Massive portions of buttered peas….

Posted on May 7, 2013 by gigoid

Ffolkes,
And then I woke up…. Another day dawns, bringing me one step closer to Europe. Today and tomorrow will be spent on planning, to make sure I’m not going to forget anything important, and packing what little I have left to put in, having spent much of the last two weeks slowly filling up the bag I’m taking. I’m so jazzed, I’ve essentially been ready to go for weeks. If I weren’t relatively ancient, I’d feel like a kid two days before Christmas; as it is, it takes all I have to keep from dancing a jig, or otherwise making an old fool of myself…

This is also affecting my writing, as I can barely keep my mind focused on the task at hand…. it just wants to think about what’s coming up, and will focus in on what I want to do only with great reluctance. I find myself unable to get mad about it, as the rest of my head is also caught up in the frenzy of emotion that goes with this…. So, I’ve come up with a semi-practical solution, which should serve to get the job done for the today, tomorrow, and Wednesday, before I leave at 0800…..

As I did yesterday, I’ll be dipping into the archives for one section, then go with a poem, chosen from the list in my head, and one old-school pearl, of the short, quick, but pointed variety, followed by the usual ridiculously egotistical closing remarks. This should allow me to get posted, with decent material, but take the minimum amount of time to put together. That’s the plan, anyway….

We’ll see just how much of it Murphy lets go without a response…. He’s been quiet so far today, so I’m hoping he’s focused on some other poor fool for a day or two…. He will, no doubt, have a trick or two to show me on the trip, but, I’m hoping he lets me slide here at home before I go…. Cross your fingers, or legs, or knock on some wood, or somehow help to guarantee my desire…. It won’t help much, but, it makes him feel good, and sometimes it will make him a bit more lenient…..

Once I’m on my trip, look for some more changes, as I intend to write about what I’m seeing, and put up some pictures of where I’ve been that day, rather than trying to maintain the long, rambling politico-religious ranting habits heretofore exhibited so regularly. Other changes my be instituted as well, like posting in the evening, after the day’s events, rather than beforehand, like now. So, stay tuned, as we evolve into a mobile state, and I learn how to put all of my adventures online. Hopefully, it will be entertaining, for y’all as much as me…. For now, ’tis enough to know it’s time to dive….. Shall we Pearl?…..
__________________________________

Here is an old-style Pearl, from September of 2011….

Ffolkes,

Taking pot shots at political figures is a time-honored pastime in this country, and though I try not to engage in doing so on a regular basis, I’m not above letting all my frustration drive me to rant. The current political scene certainly offers a multitude of opportunities, especially now that so many Republican candidates for the Presidential election next year have jumped out into the glare of public scrutiny.

Every day I can read any number of articles outlining the latest spate of nonsense that is uttered by one of them; the difficult part at this point is choosing only one about which to write. Got some rampant ignorance? Plenty of that going around. Want an outrageous claim or two? Step right up. Like to hear the real facts? We can help, it happens every day…..what is a body to do? There is so much to choose from, they all seem to blend together into one giant nightmare of avarice and ignorance.

I guess the part of all this that is most disturbing to me is just how clueless our beloved ruling class has become. Even the most honorable politicians these days must take part in the insanity, if only to maintain their position where they can do some good. The majority of people who have been elected in this country have no real understanding of the mainstream, whatever that may be.

The gap between the wealthy and the poor in this country has never been larger, and is growing every day. How can a person who makes $200,000 a year even conceive of what it is like to live on less than $10,000 a year? Quite simply, they cannot. More importantly, they have no desire to even try, because their purpose is not to improve the lot of everyone, but to solidify and maintain their own position. They may feel momentary jabs in their atrophied consciences, but easily dismiss them in favor of enjoying the fruits of their public thievery.

The seeds of revolution have been sown, and are being nourished by the ongoing scenario in today’s world. The rich are getting richer, and the poor are getting poorer. The old saw about a watched pot is not entirely true; the pot will eventually come to a boil, given time and heat. I’ve been watching this pot for a long while, and note that the heat has been turned up. Whether I watch it or not, it WILL boil over…….

After that, I need some uplifting, so onward to the good stuff…..

“It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society.” — Krishnamurti (Amen!)

“You can’t start worrying about what’s going to happen. You get spastic enough worrying about what’s happening now.” — Lauren Bacall

“I maintain there is much more wonder in science than in pseudoscience. And in addition, to whatever measure this term has any meaning, science has the additional virtue, and it is not an inconsiderable one, of being true.” — Carl Sagan, The Burden Of Skepticism, — The Skeptical Inquirer, Vol. 12, Fall 87

“What is beautiful is good and who is good will soon also be beautiful.” — Sappho

“Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught.” — Oscar Wilde (1856-1900)

“The ideals which have always shone before me and filled me with the joy of living are goodness, beauty, and truth. To make a goal of comfort or happiness has never appealed to me; a system of ethics built on this basis would be sufficient only for a herd of cattle.” — Albert Einstein

Alone I sit, waiting for the future to become now. When it does, I’m goin’ there…… y’all take care out there….

__________________________________

No comments are necessary to introduce this, but I’ll just say that I wish I had learned of this woman’s poetry ages ago….

Medusa

Off that landspit of stony mouth-plugs,
Eyes rolled by white sticks,
Ears cupping the sea’s incoherences,
You house your unnerving head—God-ball,
Lens of mercies,
Your stooges
Plying their wild cells in my keel’s shadow,
Pushing by like hearts,
Red stigmata at the very center,
Riding the rip tide to the nearest point of
departure,

Dragging their Jesus hair.
Did I escape, I wonder?
My mind winds to you
Old barnacled umbilicus, Atlantic cable,
Keeping itself, it seems, in a state of miraculous
repair.

In any case, you are always there,
Tremulous breath at the end of my line,
Curve of water upleaping
To my water rod, dazzling and grateful,
Touching and sucking.
I didn’t call you.
I didn’t call you at all.
Nevertheless, nevertheless
You steamed to me over the sea,
Fat and red, a placenta

Paralyzing the kicking lovers.
Cobra light
Squeezing the breath from the blood bells
Of the fuchsia. I could draw no breath,
Dead and moneyless,

Overexposed, like an X-ray.
Who do you think you are?
A Communion wafer? Blubbery Mary?
I shall take no bite of your body,
Bottle in which I live,

Ghastly Vatican.
I am sick to death of hot salt.
Green as eunuchs, your wishes
Hiss at my sins.
Off, off, eely tentacle!
There is nothing between us.

~~ Sylvia Plath ~~

__________________________________

As promised, or threatened, take it as you may, here is an old-school pearl, fresh as I can make it from my immense stash of Smart Bee’s best….. I hope you get the point of this one, it’s a doozy…. and fun, too! Well, it’s fun if one is used to stretching the limits of the mind…. if not, well, probably not so much….

“Love is not all: it is not meat nor drink Nor slumber nor a roof against the rain; Nor yet a floating spar to men that sink And rise and sink and rise and sink again; Love can not fill the thickened lung with breath, Nor clean the blood, nor set the fractured bone; Yet many a man is making friends with death Even as I speak, for lack of love alone. It well may be that in a difficult hour, Pinned down by pain and moaning for release, Or nagged by want past resolution’s power, I might be driven to sell your love for peace, Or trade the memory of this night for food. It well may be. I do not think I would.” — Edna St. Vincent Millay

“Hang sorrow! care ‘ll kill a cat.” — Ben Jonson (1573-1637) — Every Man in his Humour, Act i, Sc. 3

“Stop thinking, and end your problems.” — Lao Tzu

Untwisting all the chains that tie
The hidden soul of harmony.

– John Milton (1608-1674) — L’Allegro, Line 143

“The truly brave are soft of heart and eyes, And feel for what their duty bids them do.” — Byron

“Life is never fair, and perhaps it is a good thing for most of us that it is not.” — Oscar Wilde, An Ideal Husband

“All of a sudden, I want to THROW OVER my promising ACTING CAREER, grow a LONG BLACK BEARD and wear a BASEBALL HAT!!… Although I don’t know WHY!!” — Zippy the Pinhead

Alas, we never do really know why, do we?….. TTFN….
__________________________________

Well, I hope this works….. It does, at least as far as it goes…. I don’t believe I’ll need to worry about replying to the Pulitzer Committee anytime soon…. It’s done, though, and, at this point, that’s all that matters to me…. I’m outta here, ffolkes…. Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

When I works, I works hard.
When I sits, I sits loose.
When I thinks, I falls asleep.

Which is Why….

–
Sometimes I sits and thinks,
and sometimes
I just sits.

gigoid

Seven straight hours of polka music….. priceless….

Posted on May 6, 2013 by gigoid

Ffolkes,
And then I woke up….. The plan was in place, all I had to do was get up, get dressed, and call a cab. Piece o’cake…. I think we may have hit a fortunate bump…. It appears Murphy didn’t get the memo on this, so the plan went off like clockwork. The cab came, I rode it to Kaiser, picked up my meds, and made to the lab in time to be fourth in line. This got me out of there within thirty minutes (they are REALLY slow in the reception process….), whereupon I walked to see if there was coffee available anywhere on the way out…. it was, but I didn’t have exact change, so the danger of biting someone was still high…. I called a cab, as the bus wasn’t due for about 45 minutes, I thought…

But, lo and behold, as I walked outside, the bus was pulling up, so I canceled the cab, got on, and was home in 15 minutes, all chores completed, and still not 8 AM…. not too shabby, I’d say, and a huge thank you, to whoever it was that kept that asshole, Murphy, busy long enough for the plan to be implemented…. I hardly know what to do with myself; it’s really unusual for anything involving bus travel around here to go smoothly, and I am way ahead of schedule now. I suppose, if I were smart, I’d jump right in to the dive for today, and count my blessings….

I’m smart enough, so…. Shall we Pearl?….
__________________________________

I was cruising through some old Pearls to find inspiration, and found instead a pearl that will work well as section one of today’s effort…. It’s from the Ides of October in 2011…..

Ffolkes,

The Sun, life-giving orb of light and warmth, which dies each night, is born again each morning, gloriously aflame with potential. As the world turns in slow majesty, a scene of aching beauty is revealed; small plants and trees stretching their leaves toward the source of warmth, creatures great and small moving over the land, greeting the day with energy and purpose, colorful birds arcing and swooping through the warming air.

With a look at each other, the two young boys grinned, and with a cry of pure joy, took off running toward a nearby stand of trees. Legs pounding as hard and fast as their hearts, evenly matched, they ran with abandon, startling birds and small creatures, laughing in sheer exuberance. As they came to the edge of the trees, they stopped short, by mutual accord. Breathing hard, they gazed into the shadows, thinking about why they had come, why they were here, filling their souls with beauty at the beginning of the day……

I’m told that constant practice makes for constant improvement, and if this is so, then I should be getting damn close to competence, if not perfection. The paragraph above is the start of yet another story that will most likely never be told. I write them principally to keep dross from building up in my psyche, and as a sort of contrast to the reality of the rest of the piece.

An introductory bridge, as it were, carrying the reader into the realms of thought, where I can then provide you with an upgrade to the DABSDS (Defense Against B___S___ Delivery System) that comes installed in your brain. It gives me a chance to limber up my typing finger, and loosen the mental muscle, which, as we all know, is an essential precursor to the use of these peripherals without sustaining injury.

Today’s group of Pearls is an eclectic one, with a diverse, compelling batch of authors. Cultural values from all over the world, and from many different ages of history are represented here, and I think the variety is part of its strength; it goes to show that wisdom is not limited to one book. Indeed, I believe that the admixture that came together today is greatly enhanced by the contrast of ideas, creating a more powerful effect upon the reasoning mind…..hope you enjoy!….

“If I have any beliefs about immortality, it is that certain dogs I have known will go to heaven, and very, very few persons.” — James Thurber

The only real failure in life is the failure to try.

“It is a misconception that spirituality brings everlasting happiness. There is no such thing. Sadness still comes to the wise, but, unlike most people, their clarity of mind allows them to see beyond the temporal emotionalism of the moment. They are farseeing, and so happiness and sorrow become the same to them.” — Deng Ming-Dao

Down, down, down into the darkness of the grave
Gently they go, the beautiful, the tender, the kind;
Quietly they go, the intelligent, the witty, the brave.
I know.
But I do not approve.
And I am not resigned.
– Edna St. Vincent Millay, “Dirge Without Music”

“Writing is not necessarily something to be ashamed of–but do it in private and wash you hands afterwards.” — Lazarus Long

“We turn not older with years, but newer every day.” — Emily Dickinson

Trust yourselves, my friends, so that ye may trust one another…..y’all take care out there…..
__________________________________

I’ve discovered the flaw in my plan… the one I thought went so well this morning…. It’s now a bit shy of 9 AM, and I’m beat…. totally ready for a nap. To save some time, here is an older poem of mine, from sometime last year….. I hope you enjoy it….

Piraeus calls me, silently….

Sizzle, sizzle, crash, bang, boom.
Intellect burning with subsequent doom.
Lingering long over decisive style,
Whistling up chaos all the while.

Such frozen thoughts may shatter,
Should we infer, but, no matter.
Firing blanks is children at play
Blooded sages all gasp in dismay.

Nonsense is good sense at times
Mundane objectives trip lightly in rhymes.
Fallen angels dance on a pin
Until each sinner enters within.

Fast moments with natural rain
Bring ashes, yet still must remain.
Final thoughts clamor for more
Find them only on a far distant shore.

~~ gigoid

__________________________________

Just so everything today isn’t old and creaky, I’m putting together an old-school group of pearls for your delectation…. Hopefully, this, too, will feel the freedom of a Murphy-less morning, and turn out well, and quickly…. I think this one might make it onto the Quiz, so you might want to take notes….

Cogito, ergo sum. (I think, therefore I am) — Rene Descartes

Down, down, down into the darkness of the grave Gently they go, the beautiful, the tender, the kind; Quietly they go, the intelligent, the witty, the brave. I know. But I do not approve. And I am not resigned.” — Edna St. Vincent Millay, “Dirge Without Music”

“God is an invention of Man. So the nature of God is only a shallow mystery. The deep mystery is the nature of Man.” — Nanrei Kobori, late Abbot of the Temple of the Shining Dragon, Kyoto, Japan

“A note of music gains significance from the silence on either side.” — Anne Morrow Lindberg

“To a rational being it is the same thing to act according to nature and according to reason.” — Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (121-180 AD) — Meditations, vii, 11

Made still a blund’ring kind of melody;
Spurr’d boldly on, and dashed through thick and thin,
Through sense and nonsense, never out nor in.

– John Dryden (1631-1700) — Absalom and Achitophel, Part ii, Line 413

Cogito sum, ergo sum. Circa basta. (I think I am. That’s close enough.) ~~ gigoid

That turned out well, I think, and this is my blog, so that’s good enough….
__________________________________

Well, I don’t think the Pulitzer Committee will need to deliberate very long on this one; I am a realist, after all…..

Whoa! Proofing revealed an Easter Egg! My subconscious must have been paying attention today, and slipped in a facer on my conscious brain; each of the pearl sections today have a quote from Edna St. Vincent Millay, the same quote, but used in one as a poem, and in the other as prose.

It was NOT deliberate on my part; I just found it now, as I was proofing for errors. Boy, the stuff that gets done when Murphy leaves me alone is astounding at times…. It makes me wonder how things might be if he would go away altogether…. SIGH…. Definitely wishful thinking….

Moreover, since both of the old-school pearls work just fine, just as they are, I’m letting this fly, as is, and know it will do just fine…. And, in the final analysis, I don’t care, because it’s done…. I’m outta here, gotta go plan for Thursday…. Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

When I works, I works hard.
When I sits, I sits loose.
When I thinks, I falls asleep.

Which is Why….

–
Sometimes I sits and thinks,
and sometimes
I just sits.

gigoid

You can join the looters AFTER church, Billy….

Posted on May 5, 2013 by gigoid

Ffolkes,
I didn’t wake up today; Murphy kicked my bed covers to the floor and made me get up early. He wanted to make sure I saw how thoroughly he fucked me over today…. He has done something to Smart Bee, and it is crashing and burning on me…. Well, not burning, exactly…. It just won’t come off the task bar…. This has happened previously, and usually, an uninstall, followed by a fresh re-install will take care of the problem….. Not today, though. I’ve downloaded a new copy and re-installed three times now, and nothing doing. It still won’t open up on the desktop in a window; it just sits there on the taskbar, laughing at me….. Murphy is such an ASSHOLE!…..

This is a disaster of major proportion around here. I depend on Smart Bee for my quotes, fresh on a daily basis. With over 110,000 quotes in the program’s database, it has never failed to give me what I needed, to supply me with appropriate or stimulating quotes with no fuss. Now, I will have to use my books, and copy them down by hand, or go to a website that has quotes, and look around there. All in all, it’s a huge pain in my ass to have to do without SB, and I am thoroughly pissed now, at that asshole Murphy…. I don’t know what makes this program go wonky like this, and the fact that he does, well, it’s a pisser of major degree.

Since I won’t have the time I generally have, thanks to the convenience of SB, I’d best leave this morning whine in the bottle, and get on with the pearls for today. It’s going to take a while, and I’m really, really pissed, and will need to take a few moments to compose myself, so we’ll let this die a quick death today, and get on with it….. Shall we Pearl?…..
__________________________________

The thorns which I have reap’d are of the tree
I planted; they have torn me, and I bleed.
I should have known what fruit would spring from such a seed.

– Lord Byron (1788-1824) — Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, Canto iv, Stanza 10

Here, in a three line verse, Lord Byron has explained the flaw that exists in human nature, a flaw that will one day drive the species to extinction, if we don’t find a way to alter its effect on us, as a species. This flaw doesn’t manifest in every human, only in a certain percentage, not particularly large, but full of the people who affect society the most, i.e., the leaders, the politicians, the aristocracy (the rich, or as I call them, the bankers….), and the preachers, all of whom are supposed to be ordering society to benefit ALL of its members.

Instead, these individuals, who have this fatal flaw, have ordered events to suit themselves, hoarding the largest part of the available resources, showing absolutely no compassion or willingness to share, and dismissing as unimportant all of the pain and suffering their actions cause to other people….

This selfishness gene will eventually kill us all, because the BRC, or Beloved Ruling Class, are so focused on their goals, and so unwilling to entertain the idea that their actions are wrong, they cannot comprehend the danger they have created by their pathology, to themselves as well as to the rest of us….

That is the unfortunate thing about any mental aberration; it’s very presence tends to limit what the victim can understand, because they are unwilling to look at the evidence….. No one wants to believe they are mentally off; it doesn’t fit in with our self-image as a competent human being. These folks never understand at all that the way they are leading their lives is a threat to the rest of us; they will only accept evidence that supports their unrealistic view of reality.

Unfortunately for the rest of us, these people are also the ones who are the most willing to use violence, and weapons, to enforce their will, and they already have control of more force than the rest of the public can possibly contend with to force a change. It is a very complex, delicate problem, with no solution that I can see as practical, or with any large chance for success….

The time we have to make the necessary changes to society is growing shorter every hour, as more and more millions of tons of CO (carbon monoxide) is pumped into the air, along with other particulate pollutants. This material in our atmosphere has almost completely destroyed the ozone layer, and the amount of heat reaching the planet from the Sun has raised the ambient temperature of the planet a full two degrees…

Two degrees may not seem like much, but, the fact that the change has taken place in less than a hundred years is a clear indicator that it is quite enough, as it continues to change the climate of the planet drastically. The polar ice is melting more rapidly than ever before, and at a geometrically increasing rate. The amount of oxygen in the air is decreasing in relation to other substances; if it changes two percentage points, there won’t be enough of it for our lungs to breathe; we will suffocate ourselves if it continues. The weather is changing all over the world, as the water from the polar ice melts, and changes the chemical balance of the air everywhere…. As plants die, the process will accelerate, and it will be a toss-up to see what will kill us first….

“Whenever I see a photograph of some sportsman grinning over his kill, I am always impressed by the striking moral and aesthetic superiority of the dead animal to the live one.” — Edward Abbey

Not a pretty picture, is it? Unless, of course, you are one of the power elite, the BRC; then, you’re the one with the gun…. I’m sorry to have to bring doom and gloom into the morning, but, this is a subject that won’t go away, so I pound on it whenever I can…. The quote above, from Lord Byron, stimulated my sense of outrage at the sheer selfishness of the 1% (yet another name for those with the flaw of extreme self-interest….), so I ranted, if mildly. What bothers me the most is that what I’m saying here is absolute truth, and the people who read it are NOT the ones who need to change…. Of course, those folks wouldn’t believe it if they did read it, so it’s rather a thankless task, and relatively futile, to boot…..

“In spite of everything, I still believe that people are good.” — Anne Frank

I think Anne was a better person than I am, because I have lost my belief in what she says here…. I do believe that the majority of mankind is good, or at least tries to be good; I just don’t believe that those ffolkes are the ones that matter to our future, as much as the folks who are NOT basically good, for as long as the innocents allow the harm their leaders continue to cause to the environment in which we all have to live. I don’t know of a solution, other than the obvious one of becoming violent myself, and doing to them what they want to do to me, but doing it first….. But, then I become like them, and I’d have to kill myself, because I’d never be able to look in a mirror again….. I guess there’s only one thing left to do…..

Petition me no petitions, sir, to-day;
Let other hours be set apart for business.
To-day it is our pleasure to be drunk;
And this our queen shall be as drunk as we.

– Henry Fielding (1707-1754) — Tom Thumb the Great, Act i, Sc. 2
__________________________________

Last month was great, in terms of writing poetry, but I missed reading it…. That probably sounds contradictory, but what I mean is that I missed reading other people’s poems, as I haven’t been able to read other blogs as much as I’d like in the last couple of months…. I’m busier out in the BBR, and can’t sit very long anyway. Now, however, the challenge to write a poem is over, and I get to find my old favorites and find new stuff from them…. Call me odd, I don’t care, because I am… Most poets are….

A Song About Myself

I.
There was a naughty boy,
A naughty boy was he,
He would not stop at home,
He could not quiet be-
He took
In his knapsack
A book
Full of vowels
And a shirt
With some towels,
A slight cap
For night cap,
A hair brush,
Comb ditto,
New stockings
For old ones
Would split O!
This knapsack
Tight at’s back
He rivetted close
And followed his nose
To the north,
To the north,
And follow’d his nose
To the north.

II.
There was a naughty boy
And a naughty boy was he,
For nothing would he do
But scribble poetry-
He took
An ink stand
In his hand
And a pen
Big as ten
In the other,
And away
In a pother
He ran
To the mountains
And fountains
And ghostes
And postes
And witches
And ditches
And wrote
In his coat
When the weather
Was cool,
Fear of gout,
And without
When the weather
Was warm-
Och the charm
When we choose
To follow one’s nose
To the north,
To the north,
To follow one’s nose
To the north!

III.
There was a naughty boy
And a naughty boy was he,
He kept little fishes
In washing tubs three
In spite
Of the might
Of the maid
Nor afraid
Of his Granny-good-
He often would
Hurly burly
Get up early
And go
By hook or crook
To the brook
And bring home
Miller’s thumb,
Tittlebat
Not over fat,
Minnows small
As the stall
Of a glove,
Not above
The size
Of a nice
Little baby’s
Little fingers-
O he made
‘Twas his trade
Of fish a pretty kettle
A kettle-
A kettle
Of fish a pretty kettle
A kettle!

IV.
There was a naughty boy,
And a naughty boy was he,
He ran away to Scotland
The people for to see-
There he found
That the ground
Was as hard,
That a yard
Was as long,
That a song
Was as merry,
That a cherry
Was as red,
That lead
Was as weighty,
That fourscore
Was as eighty,
That a door
Was as wooden
As in England-
So he stood in his shoes
And he wonder’d,
He wonder’d,
He stood in his
Shoes and he wonder’d.

~~ John Keats ~~

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Today has turned into a traditional Pearl… though the intro is shorter than usual, the rest of it follows format perfectly, with a rant in section one, a classic poet, and poem, in section two, and a third section, which obviously is supposed to be an old-school grouping of pearls…. I confess that I keep a stash of quotes from Smart be, to the tune of about eighty-seven pages of a document, so I’m not as short of quotes as I’d thought to be. I’m going to use it for a couple days, & let the real Smart Bee have a vacation, to see if that will fix the corruption in the file….

I know, wishful thinking, but, it’s worth a shot… If it works, it will piss Murphy off, so I’d do it that way anyway, for just that reason…. Any who, today’s group will be VERY random, so bear with me…. Buckle up, please, we can’t proceed until all seat-belts are fastened securely…. insurance rules…

“A competent and self-confident person is incapable of jealousy in anything. Jealousy is invariably a symptom of neurotic insecurity.” — Robert Heinlein

“Life is a long lesson in humility.” — James M. Barrie

“Ridicule is the best test of truth. — Lord Chesterfield (1694-1773)

“If you hate a person, you hate something in him that is part of yourself. What isn’t part of ourselves doesn’t disturb us.” — Hermann Hesse, _Damian_, 1919

But the sunshine aye shall light the sky,
As round and round we run;
And the truth shall ever come uppermost,
And justice shall be done.

– Charles Mackay (1814-1889) — Eternal Justice, Stanza 4

“There are two sentences inscribed upon the Delphic oracle, hugely accommodated to the usages of man’s life: “Know thyself”, and “Nothing too much”; and upon these all other precepts depend.” — Plutarch (46-120 AD) — Consolation to Apollonius

“Now and then it’s good to pause in our pursuit of happiness and just be happy.” — Smart Bee

Now, that’s not bad at all…. a very cogent grouping, I think…. Let yourself flow with it, and you’ll end up in a place you will like, I guarantee… If not, well, that’s okay too…. some of us need to let things stir around a while before consuming it… or something…. Ah hell, just listen to the last one, and all will be well….
__________________________________

Things are just all at sixes and sevens, and I don’t know what I shall do…. I guess I’ll proof it first, then see if I need to kill myself…. It will have to do, as I’d say it meets minimum requirements, and it’s time to go out into the BBR, if the bus is on time….. Enough, she said….. Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

When I works, I works hard.
When I sits, I sits loose.
When I thinks, I falls asleep.

Which is Why….

–
Sometimes I sits and thinks,
and sometimes
I just sits.

gigoid

That particular radiologist has a toggle switch…..

Posted on April 28, 2013 by gigoid

Ffolkes,
Forget the rest…. blessed are the coffee drinkers, for they shall see the day clearly….. before they bite anybody. It’s always a bonus when you can start the day without biting anyone…. Then, of course, there are the days when I WANT to bite somebody, even after coffee. I guess, if I slowed down long enough to look at it, those would be the days when I end up ranting on something or other, to sublimate the urge to bite. But, I never slow down that much, so we’ll never know….

Not that it would make any difference in how this intro got done. I think I’ll just start using up my emergency stash of intro tricks; if nothing else, that will force me to replenish those supplies, which always puts me in a better mood. It must be the part when I stick it to Murphy, the best I can, in order to get them put away where he can’t find them…. Well, actually, it’s a matter of distracting him, and hiding them while he’s busy, thus, he never knows I have them at all. It could be called cheating, but when it comes to Murphy, all bets are off; plus, in my opinion there is no such thing as cheating, not with him. He has no compunctions against cheating on me, so why shouldn’t I return that favor?

So, I guess we’ll use an emergency opening today….. Hmm… let’s see, which one of these won’t leave a mess? Maybe this one…..

Morning, ffolkes! It’s gigoid the exuberant, coming to you from the wilds of Northern California, where the girls are pretty, and the boys are strange. We’ll be spinning a lot of great music for ya today, so settle back in those easy chairs, tighten up them earphones, and let’s spin some licorice pizza for breakfast….. Here’s a little number from Paul Revere and the Raiders, coming at ya from gigoid-land…..

What do you think? Will it float? Will it get me through to another day’s dive? Is there anyone out there? Hello!!!!!…. Hmm. This is worse than I thought…. Well, I guess I’ll just have to go on to the morning dive, and hope that someone shows up along the way….. As usual, this nonsense got me far enough along so that I can legally call it an introduction, so we’ll take it and run with it, at least as far as the corner store…. Shall we Pearl?…..
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“The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather in a lack of will.” — Vince Lombardi

I have spoken previously on this subject, of human will, and will no doubt do so again, as I believe it to be one of the key elements of finding the Truth in Life. It takes practice to be able to use it to full potential, practice that many people never take time for, to their regret. Without it, Life can be extremely difficult, as it will toss us about just like a small boat in a big storm at sea. But, when it is honed to a sharp edge, and tempered to a great strength, it can become one of our most powerful tools. It can help to bring peace and serenity into our lives, if used with intelligence, guided by strong ethical intent. I mention the latter because it is equally important to the proper use of the will; it is an unfortunate truth that the will can also be used to pursue results that are NOT beneficial for everyone, but only for the one who uses it without ethical direction, i.e. to benefit themselves, only.

“One sits down first, one thinks afterwards.” — Smart Bee

A long time ago, I found out something about society, and those who are ostensibly in charge of running it, that has had a distinct influence on my thinking. I discovered that what I heard in school, from books, did not match what I observed in society, and that the people who were in the positions of authority were, for the most part, not telling the whole truth, or, often, telling bare-faced lies. This had a profound effect on me, because I had always been inspired by the idea of a democracy, a system, and a place, where the people decided among themselves what was best for all; their collective will was to be carried out by the individuals elected to office…. At least, I’m pretty certain that is what our founding fathers envisioned when they cut loose from the monarchical rule of England….

Unfortunately, soon after beginning this experimental Utopia, the bankers started their campaign to pervert the system, buying control of key officials to make laws that favored them. At the same time, the preachers started their campaign to make sure the government was composed of men and/or women who were under their control, ethically and morally, using the time-honored tools of divine entitlement and guilt so that their interests could be monitored and controlled.

Today, well over 90% of all elected officials in this country are of one major religion, and the lobbyists who represent the money-lenders are more influential in making laws than the electorates who elect those officials. The campaigns to control the government have been quite effective, especially since nobody even notices most of the time, or says anything about it….

“To see the light at the end of the tunnel, you first have to be in a tunnel, then the correct tunnel and last, facing in the right direction…. What the heck are we doing in a tunnel anyway?” — Larry G. Smith

This is a pretty good description of modern society, I think. What the heck are we doing here, on the brink of extinction? The BRC, the 1%, whatever you choose to call them, have brought us to this dead-end tunnel, with no light at the end, because it is our own end we see. They, those in control, don’t choose to believe in the damage they have wrought to the environment, nor in the terminal nature of that damage, so, nothing is being done to counteract the suicidal policies our species continues to follow. And it’s all because of the people who have turned their will to the selfish pursuit of their own desires, with no thought to either the effect on others, or the potential danger of doing so. They don’t care, and the rest of us, because of our own lack of will, are going to pay the price right along with them, unless we wake up to the danger, now….

I could rant about this all day, and have seemingly done so in the past…. but, I’ve made my point for today, and rather than bore you to death with more logical, but time-consuming evidence or argument, I’ll leave it at that…. Well, almost….. We are all in danger of species extinction, this is a FACT, not a supposition. We have the means to save ourselves, IF we can find it within ourselves to rise up and throw out the people who are causing the problem. They are NOT going to stop themselves; if we want to live, we, the people, will have to MAKE them do it, or we will all die. It’s that simple, and that urgent…. If it doesn’t happen in this next decade, it will be far too late, because the ice is already melting, ffolkes, and it isn’t going to stop or slow down… It will only get faster with time….

gigoid has spoken…..

“If you view your problem closely enough you will recognize yourself as part of the problem.” — Ducharm’s Axiom
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Today’s haiku was prompted by the mild, yet, important rant in section one of today’s Pearl. I don’t have a poem ready to come out, again, so I’ll use an old one, and take the consequences, whatever they may be….. I guess I’m not a real poet, just a hobbyist…. Oh well, c’est la vie….. As every day this month, these are being included as part of the April National Poetry Writing Month Challenge, with the updates to be found here: http://www.napowrimo.net/ I hope you enjoy them…..

Haiku XVII

Time will tell the tale,
of Man’s fast rise, and long fall.
Soon, just memory.

A Seasonal Approach

Absolute stillness grips a frozen field,
anticipating dawn with such patient yield
morning burgeoning in dark winter’s hold
brings promise of tales yet to be told.

Lengthening days of pale sun unto night
slowly tell of time’s subversive flight
bringing such original songs of natural fire
with melodies complex in casual attire.

The months are certain they will always win
it is just the way it has always been.
None may argue, nor yet slow life down
Nor dim the eternal beauty of nature’s gown.

Winter evolves from fall into spring,
sending flocks and hearts ever awing.
Summer follows suit, t’other way ’round
Spring into fall, often without a sound.

Life is meant to be lived, beginning to end
choices abound, and change can be a friend.
Yielding with grace to reality’s compelling ploy
fills our plain existence with clean, honest joy.

~~ gigoid

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Time now for a return to the days of yore, or fore, whichever comes first in Smart Bee. Having ranted above, if only mildly, I shan’t attempt to keep your interest with yet another foray into critical essay. Besides, it’s time to lighten up a little, so let’s have some fun…. That will be my directing thought today, in picking out today’s old-school group of pearls for your perusal and delectation. I intend to have fun, and so must you…. You simply MUST, or I’ll die…. Well, no I won’t die, but, I’ll be disappointed, and who wants that? Not me….. Enjoy!….

Birth, n.: The first and direst of all disasters. — Ambrose Bierce, “The Devil’s Dictionary”

“Don’t worry about your heart. It will last you as long as you live.” — W. C. Fields

“Faith in immortality, like belief in Satan, leaves unanswered the ancient question: is God unable to prevent suffering and thus not omnipotent? or is he able but not willing to prevent it and thus not merciful? And is he just?” — Smart Bee

An it harm none,
Do what ye will.

– The basis of Wiccan philosophy

(1) You can’t win.
(2) You can’t break even.
(3) You can’t even quit the game.

– Ginsberg’s Theorem

Every major philosophy that attempts to make life seem meaningful is based on the negation of one part of Ginsberg’s Theorem. To wit:

(1) Capitalism is based on the assumption that you can win.
(2) Socialism is based on the assumption that you can break even.
(3) Mysticism is based on the assumption that you can quit the game.

– Freeman’s Commentary on Ginsberg’s theorem

“Go not to the elves for counsel, for they will say both yes and no.” — J. R. R. Tolkien

“He was the nearest thing I’d seen to a human being without actually being one.” — Spike Milligan
(A number of recent Presidents come to mind….)

Hmm…. a very eclectic group; no so much funny ha-ha, as funny strange…. They all have something good to say, though, so, it’s kind of like oatmeal…. not always the most thrilling breakfast item to find on your table, but it sure makes ya feel better all day….
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I’m not sure what to think of this one; I’ll have to reserve judgment until I proof it….. I have to say, I think I do better when I’m not paying close attention, like today. My head doesn’t feel as coherent as most of this seems to be… As it is, I have to say, well done, young paduan…. Or, maybe just, not bad, bozo…. Either way, I’m outta here…. Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

When I works, I works hard.
When I sits, I sits loose.
When I thinks, I falls asleep.

Which is Why….

–
Sometimes I sits and thinks,
and sometimes
I just sits.

gigoid

Sucked into the blonde event horizon….

Posted on April 25, 2013 by gigoid

Ffolkes,
Well, I survived the Lone Star state, albeit a bit worse for wear, and my pockets significantly lighter. All in all, it was an instructive journey, in a lot of ways….. A number of events that happened during the trip were obvious life-lessons, and have taught me that a) I’m not a kid anymore; b) packing light is a good thing; and c) take what is offered, especially perks due to age or disability…..

Oh, and I also found out that not only does Murphy follow me around, he delights in taking advantage of the subtle cruelties offered by travel…. such as convincing myself to take a cab home from the airport, giving me an clueless driver who proceeded to take the wrong freeway on the way to Vallejo, treating me to a memory-filled jaunt through the streets of Berkeley, in order to get back on the right freeway, and, adding another hour to the trip…. If I had sat back and closed my eyes, we would have ended up in Fresno…

I found out that I’m no longer the invulnerable, indefatigable young man I used to be. I used to be able to drive as long as I needed to drive, without becoming overly tired, hour after hour; this time, a four hour drive around central Texas, and I’m ready for a week off, with lots of sleeping on the agenda. An almost four hour plane ride from Austin to Oakland almost killed me, coming on top of the drive, and the four hour wait to board the flight, which Murphy had been so kind as to delay in its trip to Austin. Even waiting in the airport was hard, as the seats in most of the ones I’ve been to are not well designed for long periods of time, especially the ones near the Internet hot spots…..

Packing light is a learned skill, one I’ve always been fair at, just not experienced enough to become totally efficient. I end up carting around a bunch of stuff that I never use on the trip, making it dead weight. Until I can get a good ultra-thin laptop designed for travelers, I have to take my laptop, which is not huge, but still weighs enough to strain my pitiful back muscles. I need to learn not to take enough stuff to set up a new bivouac, and save the weight for stuff I pick up along the way. I didn’t need a lot of what I ended up taking, so this was an quite instructive trip in that regard…

Part of what made it hard is my own stubbornness against accepting the fact that I’m disabled. I didn’t want to be one of those folks who use a wheelchair to get around in the airport, preferring to walk, even though I have to walk with my stick, and limp a lot of the way due to hip pain. Then, since I didn’t claim my disability, I ended up standing around in lines, hurting, wishing I’d used the wheelchair, as those passengers board first. If I take the perks, I would be able to go through the security check points without having to stand in long lines, as well as boarding the plane first. I no longer give a shit about appearing to be disabled, because, hey, I am disabled….

In the future, I’m going to take all the perks I can, because I just don’t have the strength any longer to put up with the physical demands that even flying presents. Planes are faster, and more comfortable than a train, as the train is constantly rocking and rolling on the tracks, whereas the plane is relatively smooth, other than the pockets of turbulence. The seats on a train are more comfortable, for sure, and it is usually less crowded, and not so stuffy on a train as it is on the plane. But, those are the ONLY advantages, as far as I can see…..

I’m glad I took this trip, and not just because I got to see my high school friend for a good visit. I also am convinced that what I’ve learned on this trip will help me in my upcoming big trip to Europe next month (I leave in 14 days!…..). I’m packing light, going to check my big bag, and keep only my meds, my laptop, and a book with me on the plane (And my tickets & passport, of course…..). I’m going to take all the disability perks I can. And, I’m going to have a great time, even if Murphy tries to come along; I’ll just bribe him somehow to take a vacation with me, so he’ll leave me be for a few days…. It sure would be nice to be free of his attentions, even if it’s only for a short while.

I see that I’ve rambled on quite a bit here, and we’re still in the intro section. I guess I’m making up for yesterday’s post…. I do have other stuff to do today, like a dentist visit, so I’d best get on with today’s dive…. I hope I didn’t bore anyone, or lose any readers from prattling on for so long about a simple trip, and will now try to maintain a bit more focus on the purpose here…. not that I always know what that purpose may be…. Nevertheless, we go on….. Shall we Pearl?…..
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“Dwell not upon thy weariness, thy strength shall be according to the measure of thy desire.” — Arab proverb

Well, Smart Bee is quite perceptive this morning….. In the discussion above regarding strength and the demands of traveling, this takes on new significance. It is a truism, especially true for men; more so, I think, than for women (and nothing sexist meant by that…. men and women are different…. get used to it….). I know that, for me, having a purpose gives me the strength to complete the task, no matter what it may entail. I’ve stayed up for 2 or more days, at times, when there was good reason, and felt no ill effects afterward, other than a strong desire to sleep for a long time. Even when I am already tired, bringing my mental focus onto whatever strong reason I have to assume a duty will always dismiss the fatigue, and draw upon inner resources to give me the energy to keep on working, or doing whatever needed doing.

I don’t believe this is any different for me than it is for anyone else; as humans, we have a strength of will that, if honed and sharpened, can give us the ability to put aside mere physical demands, overcoming any such weakness by the application of will power. A perfect example of this was when I drove to Austin from Houston, yesterday, on the way home. The four hour drive came after a very long day the day before, about 3 hours sleep, and an emotional visit with my friend… I was completely drained, I thought…. But, then, on the drive, I realized that if I gave in to my fatigue, I’d get stuck in Texas until I recovered…. So, I stopped, got some fresh air, and pushed on, replenishing my strength with the promise of rest when I arrived at the airport….

Even though I had to tell myself a lie like that (the physical demands at the airport meant no rest at all for me, but I didn’t tell myself that while driving….) by accepting the duty involved, I was able to draw upon hidden resources of energy to get me through the drive. I needed a lot more lies to get me all the way home, to make it through the 4 hour wait, the 4 hour flight, and the unexpected extra hour on the cab ride from the airport to my house…. I made it, as always, and seven hours of sleep in my own bed seems to have fixed all my problems…. at least, if how much I write is any indication… I’ve been at this for about an hour now, and I’m already approaching a couple thousand words, in the first section….

I’ll not torture y’all any further on this thought, except to say this…. We, as humans, have the will power to accomplish anything…. anything at all. If our minds can conceive of a thing, we can make that thing a reality, whether it is large or small, simple or complex, long or short of duration. None of that matters, when we have decided on a course of action…. It is a valuable characteristic, and not well understood by most people; they use it without ever considering its true power, or its importance to them. Learn to focus the will, to bring your attention onto what is duty, freely chosen, and you will find that there is nothing you desire that you cannot achieve…. Word…..

“And now there is merely silence, silence, silence, saying all we did not know.” — William Rose Benet
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In the attempt to stay with fresh material, I am including here a haiku I wrote while on the plane home from Texas…. The poem was begun when I finally got home, while I was trying to relax enough to go to bed; I finished it just a few minutes ago, which gave me the title….. It’s not the best I’ve ever done, and may go through more editorial changes, but, it will do for one of the first poems I’ve tried to write on demand, instead of waiting until it leaked out of my head…. As every day this month, these are being included as part of the April National Poetry Writing Month Challenge, with the updates to be found here: http://www.napowrimo.net/ I hope you enjoy them…..

Haiku XIII

Flying home tonight,
long, hot, interesting flight.
Will it ever end?

Pensive early and late….

Endings aren’t always a new beginning
I’m sad to say.
Sometimes it’s just an ending
there’s always a price to pay.

Still, it’s only money, he said
watching it piss away
Did everything ‘cept meet Fred
‘n had a good time the whole way.

Even the bad stuff turned out well,
life lessons are just that way.
Knowing what’s right, you can’t always tell,
we don’t always know the right things to say.

I’ll take all the hard times, without complaint,
learning isn’t always easy to take.
Kindness, patience, compassion without restraint,
are still the best decisions we can make.

~~ gigoid ~~
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Well, I haven’t really ranted today, but, I’ve held you captive long enough, so I won’t start one now…. We’ll go old-school for the final section, with a five, or seven star pearl of great luster, with an inspiring core meaning to each of the included quotes, all tied up with a logical bow…. I hope. Smart Bee sometimes has its own ideas of what is right for a particular pearl, so we’ll see what comes together, and hope for the best….

“Don’t despair over futility; remember, it also rains over the ocean.” — Smart Bee

“A man begins cutting his wisdom teeth the first time he bites off more than he can chew.” — Herb Caen

“History records no more gallant struggle than that of humanity against the truth.” — Smart Bee

“Decay, inherent in all component things.’ — Buddha-last words

“The power of man has grown in every sphere, except over himself.” — Winston Churchill

“Know the enemy and know yourself; in a hundred battles you will never be in peril. When you are ignorant of the enemy but know yourself, your chances of winning or losing are equal. If ignorant both of your enemy and of yourself, you are certain in every battle to be in peril.” — Sun Tzu (fl. c. B.C. 500)

“I am not an animal! I am … well, not an animal.” — Smart Bee

I knew Smart Bee would get its six cents in, but, I can’t complain, because it’s fine, just the way it is….. This one will be on the Quiz, ffolkes, so I hope you took notes…
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Whew! What a relief….. I guess I needed that, which is why I went overboard on the personal revelations today….. Let’s see how it proofs…. Hmm, not too shabby, and much better than I had thought it might be after such an exhausting trip. I’ll take it, and so will you, and like it…. Hah! Gotcha!….

Okay, no more Stooges humor…. I’ll let you off with a warning, this time…. and, no, I have no idea where THAT came from. I suppose it’s been sitting in my head for several days, waiting for me to lose focus for just an instant, so it could take over my fingers….. Don’t take it personally, please, it’s just a yoke…. Oh, boy, now I’ve really done it… Sorry ’bout that…. Bye now…. Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

When I works, I works hard.
When I sits, I sits loose.
When I thinks, I falls asleep.

Which is Why….

–
Sometimes I sits and thinks,
and sometimes
I just sits.

gigoid

Too bad, so sad, my bad….

Posted on April 24, 2013 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

I won’t be posting today, other than this little apologia… The hotel in Houston in which I spent the night was a nightmare; Murphy apparently has cousins here in Texas, name of McCoy, I’d imagine, or maybe Bush…. Sorry, couldn’t resist, and he’s such an easy target…. Any who, I’m exhausted, and have to deal with a bunch of stuff re: the flight home & rental, etc., not to mention a bit of time spent reaming the hotel over the crap they pulled…

So, I’ll try to have a real Pearl tomorrow, but, if travel gets in the way, I may have to go fluffy again, like today…. this is fluff….

Now, I know Murphy has friends or relatives here…. I can’t even think up a haiku…. Sheesh!

Tomorrow, dudes and dudettes, I swear…. Take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you….

Sometimes I sits and thinks,

and sometimes,

I just sits.

~~ gigoid

We’ll have to spit-ball the hinges…..

Posted on April 21, 2013 by gigoid

Ffolkes,
We’ve got Trouble, right here in River City, ffolkes….. Don’t worry, I won’t go all Robert Preston on you, and burst into song, or anything like that. I’m merely referring to the empty space here on the page, which, sadly, matches the empty space in my head, the space that SHOULD be composing an intro for today’s Pearl…. Extremely empty space, too…. So empty, I’m sitting here, writing about how empty it is, instead of looking around in the odd corners and niches in there, to find SOMETHING that would work to draw y’all in for the ride today…. but, I’m screwed, and the pooch knows it…. whatever that means….

Forgotten, old and grey, the ancient dogs march along the dusty street, searching for the possibility of food…. Scraggly weeds filled the cracks in the street; abandoned, stripped vehicles litter the sidewalks and alleys, many of them burned out, blackened and stark against the pale concrete of the buildings. Nothing moved, save the slowly searching pack of canines, not even rats, or any of the vermin usually seen in cities. No people walked the empty streets, and the silence bore down on everything in sight, oppressive, adding the weight of time to the heaviness of the air…..

No, I have no idea where that came from…. but it took up the space of a whole paragraph, so it stays…. I suppose apocalyptic scenes such as this one will become common in the future, if what I fear comes to pass….. When the Earth decides it has had enough of the depredations that mankind has perpetrated on this planet, our species will disappear, the same as the T-Rex, the dodo, and the auk, and Mother Nature will spend a few thousand years cleaning off the surface, which we scratched, dented, and broke apart so callously in our paroxysms of destruction, as we looked for sources of fuel for our machines…. and we won’t be missed at all…. Well, the dogs might miss us at first, but, they’ll get over it….

Okay, so now I have to balance the negativism with something lighter, so we don’t fall down into a pit of depression….. Hmm, I know….

“PUNK ROCK!! DISCO DUCK!! BIRTH CONTROL!!” — Zippy the Pinhead

There, that should balance things out…. Of course, Zippy has just mentioned three of the reasons that we will no longer be around…. Any species that comes up with Disco, AND Punk Rock, in the same century, deserves to become extinct, in my humble opinion…. But, then, I really, really HATE Disco…. and punks aren’t far behind in my estimation…. But, it did change the direction most satisfactorily, so, we’ll just sort of ignore the passions that may be present, and get on with the rest of today’s Pearl…. Which, I see, is coming right along, as we now have a sufficient number of paragraphs, and certainly a large enough quantity of BS, to qualify as an intro…. I’d better dive right away, before Murphy notices…. Shall we Pearl?…..
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“Nasrudin returned to his village from the imperial capital, and the villagers gathered around to hear what had passed. At this time, said Nasrudin, I only want to say that the King spoke to me. All the villagers but the stupidest ran off to spread the wonderful news. The remaining villager asked, What did the King say to you? What he said — and quite distinctly, for everyone to hear — was ‘Get out of my way!’ The simpleton was overjoyed; he had heard words actually spoken by the King, and seen the very man they were spoken to.” — Smart Bee

When I first read this, a long, complex, and wonderful rant took form in my mind, on the subject of the gullibility of the public…. Unfortunately, somewhere in the process of getting this moved over and formatted, the rant broke apart, like smoke from a fire, dissipating into the ether without a sound, and leaving me sitting here, with a wonderful pearl, and nothing in my head to write about it…. “Well, shit,” he said, with feeling…..

Smart Bee, or Murphy, or Nasrudin, whichever is responsible for this, thinks they have me trapped, and are probably sitting there, maybe even together, laughing, and waiting for me to explode…. Hah! They’re destined to be disappointment, I’m afraid, because I’ll just switch gears, and make this an old-school pearl, using the anecdote on Nasrudin to point the way for the rest of the group…. So, here you go, a five-star pearl, the point of which is now moot….

“It is important to do what you don’t know how to do. It is important to see your skills as keeping you from learning what is deepest and most mysterious. If you know how to focus, unfocus. If your tendency is to make sense out of chaos, start chaos.” — Carlos Casteneda

“Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative.” — Oscar Wilde

“A fool always finds a greater fool to admire him.” — Nicolas Bolleau-Despreaux

“He who knows best knows how little he knows.” — Thomas Jefferson

“Is it not a noble farce, wherein kings, republics, and emperors have for so many ages played their parts, and to which the whole vast universe serves for a theatre?” — Michael de Montaigne (1533-1592) — Essays, Book ii, Chap. xxxvi, Of the most Excellent Men
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Wishes aren’t horses, and neither do I….. which, decoded, simply means I don’t have a new, fresh poem today. I did create a Haiku, which is below…. But, for today’s poem, another treat from the archives is called for, as I just can’t create a poem whenever I wish, much as I’d like to be able to do so…. Nevertheless, I AM making a new haiku each day, so that has to count for something, right?…. Any who….. As every day this month, these are being included as part of the April National Poetry Writing Month Challenge, with the updates to be found here: http://www.napowrimo.net/ I hope you enjoy them…..

Haiku XExplore reality,
my mama said with a smile;
it will teach you truth.

~~ gigoid ~~

Momentary Terror

Absently casual, memories pester endlessly
leaving only bleeding remnants, amiable and loving.
Coming awake, I cry to still the pain, shamelessly.

Elsewhen, time gives surcease, if only to live,
shoring broken pilings, worn and gray.
Passing on, I laugh at the pain, accept all it will give.

Time will build a shelter, warm and ever safe
save for Fate’s busy hands.
Enduring, I follow the pain, knowing it will chafe.

Fixed against a darkened sky of starry black
such beauty brings us to our knees.
Entranced, I welcome the pain, ’tis all I lack…..

~~ gigoid ~~

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“A good indignation brings out all one’s powers.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

Ah, yes, it does indeed….. This is the principle of human nature I exploit when I rant…. Well, I try, anyway…. It seems as if Ralph Waldo had the inclination to rant strike him on occasion, and, competent observer that he was, he examined how it made him feel, and act when he was in ranting mode. When in full flight, ranting makes one feel ten feet tall, able to leap arguments with a single quote, impervious to sarcasm or belittling remarks, and capable of chewing up the toughest pundit and spitting him out, before breakfast….. Whether or not one could actually do so doesn’t matter in the slightest, for it is what we THINK we can do that determines what we CAN do…. Like the dragons of Pern, who could lift any weight when flying, as long as they thought they could….

“Whenever you eliminate the inedible, whatever remains, however unpalatable, must be food.” — Smart Bee

Now, this is a truism; much as it seems like levity, it is quite serious, being a disguised version of a truth uttered by Sherlock Holmes, about Truth, to wit: “As I have previously stated, Watson, when one has eliminated the impossible, what remains, however unlikely, must be the truth.” (God, I hope I quoted it right… I’m lazy, and used the version in my head, rather than googling it to make sure…. but, I’m 100% positive that my paraphrase, if it be such, is completely accurate, in terms of meaning…..) Ranting is an area where this principle is key; it really doesn’t make sense to rant about something that isn’t true, unless the falsity is the actual subject of the rant…. as the following aphorism implies….

“It is a substantial advantage for any philosophy to be based on the truth.” — George Santayana

Of course, this doesn’t mean that being right will make reality conform to how we wish it to be. Much of the world, if not all, is controlled by a group of people who lie, constantly, without shame, completely indifferent to how it affects others, as long as their own needs are met first. But, they only do so because most of the public believes their lies, for the simple reason that it is too hard to believe otherwise. If they begin to see the truth of how they are controlled, they become frightened, often to the point of violence, because they don’t want to know the truth…. unless it comes from a suit on TV…..

“Given a sufficient number of people and an adequate amount of time, you can create insurmountable opposition to the most inconsequential idea.” — Devyver’s law

This is truth, too, sad as it may seem…. The general public will believe just about anything they are told, usually without any sort of critical thought applied to testing its veracity, if it is presented in a manner to which they are accustomed to being told what to do…. If the guy on the six o’clock news says it will rain money, most folks in this country would start looking for a barrel to catch it in, and wonder if it would rain in bills, or in coins… I kid you not…..

This may seem as if I have a poor opinion of the average intelligence of the average American, and in that estimation you would be absolutely correct…. I can say this with complete confidence, as it is a proven fact that the average American’s IQ is below the average for the human race at large….. fact, ffolkes, not supposition…. Of course, I could be lying, but, if so, you can just chalk it up to their bad influence…. If they can use untrue ‘facts’ to prove their assertions, I can, too….

Besides, I can show you almost 50 MILLION pieces of proof of my assertion, without having to look further than the Presidential election last year…. In that election, almost fifty million people voted for Mitt Romney, proof positive that they would believe ANYTHING…. How else could they decide to vote for a man who was PROVEN to have lied during the campaign (independent fact checking organizations showed that he lied just about 50% of the time, or, put more simply, every other time he spoke, he lied...), and indicated, on tape, his complete disdain for over half the people in the country?

It is such an incredibly huge number, it just isn’t possible to understand how gullible people can be, when one sees this statistic, (50 million votes for an asshole….). It is equally hard to believe that so many of our peers are this incredibly dumb, but, truth will out, as it always does….. It also speaks to the number of truly bigoted, racist people that are still in this country, hiding behind their cowardice, and their misguided, ignorant patriotism…. but, that’s a subject for another rant….. (All stupid people aren’t bigots and racists, but ALL bigots and racists are stupid people…..)

“Never underestimate the power of human stupidity.” — Lazarus Long

You won’t get a better, more clear warning than that; on that note, I proclaim this rant, such as it was, to be complete…..
__________________________________

All in all, not too bad…. No fresh poem yet, but a decent rant, and all the rest if fresh…. Now, let’s see if it hangs together well enough to publish…. Well, we have another vote for ‘all in all, not too bad’….. So, it’s good to go, and we’re gone…. Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

When I works, I works hard.
When I sits, I sits loose.
When I thinks, I falls asleep.

Which is Why….

–
Sometimes I sits and thinks,
and sometimes
I just sits.gigoid

It got a great review in the Gazette…..

Posted on April 20, 2013 by gigoid

Ffolkes,
Four times now, I’ve started to write this morning’s intro section, and this is the last one, I swear….. The first three are now seeking new employment at the bottom of the circular file, as I hated each one more than the one before. Not just didn’t like, but hated, and I try to save my hatred for those issues that deserve it, like politics, or religion, or political religion….. To be accurate, I don’t hate those things themselves, but I do tend to hate the people who use them to further their personal agendas, the ass biters…. Don’t worry, I’m not going to jump off into a rant THIS early…. No way, I just took my blood pressure meds, and I want to give it a chance to work…..

Actually, I’m so dazed and confused today, I may end up pulling from the archives again….. Murphy got me already, yesterday, when he made my broken tooth get infected, on a Friday, so I had to wait until next week for a dental appointment….. The tooth is quite painful, in spite of all the pain meds I take, making it hard not only to type, but to think. In fact, all I can seem to think about is how to make the pain go away, a recurring theme so far today, one that has caused, directly or indirectly, the demise of three perfectly good paragraphs…. It’s not like they grow on trees, you know; they are a big time investment, and I had quite a bit invested in those now defunct missives….. What a waste!

Of course, it could occur to many of you at this point that the phrase, “what a waste!” could be applied to all the time spent here, but only if you consider what we do to be of no value whatsoever. True, a lot of what is seen here isn’t of much help to anyone, unless they need it, and don’t know it…. It is a sad characteristic of those folks who end up as my targets that they are not merely ignorant, but deliberately so, with a lot of defenses in place to prevent anyone from getting any real knowledge into their heads. But, hopefully, what is written here will stimulate some cogitation on their part, or, at minimum, keep someone else from falling into their nonsense…. that stuff stains whatever it touches….

“I just had my entire INTESTINAL TRACT coated with TEFLON!” — Zippy the Pinhead

Teflon is good stuff, in certain circumstances, and this may be one of them….. You see, I’ve completely lost the thread of what this was about, and/or where it is going, and I’m going to need the protection, I think, as the reading public could start throwing things at me in the very near future. Not only have I sunk down into slapstick, but I’m starting to think in the royal “We”. When that starts, there’s no telling where we may end up….. I’m going to have to resort to an emergency procedure to get us out of here, quick….

Look! Over there, by the Dairy Queen! K-Mart is having a Blue Sale today! Let’s go check it out, okay? I’ve got all the plastic we’ll need….. Wait, I forgot my glasses…. you guys go on ahead and start browsing the bargains…. I’ll go get my specs, and meet you inside, okay? Okay……

Shall we Pearl?…..
__________________________________

As you might be able to tell by now, I’m having a LOT of pain, in my lower back, and my jaw, and it is seriously affecting my writing. So much so I’m going to HAVE to resort to an old school pearl here, as I just don’t have a rant in me, unless it is about pain, which would make it more of a whine than a rant…. and I’m out of cheese to go with the whine…. I live with a lot of pain, anyway, so I do get used to it, and I don’t let it keep me from doing what I want to do, but, sometimes, I really wish there was a way to just have it STOP….. Just for a few minutes, that’s all I’m asking….. SIGH… no such luck…. Oh well, let’s go see if Smart Bee can distract me from thinking about it for a time….. No worries, this won’t be on the Quiz, though you can earn extra points for not laughing at the point, which is serious business…. You betcha…..

“I agree with the realistic Irishman who said he preferred to prophesy after the event.” — G. K. Chesterton, ILN, 10/7/16

He said, “Dance for me” and he said,
“You are too beautiful for the wind
To pick at, or the sun to burn.” He said,
“I’m a poor tattered thing, but not unkind
To the sad dancer and the dancing dead.”

– Sidney Keyes, “Four Postures of Death”

“I am not the rose, but I have lived near the rose.” — H. B. Constant (1767-1830)

“I’ve reached that age when a good day is one when you get up and nothing hurts.” — H. Martin
(Proof positive of the old saw that says, the truth hurts…..)

“True glory consists in doing what deserves to be written; in writing what deserves to be read; and in so living as to make the world happier and better for our living in it.” — Pliny the Elder

Hmm…. needs just a bit more….

“Were it possible for us to see further than our knowledge reaches, and yet a little way beyond the outworks of our divination, perhaps we would then endure our sorrows with greater confidence than our joys. For they are the moments when something new has entered us, something unknown; our feelings grow mute in shy perplexity, everything in us withdraws, a stillness comes, and the new, which no one knows, stands in the midst of it and is silent.” — Rainer Maria Rilke

“Now, let’s SEND OUT for QUICHE!!” — Zippy the Pinhead

I’m not sure why, but Zippy always seems to know just the right thing to say!……
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Well, I cheated a little, but, knowing it’s ethically problematic has never stopped me before, and it’s really only a cultural tradition, anyway… Who am I to break with tradition?

The haiku below, and the poem below it, are both fresh, in the sense that I just wrote them a few moments ago… But, as I write this, it is last night, at least where I am, whereas I’ll be writing the other sections of this Pearl tomorrow morning (if I ever get to sleep tonight…. chances are looking iffy….), and posting it for y’all to read tomorrow, too. Is that cheating? You tell me…. Not that it will change anything, but, hey, gotta get the dialogue going any way I can….

As every day this month, these are being included as part of the April National Poetry Writing Month Challenge, with the updates to be found here: http://www.napowrimo.net/ I hope you enjoy them…..

Haiku VIII

Softly steals the night,
everywhere is darkness,
but for in the heart.

~~ gigoid ~~

I know I’m in the now, if only…..

Oh, there it is again, fiddle faddle;
Begone, I said, vamoose, skedaddle!
It looked at me as if I were insane:
Scoffed, it did, filled me up with pain.

Where does it come from?
Where does it live?
I’d stick out my thumb,
if I had more to give.

If only, should, would, could it be?
It went away again, this time free.
It will be back again, this I know;
or I’m wrong, and it won’t show.

Who cares?
Who hears?
Such goings on wobble the sphere,
I wish it wouldn’t do that here.

I’ve been wrong before…..

~~ gigoid ~~

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Quis custodiet ipsos Custodes? [Who guards the Guardians?] — Smart Bee

This is the perfect opening for a discussion of gun control, for me, as I believe strongly that this is the bottom line issue for that particular subject…… Sure, taking guns out of the hands of people who are insane is a good thing; nobody, I think, can argue that. The problem lies in figuring out WHO gets to decide what sanity is, the same issue that comes up in discussing getting rid of firearms altogether.

You see, I’m sorry, but, I just can’t bring myself to trust the Beloved Ruling Class to decide who is sane, and who isn’t. Part of this stems from the fact that I don’t consider anyone in public office to have a very tight grip on sanity to begin with…. How effective can it be to have insane people making the rules for deciding who is insane? Not very, I suspect….

Yet, I read many articles that profess the belief that the police, and the army, who naturally would have to have guns (Why? If nobody is supposed to have guns, why would they need them?), are more trustworthy than the common citizen. I’m sorry, but, just what planet did you say you came from? It certainly isn’t Earth, because, last time I looked, all the police, and all the folks in the army, and all the folks who tell them what to do, are all PEOPLE, just like anyone else, suffering the same fears, the same delusions or preconceptions, and the same lack of morality, as does the average joe on the street. In fact, due to my experience at observing and identifying psychiatric symptoms common to the insane, I can honestly state that I see a higher percentage of police and military personnel who have a demonstrable lack of moral compass in them, than I do in the general public.

Part of the problem is that the police and military end up as being attractive to the type of person who enjoys having power over others, whose self-image requires them to be in positions of authority, to be able to view themselves in a positive light, as successful. They equate money and power with success, and so gravitate to those sectors of society that deal in those commodities. Normal, stable personality types seldom need to exercise power over others, and so avoid such pastimes, but to the selfish, and the sociopathic, the police and the army are seen as a path to what they term as success. If you see a flaw in this logic, please, enlighten me…. Until I see some evidence to the contrary, though, I find this to be a valuable, and accurate summation of the situation, thereby affording myself the opportunity to avoid the majority of their machinations, at least in a directly personal sense….

We all have to deal with them eventually though, so it’s good, I think, to be aware of the above argument, as it will forewarn anyone who absorbs it, and takes it to heart, allowing them to defend themselves from the worst of the BRC’s attempts at repression, and/or oppression, if not all. Maintain a high level of doubt when considering announcements and decrees, stay alert to the news, and the meaning behind what you see there, and be ready to jump when the balloon goes up. Things out in the Big Blue Room are getting a bit serious in spots, with potentially disastrous possibilities being threatened, so it would be a good thing to be ready for whatever may take place, no matter how insane…. And remember, guard yourself, against the Guardians themselves, if need be…..

“The intuitive mind is a sacred gift; the rational mind is faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.” — Albert Einstein
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Well, it FEELS like it should float…. let’s throw it in the water and see….. Well, I wasn’t sure there for a few seconds, but it popped up, and there it sits, floating on the scum, suds in the water….. Lovely little bugger, eh? Okay, I’ll release y’all from my own personal insanity, and let you get back to your own now…. Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

When I works, I works hard.
When I sits, I sits loose.
When I thinks, I falls asleep.

Which is Why….

–
Sometimes I sits and thinks,
and sometimes
I just sits.

gigoid

A large herd of nincompoops passed by here…..

Posted on April 19, 2013 by gigoid

Ffolkes,
Weird…. the thoughts going through my head are quite simply, weird. Of course, this is not new, nor is it surprising; I’ll bet even you didn’t react much when I said it…. because, I’m sure, it has been previously established that weirdness, and this blog, are one and the same thing….. What this means, in terms of today’s intro, is that I’m once more stuck in my head, and can’t come up with anything to write about, other than the trouble I’m having thinking of something to write about…. It’s almost an endless loop, which, if I fall into it, will keep me stranded in literary limbo forevermore….. The question I have to ask myself at this point is, do I want to allow myself to fall into that loop, or keep on writing…. it’s a tough decision these days…..

I am convinced that if I don’t write, my head becomes all clogged up and I get grumpy and even more curmudgeonly than usual. The process of putting down all this stuff on paper, or at least, on screen to save, is what has kept me sane these last two years…. If I hadn’t had this, I would either have killed someone, or ended up in a psyche ward, drooling and talking to myself (not so different than some mornings around here, but, not a place I want to spend a lot of time….). Now that the most basic stress factor in my life has been mitigated, I find that I still need to do this, to keep my brain clear of any buildup of angst. So, I guess I’m stuck with it….

All of which means little to y’all, but, it did get me two paragraphs in, so, not a complete loss….. Now what? Damn me, if I know…. I’m having trouble deciding on the color of socks to wear, and there are only two colors to choose from….. I wouldn’t count on me to come up with anything at this point. Maybe I should go find a pearl, to see if it will give me a direction to take….. hold on, be right back….

“The absence of alternatives clears the mind marvelously.” — Henry Kissinger

Obviously, Henry has been in this kind of situation before…. but, he’s right, and since we have no alternative to this, I can allow that to clear my mind of all indecision, and just go with whatever flows out of my head…. Since it is the ONLY alternative available, we have no choice to make, which means the choice is made…. That’s logic, right? Right…. So, onward, troops, into the day, fearlessly, and with hope held tightly to our bosom…. (Do authors have bosoms? Hmm….) Logic has pointed us in the correct direction, or, if not, we are at least moving in ‘A’ direction, and that is better than sitting around on our collective asses….

I’ve blathered now through four or more paragraphs, and nobody should have to put up with more than that, so, we can end this now, and get on with the rest of today’s effort, such as those may be….. Just to make sure you understand the rules, I leave you with this reminder….. Remember it well…..

“You offend Shai-Hulud by sheathing your crysknife without having drawn blood.” — Fremen proverb (from Dune, by Frank Herbert)
__________________________________

As you may have noted, my brain is broken…. and I am not sure which tool is going to work to fix it…. What this means in terms of today’s Pearl is that you will have to put up with more than the usual degree of smarminess, and the occasional random insult, as I try to cope with creating a Pearl out of what is laying around in my brain, rather than a true creative episode, building and sharing images of grand eloquence, made up of just the right words….. Today, though, those words are hiding from me, so I have to allow Smart Bee to have its head, so to speak, because anything in mine has to be viewed with suspicion, and handled with care, lest it explode, whereupon, we get blamed for an act of terrorism…. Of course, that last word is probably what comes to mind when y’all think of this blog anyway…..

Nevertheless, I’m going old school, and you can’t stop me…. (Believe me, you don’t WANT to stop me today….. just let me have my way, and everything will work out fine….)…. Here is a group of pearls, all of which are pointed in a certain direction, which SHOULD be obvious…. If it is not, well, I guess you’re S.O.O.L., as they say downtown…. well, they said that when I hung out there…. any who, here….

“Critics quarrel with other critics. With an artist, no sane man quarrels.” — George Santayana

“Our discontent begins by finding false villains whom we can accuse of deceiving us. Next we find false heroes whom we expect to liberate us. The hardest, most discomfiting discovery is that each of us must emancipate himself.”– Daniel J. Boorstin

“Charms strike the sight, but merit wins the soul.”– Alexander Pope (1688-1744) — The Rape of the Lock, Canto v, Line 34

“There’s a lot of stupid people out there. Just to prove it, think of how dumb the average person is, and then realize that half of the people out there are stupider than that.” — George Carlin

“A man that expects to train lobsters to fly in a year is called a lunatic and is locked up. But a man that thinks people can be turned into angels by legislation is called a reformer and allowed to walk free.” — Mr. Dooly

“All things that are born must die. Work hard for your own freedom from sorrow.” — Buddha

“Do not speak of what men deserve. For we each of us deserve everything, every luxury that was ever piled in the tombs of the dead Kings, and we each of us deserve nothing, not a mouthful of bread in hunger. Have we not eaten while another starved? Will you punish us for that? Will you reward us for the virtue of starving while others ate? No man earns punishment, no man earns reward. Free your mind of the idea of *deserving*, of *earning*, and you will begin to be able to think.” — Odo, The Prison Letters (Ursula LeGuin, _The Dispossessed_)

Oooh…. now, THAT’S a pearl of virtual wisdom, if I ever saw one….. Print it!…..
__________________________________

SIGH….. I know I’m probably not doing this Poetry challenge the way it’s supposed to be done, but, I can’t find it in myself to care much, as I’m not trying to win, or anything like that…. I’m only participating because someone thought I would enjoy it, which I have…. but, I can’t make poems come on demand; it doesn’t work like that for me. They happen when they happen, and if I try to force it, they just put on Harry’s Invisibility Cloak, and disappear…. So, I don’t force them, deadlines or no…..

Fortunately, I’ve got a backlog of poems that HAVE leaked out over the last eight months or so, which is what you will see again today…. This one is kind of wordy, and a bit clumsy-seeming, but I like it, for its unabashed pride in its own inherent meaning…. which sounds really obscure, but feels right…. The haiku is, once again, fresh as the day, composed just a few moments ago….. As every day this month, these are being included as part of the April National Poetry Writing Month Challenge, with the updates to be found here: http://www.napowrimo.net/ I hope you enjoy them…..

Haiku VII

The sun has come up,
once more we rise, and then shine.
Standard issue day.

~~ gigoid ~~

Fatal Supplication

But what becomes of our deepest dangerous dreams?
Does fantasy rescue any part of life’s imperiled favor?
Reality becomes but silvery pairs of mismatched teams,
Dining with affable elegance, such diffident waste to savor.

Who decides what sorrows to carry bravely to term?
Will fragrant moments of sanity make hasty manifestation?
Only Time’s patient mutability sends messages so firm,
Yet salient impersonal vexation lends credence to ripe imagination.

Can folly bring out sadness and rampant visions of beauty?
What kindness can be found in distant open relations?
With countless faces the dead disturb with dire impunity,
From separate caches of wisdom come simple stylish privations.

Shall shallow emotion serve to provide such explanations?
When does avaricious intensity assume primary focus?
Plain answers slide softly through with multiple mitigations,
While conceptually indignant concepts engage a fatally personal locus.

~~ gigoid

__________________________________

“I am ignorant of absolute truth. But I am humble before my ignorance, and therein lies my honour and my reward.” — Kahlil Gibran

This is a valuable piece of thinking, a very powerful attitude to have, and a beautiful expression of an ancient truth; Kahlil Gibran had a knack for all three attributes in his writing, and is deservedly regarded as one of history’s finest poets, as well as a respected philosopher. He was able to insert deep, insightful messages into the public’s consciousness, through his amazingly eloquent poetry, and exceedingly logical treatises and stories. This concept, that the search for truth is as important to us as the truth itself, and is worthy of our mindfulness. One cannot learn, until they will admit they do not know…..

“Real life isn’t like this.” — Smart Bee

Well, yes, it actually is, SB…. I’ll give the benefit of the doubt, and assume SB meant this facetiously…. We aren’t born knowing what is true and what is false, not in any absolute sense…. But, we are born with what I like to call a “crap detector”, a part of us that whispers in our ears, “they’re lying about this”, anytime someone tries to feed us bullshit, i.e., something that isn’t true…. Some folks are pretty good at lying, and make it hard to tell; others aren’t…. but, all of us have a pretty good idea, and if we listen to that little voice, we learn quickly just what we can trust and what we cannot….

“I’m growing older, but not up.” — Jimmy Buffett

One of the secrets to a successful life is this attitude, in conjunction with the above mentioned characteristic…. When we are small, our minds have not yet learned to fear, or to hate, or to make any assumption other than “What does that mean”, or “Is this crap, or food?”….. which makes the decision making process quite simple, reducing each event to its most basic components of meaning.

This simplicity of mind can be cultivated in later years, and is valuable in giving us the ability to detect crap quickly, and make our decisions accordingly. If one merely tries to rely on what they know, and what they’ve learned, they’ll soon be buried in their own ignorance…. The oldest ffolkes around all know that one has to keep a child alive inside us, if we are to be able to enjoy life…. it’s all just too damn serious if you don’t….

“A little nonsense now and then, is cherished by the wisest men.” — Willie Wonka

This is why we, as humans, are subject to both Murphy’s Laws, and to the Principle of Bozoid Tendencies…. Both are of great importance in maintaining a healthy outlook on life, to keep us alert, and to give us that child-like ability to laugh at ourselves, and at the messes we can get ourselves into…. I ask you, what would Life be, without being able to laugh at ourselves? Pretty damn boring, I’d say…. That’s why I always let the nose grow, whenever it shows, and encourage others to do the same… Firesign Theater was righter than they knew when they said, “I think we’re all Bozos on this bus!”…. We all are in the same vehicle, headed goodness knows where, and the driver got left behind at the last restroom stop….

“HOORAY, Ronald!! Now YOU can marry LINDA RONSTADT too!!” — Zippy the Pinhead

This pearl has been brought to you by the letter “C”, and the number 7…. All statements made herein are the author’s creation, for which he takes the credit, but, not the blame…. The Devil made me do it! Sure, he did…. Anyway, I’m done now. I’m not at all certain that this isn’t the strangest Pearl I have done in quite a while; I have a strong feeling it is…. Strange, that is…. I’m going to cut my losses here, and be done with it…. Ta ta for now….
__________________________________

Strange indeed…. amazing what the mind can accomplish when the body is in excruciating pain…. Today’s version of hell is being brought to me by an impacted, infected tooth, that is telling me, very emphatically, that I need to call the dentist…. It doesn’t care that the dentist won’t be in the office until 9:00, it just wants attention, NOW….. So, if I miss a punctuation mark or two, or any other typos, you’ll understand why…. Be right back….. Okay, I’m back, and I’m outta here… this will do fine, since there’s no way in hell I’m doing it over…. Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

When I works, I works hard.
When I sits, I sits loose.
When I thinks, I falls asleep.

Which is Why….

–
Sometimes I sits and thinks,
and sometimes
I just sits.

gigoid

Such fabulous shoes require spanking….

Posted on April 18, 2013 by gigoid

Ffolkes,
I should probably know better, by now, than to put fingers to keyboard during that period before the coffee is done. In spite of my advanced years, though, here I am, typing away, with nothing to say, just passing time until my brain decides to function…. Perhaps I should go first to perform my morning ablutions; yes, that is the right idea…. I go now, to worship at the porcelain throne, and contemplate my sins, myriad though they be….. according to the local preachers, anyway….. But, we don’t pay them any mind, as they are just jealous of my shirts…. I’ll be back, as Arnie is wont to say when in Terminator format….

Sorry ’bout that, ffolkes…. as I said, I should know better….. Well, here we are again, in a dangerous place. Why dangerous, you ask? It’s difficult to explain, but I’ll try…. It’s dangerous, for me, and consequently for you, because it’s too soon….. Too soon, you ask? Why, yes, I reply, too soon…. Well, what if we just waited a while? Hmm… not a bad suggestion, I think, but, probably destined to fail, as are almost any attempts to correct the situation, since I detect the hand of Murphy at work in this matter. As with almost everything he touches, waiting will only make things worse, as it gives him more time to turn his creativity to the punishment phase of his operation….

What now? Good question…. maybe I should look for a pearl for a moment or two, to see if there are any instructions or tips from my subconscious, or from the SB hackers….. be right back….

“The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib.” — Old Testament — Isaiah i, 3

Well, that’s an interesting find….. I generally try to stay away from the Old Testament; the pressure of life back then was such that the people who wrote the books in that tome tend to be more than a little touched by the sun, or Son, as you desire….. So, their advice is often a bit out of date, like when it counsels one on proper care of their ass (donkey variety, not human _ _ _ hole types…. Not too useful in changing the oil on your Toyota…. This one seems a bit more useful than most, though I’m really not absolutely certain what kind of metaphor they are trying to make…. maybe something to do with ownership rights; they were sticklers for the laws back then…. Let’s try again, since that one wasn’t quite sufficient….

“A good old man, sir; he will be talking: as they say, When the age is in the wit is out.” — William Shakespeare (1564-1616), Much Ado about Nothing
– Act iii, Sc. 5

As you may have noted in past Pearls, I’m not overly impressed with Shakespeare, either, but have always admitted that he did write some fairly coherent, and majestically beautiful, prose, a category into which this one falls. It’s right on the money, in terms of its accurate take on human nature, in general, though it is a bit harsh on seniors, and does further the stereotype of seniors as being senile, a characteristic not all of us share.

I think this particular play, Much Ado About Nothing, is probably my favorite of all of his works, with the best cache of witty quotes and jokes, including a number of puns, and plays on words….. With Will, it’s kind of like Pearls…. there is a LOT of stuff written, but the gems are often buried in the crap surrounding it…..

And, on THAT note, one not completely inspiring, but true, I see we have reached that tenuous barrier that marks the boundaries of acceptable introductory sections…. In fact, it blew right past acceptable, and is now chasing after totally overboard…. Before it catches up to that, and the ensuing struggle tries to throw us all out of our seats, I think we’ll go for a dive…. now….. Shall we Pearl?
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MORAL, adj. Conforming to a local and mutable standard of right. Having the quality of general expediency.

“It is sayd there be a raunge of mountaynes in the Easte, on one syde of the which certayn conducts are immorall, yet on the other syde they are holden in good esteeme; wherebye the mountayneer is much conveenyenced, for it is given to him to goe downe eyther way and act as it shall suite his moode, withouten offence. _Gooke’s Meditations_

– Ambrose Bierce, “The Devil’s Dictionary”

A reader commented to me recently that my rants have gone soft; she enjoys it when I rake someone over the coals, figuratively speaking, and asked me when I was going to get back on my white horse, or my soapbox, as the cliché may be…. I told her it is most likely a result of having some of the pressure of living removed, by the acquisition of my SS benefits, so much so that I’m finding it hard to summon up the outrage needed to rant effectively…. Like Voldemort told Harry, when he tried to use the Cruciatus Curse against Bellatrix Lestrange, in HP5-The Order of the Phoenix, “You’ve got to MEAN it, Harry!” Funny how not worrying about where the next meal is coming from takes some stress out of one’s life, isn’t it?….. Ha Ha…..

So, anyway, then I saw the above entry from the Devil’s Dictionary, and thought to myself, “AHA!” (I do that a lot…), “Now, here’s a subject worthy of a rant!”…. This is absolutely true, even though morality is sort of like reality…. there are as many versions of what it means as there are people…. of which, each and every one believes that what they perceive is the only correct version, obviously…. Right….

So, you can see the problem right away…. As a society, we have an unfortunate tendency to try to legislate morality, so that everyone is compelled to behave according to a commonly accepted pattern of behavior…. Supposedly, this legislation is supposed act as some sort of magic bullet, that will stop all the bad things from happening, like stealing, killing, and general misbehavior that is upsetting to the rest of society…. It never works, at all, but, we keep on passing laws designed to enforce a common morality anyway….

Such a drama is now being played out on the national stage, as the Senate just defeated the new gun control reforms that 90% of the populace wants in place. Out of a hundred Senators, it only took 45 Republicans to bring the proposed law down, meaning that once again, a very small percentage of people have forced their views on the rest of the public, to suit their own morality, and, more importantly, to suit their own special interests, who paid good money for their votes, dammit!…. I am somewhat piqued about this, but see little in the way of anything to be done that will make any difference, in the big picture…. No matter how stringent the laws, people who want guns will get them, and use them on other people…. The new laws would have made that a bit more time-consuming, but no less possible, or even less probable….

Since I can’t thing of anything positive to suggest, other than to stay alert to what may end up as a critical issue, I will fill out what should normally be a rant, with a number of cogent pearls, to try to jab the stick into the appropriate eyes…. and my friend will have to wait a bit longer for a good, old-fashioned brouhaha, as I get nasty and vicious in my denouncement of the BRC, the churches, and the corporate masters….. I will say this to her….. have no fear, my outrage isn’t gone, just temporarily dormant, and I WILL be back to rant….. meanwhile, enjoy these tasty gems…..

“The greatest lesson in life is to know that even fools are right sometimes.” — Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)

Linear Model: An assumption concerning the nature of reality applied unquestioningly to every relationship as though God had determined that truth must always run in straight lines. — Smart Bee

“The clinching proof of my reasoning is that I will cut anyone who argues further into dogmeat.” — Sir Geoffery de Tourneville (ca. 1350)

“Has history ever recorded a time when the majority was right?” — Lazarus Long

“He would be the finer gentleman that should leave the world without having tasted of lying or pretense of any sort, or of wantonness or conceit.” –Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (121-180 AD) — Meditations, ix, 2

“A great deal of intelligence can be invested in ignorance when the need for illusion is deep.” — Saul Bellow

“If you want to be free, there is but one way; it is to guarantee an equally full measure of liberty to all your neighbors. There is no other.” — Carl Schurz (1829-1906)
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I suppose, in a way, I’ve failed at the poetry challenge for the month, as I haven’t been creating one per day (except haiku, which I produce whenever I wish….. like today’s, which is fresh and clean….), and again today will need to use one from my archives, which, fortunately, have enough to choose from for all the days I’ve missed…. This one speaks to, and about, the friends who helped keep my hope alive when I was struggling, just to get enough to eat….. As every day this month, these are being included as part of the April National Poetry Writing Month Challenge, with the updates to be found here: http://www.napowrimo.net/ I hope you enjoy them…..

Haiku VII

Making it all up
I go merrily along;
waters of Lethe.

~~ gigoid ~~

“But groundless hope, like unconditional love, is the only kind worth having.” — EFF co-founder John Perry Barlow, “Cynthia Horner’s Eulogy”, Apr. 1994

Unsolicited Gratitude

Fear becomes familiar when reality bodes us ill
pain assumes first position, no matter our will.
Powerless, we founder, no strength to prevail
anguished and afraid, against unwanted Fate we rail.

Still, a grain of hope deep inside, hidden well against need
gives us reason to survive, our starving souls to feed.
Failure of courage burdens time, of being bested,
until our souls, in submission, become foully infested.

Bitter tears wash through us each day, with little care,
no thought, no feeling, no wish, or need to be fair.
Rendered clueless, confusion falls upon us, as prey,
we surrender a piece of our soul, little as we may.

Yet, always, a bright beam of hope is seen from afar,
no matter how dreary, or dark, it may seem where we are.
None knows, nor would consent to tell, it seems
from whence it hails, or why it so brightly gleams.

Saving our sanity, absolving our unwanted fears,
dispelling the myths and lies that come with the years.
Each man has known the precious gift that hope may give
And gives glad thanks, as long as he may live.

~~ gigoid

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To attempt to soothe the ruffled feathers of my friend who wants me to rant, I give you now a rant from 2012, post-election category…. It kind of fits in with the morality play above…. sort of, maybe…. any who, enjoy…..
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“Integrity is when what you say, what you do, what you think, and who you ARE all come from the same place.” — Madelyn Griffith-Haynie

Okay, I know we are all probably sick to death of politics, and the election, and everyone would like to have a break from talking and thinking about it….. I know I am. So, I’ll try to make this fairly short, and make it the last political diatribe for at least a day or two. It may be possible, if nothing in the news jumps up to stimulate my outrage (which may be on a short vacation itself….. I hope. I could do with the emotional space….).

Any who…. here is what I was thinking when I came across this little gem…. What if we devised a test, that in some way would enable us, as voters, to determine the relative status of each of the candidates according to this rule? A way, as it were, to measure their degree of integrity, which is something I think we can all agree would be a good thing to see in a politician, unlikely as it may be. If we could, say, set up a scale of integrity, and make it law that a person had to score in the top 5% of the scale in order to merely be eligible for office, I think we might see a whole new set of politicians, who had never before been seen in public.

In fact, in thinking about the current crop of those in office, it is entirely possible that ALL of those in office now might not be eligible…. I am not excluding the President, out of fairness, though I personally believe he might score in the top 10%…. I still have questions about some of the stuff he has signed that didn’t seem to be very well publicized, as they didn’t exactly fit with his image….. The newest version of the Patriot Act, the NDAA, that he signed last New Year’s Day comes immediately to mind….

I don’t care if he did try to mitigate some of the deleterious effects of the law, he still signed the damn thing, thereby seriously endangering a number of the first 10 Amendments to the Constitution. Plus, the method he used to keep it from the public awareness was rather suspect, in my mind, and reminiscent of the old days under Nixon, Johnson, Reagan, and the two Shrubs, may they all rot in whatever level of Hell they are destined to occupy….. (I know, I know…. not being a Christian, that curse has little weight, but, hey, it’s a pretty clear indicator of my opinion of all of them….)

As I suspect it might, this grew to be somewhat more than I intended it to be, so I’ll cut it short here. But, my suggestion above, about the test for integrity that should be a given for political aspirants, is completely serious, and I wanted to get that out. Maybe by the next election, we can get the rest of the country to buy into it…. which should be interesting, and fun. I’ll be looking forward to the expressions on the faces of all the supporters of those now in office, when their people gloriously fail to pass the test…. and to the results it will have on society, should it ever be adopted…. I don’t see any way at all that it could do anything that wouldn’t improve the situation…..

And so I penned
It down, until at last it came to be,
For length and breadth, the bigness which you see.
– John Bunyan (1628-1688) — Pilgrim’s Progress, Apology for his Book
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Well, that went fairly well, if somewhat less than totally creatively…. I’m still looking for that magic bullet, unfortunately; old habits die hard. Nonetheless, I’m done, so that has to count for something, doesn’t it?…. Let’s see how it flows….. Okay, again, not too bad, all in all, so, it’s going out, as is…. gigoid has spoken. Also, gigoid is tired now, and wants to go back to sleep…. Say bye, bye, gigoid…. Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

When I works, I works hard.
When I sits, I sits loose.
When I thinks, I falls asleep.

Which is Why….

–
Sometimes I sits and thinks,
and sometimes
I just sits.

gigoid

Gigoid, aka Ned Moore, is a 62 year old retired dilettante, who would rather read than eat most days. His first blog, Gigoid's Folly, has been emailed daily, to folks he knows, for about 11 years now. He considers it his best defense against angst. Due to curmudgeon training requirements, he is a reluctant Facebook and Twitter newbie. Other sites where he has published include: http://writinghood.com/writing/who-knew/. http://ned-moore.quazen.com/recreation/food/the-perfect-restaurant/, http://therealowner.com/dogs/an-ode-to-noah/, http://socyberty.com/issues/choosing-ignorance/, http://socyberty.com/issues/the-road-to-extincton/, http://scienceray.com/physics/alberts-persistent-illusion/, Y'all take care out there.....

gigoid

Exploring Consensual Reality

Tag Archives: Murphy’s Law

Massive portions of buttered peas….

Seven straight hours of polka music….. priceless….

You can join the looters AFTER church, Billy….

That particular radiologist has a toggle switch…..

Sucked into the blonde event horizon….

Too bad, so sad, my bad….

We’ll have to spit-ball the hinges…..

It got a great review in the Gazette…..

A large herd of nincompoops passed by here…..

Such fabulous shoes require spanking….

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