13: Who’s There?
1. Quantum Leap sounds like an oxymoron since quantum refers to the smallest amount of something and leap is a large jump.
2. Joe was out of town on a backpacking trip and there was a science fiction movie playing at the historic Lyric Theater that I wanted to see. I was wishing I had a friend who likes science fiction as much as I do that I could invite to go with me. Then I remembered that my (newly 13) grandson likes science fiction, so I invited him and we went!
3. In the dark theater, I needed his help to navigate to our seats. Later, I told him I don’t see as well as I used and have vertigo which makes me get dizzy. I reminded him how much I helped him when he was little and told him as he gets older and I do too, he might have to help me more.
4. The Creator: ‘A.I.’ Meets ‘Children of Men’ in a Sci-Fi Epic… an elaborate sci-fi future in which the U.S. Army wages a second war in Vietnam, this time against the perceived threat of artificial intelligence Can a robot feel love? Do androids dream of electric sheep? At what point does programming blur into evolution? …an embittered ex-special forces agent who shepherds the world’s first human/A.I. hybrid child (newcomer Madeleine Yuna Voyles) through a dangerous future, only to rediscover his own humanity in the process… the script is fascinating for its take on a future in which people have programmed A.I. to maintain the compassion that our own species has lost somewhere along the way; a future in which technology might be a vessel for humanity rather than a replacement for it…” Think Star Wars meets Avatar and the Vietnam War. – excerpts from reviews of The Creator
5. “There is a word that describes this common human response to music — a word for “that moment” when a song pierces your body and soul. It’s called “frisson…” Researchers often describe frisson as a “piloerection” (or “skin orgasm”) noting that the experience retains similar “biological and psychological components to sexual orgasm.” Some refer to frisson as “pleasurable gooseflesh,” while others maintain that the definition should expand “to include other perceptible, non-dermal reactions such as tears, lump-in-throat sensations, and muscle tension/relaxation.” – From This 715-song playlist is scientifically verified to give you the chills, thanks to “frisson”
6. “While it is understood that appreciation of beauty is central to what makes us human, it is not clear to researchers what evolutionary advantage this sensitivity could have given our species. The current consensus is that it has something to do with our need to understand our environment: “Aesthetic chills correspond to a satisfaction of humans’ internal drive to acquire knowledge about the external world and perceive objects and situations as meaningful. In humans, this need to explore and understand environmental conditions is a biological prerequisite for survival.”
7. I feel like an emotional Geiger counter. I know the value of an exchange or an event by whether it gives me goosebumps or not.
8. The word age is in change and the mutant plural of age is stage.
9. Poets and Storytellers United is an online community of poets who post writing each week and visit each other’s blogs. This week there was an optional prompt to write about sensual memories of the place you grew up in. So, although my poem this week wasn’t inspired by the prompt, I read several that were. One writer wrote about remembering fondly the whistle of a freight train which made me realize how much I missed the sound of a foghorn, having grown up by the ocean on a peninsula.
10. So I searched for foghorns on YouTube and listened for a while. THIS one moved me to sweet nostalgia and helped me remember that there were also bells involved.
11. Check out scenes from our town’s PRIDE celebration HERE.
12. I like how whirl rhymes with twirl and swirl and that crude has the world rude right in it.
13. Only one monarch butterfly / came to the orchard this year / I took its picture / to prove it was there- Read Treed In in its entirety HERE.
___________Thirteen Thursday
October 5th, 2023 3:49 pm
An emotional Geiger counter… I love that description! I think we all have that ability, if we choose to pay attention to it.
October 5th, 2023 4:11 pm
I miss the sound of the fire whistle. It used to go off in Fincastle to call the volunteer firefighters to get them to the station. It also served as an alert and a noon (lunchtime) whistle. They stopped sounding it in the early 2000s.