Recommended Products (unsponsored)

         I provide this small list of items I wish I'd discovered when I was younger, don't know how I got-by without previously, strongly recommend now, and would immediately replace if lost.  Although approximate 2020 prices are included, I suggest using camelcamelcamel to know if the current price is high or low (relative to previous prices).  The links to Amazon are for ease of identification and are not sponsored links.

          This CGEAR ground-cover/mat is not only for camping and picnics, but can be staked down in high winds with attached eye-rings.  It was designed to be utilized as a beach blanket, to prevent sand from being carried back to the vehicle, but I use it primarily as a base for stargazing (keeps clothes / top blankets dry) and as a 'home base' when exploring the forest with my cat.

          Available in several sizes; the 8' x 8' is between $50 - $80.

          The DURALEX Unie glass has a perfect heft, volume, shape, and size.  It holds 20oz (560ml), weighs 9 ounces (250g) and is made of tempered Duralex, which is the same material as vehicle glass.  If it breaks it shatters into tiny square pieces and not into sharp shards. 

          There's only one perfect size: French pint tumbler goblet $10 - $15.

          Having a favorite bar of soap is a first, for me—but I am so dedicated to the smell, creamy texture, and longevity of these triple-milled Wavertree & London (lemongrass and lemon myrtle scent) bars, I keep a "back stock."  (It's not hoarding if you only keep a 6 month supply is it?)

          Large bar, made in Australia:  $9 - $10.

          This Ibiyaya double-compartment backpack is sold as a pet carrier (definitely great for cats) but—as a backpack—it is durable, ergonomically-comfortable, and luxuriously outfitted with great details (which you weren't even aware you'd appreciate, until you discover them in this fantastic piece of high-end luggage).

          Overall size:  22"x15"x11.5"; $145 - $160. 

    

A Flatter Curve Means...

• People not wearing a mask or social distancing (until 2021 or 2022) are more-than-probably narcissists, sociopaths, or fools.

• In the narcissistic sociopath's mind, everyone else is either insignificant or unimportant; their dysfunction causes them to only focus on their own convenience and comfort.  It's uncomfortable to breathe your own exhale.  It's inconvenient to maintain awareness in order to keep your distance.

• Psychopaths try to blend in, so they'll not be as easy to spot.

• Governments have begun to loosen restrictions because their hospitals are below capacity.

• Fools take this to mean: "it's all clear, we can go about our normal lives."

• Narcissistic sociopaths never wore masks or kept a distance.  They are just glad to be able to blend in with the fools now.

• Doctors and historians say this will not go away until at least 80% of the entire population contracts it (if antibodies prevent re-infection, which is still unproven).

• I had it and don't want it again.  I (and scientists) don't know if I'm still contagious.  I still wear a mask and keep a distance because empathy causes me to not prioritize my comfort and convenience over other people's life. 

continue covid19 creations:

on contracting it April 2020
re-contracting it June 2020

Kōan

Haiku 俳句
another haiku

Artwork

sociopaths infecting intentionally

narcissistic sociopath's behavior (besides no mask)

Arthouse Bizarre Convoluted Dark Films (ABCD Films)

          Continuing the theme from Chasing Svelte (films from 2005-2008) I provide eight of the most convolutedly-bizarre, dark-humor films of all time (as of 2019).   These ABCD Films are not in alphabetical order, best-to-worst, or oldest-to-most recent; they are in my recommended viewing/re-viewing order, which is referred to as mix tape order (explained by Rob Gordon in the very non-bizarre film High Fidelity).

           If you are unfamiliar with this cross-genre niche, welcome to discovering something you will either love or hate.   


Rubber is the first on this list because it rolls somewhere between unexpectedly-strange and oddly-hilarious.  Why do the characters speak English in this French-Angolan film?  No reason.  If Rubber is too surreal and unsettling (even though all great films, without exception, contain an important element of no reason) then you have already learned not to keep watching down this list.


Bad Boy Bubby is so much more of everything (which is why it's in the #2 spot).  This underground, extremely-dark Australian comedy contains some thought-provokingly disturbing imagery and very adult situations.  Not mainstream horror, but a few scenes fall so far outside "normal film standards" that viewers who enjoy it are confirmed ABCD film lovers.  (Rough-experimenal in technical quality.)


Allegro non troppo, an animated Italian musical formatted like Fantasia, is insightful, humorous, and consistently off-kilter.  Familiarity with the Disney film isn't a prerequisite.  The six shorts, accompanied by classical music, are sandwiched between strange live sequences with subtitles.  "Man's origin" set to Ravel's Boléro is permanently wedged in my monkey brain.  (Suitable for mature children.)


The Brand New Testament, a French-Belgian odd-quirky comedy, is much more main-stream than the films which precede it because "quality mix tape order" requires a softening lull and this begins the less-intense midpoint.  The next few are still ABCD films, but some leave less room for interpretation; less room for thinking; less room for discussion.


eXistenZ is Cronenburg at his Cronenburgiest (I mention because some are overly confused/put-off by his films).  It's as if Nolan's Inception was melted into Spielburg's Minority Report with a flamethrower—only with creatures grabbed from inside and put outside.  Watch it (again?) but don't focus on the when-did-that-what-happen.  Think about the subtexts.


John Dies At the End is delectably detestably (thank you word-suggest) debatably similar to the previous two (buoying-down/anchoring-up the slightly more Hollywoodish midpoint of this list) only John Dies At the End has significantly more sauce, overt philosophy, and abstruse wordplay (when you come across a new word for the very first time in your life you'll always read or hear it again within twenty-four hours).


Eraserhead intentionally makes empathic viewers uncomfortable in a myriad of ways.  That is its gift.  (Those querulously confused, lost, and/or befuddled are more-than-likely the opposite of an empath.) This is the penultimate ABCD film:  second-most experimental (behind Bad Boy Bubby); second-oldest (behind Allegro non troppo) and second-to absolute most surreal.


Gozu is a Japanese film (subtitles) with a Yakuza enforcer central character, but it's not an action/suspense film; it's engorged with dark humor, but it shouldn't be placed in the comedy genre; and it gushes with whatdidIjustsee (normally labelled horror) but doesn't fit comfortably in that skin.  Gozu will be tattooed into your long term memory.  It's overwhelming grand finale pushes the bizarre out. All the way out.

Serling's Mailbox - Answer Key

Before viewing this list of Twilight Zone episodes, see how many you can find in the original artwork Serling's Mailbox.

(click to enlarge and magnify)

ancillary addendum's to other artworks

...on Avril Poisson's Mailbox...

Asperger's Trait: Hyper-Focus (lack of eye-contact) Explained

          Some fellow-nefnd—who posses the Asperger's trait commonly labeled: hyper-focus, which is sometimes referred to as an extreme attention to detail and also, usually, confused with the symptom lack of eye contact—are unable to exercise control over their brain's focus or attention the way neuro-typicals are able.  Which, simply put, is one of the many reasons Autism is considered a disability.  I may consider hyper-attention to be my normal, but I recognize that being able to switch it off (without closing my eyes or turning my gaze toward a blank wall) would be hugely beneficial.  

          To aid in my explanation, I provide this photograph.  One early-Spring, first-covid19-quarantine, day-trip took us thru:  Granville Reservation, Texas Falls, the Robert Frost Wayside, and passed a well-maintained roadside cemetery East of Vermont 116 or North of 125 (memory fails which).

          The relevant point:  I was driving over 35mph (60kph) when my eyes landed—for a half-second—on these light blue doors about 100feet (30meters) away.  Because I can not shut off my brain's hyper-attention I became aware of the unusual (for the US) ventilation holes drilled into the doors and then returned my focus to the slight curve in the road.  Four seconds later, I recognized we were passing a cemetery and immediately made the connection with the doors/ventilation holes leading underneath it (presumably they lead to a place for the storage of lawn care, snow removal, and grave digging equipment or tools).  So, I turned the car around and went back for this photograph.

          If the ventilation stars were pointing up I would have still made a mental note as I glanced at them; no choice—can't turn my focus off—my inner awareness, if it were a monologue instead of images, would be an incessant hubbub of chatter grabbing for my attention.  However, short term memory would have over-written two regular stars as routine with some later, more overwhelming, images [like the flock of a dozen wild turkeys near Hinesburg or the road-sign to St George (I was in the process of creating that artwork at the time).  The turkeys and sign made it into my long-term memory but not into a camera].

          All it took, to turn a routinely-forgettable mental image into a sufficiently-overwhelming one, was the person drilling those ventilation holes to turn their template 36 degrees—thereby, causing me to spend a few seconds imagining foolish candlelit goings-on betwixt some weed-eaters, tarps, and a backhoe; a few minutes to take and upload the photo; and a few hours writing this explanation.

          Thank you ventilation hole-driller.

more memorandums on mind and memory:

...Asperger's traits and nefnd...

...ponder who you are...

...self awareness...