Ah the beautiful rain....

The rain distracts me from my work...

This is a lull... but all day it's been raining so hard that sometimes it's raining sideways...

... ooh tree crash!

So lovely....

New posts on Urban Hierogliph

I've got them scheduled for the next five days... yay.

HERE

Folsom and Embarcadero

Here's the view of the bay bridge from the Embarcadero in San Francisco... I love this bow and arrow sculpture. It's literal and campy and not particularly inspired, very safe civic art, and yet appealing and funny.

Nothing much to say about it. Sometimes I get so worked up (like my recent posts) that I need to take a moment to look around... so here we are. We'll see what I'm ranting about later on, enjoy the post card for now.

Blog Action Day 2009

Cognitive Dissonance; is an uncomfortable feeling caused by holding two contradictory ideas simultaneously.
The theory of cognitive dissonance proposes that people have a motivational drive to reduce dissonance by changing their attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors, or by justifying or rationalizing their attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors. Noticing the contradiction would lead to dissonance, which could be experienced as anxiety, guilt, shame, anger, embarrassment, stress, and other negative emotional states. (abbreviated from Wikipedia)

In other words; When you find yourself acting in a way that is discordant with your beliefs, you could experience mental distress... as a coping mechanism the brain is hard wired to rationalize the differences and make you believe that there is no contradiction.

Cognitive Dissonance sez; "It's summer"

It is easier to change your mind than it is to change your actions... I am convinced this is why there is anybody out there trying to discredit the scientists who publish reams and reams of research about how the planet is changing...

Cognative dissonance sez; "it's just a warm decade, I'm sure Minnesota wanted a warmer winter anyway"

Thus; when we are told "human actions are to blame for the increase of global climate change" and we have evidence from the Antarctic ice record, the melting glaciers and right down to our planting seasons... instead of thinking "perhaps we should change our dependance on fossil fuels" or "perhaps I should stop supporting the cattle industry" because they are creating an unhealthy food supply and that food supply creates a huge amount of methane and deforestation...

Instead of having these thoughts we listen to other opinions...

... climate change is part of the natural cycle...
... volcanoes create more greenhouse gasses than humans...

... it's all a crock...
... God made the Earth for us to use up and that's what we're doing until the Apocalypse...

Cognitive dissonance sez; "Antarctica's so far away it doesn't matter"

All this denial in an attempt to alleviate the stress that acknowledging that we contribute to the problem is stopping us from finding solutions.

I believe that humans have the potential to move past our chemistry.

I believe that if we can solve these problems that we should...

I believe that no matter what you think the Cause of the change in the climate is that everyone should care about its truth and the health of the planet.

Coming up this December is the Climate Change conference in Copenhagen. World leaders will be convening to discuss how each nation will contribute to the solution. Click HERE to see their informative website, and click HERE to encourage your leaders to participate... this is important, it affects everyone believers and non-believers alike. Don't let your brain's defense mechanisms stop you from giving it a try.

I about fell down...

Liberty, Prosperity, Opportunity, Hope... all embodied in a Chia head? As I recall from my Chias, they kinda grow for a bit before getting all slimy and dead. Let's hope the Presidency goes better than ChiaObama. Ooh.
(Please no bashing the Pres. comments)

Yom Kippur

Lately I've found myself at odds with a prevalent attitude of superiority I see so much of. There are the "greener than thou"s, also the "more politically correct", "more informed", and "better educated" sorts who are like nails on a chalkboard. So many times I find myself just thinking "stop talking about how great you are and just be!" All of the bumper stickers, protests, posters and political and religious soap boxes just make me want to scream sometimes.
There is a parable of Jesus that has been perpetually knocking about in my head about all of it.

Luke 18:9-14
9 Then Jesus told this story to some who had great confidence in their own righteousness and scorned everyone else: 10 “Two men went to the Temple to pray. One was a Pharisee, and the other was a despised tax collector. 11 The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed this prayer: ‘I thank you, God, that I am not a sinner like everyone else. For I don’t cheat, I don’t sin, and I don’t commit adultery. I’m certainly not like that tax collector! 12 I fast twice a week, and I give you a tenth of my income.’

13 “But the tax collector stood at a distance and dared not even lift his eyes to heaven as he prayed. Instead, he beat his chest in sorrow, saying, ‘O God, be merciful to me, for I am a sinner.’
14 I tell you, this sinner, not the Pharisee, returned home justified before God. For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”

Tonight through tomorrow evening is the Jewish day of atonement. It is a day of solemn fasting and repentance. In this modern world where many people lack the religions of the past it seems that reflection and repentance can easily be discounted. A day to look into only personal faults and sins (religious, moral, ethical or what you will) rather than on that of others could be a day well spent.

I would welcome a more mainstream Yom Kippur here in the States. It might take a little of the hedonism out of the whole Halloween/Thanksgiving/Christmas season of gluttony.

As the Yom Kippur greeting goes; "May you be sealed for a good year in the Book of Life"

It's Complicated

You know what bugs me? It's Complicated... no really, what I mean is on Facebook the Relationship status of "it's complicated". Perhaps it's because I'm not a big drama queen about dating. In my eyes there are the following options; single, married, engaged, in a relationship or it's none of your damn business. If it is complicated why put anything down at all? Is it so that we know that your love life is a hot mess? Is it to say that you have a love life but are unwilling to commit to being with someone or not with someone. Perhaps That is why it's Complicated. Perhaps your inability to say "Yes, This is my boy/girlfriend! and I'm crazy about him/her" is why your love life *probably* causes you conflict. Is it just a way to feel like you're letting everybody know that you're not socially dead? It's lame. What's also lame is when one partner puts down "In a relationship" and the other puts "It's complicated". Seriously? This is drama creation.

In fact while we're at it I don't think that single or dating people should put their status down either. If you're single and you're fishing for a date... ok maybe then. If you're in a relationship and it's pretty stable... maybe then... but still it means that when you change your status all of your friends will see the message "Jane Smith is no longer listed as in a Relationship" "Jane Smith is now Single" aww Poor Jane Smith, now all of your 276 friends know that you've been dumped.

Still if you feel the need to share that information, I can be ok with it. At least you are "Single" or "Taken". Be one or the other or nothing at all... It's Complicated is just too sad. If you're getting divorced, if you're in some complicated polyamory, if you're having an imaginary affair with Johnny Depp, just leave the space blank. Your close friends, the ones you talk to Offline, are the ones you can tell this tale to. Why the need to share with your co-workers and friends from the past?

from the pit...

... ok it's just a neat light effect. I wanted to bump the spiders down. They're beginning to give me the wiggins.

Arachnid!

Well, I think they're from the araneidae family (orb weaving spiders), but I can't nail down the genus or species. Basically there are a whole lot of these Huge brown spiders near downtown Berkeley...




cool huh?

Wrong Turns

Sometimes I get so lost...

I think I know where I'm going and then slowly it sinks in that, in fact, I have no idea of how to get there...

I can see vaguely where I want to go... but then there's this ocean in the way...

I've found it best to take a moment and breathe. Laugh at how lost I am and enjoy where I've landed.

Perfect Wife

As per Sarah's request;

Perfect Wife

This feminine marvel, it can be stated;
Is one who, after having waited
A dragging, smoldering interim
(While supper cooled... and cooled) for him
To show his face from work, hears out
His explanation minus doubt
in what he hopefully has to say --
Then forgives and feeds him anyway.

--S.HY Dewhurst in Good Housekeeping

Good Housekeeping

I found the best book today. It is "The Good Housekeeping, Housekeeping Book" Published in 1947!
("I love to iron, it's what I dream about")

It looks like after the War, when Rosie the Riveter was shoved back into the domestic life, there was a need to convince women that Housekeeping was so complicated and important that their work required a full 491 page book to help them. This book is simultaneously insulting and interesting. There is a lot of good advice about stain removal, ironing, starching, washing with non-automatic or automatic washers... Things that are actually useful to have in a manual. What's great about it is that this was published before the mass commercialization of the soap industry so a lot of the products suggested are; Borax, baking soda, soap flakes, vinegar... all simple and inexpensive items.

At the same time, every chapter begins with a poem about cleaning, keeping your man happy, being a good wife... the worst is the one about learning how to use tools and perform basic household repairs;

The Chapter is Titled "You can fix it yourself, sometimes"

Enigma
How women today--
Wives, sisters, and nieces --
Can Knit or crochet
Such intracate piece,
Yet be so dumb
With a hammer or pliers,
Leaves me numb
With Amazement, sires!

Well-- ouch! Weren't these women just busy running factories not more than two years ago? How did we ever win that war at all with all of these helpless women running the country?

One of my favorite photos is this one of a housewife fumigating her dress;

The chapter it's attached to continues with the whole useful-yet-disturbing theme. It throughly describes all varieties of household pests that you could deal with. The book even describes how to recognize different varieties of ants and moths. And then... 13 of the 27 pages in "Household Pests" chapter describe all of the various ways to use DDT to kill them all.

I think I may need to share more as I go through this old gem... there's a poem about the "Perfect Wife", There is a large portion of the stain busting chapter dedicated to "vanilla, fruit or chocolate" ice cream... it's all fascinating stuff.