Full page translations are our specialty….

Posted on June 10, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

I am frequently (adjective TBA) (Okay, we’ll use “bemused” for wont of anything more accurate….) bemused to learn something new about people, especially myself….. In the process of checking my bank account online, to see if my SS allowance had been deposited, I became aware of the power of certain feelings, engendered by the mere presence, or absence of resources… In essence, just the mere fact of having a significantly useful amount of money to use is enough to stimulate feelings of extreme relief, almost a giddy joy, which is probably a reaction to NOT feeling the stressful worry that goes along with NOT having enough resources on hand….

In today’s world, most of us are only one or two months worth of paychecks from living on the streets, so when our bank account gets too small, it’s a source of constant stress….. Especially when food becomes scarce…. Of course, only the middle and lower classes of society are subject to this process, but, hey, that’s you and me, ffolkes, so it’s not as if you don’t know whereof I speak….

The most difficult feeling with which to cope, for me, is the one that comes to me when I realize that our BRC, our beloved rulers, and their corporate masters, along with their counterparts in the priestly hierarchies, don’t ever have to feel any of that…. They are already rich enough to have passed beyond the level where a month or two of income reduction, or shall we say, reduced profit, because that’s closer to the truth of the matter, won’t have any significant effect on their lives, and certainly wouldn’t cause them to lose their place of residence. In point of fact, they’re rich enough that they don’t have to even THINK about that issue at all…. I would guess that is a very powerful feeling in itself….

Now, I know you’re thinking to yourselves, “there he goes again, ranting in the intro…”, and, you’d no doubt be right. I didn’t intend to start off this way, but, having gone to look at my account, it struck me pretty hard how wide the gap has grown between the rich, and the rest of humanity…. The income differential grows larger each minute, as the system of thievery of the middle classes, and the parasitic assholes who reap the rewards of that theft, continue their pillaging of society without ever slackening pace…. rushing us all along the road to extinction with gleeful madness…

Such ranting has become less than profitable for me, and seems to keep some folks away, which is part of the reason why I’m looking around for new ways to interest my readers…. I hate feeling this crap, and hate the fact that the world is set up in such a way as to allow the rich and powerful to do pretty much whatever they want, and the rest of us suck hind teat…. SIGH….

It just makes me want to go out & buy that gun I keep promising to obtain…. But, I know that soon after doing so, I’d have to keep one of the first rules of gun ownership, to wit: If you are going to keep your gun loaded, then only pick it up when you are prepared to fire it….. My only problem with that is the difficulty in CHOOSING a target; there are a LOT of them out there that are worth one of my bullets…. It’s all the more attractive as I think about how GOOD I’d feel after taking down a couple of those assholes who have more money than morals…. tempting, indeed…

For now, though, I’ll content myself with that, and get on with today’s business, such as it is…. At least this will keep me from SPENDING all that money for a few hours….

Shall we Pearl?…..

“If a person is to get the meaning of life he must learn to like the facts about himself — ugly as they may seem to his sentimental vanity — before he can learn the truth behind the facts. And the truth is never ugly.” — Eugene O’Neill

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I am beginning to enjoy creating these pictorial pearls; both the processes involved are fun, and good for me in more than one respect. It’s a total win/win issue, in my book, so, I’ll keep at it, as it seems to keep getting a bit better each time…. Let’s see what happens today…. I’ve got a seven-star group of pictures, five mine, one stolen from somewhere on the net that is terminally cute, and one from the London Daily Mail, I believe, with a papal picture, which, if it isn’t, should be in the public domain, and you’ll see why below, when you see it….

I’m trying a new technique with this pearl…. there will be a quote after each picture, but, no comments, unless necessary to comply with legal or ethical considerations… whatever that means…. Enjoy!…..

“Facts cannot prevail against faith, or adamant folly.”– Smart Bee

“Who is it that can tell me who I am?” — William Shakespeare, King Lear

Okay, one comment…. I like this Pope; as popes go, he’s pretty inoffensive, which is more than can be said of most of them. This one, at least, seems to be a true Christian, and seems sincere in his commitment to live his live after the manner of Jesus Christ, that misunderstood social reformer…. This picture gives a good impression of his nature, which to me seems to be one that is close to nature, and to joy, which is why his expression here is so infectious; he’s completely happy to be playing around, and is obviously enjoying his moment with the athletes…. It’s also a good picture to show off some diversity, with four different skin tones in the picture….

“Well, I used to look like this when I was young, and now I still do.” — Yogi Berra

If a lawyer and an IRS agent were both drowning, and you could only save one of them, would you go to lunch or read the paper? — Smart Bee

“All societies are based on rules to protect pregnant women and young children. All else is surplusage, excrescence, adornment, luxury, or folly which can – and must – be dumped in emergency to preserve this prime function. As racial survival is the only universal morality, no other basic is possible. Attempts to formulate a “perfect society” on any other foundation other than “Women and children first!” is not only witless, it is automatically genocidal. Nevertheless, starry-eyed idealists (all of them male) have tried endlessly- and no doubt will keep on trying.” — Lazarus Long, from Robert A. Heinlein’s “Time Enough For Love”

“You can best serve civilization by being against what usually passes for it.” — Wendell Berry

“We are shaped by our thoughts; we become what we think. When the mind is pure, joy follows like a shadow that never leaves.” — Buddha, The Dharmapada

Well, there you have it…. If nothing else worthwhile happens, you can still say you’ve seen the picture above, of the little girl and her monstrously huge dog…. My eyes fill up just looking at this; you can tell by his whole demeanor, expression, stance, that dog would KILL for that little girl, and she knows it…. You can see the love on her face, and her determination to take care of him….. I keep this picture on my desktop, so I can open it up occasionally, and absorb the absolute love from both of them…. I AM a sucker for dogs & kids, that’s for sure….

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Once again, this poem is mine, because I’m tired, my brain is revolting, (No, no, not THAT way!…. it’s being recalcitrant, that’s all….), and I am a huge egotist… or something like that…. I hope you enjoy it; it’s one of my own favorites..

After the odyssey….

Portraits of iconic symbols, crashing, singing, forgotten;
evolving into mature innovation, as yet pale, and rotten.
Still water justly breeds, impenetrable primal verses resound;
unholy moments tarry, emotion swirls in passion unbound

Spiritual ovulation precedes each pregnant pause;
gravid, time moves on, following destiny’s cause.
Cast adrift on waves of confusion, to a final, damp landing;
salvation beckons sweetly, fed well on understanding.

Dreams directly fall, in night’s grey bower, unbidden;
lingering flavors in simple taste, lovingly, cleverly hidden.
Childish laughter sounds, joyful, bright, and clear;
no need ever to hide, no more monsters to fear.

Temper most foul arrives under unregistered mail;
forgotten taunts live on, lashed by an ancient flail.
Plain dealing delivers such lasting specks of honest hate;
savage in retrospect, never hasty, always running late.

Forever, cries an ambient lover of the pending night;
his pale, weak issue forms its own failing light.
Still, fortune favors such as those who apprehend;
Sweet love of Gaia, let it never end.

~~ gigoid ~~

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I’m getting fatigued, as mentioned; this has taken a lot of time and energy so far, and I’m not done…. Some of the following pearls came up while I was looking for a few of them for the above picture pearl…. The rest came now, or, will, as soon as I get to it…. Since I’m feeling this way, and have a lot to do today, to go spend a bunch of this money, I’ll forgo the Q&A session planned for here, and get on with collecting the rest of the pearls for this one…. Let’s see if SB can finish strongly….

“If a Nation expects to be ignorant and free in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be … If we are to guard against ignorance and remain free, it is the responsibility of every American to be informed.” — Thomas Jefferson

I’ll drink your health; share your wealth;
run your life; steal your wife …
… you can call this song ‘The United States Blues’.

— The Grateful Dead

“It may be bad manners to talk with your mouth full, but it isn’t too good either if you speak when your head is empty.” — Smart Bee

“Solitude makes a wonderful mistress but a terrible wife.’ — Emerson

“A casual stroll through the lunatic asylum shows that faith does not prove anything.” — Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (1844-1900)

“Everything is in a state of metamorphosis. Thou thyself art in everlasting change and in corruption to correspond; so is the whole universe.” — Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (121-180 AD) — Meditations, ix, 19

“We can do noble acts without ruling earth and sea.” — Aristotle

Not too shabby, I think….

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Whew! Done. So done, I’m just gonna proof, and then poof…. See ya, ffolkes….

Y’all take care out there,
and May the Metaphorse be with you;
Blessed Be, dearest Carole, Mark, and Theresa…
and everyone else, too…

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 the dubious

A line in the sand is often indelible….

Posted on June 9, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

It’s one of those Heyoka days, as the Sioux used to say…. I think it was the Sioux, or one of the other tribes from the Midwest plains, who had the Heyoka concept in their pantheon of beliefs…. Heyoka most easily translates as “opposite” or “contrary to an extreme”…. A Heyoka woman, in their tribe, would always say yes, when she meant no, & no when she meant yes; she would walk backwards, talks backwards, and generally behave in a manner that was completely reversed from normal…. As can be imagined, it made for some interesting times around the old tipi….

I’m up at the usual time, but, so is everyone else, which isn’t all THAT unusual, just odd… The cat is happy, anyway, to have all her human toys awake and available to torment play with; for her, it’s cat heaven. I’m unused to having anyone around while I’m writing, so it’s a bit distracting, but not too much so…. just enough to complain about, as is my custom when presented with a glitch in reality’s normal facade…. I’m not a whiner, as such; I merely believe, as do cats, that it doesn’t hurt to let the universe know what you feel and think about things, with the bonus of getting it OUT of my head, and into the ether, where any negativity clinging to it can be dissipated….

This morning, though, everything seems to be a bit chaotic, somehow… or, perhaps a better word would be “unsettled”…. That’s probably closer to the actual “look and feel” of today (No worries about any suit from Apple on this, we didn’t get anywhere near THEIR “look and feel”…. HAH!….). The upshot of all this has been to take a big bite out of my motivation… In fact, I almost feel like going back to bed, and may just do that after getting this posted….

In fact, since I’m suffering from this motivational mini-crisis, I think I’ll resort to a very early use of method #4, to get this ball rolling down the appropriate hill…. Hmm, I’m guessing, though, it will probably more resemble a the annual Rolling Cheese Chase in England, where all the crazy fools go running down a big hill, chasing after a rolling wheel of cheddar cheese (I THINK it’s cheddar….), in essence to see who is the fastest fool down the hill; the one who reaches bottom first gets the cheese as the prize….. But, it’s okay, I’m not proud, at least not in that respect, so…. just hang on, or sit down & strap in, ‘kay?….

Shall we Pearl?…..

“Wisdom is knowing what to do next; virtue is doing it.” — David Star Jordan, The Philosophy of Despair

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I’m a bit lazy today, as noted above; the coffee doesn’t seem to be quite getting me to where I need to go…. But, I found this older pearl, which is clearly one of the finest pearls I’ve ever done…. and THAT makes it an excellent one to recycle…. Enjoy!….

From 6/4/2012:

To make a long story short: Once upon a time….It was a dark and stormy night……..and they lived happily ever after. — Smart Bee

And I oft have heard defended,
–Little said is soonest mended.

— George Wither (1588-1667) — The Shepherd’s Hunting

As he sat staring into the screen at the last two seemingly unconnected pearls, he began to laugh, slowly at first, then rising in pitch and volume, until the walls rang with the maniacal cacophony. “Madness!”, he thinks, “madness is here, and owns my wretched soul!” Caught in the maelstrom of his own inner conflict, he felt as if he were a drift of snow, blowing away in the howling winds, scattering to all parts of creation, never to be connected, or whole, again….

Yet, even more terrifyingly, Murphy’s henchman, the unthinkable terror of dissolution, holds him prisoner here, refusing to yield the pleasure of devouring every last bit of agony that can be dragged screaming from his beleaguered existence, keeping him anchored to the endless Now, with fear and loathing. Tears flow freely, long undefended by social convention, tears of grief for the lost possibilities, and tears of sadness for the loss of the years gone past.

Yet all things must pass….Remembering at last that the existence of pain is only confirmed by an equal amount of joy, the scale tips, and the duality of reality severs the hold of entropy on his emotions. The clouds disperse, and Murphy, well-pleased, slips laughing into the remaining mists….. Shattered and bloody, he sits, and thinks….

There you go…. long story short….

As long as we’re going insane, we might as well go the whole way. A mere shred of sanity is of no value. — Smart Bee

“Insanity destroys reason, but not wit.” — Nathaniel Emmons

I believe the word you’re looking for is ‘AAAUUGHHH’.

(Note from 2014: Obviously, I found the word I was looking for….)

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Once again, to avoid the possibility of anyone else catching blame for any of this, here is one of my older poems….

Savory

Blown across steppes of imagination, a spore
finds a niche, takes root,
tries to live longer than now, before
chaos/peace descends, and desire is moot.

Feathered into fecundity, another possibility
builds a nest, hatches kin,
aims at immortality, sans responsibility,
chance manifests, as it does, again.

Leading toward peril, entropy saves creativity,
making tools, and lazy time;
solid signs imply such simple nativity,
as another snitch drops his dime.

Subtle compassion billows, passion to unfold,
covering hearts bloodied by time,
burning flesh made valid, unwaveringly bold,
turning love to brilliant rhyme.

Years weigh lightly, supported by youth,
gaining weight with each year,
only the old men know the actual truth,
peace comes only when we lose our fear.

~~ gigoid ~~

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Yesterday, I walked further than I’ve been able to walk for, literally, years…. Slowly, but with dogged perseverance, I walked all the way from my house, to the library, and back…. I had decided I needed to take more pictures, so I took my camera, a book to go back to the library, and headed out into the day, at about 0730, while it was still relatively cool….

It got up to the mid-90’s here yesterday, with the threat of that kind of heat again today…. In response, we already have all the doors & windows open, while cool, to keep it that way…. Later, when the sun comes up, we’ll shut it up, to keep that coolness inside for as long as possible…. We may not deal well with heat, but, between us, we’ve got enough years of experience to know how to deal with it as best we may….

Plus, yesterday, I got a bunch of pretty good shots, of which you’ll find five included below, each with a pearl, and a comment…. Enjoy, please….

“Anyone who isn’t confused really doesn’t understand the situation.” — Edward R. Murrow

Mr. Murrow has been around for most of my life; I seem to remember hearing his name on TV as a very young child, in the 1950’s, which is a fairly long time ago now…. This statement of his has also been around as long as I remember, accepted by almost all as gospel truth, and a pretty good indication of how most people feel about both the world at large, and their own lives…. I would like to point out, with some reluctance, that our beloved ruling class KNOWS this, and likes us to feel this way…. People who are uncertain, and a little afraid, are much easier to control, than those who feel a sense of confidence and hope.

I won’t rant on this, not now; plus, I’ve ranted on this often in the past, so my views are well-known, at least, around here…. Just be sure, if you’re feeling confused at what is going on in the real world, you’re not alone, and you are experiencing the same as most other folks in society…. just the way our beloved rulers like…. Hell, they probably feel a large sense of satisfaction, knowing the majority of mankind is so easily manipulated and controlled…. ‘Nuff said….

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

This is really an important lesson, and one that many in the Western world have trouble assimilating fully. It is well worth anyone’s consideration, as it is truer than most will believe on first sight; such is the value of serendipity in life. Beauty, like wisdom, can be found in the most unlikely of places, often when least expected…. As I walked home yesterday, I didn’t expect to see this little sphere, sitting on top of a metal pole, next to a building on the street where I walked…. The overall effect of the weather and time on the surface, of both the pole, and the sphere, turned it into a vision of exquisite beauty; it looks like an artist’s rendition of the mega-planet recently discovered by the Hubble telescope.

I can just see that sphere, just as it appears here, majestically swinging through space around another star, with its own civilization of people, who, hopefully, have a better grasp of virtue and responsibility that we do here on Earth….. Maybe, if we listen to our sages, such as Carlos, we’d have a chance to learn those values, to our benefit, rather than killing ourselves, as a result of the depths of our stupidity and contrary natures….

“As a net is made up of a series of ties, so everything in this world is connected by a series of ties. If anyone thinks that this mesh of a net is an independent, isolated thing, he is mistaken. It is called a net because it is made up of a series of interconnected meshes, and each mesh has its place and responsibility in relation to other meshes.” — Buddha

This small park in the downtown area shows perfectly how this works in the real world…. What? You mean you DON’T see the meshed net, with all its connections, all through this picture? Ah, then, I see now how life has become unknown to you…. Look again, ffolkes, the connections of which the Buddha spoke are all over this picture… Hint: one of them is the connection that society has to its members, which prompts the creation of inner city park areas, where people can gather, thus giving meaning to the word, “community”… That’s how it works, which, unfortunately for all of us, is NOT commonly understood… which is most likely why the park is empty….

“It is not every question that deserves an answer.” — Publius Syrus (42 BC) — Maxim 581

What more perfect quote could go with this? Obviously, the parasol needs no excuses, nor any explanations…. Such boldness deserves whatever kudos it can garner, and no one alive could possibly say this is NOT special…. I’m hoping it is still there when I go back to buy it; it’s perfect for my daughter for Christmas…. and, yes, I’m a sucker for the romantic era…. But, since I never question any of the qualities of romance in life, I never run up against the issues implied in this statement from Publius Syrus…. I don’t NEED any answers about that….

“There await men after they are dead things which they do not expect or imagine.” — Heraclitus

“What is inconceivable about the universe is that it is at all conceivable.” — Albert Einstein

The picture you see here is the first of many to come; I call it Pine/Fire/Cone/Hydrant, for lack of anything more original. On my camera safari yesterday, I found a pine cone, conveniently waiting for me underneath a pine tree on the street where I walked. I had the idea to use it as a picture prop, so, I will…. I’ll be seeking out different items and/or places to pose the pine cone (or, it’s smaller clone, which is easier to carry…. and will give y’all something to look for, to see which cone is up for the day….), with the basic intent to create images that will lend themselves to the process of pearling….

I think it’s going to work out very well; this one is so compelling an image for me, I decided it was worthy of a two-fer, and, it seems I was right, as these two are perfectly suited to the image, in my estimation…. See, now, there’s another unintended, but valuable, facet of this; you also get to see just how strange and, well, tuned in to entropy, my mind is on any particular day, as the pearls I pick for the pictures will provide you with very accurate clues…. This one is no exception, even if what it says about me is a little critical, or shall we say, it pulls to many covers? Sure, why not….

Any who, I hope you’ve enjoyed today’s little trip through the vast, empty landscape, that comprises the bulk of my imagination when pearling…. Maybe that’s not the best image with which to leave you, but, hey, gotta call ’em as I see ’em…. To prevent any further madness, I declare this pearl complete….

“Go into yourself and see how deep the place is from which your life flows.” — Rainer Maria Rilke in Letters to a Young Poet

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Some days, this process works better than others, a truism I’ve noted previously, but, which has no real bearing on whether or not it gets done. I suppose the effect it has lies in the quality of whatever comes out of my head during the morning’s leakage; when it goes smoothly, the Pearls seem a bit more coherent. It matters little in the final analysis, as it will get posted either way, to go along with our basic philosophy of “better out than in”….

Since there isn’t anything more I can damage, or, for that matter, repair, I will now go do what I can to prepare to get through today’s continuing heat wave…. It SAYS it’s only going to be 86, but, it’s only a bit after 6 AM, & there’s no fog…. That usually means it will get up to at least 90…. Now, where did I put that coma-inducing book I was saving for just this occasion?….. The coma state is the ONLY way to get through such days…. I know, I’m a native Californian…. I’ve got priors…. See ya, tomorrow, ffolkes, if I can keep from melting…..

Y’all take care out there,
and May the Metaphorse be with you;
Blessed Be, dearest Carole, Mark, and Theresa…
and everyone else, too…

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, the dubious

How much for the colorful ceramic penguins?…..

Posted on June 8, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

Thoughts and fears of many years are with me tonight; company for the lonely man. Yet nothing I’ve thought or felt is truly mine, for time wins all the small battles in life, and steals away even our youth…. Elegantly, the universe falls apart, with beauty, grace, tears, and blood…. We are all victims of entropy, still cowering at the noise of the Big Bang, unsure, even at this late date, that we are truly God, as intended from the first. If I didn’t know better, I’d believe it is too late; as it is, it will be our early out, sent to bed with no dinner, no cigar, and no hope…. Reality’s teeth are sharp…..

Well…. that’s…. well, that’s something, that is…. I can’t quite say just what that may be, but, that’s something, for sure…. I kind of like it; it’s a bit odd, but, consistent, and quite lovely in some respects…. It can stay, even if it doesn’t MEAN anything in particular… though, in looking at it, it COULD be a rather depressive view of Reality…. I think, instead, we’ll regard it as just another fantasy; it works a bit better that way, and won’t cause so much folderol if we use that as our basic premise…. Not that there is any penalty for being wrong, other than your confusion….

Now that has been made as clear as it can be, (not very, I admit…) we can get on with our usual affairs, such as they may be in this state of mind. What state is that? I’m not sure, but it might just be some sort of physical state, like ice on the verge of melting, a very poignant moment…. The air in here today is a little heady, I’m afraid; not sure why. I woke up rested, if not completely comfortable, and feel okay, all in all…. It’s my head that is feeling strange….. I suppose, one could say that is relatively normal, for me, but, if they did say that, I’d have to object, if only for form….

Objections aside, how do you think this is going? I’m sort of trying a new Joyceian-style stream of consciousness kind of writing…. It’s fun, and a real challenge to keep from going completely off the rails. I’m not entirely sure it’s what will be our final format for the intro, but, it’s working today, in a manner of speaking…. I’m already at the legal limit, so that’s good….. Now, if I can only figure out how to get us out of here with some style….

I know, we’ll just use method #4, the old standby…. It always works, just because it’s so damn ruthless…. Oh well, nobody’s ever been hurt, and what’s a few articles of clothing in the bigger picture, eh? Nothing important, I’m sure… In any case, I’m going to put it to work now, so, hang on….

Shall we Pearl?…..

“Hurting yourself is not sinful — just stupid.” — Robert Heinlein

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I like the quote above by Heinlein; it’s a part of his philosophy of life with which I’ve always identified strongly. It actually has a piece that precedes this line, which makes it only more powerful as a guide to living…. that piece states, “Sin lies only in hurting other people unnecessarily. All other “sins” are invented nonsense.,” a statement that, to me, makes the whole thing perfect as a rule of thumb for being moral and ethical in one’s dealings with others…. It also places religious dogma in its proper place, i.e., identifying it as superfluous nonsense that has no actual counterpart in reality…..

I’m not going to start ranting on religious dogma now, though this has been a relatively perfect lead-in for such a discussion; instead I’ll refer you to my archives, where you can find any number of such rants…. For today, I’ve brought in some pictures, one I stole borrowed from a web site, and the others from my camera…. Let’s see what sort of mess Smart Bee and I can make of them, okay? Okay!…..

Picture: Xinhua /Landov / Barcroft Media / London Daily Telegraph

______________________________________________________

“There is no conclusive evidence of life after death. But there is no evidence of any sort against it. Soon enough you will know. So why fret about it?” — Lazarus Long, aka Robert Heinlein

Okay, so, I lied, a little…. I’m still not going to rant about this, but, this statement, to me, puts the lie to just about EVERYTHING the religious cults have tried to pummel into your brain ever since you were knee high to a duck, or, in this case, a really cute wolf pup. The pup seems to be saying something, or trying to make a point somehow, so why not imagine him making a really good point of philosophical realism, rather than some jokey little stuff to try to pull out a chuckle…. This, I think, is much classier, if a bit harder for some folks to swallow…. Oh well, I suppose you could say that about ALL of reality….

“I don’t like to commit myself about heaven and hell – you see, I have friends in both places.” — Mark Twain

Hmm…. We seem to be sticking to a theme today, and I don’t have anything to do with it; Smart Bee keeps throwing these up in front of me…. What else can I do, but, go along with the program…. The picture above was taken while riding one of the buses I must use to get around town these days…. It’s a picture that shows some of the land for sale here in this city, where the economic downturn in the last couple of decades, (for which we can thank our good ol’ buddy, Ronnie the Reagan….), has turned much of the area into a ghost town, at least by appearances….

Yep, ffolkes, we here in Amurrica are STILL trying to get over the application of “trickle down” theory that was his byword, a theory which did a real number on our economy, sending it straight down the tubes, as intended…. Thanks to the Reagan years, which were then augmented and made worse by the Bush years (16 years of financially ruinous insanity by the Shrubs has taken the last almost eight years to just get back to where we were in the 70’s….), the entire economic system we live under was usurped for the exclusive benefit of the rich and powerful, in a blatant period of not-so-covert manipulation of the world’s money markets, solely to benefit those at the top of the heap, and keep those at the bottom just where they are….

Ah, but he was such a great communicator, wasn’t he? Well, when he could stay awake long enough to remember his lines, I guess so…. I always thought he was more of a strict asshole than anything else; his smarm tended to get on my clothes, whenever I forced myself to listen to him, and I really hated that smug expression he’d get when he was manipulating the public…. He pulled the wool over so many eyes, I’m surprised anyone at all could even see him…. but, I guess that was the idea…. It kept attention on him, while his cronies were busy rifling the treasury….

It’s all commonly held knowledge, ffolkes, for anyone who can actually read…. The evidence of what I’ve just said is all there, in black and white; all it takes is for someone to look at it with clear, unprejudiced eyes, and mind…. Rather than the heroic icon he made himself out to be, Reagan was the worst political disaster of the twentieth century for the American people…. The rich folks loved him, as did the stupid…. and they still do…. If they admitted what he did, they would have to admit their own foolishness at being conned, and they would rather keep on being stupid, than admit to any such thing….

“Gravitation cannot be held responsible for people falling in love.” — Albert Einstein

Beauty needs no explanation, as with love, and the only reason this is here… This is one of those serendipity pictures, which I took while literally on the move…. I was waiting on a bus, & spotted this little flower bush in the center of the street, with some other plants…. I was taking the picture when the bus pulled up, and had to do it quickly, so as not to miss my ride…. It came out really well for such a hurried shot, so, I’m using it, just because they’re such pretty flowers… and I’m such a closet romantic….

“Look into my eyes and try to forget that you have a Macy’s charge card!” — Zippy the Pinhead

Sometimes, Zippy is more profound than anything I’ve ever seen in a King James Bible…. To my mind, this reeks of social irony, and could be the rallying cry for the revolution, when it comes…. Or, maybe not; it’s hard to tell with all the stuff we have to wade through, but, this isn’t any worse than any of the crap I hear on TV, or from the pulpits of this country…. and it’s certainly much more honest and forthright than anything we’ve heard out of Washington D.C. in the last eight years….

Okay, I’m done fooling around with this format…. besides, I’m out of pictures…. My back and hips have kept me from getting out and about for a few days now, so new pictures have been hard to come by, unless taken from the Net, like the wolf pup…. Ah well, such is life in the big city, and since I’m retired, I’m trying to cut back on my whining….. It’s not working, is it?…. Oh well….

Y’know, maybe there’s more to this blogging stuff than I thought…. Then again, who cares? It’s all a wash, when you consider that even though I publish for all to see who can access it, some of those who access it are people in windowless rooms, in a building somewhere in D.C., where faceless myrmidons of the government are listening to everything we write, and publish anywhere on the Net, over our phones, or, no doubt, on paper….

How many of you would care to wager the NSA can also read snail mail, at their demand? We all know that the government can intercept mail; it’s been happening for a long while, and is nothing new….. This whole NSA spying issue is merely an extension of that kind of activity, which governments will perform any time they feel threatened….

I’d better bring this to a close, before it begins to resemble an actual rant, rather than a disjointed effort to create a new format for pearls…. I’m guessing one more aphorism should do the trick…. Yeah, that’s the ticket….

“Cleverness is not wisdom.” — Euripides

Oops! We’d best go on; I’m pulling my covers here….

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This poet needs little introduction; just make sure you are prepared to feel real…..

Are You Drinking?

washed-up, on shore, the old yellow notebook
out again
I write from the bed
as I did last
year.
will see the doctor,
Monday.
“yes, doctor, weak legs, vertigo, head-
aches and my back
hurts.”
“are you drinking?” he will ask.
“are you getting your
exercise, your
vitamins?”
I think that I am just ill
with life, the same stale yet
fluctuating
factors.
even at the track
I watch the horses run by
and it seems
meaningless.
I leave early after buying tickets on the
remaining races.
“taking off?” asks the motel
clerk.
“yes, it’s boring,”
I tell him.
“If you think it’s boring
out there,” he tells me, “you oughta be
back here.”
so here I am
propped up against my pillows
again
just an old guy
just an old writer
with a yellow
notebook.
something is
walking across the
floor
toward
me.
oh, it’s just
my cat
this
time.

~~ Charles Bukowski ~~

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Having ranted sufficiently, if not overly thoroughly, found a proper, fitting poem to accompany the work, my reward for such efficiency is an old-school pearl, naturally…. If I can just get this knife out of my hip for a little while, all would be very cool…. Ah well, maybe diving will make it ease off a bit; it’s worth a shot…. No set parameters here today; what you see is what you get (WYSIWYG, for those among you that speak geekish….)…. I’d brace myself, but, that’s just me…. Y’all can do what you want….

Liar, n.: A lawyer with a roving commission. — Ambrose Bierce, “The Devil’s Dictionary”

“Cheese food is not cheese.” — Mom’s Hint #052

“Hope is nature’s veil for hiding truth’s nakedness.” — Alfred Bernhard Nobel (1833-1896)

“Grief can take care of itself, but to get the full value of joy you must have somebody to divide it with.” — Mark Twain

“A new broom sweeps clean, but never trust an old saw.” — James Thurber

“Good God,” said Arthur, “it looks just like the sea front at Southend.”
“I’m relieved to hear you say that,” said Ford.
“Why”
“Because I thought I must be going mad.”
“Perhaps you are. Perhaps you only thought I said it.”
Ford thought about this. “Well, did you say it, or didn’t you?” he asked.
“I think so,” said Arthur.
“Well, perhaps we’re both going mad.”
“Yes,” said Arthur, “we’d be mad, all things considered, to think this was Southend.”
“Well, do you think this is Southend?”
“Oh, yes”
“So do I.”
“Therefore we must be mad.”
“Nice day for it.”
“Yes,” said a passing maniac.
“Who was that?” asked Arthur.
“Who–the man with the five heads and the elderberry bush full of kippers?”
“Yes.”
“I don’t know. Just someone.”
“Ah.”

— From The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

“Perilous to all of us are the devices of an art deeper than we ourselves possess.” — Gandalf the Grey

Y’know, sometimes, this just works better than other times…. This is one of those times….

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Well, my mind’s been goin’ through these changes,” he sang, blithely ignoring the time and space…. Then, realizing where he was, he came back from the edge of insanity, to bid his guests goodbye…. and with that little declension, I’m back…. to bid thee adieu until tomorrow, in the firm belief there will BE a tomorrow…. for now…. See ya, ffolkes….

Y’all take care out there,
and May the Metaphorse be with you;
Blessed Be, dearest Carole, Mark, and Theresa…
and everyone else, too…

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 the dubious

“One, two, three, what are we fighting for?….”

Posted on June 7, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

Today’s title has no connection to the Pearl for today; it is in quotation marks because it is a lyric from a song, by Country Joe McDonald, called the “Fixin’ to Die Rag”…. Some of y’all may remember it, from the late 60’s/early 70’s, when the song was an iconic statement of the draft resistance and the movement against the Vietnam War, played by Country Joe & The Fish every time they had a gig, anywhere…. It’s there at the top of today’s Pearl, just because I like it…. nothing more….

I had intended to start off today with a fictional opening; it’s been a while, and my skills can always use the practice, and the test. But, it seemed appropriate to explain the only thing I could come up with for a title, which was NOT original for a change…. usually I have plenty of nonsensical phrases and words floating around my head, enough to grab a couple for a title, since there’s no requirement to make it mean anything at all. But, for some reason, that line was the first one to come up, and seemed right, so, here we are, lost again, simply because my brain didn’t feel like cooperating with the program…. SIGH…

It’s almost as discouraging as my stats from yesterday, and the last few days…. pitiful. But, I’m plenty full of angst and or emotion to perform ANY of the required functions today…. Hell, there MAY be a new poem in there; I’ve got that full, sick feeling in my gut that can sometimes presage a poem being considered by my subconscious mind. But, for that, we’ll have to wait and see; there’s no pushing or pulling that will speed that process up; poems bleed out of me when they wish….

But, it also could mean a rant; I haven’t seen anything out of the normal course of events recently that would stimulate one, but, I’m sure there is a headline out there just waiting for me to pounce on it, and expose another lie or two by some pundit…. I have great faith in their tendency to produce such rantable proclamations on a daily basis, from one talking head or another…. Here, I’ll demonstrate…. be right back…. There, that didn’t take long, did it? Here’s a headline guaranteed to make any conspiracy theorist sit up and take notice….

http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/State-fires-lawyer-who-pursued-PG-amp-E-s-5534622.php?cmpid=hp-hc-bayarea

I don’t know about y’all, but, this appears to me to be yet more evidence of how the big corporate entities, such as PG&E, can pretty much do whatever they want, without any real fear of any oversight, or consequence, due to their undue influence over those responsible for that oversight….. The regulatory commission that oversees PG&E’s operations as a public utility is made up of people who are very much in that company’s pocket; just look at any vote on this issue by this group, and you will see a consistent pattern of corruption…. See how easy it is to find something to make us mad, at how badly the powers-that-be are screwing the public? Easy peasy, as they say now….

I’ll show some discretion, though, and will refrain from any further ranting until later in today’s outburst….. if at all. At this point, I still haven’t a clue about what will happen from this point; your guess would be as good as mine right now. So be it…. It’s time….

Shall we Pearl?….

“Nothing is good in moderation. You cannot know good in anything until you have torn the heart out of it by excess.” — Oscar Wilde (to Andre Gide)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When I said I didn’t know what to do yet, I wasn’t kidding, and, yet, here we are….. Hmm, I’ll have to think about this..

Okay, I’m done. I’ve decided to reprint an older rant, one that remains valid today…. especially now, since there is this alleged “reform” bill before the House, supposedly one that will curtail some of the NSA’s spying…. Of course, the bill does nothing of the sort, but, they’d like us to believe it does…. This rant, then, applies today as much as it did on March 26 of this year, when this rant first appeared here, and the bill now before the House was in the talking stages…. Enjoy, and, please, pay attention, ffolkes, it’s all stuff you need to be aware of, for your own safety and privacy….

From 3/26/2014:

“If Patrick Henry thought that taxation without representation was bad, he should see how bad it is WITH representation.” — Smart Bee

http://www.sfgate.com/business/technology/article/Obama-to-propose-ending-NSA-s-phone-call-sweep-5345715.php

So…. I’m feeling GOOD! Shall we rant?…..

If I’m to believe this article’s headline, Barry says he wants the NSA to stop being bad boys, and play nice with the rest of us….. I believe I’ll wait to see if any of this really happens before I break out the champagne…. This president, I’m sorry to say, has developed a particularly nasty habit, over the course of his time in office, of playing fast and loose with the truth, a tendency which, when observed in the past, in EVERY other psychopathic resident of his position, only becomes worse the longer the perpetrators believe they’re getting away with it…. When action is overdue, talk is cheap….

Due to my intense disappointment in his actions thus far during his administration, I’ll save my trust for later, when… no, IF I see ANY of his statements come to pass, in truth…. If, as I suspect, all goes according to historical example, we’ll see some superficial posturing by the White House pundits, that might eventually get around to SUGGESTING some changes that should be made….. But, none will actually occur in reality, and any real discussion will get bogged down in committee…. Meantime, the media will find some other outrageous issue to distract them from ever following up to see if anything happens along the lines of actual reform….

Now I’ll finish reading the article, & see how my prediction fared…. Ah, I see now…. Upon reading it through to the end, I came across the key phrase, the one indicating the real strategy behind the White House announcement…. to wit: “The president’s plan, however, relies on Congress to pass legislation — something that has so far seemed unlikely.”

Immediately upon reading this, my crap detector went off, with a loud “AHA!”, (inadvertently sending the cat flying across the room to hide in the plants, thinking I was about to come after her for something she did, no doubt…. she has a guilty conscience, I’m sure…. Right….. I’d believe that…. if I believed she had one at all….), when I realized I knew, now, just WHY Barry is adopting this stance, at least, if you believe what he says here…. which, understandably, I’m now having a hard time doing….

If he just leaves it up to Congress, it’s a foregone conclusion nothing will be done ….. Not by THIS one…. The current Congress has been, for the last three years, at least, the absolute worst one, EVER, for getting anything actually DONE…. This includes ALL of the past elections of congress we’ve seen in our history… I shit you not, this Congress has passed fewer laws, and had fewer bills presented at all, than ANY previous sitting of that august body, by a factor of about 8….. They’re determined to be known as the newest holder of the title of “Do-Nothing Congress”, formerly held by one in the early, or late, 20th century, I believe….

(Side note: This, of course, can be attributed to the Republican majority in the House of Representatives…. The party’s pundits, all older, white, Christian conservatives, determined, and stated in public, soon after Obama was elected, that their entire focus for the time he is in office would be to ensure that NONE of his legislative reforms ever took place, or made it into law…. It didn’t matter to them whether or not any of his programs would actually HELP the citizenry they represent; they were determined to undermine every reform he attempted….

For the most part, they’ve been successful in allowing NOTHING, or, nothing much, anyway, to get done…. all because of their unstated, but obvious, bigoted fear of the black man in the White House, an affront to their sense of Caucasian entitlement, not to mention the severe blow to their sense of reality…. They hadn’t even noticed when they ceased to be the majority in the real world….)

After reading the entire article, I find my opinion confirmed…. This announcement is just another stall tactic, one designed to give the impression to the public that something is happening, when nothing actually IS happening, or GOING to happen, other than business as usual for the spy agencies, who have continued ALL of the activities of espionage they are accused of carrying out…. The government has absolutely no intention of giving up their new toys, and they will continue to lie their little faces off to keep that from becoming public knowledge….

The NSA is STILL spying on the citizens of every nation of the whole world, including their own citizens, without ever having actually slowed down, or ceased ANY of the programs they’ve begun…. If you actually believe it when they tell you they have, well, then, you deserve to have them in your face…. Sorry, ffolkes, but, it’s just plain STUPID to believe these people are going to tell us ANYTHING they don’t WANT us to know….

Oh, every once in a while, we’ll see in the news they’ve sent one of their lackeys chiefs to Congress to discuss issues, or make statements, none of which actually address anything relevant…. they’re just making more smoke….. In the process, nothing is actually being done to stop them at all, not by Congress, not by the Courts, and certainly not by the White House…. No, it’s all just smoke, ffolkes, sent up to get in your eyes, trying to make you think they’re listening to your concerns…..

Right…. sure they are….. I’m sorry to have to be the one to tell you, but, to these myrmidons of the shadowy corporate masters, your concerns are something to be used against you, to fan your fears of the “unknown other”, while simultaneously listening to your every spoken word over the airwaves…. Whatever they tell you they aren’t doing, or can’t do…. well, ffolkes, the smart money says they are not only capable of everything we suspect of them, but are already beyond that level, and are capable of far worse…. Count on it…. Not only are they lying about what they are doing, they are lying about what they CAN do…. which we will ONLY find out when we find the police at our door…..

Think about it, ffolkes!….. When you break down the walls between yourself and the truth, and really THINK about their purpose, the bottom line concept of their given task as spies, LYING, especially about what they are doing in the dark, away from the public eye, is an important part of their JOB!…. And, guess what? They’re good at it….

I hate to be such a curmudgeon about all of this, but, the evidence just keeps pushing me back into that mode, pissed off and ready to start picking off real targets, instead of merely suggesting them…. If you couldn’t tell, I think I pissed myself off…. I’d better go now, before I get REALLY worked up, and can’t find my way out of this rant…..

“A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both.” — Eisenhower, First Inaugural Address January 20, 1953

“I don’t mind being in touch with reality, as long as I don’t have to live there.” — Smart Bee, channeling gigoid again

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It’s an Emily day….

For Death—or rather

For Death—or rather
For the Things ‘twould buy—
This—put away
Life’s Opportunity—

The Things that Death will buy
Are Room—
Escape from Circumstances—
And a Name—

With Gifts of Life
How Death’s Gifts may compare—
We know not—
For the Rates—lie Here—

~~ Emily Dickinson ~~

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I am compelled, at this point, to confess…. I still am not completely at my ease, physically. To be brief, there remains a small knife embedded in my right hip…. Well, that’s how it feels, anyway. With the meds, and rest, it’s doable; within an hour or two, it begins to get sharper, though, and by noon, it’s enough to make me want to hurt somebody, preferably someone else….

But, it is NOT going to keep me from finishing this Pearl…. This does mean I’ll be going old school though, as I was not able to get out yesterday to take any new pictures for this….. I’ll try to get back to that, as soon as I can get out of the house to a place where there are some reasonable subjects to shoot…. with my camera…. For now, let’s dive, shall we, & finish out this mess?….

“Ignorance plays the chief part among men, and the multitude of words;” — Diogenes Laertius (c. 200 AD) — Cleobulus, iv

“Common sense is the least common of all senses.” — Hobson’s Homily

“We’re not talking about the same thing,” he said. “For you the world is weird because if you’re not bored with it you’re at odds with it. For me the world is weird because it is stupendous, awesome, mysterious, unfathomable; my interest has been to convince you that you must accept responsibility for being here, in this marvelous world, in this marvelous desert, in this marvelous time. I wanted to convince you that you must learn to make every act count, since you are going to be here for only a short while, in fact, too short for witnessing all the marvels of it.” — Don Juan

“All passions that suffer themselves to be relished and digested are but moderate.” — Michael de Montaigne (1533-1592) — Essays, Book i, Chap. ii, Of Sorrow

“Rules make the learner’s path long, examples make it short and successful.” — Seneca

“Of all mankind, each loves himself the best.’ — Terence

“The world, dear Agnes, is a strange affair.” — Jean Baptiste Moliere (1622-1673) — L’Ecole des Femmes, Act ii, Sc. 6

Now THAT is a pearl, ffolkes…. and a damn good one, too….

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I can just see Ollie, with that exasperated expression, turning to his partner, & saying, “Well, Stanley, this is another fine mess you’ve gotten us into!”…. But, it IS over now, so that’s something, right? If nothing else, you can always pretend it didn’t happen…. We Americans are good at that, what with all the practice we get dealing with our beloved rulers…. Hell, we learned it from them!…. And, on that cynical note, I’m outta here…. See ya, ffolkes….

Y’all take care out there,
and May the Metaphorse be with you;
Blessed Be, dearest Carole, Mark, and Theresa…
and everyone else, too…

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 the dubious

Wait a second! Is that a connecting bolt in your pocket?…

Posted on June 6, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

Yep…. I’m definitely losing it…. and not just it, either, but, almost all of it…..Pretty sweeping statement so early, but, for me, it isn’t….. early, that is. It’s well after 5 AM, & I’m just now getting up…. The coffee isn’t ready, so I had to make it, and wait for it…. As you might guess, this does very little, if not nothing, to improve my mood, or my condition, of which I am afraid to even speak…. I’m coffee-free as yet, so there’s really no telling what might come out of my head, or my mouth, both of which tend to end up on screen…. Oh, man…. I hear the coffee machine finishing…. Hang on, I’ll be back, hopefully before I’ve murdered anyone….

I made it through the ordeal of procuring coffee, but, I’m still not sure about the rest of today…. To say I’m in a curmudgeonly mood would be far short of the actual degree of grumpiness I’m currently experiencing; homicidal, or perhaps, genocidal, might be more accurate…. Of course, being the moral/ethical creature I am, if I went for genocide today, you could at least trust me to confine my targeted group of intended victims to the BRC and the monied elite….

I wouldn’t go after any normal ffolkes, only those who make a habit of preying on the rest of humanity…. Hmm, I suppose, if one were wishing to be entirely accurate, picking on the people on this planet who deserve to die for their treatment of others, that would be more like a pest control guy, right? So, I’m committing insecticide on them, rather than genocide…. I can live with that….

Gosh, ffolkes, it seems that my anger, which is mostly directed at my own physical condition, wants to get directed into ranting…. I suppose that’s a natural outlet for me, one I’ve been allowing myself to use for about three years now, ever since starting this blog, and making the decision to discontinue my lifelong habit of silence on public issues…. Ranting comes pretty naturally to a curmudgeon, and I was already considered that BEFORE I retired, and actually joined the organization to receive the training…. So, letting out my angst on the appropriate targets has been my habit, and my pleasure, for that time….

Of late, I’ve been trying to rant less, as I was concerned it was driving readers away; I’m fully aware that my subject matter is controversial, and my opinions somewhat radical, but, I try to keep my writing in such a state that it won’t alienate people…. unless, of course, they identify too closely with the folks of which I’m making fun, or antagonizing, by pulling the cover on their lies.

Then, of course, they become offended, which is fine with me; I have no problem with people being offended by what I say, as long as they do so with politeness…. You can curse someone out thoroughly without ever becoming rude, though it takes a bit of effort…. Me, I tend to forget the polite part at times, so, I try to allow a bit of leeway for commenters, as well…

But, I don’t get a lot of argument with my issues…. I figure there are two reasons for that…. First, most of the people who read this are what I’d call members of the choir, in that they agree, if not wholeheartedly, at least in principle, with what I’ve said about the ruling classes, or the priestly hierarchies, or the faceless myrmidons who do their bidding…. This makes for not a lot of commenting, on what we all know to be true….

On the other hand, I also try to present arguments with the evidence, which I have used to make my conclusions, included in the argument, or, at minimum, easily accessed by anyone wishing to examine it….. Once anyone has viewed the argument, with evidence, then disagreement becomes somewhat out of place, since what I’ve stated is generally so obviously correct…. in essence, there’s nothing on which they can hang any disagreement….

As you can see by this example, I tend to ramble and blather when I’m in pain, and don’t have anything specific about which to rant…. which is exactly today’s position…. I’ve now semi-ranted for the entire intro section, without ever getting anywhere significant, or worthy of follow-up…. Ah well, at least it got us far enough down the page to call this a legal entry, so, I suppose that’s something positive…. To maintain that positive feeling, I’ll end this here, using method #4, as it is the quickest, most efficient method, if the most risky in terms of possible injury…. We’ve been lucky in that respect, so, for now, we’ll trust our luck…

Shall we Pearl?….

“In a mad world, only the mad are sane.” — Akiro Kurosawa

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Since I am so late today, and my pain level is not cooperating very well (I even made the requisition for this day off from major pain two days ago…. I can show you the paperwork!….), we’re going old school… I’ve been picking from the archives too much lately, so, we’ll go fresh, but with the kind of pearl that takes the least amount of time to produce…. Here is a random grouping, set with parameters to find pearls that take a poke at lawyers, politicians, preachers, pundits, or police myrmidons. those wonderful folks who enforce the will of the corporate assholes who own everything…

“There is no better way to exercise the imagination than the study of the law. No artist ever interpreted nature as freely as a lawyer interprets the truth.” — Jean Giraudoux

“Commonly we say a judgment falls upon a man for something in him we cannot abide.” — John Selden (1584-1654) — Judgments

“Anything labeled “NEW” and/or “IMPROVED” isn’t. The label means the price went up. The label “ALL NEW”, “COMPLETELY NEW”, or “GREAT NEW” means the price went way up.” — Hershiser’s Rules

“The very purpose of existence is to reconcile the glowing opinion we hold of ourselves with the appalling things that other people think about us.” — Quentin Crisp

“Agesilaus being invited once to hear a man who admirably imitated the nightingale, he declined, saying he had heard the nightingale itself.” — Plutarch (46-120 AD) — Life of Agesilaus II

“Do you call yourself free? I want to hear your ruling idea, and not that you have escaped from a yoke.” — Nietzsche, “Thus Spoke Zarathustra”

“All educational organizations worthy of the name have always recognized what be the ultimate and significant principle of pedagogy: namely the absolute mandate, the iron bond, discipline, sacrifice, the renunciation of the ego, the curbing of the personality.” –Thomas Mann, The Magic Mountain

A bit scattered, but, fairy pointed in spots…. it will do….

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Again, to avoid spreading blame for today’s Pearl, here is an older poem of my own, from early last year…. Enjoy, please….

Notes of process and program…

Poems, alas, don’t chase through my head,
bumping and pushing each other like brothers at dinner.
They’re more ripped out of my innards, instead.
Time and circumstance reveal no ultimate winner.

Simmering and bubbling near my unconscious mind
these maddening rhymes blind me sans glimmer.
Building until bursting as if to be dined and wined,
the remaining denizens appear much slimmer.

Fiery visions retain such glorious fatal dimension,
in retrospect, yet fail to leave a permanent scar,
until blessed, or cursed, with focused attention,
singing, crying, bleeding, fast as a movie star.

Pretty soon can’t be soon enough, she said
to a chameleon colored thief bathed in moonlight.
Fancy candles in stripes of blue, gold, and red
foster honest dreams in shades of white.

Passage to daylight is problematic, at best:
beastly ghosts of insomniacs cast no shadow.
Even judges with robes can pass the wrong test
while the rest of us go with what we know.

~~ gigoid ~~

“A poet is a kind of liar who always speaks the truth.” — Jean Cocteau

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

witzelsucht (vit’sel-zoocht) [Ger.] “A mental condition characteristic of frontal lobe lesions and marked by the making of poor jokes and puns and the telling of pointless stories, at which the patient himself is intensely amused.” — Standard Dictionary

Having been accused in the past of exhibiting the perfect set of symptoms for this disorder, I can relate to how it feels…. which is mostly lonely, as the rest of humanity has a hard time sitting still for puns, OR for pointless stories…. Nonetheless, I like the idea that this condition is one that MAY be treatable…. it gives me hope for the remainder of my life as a blogger…. or maybe that’s just my fantasy gene kicking in…. who knows? Let’s find some more pearls, shall we?….

“Everybody is going somewhere!! It’s probably a garage sale or a disaster Movie!!” — Zippy the Pinhead

“The way I see it, it doesn’t matter what you believe just so you’re sincere.” — Charles Schulz

“It is not a fish until it is on the bank.” — Irish Proverb

“In the end, more than freedom, they wanted security. They wanted a comfortable life, and they lost it all – security, comfort and freedom. When the Athenians finally wanted not to give to society but for society to give to them, when the freedom they wished for most was freedom from responsibility then Athens ceased to be free and was never free again.” — Edward Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Chapter 29

“When a person can no longer laugh at himself, it is time for others to laugh at him.” — Thomas Szasz, The Second Sin, 1973

“The only act of revolution left in a collective world is thinking for yourself.” — Bob Geldof, “Is That It?”

“One can imagine a sane, healthy, cheerful human society based on no more than the principles of common sense, as validated each day by work, play, and living experience. But this remains the most Utopian and fantastic of ideals.” — Edward Abbey

Now, THAT’s what I’m talkin’ about!…..

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It’s a Pearl, ffolkes…. of that, there is NO doubt…. Fresh, too, or, as much so as I could make it…. The fact that I was able to complete it, fresh as it is, is, to me, rather impressive, in re: will power…. but, that’s all done now…. I’m going to go whimper now, and wait for the drugs to hit me…. See ya….

Y’all take care out there,
and May the Metaphorse be with you;
Blessed Be, dearest Carole, Mark, and Theresa…
and everyone else, too…

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 the dubious

Bastardized versions of authentic matzo balls….

Posted on June 5, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

It made for a long day, but, it’s over, and going back there is counterproductive, so we’ll kiss yesterday’s pain and misery goodbye, and take what today has to offer, such as it is….

And good morning to you, such as it is….. Having thus disposed of another day by mostly sleeping, or otherwise helping my consciousness to defer the pain through distraction or drugs, (preferably the latter), I sit here again, beset by the demons of silence, who gleefully steal away every creative thought my mind can conjure in the mornings, no doubt egged on by Murphy himself. There are times when I don’t feel like fighting them off, but, I’ve been up a while now, and have already dealt with them as best I could, with what little bit of wherewithal I possessed…. Trust me, you don’t want to know what I did to get them to back off; it’s illegal in most states, anyway, so I’d rather not say what it was, or how I obtained it…

For that matter, you probably don’t want to know ANY of what I’ve done to find myself at this juncture, and, I can’t much blame y’all for that…. So far, as far as I can tell, this is pretty boring, being little more than a guy blathering about nothing much at all. That, of course, is just what we do here, mostly, but, it does get away from me on occasion (such as now….), dragging us all through a period of nonsense, fantasy, or just plain bullshit, just as if we had the right…. which, of course, we do…. You see, if you stop by to read, you have to read whatever I put here, don’t you? Yes, you do….

It’s that, or go somewhere else, and though a LOT of folks, and some ffolkes as well, have been avoiding this lately, I do like to think I’m doing something worthwhile, if not necessary, or even appreciated. I’m trying to help the world, and though it really doesn’t believe it needs it, it does, so I can’t give up, any more than I can stop breathing…. not if I want to be able to look in the mirror each morning, and still be able to meet my own eyes….

Boy, I’m really lost this morning…. I have no idea how I got to the point of moral/ethical motivation, but, the intro probably isn’t the wisest choice for that type of revelation, though it does indicate a degree of honest self-appraisal you won’t find a lot of places…. But, even if honest, it’s not necessarily interesting, or productive, so, we’ll just drop the whole thing now, and try to get ourselves out of here, and on to the day’s more entertaining material…. Well, we can dream, can’t we?….

Shall we Pearl?…..

He that will not when he may,
When he would he shall have nay.

— John Heywood (c. 1565) — Proverbes, Part i, Chap. iii

And, BOY, is that the perfect pearl for this intro, or what?…..

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The following entry is one I repost on occasion, mainly to save myself the personal drama and upset that dealing with this subject creates in me; it’s one of the quickest ways I know to bring out old PTSD-related feelings, arousing my ire, and my angst, along with other feelings best left unnamed…. However, my unwillingness to feel those destructive emotions doesn’t preclude, or override the necessity for this message to be spread; the picture and quote by Einstein guarantees that much courage as a minimum response, in my book…. Please read, and think about the ideas presented here; it is important, more so than you may think or believe, to a lot of women who are at real risk of more than simple harm….

From 10/20/2012:
Raquel Welch: 36-24-36
Bo Derek: 35-24-36
Ann-Margaret: 37-25-36
Bette Middler: 37-25-36
Marilyn Monroe: 37-24-37
Jane Russell: 39-27-38
Jayne Mansfield: 40-23-37
Sophia Loren: 37-25-36

— Smart Bee (?)

So, sue me. It isn’t what you think, unless you are thinking what I’m thinking. I’m not going to say that isn’t possible, or even unlikely…. unless you are thinking it is about some sexist premise that identifies women as objects. Being male, I’m not an expert on spotting or exposing that, but I’ve been around a long time, and have never held with most of what society holds as true about women, unless spoken by a woman who hasn’t proved to be one of the brainwashed….

No, this list is only here to note that what society seems to project, in magazines and advertising, through fashions and trends sponsored by those who determine such matters (i.e., the moneymen… those corporate snakeheads who control society’s resources) as the image of beauty, is not the same as what public opinion obviously feels about what makes a woman beautiful, in terms of weight and shape. All of the women in the above list were, and/or are, considered to be the visual pinnacle of what the public believes is beautiful, as evidenced by the popularity of their work, in film or on stage…. but none of them are at all similar to what the manipulators of fashion would have us believe is the ideal shape….

Whereas models can only be described as slender or willowy, (actually, to me they all look emaciated….), all the women in the list are what we might call zaftig, or Rubenesque, in their visual proportions….. Personally, I agree with the public…. I find Ann Margaret to be much more pleasant to look at than any model in a magazine that I have EVER seen….. And, the fact that I feel entitled to make a judgment makes me as guilty of objectifying women as a man who utilizes brothels for sex…

Thus, if we grant the truth of that revelation, the mere existence of the list becomes the most objectionable piece of it….. It illustrates that the process of objectification is subtle; just applying such standards to women at all tends to cause people to think of them as objects, rather than as people. Society has been male-oriented for a very long time, a state of affairs justified as “might makes right.” Sadly; a lot of what is wrong in the world can be traced to that unfortunate fact.

Men, all throughout history, because of their own insecurities about their own sexuality, and their fear of women in that respect, have set up society so that women have very little say about what happens to them in life; those decisions are made for them by fathers, brothers, or husbands in most of the world. In order to do this, and not suffer pangs of guilt at every turn, men, and women, are taught that it is okay to objectify women, and to treat them as if they are property…. and property needs to be labeled, hence lists such as the one above….

Yesterday, (note: 10/16/2012…..) rmott62 posted a blog, ( http://rmott62.wordpress.com/2012/10/19/your-lies-are-part-of-our-genocide/), which I re-blogged on my site, speaking about this very subject, to wit: how the language we choose can objectify those of whom it speaks. You can probably get a better idea of how insidiously the issue of victimizing women permeates society by visiting her blog; she speaks powerfully, with no punches pulled, from experience, and with great insight, much more forcefully than I ever can, so I recommend to you, very strongly, that you go to her site, and read what she has to say….

If you listen, and believe, it will change the way you look at much of what passes in our society for normal. It will make you ashamed for not noticing…. Every time I go there to read her posts, that is how I feel, and if it is not the same for other men, (women, too!….), well, it should be, for we are ALL guilty of perpetrating the evil, if only by not acting or speaking up…. Silence on this subject is habitual for most of society, & will be for as long as the victimization of women, and the entire prostitution industry, continues to objectify, demean, and drag women of all ages into perpetual slavery….. with the aid of the language itself, and the tacit approval of all those who won’t look at the issue….

“The makers of fortunes have a second love of money as a creation of their own, resembling the affection of authors for their poems, or of parents for their children … and hence they are very bad company, for they talk of nothing but the praises of wealth.” — Plato (428-348? B.C.)

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In perusing old pearls, which I do sometimes when I’m not up to creating them, I found this old poem of mine, which, apparently, I wrote on 10/17/2012, as it appears in the Pearl for that day…. It’s as good as any I’ve ever done, I’d say….

Raging at Aging

As old as you feel, we are told, is old as you are,
custom assures such vision will carry us far.
Reality begs to differ, may it be so bold
it is really quite painful, and very, very cold.The power and strength felt in our halcyon youth
desert us with age, yet another unwelcome truth.
Irony rules our time here on this bountiful earth
as we reflect the changes over time since our birth.

As physical powers fade from this fragile shell,
we learn our mind can serve us quite as well.
The strength that once filled our bones and hearts
is now applied by our will, to more arcane arts.

Life’s greatest gift is our freedom of choice
no matter how often we forget, we still get a voice.
Energy, or apathy, by our will we may choose,
failing to do so, our only way to lose.

Each of us lives in the grip of time and space,
always seeking our balance, our own chosen place.
One must accept reality, for it is true at the core,
all we can do, is all we can do, and nothing more.

~~ gigoid ~~

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Here are some pictures to form a pearl, some of which were taken from other sites…. The first one, of the ship and helicopter, is from the London Daily Telegraph’s Day in Pictures feature from June 3, 2014; the second is an artist’s rendition of a new planet around a distant star found by the Hubble Telescope, & released by NASA. The planet picture was found on a number of different sites, and thus is apparently in the common usage category, as long as it is attributed…. Hope you enjoy today’s pix & comments….
“I had rather have a fool to make me merry than experience to make me sad.” — William Shakespeare (1564-1616), As You Like It — Act iv, Sc. 1

My immediate thought on this was, “What a waste of tax money!”….. The copter shot off this in celebration of D-Day, I believe, and the photo itself was classified as the Armed Forces Photo of the Week, for some publication somewhere put out by the armed services….. which, to me, makes it even more egregiously wasteful…. Can you imagine how much it cost to put those two vehicles in that position, then fire off all 60 flares at once…. I’d wager it came to close to a million dollars, or in this case, pounds, as it was a British ship and copter…. SIGH…. I am very afraid, ffolkes, that we humans just don’t have what it takes to survive much longer…..
“The public have an insatiable curiosity to know everything. Except what is worth knowing. Journalism, conscious of this, and having tradesman-like habits, supplies their demands.” — Oscar Wilde

“The tree of liberty only grows when watered by the blood of tyrants.” — Bertrand Barere (1755-1841) — Speech in the Convention Nationale, 1792

The picture, as noted above, is an artist’s view of the newest planet around a distant star found by the Hubble Telescope, in orbit around Earth…. The two quotes, however, have nothing to do with the picture…. Both of them came up while I was looking for an appropriate pearl to go with the planet, and just insisted on being included…. I think it may be from my growing need to rant, which I have been sublimating for about a week now…. Soon, I think, it will require that I let it loose, or it will cause me some problems in my personal life…. For now, just take these with a bunch of salt, and we’ll go on to better things….. Well, different, anyway….
“To live is so startling it leaves little time for anything else.” — Emily Dickinson

I call this shot, “A Shadow’s Heart”. It happened as I tried to take a close-up of these beautiful yellow roses…. As I lined up the shot, I noticed the position of the shadow, and took it as you see it…. Serendipity strikes again! I knew it was better than hoped for when I found the perfect pearl to accompany the picture, first time out….. Honest…. when I looked for the right pearl, Emily was the first one that came up….. I love it when a plan comes together….
— How many members of the U.S.S. Enterprise does it take to change a light bulb?

7….. Scotty will report to Captain Kirk that the light bulb in the Engineering Section is burnt out, to which Kirk will send Bones to pronounce the bulb dead. Scotty, after checking around, notices that they have no more new light bulbs, and complains that he can’t see in the dark to tend to his engines. Kirk must make an emergency stop at the next uncharted planet, Alpha Regula IV, to procure a light bulb from the natives. Kirk, Spock, Bones, Sulu, and 3 red shirt security officers beam down. The 3 security officers are promptly killed by the natives, and the rest of the landing party is captured. Meanwhile, back in orbit, Scotty notices a Klingon ship approaching and must warp out of orbit to escape detection. Bones cures the native king who is suffering from the flu, and as a reward the landing party is set free and given all of the light bulbs they can carry. Scotty cripples the Klingon ship and warps back to the planet just in time to beam up Kirk et. al. The new bulb is inserted, and the Enterprise continues with its five year mission. — Smart Bee

This is an example of what happens when my mind wanders…. I went to look for an appropriate pearl for the nice close-up of an unknown flower, and got caught up reading this…. I like it, it’s funny, and consistent with the Star Trek venue…. For today, that’s all it needs….
I saw young Harry, with his beaver on,
His cuisses on his thighs, gallantly arm’d,
Rise from the ground like feather’d Mercury,
And vaulted with such ease into his seat
As if an angel dropp’d down from the clouds,
To turn and wind a fiery Pegasus
And witch the world with noble horsemanship.

— William Shakespeare (1564-1616), King Henry IV — Act iv, Sc. 1

Here, at the end of all things, (Well, maybe it’s just the end of this pearl, but, Shakespeare is so dramatic, I thought….. Ah, the hell with it…), I have placed this picture, of the day I went strolling on Portobello Road, in London. I met this Charlie C. impersonator, a mime, who insisted on having a picture taken together….. There’s no meaning, to either the picture, or the accompanying quote…. It just seemed to go together…. Mostly, I just wanted to be done, and, now, I am, so there…..

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And thank goodness for that….. This Pearl, though partially created beforehand, still took a long time to put together…. In fact, so long, I’m considering returning to my bed, to finish what I should have done before, which is sleep until I’m no longer tired…. Maybe, someday…. For now, I’m going to trust my luck, and go post this…. See ya tomorrow, ffolkes, no matter how bad I feel…. Today is proof I can put out a Pearl practically on my death bed, so, be warned….

Y’all take care out there,
and May the Metaphorse be with you;
Blessed Be, dearest Carole, Mark, and Theresa…
and everyone else, too…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 the dubious

In defense of inconvenient innuendo….

Posted on June 4, 2014 by gigoid

Dear ffolkes,
gigoid is under the weather again, hence this reblog of an old Pearl, which he sincerely hopes y’all will enjoy…. Tomorrow’s another day….
“An agreeable companion on a journey is as good as a carriage.”
— Publius Syrus (42 BC) — Maxim 143

gigoid

10/20/12, aka 10/21/12 ~~ Time, or the labeling of same, is mine to dictate, so, today is tomorrow…. the missing day is banished from memory. So Be It….

Ffolkes,
It seems my unconscious mind has taken a hand in directing my conscious life as well…. but, in this case, it seems to work fairly well, all in all, so I’m going to leave it alone for the time being. I know that sound mysterious, but saying this precisely this way is merely withholding details that would be unenlightening, and at the same time, counter-productive to discussion. Suffice it to say that I am here now, sitting down to write, with more than average clarity, and a degree of unusual comfort…. Thank goodness for coffee, eh?……

I know, I know, that was a less than illuminating paragraph, but, believe me, you really don’t want any more details, so let’s just get…

View original post 2,144 more words

History will judge this a Pyrrhic victory…..

Posted on June 3, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

Now, THIS is unusual, even for around here….. I’m up, I slept pretty well, I don’t hurt anywhere particularly badly, yet, I have no motivation to write at all…. It just doesn’t seem attractive to me this morning; the idea makes me nauseous, actually. If I didn’t know better, that would make me think I might be pregnant, which is, shall we say, less than good odds? Yes, let’s say that, and leave it there….

It’s true, though…. I really am not in the mood for this….. Of course, it might just be lack of coffee I’m feeling…. Let me work on that for a moment or two, okay?….. I’ll be back shortly…..

Nope, not the coffee…. Did you miss me? I thought not….. Even though I damn near fell asleep while worshiping, I feel torn, pulled on one side by my unwillingness to just give up, and my very strong desire to do just that…. I can’t even say why I haven’t found any of my usual strength of will; I only know it’s nowhere to be found. This, of course, is probably just another little gift from Murphy, to let me know he’s still there, and still an asshole…. as if I had forgotten….

This doesn’t even really make any sense…. I have a new format to play with, which has afforded me new opportunities to enjoy life, by getting me out into the world more often, camera in hand, to seek out interesting situations and/or places of interest to record, thus giving me both a focus for my daily need to get more exercise, and a relatively new activity to pursue while out there getting it….. It also gets me out of the house, so I’m not feeling as if I’m stuck between these four walls…. again…. I had enough of that feeling back when I was waiting for my SS, and was actually stuck from going anywhere due to having no funds to do anything beyond pay rent, and eat….

I guess it’s all just an adjustment my body/mind has yet to catch up to, so I’m feeling a bit of fatigue related to the adjustment process…. It’s typical to feel like this when getting used to new things; even if we accept the need for change, our persona doesn’t necessarily agree, because our subconscious minds don’t like to change. They prefer to always maintain the status quo, with no surprises, please…. When that desire is thwarted, as it often is by Reality, it (the subconscious….) retaliates, by making us feel fatigued with no reason, and eating away at our motivation, to prevent us from making the dreaded changes…. or, so it hopes….

So, how does it feel to witness mental illness, right out in front of you, complete with explanatory side comments?…. I don’t know about y’all, but, I think I’ll find something else to do now…. This…. intro, for lack of a better term…. has reached the point where I’m no longer willing to play along….. It’s becoming an embarrassment to my literary self-respect, with good reason, and I am not going to sit here and put up with it, not while I’m still in charge of my own fingers…. We may not ever get to any pearls if I don’t put my foot down here, metaphorically speaking…. So, stand back please, while I do my version of the literary boogie, and trip the light fantastic, alphabetically speaking….

Shall we Pearl?….

“How I wish that somewhere there existed an island for those who are wise and of good will.” — Albert Einstein

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I’m not sure exactly how this is going to work, but, we’re gonna give it the old college try, anyway…. First, you will see a seven-star pearl, whose parameters are obviously set to “pick on the Asininnies”…. Don’t worry, you’ll see…. After the pearls, you’ll find a series of photos, some by me, others not (but, they’re attributed….)…. Your task, should you accept it, is to match the pearls to the pictures…. but, no worries if it doesn’t fit, or even if they aren’t in the same slice of reality…. It’s all just a pearl, ffolkes, so enjoy…. Here are the pearls….

“Democracy, which is a charming form of government, full of variety and disorder, and dispensing a sort of equality to equals and unequals alike.” — Plato, The Republic. Book VIII. 558

“I am further of opinion that it would be better for us to have [no laws] at all than to have them in so prodigious numbers as we have.” — Michael de Montaigne (1533-1592) — Essays, Book iii, Chap. xiii

“What then in the last resort are the truths of mankind? — They are the _irrefutable_ errors of mankind.” — Nietzsche

“Authority and liberty are two incompatible ideas…. Liberty diminishes in proportion as man progresses and becomes civilized.” — Antonio de Oliveira Salazar (1889-1970)

“Say what will convince, not what you believe.’ — Bureaucrat’s Law #2

“It is the mark of our whole modern history that the masses are kept quiet with a fight. They are kept quiet by the fight because it is a sham-fight; thus most of us know by this time that the Party System has been popular only in the sense that a football match is popular.” — G. K. Chesterton, A Short History of England. 156

“The White Rabbit put on his spectacles. “Where shall I begin, please your Majesty ?” he asked. “Begin at the beginning,”, the King said, very gravely, “and go on till you come to the end: then stop.” — Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll

Well, there you have it, such as it is…. which is pretty good, all in all…. Maybe it’s just me, but, I think this pearl says quite a bit about the state of modern civilization…. about which we may also say, such as it is…. Here then is the Art to go along with this seven-star pearl…. Let’s see how it works today…. Of these pictures, two are not my own…. The caterpillar mimicking the snake, (and very well, I must add….), and the magnificent warthog Dad named Magnum both came from the London Daily Telegraph website, from their Pictures of the Day feature found & accessed on June 3, 2014…. The other five came from my camera….

I often wonder who this person was, and though it would be simple to find out, I don’t really care much…. He just LOOKS like a politician to me….

A wonderful plant near my where I live…. beautifully wild and free, in rejection of its urban placement….

A close-up photo of a caterpillar cleverly camouflaging itself as a snake to ward off predators. Professor Daniel Janzen captured the image as part of his work cataloguing caterpillars and says this is part of the hemeroplanes species. The neon-green bug creates the illusion of looking like a dangerous reptile by expanding parts at the end of its body. Its defence – designed to ward of predators while it is a larvae before becoming a moth – is so well developed it will even strike harmlessly if approached. Daniel, who is a professor of biology at the University of Pennsylvannia, snapped the bug while working in the Area de Conservacion Guanacaste, Costa Rica.Picture: DANIEL JANZEN / JANZEN.UPENN.EDU / CATERS NEWS

Absofuckincredibly awesome mimicry by a caterpillar…..

The houses of parliament, and Big Ben…. what else to go with a pointedly political pearl?….

An American Wall of Nutrition…..

Magnum the Magnificent! A zoo captive, but, a good dad, apparently…. and so magnificently ugly!…..

It’s spring in California, and even the most pathetically neglected flowers will bloom to the best of their nature…..

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“…’cause anyone who would buy this record couldn’t give a fuck if there’s good musicians on it…. ’cause this is a STUPID song… …AND THAT’S THE WAY I LIKE IT!” — Frank Zappa, lyrics to “Little Green Rosetta” in “Joe’s Garage”

Okay, so I’m getting a bit hyped up; sue me…. Actually, I’m just getting warmed up, ffolkes, so, I’d suggest donning the Kevlar vestments that are situated in the mesh holders under your seat…. You won’t need them for the poem, but, considering the journey thus far today, I’m thinking it’s probably the best idea….

magical mystery tour

I am in this low-slung sports car
painted a deep, rich yellow
driving under an Italian sun.
I have a British accent.
I’m wearing dark shades
an expensive silk shirt.
there’s no dirt under my
fingernails.
the radio plays Vivaldi
and there are two women with
me
one with raven hair
the other a blonde.
they have small breasts and
beautiful legs
and they laugh at everything I
say.

as we drive up a steep road
the blonde squeezes my leg
and nestles closer
while raven hair
leans across and nibbles my
ear.

we stop for lunch at a quaint
rustic inn.
there is more laughter
before lunch
during lunch and after
lunch.

after lunch we will have a
flat tire on the other side of
the mountain
and the blonde will change the
tire
while
raven hair
photographs me
lighting my pipe
leaning against a tree
the perfect background
perfectly at peace
with
sunlight
flowers
clouds
birds
everywhere.

~~ Charles Bukowski ~~

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It’s late, & I’ve been at this for far longer than I had thought my motivation would take me…. It goes to show, I suppose, how focus and interest can completely ignore any factors outside of its own area of focus, and time will pass, unnoticed, until the interest is all used up, and reality can once again intrude…. We’ll finish up with the quickest sort of pearl, a relatively random old-school variety, sans any formal parameters…. Plus, the first one is a pearl I’ve been saving for a couple days, just looking for the right spot to include it, as it is a new contributor to me…. Enjoy!….

“No, sir, th dimmycratic party aint on speakin terms with itsilf. Whin ye see two men with white neckties go into a sthreet car an set in opposite corners while wan mutthers Thraiter an th other hisses Miscreent ye can bet theyre two dimmycratic leaders thryin to reunite th gran ol party.” — Finley Peter Dunne

“Happiness is an imaginary condition,formerly often attributed by the living to the dead, now usually attributed by adults to children, and by children to adults.” — Thomas Szasz, in The Second Sin

CARTESIAN, adj. Relating to Descartes, a famous philosopher, author of the celebrated dictum, _Cogito ergo sum_ — whereby he was pleased to suppose he demonstrated the reality of human existence. The dictum might be improved, however, thus: _Cogito cogito ergo cogito sum_ — “I think that I think, therefore I think that I am;” as close an approach to certainty as any philosopher has yet made, — Ambrose Bierce, “The Devil’s Dictionary”

“The contact with manners then is education; and this Thucydides appears to assert when he says history is philosophy learned from examples.” — Dionysius, Ars Rhetorica, XI,2

“A faith-holder puts himself below his faith and lets it guide his actions. The fanatic puts himself above it and uses it as an excuse for his actions.” — Gordon Dickson, Chantry Guild

“Many a man has decided to stay alive not because of the will to live, but because of the determination not to give assorted surviving bastards the satisfaction of his death.” — Brendan Francis

Men of reason have endured; men of passion have lived.” — Sebastien Roch Nicolas Chamfort (1741-1794) — Maximes et Pensees (1796)

Well, that certainly came out well…. especially there at the last line…. I think I’ve always known this instinctively, which is why I have always tried to approach life with “passionate reason”….. It seems to be the best, if not the only, way to life life well, exactly the way we wish to live it….

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I am sure, without even going back to look this over, that I’ve caused all the damage I can for one morning…. I mean, how much can you expect from me in less than three hours of random, yet somehow consistent effort to create, or, to give a reasonable facsimile thereof? Don’t fret, you don’t need to answer; it’s just one of those rhetorical questions one always hears about…. just wanted to show y’all what one looks like….. Any who, having done and said all there is to say, I’m outta here…. See ya, ffolkes….

Y’all take care out there,
and May the Metaphorse be with you;
Blessed Be, dearest Carole, Mark, and Theresa…
and everyone else, too…

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 the dubious

Suffering slightly from anaerobic syncopation….

Posted on June 2, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

I can’t have what I want, so, I’ll take what I can…. There, that marks me as an American, don’t you think? It’s a typically American male attitude, for sure; just go watch freeway traffic for a while, & you’ll see what I mean…. But, I’m not here to rant (not in THIS section, anyway…), so perhaps I should begin today’s Pearl in a slightly different fashion…. that is, if you can call this fashion…. more like the direct opposite of fashionable, I’d say…. But, then, I AM a cynic, mostly, so, that, too, might be suspect to some people….

Well, that was certainly a wash, wasn’t it? Not a single compelling phrase to be found…. Hell, one of those is probably not to be found in the vicinity, though we do like to pretend they can be…. Unfortunately for me, today, that could conceivably have an effect on the content of this Pearl, which is already somewhat uncertain, what with the new format and all…. Why, I find myself to be downright discombobulated over it…. or, was that upleft discombobulated?

(I always wondered about that word, ‘downright’…… How did a piece of directional advice come to mean “absolutely” or even “completely”? Gotta wonder about the English people sometimes…. or, at least, about the meanings of English words….)

Aha! I’ve figured it out! Wait….. Well, maybe not…. I thought for a moment there I actually had a clue, but, it was only a random neuronic twitch in that area of the brain…. No, wait, maybe not…. Okay, now I’m REALLY confused, and haven’t a bloody clue about either how I got to this point, or what the hell I should do to find my way out…. I haven’t been this lost in an intro for, heck, a couple of years…. make that days….

Oh, I admit, I’m often at a loss as to how to start this business each day, but, generally, I can ramble and blather long enough to get it done…. This, though…. I don’t know if it can be salvaged…. I think I’m going to have to use the old #4 method yet again, in order to bring this to anything like a reasonable conclusion…. It is our most heavily used emergency tool, mostly just because it works so well…. How does it do that, when all the other methods are so inconsistent? Well, it goes like this (and, I’d advise you to take a firm grip on the provided handhold…. Jeez, it’s right there on the wall, next to your seat….)…..

Shall we Pearl?…..

“Things which you do not hope happen more frequently than things which you do hope.” — Plautus (254-184 BC) — Mostellaria, Act i, Sc. 3, 40, (197.)

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Here is the second exhibition of what someday will be hailed as the saving grace of this blog (Well, I can hope, can’t I?….), a newly constructed photo-pearl, all for y’all…. I rode the ferry from the town where I reside to San Francisco for the morning, to take some pictures around Fisherman’s Wharf, just to practice my picture skills, and enjoy the crowds…. It was a good time, and I think I got some decent shots, even if my choice of subject matter is still a bit odd, compared to any sort of norm…. Please, enjoy, dammit!….

“Believe me, my young friend, there is nothing -absolutely nothing — half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats.” — Mr. Toad in The Wind in the Willows (1908) by Kenneth Grahame (1859-1932)

Although I can’t fully agree with Mr. Toad, at least, not in this instance, I thought it fit quite nicely with this picture, which, as far as I can tell from having watched the harbor for a while, is a picture of a traffic jam on the water here…. Well, it’s as jammed as I’ve ever seen it, anyway; it’s a small town, relatively speaking, and since the naval base closed a couple of decades ago, there just isn’t as much money in town, and, nowhere near as many people who can afford to go boating, a fairly expensive hobby…. It’s fun to sail, but, the actual expense of owning a boat is well beyond the income average around here…. Just another example of the growing income gap in this world, I’d say….

“Flowery oratory he despised. He ascribed to the interested views of themselves or their relatives the declarations of pretended patriots, of whom he said, “All those men have their price.”” — Sir Robert Walpole (1676-1745) — Coxe: Memoirs of Walpole, Vol. iv, p. 369

After disembarking the ferry in SF, I walked down a few yards, & took this picture of the entrance to Pier 39, one of the most unabashedly mercenary tourist traps in the City…. I wandered through the labyrinthine winding pathways, designed to highlight each shop’s “unique” piles of absolutely useless, worthless CRAP, such as the “World’s First Magnet Store”, or Bubba Gump’s Shrimp restaurant, or the chocolate shops, or one of the OTHER three magnet shops…. I swear, if you don’t want to eat, or buy crap, there isn’t a whole lot to do there, except watch people…. Since I arrived earlier than most, even that pastime was limited….. Ah well, there WERE pictures to be had, so, I took them….

For example….

“For “ignorance is the mother of devotion,” as all the world knows.” — Robert Burton (1577-1640) — The Anatomy of Melancholy, Part iii, Sect. 4, Memb. 1, Subsect. 2

I know…. It takes a “different” sort of mind to come up with such connections…. This is the crab sculpture placed at the entrance to Pier 39… the picture before this was taken while standing just behind this sculpture, looking away from it toward the end of the pier, and the water…. This is right out on the Embarcadero, where the world can see it as they ride by in their Mercedes, or their tour buses…. I thought it was the perfect statement to go in front of such an place, where the gods of economics hold sway over all other considerations…. As long as the money flows, the crab is happy….

“Knowledge dwells in heads replete with thoughts of other men; wisdom in minds attentive to their own.” — William Cowper

I was fortunate in finding a place from which to watch the session of Congress that was being held at the pier yesterday…. It was part of my reason for going, to be able to observe the workings of our government in action…. When I took this picture, a debate was going on over a bill on the floor…. By the sound of the different comments by each of the politicians at the meeting, there was NOT going to be a vote on the bill today…. It almost sounded like a filibuster, but, why would anyone do something so stupid, just to express their opposition, when right action prior to that time would mitigate any need for such?

I never could understand Congress very well; it always seemed like a way to get those idiots off the streets, which is fine, but then they had to go and let them vote themselves a key to the treasury….. Ever since, we’ve been headed downhill, toward the stunningly final conclusion we are now practically guaranteed to find waiting for us at the end of the day, while all the while, the sea lions keep barking, to no effect….

“You begin saving the world by saving one person at a time; all else is grandiose romanticism or politics.” — Charles Bukowski

For the entire three or so hours I wandered around the Wharf area, the fog and mist hung in the air, softening and blurring everything, leaching the color from the very air…. except for the flower bed above, which was the loveliest sight I saw the entire morning…. Just as I took the photo, a blackbird fluttered through the lens, landing in the exact center of the picture, as if trained to be there on command…. He/she is a little hard to see, as it naturally took advantage of the background to blend in, but, still is a perfect example of how the animals that live with us on the planet have a better grip on what is important than our own species….

Well, that’s how it seems to me, anyway…. All the humans there, milling around in huge numbers, drawn together to seek out cultural phenomena to experience, so they can go home and say they have “been there, done that” to all their acquaintances, never once realizing that there is nothing unique, or uplifting, or particularly moral about these cultural experiences…. which were impressed upon them by OTHERS as being something of worth, of being a place they should see and experience….

So, they come to SF, and go to Fisherman’s Wharf, and Pier 39, where all of the WORST examples of Americanism can be found, in tourist shops that sell more of the iconic images that reinforce the cultural importance of the visit…. Souvenirs to take home as proof they were actually here, with the other 10,000 or so individuals from out of town, or country….

The flower bed, to me, was the most REAL part of the whole day’s experience, and well worth riding the ferry for an hour each way….. To me, the experience was an opportunity to assimilate a piece of wisdom that probably no more than one or two ffolkes on the wharf that day were capable of understanding…. the rest of the people were there to either spend money and see stuff they could talk about at home, working in one of the tourist traps, picking pockets or running scams on the tourists, or were jogging through on their way back to their apartment near the beach…. That was fine with me, as it is an endless parade of human folly, all in one spot, so I can sit in the shade or sun, depending on the weather, and observe the panorama of human folly in all its insane glory….

“The years teach much which the days never know.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882), “Experience”

I took the picture above as the ferry pulled away from its berth at Pier 41, on its way home…. It’s a perfect picture to end my day, even though I took it at about 1130 AM…. I rode the ferry home, & proceeded to collapse for a nap as soon as I got home…. Upon arising, I went through the pix, editing and deleting as needed, then picked out these few for today’s Pearl…. It seems to work out well, now that I’ve got a handle on how to format everything, and to use my tools in the correct order, to be able to fit together picture, pearl, and comments, so they are, at least, comprehensible, or in some approach coherency…. So far, I think I’m doing okay, and I know it will get better with time….

I hope y’all are enjoying the new format; it’s a lot of fun for me, and is giving me a whole new perspective on this daily blog thing…. Some might say that a new view on this is long overdue, but, they’re just jealous, so pay them no mind…. I think, though, this is going to work well, and as soon as I figure out how to use this format to rant, well, ffolkes, then all bets are off, and the world may never be the same….

That said, lets’ move on to poetry, eh?….. Thanks fer listenin’…..

That ‘s the wise thrush; he sings each song twice over,
Lest you should think he never could recapture
The first fine careless rapture.

— Robert Browning (1812-1890) — Home-Thoughts from Abroad, ii

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Oddly enough, I have the urge to poem…. stand back, and don’t let any of the splash get on your clothing. It has been known to cause spontaneous combustion, or, as in at least two cases, toxic shock…. I have no idea how this will turn out, so, wish me luck….

Pure Truth: Elsewhen

Everything I say and do, I’m sure,
only comes from what I know.
If what I’ve said or done is good, and pure,
I can say it’s not just for show.

Sometimes people don’t quite get me.
It can be a pain, for sure.
I try not allow it to keep me from being free,
especially when my thoughts may be impure.

In fact, I try quite hard most of the time,
to keep from hurting folks.
If our culture more often approached sublime,
I wouldn’t have to take so many pokes.

Now I’ll make another sacrifice, for y’all,
not for karmic advantage, or, not merely so….
But, to save me from yet another downfall,
I’ll stop here; ensign, make it so….

~~ gigoid ~~

I believe I was right to be nervous about the outcome…. but, it’s not bad…. I have the feeling it may get edited, sometime in the future, but, for now, it will do for our purpose….. I forget who said that all poets are mad, though not all mad men are poets, but, I can relate, for sure and for certain…..

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Saved by the old school bell…. It’s getting late; the sun is well up, and I have yet to finish, much less post…. So, this will be a rapid-fire, randomly chosen pearl…. often the best kind….

“I may be crazy, but I’m not stupid.” — Smart Bee, quoting gigoid, the dubious

“I have a feeling that at any time about three million Americans can be had for any militant reaction against law, decency, the Constitution, the Supreme Court, compassion and the rule of reason.” — John Kenneth Galbraith

“All of Finagle’s Rules may be bypassed by learning the simple art of doing without thinking.” — Wingo’s Axiom

Beware
Of entrance to a quarrel; but being in,
Bear ‘t that the opposed may beware of thee.
Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice;
Take each man’s censure, but reserve thy judgment.
Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy,
But not express’d in fancy; rich, not gaudy;
For the apparel oft proclaims the man.

— William Shakespeare (1564-1616), Hamlet — Act i, Sc. 3

“If there were no God, it would be necessary to invent him.” — Voltaire (1694-1778) — Epitre a l’Auteur du Livre des Trois Imposteurs, cxi

“Of all forces acting on man, change is the most beneficial and the most cruel.” — Smart Bee

“Everything flows and nothing abides; everything gives way and nothing stays fixed.” — Heraclitus

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I can see that I will either need to get up earlier, or work on these ahead of time; it takes a significant amount of time to create it all from scratch…. But, then, I don’t always write a fresh poem, either…. It’s good, I think, that I tweaked my back in my sleep again last night; it will keep me from overdoing it today…. and, boy, doesn’t THAT sound old and tired! I’ll have to think about that….. For now, without even checking this over, I’m outta here….. See ya, ffolkes….

Y’all take care out there,
and May the Metaphorse be with you;
Blessed Be, dearest Carole, Mark, and Theresa…
and everyone else, too…

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 the dubious

Subject to NSA review, it’s done….

Posted on June 1, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

“It might not be Ibsen, but, it’s Art.” Or, in the case of our situation here on ECR, it could be merely Art’s friend Joey, who, while nice in most respects, isn’t Art…. Of course, I never promised any damn roses, or gardens, or any other sort of horticultural display; I’ve been known to kill cacti, so I usually try to avoid that sort of plant genocide…. The easiest way to do that is to keep my black thumb away from anything that depends on my attention to stay alive; it’s safer for the plants, and I don’t get the evil eye from every gardener who happens by….

“Castles in the air — they’re so easy to take refuge in. So easy to build, too.” — Henrik Ibsen

How did I get onto my inability to deal with watering? I had intended to start off in an entirely different direction, but, it sort of got away with me before I even got out of the first paragraph…. Sometimes, I think this is getting to be a bit strange…. Oh, I don’t mean strange, funny, I mean strange, weird…. Any who, whichever strange it is, it’s starting t show more episodes of rebellious independence, haring off in directions that make no sense at all, especially since they aren’t connected to anything but normal prose, that just happened to be there when it made its bid for literary freedom…

Of course, that doesn’t account for the tendency of all independent literature to become revolutionary in nature, thus exposing itself, and, by concatenation, the author, to scrutiny from those friendly fokes (misspelled deliberately…. they don’t rate even ONE ‘el’….) at the NSA, who are deep into the process of becoming completely insane in their need to collect ALL the data in the world….. That 60’s rock song had it right, when it told us, “Paranoia strikes deep; into your life it will creep. It starts when you’re always afraid…..”….. and, boy, are they afraid!….

That is as deep into ranting as I’ll get today, ffolkes…. I’m trying to keep to my plan, to avoid so much ranting it puts me into a bad mood, before I even begin to think rationally…. It’s never a good idea to decide on one’s direction before drinking sufficient coffee to keep such considerations out of the decision-making process; we tend to end up with several thousand words, all sharply pointed, and jabbing at the BRC, or the preachers, or the Corporate Snakeheads, those assholes….

That’s enough of THAT! Before this turns on me again, I believe I will head out to the oyster beds…. I’m thinking it would be best if y’all came along, if only to keep from getting Murphy excited…. He doesn’t need the help, or the stimulation, believe me….

Shall we Pearl?…..

“Those who really deserve praise are the people who, while human enough to enjoy power, nevertheless pay more attention to justice than they are compelled to do by their situation.” — Thucydides

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Here we go, off again into the wilds of a new-fashioned pearl…. let’s see if I can make this work today….

“He who endeavors to serve, to benefit, and improve the world, is like a swimmer, who struggles against a rapid current, in a river lashed into angry waves by the winds. Often they roar over his head, often they beat him back and baffle him. Most men yield to the stress of the current… Only here and there the stout, strong heart and vigorous arms struggle on toward ultimate success.” — Albert Pike (1809-1891)

To my way of looking at it, the picture is perfect for this pearl…. it shows us the river of which Mr. Pike speaks, as it appears to us BEFORE we jump in…. and, after we have reached the point in the river to which our struggles take us. Once the effort has been successfully spent, the road is smooth, and clear of traffic…. Well, it SOUNDS good, doesn’t it…. If reality doesn’t always cooperate, it can’t be helped…. or so they say….

“I think we’re all Bozos on this Bus!” — The Firesign Theater

There it is, ffolkes…. it’s the Bozo Bus, taking us all down to Reality, as long as we can pay the fare…. Actually, the picture is an example of amateur photography at it’s finest, or worst, which often happens at the same time…. I took it while in a sunny spot, on an overcast morning, which made it hard to see just how the zoom had worked, or not…. Hence, a picture that highlights the odd views we can get when we know NOT what we are doing…. in short, a perfect illustration of living up to our Bozoid natures….. Whether or not y’all know it, or believe it, Reality has the final word, and you may as well accept the facts, ffolkes…. We are ALL Bozos on this Bus…..

“‘Truth’ never set anyone free. It is only *doubt* which will bring mental emancipation.” — Anton LaVey

As further proof of the assertion made just above, in the previous pearl, (We are all Bozos, etc…..) this picture was taken, and included in this grouping, BEFORE I noticed the trash receptacle in the exact center of the photo…. I thought I was taking a nice, long view of a pleasant spot, (for a parking area….), showing how amenable even such stark buildings can be made….. while the whole time, the blunt nose of Reality was leaving a smear on the glass….. SIGH, oh well…. I guess even photography requires a bit of sharpness of mind, to achieve any real degree of competence…. That, or just paying better attention, which I’ll also try to work into the program…. SIGH…. It never ends, does it?….

Or, maybe it’s merely my just desserts, for using a quote by LaVey….. Even though true, one must remember to always consider the source; Anton LaVey, for those who are unaware, was the long-time leader of the Church of Satan…. so, it’s worth taking ANYTHING he says with a grain of salt, even when, like this one, it is so obviously correct….

“Stuckness shouldn’t be avoided. It’s the psychic predecessor of all real understanding. An egoless acceptance of stuckness is a key to an understanding of all Quality, in mechanical work as in other endeavors.” — Pirsig, “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance”

I’m not sure just how the quote goes with the picture, except that the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance somehow goes together with the idea of palm trees, especially when they are completely out of their normal place…. Those of y’all who have actually read the book by Mr. Pirsig will, I think, be better able to understand that, though it isn’t guaranteed…. There are, I’m sure, some people who read the book, who still don’t understand how Zen comes into it, so, I can’t always expect people to catch my references, either…. but, that’s okay, too, because, hey, look! We got Art!…. Well, we’ve got pictures, anyway….

“No one loves the man whom he fears.” — Aristotle

You might be wondering about now just how this picture fits in with the pearl…. well, it doesn’t, really….. I picked the pearl just because it is good to remember, and it makes me hope…. that there are a number of men (or women, I’m not picky in my enemies…) sitting somewhere in a basement somewhere in Washington D.C., dredging through all the stuff they’ve pulled out of people’s computers and off the internet, to search out the nasty terrorists they KNOW are hiding among us, reading what I’ve created here, and scratching their heads, trying to figure out if it is treasonous, or merely subversive…. while, all the while, I’m hoping they are getting the clue, that I’m laughing at them….

Probably not, though…. I don’t think they’re quite that sharp, to ascertain when they’ve been insulted…. S’okay, I’ve got plans today…. which brings us to the picture, of the ferry I’m going to ride in a couple of hours, on my new daily quest for pictures, and some fun for me, participating in LIFE at large… Today, that means I’m taking the ferry to SF, with my camera in hand, to try to take a couple hundred or so pictures, so I’ve got a bigger pool from which to fish for this new format…. For now, though, we’ll just go on, & try to get this done, so I can get going…..

To close this section, here is a political cartoon, by a cartoonist who posts a lot on the UK Guardian, which is where I found this little gem…. enjoy!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It’s an Emily day, I can tell…..

A Book

There is no frigate like a book
To take us lands away,
Nor any coursers like a page
Of prancing poetry.
This traverse may the poorest take
Without oppress of toll;
How frugal is the chariot
That bears a human soul!

~~ Emily Dickinson ~~

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In order to keep with the format we’ve held to for nearly two years, an old-school pearl will be appropriate in this section…. not that being appropriate is a high priority around here, but, we do what we can….

“It takes a long time to bring excellence to maturity.’ — Publius Syrus (42 BC) — Maxim 780

“The real world is not user-friendly.” — Kelvin Throop

“Yield to Temptation … it may not pass your way again.” — Lazarus Long, from Robert A. Heinlein’s “Time Enough For Love”

“It is easy in the world to live after the world’s opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Any excuse will serve a tyrant.” — Aesop (620-560 B.C.)

“When two do the same thing, it is not the same thing after all.” — Publius Syrus (42 BC) — Maxim 338

“Cato requested old men not to add the disgrace of wickedness to old age, which was accompanied with many other evils.” — Plutarch (46-120 AD) –Roman Apophthegms, Cato the Elder

Aw, but, where’s the fun in THAT?…..

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This seems to be working out fairly well…. and, if yesterday’s stats are any indication, the audience approves…. Of course, that is most likely some kind of anomaly, but, we’ll see…. For now, I’ll see you mañana, with a bunch of new pix…. See y’all later, ffolkes…..

Y’all take care out there,
and May the Metaphorse be with you;
Blessed Be, dearest Carole, Mark, and Theresa…
and everyone else, too…

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 the dubious

gigoid

Ned Moore, aka gigoid, is a 70 year-old, (!!!… When did that happen?….), retired dilettante, who would rather read than eat, most days. His first blog, "gigoid’s folly", has been emailed out to folks he knows for about 18 years now. He still considers it his best defense against angst, and the ever-present specter of sheer insanity..... Due to rigorous curmudgeon training requirements, he has discontinued his Facebook presence, but still indulges in the occasional Twitter session... In essence, he's socialized, but, not overly sociable; all labels and stereotypes are forbidden in his presence... and he doesn't care what anyone thinks about that..... In fact, he doesn't want to talk anymore.... If you feel you MUST contact gigoid, his email address is: alphagigoid@gmail.com You can go read now.... Go on, beat it.... gigoid, the dubious

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gigoid

Exploring Consensual Reality

Monthly Archives: June 2014

Full page translations are our specialty….

A line in the sand is often indelible….

How much for the colorful ceramic penguins?…..

“One, two, three, what are we fighting for?….”

Wait a second! Is that a connecting bolt in your pocket?…

In defense of inconvenient innuendo….

History will judge this a Pyrrhic victory…..

Suffering slightly from anaerobic syncopation….

Subject to NSA review, it’s done….

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