My first memory

I was waiting for Myo to get a tire alignment in Seattle, WA, and I happened upon a very activist-y library and meeting point. There were a bunch of activities going on, and among them, an open workshop for people to talk and discuss about individualist-y and activist-y stuff. I joined them mid-meeting, and I was given a sheet of paper with a few exercises on them. They are the following:

1. write a religious text/series of verse, ten lines to 2 pages. it is your religion, and your verses, the only thing that it shares with what you know of religion is form, the content and the worship of the blasphemy is up to you. assign a significance to particular weather or declare and explain your holy days. no longer than a page.
2. write a manifesto ten line-2 pages that speaks in the language of plants, their scent, color, and cultural associations.
3. write ten sentences that say only things that are true.
4. write ten lines using the most simple sensory language possible about your first memory.
5. write ten lines-2 pages about what liberation tastes like to you.
6. write ten lines-2 pages about how your mother's touch differed from your last lover.

I had little time left, but I decided to take a shot at #4. This was the result:

I was carried into a shower area surrounded with light blue tiles. The tiles felt cold to the touch, but not as cold as the water that soon began hitting me all over my body. Startled, I wanted to get away from the water, bu the shower walls were higher than my own body, and large arms wet all my skin further. I yelled and cried in protest, but I was only pitied, and the water fall and the scrubbing of wet skin and ragged material on my own skin continued all the same.

Then I began #3, but only managed to write two sentences:

• Perception inherits existence.
• Consciousness inherits choice.

Craigslist rideshare ad

"
Hi all traveling Craigslisters:

A friend and I are heading from Vancouver Island to New York City, express mode, passing through Vancouver (Canada), Seattle, Spokane, Missoula, Butte, Bozeman, Billings, North Dakota, Minneapolis, Wisconsin, Chicago, Toledo, Cleveland, then Pittsburgh (I-90 til Chicago, then I-80). We'd perhaps stop near Allentown in Pennsylvania, but might make it all the way to NYC. We are looking for extra passengers to share the full/partial ride car space, driving, and ga$. Our vehicle is a manual 1990 Geo Metro, so: 1) it does not have much space for large items, and 2) manual transmission drivers much preferred. We're already on the road and have a tight schedule, so if you're interested, please contact us at: xxx-xxx-xxxx. Email is also checked, but much more sparsely, so it'd be harder to connect timelily thus.

Our schedule looks somehow like this (coffee-boosted optimistic driving times per day):

Friday 23: Vancouver Island through Spokane (13h)
Saturday 24: Spokane through somewhere in North Dakota (8-10h)
Sunday 25: ND through Minneapolis (11h)
Monday 26: Minneapolis through Toledo (10.5h)
Tuesday 27: Toledo through PA/NYC (4-8h)

Remember, xxx-xxx-xxxx! Call call call! Texts are also great!
"

Collective 2013 Whims

05/30

• "... hablo ahora desde una perspectiva distinta, como magnate del tiempo..."

05/31

Man sees the fractal, and it does not fit

the flat models of his mind

so he cuts it down without a frown,

the handsome tree.

Instead of adjusting mind to world, he adjusts world to mind.

To solve a problem properly

which firstly one has caused

it's not enough to add some act,

one must dig to the source

and yes, that probably will requisite

core changes in what was known,

but yes, as times are changing, change ourselves too we must

or risk turning dull and obsolete, sake only for past lust.

Don't trees retain humidity better?

They are lifetime experts at it.

But the energy and culture

that the mind would take to adjust

was maybe lost with time and pain,

or servitude unjust.

Only patching on top of dysfunctional layers

might keep the broken layer hidden deep

and it could long fester unnoticed.

But searching deep and revealing

will show the problem inside

and help one know how to fix it

06/01

Resentment of the past can jade

optimism and creativity, replace curiosity with fear,

and impoverish the soul.

Such a flat chaos, at a distance.

Dry, dusty environments continue to correlate with

slightly bloody, dry mucus (snot).

Only one day of working, and I feel my

fingertips less silky and slightly more ragged.

And I always wore gloves when working.

Nosotros, los pollitos viejos.

Old puppies.

Conscious steps.

06/02

The smaller seashell is no less beautiful than the large one; they are made and grown from the same subtle origins and process. The larger one might be more remarkable, but the two are at their core, the same.

06/06

El matrimonio es como un músculo. Si no lo ejercitas, se debilita y deja de servir.

Mario Arévalo

06/08

It doesn't matter how many languages you know if you have nothing to say.

Pete

Knowledge is like breakfast. You don't just eat once and that's it. You have to keep eating, learning, all your life.

Pete

06/14

Three shimmering sparkles in a drudging flow.

06/22

Cultivating the mind allows new ideas to seep inside.

01/08

An enclosed canister of warm air and goals and expectations shoots its way through the sky, then seamlessly touches rock one more, and the tiny people come out bursting from inside.

Scrotum thoughts

Jul 24, 2013:

An overdose of caffeine
an under of restraint
have me in bed turning, twisting
when I thought I'd be at rest.

My mind is restless, searching
but knows not what to think.
My body, hot and sweaty,
full to even water drink.

The ceiling, gradual shadows,
it dotes on my wide eyes,
who, drugged and anxious seers,
resist the silent dark.

Deep yawn surges impromptu,
reminding me of the time.
My belly answers with rumbles,
as it crumbles inner slime.

A moth explores the ceiling
defying gravity
much like the witch from Wicked,
but smaller, and here with me.

And as I scratch my scrotum
wondering my nightly fate,
I realize there is much cause
to rejoice and celebrate.

For I command a body,
powerful and unique,
which roams, feeds, breathes, lives, learns, and sees,
and can, what I choose, seek.

And as of late, it seems to have
sought farther than before,
though as of now I doubt that
it's a matter of keeping score.

For when looking backwards, I find
that one easily walks out of line
not to mention the stray of the mind
so aligned keep your sight and your way.

Look where you're going, when you do go,
but know, you need not always move.
There's journey in the stop,
like music needs silence to groove.

Do know there is much way to go,
and much beauty and wonder to see.
But above that and much other else,
There is much more you can be.

It might help to retrieve a saying
that knocks at my mind's door:
"A ship is safe at harbor, but
that's not what it's meant for".

Docked ship, look at your tight knots,
then look out to the sea,
and ask yourself what you most will:
sailing or docked ship be?

If you will sail, then set your course,
and stretch that creaky wood.
Gather your hopes, loosen your ropes,
and then just go, for good.

Despite this maritime metaphor,
which could stretch hours on end,
my eyes now bow to nighttime,
and my mody will no more pretend.

So I bid a grateful "Bis Morgen"
to my room, my context, and time.
In the realm of my mind, no turning
of a wheel mandates my design.

Riding with Jami

(Written sometime mid-July)

Times.

Journal.

What's happened?

Ah, the times. That so-called illusion that feels pretty real at most Nows. What's been going on?

The last time I recorded my steps was on June 23rd, back in Chimayo. What’s happened since then?

By that time the novelty of farming was a little worn, and I was itching to change again. By this time traveling to France with Trinity was no longer an option, and my options were to either fly to Kathmandu to volunteer as an English teacher in Kathmandu along with Echo, or to drive somewhere. I was smitten with the thought of sharing an epic adventure with Echo, and I told her how I felt. Her manner of response was warily polite though, so I realized that she didn’t quite share my excitement. With that in mind, Asia became a less attractive destination for the moment, and I began wondering where I could drive to.

But I had no particular destination in mind, so one night I went onto Santa Fe’s Craigslist Rideshare section to find popular destinations. I thought that as long as I was going somewhere, I could help someone else move. I found many people wanted to go to the “Rainbow Gathering” in Montana. I thought “Huh. What is that?”, so I looked it up. The Wikipedia gist of it was:

Rainbow Gatherings are temporary intentional communities,[1] held in outdoor settings, and espousing and practicing ideals of peace, love, harmony,freedom and community, as a consciously expressed alternative to mainstream popular culture, consumerism, capitalism and mass media.

As I skimmed through several articles and websites about the Rainbow Gathering, I realized that the event basically gathered open-minded people into a single park/forest area, where they all lived together without the burden of artificial constructs like money, power, or modern technology. To me, it sounded like Burning Man without an entrance fee, so I was hooked. I emailed one posting, texted another, and waited for an answer.

The girl I texted called me back the next day. Her name was Jami, she was in Santa Fe, and was looking to get to the Gathering ASAP. She seemed to be an experienced Rainbower, and as we talked on the phone and she described the event to me, I became excited, and decided to go for it. We set up to meet Saturday afternoon in Santa Fe for a personality sync check, and to leave Sunday early morning. I told Adán I’d be leaving the farm as soon as that weekend, and thanked him for everything.

On Saturday morning I packed all my stuff and said my goodbyes. I said goodbye to Marisela, Josh, and Tyler - everyone else was out for the day. I said goodbye to my cabin, wrote down a quick entry of intentions, then drove off with Myo the Geo as my steed. Jami waited for me at a bookstore in downtown SF, and that’s where I met her an hour later.

Round face, stout figure, short hair, short stature, and a happy smile with crooked teeth - that’s how I saw her. I sat down alongside her, and she told me what she knew about the Rainbow Gathering - that it was a mixture of all kinds of people, that most of them were well-intentioned, but that some of them mostly went only to get drunk and high, or were “vampires”: people who didn’t help but rather only drained others’ positive energy and resources. It made sense to me, and as I shared with her my thoughts on how people live and could live, and how I thought the potential of each person was best developed as he/she looked at others as other versions of him/herself, she told me she thought I’d like the Rainbow Gathering very much. Encouraged by her comments, I became more excited, and we discussed our possible routes up to Montana on a 2013 Michelin Road Atlas she had bought.

Earlier that day she had met a band of musicians that were performing down in Madrid, NM, and told me we should meet early next morning. I was surprised about this, as I thought we would spend the afternoon talking more about the Rainbow Gathering and get to know each other better. Regardless, I saw her get picked up by a band of musicians. I didn’t have much to do in SF, and as I’d be driving all day the next day, I booked a room at the hostel and spent the night.

The next day I met Jami at a nearby motel. It turns out she had met a very nice guy, about 55 years old, who offered her the extra bed he had in his room. She spoke very highly of him afterwards: “He reminded me of my dad - he treated me like a perfect gentleman”, “He is just so nice!”. We promptly drove off on I-25N, and we talked about random topics - how she lived in Austin with her mom, how she decided to just travel around the country, and my own stories to share. She told me that a sleeping bag was essential if I was going into the Gathering, so I responded to a few Craigslist ads in Denver, and thought to make a quick stop to buy one there.

About 80 miles up the road, I saw a guy walking up the freeway in the same direction - long hair, unkempt beard, big backpack on his shoulders. “He’s probably going to the Rainbow Gathering too”, Jami said as I stopped the car on the shoulder, hoping to be able to give someone else a boost. The guy began running up to the car, excited to get a ride, and once close by we talked:

• “Where are you going?”
• “Rainbow Gathering”
• “All right! We’re going there too. Come on in...”

The guy managed to stuff his backpack and his longboard into the back seat, and I watched him warily, having never really picked someone up like that. His vibe seemed slightly grungy and anarchisty, but his intentions seemed quite genuine, so we drove off. I spent the next five hours rolling towards Denver, while Jami and Reddy (or Ready) talked and seemed to connect eagerly. I felt a little cast aside from the conversation (as I’d been talking to Jami until now), but it was fine - they had both been to Rainbow Gatherings and were both experienced travelers and hitchhikers. I picked up on a couple of tips: Texas is terrible for hitchhikers, and it’s very feasible to just walk and hitchhike across the country if one has the patience, body endurance, time, and equipment (tent/tarp and sleeping bag). There must have been other topics, but I recall little else now.

After driving through a stormy downpour, and barely seeing the road with terribly worn windshield wipers, we arrived at Denver, and I met a man selling a sleeping bag for $15 at a mall parking lot. The black mummy-style bag, built to endure down to 25F, was in excellent condition - it had only been used once by her daughter-in-law, and since she had disliked the camping experience, he was selling it for a bargain. I gave him money, he gave me the sleeping bag, and we both drove off. We then found a laundromat on the other side of town, as Jami wanted to wash her clothes, and Reddy had a friend to visit in Englewood. A two-hour stop later, we kept driving up north. Jami and Reddy told me I seemed too tired to drive, though, and Reddy offered to help with the driving. I agreed after a bit of persuasion (I thought I wasn’t tired, but I kept slowing down and getting distracted), and I took the passenger’s seat. I saw us cross the Wyoming border, then fell asleep and woke up at a rest area past Cheyenne, WY. We found a nice secluded parking spot, and after hanging out at a bench, them smoking pot, burning incense, and sharing experiences as I listened, we set up our sleeping bags on the nearby grassy area, and spent the night.

Monday July 1st began sunny and bright for me, as the sun woke me up at around 9AM.

**Never finished, for some reason I can't remember anymore...**

Farm goodbye

I sit on my cabin porch couch; I look up at tall, youthful cottonwood trees, below a tranquil sky blue dome, gracefully curtained with white cotton sheets. I contemplate my last few hours (in the foreseeable future) here in Chimayó.

My bags are packed, my car awaits, and I only had goodbyes and thank-you's left to say. My time here was peaceful, educational, happy, pleasant, somewhat structured, picturesque, and oh what beautiful sky! And oh, what a centered family, and strong community. I felt openly welcome in my time here, and Josh & Tyler gradually included me as one of them. I feel fortunate to have found this place. I might just come here again.

A new interest guides my current course. What secrets, experiences, and joys have Montana and the Rainbow Gathering for me? To be continued...

Quotes from "Nature"

• Nature always wears the colors of the spirit.
• A man is fed, not that he may be fed, but that he may work.
• Therefore does beauty come unsought, and comes because it is unsought.
• Every object rightly seen, unlocks a new faculty of the soul.
• Each creature is only a modification of the other.
• When much intercourse with a friend has supplied us with a standard of excellence,... it is a sign to us that his office is closing, and he is commonly withdrawn from our sight in a short time.
• As long as the active powers predominate over the reflective, we resist with indignation any hint that nature is more short-lived or mutable than spirit.
• [It sees the world]... as one vast picture, which God paints on the instant eternity, for the contemplation of the soul... It is a watcher more than a doer, and it is a doer, only that it may the better watch.
• [The world]... its serene order is inviolable by us.
• The perception of this class of truths makes the attraction which draws men to science, but the end is lost sight of in attention to the means.
• The reason why the world lacks unity, and lies broken and in heaps, is because man is disunited with himself.
• Build, therefore, your own world.

Farm 0623

June 23

The images of my now-forgotten dreams flitted around in my mind as I turned on my sides and moved my arms and legs around, rolling to the point of most coziness inside my blankets. Aware of floating around between dreams and the material, my post-tired body aimed to maximize its sleeping time. I remembered I'd climaxed sometime during the night when I dreamed of having gotten very close and hugged some woman inside my dream, and that I felt tired enough to not get out of bed or clean up at that time. I felt dry around me when I finally sat up in bed, though the texture of a small portion of the front of my shorts did feel more ragged than the rest of the smooth polyester fabric.

It was 14:42, and as I'd left the mobile data connection on my Nexus turned on, I woke up to see an email and a Hangouts message from Ping. She was not online at the time, but I downloaded Whatsapp and messaged her to at least give her a reply. I cooked rice+lentils for "lunch", left my garbanzo beans cooking for dinner later on, and decided to upload some of the media that Mario desired for his new devices (iPod Touch + laptop). I opened up the JW site, downloaded a few of the books he had shown interest in before, downloaded a bunch of them in PDF and MP3 format, then uploaded them into a few different cloud services: the audio files into Google Play, and the PDF files into Google Books and Google Drive. I think he'll like it.

The whole process took hours, but while this happened, I took a shower, read Plato's Dialogues, and helped J&T with the animal chores. I actually only waited out with the sheep while they grazed in the field, then helped route them back to their pen. It was harder than one would usually think, but after about 5-10 minutes of running and routing, it worked out. Then we walked back to the HQ area, talked to Pilar and Adan for a while, I got some of my staples refilled by Josh, and came back. By that time my laptop had gone to sleep, so I set the power options to "Never" go to sleep, and left it finishing. Then I had my garbanzo dinner, finished reading "Symposium", left tomorrow’s garbanzo beans lunch soaking, then began writing this journal entry. Journal entries take quite a while to write. I might want to reconsider my writing method, detail, topics, and/or frequency.

Anyway, now I decided to leave the english audio version of the Bible downloading, then uploading, for Mario's later convenience. I've thought of sketching up a model of the device/cloud media consumption system relevant to Mario and family, and how to make it work for him. Seems like a worthy project to spend a little time on, plus an exercise of sketching and penmanship.

Farm 0622

June 22

J&T planned to begin driving at 8AM to arrive at ABQ right when the convention started (10AM). Though I should’ve woken up at 6AM, the alarm clock didn’t ring until 7AM (I think), so my morning routine was a bit rushed. I made oatmeal breakfast, drank a cup of tea, packed up a few books, my notebook, my phones, and my laptop, and we drove off. The drive was pretty uneventful and conversation-dry, though we got to listen to the Thrift Shop song on the road (which I just realized was about a thrift shop about 3 days ago).

Once in ABQ, Josh parked at the convention center, we each paid $21.40 to get in (online tickets were not available anymore), and we went inside. And then I saw what a comic convention was like. Comic book sales, fiction book sales, extended series fiction, fictional art; many sensual-, epic-, cute-, bodacious-, original-, colorful-looking drawings and paintings everywhere, artists drawing and coloring right there on the tables, booths of fictional equipment replicas, quality miniatures of Star Wars ships and actual airplanes, and people wearing MANY kinds of costumes. The Brave heroine, X-Men, Superman, Flash, the Blue Spirit, Stormtroopers, Lego Stormtrooper, pirates, Korra, Star Trek officers, Star Wars/Bioshock/Sleeping Hill/Sailor Moon/Dragonball/anime characters, She-Hulk, Thor, Yoda, Roboto-Rita, Green Lantern, Commander Shephard, Ironman, Dr. Who, The Joker, the Demented Duo, and zombies were among the costumes I saw. Most of them were easily recognizable, although some of them gleamed more effort put into them than others. Hair and skin was painted in many cases, and at some of them, especially at the Brave heroine, I found myself lauding internally. Many of them, mostly the anime or newer video game characters, I didn’t recognize.

So I walked and browsed around aimlessly for about an hour, looking at art, people saying hello and telling me about what they made and offered and sold. I politely looked and listened, but not being genuinely interested in anything there, I just moved on from booth to booth. From the few things I remember, a replica of Commander Shephard’s helmet was available for $500, and the main female actress from Back to the Future offered Photo Ops for $10 and autographs for $25. I thought the prices fairly hefty for me, though reasonably-priced in the given market, if the actress actually wanted to made her time worthwhile (money-wise) while she was there.

I got a little hungry, but muffins were $4 a piece inside the expo, so I walked to the street and bought a little bag of peanuts for $1. Those held me for a while, and then I attended a talk with 77-y/o Dean Stockwell with J&T. He seemed so... bland. Well, his answers did. He didn’t really speak much - he sat down in front of the crowd, and simply said: “Well, who wants to ask the first question?" His 28-y/o-looking wife appeared a few minutes later, and he introduced her as such: "You might not believe it, but this is my wife". And the questions just went on. Apparently, he played the role of Father Cavin in the Battlestar Galactica TV series. The dialogues between the crowd and him went something along:

-"Along your extensive career as an actor, since you were a little boy until now, was there a character in particular that you enjoyed portraying the most?"

-"Ummmm... no. No, not really"

-"Why did you take *such-and-such* role when it was something so different from what you had done before?"

-"Well, the money they offered me was pretty good. Money can do a lot to shape one's decisions"

-"Was there any particular kind of movie, or genre, that you liked acting in more?"

-"Well, I did like working in comedy/romantic genres sometime. Like Quantum Leap, that had a little bit of it".

His answers seemed to be terse and true, and he seemed to be making little to no effort in keeping the audience entertained or excited. People seemed to try to pry into his thoughts about his role in Battlestar Galactica, but I think it was not mentioned even once. It was 11:29AM when he said "Well, it's time for lunch, right?" Someone else interjected a question before he left, but he seemed anxious to finish the session. As he walked out, I noticed his posture and attitude. He walked steadily and hunched, and he seemed like someone resigned to do what he was doing, though not really excited about, or looking forward to, pretty much anything. His demeanor did not seem like one productive or enjoyable.

For the next hour, I wanted to see some Martial Arts demo, but that part was postponed, and I instead sat at a talk by Robotech for a few minutes. When I realized my disinterest at the innovativeness of the games that Robotech was advertising, I walked outside and joined the talk with Neal Adams that J&T were attending. That one was much more interesting - he was a storyteller, as he said himself, and he talked about how he helped make the comic-book/arts industry return the original arts to the artists. His stories were full of dialogues and anecdotes, his voice actually modulated when he spoke, he attended to people's questions humorously and with a personal touch, even though many of the answers seemed to be prepared and rehearsed. So after an entertaining 20-30 minutes, the talk ended.

Then we went out to eat a Subway sandwich with J&T, then we returned to the expo. I hung outside for a while as I ate Subway cookies and drank their chocolate milk. I sunbathed for a while on a bench, then filled out an online Subway survey in exchange for a free cookie. After the survey, I wrote down a numeric code on my Subway receipt, made the line in Subway again, and got a free cookie in the end. I went inside again, and I saw many costumed people line up, all of them seemingly ready for the costume contest at 3PM. I decided to go to the room early, so at about 2:45, I went near the front of Panel Room A, and saw another engaging artist talk about his experiences to the crowd. At 3PM, people started getting up, so I grabbed a front row seat and reserved two other seats beside it for J&T. I called Josh to tell him I'd gotten them seats, then we sat down to watch the show.

The show was entertaining, and gave me a sneak peek into the interests of fiction fans. The event seemed to be central to the Expo, and even J&T, who aren't that much of hardcore fiction fans, were quite observant of the details and originality of the characters and costumes. An X-Men team that I thought looked cool and flashy, was easily discarded by Josh as very store-bought-looking, and unimpressive. And after I saw the costumes with a bit more attention, and compared it with many of the others, I understood what he meant. The time and effort that the X-Men team had invested into their costumes were probably only a minute fraction of what some of the others' had. Make-up, hair paint, sewing, painting; leather, paper, fabric, wood, metal, wires, electronics craftsmanship had been involved in many of the other costumes, and a store-bought costume was certainly not a match in originality with those others.

A listing of all the costumes I liked would be too long, but I found the exposition quite entertaining. I clapped loudly when the Brave heroine stepped in, in perfect make-up, long fire-orange hair curls, sky-blue long dress with a golden hem and Irish-looking designs on it, hand-crafted leather-covered bow: to me, a perfect replica of the character displayed in Disney posters. Even her face seemed to be a perfect match. It might've as well been the other way around. An Ironman suit made from scratch with LEDs on its helmet and chest, and a mask that opened just like in the movie, was a pretty strong, though not very original, contender. A little girl in a shiny green suit and skirt with a green lantern logo on her chest, and her hair only subtly dyed green, and a dramatic entrance and appearance, was one of the cutest contenders (and the children's category winner). The Blue Spirit made quite an entrance, with hand-crafted swords, and showing off actual-looking, flashy martial arts techniques with his twin swords. A red-haired dad came on stage with a baby, representing Fry & Nibbler from Futurama. A very detailed Captain Shephard in full armor ran into the stage, pistol in hand, shouting "nobody move!!", or something of the sort as he entered. A pyramid-head, walking on tall stilts covered in a brown sack-like fabric, seemed to crawl across the stage, dragging a huge sword behind her, and with, well, a pyramid head. The winner of the whole affair ended up being Roboto-Rita, who hand-made a near-full metallic enclosure with transparent domes, colorful LEDs, and wires all around her. Her hair was made of tangly wire, her skirt's hem was metallically adorned, her hat looked made of aluminum, her face was fully painted gray, and her entire thorax area seemed to be covered by a desktop enclosure. The time and effort put into the costume was most impressive, for sure, although my own personal favorite ended up being the Brave heroine, for the remarkable similarity I found in her to the "real" movie personage.

So after the contest (and watching some slapstick-humor Looney Tunes coyote & roadrunner interludes before they gave away the prizes, and wondering at the physical resilience and seeming indestructibility of the coyote's body), J&T stayed for the following talk in the room, and I walked outside the center to finish my sandwich. When I finished it and was still hungry, I walked to Subway, only to find it closed. Other restaurants in the area seemed closed or too expensive, so I just got a corn-in-the-cob from a food truck for $1, then sat down at a table in a deserted-looking area, and read Plato's Dialogues for about 30-45 minutes.

When I walked back in, J&T had gone into a talk called "Geeks who Drink", were the audience was asking questions to a group of semi-famous people in the art industry, of which I knew none. I sat there for a few seconds, then decided to walk outside and continue reading Plato's Dialogues. I sat down in a corner of the convention center, and after a while, I saw a red frisbee whizz by. Dean Stockwell's wife appeared and picked it up, then Dean Stockwell appeared, and they threw the frisbee back and forth between them for about five minutes before walking away again. The wife seemed to be very unskilled at throwing a frisbee, though she displayed much better catching than throwing skills. At about 7PM, I thought the whole event might be closing down, so I walked back inside Panel Room A. The event wasn't ending at all, and Josh saw me and invited me to sit with them. Since I'd been spotted, I thought it rude to walk back outside and continue reading, so I came inside and sat down with Tyler and two new friends, Ashley and Steven.

A few minutes later, Josh and Megan, Ashley's sister, appeared. Their backstories were fairly irrelevant, and a little later, a trivia quiz began. We formed a quick team of six people between all of us, and we called ourselves "Murder of Crows". I liked it. We did our best on the six sections with 8 questions each about aliens, musicals, Star Wars math, and other random facts, but we ended up placing somewhere in the middle. Still, the first place team got $60 and a Gamecube, so we didn't fail to win much more than ephemeral glory.

After the quiz, Ashley was acting pretty huggly and caressingly with Tyler, so we decided to stick around Albuquerque for a little longer. The girls invited us to a bar called "Sister", so we drove down to downtown ABQ, found a parking spot, and ate a $2.75 pizza slice each. Then we walked up to the bar, paid the $7 cover charge (each), then we went in and pretty much danced to rap and indie music all night. Oh, and Tyler danced with Ashley, then they held each other and kissed for a few minutes.A burlesque show with female fiction characters taking their clothes off, up to their covered nipples, followed, but I lost all of the little interest+peer-pressure I had after watching Kitana, the opera singer from the Fifth Element, and some kind of Catwoman holding Batman's picture dance and take clothing pieces off. I walked outside, talked to a very cordial and pleasant-looking Hot Dog vendor named Earl, visited an art gallery that seemed ready to close (which had a piece of art with a replica "Starry Night" from Van Gogh, plus a Thundercats symbol in the night sky), and went into Lindy's, a diner that was open until 3AM. There I ordered some Mexican Eggs (with hash browns and beans included), and heard two girls, a certain gold-skirted, white-bloused Ms. Chang, and her black-dressed Armenian friend talk to some old famous black guy in the diner. The Chang girl seemed especially engaging, sassy, and flirtatious, and sat down on the famous-seeming guy as someone took a picture of them. I liked her boldness and character (she began the conversation with him when she saw him dining), though I questioned her motives. If they were benign, then good for her.

When I walked back into the Sister bar again, Ashley was no longer beside Tyler, and he seemed to be waiting for her. He seemed to have little hope though, and after he went to look for her and couldn't find her, we decided to leave. We walked back to the car, Josh found the I-25 highway, and then I dozed off until we were back at the farm, just after 3AM. I think I washed the dishes I'd left in the sink, left half a cup of garbanzo beans soaking overnight, took my clothes off, crawled up into bed, and fell asleep.

Farm 0621

June 21

On Friday we were out in the field early (@6AM), and we weeded all day. We weeded all the remaining chile crops in Cipriano, then moved on to weed the corn crops in the right side of Nemesio. I hoed the majority of the rows while J&T hand-weeded, and when I’d finished, helped J&T hand-weed what was left. It was a good morning of continuous work, perhaps until 10:30 or so. We conversed a fair bit about comics and video games as we weeded the chile crops, and Josh placed a powerful speaker between the corn crops as we weeded, so we listened to a podcast about the NSA and the privacy of citizens in the US and elsewhere for at least a good hour before we finished weeding. It was distracting, but I think I’d rather not have listened to it - I’d rather have been left to my own sounds and thoughts.

My lunch break was nice and long, and after I ate, Mario visited me in my cabin to ask me how to access some functionality about his emails, the particulars about which I don’t remember. After I helped him how I could, he left, and I managed to acquire car insurance for my new Geo. State Farm offered me the lowest price: less than $28 per month for PA insurance. Considering other companies charged me around $50 per month, I was happy to find this option. Soon after, I went out to work for the second half of the day.

I met J&T at the truck, and after gathering up some tools, we went to pick up some of the remaining branches from the horse fields. We managed to clean most of them up, and then we drove off, picked up a plastic wheelbarrow, and drove to the “zoo” to clean up the sheep pen. I inhaled much sheep manure dust that day, but we left it nice and clean, and after picking up the chicken eggs, we finished off the day and went back to our cabins. J&T told me they would be driving to SF at 6:30PM, and to be ready by that time. They were a bit dazed by me telling them about the laptop that I intended to purchase while in SF, but OK with it. Once in SF, they drove me up to Denny’s (the meeting place with the Craigslist guy). The guy turned up, he happened to be a 14-to-16-year-old-looking kid, and his computer happened to be an Asus EEE PC netbook with WXP on it. Everything seemed to work just fine, so I paid him the $50 and was on my way in about 10 minutes. Then J&T&I and drove to Trader Joe’s (where I bought 5 bananas and 1 carrot juice drink), then to Whole Foods (where I found a free little piece of protein bar sample), then we drove back to the farm. Movie night was about to start in front of Adan’s, but I texted Mario about the laptop, and I told him he could come get it now, as I’d be gone all day on Saturday. He seemed a bit coerced, but he agreed to come get it that night.

So instead of attending movie night with everyone in the farm, Mario and his wife came to my cabin, I introduced the new laptop to them, told them about the functionality they’d most probably deal with (basic trackpad/keyboard usage, internet, email, VLC player, and such), and after about 60-90 minutes of such, they went back to their house, and I headed over to movie night. The movie, “Born in East LA”, had just ended, but I stuck there for a little while, and Pilar logged into Netflix and put on a couple of Family Guy episodes - one with the Bird song and one where they go back in time to the beginning of WW2. After watching random funny jokes and eating cocoa-dusted crisp almonds and chips under the moonlight along with all the Trujillo friends and family, we said goodnight, and I came back to my cabin to sleep.

Farm 0620

June 20

The tequila drink I was offered by J&T last night relaxed my body more than I realized, and I ended up falling asleep on the lower bunk bed, when I only intended to rest for a while. At 4:58AM, I realized I’d fallen asleep, and simply started my morning routine to get ready for the day.

During the morning, we harvested snap peas and shell peas. We gathered 51 pounds of snap and 6 of shell, then proceeded to weed all the chile rows with stirrup hoes. It was still 11:20 by that time, and we decided we’d start an early lunch and reconvene at 4PM. Ashley stopped by while we were near their house, and gave me a package - Mario’s iPod had arrived, used and cracked on the bottom. I went back to my cabin and proceeded to set it for up for him. It wouldn’t turn on at first, so I tried to charge it with the iCharger someone left in the cabin. And the plug wouldn’t fit in. Oh no, the port was bent inwards! The screen break seemed to have been caused by some precise crushing. The electronic part of the port seemed to be OK... I only needed to open it up so I could fit the charger inside.

A pair of pliers could help, I thought, so I went to Josh’s to ask for one. He very coolly lent me one, but when I told him what the problem was, he suggested that I tried to hammer and pin it instead. I thought it was a good idea, so I tried that. A hammer and some metallic wedge were already at my cabin, so I just went back and hammered it. A few seconds later, the charger fit inside! Josh had known just what to do! I made a mental note of thanking him afterwards.

So then I set up the new iPod for Mario, downloaded some Jehovah’s Witnesses talks in English and Spanish for him to listen to, synced it up with my laptop, then called him to tell him that it had arrived for him. He seemed pretty excited - he interrupted the work he was doing at the time, and told me that he’d be at my cabin in 30 minutes. 30 minutes later, indeed, we were setting up his new Apple ID, downloading apps, looking at the JW website, and making sure he had everything he wanted on his new little device. By the time he left it was 3:30PM, and I only had time to go back to my cabin, clean up my dishes, and dress up again before meeting J&T in the truck area.

They were loading up a board on the truck that we’d used to carry branches yesterday. And yup, that’s what we did all afternoon - load up strewn branches in the area where the horses are to be taken to. There were a lot of them - two pretty full truckloads of branches (which were easier to unload thanks to the wooden board on the truck that was used as a platform) later, the field was still not completely clean, but the whole area certainly looks much clearer. Then we did animal chores, which for me basically consisted in collecting eggs. 14 eggs later, we put the eggs in Adan’s fridge, and we each went back home. I fried a bag of snow peas and cooked rice+lentils+all-remaining-chard as my dinner. Josh stopped by a while ago to tell me he and Tyler would be going to a comic festival in Albuquerque and Saturday, and invited me to come. I was happy to oblige. He also said that he’d probably go down to Santa Fe tomorrow evening, which fit perfectly, as Mario’s wife also wants a little laptop to work with, and I found one on Craigslist for only $50. If things work out well, after work tomorrow (which will start a 6AM as a trial) we’ll drive down to Santa Fe, I’ll notify J&T about the laptop purchase I might be making, hopefully they’ll make a little time for me to get it done. Then we might come back to the farm, sleep, and on Saturday morning at 8AM, drive to Albuquerque and be there all day at the Comic Festival. It’s $15 each if we pay online. Then we’ll probably drive back to the farm, or stay and watch the new Superman movie at a theater there somewhere. J&T seem pretty excited about the movie, though we might also go sometime on Sunday, perhaps early to get the matineé price.

Farm 0619

June 19

Finally up to today! I woke up, met Josh and Tyler at 7AM in the fields, and we picked up 11.5 pounds of snow peas. Adan was left picking up snap peas in the field alone, and we proceeded to weed out the rest of Cipriano. We were working on the pinto beans when Adan comes up to us, and says “We need to talk. I don’t know if I didn’t make myself clear yesterday, but I thought we were going to pick the rest of the snap peas today”. A polite but tense conversation ensued between Adan and Josh. Tyler and I were pretty relaxed, but we could see there was tension. We decided to continue weeding that day, and work on harvesting the next morning.

So we weeded the field until 11AM. Afterwards Josh and Tyler came along to my cabin, and we fixed the gate by removing a bunch of screws, and putting some more back in. After that I came back to my cabin, ate my cooked garbanzos (THEY ARE SO DELICIOUS WHEN FRESHLY COOKED!!!!!), and I spent the rest of my lunch time writing up this journal entry. Oh look, it’s now 3:59PM. I gotta dress up and go back to work. Bye!

And in the afternoon, we cut/uprooted a bunch of plants with white flowers from the front of Maricela’s house. We then loaded them up into a truck that Josh brought, and dropped them off into a branch pile. Then we moved on to the area where Mario, Ramon, and I had once picked up cherry branches with a tractor, and we loaded as many debris sticks as we could into the tractor. Then back to the branch pile, we unloaded it all, and then after animal chores, we were pretty much done for the day.

Josh invited me over to his cabin to grill veggie burgers, and I accepted. I offered to go buy stuff at La Espanola, so Josh made a little list, gave it to me, and gave me $50. Simply Limeade, Simply Orange, Sriracha, and 1 avocado. Once in the store I replaced the Simply Orange by Grower’s Choice, Sriracha for nothing, and added 1 banana for Josh and 1 shampoo bottle for me. The car doesn’t seem meant to deal with rocky, farm-like terrain very much, but it did OK on the way forth and back.

Once back, I went to J&T’s and hung out. We prepared our own veggie burgers with flour tortillas, hummus, avocados, grilled onions, grilled veggie paddies, salt, pepper, and mustard (not me). They turned out quite well. They also offered me an ad-hoc Margarita: OJ+Tequila. I took it, and then we talked about a diversity of topics. How Josh got into farming, the Federal Reserve Board, economic conspiracy theories, man+machine melding, Star Wars, J.J. Abrams & art, Joss Whedon & art, Bruce Willis, Harry Potter, weed and regulations in different states, and others such. Eventually conversation grew thin, and we said good night. And now, a few minutes later, I’m back at my cabin, finishing up today’s journal entry. Whoop.

Farm 0618

Tuesday June 18

We harvested 36 pounds of snap peas in the morning, then mowed down the hoophouse crops with the tractor and corresponding attachment. Then we went up and picked up a spiky-looking attachment to carve the earth with, and came back down. It didn’t work. The floor had become very hard clay, and even a full digging-bar blow wouldn’t crack it any further than 1cm. We switched to the plow, with same results. Though it managed to carve down a little on one side, it only scraped it in the other, so in the end Josh gave up, and decided to try using the “Baco” the next day. Felix appeared, and he got on the tractor for a few minutes as it was on. He was paralyzed with excitement, eyes-wide open, sensing the vibrations, and just looking around at everything. He cried when Adan turned it off, and once on, he began saying “woah”, again. Eventually Adan ripped him away from the tractor, and cars started coming into the farm - there was to be an informative event about the Aztec calendar that night.

Though I was going to help Josh with the animal chores, I was told by him that I could attend the Aztec calendar event instead. In the end, I was stalled by a very long-seeming phone call from a AAA insurance agent, telling me the details about the insurance quote I requested (for my new Geo). After the call, I went into the Aztec calendar meeting area. No one was there but the food, and I wasn’t so hungry or rude that I would begin eating alone, so I went back to my cabin for a while. About 30-40 minutes later, I walked out again, and the area was full of people listening to a long-haired, long-and-gray-bearded, brown-skinned, smiling old man with a red-and-black-angular-designed bandana on his forehead, and clothing similar to that of an old sage in an indian tribe.

I sat down and began to listen. He talked of the discovery and invasion of America by the Spanish, and about how the indians in America were originally pure, and lived communally with the Earth and the Sun, and how they simply moved all across the continent, unhindered, and found help even in the remotest parts of Alaska and South America. And how the center of everything was Tenochtitlan, in Mexico. And how Cuactemoc, a famous figure, was not at all a king, but rather a representative who surrendered to the Spanish in peace, but was tortured and killed in turn. And he said that all of us humans already have many things in common: the Sun, the Earth, and Time. And that we have a cosmic identity, and we should learn it if we are to know what our mission on this Earth is.

After a while of explaining details and telling anecdotes, he turned to each person in the audience and asked them their birthday. In turn, he told them the sign of their year and their day, and what this meant for them. I was told my year was the House and my day was the Eagle, but looking further, I have the impression my year sign was the Reed. And now online, I read that my year is the Flint and my day is the Ollin, movement, so now I don’t really know. I like Ollin, though. The eagle’s cool too. In the end he offered a little bit of merchandise - a few books, colored or B/W, and Aztec calendar poster in two different designs, sizes, and languages. I didn’t want any merchandise, but Pilar said she was collecting donations for gas money, so I got my wallet and gave her $9. Well, I actually gave them to “Maestro Mazantlin”, whose name he told me meant “Venerable Deer”.

And after a little bit of helping to fold and move chairs, Adan asked me to close the farm gate. So I did, and when I turned back and looked up, the moon was waxing, and it had a soft, dark blue tinge in its light. Traveling clouds around it were painted with some of this blue light, and together with their gray centers, the blue/black background (depending whether clouds blocked the moon or not), and the spread-around white dots, it was a delightful spectacle. Then I went back to my cabin and slept.