Monthly Archives: December 2015

The Baboon Congress

instant inspiration

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Today’s post comes from tim

i remember hearing about , i think i even read the book by amy tan about the travelers to myanmar   (burma… siam) where the story came to her in one sitting and she simply sat down at the desk and out it came from her brain to her fingers to the page to our published finished product. well it was a pretty good book and i think the bridges of madison county came about the same way if i remember  the way that story goes… it seems a bit hokey but the truth is the magic is in us and the release is the thing we all search for.

i was watching monday night football last night and one of he running backs who was having a great night had been asked why he is doing so well this year and he said he just quit thinking about running and let his legs run. i think that is the way it is with life and with all great things on the planet. you dont need to over anaylize them , you just let them go and kind of follow along like water down  the driveway to the curb to the hill to the drain pipe on the corner. if it is engineered correctly and life often times is… we can wake up,  let the flow carry us as it should and hopefully the destination is a more ideal setting than the drainpipe on the corner but the destination has likely been charted to be no surprise by the steps we take.

my sons two favorite movies are good will hunting and shawshank redemption. he can watch these over and over again. in one the hero is a smart guy who does his job and the end result is that the bad guys turn out to be the heads of the prison and he escapes from their suppression and they get caught and in the other the hero is a guy who is super smart and has the challenge of figuring out his way in the worlld. his role , who he loves and how he faces it with the help of another person who struggled in a similar fashion.

it is interesting where the stories and lessons of life take us. where our fingertips  take us  if we  let them. it is automatic as can be. this is not the best damn blog entry ever written but it took my fingers little time to get it down and out the chute.

what would you write if the word you just typed couldn’t be taken back and the next one was coming up whether you liked it or not? how would the stories unfold if your fingers took over for your  brain? automatic writing 101 anyone?

start with the first  word that enters your mind and follow it with he next and see where it takes you. fun stuff this mindless drivel

produce. maybe you will be better.

ready set go!!!

Poems, Science

Brain Sex Science

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I was delighted to learn last week that after scientists conducted a close examination of the one sexual body part no one obsesses over, it was concluded that human brains are not distinctly male or female.

That’s right  – no real difference.  Both sexes come to the dance with the same basic between-the-ears equipment.

When I revealed this to Trail Baboon sing-song poet laureate Tyler Schuyler Wyler, he swept out of the room with no comment and tromped up the stairs to his tiny garrett.

I couldn’t tell if he was hurt, angry or inspired.  Until he appeared several hours later with this:

A research shelf is where they sat.
The bottled brains of May and Matt.
Who once, in life, met in a bar.
Now side-by-side, each in a jar.

Their first encounter didn’t last –
an opportunity both passed.
But in the lab, a perfect date.
Paired up by color, size and weight.

The lab assistants, on a whim,
located hair for she and him.
On the containers, fitted snug,
A girly wig. A manly rug.

The hair was fluffed and teased and plump.
They called them “Marilyn” and “Trump”
And everyone enjoyed the laughs
of brain jar hairstyles, over glass.

But years went by as well they must
The jars and wigs collected dust
Experiments were rather rare
for brains floating beneath fake hair

Until the lids came off one day.
They lifted out both Matt and May
and placed them in sink to drain.
That’s a big deal for an old brain.

With samples taken, back they went.
To their containers, both were sent.
Except no one had thought to ask
which brain belonged inside which flask.

But still they float inside their jars.
Which brain is Venus, and which Mars
has not been proven to this day –
without the wig and the toupee. 

Describe your favorite headgear.

 

Food, The Baboon Congress

Come Along, Don’t Go Along

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Today’s post comes from Jim Tjepkma

I had the very good fortune to spend five years working closely with Dick and Sharon Thompson in my job as the coordinator of the Rodale Institute’s Midwest On-Farm Education and Research Network.  The Thompsons were among the nation’s foremost leaders in the development and promotion of sustainable farming.   I meet them soon after Rodale hired me early in 1989.   I was the second coordinator for the Rodale network that had been setup several years earlier.   The network was based on Dick and Sharon’s approach to advancing sustainable farming, which was centered around farmer participation in education and research programs for the development of alternatives to conventional farming methods.

Screenshot 2015-12-09 at 6.47.31 AM

Dick said that he had received a message telling him that his approach to farming should be one of coming along and not going along.   For him this meant that he should question the current farming methods that were very widely used and look for better ways to farm.   He started by trying out some unconventional farming practices he learned about from other farmers who were also questioning the increasingly industrialized approach to farming that most farmers had adopted including heavy use of pesticides and the use of very large machinery.

Under Dick’s “come along, don’t go along” approach, he put together some of the best of the alternative ideas he could find into a system that worked well for him.  Dick had a lot of skill at finding and adopting better farming methods and came up with practices that worked well which were not in line with many of the practices recommended by universities.

He decided that he needed to demonstrate that his methods were as good or better than the ones the universities promoted by setting up scientifically designed research plots comparing his practices to theirs.  His research plots became a central part of large field days that he and Sharon hosted and he also taught other famers, included those in the Rodale network, how to do their own research.

Dick was a featured speaker at many farm meetings and usually participated in these meeting with Sharon at his side to let everyone know that she was an important part the work he did.   He also encouraged other farmers to come forward as speakers and as educators as well as encouraging them to engage in research.

I think Dick and Sharon’s approach of “coming along not going along” sets a good example for all of us.  In fact I think his approach is basically what a good citizenship should do.  We should not automatically accept what we are told by authorities and we should be actively engaged in creating a better world.

Who do you know who has influenced you by setting a good example?

News, The Baboon Congress

How Does This Change Things?

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Header image via Flickr,  copyright Moyan Brenn (CC by 2.0)

Today’s post comes from Barbara in Robbinsdale

I have just come across this article by Kerri Westenberg in Sunday’s (12/6/15) Star Tribune Travel section about a woman (Catherine Reid Day of St. Paul) who was in Paris during the November 14 attacks on the City of Light. She, her husband, and daughter had spent the day being tourists – been to Notre Dame and the Louvre – and were back “in their hotel by 9:30. The terrorist attacks at restaurants, a stadium and a concert venue began at 9:20.

She found out about them via a text from a friend back in the States, asking if they were OK. Then they turned on the TV.

The next day (Saturday) they ventured out and found one store open, a book store – appropriate, she said, “because education is the antidote to all of this.”

To have the attack in San Bernadino, CA, happen on “our own soil” almost three weeks after this event is unsettling, to say the least. One of the saddest outcomes of this random act of violence is, ironically, how much it will hurt the Muslim communities throughout the US and the world.

A Washington Post article re-published Monday, 12/7 on msn.com contains this quote: ‘ “The purpose of terrorism is to make ordinary people afraid to do the ordinary things that make up their lives,” said Janice Rutherford, a member of the [San Bernadino] county Board of Supervisors. “We can’t be afraid of our lives, of our community, of our neighbors, of our coworkers.” ’

It seems from all the rhetoric around these two events that this is being considered another “watershed moment” in our history, the way that 9/11 was – we will remember a before and an after.

What, if anything, do you think has changed in the world?

The Baboon Congress

tim tackles time

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today’s post comes from tim

my 28 year old son made the comment the other day that his friends who were giving him crap about not being available as much once he got into a relationship was seeing the other side of the equation now that they got involved in a relationship and are now not able to get away themselves.  he laughed and mentioned that he was going to try to put together an event that would call them together so they wouldn’t lose the friendships out of attrition. i was about to suggest that he set it up for every two months because the every month get together is too easy to miss. if its every two months the missing of oen meeting makes a 4 month void which either is a big deal or the premise was wrong to begin wit.

this got me thinking about time chunks. if a year is 365 days and a season is 90 ish days long and a month is 30 and a day is 24 hours…. what does it say about the decisions we make regarding the comings and goings of a time chunk?

i love the christmas feeling of goodwill and the side of people that comes out to greet the season. i got to thinking if christmas were every  6 months it would lose its effect. the time is perfect for a renewal without feeling harassed.

the seasons are perfect 90 days of spring followed by 90 days of summer followed by 90 days of fall then  winter to be done in order once again next time with a variation of the glob to be realized during and after it is experienced. fall 2015 has been mild, winter has been easy on the shoulder hunchers and downright mean to the winter outdoor enthusiasts. if summers warm got issed the way winters cold is mieed this year we would have wailing and gnashing of teeth. . people in san diego and equador lose the urgency to do it today because the time of this cycle is real.

our book club meets every 2 months because every month  is too often. my card palying group plays once a month because we need one  night  a month to call our own the group is not particlarly close but has an appreciation for the celebration of coming together once a month for reknewal and commrodarie in the name of the time gods.

if a day was 12 hours long and the planet sun a little faster so the day of work play and sleep had to happen in a 12 hour instead of a 24 hour frame it would be schitzo. if the day were 30 hiurs long would it be nice to have a little more time to ge tthngs done but what would we do with the extra 6 hours?

there was an experiment i read about ears ago where they locked people in a building with no references to time and had the days and nights blocked out and no clocks radios or references to time in the traditional sense. you could watch a movie but not on the normal 7-9 agenda you normally do it would be when you wanted and when it was over the next thing on your calendar would come up. sleep would go as long as it needed to and only as often as you demanded it.

how often would  you do what if you were the timekeeper? 

Science, Travel

A Weekend Getaway

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Although there’s no real reason to want to escape on this mild December weekend in the heart of what is already one of the busiest travel times of the year, we do have the opportunity to transport ourselves to Pluto today, thanks to new images released by NASA.

I would not have guessed even last year that I’d be able to sit in my living room on a sunny Saturday morning and do a flyover of Pluto. The texture of this distant terrain is fascinating, but not so much that I’d like to see it first hand.

The heat source is a bit distant for my comfort.  I’m fine watching from here.

The image above is of Pluto’s moon, Charon.  They’re calling the dark smudge at the top of the moon “Mordor”, which sounds like the first bit of travel marketing for this far end of the solar system.

No doubt the Plutonian Tourism Agency (PTA), when seeking to book tour groups, would have a big challenge in closing the deal, with an average surface temperature of -384 F.

One time honored tactic is to show impossibly beautiful people having fun in the location being advertised.  But its hard to see those models when they’re sealed up inside their spacesuits.

And for outright fun, how about “surviving”?

What travel marketing tricks work on you?

 

 

Uncategorized

Ask Dr. Babooner

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We are ALL Dr. Babooner

Dear Dr. Babooner,

Last Friday I spent ten hours building websites and troubleshooting tech problems at my day job, and then I trudged home to do some online shopping.  Through the weekend I checked in with all my friends and family on Facebook, followed the Sunday football games on my fantasy league sites, and spent the wee hours of the next day chasing down Cyber Monday deals before heading off to work.

Then today while I was Googling concepts for a client who has an amazing idea for a new app, I realized something kind of frightening – I’m totally fed up with computers.

Which is kind of a problem  because I’m at the keyboard,  staring at a screen pretty much nonstop during my day.  If I really can’t stand computers, I’ll be out of work and on the street before the week is out.

At first I thought I should go to the HR department and talk to someone about it, but then I realized I didn’t have to – I could just go online to find a whole bunch of great resources to deal with computer fatigue.

And guess what?  The internet is also full of advice for what to do when you’ve had it with the internet.   Most of the sites tell you to log off and go outside and do something physical, though there are also a bunch that suggest you to clean the house or take a nap.

But I didn’t do any of that – because the more websites I found about people hating computers and being online, the better I felt!

I don’t know if that means I’m cured, or just more pathetic than ever.  Do you?

Uncertainly,
DigiFried

I was about to answer DigiFried when I realized it was an unseasonably mild day in early December, and if I took an afternoon walk I could watch some snow melt in the local park.

What do YOU think, Dr. Babooner?

The Baboon Congress, Words

Mail DisOrder!

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Header image by Dvortygirl via Creative Commons 3.0

Today’s post comes from Barbara in Robbinsdale

I know a lot of Babooners probably shop Online, which has to make things easier during this season. Husband and I are still going to the Bricks and Mortar places for most of our purchases. HOWEVER, we have managed to get on catalog mailing lists galore – we probably bought something through a catalog in 1992 that sold our info to another catalog… and now I’m getting Christmas merchandise catalogs to the tune of three a day.

I have here in front of me: LL Bean, Catalog Favorites, Potpourri, Whatever Works, Harriet Carter, Miles Kimball, Bits and Pieces, Collections Etc., Walter Drake, Dream Products, FeelGood Store, and the Vermont Country Store.

And that’s within just the last few weeks.

I have to admit I like looking at some of them, especially if I haven’t seen one in a while. I particularly enjoy the funny t-shirts, some of which I cut out and put in people’s Christmas cards with the caption – “If I were buying you a gift, here’s what it would be.” Some that have made me laugh out loud this year are:

Plus these hits:  

    • It’s not hoarding if it’s only books 
    • You cannot be old and wise if you were never young and crazy
    • I’d grow my own food if I could only find bacon seeds
    • Families are like fudge, mostly sweet with a few nuts!
    • A little gray hair is a small price to pay for all this wisdom!
    • What is this word “NO” you speak of? 
    • You are about to exceed the limits of my medication
    • Gardening is cheaper than therapy, AND you get tomatoes

And my personal favorite:

  • I may be old, but I got to see all the cool bands

But even though I often dog-ear some pages and save the catalogs for a while, I won’t order anything, and I wish I could think of a way to stop them from sending me all this paper.

What’s your all time favorite t-shirt?