Big clearup of the basement last week. Best place to be anyway in the hot weather. Stacked up the beer all in one place and found I'm down to my last 140 bottles or so. At this rate I'll need to get brewing.
Another new thing last Monday - I volunteered as a guinea pig for a research project where they wire you up with electrodes all over your body (all above the waist unfortunately) then they give you psychotherapy. The deal is that I get free head-fixing (not that I need it) and they get free elctrical data on the psychotherapeutic process. A win-win situation. Naturally I had to pretend to be a bit psycho to get on the program but that's nothing new for me.
Actually they wire the therapist up too, and all the wires disappear into a computer. To break the ice I said "I've seen this movie, it's the one where the computer blows a fuse and my personality gets sucked into your brain, and vice versa". I think I may have freaked her out.
For an hour I talked about my parents and my childhood and how it relates to what I'm doing now. Then at the end of the session she was tentatively peeling the electrodes off my skin, and she said "I don't want to hurt you". I said "don't worry, I've got a German mother, I don't feel pain."
She set me some homework, I've to write for 20 minutes non-stop every day without censoring or caring about spelling. It's not so easy. Probably blissheids experience something similar when they're meditating. The mid wants to wander off or to censor or to rebel. I've been typing my stream of consciousness to a new blog, which I would link to except that it might influence my future postings there if I know it's being reaad. Maybe I'll link to it in 6 weeks after the research project finishes. I know you're dying to read it.
Yes well, I've been a bit too busy to actually complete the wiring of the possum address system. The possum actually moved out, of its own free will, to the new possum nesting box. But my triumph was short lived. The next night it moved back in to the ceiling above my bed. In the short term I've adopted a more buddhist attitude to the whole thing. When I hear it coming home at 4 or 5 in the morning, I smile paternally, almost relieved that it hasn't come to any harm on its travels. As it scrapes around and makes its bed, I jam the spare pillow over my ear and settle down for some more kip. It actually feels a bit like the dorm at Portsmouth barracks when I was a schooolboy cadet; or like all the youth hostels when I did the world tour. The reassuring communal feeling of sharing bunk beds with a crowd of anonymous room-mates.
Actually, at Portsmouth we would be awakened at 6 a.m. out of our hangovers (oh the bliss of the cheap scrumpy) by a sailor's voice shouting over the P.A. - "wakey wakey! Hands off cocks! On with socks!" What did he mean?
Last but not least - in the previous post what a delight to have a visit from the fragrant keda!
Oh that sounds interesting! I definitely would like to see your writings when its all said and done!
ReplyDeleteYou are so funny to act a little psycho to get into the study.
Hope you have a wonderful weekend Rob!
~xo
Lee Ann
Hi Lee Ann, nice to see you. I don't think you really would like to read the inside of my head. But at least I'm more mad than bad. Have a good one yourself. xx
ReplyDeleteI say!
ReplyDeleteI went to see a psychiatrist once. Chap said he couldn't do anything for me. True.
MM III
Albert? Why don't you just shout at these animals and tell them to go away! Yon psycho writing seems like what these mad folk do with the 5,000 words a day for a month. Anyway, it sounds like a completely crap idea. Who makes up this nonsense? Do they get a government grant? Could they give me one. I've written crap by this method for years and years! Hope this helps! Hotboy p.s. Didn't you learn to shoot possums in the boy navy?
ReplyDeleteMingers - I didn't know they had head doctors in Kalimbuka. Did you try a witch doctor?
ReplyDeleteHotters - I'll take that as a request for a podcast of me screaming.
As a demi-vegetarian I don't believe in causing distress to scentient (sic) beings except humans. PS - The Navy taught me how to drink.
I say!
ReplyDeleteYes, of course, I consulted http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5138/958/320/magicman087.jpg first.
MM III
Mingers - looks like a voodoo doll of a haggis. That's not helping my head.
ReplyDeleteBy your account I'm guessing that was a neurophysiological study, making you not a guinea pig, but a slug. Long live the slugs! Tell your therapist she can loosen the electrode tapes with isopropyl alcohol if she really doesn't want to hurt you. On the other hand, maybe she was lying.
ReplyDeleteDoes she know about the bliss pills? Might affect your EEG power (in the physics sense; power=V squared). I was disappointed recently to see my ability to generate an alpha rhythm at will was reduced, but that might be the ageing process.
I too want to see the stream of consciousness blog. Not fair.
Albert? Are you going to get to hump the grope therapist at last? Is this what all this is about? You'll go down well in the old folk's home. Here comes Helpful Albert with the four speed whatyemacallit. Dearie me. How's about some philosophy, eh? Have you eaten the possums yet? Hotboy
ReplyDeleteAlbert? Good idea this stream of consciousness shite. I can't spell or punctuate anymore either. In fact, why the hell do we write this down? We should be speaking to these machines somehow. Why doesn't someone invent a mobile phone? Hotboy
ReplyDeleteIt's turning into a bit of a party here, just like the old days.
ReplyDeleteIon! Not sure if I've ever had an alpha rhythm, but I gather the earth moved for you guys last night.
She knows about the bliss pills (I tell everyone, and should be on a retainer from Merck or whover it is).
You reminded me that I saw my old friend the albino tattooed slug yesterday. The one I pretended last year to have stood on. My how it has grown! I was going to photograph it but got distracted by the possum hunt. As one does.