Corona Virus and hands

I live in Indonesia and anywhere in Asia it's easy not to shake hands. Here in Bali the two-handed bow is practiced everywhere, even by Muslims, but the hand on the heart which is popular with Muslims is common too. In Japan, people just tilt their bodies forward some as a polite bow. And with all the Western influence, shaking hands is popular too - high fives and fist bumps and other varieties learned from mass media as well. Two days ago I decided to stop shaking hands. It's come up three times and it's easy to indicate one doesn't want to. A doc I saw on TV said it's better to hug. The NHS of England has not yet suggested people stop doing it. Some world leaders have stopped. Lots being written about this online. I like all the methods of greeting but for now will keep this no hand shaking up. Actually the main greeting here is people calling out to each other greetings as they pass each other.

Sampah

Sampah is trash in Indonesian. We make compost from kitchen waste and and some garden droppings, but we don't have the room to use all the leaves that fall here. So we have a large container for organic sampah and a small one for non organic, small because we recycle plastic, paper, and metal. Our house cleaner (which we're required by law to employ) got into the habit of putting the non organic and organic together. I told her that I know that they throw it all in the truck and it just goes to landfill, but it's too painful for me to see them mixed. Bali could be enriching it's soil with compost instead of chemical fertilizers. And they definitely should use the kitchen waste for compost or to feed pigs - if they must have pigs. Waste management is a big problem here and they know it and it's a big problem almost everywhere including the US. The solutions do not require new technology, just the will to deal with it and change the way things are being done. 

Editorial on Nature/Climate Change

In the Line of Fire

A Simple Guide

to Climate Change - BBC

Names

I've always noticed that almost everyone thinks they're particularly bad at remembering names. I am. I've never been particularly good at keeping up with the names of characters in movies or any show on TV. I was describing how things went in an episode of the series Silicon Valley to Katrinka. She'd fallen asleep. Nine characters were involved in the telling. I had to tell it by giving them descriptive names - the big guy, the nice woman, the CEO of PP, etc. When I was through I said, "Wow. I didn't remember the name of a single one - and it was the last show of the 2nd season.."

"I won't worry until you can't remember mine," she said.  

Minding 4

Once when Kelly was about five years old, he got tired of waiting for me at a California Conservation Corpts meeting in Portrero Hill in San Francisco and walked off without telling me. We were meeting at some sort of school with an interior courtyard and playground but that wasn't good enough and he was gone. I called his mother, Dianne, and soon there were many people looking for him, me driving up and down streets all around. No cell phones back then in 78. If he'd gone the wrong direction he could have walked into scary Hunter's Point. But I figured he went down hill and maybe into the Mission District. Occasional big wide streets on the way. After about thirty minutes I stopped  the car and said to myself, "He's my son. I should drive straight to him." And I did. Went right to the corner at Market and Guerrero and there he was with a nice man holding his hand helping him cross the street with the light. I jumped out of the car, thanked the man, and I don't know what I said to Kelly, but I wasn't angry, just super relieved. He was two blocks from the Zen Center and had gone about three and a half miles. Told me he waited for adults at intersections. Wow.     

Peace of Mind

A woman in a dream asked me to spend the night with her. I told her that would surely be nice but that I have a mate and I value peace of mind. When I woke up, I thought, "Good for you."  I was reminded of Fidel Castro, who used to smoke a box of cigars a day, saying that he knew he'd really quit when he stopped smoking in his dreams. 

More Methane from Fossil Fuel than Thought

Oil and gas firms 'have had far worse climate impact than thought

Bali Women's Lighthouse Fundraiser Tonight

At Smorgas on Tamblingan

Lighthouse is a non profit program that helps people with substance abuse problems.

Bali Women's Lighthouse dot org

for Indonesian women

Galungan

Today is Galungan and in twelve days it's Kuningan. This is the big time in Bali and it happens every 220 days. It's the triumph of good over evil. Here's a Galungan video card I received today from a Balinese Buddhist nun, the only one I know of. That curved decorated long bamboo pole is called a penjur and we have one in front of our house now as do many people in our neighborhood and beyond. It's to Galungan what a Christmas tree is to Christmas. 

Minding 3

My buddy Ward who is no longer with us in the veil of tears and I spent a lot of time together when we were kids. Met him in the 4th grade. By the 8th grade he was spending a lot of time at our house and that continued till I left town at 18. I had two beds and one of them was his quite a bit. Sometimes I'd get a feeling and go sit by the phone and he'd call within a minute. Or I could think I want to talk to him and I'd go to the phone and he'd call. I don't know if that happened to him. Maybe I used to know. It's not something we talked about and I didn't even think about it till years later. We didn't communicate much living in different parts of the country. Might talk to him once a year and when I was in Fort Worth he'd come up from Houston. Once I said to him that I'm sorry I don't write or call him much at all and he said, "That's alright David, I always know how you are." Sue Spivey who was in our class and lived nearby and her mother had that sort of connection.

Hotcha!

January hottest month on record as climate change speeds up. - Guardian

Minding 2

Back in late 1964 or early 1965, Julie was visiting Fort Worth from New Orleans. I'd lived in her family's house there for a few months and we'd gotten close. I was 19 and she was still in high school. I had a crush on her and she was most sweet with me though we weren't lovers at all. She was delicate and played beautiful piano. She also had a wild spirit - and she smoked non filter Picayunes from Louisiana, surely the strongest cigarette made in America - with "Extra Mind" written on the front of the pack in large letters.

So I had this crush on her but we weren't even kissing so there was an internal tension building in me. My friend Jeff came over from Dallas. Jeff was into the Beat poets and existentialists and poetic suffering. He'd turned me on to speed and wine but there was none of that with Julie. She and he got along right from the start. We went to a movie at the Bowie, a popular arty Ingmar Bergman film called Through a Glass Darkly (8.1 on IMDB). My buddy Ward drove. He had a date too. After the film, Jeff, Julie, and I were together in the back seat of  Ward's car and Julie was paying attention only to Jeff. I was in anguish. Ward was talking to his date. I was alone with my agony. Suddenly I realized that the cause of my mental pain was the attachment to Julie. Instantly it dropped away and I felt calm, satisfied, happy. Didn't make a sound. She turned around, looked at me and said, "What's the matter? Don't you love me anymore?" 

Katrinka be my Valentine Again

Be my Valentine again
And I will be a happy man
Be my Valentine of please
And let us roll and get green sleeves
Be my Valentine once more
As I give to you adore
Be my Valentine oh Babe
And give me chocolates on White Day
Be my Valentine anew
And I will give the sky to you
Be my Valentine dear one
And let us do and undo done
Be my Valentine Again
And we will twine like gusts of wind.

Minding

Kelly and I were talking about how we feel uncomfortable talking to some people and how to deal with that. He said once he tried just emanating love to the person while talking with them and immediately the vibe between them changed and got more comfortable. He said he's used that successfully since.

Mid Day Report

Dogette's asleep
The cat's asleep
The wife's out walking
To buy us some eats
The day is hot
But the shade is not
With help from the fan
That spins over this man.

Oh Darn

Best way to fight climate change? Plant a trillion trees

PLANTING 1 TRILLION TREES MIGHT NOT ACTUALLY BE A GOOD IDEA

Made it to 75

What a miracle. That was yesterday for me but when you read it most likely it will still be the 9th. Hey - made it to today too! However, I'm making this post on the 6th because we're going to a nearby island thanks to a generous gift of a few nights there from son Kelly so I'm pre-posting optimistically. - DC

Little by Little

World's biggest iceberg makes a run for it

The End is Near

Climate Models Are Running Red Hot, and Scientists Don’t Know Why - Bloomberg

Maintanance of computers report

I always want to have two laptops because my main Asus needs to go to the shop now and then and I must keep working or my life will lose meaning or at least I'll get behind on some articificial goal. I called my tech guy Untung about a software problem and he sent a guy over on a motorbike who took care of it but then there was another problem and Untung fixed it dealing with me now and now from his home with Team Viewer. Oka who'd come the day before had returned with the backup computer, a seven year old Asus, because it had died. Had a mainboard problem. I asked him what he could do to speed it up and he said new hard drive so Oka brought it back with both those tasks done and the old harddrive in a box so it can be used as a backup hard drive - but for now it's a safety in case there are any kinks in the new hard drive and the clone of the old programs and data on it. When we're satisfied the new HD is okay, he'll re-format it as just an external HD without all the programs etc. Just in time because on Saturday morning we're going to the nearby island of Lembongan for three nights, a gift from son Kelly for my 75th this Sunday. I don't like to travel with the good Asus. But also there are some problems with it and it's still on warrenty. Touchpad is out and mouse immediately starts giving me wrist pains. A few other things. If Untung can't fix it he'll send it over to Asus and if they need to order a part they'll send it back till the part comes so I can use it. Hoping though it can be all fixed by the time we're back from Lembongan. And an Untung staff guy just dropped by to deliver a new set of earplugs for Katrinka. Anyway, love the tech support here. Efficient and way cheaper than the US. This message has been approved by that dog which is not our dog.

Global heating a serious threat to the world's climate refuges

From Guardian - Biodiversity hotspots that have given species a safe haven from changing climates for millions of years will come under threat from human-driven global heating, a new study has found.

Global Palindrome

With a subject same as the title of this post, just received an email from MK which read:

Sunday was 02/02/2020 

Hope you enjoyed it!

M

I did indeed. And maybe the smooth number combo was responsible. It works for both the American month first, day next way of reckoning and the more common gloabally day first, month next. But it could have been because we got some rain which we haven't had near enough of this year here in Bali.

Onward. - DC

Puppy Bowl Day!

Oh boy! The Puppy Bowl!

On Animal Planet today!