Mid-morning. You had breakfast and
read the paper and you have the kitchen floor to do before exercises. You also
need to think about packing, boy. Carol has been doing a lot of work lately and
it appears that you don't care to do much. Do you? - Amorella
Carol has more stuff to pack. I don't
understand why women appear to like things so cleaned up, especially when we
are not going to be here.
The Kings will be over every day to feed the
cats, etc. - Amorella
They have seen the house hundreds of
times when we go traveling. Anyway, I will do what I have to do.
Out of obligation and duty, no doubt. -
Amorella
People do lots of things out of
obligation and duty. Responsibility is who we are.
If this is the case, why do people shirk
their responsibilities? - Amorella
I don't know -- they don't care I
suppose.
Why don't people care? - Amorella
I don't know.
That's something you can think about on your
trip. - Amorella
It is a good question for anyone to
think on.
These are going to be questions brought up
in Pouch 16. - Amorella
I thought it was about justice.
We are going to make a connection between
justice and not caring. - Amorella
I don't see how that is possible.
That's the reason I'm mentioning it now. -
Amorella
0901 hours. I made commentary on six
more books last night: Cold Comfort Farm by Gibbons, Last of the
Mohicans by Martin, The Jungle by Sinclair; The Open Boat and
Other Stories by Crane, The Moon and Sixpence by Maugham and The
Emperor Jones by O'Neill. It is fun thinking about them, and I found I can
move the book titles around so I am putting the ones with commentary at the
top.
What about the new books? - Amorella
I can't think of any more. I'm done
with titles.
Do the kitchen floors first, you'll feel
better then when you do your exercises and take your walk. - Amorella
You know, thoughts really do appear more real when they
are written down.
Late morning you have
cleaned the kitchen floor and worked on other chores, helping Carol in the
process. You don't really feel any better after doing the kitchen and all
things cat but at least it is done. The bedroom rugs and floor are swept and
the Middle Eastern throw rugs are put away in case of cats of accident. Carol
is working on the upstairs bathrooms though they and two bedrooms will be
closed off to the felines. You want to work on Pouch 16. Let's get to it. -
Amorella
1209 hours. I completed the work but
it is a few words over.
It will work for now, boy. Add and post. -
Amorella
***
Diplomatic Pouch 16 ©2013, rho - draft
Arriving
at the room a little late Justine and Hartolite are already seated and
semi-relaxed but Justin suddenly focused at the figurine sitting on the drink
stand to Hartolite's right. He asked, "What is that on the table?"
"The
finger-cup-with-a-top? It is filled with sacred water from home."
"It
looks empty. I thought it was a vase to put a single flower in, except it is
not quite tall enough."
She
smiled contentedly, "When I am homesick I put it in my pouch when I go to
sleep. It is comforting."
"Pardon?"
"I
put it in my pouch for comfort. She picked it up and quickly handed it to
him."
He
took it with self-consciousness, "It's soft. I thought it was glass."
A nasty thought hit and he tried to dismiss it. His cheeks reddened.
Hartolite
showed an immediate concern, "Are you embarrassed? I'm sorry if I
embarrassed you. What is embarrassing? I mean, if I may ask. I will try to
rectify it."
"No,
no." He looked for a place to put the object. "I'll set it down
here." He was in the process of putting the relic down and observed
Hartolite about to stand.
Hartolite
quickly stood and reached for it like he was about to spill the contents and
said, "I'll take it."
Justin
clumsily re-sat. "I'm sorry. I was afraid I might break it. Do you call it
a relic or a sacred object?"
She
looked puzzled after setting the object where it was. "We call it
"the finger-cup-with-a-top".
"But
you mentioned the sacred water?"
"Sacred
means something we care about."
"Sacred
mean Holy or Blessed."
"I'm
sorry. Your language is understood but the meanings are arbitrary. Why would
you bless water? And, doesn't holy mean sanctified or religious? How can water
be sanctified when it is a natural substance?"
Justin
broadened a smile near laughter, "We sanctify it. A priest or a rabbi
sanctifies it with holy rites."
"That
doesn't seem the orthodox thing to do with water. It is already in natural
existence. It seems you are trying to make it into something that it is not. No
offence intended, Mr. Justin."
"Call
me Justin, Hartolite."
"That
would be rude. It would be impolite for foreigners to be presumptuous.
Earthlings are all titled that's what we are taught."
"We
are more equal than titled, that's what we believe, that is what our laws
say."
"Saying
and being are two different things."
"See,"
brightened Justin, "We agree on that."
"I
am happy that you consider us equal. May I ask you an equal question?"
"Is
having sex fun?"
"Do
you mean foreplay or intercourse?"
Hartolite
laughed as casually as he had ever yet seen her, "No, I meant 'Isn't sex
fun?'"
Justin
laughed at the thought but was immediately anxious, which under the
circumstances made him even more anxious. He finally and quietly said,
"Our species thinks so, but, uh, affairs are not looked highly upon in our
culture."
"Then
why are there so many?"
"I
don't know." What about your culture? Our social rules are complicated.
How do you dispense justice?"
"That's
an easy question. We have three judges then after the hearing the pronounce the
person not guilty or guilty."
"No
jury?"
"Why
would you want to complicate the justice?"
"It
is like your supreme court only it is an equal court," said Hartolite
matter-of-factly. Then a quick change of subject, "Since we are equal
would you like to see my pouch?"
"Isn't
that a bit intimate?"
"No.
We women are built to share our pouches." She stood and dropped her outer
pants slowly. "See, here it is." I would never show my pouch to a
primate at home. He might attack me."
Justin
stood politely and curiosity took charge. He became medical doctor-like,
"There is a brownish ridge like an old scar."
"You
can touch it."
He
did. "It is rubbery."
You
can put your hand in if you like. Our men always put their hand in the pouch
whenever they can. Usually when we are alone in the apartment as we are
now."
"It
is soft and slightly moist. My goodness. This is very calming, very pleasurable
- I feel like I have just been given a full body massage."
"That's
why the men like it. It is the same for us women too. When I put my hand in my
pouch or in Friendly's pouch we become very relaxed, like we were crawlbabes in a sleep."
Justin
slowly pulled his right hand out and politely stepped back while she adjusted
her outer pants. "I don't know what to say."
"Neither
do our men. Isn't that funny?"
Both
laughed together and more intimately than before. Hartolite was sure this was a
good sign that the two species were indeed equal just as Justin had said.
806 words
***
Mid-afternoon. Late lunch at Chipotle/Panera
and now a stop at Kohl's (for a change) -- Carol is searching for a new
'larger' purse for the plane trip. The old one used to Rome is now too large.
You are feeling better now that chapter sixteen is written. You will have time
to write on the plane to Austin Saturday. We might get another chapter written
by the end of the week. What do you think? - Amorella
1517 hours. I was thinking about it. I
was concerned you were going to say 'no writing' but I have an idea that if the
time isn't proper you won't write anyway.
I wouldn't write because you would be
uncomfortable writing. - Amorella
You are right. -- Here we are at the
Village Junction at Montgomery Road and I-270, a place where Carol's friend
Barb works since her retirement. Kohl's purses were on sale but too expensive.
If there is nothing here I suppose we'll go on in to Macy's. It is beginning to
get exciting, getting the suitcases out when we arrive home.
Earlier you were sitting in the car waiting
for Carol when you realized you hadn't checked in for the flight, and you spent
half an hour getting online and organized because you were supposed to do it
before nine this morning. One of the few jobs Carol actually depending on you
doing. - Amorella
Yes. I was close to a panic. -- We are
home. It turns out I am a day early for checking in for boarding so all is
well. (1636)
I
have been checking my email and found a great article on dreams and brain
scanning on BBC Science.
Drop it in a post. Blake Williams will find
it quite interesting and so will Robert Graystone, Richard Graystone not so
much. - Amorella
***
4 April 2013 Last updated at 14:04 ET
Scientists 'read dreams' using brain scans
By Rebecca Morelle
Science reporter, BBC World Service
Brain activity correlated with the images that people saw in their dreams
Scientists
have found a way to "read" dreams, a study suggests.
Researchers
in Japan used MRI scans to predict the images that people were seeing as they
entered into an early stage of sleep.
Writing
in the journal Science, they reported that they could do this with 60%
accuracy.
The team
now wants to see if brain activity can be used to predict other aspects of
dreaming, such as the emotions experienced during sleep.
Professor
Yukiyasu Kamitani, from the ATR Computational Neuroscience Laboratories, in
Kyoto, said: "I had a strong belief that dream decoding should be possible
at least for particular aspects of dreaming... I was not very surprised by the
results, but excited."
Brain
wave
People
have been trying to decipher dreams since ancient Egyptian times, but the
researchers who have carried out this study have found a more direct way to tap
into our nighttime visions.
The team
used MRI scans to monitor three people as they slept.Just as
the volunteers started to fall inside the scanners, they were woken up
and asked to recount what they had seen. Each
image mentioned, from bronze statues to keys and ice picks, was noted, no
matter how surreal. This was
repeated more than 200 times for each participant. The
researchers used the results to build a database, where they grouped together
objects into similar visual categories. For example, hotel, house and building
were grouped together as "structures".The
scientists then scanned the volunteers again, but this time, while they were
awake and looking at images on a computer screen. With
this, they were able to see the specific patterns of brain activity that
correlated with the visual imagery.
Dream
machines?
During
the next round of sleep tests, by monitoring the brain scans the researchers
could predict what the volunteers were seeing in their dreams. They were able
to assess which broad category the images were in with 60% accuracy. "We
were able to reveal dream content from brain activity during sleep, which was
consistent with the subjects' verbal reports," explained Professor Kamitani. The
researchers now want to look at deeper sleep, where the most vivid dreams are
thought to occur, as well as see whether brain scans can help them to predict
emotions, smells, colours and actions that people experience as they sleep.
Dr Mark
Stokes, a cognitive neuroscientist from the University of Oxford, said it was
an "exciting" piece of research that brought us closer to the concept
of dream-reading machines."It's
obviously a long way off, but there is no reason why not in principle. The difficult
thing is to work out the systematic mapping between the brain activity and the
phenomena," he explained. However,
he added that a single dream-reading system would not work for everyone. "All
of this would have to be done within individual subjects. So you would never be
able build a general classifier that could read anybody's dreams. They will all
be idiosyncratic to the individual, so the brain activity will never be general
across subjects," he said. "You would
never be able to build something that could read other peoples thoughts without
them knowing about it, for example."
From: BBC News/Science
***
So, I wonder if the scan is what goes on in my head when I trance write. What is the difference, I wonder, between a dream and a hypnotic trance as far as brain function is concerned? (1712)
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