Personification - 07 April 2021 - Plague Journal Day 391

Micah 6:8
1 Corinthians 8:4-6
Yes, your life matters.

We all are still sheltering in place, but I'm here to keep you sane and entertained.
One could hardly ask for much more than that, now could one?

You know what drives me crazy these days?
OK, that's not a fair question: there are far too many things trying to push me over the edge. Let me just tell you rather than post a quiz.
I keep hearing medical and public health experts tell us that "the virus is trying to get around our best efforts," or "the virus is trying to mutate to get past the vaccines," or a raft of similar pronouncements.
Balderdash. The virus isn't trying anything. It has no will, it merely exists. I seldom agree with Yoda, but in this case there really is no try. [There's still debate as to whether a virus is even alive (they were not considered "life" back when I studied Biology, lo these many years ago, but the state of that "science" is a bit different to what I learned).]

I understand the desire to personify the disease one is fighting. It's easier to think of fighting an enemy than of fighting a force of nature. Still, we managed to send men to the Moon and rovers and probes to other planets without talking of our war with Gravity.

A couple asides here:

• Yes, I believe we did land men on the Moon and returned them safely to Earth.
  
• Yes, I still like the poem "High Flight" - not in spite of its imagery of slipping the surly bonds of Earth, but largely because of that imagery.
  

 Back to my rant. I haven't heard them for quite a while, but there was a series of anti-cancer PSAs playing nearly constantly on the radio where the speakers addressed Cancer as though it were a super-villain and they the heroes fighting valiantly against it. I may have posted a screed about those some time ago (it's suddenly seeming as though I had). That screed, should it exist, still expresses my feeling that we're fooling ourselves by trying to make it a Good v. Evil thing. It's simply a part of fallen Nature with which we have to deal.

Enough vituperation. How about something just plain fun? Glad to oblige.
I ran across this video a few years ago, but yesterday it showed up again and I like it so much I wanted to share it with you. Yes, it really is Tico Tico for guitar four hands - one guitar, four hands.
Enjoy!

Keep Calm and Stay Away.
I'll be back tomorrow.
The mental health issues related to our lockdown and the pandemic are especially hard for people with depression. NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, has a 24 hour helpline: 800-950-6264.

23 July 2020 - Plague Journal Day 133

Micah 6:8
Matthew 15:26-28
Yes, your life matters.

We all are still sheltering in place, but I'm here to keep you sane and entertained.
One could hardly ask for much more than that, now could one?


There's something special about dogs. They not only bring out the best in us, but they often serve as good examples to us of how we ought to live.
Just a few days ago we were commemorating the first men to walk on the moon. I wonder how many of us recall that the Soviets sent a dog into space on Sputnik 2 - her name was Laika (Лайка if you prefer) - less than a month after they had launched Sputnik 1 and sparked the great Space Race. She was the first living Earth creature to orbit the Earth.
Less well remembered is Otis, the first American dog on the Moon (Luna if you prefer) who was sent there just before Apollo 11 in order to determine the composition of the lunar soil. He found it to be very pleasant to dig in, and reported that finding to Houston with a merry wag of his tail.
Here's some rare archival footage from his exploration. A bit of potentially useful trivia is that the first command issued from NASA to a dog on the moon was a palindrome: "Sit, Otis." Alas, there is no evidence that Otis ever sat - he was too busy expressing the terrier aspect of his heritage.





Otis, a grateful nation sends you its thanks and appreciation. Good dog.

Keep Calm and Stay Away.
I'll be back tomorrow.