Monthly Archives: May 2011

My boyfriend used to be in the energy business and a while back, he mentioned the word weatherization. The what? I responded. Weatherization is the process of protecting a building from sun, wind, and rain, of retrofitting it to decrease energy consumption and boost efficiency. Typical services in a weatherization procedure include: sealing of doors,Continue reading “under the weather-ization”

What do I know? And what does it bring me? Knowledge is power, we tell ourselves. Our personal power? Or a general shared power? Perhaps just as knowledge itself is shared… or is it? What we know is filtered. What I know comes through me by my unique perception, my particular outlook, my previous experiencesContinue reading “knowledge is power?”

Whatever you have planned for tomorrow, you may not have considered laboring over the ‘Great Work’ that so consumed alchemists from Geber (8th c.) all the way to Isaac Newton (17th c.). For centuries, these chemist-philosophers sought to discover the correct formula for what was known primarily as ‘the philosopher’s stone’ (though there were numerousContinue reading “materia prima, the elixir of life”

Tomorrow’s theme is… tomorrow! This means we are skipping ahead of ourselves twofold. This theme will test our endurance, our anticipatory set, our willingness to lean far far far over the chasm’s edge. And so we begin with a contradiction in terms…. Rio’s forthcoming Museum of Tomorrow — an archive of the expected, predicted, afterwardContinue reading “tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow”

While hysteria was the neurosis of the 19th century, insomnia is the affliction of our times. However, the same stresses of modern day life that were once believed to transform women into bizarrely theatrical creatures now affect us with anxiety and incurable restlessness, causing us to wake at 2am and not be able to returnContinue reading “65 things to do while not sleeping”

It is only fitting that I feel like a zombie as I write this entry. Part of our fascination with zombies emanates from the fact that we so closely identify with their stumbling, infected automatonism. Thus, the metaphorical side spawns the reanimation and reproduction of tales mirroring our uncomfortable realities — these undead thoughts lurk,Continue reading “zombie part ii: our monstrous zietgeist”

If zombies eat brains, then there are certainly zombies among us. Our brains are infested!! Much of our present time and brain-work is engrossed by the comings-and-going, doings, and oozings of the living dead or potentially undead. Our movie outings, literary expeditions, and TV watching choices currently consume our own brain matter in pursuit ofContinue reading “we eat brains!”

Sunday… trying to stay with the theme of making tomorrow’s theme on Sunday a journal prompt… here it is: Land or sea? Land Land spreads out with security under darkening skies. Land holds its cold in winter, its warmth in summer, its tender wetness in spring. Land holds its own while the prairie sweet grassContinue reading “land or sea?”

Today is World Labyrinth Day! In order to celebrate, tomorrow’s theme will circle around this intricate puzzle. The first labyrinth was that which was ordered by Minos, dictatorial king of Crete, to imprison the Minotaur, a humanoid being with a bull’s head — the result of Minos’ wife, Pasiphae, hiding in a wooden cow (constructedContinue reading “journey into the labyrinth”

Tomorrow is Sigmund Freud’s birthday… his 155th. Rather than being cliché and focusing tomorrow’s theme on Freud (when, in fact, our modern world is probably over-saturated with his influence), I thought it might be interesting to consider Freud’s birthplace… Moravia, Austria. Freud was born in Freidberg, Moravia. Now part of the Czech Republic, Freidberg (and Moravia) wereContinue reading “Freud’s Moravia (allegedly) or infiltration of my own subconscious”