Sunday, January 01, 2012




A week of feeling worn, but happy nonetheless....working with my artist on my right hand/forearm tat...to be applied the third week of this month. The last Tat work until next fall/winter----Work is well just work....reading, finally doing a bit of art sketching again....

I have a new project that i am working on to combine every day carry equipment and escape from the mindless confines of the daily work environment....I have ordered the below items: a surplus Swiss army flask canteen with nesting canteen cup...and an Esbit pocket stove with solid fuel tabs. My plan is to make up a small stuff sack to carry these items as well as a stock of teabags in my Maxpedition falcon backpack.


During the crippling, never ending afternoons at work, my plan is to grab up my backpack, go outside, find a restful spot, and being self contained...cook up and enjoy a cuppa tea and a cigarette......a brew up...as our British cousins would say.

An attempt to maintain sanity, get away from the idiocy surrounding me and have a creative moment of peace and quiet...using my edc equipment...that's my plan at any rate....I'll let you know how it works out when all the gear arrives and I get a chance to test it.

My recent book orders, non-fiction above and fiction below...I seem to be on a Roman Legion and Roman Britain jones in reading at the moment.....I'll advise on these books when read.


I find it completely without surprise that LA suffers multiple random acts of Arson while elsewhere... a national park ranger is killed by a PTSD ex-solider...a 15 year old shot by police in school...... 4 people--two of them, Naval Aviators, involved in murder/suicide---one family killer dressed as Santa Claus.......

Our society is being pressure cooked from all sides without possible solutions...under the economic and societal conditions we currently face there is a great description of American societal random violence---the Japanese will close the window and kill themselves as compared to Americans, who open the window and kill everyone else.....it is just genetic with us...we are a society of individualistic violence---violence against ourselves, families and the innocent surrounding us without result. There will be more of it...... We somehow as a culture lack the DNA to put this intense feeling of individual violence, rage or frustration to use against the actual problems that we face....

We Americans turn our personal violence against each other which means nothing...we are a society of cannibals feeding off those like ourselves, those in identical situations....

An outstanding DVD night candidate is THE TRACKER. A beautiful period film set in 1903 New Zealand involves a defeated Boer Commando immigrant hired to track a Maori sailor suspected of murder...the scenery and photography is breathtaking-----the texture of the film is totally 1903---the weapons, clothing and equipment perfectly selected for the time frame...and Ray Winstone is completely believable as a superbly capable, but emotionally damaged, ex-Boer commando, used to living off the land from his single shoulder bag and his rifle...give this little jewel of a film a chance...pizza, a blanket on the couch and enjoy this film.


I enjoy finding words or concepts that the Europeans created that seem to specifically fit usual circumstances of the human capability.
In English, for the most part we really do not have complex meaning words such as these...I wish we did...
a French word i ran into the other day while reading------

meaning--- self-reliant-ingenious--to know methods around systems...
I am intent on using this word that fits what we must become....

I placed my order for 2012's pens and notebooks...allied with the plan of noting life--and additional rough sketching ...I ordered two, square shaped, MoleSkin roller ball, black ink pens and two refills--the pens I been enjoying using for writing and sketching are on their last legs and I have been forced to attempt to find a replacement--- instead of my standard order of MoleSkin 3x5 notebooks I ordered a Zequenz pocket notebook as a test replacement...for this year...I can't exist without multiple notebooks around me...I am always scribbling ideas, concepts or little things i want to remember within them... I have an entire carton packed with previous year's pocket notebooks full of notes, observations and concepts...sometimes this OCD practice actually pays off....




"A dog teaches a boy fidelity, perseverance,
and to turn around three times before lying down."
Robert Benchley


1 comment:

David Scott said...

There are two ways to deal with stress. One is to step away and take a private moment like a brew up
The second is to kill the SOB causing the stress.

Great blog as usual