Just nod if you can hear me

Sorry that this has become Kaoh's random playlist but it has always been how I express what I cannot express.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTVUAXfyGqs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bf6Xwb03jTE

I'm going to pick on Star Wars but the theme is repeated over and over in our pop-culture: The ONE that is plucked from obscurity by the wise master to save the day with skills that only the ONE possesses.

I'm not a fan-boy so if I massacre some details, please forgive.

But the kid is a farmer, buys a droid gets the call to action, finds a master, spends a couple hours on a ship and masters the saber then jumps into a craft he has never flown before and has the miraculous shot that destroys the enemies super-weapon.

There is no reference to the 10,000 hours needed for mastery of any field (Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell). 

Yes there is something to be said for letting go in the moment and letting our instincts (force) take over but does this line of story telling teach generations of us to sit back and wait for the message from the blue that will give us our destiny and true calling? As opposed to the hours of sweat and tears that it actually takes to master any subject, whether it be arts, craftsmanship, writing, sports.

Not feeling particularly insightful or creative tonight, so you get a song. If you don't feel anything watching, you may want to check your pulse and call the coroner.

Narrator: Thank you.

Tyler Durden: How’s that working out for you?

Narrator: What?

Tyler Durden: Being clever.

Narrator: … Great.

Tyler Durden: Keep it up, then. Right up. [gets up from seat] Now, a question of etiquette: as I pass, do I give you the ass or the crotch?

Gunning for the Buddha

- Shriekback  (c) 1986

Mark and Danny in the Greek Hotel
Bold as badgers on a one-take Mission
Got their equipment from a dwarf outside
On the trail of any suspect wisdom
Pond-Life beneath a Southern sky
(They make their move then they head off to the border)
They don't care as long as you can pay -
Whatever - whatever they say

We're on the road and we're gunning for the Buddha
We know his name and he mustn't get away
We're on the road and we're gunning for the Buddha
It would take one shot - to blow him away...

Now's the time to have some big ideas
Now's the time to make some firm decisions
We saw the Buddha in a bar down south
Talking politics and nuclear fission
We see him and he's all washed up -
Moving on into the body of a beetle
Getting ready for a long long crawl
He ain't nothing - he ain't nothing at all...

We're on the road and we're gunning for the Buddha
We know his name and he mustn't get away
We're on the road and we're gunning for the Buddha
It would take one shot - to blow him away...

Death and Money make their point once more
In the shape of Philosophical assassins
Mark and Danny take the bus uptown
Deadly angels for reality and passion
Have the courage of the here and now
Don't take nothing from these ½-baked buddhas
When you think you got it paid in full
You got nothing - you got nothing at all...

We're on the road and we're gunning for the Buddha
We know his name and he mustn't get away
We're on the road and we're gunning for the Buddha
It would take one shot...

Oh... we're gunning for the Buddha
We know his name and he mustn't get away
We're on the road and we're gunning for the Buddha
Saying something, saying something unsafe
We're on the road
Oh... we're gunning for the Buddha
(Yeah, Yeah)
We're on the road
You know we're gunning for the Buddha
You see him blow right there
We're on the road
We're gunning, we're gunning,
We're gunning on the road
We're gunning, we're gunning
We're gunning for the Buddha
Gunning for the Buddha
Gunning for the Buddha
Gunning for the Buddha

...the destroyer of worlds...

Doesn't it suck when one of your favorite quotes hits pop-culture and you can't use it any longer?

I spend a lot of time in the pool because I am an over-privileged white male with all the blah blah blah that that entails.

It's good for low impact exercise of broken knees.

Unfortunately pools are a magnet for creatures great and small to fall into. I have installed a ramp for most to escape without intervention. Others I assist out whether assistance is welcome or not. Some would rater swim away but the chlorination will eventually seep through their skins and kill them, so they are escorted out, like it or not, but that is a parable for another time.

Today we focus on the honeybee a favorite rescue for all the good that they do through pollination and their reputation for industriousness. 

I have rescued many honeybees while in the pool. The problem being that they will seek higher ground to dry their wings before flying off. The highest point when cast onto the sidewalk it the edge of the pool cap-block. So, over and over again the bee will climb to the edge of the cap and fall into the water once more. Rescue, fall, lather, rinse repeat. Finally I discovered the better course is to cast them into the tall grass. It is somewhat less save as there are always lizards and such about looking for a quick meal but most are able to climb to the top of a high blade of grass and sun their wings dry enough to fly off and rejoin their hive.

I have come to find the same of the cage. I can offer assistance and comfort over and over but now find the best course of action is to cast you into the high grass and hope for the best. 

You will be missed