This website is the lunar nest of Theodore "jay" Joslin; author, itinerant minister, theater geek, and rainbow chasing nature boy.

Even in absurdity, sacrament.     Even in hardship, holiness.     Even in doubt, faith.     Even in chaos, realization.    Even in paradox, blessedness.  

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moon phases       My book: Digging the Immaterial; Yet another human pondering the Universe and what it means to be alive and well within It. by jay joslin     Coming soon: "Busking for Rainbows; Playing for Change at the Crossroads of the Infinite" by jay joslin will be published in Spring 2004.       Reading: Villa Incognito by Tom Robbins       My Wishlist       Membership: Metafilter, MonkeyFilter, GayFilter, and Founding Member ofQueerMeta       Listening: Radio Soleil, Port-au-Prince, Haiti       Pop a coin in the ol' tip jar:     Working: Here and Here         Yardsale for Charity       Volunteering: Big Brothers/Big Sisters       Residing: North Asheville, NC [webcam]       Highlighted Social Justice Cause: Free Mammograms and Breast Cancer Prevention On 3/18/04, a dear friend of my extended family underwent a lumpectomy to remove a malignancy. This was a difficult experience for them, and in Ramya's honor, please consider donating a few minutes of your time to support breast cancer research and prevention Thanks.       Blogroll Me!                         GeoURL                       Weather in Asheville, just for the heck of it:                                                                     Keep it even, embrace the odd.                 Credits: Hosting by Blogomania Powered by Moveable Type 2.63

....................Tuesday, 23 March, 2004.................... A Muslim calls for reform -- and she's a lesbian: It's not hard to see why people react strongly to Irshad Manji. At 35, she's become a ubiquitous fixture on Canadian television, the smartest, hippest, most eloquent lesbian feminist Muslim you could ever hope to meet. Thus scribed jaybird @ 18:03 in "Gay, Lesbian, Queer & Free" | In Your Words... (0) | TrackBack (0) | Permalink Panpsychism: the thesis that physical nature is composed of individuals each of which is to some degree sentient. It is somewhat akin to hylozoism, but in place of the thesis of the pervasiveness of life in nature substitutes the pervasiveness of sentience, experience or, in a broad sense, consciousness. There are two distinct grounds on which panpsychism has been based. Some see it as the best explanation of the emergence of consciousness in the universe to say that it is, in fact, universally present, and that the high-level consciousness of humans and animals is the product of special patterns of that low-level consciousness or feeling which is universally present. The other ground on which panpsychism is argued for is that ordinary knowledge of the physical world is only of its structure and sensory effects on us, and that the most likely inner content which fills out this structure and produces these experiences is a system of patterns of sentient experience of a low level. Thus scribed jaybird @ 16:03 in "Consciousness, Psychology & Philosophy" | In Your Words... (0) | TrackBack (0) | Permalink Is George W. Bush's the most anti-science administration in modern times? The New Science Wars [via MeFi] When a leading psychologist like Harvard's Howard Gardner calls the president's science adviser a "prostitute," it's a safe bet that all is not well in the realm of government science policy. Indeed, in the past month, the United States has been engulfed by a kind of "science war," one pitting much of the nation's scientific community against the current administration. Led by twenty Nobel laureates, the scientists say Bush's government has systematically distorted and undermined scientific information in pursuit of political objectives. Examples include the suppression and censorship of reports on subjects like climate change and mercury pollution, the stacking of scientific advisory panels, and the suspicious removal of scientific information from government Web sites. Thus scribed jaybird @ 14:03 in "Science, Quantum & Space" | In Your Words... (0) | TrackBack (0) | Permalink Max Headroom predicted the future: The series featured computers and a frightening, high-tech, TV-centric culture "20 minutes into the future," as each episode would begin. Long before there was an Internet, a World Wide Web, e-mail, and cyberculture, this TV series displayed it all in amazingly accurate ways... Thus scribed jaybird @ 11:03 in "Blogosphere, Tech & Internet" | In Your Words... (0) | TrackBack (0) | Permalink Detailed picture of comet's heart The highest resolution image obtained by the Stardust spacecraft as it flew by Comet Wild 2 in January has just been released... the image shows a pockmarked "flying mountain" strewn with jets of gas and dust that billow in the solar wind. Thus scribed jaybird @ 07:03 in "Science, Quantum & Space" | In Your Words... (0) | TrackBack (0) | Permalink Funny: Emo Philips makes cole slaw. Thus scribed jaybird @ 00:03 in "Silly People, Satire & Strange Behaviors" | In Your Words... (0) | TrackBack (0) | Permalink ....................Monday, 22 March, 2004.................... Viral Banter Last night I came to a rather sad conclusion; my new computer is infected with a rather nasty virus. Norton hasn't figured it out yet, but it's made my Outlook and MSN Messenger unusable. I think it's the Netsky worm... I'm getting all these emails saying that an email I tried to send to whatever vegetable merchant in Romania is infected and had to be destroyed... blasted spam worms! The interesting and fun part of it was an outsourced tech support call to India. I talked with the Delhi Dell support staff about famous Bollywood singer Asha Bhosle, the joy of Raga, what she thought of Bhangra (the new urban sound of India), and how to make the best popadums. She said that it's not normal for a caller from the States, let alone a male, call and enthusiastically engage her in cross cultural dialogue. We met again tomorrow night after I back up my sweet snookie's data and wipe the malignant pestulence off the face of my beloved silicon sister's hard drive. So much for Norton's live update, but it's worth it in a very human way to talk to someone a world away and share a moment of commonality. Thus scribed jaybird @ 17:03 in "Journaling the Infinite" | In Your Words... (0) | TrackBack (0) | Permalink Do we really use only 10 percent of our brains? Why would a neuroscientist immediately doubt that 90 percent of the average brain lies perpetually fallow? First of all, it is obvious that the brain, like all our other organs, has been shaped by natural selection. Brain tissue is metabolically expensive both to grow and to run, and it strains credulity to think that evolution would have permitted squandering of resources on a scale necessary to build and maintain such a massively underutilized organ. Thus scribed jaybird @ 15:03 in "Consciousness, Psychology & Philosophy" | In Your Words... (0) | TrackBack (0) | Permalink Part satire, part fact: A Consitiutional Amendment to codify marriage as based on Biblical principles B. Marriage shall not impede a man's right to take concubines in addition to his wife or wives. (II Sam 5:13; I Kings 11:3; II Chron 11:21) Thus scribed jaybird @ 13:03 in "News, Opinion & Politique" | In Your Words... (0) | TrackBack (0) | Permalink I just interviewed for a permanent position here in the office. It's a huge relief to be done with it, back to normal breathing... UPDATE: That was rather vague. My position here has been an interim supervisor since January (I work in the child mental health field). Due to state pressure to reorganize the office, I've had to interview for the job I've been doing, as well as for an additional position as an employee recruiter. It's been a nerve-wracking past few weeks, dangling into the gray area of how long I will remain here. Obviously, I have a need to know so I can know whether and when income will trickle in. This lack of knowing may have played a strong role in this recent funk. To see a picture of the typically casual Jaybird in a suit and tie in his windowless low-light office (rather looking like an English professor going to a funeral) click here. Thus scribed jaybird @ 12:03 in "Misc. Babble" | In Your Words... (0) | TrackBack (0) | Permalink Cool! Philosophy as therapy: The Socratic Shrink Americans are tired of psychologists dwelling on our every painful feeling, we're sick of psychiatrists prescribing a new drug every time we feel confused and many of our most pressing problems aren't even emotional or chemical to begin with -- they're philosophical. To wit: You don't have to be clinically depressed or burdened by childhood guilt to want help with the timeless questions of the human condition -- the persistence of suffering and the inevitability of death, the need for a reliable ethics. Thus scribed jaybird @ 06:03 in "Consciousness, Psychology & Philosophy" | In Your Words... (1) | TrackBack (0) | Permalink ....................Sunday, 21 March, 2004.................... This grappling with the terms of my apparent depression continues... I'm so tired, I wish I could write more about it. Nonetheless, thanks to those who've been so supportive. Thus scribed jaybird @ 22:03 in "Journaling the Infinite" | In Your Words... (2) | TrackBack (0) | Permalink See Astrophysicists in Captivity On a platform before a crowd of curious onlookers, the scientists eagerly ripped open a box of CDs containing data from a newly released million-second-long exposure taken by two cameras onboard the Hubble telescope, and struggled to transfer the data to nearby computers as they answered a multitude of questions shouted out by reporters and middle-school students. So began Science Live: The Race to Decode the Hubble Ultra Deep Field Image at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. There, teams of researchers from Columbia University, Stony Brook University and the American Museum of Natural History will compute, ponder and dispute the new Hubble data around the clock for six days and nights, in full view of museum visitors. Thus scribed jaybird @ 14:03 in "Science, Quantum & Space" | In Your Words... (0) | TrackBack (0) | Permalink Freaks, geeks, and hoochie shows on the road: some histories of Traveling Carnivals, the American circus and the culture of Vaudevillian showmanship. Memoires of a roadie show: We are now halfway to the town. Every barn we have passed is covered with flaming posters, and dates telling the people when the big show will visit them. Market men are making quick time to reach the town in advance of their competitors, and the result is a perfect cloud of dust kicked up by their big-feet "mules." Young women gaily dressed, and old women hanging on to the stakes of a lumber-wagon, "stare their eyes out" at our mirror-sided bill-wagon, and wonder what the plumes in our horses' head-gear mean. They don't get by us quite so easily as they imagined they would; for Bill has chirruped to "Jim," who starts the whole team in motion, and away we go, leaving the "haybinders" to swallow some of that dust they had circulated for our benefit. Thus scribed jaybird @ 10:03 in "Culture, People & Customs" | In Your Words... (0) | TrackBack (0) | Permalink Carbon Dioxide Reported at Record Levels That year-to-year increase of about 3 parts per million is considerably higher than the average annual increase of 1.8 parts per million over the past decade, and markedly more accelerated than the 1-part-per-million annual increase recorded a half-century ago, when observations were first made here. Thus scribed jaybird @ 07:03 in "Environment, Ecology & Nature" | In Your Words... (0) | TrackBack (0) | Permalink "Song of Survival" Some stand on mounds of gold Some won't waver for traditions of old Some survive in the transit of others' passing woe Yet a few are strong to the soul, yielding not to the power of the sold. I'll rest my head on your shoulder in revival And hear your sweet song gleam the fringe of survival You've been to darker places than I but you don't stumble for the light Your strength is a beacon even though I'm still lost, I'm closer now, nothing rivals. Thus scribed jaybird @ 03:03 in "Journaling the Infinite" | In Your Words... (0) | TrackBack (0) | Permalink ....................Saturday, 20 March, 2004.................... The rally drew about 800 people. I stayed for a while, immersed in the six degrees of separation with all thoe people there that I sort of knew, signed some petitions, and went off in search of a stainless steel trough to use as an outdoor bathtub. Pics later stil... Thus scribed jaybird @ 17:03 in "Misc. Babble" | In Your Words... (0) | TrackBack (0) | Permalink Going downtown to the peace rally... pix later... Thus scribed jaybird @ 14:03 in "Misc. Babble" | In Your Words... (0) | TrackBack (0) | Permalink Mass Extinction Not Inevitable Two new studies published this week in Science that show steep declines in bird, butterfly and plant populations across Great Britain provide the strongest proof yet that we are in the midst of the sixth great extinction of life. The British analyzed six surveys covering virtually all of their native species populations over the last 40 years. They discovered birds and native plants had declined 54 percent and 28 percent respectively while butterflies experienced a shocking 71 percent decrease. Thus scribed jaybird @ 13:03 in "Environment, Ecology & Nature" | In Your Words... (0) | TrackBack (0) | Permalink Peace through music: The Cellist of Sarajevo On May 27th, 1992, a bakery in Sarajevo which happened to have a supply of flour was making bread and distributing it to the starving, war-shattered people. At 4 p.m., a long line stretched into the street. Suddenly, a shell fell directly into the middle of the line, killing 22 people outright and splattering blood and gore over the entire area. A hundred yards away lived a 37-year-old man named Vedran Smailovic. Before the war he had been the principal cellist of the Sarajevo Opera Company--a distinguished and civilized job, no doubt. When he saw the massacre outside his window, he was pushed beyond his capacity to endure anymore. Driven by his anguish, he decided he had to take action, and so he did the only thing he could do. He made music. Every day there after, at 4 p.m. precisely, Mr. Smailovic would put on his full formal concert attire, and walk out of his apartment into the midst of the battle raging around him. He would place a little camp stool in the middle of the bomb-craters, and play a concert to the abandoned streets, while bombs dropped and bullets flew all around him. Day after day he made his unimaginably courageous stand for human dignity, for civilization, for compassion, and for peace. As though protected by a divine shield, he was never hurt, though his darkest hour came when, taking a little walk to stretch his legs, his cello was shelled and destroyed where he had been sitting. Thus scribed jaybird @ 10:03 in "Art, Music, Theater & Film" | In Your Words... (0) | TrackBack (0) | Permalink ....................Friday, 19 March, 2004.................... Ancient Indians made 'rock music' Archaeologists have rediscovered a huge rock art site in southern India where ancient people used boulders to make musical sounds in rituals. The Kupgal Hill site includes rocks with unusual depressions that were designed to be struck with the purpose of making loud, musical ringing tones. Thus scribed jaybird @ 16:03 in "History, Civilization & Anthropology" | In Your Words... (0) | TrackBack (0) | Permalink Thoughts on Voluntary Simplicity [via MonkeyFilter] Many simplicity gurus urge us to become "tightwads" as the true path to a simple life. But voluntary simplicity and frugality are not really the same thing. To be sure, frugality is a vehicle for achieving simplicity, but the driving force is a vision, a philosophy, a world view. Thus scribed jaybird @ 12:03 in "Consciousness, Psychology & Philosophy" | In Your Words... (0) | TrackBack (0) | Permalink Climate risk 'to million species' Climate change could drive a million of the world's species to extinction as soon as 2050 Thus scribed jaybird @ 07:03 in "Environment, Ecology & Nature" | In Your Words... (0) | TrackBack (0) | Permalink ....................Thursday, 18 March, 2004.................... "A Flock of Prayers" From despair That fog that conceals reason Disrupts even the flow of rivers Let fly this prayer; Give it wings to circumvent Our delusions of the abyss Instead returning most majestic vision Simply by the perspective of altitude. Let me be in the talons of this prayer Let me wrestle it for blessing and soar Into the spectral blue Where quarry and master cease to matter. Show the width of this world That contains everything Where it all falls in Holy gravity that gives us days, some to waste. Show me the hairs-breadth parcel Where lethal regret Awaits missteps, misgivings, the missed bus To Justice. In releasing these winged words Imbued with a tenacious, fervent, hungry hope May we, may I, set boldly forth from the darkness Arise up the slope where the mist recedes And be guided to the dawn by a canopy of starlight And a flock of prayers Than began in despair. Thus scribed jaybird @ 23:03 in "Journaling the Infinite" | In Your Words... (0) | TrackBack (0) | Permalink "Public Admission" Some of you may have noticed a lack of my usual essays, poetry and more creative posting here in the past month or so. At first, I thought I was just going through a writer's block, or at least that's what I wanted it to be. The fact is, that I've been going though a major depression that I've hidden from nearly everyone, including and especially myself. Today I saw my shadow. I realized exactly why I've been feeling so numb, inattentive, distracted and distant- these, of course, all have a bearing on creative output. For some, this will come as a surprise. I may have seemed jovial, happy, excited about things... my usual vibrant and goofy self. But, that's the acting there folks. I'm not a big fan of pissing in the cornflakes or raining on parades, and by putting on a happy face I'm not being dishonest intentionally. It's just showbiz, wanting to go with the flow, not drawing attention to the real storm underneath. I don't know where to go from here. Therapy... sure. Meds... I'd rather stick to St. John's Wort. Maybe this little blurb in the night will be enough letting go to trigger more and more and more. It's been very difficult not feeling any real sense of enjoyment out of things that normally thrill and inspire me. The only emotion I've been feeling with any regularity is ennui and I'm sick of it. Sick from it. I need something more tangible to hold onto than abstract ideas and variable social constellations. Dizzy and desperate, I just can't see where to turn. If you've indeed read to the end of this, thank you for hearing me out and thus alleviating a smidgen of my burden of silence. This isn't a plea; it's an exercise in honesty which is medicine unto itself. I ask for nothing other than support, known and unknown, as I navigate turbulence and instability in vital areas of my life, hopefully on my way to a brighter and more resolute vista. Thus scribed jaybird @ 21:03 in "Journaling the Infinite" | In Your Words... (0) | TrackBack (2) | Permalink The troubled story of King & King: The parents of an elementary school pupil are fuming over the book their daughter brought home from the school library: a children's story about a prince whose true love turns out to be another prince. Here's the Story Here's the Book [via MeFi] Thus scribed jaybird @ 17:03 in "" | In Your Words... (0) | TrackBack (0) | Permalink UFO streaks through Martian sky Astronomers say it could be the first meteor seen from the surface of another world, or a redundant orbiting spacecraft sent to Mars 30 years ago. Thus scribed jaybird @ 16:03 in "Forteana, Phenomena & the Bizarre" | In Your Words... (0) | TrackBack (0) | Permalink Is Humanity Being Hacked? Sometimes when I am in deep meditation I get the strong feeling of a higher intelligence speaking through me, through human culture, as if we are being hacked, used, programmed by something else. Thus scribed jaybird @ 12:03 in "Consciousness, Psychology & Philosophy" | In Your Words... (0) | TrackBack (0) | Permalink "Thursday Through the Window" The hours, thick cords on a steel guitar Played through a tinny radio Telling me rain is everywhere, Come to dilute the whisky words of last night To wash the possum bones scattered on the street To kiss the mountains with softer thoughts Than the delusions drummed up in a climax to midnight. The freedom of a raindrop To fall and flow and continue forever In a promise hard to rebuke Is sweeter than the rim of a glass Even raised in celebration. I'll walk now, I'll get wet, Because that's so near to you. Thus scribed jaybird @ 11:03 in "Journaling the Infinite" | In Your Words... (0) | TrackBack (0) | Permalink Spooky... had a dream about this very sort of thing last night: Recently Discovered Near-Earth Asteroid Makes Record-breaking Approach to Earth A small near-Earth asteroid (NEA), discovered Monday night by the NASA-funded LINEAR asteroid survey, will make the closest approach to Earth ever recorded. There is no danger of a collision with the Earth during this encounter. Thus scribed jaybird @ 07:03 in "Science, Quantum & Space" | In Your Words... (0) | TrackBack (0) | Permalink ....................Wednesday, 17 March, 2004.................... Opinion from the Little Haiti community in Miami: 'There, it's a fight just to live' "We just want the best for Haiti. Everyone has their own view on what Bush has done and I'm not for or against him or Aristide. We want it to get better. That's it," says Celeste. Ordinarily, the domestic political consequences of US policy towards Haiti are negligible. But this is an election year and there are thousands of Haitian votes at stake in Florida - the 50/50 state - where any one of the diverse tribes that constitute Miami-Dade County could make a real difference to the outcome. Thus scribed jaybird @ 17:03 in "Haiti" | In Your Words... (0) | TrackBack (0) | Permalink Mr-President bids for re-election: it's election season in Alphaville, too. Thus scribed jaybird @ 13:03 in "Blogosphere, Tech & Internet" | In Your Words... (0) | TrackBack (0) | Permalink Erinn Go Brach! Extensive index on Irish lirerature, folklore, myth and drama Thus scribed jaybird @ 12:03 in "Culture, People & Customs" | In Your Words... (0) | TrackBack (0) | Permalink Booze flash! Tests confirm that beer bubbles do fall It wasn't exactly one of the great mysteries of the universe, but it was a source of countless bar bets: When beer is poured into a glass, do the bubbles rise or fall? Barflies know all too well that the bubbles fall, seemingly defying the laws of physics. Thus scribed jaybird @ 09:03 in "Spirituality, Religion & Mythos" | In Your Words... (0) | TrackBack (0) | Permalink "32nd Conception Day" Wow-wee: today is my 32nd "Conception Day." That's right, I know the actual day, time and place where my parents rather inconceivably begat me. Now, should you read on, you will too... My father was had made the signage for a new health club that was having it's grand opening party on St. Pat's Day, and he and his lovely wife (for another four years, anyway) were invited. Now, my father can put down some alcohol, but my mother doesn't drink at all... but she did that night. So, she's drunk enough to get raunchy with my father in a sauna they locked themselves in. Things happened, cells divided, and ta-da, 32 years later here I am writing about it. I'm not going to wade into the whole "life begins at conception" argument, but today gives me an additional reason to party. It being St. Pat's, I will wear green, but not in honor of the 'Saint.' I abhor the shite about driving the snakes out of Ireland, the snakes being the pagan-matriarchal-shamanic-earth based practices that were the foundation of a beautiful and simple culture. Rather, I'll wear green to remember those people and the vestiges of their customs, and also for the modern eight grade tradition of wearing green means you're horny. Because as squeamishly as it is recalled, without that particularly fun but frustrating state of being, I wouldn't be here. Go out and conceive something today! Thus scribed jaybird @ 07:03 in "Journaling the Infinite" | In Your Words... (0) | TrackBack (0) | Permalink ....................Tuesday, 16 March, 2004.................... An Anthropologist from Mars: This site makes the brave distinction that gender is a social meme while sex is a biological state. Another detailed examination (from an androgyonus perspective) here. Thus scribed jaybird @ 19:03 in "Gay, Lesbian, Queer & Free" | In Your Words... (0) | TrackBack (0) | Permalink   Web bird on the moon

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