Quarantine entry #78 - May 7

Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks. I mean, here you go, reading about how a lobster fisherman caught an albino lobster, one in a 100 million or something, and then you learn that a 10-ft. great white shark, (that’s 3 m long, longer than an average man is tall and much stronger, too), unintentionally killed a surfer. That is life, but it still sucks, even if it is not COVID-19 bad.

…And then you read how some pilot drew a fish – I mean, a fist - for George Floyd in the air over Nova Scotia, and this is when I knew that the American society is in trouble…and also nuts. Why? Because it is bored. Everyone in the West – but especially in the U.S. – was bored because of the lockdown, and when the George Floyd protests came along, they piled onto it with no intention of stopping it.

Oh, sure, people like the Donald try to stop it…which they do…in a manner that is certain to make everything worse and to ensure that the ‘U.S. civil unrest’ beats-out ‘Coronavirus-19’ for top spot on news sites, (such as the MSN, but still). The fact is that people are sick and tired of COVID-19 and will do anything to forget about it; but…

…But what people are not talking about is how the ‘civil unrest’ issue will exacerbate the COVID-19 issue. Forget ‘Barkskins’, forget ‘Gordon Ramsey Uncharted’, they are out in the real world, where blood is being spilled, and COVID-19 is beginning to become ignored, sickness or not. Pause.

Here is the thing. Canada itself is doing just that, demanding justice for its’ own deceased POC, deceased under suspicious circumstances, I point out, but somehow it falls far from the scope of the U.S. – and they still have not opened the borders.

That is to say, the U.S.-Canadian border is permeable, but because my family does not want to take risks – and they are not entirely wrong there by now – it might as well not be. Pause.

Here is another thing. I doubt that this border is going to be officially open anytime soon, as neither D.C. nor Ottawa want to force the issue, and actually, they probably do not want to open the border at all. The U.S. – because its’ people have been moving as in ‘immigrating’ to Canada since 2016, (and whose fault is that? Not the Canadians) – and Ottawa because right now the U.S. is a burning pile of tires that is full of crap that stinks. The Donald and Trudeau are two very different people that did not get along too often in the past, and now it shows.

…The people…under other circumstances, the people would, and could, tell Ottawa and D.C. something about that, and so they do…about people of color, and about defunding the police. The latter part is U.S.-only, somehow it didn’t get caught in Canada, (cough), and so I feel comfortable enough to say that whatever is going on in Canada is only an imitation of the ‘U.S. civil unrest’ and the ‘George Floyd fallout’, and it helps Trudeau and his peers to feel important, while keeping them out of the U.S. level of danger. Anything else?

Speaking of danger, the first episode of S2 of ‘Gordon Ramsay Uncharted’ has reminded me quite a lot of ‘River Monsters’, especially the African episodes, for the obvious reason – hippos. We have talked about them repeatedly on this blog, but they are amazing animals, especially the common hippo. The pygmy hippo is remarkable in its own right, but people do not encounter it in the wild as often as they do its’ larger cousin, with ‘encounter’ being the key word here. You see, unlike the wildlife in Asia or South America, the African animals are kind of used to people, they know that if they charge first and think about the fallout later, they can survive their human encounters, while humans don’t. Sadly, humans are even smarter and are even better at killing than the African mammals are, and the latter do include hippos; hippo attacks are one of the main causes of death in Africa, whereas shark attacks…

Whereas shark attacks in Africa are something else, and we have talked about the AFO episode ‘Hippo vs. bull shark’ in the past. The hippo won, but that is not very surprising; I have seen some live-action footage, (not CGI) of hippos encountering bull sharks, and the latter give hippos a wide berth. They may be as formidable as the great white sharks are, in proportion, but otherwise? Nile crocodiles feed on them, and hippos can handle Nile crocodiles, no problem! Kudos to GR for channelling his inner JW, I say!..

For now though, this is it. See you all soon!

Quarantine entry #77 - May 6

Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks. Why? Because it changes, and usually it bad ways. Just look at how the Donald had handled his latest interview questions done by an Afro-American female journalist. Yowch! Now his life will turn to worse yet again – why does he still want to remain the POTUS, again? If he had left the office, especially before the COVID-19 start, he would have been forgotten by now, and the others would have let him go!..

…Or not, as Kendall Jenner’s case shows. Way back in 2017 she participated in an especially tone-deaf, (politically), Pepsi ad that included confronting a riot and resolving it with a Pepsi. Both she and the Pepsi Company ate crow over it and everyone forgot about it…or not, as now, given the real-life events, at least some people dragged the ad in question back into spotlight. Only… this particular Jenner had learned something from this mess of hers, and since then did her (relative) best to do damage control regarding this sort of thing – probably in case of an emergency. Well, there is an emergency now, but since KJ had did some damage control – more or less – people are not giving her as much flak about the ad-2017 as they could have done otherwise. Why couldn’t the Donald do something similar?.. Oh, wait, he is the Donald, never mind.

On the other hand, we have ‘Batwoman’ the DC TV series that recently has officially proclaimed that it will not recast the titular character, (who was played by Ruby Rose, remember?). Frankly, this makes ‘Batwoman’ a tie with ‘Swamp Thing’ and ‘Powerless’, and if the latter was something of an outlier in the world of DC TV series, then the former was certainly a good and an interesting show to watch. Ah well, everyone fails, especially if they do not have Disney to support them, as AoS depicts.

Yes, by now, not just AoS is finally ending, but the rest of the ‘old guard’ has ended as well. Yes, initially they were supposed to be replaced by ‘The Winter Soldier and the Falcon’, ‘WandaVision’ and the show about Loki, but then COVID-19 happened and everything just died instead. Pause.

Now, today I wanted to talk about stars, because yesterday we had a partial lunar eclipse, aka the strawberry moon, but regrettably, our part of the world – a suburb in the New York state – didn’t have too much in terms of the moon: the sky was partially cloudy last evening and night, yes, but nothing more, and the moon…before we went to sleep, admittedly, but still… didn’t look any different from how it usually looks… where were we?

Stars are huge giant balls of gas, as Pumba from ‘The Lion King’ used to say. Or was he Pumbaa? Frankly, I do not care, the rebooted ‘Mulan’ was supposed to come out in April-2020, but now there’s no sign or indication of it, or that it would ever come back to the big screen. Pity, the people are starved for shows… and then along came George Floyd and the idiot, who had killed him, and now people are out in the streets, and a similar situation is developing in Canada. What else?

…Sadly, it is very unlikely that the US-Canada border will be opened any time soon, simply because the Donald is himself, whereas in the North we got Trudeau, Scheer and Singh getting along only not. After the Donald’s latest messes, no one there wants to be associated with him, and, moreover? Canada still has not gotten its’ act together either, though, at least, in its’ case there’s no case of civil unrest actually beating COVID-19 as top news.

…Ok, this was a depressing thought, so I am ending my blog entry for today on this note. See you all soon instead!

Quarantine entry #76 - May 5

Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks; the situation regarding George Floyd and the fallout that followed him continues not to improve, and across the border, the same situation is developing regarding the demise of another POC that fell from the balcony after some search. Now what?

…Firstly, a shout-out to the ‘Barkskins’ series: their first season has reached its’ midway point by now, and the official critics are ignoring it, God knows why. It is a good TV series, a historical docudrama that looks and feels authentic, so why there aren’t more people discussing it? I have no idea, though considering as to how real life is more dramatic and surreal than anything that can appear on TV, that might be one of the reasons why. Next?

…Speaking of real/unreal, it seems that the team AoS is leaving the post-WWII NYC behind and are going elsewhere. Pause. Firstly, I am guessing that we will not be having an AoS/AC official crossover any time soon or at all. Pity, but as it’d been acknowledged semi-officially, team Carter didn’t fair too well in the MCU: at first, it was looking as if Steve would settle with Sharon Carter, the niece of the original AC, while AC would end up with agent Sousa, (most likely, in my opinion); but then AC the TV show ended, and people at MCU decided to match Steve with Peggy, while Sharon would end-up with Sam and Bucky… either or, or both. Since ‘The Winter Solider and The Falcon’ show is suspended indefinitely, it is anyone’s guess as to how it will turnout, relationship-wise, so let us get back to AoS.

Sadly, there isn’t much to go about, not really – either the team Time Bus will continue to travel through time and space, thus also continuing to imitate DC’s LoT, which can be bad for the Marvel/DC relations in real life, (but remember, real life sucks for infinite reasons), or they can pull a ‘sound of thunder’ twist, and return to the present in the 7x03 episode, only to find it changed in subtle, but important ways. Considering that so far they only interacted with a Koenig and a Malick variants, I’m leaning towards the former; plus, Powers Boothe, who had played Gideon Malick back on AoS’ S3, has died in real life several years ago, remember? Real life sucks, again.

To elaborate… listen. AoS was intended to be a tightly intertwined or interconnected TV series, with recurring characters appearing for more than just a single season. Instead, we got exactly that from S2, if not S1 onwards, and consequently, the AoS’ ratings have suffered and fell all the way until now, aka the final season. Now they may recover, but because AoS is done, both in real life and with real life, it probably does not care anymore. Pause.

No, really, look at what the AoS’ audience got in the final season’s premiere. A two-parter that features a variant Malick, and since both of the ‘modern’ Malicks died within the parameters of the AoS’ S3, it is highly unlikely that we will see either of them on S7 because of various real-life reasons, and a variant Koenig… pause.

There had been several Koenigs on the show, played by a single actor (for men) and a single actress (for women), and they came and went with neither rhyme nor reason, without much, if any, impact on the show. In good conscience, they could have replaced ‘Ernest Koenig’ with a completely different, non-Koenig character, and it would have worked just as well, because within the show’s parameters? 

The Koenigs are not recurring; they are redundant, and largely forgettable. The actors who played them, (especially the Koenig men), must have had a set contract to appear an appropriate amount of time in AoS episodes, and that is it. …Something similar must have happened with the character of Deathlok on MCU – in S1 he was one of the main storylines, and then his role began to increasingly diminish, until he appeared in a single episode of AoS’ S5 or 6, that is it. Sic transit Gloria mundi or whatever. Anything else?

…I admit that I wanted to talk about beetles for a change – you know, the insects that have six legs, a hard out pair of wings, and chewing jaws? Yes, we talked about them in the past, when we have discussed the world of insects and the difference in terms of ‘bugs’ and ‘beetles’. That, of course, is very exciting, and the beetles themselves are a very exciting topic, but we will probably talk about them some other time – they are just not fun to talk about, not after AoS!

…This is it for now – see you all soon!

Quarantine entry #75 - June 4

Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks. Why? It does not matter – for some, it may suck because of its unpredictability, for others – because of routine, but it does not matter. Life sucks. For humans, life can go for several decades, over a century, even, for some; for hedgehogs – just a few years; and for the spruce tree, (and its’ cousin, the fir) – for several centuries, easily. Pause.

Here is the thing. Do we want to talk about trees, of all things? Yes, since we began to talk about the woodpeckers, it is only logical that trees come up next, since the woodpeckers both feed on (and in) the trees, and nest in their cavities, (natural or created/augmented by those birds). Ergo, taking about trees makes sense.

But! The truth is that real world does not always make sense, (that is one of the reasons as to why it sucks). Just look at what the US is going through right now. Really, it is the ‘Tiger King’ phenomenon, gone badly, out of control, and wrong. In both cases, the American people were so starved for anything exciting that once it happened, it got out of control.

…Incidentally, this situation is not typical for just the Republican governments – during the period of Obama’s more Democratic reign, especially in the last years, the situation on the streets was pretty much similar what it is now; now it may be more violent, but that is all.

…Yes, the current political situation in D.C. is making the situation worse, relatively speaking, but this brings us to free will – the Americans have it, they are using it, and they are apparently abusing it, seeing how the situation is getting worse rather than better. Pause.

Yes, the last statement was unkind and probably wrong as well, but the thing is that since the Cold War ended, USA did its best to become the standard by which freedom in our world is measured; it is like the Gold Standard of Freedom or something, and once it starts to fall, then the rest of the world is affected. Yes, this is the ‘global village effect’ in action. Yes, USA tried to get out of the ‘global village’ for this reason as well – their power was waning, they could no longer control it/run it/be in charge, but it is too late, and the ‘global village’ system cannot be dismantled without some fallout at least, the end.

Only it is anything but, as the US is experiencing the effect of the ‘global village’ that they helped the rest of the West, and the rest of the world, create in the post-Cold War years, (i.e. 1990s and the early 2000s), when their power was at its latest peak. Back then, the current situation was unimaginable, apparently – USA honestly didn’t expect that Americans would be fighting, killing, looting, shooting each other and etc., with the rest of the world facepalming: like, what else those crazy Yankee yahoos are doing now?..

…Yes, something similar had went down at the end of the 19^th/the start of the 20^th century, before the WWI, and the WWII, and everything that happened between them, but only those that don’t learn from history, repeat it. The Russians get a lot of dissension for doing just that, but in reality? It seems that at least some people in the RF are trying to change their future, while in the US? It is another story.

Anything else? Here is a drabble about the woodpecker, since we are apparently not done with the bird:

What is this loud drumming in the forest? Who is drumming so loudly here? Why, there they are, all mottled, with a red cap. It landed onto a pine tree, grabbed the bark with its’ talons, supported by the stiff tail, and began to jump upwards. It found a spot where there was a grub beneath the bark, and began to drum with its’ beak... It ate the grub, flew on and drummed on the bark some more... – and then it flew away even further, its’ drumming is barely audible now... It still sounds like a drum, but that is no drummer, but the woodpecker bird.

…Well, this is it for now – see you all soon!

Quarantine entry #74 - June 3

Obligatory disclaimer: lately, the current political events in the U.S. are giving a strong feeling of déjà vu, and not necessarily of the good kind.

Let me elaborate. Does anyone remember the immediate period post the elections-2016? The country of USA was feverish as various social groups – you know, the antifa, the skinheads, the Neo-Nazis, the BLM, the ALM, and who else have you, were apparently duking it out on the streets, and the rest of the American society was hiding in the basements, attics, cellars, backyards and etc., while this was going on, and the Donald was just making it worse by being himself. Now… we got WASPs, POCs, the abovementioned social groups, other social groups duking it out on the streets, and the rest of the American society is in the background… only not?

No, they are, as the entire kneeling situation isn’t participation or control – it’s appeasement. America’s finest are trying to appease the protesters by signs of submission and not everyone agrees with it, not even all of the Yankees themselves. The Donald, in particular, is tweeting a storm…, which actually brings us to the other side of the situation: the elections. This year they will be done by mail at least in part, and plenty of people are not happy about it, and they are venting about that as well. And-?

And nothing. Not unless you want to cancel the elections-2020 altogether, at least until the next year, or until all the paranoia and the COVID-19-related deaths, well, die down, and people do not sound as if they want that either. More precisely, they sound as if they do not know what they want – they want several contradictory (for the moment) things – for people to be safe and for them to vote at the same time… and for all of that to be possible with minimum of effort.

…There is a short story going around in the West, with the punchline being that of the contractor telling his employer: “You want it done fast, and well, and cheap. That is not possible. Choose two out of three.” What did the employer choose remains up for grabs, but the point is that the U.S. politicians, (who are some of the main voices of dissent for the entire ‘voting by mail’ concept), are trying to have just that – fast, and well, and cheap, and screw reality. Have your cake and eat it too! The French Revolution, everyone! It says hello! Pause!

…No, I do not think that the U.S. is in danger of falling apart straight away, but if it continues like this, who knows what can happen? The Donald might lose his presidential chair, for example, and-

-And that bring us back to the elections-2016, when the U.S. mass media did its’ best to achieve just that, as it and the Donald hate each other, (just look at the latter’s latest feud with Twitter). It instigated, or helped to instigate, the riots back then, and it seems to be doing something similar right now, only right now the riots aren’t about the Donald – they were about George Floyd, and are becoming about themselves instead. It is not any longer about George Floyd; it is about racism in general, (and does anyone know as to who Desmond Tutu is supposed to be?!), and soon might be becoming a pogrom that is proceeding for its’ own worth instead.

…The Russians are mocking the U.S., but that is because they had their own pogroms at the turn of the 20^th century and have largely outgrown them by now, because reasons, because the U.S.S.R. was supposed to be free of anti-Semitism; in reality, the situation was more complex, but officially, this is how it was, and woe betide anyone who gets caught breaking the official rules!.. No wonder that the RF is currently mocking the US – it can afford to.

Now, today I wanted to talk about the woodpeckers. They are fascinating birds. Aside from the ‘true’ woodpeckers, (including flickers), this group of birds also includes two species of wrynecks, which are fascinating birds, as they are snake mimics, and 20+ species of piculets, which are similar to woodpeckers, but are smaller and weaker than they are, in general.

The biggest woodpecker species are the size of a jackdaw, or even a hooded crow; the smallest bird is sparrow-sized, (remember sparrows? We talked about them recently already). All of the woodpeckers, including their wryneck cousins, can peck wood and have evolved in this direction, making them some of the most specialized birds of the modern times.

Male and female woodpeckers look differently from each other, but only slightly, (with some exceptions), and practically all of the woodpeckers look like each other, with some minor variations, (mostly in coloration and size) – their way of life is practically similar… Pause.

...I cannot do it. Not while real life is so weird. Woodpeckers are a fun way to escape from real life, but real life is inescapable for the moment, it seems. Ergo, let us put the woodpeckers on hold and I will see you soon instead!

Cheers!

Quarantine entry #73 - June 2

Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks. At least the protests are dying down, at last.

Why? Because their initial reason – the death of Mr. Floyd – were only partially powering the entire process and the rest of it was inflamed by aggravation of self-isolation; plus, the various politicians and who else have you that’ve tried to benefit from this.

Let me elaborate. Just as in case of COVID-19, the protests of Mr. Floyd’s deaths sparked numerous opportunities for all sorts of things aimed at benefits. I.e., some people benefitted from toning the protests down, while some others – from inflaming them instead. The result? About a week long mess from Miami to Seattle of lockdowns, public apologies and humiliation, of various statements, crimes, and what else have you – but primarily on chaos. Chaos is USA’s trademark statement, after all.

Let me see if I can elaborate further. For comparison, the Russian Federation is still largely an Asiatic country, especially politics-wise, and as such, its’ politics are marked by ‘stability’, (if positive), and ‘stagnation’, (if negative). Here the problem is that the RF really should rebrand its’ politics are ‘enduring’ and/or other words derived from ‘endurance’, (well, from its’ Russian analogue). Unfortunately, its’ politics are really resistant to change – hence the various problems that arose in Russian history since this state appeared on the map about twelve hundred years ago or so, whereas the U.S. …

…Whereas the U.S. has the opposite problem – yes, it thrives on change, but…

…But it is still country in the old-fashioned political meaning of the world, though since the end of the Cold War, even D.C. itself became increasingly chaotic and unstable. That is not too bad, save that if D.C. goes, who has to say that U.S. will remain as a country? The concept of a ‘Balkanized’ North America had been a dystopian sci-fi/AH trope for a long time now, especially in the West, and even in the East the RF isn’t too enthusiastic about it, (or at least it wasn’t in the recent past).

Can the ‘Balkanization’ of the North American continent occur in the immediate future? Frankly, I have no idea, but as for the non-immediate future? Well, yes. Anything can be taken to the extreme by humans – communism, monarchism, tyranny, democracy, and so on. The Ancient Greeks invented the modern western politics, the very first prototype, which included democracy, but unlike the modern West, they did not consider democracy to be honestly superior to monarchy, or aristocracy, (think the Roman republic, as we know it). Hence, once the barbarian Macedonians came from the North (of the Balkans, but still) and conquered Greece before proceeding to do the same with Egypt, Middle East and Central Asia, (to a lesser extent), the Greeks adapted to this situation just as easily as the Egyptians or the Persians did.

The modern U.S., of course, is a very different country from the ancient Greece with its’ numerous city-states… right? Maybe, but that is not to say that if the Washington D.C. were to implode, the rest of the U.S. would endure, especially in the incarnation that we knew it as. What is next?

…I have no idea, actually. Canada is trying to distance itself from the U.S., at least politically, (cough, Justin Trudeau’s poignant pause, cough), but in real life? USA is Canada’s only neighbour, both geopolitical and otherwise, and if the former begins to fall apart, it is anyone’s guess as to how Canada will endure. Ditto for Mexico, of course, at least to a point, but that is another story.

…Well, this is it for now, and boy, was not that depressing. See you all soon on a less pessimistic note, I hope! Cheers!

Quarantine entry #72 - June 1

Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks. People continue to use the death of G.F. as an excuse to vent their own frustrations over everything that has gone wrong in their lives and in the life of the planet for the last 3-4 months or so, and the Donald decided to make his input by designating the antifa as a terrorist movement. Couldn’t he made the same choice for the skinheads as well?..

Listen: yes, shit has hit the fan here, and there is almost no way out of it that would make you smell rosy. Yes, while staying out of this mess has become impossible by now for a public figure, it does not mean that you have to almost deliberately make it worse by choosing sides and almost not bothering to hide it. Pause.

Yes, we’re talking about the same Donald, about the same man that got schooled by Taylor Swift recently; Taylor Swift, people, who isn’t exactly a poster child for interracial good relationships, as her confrontations with the Kardashian-West clan in the past showed – but this time practically everyone is choosing her over the POTUS; remind me, why hasn’t he become impeached yet?

Well, the Republicans do not want to impeach him, because they remain on top of the U.S. political society, (and beyond), by adding their camels to his caravan, metaphorically speaking; and the Democrats?..

With them, it is trickier, but as we have talked before, and repeatedly, since the elections-2016, really, the DNC has a lot of internal issues, which, now, (June 2020, happy summer-2020, everyone, BTW!), show no signs of being resolved. Mr. Biden might be the Democrats’ designated candidate for presidency, but now? His campaign is decisively lackluster, as is the man himself.

…Yes, many strata of the U.S society, (including the state governors and what else have you), are fed up with the Donald, but did the Democrats had to put up someone so lackluster at Mr. Biden? …

Apparently yes, so when the elections-2020 will begin in earnest, may they reap what they have sowed, the end. What next?

…I actually wanted to talk about sparrows today. No, I am not talking about Captain Jack from Disney's PotC franchise, though Mr. Depp? Sorry about everything that you went though. You did not deserve that; you deserved better. Rather, I want to talk about the actual birds that are called sparrows, but it is trickier than how it sounds.

To begin, the word ‘sparrow’ is used to name quite a few of different birds. In the Old World, this was the name of songbirds, (biologically speaking), which belong to the Passeridae family; of them, the house sparrow is the best-known in the New World, though the so-called tree or field sparrow is a close second back in the old country.

The native New World sparrows belong to the Passerellidae family instead; both they and the Old World sparrows belong to the same avian superfamily, the Passeroidea, and in many ways, they are similar to each other, but they do not hybridize readily, so most scientists agree that the two families are not very closely related to each other after all. Anything else?

…Some other passerine birds are also called ‘sparrows’, even though they belong to yet other Passerine families, such as the Estrlididae, (the so called Java and Timor sparrows), or the Prumellidae, (the hedge sparrow or the dunnock, which, I believe, was featured on Sir David Attenborough’s ‘Life of Birds’ series). Isn’t taxonomy fun? It is certainly funnier than the real life, which sucks!..

…For now, however, this is it. See you all soon!