Meta Beta

This is an obscure post for the random or chance visit of a fellow bubblemod soul. I was Meta Beta, loved and detested all the same. I was going to tell you the story of how Meta Beta came to be. I still might at some point, but right now I'll just leave it as it is.

Didgeridooz

I was wondering what music or band my long time friends thought of when it came to me.

One of my friends who just came off a 3 day streak of listening to Neal Diamond said he thinks of me listening to Rush and Michael Stearns. I go through a Rush phase every year or so, but only with the older stuff. Michael Stearns??...not so much these days. Michael Stearns is considered new age space music. I just don't do much space music these days unless I have a craving for Steve Roach. However, Michael Stearns will forever be stamped in my brain for his soundtrack to Baraka which is just as compelling as the amazing photography of that film.

Another friend who I associate with Flogging Molly said when it comes to me and music , he always thinks of electronic music in general, aka Daft Punk's score for Tron or old skool Kraftwerk. It's interesting how electronic music developed so many different genres over the years. I have eventually labled myself as one who listens to IDM.

One of my closest friends I met in college through a guy who lived in my dorm by the name of Anthony. Anthony said hey, I have a friend who listens to Skinny Puppy, you guys should hang out. So simple it seems, and we've been friends since. Our musical tastes were so close for quite a while, but have diverged over the years. He says I still think of you listening to didgeridoo music! Dude! Really? That's what you think of?!! It cracks me up though. He is currently into Arabic drumming.

Here is an example of didgeridoo music.

and here is a clip from Baraka because it's awesome!

Stiffness

I am without a book! Kinda feels good though. 2 books in 7 weeks for me, not bad. Even Liz finished up The Year of The Flood, the second book to Oryx and Crake. Now we'll just wait for the 3rd book to come out in a few years. Meanwhile, I'll just spend the rest of the week soaking up the Beginners Special Edition for Triathlete magazine that I picked up.

So let me tell you briefly about Stiff, The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach. It very much satisfied my expectations to learn interesting factoids about the way people die in cars, planes, land mine clearing, and crucifixion. I found the chapter on the forensic study of purposefully decaying bodies to help solve crime cases gruesome and yet fascinating. Of course the chapter on how people really die in plane crashes will most likely cause me some anxiety later, but the idea of an experiment throwing clothed guinea pigs out of a plane did make me chuckle.

What I did not expect though was how the book has really made me think about how I want my dead body dealt with. Or perhaps what I want isn't so important as how my loved ones want my body handled. Hah! No you must make soup from my ashes and consume me. Anyway, cremation seems like a popular choice these days. But being frozen in liquid nitrogen and then broken down into small pieces by ultrasound for organic compost seems kinda interesting too. Or Plastination where silicone polymer is injected into my body which keeps it life like for around 10 thousand years!

In one episode of Human Planet, the Buddists living atop a mountain can't bury their dead or leave them out due to the altitude. They will only decay and increase the chance for disease. There is one person there who can help, who is not a monk, and who needs to down some hard liquor before hand. His job? To chop up the dead body for the vultures to eat. It is their way of helping feed these animals and returning themselves to nature.

To me that's actually not such a bad way to go. But there is the thought of giving your body to science. It's too bad you can't specify ( maybe you can now I didn't look) what you want done with your body, only what you don't want done. I think a couple of my friends would be up for some kind of ballistics testing or helping test equipment for landmine clearing.

But fascination aside, it's really hard to read this book and stay completely off the path of contemplating your own death....your finite-ness. That element is a bit of a downer and yet revives that saying "Carpe Diem" to a new perspective.

Ughhh

I do not recommend spending 200 dollars, eating a piece of velvet cake that fits inside the 70 lb USPS Priority mail box , and drinking a bunch of tequila after running 20 miles. cough!!! gassspp!!

Game Of Thrones

I wasn't really excited about this show when I saw a teaser for it on Hbo. Fantasy type shows aren't my cup o tea, luckily I found the Rotterdam marathon to be completely boring to watch because of all the pacers. So I fired up the first episode. By the end I was very curious. By the end of the second episode I can say I'm offically hooked!

Here's the intro for the show which changes a little bit each episode I think. A title piece worthy of the quality stuff on HBO.

Chi Weenie

And what is a Chi Weenie you ask? More than the mere and quite numerous Chinese Weenie, but in fact the name you get when you cross a Chihuahua with a Dachsund.

I saw a small chiweenie at an adoption set up outside PetSmart this past weekend. He was small and tan, and looked more dachsund than chihuahua as many of the internet pictures show. I don't know why but this dog is stuck in my head. I guess he simply reminds me of my childhood dog who was a dachsund mix.

It's a consideration that I've had before and practical thoughts always say no, but who knows! I'm feeling crazy. Liz is already crazy. My daughter has spoken to our current dog an insists that Finley wants a chiweenie too.

I shake my head and breathe deep. siiiiigggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Big Horns and Blazeman

This may be the last time I can run at Red Rock in mid day. The cool breeze made the day much more comfortable. If that breeze hadn't of been there though, it would've been tough. Especially for the route I chose today which had a lot of steep uphill. Somehow I even managed to get on the wrong trail for about half a mile. This is twice now I've done this, reversing a path I normally take. I took too much water a month ago when I was out here, and today I just had 20oz (just enough). Looking up, feeling really hot and realizing, "Hey this is not where I'm suppsed to be!" can put a spring in your step for sure.

Others must've sensed the weather today because the trail was packed with hikers. I could barely find a parking spot. The flowers were much more active too. Lots of small clusters of yellow, orange, red, and even some purple. The macro on my small cam is not worth the effort, but I did snap a quick shot of a rather cool new cactus bloom.



At one point, I was going downhill and concentrating on my footing when I noticed something big moving to the side of me. Hello! Whoah, some Big Horn Sheep were fairly close to me. Glad those guys ran away and not towards me. This is all the way zoomed out too.





In the morning while eating, I watched a recording of the Ironman in Kona from 2005. About a quarter of the way into the show, I remembered watching this when it first came out. There was a man named John Blais , also known as Blazeman or the ALS Warrior Poet. His story is pure inspiration! Diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's disease, he was driven to complete the Iroman and he did. So I looked him up and found out that he passed on May 27th 2007. Seeing him roll across the finish line on tv really just made me sad. That sadness kind of stayed with me for the rest of the day even. I'm pretty sure I will contemplate the Blazeman many more times this month. I know he's still inspiring people, including me.

Here's a youtube snippet from Kona 2005