Oct 21, 2023: The Adventures of Gammoth
Nov. 7th, 2023 02:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eerietom$6M-Man invited me to go with him and a friend of his to The Oddities and Curiosities Expo at the Portland Convention Center. We thought it would be a good event to attend while stoned, so I took my tincture shortly before heading for the venue. The Expo featured vendors selling a variety of creepy and eerie goods and curios, such as weird little sculptures and dolls and actual stuffed animals. There was also a stage with sideshow type performers, such as a husband-and-wife sword swallowing act. While there, I had my usual trippy thoughts:
I suddenly felt very Daoist, or at least as Daoist as I could feel based on what little I understand about Daoism. It began with seeing the abstract sculptures in the shapes of animal heads. I could see the life in them, despite the fact they were obviously fake. And I began to see life everywhere, in objects and in people.
We’re all just wonderful little molecules and cells and atoms! The medium of air connects us all. My group of molecules moves through the molecules in the air, which swirl and circulate around me and everyone else. Everywhere in the world, every creature is breathing. Humans and animals breathe in air, then it reacts with our bodies and changes on its way out. In turn, the plants suck in the air, it reacts with their bodies, they exhale, and the cycle continues. Thus, we interact with each other in this way.
Some people may be better at manipulating their molecules and energies than others, either psychically or physically or emotionally. These ways might include body language, pheromones, the words one says or the manner in which one speaks, and so on. These manipulations reach out like ripples in a pond and communicate with everyone and everything around them, even if others are only responding to them on an unconscious level.
I remember thinking there was a lot of good eye-candy there, but then I realized everybody looked like eye-candy that day. Everyone was a movie star, everyone was beautiful, and there was so much joy there.
There were so many depictions of decay at the Expo, some realistic, some more metaphorical. Ordinarily I wouldn’t find this interesting at all—I’m more cyberpunk than goth—but suddenly I found it all fascinating. I know it’s a cliché to say this, but I saw that one doesn’t really die; one’s physical form just changes to some other form and continues.
One vendor was selling some art; my eye was immediately drawn to an illustration of a moth or butterfly suspended in the air, its wings disintegrating, so I bought it. At that time, my partner and I were getting ready to move to Japan for a few months. We were giving up our apartment in Portland and putting all our furniture and belongings into storage. We weren’t going to store any food aside from some canned goods, but I still didn’t want mice or rats gnawing at my clothes or books or documents. I read online that mothballs were a good way to keep such pests away, so I bought a few packs. I decided I would hang the picture of the moth in the storage space, and whimsically thought the irony of a moth in a space filled with mothballs would protect it from intruders, both animal and human.
After the Expo, $6M-Man’s friend went on their own way. $6M-Man asked if I felt like some kava. I thought he said java and assumed we were going somewhere for coffee, but no—we ended up at a place called the Nalu Kava Tea Lounge. Kava tasted like slightly bitter gourd but I liked it, and the more I drank, the more my tongue tingled with an almost spearmint sensation. We played Higher Thoughts for a while, then left.
We got some drive through food to go and went back to his place. I handed him my visor headset and showed him a couple of my tincture vids (specifically, number 4 and number 5), then decided it was time to head home. Bus service from $6M-Man’s place at that time of night is pretty spotty, so I ended up walking most of the way. Just as I reached the stop before my place, a bus showed up. Now, I could’ve just walked the rest of the way, but it was late, I was tired, I had already walked over two miles, so I hopped on the bus.
After I got off the bus, I was halfway to my apartment when I realized I didn’t have my moth with me. I hoped I had merely dropped it on the ground, but no—I must have left it on the bus. I cursed myself for not walking the rest of the way home, for if I had, I’d still have my moth. I filled out a lost-and-found report online with Trimet, but didn’t really expect I’d get my moth back. But two days later, Trimet contacted me and said they had found it! Hurrah!
The moth story doesn’t end there. A week or so later, we began moving stuff into the storage space. I taped the moth to the back wall so it could keep an eye on things. After nearly everything was moved in, there was no free space at all. Boxes were stacked nearly to the ceiling, and there was no room to walk. I took two of the mothball packs and tossed them over the stacks, hoping they would find their way to the floor and be relatively equally spaced apart.
I had never used mothballs before, and had no idea how much or little I should actually use. The instructions said not to open the packs, just to use them as is. However, the smell was overpowering, even from clear down the hallway in the storage space. I feared all our stuff would just reek forever, and worried the storage space management would object, even though there was nothing in the lease forbidding the use of mothballs. Unfortunately, since we’d be in Japan, it wasn’t like we could just come back and get the mothballs out if the management complained—they had to be removed now.
I began pulling out boxes and furniture, with no idea where the packets would be. I found one almost immediately—that would cut the stench by half at least, but that’s like celebrating the fact a fire destroyed only half your house. By now it was nearly impossible to pull out more boxes without either removing everything or having boxes topple down on me. I still had no idea where the other packet had fallen. But lo and behold, I finally saw it. It had somehow made its way down to the floor and under some furniture. I crawled through a very narrow gap and was able to pull it out. Hurrah again! I had to think, my moth must have had pretty damned powerful magic: not only did it find its way back to me after being left on the bus, it was powerful enough to drive out the mothballs. Surely such a creature was worthy of veneration. Not omnipotent like the Godcat but it definitely should be exalted, so I named it Gammoth. As I finish writing this, we are in Japan, so here’s hoping Gammoth is still protecting the space!
A disclaimer—as Carl Sagan once said:
So no, I don’t honestly think an illustration of a moth is going to keep out rodents or intruders—I just enjoy the trippy thoughts I get. ;-)
I suddenly felt very Daoist, or at least as Daoist as I could feel based on what little I understand about Daoism. It began with seeing the abstract sculptures in the shapes of animal heads. I could see the life in them, despite the fact they were obviously fake. And I began to see life everywhere, in objects and in people.
We’re all just wonderful little molecules and cells and atoms! The medium of air connects us all. My group of molecules moves through the molecules in the air, which swirl and circulate around me and everyone else. Everywhere in the world, every creature is breathing. Humans and animals breathe in air, then it reacts with our bodies and changes on its way out. In turn, the plants suck in the air, it reacts with their bodies, they exhale, and the cycle continues. Thus, we interact with each other in this way.
Some people may be better at manipulating their molecules and energies than others, either psychically or physically or emotionally. These ways might include body language, pheromones, the words one says or the manner in which one speaks, and so on. These manipulations reach out like ripples in a pond and communicate with everyone and everything around them, even if others are only responding to them on an unconscious level.
I remember thinking there was a lot of good eye-candy there, but then I realized everybody looked like eye-candy that day. Everyone was a movie star, everyone was beautiful, and there was so much joy there.
There were so many depictions of decay at the Expo, some realistic, some more metaphorical. Ordinarily I wouldn’t find this interesting at all—I’m more cyberpunk than goth—but suddenly I found it all fascinating. I know it’s a cliché to say this, but I saw that one doesn’t really die; one’s physical form just changes to some other form and continues.
One vendor was selling some art; my eye was immediately drawn to an illustration of a moth or butterfly suspended in the air, its wings disintegrating, so I bought it. At that time, my partner and I were getting ready to move to Japan for a few months. We were giving up our apartment in Portland and putting all our furniture and belongings into storage. We weren’t going to store any food aside from some canned goods, but I still didn’t want mice or rats gnawing at my clothes or books or documents. I read online that mothballs were a good way to keep such pests away, so I bought a few packs. I decided I would hang the picture of the moth in the storage space, and whimsically thought the irony of a moth in a space filled with mothballs would protect it from intruders, both animal and human.
After the Expo, $6M-Man’s friend went on their own way. $6M-Man asked if I felt like some kava. I thought he said java and assumed we were going somewhere for coffee, but no—we ended up at a place called the Nalu Kava Tea Lounge. Kava tasted like slightly bitter gourd but I liked it, and the more I drank, the more my tongue tingled with an almost spearmint sensation. We played Higher Thoughts for a while, then left.
We got some drive through food to go and went back to his place. I handed him my visor headset and showed him a couple of my tincture vids (specifically, number 4 and number 5), then decided it was time to head home. Bus service from $6M-Man’s place at that time of night is pretty spotty, so I ended up walking most of the way. Just as I reached the stop before my place, a bus showed up. Now, I could’ve just walked the rest of the way, but it was late, I was tired, I had already walked over two miles, so I hopped on the bus.
After I got off the bus, I was halfway to my apartment when I realized I didn’t have my moth with me. I hoped I had merely dropped it on the ground, but no—I must have left it on the bus. I cursed myself for not walking the rest of the way home, for if I had, I’d still have my moth. I filled out a lost-and-found report online with Trimet, but didn’t really expect I’d get my moth back. But two days later, Trimet contacted me and said they had found it! Hurrah!
The moth story doesn’t end there. A week or so later, we began moving stuff into the storage space. I taped the moth to the back wall so it could keep an eye on things. After nearly everything was moved in, there was no free space at all. Boxes were stacked nearly to the ceiling, and there was no room to walk. I took two of the mothball packs and tossed them over the stacks, hoping they would find their way to the floor and be relatively equally spaced apart.
I had never used mothballs before, and had no idea how much or little I should actually use. The instructions said not to open the packs, just to use them as is. However, the smell was overpowering, even from clear down the hallway in the storage space. I feared all our stuff would just reek forever, and worried the storage space management would object, even though there was nothing in the lease forbidding the use of mothballs. Unfortunately, since we’d be in Japan, it wasn’t like we could just come back and get the mothballs out if the management complained—they had to be removed now.
I began pulling out boxes and furniture, with no idea where the packets would be. I found one almost immediately—that would cut the stench by half at least, but that’s like celebrating the fact a fire destroyed only half your house. By now it was nearly impossible to pull out more boxes without either removing everything or having boxes topple down on me. I still had no idea where the other packet had fallen. But lo and behold, I finally saw it. It had somehow made its way down to the floor and under some furniture. I crawled through a very narrow gap and was able to pull it out. Hurrah again! I had to think, my moth must have had pretty damned powerful magic: not only did it find its way back to me after being left on the bus, it was powerful enough to drive out the mothballs. Surely such a creature was worthy of veneration. Not omnipotent like the Godcat but it definitely should be exalted, so I named it Gammoth. As I finish writing this, we are in Japan, so here’s hoping Gammoth is still protecting the space!
A disclaimer—as Carl Sagan once said:
|
I was lying on my back in a friend’s living room idly examining the pattern of shadows on the ceiling cast by a potted plant (not cannabis!). I suddenly realized that I was examining an intricately detailed miniature Volkswagen, distinctly outlined by the shadows. I was very skeptical at this perception, and tried to find inconsistencies between Volkswagens and what I viewed on the ceiling. But it was all there, down to hubcaps, license plate, chrome, and even the small handle used for opening the trunk. I can remember another early visual experience with cannabis, in which I viewed a candle flame and discovered in the heart of the flame, standing with magnificent indifference, the black-hatted and -cloaked Spanish gentleman who appears on the label of the Sandeman sherry bottle. Looking at fires when high, by the way, especially through one of those prism kaleidoscopes which image their surroundings, is an extraordinarily moving and beautiful experience. I want to explain that at no time did I think these things ‘really’ were out there. I knew there was no Volkswagen on the ceiling and there was no Sandeman salamander man in the flame. I don’t feel any contradiction in these experiences. There’s a part of me making, creating the perceptions which in everyday life would be bizarre; there’s another part of me which is a kind of observer. Source |
So no, I don’t honestly think an illustration of a moth is going to keep out rodents or intruders—I just enjoy the trippy thoughts I get. ;-)
