I had to drop my kid to a kindergarten yesterday. As I stayed up all night long, and couldn’t be bothered with taking a bus, we hailed a taxi. A dog was crossing a small street leading up to my son’s school, and then I could feel and hear a little bump. We arrived. I asked taxi to wait a minute to take me to work - I was running out of time anyway, and was about to be late.
Driving up that small street again, I saw a small cute hairball of a stray dog, laying in the middle of the road. Obviously, we hit a dog on our way. Driver stopped and went off the car. A local man - shopkeeper from a little street shop nearby was staying next to the dog, smoking. He spoke to the driver. The street was small, and it seemed like he was not happy with a dead dog on the street next to his establishment. That, not the dog, was his concern. There was no rubbish bin or anything in sight - it is just a narrow street, without even a pavement. While they were quietly discussing something, I looked at the dog. There was no blood or anything - like this dog was just taking a nap in the middle of the street. The conversation was about to be finished; the driver reached the dog. I started to suspect he is about to grab it and drop into the taxi’s boot, to discard the poor thing later on somewhere.
The dog was not dead - it opened it’s eyes.
Continue reading ‘A dog story’
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I want to share an old dream I had. The dream goes like this:
It was snow, and I was at the Zoo. The animals there were very agitated and the zookeepers couldn’t keep things under control. The problem was of escaped snakes. I was near the zookeepers and they needed help to capture the snakes, which were actualy dark green cobras, I offered to help them capturing the snake. While I was near the snakes, they weren’t aggresive at all, they were very calm and friendly. So I wanted to touch them. When I touched the snakes they agreed that I can capture them. The zookeepers didn’t know how I did that, but they were impressed and thankfull, as I collected them all.
The dream continues when I’m in the city and it’s still snowing, and strange looking people looking like some tribal people, heavily armed and looking like mercenaries were sitting by bonfire. They saw me, and decided to capture me to use me as a weapon. I remember wondering in the dream: why me? what do I have? what weapon? who are these people? … Looking at my body better, I observed a long red cobra snake coiling around my back, at my spine. It’s head was near my right ear. It looked also like it knew me for a very long time and always protected me. In the dream when I met the snake, I had the felling like ” At last we meet again ” or ” Long time no see! “, which was very peacefully and joyfull. It was like I met an old friend or ally again. Then I realised those people wanted the red cobra and not me. The snake gave me a very charmful stare at me and said in my mind ” Don’t worry, they can’t get me “. The ground started to crumble, hurting the mercenaries. The snake and I escaped.
The third and the last part of the dream comes in. We are in the elevator. Suddently a huge dog jumped out of nowhere and attacked us. The dog looked like a massive pincher, without skin and with red eyes, like a hellhound. I was very scared, but the snake bit the dog. The dog shrunk in size, growling of pain and dissapeared.
The ending was also strange. I was looking with the snake, and I noticed a big scar this snake had on it’s right part of the head. The snake told me: “Don’t worry, we’ll meet again”, and was gone. My dream ended.
What is interesting about this dream is the scar that the snake had. It was exactly like I have on my chest. I had a rough accident when I was a kid deforming my chest bones. The snake had the same scar as me, but on it’s head. I still have the scar today, only less observable, and my spine bones hurt sometimes.
I asked many people about this strange dream. Some people said that the snake in the dream called Kundalini snake, some said it was my guardian spirit. Kundalini snake, or guardian spirit, or just a fruit of my imagination… I just wanted to share my dream, though any interpretations are welcome. I have never seen this snake since then, but wonder what is it if we will meet as it promised in my dream.
Cheers to all.
Seung-Hyun Park
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A friend and I meet at a house to jam with some new people. My dad drops me off after a bit of a drive, and I am struck by the nearly identical nature of this house to the one I grew up in–even the outside colors are the same–though as I walk through the garage, I notice the concrete bricks along the foundation are differently patterned. The main floor of the house looks just like my own home from childhood as well, including even the addition we built on to our kitchen over ten years after constructing the house!
We go down to the basement (which looks completely different) to set up and meet our new musician friends: a brother and sister who seem a little straight-edge. I met them online recently because they, like me, enjoy listening to SwissGroove streaming radio, and a few of the cover songs we play sound like music fit for that station. I bring my percussion rig along but leave my congas and bongos at home as I didn’t quite know what to expect, but even with reduced equipment it takes me well into the first song to set up. I also bring my pipe, still half-packed, but decided these two were not into that at all and let it stay in the plastic bag of my belongings. After awhile I notice some advertising posters in the basement, and it seems like these people are members of the band Belle and Sebastian.
The house also boasts a collection of small, shaggy and annoying dogs. These dogs possess sharp claws and bad tempers and get upset very easily, becoming aggressive and latching on to your hand, leg, or anything else they grab. They seem to receive enough attention yet act as if they desperately need more. I cannot stand these dogs.
After jamming I sit in a couch, still in the basement, to watch a Yankees baseball game. I stay under a blanket to protect myself from dog attacks–with reasonable success until the game ends and their dad comes home. As he and I chat the dogs return, angrily jump on the couch and blanket, and proceed to bite, claw, and generally make life miserable.
I really hate these dogs.
Jacob Haqq-Misra
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I have read recently about an experiment conducted on mices (yep, once again!:(). The researchers tried to figure out how mices store their memories. Memories are subjective, but if we will anchor memories to certain events, they can be easily pinpointed.
To put it simple, mices had to go through some painful experiences. Afterwards the conditions of those experiences were recreated, so mices would expect they would be hurt again. However bad it sounds, they found that neurons are in charge of storing memories. More painful events recorded by bigger number of neurons. As the result, the more neurons would store the information about a particular event, the more vivid and strong memory is. It is an interesting thing to know, though it brings up some questions. Let’s say, we know what a lifecycle of a cell in our body is limited, from few seconds to 7 years max., and cells regenerate constantly. How the information stored by neurons going through regeneration process could passed? How do we “select” what to remember? A couple of days ago I broke my toe. It broke in the same place as few years ago, in circumstances deserving a separate post, but that event was largely forgotten by me until it happenned again.
I went through quite a few painful experiences in my life, including broken bones etc., but they will not top my memories list. Sometimes when psychological experiments conducted, eg in Roershach test, they ask you to give the first word which comes to your mind.
OK, I’ll do that with my memories now, without any logic and order:
Continue reading ‘Mices, fluorescent dogs and memory tricks’
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