Art and Beauty Will Save Us

Fantastic, non-Photoshopped images by Kristy Mitchell.

Tropical Storm Debby... Blessed Relief

I know a lot of people will think I'm crazy (a lot already do), but hardly anything better could have happened to the State of Florida than tropical storm Debby. For those who don't live in these parts, Debby has been parked in the Gulf of Mexico just off of the Florida coast for about three days now and has dumped upwards of 15 to 20 inches of rain on the entire west coast and central highlands of the state.

There has been some wind damage but the big ticket here is flooding. Any time there is a weather event in this state there is flooding and flood damage. Why? Because basically, the entire state is a swamp just barely above sea level. And also, because stupid people, and way too many of them, insist on living in the flood plains and beaches where any sizable increase in water puts them under water. I don't want to seem crass, but, if you are going to build your dream house in an area that has a history of flooding... you pays your money and you takes your chances. Trouble is, all of the rest of us have to pay to bail your dumb asses out through exorbitant insurance costs.

But I digress. The reason this is the best thing to happen to the state in many a year is because of all of the rain. Specifically because of where all of this rain is falling... on the central highlands.

Florida is in a water crisis. Our creeks and rivers are at record low levels and our magnificent springs are flowing at 50% of their historical rate. Once abundant lakes are now grass pastures. The grand Okefenokee Swamp, the headwaters of the Suwanee River, is nearly dry and has been ravaged by wild fires that have burned tens of thousands of acres, devastating one of our most important wildlife refuges. The Floridan Aquifer, once thought to be an inexhaustible source of pure water, has flat dried up in some areas. The central highlands that run right up the center of the state are the primary recharge areas of the aquifer. For years those of us concerned with this vital resource have prayed for a slow moving tropical storm to replenish it. We finally got what we've prayed for. But it won't be enough.

Sadly, there will be heartbreak and loss suffered by many people. But it's inevitable. Our state is so over-developed, over-abused, and over-populated that it is difficult to imagine a sustainable model for it. Florida is soon to reach a population of 20-million people, making it the third largest state in the union (behind California and Texas). Who would have ever thought that we would one day be larger than New York? Although, I guess it's understandable since half of New York has moved here.

From my perspective, Thank You God! We can deal with flood and storm damage. We cannot deal with the loss of the one thing needed by every living creature... water.

Debby's storm clouds moving in over the marsh on Big Talbot Island.

Surf beginning to kick up in Nassau Sound.  One of the downsides to storms is the loss of the centuries old cedars and oaks along the shore.

On a lighter note... Summer Solstice sunset from our dock.

Where Art Comes From

Zombie Jamboree... or, This stuff can save your life if it doesn't kill you

OK!  OK!  The last of the zombie stuff.  I promise.  But this is just too important to let lie.  I feel I have a moral obligation towards my blogger buddies to let you know about this.  It could save your life.

It turns out that those zombies really are amongst us and have been for some time.  Of course, as written in the first chapter of God's little book of  Funny Tricks to Play on Humans, the damned things are invisible until it's too late.  And, playing right along with the script, they creep in over many lifetimes so that even if you do find them out and try to warn everybody, there's little evidence of them so everyone thinks you're a nut case.

I AM NOT A NUT CASE!  I am here to alert you to one of the most insipid creatures ever devised by our loving and caring God... The Zombie Fungus.

These things invade your body and slowly replace all of your living tissue with their own.  While doing this, they first take over your mind and drive you to do things that you would never do for their own benefit.  Then, they grotesquely enter the world as horrible creatures that spew their spores into the wind to propagate and multiply and invade more and more unsuspecting bodies... including yours!

Look what it did to my pet tarantula, Newt!

 Have you ever seen anything more horrible?  One minute a loving, adorable little crawly, and within minutes, a rock-hard, horny demon (no, I'm not talking about Punch or JadedJ)!  Science has a name for this thing, it's called a Cordyceps.  Even the name is creepy.  Now, in case you want to be a show-off and look the thing up on Wiki, I can save you the trouble.  "They" claim that this thing only invades insects, but that's an obvious lie because look at Newt.  He isn't an insect, he's an arachnid.  Proof, yet again, not to believe everything you read.  But you had better believe this.




This thing does invade humans.  Just look at this picture.

I know you're probably saying to yourself, "Well, that's just some little brown guy someplace we've never heard of" but think again.

LOOK AT THIS!  Think about it.  Have you ever seen anything more zombie-like in your life?  Beginning to make sense, eh?  The pieces are beginning to fall together, right?

But there is hope.  And, as usual, it's coming from China.  You know, those Orientals have been dealing with things like this for centuries and they pretty much have controlling it down to a science.  How do they do it?   Why, of course... they eat it!

It seems this stuff is loaded with super something-or-others that makes athletes stronger, brainiacs brainier and, naturally, it gives you an erection.  But none of this wimpy four-day crap... how about 40 days!  Yeah buddy.  That's what I'm talking about.


Still have your doubts?  Check this out.

Zombie Apocolypse - How It Could Happen

Back when AIDS first hit the scene and everyone was wondering where this "monkey virus" came from, a friend of mine hypothesized that this kind of thing will happen more and more as we uncover and disturb lifeforms deeper and deeper in the jungles and under the sea.  And that, indeed, seems to be the case.  Suddenly we are surrounded by deadly viruses we've never heard of...  Ebola, West Nile Virus, Monrovian Bird Flu.

Over time, the native peoples who live in these areas have built up an immunity to them and have developed a co-existent, even symbiotic, relationship with them.  But to the uninitiated visitor, these things can have totally unpredictable, even deadly, effects.  And given the ease of today's international travel, they can be spread world-wide before scientists even suspect that they exist much less know where they came from.

Now we learn of a danger from an entirely new and heretofore unsuspected source, the Polar Icecaps.

A newspaper headline reads, "NASA Expedition Finds 70 Miles Of Marine Life In Once Frozen Region."  It seems that the melting icecaps are releasing billions of once frozen phytoplankton and suddenly the northern coast of Alaska is alive with creatures released from their frozen state, some of which could be millions of years old.  This is truly alarming.  There's no telling what sort of ancient viruses or fungus or eggs of monstrous creatures could be hidden within the millennia-old ice.  Some have speculated that as the icecaps melt ancient, frozen, alien space ships will be exposed.  Maybe even... The Thing!!

Suppose some sort of brain parasite is released?  One that would eat the higher regions of your mind leaving only the crazed moto-driven cravings of sex and blood!!  Or some type of neurotoxin that places us all in a near-death Zombie state where we are driven only by our most basic instincts?



Zombies could come in all forms.  Some, easily recognizable.  











Others, not so much so.  Zombeism could come on slowly so that the transformation isn't noticed at all, until it's too late.







Some, may already walk among us.

All Creatures Great And Small

My garden.

It's A Dog's Life

To Follow... or not

Lately it seems many of my blogging friends have been asking themselves, "Why do I blog?"  And indeed, over the years many have dropped by the wayside because their answer to that question obviously wasn't strong enough to keep them going.  And, I imagine, many probably moved their participation to Facebook where they can more readily communicate with their "Followers" in real time.

Some time ago I too questioned why I was doing this, and came to the conclusion that I was doing it because I enjoy it.  And that has become paramount with me.

I was instructed, when first introduced to blogging, that the way to play this game was to visit a lot of other sites and become a Follower and that, in turn, would be an almost social obligation for the party so blessed to then visit my site and become a reciprocate Follower.  Soon my sidebar would be overflowing with colorful photos of my many devoted Followers and a happy and fruitful blogging experience would result.

I tried it and found myself visiting and Following a lot of blogs that I never revisited because they simply didn't grab me.  It made my Followers widget look good but did little for my blogging experience.  It became a distraction, so I made it go away.  The same with stats.  Both of these things drives your thinking towards a philosophy of "The guy with the most Followers wins."  However, I suppose in this materialistic, consumer society in which we live, the most popular actually do win.  (Which probably accounts for why I'm sitting here typing this fool thing in the first place.)

Also, being a design hobbyist, I'm into the visual look of the webpage.   I like to change my "look" from time to time and, at the moment, my taste is running to... well, what you see, whatever that is.

Anyway, the long and short of this is...  I have somehow managed to simply do my thing with the result being that I am having fun with the blog and the great benefit of falling into a nice little circle of blogging buddies, for which I am most grateful.  But please don't be offended if I don't mess with Followers and sidebar widgets and gadgets and awards.  It just ain't my thing.  (At least, not at the moment.) 

Happy Birthday to Me!

This past Saturday was my birthday and my wife and daughter and her friend took me out on the town.  A wonderful time had by all.  No bright lights, big city for me.  No siree.  Down to the Conch House in St. Augustine.  Just had to share a couple of pictures with you (to make you jealous of course.) shot with my aging iPhone.

Moonrise over Salt Run and the lighthouse.  Couldn't have been more beautiful.

Hula girls and ukeleles.  Margaritas on the rocks, pena coladas and peach daiquiris.  Conch fritters and an Hawaiian luau accompanied by three lovely ladies.  What more could an old man ask?  Took me three days to recover.

I'm picking up good vibrations... really?

Why are we all so angry?  Where does this anger come from?  I have been thinking about this for some time and have come to some conclusions.

First, some background:

My grandfather, a Theosophist, use to sit me on his knee and try to explain to me that every physical thing we know, or know of, is made up of different densities of gas.  This is well illustrated by sitting on the beach and gazing out over the ocean on a hot, sultry day.  On such a day, the horizon blurs and you cannot tell where water ends and air begins.  The same thing can happen between water and ice.

Now, these many years later, we understand through thermodynamics that every thing we know, or know of, is also different densities of energy.  Energy that vibrates and pulsates.  Vibrations and pulsations that create, in the aggregate, a measurable "Cosmic Vibe."  We need look no further than the moon to see the effects of a stellar body's magnetic field on the earth and on us.  The effect is real and visceral and cannot be denied.

When I first saw a nighttime desert sky the creation of astrology and astrological figures became perfectly clear to me, for the desert sky is so clear and stars so abundant that they become three-dimensional.  They have depth and breadth.  It's as easy to lie on your back and see figures in the stars as it is to see them in the clouds.  They appear so close that you can touch them.  Certainly, feel them.  

I believe that in the distant past mankind could actually feel the magnetic fields, the "vibes", of the planets as they crossed the sky.  Over the millenia our bodies and our psyches became so attuned to the cosmic vibes, this cosmic rhythm, that our bodily functions, even our peace of mind, became totally in sync with the cycles and vibes of the planets and the earth.

And the point is?

We have so cluttered our environment with all manner of radio waves and electromagnetic fields that the cosmic vibes essential to our health and well being are as polluted as the air we breath and the water we drink.  

There is virtually no place left on earth where we can escape being bombarded by microwaves.  They rain down on us from satellites above.  They are blasted throughout the environment from cell phone towers, television and radio transmission towers, all sort and manner of citizen band radio, short-wave radio, magnetic fields from power lines, the power grid, your computer, your cell phone, microwave oven and even your toaster.

They create an artificial vibe that keeps us on edge, that keep us off-balance, that keep us fearful and angry.  Add to that the artificial chemicals we eat and drink, noise pollution, visual pollution, general confusion and an over-populated planet and it's a wonder there aren't more people randomly killing and chewing off people's faces. 

George Carlin use to liken America to water going down a drain.  As it nears the center it spins faster and faster until it's finally gone.  I fear that is now a prescription for all of mankind.