Shannon Larratt is Zentastic

I’ve been watching National Geographic’s Doomsday Prepper’s, a show that has “experts” on doomsday-scenarios and deep survivalism “rate” a dull rainbow of people who appear to wholeheartedly believe that a wide spectrum of TEOTWAWKIs are on their way (prepperspeak for the end of the world as we know it). I think it’s obvious that this is a show and a collection of people that I’m going to share some ideas with and have a certain sympathy with, but in at least half of them they’re really scraping the bottom of the barrel when it comes to a basic understanding of the way the world works scientifically and politically. Now, to NG’s credit (and wow, does everyone have to be on the reality TV bandwagon? I mean, National Geographic?) they do occasionally put “what this person is saying is factually 100% wrong” captions up, but it’s on the slim end of “occasionally”. You’ll get a more sane and realistic prediction of the potential calamities we’re facing by watching the big screen explosion epic movie 2012 or even insta-ice-age dad-to-the-rescue film The Day After Tomorrow than by listening to the prepper predictions.

In discussing the show with Caitlin as we watched it I found out she’s never seen The Mosquito Coast — to my great surprise — which I will surely have to dust off and beg her to watch. Beg because every time I recommend something, be it book or TV or movie, she avoids it like the plague. I don’t think it’s that my suggestions are bad per se, maybe a little self indulgent, so maybe she thinks I will be mad if she doesn’t like them enough. More likely she knows that I will keep looking over at her during the movie to see her reaction and she finds that highly annoying. I don’t know. Speaking of old movies, I watched Top Secret, the Val Kilmer comedy from 1984, this afternoon, and it holds up really well. Don’t think I was entirely couch-potatoing though, I spent some of that time working on my latest painting. Mostly erasing and redrawing quite a few times…

The sturgeon were one of my nightmare creatures when I was young, and even now they always populate the water (along with other monsters) in any dream. I think they freaked me out as a kid because they’re so primitive looking and because they were the biggest thing that swam in the bay I also swam in — I was shocked to read that they recently pulled a sturgeon over eleven feet long and weighing over a thousand pounds (click that for a picture) out locally! Yikes! You could ride that like a dolphin. I shouldn’t have done that Google search, I’m sure it will repopulate my dreams. Oh, and in my dreams, instead of fins, sturgeon have little stubby legs and occasionally jump up our of ice fishing holes and run around on the ice! I have no idea where that came from, as far as I know none of the other fish can do that.

In my dreams, the water is a gateway to an alien world.

That’s the case in the real world too!

In a couple weeks our superintendent’s girlfriend is having a baby (they’re also our neighbors and we share a thin wall, so fingers crossed it’s not too loud). As a baby-warming present I’m going to make him a pendant that he’s been asking about for his record label, so I’m going to try and wrap that design up so it’s ready to be machined after I finish a couple custom skull rings that are on order. I’m worried that their baby is going to be OK because their mother smoked throughout, which is very unfortunate. They’re very excited and happy though, and the in-vitro smoke aside, I think they have the potential to be good parents and I’m keeping my fingers crossed. It’s always interesting what a baby can do to people, because it can bring out both the best and the worst in people.

Five days until I get tattooed some more. I can’t wait!