Ffolkes,

“And though the course may change sometimes,
Rivers always reach the sea.”

~~ Led Zeppelin, Ten Years Gone ~~

A portrait of focused intent….

Hajime…. I gave up on my deadline, which is probably obvious for those who come here at a regular time. It’s now an hour after my self-imposed time to be done, yet, here I am, just beginning. I’ll be trying to ignore my inner voices, who are already clamoring for panic mode, to see if it will help me keep this reasonably coherent (not that’s ever kept us from posting before…). Should I meet with any success, it’ll be a first, so, you may offer congratulations any time. Hah!

That’s right, ffolkes, I’m teetering on the edge again. If there was a god, he might know why, but, since we don’t cater to such nonsense, I’ll just have to assume I have a good reason, so I can get on with enduring its depredations, in whatever form they may take this time out. Thanks to the nearly limitless abundance of material with which my imagination can formulate new nightmares, day or night, well, that form is pretty, well, formless, so I never know quite what to expect in the way of new, depressing thought patterns. Lots of crap in there with the good stuff to work with, so, it can get a little weird….

How ’bout that picture, eh? It’s the latest I have of Leelu, showing off her developing calico coloration, as well as her magnetic personality. Notice how sharp and clear the picture is, behind and around her; she, in contrast, is a bit fuzzy. I think that’s due to her magnetic nature, which complicates taking digital pictures; she always appears as if she is moving, even when sitting still. Probably has something to do with the cat characteristic of being capable of inter-dimensional travel; alternately, it could be my old, shaky hands…. It’s still a nice picture of her, at nearly a year old….

I’ve blathered sufficiently to meet our everyday standards, so, I guess I’ll go try to throw the rest of this together. Hell, if I’m lucky, it might even get done before noon. I’ll see what I can do about that…..

Shall we pearl?….

“Is is not true that we have only one life to live;
if we can read, we can live as many lives
and as many kinds of lives as we wish.”

~~ S.I. Hayakawa ~~

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Y’all knew this was coming, right? If you didn’t, you should have; there have been more than enough clues, for anyone who’s been coming here for any length of time. No worries; it’s all good. I hope you enjoy today’s selection, chosen, as always, for the picture that grabbed my attention….

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Classical Music

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Since I’m in White Rabbit mode (I’m late, I’m late, etc…), here’s one from the archives…. Enjoy!…

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

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Honorable Request

Days, filled to a brim with fluff and time, pass
dimly into memory, bit by combative bit;
ever mournful, yet loud with life and sass,
only in dream do we meet, and dance, and flit.

Souls, spinning ’round in gleeful wonder, comply
as they must, never given a reason;
somberly proper, yet limber and quite spry,
dancing on to greet each bright new season.

Storms, angered by apathetic care, rage
proceeding into ministerial glare, unknown;
clothed in colors, purified solely with sage,
past an infinite future, already flown.

Life, plumbed to its depths and secrets, keeps
flowing with currents, strong and fairly found;
love stands, asking release, as it slowly weeps,
seeking refuge unasked, to stay honor bound.

~~ gigoid ~~

10/13/2012

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It’s too late to try to persuade SB to be nice, so, here’s an old, old-school pearl from the archives, billed as a damn good one…

From 6/7/2014:

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….

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Having cobbled this one together in a rush, it probably ended up as a good metaphorical representation of my state of mind today; like ice, on the verge of melting…. However it came out, it is, as we are fond of noting, done. So be it. I’ll try again tomorrow, if I can find my routine around here somewhere; it seems to be hiding a lot of late. See ya, ffolkes; I’m determined, if not sanguine….

Y’all take care out there,
and May the Metaphorse be with you;
Blessed Be, dearest Carole, Mark,Theresa, & Richy
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

The *only* duly authorized Computer Curmudgeon.

PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.

“SCRAM!!!!!!!!!!”- Oscar the Grouch

À bientôt, mon cherí….