Armageddon and Canada Day

Just last week several people from disparate walks of life talked to me about the alpha and omega.  They were concerned about world catastrophe, market crashes and end of the world scenarios.  They're mainstream moderates.  The crazies are getting to them.
I've never been the same since the Kennedy Missile Crisis.  Having some crazy woman tell us to practice getting under our desks or lining up ass to nose with other grade school students curled in a ball against the hall walls took away my trust in the world.
Yet that was so many decades ago and we've not blown ourselves up.  Fact is we're doing pretty good.  I reassure people mostly. I am a survivalist. I'm prepared in so many ways for Armageddon, wilderness medicine doc, off shore sailor, hunter, fisher, homesteader, scientist, a whole collection of skills that don't help too much in the economic world today but would make me a much sought after somebody post apocalypse.
We just watched the tv series, post Terrorist nuclear bombing of American cities, Jericho. Great show of best case scenario, all the bad stuff, gangs, rape and cannibalism happening with Shakespearean delicassey off stage. It was a terrific show with great characters and really deep community and family relationship writing.  Now we're watching the Outcasts, an English series , post apocalyptic about a new home for the earthlings who escaped the troubles and now are trying to survive on the planet Carpathia.  Great story, great acting.
Good entertainment.
The Jihads were going on in the time of crusades. The Chinese have been a war threat as long but their inherrent capitalism goes against the waste of all out war.  We had the Cold War with Russia and the West and now we have gangsterism around the world and competing arms dealers among the world's leading countries. It's just franchises and business as usual. Nothing terribly noble in sales since 'Death of a Salesman'.  The company doesn't take care of the workers even as well as feudal times which we call the dark ages but were they.  There's aloneliness and fear today that probably wasn't present when everyone knew each other from childhood..
A time of strangers. People don't even want to know what they eat and it's not even Solyent Green yet.
I stood in the rubble of the Armageddon dig in Israel. I think all Christians and Jews should pilgrimage there. Armageddon was a town at one time before it became a symbol.  It lasted a long time as long as any town did in the days of war lords. Now we have cities that are beyond anything that went before.  It's hard to  destroy cities.  Look at London.  Berlin is rebuilt.. Jerusalem and Mecca still stand.  Even Athens is muddling along. I love Mexico City, New York and Tokyo, and Hong Kong
What concerns me is those who say that humans are the parasites on the planet and should be wiped out. These are the eco terrorist suicide bomber ideas.  Kill the humans to save the mosquitos and cockroaches.  That's the nihilism that worries me.
There's a self loathing today and a denigration of human life. it's like the Holocaust reductionism of prisoners as bar codes.  With all the reality tv we're plagued with superstitions about Ghaia some earth goddess who sacrifices herself on the cross till one day she dies.  Forgive me but the earth has withstood far more than a few hydro carbons.  Men and women, children, and the sick will die alot sooner.  I don't think the planet huggers even care for their own and people who don't care for their own can't be trusted to care for each other.
Maltheus said that starvation, war and disease were the great correctors to human advance.  Just when Europe seemed as bad as the west was today Columbus and Marco Polo opened trade globally.  North America was as far fetched an idea then as Mars expedition and sentient dolphins are today.
I believe. I have hope. If Armageddon were just around the corner I think we all would have gone down in the Kennedy Missile Crisis or what the heck, maybe even the Rwanda Massacres.  That's more of what we need to be afraid of.  The Vancouver Riots over a hockey game speak to the mentality of the sports page whereas hundreds of thousands of Canadians were well behaved on Canada day.  That's politics and community.  .
We've got to get beyond playing games and realize Armageddon has come and gone.  That said there's a spirituality to living and spirituality is all about growing love within and celebrating life.

Bowen Island - SV GIRI - Journal

Yesterday the sun shone. I was up early thanks to Gilbert's wet alarm clock. I fixed the speedometer by pulling out the through hull sensor and cleaning the propellor blades.  I hate that moment between pulling the sensor bung out and replacing it with a plain bung. Water is spouting into the interior of the boat until the fumbling hands stop the inflow. Then when the sensor is cleaned the same procedure recurs with that sense of panic as water pours in for those exciting moments.
After Laura's delicious egg bacon sandwich with hashbrowns I lifted the new light weight dinghy over the side.  The outboard is only a 4 hp but I felt I could use a lighter one of those.  Assembled Laura and Gilbert, with Gilbert in his life jacket, headed to the Union Steamship wharf in Snug Cove.  There we went ashore to Gilbert's utter delight. He frolicked off leash with a few other dogs and shit on land twice.  We had our little doggy bags out to stoop and scoup in this pristine tourist park where dogs are really supposed to be on leash.  After I found a light knapsack, folds into a pocket pouch, and a water proof cellphone container Laura Gilbert and I headed up the dark and mysterious Dorman Trail. A kind of mini mini mini Grouse Grind.  A sort of walk really with a little uphill motion.  Great ferns
After it was back to the boat for more gruelling hard core mind muscle work out novel reading.  Then I made some Chicken Cacciatore on Linguine to much appreciation from Laura who ate from her plate while Gilbert cleans the pans and pots with enthusiasm.
Before bed we watched a couple of episodes of Netflix tv Jericho watching Jake have another rough day dealing with the corrupt post apocalyptic corporate power vaguely California like.  Texas comes off looking good at this point. No mention of Canada whereas lots of Americans ironically were hoping to be let into Mexico.
This morning it's raining. Heavy.  I don't have alot of motivation. If I was hip slick and cool I'd have the sails up and be coasting up Howe Sound in the very light winds, youthful and vibrant before the mast.  I'd vaguely thought maybe I'd go to Keats Bay this weekend but it's raining and this is a lovely anchorage.  Maybe another coffee. I might put out a crab trap or go fishing. But it's raining. The fish like the rain.  I'm really enjoying this book "One - decoding the universe" by Charles Seife whose book Zero I consider one of the all time greats of science explanation, right up there with Kuhn. I'm also reading a Patterson, Alex Cross detective book.  That's alot of work and even getting up on deck to get the generator going again to charge the battery operated device seems work. I could run the engine and charge this laptop that way.  The main batteries are just fine with wind generator and solar panels and little draw except the freezer and water pumps.
It's all so very challenging.  I'm overwhelmed with tough decisions.  I did light candles this morning to brighten up the place.  A little more coffee and book time. I've thrown Gilbert the ball alot and rough housed with him.  The choices though seem unbearable.  Stay, lift anchor, go where, walk around deck, read, maybe shower, I shaved, that was a major committment to the day, maybe have breakfast, then a nap. Can't forget the naps.  Helps one think about what to do or what not to do.

Netflix TV

I've just watched the first season of Jericho on Netflix tv. I've been sick so I've had time lying about and enjoyed immensely the ability to program my entertainment with this brilliant series.  No commercials.  Easy download. I love Netflix.  Cheap at $8 a month.  I've loved tv series I bought in DVD but the cost of $40 or more a season was relatively prohibitive.  That said, Sons of Anarchy was well worth the price when we got it at Sturges North and watched it in the RV rainy nights after a Harley run.
When I first got Netflix a few years back the selection of movies was limitted and I only watched a couple before dropping out.   I've seen a lot of movies over the years being somewhat of a movie buff.  Tuesday 1/2 price movie at the theatre was a regular event some years.  Now it's only the movie that's a must see big screen event like the recent Men in Black that gets me out to the theatre. Some movies are cultural events and seeing them early in the first week at the theatre allowed one to be able to talk about them. Woody Allen films were like that a few years back.  Then there's Kidman's Australia which really needs a truly big screen to appreciate it.  Australia is that big a country.  Otherwise we like to stay at home with the dog and watch DVD.
I'd watched an episode of Jericho on tv and never watched it again. The commercials disrupted the 'flow'.  However, watching the series over a week has been like reading a great book .  The characterization, the sub plots and sub stories have all been so alive this way.  I realized too that commercials have caused television story telling to have to be 'dumbed down'.  Jericho has alot more happening than alot of the mainstream tv. Ironically lack of commercials can kill a tv series but equally commercials can kill a great tv show.
Thanks to netflix I'm reviewing tv series I've not 'caught on' too because without the commercials complex character stories like Jericho are really extremely intriguing. The fast pace thriller aspect is maintained without the interruption too.
I'm hoping that tv series and movie series find a better way to 'make money' to make the money they deserve.  The acting and writing of these has never been better.  Other venues seems to have sorted this out.  I don't mind paying the monthly rent for this sort of quality. I imagine however all manner of things that could of gone the 'commercial' route like 'educational lectures' at Univeristy interrupted every 5 to 10 minutes by a jingo.  Maybe with the health care crisis surgery can interrupted for a 'word from the sponsor'.  I recently had the experience of a video commercial board over a urinal and thought while I missed the opportunity for my own thoughts I preferred commercial in the washroom to commercials in my livingroom.
Just as Frank Lloyd Wright asked that architecture consider the environment it was in  an ahead of his time ecological consideration,  high quality marketting really needs to get on board with better ways of selling without abusing the potential 'customer' the way commercial disruptions of entertainment have.
Netflix  is a  great antidote.
I don't have much time in my schedule for tv or movies as is.  I suspect though I watch at least a couple of hours a day of some sort of entertainment making me one of those roughly 20 hour a week sorts.  Perhaps that's a lot by some standards, less by others.  Whenever I'm sick though or recovering from an injury or overworked tv series and movies are a favourite distraction and entertainment.
Thanks to Netflix though I can better program the content - indeed I could watch more 'discovery' channel easily if I was so enclined. Frankly I do watch a lot of history and science material but nothing beats a good tv series for 'comfort food enjoyment'.  Jericho did that like Friends and Tudors did it, like some of the HBO mini series have too.
Probably having watched so much Jericho this last week I'm a little post apocalyptic and more attentive to the BBC news about world terrorism.  Certainly Sons of Anarchy didn't affect my desire to do crime, if anything it made me more against it, but it did affect my desire to ride my Harley.  Just seeing the bikes on the open road was invigorating. "Friends" always takes me back to medical school days,  nostalgia of student friendships that is always enjoyable. I appreciate the friends I have today more as a result of the relationships depicted in the Friends series and in Seinfeld too.
Netflix lets me choose the tv I want to view.  I confess, if I'm eating alone at home, I prefer to watch tv , a half hour, rather than watching a movie which can have me infront of the screen for an hour and a half limitting the available choices for the evening after that.
I like that it's on my laptop too.  My Mac Air is just fine for viewing.  The Apple cube and tv seemed over priced and didn't have what Netflix has in comparison.