Darkoshi

I watched a show about squirrels on PBS' Nature. Fascinating. Per the show, a fox squirrel can remember up to 9000 locations of where they've buried their nuts each year. Their brain grows larger while doing this, and then shrinks again by the next year.

..

(Content warning on the lyrics of the following song; they contain the term 'schizo'.)

I also watched a concert by Janelle Monae on Austin City Limits. The riff on the last song (starting 42 minutes in), "Come Alive", sounds so familiar to me, I'm sure I've heard it or one very similar before.
(Dah'-duh DAH'-duh, Dah'-duh-duh) (also La'-luh La'-luh LA-luh, La'-luh-luh)
But I haven't figured out which other song that might be*. I tried humming it on midomi.com but had technical difficulties.

And then she melds in that "Ya-dee dah-dee dah-dee da" lyric from some other familiar old song (Cab Calloway - Minnie the Moocher, aka the Hidey-Ho song) as well. The concert version of the song is quite better, muchly expanded and with audience participation, compared to the album version of the song on YouTube.

*I think I found the song, thanks to the "Come Alive (The War of the Roses)" Wikipedia page: The B-52's - "Rock Lobster". It was one of the songs the B-52s played in their set during the Culture Club concert I went to this summer.

Now I'm wondering why the song is subtitled "The War of the Roses". I haven't been able to figure that out yet. Anyone know?

Here's another video of the song in concert, in case anyone has trouble with the PBS link: Janelle Monae Come Alive (The War of The Roses) Glastonbury 2011
I still like the Austin City Limits version better; this one doesn't have the Hidey-ho part in it.

I was walking along, lost in thought. And I realized that I wasn't paying any attention to the world around me. And I thought, squirrels don't do that, scampering around lost in their thoughts, do they? My thoughts are in words - I hear words in my head. What would it be like, if I had never learned a language - if I had never heard any words? Would I still be able to think? What kinds of thoughts would I have? What would word-less thoughts be like? Is that how it is like, to be a squirrel?

I can stop thinking words for a while, while walking, and still *know* where I'm walking towards... a part of my brain is still directing me in which direction to walk, even if I don't consciously think words while doing it. When I drive home, I don't consciously think of which streets to turn on... it is automatic, while my mind thinks other thoughts. Whereas if I'm driving somewhere unfamiliar, then I do think words, like "I need to turn right on so-and-so street".

But what would it be like, to not have words in one's brain? What is it like for deaf people, who speak via sign-language, and who have never heard words? Do they think in sign? Do they see hands moving in their mind? Is their thought image-based as opposed to sound-based?

If my thoughts are sound-based, why is it easier for me to understand things when I read them, than when I hear them? And yet, when I read them, I hear the words in my head.

What is it like to be a squirrel, to not have words which let you plan for the future and think other abstract, distant thoughts? What is it like, to live in the present, all the time, only reacting to the things you see, hear, smell, feel?

My memories are not word-based, for the most part. I remember images, emotions, smells, not words.

Do squirrels sometimes sit around lost in thought... remembering experiences they have had? Day-dreaming about the perfect acorn?

I am crying, and there is no reason for it. I just feel unaccountably sad of a sudden.

Or maybe there's a reason, and it just isn't clear to me.

Even if I find a person or shelter to take the kitten, I know that just means one less home for some other cat or kitten somewhere, and that some other one will end up being euthanized instead of this one.

But I don't think that is why I feel like crying.

I don't know why I'm doing all this.

There was a squirrel in the bird-feeder.

It's a holiday. Pretty quiet so far.

Grass is growing.