Saw a new trend — restaurant/grocery store workers wearing hair nets with fun fashion patterns…
According to our global product marketplace tracking system, there has been an odd surge in the sales of deer antler spray over the last few hours, beating out the “Haight-Ashbury/Maui Wowee” specials that usually sell so well on late Sunday evenings.
More as it develops…
A shoutout to our friends near Tulane University — you know what we’re talking about.
Thanks to Publix; Walmart; Hardee’s; Another Broken Egg; Wagon Wheel Liquors.
Thanks to Daniel and Marty of Two Men and a Truck; Katherine at Campbell Station Road Liquors; Brandy at Wendy’s; Captain D’s; Bradley the GM/server/bartender at Commerce Street Restaurant; Mom for her delicious beef stew; the emergency crews that cleaned up snowstorm-related wrecks; Moon Dance Dust Jazz combo; Flying Monkey theatre.
It doesn’t seem that long ago, does it?
Now, though, there’s more than one settlement, with new owners coming in, redesigning the old housing units to look familiarly like ancestral homes on planet Earth.
Used to be we thought we’d start over.
Not anymore.
The humans have generally congregated into one or settlements while the exploration bots keep spreading across the planet, no need of houses or other reminders of a life they neither remember nor need to carry on for the sake of descendants.
We are one group, one “people,” but our requirements for stimulating sensory organs vastly different than algorithms designed to process sensor array input.
I am a farmer for us, making sure we have the energy sources for our various sets of states of energy.
This is my story.
I live in a small hut at the end of the hydroponic growth chambers.
I provide food and nourishment for those amongst us who eat through their mouths or mouth equivalents.
I also maintain a miniature factory that cranks out spare body parts for our robotic friends.
The medical staff handles the surgical procedures like replacing body parts for our biological friends, however much I’ve protested that I can easily handle those duties, having built a robotic surgeon from parts I manufactured myself, downloading new algorithms from my Earth-based social network of farmers, ranchers and DIYers who delve into self-sufficiency and other survivalist tactics appropriate to solar system explorers like myself.
As a farmer, my secondary duty is analysing soil samples to determine which chemical reactions I need to conquer in order to convert Martian soil into edible foodstuff palatable by crew members with a variety of tastes and preferences.
In other words, I’m an ecosystem expert, creating microorganisms from scratch that efficiently perform the soil conversions for me so I can concentrate on my main duties that feel like I have to pull a rabbit out of a hat or worse, water out of thin air.
Water, water, water.
Solar energy, though weaker on Mars than on Earth, is abundant, which makes water production easier than we first thought.
But, problems crop up all the time.
Most of us may be rational scientists and engineers but that doesn’t mean we’re always careful about conserving water.
We can talk about that later.
Lee is coming over to review my plans for tightly-regulated metabolism control which, I believe, will greatly reduce our dependence on water.
Designing microorganisms has given me insight into the mechanisms of the human body that we were just beginning to understand when we assigned humans a decade ago to train for this mission.
If only we knew then what I know now!
Redesigning a human from the inside out is my ultimate goal and will make our Mars settlements grow like weeds, if my calculations are correct (a quick shoutout to my buddies back home who let me borrow their supercomputers).
Will Lee allocate the supplies I need?
Here’s Lee. Talk to you again soon.
Finally cleaned out the old trunk — adding a few more jewels to the scanned collection before saying goodbye to dead trees and colourful ink, some lined up with current events such as the Super Bowl, a Steve Jobs biopic, new release of Microsoft Office, new release of 128GB iPad and the price of coffee these days:
Rachel Osby registered at Shelby Center, Room 301.
David kingsbury(?) opened UAH alumni lunch-&-learn lecture.
Dr. Lillian Joyce.
UAH dept of art and history moved into Wilson Hall.
Available degrees:
POMPEII
Archaeology. Bay of Naples — former Roman navy/shipping center, home of Pompeii and Mt. Vesuvius.
Vesuvius volcano report issued like weather reports because of active volcanic activity. 217 BCE last known eruption. 5 Feb 62 CE — major earthquake before devastating eruption in 79 CE. Many eruptions since.
The Pompeii ruins are getting worse due to tourist funding reallocation by the government.
Negative spaces that were once bodies in the volcanic ash were filled with plaster to show what the bodies looked like as they fell, before they deteriorated.
Dr. J worked out of one the large four level houses built on the city wall overlooking the Bay of Naples.
Popular art on Pompeian walls: Abandonment of Ariadne by Theseus, picked up by Dionysus.
All the Pompeian houses had relatively plain exterior walls – luxury was displayed on the inside, created by artisans specialising in plaster, mosaic, painting, sculpting, etc.
Pompeii covered with both informal and professional “graffiti” artwork — 98 percent were commissioned for political campaigns. Ex: “vote my candidate for aidae.”
Around 10000 people lived in Pompeii — about 2800 political campaign paintings on walls in town.
Women wore wigs to emulate fashionable hairstyles on statues.
Many fresco portraits in Pompeii were cut out and displayed in Naples museum.
Running water in rich people’s houses and public fountains for everyone else.
“Cave canem” – beware the dog. Warning at doorway entrances where dogs were chained to keep people out because rarely were locked doors used. Dogs, like people, suffocated of poisonous gas exposure before buried in ash.
In homes, there was a public receiving area for men to get visitors and be attended by women and slaves.
Pretty garden scenes painted and created in mosaics on walls.
[Advert: the Department of Art and Art History and the Archaeological Institute of America, North Alabama Society’s lecture The Mosaics of Zeugma on the Euphrates, January 28, 7:30 p.m., Wilson Hall Theatre (first floor 001); presented by Dr. Katherine Dunbabin, Professor Emerita, from McMaster University. The lecture is free and open to the public.]
Alexander the Great was popular subject for mosaic tilework.
Nouveau riche land speculators came in, such as former slaves, and built elaborate palaces in Pompeii, collecting objects such as marble/stone water basins like some nouveau riche collect cars or velvet Elvis paintings.
Houses were rooms for entertaining and hosting business get-togethers — invitation only to visit gardens in back of house.
The kitchen was not a public gathering place — used by slaves only.
No bathroom per se, either. Public latrines and baths usually.
Bath house water temp was regulated, heated from below. Some bath houses had libraries and shops.
Two theaters, one with a fixed roof and one with a retractable roof (seated 3100-3500)
Amphitheater offered gladiator fights and wild animal hunts. Had retractable roof / awnings (seated 15000).
Romans had fast food eateries on street corners. Dozens of them in Pompeii.
Standing room only.
UAH sponsors Dr. J’s summer research.
Frescos are falling apart with time – exposure, polishing by guards, etc.
Sent from my iPad
When we were kids, were we able to ice skate the first time we stepped onto the rink?
Well, the Aquatic Leaping Bubble Boy gets to experience ice skating for the first time he was animated from a 2D drawing to a “2.5-dimensional” experiment using CrazyTalk Animator Pro (the trial version):
= = = = =
Recent thanks to Debra at KCDC; Chrystyna and Austin at Publix; Kizzie and Katy at Steak ‘n’ Shake; the cheerful people at Madison County License Department
Thanks to: Chamick at Pizza Hut; Sarah at P.F. Chang’s; Donna at Pier One; Shally at Plum Tree; Jenn and Janet at Earth Fare; Food City; Coldstone Creamery; Parkway Place
treetrunkdings 