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You're Love in the Time of Cholera!
by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Like Odysseus in a work of Homer, you demonstrate undying loyalty by
sleeping with as many people as you possibly can. But in your heart you never give
consent! This creates a strange quandary of what love really means to you. On the
one hand, you've loved the same person your whole life, but on the other, your actions
barely speak to this fact. Whatever you do, stick to bottled water. The other stuff
could get you killed.
Take the Book Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.
You're Infinite Jest!
by David Foster Wallace
While you1 consider yourself2 to be clever,
there are those3 who think you're just full of yourself or, perhaps worse,
playing a joke4 on everyone around you, and yet you are pretty sure that
you really are that brilliant after all, since people would hardly take the time to
get to know you5 if they didn't care very deeply about what you had to
say to them, to wit, about their lives, their hopes, their dreams, their fears, their
drug habits, and of course what videos6 they prefer to watch, since,
after all, your impressive vocabulary and tendency to go on and on7 makes
you seem superior, able to educate them, and really drive a sense of something
ineffable into their measly little skulls while you are not above making a cheap
gag or really going after anyone or anything or telling them about incredible
futures involving tennis, geopolitics, and
1Meaning you personally, not someone like you or your own
personal daddy, for example.
2As well as you can see yourself, which, frankly, may not be that well.
3Though we wouldn't deign to be so peripatetic as to name them here, mind.
4Jokes, though not common in Victorian England, were known to originate
sometime in ancient history, perhaps as early as the time of Babylon, or even before.
It is thought that the history of the joke plays an integral role in the mindset of
the characters depicted here, though you may disagree at this point, in which case I
am facing quite the dilemma in relaying this narrative, no?
5It is rather time consuming, after all.
6Ha!
7and on and on and on...
Take the Book Quiz II
at the Blue Pyramid.
You're The Metamorphosis!
by Franz Kafka
Though you think you're in the midst of a dream, the fact of the
matter is that your life has become a nightmare. The nightmare at first seems
horrific to you, but you are slowly able to adjust to the facts of the matter
and settle down and make do with what you've been given. There are those that
would say you're pointless and absurd, but you're really just trying to
demonstrate that people can (and do) adapt to anything, no matter how absurd
it is. Not that this will really inspire them to change, because they probably
don't understand.
Take the Book Quiz II
at the Blue Pyramid.
5 comments:
There is the realization that I will be able to amend my life in this lifetime. The most problematic issue now is how do I negotiate a fixed schedule with Friday evening and Saturday off work.
Exercise 91.
That I will not* be able
"For instance: the light that Travis and Tom are shining on the front of the truck has a strong blue and ultraviolet emission, because that's the part of the spectrum across which deer see best—far better than we can. Deer vision was explained to me in some detail by a man who has studied it: Bradley Cohen, an assistant professor of wildlife biology at Tennessee Tech University. 'At dusk, when deer are most active, UV light is the most available thing,' he said. While we struggle to see detail in a purply dark dusk, a deer sees it clearly in a bright blue. Our twilight is their noon.
[...]
Here's something else unusual about deer vision. Deer see best in an elongated strip across their field of vision—a 'visual streak'—rather than in a central core of visual acuity, as we do. It would be like reading a book with your peripheral vision. Deer can't read, obviously, but the setup helps them detect a predator trying to sneak up on them.
Some birds have a visual streak, too. It's useful for hunting prey and for traveling. A migrating bird with a visual streak can study the whole horizon without moving its eyes or head (205-6)."
—Mary Roach's Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law (2021)
We have a deer herd on Stephenson with each doe with twins or triplets. We replenish the bird feeder often.
I am awake; soon to go to work, with sinus congestion mixed with pollen allergies.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5724298/
I have heard the objections to suburban deer, and I still feed them. They live in the woods and water at a small creek. There have been zero vehicle collisions, but the hostas do not stand a chance. They know us, and look in the window to leave them a bite of black oil sunflower seeds.
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