The Accomplice: <pix, Burbank, CA>
(Photos ©2023 Plants Water & Concrete Concepts
All rights reserved
Used by permission)
30.9.23
28.9.23
The purpose of your matter
b1-66er: This is going to end up being a big deal for me, personally...
... for sure it was a major contributing factor to my dad committing suicide.
Mom also had a focus on it after pandemic began.
The Accomplice: I've been in an exploratory mode in a similar direction, but focusing on the term "purpose." That's a Blue Zone term. It's close to "mattering" but not quite the same? Or, at least how I'm digging it up...
....I think "purpose" doesn't necessarily mean altruistic interactions with other humans. Or mattering to them? I think it means a sense of self and focus on something you enjoy and/or are good at? So, writing can be a purpose. Staying in touch with friends by phone can be a purpose. Building a comfortable home life can be a purpose...
One shouldn't have one's worth and/or longevity relying on other humans? (Or, I guess, for larger society to rely on a specific human?)¹
I'm focusing on my own interpretation or the concept of "purpose" (but know full-well that community and friendship is also something important and that I love people and "matter" to a few choice individuals.)
So, yeah. I'm thinking about this stuff.
b1: Yes.
I think you've hit a key thing: The personal description/definition of how you internally view it.
(This is that meditation concept of Present Mindfulness ... That is: what actually is happening v. your perception of it.)
¹ (Ed: this paragraph originally had a 'typo of mission,' but TA couldn't immediately recall what she said. The addition was made without reading the broader context.)
27.9.23
ditelo inquietante
b1-66er: <After a series of cockamamie and ½ ass responses.>
b1: Okay Google, you're kinda buggin' me.
G¹: We all have a love-hate relationship with technology sometimes. I just hope love wins.
¹ IN A DIFFERENT VOICE THAN SHE'S EVER USED WITH ME.
Softer. Mildly condescending.
26.9.23
Barred Aspirations
September 14
D4rw1n: That's a bit of all right. I will dine there immediately and report back
b1: ¡El super bueno!
(and great phraseology)
•••
delay due to highly sophisticated editorial decisions by the KTXT politburo.
September 26
•••
D4:
{Bar Spero -- on the list of best new restaurants you sent us.}
Shrimp and scallop mousse-stuffed buffalo chicken wings. Yogurt dill sauce.
Fresh raw oyster with tomato water and pepper; baked oyster with cream; scallop tostada on blue corn crisp with roasted corn silk. Rye whiskey old fashioned cocktail with jamon Iberico simple syrup.
Ice cream of fig three ways: fig fruit, fig leaf syrup, fig branch syrup. Garnished with a roasted hay infused foam; roasted walnut crust; fig leaf syrup drizzle.
***
Food:8/10. Highlights were the baked oysters (in the bowl along with a couple raw oysters); the scallop tostada with roasted corn silk (we're holding bites of it) and the fig-3-ways ice cream with roasted hay foam, roasted walnut crust, and fig leaf syrup
Cocktails 5/10 a bit too sweet across the board
Service 10/10
Value 9/10
The InKind app gave us $50 off. Meal was $350 all in (including drinks and 20% tip) so $300 after discount
***
b1: Great review. Good experience. Thank you.
25.9.23
Watch your step
The Accomplice: <pic>
[ed: Tacoma, WA]
Pic ©2023 The Candle Opera
all rights reserved
used by permission
A little bit of loathe
Special K: Right after I made toast, I killed a bug behind the toaster this morning. All the time I was telling myself, be careful, don't touch the toaster, you'll burn yourself. I did it anyway (just a little, on my arm.)
b1-66er: What's the moral of the story?
K: Don't touch the hot fucking toaster, moron.
Done done DONE
Special K [01:00PT]: Rocket launch from Vandenberg in 1 hour. I have no link. I'm going to bed.
A rainbow -- turned upside down & without color
b1-66er: "Three-quarters of voters say they're concerned about President Joe Biden's age and mental fitness, while nearly two-thirds have concerns about the multiple trials former President Donald Trump faces, a new national NBC News poll finds, casting a gloomy shadow over the upcoming 2024 presidential election."
...Versus EVERY election before that were all shiny, bright, joy fests.
[ed: my emphasis]
24.9.23
TB prose and gutter rhymes
Special K: New Sharks promotion this season: "4 in the net, 4 tacos you get." From Taco Bell. First home game, Sharks score 4 goals in the first period.
b1-66er: CLAIM IT!
K: "Minimum purchase of $1 required."
b1: Claim that son of a bitch.
(What can you get for EXACTLY $1?)
K: <pic>
b1: YOU ARE SOOOOO THERE!
Gimme four
You lazy whore
'I wanna cheesy roll'
Sez this hungry troll
Outer beauty / Inner light
The Dear Hunter: My yard. Cuz I love my yard.
{Pix © 2023 Fermented Joy Brewing
All rights reserved
Used by permission}
Lube the tomatoes, or else
b1-66er:
https://youtu.be/ordThf9eDMA?si=wmO_3GvI2Z3QNPAy
b1-67er: Super odd. Tomato harvesting is the hardest (and highest paid) work that I know of in California agriculture. Cannery tomatoes are harvested by machine exclusively. The value is absurdly low, when I was working on a tomato machine in 2013, the grower told me that the cannery guys get $80-$120 a ton!
66: Jesus•
67: So you have to plant it irrigate it, fertilize it, bug spray it, harvest it, and haul it about 30 miles to a packing plant for $100 a ton.
66: How about if you have slaves do it? [As the video implies.]
67: It seems like the last thing in the world the mob would be in.
Still cheaper to mechanically harvest I'd think. But it's a $400,000 machine. It does the job of maybe 30 people with about 3.
There is just no money in it in the US. Extremely low profits.
66: There must be somethin' else workin' here, then...
Pride?
Place?
Profits?
Name?
Reputation?
Italia uber alles?
67: In Italy I wonder if it's not some food/nationalism/pride thing.
Pirrissimo: The jerks do the same with olive oil
67: They actually cut the olive oil with other oils. Virtually none of the extra virgin olive oil from Italy is pure.
It's such a big problem that the USDA offers to test and certify your olive oil. Nobody does it.
P: Yep, I tell my daughter all the time, 'if you want real olive oil, buy Californian olive oil not Italian,' and it hurts my soul to have to tell her that. And it is so because of the fricken Mafia
D4rw1n: Wow so mysterious
We have also been advised to get oil from California to make sure it's fresh and pure
23.9.23
... Better get a bib ...
b1-66er: I had ½ a (huge) donut with my morning drugs, and the other ½ with my evening.
The odds of me being in a wheelchair, permanently, starting tomorrow, are about 82½%.
b1-67er: But that does leave a 17.5 percent chance of walking and a donut.
Wink
The Accomplice: Unedited views of the sphere...
{Pix © 2023 Big Fricken Ball Bearing Prods
All rights reserved
Used by permission}
22.9.23
Timing of the incisive and the incision
b1-66er:
09:45
second sleep dream
no morning drugs, water, or electrolytes. Yet. This is my "ramp out" day (3rd day of eating, last before fasting -- although that won't be happening tomorrow as TA departs town).
... On with the show ...
<I'm eating some kind of holiday meal (T-day maybe?) in a house that's sort of a cross of Scorpion Manor with the house I grew up in. There are a few people I know scattered around the dining table.
I've decided I need more food and go to the central buffet table...
I'm THRILLED that a couple of the small custard pastry cups I like have been overlooked by the feeding swarm.¹
I take my booty back to the table.
When I use my R hand to eat with a fork, my index and middle finger won't uncurl and appears to have developed a mild tan. {Think arthritis, after falling asleep on the beach.} Except I'm dream TANNED, like normal people, instead of PINK like I do.
Entirely I'm not really upset, just a little defeated feeling.
"That's new•" I say, holding my arm up like you would when you find a cool rock on a river bank.
DENT is sitting just around the table corner to my R.
"Let me see," he sez and grasps my hand to examine it.
I'm immediately offended. "Get your hands off me!"
He lets go and adds a mild apology.
{To settle my dismay, apparently} I go back to the buffet and get a piece of apple pie.
<AS YOU WOULD IRL>
¹ to envision this, think: pastry peanut butter cup filled with a fairly good custard. These are not items in familiar with IRL {at least not YET...AND YOU JUST KNOW you've gotta watch those things at a buffet...
That's nothing more than food poisoning swamp waiting to take you under.}
[EOD]
<Everything's pretty easy and obvious here... With some minor twists, this is essentially a replay of my mom's Memorial Meal...
...Except for the Snarling b1-66er part...
At least, I don't REMEMBER myself snarling.
L's been experimenting with some egg substitute concoctions. That's part of what's going on here.
There's also some anticipation of tonight...
LV Mary and the Robot family are getting together with us to watch the last Aviators fireworks display of the season in downtown Summerlin. We're eating at Lazy Dog [big rectangular wooden tables, not unlike my dream]. Ice cream afterward.
-fin-
>
DENT: I feel honored to have made at least cameo in your dream.
👍👍
b1: get your hands off me.
I've been holding off on sending dreams to you (and The Reaper) because I have trouble seeing how MY brain filtration process is going to make YOUR life better (including possibly injuring someone's throat I DON'T EVEN KNOW)...
... But it's TRULY remarkable how good/exacting dream recall is.
The detail. The subtlety.
And REALLY weird when something's MOSTLY right, but some things are very much not.
D: I usually hold off reading your dreams until I put down the scalpel, because, well you know, I get twitchy. . .
b1: THAT'S funny.
(Although it's always embarrassing to be laughing at my phone when TA is in a bad mood.)
21.9.23
Attorney approved dream behavior
b1-66er: 02:00
first sleep.
{Unusual amount of sugar yesterday (cinnamon roll pancake) and as an indirect result, quite a bit of water (restaurant OUT OF ICE TEA AT 13:00!?)...
... Which in turn meant salt/electrolytes to balance that situation out...
First dream was so vivid, I thought there was no way I'd forget it...
But it actually took me a second after recalling my second dream this AM.}
On with the show...
<I'm riding with D4rw1n in suburban DC. We're in a new SUV of his in fairly deep snow.
He's yammering on about how how this should be a really good snow car...
... and summarily gets stuck in a drift...
... Oh! That's bad timing because we're just in front of a couple of presidential vehicles...
... A loud speaker (it's not clear if it's from the SUV or an overhead helicopter) tells us we have to move IMMEDIATELY and their SUV bumps us from behind...
...D4rw1n starts losing his mind a little bit. I'm having a hard time seeing how this is going to get better so I ...
...exit the vehicle•...
<...I can't imagine how this move is going to help things in any Land, Dream or otherwise...>
I walk backward, keeping my eyes on the unfolding situation.
As I do the Presidential [escort?] SUV deploys a 'pushing device.' Looks kinda like a trash dumpster on reinforced scissor supports that can be deployed QUICKLY.
It's clear to me that the impact has probably hurt Scott.
Showing my true dream colors of solidarity [apparently a shade of yellow], I continue to get the hell out of there walking backward.
{The snow is very fine, like extremely low density, large crystal, sugar. It's not very cold and my ability to move through it is good [again, not like RL where I'd be full-on Frozen Tin Woodman here]
But the road has either ended or turned slightly to the L and I'm not on it anymore...
... and the snow is getting considerably deeper ...
... I'm starting to sink in.
[EOD]
Several things here...
D4 has a new dog AND car.
& TA has been lookin' for a vehicle.
I've been readin' about Mr Biden's new Energy Conservation Core.
Also ...
There's a really good compendium of 20th century poetry I'm reading with several references to the various seasons.
My first recurring dream as a kid was being in a car getting stuck in quicksand due to my dad's inattention to the road ... as my brother fled our vehicle.
Lots more I COULD say, but those're the bouillon cube elementals.
-fin-
08:00
2nd sleep
<My 2 day headache is gone!>
...On with the show...
I'm in a hilly area, probably in the Rocky Mountains. <That's the way the terrain broadly feels.>
I need to get some money and <dream> remember that Karpov knows how to handle this. I give him a call.
<Oh COME ON. Is this something like a Mr. Toad's Wild Ride nightmare? How can Kπ possibly be the right answer?>
Through a very bad connection, and about ½ attention on his part <THAT BIT IS REAL AS HELL>, I learn there are feral ATMs run by Garry Kasparov in a thing known as
The Crabbe Network
Sure as hell, I find one...
An ATM...
...disguised to look like a boulder...
... above timberline... Recommended by sketchy, in all ways, Kπ
Am I REALLY gonna use this thing?
[EOD]
Things:
I've been X-ferring money back & forth and watching the markets pretty close. That's one.
I've been looking at National Park stuff on Reddit.
That's another.
(now that I think about it, I'm surprised I haven't had praying mantis, walking stick, scorpion or horseshoe crab dreams).
-fin-
D4rw1n: That DC one is a great dream and a very rational IRL decision to back away inconspicuously from any confrontation between anybody and federal law enforcement
Welp, they nabbed my pal but at least I'm not Guantanamo-bound and I'll live to fight another day
Feral ATMs is my new band name
b1: I'm glad you feel that way...
...I was RL disappointed in myself.
1. It's a dream.
2. D4rw1n's hurt.
STAND AND FIGHT FOR WHAT'S RIGHT, YOU COWARD•
Feral ATMs is a GREAT band name.
Until further notice, I am the keyboardist...
My stage name?
Crypto Current
D4rw1n: Crypto Current = primo stage name
b1-67er: I like the idea of feral ATMs. They always feel a little feral to me anyway.
20.9.23
Spin the wheel(s)
b1-66er: <ad>
Uhhh...
b1-67er: I guess that lawyer is for when you want a lawyer whose own bad judgement matches your own.
19.9.23
Angle of View
b1-66er:
08:45
2½ sleep
{choppy night of sleep. After going to bed @23:00, I woke up wide awake @01:00 & then again @03:00, I wasn't sure I would be able to go back to sleep either time. [& had to pull advanced Sleep Fu Trix to do so.]
On with the show...
I'm at Costco LV's optical department getting a new pair of bifocals.
<It all seems pretty 'RL normal,' although the echo/sonics of the store aren't as booming. There's no one I recognize working the counter and there's no wait. <That's how you know it's a fricken dream.>
"I need a new pair of bifocals, but want a little color in the lens. For the frames, use something similar to my last pair of sunglasses."
I hand my glasses over.
<Oh what, b1-66er ... Do you just want them to read your mind as well? Maybe feed you by spoon ... guessing what food you want?
WHEN did I become the Dream Just Do Everything for ME Guy?>
The service guy <nearly everyone I deal with at C.O. are women> comes back immediately. <still in a dream, i see> and hands me a pair of glasses that would have been something similar to 'Photograys' in the early 80s. The lenses are light grey with a small white <sensing?> dot in the upper left eyepiece.
But that's not what's 'interesting.' The frames (which're similar to my RL sunglasses, but thicker and lighter in color), mildly glow from the inside.
"How do you like them?"
"Well, they'll take some getting used to," I say.
He hands me a bill.
Frames $295
Lenses $395
$700 for a pair of glasses.
[No no no, I'm not having a money dream. Everything's ending RIGHT NOW.]
<Okay.
This is an amalgamation of a bunch of recent, 'uninteresting,' stuff.
3 and I drove back from CO in GLARING sun a couple ×.
Before going on that trip, I wanted to get my sunglasses (which I managed to destroy during COVID) repaired.
That didn't happen.
In fact, they're sitting, in pieces, on the entryway to the living room even now. I see 'em everyday.
I've got an appointment with my neuro-optho coming up. Saw it on my calendar last night. That's a yearly deal.
... But maybe the weirdest thing is if you add my sunglasses up since I started using them ... the total bill would be right in that $ total. (Mom often threw in money against them as my Xmas present.)
-fin-
D4rw1n: I like how your dream told you it was a dream by having good customer service
That's actually excellent customer service in itself from b1 brain to b1. "Customer service warning: do NOT expect this level of treatment IRL"
17.9.23
I dream of breeding
b1-66er:
09:00
1½ sleep dream
<This dream's almost entirely situational. Mostly thinking with little action kinda rare for me...
Really it's more the way my MS life really is.
Anyway...I've been asked by whomever to sheperd a brand new mobile device through just in time (JIT) development...
Now, IRL, I did walk some early hiptop protos through product announcement at a CES -- but those involved nothing more than NV to CA communication (and some talking to Orange/T-mobile [wherever they were]).
{It was one of the stupidest high tech situations I ever found myself in. There was a guy who claimed the phone service was up and running when it was not just to save personal face. That only took 4 hours to figure out.}
So lessee...
I'm going to have to travel to Asia, that means I've got to dust up on the local culture where I'm hitting the ground...
and there's going to be tech restrictions.Those'll be detailed and complicated with the world situation the way it is right now...
...I'll need an attorney. A good one. Fully fluent in English so *I* can understand what the hell's going on...
In fact, I decide this would be the perfect question for Bill Nye the Science Guy. "What should I do?"
I call him based on an Internet number I find and can hear him answer.
Wait.
[I decide this is dumb and wake up.
EOD]>
Not as much to unpack here as usual...
This almost certainly comes from my having a new passport and getting ready to travel with The Accomplice. I've been reading some on ©, AI and the Ukraine war.
Overall, this is a mental casserole that doesn't stick together very well.
I rule in favor of the plantiff.
It is a dumb dream. If your subconscious is going to behave in such a fashion, I sentence you to 6 hours of reality.
[Well, at least I didn't dream about the CU/CSU football game.
The sentence in that case would be much MUCH more penalizing.]
The f3mb0t: I had a weird dream this morning...and I woke up, very confused.
I was trying to get away initially from an family where I looked after their 6 kids for a week. As the week went on, the kids got meaner and meaner, to each other, and to me. I ran out of the house, on the last day, not caring I had not been paid. I just needed to get away. I kept running and running, down thru mountain settlements of seemingly inbred families¹, who all tried to waylay me with promises of help. Nothing worked. I finally found [college roomies & spouses] on west colfax, who sheltered me in a hubby's mining operation hut. I woke up literally sweating, with my heart racing.
¹editorial emphasis because it's a phrase b1 likes
16.9.23
The Natural Order (of 2)
The Dear Hunter: Frog is nbr 1, butter fly is nbr 2.
Loves my frogs
<Pix © 2023 Vivid Nature
all rights reserved
used by permission>
14.9.23
A dream of Monkee
Special K: https://www.stereogum.com/2236106/micky-dolenz-rem-covers-shiny-happy-people/music/?fbclid=IwAR3r9Qp3EYeW7kIem_Rt9NY2cRXWTdyj6eUQImvsUS97BrZzTu2ROE1XC6U
b1-66er: Okay, Special K ...
... There's a lot to unpack here.
K: Yes.
b1: 1. When I was a kid, MD was my favorite Monkee. (Ringo was my favorite Beatle. Tin Man was my favorite WoO character.)
I've churned a bit over time, but as an adult
as an adult my ordering is
Mike Nesmith
George Harrison
Cowardly Lion
2. I considered SHP to be amongst the lamest REM songs. Right down there with "Stand."
I'm fact, Mr Stipe couldn't believe they'd done it on release. "Did we just make a pop song?"
3. The original had a B-52.
Mr. Dolenz should've found a woman from his home town to cover the female vocals. Maybe even a kid to make the median age still correct?
4. This song/vid is > the REM original.
5. 6. He should record a commentary track with the video.
That would be super interesting.
The Wabi Sabi of Existence
The Dear Hunter: <pic>
Turns out... it's a piece of plastic with moisture trapped beneath. Or... litter being its best self... cough cough cough.
b1-66er: I guess showing there truly IS beauty in everything, depending on the way you perceive.
[Picture ©2023 Totally Wasted Attempts
used by permission
all rights reserved.]
13.9.23
A little towering
The Dear Hunter: This isn't a pretty mushroom but I've not seen them before. This is my second. It's on my property line. I put bottle in for scale.
<pic>
b1-66er: That qualifies as 'giant' in my book.
DH: It's the tallest for sure.
<pic © 2023 resident aliens
all rights reserved
used by permission>
11.9.23
10.9.23
Under the blade
b1-66er
b1-67er: In a way the process worked. The blades were inspected and a defect was detected. Then a judgement call was made, in retrospect the wrong one. I think you lower your tolerance for defects and move on.
b1 Series Sunset Battle!
b1-66er: <palm tree sunset>
Now.
b1-67er: <ocean sunset>
Now
[©2023 Smolderin' Sunsets, Inc.
All rights reserved
Used by permission]
8.9.23
Hammy and cheese
b1-66er: Because your hamster NEEDS a Hallowe'en costume.
<pic>
Special K: ...in early September.
4.9.23
Twilight before dawn
Special K: "The woman who says "Shut yo' mouth!" and "We can dig it" on "Theme from Shaft" is Telma Hopkins of Tony Orlando and Dawn."
3.9.23
Frisbee World
b1-66er:
09:45 second sleep dream
I'm at a juggling (or maybe frisbee) convention, in a large field house. There are a few vendors scattered throughout a floor.
Some people milling about, as you'd expect.
The building has a little bit of that weird hollow-echo that accompanies a building of this size.
One guy is selling frisbees and has a unique piece that immediately catches my interest...
It's hemispherical. Like if you cut a globe in half. (Maybe a tiny bit smaller than that... Like 80% of a ½ globe.)
White plastic with a very simple red metallic heat stamp ring.
This exact 'disc' has clearly 'been around' and is nicked up on the inside. <I guess it's a demo sample or something?>
I tell the vendor, "I've never seen one like this before..."
He could not be less impressed with my comment ... Barely even acknowledges me
I grab the edges to spin it up for a nail delay, and you can REALLY get purchase on the disc. I realize as I'm doing it that the "flatness" of a normal Frisbee gives some automatic limitation on how much spin you can impart on it.
<The Sheriff Pesterer would be able to spin this fast enough that you would break your arm -or maybe lose your face- if it got away from you. And you just KNOW it would at some point.>
I spin it up to try a delay.
<Dream commentary: I've gotta say, this seems like a bad idea. I bet I haven't delayed a frisbee 6× in the last ten years.
AND I'm MS boy now, so my neurologic response is WAY off. AND this disc has been nicked up by a thousand fingernails on the inside. AND it hasn't been treated with silicone.>
But no -in that weird dream state way- none of those things seem to matter.
I can delay it just fine.
One thing's very clear -- it's noticably awkward to have your wrist INSIDE the delayed object. It'd take awhile to learn how to manipulate an object of this shape.
If 67 tried toe tipping this thing he'd be wearing a frisbee pail on his
leg for a month
I ask the vendor, "is this a 32M mold?"
He's paying ½ attention and nods.
[EOD]
<Okay, I'm pretty sure I saw the mold marking on the heat stamp ring... like if it were on the spoke patterns of HDXs we have.
*I* think -REMEMBERING THAT I AM THE PERSON DREAMING- you're asking the question just to look cool to the proprietor.
Being a faker is bad enough.
But BEING A FAKER IN A DREAM IS WORSE.
>
I know the spawning bed for at least some of this dream...
I was looking at Reddit yesterday and someone had run across a mushroom the size of a fireplug out in the woods...They took a picture of that myceliatic beast and included a Frisbee disc golf bag for scale.>
Eat your heart out, b1-67er:
b1-67er: Seems like a good deal on HDXs.
Boy, your dream is dusting off some 40 year old memories.
66: I think you'd enjoy playing with a hemispherical frisbee, 67...
... At least a little.
{I have no idea if it would try to precess through the air when you threw it.}
CO Joe: Yesterday I was watching a pick up ultimate game at Sloan's lake and was invited to play.
66: Possible responses:
What're the rules?
How do you feel about L handed players?
I will, if you can tell me your favorite Roy Wood album first.
67: Did you play?
CJ: No but I offered some immoral support.
Burnin' Spears
b1-66er: https://www.broadwayworld.com/article/2-Broadway-Shows-Close-Today-20230903
"Europe's Boars Still Hold Radioactivity. What Surprised Scientists Is Why."
Special K: Funny Girl and the Britney musical closing. The Britney one is gonna tour.
b1: BRITNEY.
K: They hit her, baby, one more time.
1.9.23
haiku U
The Dear Hunter:
Pre Fall. Live as it happens. It's been in the 50s at night for a bit. Hummingbirds still power eating. They will be leaving soon.
Baby tree frog by ac is now larger and plump.
b1-66er:
portly AC frog
hummingbirds power eating
autumn approaches
<Pic © 2023 Do Re MI Fall Sew La Tea Doe Pix
Used by permission
All rights reserved>
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