planted things

humanity has subdued the earth --
plowed it under, paved it over,
permitted things to grow
only where they are planted.
trees, like fences and lane markers,
grow in straight lines.
cholla and yucca and poppies
grow only in forgotten plots
hidden in canyons, fenced off.
i ask you, who asked the palms
to grow where they do?
the eucalyptus trees and junipers?
no one.
each plant --
the eucalyptus and the poppie --
grows where it finds itself,
takes root in the dirt it's given.
there is a certain wisdom there.
but i think i'm glad
i'm not a plant.

Tempos Brasileiros

I've been playing with iMovie.

Woohoo!

I just submitted my first conference paper!

Kitten War

I know many of you have seen this already, but I feel obligated to notify those that haven't. See kitten face off against kitten! You choose which one is cutest!

I have a new blog

It seems the thing to do these days is to have multiply blogs. Pinkerton has at least two, kirinqueen and hober have a few a piece, and some people out there are mass producing them. So I have decided to get with the program, and I have a new blog. There, I will tell the world everything it needs to know about itself. Here, I will continue to wander among gardens and fields.

Physical humor

Pocket Taser

Traveling

create your own visited country map

(15 countries)
Note that in contrast to the travels of Mr. Carroll, Mataikhan, Caedmonstia, Slowlane, and Jeorge, I have barely traveled. My traveling within the US is similarly sad:

create your own personalized map of the USA

especially when you consider that in three of those states I never left the airport, and in Arizona I've never been beyond Yuma.

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Addendum: Here you can make a map of the places you've been and the places you want to go to. What's not as fun is it's a flash dealy that you can't post on your blog.