%%USERNAME%%    %%ACCWORDS%% %%ONOFF%% |
Items to fit into your overhead compartment |
|
Carrion Luggage  Native to the Americas, the turkey vulture (Cathartes aura) travels widely in search of sustenance. While usually foraging alone, it relies on other individuals of its species for companionship and mutual protection. Sometimes misunderstood, sometimes feared, sometimes shunned, it nevertheless performs an important role in the ecosystem. This scavenger bird is a marvel of efficiency. Rather than expend energy flapping its wings, it instead locates uplifting columns of air, and spirals within them in order to glide to greater heights. This behavior has been mistaken for opportunism, interpreted as if it is circling doomed terrestrial animals destined to be its next meal. In truth, the vulture takes advantage of these thermals to gain the altitude needed glide longer distances, flying not out of necessity, but for the joy of it. It also avoids the exertion necessary to capture live prey, preferring instead to feast upon that which is already dead. In this behavior, it resembles many humans. It is not what most of us would consider to be a pretty bird. While its habits are often off-putting, or even disgusting, to members of more fastidious species, the turkey vulture helps to keep the environment from being clogged with detritus. Hence its Latin binomial, which translates to English as "golden purifier." I rarely know where the winds will take me next, or what I might find there. The journey is the destination. |
| I'm going to start by addressing the whole "needing to use a VPN to trick YouTube into thinking I'm in Europe" bit. With the VPN, that's mildly annoying. Without it, it would be rage-inducing. (I set it to Netherlands, just in case, and it worked.) And if you don't know what I'm talking about, it's this video right here, which is today's Blog Week prompt: Getting a "not available in your country" message? Yeah, fuck that. Since not everyone has a VPN, though, all I'll say about the video is that music should stand on its own, not require lighting, effects, dancing, costumes, or other gimmicks. But if there's one thing I've learned in life, it's that my relationship to music is not a popular one, and my opinion on the subject is definitely in the minority. Will I change my opinion to better fit in? Hell, no. Part of it is that I've always been frustrated by my own lack of musical talent and ability, despite many years of lessons in piano, violin, voice, and guitar. There's something about making music that I Just Don't Get. You know how some people Just Don't Get math? That's me with music. The difference, I think, is that while arithmophobes recoil in abject terror at the very thought of having to add or subtract, I absolutely love music. Well, most music. Well, some music, anyway. Opera, for example, can bite my ass. I understand the talent and work that goes into it, and if you like it, great; for me, it's like shoving an ice pick in my ear. Another thing that makes me different is that while for most people, their musical taste ossifies around the onset of adulthood, there is newer music that I like. Not all of it, of course. But I didn't like all the music that was around in my childhood, either. The bad stuff didn't last: just look at any week's Top 40 chart from when you were a kid. In my own research along those lines, maybe one or two of them stood the test of time. I don't even remember most of the crap they played back then. I also like some music that came before my time. While I don't subscribe to the idea that music can be divided into decades, it's useful to know when a particular song was produced, just like it's useful to know when a book was published or a movie was released. Technology changes, sometimes for the better, and sometimes for the worse. Autotune, for example. You get some performer who looks good and can dance but can't really carry a tune, and boom, autotune fixes that. Except it doesn't, because autotune is clearly a misuse of technology, much like biological weapons or shining lasers at aircraft. Some of my favorite music, though, was made by people who weren't, or aren't, beautiful—but they had brilliant voices, or at least a knack for songwriting. The very first song played on MTV when it started, back when they only played music videos, was "Video Killed the Radio Star." Again, I recognize I'm in the minority here. When it comes to music, I'm a minority of one. Perhaps we all are. Notes: ▼ |
View Portfolio
Visit Notebook
Send Gift Points
Awards
Badges
Send Email
Community Newsfeed
General Discussion
Sponsored Items
Book of Trinkets
Static Items
Books
Groups
Interactive Stories
Audio
Campfire Creatives
Community Notes
Crossword Puzzles
Documents
Folders
Images
In & Outs
Madlibs
Photo Albums
Polls
Product Reviews
Quizzes
Survey Forms
Web Pages
Word Searches
Alaska is a state? Oh, right, you can see Russia from there. 
