I became insane with long intervals of horrible sanity.
Edgar Allen Poe

The trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most of one's time defending scoundrels. For it is against scoundrels that oppressive laws are first aimed, and oppression must be stopped at the beginning if it is to be stopped at all.
- H. L. Mencken

Many people would sooner die than think; In fact, they do so
-Bertrand Russell

What I have been telling you, from alpha to omega, what is the one great thing the sigil taught me — that everything in life is miraculous. For the sigil taught me that it rests within the power of each of us to awaken at will from a dragging nightmare of life made up of unimportant tasks and tedious useless little habits, to see life as it really is, and to rejoice in its exquisite wonderfulness. If the sigil were proved to be the top of a tomato-can, it would not alter that big fact, nor my fixed faith. No Harrowby, the common names we call things by do not matter — except to show how very dull we are ...
-James Branch Cabell

October 03, 2014 - 11:30 a.m.

Mya Day and My Thoughts

I am not going to start this with "Time to get started writing." See that didn't come till 8 words in and it's in quotes so it doesn't count. This is the slender thread upon which my sanity hangs.

Yesterday was fun and not filled with the usual though one of the usual suspects is involved. The story starts the night before when I saw Graydon James & Laura Spink and Mya Adriene Byrnes at Two Moon. Mya said something to Graydon and Laura who were staying with her about going to the American Museum of Natural History the next day and getting a VIP tour. Mya's friend Vivien works there. I cleverly said, "I'm jealous." Instead of saying "Can I go too? Can I go too? I'll be your best friend." That's totally what was going on in my head. but I opted for something more subtle and my best puppy dog eyes.


It worked. she invited me to go along. We hastily made plans and I met them at the Planetarium entrance A bit of background. The Museum is one of my favorite places on earth. I've been a regular there since I was four. I know every nook and cranny. I want to live there. I want to have its babies.


This is what the child of me and a dinosaur would look like

So I know the exact timing to get there and exactly which car to ride on the train and I was all happy and four years old. Of course I got there first and took a nap lying down on a rock bench in front of the entrance.

We went in when they arrived, went to the ticket counter. Mya said we were Vivien's friends and were golden. We got tickets to anything we wanted. We went to the planetarium show and the pterosaur exhibit. We met Vivien and she showed us around a bit then went to the planetarium. As a member of the museum I had been to an advanced screening of he show on Dark Matter and Dark Energy. Here's what I thought then, Dome of the Sky. I was not impressed. Apparently neither were other people It was totally redone but my complaint that they showed the Big Bang from the outside when there is no outside remains. It did look a bit better and the show was much better. I think they must have read my scathing critique and scrapped what they had. Now if only "The Act" would do that.

We went to a geology exhibit. Laura impressed me by recognizing pillow lava. Then she told me she studied geology. Is there anything better than a nerd musician? Then on to the pterosaurs. The highlight of that was we got to be pterosaurs. No they didn't have the machine from "Avatar" � yet You stand in front, flap your arms and the pterosaur on the screen mirrors your motion and flies. It was sooo much fun. In one you are supposed to catch an insect. On the other a fish. I caught nothing. I'd have starved as a pterosaur. Graydon succeeded! Then we went on to fish, reptiles, dinosaurs and mammals. The fourth floor is the story of vertebrate evolution.

They hadn't eaten so we then went for lunch. I suggested Ray's on Columbus avenue. We walked through the museum to get there. As always it was good.

So here's the thing. I can tell you how much fun the museum is but it's harder to talk about how much fun my friends are. Mya I see all the time, a core member of my crowd. I had only met Graydon and Laura at NERFA before two days ago But they were a ball to hang out with. My therapists said I'm relationshipal person.. Not sure if that's the right word but it certainly conveys what she intended. My relationships with people are important to me.

After lunch they had t head back to Mya's because Graydon and Laura had a gig at Rockwood. I couldn't make it. I did manage to go shopping and bought scrapple. I think it's because John Platt talked about it with John Gorka last week. I know what I'm having for breakfast.

One purpose of Wise Madness is to let you see how my brain works. There's a little episode from the night before that I forgot to right about that is just so me and I want to share it.

Laura plays the glockenspiel. As she was playing it I thought about how I get annoyed when people call it a xylophone. Why should that annoy me? Because if you know enough stuff you'd never make that mistake. No that's not it. It's because if your brain works like mine you'd never make that mistake. So a glockenspiel has little metal keys that you strike with a mallet. It is essentially a small vibraphone. A xylophone has wooden keys and you should never confuse them because xylon is Greek for wood. But why should you know that? Because the two main types of vascular tissue in plants are xylem and phloem which roughly correspond to arteries and veins and wood is made of xylem and the word comes from xylon. This all clicked for me the day I learned about xylem and phloem and have never had trouble distinguishing a xylophone from a vibraphone again. And that's another way I'm a relationshipal person. It's the relationships between these different words that fascinates e. I often define math as the study of no objects but the relationships between objects. Mathematicians think to systems are the same if the relationships are the same even if the objects they are made of are totally different.

So that's what goes on in my head when I'm not thinking about chocolate.

The WfUV pledge drive starts on Sunday so I better do laundry today. I also have other errands to do that involve running into the city. So off I go.



I signed the Pro-Truth Pledge:
please hold me accountable.





Memories: Not that Horrid Song - May 29, 2018
Wise Madness is Now In Session - May 28, 2018
The NFL and the First Amendment - May 27, 2018
On The Road Again - May 26, 2018
Oliver the Three-Eyed Crow - May 25, 2018



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Horvendile October 03, 2014
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