a) i wanted to post a pic titled "my empire". i shot a couple, two weeks ago, spent lushious six minutes processing them, saved them to disk; there was just a tiny, unrelevant fragment of me and clouds for miles on end to be seen. the classical window shot, which i'm sure is already a reason for nausea, somewhere else and between the lines; and there's always a but, here more than elsewhere; b) the but being: there is no empire to be shown. as history books go, the winner buried a citadel under ruins and crumble, the loser is inhabiting aforementioned ruins in the fashion of lizards; c) and there's a lot to be said about lizards: i'm typing at full speed, there's no time at all, i'll leave you with just a couple of post-hypnotic suggestions, in the hope that sometimes in the past you have been hypnotized, and said cues would start singing: and the cues are: sewn eyes, hypotermal state, hiss. i should drop something about the tail growing anew, but i think it's unasked for; d) on friday night i could hear myself uttering the words: i'm ready, even willing to accept that my sickness has psychosomatic roots. i could grab binoculars and look all the way into the past and actually pinpoint the exact wheres and hows; but despite all of my efforts - and i did many, believe me, and i'm successful at most of my hacks, 'cos i've skimmed as many crap as i could in order to gain simplicity of motion and effectiveness of gesture, so to speak - i'm practically unable to act a reverse engineering of it. practically, completely unable. where should i begin? e) i'll stress it again: there's no empire, and i doubt that one has ever been. the governor has been hanged on the county's highest tree, the peasant are bacchus-drunk and riotous still, the book of laws is just ashes and cinders flying all over the place. i've officially stopped logging as /root in my head since years. there is no masterplan, no place to go: since everything became hallucinatory everybody stopped hallucinating and a blueprint to make the days crisper is nowhere to be found. f) there is no empire and this is just a Flashdance remake. wearing a presumptuos imitation of Jennifer Beals rags the protagonist is perpetually auctioning for a role in the ballet; perpetually stuck in the frame that sees him, or her for that matter, jumping at the top, just below the celing, Irene Papas singing What a feeling enthusiastically in an endlessly pitched down droning sample. unable to rise any higher or to drastically drop down. e) and this moment, believe me, was no different at all. i wrote i sailed off on a tangent of body stretch or something to that effect 'cos intentions might be ideas and ideas might be bulletproof but anyway both insist in the habit of flying away at the dimmest murmur of breeze, the dimmest murmur of a big grey gland trapped inside a bone cage, gasping for air and light, in the span of an eternity lasting exactly ten autoshoot seconds. i ended up looking like a damn scarecrow, laughing my arse off when i looked at the shot on the tiny one inch and a half visor. f) the next scene, i guess, is entirely up to you. the protagonist might finally be unleashing its mutant powers over the land, a krakatoa fandango of flying lava and brimstones and shrieking cracking thunderbolts preceded by rumbles so low your same bones would start hissing as lizards and reptiles do when they are nervous or mating or plainly enjoying a stroll in the park; or he might be finally uttering his last senseless sentence, that would go perpetually unheard as most of those do. then with a simple careless jump he might just be flying away.

The Mandarin Duck (Aix galericulata), or just Mandarin, is a medium-sized perching duck, closely related to the North American Wood Duck. It is 41–49 cm long with a 65–75 cm wingspan. The adult male is a striking and unmistakable bird. It has a red bill, large white crescent above the eye and reddish face and "whiskers". The breast is purple with two vertical white bars, and the flanks ruddy, with two orange "sails" at the back. The female is similar to female Wood Duck, with a white eye-ring and stripe running back from the eye, but is paler below, has a small white flank stripe, and a pale tip to its bill[2] Mandarin Ducks, which are referred to by the Chinese as Yuan-yang (simplified Chinese: ??; traditional Chinese: ??; pinyin: yuan yang), are frequently featured in Oriental art and are regarded as a symbol of conjugal affection and fidelity. A Chinese proverb for loving couples uses the Mandarin Duck as a metaphor: "Two mandarin ducks playing in water" (simplified Chinese: ????; traditional Chinese: ????; pinyin: yuan yang xi shui). The Mandarin Duck symbol is also used in Chinese weddings, because in traditional Chinese lore they symbolize wedded bliss and fidelity. The reason for this metaphor is because unlike other species of ducks, most Mandarin drakes reunite with the hens they mated with along with their offsprings after the eggs have hatched and even share scout duties in watching the ducklings closely. [3] Though even with both parents securing the ducklings, most of them do not survive to reach adulthood. The species was once widespread in eastern Asia, but large-scale exports and the destruction of its forest habitat have reduced populations in eastern Russia and in China to below 1,000 pairs in each country; Japan, however, is thought to still hold some 5,000 pairs.[4] Specimens frequently escape from collections, and in the 20th century a feral population numbering about 1,000 pairs was established in Great Britain. Although this is of great conservational significance, the birds are not protected in the UK since the species is not native there. There is also a free-flying feral population of several hundred mandarins in Sonoma County, California. This population is the result of several mandarin ducks escaping from captivity, then going on to reproduce in the wild. In the wild, Mandarin Ducks breed in densely wooded areas near shallow lakes, marshes or ponds. They nest in cavities in trees close to water and during the spring, the females lay their eggs in the tree's cavity after mating. The males take no part in the incubation, simply leaving the female to secure the eggs on her own. However, unlike other species of ducks, the male does not completely abandon the female, leaving only temporarily until the ducklings have hatched. Shortly after the ducklings hatch, their mother flies to the ground and coaxes the ducklings to leap from the nest. After all of the ducklings are out of the tree, they will follow their mother to a nearby body of water where they would usually encounter the father, who will rejoin the family and protect the ducklings with the mother.[5] If the father isn't found then it is likely that he may have deceased during his temporary leave. The Asian populations are migratory, overwintering in lowland eastern China and southern Japan. Mandarins feed by dabbling or walking on land. They mainly eat plants and seeds, especially beechmast. They feed mainly near dawn or dusk, perching in trees or on the ground during the day. Mandarins may form small flocks in winter. [edit]