winter 1979

I think this is in front of the Cleveland museum of art, winter 1979.  The statue is a copy of Rodin's Thinking Man that was damaged by a bomb in the 60s -- student protests.  They kept the damage as a historical artifact.

November 19, 1979

Monday; I"m 16.

I'm the moonstruck man.  I alone know the answers.  I flirt with death and dance with the unknown.  In the shadows I lie waiting for my victim.  I am Thoth, the god of wisdom, learning, and magic.  In my cave on the side of a mountain I ominously weave the future.  Other people avoid me, for they know I carry with me the macabre.  I lurk in their midst, knowing their lies, seeing the truth.  They shun me, but I do not care.  My spirits are with me.  We come together, before the end.  To celebrate the demise of my tormentors.  Yes, the tormentors.  How long they have searched for me.  The days that I have spent running in the voids, pursued unceasingly.  The hours unending, my mind tortured by their existence.  The inner fabric of my soul, ripped and strewn asunder.  Trampled upon by the long march of their quest.  But I still survive.  My spirits revive me.  I unfold, slowly and painfully until I stand once more.  My specters show me the way.  I take refuge in the myths.

november or december 1979

2008:  Mom and I in the midst of a discussion.  I"m wearing my special relativity t-shirt -- man, I wish I still had it!

November 18, 1979

Sunday; I'm 16.

I just got back from a weekend at mom's in Cleveland.  She and Joe U. are engaged, though not necessarily to get married.  Instead of a ring, Joe gave mom a 16 gauge double barrel shotgun.  it figures.  Joe's so hyper-military (ex-special forces) that even after 8 years past Viet Nam, he' s still wearing fatigues and army boots.  But he's nice.

I really don't know why I'm not writing.  I have lots of thoughts, but I don't write them down.  Perhaps a tape recorded journal.  

November 15, 1979

Thursday; I'm 16.

I did it!  My spherical chess game is a success.  Though I thought at first it wouldn't work, I used longitude - latitude lines to make the squares.  All the same rules apply, except at the poles, since there my rules differ only slightly.

November 11, 1979

Sunday; I"m 16.

Let's talk television.  Most TV shows on today are crap.  Badness in abundance.  The worst is probably ABC.  Happy Days, Laverne and Shirley, Three's Company, Love Boat, and their many stupid tv movies.  I prefer CBS over NBC and ABC.  But there's junk on every channel.  Charlie's Angels, Hello Larry, the list goes on.  But there's some good shows.  Barney Miller, Mash, the old All in the Family, Quincy, Rockford Files, and of course the best show ever to hit TV, Monty Python's Flying Circus.  

I watch a lot less tv than I used to.  It seems that as I get older, my opinion of it lowers.  Not that tv is all bad.  There are some very good shows on the networks, sometimes, and on PBS.  But the majority of it isn't worth watching.