Ffolkes,

“Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood.
Now is the time to understand more,
so that we may fear less.”

~~ Marie Curie ~~

Leelu ~ The Early Days….

Hajime…. Properly speaking, this isn’t a blog; it’s a self-directed therapeutic activity, designed, from the start, as a means of maintaining a reasonable grasp on reality’s throat, in order to fulfill the implied promise we all make to our mothers, to do our best in Life, in thanks for the invitation. I’ve never spent much effort to promote it, simply because I don’t much care about the fame part of wanting to write. I do care about honesty, accuracy, and the sharing of what we have learned that may be of help to someone else. From a standpoint in view of honor, that’s all I need to worry about. Besides, since I’m retired on disability, I’m not allowed to make any money, lest it prove I can work after all…

That being said, to, as ever, little or no purpose beyond space-filling, the daily completion of what happens here is a rather randomly (un)predictable set of events, any of which, if missed or screwed up somehow, can alter the final results in a way I don’t much appreciate. But, it’s mostly fun, and relatively good for my level of angst to do the work. Now, if only I could find some way to ensure a sufficient degree of motivation each morning, I’d be all set. As it is, it’s a constant struggle to find either the energy, or the will, to get up, and focus on the screen, especially when engaged in a morning altercation with my familiar…. That struggle is lessening, as we adjust to each other’s routines, but, it can be a significant limiting factor….

Why am I going over all this? Ah, who the hell knows; not me, that’s for sure. I just began to type, and this is what came out. Since it’s now clear it isn’t really going much of anywhere, I think we can safely abandon any further examination of the idiosyncrasies of daily blogging, & try to get on with putting together something worthwhile for y’all to enjoy with your morning wake-up routine. Hell, I’ll even try to get something in there to stimulate some degree of cogitation, just to get the juices flowing. We do what we can, even if we cannot claim a full-service menu of offerings. For now, whatever happens will just have to do, because I’m out of stuff to blather…. Let’s do this, instead….

Shall we pearl?….

“He who knows that enough is enough will always have enough.”

~~ Lao Tzu ~~

********************************

Lily Tomlin

Image from www.quoteaddicts.com via Google Images

Our featured artist today should need little introduction. For over forty-six years, this woman has made us laugh, sometimes to the point of blowing snot. She’d love to know that, too, I think…. Ffolkes, here is George Carlin’s nearest competitor for the best ever, in my opinion…. Her character, Ernestine, is iconic, as is she….. Enjoy! I’ve included audio versions of her stage performances, collected by a You Tube fan….

********************************

Lily Tomlin On Stage

********************************

********************************

********************************

“Think like a mountain.”

~~ Aldo Leopold ~~

To be honest, I have within me the power to rant today; I can feel the outrage and angst just sitting there, trembling with the urge to vent. But, I’m late again, thanks to evolving routines, so we’ll go instead with something from the archives, after a short statement on current reality…. The following short pearl, composed of three deep little pearls, makes a cogent comment on the culture which has evolved on this planet, which bears an uncomfortable resemblance to those societies described by George Orwell and Aldous Huxley in their frightening visions of our possible future. After the pearls, you’ll find an archived rant, just because I feel like some overkill…. Enjoy!….

“Abroad in the world today is a monstrous falsehood, a consummate fabrication, to which all social agencies have loaned themselves and into which most men, women, and children have been seduced … “the Eleventh Commandment”; for such, indeed, has become the injunction: You Must Adjust.” — Robert M. Lindner

“I’m frequently appalled by the low regard you Earthmen have for life.” — Spock, “The Galileo Seven,” stardate 2822.3.

“Arguments derived from probabilities are idle.” — Plato

From 7/17/2014:

“Ignorance of one’s ignorance is the greatest ignorance.” — Smart Bee

http://blog.sfgate.com/morford/2014/07/15/not-all-conservative-white-guys/

Fucking brilliant….. No other lesser phrasing would be powerful enough to express how strongly I believe in what Mark has written here…. He is absolutely, 100% on target with his observations, and delivers a message that even the most hardened idiot has to hear…. of course, until they just get that glazed look on their face, and deny, deny, deny…. which they will do, immediately, by the millions, should they get even two paragraphs into this article…. Mark has a way with words like no one else, and he uses them here to once again skewer the GOP, and the group that I call the Asininnies, so well I’m tempted to say he did it perfectly…..

“Counts his sure gains, and hurries back for more.” — James Montgomery (1771-1854) — The West Indies, Part iii

Sniff…. It brings a tear of joy to my curmudgeonly soul to hear, and feel, the brilliantly sharp sardonicism Mark brings to bear, on the asininity, and the sheer stupidity that permeates the entire rich white Judeo-Christian fundamentalist, corporate mentality…. You know, the one that fills the halls of our government in Washington, all 50 state capitals, and every bloody church in this somewhat less than diversified land of ours….. The ranks of those who refuse to use their brains for anything beyond transporting their bowels from one toilet to another are bursting with politicians, lawyers, priests, preachers, quasi-military police, and corporate raptors, viciously dispassionate in their unending search for more power, and more resources to control…. all without any regard, or concern of any kind, for anyone whose lifestyle and/or beliefs do not match their own limited views….

It took me a while to compose the above paragraph; I tried to be as condemning as possible, without resorting to vulgarity…. I think it worked okay, in that it’s clear how I feel about those assholes…. but, due primarily to my own tendency toward pomposity, it could be better, and leads me to believe you just can’t replace a good round of swearing and cursing for delivering a message like this one…. I could have said most of that, and delivered the message, with a simple, “the bloody fucking assholes are doing it again”, with minor amplification for corroboration of details….

Shit flows downhill, you know, so, it’s best to fling it before we get any on ourselves…. Besides, with the way most of those in the 1% treat most everyone else, they deserve every bit of our disdain and vituperation, as well as our vulgarity…. THEY are the ones who live their lives in a vulgar manner…. What other word fits better than “vulgar”, to describe the likes of Rush Limbaugh, or Dick Cheney, or Karl Rove, three of the bastions of conservative thought?…. None I can think of, and my vocabulary is pretty extensive…. Just putting their images in my mind gives me a shudder of revulsion, worse than any I’ve ever gotten from snakes, lizards, or insects, let me tell you….

Once again, Mark has said it better than I am currently capable of doing, so, I’m going to soothe my fevered brow with an old school pearl, to vent some of the angst and anger that builds up in me whenever I consider the egregious immorality of those at the top of the societal pyramid of power…. those fucking assholes…. Here is a seven star old-school pearl, with parameters designed to find some sharp, pointed sticks, which we shall then envision to be flying directly at the lying eyes of the pundits….

“Government of the people, by the lawyers, for the conservatives.” — Smart Bee

“You’re not supposed to be so blind with patriotism that you can’t face reality. Wrong is wrong, no matter who says it.” — Malcolm X

“We are doing the right thing and we do not see the bad things.” — Vice President Dan Quayle pretending he is one of the wise monkeys

“If you can’t get a job, get a senate appointment!!!” — Smart Bee

“Basically a dog person. I certainly, though, wouldn’t want to offend my constituents who are cat people, and I should say that being, I hope, a sensitive person, that I have nothing against cats, and had cats when I was a boy, and if we didn’t have the two dogs might very well be interested in having a cat now.” — Incoming Missouri Congressman James Talent, — responding to the question Are you a dog or a cat person? (Mr. Talent is a graduate, summa cum idiotum, of the Dan Quayle School of Political Science-Like Stuff)

“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

“If God had intended for politicians to ski, he would have made bullshit white.” — Smart Bee

This is an example of what I call a “rock-solid” pearl…. When you see quotes from Smart Bee at either end, and smack in the middle, you can trust that this pearl is one that will hold its shape under the most trying of circumstances, and can puncture the eye of a pundit without leaving a permanent mark….. It’s that solid, sharp, and real….

********************************

Some years ago, since retiring at the start of 2011, I spent a lot of time in pretty constant pain. Now I am using Phoenix Tears, it is much better, but, sometimes it’s good to go back & re-live it, to keep my feeling of progress intact…. Here’s a report I wrote after a particularly trying day, which gives a good idea of how it goes…. or, can go, some days, even now…. I’ve left it with the addendum I originally posted with it, which tells us why we write such poems….

Gauges of Pain

Consciousness devolves in pools of gripping fears
holding hostage any hope of serenity,
sharp stabbing motions and greedy tears
nary a moment passes without common calamity.

Always a surprise, nothing soothing ever found,
leaving only breathless clinging pain,
salvation seemingly absent, it muffles all sound,
bringing ever more sadness and rain.

Solitude is ever present to claim my time,
lonely hours and relentlessly long days,
no radio plays such music in secular rhyme
happy, vibrant voices belong to elder ways.

Life can be justified it seems to say,
by hopeful favored moments of pleasure,
seemingly friendly, pointing out the only way,
to bring back happiness in minimal measure.

Days of horror and embarrassing tears
serve ever to drive wretched hours to withhold
promising naught but sorrow in coming years,
black, bitter memories that never grow old.

Cold, cold the days fly by,
can it really be our only token?
Never to say, or know just why
the pain never stops, even when spoken…

~~ gigoid ~~

9/10/2012

(Yes, yesterday was NOT a good day…. why do you ask?…..)

Griefe brought to numbers cannot be so fierce,
For, he tames it, that fetters it in verse.
— John Donne ~~

********************************

Naked Pearls

This way to the lighted area….

*******

“To teach is to learn.”

~~ Japanese Proverb ~~

*******

“Should I start with the time I SWITCHED personalities
with a BEATNIK hair stylist
or my failure to refer five TEENAGERS to a good OCULIST?”

— Zippy the Pinhead

*******

“One doesn’t discover new lands
without consenting to lose sight of the shore
for a very long time.”

~~ Andre Gide ~~

*******

“What can we gain by sailing to the moon
if we are not able to cross the abyss
that separates us from ourselves?
This is the most important of all voyages of discovery,
and without it,
all the rest are not only useless,
but disastrous…”

~~ Thomas Merton ~~

*******

“Adventure is not outside a man; it is within.”

~~ David Grayson ~~

*******

“Every ordinary moment, every little detail
should be a celebration of your personal understanding.
Your smallest act should be permeated with reverence.”

~~ Deng Ming-Dao ~~

*******

“He declared that he knew nothing, except the fact of his ignorance.”

~~ Diogenes Laertius — Socrates, xvi ~~

*******

********************************

I’m not entirely sure how, (much less why….), but, it’s done. Since I blew off yesterday, I have to say, it’s not bad for one thrown together at the last minute. Regardless of how it may have turned out, we’re going with it, as it’s too late to do it over. I will, however, maintain our standard of honesty, to give you fair warning, I’ll be back tomorrow to try again; you might want to mark your calendars. Until then, y’all be strange, because, why not?…. See ya, ffolkes….

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….