A Brief Update

Went to the emergency room on Sunday because I was starting to get paranoid about my injury. A few x-rays later and it turns on I didn't break a rib. I still might have a hair line fracture, but it's most likely that I just bruised it badly. Non the less I have appropriately altered my behavior. I have a few posts and things coming up soon. For the moment I wait...

Is psychiatry communist?

Shapes

Home Again

I could have used a few more strange and ominous dreams last night. Who wouldn't kill for 7 or so hours of restlessness and terror?

I've had a certain kind of recurring dream all of my life. The funny thing is that it's happened so often that when the dream begins I become aware of the fact that I'm dreaming. In the dream I'm laying in bed. Everything feels very real like I've just woke up. Suddenly something unseen will begin to try and pull away my covers. If I resist the thing will crawl up my bed, staying under the covers until it's resting on top of me. If I try and hold it back it will leap up onto me. Generally I just close my eyes and let the sensation pass, but this time the dream kept playing over and over again. Finally the last time I resisted the thing that sprang up was the band Guns and Roses. Even in the dream I said to myself in disbelief "Guns and Roses?" before shaking myself awake.



I suppose the only really funny part about that is that I could only make out the face of their guitar player Slash. The other members faces were covered in shadow. Does that sound like symbolism? I sat up and watched some TV to make sure I didn't slip back into the dream pattern, and pondered what this might have meant. The reason quickly occurred to me: I don't actually know what the other members look like.

Well I am back from vacation one bruised rib richer and a little more cash poor. We went and stayed in the city of Cutler Ridge which is only about 45 minutes from our house. We wanted to make a day of wandering around Metro Zoo, and since we had a nights worth of hotel points at the La Quinta we ordered a suite.



I've never been to Cutler Bay, but the place is strange. The whole town seems to exist in the year 1998. The sky was constantly overcast in the area we stayed in giving it this sort of haze like old memories. There was a mall across the street, and I walked over to see if they had a book store. It turned out there was no bookstore in town let alone the mall, but they did have a Things Remembered store. When was the last time you saw those or a Joe Ann's Crafts? Their radio shack sold shortwave radios and I toyed with investing 50 bucks on one with a digital tuner, but decided against it.

Earlier that day we went to a couple of state parks and took pictures. The weather was gorgeous if not just a little too warm. I saw a family of manatees floating on the waters surface, and cursed to myself at how expensive state park souvenirs are. It was a very quiet day, but my one big discovery came later that when I was using my shortwave.


Something blocking the lower bands for over an hour. Just across the bay is the nuclear power plant Turkey Point so I figured it might have had something to do with that. This was around the time you can usually pick up the V2 Numbers Station out of Cuba. I could pick up nothing, but a faint bit of music drifting across the band. I gave up and went hiking down a back road known to have crocodiles sunning on the shore. I didn't see any, and decided to check my shortwave again when I got back. What ever was jamming the upper bands was gone and I could clearly pick up the V2. You can read my entry By The Numbers if you're not sure what a numbers station is.

Now I've wondered for a while if the patterns of numbers change. If they don't then it probably means business as usual. If they do change then that means some one somewhere is definably receiving orders. Guess what? The message was different this time. In fact at one point a sequence of numbers (cero, quatro, cinco, uno or 0451) repeated with spaces in between each sequence. This means a 4 letter word was repeated 4 times for some reason. Think about that.


Later that night I decided to go to bed early so I started taking some shots and watched The Great American Song Book on PBS. I don't know what happened, but I woke up with a huge bruise on my side like some one had punched me, and no idea how I got it. I remember just going to bed when the program was over, but something must have happened.

The next day we went to the zoo, and walked around in the hot sun. I took my camera, but at some point I found myself taking pictures more of the interesting details in the scenery or shots that look more authentic than trying to just take pictures of animals. I guess there's something fairly pedestrian about just taking straight pictures of caged animals.


There's nothing all that interesting about going to the zoo so I'll share an odd bit of news before I sign off. Last Sunday I went down to Miami with a friend of mine. He wanted some one to keep him company while his wife and her friends shopped at Bay View. Later that day we sat down to dinner when one of the girls related a strange fact.

A friend of hers had just come back from serving in Afghanistan, and told her about this event that happens every Thursday that roughly translated to "Man Love Thursdays." He told her that on Thursday all the women stay in doors and the men of Afghanistan go out and have sex with each other. I listened politely and logged this tid bit in my head as being utter crap, but decided to look it up should I remember it. Well it turns out it's true.

Apparently not only does homosexual sex take place, but child prostitution as well. Not a lot is known about this even in the Western world, but apparently the men of Afghanistan have a similar view of homosexuality as did the Greeks. In fact it is a common practice of men in power to take a young boy for a lover. Don't believe me? Well there's always Google.

Why not?

An Affirmation Via Futility

I haven't written much lately because I've been busy and didn't want to apply the effort. So really it's because I'm lazy. This last two or so has been a mixture of blessings, revelations, and semi misery. Things at home had been a little rough, but after talking to a friend I've realized that my attitude, or more so the way I respond, to that persons behavior, as unacceptable as it may be, is as much a part of the problem as anything else. The Bible tells us to honor our father and mother. Not just to honor them if they're right. So I changed my approach and attempted to communicate with them with as much love and understanding, and not assigning blame, and things have gotten much better. I've began to reconnect with a person who I had began to utterly loath.

With me as with all people when a person hurts us we lash out. We feel worthless so we want to let that person know that they hurt us, and how they hurt us which is in a way a sort of narcissism. I suppose the best way to change a person is to be loving with them and set the best example you can. We cannot always change peoples minds. In fact you cannot change a person who isn't willing to arrive at that conclusion on their own no matter you say, and no matter how strong your argument is. Some people will always remain willfully ignorant, but regardless the true test to yourself is whether or not you can forgive them, even if they never recognize it, and continue to love them.

Now that I've said that I've also come into some money. My tax return ended up being 800 instead of 300. I didn't get any more than the hundred that was promised to me, but it allowed us to catch up on our bills, and that's not even mentioning what we can afford to contribute my sister's wedding.

But before that an unexpected surprise came up. I was chatting with the same friend I mentioned earlier when he said that was looking to buy a Yamaha bass guitar. I asked him why and he said he's like Yamaha's ever since the one he would play back when we were in a band together. I mentioned I still owned it and he offered me 200 bucks for it. I thought that was a little too much so I gave it to him for 175. I gave a hundred to my parents then bought booze and video games.

Tomorrow I will be going to Metro Zoo which is of course a zoo and staying in a hotel down in Miami. Should be fun to revisit hotel living once more. So I'll be bringing my awesome new back pack, my shortwave radio, and a fist full of gumption.

Even I'm not sure what's going on here.

Songs From The Woods

The journey begins...

For some time now I have been attempting to find a backpack. I often go out to state parks to take photos, read, and use my shortwave so there's a few items I usually take with me. The thing is backpacks that aren't made for children cost big money. You would think that thrift stores would have tons of these things laying around, but it took me a month to find one that suited my needs.


It may not look like much from the photo, but it's one serious backpack. It's the kind you take mounting climbing or on a walking tour of Western Europe or a mystical island that travels through time. Its got all kinds of pockets and spaces, a separate compartment for my books, and even a waist strap should I need to traverse vertical surfaces. So now I was ready.


The journey continues...

Today we went to Virginia Key. We walked down the beach to a more secluded area by the jetties, and I took pictures, and then sat down to read. The place was beautiful and there were these strange native American looking symbols painted onto some of the rocks in the surrounding are.The weather was about as nice as its ever been. It was windy, but not too cold; so I could finally wear shorts again.


I sat down at a bench that was shaded by a couple of intertwining fir trees, and whipped out my shortwave, but the only thing interesting that I picked up in my native tongue was Voice of America out of Washington D.C. I sat and listened to news updates about Baghdad for a while, and eventually my parents walked further down the beach and I began to study 1st Samuel. Then it happened....


The battle begins...

I'm up to chapter 4 when suddenly I get a flash of something out of the corner of my eye. A very odd looking, mostly blond, raccoon has climbed up on the picnic table with my parents stuff, and is attempting to abscond with their lunch box. I walk over figuring that he'll just beat it, but the bold little son of a B attempts to make for the woods.


I follow after him and start stomping and barking, but by that point he's dragging the box off into a bush. I wasn't about to try and grab the raccoon. After all I got a good look at his fangs when he bit the lunch box, and they're a lot larger than you would think. Finally after several attempts at anti-raccoon posturing I grabbed the handle and tugged the thing away from him, but that's not where it ended...


The battle continues...

My parents arrived at the scene and laughed at the struggle. Thinking I had won I turned my head to see if maybe there was something on the table I could give to the little fellow, when he darted out of the bush and sunk his teeth into the lunch box in an attempt to snatch it from me! The audacity.


I clamped both hands down on the handle and spun the lunch box around thinking he would let go, but he didn't. I lifted him off the ground and spun him around in a circle (gently). I made it a full 360 degrees before he finally let go and ran off into the woods... to plan his next move no doubt.

So let it be written:

On this day Matthew son of Mark rose forth from the word, and reclaimed the box of lunch from that which is known as raccoon.

The rest of the day was not as eventful. I had a very pleasant and mostly quiet afternoon. I took lots of pictures, ran into some chick doing a modeling session out by the cliffs, and had a nice tuna salad. I'll post some pics sooner or later... maybe.

Many songs shall be sung of this day!

Off to the woods.

Updates coming soon. P.S. Don't watch Antichrist.

Conversations I've Actually Had: Metaphysics

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