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~Zen Twist.

That derned TV'll rot yer brain!

Hello again! Well, I'm back and thoroughly refreshed from my visit on the big island, Hawaii. Nothing like being around the birthing of an Island to bring perspective on things. Though I can say I don't miss those damn frogs.

So, once again I feel compelled to write. I was on the freeway this evening when I came upon this truck. Model and make are immaterial. Through its back window I could clearly see a screen showing some movie. Now understand, this is not the first time I have seen this. I find myself rationalizing how a law for the use of cell phones exists; yet, one can still possess what amounts to a home theater system in their car. This makes no sense!

These things are playing while someone is driving; yes I know they come with headphones, yet it is a rarity that I see someone wearing them. Bet the batteries ran out! The screen is positioned so the driver can't watch. So what (Remind me at some point what I want to say about headphones)! So, you know, bombs going off, people screaming… somehow the driver isn't the least bit distracted?

Now before someone who knows me says "But, Zen, you own a car that has one of those!" Yes, I do, and I have a good explanation! I never wanted it. It was acquired from my brother in-law, in trying to help him out of a difficult financial situation, hence, here it is. To my credit I have never used it, nor care too. Although, from time to time I've had this fantasy of being on a hot date, driving deep into the woods amongst the bears and squirrels, commencing to fondle and grope each other while watching some hot porn. Bears applaud, squirrel's blush. Now that sounds cool, and never during any of that would I be driving. The car, anyway…

Maybe more importantly is the issue that family values may have forever officially washed down the proverbial toilet. What's the matter Mom? Dad? Whoever you are! Can't have a meaningful conversation about life or how was your day? Kyra, Bobby, Billy and what's your name? Or maybe have some deep conversation about what's going on in our world? Explain to those confused kiddies how a guy who's never had a real job in his life, snorted coke, and is basically a raging dry drunk, somehow got to be president. That ought to take up a good few hours!

I don't know, I guess on long trips videos could be handy, but a drive to the local market? Geez! Guess the kids got to watch The Little Mermaid for the billionth time. I remember telling stories or just bonding, occasionally throwing up, but only on long drives (Something about facing backwards in that ole station wagon). Anyhow, mostly I remember mom or dad telling us stuff about our history or their parents and past, giving us clues to where they, and we, came from. Telling jokes. Dodging dad's backhand when we were out of control.

Now, it's sitting mindless like good little robots being brain sucked by some flashing lights and music telling us when to laugh, cry, or be mad. Uhggg! Oh man that reminds me of that commercial I just saw (I know! I know! I get caught up in it to!). There's this family who has no connection to each other dad makes them all go for a ride to drive around and watch TV or movies in the car and get closer. Makes me want to puke in my own living room. Yeah, GMC is bringing families closer together while polluting the environment, all at the same time. Now there's your special two for one deal!

While we're on commercials, let's get serious for a moment. Not too long ago I was in Vegas. Yes, Zen loves to play Poker occasionally. Anyway, I pulled into this gas station and thought I was blasted right into a Blade Runner movie. Jesus! Multiple screens with advertisements on the gas pump! What is wrong with these people? Can't I have a moment to myself? Can't I just smell the toxic fumes in peace? It gets worse… I was at a checkout stand in Arizona. Same thing: T.V. advertisements. Seriously, this has got to stop! First, noise pollution now its advert-pollution. Give us a break! Honestly, I will never buy a product from anyone who uses that medium, just to prove a point. Man, it makes me want to pull an Al Capone on the next advertiser I meet. Let's see, do I have any baseball bats lying around?

You know what started this? It's the damn mute button and TIVO, that's what did it! Too many people not wanting to hear their sex lives, lifestyles, homes, cars, kids, bodies and minds aren't good enough. Or 1 out of 3, 4, 7, 12 will die of something, somehow, someway, someday, and there is nothing you or I can do about. Why? Because even the answer will blind you, hurt you, cause any number of emotional distresses and/or a variety of other ailment's including the failure but not limited to just one of many organs, or just simply kill you. Then again it may do absolutely nothing, but that's a lie, because it will cost you your money so you still lose and that's another pain in the ass.

They make cars that can go 160 miles an hour, yet the speed limit here is 70, tops. What the hell is going on? Madness, I tell you, and it's being shoved right down our throats. When we tune them out, change the channel or hit the mute button they've got to find us… Stalkers, they are! Commercial stalkers out for that buck, worse than the crack dealer. At least those guys have a corner to hang out on! Pretty much anyone who wants to find them knows where to go. They're not hanging out in my living room trying to sell me something every ten minutes that I don't even want! They go where the business is, not where it isn't.

I imagine that's why the home video industry is so huge. Except, what is with this? I can't fast forward for those first few minutes? See, again, it's like making you watch when you don't want to watch. That's called holding you hostage, and that tactic sucks, because there is no one to hold them accountable, or put them in jail for invading my space, my mind, my children's minds, my friend's minds. But I bet if someone finally loses their mind, it might be considered.

Again! Where is my bat?

To be continued…

-Zen Twist

Severed Internet cables, Oil, and the "mighty" dollar

I've been following the story about the five undersea data cables that were severed, and was compelled to post something, but then I stumbled upon another blog called I Love Bonnie.net, and I found that she has done some impressive research on the subject already, and I couldn't really think of a whole lot more to add to what she's already contributed.

First, a summary of what's been going on, for those of you who may not have heard:

Over the past week, give or take a couple days, FIVE undersea cables were severed, allegedly due to accidents (in a couple instances, anchors dragging was the reason given), or power failures.

Fine, no big deal, they'll fix it up and things will be fine. Right? Well, the country most affected by these cables being severed is Iran. They've had major communications disruptions this week. Two of the cables were just off the island if Kish, the proposed location for Iran's brand-new "bourse," or "oil stock exchange." To add to the drama, this new exchange would NOT be accepting US dollars in exchange for oil. If this sounds familiar, bonus points for you, because, back in autumn of 2000, another oil-rich country in the middle east made the same decision NOT to accept US currency for oil. If you guessed Saudi Arabia, you would be... wrong. If you guessed Iraq, congratulations!

What do you win, you ask? Well, I can only speculate, but I wouldn't be surprised if it's... (cue music from "The Price is Right:"

A BRAND NEW WAR! *Applause!!!*

Unlike myself, Bonnie does not go as far as stating this conclusion, but if you're keen on following trends, this may be one to pay attention to. Here is the article from Bonnie's blog: Submarine Cables, Subsidiaries and Subversion

That's all for now,

-Zen Twist.

Aloha!

Well Aloha to you all, I was getting fed up with the weather there on the Mainland, as they call it here, and decided to change my scenery… didn’t take long to find something to complain about.

I literally had just set foot in the airport of beautiful Hawaii, when my flight seat buddy, who went by ‘Ole Tom, explained that the choir of noises I was hearing was coming from little frogs. I thought, “Oh, that’s so cute!”

Then he went on to tell me they are not from Hawaii, but from Georgia, and I don’t mean the Georgia that’s in Russia. At least that would have been a creative feat to have pulled off. (Right now some guy in Georgia named Joe Billy Joe is thinking “Hey they got a place in Russia named after our own state!” Man you got to love our education system.)

Anyway, yeah, some guy from Georgia, probably a relative of Joe Billy Joe. Missed his home state so much he smuggled at least 2, and it’s a pretty safe bet one of them was a girl. So! What was it!? He wanted to feel a little more at home?

Now I know, some of you are asking, how do I know it was a guy? Fair question! Easily answered! You see, woman don’t have that same need to spread their seed of life all over the place, men do! A perfect example is the English! In their hey day, their favorite pastime was fishing and as they conquered the world, guess what they loved to leave behind? No, not vials of semen, but fish (Ok maybe not vials but they did that too). Yes they spread those babies all over Europe, Africa, America, even Brazil. In fact, Brazil has the only sea-going run of brown trout in the world. Now, one might think, “hey, that’s cool!” and honestly in some ways it is. An argument could be made to say that man is a part of nature too, so it’s all good. Hmm, let’s see… at least fish provides a food! I say it’s ok as long as it doesn’t threaten or infringe on other species, which is rare. While we’re on the topic of fish, here’s one that really does suck.

Several morons decided to smuggle a few Pike fish into Northern California a few years back, guess they were bored of fishing for Bass, Salmon, Stripper, Cat fish, Rainbow trout, as well as many others. They put them in a lake/reservoir and it was enough Pike that they bred and had babies. Well when it rained, this lake would eventually spill into the river below it, and that’s just where major Steelhead and salmon runs occurred! (Where Salmon go to have babies!) Good going, morons! For those of you who don’t know what a Pike fish is I will now describe: It is a long and powerful predator fish with razor-sharp teeth. They are very aggressive fish that can get anywhere from 30 to 60 pounds. If it had gotten established it could have wiped out the salmon, steelhead and rainbow trout as well as any other poor fish which might have been swimming around. They have no defense against such a fish.

Anyway, Dept. of fish had to poison the lake several times over the course of two years before the problem was finally resolved. I won’t even get into that for now. “Mommy, where does the poison go?” “It just disappears into thin air Jimmy.” Lucky they were detected when they were or it could have been a disaster.

Ok, Hmm, frogs… still not getting anything, Uh just a quick note if they ever catch those guys! I think they should be submerged in a pool up to their waists, with large Pike and have bait attached to their genitalia, assuring they will live but they will not produce offspring of their own. A Pikesectomy! Of course this should only be done in Michigan or anywhere Pike is a native species.

Ok, back to the original point: the rationale is not there for frogs, and let me tell you, they are everywhere here, and they have propagated into the millions. They have no threats to themselves, so? Carry on, and keep on Froggin’! Of all the frogs to bring, it would take a Georgian to have brought the most useless; you can’t even eat them, they’re so damned small. They sound like a cricket and a bird. They whistle more than anything.

One thing’s for sure though, if the guy who brought them used to live here? You can bet he doesn’t live here anymore! I mean, think of it! Could you live around a constant 24-hour reminder of your own selfish, ignorant, stupidity? Could you sleep at night, listening to that repetitive singing, whistling, major screw up you single-handedly caused? I can imagine the guy losing his mind eventually; the frogs would have been calling out his name! “Joe! Billy Joe! Joe! Billy Joe!” He may have gone mad. Just think, he wouldn’t go home, not to Georgia, ‘cus that’s where the frogs came from! That’s ok, he could always go back to that Georgia in Russia.

To be continued…

Zen Twist

Please allow me to introduce myself

Being the first blog of this virgin site I thought long and hard about what I wanted to say first. I mean it seems almost an impossible task to try to reach everyone, so just whom would I be talking to and does it even matter? A long hard pause brings me to the conclusion that it doesn’t. So without further ado:

This world has become a prison, for the most part run by mindless, thoughtless people, who it would seem, even through their moving lips, care not for the state of the planet as a whole. Whether you believe we came from the earth or from the distant stars one thing remains constant: We are responsible for this beautiful place and we are not moving quickly enough. Waiting for a catastrophe to happen is what we usually do; why not change it before it is too late? If not, how late should we wait? Yes, I know you want to blame Bush and his cohorts, but let’s be practical. Although he has made some ghastly contributions on his own, this started way before he was born. More simply he and his people were just continuing the madness set into motion long ago.

I know I’ve trailed, but there’s just so much on my mind, so I want you to know this will happen from time to time. So where was I? Yes, what did I want to say? Well, first point, if you were more wrapped up about the new Xbox that was coming out this past Christmas and had not a thought about the environment or the war that we won that somehow we are still fighting that’s a start. How do you win if it isn’t over? That’s our government for you! Sort of like proclaiming the winner of the Super Bowl before it’s been played.

While we’re there, how do you like Marion Jones now serving six months in jail for lying to the federal government? That’s one big joke, because meanwhile, certain people within our own government perjured themselves more than once and won’t see one single day behind bars! There lies the truth and disgrace of this country. She hurt and embarrassed herself more than anyone else, while our own elected officials remain untouched, and what they do affects us all! Who’s ripping off whom? What a scam! The government does what it wants without the fear of consequences. That is not what our forefathers had in mind by checks and balances. Go figure! How much more askew do our philosophies have to be?

Hey, want to stop steroids? Fine the freaking owners a million for each infraction and see how quickly it stops. That’s what they do in horse racing! Oh I forgot, those are just animals! There’s way more integrity in horse racing. Owners of baseball and football teams want all the rewards without the responsibilities. What is that? It’s just more of the same old crap.

Hey, GMC finds out a car has a faulty part! Did you know that they don’t have to tell you or replace it for free until it hits that magic recall number, something like 60,000? The point? Glad you asked! The point is, somewhere down that glory road of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, people got lazy and stopped caring about getting it right. Quality went out of the window with greed and sloth. Winning at any cost became more important than good, even competition.

Speaking of competition: Damn the Yankees and Red Sox! Buy your way to the playoffs. Suck the best talent from what amounts to farm teams who can never afford to pay the salaries they offer from the rest of the league. Think I’m wrong? Just ask yourself: On those rare occasions when teams like Minnesota, San Diego, Oakland, Arizona, Houston or Florida went to the Series, it was special because they were home-grown, smaller cities, and it’s something more natural and real. Blame the players too! They only proved what was feared in the very beginning, in the 1900’s, which was if you started paying players it would ruin the integrity of the game. Best player goes to the highest bidder. Tony Gwynn is my hero. I’m sure he would have had a couple of rings if he had chosen to leave the Padres. He gave that up and earned integrity and respect.

Now on a different note: Say I’m some guy or gal who’s working in a place that doesn’t care about quality, bottom line is all about the cheap, and in fact the only way I can produce the numbers they want is dependent on shoddy work. I don’t know about you, but why would I care much about my performance or how well I’m doing my job if they are paying me dirt crap. So enough with the blaming the Mexicans for your inadequacies, or more to the point the fact that it’s about the all-mighty dollar and one employer or another wants to save a few bucks extra so he can get some lap dances a couple of times a week or the extra pedicure or manicure he or she wants Quit being lazy welfare scooping bums! Get off your ass and get a job! Oh, I’m sorry, did I hurt your delicate sense of faltering egos? Gee, not good enough to pick veggies or fruit? Oh, what was it that farmer told me? “I tried to hire blacks and whites you know what happened? They come one day, eat half of what they pick and they don’t come back the next day!” Know why? Because it’s back breaking work and they don’t want to do it.

Hey America, wake up! Mexicans are the modern day slave labor, so digest that inconvenient truth! You want to pay three to five dollars for a head of lettuce? Keep voting for those racist laws, because if whites and blacks picked your food you can believe that it will cost a pretty penny more, you know how unions are?! Oh wait, I know your employers will give you that compensatory raise to equal things out, so hey, it won’t even affect you.

Another question I have is who is going to explain why organic food costs more? Shouldn’t we all have the right to healthy consumption? Should it not be mandatory that all farming be done in an organic fashion? Funny, but it sure seems that some are cashing in on others trying to live healthy. Having healthy food and water should be the norm, not something that we should have to fight for.

One must ask themselves just who is the FDA really protecting and fighting for, because I can tell you It’s certainly not you or I! I remember when I was a child that it took 3 to 5 years for certain drugs or food products to be tested before being made available to the public. Of course that obviously didn’t make any difference, so, public enemy number one: Pharmaceutical companies. Do you really believe they have your best interest at heart?

To be continued...

Zen Twist

Zen Twist Art Gallery: January 2008

Gaiafly:
Phoenix Rises:
Vulture Dance:
Reaper: