The Island Journal

I think life would be simpler if I believed all the hocum around the horoscope. I am a cancer... the crab. Sure, that sounds like a bad thing, but supposedly I'm an artistic, family oriented, sensitive person who'd rather stay at home than explore the world around me. Hmmm, maybe I should take this a little more seriously. I do often travel and explore, but that's because I can't be home, I'm away on business. I have been known to doodle from time to time.... and paint.... and write.... O.k., I'm creative damnit! I also have an attachment to my parents as any “good child” should. We haven't always gotten along (we've down right butted heads from time to time), but I still feel that parent / child obligation and I love them both. I don't care to have a “family” of my own necessarily, but at some point a wife might be nice. Alright, we're batting 3 for four, but sensitive I ain't. Well, not anymore... but that means I was. Darn you astrology!

As a lark, I decided to look up my sign and a woman on a dating site just for curiosity's sake. The compatibility chart (Yes, there is one.... crazy right?) says that we would not get along because of the differences in personality. Looking at the personality traits she is supposed to have and looking at mine, it would seem that not only would we not get along... we'd kill one another. So looking at this logically, if the horoscope is right as far as I'm concerned, then it follows that it should be right where she's concerned. If that's the case, then we should never date. If we don't date we don't fall in love and we don't produce little hellion offspring there by never starting world war three and not ruling the earth. Alright, went off on a tangent, it happens to Cancers, but still... my point is valid. Who says that two people can't overcome the stars at the time of their birth. I know plenty of people who don't fall under the template of their sign.

More importantly, it's all wrong anyway. Due to stellar drift, the sign you're born under is, well, just plane wrong. Modern astrologers get their layout from the ancient Persians and Mesopotamians... I mean ancient! We're talking 2000 to 1500 BC. Add to this that is was developed over a naked eye perspective of the night sky, the system does not allow for modern discovery. Your sign today thanks to stellar drift, is off by nearly a month. In another 10,000 years, Polaris won't be the north star according to some calculations. On top of all of this, the distances, movement, and scale of the stars involved as well as the force (if any) that they exert on the planet or it's inhabitants is negligible. What does this mean? Well, it means signs don't really mean a thing.... or do they?

I am a cancer. I was born nearly a month late so I should have been a Gemini. Since the stars are out of sync with the horoscope, I am actually a Taurus. I do exhibit personality traits of all of these plus more dominant traits ascribed to three others. Observation is always colored by the observer so you can read into the individual's behavior, anything you want and attribute it to (or blame it on) the stars in the sky. Heck, I worship a deity that no one has seen in person (well, not all of him anyway) for at least five thousand years. Granted, he sent his kid to check up on us two thousand years ago, but still...

Seriously, if you look at the facts and history of any religion or system of beliefs, there isn't one that can't be debunked or at least criticized for some inaccuracy. There are about 101 contradictions in the Christian bible, regardless of translation or interpretation. I still believe it... it's a text book, a guide, not a claim of concrete supreme knowledge. I, however, am an observer... bare that in mind.

Addendum -

I read something interesting at a native American gift shop site (Animal Totem) that struck me as funny and a little suspicious.

June 21 - July 21 (which would be Cancer)

Salmon, Woodpecker, Flicker

Salmon strive to return home after a long journey. Salmon people are home-loving, giving and sensitive. They are also very imaginative and sometimes moody. Their goal in life is to live in harmony with the environment.

My vocabulary used to get me into no end of trouble. I would rattle and ramble some conglomeration of words to the mass of idiots surrounding me and because they were confused, frightened, or thinking the word “conglomeration” was an insult or a magical conjuring, I would find myself in a bit of a pickle. In college, my large vocabulary, while not antagonistic, was still something of a hurdle. I knew the words to use but fumbled with them and dropped them to the dirt in favor of simpler ones. Though I now believe I was on a higher intellectual rise than those around me were, I still fell short of the mark when speaking... at least for the first few semesters. Once I hit my stride, I was able to select easily the words from my storehouse and speak them with confidence and some modicum of pride.

In the last decade or so, I have found that the storehouse has been raided by a mis spent youth. After years of “dumbing it down” as it were, I have lost those colorful phrases and razor sharp statements that were once so much a part of my speech pattern, that I'd rather speak them and have a bloodied nose and cracked knuckle. Where have they gone? I could blame technology and the computerized thesaurus that often aids alliteration or I could blame the ruffians with whom I associated for so long but one of them is an English teacher now so I can't rightly cast a broad blanket of blame nor can I blame individuals as I often brag on my superior, unaffectable nature.

If you don't use it... you loose it. This seems to be a truism not only in the case of one's “groove” but also with one's vocabulary. I would like to say that I have improved considerably of late, but alas... not the case. I should invest in a word a day calender. Perhaps that will increase my verbal efficacy. Maybe that will hone my linguistic lash to the razor sharp grasping talon it once was. Maybe I just need new people on whom to sharpen them.... in a good way.

1st post... new year. Welcome 2010

I was born in the 70's, lived through the 80's and 90's, and now at the end of the 00's, the 80's are coming back. At least, the women's fashion is. There have been several attempts at an 80's resurgence but until now, they haven't tried to bring back anything I really cared to see again. I can do without the flat brimmed hats, the lace gloves, and stirrup pants were a bad idea the first time. What I'm glad to see women wearing again are the sweatshirts with giant neck holes that fall off the shoulder.

I am, what one would call, a tangential thinker. I often find my self arriving at “bunnies” while the start of the conversation had something to do with infectious diseases and not knowing how I veered so far off course. I realized, I search the Internet in much the same way.

I'm a big fan of Wikipedia. Contrary to popular belief, it's become a much more reliable source of information with checks, re-checks, and citations required for many topics. I usually look up something specific and spot a word link that looks interesting. I follow it. I'll read something about that subject and see another word that maybe I don't recognize and follow that link. Before I know it, The empire state building leads me to pygmy albino swamp marmosets. A few short clicks later I'm tangled in the endless web of the Wiki.

I decided to name my newly discovered pass time. I call it, “Riding the wiki train”. I would encourage all who find reading about new subjects interesting to hop on board your very own wiki train and follow it where it may lead. How long can you make the ride last? My longest run on a wiki train, before I named it, was about three hours. I learned quite a bit that night, though I fear I've lost most of it to the day to day workings of life in general.

This weekend I'll be on a plane home and unable to board the train myself, but I highly recommend that each and every one of you take a seat and pick a topic just to see where the clicks might lead.