Allegedly

Hat tips to Peace Chick Mary for leading me to Chasing Daisy, who had a post with the funniest Irish Joke of 2006 (allegedly.) Here it is:

John O’Reilly hoisted his beer and said, “Here’s to spending the rest of me life, between the legs of me wife!”

That won him the top prize at the pub for the best toast of the night.

He went home and told his wife, Mary, “I won the prize for the Best toast of the night”.

She said, “Aye, did ye now. And what was your toast?”

John said, “Here’s to spending the rest of me life, sitting in church beside me wife.”

“Oh, that is very nice indeed, John!” Mary said.

The next day, Mary ran into one of John’s drinking buddies on the street corner. The man chuckled leeringly and said, “John won the prize the other night at the pub with a toast about you, Mary.”

She said, “Aye, he told me, and I was a bit surprised myself. You know, he’s only been there twice in the last four years. Once he fell asleep and the other time I had to pull him by the ears to make him come.”

See The Truth

My phone company, Working Assets, sent me an email this morning inviting me to a house party this weekend. It's to see An Inconvenient Truth, and immediately following the screenings, Al Gore will speak to all the participants and answer questions on a conference call. Click on the House Party link to find an event near you, or go to Al Gore.com to sign a postcard.

If you haven't yet seen this film, I urge you to do so. We have such a small window of opportunity to make change. Otherwise, we will be looking at buying condos on the Moon, or on Mars while our planet lies in waste.

Don't forget to send your photos for this weekend's edition of Good Planets.

Maybe its not in my head

I thought I was turning into a slacker. But no. I have this:

Mild depression, stiff muscles, swollen joints, insomnia, headaches, vertigo, nausea, fatigue and such excruciating pain that at times I can hardly get out of bed.

I'm told by a friend of mine that it sounds a lot like Fibromyalgia, which I have rejected out of hand for a long time. But these symptoms, and others, including pain in 18 of the identified trigger points, are starting to get me absolutely down. Here's the thing. My knees hurt so much right now that I can't think straight. It's been hard to maintain enough attention to go visiting blogs. I don't WANT this. I have always considered Fibromyalgia to be not so real, but this is getting to a point where I feel flat out insane.

What's the next step? I don't know a doctor to go to for this. I hate going to doctors anyway, so this is really not something I want to address. One day I think I should give up all wheat products. Then I think no, I'm not allergic to wheat. Then I think this is all in my head. I mean, I used to be a long distance bicycle rider, for chrissake.

So if I am lax, or not visiting as much as usual, it's not because I don't love your blog. It's because I feel really really shitty. I need cheering up, in the form of beautiful images, or funny stories. Which reminds me, I am accepting photos for Good Planets. Please get them to me at jkblue AT cox DOT net by Friday so I can post!

Good Planets are hard to find, December 9, 2006

To those of you who sent photos not on this weekend's edition, they will be on NEXT weekend's post. Although Marc in Australia sent several that I could not open at all. My computer is old, and needs more memory. But here are this weekend's photos for Good Planets:

Yankee Transplant sent this image of snow on buds, from last week's snow:




Glenda from The Peace Train sent this honeybee:




These two beauties are from Tree. First, an elegant tree-trunk:



And this lovely jack-in-the-pulpit:




Commandante Agi sent this beauty of Iguacu Falls taken in 2004.




More South Africa from Rowan of Circle of the Year:




Susannah from Wandering Weeta was kind enough to resend the two from last week which I could not open.

First, Deer Lake Reflections:




And just because it's cold, and I think she might have a dark sense of humor, this summer shot of Kettle River:



Two more from my own Bhutan trip:




A forest of Prayer Flags at 13,000 feet in Bhutan:



From Robin and Roger at Dharma Bums comes this beauty of their neighborhood. Not bad for an afternoon stroll, eh?





From Pam over at Tortise Trail, this image of Jasper National Park. She writes "We were driving alongside a string of small lakes when we came across this scene. The stillness of the water and the clarity of the reflection took our collective breath away. I wished I'd had a very wide angle lens to capture the breadth of the scene."




Whisker sent this juvenile Cooper Hawk:



Grandmère Mimi sent these wonderful baby mockingbirds, hiding in jasmine:

Friday Grandbaby Blogging

At the Nature Museum in Chicago, they have a section that teaches about rivers and streams. Beanie loves this section, because there are boats to play with, and wheels to turn, and buttons to press. More important, there is actual water to stick her fingers into and splash around.



Elmo wants to know what's for dinner, so Beanie reads the menu to him.



And when I called my daughter yesterday, she put me on speaker phone so Beanie could hear. I said "Hi Beanie, say hi to Gramma" and SHE said "ah-em" which is her word for Elmo, and apparently for me as well. My eyes welled up with tears of joy.

I am now accepting photos for December 16th's Good Planets gallery: all nature-based photos, can include people in nature.

Farts spark emergency landing

An American Airlines flight made an emergency landing this week after a passenger with severe gas problems struck matches to mask the odor of flatulence, an official said.

The flight from Washington to Texas landed at Nashville airport on Tuesday, in the southeastern state of Tennessee, after passengers alerted the crew about the smell of burning sulfur, Lynne Lowrance, spokeswoman for the Nashville International Airport Authority said.

She said all 99 passengers and their luggage were taken off the plane and searched, and an unlucky canine team was brought in to sniff the aircraft for explosives.

After intense questioning by the FBI, a woman passenger admitted to lighting matches on board the aircraft to conceal her gas, Lowrance said.

"For a long time she did not admit to striking matches and I think that was just out of embarrassment," she said. "She did finally admit to it saying she had a medical problem about excessive gas."

The unidentified woman was not charged but "American did ban her from flying on their airline for a very long time," Lowrance said.

Before and After

The western Buddha as it stood from A.D. 554 until March 2001, when it was destroyed by the Taliban. At 180 feet, it was the larger of the two:



A huge empty niche now punctuates the majestic Bamiyan Valley of Afghanistan where the giant western Buddha, one of two, once stood:



An interesting article about the two Giant Buddhas in the Bamiyan Valley raises the question: should these amazing sculptures be restored?

Who doesn't remember the photos in Time Magazine of grinning Taliban militia seated atop the Buddhas as they laid explosives to destroy them in March 2001? My own reaction was as an artist, rather than religious or spiritual outrage. As an artist, I loathed anyone who had the brass cajones to destroy works of art, protected by the UN as both endangered and as a World Heritage site. But the militia was ordered to "take down the gods of infidels" and viewed the Buddhas as just that.

"Five years after the Taliban were ousted from power, BamiyanÂ’s Buddhist relics are once again the focus of debate: Is it possible to restore the great Buddhas? And, if so, can the extraordinary investment that would be required be justified in a country crippled by poverty and a continued Taliban insurgency in the south and that is, after all, overwhelmingly Muslim?"

The rock the Buddhas were carved out of is soft, anddisintegratess in sun and rain. Huge chunks are carefully bagged andcataloguedd, but a tremendous amount of the rubble is just dust. In my own opinion, anyreconstructionn would ultimately be merely a replica of the originals. Are replicas the same thing? I've seen exact scale replicas of Michelangelo's David, and I've seen the real David. It's hard to tell the difference other than an ineffable quality that touches me in a way the replicas do not.

So should the Buddhas be rebuilt? At this point, archaeologists have access to the site that is only possible because the statues are gone. New discoveries are being made, and the entire history of the site is being revealed. Would rebuilding the Buddhas put an end to those discoveries? Were the Buddhas put in place to actually hide what's been hidden for centuries?

They were magnificent, amazing art because of their scale, and now they're gone. Art, by its very nature, is transient and fragile. Color fades, materials disintegrate, it disappears. Why try to recreate what has been removed?

I don't have answers at all.

December 10: Global Day to Stop Rape in Darfur

Big hat tip to Betmo about this action for global action: On December 10, 2006 - International Human Rights Day - join the global day of action and write in white to stop rape in Darfur. Write in White is a December 10th action encouraging U.S. activists to wear white, a universal color of mourning, and stand in solidarity with protesters worldwide and the survivors of rape in Darfur. Activists will be encouraged to host events and write letters on that day to help end the use of rape a weapon of war in Darfur.

The conflict in Darfur, Sudan, has generated some of the worst crimes against humanity imaginable: systematic murder, rape, kidnapping, and displacement. Civilians have been murdered by both deliberate and indiscriminate actions; millions have been displaced; hundreds of thousands have been "disappeared." In recent months, the violence has escalated, and the government of Sudan is resisiting the UN Security Council's mandated peacekeeping operation. Yet not one single person responsible for war crimes in Darfur has been brought to justice.

So write in white. It's a small thing, but a lot of small, global actions can make change.

Heifer International

I've decided to do a mass effort with Heifer International, since David Patterson was kind enough to visit my blog. So I've set up my own fundraising goal, and you can help by either clicking on the badge on the right side of my blog, or by going to here and making a donation.

Heifer has been helping poor families around the world become self-reliant by providing animals and the training to care for them. Each recipient family promises to pass along offspring from their animal to another family in need.

Heifer's simple but effective solution has helped more than seven million families -- 38 million people -- in more than 125 countries including the US, where more than 10 million people are chronically hungry.

There is no reason, in this day and age, that world hunger continues to exist. There is no reason, in this day and age, that people should be homeless. There is no reason, in this day and age, that people should be denied affordable health care. Here is one way to put a dent in the problems: please join me with a donation to Heifer International. Your donation can be as small as $20 for a flock of ducks, to as much as you can imagine. But $30 buys a hive of honeybees, which can create income for a family with honey production. $250 buys a water buffalo, which can help a family four ways: can help families in at least four ways. Water buffalos are draft animals. Their hair is woven into clothing and blankets. Their manure is good fertilizer. And their milk is rich and delicious.

Click the link, help, and I love you all for it! And I have a beautiful set of Prayer Flags from Bhutan for the highest donation!

The generous heart of Wal-mart

I love the Christmas season. It brings out the best in people, especially corporate giants like Wal-Mart. In an absolutely altruistic move, Wal-Mart says "thank you" to a handful of representative workers. Wal-Mart managers at 4,000 stores will meet with 10 rank-and-file workers every week and extend an additional 10 percent discount on a single item during the holidays to all its employees, beyond the normal 10 percent employee discount.

This is the company that over the last six months has sought to create a cheaper, more flexible labor force by capping wages, using more part-time employees, scheduling more workers at nights and weekends, and cracking down on unexcused days off. By offering an additional 10% discount on a single item, Wal-Mart makes everyone happy - the company gets to keep those wages in house, and the underpaid workers get a cheaply made item at 20% less than the normal 120% markup, and the company STILL makes a profit.

Unexcused absences include staying home with a sick child. But look on the bright side: workers who've been there 20 years or more are also being given a Tee-Shirt.

Don't you love the Christmas season?

Good Planets, part 2

Glenda, from The Peace Train sent a photo that I cannot open, nor save. My computer sometimes baffles me. I hope you send it again, in another format, my friend. And Suzanne sent five Deer Lake Reflections photos that I cannot open at all, so they aren't being posted either.


Frederick of MCCS1977 sent this poignent image of leaves on a road:















Dawn sent this beauty, Dark-eyed Junco from this weeks snow:





















Paul, from Wondering, sent this gorgeous one from Tumacácori National Historical Park:



















And from my own trip to Bhutan:









Email me at jkblue at cox dot net with your photos for next week, and in the meantime, have a great weekend!

Good Planets are hard to find

Back in August, Robin and Roger of Dharma Bums started this wonderful weekend photo gallery of our precious planet, as captured by various bloggers around the globe. In November, Pam of Tortise Trail took up the hosting gig for a month, and took it a step further by setting up this site on flickr.


This month, it's my turn, and I have decided to lead with Pam's photo. Blogger limits the number of photos I can post at a time, so I will do this gallery in multiple posts today, forgive me.






This delicate damsel fly captured my imagination, and plus it is a nice hat tip to Pam for the flickr site.









Next, Rowan of Circle of the Year sent this magnificent image from South Africa:



















Robin (Dharma Bums) captured this image of quail perched on a railing:



















Yankee Transplant sent this image of Autumn in Northhampton, MA:




















Mariamaria of mariamariacuchita sent this amazing sky photo:

Friday grandbaby blogging

Personally, I want to eat her up. She looks so cute, and since her cut, her hair is getting thicker and more luxurious. I miss her a ton.



And today is the deadline for this weekend's Good Planets photo submissions. I'm hosting every weekend in December, so if you miss today's deadline, there's still the rest of the month.

HIV/AIDS by the numbers

Friday, December 1st, is World AIDS Day. Let's keep the promise, and end this disease. This is not a Gay disease. This is not the disease of IV Drug users. This is a disease that knows no boundaries, and is everyone's responsibility. Here are some facts:

15 million children have been orphaned by HIV/AIDS. That's more than the combined total of all the children under the age of five in 48 of the 50 states in the U.S.

96 percent of all HIV cases are in the developing world.

25 million in Sub-Saharan Africa are HIV positive.

Every 60 seconds a child dies of HIV/AIDS related diseases.

14,000 people contract HIV worldwide every day.

75 percent of all the young people infected are women and girls.

Since HIV was first identified a quarter of a century ago, it has been a stigmatised disease, resulting in silence and denial. Every day someone with HIV experiences discrimination at work, in healthcare and among family and friends. Stigma discourages people from testing for HIV or disclosing their status to their partner, which fuels the spread of the disease.

Holiday Gift Giving

Well, we are deep into THAT season: overbearing television commercials; large crowds at the various malls; insipid piped holiday music blaring everywhere you turn; television "specials" with plenty of product placement; movies about Santa in various hijinks; and most important, buying more junk we can't use or don't want.

For the last several years, several of my friends and I have gotten together for a holiday dinner. We exchanged gifts the first years, then we moved to just drawing names from a hat; then last year, we all donated to an interesting charitable organization in all our names. So here's a list of suggestions of things you can do:

Heifer International is a wonderful organization that provides means of ending hunger throughout the world by supplying sustainable food sources and income to people in need. They also provide education, and, more importantly, recipients must agree to share offspring of gift animals with others in need. This is truly a gift that keeps on giving in a wonderful way.

Habitat For Humanity, one of my favorite organizations, is another way to help people help themselves. Their goal is to eliminate poverty housing and homelessness from the world, and to make decent shelter a matter of conscience and action.

The International Crane Foundation is an ecological organization committed to protecting all species of the rarest birds on earth, Cranes. By protecting habitat, and by raising cranes at their headquarters in Baraboo Wisconsin, they are reintroducing these magnificent birds into their natural envirnoments. If we protect the earth, we protect us all.

At any rate, those are three of my current favorites. If you have other ideas, please let us all know!

A Victory for Fair Use

It seems that the lawsuit against Stuart Frankel and his Barney parody website has been settled. I feel so much better. "Lyons Partnership (the corporation behind Barney and all his marketing arms) sent four threatening letters to a New York musicologist and computer repair technician who created a parody website that suggests Barney's affable public persona masks a secret double life. An image on the site depicts what the cute and cuddly Barney might look like offstage — with horns, sharp teeth, a pentagram and the devilish number 666 emblazoned on his chest."

There is a growing corporate assault on fair use rights, and Lyons Partnership's attack on Frankel is an example. Frankel sued them with the help of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a nonprofit group of passionate people — lawyers, technologists, volunteers, and visionaries — working to protect our digital rights. Fair use allows copyrighted work to be used in parody as long as there is no commercial gain and it does not replace the market for the original material.

EFF has also taken on the Department of Homeland Security and passport monitoring; and they also have filed a brief saying the government must have a search warrant before it can search and seize emails stored by email service providers.

"Aside from the fact that this is a great story about Barney the purple dinosaur who sings 'I love you, you love me' and yet his lawyers are out there spreading anything but love, there's a bigger point out there," said Fred von Lohmann, attorney for the San Francisco-based Electronic Frontier Foundation. "For every case like this we find out about, there are hundreds, perhaps thousands, of situations that go unnoticed where free speech is chilled off the Internet."

I am serious when I say I can sleep better knowing there is EFF out there for us all.

Please remember to email your photos to me at jkblue at cox.net by Friday for this weekend's Good Planets are Hard to Find photo gallery.

Dzongs and dongs; chillies and willies; and forests of prayer flags: images of Bhutan

It's Wednesday, November 8th, and I am seated at one of the two dial-up computers at the Riverview Hotel in Thimpu. Thimpu, the capitol city of Bhutan, home to the king and his four wives. The king lives by choice in a log cabin while his four wives each have their own palaces, but I digress. Next to me is one of the people from the Crane Foundation trip, and he's equally frustrated with dial-up, but we want election results. It's Tuesday November 7 back in the states. Our guide walks into the room and says "Only Democrats seem to come to Bhutan." Then he laughs and leaves us to our search. My neighbor says "We've got the House, we've got the governors, what's with the Senate?" At dinner, our three little groups have a victory party.







Bhutan is the last Bhuddist Kingdom in the Himalayas. Their form of Bhuddism is Tantric Bhuddism, and our guide keeps telling me that the highest form of enlightenment is sex without desire. Then he giggles. He tells me that penises are on the exterior of every home as a way to keep the ego in check. Think about this, gentlemen. If I have to explain, well, it spoils the fun.






Two and one half hotels have elevators in Bhutan. The half is being constructed. I climbed stairs, and more stairs, and then more stairs. I hiked at elevation, I rode a horse at elevation, and climbed more stairs. In nine days, I rode on one elevator, and that was when I did a hotel site inspection. Who needs a stairmaster? Let me send you to Bhutan!


For some reason, blogger is limiting me to three images on this post. I will have to publish others later. The Dzongs, fortresses with both a government and monastic section are imposing features scattered around the country. Chillies drying on rooftops, or next to doorways. Celebrations of the king's birthday with dancers and games. The Black Necked Crane Festival in the Phojbika Valley (at 9000 feet, I found it hard to call it a valley.) Forests of prayer flags along mountain passes, rivers, streams.

Bhutan doesn't have a GNP. Instead, they measure their GNH: Gross National Happiness factor. A very poor country, but somehow people are happy, cheerful, friendly. They are at peace with themselves, for the most part. In 2008, the king is retiring and his oldest son (first wife's son), the Crown Prince, will ascend the throne in what will become a strictly ceremonial role. The king has decided Bhutan needs an elected government, so along with his retirement, the Bhutanese will vote for the first time. And as he moves his country toward a more modern direction, the king has encouraged improvements to the infrastructure. Currently, roads (which are hand-built) are almost all one-lane, twisting, death traps through this extremely mountainous country. I watched crews of Indian workers breaking rocks along the roadside as roads are being widened. Several luxury hotels are coming in, or have already been built: Aman Resorts have a group scattered strategically around the country; the Uma Paro is part of our hotel group; Taj is putting a property in Thimpu.

But travel is controlled. Mountaineering is not permitted after yak herders complained: after Jimulhari, the highest peak in Bhutan (24,000+ feet) was climbed, yaks began to die, avalanches killed yak herders, illnesses crept in. The government outlawed mountaineering. You may not travel independently in Bhutan: you must have a visa, and a guide at all times. And while there are many cheap hotels and guest-houses, backpackers are discouraged.

The air is clean. Trash is limited. Dogs are feral and everywhere. Mountains, forests, rivers, birds - I saw a white-bellied heron, one of only twenty left. I saw the most beautiful hornbill. I saw other birds I can't name. And of course, the black-necked crane, making a comeback - up to about 150 now.

I recognize how lucky I am to be able to travel as much as I do. Yes, it's a part of my job as a travel agent, but so many of my collegues limit their travels to easy destinations that I wonder why they bother. This was not an easy trip. Nothing was familiar, but everything was inspiring. I live at sea level, so I was short of breath for the entire trip, but my god, did my butt get a workout on those stairs! And everywhere I turned, it was beautiful, inspiring, and amazing. Bhutan is the next really hot destination - and only a handful of travel professionals will be able to send people there with any real knowledge. I'm still processing this trip, it was so exotic, I don't have words for all of what I feel. But my heart feels at peace, and I know that comes from this trip.

playing catch-up

I'm behind. Way behind. Just got back from Thanksgiving with Ellie Bean. Still have to write up my Bhutan experience. And haven't been able to update anything, anywhere.

Haven't even visited all y'all! Forgive me.

But: for the month of December, I will be hosting "Good Planets are Hard to Find", an on-blog photo exhibit of your photos of this gorgeous earth, taken locally or when you travel. Email them to me at jkblue at cox.net and I will be happy to post. This incredible weekend exhibit was started by The New Dharma Bums several months ago, and nurtured by them. Now they've sent it out to the blog universe to be shared and sponsored by other bloggers. December is my turn. So please email me your photos for selection, and I will post as many as I can each weekend.

Also: Bean has given me three names. M-Ah (which also means Elmo); Baba; and Gamma. She climbed stairs without holding anyone's hand. She waved bye-bye and said bye-bye. And she drank milk from a cup - a real cup, not a sippy cup.

That's as far as I can go right now. The rest later.

Bhuddas and brothels -- three days in Bangkok

Hot. Steamy hot. Humid. Garbage, air pollution, people selling crap in the streets, all wearing face masks against the smells. Taxi drivers who cheat on fares. Shop keepers who follow you through the store, insisting you buy something. Crowds of people. People shoving. People shouting. People walking. Smoking. Coughing. Shouting. Busy. Hot. Steamy hot.


The Bridge on the River Kwai. The King of Thailand made a deal with the Japanese during WWII, thinking it beneficial to his people. The Japanese forced labor from starving prisoners of war - Brits, Australians, mostly, a few Canadians, some US soldiers. The museum focusing on this sorry history has on display the diary of a dying Dutch soldier. His drawings of both POWs and the Japanese captors showed compassion toward everyone. He wrote in his diary that he had no room for hate. He could not hate his captors, and as I read his words, I wept.





These creatures stand guard at the Grand Palace.






Hot, steamy hot, on the river, at the floating market. She's selling vegetables from her canoe. Another woman sells sticky rice with cold mango - it was incredibly refreshing. People washing dishes in the river. Hot. All the guides are named Nancy. 200 guides from this one company, all named Nancy.













The Reclining Bhudda is too long for my camera. He is over 40 feet long, and his face and posture serene. I cannot capture his essence. I am in awe of his grace.

Three days in Bangkok, with jet lag, and no sunscreen, and no hat. Hot, steamy, gorgeous, horrible, kinky, layered, textured, exotic, fragrent, stinky, spiritual, graceful, Thailand. I can't wait to go back.

Pictures to follow

Back from Bangkok and Bhutan. Talk about a contrast in cultures - Bangkok was all turmoil and clutter; Bhutan was quiet, clear and cool.

Briefly: Arrived Bangkok on 11/5 and hit the ground running. Hot, humid, exotic and modern, Bangkok is "in-your-face" vendors hawking everything from fine silk to little children for sex. After visiting the Reclining Bhudda, in a coffee shop, saw an older white man with a very young thing - either a real girl or a "lady-boy", it wasn't clear which. Tour companies offer outings to "lady-boy" shows. It was exhausting. Spent the first three days in Bangkok sorting through a cacophany of sounds, smells, waves of heat and humidity, all trying to recover from jet lag, and accompanying dizzy spells. That is new for me, when I get so jet lagged I now get waves of blinding dizziness. No time to get out of the city into the real Thailand, that wasn't this trip. Bhuddism in Thailand has merged with Hinduism, there are elements of both. All houses, hotels, buildings have a small "spirit house" outside to invite good fortune. I have no real take on Bangkok as it was too fast, and I was too tired to think. After three days, three nights, I flew to Bhutan. That is a post still percolating.

I missed you one and all.