Cormega - Testament

listen to this!

Durutti Column - Smile In The Crowd

And my ache never goes

:-) What a beautiful day...

Something kept taking me back to 9/11. I knew I didn't know the full story. World Trade Bldg. 7 made sense to me. It was due to explosive devices. But who would convince hijackers to commit suicide for a horrible cause? No one in their right mind would do that. People die for ideals, not for evil.

This now makes quite a bit of sense -- there was _no_ plane. The hijacked planes got rerouted. Then missiles hit the World Trade towers and the pentagon. The footage always looked extraordinary silly. And ever notice how people in NY never mentioned seeing a plane? It all happened "so fast" and most likely the buildings blocked might sight-wise. But who heard it? No one, it was never there.

There are a whole series of these.

People on the ground see no plane, but reporters who are watching a screen insist there was one.

Mobb Deep - Shook Ones pt II

Ahh Cormega is getting me back into hip hop. Mobb Deep, also from Queensbridge. An oldie.



Also this is a hilarious annotation of the lyrics. lol!

"Listen to the words of the song and take the advice it gives you: stay away or you will be killed, literally and lyrically"

Hexagram 16 - Weaving Images

I'm still getting slowly familiarized with all the hexagrams. (I frequently get the same ones repeat over phases) but I got a new one today that I haven't gotten before - Weaving Images. My favorite sources for I Ching translations / commentary are LiSe Heyboer's translation and the Online Clarity community.

user: martin

16
Please wait, don't do anything, just listen, just feel ..
Listen to the sound of silence ..
And feel the waves of peace ..

Within the sound of silence you will hear other sounds, subtle sounds.
Within the waves of peace you will feel other waves, subtle waves.

Subtle signals ..
Do you hear them? Do you feel them?

If you don't, no need to worry, just wait.
The time will come. Just listen, just feel ...

Hey! Now don't fall asleep! Stay alert! Be ready!

But please wait. Just listen. Just feel.
When the time to act comes you will know it.
When the door opens you will hear it.
When the wall gives way you will feel it.

Just listen to the sound of rain ..
And feel the drops falling on your face ..
That is all you need to do.

user: micheline (posted at 11:11 :))

Wait, for now.
Distrust everything, if you have to.
But trust the hours.
Haven't they carried you everywhere, up to now?

Personal events will become interesting again.
Hair will become interesting.
Pain will become interesting.
Buds that open out of season will become lovely again.
Second-hand gloves will become lovely again,
their memories are what give them
the need for other hands.
And the desolation of lovers is the same:
that enormous emptiness
carved out of such tiny beings as we are
asks to be filled; the need
for the new love is faithfulness to the old.
Wait. Don't go too early.
You're tired.
But everyone's tired.
But no one is tired enough.
Only wait a while and listen.
Music of hair,
Music of pain,
music of looms weaving all our loves again.
Be there to hear it,
it will be the only time,
most of all to hear,
the flute of your whole existence,
rehearsed by the sorrows,
play itself into total exhaustion.
Galway Kinnell

Do you believe in synchronicity? Do you think it's unusual that these poems are speaking on a note that is identical, despite the latter being written unaware of this hexagram? Or that Kinnell used the word 'weaving' in "music of looms weaving all our loves again", while LiSe choose to translate this hexagram as "Weaving Images"? And that despite the ambiguity of the I Ching and its translations, I am always lead to the right place, the right page, with all the relevant poetry on it. It often seems to echo what is speaking inside myself already, at a greater amplitude. :]

Cormega - The True Meaning

Man, this is awesome. He's real.

It's my birthday! :-)

And I'm celebrating it by creating some computer art. I'm coming to realize I'm just a child of this generation, and I really have a soft spot for computer art over hand drawn art. I just love bucket fill. And, the options are so limitless. I included for example this bird, the Akohekohe, which apparently is native to the island of Maui!

Think of how lucky we are to create whatever art we'd like to create, whatever journey we'd like to set our soul down. One should never underestimate though that the process of creation is hard.

something was said

I am excited to think that we are all moving back, back to a place of innocence. A place were I don't have visceral memories from, but only glimpses of the rawest feelings. When information was sweeping through and didn't know how to filter it out, catagorize, and stuff it aside yet. Feelings got the larger hold of me, and I wholly bent with their power.
College… early on, all I remember felt like a trip. Perhaps because it was. That really blew me away freshman year. I can't emphasize how much my perception of the world changed after psychedelics. I was an entirely new person. But more confused than ever. But I do remember strange little things like, the night and people glowing like deep neon colors. But not glow sticks, I mean their souls.
And the goings and comings of things. And how we all kept meeting at the same places, realizing we had been going nowhere all along. But the act of pretending we were doing something, or that something was happening was growing tiring to me. I felt like something somewhere _was_ happening. The only moments I realized anything was happening was when I zoomed back far enough, beyond the walls of the rooms, beyond the shapes of the buildings, out to the sky, out above the Boston skyline, and saw unreal beauty. And realized I was in a picture. A 4 dimensional painting.
And the days were perfect. I remember the Fall. The first Fall was the best, because my filters were down. All I could do was be in awe, as things got cold and our souls sunk deeper.
And I dug up some haikus I wrote around 2005. So awesome, many were about the Fall.

a new morning
dried leaves blowing
like empty pages

Somewhere along the way, I sat with you completely exposed. My heart I mean. And we felt how linked we were. Somewhere along the way, something you did caused me to misinterpret that something was wrong with me. And that I had to close this heart. And I made a mistake by interpreting your alarm as a reason to close my heart. I should have loved you all the more. But it was hard.
Tearing down these walls and refusing the boundaries I've since created for myself is returning back to innocence.
And today as I sat eating lunch watching all the Berkeley students walking by, I thought about my own college experience… high school experience.. etc. And I thought about how deeply I felt I was in a rat race. We all do, don't we? We're constantly comparing ourselves and judging ourselves by supposed criteria.
Well a revolutionary thought came to mind… all of that comparing is the underlying problem. There is nothing to compare to. To return back to innocence, we have to stop ourselves at every single judgement we make and say "to make a judgement is a fallacy in itself."

It's as if that function in the thinking brain was really supposed to be used for the most mechanical things, but we've been building comparisons from thin air and implementing them as if they have any truth simply because the masses have bought into them. But they still have no truth.

Returning back to innocence is undoing the way our mind has been working. I can't wait, because innocence is such a pleasantly simple and delightful state.

something was said
but now I see it was
all noise

Byron Katie

A friend suggested Byron Katie to me, and it's taken me a while to look into her work, but yesterday I did so. Right off the bat, I knew her work resonated with me because from what I understand, she asks a simple set of questions for any circumstance, and challenges the mind. We don't challenge our own minds enough when we begin to get affected by the emotions it is creating in us. We become so stuck in our emotions, we don't question deeply enough if there is a good reason that we should be feeling this at all in the first place. When we cannot detach from our emotions, it becomes a feedback effect, amplifying the situation.

I got a hold of the essence of her work, which is remarkably simple yet stunningly powerful. She asks you to pick a situation which involves someone who you haven't forgiven yet, and see this as a mirror of your relationship with yourself. "This is the most powerful place to begin. Even if you‟ve forgiven that person 99 percent, you aren‟t free until your forgiveness is complete. The 1 percent you haven‟t forgiven them is the very place where you‟re stuck in all your other relationships (including your relationship with yourself)." she says.

Then you fill out a worksheet answering questions about the situation, being as petty and emotional about the situation as you can possibly be -- triggering a relieving emotional release. Then you turn it around, as if you are now standing back from the thoughts and doing some operations on them, almost scientifically. After you've altered them to ideas that you wouldn't have come up with intuitively, you can marvel at how moving these new concepts are.

I liked her questions a lot, but after working through it once last night, I found these questions to be most relevant for me, so I thought I'd share them. :)!

1 What and who is making you feel wrong?
2 What do they need to be in order to make you feel happy?
3 Why do you feel they are doing this?
4 What is it that you don't want to experience?

5 When reading #1, how do you feel?
6 When reading #2, how do you feel?
7 How are you sure #3 is correct?
8 Can you feel happy for the person for making the choices they are making?
9 Turn #3 around. What if that was the case?
10 Turn it all around. Put "I" in replacement of the other person.

11 Why are you causing your unhappiness? What are you trying to achieve?
12 What would it take for you to achieve this?
13 Now, realize, you already have it.

Below, I'll input a sample response so you can see how it's done. First, a great quote from Byron Katie:

"Forgiveness is realizing that what you thought happened, didn't."

1 What and who is making you feel wrong?

I thought Allison and I would become good friends but she hasn't been making any time to hang out with me even though I've offered many times.
I see Allison hanging out with Phil and wonder what kind of special connection they have that I could not have.
Allison is so elusive when I ask her what she is up to and she never includes me in any of her plans.
I could write her off, but she's expressed that she really connects with me at other times, and I feel very good when she is around.
Allison is making me feel inadequate.

2 What do they need to be in order to make you feel happy?

Allison should be more interested in me and should make time for me so that we can become good friends. She also should share more about her life and include me in her experiences so our bond can grow.

3 Why do you feel they are doing this?

She must be doing this because her life is going so well, that she doesn't have time or interest to incorporate me into it. She seems so busy always.

4 What is it that you don't want to experience?

I don't like being around someone who I like, but who does not pay attention to me. I feel stuck speaking to her about it because she is shameless about saying she doesn't have enough time for the next few months and that makes me feel rejected.

5 When reading #1, how do you feel?
Relieved emotionally from having it expressed. Why am I stuck to her response to me?
6 When reading #2, how do you feel?
It sounds like I do not like Allison for who she really is and how she prefers to be acting.
7 How are you sure #3 is correct?
No I am not sure. But I am not sure why she doesn't feel like incorporating me into her life wouldn't make her happier. But back to the point, no I am not sure it is correct. Perhaps she does things for different reasons than I assume.
8 Can you feel happy for the person for making the choices they are making?
Yes, because it seems like her relationship with Phil is making her happy. And she seems to be growing into a beautiful woman day by day. I love her.

9 Turn #3 around. What if that was the case?

She must be doing this because her life is not going well. Hm, interesting. Maybe it's not. I have no idea.

10 Turn it all around. Put "I" in replacement of the other person.

#1 - I thought I and I would become good friends but I haven't been making any time to hang out with me even though I've offered many times.

I wonder what kind of special connection I could not have with myself.

This is interesting - I don't think I haven't been making time for my own self persay. But the latter point made me realize that perhaps I am envious of the relationship _Allison_ has with herself!

#2 - I should be more interested in me and should make time for me so that we can become good friends. I should also share more about my life and include me in my experiences so our bond can grow.

Wow, echos what I thought above. Perhaps the key thing is time with myself spent interested in myself!

#4 - I want to experience being around someone who I like, who does not pay attention to me.

I guess the right way to write this is more like "I can experience…" etc rather than want, but yes, it would be nice to be able to experience this without discomfort.

11 Why are you causing your unhappiness? What are you trying to achieve?

I am trying to get my own attention … to learn to be more independent in my own experience.

12 What would it take for you to achieve this?

13 Now, realize, you already have it.

Yay!

Anyway, so that's an example. I feel like it can really get down to the root of some very interesting issues in your mind! : )

Open Street Map

I like the vector graphics view on Open Street Map soooo much better than on Google Maps. I have no idea why I didn't stumble on this before.


Look at how adorable Treasure Is. looks! But very simple and pleasant for the eyes to look at.


Emphasis on trails. Great color choices.


Wetlands are well-designated.

My only criticism at the moment is that their legend is severely user unfriendly. Otherwise I love it!

week 1

Ahhh, end of a long grueling week, but it felt soooo good to be working my arse off. Good like it's never felt before. I used to really get stressed out when working. I had these flashbacks today to sitting in an empty office in the giant computer science building at Rutgers that my dad worked at. He stuffed me into an empty room one summer in an attempt to perhaps teach me things and put me to work so that I could put it on my college application. Nonetheless, the experiment was a failure. I don't remember what I did. But I think it was simply try very hard. And repeatedly get frustrated.

All I remember were little things like - marveling at how unused this barren-feeling room was. And yet, it had a happy energy around it. Like it was smiling every day as the sun shone on it through its large window, overlooking the New Jersey skyspace. And the area itself was very potent for me. Just a short walking distance away was Marvin Lane, a grad student residence that my family lived at for 5 years when we first moved to the states. Those were my ages 5-10. There were good memories, but there were also bittersweet memories of emptiness and loneliness.

My dad's office hadn't changed since he moved to the states. There was something about him too, that I felt like wouldn't let go. And it's almost as if he passed off his perspectives and views on work to me at one point, in a subconscious way that he did not know, and throughout my life, as his daughter, I felt the same core problem but tried to deny it.

So that summer, I was a teenager at the end of my high school years. There was no way he could get me to do anything. I just moaned and complained and any advice he'd try to give me felt like too much. I excitedly ran off to MIT, and now have landed my dream job working at another university. And so ultimately, have landed back where he left me. And through all my experiences have only gotten closer and closer to the heart of him.

But I remember these unusual sandwiches my mother started to pack me that summer. That was almost around the advent of my digestive pains, so my mom, out of a great kindness during that period of time when she was enthused about sending me off to a great university, started to make sandwiches for me. She never did that. That wasn't her style. She was a financial analyst who left what I ate up to me, but she starting to make me this, which I remember really tasted like she had put the special ingredient of her love into them. In the center they often had a giant hard boiled egg, often still a bit creamy. And around that, avocado, lettuce, tomato, carrots, other veggies, and some delicious sauce she concocted.

I typically would not like or remember such things, particularly because eating food has given me pain for some many years, so I rarely have stunningly positive memories from any of my meals. But in this sterile office, after nearly pulling my hair out over nothing, and feeling my intestines eat themselves alive because of all the stress I carried... I ate these gooey messy sandwiches which were filling and large... and that was perfect. That I remember, bite by bite. And naturally I felt horribly sick afterwards..bleh.

That was my life and my absence of it. And reaching through the few books on the bookshelf on the room and finding a book of holocaust images strangely placed there. It's my dad's scientific and detached perspective that really confounds me sometimes. There were images of people mutilated by the war and descriptions of what was done to them, like castration. And yet... the book just quietly sat there in this sterile rarely used office in the middle of New Jersey.

I of course was deeply affected and had no way to press a 'stop' button on my emotions, so one day I remember spending just doing that - crying and feeling traumatized over all the images I had just encountered.

I felt like I was so young and still so unexposed to the world. So affected by everything. But everyone told me I was about to become an adult. When would that happen though? I was unable to work on my own. I was only used to working under pressure and instruction. I could not emotionally handle the things I casually encountered. And my physical health rendered me unable to sit in a chair normally for long periods of time. I just felt raging pain. So I was pretty certain if I got anywhere in life, it would be by a sheer miracle and subsequently had little faith in myself.

And then there was that empty feeling I got when I looked out the window. New Jersey always seemed too quiet. 'Empty' is really the only right word to use. I can't pin it down.

But there was some lingering depression from my childhood, as if it was supposed to all build up to something, and all the pain of moving here from my comfortable and beautiful Croatia was supposed to justify itself. But it wasn't what I expected, this Disney land of freedom. I had quiet angst about it.

So back to the empty room. I actually felt happy there, if I didn't think about how pointless that experience was. And how poorly efficient I was at making good use of my time. I clearly remember just staring into space there. Marveling at how absent it felt of any energy at all. Esp. emotional energy. But it was comforting too. It was happy, light, airy, spacious, empty, quiet, beaming, unknown, unused, and ah.. I forget what else I need to say about this. But that's what came up today, and that made me happy. Either way, I'm happy to be where I am right now. I experience myself as the same person, and much less of a train wreck. :-)

Durutti Column - Never Know

o.O

I stumbled upon more videos that challenge the HIV/AIDS idea... very fascinating.

Part I

Part II

Part III

Remembering 9/11

MOdELS

Lol, oh the things you find.

Superfund sites

The internet continues to weave me into fascinating places. I am grateful for all the information we have access to, in this very dark age. Ie Superfund sites, which undoubtedly industries and the government would like to keep as obscure information, so as to not create alarm, and not reveal their true importance. It really is ludicrous the games they gamble with our lives. As they hook us up, as if on drugs to media and BS, while poisoning us and our earth is something we shouldn't ask dwell too much in... being informed about it is disregarded as hypochondriac and paranoid. Yet we hear nothing about it. Go live your own stupid lives and stop looking here we are constantly being told! I pity the ones who trust them, or think that it is worthwhile to take the easy path and not challenge every since way of being we are instructed in. This has often been my own pysche... but I am grateful that life hasn't allowed things to be that easy.

From the EPA: "Superfund is the federal government's program to clean up the nation's uncontrolled hazardous waste sites. We're committed to ensuring that remaining National Priorities List hazardous waste sites are cleaned up to protect the environment and the health of all Americans."

Superfund sites (red, active) according to Wikipedia.

"EPA added the Global Sanitary Landfill site in Old Bridge, New Jersey to the Superfund National Priorities List on March 30, 1989 due to hazardous chemicals found in the soil and ground water. The 60-acre site located in Middlesex County was licensed by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) to accept non-hazardous waste. The landfill borders Cheesequake Creek Tidal Marsh on three sides. In 1984, the State had to close the landfill after part of its southern side collapsed and slid into the marsh. The State observed that the area of the marsh affected by the landfill contained volatile organic compounds (VOCs) which are potentially harmful contaminants that can easily evaporate into the air. It was later determined that drums containing paint, paint thinner, and various other solvents were buried in the landfill, and when the landfill collapsed these solvents contaminated the ground water. This posed a danger for the nearby water supplies as well as Cheesequake State Park and Raritan Bay, which are used for recreational activities."

The 57-acre Hopkins Farm site is one of seven similar hazardous waste sites located in the vicinity of Plumsted Township. From 1962 to 1965, the Hopkins Farm site allegedly was used by Thiokol Chemical Company for the disposal of drummed and bulk wastes. Pesticides, volatile organic chemicals (VOCs), and heavy metals are among the contaminants found on site. The site is in a wooded area immediately north of an active farm. The town nearest to the site is New Egypt, approximately 2 miles to the southwest. The Fort Dix Military Reservation is approximately 3 miles to the south. Approximately 1,000 residences are located within a 1-mile radius of the site.

The Sayreville Landfill is an inactive municipal landfill covering approximately 30 acres in a moderately industrialized area of Middlesex County. The site was one of a number of disposal operations located along the tidal South River. The Borough of Sayreville owned and operated the site as a municipal landfill beginning in 1970. It was licensed to receive municipal waste and light industrial waste; however, hazardous waste was allegedly disposed of during operations, and after closure in 1977. Part of the site is in a wetland adjacent to the South River. Approximately 67,000 people live within a 3-mile radius of the site; the closest residence is located 1/2 mile away. Because of the tidal influence and the infusion of salt water, private wells in the area are not used. The Sayreville and Perth Amboy well fields are located within three miles of the site. There are other municipal wells in the vicinity which are tested regularly.

Phenol, heavy metals including iron and manganese, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), were detected on-site in shallow monitoring wells. On-site surface water was found to be contaminated with cadmium and lead. On-site sediments also contained toluene and trichloroethylene (TCE). Benzene, arsenic, and chloroform were detected in on-site soils. Groundwater and leachate from the landfill apparently migrate into the South River. However, due to mixing and other factors, significant contamination from the landfill has not been detected in the South River's waters, which flow into the Raritan River.

EPA added the Middlesex Sampling Plant (MSP) site to the National Priorities List on January 19, 1999 due to the presence of radiological and chemical contamination. The approximately 9.6-acre Superfund site in Middlesex, New Jersey was part of the nation’s early atomic energy program established by the Manhattan Engineer District in 1943. The contaminants identified when cleanup began in the 1980s were radioactive particles in the uranium and radium decay series, various metals (arsenic, chromium, and lead) and volatile organic compounds. Site investigations and monitoring indicated that elevated levels of contaminants were present in soils, sediments, groundwater beneath the site, and surface water moving through the site.

During the twenty five years Fried Industries operated at this location, the company manufactured floor finishing products, aqueous detergent solutions, adhesives, and algaecides on this site in East Brunswick Township in Middlesex County. Fried Industries also produced chemical products from components such as toluene and 1,1,1-trichloroethane. At times, site facilities were leased to other companies for the manufacture of automotive antifreeze products. The site property occupies 26 acres and contains a pond, a marsh area, and several separate wetlands areas. A building complex also existed at the site prior to its demolition. The site is located in the northwest corner of East Brunswick Township on the border with the Borough of Milltown. The site was once the location of a sand and clay quarry. In 1983, EPA found that hazardous wastes were improperly stored on site, and that the soil was contaminated with volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and arsenic. Further examination of the site through 1984 revealed deteriorated buried drums as well as evidence of improper handling, storage, and disposal of hazardous materials. Conditions at the site resulted in contamination of the soil and ground water, with seepage into the ground, threatening the underlying Farrington Sand aquifer. About 7,000 people live in the adjacent Borough of Milltown; approximately 43,000 people live in the Township of East Brunswick.

I'll just say the list for NJ seemed about as long as the list for CA. Hmmm

One more interesting Wikipedia tidbit: "Approximately 70 percent of Superfund cleanup activities historically have been paid for by parties responsible (PRPs) for the cleanup of contamination. The only time cleanup costs are not borne by the responsible party is when that party either cannot be found or is unable to pay for the cleanup. For those sites, the Superfund law originally paid for toxic waste cleanups through a tax on petroleum and chemical industries. The chemical and petroleum fees were intended to provide incentives to use less toxic substances. Over five years, $1.6 billion was collected, and the tax went to a trust fund for cleaning up abandoned or uncontrolled hazardous waste sites. The last full fiscal year in which the Department of the Treasury collected the tax was FY1995. At the end of FY1996, the invested trust fund balance was $6.0 billion. This fund was exhausted by the end of FY2003; since that time funding for these orphan shares has been appropriated by Congress out of general revenues."

New Jersey

Ever since I tried to create a personal map of the landfill in relation to my house yesterday and got severely frustrated, despite trying several programs including My Maps in Google Maps itself, I've started digging through map apps today. I greatly enjoy wikimapia because it has sort of human relevant landmarks and annotations on it that help me get a perspective of the area I'm looking at.

I resorted to making a hand drawn map, and today I've been examining all the neighborhoods around the town I lived in, East Brunswick, and gathering a list of places I'd like to visit when I go back. I never realized how close I was to Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Staten Is, Newark, etc. We rarely left EB, barely went to the City. I also had a bad visual perspective of Manhattan and the surrounding Jersey areas for a long time simply because Long Is trips me up with the way it extends out from the NY state, often making my mind lazy enough to forget that Manhattan is actually quite land-surrounded.

And here are some of the spots that appealed to me to take a peek at

CommunityWalk Map - njay

Edgeboro landfill

I found out today that I lived within 5 miles from the largest landfill in Middlesex county. Turns out: "The lower Raritan River is home to a number of large landfills, including KinBuc, Edison, ILR and Edgeboro. Edgeboro Landfill is more than 300 acres, bordered by both the Raritan River and the South River. "

No wonder it was such a sad place. I always felt that... it was such a sad place. And I lived so close to the water. The water was crying, no doubt. Man, what a pity.

Here are some of the links I sent to my parents today, to make them feel a little guilty for living there for 6 years. (and elsewhere in East Brunswick for another 2). And for not understanding that NJ sucks, but particularly what ill spirited lazy humans are doing to it, who do not care at all for the environment or the people who live around it.

"Landfills emit methane and other gases that must be captured or burned off. In the cases of the two in East Brunswick, the systems in place were not collecting enough emissions, the federal agencies said. That Middlesex County had built on top of the capped landfill exacerbated the problem and made it difficult to collect emissions, the EPA said."

"Edgeboro is a mess," he said. "It's long overdue for the landfill to be closed. Instead, Middlesex County came in and is dumping on top of it, industrial wastes in addition to municipal garbage."

" The Edgeboro landfill did not have an adequate landfill gas collection and control system in place, which allowed excessive amounts of landfill gases to escape into the surrounding area. The facilitys air pollution control devices were also not operated properly, and various types of monitoring were not conducted.



The nonmethane organic compounds (NMOC) in landfill gas contain volatile organic compounds and hazardous air pollutants that can result in adverse effects to the respiratory system, damage to the nervous system and cancer. "

"For over a decade, solid waste discharged directly from Edgeboro Landfill into the Raritan River. "

"Edgeboro Disposal Inc. has been treating the Raritan River like its own private garbage can, instead of the resource that it is," Spiegel said, noting that he would like to see daily fines issued by the DEP until the issues are resolved at the landfill."

The place I lived in seriously has the spirit of one of the loneliest forgotten uncared for places on earth. It's hard to describe how this happens in a semi-urban area. It's just awful. There's no better way to describe it other than, someone took a shit on it.

===

PS. I found some cool aerial images of this area throughout history. My parents bought a townhouse in a tacky housing development that was built in 1996 so you don't have to go that far back to see a nice habitat in that area.


1995 before the development was built (see exposed soil)


1979 it looks like there was some type of man made(?) pool there


1954... wow it's all green! no wonder they call it the garden state! and look there were farms along Rt 18, and over the plot of land where the East Brunswick Mall is now. Darn.. who knew that plot of land was ever being used for something useful :-P


1947... no one here! it was farmland


1931... quite wild! :-)

Poesie Noire - Tragedy

YEAH.

Plastic Fish

Neat video on why you shouldn't eat fish! by the guy who made JUNK and navigated around.

92% of Afghans unaware of 9/11

Fascinating, esp relevant given 9/11 is in a few days.

Afx

God this is good!

Crvena Jabuka

Seriously is this not the best album cover you've ever seen?

Crvena Jabuka = Red Apple

A croatian band that was big in the 80s, that my parents were into. They have some really good stuff. Brings back nostalgia for me.

Critters

This dragonfly my roommate found still on a leaf deep in our backyard. She thought it was dead though it was tightly clinging to this branch and petted it freely and the dragonfly did not react. However, we later found it was in some sort of state of hibernation after it flew away after we prodded it enough. It was quite stunning though, as it was sooo large. And to see it up close was really cool.


A little kitty from the neighborhood came to visit so I was trying to play with it with a bushy tailed plant Mary left me.