FINAL POST-OP REPORT

Just for the record:

I am, as you can see, almost perfect but please don't applaud. All credit goes to my surgeon, my cousins, my parents, my siblings, my friends (including you, of course) my genes, my DNA, my stars, my karma and Karma, my qi chi ying yang king kong, my angels, archangels and giant blue birds, and my agent...oh, I don't have an agent...but anyway, I want to thank the whole shebang and now let's move on.

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FRESH FROM THE FRONT

Am posting this pic in the interests of medical science, just to reassure anyone about to have this operation (removal of lump from parotid gland) that it's not so bad. Here I am the day after the deed and already blogging it. Feeling more or less fine and the Van Gogh bandage is quite fetching though the swollen face is not. Am told it will go down soon. As for whatever is hidden under the bandage, I'd rather not look right now. Am told the scar will heal in about...six months. SIX MONTHS?? Well, I musn't complain. The surgeon, Professor Mark McGurk, was brilliant. I sing his praises: not a single tiny nerve of my tiny face was damaged. And he has a great sense of humour as well.

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THE LESSON

This is the title of a construction I made in 1992 which I've now used as the subject for a short video, presented herewith for your entertainment while I am offstage for a little while due to surgical committments.

May the giant bluebird watch over us all.

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See the video larger on blip.tv at this PERMALINK

THE SLASH

Next week, on Saturday the 20th of September, my face will be slashed. Well, only the left side. The slashing won't be done by a plastic surgeon or a mugger (please God). The deed will be performed by a Professor, a top expert in the arcane domain of salivary gland surgery and will (please God, allright?) be for my own good. The Prof will delicately (please, please Professor) excise a small, nearly invisible and painless lump, presumed innocent after much analysis, which has been residing on or in the parotid gland next to my ear for at least three years. Why bother removing it, I hear you asking. Because it grows - very very slowly, but grows. And since I fully intend to live for the longest possible time in the best possible health and the least possible disfigurement, removal of the alien lump is recommended. The op will take about an hour, under general anesthetic, and I will be in hospital for only one night.

Am I worried? Consciously, no. Unconsciously, how do I know? There's probably a dark sea of trembling jelly down there, fearing metamorphosis into scarface or palsyface. The risks have been explained to me and I have listened carefully. But somehow, even my natural mistrust of any technical procedure performed by anyone other than myself has failed to scare me shitless. I will survive, oh yeah, and continue to be as beautiful as I am. (God, are you listening?)

Meanwhile, protective invocations, incantations and even incense will be most welcome.

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LATE ROCKER FLIPS

I intended to participate again in International Rock Flipping Day mentioned by Dave at Via Negativa . It's in my diary, clearly marked: rock flip day, send photo.

Except that I entered it under Sunday, September 7th. It was supposed to be on September 2nd. Why did I do this? Because second sounds like seventh? Or am I losing track of time altogether? Who knows. The point is, I've missed participating in a lovely idea - all those rock flippers bending down simultaneously on the same day, maybe even at the same hour, in all kinds of places all over the planet, recording their discoveries: see links below.

To make up for my time-lapse, I am submitting this late offering.

It's been raining so much over here in the last few days that I have chosen an indoor rock. A tame rock. Removed some time ago from its natural habitat on a beach in Hastings and placed, among other domesticated stones, on a windowsill in my living room. I flipped it and you can look at it from both sides now. A little pebble is firmly embedded in a cavity on one side which, on the other side, looks just like an eye.

OH NO! Cross out all I've written above.

It seems I'm not late after all. In fact I'm too bleedin' early: the correct date really is September 7th. I had been looking at Dave's post about it and the Flickr pics for last year. What is the matter with me?

My rock has now been flipped.

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Rock-Flipping Day Reports

Pohanginapete (Pohangina Valley, Aotearoa/New Zealand) Nature Remains (Ohio, USA) Pensacola Daily Photo (Florida, USA) KatDoc's World (Ohio, USA) Notes from the Cloud Messenger (Ontario, Canada) Brittle Road (Dallas, Texas) Sherry Chandler (Kentucky, USA) osage + orange (Illinois, USA) Rock Paper Lizard (British Columbia, Canada) The Crafty H (Virginia, USA) Chicken Spaghetti (Connecticut, USA) A Passion for Nature (New York, USA) The Dog Geek (Virginia, USA) Blue Ridge blog (North Carolina, USA) Bug Girl's Blog (Michigan, USA) chatoyance (Austin, Texas) Riverside Rambles (Missouri, USA) Pines Above Snow(Maryland, USA) Beth's stories (Maine, USA) A Honey of an Anklet (Virginia, USA) Wanderin' Weeta (British Columbia, Canada) Fate, Felicity, or Fluke (Oregon, USA) The Northwest Nature Nut (Oregon, USA) Roundrock Journal (Missouri, USA) The New Dharma Bums (California, USA) The Marvelous in Nature (Ontario, Canada) Via Negativa (Pennsylvania, USA) Mrs. Gray's class, Beatty-Warren Middle School (Pennsylvania, USA) Cicero Sings (British Columbia, Canada) Pocahontas County Fair (West Virginia, USA)

Photos

IRFD group on Flickr

IRFD gallery on Via Negativa

EXPERIMENT IN TIME AND SPACE

I've uploaded another version of the Slovenia movie here. In one of those happy accidental discoveries, while editing the original video I made two copies of it and watched them both simultaneously, one slightly out of step with the other. This created a strangely fascinating rhythm and overlapping sequences of images and sounds which reminded me of cubism and also of rounds in music (eg: row row row your boat). I love the way the left-hand images seems to flow into the right-hand ones like water. Something to explore further.

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STRUNJAN, SLOVENIA: THE MOVIE

Here's the very short video. I wanted to concoct a musical background for it but then decided to leave the sounds on the tape unchanged. I think they add an immediacy that would otherwise be lost. Did a bit of visual editing but you have to pay attention or you'll miss the clever (?) stuff. Comments of any kind are most welcome.

For larger version go to MORE