Top 10 Thoughts Oggy is Pondering

1) Why does every gun rights debate end up discussing the minutiae of 1789 philosophical thought? Sure, that's when this debate was initially started, but isn't a policy of reaching so far back into history to find the "purist intent" of the 2nd constitutional amendment kind of insane? Are we being nostalgic or is it a smokescreen to obscure the actual problem? Or Both? It seems 2nd Amendment fundamentalists believe the only limit on spree killing victims should be based on the response time of someone else with a gun. And those who have been shot by a maniac during a spree killing believe there should be a limit at least technically, since a maniac realistically will heavily arm himself, illegally, prior to a massacre. So maybe the only difference is that after the next mass school shooting we can nod grimly and think, "at least he illegally acquired the guns." instead of asking, "How was he legally allowed to acquire all these guns and ammo?" Thus the outcome will be substantially the same but philosophically different. Find me a mass spree killing where a toothbrush was the murder weapon and I will adjust my opinion.

2) My response to generic questions is either cliche or generic...so I don't bother saying anything, which is also a cliche.

3) Are the major news outlets orchestrating world events for ratings? NBC Artifice mocks my withered dreams while Fox news prods variety schemes, CNN makes child rape commonplace and Al Jazeera waves Jew hate in my face.

4) Not worth pondering.

5) In 40 years what atrocities will become commonplace?

6) blah blah blah

7) In the future there will be 9 billion people. How will they all eat?

8) If patriotism means honoring Benjamin Franklin then isn't the best way to honor him by violently seceding from the Union in order to secure absolute sovereignty? He advocated revolution...so we should revolt. He questioned authority...so we should question authority. In Arizona some lawmakers believe the best way to honor Franklin is to behave, keep quiet, follow, obey and wave a flag...which would make Franklin a stand-in for the King George III...someone Franklin's peers burned in effigy. Would I get a positive reaction burning a life-sized Ben Franklin puppet?

9) 24 million Americans have diabetes now. That number is expected to reach 44 million in 20 years. That will be 10% of America. Will we still be legally allowed to eat frozen custard in 2034?

10) The Smiths sang about a light that never goes out...but is the light his friendship and love or the headlights of the ten ton truck that is going to kill him eventually?

Wisdom of the Ages

"I too had woven a kind of basket of a delicate texture, but I had not made it worth any one's while to buy them. Yet not the less, in my case, did I think it worth my while to weave them, and instead of studying how to make it worth men's while to buy my baskets, I studied rather how to avoid the necessity of selling them."  Thoreau in Walden

Didn't need to take both roll pins off.

 Thoreau wrote those words around 1846 and when I first read them around 1986 I felt they were worth reflecting on...continuing Thoreau's research, maybe embracing the unpopular results. "Instead of studying how [to sell the baskets], I studied how to avoid the necessity of selling them."
This is a central conflict I've encountered in the following 30 years. The question is not how to fix the broken sewage drain pipe or the c4 transmission or paint the plaster wall or establish reliable 480v power in the middle of the Chihuahuan desert to periodically activate oil circulating pumps...no, that is merely one question. A more fundamental question is how to avoid the necessity of these projects...but the process of answering that question is fraught with conflict. The treadmill of time will not pause while Oggy sorts out the factors involved in modern living. And because the grey beard will wither with the fall leaves and the ligaments dry in cracked harmony with the tendons, the answer can not come quickly enough. Thoreau was aware that he had asked questions which required more than one life to answer, so he wrote them down in the hopes others would pick up where he left off. And still time marches on. Current Events are the modern narcotic, the nihilistic comments are the new age version of town halls. The process of questioning is negated by the time spent answering.

improvisation

This drive gear for a sears garage door opener is a good example. While the world waits for Oggy to sort all the complications out this door still needs to open. The gear was broken when someone used a crowbar to tear the door off and stripped the old gear...in order to access the garage that was empty, so they broke some beer bottles and proceeded to break into the house with same crowbar. Is the bigger issue the drive gear? Or something else? Or both? But the roll pins have to be hammered out and in. And the gear needs grease and reassembly. What does this all mean?

roll pin insertion

My present conclusion is that the necessity of selling baskets is a paradigm facade, a construct of a failing mythology...but an easy role to play so we wear the pathetic costumes and dance when the comic orchestra strings ring. The Holy Bible was written specifically for descendents of Egyptian slaves who followed Moses to freedom but it encourages industry like a Martha Stewart cookbook written for dinosaurs...so we can't deny the value of industry. Thoreau was industrious to a point. He determined that too much industry returned the slave not to Egypt but to the office...to mock the legacy of Moses with a 74 hour week in the conduit trenches. We do this why? For a future that must be better than our present, which raises the question of how terrible the era of the New Testament must have been. Autistic html robots present gadgets for the consumption of gadget addicts. Industry must double to support the doubling of industry. The essential questions are processing speed...mechanical and electrical diagrams...vocabulary is usurped by economists. Humanity without philosophy is a McDonalds commercial.

Otis Rules

Something to ponder while Oggy resurrects his self esteem.

El Clima es Caliente

How do you increase interest in the climate? Put a plaid miniskirt on it! Mayte Carranco is the only reason you'll be watching 6 year old weather forecasts. If she sponsored a recycling campaign men would crawl through shit to track down plastic bottles. Mexico is getting hit by two hurricanes right now and Mayte makes all that seem unimportant.

How the West Was Won?

Actual 1962 landscape brought to you by Cinerama. My guess, Western Rockies, Colorado.

In the 2+ hour long "How The West Was Won" film from 1962 that features a timeline from 1840 to 1890 there is one (1) black character, a bartender who gets no lines. A few Cherokee Indians and Chinese railroad workers round out this cultural atrocity. Oh, I love the spectacle and mastery of the three directors including John Ford and especially the Cinerama technique of using three cameras rolling side by side and then projected on a curved screen to actually do justice to the majestic landscapes. So much effort was required to reset three cameras that much of the dialogue is shot in one long take and characters make a point not to look at each other because the perspective was wrong to the audience. Everyone was expected to be a professional! I recently drove through much of the remarkable land filmed so I thought, "Man they got lucky with their filming schedule to shoot on such perfect air quality days." Then I remembered this was filmed in 1961 when air quality wasn't a big concern. The title comes from a kind of mythological fable whereby anyone alive is considered justified because they are alive. All genocides are forgiven before the credits roll, all sins absolved; all of the past was a precursor to my existence...so I must be the hero of the story.

There are elements of truth to the story and some appreciation of the problems caused and experienced by western migrants. It wasn't a total jingoistic handjob as notable actors like John Wayne, James Stewart, Debbie Reynolds (the only original character who lives), Henry Fonda all are rightly belittled by the scope of the project. A movie like this, directed by three directors, casually killing off primary characters wasn't really trying to be a "masterpiece" so the word that comes to mind is "accomplishment" both as a film project and as a truth of human migration. It's sort of pre-destined that mankind will outgrow his environment and thus be required to spread out or build up or what have you. We like to fuck and that leads to babies and like a guy I used to work with would say randomly through the day, "Baby need shoes." We either grow or perish seems to be the mandate. Pundits like me argue philosophical platitudes over the campfires burning our own relevance while the real work happens in the plains and on the battlefield and in the factories. I could write the narrative for a feel good documentary except I don't feel like it. History happens one day at a time but movies can show a condensed version of 50 years in 2 hours...so they can't be expected to get it all right. This is the 1962 creation myth that made people feel good about voting for Kennedy and Johnson. I recommend the film for visual if not content related reasons. It appears to be the only actual drama filmed in 3x35mm strip Cinerama. All the others were documentaries and then it evolved into something called 70mm Cinerama from 1963 to 1974. It's interesting to note that the 1968 Film 2001: A Space Odyssey was initially conceived for the 3 strip Cinerama treatment, but was ultimately filmed in Super Panavision 70 (though is credited as Cinerama). Kubrick nevertheless imagined he was working with the ultrawide Cinerama so that film does stretch the eyes.

Oggy wore his patriotic sweater for this essay.

 

Fried Plantain, covered with strawberry, chocolate, nuts, and a marshmallow that melted.

Mexican Food Count
Al Pastor Tacos: 4
Mexican Pizza: 2
Helados: 2
Churros:6
Plantain: 1
Jarritos: countless