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September 24, 2001

nevermore

"nevermore."

it wasn't a midnight dreary or a bleak december, but on friday night i walked outside to find a very large raven (the 'bird of ill omen') sitting on the edge of the roof. seemed rather strange (i don't know about you, but i don't usually see ravens hanging around the place). as i was looking up at it, it took flight and came right towards me, swooping within ten or twelve inches of my head. it did this several times, which seemed pretty abnormal (and slightly unnerving) for a wild bird. when it roosted again, i walked nearer to it, getting within several feet of it. the bird was amazingly calm. i even ran inside for the camera, came back, and snapped a photo of it. it only flew away when i lunged toward it, hands in the air.

after thinking about it (and corroborating with neighbors), i decided it must be a domesticated/pet raven that somehow found its way to the neighborhood. i suspect if i had held up my arm, the bird would have landed on it. quite likely someone grew tired of such a high maintenance pet and decided to drop it off somewhere.
today i was told that one of the neighbors (whose place the raven had chosen as home, and whose son had named the bird 'poe') caught it. i think our hypothesis was confirmed when it didn't seem very upset when captured - in fact, it was quite gentle with humans. i hope they will find some kind of home for it.

anyway, not to bore you with silly details from my weekend, but the whole story begs two questions:
- why would someone want a pet raven? are there many pet ravens out there?
- why did the 'bird of ill omen' have to fly around my house right before i'm about to leave on a vacation (on an airplane)? i'm not a superstitious person, but jeesh.

24 Sep 12:00 | Link | Category: From the Old Site

September 14, 2001

true realism

from a mailing list:

true realism, on the other hand, doesn't mean blaming americans for bringing these horrifying and truly evil acts on themselves. it does mean trying to imagine foreign perspectives from which government conduct might appear so intolerable that some people might be driven to take atrocious revenge.

the great director jean renoir was once asked why there were no villains in his films. he answered simply, 'everyone has his reasons.' your most bitter enemy may have his reasons for hating your guts. you may not think they are good or sufficient reasons, but you'd better take them into account. if he has any brains, he may find a way to hurt you.

listening to military leaders & politicians (or should that be 'hard-liners'??), i am reminded of this bit of reasoning: "we will continue bombing until there is peace."

14 Sep 12:00 | Link | Category: From the Old Site

September 11, 2001

2001

oh my god... ("i'm not here. this isn't happening.")

when i was a kid, i thought we would have everything figured out by 2001. (you know, we'd be up on the moon digging up monoliths or something...) oh, sure, there would still be some madness, but the 20th century would have been the apex of it. by the 21st century we would have 'advanced' somehow, and death & destruction would finally be on the downhill part of the curve.

so much for that naïve that idea.

it feels like many things are about to change, my friends, and not for the better.

11 Sep 20:00 | Link | Category: From the Old Site