Foreign Dispatch

You can see where totems got their inspiration in the mirror form of still lakes and sea shores. When the water is as glass, reflecting everything above, like the green here of Summer, near full Moon, the full skeletal reproduction is seen by all, and copied by most - why not? Success is leached.

Another's Flag

I believe in these things, somewhat truly: The United Nations - shouldn't we all belong to the same nation? We're all the same people, let's organize and conquer Mars.

Control the water, control the planet.

Redshirt originals all, yeah.

Screaming Trees

All things fade in time. You, me, Rome, Earth, the Sun, the Milky Way, the entire Universe, some trillion trillion years from now. Not my fault, nor my picture. Lovely though, is it not? The power of entropy?

An abandoned factory in Japan, nature reclaiming the space. As entropy is nature, all order will be deconstructed, torn down, eaten up, broken into pieces and spread all about. Entropy is the way of things. All our deeds are but acts holding back the tide, so ever briefly.

Our end is inevitable. The only true questions are when and how. Probably asteroid, sometime in the future. But there's so many other options! Nuclear bombs, earthquakes, global warming, solar radiation, magnetic shift, name your apocalypse, and you'll find the likelihood is not insignificant. Ignore the possibility we do at our own peril. Life is fragile, we exist on the surface of a reality of harshness. Prepare yeself, mortal!

Too Late

Unless everything falls apart, we'll not be agrarian again. Urbanity is humanity's future, whether here on Earth or elsewhere. Get used to it, or get weeded out of of the gene pool. The future demands folks willing to be crowded.

You can't see the stars in the city. But that's OK - we have drones.

Springs Falls

More redshirt originals. The spot on the horizon where Spring and Fall are defined - by the setting sun. It's been a remarkable experience - I was vaguely aware the Sun "moved" throughout the year, but I now see it defined every day on a line of mountains stretching from the North through the West to the South. I've been watching the Sun move back and forth across this mountain range like a pendulum, and I'll tell you the experience has been nigh holy. Once you see the pattern in nature, you tap into this "divinity". Worship here, Northerners:

Look see in the center of this picture, at the unmoving star - Polaris, the North Star. The center of our existence, since we spin around this point and spinning is everything, seriously. Everything is spinning around something else which in turn is spinning around something else, so on and such to infinity. It provides a clear definition as to the structure of reality: Spinning. So feel no shame in dizziness.

After the Fall (Lunch Break)

Click for huge - Mt. Rainier in the sunset, a shadow stretching across the heavens. I can relate!

Satan, man.

Not a shop. African weirdness, rather.

Also not a shop, but rather a well timed cloud. Dig it.

Already Assimilated

A map showing McDonald's locations across the Contiguous 48. As you can see, they're everywhere, so much so that the small gaps jump out in contrast. National Parks, barren wastelands, roadless stretches of nature. For now - just you wait, Adirondack Park! Mickey D's will find you, eventually.

Now, like most everyone, I used to go to McDonald's all the time. As a kid it was a huuuuge treat. Not only for the burgers, fries and shakes, but oh yes, the once awesome Happy Meals:

Mint condition - part of some huge Trek nerd's collectible hoard. Marvel at the detail, the quality craftsmanship. I've seen today's Happy Meals, and like most everything else in our society, they've been cheapened and dumbed down. Profit margins, dawg.

I'm a Survivor

Herewith, I give you the remainder of my Survivor .gif cache:

A clotheslining, by an actual clothesline. Isn't it ironic?

Crystal was a gold medal Olympic winner (some kind of relay race), and yet, was a terrible athlete. It was rather surreal.

Dan was a small man in a very big chair. It was part of an in-show advertisement for Jack Black's "Gulliver's Travels". Which was an instant classic, I hear. I - for truth - enjoy the advertisements in the show, since it's a connection to most other TV game shows. And it's cheezy, and these poor suffering players are amazed by these strange items from a foreign land. Also, there's usually some kind of strategic element to these advertisement segments - winning an expensive car, for example, often would bias the jury against the winner.

Oh yeah. T&A. It's another big factor in the show - for all genders and sexual persuasion. A well proven Survivor maxim: Everyone looks better starving and dirty than fat and covered in makeup and questionable clothes.

Spider dance. Speaking of:

An exploding ball of spiders. Hello!

Two Snakes and an Eel

I think - hope - this is a snake shedding its old skin for some new duds. It's pretty gross. But an apt example of the awesomeness of the TV show "Survivor". It's not a reality show, though it does share some techniques. Rather, it's a psychological study played for money on worldwide broadcast. These pressures - money, fame, the emotions of living a primitive lifestyle surrounded by other people waiting to get you eliminated from the game - create a real world the game players live in (see: Stanford Prison Experiment). They must eat from the land and sea, sleep outdoors in the elements, endure torturous physical tasks. The players of the game Survivor suffer. For our entertainment!

Also, they show lots of cool nature shots. Like:

I think - hope - this is a snake digesting a meal. Otherwise, no idea. It's disturbing regardless.

Here's an eel barfing. Enjoy!