rohnbayesjourney

nothing to speak of

when i find myself with nothing to speak of the door to myself opens a little bit and a soft light escapes

i usually walk right past looking for brighter lights and something to say something to do something to explain but occasionally i stop and open the door and go inside

sitting with me here on the table is a latte in a glass and the light reflects off it's side and into my eye

outside there are two balloons dancing in the breeze one orange and one red tied to the tree across the street

i'm waiting for migas with jalapenos to arrive and there is light coming from every side

i'm noticing i'm noticing i'm alive there's light when i close my eyes

hi charlie

indeed a safe trip was had by all 

i went down the dark tunnel to the underpass east on mistletoe with the sun dropping low and passed over at st marys thru the park 
 and into the brackenridge picked up speed coming down the creeek
until it emerged on  broadway
and set forth on the sidewalk heading north to the west of the cars that were in the road
i whirred past the bum on the bench passed out on booze dreaming of angels and past
the sprinklers at the witte museum their jets intersecting above the grass in a perfect pyramid of light  i remembered
our conversation and the necker cube and loving the water and was doused with the sprinklers last laugh
the last wave of the last fountain  spraying out over the street from it's place in the grass
i laughed

past the university and the blue hole thehome of the original ones
those here
when we found the place and adopted it for our city council for our own protection against the wind and our economy built up against all odds and built on the solid stock of our economy the hotel right there on the right where the cowboys live even now the restless the lonely
and coming down the street a couple of buddies bringing home the beer
sleepy already with the haze that beer brings and central market the oasis of light appeared and people
 shopping with their carts moving here and there left and right
i stopped and moved among them until i found the water fountain
 and then moved on  the uniited methodist church of christ is up on the left
it's all on theleft on this leg running up  broadway thru the desert of lower upper mid way until
 i saw the beacon of light on the broadway bicycle shop it's chevron shining out
blue and white guiding me upt the hill and thru the forest of alamo heights densely packed with escalades
and down morning glory again to the traffic on new braunfels highway

that's where the danger lies i raced to the other
side when space permitted
turned right at the sunset ridge apartment buildings
climbed the tor upinto the devonhood and sprinted the last
hill thru the drive and past the gate to the backyard
where the sacred spring lies
parked the bike and there baptized

found on the picnic table at UIW campus

 
near the rivet a tiny little guy
drawn into the wood and standing next to a maze on one hand and on the other a giant mushroom
arrows are pointing into the maze and next to the magic mushroom a panda emerges from the clouds chewing on the exclamation pointed bamboo
behind the panda and over it's right shoulder floats a lotus and a clump of grapes - drops are falling from the lotus which turn into hearts and rain down on all below

this completes my account of the drawing if you cannot see it plain enough due to the vagaries of light under this oak at noon or the limitations of my cell phone camera

but what i really like about the picture - besides the fact that it's here on the picnic table with me on this glorious spring day in san antonio texas a wispy breeze barely felt and a perfect temperature leading no doubt to the variety of dress employed by the students and their shoes oh my the high heeled black power stompers and the persian grey slippers the common tennis shoe and the flip fop sandal are all passing by - but what i like most is the comment placed near the maze by an anonymous author setting up a challenge for any takers to try and conquer it's devious ways

'Bet you can't do it! $10!!!'

and the reply carved carefully nearby 'cause there's no way you loser you cheater'

but there is
and it's the shortest route possible visible
at the bottom left corner of the maze apologies
for mentioning it zig zag zog you're in and out

simple and sincere

we live in a world of conflict
misunderstandings and missing in action

simple and sincere communication can resolve conflict
but how do we communicate simply and sincerely ??

we are bombarded with information that is spun intentionally
in order to elicit a response 
or unintentionally thru the opinions perspectives beliefs and assumptions of the speaker
simple and sincere communication is rare

(i'm just thinking this thru  . . . the whole idea started this morning in response to an email describing a conflict that happened and which represents one of many that have occurred in my life which ofcourse i took part in creating intentionally or unintentionally probly because i wasn't sincere or simple instead was looking thru one filter or another of my ideas assumptions beliefs and opinions)

simple and sincere communication comes from a simple and sincere person
so how does a person be simple and sincere ??

learn from those who are ?? yup that's a good answer

progenitor

I would like to claim as my progenitor the Rev. Thomas Bayes.  He is the inventor, ofcourse, of Bayesian statistics whereby one can prove the existence of the unknown through statistical inference.

This is a mighty skill and very useful as we shall see and practiced with zeal and due diligence by my family tree whose branches and fruits extend thru the reverend ministers and minister's wives of the Presbytrey and the Baptist (without excluding the Methodist).  The reality of things unseen and unknown having been previously the exclusive purvey of theology, the advent of 'Bayesian statistics' shed new light on what might be called 'possibility'. 

According to the theorem there need be only a paucity of evidence regarding any unknown phenomenon which when subjected to the rigors of this analytical persuasion results in knowing of (if not knowing) the nature of a non-existent thing.  This seems to me the essence of all religion after all and a true intellectual epiphany of one who was schooled in the logic and theology of 18th century Scottish Academia.  Indeed how could it be otherwise when that which we seek to know holds no attributes other than those described by scripture and dogma, the combination of the two sometimes referred to as 'magma'.

Ascending the throne of heaven has never been more lugubrious, the spokes of the ladder never more luminous.  We can assume to know and that assumption carries the assurance of logic therefore the world comes to be known in it's surety and lies fallow at our feet awaiting our gruff command and our great pronouncement, something of imminent domain, fecund with possibility and rich with the fat of the goose.  Indeed we call upon the giant universe to bring forth whatever we want and although it sounds entirely implausable it is no problem at all for those of us versed in 'Bayesian statistics' and bathed in the blessed Knowledge of our illustrious progenitor, the inimitable, the inestimable, the inevitable Rev. Thomas Bayes.

reading an email

i have something to say about something
i often do
finding the right words is the way of writing which
is my point writing
used to be symbols and pictographs - glyphs as in gyroglyphs
like the giant giraffe that used to roam africa : ) there see it happened
again the gylph appears

my friend
wrote me a letter the other day on email
and signed it with
.......__o
.......\<,
....( )/ ( )
i couldn't figure it out until i read the subscript
Riding 70 miles for a cure
Tour de Cure 2009
ok now we have the same arcane symbology of our written language representing cryptograms in the form of bicycle riders
the point as i type away on my apple computer book happily tapping keys assigned meaning by abc but also replete with apples and wizard signals and my typepad blog too with a full row of arcane pictographs along the top - 'my tool bar' ah yah i'm feeling like a cave man now working with my tool kit chipping away on the stone making fresh marks

is that it all comes around in a big fat circle
doesn't it and what does it mean to be human ??
and what is our origin ??
maybe your kids one day reading their kindle will know a question that
we forgot what am i doing here ??
no really

let's go
.......__o
.......\<,
....( )/ ( )

in the sauna

i'm writing in the sauna on my yellow legal pad
the pencil is dripping with sweat
drops fall off my nose onto the paper forming small puddle shaped no-write zones
that i must navigate around carefully     to reach my destination

  my writing    is becoming squiglier and some letters have gone issing
only a fain t recollection  of   wh  at might have b een

the next page is sogg   y too
real estate       scarc   e

   encroaching from the     south
the swift heel of my hand prints it's own stamp
   while the fingers   of the sea
reach up quietly into the rece ding m  ap

into           the   mangroves    and into the   f arms and valleys of         my land
the   cities and towns of my construction 

cvilizati n itself     and the s elf

     the tide is     rising
                  the sea is winning
            it's 128 degrees in here
         ti  me t o jump in t he po     ol

how we make our own

bread
gardens
arrangements of flowers
wars
baskets of fruit for the
invalids among us
beds
and lie in them peacefully
at sleep
mistakes without counting
apple sauce
shopping lists
yes how we make our own way
as if the way was made
without us
how we count within ourselves
on time
the ticking metronome that
has no sound

like the underside of the
leaf mulch on the side of
my house where the trees
have dropped their curious
shapes and matted into a soft
blanket
known only to the cats and
the small insects that roam
there living their lives
unseen unknown unspoken

if time had a smell it might
be this must of changingness

we make our own analogies
for time

how we make our own
each one of us
is unknown

an ode to snow

the record snowfall in north america is  Mt. Shasta Ski Bowl, California on February 13-19, 1959. 189 inches of snow fell (480cm) in one storm.
that might be my spot
i'd dig myself out in the morning
huge 15' snowdrifts covering my front porch
and shovel my way downtown throwing snow to either side
of the blade
slicing thru the soft glittery stuff and still falling find my way to doc's cafe
to sip a hot camachito and store up enough energy to dig my way home as
the snow forms a dome above my head and blocks out the sun while i still burrowing
below finally find my house and let myself in
to watch movies all day and read some poetry when i'm not practicing
yoga or living each moment at a time   
what can you do with all the snow piled up halfway past the second story window and a sky the same color as a warm mouse ??

fun facts from wikipedia and a group hug

"Modern humans" are defined as the Homo sapiens species, (from the Latin: meaning "wise human" or "knowing human")  DNA evidence indicates that modern humans originated in Africa about 200,000 years ago. 

The closest living relatives of Homo sapiens are two chimpanzee species: the Common Chimpanzee and the Bonobo.  Full genome sequencing has resulted in the conclusion that "after 6.5 [million] years of separate evolution, the differences between chimpanzee and human are just 10 times greater than those between two unrelated people.

Sexual social behavior

Sexual intercourse plays a major role in Bonobo society, being used as a greeting, a means of conflict resolution and post-conflict reconciliation.  The species is best characterized as female-centered and egalitarian and as one that substitutes sex for aggression. Whereas in most other species sexual behavior is a fairly distinct category, in the bonobo it is part and parcel of social relations.

            

gee where did we go wrong ??
our male dominated sexually suppressed highly stratified societies use war and violence as a means of conflict resolution - even our gods get angry

somebody threw a switch somewhere and we decided to go down the path of control and domination instead of embracing the common good - we often choose fear and loathing instead of love and compassion

we build F-16s and nuclear bombs
the bonobos choose to substitute sex for aggression
so if we are the 'wise humans' why shouldn't we be able to adopt a new strategy  ??

or are we going to blow everybody up before we get tired of war ??
i suggest a group hug instead
maybe a music concert
we could use our clever brains to convert war machines into energy producing devices with no pollution
we could invent ways to live on our lovely planet while respecting all human beings and their lifestyles

and the critters too - they just want to have fun
why not invent a worldwide communications device that allows all people everywhere to communicate with each other and express themselves instantly in multiple medias so we could talk to each other and exchange good ideas and creativity

oh - we already have that
now we're making progress : )

the breath of life

if you haven't visited rama over in the sidebar
you're missing a treasure
his blog is full of stories and illustrations that are funny
and wise and always deliver the punch line at the right time

the illustration below for example is from a story about '826' schools
and the writing classes they offer kids
'a boy named ethan wrote this story about an x-games fan who does a natas spin on the empire state building.'

that's the punch line but the joke is already building in the second paragraph
'ive been a fan of the 826s ever since christine brought me to the pirate supply store at 826 valencia in san francisco.'

prepare to move at comic book pace thru a galaxy of stars and a hundred realities and end up feeling like a super hero or atleast proud to be human

humanitarian mother goddess sex bohemian

bohemian

now i'm posting other people's blogs
on my blog
this is an easy way to blog
probly because i'm writing a book about being a bohemian

the nest of eggs

1. 

i was looking for garbage bags in the shed today
and found a bird's nest
sitting on top of the black plastic garbage bags
shoved into the corner
it held 4 red speckled white eggs
and 1 sky blue one twice as big as the others

seems impossible to me for the same bird to lay two
different kinds of eggs

any comments ??