Missed and Envious

(dont read that title, listen to it)

I've been busy, but scarcely busy enough to blame lack of blog entries on it. Here are a few of the lesser things that I can mention that I will/am/was doing/thinking/intending.

I've managed to finish Jared Diamond's "The Third Chimpanzee". He tries to summarize what, if anything, there is that is unique about Homo Sapiens by lcomparing and contrasting human genetics, behaviour and history with examples from the animal kingdom. It turns out that we arent as unique as we often think we are. Animals communicate with a large vocabulary, make art, intentionally behave in dangerous ways (e.g. smoking, drug use, etc.. in humans) and even commit genocide. It was written before "Guns Germs and Steel" and parts of "Third" were fleshed out and expanded upon to compile that book. Having read "Guns" first, the relevant sections of "Third" were tedious to me.

I have determined to begin learning some practices that probably get labeled as "heathen" by Christians. Partly this is to facilitate research for my book. Mostly, however, its because I have always been curious about Shamanism and mystical healing. I have no intention of consuming Ayahuasca or any other ethneogens as they would probably cause me to lose my job. There are drumming techniques that are used to induce visions, I may look into those. Other areas include Qi gong, chakra and kundalini etc.

I've not been drug-tested in the past 4-5 months, but thats beside the point. I dabbled with marajuana in college and came to the conclusion that I would stay away from it and other "mood enhancers" (save alcohol- that was a different decision) since in hindsight the state of being a giggling/laughing imbecile for 2 hours or so without any humorous stimuli that I can remember strikes me as the ultimate in masturbation. I could possibly salve my ego by saying "at least I was happy". I'd prefer that there be a palpable cause.

I've just finished reading a book entitled "The Art of Dreaming." While there were some guidelines for developing one's ability to master one's dreams, the book wove these into what I must classify as fiction. A fiction that left meunsatisfied. I could have accepted that in a better written book, but I was rather put out by the vague ending scenario. The author did have a talent for stringing the reader along, though the character of himself seemed to me to be unbelievably dense and inexplicably rigid in his lack of acceptance, even over the course of what he descries as years.

The "adapter" for the GPS reciever for my Microsoft Streets & Trips software broke Yesterday. After examination, I determined that it was a pathetically constructed device (much as I had heard since buying it). A replacement will cost $50. OR I could spend $150 and get the DeLorme street atlas software with their proprietary GPS solution and call it even. I hear their software is superior anyway. Replacing the broken unit that came with MS would only be a temporary fix. Barring any unlikely design changes, the new unit will simply break again due to really asinine structural design.

And I really hate MS anyway.