Addiction

Sorry but my phone is still stupid.

I am much of an addict to news and current events as anyone but I can wait to get out of the bathroom before refreshing my screen.

Back in the day, we had to wait for the news of the day be delivered to our front porch and the commentary was made at the dinner table.

Today with all our microwave mentality we rush to comment on what people are eating or the latest snapshot of their baby or dog.

We all are new junkies and today information is available 24/7 (some true and some not) but we cannot resist looking at.

Tomorrow the flow will tell you who said what about which and without knowing any unformulated background on the writer followed by a cession of nonsense of which make-believe celebrity will wear on the red carpet or which network is promoting the latest visual obsession.

Turn to page 6 for the latest detergent prices.

Body Count

Notice whenever there is an accident or tragedy or natural catastrophe, the first report is the body count?

How many died or were injured?

The local follow up reports gave the names then can report on the obituary arrangements and interviews with the families.

What about those we did not know? They may have been from another state or country and a simple name won’t matter anymore than a passing gravestone.

Then what happens?

Does anyone report on the damage to the car or bus or airplane or house? Does anyone interview those who must pick up the pieces? Does anyone note the statics of people who live by removing, destroying or restoring the mangled metal? Does anyone express the number of days in hospital or rehab those who survived must endure? Does anyone calculate the lost jobs, education, transportation or wages that families face?

Wars are numbers of bodies. Holidays glorify gravestones of massive unnecessary carnage but we continue.

Count the dead and make the 5 o’clock news.

BANNED!

You’ve seen the symbols. There are laws or restrictions or regulations that tell people they can’t do that.

Even the Bible had 10 Commandments that banned stuff you shouldn’t do.

Do we pay attention?

Cigarette smoking is banned in this area but not in the hallway where people are smoking. Weapons are banned but no one is there to frisk the public. Speeding is banned but why have radar?

The recent conversation about banning bump stocks after the LV massacre and everyone agreed it was not necessary but will this confiscate these items?

The solution would be invasion of privacy and confiscation by the uniformed officers of the law enforcement, but there are not enough judges to rule on all the variations of constitution offenses that would cause.

Maybe we can ban potholes or farting or inappropriate behavior or bad haircuts?

If it is banned in your area, is it allowed in another area?

There are signs banning dogs.

Maybe I won’t see any dogs in that spot, but there are a lot of dogs that don’t read the sign.

It does keep our congressional officials busy writing legal briefs and policies that forbid things that disturb the public.

If someone know how to post a sign that forbids bad things from happening let me know. I’ll sign on.

Mr. Miss, Mrs. Ms., Mx., Doc. Dame, Lady, Lord, Senator, Sir,….

It is an interesting habit that we still announce ourselves by the title before our name.

Mister, usually written in its abbreviated form ‘Mr.’ (US) or ‘Mr’ (UK), is a commonly used English honorific for men under the rank of knighthood.

The title ‘Mr.’ derived from earlier forms of master, as the equivalent female titles ‘Mrs’, ‘Miss’, and ‘Ms’ all derived from earlier forms of mistress.

‘Mx’ is an English language eulogistic honorific that does not indicate gender. It was developed as an alternative to common gendered honorifics, such as ‘Mr.’ and ‘Ms’, in the late 1970s. Non-binary people, as well as those who do not wish to reveal or are referred to by their gender often use it. It is a gender-neutral title that is now widely accepted by the Government of the United Kingdom and many businesses in the United Kingdom. It is included in all major English dictionaries.

Now one might say, the pro-titillation proclaims the person whom you might be presented.

If a married couple walking into a room of a strangers while holding hands, and “Mr. and Mrs.” followed by his last name, but it that property? If the couple is not recognized by the law as married would it is ‘Mr.’ and ‘Miss’? Or same-sex?

The title of nobility as ‘Lord’ or ‘Lady’ or ‘Sir’ or ‘General’ or some such prelude only if pompousness is necessary for acceptance.

Skills or occupational titles as ‘Doctor’ or ‘Senator’ or ‘Professor’ might be spoken to introduce but why not ‘Teacher’ or ‘Plumber’ or ‘Driver’? Those are usually, if ever used, behind the name as a definitive description of employment.

Now if gender is necessary to describe the person, why wear pants? Then again, genitalia not always conform to sexual identity.

If names like ‘Chuck’ or ‘Bubba’ or ‘Mary Sue’ or ‘Sally’ don’t describe your identity, maybe further conversation to explain your place on this planet?

Accolades and awards can show accomplishments but normally do not tout the notches on the bed board. That can wait for the obituary and the number of those encounters.

Why should sexual preference be acknowledged as a title? If that insurance agent sells a good policy should it matter if he is a she or vice versa? If the person towing your car to the shop prefers dominatrix should it matter when you can drive away happy? If the cute, blonde, perky and busty teller at the bank shows a five-o’clock shadow, but gives you the correct change, should it matter?

Most networking occasions only have a first name on the identity tag. No dissemination of sexual preference or gender identity.

Since our first attractions to another person are visual, this is a new world order.

Found My Crowbar

This might not seem important to you now, but it will. You youngsters spend enormous hours scurrying about trying to find the stuff you misplaced and now are wasting your time looking for things.

This process becomes excruciating when you get older. Trust me, I know.

The toothbrush needs to be in the same cup on the right. The socks are all lined up in the first drawer to the left with the underwear on the right. The coffee cup is ready in the same spot every morning.

It is a routine. It is memory placement. It becomes an obsession when things are out-of-place.

I don’t know why I was looking for my crowbar, but it wasn’t in the bottom drawer of my tool cabinet. Maybe after I used the shredder to recycle last years bills and conversations I noticed the big iron rod was not in the place that I expect it to be.

Where could it be?

It wasn’t in any of the other drawers. It wasn’t hanging on the wall? It wasn’t inside on the construction supply table? It wasn’t upstairs? It wasn’t in the supply shack out back?

Where could it be?

A crowbar is a simple tool but essential when you need a crowbar. When was the last time it was used? Could it been thrown away? It certainly wasn’t broken because you just can’t break it. Did I loan it out? No, I never loan tools to neighbors. Could it be outside rusting under a pile of leaves?

Where could it be?

And ‘yes’ I spend several hours scouring the countryside for a black tool that pry heavy things apart.

And then….

Way back in a drawer I wouldn’t have expected it to be, there it was.

The relief was overwhelming. “There you are!”

Picking it up and putting it back where I expected to find it earlier was a simple motion but for an old person an accomplishment.

The next time you can’t find your glasses sitting on your head or where you car is parked in the lot or what your child’s name is, you will understand.

Reparation

Reparation for slavery is the idea that some form of compensatory payment needs to be made to the descendants of Africans who had been enslaved as part of the Atlantic slave trade.

The most notable demands for reparations have been made in the United Kingdom and in the United States. Caribbean and African states from which slaves were taken have also made reparation demands.

These reparations have never been paid.

They can be contrasted with compensated emancipation, the money paid by governments to slave owners when slavery was abolished, as compensation for the loss of the property.

Slavery ended in the United States with the end of the American Civil War and the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment, which declared that, “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction”. At this time, there were an estimated four million African Americans that were set free.

In 2017 with HR40, reparations for slavery became a subject of discussion in the 2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries.

Within the political sphere, only one major bill demanding slavery reparations has been proposed, the “Commission to Study Reparation Proposals for African Americans Act,” which former Rep. John Conyers Jr. proposed unsuccessfully to the United States Congress every year from 1989 until his resignation in 2017. As its name suggests, the bill recommended the creation of a commission to study the “impact of slavery on the social, political and economic life of our nation”.

In 2014, prominent American journalist Ta-Nehisi Coates published an article titled “The Case for Reparations”, which discussed the continued effects of slavery and Jim Crow laws and made renewed demands for reparations. Coates makes reference to Rep. John Conyers Jr. aforementioned H.R.40 Bill, pointing out that Congress’s failure to pass this bill expresses a lack of willingness to right their past wrongs.

In September 2016, the United Nations’ Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent encouraged Congress to pass the aforementioned H.R.40 Bill to study reparations proposals, but the Working Group did not directly endorse any specific reparations proposal. The report noted that there exists a legacy of racial inequality in the United States, explaining that, “Despite substantial changes since the end of enforcement of Jim Crow and the fight for civil rights, ideology ensuring the domination of one group over another, continues to negatively impact the civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights of African Americans today.” The report notes that a “dangerous ideology of white supremacy inhibits social cohesion among the US population”.

In 1999, African American lawyer and activist Randall Robinson, founder of the TransAfrica advocacy organization, wrote that America's history of race riots, lynching and institutional discrimination have “resulted in $1.4 trillion in losses for African Americans”. Economist Robert Browne stated the ultimate goal of reparations should be to “restore the black community to the economic position it would have if it had not been subjected to slavery and discrimination”. He estimates a fair reparation value anywhere between $1.4 to $4.7 Trillion, or roughly $142,000 for every black American living today.

Opposition to slavery reparations is reflected in the general population. In a study conducted by YouGov in 2014, only 37% of Americans believed that slaves should have been provided compensation in the form of cash after being freed. Furthermore, only 15% believed that descendants of slaves should receive cash payments. The findings indicated a clear divide between black and white Americans on this issue. The study summarized their findings, noting: “Only 6% of white Americans support cash payments to the descendants of slaves, compared to 59% of black Americans. Similarly, only 19% of whites – and 63% of blacks – support special education and job training programs for the descendants of slaves.”

In 2019, Democratic Party presidential primary candidate and U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders was asked about reparations and responded that there are “better ways” to address the crisis in African American communities than “writing a check.”

Conservative writer David Horowitz wrote a list of ten reasons why “Reparations for Slavery is Bad Idea for Blacks - and Racist Too” in 2001. He contends that there isn’t one particular group that benefited from slavery, there isn't one group that is solely responsible for slavery, only a small percentage of whites ever owned slaves and many gave their lives fighting to free slaves, and most Americans don't have a direct or indirect connection to slavery because of the United States’ multi-ethnic background.

Compensation is something, typically money, awarded to someone as a recompense for loss, injury, or suffering.

Compensation and benefits (C&B) is a sub-discipline of human resources, focused on employee compensation and benefits policy-making. While compensation and benefits are tangible, there are intangible rewards such as recognition, work-life and development. Combined, these are referred to as total rewards . The term “compensation and benefits” refers to the discipline as well as the rewards themselves.

Financial compensation refers to the act of providing a person with money or other things of economic value in exchange for their goods, labor, or to provide for the costs of injuries that they have incurred.

Kinds of financial compensation include: Damages, legal term for the financial compensation recoverable by reason of another’s breach of duty, nationalization compensation, compensation paid in the event of nationalization of property, payment, remuneration, deferred compensation, executive compensation, royalties, salary, wage, employee benefits, workers’ compensation, to protect employees who have incurred work-related injuries.

Gimme, Gimme, Gimme, Gimme, Gimme, Gimme, Gimme, Gimme, Gimme,

Gimme, Gimme, Gimme, Gimme, Gimme, Gimme…. Etc,

Seems we been talking about this subject for over 100 years and then some.

Do we want to payback for our injustices? Will that make us feel better? How much is compensation for stupidity?

From what I hear from the ‘life’ instructions, there is no sure path to happiness. Life is an adventure and possibility a struggle, but that is just what it is.

Fall down? Pick yourself up, dust yourself off and move on.

Before the begetters jump on the simplistic approach, think about this.

If everyone who has been ‘wronged’ is compensated for his or her suffering, where does it start?

Where does it end?

Sure we all feel for those who suffer or who have suffered through history, but…

When there is a flood or a tornado or earthquake that home insurance won’t cover, turn to the government to give a helping hand.

What about those who were too short to get on the ride? What about those who were too large to fit in the seat? What about them who sent off to another country to be shot at? What about those who were unfortunate to be in a place that shattered and fell? What about those who trusted those who sexually abused them without them understanding? What about those who tried to learn but were not given the opportunity? What about those who tried to use a bathroom but were refused? What about those who were to spend 9-months carrying somebody they didn’t want? What about those who cannot coop with reality escape into ever land? What about those who can’t find the body identity?

You can decide how far the checkbook goes for past degradation and humiliations. It better be big for we go back to the slavery ever since we left the puddles in Africa.

Grab – Bag – Scan – and OH NO!

I know everyone has been wondering what is going on at the Tummy Temple so here is the latest jazz the way I see it.

Haven’t been on the same daily schedule just due to the weather. The days I did snuck out were fairly routine with a few others on the street and a normal traffic pattern inside.

Just Grab-Bag-and gets the hell out of there. $7 blueberries? When did that happen? $8 six-pack?? The peanuts, frozen pizza, V-8 and OJ are still in their normal places but something is in the air.

Locking up across from the county cop car always gives me wonder. Especially when he walks by me as I enter the Temple. What is going in here that I don’t know about? Should I follow him?

Yesterday was old folks day but normally Friday is old folks day. It used to be Tuesday but they did away with the discounts, so it seems it takes long to drag them old bodies into the Temple.

Yesterday was black hair day and I didn’t get the memo. One and then another and another person who are definitely on the “Just Passing For A Teen” were shuffling around in bad make-up with scraggly hair dyed pitch black. Maybe it was a gang? Maybe they don’t think anyone can tell?

That being weird enough passed the cop again without anyone in cuffs.

Think it is time to Grab-Bag-And Go, but not so fast.

Gather up my normal critter feed and hydration and weave over to the televised checkout machines. I point my scanner’s red laser at the assigned barcode and nothing happens. Maybe I should have just let Katy bag me today.

Keith comes over all panicky waving his hands and trying to instruct me some new procedure. He takes my scanner and goes to the supervisors’ station.

Now the supervisor’s station has all the secret codes and alerts when someone needs help scanning (as if the flashing numbered lights didn’t indicate assistances). Help is on the way!

As Keith is showing Chris (who is wearing the red vest today) that alcohol needs to be scanned separately, I pick up that the wi-fi is down. Egads!!

Seems like not only Facebook, Yahoo and several others (including Boeing) were having software problems but now the Tummy Temple has lost their wi-fi.

I got out unscathed and uncuffed but then it started to rain. How could I have missed the radar?

How long could we exist without wi-fi?

Tomorrow I will need to return and will be cautious to the Brussels sprouts and the raw carrots. Stand back from the frozen fish and move around the green cup cakes with care. Avoid eye contact whenever possible (thus the dark glasses) and do not venture to the diaper aisle for it will be Saturday.

Just another Ides of March day in Just Another Life.

The Phone Bank

Been hearing about the job reports and the employment rate yet hearing about layoffs so I wondered. All the numbers and data and calculations what do they really mean. Are more people working? What kind of jobs do they have?

I have to base this only on my own experience in the workforce. I followed the perception that once hired by a company, the ideal was to strive to move up the corporate ladder but stay loyal to the ‘company’ until retaining years to get a gold watch and retire.

Certainly today the workforce moves about as the market changes. With that the jumpstart entrepreneur ventures and the freelancers can find employment for a while without benefits or a safety trampoline to put on an résumé for the next application that takes time and evaluation without any income.

When looking at numbers of jobs, one can forget what those jobs are. The childhood occupations of delivery newspapers on bikes or works at an uncle’s filling station pumping gas and washing the windshield are gone. Without advance education, exceptions from driving delivery or stocking shelving are few.

Which brings me to today’s event.

I called the city to report a leak in the water meter.

Sounds simple but this is what happen.

First I had to find the telephone number of the cities utilities to report the water puddle.

I was on my iPad and tried to find a way to search the Internet. I had my network connection but could not find a way to search, but kept trying and wiggled a round about find (without Siri) to a ‘Richmond’ site, except it was in Australia. A little more wrangling and found the ‘City of Richmond’ in my commonwealth but there was no Internet spot to place a request.

Unlike Amazon or eBay or Domino Pizza, there was no way to communicate with the city other than a telephone number.

The first call was busy. Is there only one phone that answers this number?

A few minutes later I tried the number again and got the suspected phone messenger. Still with some cogitation I tried to follow the instructions.

After hearing the Spanish translation the first alert was an emergency of a gas or water leak that would require evacuation and hundreds of bodies and vehicles to converge on my property for a puddle. The second notification was to pay a bill.

After several rounds of these instructions I fell back to the “o” plan and talk to a person.

Of course the message that all operators are busy and terrible music too loud to cause static came on so I settled down for a wait. Surprisingly Regina arrived on the line.

I listened closely but her message was bland and confused, but I got my message to her as politely as I could. She transferred me to dispatch. Thank you Regina.

Some more bad static and a person saying “Hello”

“Hello” I replied, not knowing whom this voice was.

Immediately he said, “Can you wait” and then background noise of an office discussion.

He (never acknowledged his name or position) asked the address and after spelling out the name of street, said someone would be out to look at it.

“Thank you sir” I said and hung up.

Today is 3/11 and unfortunately I feel I will be making this call again.

I made the same call last year. Didn’t ever see any city trucks and never had the street dug up as signs the problem was corrected, but here we are again. I have a competent plumber that could handle whatever mischief going on underground but this is a city problem.

Getting back to the original statement of employment. A phone bank is a pretty plushy job. Put on headphones and either enters calls or take calls. No heavy lifting or strenuous exercise. Click a mouse or a few keyboard strokes and you are done.

I’m not putting down the abuse these folks take. Hopefully it is being monitored and no in your face like the police.

It is the same as any retail interaction with the public. For that matter anyone who is asking for money will get their share of obnoxious responses and have to just smile.

My hope is that I won’t have to make a second or third call before I call my plumber to seal the leak.

It is strange that no one asked me my account number or phone number or said they would contact me? Maybe I was just talking to a tape machine?

Digging Deep

I’ve reported before about ‘vetting’ and ‘fact checks’ but it still seems that everything in the news is under investigation.

If a crime is reported it is fully understood that the boys-in-blue will investigate. A car crash, a house fire, the discovery of a corpse should all go into an investigation file.

Lots of pictures from every angle will be taken, measurements will be made, questions asked of witnesses and reports written.

The news reports the time and location and possible a name or two but never a conclusion.

Every questionable statement or observation becomes an investigation.

How many and who was and where did that and what about?

Committees can ask questions and studies can be made and data gathered to be analysis.

What about the people who are asking the questions? What are their preconceived bias filtering the answers?

Digging deeper can find personal perceptions and prejudice so keep digging.

Why do they drive that car or live in that neighborhood? What is their family background? Who bought that jacket? Where did they get that haircut?

Check back and find their school records. Interrogate the teachers and preachers and the mothers and fathers. Check the underwear.

The paparazzi will fill in who, what, where, when and why with blurry cell phone images and talking heads to give opinions and ultimate judgments.

Are you still paying attention or have you move onto the next flash.

As we wait for a conclusion to the investigation, there will be another and another layer so keep digging for the truth.

I Went Missing

There are reports on the daily disasters about the community involved. Some official with stand in front of the cameras and microphones and announce who is accounted for, who have died and who is missing.

Missing?

This isn’t like milk carton kids or wanted posters, but just missing.

I went missing.

Don’t remember why or what for but I went missing.

I knew where I was and who I was but no one else did.

I could have been in the middle of a crowd but no one knew me.

I’ve gone missing.

And then I came back.

Living Vicariously

How did you waste your time today?

No, that is too harsh.

How did you spend your waking hours today?

How much screen time did you spend?

How much social media or viral YouTube did you watch?

What was the show before the last show you watched?

When you read a book, view a movie or a play, hear a concert or read a poem you are living vicariously through someone else.

Experiencing another’s vision or thought as if it was your own.

We dress like our idols, we smell what they tell us to smell like, we buy the cars everyone tells us to, we go to events suggested by others, we listen to the top 40 and learn the latest dance steps.

Want to be a cowboy? Ride along with John Wayne.

Want to be a cook? Rachael Ray will show you how.

Want to be a spaceman? Follow the Star War’s saga or power up any video game.

Want to be the best lover ever? There is plenty of porn for you to do it alone.

Want to have great dance moves? Follow the step-by-step then watch a Prince video.

What robots do well is repetition.

In an effort to fit in with the norm, we follow like lemmings not even knowing we have lost self-control.

Emulation is not creation.

After viewing our elders as guiding lights, we turn to our children to give our fading life meaning.

Once age creeps up on us and we find ourselves following other’s commands being incapable of free movement but still within mental awareness, we start to diagnosis our vicarious lives.

Don’t worry. They only put your name, date of birth and date of death on your tombstone.

Then she introduced me to her wife

Life is all about adjusting to new experiences. Shoot a rocket into space with a person attached. Get a needle poked into your arm so as not to live in an iron lung. Take a pill to avoid having a baby.

Aged wisdom is nothing more than experience. My grandparents would have never understood electric guitars or sushi. My parents would have had difficulty using a microwave or an iPhone. It wasn’t in their experience to be able to relate.

Now comes my time to watch the evolution with still enough cognition to understand the words and some how link them together with comprehension of meaning.

What was common understanding and acceptable behavior is changing and as long as I understand I must try and relate to this cultural change.

With youth living in a bubble of social inequality and misogynous, homophonic, religious intolerance and all the other phobias now recognized relating to the other members of the planet.

When faced with a prejudice how to react?

Riding a board on a wave and feeling it come out from under you, what do you decided to do in a split second? When the right front tire pops on the highway at 70 mph with a load of children aboard, what do you do? If you get a warning command on your screen when you try to boot up or power up your phone realizing there is no communication with the world outside, how do you react?

Some want to stand stern against change quoting religious or political or archaic evolutionary beliefs or bias to fog reality.

Get used to it. Tomorrow will not be the same as today. Or yesterday.

Certainly I have my prejudices from the time I was raised to the present, but I’ve also witnessed some amazing changes and am still in a comfortable enough place to appreciate them.

The key there is I’m in a comfortable place. I have no bombs falling on my head. I have not gangs rooting through my neighborhood shooting people and demanding money. I have a few dogs barking in fenced yards but only as an alarm system.

Could get all upset about politics but I’m merely one of many who walk down to the polling place and make our mark and then sit back and see what happens. Better yet watch the late night shows ridicule everything that happens than the lemmings of the big war where we all followed whatever was told to us. The propaganda worked so well that after the war we bought all our appliances as instructed.

Some of the new way of life might not suite me but take a step back and realize the Beatles rock and roll was just as revolutionary to our parents as the LGBYQ revolution now.

What was never spoken of before has come out of the closet and is now headline news? Would my grandparents or my parents adapt to these statements in their religious beliefs?

Let’s see what happens tomorrow and adapt.

…and had so many children and grand children she didn’t know what to do…

How many children did you bequeath to the world? How many humans did you sire? How well did you conform to society norms to procreate?

It must be important because on your obituary behind the date and the cause of your death and before your accomplishments and accolades is the number of children you begat.

Whether your maternal instincts provided your man a brood of sons and daughters to display as signs of a productive marriage bond and a wealth to be able to afford all these little people.

Others had as many if not more while breeding, but other than the few moments of physical pleasure, these new boys and girls were family slaves to work for free.

Still we multiply without regard of the planets capability to feed the offspring. The measurements of births against the deaths balance our possibility for survival.

For those who seem incapable to follow the cultural norm, there is adoption, in vitriol fertilization, or whatever other means to achieve the status of motherhood.

Others are to wander in the shadows of doubt and social ridicule for not becoming a mother? Maternal instincts do not have a quiz but is fired by social pressure.

Some say there are those who should not or cannot become doctors. Some say there are those who cannot accomplish the grades to pass the test. Some say there are those who are destined to fail.

To raise a brood should not be a reaction to an “Uh Oh” moment but a rational preplanned decision to raise a family.

Batteries

A battery is a device consisting of one or more electrochemical cells with external connections provided to power electrical devices such as flashlights, smart phones and electric cars.

They say the usage of the term “battery” to describe a group of electrical devices dates to Benjamin Franklin, who in 1748 described multiple Leyden jars by analogy to a battery of cannon (Benjamin Franklin borrowed the term ‘battery’ from the military, which refers to weapons functioning together).

So from that history I guess batteries were around when I came along, but I don’t remember them.

Clocks were hand wound or plug into the wall (yes, we had electricity way back then). Watches had to be hand wound and razors were dragged across the face without power.

The first Japanese transistor radio is what I remembered requiring batteries. The batteries were hard to find and they didn’t last very long, but new electronics kept being produced that required batteries (not included).

So the other day, my computer tells me that I need to get a new battery for my Bluetooth device. Then my phone said it needs to be recharged and then the iPad.

It seems now my catchall drawer that used to contain broken screwdrivers and fuses that don’t fit anything has nothing but batteries. Batteries for watches, ear plugs, speakers, pedals…. Everything requires a battery.

I will stick with the reliable methods of travel that do not require inspections by MIT grads and music by a box with strings that can be played anywhere without being plugged in.

One day the grid will end and the little tubes of positive/negative energy will end and just litter the landscape.

I think I’ll take a nap to recharge my battery.