A Basic Thing

Are we really so unique?

Are we really so different?

Perhaps in form, but not in function.

We are all of the same basic thing

As the cells of a person’s body

We are all of the same basic thing

Different kinds of life

That think

We are all of the same basic thing

We are all performing the same basic function

As do the cells of a sentient brain

We all have the same basic purpose

To understand

We are all of the same basic thing

We perform our function in specialized ways, with specializations

Some slightly specialized, some supremely so

We are all of the same basic thing

Our slightly different forms

Our slightly different perspectives

All are only parts of the sum

We are all of the same basic thing

We are the intelligence of the universe, a basic thing

We are all the same basic thing

As it tries to understand itself

a basic thing.

--Iton

Holy Clear Skies Batman!!!

This past weekend, Paco's friends wanted to celebrate one of their birthdays by having the "family" (group of friends) spend the weekend at his Hunting Lodge Cabin near Alpena, MI.

I'm very glad we went. I had a great time hanging out, drinking, eating, playing with the fish. Yes I said fish. There is a trout pond there. They have fish food pellets there by the 20lb bag. Toss some in and it was a feeding frenzy. They'd splash you, each other, smack the bottom of the dock, whatever it took just to get at those damn pellets. :) I know it sounds kinda dull, but it was a lot of fun.

The best part was the night sky. Living in the suburbs of Detroit, I RARELY get to see REALLY clear/dark skies anymore. This weekend, 2 nights in a row, I saw the stars through the clearest skies I've ever seen! It was simply amazing. It was so clear and black up there that it was very easy to see the plane of the Milky Way. I haven't seen this since I was a child. The stars of various sizes, brightness and colors were strewn across the sky, all very 3D like bright rocks pitched upward and then captured in a Matrix-Style, 3D camera shot and frozen in place. It was breathtaking. It was also fun to see 2 meteors streak across the star-lit blackness. I really miss this kind of view. The only thing I had detracting from this view was the UNBELIEVABLE number of ANTS at this place.

No joke, stand in 1 place for a minute or two and the big black ants were crawling straight up your leg to places where you would probably prefer insects never visited. EEK! If you kept moving, you were fine, but if you stopped, ickyness ensued. Fortunately this wasn't as much an issue at 2:00am while stargazing.

Poor Paco was sick all day Saturday and All day Sunday. On the 3+Hour drive home we had to stop a number of times for him to use a bathroom or Projectile Vomit (my apologies to the McDonalds just off of I-75 in Saginaw). He was miserable and there was nothing any of us could to for him.

The whole thing just made me want a SkyCar even more. I'll tell ya...when I finally hit that Lottery Jackpot, I'm going to have some cool toys!! Oh it would be nice to get there in 45 Minutes vs 3 hours! (that's traveling at an average speed of 300 MPG, a distance of 229 miles). Or 4.5 hours (vs the 24 hours it would take to drive and boat) to travel the 1500 miles to the $10,000,000 Island I want to buy...someday.

Well, either way I truly missed having beautiful night skies to look at. Having that satisfied so completely was just amazing and I highly recommend it to anyone. (although not "getting your heart trampled on" a-la Alanis)

"They say money can't buy happiness. Well, it can buy you everything else, and that sure makes happiness easier to achieve." -- (paraphrase)

--Iton

Oh Me, Oh my! Househunting Makes me Want to Cry!

Seriously, is there any other voluntary activity more stressful than shopping for a new home? Well, I'm sure there is, but in my world, this is the pinnacle right now.

Seriously, I think Paco and I have seen 2....or....3...million homes at this point. It sux.

How can there be SOO much on the market AND be such an unbelievably high percentage of CRAP?

As I told Paco... "I expected this process to be hard. I did NOT expect it to be painful."

And hey...to all of you folks out there in Cyberlandville who move a lot (and I mean established adults, college students don't count for this one, sorry) how in the *%$@!*# do you do it? I mean, the stress is just ridiculous!

And, the other thing...How do people move across the country, into a home sight unseen? OMG!!!

HEEEEEEEEEEEEEELLLLLLLLLLLLP!!!!!!!

"Yes! I'm smarter than a 5th Grader...DAMN IT!!!"

--Iton

You may now call me "Reverend"

Oh this is a good one!

I was reading a Yahoo News article about Tori Spelling this morning. It seems that she got herself ordained as a minister through the Universal Life Church Monastery. She is even performing Gay weddings on her reality show. Go Tori!

Now, I'm not sure, but I THINK that this is the same "church" that used to advertise in the back of Rolling Stone magazine. In any case, I've wanted to do this myself since I was a teen. I remember watching an episode of Northern Exposure where the one hunky, loner character was asked to perform a wedding based on a similar credential. I said then that I would do it as well.

Ok, so, here we are, probably 15 years later. It took the likes of Tori Spelling to remind me about that subversive, conformity desire (I know it sounds like an oxymoron, but it's not, trust me) that I had as a youngin.

So, I went ahead and did it. LOL! I am now an "Officially Ordained Minister" of the ULC. They claim that it gives me all the rights and such of the title "Reverend."



"Were you to hear God's true voice, your mind would cave in and your heart would explode inside your chest. We went through five Adams before we figured that one out."

--Iton

And to your left, you'll see a spiral galaxy.....

How fun is this?

While doing my daily surfing, I ran across a site called GalaxyZoo. It is set to officially launch tomorrow, it seems.

Basically, some astronomers rigged up a big camera on a big telescope and let it snap a million digital pictures of galaxies. Problem is, they all need to be classified. The bigger problem is that the kinds of categories they use, well, computers aren't good at deciding which fits which.

This is where YOU (and I) come in. Visit GalaxyZoo.org, complete a short tutorial on galaxy classification and then it shows you, one after the other, pictures of very far away places. You decide which category each fits into, click a button, and do it again with the next image.

No, there's no big reward. No, it's not a game. But if you like celestial phenomena, you'll see more close-ups of things that you've never seen before than you can handle. The best part is that when you get bored, you stop. Its easy, kinda fun, kills time and helps science.

So, rush on over to www.galaxyzoo.org right now and get started.

"Cover your eyes Billy, those two galaxies are MERGING!"

--Iton

Oh how busy we get

Wow!

It has been 2 months since my last entry. I'm a schmuck, sorry!

Ok, the stalker backed off after being served with her PPO. I remain alive and, mostly, well.

I've had another horrible technical support problem with a computer company, DELL. I won't get into the details, but suffice it to say they are shooting themselves in their collective, proverbial feet.

CALLWAVE continues to be a GODSEND! They've recently updated their companion software for your PC. A few new features and some neat looking eye-candy to boot. If you use your cell phone for business and DON'T want your clients to have your REAL number, this is the service for you! $4/Month, SOOOOOOO worth it!

The therapist has entered therapy himself. Enough was enough. I have begun therapy myself and it is going nicely. I had forgotten how helpful it can be. Silly, I know, since I'm usually the one DOING the therapy. So much for analyzing myself (which is never a good idea anyways).

The remodel of my home is coming along. We've been editing, repairing, repainting and such for about that 2 months. Paco and his good friend, we'll call her "Becky" (Again, TOTALLY not her real name. In fact, I think she hates that name. But it's only a pseudonym, so, no biggie) have been SOOO HELPFUL! Paco and Becky have been doing the vast majority of the painting. This is awesome because I HATE painting. The front area of the house is looking REALLY good!

House hunting is slow going. I'd say that Paco and I have looked at 10 or 15 million houses by now. ;) Some I like and he doesn't, some he likes and I don't, some we both hate. Seems the stuff we both love is SEVERAL times our price range. (I know we aren't unique in that aspect).

I've discovered that I seems to actually enjoy stripping paint off of household air vents and then spray painting them back to life. Who knew?!? Seriously, I'm talking 50+ years worth of paint in at LEAST 5 to 7 layers. CitriStrip is my new best friend (right next to Rustoleum White Gloss Enamel spray paint).

I remain cursed.

Work is more busy than I expected it to be this summer.

The heat has been MUCH worse that I like, lately. That damn SUN! ;)

Hmmm, and we went to a surprise birthday party for Becky's fiancee. He was surprised, YAY!!!

Ok, that's the crash-course update.

Ciao for now!

"Please Hold. Please Continue to Hold, your call is important to us." "Well, not important enough for us to actually have enough people answering the phones, but, you know...."

--Iton