Sunday at the Roxy - cartoon shorts

Here's a few animation videos for your Sunday entertainment. They are from a Canadian site that has a large archive, going back many years. I watched several and have to say I found them a bit on the grim side. Maybe it's the effect of the long, dark winters. Anyway, they're interesting and well done.

The Cat Came Back 1988 - 7 min 37 s

The Owl Who Married a Goose: An Eskimo Legend
1974 - 7 min 38 sec

Night Angel 1986 - 18 min 41 s

Morning in new world

It's 3am and I just woke up thinking about global warming, about how we continue to debate and deny it and how trivial this debate is. The planet's climate is changing as we speak. World wide, global climate change. It effects every aspect of life as we know it. We could have avoided global warming if we started making changes years ago. Patterns this massive, this complex develop slowly but there is a tipping point for all change and scientists say we're past it now. A new global weather cycle has already begun. Noticed? It will replace the old one, the one we evolved with, rose to dominance in and eventually unbalanced with our smoke and gasses, our destruction of carbon dioxide-eating, oxygen-producing trees, with our daily breeding of billions of methane-producing animals for slaughter, with our sprawling, worldwide mile after mile of concrete high rise, heat producing cities, we are past the point of no return. I'm afraid it will be interesting. Change one. Change all.

I don't think I'm being a doom bird about it. I guess I woke up with global warming on my mind because of a conversation I had with the Charter guy yesterday afternoon. After he (hopefully) fixed the problem we've been having with our internet connection he came to my office and we chatted for awhile. I think he was curious about what I was up to. My office is, well, colorful I guess you could say, especially as the rest of the house is practically empty, nothing on the the walls, no book shelves, no TV, no mementos scattered everywhere, no treasures on display. White walls, white rugs, and emptiness. We call it our zen house, then there's my room, with a tiny puppet theatre built into one of the book shelves in my "shipping department" amid a general overflow of rocks, shells, trilobites, feathers, piles of papers, boxes of zines, briefcases, my Chaitanya deities and world alter, including a hand-carved coyote some old guy I met in the desert gave me and a fabulous, fiddling frog. You get the idea. My little world. It's a big contrast to the sense deprivation in the rest of house. Anyway, we talked about global warming. I started it naturally. I guess it's been in the back of my mind ever since.

At the moment, five little fruit fly guys have made themselves at home on my monitor. One is crawling off to the right and another one is standing on the third word in the second to the last sentence of the last paragraph. On my monitor the word is "naturally". I don't know what it is for you. It all depends on the size of your monitor, your browser, resolution, all that. Or was. They move quickly. And another fellow is rubbing his legs over the fourth word of the first sentence of this paragraph. That should be "five" for everyone as it's at the beginning of the paragraph rather than the end. They are having quite a time of it but I'm going have to close their little light field down now and see of I can get back to sleep. Ta.

Jimi, the Rockridge Institute, and the rest of my day

Mr. Lee drove to Soda Springs Idaho today to pick up an off-road trailer he bought on Ebay. He'll be back Sunday evening. All in all he'll drive over 1200 miles in about a day and a half. I didn't go because it would be too tough, my knee being in this shape. I slept until after noon, healing takes a lot of energy, then worked on the driftwork website. Unfortunately I was working on a wide screen and checking it now on the laptop, I see it isn't quite right. Later. I'm done for the day.

So no matinee, maybe tomorrow, but here's a sound clip you might enjoy. I'm listening to it at the moment and find it pretty interesting. It's a raw mix of comments, often from concerts, by Jimmy Hendrix.

And from the Rockridge Institute, a very sobering look at the accomplishments made by the Bush administration. Their point is that actually Bush is not an incompetent boob. In fact, his administration has done a lot to advance the conservative agenda. The problems we complain about are not because Bush is an idiot. It is because the conservative philosophy is so terribly flawed and designed to benefit only the wealthiest. Here's an example of the changes the conservatives have ushered in. It's chilling.

The idea that Bush is incompetent is a curious one. Consider the following (incomplete) list of major initiatives the Bush administration, with a loyal conservative Congress, has accomplished:

* Centralizing power within the executive branch to an unprecedented degree
* Starting two major wars, one started with questionable intelligence and in a manner with which the military disagreed
* Placing on the Supreme Court two far-right justices, and stacking the lower federal courts with many more
* Cutting taxes during wartime, an unprecedented event
* Passing a number of controversial bills such as the PATRIOT Act, the No Child Left Behind Act, the Medicare Drug bill, the Bankruptcy bill and a number of massive tax cuts
* Rolling back and refusing to enforce a host of basic regulatory protections
* Appointing industry officials to oversee regulatory agencies
* Establishing a greater role for religion through faith-based initiatives
* Passing Orwellian-titled legislation assaulting the environment — “The Healthy Forests Act” and the “Clear Skies Initiative” — to deforest public lands, and put more pollution in our skies
* Winning re-election and solidifying his party’s grip on Congress

These aren’t signs of incompetence. As should be painfully clear, the Bush administration has been overwhelmingly competent in advancing its conservative vision. It has been all too effective in achieving its goals by determinedly pursuing a conservative philosophy.

It’s not Bush the man who has been so harmful, it’s the conservative agenda.

More at the Rockridge Institute.

Driftwork and Lucky Pierre update

I got the contributor issues of Driftwork off in the mail today. I forgot to mention to them that they can get extra copies at cost. I was over focused, I guess. I get like that a lot. I also finally filled an order made by the Special Collections Library at the University of Wisconsin. They wanted another copy of Reddog Review #5. They ordered it before I had the knee surgery but I didn't get around to sending it until now. It was out of print so I had to make more copies. Plus Driftwork had be finished. Susan wanted to take it to a writer's conference this weekend. First things first.

I still haven't had a chance to get to my PO box. Unless something went terribly wrong, Lucky Pierre is there waiting for me. Roy of  "Why I Blog" found him under his house, a once proud little fellow fallen on hard times, gigging as a Santa doll. Roy kindly mailed him to me and when he arrives, Lucky Pierre not Roy, I will clean him up and he can join my puppet theatre. There's hope for everyone.

Replay

I gotta bitch. I'm sick at heart now that it's clear Special Investigator Patrick Fitzgerald has let Cheney, Rove and Bush skate after exposing Valerie Plame. Un-fucking-believable. No consequences. Nada. I’d say this makes it official. Our Republican "leaders" are completely ABOVE THE LAW. They can commit treason, lie us into war, rig and steal our elections, cheat, take and make bribes, spy on us, torture us, etc, etc, etc. No one will stand up to them or for us. We know how far the Right got in Germany. Now, with the new name, "neoconservative" and new look, "ownership society", they're really cleaning up. Americans are standing in the slaughterhouse line but are too stupid or too busy to notice or care. Old story. Makes me sick.

Wednesday recap

Driftwork went to the printer today. This issue took less than two weeks! It's small, 20 pages, but nice. That's five sheets of paper, four pages to a sheet. Next issue, however, I want a little more time putting it together. After I got back from the printer this afternoon I noticed an unacceptable error on the cover so tomorrow I have to go back and get it reprinted. That sucks! A few more passes and we would have caught this one. We also noticed, after the fact, that there's a couple of small errors inside, font sizes that differ by a point, but things a person can live with. But overall, working with a partner and very tight deadlines worked just fine. I can see doing an occasional publication this way.

Naturally, there's still a lot more to do. Upload a photo of the cover, install a PayPal button on the Driftwork website, add supplemental color photos for this issue, add submissions guidelines. This time I just did a blog post about the guidelines but I'm happy to say, we've already got a couple of pieces for a new issue. However, at the moment I'm taking a break and resting my knee. I'm still on crutches.

Saturday matinee - Stevie Ray Vaughan

I was taking a little break from editing Driftwork and realized that, my god, it's Saturday ... time for the Saturday Matinee!

I had dig fast but I think this one will do. Lots of great music. Today's matinee is a three part documentary on Stevie Ray Vaughan done by a couple of young Norwegian guys. I don't know where they got all the photos from his childhood, but it looks like they covered a lot of ground. I haven't had a chance to watch all of it but it gets good reviews. I'll have to watch it later but I hope that right now you can ....


Kick back. Take a break and enjoy the show.

Stevie Ray Vaughan:

PART ONE

PART TWO

PART THREE

Automatic letter writer

Helping animals has never been easier since I discovered IDA's (In Defense of Animals) fantastic, automatic letter writer. My god! That sentence sounds like the opening line in an ad for a veg-o-matic in a ladies' magazine but what the hell? It is a goddamn magic letter write-o-matic. Anyway, now I won't feel bad about asking people to write letters on behalf of downtrodden animals so watch out!

Here's how it works. All you have to do is pick the issue you want to address and click on the link. That takes you to the typical email campaign page containing a draft letter on the issue. You can email it as is or edit it as you see fit.

Now here's where the cool, automatic letter writing feature comes in. Once you settle on the words, click "confirm". At this point you can also print the letter out and mail it. Your printer will spit out a nice, clean, professionally formatted finished product ... your letter, as your wrote it, dated, addressed. Just push print and sign. It's great. It is the fast food of activism but not cheezy because a hard copy letter has a bit more heft than a form email. My printer spit out 6 lovely letters in about 10 minutes. Try one out. See how easy it is.

OKAY, that's it from the arm chair activist for now. I've got to get to work on Driftwork. Even on such short notice, and no promotion, we actually gotten some good submissions and the deadline is coming up fast. We're taking it to the printer on the 12th. By the way, we've extended the submissions deadline until this Monday, so think about sending something.

Please support Bill to Protect Animals Sold in Pet Shops

Please Support Ban on Force-Feeding of Birds in New Jersey

Stop Horse Massacre in National Wildlife Refuge

Help Protect Pacific Coast Marine Animals from Drift Gillnet and Longline Fishing

Urge Gov. Blanco to Approve Law Protecting Animal Companions in Emergencies






animal welfare activism pets letter writing

Campaigns Wikia

Jimbo

Here's a better link to Wikipedia's new political discussion wiki. At this point the structure of the wiki itself is being discussed but this page gives a better idea of the overall vision. I signed up yesterday but am still exploring the site. This is a new project by Jimmy Wales, the guy who founded the online collaborative encyclopedia, Wikipedia. For that reason alone it's got potential but, as the t shirt says, "What better place than here, what better time than now?"









Campaigns Wikia politics Jimmy Wales Wikipedia campaigns

Reno morning and the political blogosphere

So, I'm off to the see the doctor. He's supposed to take the stitches out today. That's the Big Event d'Jour so gotta go. In the meantime, check out Wikipedias new political wiki. I will do a longer post about it later but, it's all right here. Jimmy Wales has posted an an open letter to the political blogosphere. Looks really promising!

Haloscan's new free features

If you use the free version of Haloscan for your blog comments here is a little news you may not have heard but I'm sure you'll find interesting:

"The new database servers installed last week gave us more breathing room to free up some existing features for more users:

* We no longer move old comments to another database for active, non-premium users—we started un-archiving millions of old comments for users on the free plan earlier this week and all your comments (old and new) should be in your accounts by now.
* Searching of comment / trackback pages is now unlocked for non-premium users
* Mass deletion of comments / trackback pings now available for all members
* And the biggest change—email notification of new comments is now 100% free! So be sure to go and activate the free email notification if you haven’t already done so.
* Update 6/12/2006: Comment threads will always have correct comment counts now no matter how old they are or how many comment threads you have in your account (before this upgrade, the system used to be able to fetch accurate counts for the newest comment threads only)."


Another thing they've changed for Blogger and Blogspot users (others to follow) is that they expanded the blog post retrieval feature to support the comment and trackback management pages. That means that now you see human-friendly blog post titles instead of the cryptic ‘post ID’ numbers you used to see when you went there.

You have to log into your account to enable the new features so, if you haven't already done it, get going.

Gustava Santa Ana for the Anthropocene

Gustava Santa Ana in his jail cell
Patron Saint of the Lost and Forgotten
Antigua, Guatemala

Amid the thunder, rumble, pops, crackles, rips, hisses, thuds, cracks, bangs, shots and blasts exploding all around Alligator Creek tonight for fucking hours now, the cacophony of Fourth of July firework celebrations, and the shouted refrains of a drunken, late night domestic argument drifting over the creek—

there are creatures outside—more than I know—frogs—insects—alligators—telegraphing one another through the blighted dark—croaking—buzzing—an occasional growl—and a bird repeating a tuneless descending one note whistle. Perhaps they are assuring each other that it will be, they will be, okay?

I'm here . . . I'm here . . . we are still here . . .

July morning , the jaguar and the crow stone

Mr. Lee and I went out briefly this morning and visited with some friends. I'm not complaining about having to lay low while me knee heals. Perhaps I am enjoying it too much so it was definitely good for me to get of the house for a bit. It's been almost 2 weeks since the surgery and in that time, spring has been very busy pushing everything out and up. Might as well push me too. A time lapse view of the most ordinary place always amazes me.

One thing I've really missed is the lavender explosion. On summer solstice eve I first noticed some of the flowers were going to open in the morning but I missed it all. I had surgery and the bees got everything. I'm happy for them. Imagine all the lovely lavender honey they're socking away. Mr. Lee tells me they are positively, face down drunk in the flowers. I'll have to get a photo but everything is such a big deal on crutches, or perhaps I am just terribly lazy. Mr. Lee tells me I am perhaps the laziest person he has ever met in his entire life. Of course that's not true. I am merely very selective about how and where I direct the fulcrum of my raw, to some terrifying, energy. Today, I photographed the crow stone and the jaguar and converted the July Early Morning AVI into an MPEG for your viewing pleasure. Yes, yes, it's under 30 seconds.


But before the film, a bit of background on the jaguar. Mr. Lee bought him for me last fall when we were in the Yucatan. We were kind of hijacked into spending the night with a Mayan family who lived in the jungle along the road to Bonampak, a fabulous but once extremely bloody Mayan pyramid and city. I say hijacked because their hospitality was mainly a way to hold customers hostage for the night. It was really awkward because the adults just wouldn't let up. They kept bring out more and more stuff for us to buy. We bought a lot. The kids were great, especially the beautiful Leonardo. He was about five and really wanted to communicate with me. He and I stood by the jeep for hours making signs and faces, talking with our hands, drawing pictures for each other and trying out our few words and finding and reading them from my handy, pock-size translation book. He did somersaults for me and climbed up and picked oranges for us to share and I gave him one of my favorite pens and notebook and all the other kids who were standing around staring at me, energy bars.

Once we felt we had let the adults work us over enough, we thanked them profusely and got up into our tent like monkeys scampering up a tree. The tent is on the top of the jeep. We left before they could get at us in the morning. But I love the jaguar. One the adults carved it from balsa wood. Those are eyes on his body. He sits under my monitor and I think of them often, especially Leonardo who is so talented and so trapped. They didn't even realize that they are counted as Mexican citizens. They are Mayan but they have a giant satellite dish on the top on their home and love watching soap operas on television. I think, in certain ways we are more primitive then they are. At least we threw our tv away about 4 years ago so we have wrestled ourselves partially free from the state brain drain. I posted one of Mr. Lee's letters on my blog back then if you'd like to see a photo of Leonardo if you'd like to read more about it.

Now, on with show...

First off, the short I promised the other day. As you might guess, it's an early morning view from my window. (:30)

2nd of July...

And now
the moment you've all been waiting for

Ladies and Gentlemen
Girls and Boys
and
Children of all ages...

Now....

from the ancient, lost inland sea
and mysterious mountains of the Great Basin
The Invisible Theatre is proud to present
The Touchstone of the Gods
Seer and knower
of all secrets.

It puts to test
the heart and mind
of all who dare
to gaze upon it.

It has the power to
HEAL
or
DESTROY
whatever it touches.

Now...
...for a short time only...

on very limited loan from the
Crows

I give you
the One
the Only
the Magnificent....

CROW STONE!!!

mayan yucatan daily life crows july morning

Crows, the bird park and movies of morning light

It's early. Well, for me it's not early or late. I'm in the twilight zone these days, me and my knee. But the light is still young, the kind that falls at an easy angle and quickens what it touches. Nevertheless, before leaving to work out, Mr. Lee closed down the house, shut night's graciously flung open doors and windows, and lowered the blinds in preparation for the oncoming heat ... closed all but my window that is, the one by my bed. We compromised on that. My window gets to remain open about a foot, blind to the opening, until he gets back. After that it too closes. It's enough. I am delighted. I see the quiet light, and hear the occasional bird. Just so you are prepared, I did a little movie of the light this morning and will post it later. No, it's not 5 minutes long. It's about 30 seconds long. This one is made for Americans, my concession after Mr. Lee bitched so much about having to watch the 5 minute video of cold tubbing pigeons.

Speaking of birds, my poor Bird Park is all but shut down since my knee operation. Mr. Lee has a very different philosophy about birds. It goes something like this, "They're wild and should stay that way". I freely admit that I lure birds here for my own selfish pleasure. I'm not a "bird watcher" like people who know the names of all the birds, their habitats and interesting quirks. Perhaps it is even true that I am disturbing the balance of nature. Perhaps there are generations of birds coming here who would not otherwise have survived. Good! Anyway, I'm not so sure that the "Balance of Nature" doesn't include a friendly hand here and there. Anyway, I need a little life around me and birds are easy to bribe. I also freely admit that I have a rather obsessive idea of keeping feeders filled and water fresh. I mean FILLED, twice a day when it comes to the seeds and clean, scrubbed tubs and fresh water as needed. Sure birds drink dirty water but so would I if I had to.

So my Bird Park has fallen on hard times but it's happened before. In fact, the little bastards don't have much loyality in the first place. When things get low, off they go back to Dwayne's. He is my neighbor with the big trees and lawn. The birds prefer his place to our scrubby, desert not-landscape but I don't blame 'em. Worms and bugs hang out in nice, moist areas. Dwayne even has a quail family living in his giant, sprawling, nest of a Navaho willow. The babies are too little to make the fense yet but their parents come over here for a little of the sunflower seed action, but I know they're just slumming.

Minerva is different though. In the first place, crows don't mind harsh terrain. They're big and tough and just hop over crap. Quail are sweet but they are putzes who don't even like to fly, what to speak of hop, if they even could. Maybe they would be more inclined to hop if they wore baseball caps instead of those haute Paris creations but no. Quail insist on being dapper at all times. But back to Minerva. She is loyal and has been coming around for more than a year. She dropped in the other day and I actually hobbled out to give her some peanuts while she watched from the top of Dick's house. You may wonder how I knew that this particular crow was Minerva. I wish it was because I have special crow mojo and know their language etc. etc., but I don't. Minerva has a whitish feather on her left shoulder and a funny, irregular feather sticking out of her right wing. She travels alone or with one friend and comes in the afternoon, not with the squawking brunch bunch. She's older and has aged noticably since last year. The hard winter, I suppose. She is an irregular regular at the Bird Park and gets special treatment. Otherwise, things have grown pretty quiet here. Not much kibitzing in the tiny trees, although a little black bird did sit on one of the 2 foot junipers the other day. That's initiation for a tree. They'll be back though. Oh yes. Once I can get outside and start pumping the seeds into the system, the little bastards will be back.

One last thing about crows and loyality. The other day Mr. Lee was mountain biking up in the Pine Nuts when he came upon a flock of crows circling above a particular spot in the desert. They weren't disturbed to see him so he got off his bike to see what they were hovering over. Usually it's something tasty like a dead mouse or bit of rabbit but this day it was not. Mr. Lee tells me they were circling around and around a particular, small, black, pyramid-shaped stone. He said they told him they wanted me to have it. They also told him to make clear to me that it's on loan.

Beatbaby #4

Happy July 1st!
This is a special day for me marking a Flight to Freedom that, it could be said, I'd have been better off not needing to take in the first place. But you never know. I don't want to underestimate the value, or is it the necessity, of the long, winding road. It was a hard won escape that I, we, took which I celebrate today. Here's to freedom!


I spent a little time hanging out over at the Phrontistery (FRON-tis-te-ri) this morning, (n a thinking-place). Forthright's (a.k.a Steve Chrisomalis) language treasure trove. Great place if you haven't been there. I just found out about it this morning myself. Anyway, when digging around in his Compendium of Lost Words I found "fabrefaction", a word which vanished from the English language in 1678, only 26 years after it first appeared. It's a fine word and obviously eager to be part of things again because it followed me home and immediately worked itself into this latest episode of Beat Baby.

comics humor daily life beat

Driftwork submissions deadline

Monday July 10th as the submissions deadline for the first issue of Driftwork. The release date is July 13th. This publication is digest-sized and saddle-stitched with a card stock cover, like most little magazines. Page count will depend on amount of quality work we have by the printing deadline. This issue will be, like any other, from one to multiples of four pages.

We are open to any subject, any style: poetry, black & white art and photography, fiction, flash fiction, biography, rants, reviews, serialized work...etcetera. Previously published and simultaneous submissions are okay.

Contributors will be notified whether or not they have been accepted by the 12th of July. Payment is 2 copies with extra copies at cost. The price for this first issue is currently undetermined but it is safe to say it will be less than the cost of a kidney transplant or knee surgery.

Please email submissions to: driftworkATgmail.com. Be sure to include a three line bio. Attachments are NOT acceptable. Initially, only send work in the body of your email. If we want to see more we will contact you for an attachment.

Submit your work without fear of rejection. The best of writers have sometimes papered their walls with rejection slips they have received along the way. We may not be able to use an excellent piece simply because it does not fit into the drift of a particular issue. Please consider sending something.







publication deadline photography art poetry submissions writing

An inconvenient truth, global warming

An Inconvenient Truth is the name of Al Gore's latest book. A documentary, same name, has also just been released. Laurie Lennard (Larry David's wife) is one of the producers. You may have already watched it but if not, here are links to an interview Jon Stewart did of Gore on the 28th. Between them they cover a lot of ground. It's very interesting, well worth your time and worth passing along to your friends. I hope you do.

I have a lot of respect for Gore. He seems to have actually stepped out of the ring for this. I've been wondering if he might run for president again, but after listening to this interview, I don't think so. Too bad. I like him. He gets it. How very rare.

Part 1

Click to view

Part 2

Click to view

gore inconvient truth daily show global warming

Cold tubbing in the rain

"Plenty of tubs, no waiting!
That is my personal guarantee!"
~ Louie, Guardian of the Bird Park"

I'm working on those Campeche photos again today but will have to post them later because I have managed to complicate the hell of the the project. In meantime, I did another video of the ongoing adventures in the Bird Park. I don't know what I'd do without the birdies to help distract me from myself.

In today's exciting episode, a couple of portly pigeons are cold tubbing together in the rain. They are pretty laid back until one bird gets tired of the other's preening and stretching and just generally being a big, fat tub hog and decides to bump him out and into an empty tub nearby.


 A couple of pigeons cold tubbing in the rain. No laugh track.









birds pigeons cold tubing rainy day leisure daily life

Photos from Campeche

It's been six days since my knee surgery and my leg is still pre-tee sore. I worked in my office for several hours today but then was suddenly overcome by a deep fatigue and napped for about an hour. Since then I've been having a fine old time doing things I'm generally too busy for such as ... paying attention to details. Perhaps this reconstruction and recuperation thing is generalizing.

Among details I've slowed down to notice are the 10,000 photos I took in the Yucatan last fall. This afternoon I sorted through a few and will post today'’s batch between Flickr, my website (the Mexico Diary is meager) and here. I focused on Campeche, one of my all-time favorite cities and places to live. In my mind. Campeche has a lot of problems. But it also has some of my favorite qualities. Campeche is sea-swept, ancient, hip, beautiful and ambiguous. Even its mold participates in the town's implied art life.

Mr. Lee and I are going to watch a movie now so here's one photo for tonight and a promise of more tomorrow.

Meet Beat Baby

Back in the day, Mr. Lee's Dad was a "dirty beatnik". That was in San Francisco's North Beach in the '50s but he wasn't born on the west coast. He grew up in Chicago and started out playing in the Chicago Symphony but quickly discovered the jazz scene and started playing bass on the side in hardcore jazz clubs around town. This is odd for a couple of reasons...

1) He was a teenager

2) ...and a white guy.

But he was a musical prodigy so the band had him play from behind the curtain so the audience couldn't see he was a white guy.

Jim is a giant who, by the age of twelve, was over six feet tall, dressed (with money he made gigging) in pimped-out, hand-tailored silk suits, wore fine fedoras, and sported a mustache.


When he arrived in San Francisco he grew a beard and became part of the North Beach hard bop scene. Hence Mr. Lee, being one of the only babies to make the scene, is Beat Baby.

Sometimes during our off-road rambles through remote places, Mr. Lee tells me odd little stories about his childhood in San Francisco. I named him Beat Baby and decided that he should have his own comic strip but the idea never made it off the page. Today however, grounded because of the knee surgery, I started thumbing through an old notebook and found those first drafts so, rough though they be, I'm posting them here for your entertainment. I've also decided to create a page for Beat Baby on the ashabot in case I want to do more. I like him. He's a simple little fellow. I hope you will like him too.





comics humor daily life beat

Wild horses come home to roost

I was probably over-medicated at the hospital because the day after surgery I was still too nauseated to eat, and when I could choke down a cracker it tasted like dry leaves so I cut the pain meds in half to get over the nausea then the pain increased and, for whatever reason, I had a fever. On Friday, I called and got some anti-nausea medication which helped and once I could eat again the hydrocordone stopped making me sick so I could take the prescribed amount, the pain level came down and now, three days later, I'm beginning to feel better.

As it turned out, I did get an ACL but not as a replacement. Apparently I didn't have an ACL to replace. The ligament came from someone who recently died. I don't know who donated it but I'm very grateful to them. Whoever it was has become the stranger I share the road with in a very personal way. The surgeon also fixed the torn meniscus and removed scar tissue from the top of my knee cap and re-centered it as it was off kilter. He couldn't explain why the scaring was there in first place. My guess is that my knees got scarred from the many hours my friends and I played "Horse" as kids. We must have crawled for miles those summers, whinnying and rearing up and just generally being really bad ass wild mustangs.











So I'm sitting here naked, hooked up to electrodes and Mr. Lee just brought me a pop-sickle. I'd say it's time for a Saturday afternoon matinee . . .


Let's begin with a Close-up.

And now, on to the main feature....


I know the poor guy's suffering but I can't help laughing at this video. Too bad though that they didn't nab Dirty Dick Cheney instead. The world would be a much safer place with that mad fuck behind bars.


You can stop now on this funny but low note or watch a short, elevating video narrated by Thich Naht Hahn. Naturally, the choice is yours.

Longest day, shortest night

We got to the mountains before sunrise, which basically coincided with the exact moments of the solstice, and found a good place to set up. It was a great morning. We chanted, consulted the oracles, read poetry and feasted. We stayed almost 3 hours then went to a coffee shop to discuss and read more poetry and settle on an new project. Excellent morning.





















I recently learned that Tony Seldin the Vagabond Poet died so we included a remembrance of him this morning as well. I met Tony at a poetry reading in Ashland Oregon several years ago and, naturally, we became one of the friendly houses along his road. Tony was unique, a true underground legend, a poet hitchhiking with a bust of Einstein and about a ton and a half of poetry books, scrapbooks and tattered posters from Haight Ashbury's glory days. Mr. Lee found the article. We've both been wondering why he hadn't showed up here since we moved to Nevada. Now we know. Ramble in peace, Tony.






Door near the coffee shop.














What a day. The PETA chicken was in Carson City today to picket the KFC and got friendly waves from some, criticism from others. The usual. KFC must be the 13th hell in hell's underside. Even the Dali Lama has petitioned KFC to stop their gratituous cruelty with no success. If you have a heart, don't eat there.



I'm going in for knee surgery in the morning, torn minescus and possible ACL replacement. It's the knee I injured skiing this spring. Not much warning, it got scheduled on Monday, but sooner the better so it's a another early morning so g'night.











Tony Seldin Vagabond Poet summer solstice peta chicken

Summer Solstice

The summer solstice is tomorrow at 05:26 PST and a friend is coming over at 4:30 in the morning so we can get out to the mountains in time to do a little improvised solstice celebration as the sun rises. Right now, I'm making a list of things I want to bring.

So far I've got:
1) poetry
2) I Ching
3) Runes
4) 2 new red candles
5) a gift
6) kartals
7) something to sit on

I'll post more about it later but right now, gotta go. I have a hundred things to do today.









summer solstice poetry ritual

Crow's lunch - Adventures in the Bird Park

Another day, another treat, another 30 seconds and there she was. Didn't see the binocs though. She must leave them in her perch.

The change game

There's an excellent article at DailyKos today by Steve G. that digs below the surface differences between our political left and right and helps clarify why it's so impossible to penetrate conservative blockhead stupidity. As Lakoff pointed out in "Don't Think of an Elephant", we use very different criteria to select "facts" from the overwhelming, chaotic sensory overload (life) surrounding us.

In case you don't bother to read it, here's an excerpt that pretty much sums up the basic idea:

"Conservatives Look at "Who" and Liberals Look at "What"
Indeed, the terms conservatives and liberals are the wrong terms to use here. They indicate political left and right, but that's not what is at issue here. What we are really talking about here is authoritarianism vs. anti-authoritarianism.

authoritarian conservative liberal Lakoff