Update Friday the 13th of May...

Well it seems I have neglected this blog and have not posted in quite some time so thought I would spout off a bit. My wife and I have been very busy trying to get this place ready for sale, and with an appraiser coming in a day or two the toiling is coming to a close. Of course that is only the beginning, as we still then need to get everything packed or sold for the move, but it won't be a mad scramble.

In the meantime, there is not a lot of news to yammer about. I have been toying with a theory on the beings who seem to be behind the UFO-alien abduction phenomena, and as with all theories it must fit with all the evidence (or at least the great majority) to explain the incidents. The idea came from a Science channel program, (along with the Old Testament, several Apocryphal texts and the Mothman prophecies) which was talking about the eventual fate of Earth, that is we are going to smash into the oncoming Andromeda galaxy; this collision may or may not have any effect on the planet or our Sun. However, the host mentioned that perhaps by that time we Humans may have evolved into beings based on electricity, since it is some 5 billion years off before our meeting. Hmm , well Earth is relatively young compared with much of the universe, which is perhaps 14+ billion years old. If scientists believe that we could evolve from flesh into electrical plasma beings in 5 billion years - well then there has been time enough for others to have done so well before us, several times over. Some of the short passages mentioned by abductees may be clues to the truth - "Think of them as dolls possessing life" (referring to the small aliens) well a plasma being might make use of 'dolls' in order to intereact with flesh and blood beings - their plasma bodies would be physically distressing to contact a human. Tapes made of the voice of the 'Mothman' speaking were analyzed and found to be electrical impulses. UFOs very frequently cause all sorts of electrical effects, with cars stalling and refusing to start, lights going on and off, clocks stop or run backwards, compasses spin and so on. If these are plasma based life forms, their vessels are quite possibly powered by their own energy, which explains why the 'saucer' examined by Bob Lazar in Area 51 - Groom Lake. Such life forms might have a life span almost incomprehensible in length, since energy cannot be destroyed - they may live for eons or perhaps forever. The abductees also display similar 'effects' to those shown by experimenters fitted with special helmets that 'beamed' patterns of electrical impulses copying another human beings brain patterns - witnesses who reported contact with aliens frequently mention the interchange to be by 'ESP' rather than vocal. Still this theory may not fit with all the evidence, but so far it seems to; perhaps in time this will turn out to be another book project.

Still plugging away on the same book I have been for the last six years - hope to have this finished in time to be able to negotiate with a publisher about the same time that 'Underground' comes out. The chapter on Saint Brendan has been one of the most difficult for me - all things medieval are pretty much anathema to me; an age when people were bathing once or twice a year, having witch hunts and feudal lords and believing in a flat earth just has no appeal to my interests. However, Brendan is almost 'on the cusp' of late Classical age, and it appears that he did make the crossing to America in the sixth century. The tale was spun into fantasy/myth nearly a hundred years later, with icebergs becoming "floating crystal mountains" and whales becoming "sea monsters" and so on, with the medieval penchant for blurring fact and truth making this a difficult study. A good comparison for the reader is perhaps to read the Periplus of Hanno, a 6th century BC report of a Carthaginian admiral's exploration of the African coast, versus the Navigatio of Saint Brendan - a 6th century AD fanciful tale of an Irish monk sailing off to "the Promised Land". Hanno is very much matter of fact, even reporting their encounter with gorillas (the first ever reported, and he brought home skins of the animals) while Brendan has flying griffons, lamps that are magically lit by a flying arrow, an encounter with Judas on his "day off from Hell" and so on. While I hate to credit the Roman empire with much of anything, the fall of the empire brought on mass ignorance on a scale almost incredible to see. However, we are fast drifting that way ourselves so...

Then I have my pet peeves. I personally hate painting; so it struck me as odd that with all of our modern technology, modern paint is very short lived! Egyptian paint over 4500 years old still looks nearly as bright as the day it was painted, yet our "best" paint is peeling, bubbling and blistering, dissolving into powder and flaking off in a matter of a few years. What is wrong with this picture? True, there are cave paintings over 35,000 years old that are still quite beautiful, but they are very much protected from the elements - in my opinion if these were exposed to the weather they would disappear in a few years since they are mostly earth pigments with no 'binder'. Those Egyptian paints incorporated ground glass, which lasts for millenia - so why are our modern paints not at least equal to theirs? I believe I will do some experimenting with paint, making up some "ancient" types for our new home in Arizona. (Waterglass tinted with ground colored glass should make a very permanent paint!)

Well no time to really spout off here, so will close this update and post a real new edition in a few days.
Oroblanco

"We must find a way, or we will make one." --Hannibal Barca