A thousand years ago it was rutted streets brimming with sewage and waste… not much has changed, now, has it?

Kept awake at night by the sound of the ghetto bird and sirens and shouting. There’s enough light in the sky to throw shadows but I’ll be damned if I can see a single star.

A truck emblazoned with the words “Graffiti Busters” ambles along, slowly filling each alley with the city’s idea of a message – “Everything is the same shit-brown. Everything is the same raincloud-grey.” – over “This is my name!”, “This is what I have to say!”, and “This is what I can do!” scrawl. Not one voice is spared the over-speak whitewash.

You have to step quickly to avoid the garbage… its tentacles would wrap around your ankle and pull you into a storm drain if you didn’t jump that puddle.

Everyone looks tired; perhaps they were kept awake by the sounds of the helicopter and sirens, perhaps they were the fugitives.

The price of living increases every year and there has to be some reciprocal to that… but dying isn’t getting any cheaper, either.

… and they quit selling my favorite brand of fortified wine.

Addendum:

Apparently the deranged rapist who shot and killed four cops the other day was suspected of being in the ‘hood. (and here I thought the flight of the ghetto bird was a nightly amusement)

But does this explain the commotion upstairs?

Note to self: In the future, lock the front door before retiring for the night.

If you are looking to buy an Xbox 360 beware of consoles that have been banded by microsoft.

I just bought one from Zach Constantine and he said the warranty was good and that the case had never been opened. What a lie!

Can’t get on Xbox live. I got screwed. Be careful when buying.

- xbox 360 – $100 at Craigslist.org
2009-11-29

Ha!

That’ll teach you to buy from caveat-emptor-lol@yahoo.com…

Nothing to say here.

… Researchers have identified a dozen-odd gene variants that can increase a person’s susceptibility to depression, anxiety, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, heightened risk-taking, and antisocial, sociopathic, or violent behaviors, and other problems—if, and only if, the person carrying the variant suffers a traumatic or stressful childhood or faces particularly trying experiences later in life.

This vulnerability hypothesis, as we can call it, has already changed our conception of many psychic and behavioral problems. It casts them as products not of nature or nurture but of complex “gene-environment interactions.” Your genes don’t doom you to these disorders. But if you have “bad” versions of certain genes and life treats you ill, you’re more prone to them.

- The Science of Success
by David Dobbs

I could be your salvation – but I’d rather bury you.

In a 1993 interview, [William] Gibson himself told me: “I think my world looks dystopian if you’re a middle class white guy doing reasonably well in 1993. But if you’re crouching in a basement in Sarejevo being shelled by ethnic separatists you can read Neuromancer as a real escape. There are so many places in the world today that are so much crappier than anything I’m writing about. I think my work is hardly dystopian… I don’t worry about the dystopian label too much because I think the world we now live in is already sufficiently dire and chaotic that really straight people can’t enjoy themselves anymore…. I get the postmodern sublime in the worst possible way… mingled ecstasy and dread.”

- Neuromancer… with Porn Star Sasha Grey as Molly
“R.U. Sirius” for h+ Magazine
2009-11-16

It’s no cybernetic ecology…
… but I guess it beats global thermonuclear war.

I, for one, look forward to the possibility of becoming one with a piece of technology… it all started with a piece of flint (and yes, you must look forward to something similar, if you happen to be reading this).

Warning: Bricolage.

via FuKung.net

“… and, whether it began as an investigation into the bicameral mind or merely a creative outlet, (perhaps an escapist refuge or fugue limbo the individual entered upon encountering stressor which he was not prepared for?) it has clearly devolved into something less cogent. It has become a spectacle so ugly as to suggest that it has taken on a life of its own and will proceed without intervention to its logical conclusion: reality.”

We’ll get there. Hold on just a little longer…

Psychiatric Evidence – Schizophrenia: Auditory hallucinations of a critical nature. A large percentage of patients with schizophrenia experience “command hallucinations.”

Relevance to Bicameral Mind – Patients suffering from schizophrenia experience a partial relapse to the bicameral mind. In the absence of consciousness, bicameral man hallucinated a commanding voice that instructed him in times of stress or decision-making.

- Summary of Evidence
Julian Jaynes Society

No. Too far. Step back slowly.

… they could have named a few profiteers, couldn’t they? Or is the point that one should simply get angry before engaging the problems at hand?

Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.

- Macbeth – Scene V
Shakespeare

While there is value in action one must also value inaction of a sort: the jury’s out on the means to end the abuses of power which flavor society to the point at which every tongue seems embittered and cynical, every smile a conclusion to a twisted sardonic declarative… no need to get angry (even if it’s a rightful response); get thoughtful, get rational. Look at this mess pragmatically.

No sense listening to that tale until you’re deaf, right?