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All about the standing-upright chimps that really love to talk about themselves.
Today is the fourth anniversary of Barataria. It started on a rainy Spring day when the world felt closed in and tight but on the verge of coming back to life. That feeling has stayed with Barataria through 16 seasons now as it has grown and developed its own community.
Welcome to the anniversary party!
What would happen if the world ended right on schedule? Suppose the Rapture came on May 21st or the end of the Mayan Calendar on December 21st really is the end – do you think someone would notice?
Actually, the world has ended. The Rapture, more or less, already came and went. We just weren’t paying much attention. As usual, it’s all about the Romans.
On April 12th, 1861, the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina lit up as the bombardment of Fort Sumter began. Years of speeches and seething hatred dissolved into a blur of cannon balls and bloodshed. The Civil War was on. Exactly 150 years later the echoes of this horrible conflict run through our culture as we continue to digest exactly how we came to intense destruction and what it meant.
Studying history is not important for the purpose of blaming those who took part in it, but to avoid the mistakes made. A straight line from where we were to where we are today is the only reasonable extrapolation into our future and progress. It is imperfect, but it is what we have.
The anniversary of the start of the Civil War is a great time to look back and see how far we have come – and yet see the same destructive arguments that play out to this day.
The wake-up call came at 6:30AM, just as light was sneaking into my bedroom. It didn’t come as a glowing ball over the Mississippi valley but as an orange blur on little cat feet.
Galumpgalumpgalumplop! A leap onto my feet and Brrrow! As a small caliber tiger licensed for home use Tony always means what he says, too. It’s Spring. There’s no time to spend lazily in bed. Happy April Fools’ Day!
April means a lot to both people and cats. The weather is turning and it’s time to shake off the glum of a drippy lingering Winter. A few pranks and jokes are just part of the fun – and they’re part of an ancient and natural celebration we can all get into.
You pay the insurance bills every month. Car, home, life – they’re all about the same, a bet against yourself that you actually hope is money wasted. But when things go wrong, like a drunk driver smacking into you one sunny day, it’ll be there when you need it. If you listen to the commercials, what you get for your money is peace of mind. It should help you sleep at night without anxiety.
Insurance is just the ultimate form of taking care of when things go bad. Building fault tolerance into a system so that it never gets that far is a far more complicated and thoughtful process. Anyone who designs a system of some kind – a physical thing or a process that involves checks and balances – is probably going to be proud enough of their achievement to not want to think about when things go horrible wrong and the whole thing breaks. But that’s exactly what needs to happen for it to be truly robust. It’s also something that a culture or society has to think about ultimately, painful as it may be.
Barataria - The work of Erik Hare 