The top google image search result (would the term "goggle" be a feasibly punny replacement?) for enclave. Fortunately, this is not about MMORPGs.


For the geographically/historically/politically minded, perhaps a brief introduction to actually existing enclaves and exclaves will be as genuinely interesting to you as it was to me. What are those two strange words? Take it, wikipedia:

"In political geography, an enclave is a piece of land which is totally surrounded by a foreign territory, and an exclave is one which is politically attached to a larger piece but not actually continuous with it. Many entities are both enclaves and exclaves, but the two are not synonymous."
See there's some tricky "a square is always a rectangle, but..." type "bs" at play, but its not so confusing as to preclude engaging the concept with zest.

While having a trip-planning tipi read-out-loud to each other jam session one night, Greg pointed out a feature on his recently liberated European Lonely Planet guidebook's map: Russia exists in two places. I've never been to solid in European history, much less so in Russian history, but I have played my fair share of RISK (only after having developed the attention span around age 16), and this seemed like a breach in the rules. How could you collect your extra armies for holding Asia if you had to protect an outpost of Russia's in the middle of Europe? (P.S: Never get involved in a land war in Asia) Anyhow, here's the item in question, sandwiched between Lithuania and Poland:



The name of this entity is the Kaliningrad Oblast Enclave(actually an exclave and not an enclave acccording to Wiki, but this seems to be the name in the tongue of man). [I've heard that their ain't no blast like it] For a more detailed map, check out this one. Notice the incredibly delicate spits of land arching over the coast! Gorgeous, but in fact the result of deforestation and subsequent dune-i-fication. Greg, if you read this, travel across these!

Anyhow, other interesting enclaves/exclaves:

Alaska

The Fergana Valley at the triforce point of Kyrgyz/Tajiki/Uzbekistan. I have always felt a strange attraction towards Tajikistan. However, Wikipedia has long been the only (albeit impoverished) easily accesible source of info on the country. Powells has no literature on the subject, neither did the Oly library (they did, however, have all the seasons of the Sopranos on DVD...not a knock, an observation). All of a sudden, Wikipedia's Tajikistan entry is way better. Woo. Check out the awesome sight of "Mount Communism" (that was its name until 1989).



I guess if you got this far, you might be interested in going to the source (I need an exit): wiki entry listing enclaves/exclaves

Anyone out there with anything to share on the subject? Geographers? Psychogeographers? Psychonauts? Entheopaths? Analrapists?

Wierd holiday.

But anyhow, I am thankful for friends, meaningful employment, Bernie Sanders, the Pacific Northwest and all its beauty, hearing friends laugh on old audio recordings, Food Not Bombs, and food itself.

I was able to visit brother in Seattle, thanks to the fine people at Greyhound. They are magicians in their own right...able to transform a 4 hour journey into a 9 hour journey without fail! Seattle's a sweet town, especially in the area coloquially known to die-hard, balls-to-the-wall locals as "Sherwood Forest." Big vegan thanksgiving feast, with deep representation from tubers, breads, tamales, and other tasty treats.

Got to see Greg off on his voyage, and try to set up his blog-scene. As of now, Greg's site will say that the author is "Tim." This is not a hoax, I assure you, it is in fact Greg on other continents, using my blogger account.

I'll provide a content-ful post soon, promise. I have been slow to post the first chapter of TUoA:CaA, in order to give people time to record later chapters. Speaking of recording, there is a Be Gull's recording in the works from Marriage Records. Feat. Kyle Field! If the band's name is any indictor, the project will be genius. here's some fucking wonderful art.


Wierd holiday.

tom

Just don't expect all the awesomeness to be found by looking up.

I forgot to mention that while at the previously mentioned conflict resolution tranning, there was a bright spot. The training was held at the Oregon 4H center, a very beautiful campus in the woods far west of Salem. Bananna slugs carpeted the forest floor, keeping the waterlogged-thus-unidentifiable mushrooms company. Lemonbalm grew everywhere. In fact, while walking and chatting with a friend, I noticed some out of the corner of my eye, and wanted her to smell it. I maintained eye contact with her, grabbed a leaf off the plant, and pressed it to my nose to steal a sniff before passing it on. I should have payed closer attention, as it was in fact a stinging nettle leaf that I casually grabbed. My moustache protected me pretty well, and the itchy nose was not so bad as to harsh my vibe.

Interestingly enough, one of the main chemicals in the stinging nettle plant that causes the "seven minute itch" is 5-hydroxytryptamine, aka 5HT, aka serotonin. Serotonin has recently been implicated in SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome).

Anyhow, I digress. Most of the people (15 in attendance) at the conflict training were pretty complicit, WASPy dudes that wanted to get through it as quickly as possible. There was only one other person that was willing to make a scene/give the corporate psychologist a hard time. I'd rather not give her name, but she is a 45 yr old Bolivian woman of Aymara descent. She left Bolivia very recently. Her last job in Bolivia was as a congresswoman under president Evo Morales.


What a cutie.

She now teaches ESL and GED programs in Salem, which has a rather underserved Spanish-speaking community. She is a very very sweet lady. Her entire family, save herself, is on the US no-fly-list. She does not know why, but she imagines that it is because they are also involved in politics and media. Meeting her makes the second interesting connection to the Axis of Hope (subtitle of Tariq Ali's silly-named, yet probably sweet new book), the first having been a Bolivarian Solidarity Circle run by some Venezuelanos in town.

We talked quite a bit about the political vibe in S. America, ethnobotany, and food. I explained to her, having seen the US's efforts to eradicate Coca in her own country, that the US would only be able to meet something on the order of 5% of its domestic demand for MDMA (Exstacy) if the Sassafrass tree were eradicated in this country. Safrole, a precurser to MDMA is extracted from the tree. People have also traditionally used the roots to make Root Beer.

The Coca plant, native to Bolivia amongst other places, is known primarily as the source of cocaine. Thus the US's brutal Plan Colombia(not limited to that Colombia, mind you), supposedly for the eradication of coca leaves, but more likely for hemispheric hegemony, and a laundry list of imperialist aims. However, if the Coca plant was eliminated, the US would not be able to meet 1% of its domestic demand for Coca Cola...in fact, no Coca Cola could be produced under that name. Fluid extract of coca MUST be in the drink, otherwise the company would be held liable for false advertising, as has happened in the past.

So, both plants, Coca and Sassafrass, make delicious soft drinks, as well as ilicit drugs. Where is the distinction drawn between the two? Obvious answers are predjudices of many sorts, aforementioned imperialist aims, ignorance, and the NIMBY attitude. Does this imply that the drug war is nonsensical, or that it even is not about drugs?

In another head-scratching US policy + media-lapdog example, has anyone heard about the suicide bombing in the US on Sept. 11, 2006? Seems like it would be big news. But the character that committed the act didn't fit the plotline of the terror mythology. Who knows? Interestingly enough, David McMenemy, the failed suicide bomber/anti-choice fascist nutjob, has the word 'Enemy" in his surname. Seems pretty marketable to me.

Man, that humor is so dry, it makes Doonesbury seems veritably drenched!

Today I had mandatory conflict resolution training. Why do situations like that make me combative out of spite? The gentleman that ran the training was a corporate psychologist (hard-line Freudian). He was predictably whack. One method he recommended for resolution was a Socratic method. Ask the simplest, most agreeable questions possible (patronize your partner), and work up from there. Sophism! When I asked him if following in Socrates manipulative footsteps was ethical (didn't he read "The Clouds?" Socrates was a argumentative, yet entertaining jerk) he gave me the expected shit-eating grin and many many "I statements."

"I understand that I am hearing what you are saying...er...I hear what I am understanding, I think, but I find I have success with iSocratic interventions."

Man was so into the I that he was halfway rastafied. So afraid of being accused of confrontational speech that he was incapable of saying what he felt.

Speaking of Freudian bs, how about that penis! I kid, in fact, how about that "Century of the Self" flick? Check-r-out at the always amazing Internet Archive Project. Archive.org provides the space for DNow!'s podcast, our podcast, and Adam Curtis films! What more endorsement does it need? Fine...it also has ironic government propaganda flicks.




End on a positive note. This is one of two/arguably three crystal power shops. The third is more of a D&D l.a.r.p shop with a crystal power nook in it. I am sure that only Sante Fe can contend with this many crystal-shops-per-capita-in-a-state-Capito.

Jade "Ajani", friend, coworker, roommate, amateur linguist, this guy-



-sends a dispatch from In-jah.


"On this end, the trials of life continue their gory incursions, but i
remain steadfast. I am back in the most smog ridden place I have ever
been, Delhi. The level of visibility is really amazing. Dave is
leaving tomorrow, the shooting for the project is done, and soon I will
begin 5 weeks of self-indulgent hedonistic journeying across north
India."

Jade has already set a precedent for hedonistic India journeying:



Apparently, the Indian consulate stopped hating on him long enough to let him stay his intended extra 5 weeks. Good for him.

Seems like this web community is starting to happen! Peter's got a thing going, the podcast is happening, Cecca's working on a place, and Arielle is about to drop in. Very promising.

Last night I made about 60 tamales. La recetta de Cone, con frijoles negro, cebollas, ajo, mole, achiote, chipotles, mota. So tasty. When I woke up this morning, I was still vomitously full, in a nice way. Tonight I hope to finish the recording of Chapter 1 of the Wendell Berry project. If anyone else wants to read some, please let me know. I promise that there are some awesome people lined up to read, from throughout the country. So yeah, I'll do that, assuming I can make the bike ride home untouched by the rather large, violent Juggalo population.

Dos Juggalos


Un Juggala


p.s. It was not until I read the wikipedia entry on Juggal@s that I learned that htere are two Juggal@ non-profit entities. Christ.

I hope that people get on board with making this small nook of the internet an awesome place. All my friends happen to be incredibly amazing, with so much potential for awesome sharing of ideas and collaboration. This can work, this can be be very wonderful.

Tim