A Tiny, Shiny Green Dot

• It's Raining, It's Pouring, Was Up All Night Drawing...
• A Pleasant Surprise

The girl that I drew to keep an eye on the painting of the dog that I had warily let into my house is having a hard time getting a "read" on the thing, and so, I enlisted the help of her big sister., to offer her opinion. It took me, I suppose, about 2 hours to draw, and not the 4 or 5 that previous ones have taken. Then there were about a dozen trips back and forth across the floor to fix little things that I noticed from the couch could be fixed.

Still, I can't see trying to get a tourist girl to sit still for 2 hours while her parents fidgeted with now empty cups in their hands.

I want to send the above picture to the woman who had put the books and the dog out onto the sidewalk.

Don't Be Caught Without The Genius Within

I'm reading yet another "self help" book.

It's going to help me have a perfect memory, and all kinds of other abilities. I, um, can't remember the name of it.

But, it was something about waking up "the genius within."

A Google of that term has lead me to believe that a "genius" is one who has figured out how to compile a book with a similar title and get rich selling it.

OK, I found the one (left) that I am reading, among the twenty others.

It is kind of overridden by the Eckhart Tolle books that extol (extolle?) that true peace is not of this world, surpasses understanding, and that it is pointless to waste time trying to get "anywhere" nor accomplish anything "great" because of the ephemeral nature of things.Matter doesn't really matter, type of thing...

What's the point in trying to have a statue of yourself erected after your passing (or a tower that bears your name)?

Or to leave the legacy of spoiled brats bickering over your will and at each other's throats.

The irony is that, as soon as you stop dwelling upon "accomplishments," then they will materialize.

Of course if your goal, in not dwelling upon accomplishments, is that they will come, then aren't you in effect, dwelling upon accomplishments?

But, there it is (above).

It was among the free books that came along with the canvas with the dog already painted on it, and soon I might be a genius. I can't wait. Or, I can wait; I'm not sure which.

Plasma Bonus

I was pleasantly shocked when I checked the balance on my plasma card while in the supermarket last night. I had figured that it should have be 2 dollars and change, because I had gotten 20 dollars cash back out of the 25 that I should have gotten Friday night, while spending a couple bucks on the cat food that Harold would wind up not eating because he was sick.

The balance was 26 dollars and change. I must have gotten a 25 dollar bonus for it being the sixth visit of the month (it was August 31st) or maybe I won one of the monthly prizes.

I had been roaming the aisles, trying to come up with a meal, plus a can of cat food for less than the 6 dollars that was still left from the plasma cash.

I was carrying a brick of coffee ($2.65 for an 11.3 ounce brick of the SE Winn Dixie brand, a great deal if you're ever in Ignore-leans) and a gallon of spring water, at the time I got the news.

I had stared at packages of sausage for 3 dollars, thinking about the "keto" diet that Alex in California, blog reader had recommended...I do have mustard in the fridge...

And then had stared at the dozen hot dogs on sale for 2 bucks...I do have mustard in the fridge...

I then thought about all the pasta in my cupboard that an on-sale-for-2-dollars jar of Paul Newman's Own marinara could turn into a delicacy. He was very good in "The Color of Money," so I'm sure his sauce is excellent...right?

Oh, but wait; I might have a couple dollars and change on my plasma card to augment the six dollars left over in plasma cash...

When the recording told me: "As of September 2nd, your balance is twenty-six dollars and sixty two cents," I thought: It's September second already? and then, that I must have heard wrong.

But, after pressing "one" to hear it again, I confirmed that the plasma place must have put the decimal point in the wrong spot of my 2 dollars and change balance, or, it actually occurred to me that, since I had been one of the last donors on a Friday night and the staff had been giddy with anticipation of the weekend, and I had been jovial and had joked around with them -"Go ahead and get another bottle, I'll watch the game (on the TV)," I had said to the lady that was ready to unhook me- that they might have clicked a mouse somewhere to give me a 25 dollar bonus, out of kindness.

Then, I remembered how I had bitten the bullet Friday night, taken responsibility for my own welfare, and had ridden on into the darkness and gloom of Gretna rather than having spun around and gone to the Uxi Duxi where Jacob was offering to pay my way to the screening of "Pink Flamingos." See, good things happen; the Lord helps those who help themselves, type of thing...

I was leaning towards thinking that it had just been my sixth donation of the month of August. But, I commenced strolling the aisles of the Winn-Dixie, re-grabbing a Spider energy drink and the Paul Newman's Own marinara, both of which I had held momentarily, then put back.

It was the universe compensating me for not having played one musical note for any suspenders-without-a-shirt-underneath wearing gay guys in the quarter the whole weekend.

I got back to the apartment where I found Harold the cat to be apparently getting over the cat flu that he had been suffering from, and fed him a can of the Fancy Feast food that I had bought -the kind that a man worth almost 30 dollars can afford- and then wound up wanting to draw the older sister of the girl who keeps an eye on the painted dog, so she could offer her opinion on it.

Maybe the "genius" book is already having an effect on me.

I added to the Hip Hop song that I am working on, by inserting a couple samples from a Steve Miller song into it. It's strange to be able to compose music without even picking up my guitar; just cut and paste, and there you go.

The samples were from the song "Big Ol' Jet Airliner," and one of them was one of the very audible breaths that he draws in during that song. I have concluded that the engineers wanted to make it sound like a jet plane taking off, so emphasized are they: "Hhhhhhh Leaving off, out on the road, hhhhhhuh I've been down before..." type of thing.

So, now I have the sound of Steve sucking air in one of the repetitive loops in the song. I don't think I will have to worry about copy write infringement, because how will his attorneys be able to prove that it is actually him breathing in, and not someone else?

My goal is to have people say that my finished product is just as good as most other Hip Hop music. I'll worry about what to rap about, later, when I have most of the music done. I'm going to keep adding stuff to it until it it sounds like a bunch of repetitive noise i.e. Hip Hop.

If I can get my hands on a turntable, I can put the icing on the cake with some of that wicka-wicka scratching noise that was all the rage in the late eighties.

It went, like, so high, dude!

I remember when I had taken a Greyhound bus from Jacksonville to Seattle in 2000, and had let another passenger borrow my Walkman CD player at one point during that arduous 67 hour ride, and had discovered, once in Seattle, that he had left his "Chronic," by Dr. Dre CD in the thing.

The disc had a big green pot leaf adorning its front and a lot of wicka-wicka on it, after you hit the play button.

Little did I know then, that I had come into one of the "all-time classics" of Hip Hop creations.

Had I known, then maybe I wouldn't have tested how high into the air I could throw it. Those discs are very aerodynamic and really cut through the atmosphere. It became just a tiny, shiny, green dot in the Pacific Northwestern sky. But, since I was right by the Boeing factory in Kent, right outside of Seattle, Washington, well...the experiment seemed apropos.


It is about to be Tuesday, and I will actually be eligible to go back to the plasma place, after it opens at 7 AM. My aim is to do "both" -as in, both get the 15 bucks or whatever from the place, and then the 15 bucks or whatever, from busking on a Tuesday night, a day after Labor Day.