Monthly Archives: July 2013

A maelstrom of multitasking clerics….

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Ffolkes,

I seem to have come up against some sort of wall with my writing in the last few weeks. I’m finding it harder each morning to get myself out of bed to begin, although the sheer habit of routine does compel me to pull myself up eventually, such as now…. Today, it is almost 0800, and I’m just beginning to think about what to write about today….. I’m guessing that even my prolific brain has a finite limit to how much it can produce, which now can be seen to lie at about one and a half million words, more or less…. That’s as close as I can figure, going by the average number of words per day, times slightly more than 760 posted blogs….

In looking over the last few posts, I see that my content has become a bit redundant; I’m relying on old-school pearls more, and ranting less. This has to do with living with less stress, I’m sure, but, the lack of angst isn’t helping me to produce the outrage I need to get vituperative enough for the purpose at hand, which is to chastise and indict those among us in society who are selfish in working toward their own agendas, not caring how it affects other people, or the world at large, as long as they get what they want.

I do this because the greatest number of those people are those who have sought public office in our world, and their shenanigans (for lack of a more angry word….) are going to kill us all if we don’t do something about it….. (It also gives me a chance to write long, wordy, incredibly boring sentences such as the one in the previous paragraph, that cover far too many subjects at one time, and would be better off just not existing at all, but, then what would I do, to keep myself interested in getting up each day? And, you’ll please note, the sentence just prior to this one is one of the same variety….  Whew, breathe, Ned, breathe…. Sorry, I get carried away, once I’ve had a couple sips of coffee….)

I’ve been looking at the world, and what happens in it, for a long time now, since just before I left home for college. For many years, I kept a lot of what I thought about things to myself, mostly, as it seemed to always provoke arguments or discussions of a passionate nature that never led to good outcomes; it was better in a social sense to not discuss either politics (the participants of which I hold to be primarily responsible for the mess we are in….), or religion (whose proponents and acolytes I hold to have the secondary responsibility, though only by a small margin, for the rest of our problems as a society….).

I’m not alone in my hesitation to discuss those subjects; everybody alive seems to have strong opinions on them, one way or another, and each is highly protective, and overly emotional, to my way of thinking, about all of it….. Investing one’s emotions in what is happening out in the real world is, in my experience, a sure way to have those feelings ripped apart, or turned upside down, or, in general, abused until they surrender, and either strike out, or turn within to hide….

Neither of those solutions is very practical, or comfortable, so I’ve learned to keep my emotional state separate from, and, thus, immune to the depredations of the discussion of politics and/or religion, at least, and am slow to hold any such talks in person…. Here, on this blog, I found the outlet for all the anger and frustration that builds up over time, anger at the selfishness of the politicians, and frustration at the insistent delusional support they receive from the preachers.

Each of them, in this country, and in my estimation, have lost sight of the intent our forefathers had when they created the separation of state and church that characterizes our form of government. These entities have worked, tirelessly, ever since the signing of the  Constitution, to undermine that principle, and turn our semi-democratic republic into a church hegemony, wherein all morality, as dictated by the church, becomes law, as dictated by the politicians…..

“I admire the serene assurance of those who have religious faith. It is wonderful to observe the calm confidence of a Christian with four aces.” — Mark Twain

That idea scares me to death, every day, as I read the latest nonsense in the news about the new abortion laws in Texas and Ohio, or the Martin/Zimmerman murder trial verdict. Even worse, I read of late all the latest revelations about how extensive the spying and data mining by the government has become, without any public disclosure, until exposed, with proof, by the bravery shown by Eric Snowden, the whistleblower extraordinaire, who is now, oddly enough, seeking asylum from our “freedom loving government” in that bastion of personal freedoms, Russia, or the USSR, or whichever name the government of Moscow is using now…. So far, I haven’t seen any articles that commented on the irony of THAT situation, a failure I find to be a very telling point….

I’m not sure where I’m going with this meander…. I’m not sure how much more I have in me to say. I kept my mouth shut for 60 years, and have been spouting off pretty regularly now for close to three years… It doesn’t seem like I should be running out of stuff to say, yet, though, even given my output level, so, I suppose I’ll keep on doing this for a while longer, unless I find a more compelling activity to take up my time and energy….

Moving from our apartments into a house nearby at the end of next month will probably cause at least a short hiatus, as the internet service may not get switched over smoothly…. One never knows with modern companies just how many obstacles they’ll throw up in our way…. But, if that looks like it may happen, or if I decide to take a longer break, to take inventory of what is in my head, and heart, I’ll try to let y’all know beforehand….

Meanwhile, shall we pearl?….
_____________________________

As noted above, I’ve been depending a lot on old-school style pearls to fill in these sections…. Fortunately, Smart Bee has been cooperative, to the point of giving me just the right category of quotes needed for whatever subject I’ve decided to use as a parameter for the search…. I hope that continues with today’s first pearl, as I’m so late, I may end up eating lunch before I get around to posting…. Ah well, it will be worth it to see what I can do when I’m operating during the same hours as everyone else in the 9 to 5 world…. I hope…. Let’s see what SB has to say today….

“It could probably be shown by facts and figures that there is no distinctly native American criminal class except Congress.” — Mark Twain  Following the Equator (1897)

Oh, what a grand start! Now that we have a direction, let’s see where it takes us, shall we?….

“How do you make a cat go moo?  Ask it “Does a dog have the Buddha-nature?” — Smart Bee

Hmm…. now I’m worried….

“..  I think I’d better go back to my DESK and toy with a few common MISAPPREHENSIONS…” — Zippy the Pinhead

Aha, now I see where it’s going…. okay, here is the rest, so pay close attention, as it promises to be a good one!…..

“Moral relativism is wrong. But that’s only my opinion.” — George Jones

“Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don’t resist them – that only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality.” — Lao-Tzu

“In a republic this rule ought to be observed: that the majority should not have the predominant power.” — Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 B.C.) Roman Orator, poet, statesman — De Re Publica (54-51 B.C.)

“Is not life a hundred times too short for us to bore ourselves?” — Friedrich Nietzsche

Indeed…..
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“We don’t read and write poetry because it’s cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for. To quote from Whitman, ‘O me! O life!… of the questions of these recurring; of the endless trains of the faithless–of cities filled with the foolish; what good amid these, O me, O life? Answer. That you are here – that life exists, and identity; that the powerful play goes on and you may contribute a verse.’ That the powerful play goes on and you may contribute a verse. What will your verse be?” — John Keating, Dead Poet’s Society

Early Observations

Until I knew there was more,
I wanted to know God.
They said he was a nice guy,
and would let me live forever.

All I had to do, they said,
was live my life for Him,
always living by scripture
cleaving only to his Way.

But, everyone I saw in church,
acted different at home.
Living wild, cussin’ and fussin’,
nobody lived like they said.

Still, I tried to be like Jesus,
he was sort of cool.
He never hurt nobody
and walked on the right path.

‘Course they killed him for that,
they couldn’t stand his example.
Turned him into a martyr,
 hid his real words among their own.

Then I found the Buddha,
and met Lao Tzu at the gate.
They saw things real different,
showed me how to see straight.

Right thought, and right action
replace blind obedience and faith.
Reality becomes manageable,
fear retreats, the universe expands.

Brother John said it pretty well,
“Imagine there’s no heaven,
it’s easy if you try.”
Sounds like he knew why.

Day to day, life is grand,
we walk in eternal beauty.
Open your eyes and hearts,
find yourself already immortal.

~~ gigoid ~~

_____________________________

Today’s intro section was long, sort of rant-like, and the poem kind of went in a similar direction, so, rather than subject y’all to another long-winded self-indulgent exposition on something I can’t change, at least, not at this moment, I’ll go with another old-school pearl, one put together with fun, or irony, or sarcasm, or humor of one category or another in mind, to use as the search parameter for inclusion…. Enjoy!….

“Dope will get you through times of no money better that money will get you through times of no dope.” — Freewheelin’ Franklin, “The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers”

“My way of joking is to tell the truth. It’s the funniest joke in the world.” — George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950)

“Years ago fairy tales all began with “Once upon a time…”, now we know they all begin with, “If I am elected…” — Carolyn Warner

“Dear Auntie Em: Hate you, hate Kansas. Goodbye. I’m taking the dog.” — Dorothy

“I don’t see no p’ints about that frog that’s any better’n any other frog.” — Mark Twain (1835-1910), The Celebrated Jumping Frog

“Everyone knows that dragons don’t exist.  But while this simplistic formulation may satisfy the layman, it does not suffice for the scientific mind.  The School of Higher Neantical Nihility is in fact wholly unconcerned with what does exist.  Indeed, the banality of existence has been so amply demonstrated, there is no need for us to discuss it any further here.  The brilliant Cerebron, attacking the problem analytically, discovered three distinct kinds of dragon: the mythical, the chimerical, and the purely hypothetical.  They were all, one might say, nonexistent, but each non-existed in an entirely different way …” — Stanislaw Lem, Cyberiad

Okay, so that one’s not so funny…. until you really stop to think about it, and what it says about human nature…. You may not see it, but I about busted a garter…. Any who, lastly, I give you…. (Alright, I heard those huge sighs of relief…. you could have waited thirty seconds, couldn’t you?…. Ah well, try to enjoy it anyway…. )

“I don’t think it would have all got me down quite so much if just once in a while- just once in a while- there was at least some polite little perfunctory implication that knowledge should lead to wisdom, and that if it doesn’t, it’s just a disgusting waste of time.” — J.D. Salinger, Franny & Zooey

Okay, so it takes a certain type of person to find Salinger’s depressive style funny, but, that’s nothing new, just perverted…. which I’ve never denied for a moment…. It’s okay, ffolkes, I don’t understand me most of the time, either…
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“I have found power in the mysteries of thought.”– Euripides

Me, too, though I doubt seriously I’ll ever achieve the lasting fame for my thoughts that Euripides can claim; should that happen, well, I’ll be mighty surprised, for a lot of reasons…. Today’s effort was more original than I had intended when I began; somewhere along the way, I forgot to care about the time, which is, I suppose, a good thing…. Be right back after proofing…. Okay, so, knowing how low my standards are, it shouldn’t surprise me to see this exceeds them…. I should be resigned to it by now, but, hey, I suppose that’s at least partly why I can still do it at all….  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

dozer3

Brains for breakfast….

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Ffolkes,

I been yuckified! Well, not really, but, it was all I could come up with on short notice…. In any case, it gave me a chance to use the word, ‘yuckified’, a word of my own creation, (I think it’s mine, and, in truth, sincerely hope it is ….. ), meaning exactly what it sounds like…. Having thus gotten  a quantity of both awkward adolescent humor, and, barely comedic, left-over silliness from childhood, out of my system, right off the bat, I can, presumably, proceed to a somewhat more adult, certainly more adroit, use of the written word to communicate, whatever it is I’m trying to get out of my head today….

The title of these missives very seldom has anything concrete to do with what I write each day; the two processes, of picking the title, and of picking a subject for the day’s effort, are completely separate, in time and intent. I boot up, type in the password, and, once all is ready, bring up the programs I use to compose with, with the picking of the title the last step in that process…. I then do other stuff until I’m ready to write (drink coffee, take pills, yawn, stretch, scratch, worship, etc….). Today, however, I must have had a precognitive episode, when the given title swam into my conscious mind, apparently looking ahead to what would follow…. brains for breakfast.

Now, as a former chef, the word brains implies a different thing than to what may come into the mind’s eye for the average, non-food industry, citizen; I see the dish I’ve only seen prepared, (no, I didn’t have the courage to actually taste it….),  brains de veau aux buerre blanc, (sorry, forgot the French word for ‘brains’) whereas most other folks would probably get a replay of a zombie movie running through their head. I’m not sure who would be considered the less fortunate….

Therefore, and whereas, if you catch my drift, we’ll go on, to bigger and better things…. Sorry if I seem stuck in cliche-land, but, my use of such is actually a form of self-therapy, suggested to me by my doctor, as a ready-made form of rebellion that causes no harm, beyond the normal loss of brain cells caused by hearing anything of so ancient and mundane… without even giving a moment’s notice to the very subtle, yet destructive, attitude-shaping that is implied by the use of such simple phrases….

Take the phrase “bigger and better things”… this is presented in such a way as to imply that bigger and better is always a good thing, whereas we know the opposite is more often true in reality, or, at the very least, half the time, an assertion which is implied, and verified, by the inherently balanced, symmetrical nature of that reality…. To assume that making anything bigger is to make it better is to deny half of reality, and such attitudes have a way of coming back to haunt us…. Reality has a very powerful tendency to assert itself, especially if our attitudes are in opposition to its nature….

Some folks seem to like getting slapped by reality, though, and who am I to keep people from having fun? Besides, I’ve got other fish to fry, as I now have to turn my mind to putting together something coherent, and a bit more practical, in terms of literature, or I’ll never get done with this today…. Though I hear the muttering in the back of the audience, about “so, what’s wrong with that?”, I’ll ignore it, long enough to bring this mess to a close, and get on with today’s dive into the ocean of knowledge, searching for those gems that point the way to virtual wisdom, which, some days, is all we can hope for….

Shall we Pearl?…..
_____________________________

Okay, well, that came out okay…. let’s see what kind of damage I can do here…. I think the operative word I’ll use today is one that came to me as I began this section, one I used above to describe how I’d like what I write to be, to wit: coherent. For me, it’s quite a stretch sometimes, to maintain any sort of connection to that word, given the complexity of both what I write about, and the complexity of the way I write, and express myself…. Both of these, one might say with accuracy, assume TOO much complexity in my hands, but, it’s my blog, and I don’t HAVE to be simple if I don’t want to… Call me a curmudgeon, if you wish…. actually, PLEASE call me a curmudgeon, it’s one of my life’s ambition to be seen as one….

Okay, I’m now officially babbling, having once again gotten too involved in the writing, and forgetting what I was writing about… Coherence, that is, which I’ve obviously lost all chance at achieving in this particular section….. Probably all for the best, as it’s a tough one for me at any time, much less on demand…. Fortunately, I have a way out of this conundrum…. it’s called dropping back five yards and punting the ball, or as we call it around here, “Let’s feed it to Mikey!”…. In other words, we’ll see if Smart Bee has any aphorisms to contribute, that might point the way to finding at least a modicum of coherent thought, and if not, well, at least it will be amusing, for a short time…. we can always hope, can’t we?…..

“Love the little trade which thou hast learned, and be content therewith.” — Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (121-180 AD) — Meditations, iv, 31

“A mighty hunter, and his prey was man.” — Alexander Pope (1688-1744) — Windsor Forest, Line 61

“Spintharus, speaking in commendation of Epaminondas, says he scarce ever met with any man who knew more and spoke less.” — Plutarch (46-120 AD)
— Of Hearing, 6

A word is dead
When it is said
Some say.
I say it just
Begins to live
That day.

— Emily Dickinson

“How often we recall, with regret, that Napoleon once shot at a magazine editor and missed him and killed a publisher. But we remember with charity, that his intentions were good.” — Mark Twain

“What happens to the wide-eyed observer when the window between reality and unreality breaks and the glass begins to fly?” — Stephen King

Hush little bright line, don’t you cry
You’ll be a cliche by and by.

— Fred Allen

Sometimes, it works better than others…. this is one of those times….. This is a great pearl, so I hope you were paying attention, ffolkes….
_____________________________

It’s really okay if you didn’t pay attention…. though it’s a pretty coherent thought. At any rate, I feel like a bit more of Emily, just to keep things from becoming too normal…. Even if it’s a bit obscure, even for her, it’s a soothing poem, to my mind, and well worth the immersion…..

The cricket sang,
And set the sun,
And workmen finished, one by one,
   Their seam the day upon.

The low grass loaded with the dew,
The twilight stood as strangers do
With hat in hand, polite and new,
   To stay as if, or go.

A vastness, as a neighbor, came,–
A wisdom without face or name,
A peace, as hemispheres at home,–
   And so the night became.

~~ Emily Dickinson ~~

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“…when all government… in little as in great things, shall be drawn to Washington as the centre of all power, it will render powerless the checks provided of one government on another and will become as venal and oppressive as the government from which we separated.” — Thomas Jefferson, 1821

The framers of the Constitution knew what they were doing when they tried to build in safeguards in the system of government they chose after the revolution against England. They structured it with checks to the balance of power in each section, Executive, Legislative, and Judicial, and reserving several rights to the people that had historically been reserved for the governments themselves, including the right to bear arms, one that every government in history has tried to restrict for its own use. The right to bear arms, the right to vote, the right to gather to protest, to speak freely, all these have, at one time or another through the last four or five millennia, been restricted, until men like Jefferson, Mason, and Washington took those rights for themselves, and offered the same opportunity to their descendants.

In fact, I regard it as proof of this assertion to find that the government, not only of this country, but all of them, is STILL trying to restrict the rights of the populace to bear arms. To my way of thinking, the most recent attempts by the government to curtail the public’s ability to obtain the means to protect themselves adequately merely serve to point out how accurate are statements such as the above, showing how little human nature has evolved, or advanced in the intervening years…. I’d be hard pressed to call the changes we’ve seen anything other than a retreat from achieving a more civilized society, as the populace continues to live in fear, most of which is manufactured by that very same government, to distract them from what is going on behind the scenes; for example, observe the data mining and illegal surveillance being carried on by Saint Obama and the current administration….

Sorry to apply the sarcastic epithet to the POTUS, but, his recent actions have revealed a lot of stuff that indicates that, yes, he IS a politician, and, as such, has been lying to the public on a regular basis since entering office, a habit much practiced by all those who enter those hallowed doors, as it turns out.

Historically, it seems, ever since I’ve been alive, for the last 62 years, each and every man who has been in the White House, with the possible exception of Jimmy Carter, has lied to the public on a regular basis, without qualms, and without apology…. This isn’t news, or new news, at all…. just go back over the headlines and op-ed pages over that period, and the evidence of what I have asserted is plain to see….

That is why I won’t ever consider any alterations to the second Amendment, or the First, or to any of them…. I still regard them as law, and see any attempts to restrict them as being acts of treason against the principles by which they were conceived and enacted. I DON’T trust ANY politician, not one who spends millions to get elected, even if, or especially if, the money isn’t theirs… The mere act of WANTING to be an elected official implies insanity to me, either of a sociopathic nature, or an evangelical one, either of which is dangerous to allow into any position of authority over others, as they will ALWAYS act to serve their own self-interests first….

’nuff said…. gigoid has spoken, and has no more to say on this subject, except…. Leave my Bill of Rights alone, or pay the consequences….

“Disobedience, in the eyes of anyone who has read history, is man’s original virtue. It is through disobedience that progress has been made, through disobedience and through rebellion.” — Oscar Wilde
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Well, that’s a mellow little rant, quite polite in tone and length…. not sure what prompted it, other than what is obvious in the quote, but it’s apparently been in there a while, as it flowed out quite smoothly, for a change…. Let’s see how the whole thing holds up….. Well, it’s definitely a Pearl of Virtual Wisdom… so, off it goes, and so be it….  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

dozer3

Savory redemption meatballs saved the day….

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Ffolkes,

Routine is important, I think, to just about everyone, whether they know it or not. Often, I think, people don’t know just how much they depend on routines to keep their lives running smoothly, which makes it harder for them to deal, when those routines suffer unpredictable changes. What any of that has to do with this morning’s blog, I haven’t a clue, but, it sounds good, doesn’t it? Kind of classy and intelligent, as if I were some Piled High and Deep (PhD) preparing to discourse on some esoteric principle, one that is only relevant to those in a small field of scholars, and which provided the subject for a thesis nobody will ever read outside the room where the degree committee reads the papers submitted by the candidates…..

That paragraph would fit right into a thesis, too, wouldn’t you say…. pompous, obsessively wordy, and all-too-sure of its own importance, just like one of the fat cats on Wall Street…. Hmm…. I don’t know where THAT vitriol came from; it’s especially harsh for me this early, even if I were leading into a rant on the BRC and the corporate assholes who pay them. Goodness knows they deserve whatever we can give them, as they are responsible for just about ALL of the misery that is still present in the world, and will ultimately doom the entire species to an ignoble death, choking on the fumes of our own folly, gasping in pain and anguish….

I suppose that’s a bit too graphic for pre-breakfast imagery, but, what can I do? Those responsible for our state don’t give a DAMN about anyone else, and aren’t going to change; unfortunately, I don’t see the masses rising up in protest, either, as most of them don’t even realize the danger, and will believe anything told to them by some guy on TV, if he’s got the right skin color, and accent. The public is well under the control of those in power over them, and can pretty much do anything they want to do, without even having to explain. They do hand out some information, but you can be sure it has nothing to do with what they are actually up to; it is only what they wish you to hear, and believe….

I’ve had a bad habit of late, of beginning my rants right here in the intro section… which is, I see, just another evolution of routine, if I look at it in a certain way. As that will fit right in with my plan for the day (oh, you didn’t think I had a plan? Hah!….), I will now look at it that way, and declare this intro invalid, as such, and rename it “section one”, thereby removing any implications as to format, or necessary information that needs to be included. It may not make things clearer, but, it will distract you, once again, from the real issue, which, given the way things look around here today, shall remain unresolved, in the words of Poe, forevermore….

Shall we Pearl?…..
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I got up incredibly late, for me and my routine, but, it isn’t surprising, given that I was up to almost 1 AM, dealing with a friend in near-crisis mode, requiring my input and assistance…. (a discrete way of saying, helping her deal with a screwup….) It wasn’t a particularly onerous task, but, dragged out forever, as the people involved have their own sense of time, which only narrowly resembles the one the rest of us use…. The end result was that I had to stay up, waiting to complete a call to resolve the issue, before being able to go to bed, well after midnight…. So, this Pearl may be a bit of a throw-together, a patchwork pearl, so to speak, starting with this one right here, which I’m sure you’ll enjoy…. or else…. In addition, today, as a special treat, we will have the ever popular “comments in parentheses” from yours truly, just for fun….

Teach me to feel another’s woe,
To hide the fault I see;
That mercy I to others show,
That mercy show to me.

— Alexander Pope (1688-1744) — The Universal Prayer, Stanza 10
(Hard to find a better rephrasing of the Golden Rule….)

“Morality is moral only if it is voluntary.” — Lincoln Steffens
(Well, duh!…. As if there was any other way….)

“To find a fault is easy; to do better may be difficult.” — Plutarch (46 AD-120 AD)
(Huh? What does that MEAN? Oh, right…. people are selfish, and lazy, too…. got it….)

“Time, whose tooth gnaws away everything else, is powerless against truth.” — Thomas Huxley (1825-1895)
(Hmm… Sadly, time also give the unscrupulous opportunity to hide, or color, the truth, stealing some of its power, turning it to illusion….)

Ambidextrous, adj.: Able to pick with equal skill a right-hand pocket or a left. — Ambrose Bierce, “The Devil’s Dictionary”
(As is now well known, this is a primary skill for any politician, and is becoming more popular every day among the religious hierarchies….)

“Whenever people say we mustn’t be sentimental, you can take it they are about to do something cruel.  And, if they add, we must be realistic, they mean they are going to make money out of it.” — Brigid Brophy
(Wow…. rare honesty, and a damn clear vision of reality, wouldn’t you say?…. How many times have you heard these ideas, either plainly, or in paraphrase, pass the lips of an elected official, just in the last week or two?… A lot of times, I’d wager….)

“The fundamental delusion of humanity is to suppose that I am here and you are there.” — Yasutani Roshi

I coming out…. of the parentheses, that is, not the closet, where I’ve never been….. The last one for this group had to be an excellent pearl, and, to my way of thinking, I nailed that in one…. This is a very deep statement, when you take the time to explore its depth; if not, it just sounds like a Zen koan, or some mystical obscurity designed to confuse reality. In truth, this is elemental, and a truth from which there is no real escape, no matter how strong our delusional belief……

We are all in this boat together, ffolkes; what I do is going to affect others, just as what they do will affect me…. We cannot exist in reality without this connection, and it would, indubitably, be a good thing if we would get a handle on that, and start living as if we planned to survive past the next century…. Otherwise, reality is going to step in, and destroy all our delusions at once, along with our existence as a species…. Sorry to be the bearer of the bad news, but the evidence is plain, even though nobody wants to talk about it…. SIGH….. Ah well, onward….
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Sometimes, introduction is superfluous…..

Gold Mouths Cry

Gold mouths cry with the green young
certainty of the bronze boy
remembering a thousand autumns
and how a hundred thousand leaves
came sliding down his shoulder blades
persuaded by his bronze heroic reason.
We ignore the coming doom of gold
and we are glad in this bright metal season.
Even the dead laugh among the goldenrod.

The bronze boy stands kneedeep in centuries,
and never grieves,
remembering a thousand autumns,
with sunlight of a thousand years upon his lips
and his eyes gone blind with leaves.

~~ Sylvia Plath ~~

_____________________________

Yesterday was a wasted day, physically, due to overusing my body the day before, when I pretended I wasn’t disabled for a short, but, telling period of time. Today, I find that I am still, in spite of all my wishes to the contrary, old…. or, at least, older than I would like to be….. I’m missing my youthful strength, and the ability to do anything I asked of my body, without regard for the consequences for that entity…. I’m tougher now, of course; that’s what happens over time…. but, my body no longer can do what I ask without consequences, and those consequences seem to last longer than ever before; certainly much longer than is convenient….

Now that I’ve meandered through a totally unnecessary explanation of something that isn’t really important to anyone other than me, and perhaps my doctor, I can get around to sharing the whole reason for bringing this up at all…. Essentially, it’s all a lead-in, a hook, so to speak, to demonstrate the point of the exercise, which is to make a simple statement, to wit:  I feel lazy today….  There, I’ve said it, and you may chastise me as you see fit….. later. Right now, I’m using this little break in routine to make that statement, which fulfills all legal requirements for notifying y’all of my intention to go old-school…. Hell, the law says I could not say anything at all, but, I’m a nice guy, mostly, so, there you go….

So, here is another old-school pearl, of the random, harlequin style we all love so well…..

Pretty! in amber to observe the forms
Of hairs, or straws, or dirt, or grubs, or worms!
The things, we know, are neither rich nor rare,
But wonder how the devil they got there.

— Alexander Pope (1688-1744)  — Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot, Prologue to the Satires, Line 169

“Nothing is so firmly believed as what we least know.” — Michael de Montaigne (1533-1592) — Essays, Book i, Chap. xxxi, Of Divine Ordinances

“To rebel against a powerful political, economic, religious, or social establishment is very dangerous and very few people do it, except, perhaps, as part of a mob. To rebel against the scientific establishment, however, is the easiest thing in the world, and anyone can do it and feel enormously brave, without risking as much as a hangnail. Thus, the vast majority, who believe in astrology and think that the planets have nothing better to do than form a code that will tell them whether tomorrow is a good day to close a business deal or not, become all the more excited and enthusiastic about the bilge when a group of astronomers denounces it.” — Isaac Asimov

“I used to sit on the banks with a raft and watch the water roll lazily by. One day I pushed my raft into the shallows of the water and found the water moved swifter than I thought, but my raft was actually a little rowboat. Then, after some time, I rowed my little boat into deeper water. There were great storms, mighty winds, tremendous waves, and sometimes I felt so alone. But I have noticed my little rowboat is now a mighty ship manned by my friends and loved ones, and beautiful calm seas, warm sunny days, and nights filled with comfortable dreams always double after a storm. Now, I could never go back and sit on the bank, in fact, I search for deeper water. Such is life when lived.” — B D Gulledge

“I have known a vast quantity of nonsense talked about bad men not looking you in the face.  Don’t trust that conventional idea. Dishonesty will stare honesty out of countenance, any day in the week, if there is anything to be got by it.” — Charles Dickens

“I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country…. Corporations have been enthroned, an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money-power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until the wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed.  — Former US President Abraham Lincoln, Nov. 21, 1864 — letter to Col. William F. Elkins — printed in “The Lincoln Encyclopedia”, — ed. Archer H. Shaw, Macmillan, 1950, NY

“There’s a tendency today to absolve individuals from moral responsibility and treat them as victims of social circumstance.  You buy that, you pay with your soul.  It’s not men who limit women, it’s not straights who limit gays, it’s not whites who limit blacks.  What limits people is lack of character.  What limits people is that they don’t have the fucking nerve or imagination to star in their own movie, let alone direct it.” — Bernard Mickey Wrangle
_____________________________

I’m feeling like the White Rabbit, so I’d best get on with this….. Well, if that won’t do it, I don’t know what will…. In that vein, and on that note, I will leave you to get on with the day…..  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

dozer3

His registered nickname is “Stinky”….

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Ffolkes,

I’m here…. purportedly, I’m awake, but, given my state of confusion, and pain, bless its black little heart, I may be incorrect in that assessment. For some reason, which shall evermore remain unknown, and, possibly, unknowable, I have no idea what the date should be. When I began to write this morning, the date that I put above the first line, here in the program where I compose Pearls, said that today is the eighteenth of the month…. but, the little perpetual calendar I use says it is only the seventeenth. Since my phone and computer both agree with the latter, I’m going with that, but, what happened to the sixteenth, or fifteenth, or wherever I lost count? Somewhere in my brain, there is an entire day wandering around, empty and alone, poor thing, destined to never find its way back into the calendar…. Sad story, eh?….

Well, perhaps not…. Mostly, I imagine, y’all are rolling your eyes in disgust, or at least mild chagrin, at this latest silliness from my desk. Go ahead, it doesn’t bother me; I can’t see you doing it, so I only know from experience that you are. Besides, I probably deserve it, or any other chastisement y’all care to throw at me, for subjecting you to my brand of idiocy first thing in the morning. Hell, I often kick my own ass for just that reason…. It passes the time better than sitting around complaining I have nothing to do….. I had assumed that even nonsensical discussions of the date would serve to fill up the time better than that, but, again, perhaps I was mistaken…. Shall I start over? That might just be a bit too much, even for this blog… After all, I’m already two solid paragraphs into this one, so….

I could always resort to one of the emergency intros, but, it is always such a bust-up when I do that, so I’m reluctant to put y’all through it without a bit more justification. We often have injuries as a natural result of using the emergency programs, and I don’t know how my insurance agent is going to feel about more claims; she already keeps me on speed-dial, along with the ambulance company’s number. Plus, the budget got stretched a bit thin over this last cruise, so I don’t really want to spend the extra money it takes to use one or more of them; the guys who manufacture them are getting to know me, and are trying to raise prices on me. You wouldn’t happen to know of any literary assassins, would you? Perhaps a discount firm?…. Oh, well, it was worth a shot….

Okay, I’ll stop now. I’ve meandered and blathered through damn near four paragraphs, all without saying much of anything, or getting anywhere in particular. It’s a gift…. Nonetheless, it only works for so long, then I, too, get bored with it; I can’t imagine how poorly it must affect my Gentle Readers, though I’ve got a clue, in the lack of people who end up reading it….. One would think it might kill my ego, and stop me from writing more stuff knowing it will just sit up there on the web, lonely and unread, waiting in vain to inspire and uplift…. but, my ego is pretty bullet-proof, mostly impervious to any negative input, so y’all will just have to deal with it, as always…. Hopefully, one or two of y’all will enjoy it, and that will be enough for me…..

Shall we Pearl?….

“I cannot achieve complete humility — although complete humiliation is always within reach.” — Dan Goodman
_____________________________

My pain level today is running a bit high, and I’m not going to be able to sit in this chair for much longer today…. so, y’all get a break from my pontificating, as we will let Smart Bee pick out a couple of pearls for sections one and three, and find a quick, good poem for the second section….. Sometimes easier said than done, but, always quicker than trying to cudgel my consciousness into coherence long enough to spew…. and, for y’all, indubitably a less annoying read, if often more obscure in presentation…. All of which is a long winded way to say, you’re on your own from this point, ffolkes, so, good luck!….. Here is a good one, all about life, and self-reliance in a scary world…..

“I wanted to change the world.  But I have found that the only thing one can be sure of changing is oneself.” — Aldous Huxley

“And of course, No soap, radio.” — traditional non sequitor

“What I am is what I am. Are you what you are, or what?” — Edie Brickell

Men are born crying
And when they’ve cried enough
They die

— Ran

“Everything is simpler than you think and at the same time more complex than you imagine.” — Goethe

“It is a man’s own mind, not his enemy or foe, that lures him to evil ways.” — Buddha

“I don’t want realism, I want magic!” — A Streetcar Named Desire, 1940’s

Ooh, that was cool…. what a great finish!….. Hope you enjoyed this little trip through my head….. Remember, there’s no need to feel bad, I’m always  like this, so, you can go on feeling lucky you aren’t….
_____________________________

Since I’m feeling so out of it, I guess I’d better stick one of my own poems in here, just so nobody else gets dragged through the mud today, if only by association…. Here’s one that even fits the occasion…. as well as I ever can do….

Fine and Good, Good and Fine

A pig in a poke’s got nothing on me,
cuz Ah’m as confused as a man can be.
This ol’ world’s got me spinnin’ around
cussin’ and spittin’, a penny for a pound.

Forty ‘leven times since Ah was a kid, well,
Ah’ve fallen in love, ‘least too close to tell.
Every damn time, it all went to crap,
Forty ‘leven times Ah’ve felt like a sap.

‘Course, each time it happens, Ah forget the last;
why not? Ah’m havin’ such a blast….
Livin’ in each moment, filled with joie de vivre,
’til it’s all gone away again, nothin’ left up mah sleeve.

Don’t want y’all to think Ah’m sad or blue,
life’s full of sorrow, lots for me, and/or you..
T’other side of that coin, we can be glad,
is joyful love, and it ain’t at all bad.

Mah road’s been littered with parts o’my heart,
each one colored with trust, which isn’t always smart.
Yet, long as Ah don’t lose mah connection to joy,
Ah’ll find mah own true love, ‘n be a happy boy.

It’s been some kinda fun, even when Ah’d take a fall,
and doin’ it over makes no sense at all, at all
Day after day, Ah keep on keepin’ on, as it’s said;
Guess Ah’ll keep on doin’ that ’til Ah’m dead.

‘Nuff said….

~~ gigoid, tongue firmly in cheek…. ~~

_____________________________

One of the quotes included below was the first I found today, and I had intended it to form the initial thought for a rant…. however, Smart Bee, and my lower back and hips, had other ideas, so, instead, it has formed a part of this quite pointed little stick in the mind’s eye, speaking of the very subject on which I intended to discourse….. politics as a type of poopadoodle, what else? Here, then, you will find yet another in a long series of indictments of the pundits who make up our BRC, those lovely gobshites, who spend their days lining their pockets, and devising new ways to lie to us…..

“He knows nothing and thinks he knows everything. That points clearly to a political career.” — George Bernard Shaw

“Silence can be the biggest lie of all.  We have a responsibility to speak up; and whenever the occasion calls for it, we have a responsibility to raise bloody hell.” — Herbert Block

“Modern biology has been built upon two great ideas.  The first, a product of the nineteenth century, is that all life descended from elementary, single-celled organisms by means of natural selection.  The second, perfected in the twentieth century, is that organisms are entirely obedient to the laws of physics and chemistry.  No extraneous “vital force” runs the living cell.” — Edward O. Wilson, “Biophilia”

“…it is the privilege of fools to speak the truth without giving offense.” — Erasmus

“As for courage and will – we cannot measure how much of each lies within us, we can only trust there will be sufficient to carry through trials which may lie ahead.” — Andre Norton

That would be quite enough, were this a normal pearl, but, it’s got a responsibility to fulfill, and needs two more to make it right….

“One man’s wickedness may easily become all men’s curse.” — Publius Syrus (42 BC) — Maxim 463

“The wise learn many things from their foes.” — Aristophanes (c. 450-385 B.C.) — The Birds (414 B.C.), line 375

There you have it, wisdom in a box…. I keep telling you, it’s all in the wrist…. Oh, yeah, as a final thought on the matter of the ultimate necessity for politics…

“Never create by law what can be accomplished by morality.” — Charles-Louis Secondat Baron de Montesquieu
_____________________________

Since I was again up late, and have little patience with sitting in my current state of pain, this will be a relatively quick ending, proofing only…. Okay, maybe a bit more than proofing…. all done now, though, and ready to rock and roll…. My calendar is clear for the entire day, nothing at all to accomplish, if’n I don’t want to…. True freedom…. You may now feel jealous, momentarily….  Okay, that’s enough…. see ya….  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

dozer3

It isn’t dead, it’s contemplating cat hairs….

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Ffolkes,

The squad of the Emperor’s storm troopers, ant-like in their unnatural precision, moved past the entrance to the alley, where I gripped the handle of my military-grade blaster, concealed behind a beat-up dumpster about twenty yards down the alley from the street. As the sound of their jack-boots echoed in the early morning fog, I sincerely hoped they would keep on walking, as I had only 10 minutes to make my way another two blocks to my assigned station, and didn’t need to fight a running battle all the way there.

With eyes glued to the mouth of the alley, I held my breath, watching gratefully as the last trooper slid past the wall, on their way to wherever they’d been ordered to harass the citizenry today. I wouldn’t have minded blasting them into oblivion; they deserved whatever we gave them…. Today, though, I had bigger fish to fry, and a much more important target…. Today, if my mission succeeds, the Emperor of Earth himself will die, and the no longer clandestine war to take back our world will begin, now in the harsh light of day….

“Reality is a crutch for those who can’t handle science fiction.” — Smart Bee

Okay, well, it’s not exactly Robert Heinlein, or Philip K. Dick, or even Ben Bova, but, it will do for the opening lines of a Pearl… I’ve done worse, as you well know. It’s been a while since I started with a fictional scenario, so I thought I’d try my hand at it this morning; it felt good, but didn’t come out quite as well as I’d hoped…. I guess I’m a bit rusty in that respect. It takes practice to come up with good stuff so early in the day, and I’ve been busy with other stuff… That’s my story, anyway, and I’m sticking to it….

Also, I keep waking up later and later in the mornings of late; now, when I turn over to try to go back to sleep, I actually do so, instead of my overactive brain getting me up at ungodly hours, such as three, or four in the AM. Today, it was 0610 before I was able to rouse myself to get up, and get going….. It’s a good thing, I suppose, for my overall health, but takes some getting used to, as any change in procedure is wont to do. It’s hell getting old, let me tell ya….

No complaints, though…. The perks of being retired are, so far, outweighing the disadvantages quite handily, so I consider it tacky to complain, when there are so many other folks out there who have it much harder than I do. I’ve a roof over my head, enough food to get by, and enough left over to keep me from getting bored, or sinking into despair and depression; many, many of my peers, and/or fellow citizens, are not as fortunate. I can’t say it is the result of good planning on my part, but, I did manage to come out pretty well with my retirement, so, as I say, I can’t complain….

Besides, that leaves me free to rant about the foolishness that I see going on all around me, in the public venue. I am not only free to observe the Evil Emperor and his minions, but am, thus far, free enough to enjoy the opportunity to poke at the BRC to my heart’s content, and that freedom can’t be overstated in importance, to me, or to society.

If I didn’t have this platform for all my angst and outrage, I would probably be underground, organizing the troops for revolution. Rather than slinging words of vituperative criticism at the pundits and preachers, I would probably be in hiding, somewhere in the Rocky Mountains, training fighters for the upcoming battles with the forces of evil that are loose upon the face of the earth…..

So, it’s probably a good thing, for now, at least, that I have this opportunity to blog…. it’s safer for me, safer for society, and for the time being, safer for the world…. Of course, that could change at a moment’s notice, couldn’t it?…. Yep, it could…..

Shall we Pearl?…..

“Every normal man must be tempted, at times, to spit on his hands, hoist the  black flag, and begin slitting throats.” — H. L. Mencken
_____________________________

The first pearl of the day is always a bit of a question, in terms of both type, and direction. The very first quote or aphorism that Smart Bee shows me is often what determines how the day will go; just as often, though, it takes quite a bit of persuasion to get Smart Bee to give up even ONE quote worth using. Times like that are when I’m compelled to go to the archives for some older pieces. Today, it seems to be working fairly well, so this first section will be good to go with either a five-, or seven-star pearl, as long as SB continues to cooperate. Let’s see what it has for us, ‘kay?…..

“All cruelty springs from weakness.” — Seneca

“Thousands of days of civilians …  have produced a…  feeling for the aesthetic modules –” — Zippy the Pinhead

“He who has never hoped can never despair.” — George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950), “Caesar and Cleopatra”, Act IV

“Do not do what you would undo if caught.” — Leah Arendt

“Never rise to speak till you have something to say; and when you have said it, cease.” — Witherspoon

Wow…. Okay, I get it now…. Smart Bee, and my unconscious mind, is messing with me/us. Although I confess to actually understanding the point made here, I also confess it has little to do with anything terribly important, other than on a personal level for each of us. But, then, I suppose, in some ways, that could be seen as another metaphor for Life…. Let’s see what a couple more will do for, or to, the overall gestalt of meaning that has been created with such alacrity by the above esotericism….. (Sorry, couldn’t resist….)

“A man’s ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties; no religious basis is necessary.  Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death.” — Albert Einstein

“If any man can convince me and bring home to me that I do not think or act aright, gladly will I change; for I search after truth, by which man never yet was harmed. But he is harmed who abideth on still in his deception and ignorance.” — Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (121-180 AD) — Meditations, vi, 21

Well, if those two can’t fix it, nothing can, that’s for sure and for certain…. These two quotes could possibly fix society, should they ever become common practice, I think…. Timing is everything, right? Right…..
_____________________________

Even for those of us who can suffer from the experience, watching the open sea as it streams by a ship as it moves through the water is an endless fascination, a constantly changing panorama of colors and shades of light, never exactly the same from one moment to the next. There are occasional instances of heart-stopping beauty, or stunning surprise, as one of the denizens of that vast underwater universe leaps into the upper world, to unknown purpose, bringing us a glimpse of another reality, dangerously beautiful as our own, living as we do on this drier side of the interface….. Here is a classicist’s view of that which I speak…..

On the Sea

It keeps eternal whisperings around
Desolate shores, and with its mighty swell
Gluts twice ten thousand Caverns, till the spell
Of Hecate leaves them their old shadowy sound.
Often ’tis in such gentle temper found,
That scarcely will the very smallest shell
Be moved for days from where it sometime fell.
When last the winds of Heaven were unbound.
Oh, ye! who have your eyeballs vexed and tired,
Feast them upon the wideness of the Sea;
Oh ye! whose ears are dinned with uproar rude,
Or fed too much with cloying melody—
Sit ye near some old Cavern’s Mouth and brood,
Until ye start, as if the sea nymphs quired!

~~ John Keats ~~

_____________________________

Back in 2004, for several months, I wrote a column for a small local newspaper, both print and online versions. It was titled Gigoid’s Folly, and was intended as a platform for encouraging public discussion of computer issues, and the effects of those relatively new issues on everyday life in America…. This was one of the articles posted….

Gigoid’s Folly—Episode VII


Reality, in its’ inimitable way, has somewhat less-than-politely smacked me (and you as well, if you hadn’t noticed) smartly about the head and shoulders, bringing inevitably to mind the following truism, inspired by Samuel R. Delaney, to wit: “True power in the real world consists of control of the routes of perception.” It is also too bad cupidity isn’t always immediately painful… or, in the words of Fred, the philosophical penguin from Odd’s Bodkins, “Politics is poopadoodle.” And that’s the last you’ll hear from me about that subject. Well, maybe not the very last, but enough for this decade…..

“The nature of the Universe is Change. Unpredictable, innovative transformation of reality is the Norm. If you have a problem with this, you’re in for a rough ride in Life.” (Some of you may have heard this previously.) The opposite possible reaction is also true, that is, flexibility in the face of change tends to smooth out even the most turbulent situations. Consider this also: each of us differs in our reaction to changes in the world around us, giving rise to even more variables, (often called the “spice of life”).

Fortunately, or in some cases, unfortunately, each new situation also creates new choices for us to make. Choices create opportunities, both good and bad, each of which may perhaps necessitate even more changes. This “hall of mirrors” effect can make reality a slippery concept, and can obviously produce a great deal of confusion. Very frequently we are left feeling as if we were going through life without any real control over what happens to us, internally or externally.

As may be surmised by the above, I’ve felt this way myself at times. There is soooo much information out there, and so little time to comprehend even a significant portion of what is available . The rapid advancements in computer technology over the last quarter century have certainly aided in narrowing the gap, by providing the means to manipulate more and more data, faster and faster. Far from easing our sense of lack of control, however, this increased capacity for data manipulation can bring about further feelings of being out of touch, as our own ability to process the data we perceive is outstripped by the seemingly endless parade of information made accessible by new and faster machines.

Since there is more information than we can possibly utilize, how then can we make the best use of what we are able to absorb? To be brutally honest, I don’t know of any sure-fire answers. I know that I spend at least four hours a day just trying to stay abreast of the latest news that interests me (i.e., sports, computers & technology, food & dining, community & culture, business, etc.), and I constantly have the feeling that I’m missing a lot, even though I consider myself to be pretty efficient at processing information.

Modern software offers a multitude of ways of condensing many different information sources into one easily accessed program, such as web portals/directories, email newsletters, RSS feeds, news services, bulletin boards, forums, and many other formats. This is where the choices I mentioned become critical. Each person has to decide how they prefer to receive and process information, and choose the means appropriate to their personal learning style. I use the word ‘critical’ in the sense that it’s important to make good choices, as it is extremely easy to waste a lot of time & energy sifting through a multitude of less than optimal sources for information. The World Wide Web is HUGE, and believe me, there are more crappy sites than good ones!

In today’s frenetic world, as it takes progressively greater efforts to keep up with daily life, it becomes attractive to many to just give up, to pay little or no attention to the integrity of one’s sources of information. It’s easier by far to not read the news (from numerous different sources, for purposes of verification and corroboration), but to sit down, stop thinking, and listen to it on radio, or more often these days, watch it on TV. After a hard day of work, where the need to be mentally alert is paramount, most folks don’t want to expend the energy required for reading and/or critical thought, and make little effort to ascertain the validity of what they see or hear. Only a small percentage of people regard thinking as relaxation.

Aha! At last we come to the key! The mind is not separate from the body, though we tend to speak of them as such. They are one organism, and the requirements for keeping one’s consciousness in optimal operating condition are the same as those for keeping physically healthy, to wit: adequate nourishment (accurate data), adequate rest (time for dreaming), and lots of exercise (cogitate, ponder, cerebrate, deduce, infer, reflect, reason, imagine, ruminate, invent, deliberate, meditate, consider, speculate, think!).

The last activity in the above paragraph, exercise, is indubitably the most important factor, though a balance of all three is, of course, essential to optimal health. The mind is just like a muscle; the more you use it, the stronger it becomes. If you don’t use it, it becomes atrophied, flaccid and weak, good for little beyond deciding whether to pop the next beer before or after the commercial with the Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders in it.


Thus, once again we see that the choices we make in life are critical indicators of our direction, or lack of it, and provide proof for the assumption that personal responsibility is the ultimate deciding factor in determining the course of our lives. Choose ignorance and sloth, and life becomes an unending succession of making choices based on lowered expectations, and a lifetime of limited opportunity. Choose to exercise the will, strive to evolve, and life becomes a wondrous landscape of enrichment and enlightenment, where everything perceived is interesting, and serves as the springboard for the exploration of unimaginable vistas.

Of course, there is a great deal of middle ground between these two ideals, as with any subject involving people. It’s difficult to fit all human beans into the same jar…. we don’t always fit. I suppose it’s part of our charm to be unpredictable, (rather like a pale imitation of reality itself)….. it remains to be seen if we have sufficiently charmed the Universe into allowing us to proceed unmolested along the path to our destiny. Such situations seem to be self-correcting anyway, as we continue to do a pretty good job of molesting ourselves!    🙂

~~ gigoid~~

11/08/2004
First modified for blog use, on GoodBlogs.com, 7/12/2011
_____________________________

I have a feeling this is a pretty good Pearl…. let’s see how it hangs together on reading…. Well, as I said above, it ain’t Bob Heinlein, but it works for me…. and will have to do for y’all, because it’s the best I’ve got today….. Hope you enjoyed today’s ride, even without the seat belts I promised….  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

dozer3

Acres of discount bishops, reduced cardinals, and one used pope…..

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Ffolkes,

“I have many CHARTS and DIAGRAMS!” — Zippy the Pinhead

I don’t, but, in spite of that lack, I’m pretty sure I can make it through the day. Not that I’m saying that they wouldn’t be useful, for something or other, but, for our purposes here, which are, happily, much more mundane activities, not requiring the use of scientific paraphernalia, I don’t think we need to get that precise in our calculations. In fact, taking the time to fill them out, or in, could conceivably cause problems, and work to our disadvantage.

This, I think, is the primary reason that more ffolkes don’t use them on a regular basis, and why the market for them is often depressed. I’m sure it makes life difficult for those poor people who manufacture them for society’s use, but, it can’t be helped…. Perhaps it would be in their best interests to find a new line of work, one that isn’t quite so dependent on the current whims of society…. but, then, I’m not sure just when the market for charts and diagrams is going to get better…. Maybe they could start making lullabies, or perhaps, yogurt?…..

Don’t know why I woke up silly….. And if you try to tell me that the above wasn’t silly, I’ll slap you until you cry for your mama…. Well, okay, it could  have been sillier, but I don’t see how, really, unless we dressed Zippy up in a clown costume…. Oh, wait, he already wears a clown costume….

Okay, well, that proves it, right? Silly is as silly does, and clown costumes define the parameters, I should think. If not, they should, especially when they are covered in polka dots, like his often are… Surely, there’s nothing sillier than a gangly, pasty-white, pointy-headed dude, in need of a shave, fetchingly clad in a polka-dot clown suit, unless it’s imagining his mother and father, and how THEY might be dressed…..

Now that I’ve spoiled any appetite for breakfast you might have had, it must be time to get on with the day’s business, such as it is. I realize it isn’t of much importance to y’all, other than as a means of wasting more time before you start your own day, but, it keeps me off the streets, at least for a few hours, and the public authorities are always appreciative of that, given the extra officers they feel they have to have on patrol when I’m out and about…. I don’t know why, though; I haven’t eaten anyone in years….. They get SO nervous and worked up, just because of a few youthful indiscretions….

Be sure, however, that period of my life is in the past, to stay; my diet these days is much more exotic, as I now stick to political pundits and religious dogmatists for the greater part my nourishment; they’re much less of a loss to society than your average man on the street, and, with generous amounts of mustard and cheese, can be quite tasty…. yum! Almost as good as a corporate elitist, or one of those savory military-industrialists, glazed with sugar and cinnamon….. Throw in the occasional sautéed police commander, and I’m a happy gourmand….

Hmm…. okay, you tell me…. Did that cross the line of good taste? It’s hard to tell, in the case of those assholes I consider responsible for the mess the world is in…. I mean, they have no compunctions about screwing over the rest of us, just so they can think of themselves as one of the elite, to whom the rules don’t apply. Why should I worry about offending them?

Essentially, I don’t, and I don’t care much what they, or anyone else, for that matter, thinks about it…. As long as they are out there, actively making decisions that affect the entire world based on their own perverted sense of entitlement, then I’ll feel no qualms about taking the odd shot or two at them, whenever I feel like it…. Fuck ’em, if they can’t take a joke….

On that note, shall we Pearl?…..

“If you’re going to tell people the truth, be funny or they’ll kill you.” — Billy Wilder

(Okay, NOW I’m officially worried…..)
_____________________________

The quote above is what I call a ‘settlefer’, because that is what I did…. settled fer it. It does fit, though, so it can stay…. Below you will find…. well, I don’t know, yet, what you’ll find, as I have yet to pick them out…. Let’s just say that I think you’ll like it, and leave it at that…. Nothing I seem to come up with to say about these harlequin style pearls ever seems to quite make the grade, accuracy-wise, so I’ll just trust to fate, and the inherent integrity of Smart Bee, to make it worthwhile…. it usually works…. Let’s see what we can find….

“The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled.” — Plutarch

“If Stupidity got us into this mess, then why can’t it get us out?” — Will Rogers (1879-1935)

“I figure that if God actually does exist, He’s big enough to understand an honest difference of opinion.”  – Isaac Asimov

“In a philosophical dispute, he gains most who is defeated, since he  learns most.” — Epicurus

“Take away the right to say ‘fuck’ and you take away the right to say ‘fuck the government.'” — Lenny Bruce

Hmm… not too shabby at all….. I should leave it there, as it is quite perfect as it is, but, I’m an incurable meddler, when it comes to pearls, anyway…. Two more ought to round it out nicely, I think….

“Why did Nature create man? Was it to show that she is big enough to make mistakes, or was it pure ignorance?” — Holbrook Jackson

“In heaven all the interesting people are missing.” — Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

Alright, now you can slap me…. I’ll even hold your coat…. Sorry, couldn’t resist, but, at least it’s done for the day, eh? (Practicing my Canadian dialect…. or would that be the Canadian Dialectic?…. Eh?….)
_____________________________

The poem I have percolating is still doing just that, so, once more, I turn to one of the masters, with a poem that appeals to me, if for no other reason than the title…. as previously noted, I am easily entertained….

Another Song Of A Fool

This great purple butterfly,
In the prison of my hands,
Has a learning in his eye
Not a poor fool understands.

Once he lived a schoolmaster
With a stark, denying look;
A string of scholars went in fear
Of his great birch and his great book.

Like the clangour of a bell,
Sweet and harsh, harsh and sweet.
That is how he learnt so well
To take the roses for his meat.

~~ William Butler Yeats ~~

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I’m not feeling lazy, but, I AM feeling lazy, so I’m dipping into the past to come up with today’s third section…. It has been some time since I posted this, which I try to do at least once a year, to keep new ffolkes apprised of my history, and provide some background for the stuff I write here…. some of the back story, as it were…. So, here is my philosophy of Life, and some of the rationalizations that prompted its creation….. Though Peruaosophy originally was composed in the 1980’s, this article was posted on the site, GoodBlogs.com, sometime in early 2011, prior to starting this blog on WordPress….

Birds Do It, Bees Do It
So Do I…

    In the dim, dark past, when I was, sort of, attending college at UC Berkeley, (1968-70) discussing philosophy was standard in many of the BS sessions in which I participated. In order to not be thought of as someone who was ignorant in the field, I naturally read the classic tomes by such philosophers as Friedrich Nietzsche, Soren Kirkegaard, Plato, Socrates, Epicurius, Solon, and Jung, as well as more modern folks, such as Bucky Fuller, Sartre, and John Lennon (yes, him too…his philosophy tends to lean way to the left…).

One day later on, sometime in the 80’s, I was involved in learning to raise kids, deal with a wife, and in general going quietly crazy trying to balance all the balls one must keep in the air to get by in today’s world. As I sat this particular day, it struck me how long it had been since I stretched my mind. It seemed as if I’d been buried in mundane details forever, and upon examination & reflection I decided I wanted to expand my consciousness, using the flight of imagination to lift me above the everyday cares and woes to which I had fallen prey. And I found, as well, that I had been unconsciously acting according to many of the precepts that I had learned in those halcyon days of my youth.

Encouraged by this revelation, I went one step further, and made the decision to codify my own personal philosophy, to put down in writing those things that I consider to be essential to becoming a well-grounded, well-rounded, productive and contented member of society. The process went more quickly than I had imagined, and I came up with seven basic concepts, all of which I hold to be an integral part of what I believe. Axiom #4 was added later as a necessary part of the whole, overlooked in the initial version, bringing the total number of axioms to eight.

The word I coined to describe this philosophy is Greek; “perua” means “pearl”, and of course, “osophy” is “the study of”.  Thus I give you Peruaosophy, the study of pearls of wisdom. Each axiom stands alone, and together they describe fairly well how I approach Life…..

Peruaosophy

The wisdom of pearls…
(The world is my oyster; which way to the pearls?)

Axioms

1)  I think I am; that’s close enough.

2) The nature of the Universe is Change.  Unpredictable, innovative
transformation of Reality is the Norm. If you have a problem with this, you’re in for a rough ride in Life.

3) Thou art God, you know.  Let’s do lunch.

4) Excellence is its own reward.

5) Girls think differently.  So do boys.  Don’t fight it.

6) Axiom #2 X axiom #5 = And God so loved the world, He said,
“Quit whining!”

7) Do your Duty.   Respect Life.   Honor the Truth.   Share your Love.

8)  Go back.  Everything you need to know is in the first seven axioms.

~~ gigoid ~~

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Well, don’t I feel like an infinite number of monkeys with typewriters?!….. Well, at least it isn’t Shakespeare….. Let’s see how it holds up to scrutiny of the relatively easy sort….. All I can honestly say is that it’s a good thing I like my standards down where they are, and they’re getting used to the smell, so…. we’ll take it, and run….. 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

dozer3

“Mea culpa” he said, in a dismal voice, “Mea culpa maxima….”

Posted on by
9

Ffolkes,

I’d like to begin this morning with an apology, of sorts. In the last few weeks, even before going to Alaska, my time spent reading the blogs I like to read and follow has been severely limited, a fact that has probably been quite obvious by the lack of comments made. Usually, when I can spend the time to read, I will also comment, since, as is patently obvious from reading this blog, I can seldom shut myself up….. Of late, though, I’ve been having a hard time sitting at the computer for long periods, due to my back pain, with its new companion, hip ache, and have ended up sacrificing my time spent reading as a result…..

This doesn’t mean I don’t read, as I am as addicted to reading as I am to breathing; it just means I’m not doing it at the computer as much. As a result, the number of ffolkes who stop by to read this blog has also fallen off a bit, though the number of followers seems to keep growing. As it has been since beginning to write here on WordPress, a good percentage of readers come to read according to how much one time one spends on other blogs, making their presence known by either “Likes” or comments…. If they don’t see you at their blog, they don’t stop by yours, and it is perfectly understandable, given the platform we all use…. Time is, after all, our only resource….

There are about 12 to 24 people, apparently, who come by here practically every day to check out what I’ve done, and to them, I offer my heartfelt gratitude, for always letting me know they appreciate what I’m writing. Not all stop by every day, but the same icons keep appearing below the blogs, so I know who has been by, and who liked what was done…. Beyond the obvious stats available in those indicators, I have no idea how many are coming, nor does it affect what I write, or how often I write…. That is still all about keeping sane, as always…..  I just like to know, for my own curiosity….. Not knowing is frustrating, and is the only reason I care, as it creates stress for as long as I fret about it….

Fretting is something I didn’t do much of for most of my life, and still don’t much care for, but, since the advent of my PTSD about 30 years ago, I tend to worry more, until I can get hold of myself and dump such nonsense into the trash bin, where it belongs…. More folks have died of worry than ever bled to death, so I try to avoid it whenever possible…. but, there are times when my anxiety gets the better of me, and I fret, until I either resolve the worry, or remember to keep perspective, whichever comes first. And yes, I’m easily amused by reality….. easily distracted, too…. Where was I?…..

Any who, I wanted to apologize to all those bloggers, and, yes, friends, who keep dropping by, without any reciprocation by me…. Y’all are the rainbows in my daily existence…. (see below’s poem…) Have faith, my friends, I will be by to check out what you’ve been up to, it may just take a while. My back pain has been somewhat ubiquitous of late, and has caused me to wage a constant war with gravity, just to get done what is necessary to live; unfortunately, that doesn’t include reading at the computer for long. I’m hoping that it will calm down a bit before the end of next month, when I will be moving to a new place, getting Patty and I out of this erstwhile Peyton Place….

For now, I see I’ve blathered sufficiently for one morning, and should get on with the rest of the day’s effort, so…. Shall we Pearl?

Triumphal arch, that fill’st the sky
When storms prepare to part,
I ask not proud Philosophy
To teach me what thou art.

— Thomas Campbell (1777-1844) — To the Rainbow
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Smart Bee seems to have its own idea of what to include in this section today; the following five quotes pulled themselves out and made themselves obvious in a short span of about three minutes….. Who am I to argue with such confidence? I believe it is a short observation of the perils and joys of parenting, with some pithy comments about how much FUN it can be….. And, yes, that was supposed to be ironic…. or, at least, sardonic…. Don’t worry, though, no matter how critical or sarcastic discussion of it may be, parenting remains our most challenging, and most rewarding, human pastime…. provided, of course, one lives through it….. Enjoy!…..

“When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much he had learned in seven years.” — Mark Twain

“‘Tis better to be alone than in the company of fools.” — Bobby Matherne, American Philosopher (1940-)

To be clear… this is not about the company of children, but a general lesson I tried to pass on to my son, as it came from my father to me….

“There are more horses’ asses in this world than there are horses.” — Grandma Soderquist’s conclusion

Another lesson I received, and hopefully, passed on….

“Children aren’t happy without something to ignore, and that’s what parents were created for.” — Ogden Nash

“Children begin by loving their parents. After a time they judge them. Rarely, if ever, do they forgive them.” — Oscar Wilde

Remember, Oscar was a cynic of the first degree, and didn’t, as far as I know, have children of his own, so his comments need to be filtered through that data…. Perfectly truthful, though, as he seems not to have realized how difficult is the task of raising a genius, with an uncompromisingly honest, if injured, personality such as his own, a task uncomfortably endured by his own parents….

“I hope I never get so old I get religious.” — Ingmar Bergman

Oops! How did that slip in there? Sorry, ffolkes, Smart Bee thought it would play me for a fool, and slip in its own advice…. which, in this case, is just fine… It doesn’t make any sense, but it is still good parenting advice, so it can stay…. Now, for one last zinger….

“No matter what, they’ll always be your babies.” — Mom’s Hint #065

Okay, so it isn’t a zinger…. it IS, however, the whole point, though, isn’t it?……
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My own poetic output is still blocked up, but I always know where to find something worth including…. funny how it is almost always from another century…..

A Bard’s Epitaph

Is there a whim-inspired fool,
Owre fast for thought, owre hot for rule,
Owre blate to seek, owre proud to snool,
Let him draw near;
And owre this grassy heap sing dool,
And drap a tear.

Is there a bard of rustic song,
Who, noteless, steals the crowds among,
That weekly this area throng,
O, pass not by!
But, with a frater-feeling strong,
Here, heave a sigh.

Is there a man, whose judgment clear
Can others teach the course to steer,
Yet runs, himself, life’s mad career,
Wild as the wave,
Here pause-and, thro’ the starting tear,
Survey this grave.

The poor inhabitant below
Was quick to learn the wise to know,
And keenly felt the friendly glow,
And softer flame;
But thoughtless follies laid him low,
And stain’d his name!

Reader, attend! whether thy soul
Soars fancy’s flights beyond the pole,
Or darkling grubs this earthly hole,
In low pursuit:
Know, prudent, cautious, self-control
Is wisdom’s root.

~~ Robert Burns ~~

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“No matter how cynical you get, it’s impossible to keep up.” — Lily Tomlin

Yesterday, I began the day with a rant of considerable length, and threatened to expound further in future blogs. It would be, and will be, relatively easy to come up with one, given the state of the news I’ve seen since returning to reality from the cruise ship. The Zimmerman trial is over, and justice was NOT served; Texas, along with more than 10 other states, is attempting to pass legislation that will put the cause of women’s rights back fifty years, with the apparent blessing of the Supreme Court. Drones are still being employed to spy on American citizens in their own homes, and the NSA and FBI are diligently monitoring the communications devices of Americans along with those of the rest of the world, gathering data about each and every one of us, all without our knowledge, and, hopefully, without our approval…..

These four issues are only a small part of what is going on in the world today, as the forces of the corporate masters continue to befuddle and confuse the public, spewing their lies and misinformation all over the TV, radio, and internet, using the very technology that can free our minds to control them. The internet, used correctly, can be a liberating influence on the human mind, but, only if its use is unrestricted by all, not just by those in authority. When we allow the government to stick its fingers into the media pie, whether print or digital, we give up our only hope of keeping track of what our ostensible leaders are up to, and may as well just hand over the keys to our entire lives to them…..

“The capitalist can only make a whole people go to war — want war, clamor for war as, again and again, we have seen whole peoples doing — by capturing the popular will. The only prophylactic against that situation is to make the public aware of the way in which it is being misled.” — Sir Norman Angell (1872-1967)

Obviously, this principle is not new…. yet, when the government’s malfeasance is confirmed by evidence for people can see, they act surprised, and can’t believe their own leaders would do that to them! Even the media we have, who ignore so much of what transpires, can’t help but give clues in the news each day; they do, however, try to downplay any suggestions of wrongdoing by those who are in power; it doesn’t do to annoy the entity that feeds you, and the media is fully aware of their own complicity. They just don’t care, any more than the sociopaths who are in the government….

You may have detected a certain degree of bitterness in my writing today; good catch. I’m right pissed is what I am. I’m getting tired of how those in positions of authority seem to no longer even care if they are caught lying, or cheating; they just blithely go on doing what they’re going to do, offering up some weak justification that doesn’t make any sense, knowing the public cannot DO anything about it. Once in office, there is very little recourse for us voters; we just have to live with whatever we’ve voted in…. Sadly, that is becoming more and more obviously intended to our detriment, not our benefit, but, hey! We voted, didn’t we? You betcha….

Not like our votes meant anything, when both sides of the political scene are corrupt, and intent on carrying out their own agendas, which have nothing to do with benefiting the public. No, as my lady said yesterday, our votes don’t really mean anything, and won’t, until we make at least a start at reforming our corrupt government…. beginning with the elimination of the electoral college, a device most useful for hiding the true purposes of the powered elite. Intended as a protection for the landed owners who framed the constitution, it guarantees that only those with sufficient financial resources can ever truly control the outcome of elections, making the popular vote a mere sop to the collective conscience of the public, as it has no real final effect on who gets into office…..

Bah, humbug! That’s enough for one day…. None of what I’m saying is particularly hard to figure out, or to see, if one is a careful observer of society. But, none of it will convince most folks that they are trapped in an  untenable position, unless they are willing to admit their own complicity in creating the issues. We all are a part of the problem, and it will take a great number of ffolkes a lot of effort to get us out of it, if we possibly can. Sadly, I don’t see a lot of hope for mankind as a whole. Our species is killing itself, by fouling our own nest, making it, at the least, more difficult to live in, and, ultimately, making it impossible to survive…. The evidence is clear, for those with eyes to see….

“Real eyes realize real lies.” — Anonymous: seen on a wall in a combat zone somewhere in the middle east…..
_____________________________

“I love KATRINKA because she drives a PONTIAC.
We’re going away now.
I fed the cat.
Zippy”

— Zippy the Pinhead

I’m rushing a bit to get done with this, as I’ve got a dental appointment later, and need time to fret about that…. Not really, but, I do have other stuff to do first, so let’s see how this went today….. Be right back…. Well, I’m pleasantly surprised…. it’s better than I’d hoped…. I hope y’all agree, and, if not, well, feel free to tell me why not…. remembering, of course, as would all MY readers, to refrain from vituperation or loss of emotional control… I hates drama….   😆    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

dozer3

Alternate utopian states for sale or trade….

Posted on by
2

Ffolkes,

“If passion drives you, let reason hold the reins.” — Benjamin Franklin

Far be it from me to generalize, but, boy, those Floridians sure are stupid assholes…. Not only have they acted out one of the most egregious shambles of justice in recent memory, right out there on the national news arena, but seem to be unaware of just how asinine, repressive, and downright mean their public display of prejudice has come across to the rest of the world. I mean, it was obvious from the beginning that this was a racially motivated killing, carried out by someone who should never have been allowed to carry a gun, much less act as a neighborhood patrolman while carrying it.

The reaction by the local police, and the subsequent dragging of heels in prosecuting the murderer, were so obviously racist, and prejudiced against the victim, it was painful to watch, as the police and judicial system there in that den of ignorance they call a state failed in their investigations, time after time, and point after point. The judge in the case was so obviously supportive of the defense, ruling against any prosecution evidence that made it appear as if the defendant was guilty, it was as if the rule of law was entirely suspended, in favor of the rule of white prejudice. There is now no further excuse for not releasing them all from the Union, cutting them off from the rest of polite society, and hopefully, watching them sink into the Caribbean Sea….

I’m speaking, of course, of the George Zimmerman trial that just ended in Florida, to the immense shame of the American people. I suppose one shouldn’t be surprised, as this is Florida, where they elected one Jeb Bush, a functional illiterate, as their governor, and the site where the last Bush to hold office in the White House, George the Lesser Shrub, won his first presidential election by cheating…. It is also where he was hiding, there among his most rabid supporters, reading a book to first graders in a school (I’m pretty sure they chose first grade because he couldn’t read at a second grade level….), when they informed him of the attacks on 9/11/01….

“You take the lies out of him, and he’ll shrink to the size of your hat; you take the malice out of him, and he’ll disappear.” — Mark Twain

C’mon, you remember, when he completely froze, on camera, for over seven minutes, absolutely flabbergasted, until someone told him he should move, and at least LOOK like a president….. I guess he was totally surprised, because his dad forgot to mention he was having it done for him, to keep the election investigations that were brewing from taking place…..  It was a brilliant strategy, that worked perfectly to distract the American public from the cheating that had gone on in the 2000 election, this time in Ohio…..

I always thought the timing on that was pretty suspicious, coming as it did immediately upon the heels of the announcement regarding an investigation, one that was being considered to look into the voter suppression, and voting machine sabotage, that took place in Ohio in November of 2000, events that ended up giving the state to Bush in the election, by securing the victory in the electoral college, as opposed to the popular vote, which was won handily by Gore, of course….. Immediately after the announcement of the impending investigation into those events, the attacks took place in New York and Washington, completely drawing the public’s attention away from the election fracas, and making sure it stayed there….

Since that time, our rights have disappeared, one by one, until now, as we see by this farce of a trial, even murderers can get away with their actions, as long as the victim isn’t white…. It is a sad day for this country, and I don’t care who you are, if you think that the trial was an example of how our justice system is supposed to work, then you are a part of the problem…. I see this trial as an example of how far down the road to totalitarianism we have come, with much of the blame for it to be placed with the media…. but, that is another rant altogether, so we’ll save it for later….

This trial is an example of how far our system has been twisted and perverted to serve the interests of the white corporate masters who control society, in my opinion.  It is now out in the open just how perverted even the judicial system has become, without even considering how our elections are fixed by skilled liars, and a cowardly media, or how corrupt the Congress has become, with lobbyists shelling out millions of dollars each week to buy their way to favored legislation. When a murderer is allowed to walk free, because of manipulation of the law in favor of the perpetrator, then it is time to change the law, because it is no longer protecting society, only those parts of it whose skin is the correct color….

What really irks me is how the media has reported all this as if it is straight news, not slanting it in any direction that might indicate disapproval, or support, for that matter…. It is as if the media all agreed to not become outraged, or allow any discussion at length, for whatever unknown reasons they may have. If they are trying to remain neutral, to increase their credibility, it is too little, too late, as this has been proven not just ineffective, but immoral. If we don’t have the media to report about injustice, outrage included, then we, as free men, have no recourse at all…. Think about it….

Me, I just noticed that I started this rant in the intro, and busted right through into another day, fueled on outrage alone…. I guess I can quit for now, and get on with some other stuff…. My opinion here is now clear…. If you didn’t catch on, I am pissed, royally, and likely to expound on this at great length for some time…. I had hoped, a bit, not to have to do this; I had hoped that a verdict of guilt would be found, as was so obviously warranted by the events as reported, or surmised by what was NOT reported… But, once again, the BRC has seen fit to allow this bullshit to get past their censors, thereby indicating even further how little regard for the common man they possess, and it pisses me off no end….

Ah well, there is little I can do about it right now, other than to rant when I can, so, for now, I guess I’ll go for a dive…. Shall we Pearl?…..

“That truth cannot be material in any respect, is contrary to the nature of things.  No tribunal, no codes, no systems can repeal or impair this law of God, for by his eternal laws it is inherent in the nature of things … It is evident that if you cannot apply this mitigated doctrine for which I speak … you must for ever remain ignorant of what your rulers do.  I can never think this ought to be; I never did think the truth was a crime; I am glad the day is come in which it is to be decided; for my soul has ever abhorred the thought, that a free man dared not speak the truth.” — Alexander Hamilton
_____________________________

After such a powerful start to the day, I need something a bit less intense, so I’ll be starting a random, harlequin pearl, and hope the results can live up to such a grandiose beginning…. Let’s see….

“The shortest distance between two people is laughter.” — Victor Borge

“Cherish your friends!  The most essential thing for happiness is the gift of friendship.” — Smart Bee

“Listen: there’s a hell of a good universe next door; let’s go.” — E.E. Cummings (1894-1963)

“Difficulties are things that show what men are.” — Epictetus (c. 60 AD) — Discourses, Book i, Chap. xxiv

“Remember, ‘nowhere’ is also ‘now here’.” — Smart Bee

“The fear of death keeps us from living, not from dying.” — Paul C. Roud

“It is the edge and temper of the blade that make a good sword, not the richness of the scabbard; and so it is not money or possessions that make man considerable, but his virtue.” — Seneca (B.C. 3-65 A.D.)

Well, it meandered around a bit, but, managed to get to the finish line with a strong flurry there at the end…. I’ll take it…..  Besides, we all know I’m lazy, and it’s done now, so…. onward….
_____________________________

I feel a poem in there, trying to get out…. Anything  I write today would be too depressing, I think; I also don’t think it’s quite ready, so I’ll have to sublimate…. In times such as these, I tend to go to old favorites, so…. simple it is….

There is another sky,
Ever serene and fair,
And there is another sunshine,
Though it be darkness there;
Never mind faded forests, Austin,
Never mind silent fields –
Here is a little forest,
Whose leaf is ever green;
Here is a brighter garden,
Where not a frost has been;
In its unfading flowers
I hear the bright bee hum;
Prithee, my brother,
Into my garden come!

~~ Emily Dickinson ~~

_____________________________

Our last port of call, Victoria, British Columbia, was the only stop we made in a foreign country, such as it is…. foreign, I mean…. Canada IS technically a foreign country, but, for us Americans, the only practical consideration of that fact is the frequent use of the suffix, “eh?” that peppers their version of English, causing us to smile, at best, and smirk, at worst… Personally, I think it’s cool, if a bit habitual, but, what do you expect from folks who are fond of deep fried gravy?  😆

Just a joke, ffolkes…. every Canadian I’ve ever met was a nice person; I think it is something they test for in school or something, and won’t let anyone out of the country without being certified as such. I’m certain it’s true of anyone they allow to deal with American tourists, as even the border guards, despite their boring duty stations, were pleasant, if not actively smiley and cheerful…. They were nice enough to stamp our passports when we asked them to, so it would show we had been there, so, we were happy with that…

Due to a misunderstanding on my bozoid part, the horse-drawn carriage I had thought I had arranged fell through, but, we ended up taking a pedi-cab tour of the city, a three-wheeled bike with a seat over the back axle, pedaled by one Josh, originally from Ontario, I believe, a very tall, slender young man, again with a very pleasant, personable manner, and a good knowledge of the city’s attractions. He took us on an unconventional route, (we only saw a couple other tourists on the route he followed, but saw all the same places…. as he was smart enough to travel it in reverse to the general run of bikers…), through old neighborhoods, with beautifully restored and maintained houses, and through a beautifully serene setting, Beacon Hill Park, before riding through downtown to see the Empress Hotel and Parliament Building, right by the city harbor….

In the park, we saw some outstanding unique flora, trees and flowers of all kinds, brought from all over the world, with beautifully landscaped gardens, flowers blooming profusely in the early summer sunlight, trees hundreds of years old, the tallest totem pole in the world made from a single piece of wood, black (!) squirrels, eagles’ nests, turtles, ducks, geese peacocks, a petting zoo, and all kinds of people walking the meandering paths. In the harbor, downtown, a show was going on, with small boats in the yacht basin performing a graceful water dance to a Strauss Waltz, while thousands of people all around watched, standing around enjoying the beautifully sunny day….

It was a Sunday, and though our ship was the only one in town, they were also celebrating an LGBT Pride Day, with a parade scheduled, and costumed revelers of all descriptions wandering the streets among the tourists in the shops…. It was quite a scene, as traffic was horrendous, due to a major street closure due to a burst pipeline; our driver had to be creative, and persuasive, to get the traffic wardens to allow him through several parts on the way back to the ship….. All in all, it was a wonderful day, great fun, and a worthy ending to our travels…. I hope you enjoy the pictures I got of the places we went…. they’re the best of the lot, I think….
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Okay, well, that was quite an outburst…. I tried to be a bit more thorough in my description of Victoria, BC, than I was previously about the Alaskan stops we made… It was a lot of fun, and I would love to go back some day to further explore the city, maybe try out a few restaurants… Any who, it’s done for today, and should meet all legal requirements, if not those of good taste…. Let’s see how it reads….. Okay, so maybe a Pulitzer isn’t out of the question…. HAH! NOT!…. But, it will do for our meager purposes….  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

dozer3

Left to our own devices, we drift…..

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3

Ffolkes,

Sleep, it has been said, is a weapon, a metaphorical adage in which I firmly believe, though one is not always certain against whom the weapon is to be employed. Since returning from the trip, I’ve slept really well, compared to the time before I left, and it is indeed a blessing, though not without its own conundrums to be addressed….. Such as, it is now already almost 0715 in the morning, and I’m just now getting these first words on screen. This is, I’m sure, the latest I’ve gotten started in a couple of years, if not ever, and I’m unsure how to deal with it. I’m almost tempted to break out the new computer, and see what kind of real damage I can cause over there….. But, it is not yet optimized for this process, and this needs to get going, so, onward, as they say downtown…..

Naturally, nobody you’ve ever seen or heard has EVER said “onward” to you, in just that way, other than me….. as a result, you are naturally predisposed to respond instantly, going along with whatever is said, especially if I say it in a rich baritone that reminds you of a TV pundit, or news anchor-type. Don’t fret, you can’t help it, we are all trained to react like that, although some of us have eradicated the bonds our early conditioning has placed on us, through the application of copious amounts of ironic sarcasm, and good, old-fashioned doubt. It doesn’t take long, and is ultimately quite cleansing, not to mention refreshing, so, take a few moments whenever you can, to shake off some of that pre-adolescent brainwashing y’all received, in school and during morning cartoons, so that you can get a clearer, more colorful view of reality….

I like to shake it off every chance I get, kind of like a dog shaking off water after a jump in the pond, and find it to be one of the most advantageous activities I can pursue, giving me, as it does, a viewpoint that is totally unavailable to those who go through life wearing the blinders and sun shades that the BRC and the Dogmatists supply to everyone who will wear them. Of course, these accessories also give their wearers the boon (?!!!?) of ignorance, which has been equated to bliss more than once. It’s hard to compete with bliss, and reality doesn’t even try very hard to do so, as it realizes people will do just what they want, consisting mostly of what is easiest for them…

There, let no one say that I haven’t ranted…. The foregoing could  be construed as a rant, with ignorance and willful stupidity as the targets, and, at this point, I’ll take whatever I can get in that respect. Actually, I’ve been reading the news, and the amount of rampant idiocy being played out these days is reaching a point where picking a subject for a rant will be pretty simple….

There’s the gay marriage contortions going on in the religious right, as they continue to panic over the recent Supreme Court blows to their delusional demands for protection from the nasty old homosexuals…. Or, there are the the shouts of indignation from the world of women, as the male dominated Texas state legislature continues to parade their own brand of asininity for all to see, with new legislation set to take rights away from women, rights the rest of the world forgot were disputed…. I mean, confiscating tampons? What is that  all about?….. The patriotic whistleblower, Eric Snowden is considering accepting amnesty in RUSSIA? The world is indeed going mad, and not slowly, ffolkes…. I don’t know if I’ll be able to write fast enough to get it all down before the cataclysm takes us all….

Ah well, that won’t happen today, though it could happen next week, so I guess I’ll try to get another Pearl done before it all goes away, and I have nobody left to talk to, or about….

Shall we Pearl?…..
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I am often struck by the contrasts that abound in reality, and though they don’t always leave a mark, they always leave an impression. This is not to say I walk around with the finger-marks of reality’s ire on my face all the time, but, it DOES happen perhaps more often than it should, given my overall flexibility and willingness to go with the flow. And then there are the times, like now, when I have not a bloody clue as to what the hell I’m talking about, even to myself…. Times like this, I just let Smart Bee have its way, and pick out whatever pearls seem appropriate for the day…. Hence, these fine, lustrous gems, that make a sharp little point, and save my ass from the depths of introspective flagellation, turning it to more of a caress than a blow….

“The flesh surrenders itself. Eternity takes back its own. Our bodies stirred these waters briefly, danced with a certain intoxication before the love of life and self, dealt with a few strange ideas, then submitted to the instruments of Time. What can we say of this? I occurred. I am not… yet I occurred.” — Frank Herbert, Dune Messiah

“There is Moral Sense, and there is an Immoral Sense. History shows us that the Moral Sense enables us to perceive morality and how to avoid it, and that the Immoral Sense enables us to perceive immorality and how to enjoy it.” — Mark Twain

“The old patterns of the hero’s quest still hold true. The latest incarnation of Oedipus is standing at the corner of 5th Avenue and 42nd Street waiting for the lights to change.” — Joseph Campbell

“That which leads us to the performance of duty by offering pleasure as its reward, is not virtue, but a deceptive copy and imitation of virtue.” — Cicero (B.C. 106-43)

“Words ought to be a little wild for they are the assaults of thought on the unthinking.” — John Maynard Keynes

Wonderful! But, somehow, incomplete…. hmm, let’s see what we can find to shore up the leak….

“Experience keeps a dear school, but fools will learn in no other, and scarcely in that; for it is true, we may give advice, but we cannot give conduct.Remember this: They that will not be counseled cannot be helped. If you do not hear reason she will rap you over the knuckles.” — Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) — Maxims prefixed to Poor Richard’s Almanac, 1757

“I’ve got an IDEA!!  Why don’t I STARE at you so HARD,  you forget your SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER!!” — Zippy the Pinhead

Sometimes, it is almost scary how Zippy is able to provide the proper ending to so many pearls….. just scary…..
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Here is a poem by one of my favorite poets, a man often underrated by critics, but, one who remains ever-popular, and none more deservedly so….

Old Men

People expect old men to die,
They do not really mourn old men.
Old men are different. People look
At them with eyes that wonder when…
People watch with unshocked eyes;
But the old men know when an old man dies.

~~ Ogden Nash ~~

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It is hard to know what to write about our cruise into Tracy Arm Fjord…. It was, I suppose, the real purpose of going on such cruises, to see the types of landscapes, and wildlife, that are not to be seen anywhere else. I must confess, the sail up the channel, to the point where the glacier could be seen, definitely passed through some very gorgeous, and very wild country, places where it was instantly obvious that no man had ever trod the land we were seeing….. Sheer mountains reaching steeply down to the shore of the channel, to the water, an eerie shade of blue due to algae and bacteria unique to the ice chunks floating there, broken off from the glacier…..

There is almost no noise, other than the noises made by the ship as it slowly moved up the river… We passed small islands covered in vegetation, while on either side, long, skinny,white-water streams snaked down the sides of the mountains, converging together to flow down to the shore, where small waterfalls emptied into the slow moving water of the channel, which was dotted with chunks of ice and snow, miniature icebergs from the edges of the larger calves from the glacier at the head of the fjord….

The ship had a naturalist on board to give a talk about the landscape and scientific nature of the glacier and the surrounding countryside, including the animals that were common to the area, such as bears, moose, and mountain goats, in places. Unfortunately, the man they chose happened to have the most BORING tone of voice possible, soft, deep, and paced so slow one almost fell into it. He also possessed some unfortunate speech habits (such as long pauses in the middle of sentences, so long I suspected him of having a stroke in the middle of speaking….), that caused instant yawning in everyone I saw on deck taking pictures…… Dangerous, with so many folks hanging over the rails to get their shots….

The ship traversed to a point where the head of the glacier was in view, at a bend in the river, where the way closer was blocked by ice and a small island. The huge vessel then proceeded to spin neatly on its axis, turning completely around to face downstream, sat for a bit to allow folks on the other side to get their pictures, then slowly headed back down the river toward the open ocean, to head for our next stop, Victoria, on Victoria Island, in British Columbia, Canada.

Below are the pictures I got from the trip up and down the Tracy Arm river channel, and of the glacier…. I hope you enjoy them…. In spite of the cold air, and eerie silence that permeated the entire scene there on the river, it was a fascinating land to see, and well worth braving the cold to get the shots I did get…


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Without comment, I read through the above, and can therefore say it is done, if not exactly Pulitzer-worthy….. But, then, I’ve yet to even come close to that, except for perhaps a line or two at a time, somewhere during the last two-plus years of writing, so it doesn’t fret me at all…. In fact, just the state of done-ness is sufficient for my needs, as is patently obvious by now….. As it has been said, whatever….. I do care, just not right now…. And, as usual, I have no idea what that means…… Oh, well…..   I hope y’all enjoyed today’s effort…..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

dozer3

Luring nuns back into the habit….

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1

Ffolkes,

Whereas, the production of this blog is essential to the proper functioning of my mind, and, hence, my life, and, whereas, producing said blog has saved my sanity on numerous occasions, and, whereas, nobody has stepped forward to tell me to stop, it is hereby decreed that publication will continue until death, or, more appropriately, until someone cries for mercy…….  gigoid has spoken… so be it….

Sorry, just have to make it official now and then, to appease the gods of bureaucracy, that, despite having been retired for about three and a half years now, still have some influence on my actions, volitional as they may be at other times. It’s kind of like knocking on wood, or throwing salt over your shoulder when you spill it; old habits and superstitions die hard, and one never knows when one of the elder gods will take offense at something we’ve done to unconsciously insult them. It’s best to cover all the bases, as it were, right? No point in taking foolish chances, not in reality; it bites……

Now that is out of the way, I can dive right into today’s display of temper, or outburst of creativity, or just plain drivel (as is usually the case…), searching for just the perfect pearl to start things off…. You see, it’s all a random process, and I never know beforehand just what I’ll be doing, or where we’ll be heading off to to find something worth writing about…..

I’ve been watching the news, and the usual suspects are busily carrying on the normal course of idiocy out there in the public venue; I’ve even seen a couple of items that stirred me to write, almost…. However, the afterglow of contentment I have in my attitude bag from the cruise seems to have blunted my rant mode, at least temporarily….

Who knows? Not me…..It could pop out at any time, so, we’ll see what’s up when I begin to peruse Smart Bee in a few moments…. The first viewing of that little gem is always a surprise, as I never know if it will cooperate, or pretend to be dumber than it looks. It can be a pain, fortunately infrequently, but still on a regular basis, and I have no way to determine how it will act beforehand…. yet another example of how metaphor is everywhere in life, once one learns to see and appreciate its immense variety, as well as its ubiquitous presence as part of the fabric of reality…. which  brings us around once again to where we need to be, poised and ready to dive in and begin the search for pearls of virtual wisdom…..

Shall we Pearl?…..

“When the ten thousand things are seen in their oneness, we return to the source to remain where we have always been.” — Seng Ts’un.
_____________________________

“Place your clothes and weapons where you can find them in the dark.” — Lazarus Long, from Robert A. Heinlein’s “Time Enough For Love”

Since we were talking about metaphor, and the power of the Metaphorse in reality (well, I  was talking about it…..), the above is a perfect lead-in to a discussion of the finer points of how to take advantage of this phenomenon, or, at the very least, minimize the damage that NOT knowing, or not caring, can bring to those who ignore its power…..

Fortunately for y’all, I suspect my brain is still a bit too fuzzy to get into the subject deeply enough to make the correct point, or, sigh, to make the point correctly, (for any grammar Nazis out there….); making it incorrectly could conceivably cause even more damage…. Naturally, I’ll resort to my tried and true method for hiding my own shortcomings, and use the very power of which I speak, to put the message into an old-school pearl…. The point of this one should, by now, be completely transparent…. if not, well, there’s always tomorrow….. To preclude any whining, this will NOT be on the Quiz…..

“Beware the man of one book.” — St. Thomas Aquinas

“The impression forces itself upon one that men measure by false standards, that everyone seeks power, success, riches for himself, and admires others who attain them, while undervaluing the truly precious thing in life.” — Sigmund Freud

“Force has no place where there is need of skill.” — Herodotus

“It is terrible to contemplate how few politicians are hanged.” — G. K. Chesterton, The Cleveland Press, 3/1/21

“I don’t want to panic, but my alphabet soup says, “Forget about me … just try to save yourself.”” — Tom Wilson (“Ziggy”)

Don’t have it yet? Okay, okay, I’ll clarify…. but, you only get two more….. if you don’t have it by then, well, I’ve failed, and will go shoot myself….I don’t want to die, so, please, pay attention…..

“God may be in the details, but it is also important to know the big picture.” — Deng Ming-Dao

“There’s only one way to kill a rat…” — Robert A. Heinlein

There…. it seemed only fitting to finish with Heinlein, as I’m a firm believer in the old Irish adage of “Begin as you mean to go on….”  Whoops, it’s another metaphor…. Okay, I’m done for now…
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I offer no apologies for the poems I pick to include in this section, but feel I should explain why they sometimes don’t fit with the rest of the Pearl, attitudinally (if that is a word….) (hmm, must be a word, because the spell checker didn’t even flinch…)…. Actually, it’s quite simple…. I use the same random method for this as for picking pearls…. If it grabs my eye and my fancy, it stays, even when it has little or nothing to do with the rest of the post… In this case, it is not altogether out of line, but, no matter, because it is one of my favorite poems….. Enjoy!…..

And Death Shall Have No Dominion

And death shall have no dominion.
Dead man naked they shall be one
With the man in the wind and the west moon;
When their bones are picked clean and the clean bones gone,
They shall have stars at elbow and foot;
Though they go mad they shall be sane,
Though they sink through the sea they shall rise again;
Though lovers be lost love shall not;
And death shall have no dominion.

And death shall have no dominion.
Under the windings of the sea
They lying long shall not die windily;
Twisting on racks when sinews give way,
Strapped to a wheel, yet they shall not break;
Faith in their hands shall snap in two,
And the unicorn evils run them through;
Split all ends up they shan’t crack;
And death shall have no dominion.

And death shall have no dominion.
No more may gulls cry at their ears
Or waves break loud on the seashores;
Where blew a flower may a flower no more
Lift its head to the blows of the rain;
Though they be mad and dead as nails,
Heads of the characters hammer through daisies;
Break in the sun till the sun breaks down,
And death shall have no dominion.

~~ Dylan Thomas ~~

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Whew! For a moment, I thought it was time for a rant, and I don’t have one on tap…. but, then I remembered it’s time for the next installment of the Alaskan Adventures…. Good thing!

After the intense (NOT!) experience of exploring Icy Point Strait and the booming Alaskan village of Hoonah, the ship sailed overnight to Juneau, where we spent the 4th of July, sans any overt displays of either fireworks, or excessive celebration of the holiday in a formal sense…. (Who needs a party when you’ve got some guy on board wearing a sleeveless American flag t-shirt with his used-to-be-greyish-white Bermuda shorts and flip flops, sweating his way through the buffet line?….)

A formal party wasn’t necessary, as we were docked at 7 AM, with two other huge cruise ships anchored in front of us, and another pulling in behind just after breakfast…. There was another Princess ship, a Holland American ship, and a Norwegian Cruises ship (shown below). This meant that close to 12,000 people were in town for the day; our own ship wasn’t scheduled to depart until midnight, due to a miscommunication with the town authorities….

It seemed as if at least 5 or 6,000 of them were walking around at any one time, all hell-bent on finding another 3D magnet or Tanzanite necklace…. If I’d still been in my twenties or thirties, I might have joined in the fracas at the Red Dog Saloon, one of Alaska’s oldest taverns, but, being 62, I just went back to the ship and took a nap after my (for me) extensive walk….

It seems that Juneau sets off its fireworks display for the 4th at midnight of the night before, to ring in the day with the hullabaloo rather than end it that way. (Alaskans are different, trust me…. They work at it….) Unfortunately, this didn’t get into the memo that Princess received, so we were there for the duration, with only the local stores and bars in which to while away the hours (a mistake for which I’m sure they were eternally grateful….).

I went a bit nuts again on the souvenirs, but did find all we needed to cover everyone on our lists, finding some rather cool stuff (gotta love that fake snow!….). We also overdid it on the walking, going ashore twice, and hoofing it about 2 miles each time, walking down the pleasant wharf-side path past the ships, or passing among the crowds on the sidewalks in front of the myriad of shops, bars, and restaurants that lined the streets nearby.

Having looked over the last two posts, and this one, I have to say I’m a bit disappointed in my pictures. I had thought I got more, and that they were better, but, so far they’re not up to snuff…. The next couple of days, in Tracy Arm Fjord and Victoria, will show a little better, though, as I got the hang of the camera better, and took more shots… I hope you enjoy these as much as I do, and did while taking them…..


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Very well, then…. I shall now go peruse my effort….. Not too shabby, but needed a bit of punch-up, now done. Therefore, with no further ado, I shall take my leave, to go forth unto the new day, hopeful…. foolishly, perhaps, but hopeful, nonetheless….. I am, after all, getting fairly adept at this living stuff…..  Now, if I can only learn to do it well…..  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

dozer3