January 3, 2014
Will There Be blank on mars?
Ever since I finished my application to Mars One in August, at the most random times by brain will tap me on the shoulder and pose a new kind of question: "Will there be blank on Mars?" My secondhand experience with the planet Mars and my actual experience with the planet Mars are not at all equal. In fact, it will come as no surprise, I am sure, when I say, I have never actually been there. But that doesn't mean I haven't spent a lifetime pursuing some sort of substitute experience.
One of my first literary passions were the books and stories of Ray Bradbury, a man well known for his Mars musings. So my first real concentrated concept of the planet was based on his creative vision. Even now, though it has been forever since I picked up any of The Martian Chronicles, I still have these images in my mind. Strange domestic architectural choices, vast expanses of unending and rocky land, weird foodstuffs, subtle clues of lost rivers and oceans and this breathless sky just reaching up and off and away. In my mind the sky is white and the land is the color of faded linen. And there are hidden things.....Honestly, I didn't follow a lot of it but I couldn't stop reading.
Then there were television shows. Just last night I was watching an episode of The Twilight Zone in which a rocket crashes on Mars. (I should say ONE of the episodes of The Twilight Zone in which a rocket crashes on Mars.) I sat up and paid attention in a whole new way. I was especially taken with the studio's rendition of the planet (see below) and smiled at the thought of approaching this beautiful and fantastically peculiar planet from space.
One of my first literary passions were the books and stories of Ray Bradbury, a man well known for his Mars musings. So my first real concentrated concept of the planet was based on his creative vision. Even now, though it has been forever since I picked up any of The Martian Chronicles, I still have these images in my mind. Strange domestic architectural choices, vast expanses of unending and rocky land, weird foodstuffs, subtle clues of lost rivers and oceans and this breathless sky just reaching up and off and away. In my mind the sky is white and the land is the color of faded linen. And there are hidden things.....Honestly, I didn't follow a lot of it but I couldn't stop reading.
Then there were television shows. Just last night I was watching an episode of The Twilight Zone in which a rocket crashes on Mars. (I should say ONE of the episodes of The Twilight Zone in which a rocket crashes on Mars.) I sat up and paid attention in a whole new way. I was especially taken with the studio's rendition of the planet (see below) and smiled at the thought of approaching this beautiful and fantastically peculiar planet from space.
This Twilight Zone episode was everything you can hope a Twilight Zone episode will be: mysteries abounded, assumptions were made, and expectations were not met. Ultimately, The Twilight Zone asserts, our response to the unknown is what will determine out reality--our outcome, so to speak. Beware The Puny Human Brain!
January 4, 2013
And then there are Movies! So many movies and I will write about movies on another day, Today I only want to reference one.
It is not without a little embarrassment, I admit that one of the first images I get when someone says "Mars" is from the movie, Total Recall. Based on a short story from one of my most FAVORITEST authors of all time, Philip K. Dick, this movie was just about as perfect (for what it was) as it could get when it came out in 1990. Robot cars, bad weather, women with three breasts, skeleton x-rays, and mutants. (Clearly, most movies based on Philip K. Dick stories do not even pretend to follow the original storyline) Total Recall was so much about Mars specifically, that it instantly pops into my head, unbidden, whenever the subject comes up. That and I must have seen it 100 times. (Again, a little embarrassed!)
One of the first Mars scenes in the movie is of a customs/receiving area. The ceilings are high and glass windows extend from top to bottom. Grand vistas of the planet can be easily seen no matter where you stand. I have never forgotten it. That, coupled with The New Yorker cover from April 22, 2013* I have this totally distorted view of "life on Mars". I suppose I think I'll enjoy a cup of coffee in some glass cathedral, admiring the view, while Skyping with my loved ones back home..
(To depart a moment: This type of thinking is privileged. Only a woman who has lived in an environment in which she has been 'culturally included' and kept relatively safe (there is no such thing as absolute safety for a woman on this planet I am sad to say) can view Mars--a complete unknown--as a place of possible comfort. Please, do not assume that I have lived a sheltered life---that is far from the truth---but regardless of my own story, my own wounds and broken pieces, as an white American woman, I am subject to certain cultural messages (won't bother describing the whole spectrum!) that tell me going to Mars is not unreasonable, and that finding contentment there is not unreasonable either. In the book Watership Down, Richard Addams asserts that the only reason a human being could ever claim that winter was their favorite season was if they had the resources to protect themselves from it. Sitting inside a house, by a fire, with a cup of tea, staring out the window onto a snowy landscape, gives one feeling of immense satisfaction; a feeling on triumph over the elements. Sitting in the snow, freezing and starving to death--not so cozy. What this ultimately means--I have no idea. But in my case, it is part of what has given me the sensibilities to desire Mars. I do not feel brave. I yearn.)
Now, let's see if I can bring it back around to the topic: "Will There Be Blank On Mars?" Up until I was accepted into Stage 2 of the Mars One program, The Total Recall Spaceport-Mall and The New Yorker's Spaceport-Missle Silo, was how I was unconsciously viewing my life on Mars. I say unconsciously because it wasn't until I made it to Stage 2 that suddenly my vision shifted into something more likely. Something like the sticker pasted on the outside of my iPad cover. Something.......smaller.
And then the questions started popping into my head.
will there be blank on mars?--the list
Leafy Greens?
I am a little "preoccupied" with greens. I feel this constant...pull...towards consuming them. i especially love juicing them. Will my relationship with green vegetables become to a long distance affair?
I am a little "preoccupied" with greens. I feel this constant...pull...towards consuming them. i especially love juicing them. Will my relationship with green vegetables become to a long distance affair?
Coffee? Tea? Hot caffeinated beverages?
mmmmmm....hot caffeinated beverages......
mmmmmm....hot caffeinated beverages......
Baths?
I, like most human beings, am made up mostly of water. unlike other human beings, however, I am hyper aware if it most of the time. I grew up in California during a 7-year drought and always felt like something was off---unbalanced. I actually moved to Portland, sight unseen, just because it was rumored to rain constantly. I need the water. And, yes, I am very aware about what appears to be a general lack of water on Mars. But is anyone can find water--it's me.
I, like most human beings, am made up mostly of water. unlike other human beings, however, I am hyper aware if it most of the time. I grew up in California during a 7-year drought and always felt like something was off---unbalanced. I actually moved to Portland, sight unseen, just because it was rumored to rain constantly. I need the water. And, yes, I am very aware about what appears to be a general lack of water on Mars. But is anyone can find water--it's me.
Pens?
So...yeah...I like to write. Literally. With a pen. When I was in the 6th grade, the public school teachers went on strike. My mom (power to the people!) would never cross a picket line--and a lot of other families were equally supportive. So, the mother of one of my classmates volunteered to have us kids to her house for "school". To her this meant we would learn how to sing Silent Night in German and intensively study penmanship. The moment she pointed out to me there were an infinite amount of ways to write the alphabet (be asking me to only write it one way) I was hooked.
So...yeah...I like to write. Literally. With a pen. When I was in the 6th grade, the public school teachers went on strike. My mom (power to the people!) would never cross a picket line--and a lot of other families were equally supportive. So, the mother of one of my classmates volunteered to have us kids to her house for "school". To her this meant we would learn how to sing Silent Night in German and intensively study penmanship. The moment she pointed out to me there were an infinite amount of ways to write the alphabet (be asking me to only write it one way) I was hooked.
Toenail Polish?
Dirty Dishes?
Allergies?
Nobody better bring a cat.
Nobody better bring a cat.
Food Not In A Tube?
I am not against food in a tube--I am pro-tube
I am not against food in a tube--I am pro-tube
Fire?!
Damn it! What if I never see a fire again?
Can you tell I know almost nothing about living on Mars?
Damn it! What if I never see a fire again?
Can you tell I know almost nothing about living on Mars?
But then it got exciting again:
MAybe There'll be Blank on Mars!:
Pod Racing!
Ray Guns!
Classic Space Jumpsuit Outfit!
Women with Three Breasts!
Robots!
March 16, 2014
Life changes suddenly and sometimes it changes us with it. Often, I have ruminated, if I don't let it drag me in its current, I am selling myself short. However, my fear of an undertow is vast. I am not always so keen on being dragged anywhere.
But drug I have been.
It is now mid-March and things are different. What I think about Mars is different, what I know about Mars is different and how I feel about Mars is different. There has been a bit of worldwide momentum around this thing--and it is interesting to see it unfold.
I cannot claim to know all 1,058 Stage 2 candidates (I swear it was 1,057--not sure where the last person came from) but I am becoming familiar with them in a vague sense as they show up and around the media and facebook and the like.
I will now reveal a whole NEW LIST of WILL THERE BE BLANK ON MARS? courtesy one heavy dose of "so-called facts."
But drug I have been.
It is now mid-March and things are different. What I think about Mars is different, what I know about Mars is different and how I feel about Mars is different. There has been a bit of worldwide momentum around this thing--and it is interesting to see it unfold.
I cannot claim to know all 1,058 Stage 2 candidates (I swear it was 1,057--not sure where the last person came from) but I am becoming familiar with them in a vague sense as they show up and around the media and facebook and the like.
I will now reveal a whole NEW LIST of WILL THERE BE BLANK ON MARS? courtesy one heavy dose of "so-called facts."
will there be blank on mars?
1. Oxygen-Only Environment Induced Skin Lesions
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I am not yet sure how this works, but it has something to do with the fact that when one exists in an oxygen-only environment it very rapidly creates a disturbance in the bacterial balance in the body. One's own immune system starts to devour the flesh because of a lack of these protective agents. Skin lesions quickly form and it is all downhill from there.
2. Blue Sunsets
Will they be blue? How do we know? How do we know we know? I I'm very suspicious of color designation....
3. Subliminal Distraction
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You may recall from my Polar Madness page that Subliminal Distraction refers to a human being's limited capability of existing in close proximity to other human beings, in which they have a constant awareness of others within their peripheral vision. This awareness triggers a primal survival necessity to be "on alert" for possible ambush. Subliminally, one's own system goes into a state of hyper-awareness, "preparing for battle," which induces physical and mental exhaustion and impaired judgment. Finally, the brain says, "Let's just kill this person before they kill us so we can get some sleep."
Will THIS happen on Mars?
Will THIS happen on Mars?
A logical conclusion to Subliminal Distraction would be:
4. Crazed Murder!!!
4. Crazed Murder!!!
Charles Masnson
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Jared Loughner
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Justin Bieber
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What do these three men have in common? Crazed Murder!!!
(When I Googled "crazed murder," pictures of these men came up---not in the top, but on the first page. I think this is funny.)
The question here is: Will there be crazed murder on Mars? I'm not sure if three people being killed by one constitutes "crazed" BUT killing 75% of the population surely does.
The question here is: Will there be crazed murder on Mars? I'm not sure if three people being killed by one constitutes "crazed" BUT killing 75% of the population surely does.
5. Stupid People
What would it be like being stuck with three stupid people on Mars? Probably not good.
6. Average, every-day Earth Insanity or special Mars-Only Insanity?
The Nightmare , Henry Fuseli, 1781
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The Scream, Edvard Munch, 1895
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Ophelia, John Everett Millais, 1851
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If you live and breath on THIS planet, you have an image of insanity in your head--probably and image limited to Earth Insanity. Since there will be no chaise lounges or bridges or rivers and flowers, what might Mars Insanity look like?
It is likely we will find out sooner rather than later.
It is likely we will find out sooner rather than later.
Flat Head Screws
It is a well known fact that flat head screws suck and have no reason to exist--and yet---they still do....
Primarily, it is my hope that flat head screws will simply NOT be used in the construction of anything for Mars One.
If they ARE used--let's hope that they don't mix them with Phillip's head screws--I would hate to be caught with the wrong screwdriver in a Mars emergency.
