Waxing, Gibbons

Quite possibly................The End

2007-12-27T18:52:00.000-08:00

My blogging has been spotty as usual. Generally, due to a lack of anything to say, or anything interesting to bestow upon anybody. Lately, it's been more of a case of not wanting to depress anyone. Nobody reads the freaking thing anyway. Who in the living hell am I kidding?
I've been drawn very heavily into revisiting music that I haven't heard for years. Robin Trower's "Bridge Of Sighs", at the top of this list. Listening to the lyrics, it isn't hard to see the reason.
"A cold wind blows. The Gods look down in anger on this fool child. Life's so unforgiving and why so cold. Been a long time crossing the bridge of sighs."
Its like the small slope my therapy dog and I have to pass through on our morning walks. It's heavily covered in snow and ice, left behind by the recent storms. Rainy insists on going through it, even though she slips and slides. I barely make it, having to hold on to a chain-link fence next to the pavement, to avoid falling and trying simultaneously to maintain a grip on the dog's lead.
This icy hill could easily be a metaphor for my entire life. Sliding backwards, never being able to manage a grip on happiness or self-realisation.
I've fought depression for the forty-plus years I have been living on this planet, in a body I hardly recognise as my own, anymore. The struggles with heart disease and diabetes have not helped in the least.
My job does little to abate the frustration, anger and sadness. It usually fuels the fires of all three. Working with idiotic children who I'm old enough to be the biological father of. Non-comittal managers and last but certainly not least, a general public that believes that the meaner you are to those who are "below your station" in life, the more you will be satisfied with your service. If it sounds like I'm whining, you would be well off the mark. Two fingers up and happy landings on an f'ing chocolate bar. :P
Let's see how anyone likes going to a cash machine to take out forty bucks, so that the bill collectors will stop nagging you, only to find out that you have no money. Sorry. It all got spent on food and rent. Actually, it barely covered even that. I've been living out of charitably donated tins.
How about having your utilities cut off, on the eve of a Winter storm? Sounds like buckets of fun, doesn't it? This is what it's like to be dirt poor.
That said, I can't take any more of it.
Uncle, or whatever you shout when you have simply had enough and don't see matters improving one damn bit.
If I don't see the dawn of another crappy day, it wouldn't bother me in the least. In fact, just the opposite.

You Never Know, Sometimes.

2007-10-11T09:44:00.000-07:00

Going almost stark-raving bonkers, since my happy Hippy Anarchist homebrew computer took a massive hit. The local mains supply is notably anarchic itself. 110 Volts, 220 Volts, whatever!
Blew up the power supply, fried the Mobo like a rasher of Bacon! It's in Compy Hospital now, awaiting multiple transplants.
I'm now, temporarily (I hope!) tapping away on the loaner laptop generously given to me by Patti, who is co-owner of aforementioned Hospital, until my trusty old friend can be brought back from the dead. Such is life.
So, where is the bright light shining, on the outskirts of "Bummerville", I hear you cry. Well, aren't you? Sorry! A touch of pre-varication on my part.
My Doctor had been nagging me about why I should have an assistance dog, for the longest time. I usually fobbed him off with one of my many excuses. "Too expensive to care for one properly.""Not enough room in the apartment." "I can't spend enough time with one to make them happy." "It would be a violation of my lease". He refuted that last one with: "I'll write up a prescription".
Little did I know, that my new best friend was puttering about, biding her time, until I gave up and said "Yes"
Rainbow, a Golden Retriever, Black Lab mix, has adopted me!
She's got me wrapped around her webby little paws and I can't do anything to stop it.
Not like I really want to stop it, though. I'm madly in love with this silly, beautiful, loving Pooch!
Now I'm off to get one of those "A Spoiled-Rotten Lab Lives Here" plaques to hang on the kitchen wall!

Scent Obsession

2007-07-17T14:20:00.000-07:00

Further confirming my status as an Incense addict, some mobile phone cam shots of the paraphernalia associated with this unquenchable obsession. Burners!
I've left out more than a few, concentrating on the ones I thought were interesting enough to display on the blog.
The Feng Shui Elephant in photo 1. is not an incense burner. The Aladdin's lamp next to it, is.
The flute shown on the coffee table isn't a burner either. It's a potential musical instrument. In my hands, however, it is an instrument of torture! Hari Prasad Chaurasia, I'm not!

A view of the blacklight jungle

2007-06-16T21:55:00.000-07:00

Yeah, you wish this was your bedroom. don'tchya? ;P

What the *#@%?

2007-06-11T04:31:00.000-07:00

Can somebody tell me what in the unholy hell this T-shirt really says?

Abandoned Buildings of Northern New Mexico. Pt.1

2007-05-29T17:36:00.000-07:00

Here we have the long since evacuated R&R Produce Company, located in West Maloney Avenue.
I've lived near the place for the past 15 or so years and it was closed then!
It's become less of a mystery in the past few months, since someone (probably from our local drunk community) decided to knock the front door down, resulting in the fine interior shots before your eyes.
The reference to the "Chili Ristras", is something confounding to non-New Mexicans. Ristras are wreaths made of Chilis, generally for the X'mas season. That would indicate that this Greengrocers closed down sometime in December of one year or another.
This shop must have had quite a variety of Fruits and Vegetables. The doors were probably shuttered when the owners came to the shocking realisation that nobody in town considers any plant matter aside from potatoes as a food source.

Monsoons? In May?

2007-05-23T19:08:00.000-07:00

Just a few weeks ago, it was Snowing in Gallup.
Now, roughly four months ahead of schedule, the Monsoon season seems to have arrived.
Make no mistake about it. These aren't the "Monsoon-alikes" that California and a few other places get. The moisture streaming up from the Gulf Of Mexico, that combines with some of the flow off the Pacific results in the same sort of weather you would expect in Singapore, Mumbai,
Bangalore and Hong Kong.
No complaints, other than the rising humidity makes every old injury my body has dealt with come back at once. Painkillers and an umbrella, please.

The Talking Dog

2007-05-06T21:55:00.000-07:00

We humans have an odd way of looking at the animal that we describe as "Man's best friend".
Most of us acknowledge that they understand rather large bits of the verbiage that we bombard them with. Conversely, so many people do not listen to what our canine companions are saying to us.
My usual walk to work includes moments with the many Dogs I've made friends with along the route.
This morning, the first stop was for a small Bull Terrier friend that lives just down the street. As per usual, the weather in town was crappy. Snow. It's early May for crying out loud and it's stinkin' snowing!
"Butch", as I call him (Nice name for a Pit Bull, I would reckon.) didn't just want a pat on the head, or a Dog Biscuit. He wanted a sympathetic ear as well. (wags would infer from this that "Butch" would have enjoyed biting an ear off, more than having one to listen to him.)
He gave me a sob story that I fully understood, with his vocalisations and physical actions. "I'm lonely, the weather is horrid, play with me, why go off walking down the street when you see that I need companionship."
I've learned the meaning of many Canine vocalisations, over long years of being a Dog fancier,
telling "Nice to see ya" barks from "Stay the heck away!" ones and interpreting the sighs, whines and moans.
Some company in Japan has a hand-held "Dog Translator" in their product range. It has a microphone and imbedded software that compares the vocalisations of your (or somebody else's) pooch to wave-form examples in it's memory bank.
Now, you can happily splash out hard earned cash, to find out what "Bowser" is saying, or just learn by listening on your own.
I had to trudge on with the snow blowing directly in my face, this morning, but not without insuring my four legged friend that I would return soon to share a moment.
I'm positive that he understood me, perfectly.

Blender's Snark Lists.

2007-04-19T00:20:00.000-07:00

Finding nothing else better to do, I decided to surf over to Blender's website to read their various lists of "bests", "worsts", "Bratwursts", etc.
What greeted me first was a vast, all-encompassing damnation of one of my favourite bands.
Yes, you can go ahead and laugh your asses off, if the mood strikes, but I LIKE Iron Butterfly, man!
"In A Gadda Da Vida", all fifteen minutes (give or take a few seconds) of it, remains a classic, right down to the occaisionally clunky drum solo and the trumpeting Elephant guitar bit.
I bought the "collector's edition" with the explanatory booklet and trippy tilt motion cover, some time back. Not a shred of buyers remorse.

Dick Cheney's Blood Clot

2007-03-06T12:44:00.000-08:00

This kind of makes you think of all that "heartbeat away from the Presidency" crap, doesn't it?
I'm not making light of clots. They're...ummm...bad and can kill.
The "Veep" doesn't strike me as a green tea and low-fat diet kind of guy. More like the pensioner ahead of you in the buffet queue who heaps half of his plate with mashed potato and white gravy.
The salad bar is for dirty hippies, political malcontents with a leftie bent, or other "nattering nabobs of negativism".
Rest assured that ol' Dickie has nothing to lose sleep over. He'll get a nice cushy adjustable bed at Walter Reed and never have to see the returning "casualties" from Iraq and Afghanistan. It's gonna' be the royal treatment all the way. Never mind that the troops are the ones facing the real
problems and won't be getting the de-luxe V.I.P. accommodations.
Unlike the rest of us....Mostly un-insured..... We actually get to pay his bill! Yeppers! That's coming right out of every good tax paying American's wallet. Finally, a health care plan Cheney can (literally) live with! The rich and powerful get this s#!2 for free.
All rise for the flag salute!

I Remember Whatsmyface

2007-02-22T22:20:00.000-08:00

It's been nigh on two months since I've put anything new on this bloggamajiggy.
The reason why is less startling than you would think. I have had nothing to say!
Bush is still a sucky President. The world is still as screwed up as ever. My life is still more boring than a film adaptation of Sudoku. ("Sudoku.....The movie! The challenge begins.) Now that Hollywood will co-opt my idea and make flipping millions, I can rest easy in my own happy little shack in the hills of Gallup, N.M. freezing my arse off because I can't afford to pay the gas company. ("Gas Company...The Movie!! The billing begins.")
But seriously folks... I should say "folk" in singular, since one person actually read this blog, once.
My life has been an endless stream of monotony. Work, eat, sleep, pet a dog, eat, surf the net. The dog petting is probably the most interesting bit.
I posted something about Green Tea with Jasmine awhile ago....... I still like that. Drinking a lot of Masala Chai lately, too. I still enjoy Cheese.
Haven't read any new books all the way through, although I did find a copy of the "Tao Te Ching". Eventually it will get read from cover to cover.
The local Goodwill (charity shop) has provided a great deal of listening enjoyment, through their occaisionally massive stacks of old gramophone records. You don't care.
Uhhhhh. Did I mention that I like to pet dogs? Maybe something about cheese. Uhhhhh. Oh yeah. I've done that.

A day late for Edward's birthday.

2006-12-13T10:33:00.000-08:00

My "tribute" to his famous (and famously stolen) "Scream".
Featuring Juan Valdez and his trusty Burro, Conchita. I think they're both getting a wee bit loopy on the caffeine.

Finding bliss and not getting busted for it.

2006-12-10T22:41:00.000-08:00

Hi, my name is Robert and I suffer from multiple addictions. Incense and Green Tea with Jasmine.
I first started experimenting with incense back in the early '70's and found out that I liked the sensation of a nice smelling room. Later I started getting into the "heavy stuff". High grade Sandalwood, various florals. It helps me cope with the ugliness of life, man. After a rotten day, the only thing that keeps me going is the thought that I can light up a stick, listen to some music and just tune out and turn on. I've turned into kind of a connoiseur with it. That's a big fancy French word for snob. I even have different agarbathis for certain parts of the day. Some strong stuff to start off the morning, something restful and flowery at night. Maybe a "woodsy" scent to get the right atmosphere for meditation or just to send my brain off to a happier place.
The Green Tea thing happened even earlier. Call it a "gateway drug" if you can dig it. I just get off on the flavour. No sugar or cream, man. It wrecks the experience. It's got Jasmine in it, obviously, which is also a component of many of my favourite incense sticks. You can burn some Sugandha Shringar and have some tea at the same time. I tripped out on that for three days running once. Thought I could leap tall buildings in a single bound!
I've tried Auroshika Jasmine (Purity) with some of the cha a few times. The first time I did that, the sensation was so intense that I literally had to meditate. I'm not putting you on, man! (wouldn't lie to a bud.) It completely rocked my world.
Not that I'm drafting (draughting??) potential addicts, but my rules on incense are pretty stringent. Stay away from the American stuff. Almost all of it is crap. The good sticks and cones invariably come from India and Japan. Thailand is a beautiful country, but I have to warn you about the incense from there. It's usually as lousy as the American product. The last thing you want to do is waste $1.25 U.S.D. on some stuff you got at Hot Topic or the music shop, only to find that it smelled like a cheap, drunk hooker.
There's some other nice things out there. Tibetan and Korean are cool.
Please follow my sage advice about this stuff, though and repeat after me. "The Indian and Japanese sticks rule! Buy American, and you'll think you bought a package of donkey dung."
Peace, out. I'm gonna light another.

Another Blog I'm Enjoying

2006-12-06T12:49:00.000-08:00

I think I'm becoming addicted to Bangalore Daily Photo.
Rajesh's page kicks my page's arse, like a Sumo wrestler sitting on a little girl!
I'd love to dazzle someone with the local colour, but when you don't have one of those wonderful 9,000 megapixel jobs, it can't really be done effectively. Gallup does have it's share of interesting sights. Tourists seem to love the place. I can't say that the feelings of most locals are totally reciprocal. Californians in particular seem to be the most condescending, arrogant t***s I've ever had the misfortune to meet. If I hear one more of them moan about the liberal approach to smoking in public, that we Gallupians treasure, I will duelly remind them that the first stringent anti-smoking laws in modern times, were written by none other than Adolf Hitler! Considering who these dunderheads elected as Governor.....well, you see where this is going. Jello Biafra was right! (Just a few years too early.)
But this post was originally intended to pay homage to Rajesh's page and not a soapbox to air my views of tourists, right? Okay. Fair Enough.
I'm sure that Bangalore has some not so picturesque areas, like any other major city. 9.2% of the crime recorded in Indian cities happens around there. There have been a few internecine disputes that got way out of hand in the past.
That doesn't stop Bangalore from being and looking like a VERY liveable place.
It doesn't look like it suffers from a dearth of things to do and enjoy.
That's definitely the focus on Bangalore Daily Photo. I just have a hard time not "right-clicking" on the pics, so I can look at them a few more times, or use them as a desktop background. Quite a few really nice looking ladies make their way into the shots, too. Mouthwatering food shots show up as well. Women and food........ Oh well, I like looking at both. :)
I've always wanted to move to Bangalore, since hearing all the good reviews that penfriends from India would send me, back in the old days. (Remember Snail-Mail?)
Daily photo has convinced me that the transition wouldn't be painful at all.
All I need is a plane ticket and a working visa.......

Namaskara, y'all!

Tortillas from scratch. Almost.

2006-11-28T23:58:00.000-08:00

I'm not necessarily a culinary wizard or a total klutz in the kitchen. The food gets cooked, I eat it, friends eat it and nobody has anything particularly unkind to say.
Perusing Wal-Mart last night for a quick grab from the tortilla aisle proved to be interesting for once. Ok, before everyone gets high and mighty on my ass for shopping at the "evil empire" let me re-state one important fact. I'm so far under the poverty line that I can't afford to shop anywhere else! Most of my wardrobe comes straight off the racks at Goodwill and Fallas Paredes. (The latter being a chain of waaaay downmarket clothing shops in the Southwestern U.S.) Hell! Walmart clothing is too expensive for me!
Where was I? Ummmm. Tortillas.
Sitting on the rack was something I hadn't tried. Uncooked Tortillas that you have to slap into a pan or on a griddle. Kind of a lousy concept if you're lazy. Luckily I felt up to the challenge to temporarily transform myself into somebody's Mexican grandmother and actually cook a Tortilla.
The results were nothing short of amazing! Fifteen seconds in the pan and voila! Gourmet munchies! Nothing like the "shoe leather" variety that usually finds it's way into the supermarket. These suckers were tasty.
I started thinking of other uses for these wonderful round slabs of deliciousness. A bit of Ghee, perhaps and you have a Chapatti. Roll them around some mashed potato, spices, peas, etc. and put them into the deep fryer and you could get a convincing Samosa. (No, not Anastasio. A Food, for crying out freakin' loud!) Cut out eyes and a mouth, colour them in with crayon and put it over your face. Now you can pretend you're on "Lucha Libre"!
The possibilities are endless.

Why am I here?

2006-11-28T21:53:00.000-08:00

Hmmm... I forgot already.
Oh yes. This blogging thingy. Like everyone else in the universe I decided that somebody, somewhere was interested in the constant stream of detritus that exits my brain. Now , rather than trying to educate the sofa about my thoughts on politics, entertainment, organised and disorganised religion, my favourite soap (Not opera. Actual soap) and what it's like to be a poor, semi-insane Anarcho-syndicalist Utopian fortysomething Hippie, I can instead, like magic, shoot my rants off into cyberspace. All free for the asking, as they say.
My qualifications for doing this, are about the same as Macclesfield's result after playing a friendly against Chelsea. NIL!
One note of caution. I live in your street and can see everything you do from my front window.
No. Not really.