Ophiucus, if you please

2011.01.15
136 Days Remaining

01. Here it is, 1230am and I'm still wide awake. My sleep cycle has gone completely farcockt (random etymological note: farcockt is Yiddish for "gone awry" or "messed up") and sometime in the next week I'm going to have to force myself back onto a more civilized schedule that involves sleeping when the sun is down and waking up when it rises. Thank god my bedding here is incredibly uncomfortable, otherwise I'd stay down for all of the hours of daylight. There's no central theme here, just a bunch of random thoughts, ideas, and topics.

02. I got paid today, which is good because I've been living on pasta + sauce and leftover chili for the past week and a half. I love both of those dishes, but prefer my pasta sauce with lots of vegetables in it, and my chili on a less day-by-day basis. I was planning on grocery shopping today, but the temperature barely got to 22 degrees and my car is actually buried in snow in the parking lot. Tomorrow will be warmer, so I elected to not spend hours of sub-freezing temperature today in a thoroughly-shaded parking lot at the end of a wind tunnel digging my car out with my hands. Call me crazy.

03. So instead I walked up to the local Subway franchise and convenience store. This was my first real walk since the major snowfall on Tuesday/Wednesday. The actual amount of snow on the ground varied a lot from one block to the next, but it seems to have been at least a foot everywhere, and closer to two feet in some spots (although that's the far end of the scale: 16-18 inches were the most common measurements I made as I walked). This reminds me of Syracuse winters, although without as much snow. I was somewhat frustrated by the lack of consistent sidewalk shoveling, especially because I timed my walk to coincide with the warmest part of the day (between 2 and 3pm) and saw schoolkids get off buses and have to literally climb over hills of snow or walk in the roads because they couldn't use the sidewalks.

04. Over the past few days I've been watching (ah, Netflix) the SciFi (now Syfy) Channel show Eureka, about a secret government town in Oregon where all the supergeniuses live and make life interesting for the non-genius (lovable everyman) sheriff. I've been sort of astonished by the fact that it is very entertaining, though formulaic (which characteristic is probably enhanced for me because I'm watching the episodes in close succession). The astonishment arises because the Syfy Channel's original movies are appallingly bad, and their "real life" shows like Ghost Hunters and Destination Truth are silly (although I enjoy watching both). Eureka, though, actually has some substance to it, though it's got a fair amount of whimsy, irony, and formula to it. If anything, the weakest parts of its design are shared by many other SciFi or Fantasy genre shows: a) most episodes involve something of a "monster of the week" theme where there is some horrifying disaster/threat that will EXTERMINATE ALL HUMANITY unless the hero can do something, and b) its attention to emotional and psychological character development trends towards the bathetic, which I find annoying (this was one of the things that killed the Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel shows for me - drama for the sake of drama and not for any good internal plot or character reasons). I'm increasingly in alignment with Tolkien on this one, and mistrust open-ended storytelling series, as they fall too easily into regular repetition and bathos. All of that said, the show is generally fun, and I've enjoyed watching it.

05. Five Songs:
05.a for some reason today when the song "Hand Me Down" by Visqueen came up on my iTunes shuffle it caught my particular attention (I think that I particularly like the sound of the chorus). I can't find a formal version on YouTube, but I did find a minimalist, well-miked version. I like the use of the electric cello in this version.
05.b Also in my head recently: Liz Phair's Stratford-on-Guy, again for the chorus (in this case with a particular type of resonant, jangly guitar playing that I have always liked - you can hear its precursors in some Buddy Holly and Bobby Fuller, and a lyric I've never been able to decipher and refuse to look up).
05.c One of my 3 favorite songs is the Talking Heads' "And She Was," because it made a long-ago unhappy time of my life bright for one serene morning.
05.d I love Neko Case (whether as a solo artist or part of the New Pornographers), and this song combines the sort of deep sound I referred to last week or so (about Arcade Fire's "Modern Man") and some of the jangly guitar I'm talking about today: "Animal." I also empathize with the line "I do my best but I'm made of mistakes."
05.e Finally, Dar Williams' "The Ocean." This song is one of the ways I think about what God might be like, when I am inclined to think about such topics.

06. I don't want to talk about Jared Loughner anymore. The facts, as they come out, increasingly triangulate in on mental health issues, rather than partisan rhetoric, as the most salient cause for his actions, with a side of very problematically lax gun control laws and procedures (fun historical fact: Arizona had tougher gun regulations when Wyatt Earp was sheriff of Tombstone in the Wild West than it does now). But both of those issues are effectively off the table in any serious fashion, because involuntary committing of the insane is incredibly complicated (and with good reason - it's easy to abuse) and our national gun control discussion is pretty much DOA with the only two voices (one of which is pretty much a tiny whisper in the wilderness nowadays) urging zero regulation or complete ban (this is the one in the wilderness, btw). Any attempt to suggest that complete lack of regulations isn't a good idea is often (and I'm not talking about conversations among policy wonks or those who think about this seriously - I'm talking about the publicly stated positions of Tea Partiers and NRA-funded spokespersons) seen as a ploy to get towards a total ban. Which I see as equivalent to saying that Stop signs are a step towards banning cars. Those of you who shoot or own guns, I'm curious to hear your take(s) on this: is the Loughner case a good argument for stronger enforcement of existing regulations, for more regulations, or irrelevant to gun control laws in general?

07. I noted with some curiosity the over-hyped storm about the "sudden" announcement that the constellations' arrangement relative to the Earth changes over time, and that this means that (if one is using sidereal astrology) there are now 13 relevant constellations, rather than 12. First of all, astronomers and astrologers (they used to be the same thing, btw) have known about this phenomenon for over 2,000 years (closer to 2,250 years, actually). Second, it doesn't impact the dominant type of astrology in Europe, North or South America (which is tropical, not sidereal). On the upside, if we did use sidereal astrology, I'm one of the people who would be effected, as the "new" 13th sign's birthdate range is from late November to December 17th. Thus, I would now by an Ophiucus, rather than a Sagittarius. This, I think, is kind of neat, as Ophiucus (previously known in the medieval West by its Latin name, Serpentarius) means "serpent-holder." On the other hand, according to tropical astrology, I am exactly the person I should be based on my birthdate. It's uncanny, how much I have the predicted characteristics. And since no one has figured out the import of the Ophiucus birth sign...alas, I'll have to depend on Sagittarius to guide me further. Still, snakes are cool.

08. And now, having fooled around on YouTube looking for links and listening to music, it's 230am. Good night, or good morning.