Wave Power, Baby, Can't be Beat.

CD in Play: John Parish and Polly Jean Harvey, Dance Hall at Louse Point.

My Dad sent this to me, it is from The Engineer Online. I am interested in alternative energy sources and wave power is one that excites me quite a bit. No use to my more land locked friends in Saskatchewan or in Prince George and Tumbler Ridge, but coastal British Columbia and the Maritimes would be foolish not to consider this. I don't know of any wave power testing taking place in Canada at all. There has been some testing done in Scotland's north, but nothing done on a grand scale in the UK as of yet. The UK should be throwing itself whole hog into wave power, considering it is surrounded by water. Anyhow, thought I'd post this up here.


Renewable Tidal Energy Can be Used to Drive Turbine (3/14)

A renewable tidal energy technology that eliminates the need for moving parts and could prove more competitive than fossil fuel power has been developed at Imperial College London spin-out HydroVenturi.
A submarine venturi — a funnel- shaped tube originally used to measure flow rate — is placed in a primary flow (tidal or non-tidal) to accelerate the water and create a subsequent pressure drop, which can be used to drive a turbine.
Relying on Bernoulli’s theory, which stipulates that an increase in fluid rate produces a reduction in pressure, the device generates a reduction at the point where the flow is most constricted. This pressure drop is used to suck air from another location into the primary flow.
It is this suction — which can be moved through a pipe to the shore up to 50m away — that drives an air turbine. These are significantly smaller than water turbines and can be driven at a very high speed.
Removing the need for complex mechanical and electrical parts not only avoids expensive maintenance issues through corrosion of engineering materials and replacement of parts, but also enables the system to be located in differing bodies of water and depth than conventional technology. This allows electricity to be generated at costs competitive with fossil fuels, with low recurring maintenance or fuel costs, its developer claims.
HydroVenturi chairman Dr John Hassard explained that the versatility of the technology gives it a number of advantages over conventional methods. “Our approach is much more widely applicable. We can operate in far slower waters than conventional systems and at different depths. The system can go from two to 30m easily, whereas conventional systems are constrained to depths of between 30m and 50m in locations such as in tidal inlets.”
The technology also benefits from water being denser than air. Water weighs 1,000kg/m3 while air is 1kg/m3, explained Hassard, so water has a thousand times more mass density — and it is this greater kinetic energy potential that underpins the technology.
“What we realised was, water can be induced to create power without moving parts,” he said. The technology has so far attracted a £2.5m development grant from Porton Capital and £200,000 from the Carbon Trust. Imperial Innovations — the commercialisation arm of Imperial College — has the right to invest a further £900,000.
Despite this, Hassard is frustrated over the UK’s tardy approach to research development. Consequently, the next installation will be in New Zealand, where he claims: “We will be undercutting gas turbines very shortly.
“We have talked to many UK groups, but because of the legislation you have to go through it is easier to make progress outside the country. The UK probably has the best resource and leads the way in tidal development but this approach is killing it,” he said.

Senile Delinquents

CD in Play: The Police, Zenyatta Mondatta

Allergies aren't the only signs of aging - musical taste and experience would seem to be an indicator. I work graveyards at a mall that pipes in music 24/7 to keep kids from loitering. Muzak? No, nothing that horrible. No the music they picked is categorised as "oldies". Some of it is, lots of doo-wop - The Penguins, Frankie Lymon, Gene Chandler, Marcels. I have also heard Link Wray ("Rumble"), Dick Dale ("Pipeline" and "Miserlou"), Donovan ("Atlantis", "Hurdy-Gurdy Man"), The Hollies ("Bus Stop"), The Zombies ("Time of the Season"), The Beatles ("Nowhere Man") and many many others whose music I have heard since I was a kid and still like to this day.
Of course, many of my friends like, or at least can handle listening to this kind of music. I have visions of large groups of 30 somethings gathered and loittering under the speakers enjoying music that they really might not choose to buy, but would like to hear again. Music I enjoy being used to scare off kids, now that is the real sign of aging.

Assorted Bits

CD in Play: The Super Friendz, Mock Up,Scale Down.

The Revenge of Xenu: The South Park Saga Continues

http://news.yahoo.com/s/cpress/20060322/ca_pr_on_en/tv_south_park

I read this article and the sound bite that drifted through my head was one from the Vetrinarian's Hostpital sketch on The Muppet Show, "...the never ending story about a quack who's gone to the dogs." What does that has to do with South Park's battle with Scientology? I dunno... don't ask me how my brain works, we haven't been on speaking terms for a while now.

And now for something completely different...

A friend emailed me a letter allegedly written by John Cleese notifying the United States that its Independence had been revoked and it that it was now, once again, a British Colony. Amusing as it is, it was also not written by Mr. Cleese. I direct you to the link below,
http://www.snopes.com/politics/satire/revocation.asp
Included here are the "letter" and two American responses to said letter. Favourite item in one response is, "9. We'll tell you who killed JFK when you apologize for "Teletubbies"."
Another link to check out is, http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/blrevocation_cleese.htm.
So go forth and demythologise.

Aimless Vendetta

CD in Play: The Jam, Greatest Hits. Sly and the Family Stone, There's a Riot Goin' On.

V for Vendetta

*** If you haven't seen the film or read the comics, spoilers there be. Ah Warned Ye.***

I saw V for Vendetta with Pete Chattawy on Thursday night. Having recently read much about the film on Jeff Overstreet's blog and discovering that the Wachowski Bros (The Matrix Trilogy, Bound) were attached, I can't say that I went in with my hopes up. I really liked The Matrix, but its sequals were wretched and pretty much wrote the Wachowskis off as film makers for me. Still Alan Moore's comic book mini-series gave the bothers and director James McTeigue some pretty strong material to work with.
Alan Moore is one of the people who helped comics to grow up. Books like V for Vendetta, The Watchmen and The Killing Joke (great cover) all helped to introduce more serious subject matter, adult themes and literary sensibilities to a medium often derided as pulp. Others, like Denny O'Neil, had tried to use comic as a means to present and tackle serious social issues like drug addiction and poerty, but they ofetn lacked the literary complexity and credibility.
V for Vendetta was written as a reaction to what Moore and illustrator David Lloyd saw happening in Maggie Thatcher's Britain in the 1980's. It was a turbulent and volatile time of labour disputes, racial tensions and just all around civil unrest.
Moore envisioned a Britain that had only just survived a global nuclear war and from out of the ensuing choas a ruthless totalitarian state had emerged. The populace was tightly monitored and controlled, undesirables had been weeded out and eliminated in concentration camps. Out of this comes V, a victim turned vigilante. (terrorist really, but terrorist doesn't start with a "v") V's aims are revenge on the people who destroyed him and turned him into what he had become, destruction of the state. V also means to find a way to bring about the creation of something better, which I seem to recall V saying he was incapable of doing himself. This is where the character of Evey Hammond comes in. Evey disapproves of V's murderous ways, she refuses to help him on that front. Evey is the person that V passes his torch onto to help bring about a new society.
This brings me back to the film. As stated before, the Wachowski Bros. and James McTeigue had some pretty strong material to work with, but they got it all wrong. It's tough to sum up a 10 issue series in a film just over two hours long, but it should have been possible to retain some of the original ideas, nuances and spirit of the books. Also stated before, Moore helped comics to grow up and mature - the film adaption of V for Vendetta actually helps Moore's work to regress.
They seem to have completely misunderstood the motivations of each character. The V of the film, though excellently voiced by Hugo Weaving, is a gassy wind bag not concerned in the least about anarchy and the rebirth of Britain. He destroys monuments and buildings but to what end is not really clear in the film, other than the fact that the tight-assed government is bad. In fact, the makers would seem to approve of V's killings, which Alan Moore did not. Moore wanted his readers to decide for themselves what they thought of V. Was V a hero, anti-hero or villain?
The public reaction to V is drastically simplified in the film. The public seems unanimous in its approval for V's actions. He calls them to rally and they do, consequences to themselves and their families be damned. The book is much more realistic in that it realizes that people are very unwilling to do what is needed or necessary if it means possible discomfort/harm to themselves. The V of the book manipulates the public mood largely through invisible means. V isn't a symbol for the vast majority to rally around, as much as he is an object of fear.
Evey Hammond also suffers at the hands of the filmmakers. In the books she disapproves of V's murders and the chaos that ensues through his manipulations. V leaves everything to Evey, including his legacy because she is someone who can help to construct a new society. Evey in the film dissaproves of the killing, but once she has gone through her ordeal she is perfectly fine withthe chaos that ensues when V ships copies of his Guy Fawkes mask, seemingly, to every individual in London. (this does not happen in the book)
In the books, Evey questions V and wants to know if the chaos outside is the end he hoped to achieve with his precious anarchy? (I am going by memory as Pete has my copyof V) V responds that what Evey sees outside is not "the-land-of-do-as-you-please" but "the-land-of-take-what-you-want." In the movie, the aim is clearly to create the "land-of-take-what-you-want" and tacitly approves of it through Evey. Evey is not the moral centre of the film, rather she is just another drone vaccuously loaning her approval to the filmmakers visions - whatever those may be, I am not exactly too clear. The Evey of the book goes from frightened waif and cog-in-the-machine to a sort free-thinking figure maybe along the lines of an Emma Goldman?Evey over the course of the film goes from being an individual to becoming a mindless zealot along the lines of a Susan Atkins or a Linda Kasabian.
As a visual entertainment goes, yeah sure... it has it's merits. It certainly retains the qualities evoked by David Lloyd's artwork. But V for Vendetta was much more than a "visual entertainment". In many respects it is a paranoid work of borne of the fears of youth and somewhat dated by the passage of time. Still it has depth and layers that the film just is incapable of touching.

Love is a Four Letter Word for Regret

Cd in Play: My Bloody Valentne, Loveless.

"Nothing quite takes the taste out of peanut butter like unrequited love." - Charlie Brown

Found a picture of someone I really cared about a decade ago. Her name was Sarah Dalton. A case of unrequited love. I think I am past the point of moaning about it, but it is interesting how some feelings can persist, lying in a dormant state until stirred up by something. Quite coincidentally, (and I do believe in coincidence) I found the picture shortly after rediscovering some old poems I wrote about Sarah. Don't know what I think about these poems. I suppose they have their merits, or perhaps I am just uncomfortable with the subject of love.

Feb 1996
I had to take some Fine Arts students to the Vancouver Art Gallery, since I was the T.A. for the Art Department. Sarah came along and then we spent the day downtown and in North Vancouver. It was a good day and after dropping her back off at her dorm I really knew that I felt something for her. I had felt that she might have been developing feelings for me as well. (see this link) These are the poems I wrote about that day. Note - much of my poetry was about visual presentation. Blogger forces alignment conformity making it impossible for me to display these to you as they should be.


Day in the City

I

CockingheaDs at
Shadboltbutterflys

we walk the Gallery
toward the deepgreens
and talltotems
(would my Grandfather dream of tea?)
brushing together in honour
of our surroundings

Or am
I seeing
morethanthere
actuallyis?

II

Sunsparkledpoolsof brown
pretty shortshortreddress
notsosluttyreally
but sweet.
I never knew
that kneescould
have such*
Aapeall.

III

We walk
in the grey spattered sundappled city
moving easily through people.
Moving in tandem
yet not quite in line
she out guesses my every step
to leave me in silence
to marvel at how her head tilts
to trap me
like a mosquito
in her amber eyes.

- February 1996

It was at the end of March that I was completely honest with her, but I was too late if I ever had a chance at all. Two of the poems are finished one was just a fragment I never developed. The last poem was written as final attempt to deal with my feelings for once and for all. I actually showed it to Sarah and she semed a bit choked up. I think I was able to move on from there, that was how it felt at the time anyhow. We had maintained a friendship in 1997 and even went out a few times, despite her plans to marry someone else. It ended well and appropriately for us.

The day is spent
bitter salt on a mouth's corners
200 ASA for a decade's pain
an iris and a cradling breeze for her
spoiled sunlight and regret for me
In about ten minutes she is gone.

- April 1996

Spring's Favourites

In the two
sterile months since
I last saw you,
the Sun
has been
all sullenly bleached out
and pale
Like oldold cedar
on the shoreline.

I am spent and emptyand
there are no songs
to sing
no paintings to bleed out
and no words
to say it all back
to betterness.

You have gone
and Spring has
passed me
by
in favour
of another.

- June 1996

Poems for Sarah

Poems for Sarah
and she has so many to keep
binding them to herself
like
the children
she could never have.
If
my body were
words on paper
I could be
her lover
feeling
her fingers
brush
my face
caressing every crease
and
hanging
on every
line.

- March 1997

Observations of a Misanthrope

CD's in Play: Boards of Canada, The Campfire Headphase and Music Has the Right to Children. Isaac Hayes, Hot Buttered Soul.

News From the Stupid Side of Life

Many people chide me over my misanthropic tendencies and perhaps they have a point. I'd love for them to have a point. I would love to believe that my assessment of human nature is essentially wrong. However, when I come across a story like this one - *link* - it just seems to reaffirm my basic lack of faith in humanity's ability to progress beyond its own childhood. Why must people be so bloody petty? It's been one of those days and I just finished watching a show on History about Freud and Hitler, the decline of the best ideals of the Enlightenment and the rise of the Irrational Man.

A Brief Word on the Irrational Age

This is the age of the Irrational Human, an age of adversity and conflict, perhaps the end of civilization as we know it - if not the approach of its end altogether. I'm not a big fan of the Enlightenment as a whole but Fascism smashed the best aspects of the Enlightenment and helped along a necrotic process that has been rotting the foundations of our society, gradually and steadily.
I am not so naïve as to believe that we encountered anything remotely close to the ideal civilization at any point of our shared history, but I do think that we were headed someplace better and then took a sharp u-turn and have been retreating back with wild abandon ever since. There is a real meanness of spirit that pervades and this is what aggravates me. We know better and have no excuses, but so few of us really seem to care anymore.

In Addendum: A prime example of an individual who thrives on and encourages the worst in people is Fox's Bill O'Reilly. Came across this clip after watching the South Park clip linked below.

Hot Buttered Hypocrite

** Disclaimer: This is an opinionpiecee, my own opinions.
By now you have probably seen or heard that Isaac Hayes (voice of "Chef", soul singer and actor) has left South Park. (also this link) Hayes, a longtime and devout Scientologist has said he can no longer work in a show that is intolerant towards religion. Hayes claims:

"There is a place in this world for satire, but there is a time when satire ends and intolerance and bigotry towards religious beliefs of others begins," the 63-year-old soul singer and outspoken Scientologist said, "Religious beliefs are sacred to people, and at all times should be respected and honoured," he continued. "As a civil rights activist of the past 40 years, I cannot support a show that disrespects those beliefs and practices."

South Park's creators, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, have pointed out that Mr. Hayes never complained when the show took shots at other religions such as Christianity, Judaism, Mormonism or Islam. I did a little reading on Scientology today and discovered that disrespecting other religions would appear to be central to their doctrine since they hold that the other religions were created through a collective memory implant by an extraterrestrial name Xenu. Given that Xenu would seem to be an wholly evil entity, it must be assumed that Scientologists would perceive all other religions as the fruit of an evil consciousness working towards the detriment of humanity. Adherents of other faiths could only be seen as agents of evil. Read it for yourself, it is at Wikipedia.org.
Four different people sent me the links to this story, since I am a fan of some of Isaac Hayes music. On that front, Isaac Hayes is brilliant. If you haven't heard Hot Buttered Soul or the soundtracks for Shaft and Truck Turner you should, they are outstanding. Outside of the music is a different story it would seem. Mr. Hayes had many chances to leave the show if it had truly offended his sensibilities. Parker and Stone gave the raspberry to many other religions before getting to Scientology.
If Isaac Hayes had come out and been honest that he would not brook any disrespect to his personal faith, I actually could have accepted that. But that sort of thing doesn't make for good P.R. because people want you to be nice and being nice is to be as inoffensive as possible. He should have said, I don't care about the other religions - this one is mine, back off. It would make him look like a jerk, but being an honest jerk is better than coming off as an outright hypocrite.

Thanks to a friend for providing me with this link showing the offending South Park clip.

Get Blogged

Just a quick addition to complain, yet again, about Blogger's spell check. Aside from not recognising words that it should recognise right off the bat, it has actually created spelling errors by connecting the corrected word to the word in front of it and duplicating the last letter of said word. E.G. - "an extraterrestrial" became "anextraterrestriall" and "the raspberry" became "theraspberryy".

Old Poems

CD in Play: Steve Reich, Music for 18 Musicians.

I've been rumaging around trying to find my notes and assorted writings. I found some old poems, so I figured I would post them. I have written some other poems in the last few years but never seem to be able to find them. 1996 was a very productive year for me artistically and it all began to go downhill after that. 1997 was a good year from writing though. Copyright applies to all of this, this is the intellectual property of Magnus Skallagrimsson and all associated personnas connected therein.

Make it Personal

Take me out of myself
place it in a barrel
squish it
and
pulp it
seal it up
and age it
let it liquor
and ferment
as I rest
in the empty place
the moment of clarity

empty the barrel out
and fire it
through the metal
burned
until refined
distillation
distilled
drink me into me
drunk on myself
I course through my fingers
into the pen
and onto the page.

- March 1997

The next poem was an assignment for a class. We drew a name out of a hat and had to write a poem about the person whose name we drew. I drew a guy named James. I didn't know James at all really, so I put myself in a position where I had toimagine he was a close friend. I believe James was a Religious Studies student. It could have been worse, though, as Sarah Dalton was in the class. I had been head over heels for Sarah, but it was not to be and I was still in the midst of forcing myself to get over it. We remained friends and I still have the highest respect for her. Maybe I'll include some of the poems I wrote abouther another time. Visually this poem has quite a different look, but blogger forces it to conform.

For My Brother to Keep Me (for James)

Find me brother
in the deep darkness past Sheol
(FOR THE LORD GOD IS ONE)
quid pro quo for those lashes
taken from us, transfigured beyond the Mystery's full telling.
Grasp me into the centripetal Supralogical now dying
via the centrifugal Enlightened Reason of dead s(aints)
(for it is in the will of men)
whose mind's hearts were taken
from them to fuel the killing fields of schooling.

Find me brother
I have lost myself in sadness
(AND JESUS WEPT TOO)
as praxis becomes a disassociated dream
and my dreaming becomes my only way to be.

- March 1997

Not sure what I think of this stuff anymore. I'd like to think that I have improved, but writing has become a hard thing for me, especially poetry. There are two, maybe some more to come - definitely more if I can ever find the rest of my haiku.

The Horrible Earnest Megapode

Lazy blogging titles are old hat. Without searching for it online, can anyone tell me where I took the title for this post from? Hint: it was considered as a title for a television series.

Interesting fact: Most people remember the Seasame Street/Muppet Show song "Muh Na Muh Na", but what most of us probably didn't know is that the song was originally written in 1968 for a softcore documentary about sexual activity in Sweden entitled, Sweden, Hell and Heaven. The song underscored a scene of lesbian BDSM. "Do do dee dodo" indeed.

Album in Play: Tricky, Nearly God. I still love this disc. Aside from Björk's appearnces on the album, I am in love with Martina Toppley-Bird's voice. I've written about this album before so I won't carry on about it.

Current Activities: Aside from gearing up to work again, I have been working on a science fiction story and making notes on a book that I had the idea for way back in 1995. The sci-fi story is working itself out nicely. It had started out as a time travel story. I had extensive notes for it but then discovered that it had some strong similarities, thematically, to the book The Butterfly Effect. I retooled it and have proceeded to work it out. Trying to make two of my antognonists work logically. Gavin thinks I should start it out as a short story. He's probably right, but I've never been a big fan of the short story.
The other book is one I had mentioned in my earliest posts. I've been wanting to write the story of a Vancouver band that went nowhere - 32toBase. (AkA Cheesepickles) It's a way of looking at the Vancouver scene from the early 90's and to look at the naïveté of many people (like myself) who dream(ed) of making a career/life out of music. The distance is there and I think some of the sensitive areas have become, well... less sensitive.

The Cult of Lionel: Lionel Dupperon is someone I went to school with in Saskatchewan in the late 80's early 90's. (and whose personna would be a part of the aforementioned music book)He's a drummer and back in the day he had quite a following. Also known as "Neil" (a reference to Rush's drummer, Neil Peart) and "The Apostle to the High School Girls", (a big part of his fan base) Lionel was respected by everyone for his abilities to hit the skins. People would call out for drum solos and cowbell solos, (a joke of sorts, he had a huge assortment of percussion instruments) or they would call to hear Neil Peart's solo "YYZ". (which inspired Lionel to develop his own solo called "The Wanderer") Suffice it to say, when Lionel played, people became fanatical and boisterous.
I just saw Lionel's newest band, Eklektasy, play at the Pic Pub as part of the Emergenza Festival. The band ends their set and people - a whole different group of people with whom we did not go to school with - get fanatical and boisterous, calling out the exact same things we used to call out whenever Lionel played back in the day. The Cult of Lionel lives on.

In Addendum, Last night was also the first time in a while that I hit a show with my old BBC pal Greg Fast. (key member of 32toBase) Another BBCer, Doug Dunbar, was there as well so it was kind of feeling like old home night. It was a good evening, we just needed Ken, Trent and Larry to be there and for Lionel to be playing in any time signature other than 4/4. See the link to Doug's blog off to the right side.
Addendum to the Previous Addendum: Eklektasy (official website link here) is in the semi-finals and will be playing at Richards on Richards on the 8th of April at 6:30pm. Tickets are $15 in advance and $20 at the door. Drop me a line at this post if you ant to know how to get an advance ticket.

Random Thingness

CD's in Play: Midnight Oil, Red Sails at Sunset. The Tragically Hip, Fully Completely.

Article of Interest

I was reading through Jeff Overstreet's blog and came across a link to one of Roger Ebert's articles. To me the article highlights the increasing "Us vs Them" outlook being adapted by so many people. The popular sentiment among educated and uneducated people alike seems to be, "Anyone who disagrees with me is wrong. They are wrong morally, spiritually, utterly, completely - and they are my enemy."
I am tired of this. In the case of Ebert's article, people are screaming at the Academy because their favourite film (Brokeback Mountain) lost to a film that almost no one would seem to have seen. (Crash, and not the Cronenberg film) Brokeback Mountain lost because Hollywood hates homosexuals? Riiiiight. I haven't seen either film so I could not venture an opinion on the artistic merits of either film. People like that are no different, to my mind, than extremist religious nuts like "Dr." Ted Baehr - the man who runs the Christian publication, Movieguide. (See Pete and Jeff's blogs for Baehr's particular brand of idiocy)
As stated before, I am tired of this. Can't we just get along? Why can't webe friends? and so on.

Boot to the Head

I love Wikipedia.org. I did a search on the old CBC troupe The Frantics. There wasn't much about the CBC that I liked during the eighties, but The Frantics were an exception. I found an MP3 to the "Tae Kwon Leep" sketch (see text version here) which is followed up by the song "Boot to the Head". Not a big fan of the song but I still like the sketch. I should say, I still prefer the studio version to the live version which I linked to here.
Other characters I remember were Mr. Canoehead, Kung-Fu Nun, Mu Mu Bunny Lips and Larry the Intergalactic Warlord. Not sure how the rest of their material would hold up today, but "Tae Kwon Leep" still does for me.

Knee to the Tricep

I have been doing the Basic Security Training course, as mandated by B.C. law. Yes, I am going back into security since it is the only field I have the credentials for that offers a modicum of stability. They will also provide me with training for Occupational First Aid 1&2 and WHMIS, which should open some doors for me down the road.
Part of BST is hitting the mats and doing some self-defense training. I have done stuff like this before, but this time I learned some new and paricularly excruciatingly painful techniques. How do I know? I was demo boy for some of them. One take down has me flat on my stomach, chest and face while they hold my arms out and stick a knee to my tricep. Painful, but even more painful is when the restrainer starts to grind the knee against the muscle and the bone. So it was applied pain and lever and joint manipulation all day. I hurt.
However, I want more. Not that I crave pain, but the workout was good. I need to get back into shape as I have been out of it for far too long. The Renfrew Community Centre has a Judo Club that offers first rate instruction for only $20 a month. Judo is sport version of Jujutsu, which is the art that the samurai had to learn to use if he was unarmed. I may take Jujutsu down the road, since Judo should give me a good base to start from.

Getting Older and the Hassles Therein

CD in Play: Josquin Desprez, Messe Ave Maris Stella, Motets La Vierge

People often complain about getting older in terms of losing their youth. For those of us born in and around 1970 the fact stands, we ain't kids anymore. We aren't middle aged either, but I am not sure that we could be considered to be young adults anymore. Even as plain old adults, aging sucks. Specifically, I am referring to the change in body chemistry and other such related things.
I am currently suffering with allergies. Before the summer of last year I proudly boasted about how I didn't have allergies anymore. (that was before I learned how a certain dermatological condition I inherited is, in fact, an allergic reaction) When I was born I was allergic to my Mother's milk. I had eczema, (the aforementioned condition) which is an allergic reaction causing a scaly rash. Mine usually flared up after playing the sand. It cleared up for the most part in my early teens and disappeared altogether in my twenties. The last case of hay fever I had was in 1982. Life is grand when you are allergy free, but no more.
The eczema came back in 2002. Nothing as bad as what my Grandmother had (her face, arms and hands) but irritating and socially hindering none the less. In 2004 I had my wisdom teeth pulled out and had a reaction to the penicillin, a first in my life. In 2005 I was taking care of a house and a dog. I would take the dog out for walks nd in this one filed in particular. I developed hives and my eczema came on particularly strong. As of three days ago, I have now been reunited with hayfever. Yeah!!!!
Mark Twain once said, "Age is a matter of mind and if you don't mind, it doesn't matter." I can appreciate Twain's point, but these damned allergies. Oh well, all I can do is cope and hope that when my body chemistry changes again, say around 2009-2010, that it changes back for the better. Now if you could excuse me, I have to go drain my sinuses and rub on some hydrocortisone.

Time to Geek Out and Go Completely Fahrbot

CD in Play: Isis, Celestial

I thanked her privately, but a public thanks is in order to Betty for sending me the Farscape series on VHS. Much appreciated and I will try to return the favour somehow at some point in time. When I first saw Farscape I had a very hard time getting into it. It is a strange show, very alien, but it can grow on you. (it does require you to embrace and be comfortable with the geek within, however) I managed to get into Farscape because I developed a liking for the character of Rygel, a puppet developed by the Hensons' company. There are around three or four episodes that I have not seen and keep missing somehow or the other, so now is the time to catch up.