20th Aniversary of Voyager Looking Back on us

It was not that long ago really, but it gives perspective that I find valuable. We need more of this viewpoint, and if we had it, maybe we on this planet wouldn't be so divided. We have so much in common despite our culture, language and religious differences.

Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every 'superstar,' every 'supreme leader,' every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there — on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.
-Carl Sagan

I-Oh-Wha?

Yes, I've been rifling through perfectly preserved remnants of my old Iowa life. You know, that old junk that you stored in your parents basement years ago, and then you failed to retrieve it, so it's become obsolete, yet there are a few buried treasures there? Yep, you have that somewhere I'm sure. Well, what I found was a lot of pictures, old sketchbooks, and some of my old musings when I had plans to be a wordsmith. I never really did consider writing, but then again, it's no more realistic than visual art, though I feel much more adept at the visual side of things. Still, I dig some of these old poems. Out of each, there's about 1 line that is really good, so I'll do a few more, omitting the rest of the words.

Seizures are in my ears
Oddly melancholy
When things are gone the tan line mocks me
Auras exploding
Lips floating
Voices travel from no one's mouth
The middle man is always the wind

I just know that you smell, taste like shit, make me and millions of others feel like shit...
and I love you.
And in your eyes I'm weak.

Solitude lends itself to concealment

That's all I can glean from the He-Man notebook. I'll put up more, maybe an excerpt from my old incomplete novel Oblivion.

[Get By] by Nick Naughton circa 2001

Ferrari zooms by, no wait it was a Fiat
Breaths of fresh air pass by outside
Our air is regurgitated
Is it funny?
Who loves what?
Sperm.
Leaves.
Not vibrating, fluttering
Talk can be cheap
Some people's words are priceless

Death is tough
but living through it is tougher
Become stronger

"2 crit or not to crit" by Nick Naughton circa 2001

It's very rude to eat during critique;
it's rude to be writing during critique.
Don't say whatever about your work.
Meet deadlines.
Dogs bark at odd times.
I'm not sure I like when people talk about their own
We can tell 'em only what we think in their world, the world of origin
Eaters chew slowly and quietly/except when it's popcorn;
no words offered
I don't like the word tangible
Simple is better because you make deadlines.
Or is it.
Varying too much on the original idea scores no points.
Some aspects are a must
Cursive writing is hard to read when you cut it
When it seems like you and only other hardcore potheads like your work,
maybe it's a sign.
Thunder can be an empty threat
Some people
When talking about one person's work don't look at someone else's.
Rude
Straightforward when you mean to zigzag is an insult
There's nothing wrong with it, I heard.

The mascara giveth, and the mascara taketh

Matt, whose last name I forget, sporting a brilliant look.


Mathew Clark, asleep or reaching nirvana?


Mary Hill owning that faux facial hair.


Anya Liftig, somehow not surprised that we're giving her a fake mustache on a random night.

Is there something masculine about the addition of a fake mustache to a face? What about in the case of a woman? Let the firehouse decide...

Futility

Trying to draw a mustache on the face of an already bearded man.

Larry Lessig on congressional corruption and Obama

Watched a great video by Larry Lessig about Obama's first year. I always hesitated myself getting involved in the campaign last year, and I felt kind of like cynicism had won, but now I feel more like I had been right to be skeptical. Things haven't changed. Money still corrupts, and I'm still not sure that things can change. We have buying power, but we don't have a way to compete with the special interests that fund campaigns. Check it out if you have a minute.