6/05/2009
cloudman
found this rad tile this morning spackled to the bottom of a lamp post in the park. don't think it's been there long. i love it.
looks like invader made it famous in france: http://kimgrantmosaics.wordpress.com/2007/11/20/mosaic-graffiti-france/
looks like invader made it famous in france: http://kimgrantmosaics.wordpress.com/2007/11/20/mosaic-graffiti-france/
6/04/2009
saw ollie and this one
saw this guy today!!! a western bluebird. you can barely catch the bluish purple of their backs if the light isn't just right or you're not right on top of them. they sure are purty! all i need is a full khaki outfit and my binoculars to make this bird watching stuff look official!
6/03/2009
6/02/2009
bye harry
my grandpa willie's friend harry passed away the other day. he owned "harry's" in la jolla, a cool little resautrant that my grandpa went to all the time. i'll have to go and have a cup of coffee for them both.
ollie
saw my man again today. he is so pretty!! maybe i'll spot the female next making their tear drop nest!
3/15/2009
home grown revolution www.homegrownevolution.com
i'm guilty of being nostalgic but i can't help but think that this knowledge, these skills used to be second nature to generations before our grandparents, say.
i know my grandma grew up in point loma eating chickens and their eggs from her backyard as well as the vegetables and fruit from their many trees. they were poor, they were from portugal. does this have anything to do with it? does knowing how to grow vegetables and fruit in your backyard have something to do with demographics like age, income, race, or location?
i know my grandma grew up in point loma eating chickens and their eggs from her backyard as well as the vegetables and fruit from their many trees. they were poor, they were from portugal. does this have anything to do with it? does knowing how to grow vegetables and fruit in your backyard have something to do with demographics like age, income, race, or location?
2/22/2009
2/03/2009
frowned upon
today i found the beehive demolished by the wind and rain. lying in pieces on the sidewalk, bees in puddles and scattered all around. there is a small piece of the hive still active on the limb but most of them were wearily wobbling on the ground or dead on the mud.
12/31/2008
pals
pigeons. what do you think of when you see a pigeon? is it rat with wings? is it poop on my head? is it great telephone pole photo-op?
i love pigeons and when i see clouds of them circling in the sunrise or one laying dead in the road i think of how hard the life of a pigeon must be. they live on the streets eating what they can, sleeping where they can, constantly avoiding imminent danger. pigeons have a struggle similar to the homeless in a way. detested wonderment you'd rather not have to look at, city blocks make a tough nest.
so today's joy was found through a glimpse of compassion from dirty hand to raggedy wing. a perilless pair indeed but a safe one still.
i love pigeons and when i see clouds of them circling in the sunrise or one laying dead in the road i think of how hard the life of a pigeon must be. they live on the streets eating what they can, sleeping where they can, constantly avoiding imminent danger. pigeons have a struggle similar to the homeless in a way. detested wonderment you'd rather not have to look at, city blocks make a tough nest.
so today's joy was found through a glimpse of compassion from dirty hand to raggedy wing. a perilless pair indeed but a safe one still.
12/27/2008
puppy whipped
going to the dog park is the best. who needs therapy when you have dogs running around like little kids freakin out on kool-aid and nerd ropes? the joy spreads like mange. the greatest. the best part of it is that most of the dogs have absolutely no interest in you. they're too busy sniffin butts and bitin balls. love it. saturdays are usually days to avoid at the dog park because of the copius amount of humans present but i could care less on a day like today. aside from the occasional shitty shoe and sad but true dog owner no-no's it is absolute bliss. plus bella's evil twin was there. so fun. i want one of these next......a newfie!! a slobber slinger! a poop machine! a pony!
12/21/2008
fallen
this morning i brought home five bees under what i've coined the dead bee tree. there were about seven more undead and as i crouched down to gaze and gather one fell right from above and smacked down onto the cement. what the fuck? i am so curious about this. six feet ahead and behind lie the same kind of tree surrounded by the same kind of everything. i've tried looking up into the tree limbs but haven't really been able to see anything. are the bees gathering pollen from this tree? do they have a hive up there? i'm gonna have to climb up there or something when the court closes-yeah right in front of bankruptcy court-what a metaphor.
11/29/2008
11/21/2008
sidewalk cemetary
early yesterday morning was a nice time to walk. it was about 6:30. foggy. crisp. there wasn't anyone around either which made it that much better. i ended up finding 14 dead bees scattered all under one tree on the sidewalk. the 5 that i was able to pull up from the cement made it home in my hand and as i gazed down at them i noticed one still moving a little-the last seconds of life. i thought for a second maybe they would all come back to life when reaching the warmth of my apartment. that didn't happen of course but reminded me of the phenomenon where flies are able to hibernate in a way-coming back to life after being frozen. try it. or don't.
11/10/2008
past and present-the present
watched a bee die today. reminded me of the dead albatross i tried to catch in my secret ob spot last summer. weird. i never caught it, as i got really close the overwhelming odor kept me on shore. it would have been the best of my collection for sure, or maybe the dead seal my sis found that same summer would have been. too big? touche!
11/09/2008
eel bait
did you know that moray eels have two sets of jaws? when a moray catches something to eat it holds onto it with its mouth and the second jaw springs forth from the throat, attaches to the prey, and retracts back into the throat leaving the catch on its way straight to the stomach. the visual reminds me of alien. it's so bad ass!
10/29/2008
10/21/2008
10/13/2008
toxoplasmosis, sea otters, and toilet training this cat
i have recently acquired a cat-i kind of had to do it. she was a stray-hungry, sweet, and oh so pathetic. i named her cleo and soon she will have a bitchin gold collar and a proper scratching post. i'm glad i was able to give her a home and she and bella dog get along fine. bella watches her nightly freak outs with an equally amused and unimpressed attitude. they are both adjusting well i suppose and the only real issue is that bella like most dogs, loves to eat cat shit. she lurks around the corner waiting for cleo to take a dump-hilarious and disgusting. i've created a barrier but the whole cat box thing has always bothered me so i thought i would train cleo to go to the bathroom in the toilet. how great would that be? i wouldn't have to buy litter, i wouldn't have to smell or clean up piss and shit clumps, and i wouldn't have to strategically place the box out of bella's reach plus it's the best thing ever to see a cat take a pee in the toilet. however, in my research i found that flushing cat poop down the toilet is a serious threat to sea otters. WHAT?!
you've probably heard of toxoplasmosis as it relates to pregnant women. the parasite can cause serious birth defects and is transmitted by eating meat that hasn't been cooked all the way, drinking contaminated water, or having contact with cat feces. cats become hosts to the parasite after eating other infected animals like mice, rats, and birds and after ingestion the oocysts or eggs of the parasite are passed in the feces. aside from being harmful to fetuses, toxoplasmosis is not a threat to humans. it is however, a reason for concern among scientists studying the cause of death in coastal sea otters. not to bore you with too much information, the basic point of concern is that a large percentage of sea otters (as well as other marine mammals such as dolphins and whales) are dying of toxoplasmosis and there is a direct link to contaminated cat feces.
so basically, flushing cat poop down the toilet living so close to the ocean is not cool. here's why according to Report on Toxoplasma Gondii: Its Sources and Impacts on Sea Otters, and What Municipalities Can Do to Help Reduce or
Eliminate These Impacts: Oocysts may survive up to 18 months in soil under favorable conditions, and wastewater treatment practices are not designed to destroy the highly resistant oocysts of Toxoplasma gondii. Cat owners should be urged to bag and dispose of cat feces and cat litter in approved sanitary landfills where runoff is controlled, rather than flushing it down the toilet.
Crap!
you've probably heard of toxoplasmosis as it relates to pregnant women. the parasite can cause serious birth defects and is transmitted by eating meat that hasn't been cooked all the way, drinking contaminated water, or having contact with cat feces. cats become hosts to the parasite after eating other infected animals like mice, rats, and birds and after ingestion the oocysts or eggs of the parasite are passed in the feces. aside from being harmful to fetuses, toxoplasmosis is not a threat to humans. it is however, a reason for concern among scientists studying the cause of death in coastal sea otters. not to bore you with too much information, the basic point of concern is that a large percentage of sea otters (as well as other marine mammals such as dolphins and whales) are dying of toxoplasmosis and there is a direct link to contaminated cat feces.
so basically, flushing cat poop down the toilet living so close to the ocean is not cool. here's why according to Report on Toxoplasma Gondii: Its Sources and Impacts on Sea Otters, and What Municipalities Can Do to Help Reduce or
Eliminate These Impacts: Oocysts may survive up to 18 months in soil under favorable conditions, and wastewater treatment practices are not designed to destroy the highly resistant oocysts of Toxoplasma gondii. Cat owners should be urged to bag and dispose of cat feces and cat litter in approved sanitary landfills where runoff is controlled, rather than flushing it down the toilet.
Crap!
10/12/2008
10/06/2008
our present day mass extinction event-holocene vs. history
1 in 4 mammals will go extinct in our lifetime. does this seem like an absurdly high number or is it relative to what we know about the history of mass extinction events?
65 million years ago during the cretaceous-tertiary extinction event 75% of earths flora and fauna went extinct, including the dinosaurs (which ironically enough in this particular post, made room for mammals to dominate).
251 million years ago the "great dying" or permian-triassic extinction event occured where 96% of all marine life and 70% of life on land (plants, insects, and vertabrates) went extinct. the great dying was huge!
We are presently living within the era of the holocene extinction event, which biologists are deeming the most accelerated mass extinction event in history. It is estimated that half of the species alive today will be extinct in the next 100 years.
that reality is a harsh one to accept and conjures up a lot of emotion. who doesn't cringe at the notion of gorillas and orangutans being extinct?! maybe you don't. is that a bad thing? maybe not.
most people are empathetic-we experience the feelings, thoughts, and attitudes of those around us which in turn influence our actions. during catastrophic events like 9-11 or hurricane katrina thousands of people not even in new york or new orleans felt the sadness, the anger, and despair of those in the midst of it all. so in a world where half of the species we have grown up to know or at least be aware of dissapear (a world that would also nonetheless be struggling with a myriad of other harsh changes related to global warming, over population, etc.) is it a disadvantage to be empathetic?
65 million years ago during the cretaceous-tertiary extinction event 75% of earths flora and fauna went extinct, including the dinosaurs (which ironically enough in this particular post, made room for mammals to dominate).
251 million years ago the "great dying" or permian-triassic extinction event occured where 96% of all marine life and 70% of life on land (plants, insects, and vertabrates) went extinct. the great dying was huge!
We are presently living within the era of the holocene extinction event, which biologists are deeming the most accelerated mass extinction event in history. It is estimated that half of the species alive today will be extinct in the next 100 years.
that reality is a harsh one to accept and conjures up a lot of emotion. who doesn't cringe at the notion of gorillas and orangutans being extinct?! maybe you don't. is that a bad thing? maybe not.
most people are empathetic-we experience the feelings, thoughts, and attitudes of those around us which in turn influence our actions. during catastrophic events like 9-11 or hurricane katrina thousands of people not even in new york or new orleans felt the sadness, the anger, and despair of those in the midst of it all. so in a world where half of the species we have grown up to know or at least be aware of dissapear (a world that would also nonetheless be struggling with a myriad of other harsh changes related to global warming, over population, etc.) is it a disadvantage to be empathetic?
9/23/2008
colony collapse disorder
my mind has been wondering and wandering about the possibility of life without honey bees. each day i find at least one bee dead or circling the pavement as they do right before the proboscus rolls out at its last breath. honey bees are by far the biggest part of my collection and the sole inspiration for keeping track of my thoughts and my findings in this blog. i'm not sure if my sudden affinity for bee collecting and what scientists have coined colony collapse disorder are in any way related but, timing has made me take note nonetheless and the fact that the bee population is dwindling right before my feet is a bit unsettling. hives are begining to look ghostly with just the queen and a few attendants in house. this a relatively current phenomena which spans the globe but one of the biggest losses in population has occured in the hives of the U.S. could it be the IAP virus? mites? global warming? electromagnetic waves? i'm sure these are all factors and one thing to point out is that scientists are studying colony collapse disorder in harvested hive sites so is this happening in the"wild"? are the bees that i find in my neighborhood dying of the same things effecting domesticated bees? are the bees in my neighborrhood even wild?
death head
zaque brought back a pigeon skull he found in oregon for me. it's great. it still has the black tissue tips on the end of the beak-about 1/4' long. i put it on the window sill with the other one we had found about a month ago. what a pair.
9/15/2008
do i really need another one?
i'm gonna try and bring this blog back around to the objects of expiration tip and keep it dead centered and a la naturale as much as possible. oddities and such.....
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