The White Rabbit’s waistcoat won’t fit….

Posted on June 16, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

As I closed my front door early this morning, on the way out to drive to work, a large white rabbit, dressed, oddly enough, in a gentleman’s morning attire, complete with, waistcoat, pince nez, and a huge watch chain hanging from the pocket, ran quickly past me, muttering what sounded like imprecations indicative of great agitation…. Well, being familiar with Lewis Carroll, and his pederasty fantasy child, I DIDN’T give chase, not having the time, or the slightest inclination to attend any tea parties, experiment with mushrooms, or wage any battles of wit with a Cat, especially one as curmudgeonly as the Cheshire who gave Alice all that lip and grief….

Nor, as I’m sure you are aware, did I really see any rabbits this morning…. The first clue it was all fiction was in the first line, when I said I was driving to work…. which is, as you may know, something I no longer do for anyone but myself…. The second was the waistcoat, which, as you may have noted, was mentioned in today’s title, and as such, was NOT expected to be in the body of work today…. There are times, and this is one of them, when I suspect this process is not entirely under my control…. which begs the question, who’s driving this bus of bozos?….

The answer, of course, is that NOBODY is driving the bus, ffolkes…. I’ve given up, and nobody else can be persuaded to take up the gauntlet; I’ve even tried employment agencies, but, after a few stories from the few they’ve sent over got back to them, it’s been hard to find anyone willing to take it on…. I mean, it’s not like it’s a HARD job; it’s just the strangeness that gets to them, I suppose…. Well, that, and the uniforms; I shouldn’t have gone for the one with the epaulets on the shoulder; everyone thinks they look ridiculous, and hates to wear them….

Of course, I’ve had to let everyone go anyway, what with the recession and all. Even though the economy is on the mend, or so they say, (I think they really have no clue about what will actually happen; they just play the odds and guess…. like we all do since Cassandra died….), if I try to pay a living wage, it eats into my meager profits…. which are also non-existent…. All of which is why it’s a dead giveaway for me to say I’m about to drive off to work…. Hard to do with no car, and no job…

All of the above, of course, is just another distraction, a load of bilge-water, best if left to its own devices lest the smell get into your clothing…. I’m up quite late, for me, and suffering again from the usual complement of painful joints, hips, and the concomitant deleterious effect on my energy, and motivation…. I have to bust through the reluctance to move at all, in order to get past the point where it holds me down, or up, whichever direction I’m going at the time…. Then, well, let’s not get any more into that; it’s just encouraging me to whine….

Instead, I’m going to get on with what we have in store for today, whatever that might be…. Once again, your guess is as good as mine, as to what that may be, or look like…. So, we’ll use trusty method #4, and get on with it….

Shall we Pearl?….

“Acquittal of the guilty damns the judge.” — Horace

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“Do not be angry with me if I tell you the truth.” — Socrates (470?-399 B.C.)

Yarrr! Avast, ye land lubbers! Stand your ground, and pay heed!….

The pirate phenomenon came to my town this weekend, in the format of a festival…. A consumer’s delight, where about a hundred or so craft, food, & beverage vendors, singing and musical groups, stage production companies, and otherwise normal folks get together dressed up like pirates, talking like pirates, and generally celebrating the pirate culture, such as it was….. It’s all pretty romanticized, considering the whole scenario of piracy as a way of life; all of the cool, frosty stuff is kept, and all the pain, misery, abuse, and poverty that went along with most of it is ignored….

The historical period when piracy on the high seas was popular, back a few hundred years, was a lot more brutal on the general public than most folks realize, but, hey, that’s America for you…. just look at the parts you want to see, and ignore what you don’t…. They did have their priorities straight, though…. The ATM machines were quite prominent, in three locations for the consumer’s convenience, set up by the food & beer area, and in the first row of craft & clothing vendors….

This all sounds a bit curmudgeonly, of course, which is a result of my thoughts AFTER attending…. I actually had a good time, without spending a fortune, and had some decent noms (food, for those of you not current on slang….)….. I had a sausage roll, Scottish style, just as greasy as the one I had in Scotland, and the shepherd’s pie looked pretty good, too…. Sadly, the only liquor available, other than beer, was rum, which does NOT agree with me at all, due to an unfortunate incident in college, where a quart of rum and I had some issues…. I still can’t smell the stuff without a nose curl….

“And here you thought your money was going to waste. Well, a Federal Appeals Court has ordered the FDA to determine whether drugs proposed for Lethal Injection executions are “safe and effective!” — Smart Bee

The festival is one of those uniquely American deals, a consumer celebration designed to bring tourist dollars into a town that is suffering badly from the economic shenanigans of the corporate elite, who have been busily raping the American economy since the days of Ronald Raygun and his band of banker, ex-USC grad buddies, who managed to spew so much BS around, people began to think it didn’t stink…..

I mean, how else can you explain any reasonable, rational person falling for the “trickle down” theory of economics, otherwise known as Reaganomics, a not-so-hidden attempt at outright theft by the government, if ever one was seen? Only sheer, bald-faced lying could have carried that one off…. But, then, remember some of Ronnie’s OTHER moments of truth?…. Such as….

“Trees make more smog than cars.” — R. Reagan

Any who, that’s all over now, except, of course, for the hundred or so years it will take to recover from it…. In the meantime, we have these kinds of distractions to keep us busy, and having fun doing stuff that makes no reasonable sense at all, spending massive amounts of time and money to pursue a lifestyle so hard and so insane, it no longer exists anywhere but Hollywood…. But, as the pictures show, it’s fun, for all ages, and there are a lot of interesting things to see and do….. Here are some pictures that will give an idea of the day…. Enjoy!….

“Like so many Americans, she was trying to construct a life that made sense from things she found in gift shops.” — Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

“Somewhere between real and real real.” — Senator Dan Quayle pinpointing their location to reporters — aboard the Quayle campaign plane. — (reported in Wall Street Journal, 10/21/88)

Just WHAT is that octopus doing with that mast?…..

Spare change, anyone?…..

“Oh, God, look at that!”…..

A little tough to romanticize this….. though one does wonder how the bear fits into the story, eh?….

Some people have WAY too much time, and money, on their hands….

An indicator of how strange and perverted the human race is…. This lovely character was the most popular costumed figure wandering the festival grounds, with just about every other person encountered wanting their picture taken with him….

Well there you have it ffolkes, my day hanging out with a segment of America’s most gullible consumers….. It must be the cynic in me that sees not only the romantic side of the whole phenomenon, but, its uglier, less acknowledged economic factors….. But, hey, I found a great deal on a really good dirk, in case I ever want to wear my kilt and heraldry badges….

“Cynicism is disillusioned idealism.” — Harry Kemelman

Let’s go on, shall we?….

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The perfect poem to go along with the odd little rant in section one, here is the first stanza of T.S. Eliot’s epic poem, The Waste Land…. I have provided a link to a site where you can read the rest of the poem, which is quite long, but well worth the time and effort to peruse…. Enjoy!….

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/176735

The Waste Land

FOR EZRA POUND
IL MIGLIOR FABBRO

I. The Burial of the Dead

April is the cruellest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain.
Winter kept us warm, covering
Earth in forgetful snow, feeding
A little life with dried tubers.
Summer surprised us, coming over the Starnbergersee
With a shower of rain; we stopped in the colonnade,
And went on in sunlight, into the Hofgarten,
And drank coffee, and talked for an hour.
Bin gar keine Russin, stamm’ aus Litauen, echt deutsch.
And when we were children, staying at the arch-duke’s,
My cousin’s, he took me out on a sled,
And I was frightened. He said, Marie,
Marie, hold on tight. And down we went.
In the mountains, there you feel free.
I read, much of the night, and go south in the winter.

~~ T. S. Eliot ~~

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Okay, I’ve made it this far, which is a surprise to me…. Soon after beginning, some severe arthritic hip pain began to throb in my lower back, and has resisted all attempts to curtail its advance…. Hence, this will be old-school, and just about as quick a pearl as ever was…. I hope….

“I might repeat to myself, slowly and soothingly, a list of quotations beautiful from minds profound; if I can remember any of the damn things.” — Dorothy Parker, The Portable, 1944

It is the heart afraid of breaking
that never learns to dance.
It is the dream afraid of waking
that never takes a chance.
It is the one who won’t be taken
who cannot seem to give.
And the soul afraid of dying
that never learns to live.

— Bette Midler, The Rose

“Be of good cheer,” said Diogenes; “I see land.” — Diogenes Laertius (c. 200 AD) — Diogenes, vi

“If you tell the truth you don’t have to remember anything.” — Mark Twain

Teach him how to live,
And, oh still harder lesson! how to die.

— Beilby Porteus (1731-1808) — Death, Line 316

“If you would know a man, observe how your cat treats him.” — Smart Bee

“If you can see a thing whole… it seems that it’s always beautiful. Planets, lives…But close up, a world’s all dirt and rocks. And day to day, life’s a hard job, you get tired, you lose the pattern. You need distance, interval. The way to see how beautiful the earth is, is to see it as the moon. The way to see how beautiful a life is, is to see it from the vantage point of death.” — Ursula K. Le Guin, Dispossessed

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There it is, such as it is…. I’m going to go consume massive quantities of mind-numbing, obliviating drugs, & then take another look at the day in a few hours, once my attitude has been adjusted…. See y’all tomorrow, ffolkes, if they don’t catch me….

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

Even duct tape won’t help now….

Posted on June 15, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

Staring into the abyss is not easy without coffee, but, that’s what I’ve been asked to do today…. Well, perhaps that’s a bit dramatic, but, it does give you the “look and feel” I was trying for, if you’ll pardon the retreat into Appledom…. I’m pretty sure, since that phrase has been legally identified by some court or another, it’s okay to use it in general speech….

If not, well, screw ’em, because it’s already done, and I’m not about to start again, just because Apple doesn’t like me using their words….. As we’ve been known to say on previous occasions, when just such a complaint has arisen, fuck them if they can’t take a joke…. hard, or soft, your choice, I don’t care….

There, the first nonsensical paragraphs are done, now we get to the plain speech paragraph, which is MUCH easier, believe me…. When I come up with an easy-peasy kind of subject, which talking about Apple always makes so simple, producing such literary flotsam becomes almost automatic…. But, then, by now, just about anything at all wouldn’t surprise MY readers in this space….

In spite of the difficulties we face each day (Damn! There’s another of those royal “we”‘s! Gotta watch that….) to get this intro done in a timely fashion, without it becoming an ordeal beyond all endurance, I think I’ve managed to endow my audience with more than just a few formats and/or incarnations, if you will, of this introductory section, enough so that they’ve learned not to expect anything in particular, but just wait to see whatever manifests on any given day…. It’s also safer that way, in a physical sense…. less chance of explosions….

Even the explosions have reached the point of becoming mundanely routine, I suppose…. That’s what happens after the first several hundred of them….. I don’t know if it is normal to be so blasé about such volatile material, but, it’s certainly normal around here, and I’m not about to start justifying or explaining at this point…. Nobody but a regular here would understand anyway, so, it’s all moot…. Of course, if we ever get to the point where the blog is starting to get some more attention from a wider audience, I suppose I’ll have to consider a few changes, to meet the demands of the public eye….

Don’t hold your breath on that one, though, because I’m pretty stubborn, and not about to make too many changes, just to suit readers…. My curmudgeon training wouldn’t allow that anyway, as it is catering to the wishes of others, and that sort of pandering is NOT going to happen on my watch…. People are responsible for their OWN minds, and beliefs, and I don’t allow any BS in that respect….

I am responsible for what I say, and what I believe, but, not for anyone else’s words, or their ideas….. and trying to blame me for what someone else may think, even about my own words, is not only NOT going to alter my behavior, it could conceivably piss me off…. Whomever THAT happens to fall upon may just end up regretting they ever spoke…. or, for that matter, regretting they were ever born….

Hmm…. I see that I’m beginning to show symptomology of a need to rant, which isn’t surprising, as I’ve not indulged myself in that respect for a week or more, not in any detailed, fresh sense…. Soon, I’m sure…. For now, though, I’m going to go with my impulses today, which are random, and not well understood, even by me…. In fact, I really don’t know, at this juncture, just WHAT will happen from now on…. I have deliberately avoided thinking about it…. So, whatever occurs below will be as much of a surprise for me, as it is for you….. The only thing I know for sure is that the Wise Old Pine Cone took another day off, having overindulged himself radically at the ball game a couple of nights ago; he’ll be back in a day or so, with new pictures of new adventures to share…. For now, though….

Shall we Pearl?….. In fact, let’s begin with a two-fer….

“Zen Buddhists do it because they don’t want to do it because they want to do it.” — Smart Bee, showing off

“We had the sky, up there, all speckled with stars, and we used to lay on our backs and look up at them, and discuss about whether they was made, or only just happened.” — Mark Twain (1835-1910), Huckleberry Finn

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In lieu of a fresh rant, which is not imminently forthcoming (Don’t ask why; the answer would be TMI…. I say that just as if we had not already reached a point of no return in that regard….), here is an older rant, from some time in 2012, on a typical issue, i.e., the BRC and their shenanigans…..

“He who imitates evil always goes beyond the limits of the example, whereas he who imitates what is good, always falls short.” — Confucius

Perfect! If ever a quote could be applied to fit one group of people, this one would; it fits the folks who occupy elected office in this country like the proverbial glove.

Ooh! Ooh! Here’s another one…

“Ignorance: When you don’t know something and somebody finds it out.” — Jethro Burns

Okay, that’s a good start…. Now, we all know that politicians lie to us…. It’s what we’ve taught them to do, by our calm acceptance of all the other lies they’ve told, from the very beginning. We expect them to lie… then, when we catch them at it, there is this huge public outcry, as if it had never happened before. Sometimes, the behavior of the American public toward the political beast reminds me of a shark…. to wit: no memory of the past to slow down their willingness to rush into dangerous situations….. For millions of years, sharks and dolphins have lived together in the oceans. For just about all that time, whenever a shark attacks a dolphin, it gets killed, unless the dolphin is injured in some way, or, it is a baby inadvertently left alone. Always, if things are even, the shark dies, because the dolphins are faster swimmers, but, more importantly, they’re smarter.

After millions of years, you would think the sharks might learn to let them alone, but, they don’t, which is evidence of their lack of ability to learn. The American voting public has the same problem…. they never learn to expect to be lied to, and always seem surprised to learn that their elected officials are, shall we say, less than perfectly honest? It, quite frankly, drives me nuts…. What is it about people that does that to them? Why are they so UNwilling to use the mind that (presumably) sits between their ears, rather than just carrying it around from toilet to toilet, which is all most folks seem to do with it? (Almost forgot it was a question….) I wish I knew….

“There is one way to find out if a man is honest–ask him. If he says yes, you know he is crooked.” — Groucho Marx

I’m starting to feel a bit of anger, actually, (Surprise!) and I have a hard time not letting it out on the voting public, the idiots. But, it really isn’t all their fault, as the people who run for office are the ones who are actively imitating evil, and, obviously, exceeding the limits of their example. And the voting public can’t help never being able to quite reach the good for which they reach. This is why I get angry about it…. The folks who run for office tell the public they are going to work for the people when they are elected; we all know they are lying, but we elect them anyway. Now, how stupid is that? Pretty stupid, in my book…..

On the one hand, the stupidity displayed by the politicians is deliberate, in its adherence to principles of theft and prevarication; on the other hand, the stupidity displayed by the voting public is, perhaps, not deliberate, but at minimum, misguided, and, ultimately, just as evil, in placing its trust in evil people. In the dispassionate view held by the universe, stupid is as stupid does, and the sentence of death is the same for both types of stupidity, deliberate and unconscious. It (the universe…) doesn’t care about why, it only looks at results….

What can be done about this? Not a damn thing…. Not only do I find that most people are unconsciously stupid, but they are stubborn about it, even when it is clear how being stupid is hurting them. Rather than use their minds to find a new way of dealing with these issues, they retreat into platitudes and dogma, and run right back out to vote for another idiot who promises them manna from heaven, or, more accurately, from Washington D.C. If confronted with their idiocy, they become even more stubborn, as they are unwilling to accept they might have been wrong, usually refusing to either examine any evidence of being wrong, or, denying its existence altogether.

The politicians, who choose to live in stupidity, by lying and cheating and stealing from their own people, don’t even WANT to choose otherwise. Why should they? They’ve got it easy, with a ready supply of host bodies on which to practice their symbiotic parasitism, a body that not only accepts all their lies, but encourages them to even further depredations with their complete acquiescence with whatever the politicos want. All the politicians have to say is that the public is in danger, from this, that, or the other…. The public will then allow them to do whatever they choose, as long as they’re fooled into feeling safe from whatever fictional fantasy they have been told is dangerous…..

“The intuitive mind is a sacred gift; the rational mind is faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.” — Albert Einstein

It’s an interesting spectacle to observe from the sidelines, but it arouses in me a strong feeling of sadness, with the anger underlying, as I watch, day after day, as so many millions of foolish people get taken advantage of by a few assholes. It definitely makes me want to buy a gun, even though I would only use it if pressed; I have a feeling I may get pressed some day, if I continue to make noise about all this.

I’m fairly well protected thus far by a lack of notoriety; the BRC and the PTB aren’t going to worry about me until I have an audience a lot larger than a couple of hundred folks, of which perhaps fifty regularly read my work. If what I am saying began to gain popularity, and was being read by millions, I’d be in danger; until then, I’m as safe as I can make myself with the tools at hand… which, if I say so myself, are not entirely inconsequential…. If I said any more, I’d be giving away my precautions, and that wouldn’t do, so, just rest assured… I am ready to deal with anything short of assault weapons, with what I have on hand…..

“Many, if not all, of my presidential opponents are certifiable idiots.” — Miriam Defensor Santiago — The World Almanac and Book of Facts, 1993

See? I’m not completely alone! Actually, if you pay close attention, you will note this was uttered by a politician, about their peers, so it really doesn’t count as support of what I’m saying here. What, exactly am I saying here? Hmm, okay, since I’ve already written about 1200 words or so on this, it’s a good place to wind it up…. so, here goes…

Ffolkes, you are being lied to, daily, and hourly, by those who have been elected to office to look out for your interests. I hate to tell you, but those folks never intended to do anything of the sort. So, it would be a good thing if everybody in this country would OPEN THEIR FUCKING EYES AND GET A DAMN CLUE!!!!!….. I don’t think I can say it any clearer than that….. That’s all, for now…..

“Ignorance kills daily. “– Smart Bee

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It’s been a while since I posted this poem by Emily D….. It is one of my favorites of hers, though I’m not sure exactly why…. Maybe it’s the length, which is about four times her usual measure….. with Emily, the more, the better, in my book….

I measure every grief I meet

I measure every grief I meet
With analytic eyes;
I wonder if it weighs like mine,
Or has an easier size.

I wonder if they bore it long,
Or did it just begin?
I could not tell the date of mine,
It feels so old a pain.

I wonder if it hurts to live,
And if they have to try,
And whether, could they choose between,
They would not rather die.

I wonder if when years have piled–
Some thousands–on the cause
Of early hurt, if such a lapse
Could give them any pause;

Or would they go on aching still
Through centuries above,
Enlightened to a larger pain
By contrast with the love.

The grieved are many, I am told;
The reason deeper lies,–
Death is but one and comes but once
And only nails the eyes.

There’s grief of want, and grief of cold,–
A sort they call ‘despair,’
There’s banishment from native eyes,
In sight of native air.

And though I may not guess the kind
Correctly yet to me
A piercing comfort it affords
In passing Calvary,

To note the fashions of the cross
Of those that stand alone
Still fascinated to presume
That some are like my own.

~~ Emily Dickinson

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I had not originally planned, when I got up today, to go with older material… It just sort of worked out that way. To forestall any whining from the peanut gallery about cheating, here is a fresh old-school pearl, randomly chosen, for no good reason at all, at all…

“In the beginning was the word. But by the time the second word was added to it, there was trouble. For with it came syntax…” — John Simon

“I have realized that the past and future are real illusions, that they exist in the present, which is what there is and all there is.” — Alan Watts

“It is a difficult task, O citizens, to make speeches to the belly, which has no ears.”– Plutarch (46-120 AD) — Life of Marcus Cato

“Ignorance is no excuse.” — Smart Bee

“It is hard to free fools from the chains they revere.” — Voltaire

“Beware of the man who works hard to learn something, learns it, and finds himself no wiser than before,” Bokonon tells us. “He is full of murderous resentment of people who are ignorant without having come by their ignorance the hard way.” — Kurt Vonnegut, “Cat’s Cradle”

What though the field be lost?
All is not lost; th’ unconquerable will,
And study of revenge, immortal hate,
And courage never to submit or yield.

— John Milton (1608-1674) — Paradise Lost, Book i, Line 105

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All things considered, this will do…. Of course, one must remember, this is the place where Peruaosophy comes from, where the very first axiom gives the root/core idea that, to me, MUST be understood, if one wishes to get through all this with a minimum of fuss, to wit: “Axiom #1 — I think I am. That’s close enough.”

For today, it certainly is….. See ya, ffolkes….. More pictures tomorrow, I promise…. which I don’t do lightly….

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

Two parts fantasy, one part reality; mix lightly for best results…

Posted on June 14, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

When I first began this version of gigoid’s folly (the original title of my blogging efforts….Now, of course, we dignify it, as Exploring Consensual Reality….), here on WordPress, in the latter half of 2011, I had already been sending it out via email for many years, first in computer school, then at work, once the state hospitals and developmental centers (where I was mainly employed for many years….) finally embraced computers…. At Napa State Hospital, where I was a program secretary, then, the Executive Assistant to the Executive Director of the Hospital, I sent it out every day to about 300 or so people, in its prior incarnation…. It was formatted a bit differently, but, you’d recognize it, mainly because of the pearls….

All this is merely a lead in, designed to give me an opening to speak in a certain direction…. Over the course of the three or so years at this site, now with my own domain, I’ve learned quite a bit, about the process of writing, and about the necessary issues involved in publishing a daily blog of this sort…. because it’s different than what I did before. The difference is one I can’t explain, exactly, but, it mostly has to do with how the material is, first, organized, and secondly, presented…. either of which, should they become corrupted, can obviously corrupt the remainder….. Yes, even this process is subject to both entropy, and Murphy’s less-than-welcome attentions….

At this point, you’re probably asking yourself, “Now what’s he trying to pull?”….. I can’t blame you for that; I’ve got priors, I know…. But, today, my blather has merely served to get us down this far on the screen, to fill the space between up there, and down here, with something worthwhile, or, at minimum, distracting enough to keep the gentle readers from realizing we’re just wandering in a circle again….. Yep, I’m totally out of ideas to begin today, so, I thought this might work to keep y’all busy and distracted from realizing we’re again sans material for an intro…..

I’m not sure if it’s legal, or not, nor do I much care, at this point…. I’ve already gone too far…. We’re committed, and there’s no going back now…. not for me…. Y’all, of course, can bail whenever you like, but, I’m hoping you’ll stick around long enough for me to get to at least one part of today’s effort…. Not that there’s anything special planned, I just like to know that SOMEBODY will read what I write, if only for the ego-stroke I get from seeing more visitors…. I don’t write to be a popular blogger; it’s still mostly to get this crap out of my head…. But, it’s nice to know others like it, occasionally….

Look at it this way…. How many other blogs do you go to where you can find almost a thousand words on NOTHING MUCH, in the beginning, before even approaching anything resembling a subject for discussion or dissection? Not many, I’m sure….. And, who would be so honest about spewing BS? Nobody, that’s who…. I’m fully aware of what I’m doing, but, I also know it won’t harm anyone, unless they try to argue with it, at which point they usually discover how WRONG they are, to attempt any sort of critical analysis of material that is evidentially solid, such as the material generally presented here, whereupon they slink off to lick the figurative wounds to their respective egos…

Oh, look! I believe I’ve done it again…. Wandering, rambling, blathering about very little…. to look at it, and to think about it, one might think it would be pretty much useless…. but, one more time, we’ve managed to get far enough into the morass to find our way back to reality, where we are now legally allowed to call this an intro, and get on with the day’s business, such as it may be…. What do you know about that?….. Huh.

I’ll stop the sarcasm now, and get on with it….. Sorry, ffolkes, but, some days, it just POURS out, and I can’t do anything about it, but type…. and carry on with what I do in place of prayer….

Shall we Pearl?……

“Everything in excess! To enjoy the flavor of life, take big bites. Moderation is for monks.” — Lazarus Long, from Robert A. Heinlein’s “Time Enough For Love”

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In this section, we have been running a new style pearl, (there’s that royal ‘we’ again….), with pictures to go along with whatever quotes and/or comments I come up with…. The latest incarnation involves a new subject of interest, the Wise Old Pine Cone, who has been kind enough to allow me to photograph his wanderings around town, to record his interactions with people, and the environment, as he wends his way around the town….. Yesterday, I posted the photos of when I accompanied him to the local ball team’s night game, which came out fairly well….

Sadly, the Wise Old Pine Cone, by the time we left the ball park, had consumed WAY too many brewskis, and has yet to get out of bed…. He’s pretty small, and a few beers really do a number on him; I’ve seen him stay in bed for three days after a bad session with wine, and beer isn’t any better for him…. He’ll be alright, but, he’ll be out of action for a day or two, so, we’ll have to find something else for this section….. Let me think….

Okay, you’ve convinced me…. I’ll rant….

“There is nothing a man can do to guarantee success, but there is nothing that can defeat him if he won’t give up.” — Greg Praino

Well, perhaps I won’t rant today; it doesn’t mean I’m giving up, but…. I just went to look for a rantable headline from the news…. Of the eleven headlines on the world news page, eight were about various bombings, battles, or other war activities, mostly in the middle east, where the Islamic sects are all fighting to see who will become the sole arbiter of the Muslim future….. never realizing how silly and counter-productive they are being, in terms of survival…. But, then, most people engaged in war are not in a very intelligent frame of mind, anyway….

(And, how can a Muslim extremist group name themselves after an Egyptian goddess over seven thousand years old {Isis}? I thought they hated ANY other religion…. Ah well, stupid is as stupid does…)

The point is, I couldn’t decide WHICH subject to rant about…. There are plenty of wars being fought, none of which make any sense…. There are governments still robbing the people, or oppressing them unmercifully; the churches are still butting into everything, as is their habit…. I see where the Pope is trying to be a mediator between Israel & Palestine (good luck with that!….), and now, the Presbyterian Church is doing SOMETHING over in Iraq, or Iran, to get involved with that whole mess…. what a bunch of idiots!…

Cars and factories are still streaming carbon monoxide, and carbon dioxide into the air by the hundreds of millions of tons, every day, so pollution continues unabated, and climate change keeps changing, so, we can kiss our asses goodbye, once we figure out how long we have…. Religious fanatics and fundies of all varieties continue to wage their holy wars, blaming all that is wrong in the world on anything but their own actions…. Bankers and politicians continue to work together to steal everything that isn’t nailed down from the public, all enforced by paramilitary police forces, blindly obedient myrmidons with guns, and really bad attitudes, due to their completely unwarranted sense of entitlement regarding their psycho/sociopathic need to be seen as authority figures….

All of the insanity I’ve previously commented upon here continues, relatively unabated, as the world skips merrily down what it BELIEVES is the garden path, completely oblivious, calmly seated in a handbasket, never even wondering why it is getting so bloody hot…. And people wonder why I rant….

I found no particular headline to get me started, but, as can be seen by the above, none are really necessary for me to find my anger about the state of the world…. My anger is based in the realization that NONE of it is necessary; if people would take responsibility for themselves, and stand up to the assholes who are oppressing everyone who puts up with it, we could fix this broken puppy….

I’m a realist, though, and, as far as I can see, realistically, it ain’t gonna happen…. so, I’ll pick a few pearls, to make how I feel about it clear, and be done with it for today…. I’m mad, but, so mad, I don’t even want to talk about it any more….. Here, take these…. No worries, you’ll live; there are only five of them….

“I have always thought the actions of men the best interpreters of their thoughts.” — John Locke

“All I know is just what I read in the Congressional Record. They have had some awful funny articles in there lately. As our government deteriorates, our humor increases.” — Will Rogers

“I have never found, in a long experience of politics, that criticism is ever inhibited by ignorance.” — Harold MacMillan

“Look for a tough wedge for a tough log.” — Publius Syrus (42 BC) — Maxim 723

“You know how dumb the average guy is? Well, by definition, half of them are even dumber than THAT.” — J.R. “Bob” Dobbs, ripping off George Carlin, who made that point YEARS before Bob finished puberty….

There you go, ffolkes…. a pointed, bitchy, but accurate, five-star pearl….. Let’s go on, shall we?….

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

Sometimes, I don’t even know why I like a poem…. but, then, I don’t have to know…. enjoy!

Brown Penny

I WHISPERED, ‘I am too young,’
And then, ‘I am old enough’;
Wherefore I threw a penny
To find out if I might love.
‘Go and love, go and love, young man,
If the lady be young and fair.’
Ah, penny, brown penny, brown penny,
I am looped in the loops of her hair.
O love is the crooked thing,
There is nobody wise enough
To find out all that is in it,
For he would be thinking of love
Till the stars had run away
And the shadows eaten the moon.
Ah, penny, brown penny, brown penny,
One cannot begin it too soon.

~~ William Butler Yeats ~~

I know, I know, it doesn’t even rhyme…. oh well, I suppose there’s no accounting for taste….. which is something one might say in response to most anything, if you think about it…. But, I don’t want to think about it…. so, I won’t…. so there…. Now that I’ve finished being two years old….

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It’s a strange morning; it must have something to do with it being the weekend of the Pirate Festival here where I live…. Things always get a bit weird when everyone in town is walking around in big hats, with patches over their eye, going “Yar!”, or “Aye, matey!”…. It seems to do something really different to the local ambiance, making it okay to be as odd as one wishes…. In light of that, we’ll go with an old-school, parameter-less pearl, to provide the proper strange finish to this very odd Pearl…. Let’s see what SB can come up with today….

You may be capable of great things,
But life consists of small things.

— Deng Ming-Dao

“Take a straw and throw it up into the air,–you may see by that which way the wind is.” — John Selden (1584-1654) — Libels

“I am quite sure that (bar one) I have no race prejudices, and I think I have no color prejudices or caste prejudices nor creed prejudices. Indeed I know it. I can stand any society. all that I care to know is that a man is a human being – that is enough for me; he can’t be any worse.”– Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) (1835-1910) — Harper’s Magazine, September, 1899

Don’t it always seem to go
That you don’t know what you’ve got till its gone?

— Joni Mitchell, “They Paved Paradise”

“If people bring so much courage to this world the world has to kill them, so of course it kills them. The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong at the broken places. But those that will not break it kills. It kills the very good and the very gentle and the very brave…” — Ernest Hemingway, “A Farewell to Arms”

“Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but we rather have those because we have acted rightly. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.” — Aristotle

“If ever you had to kill someone, could you do it?” — Turlough, TERMINUS

Wow! I guess Aristotle is right….. and, in my opinion, so was Mark Twain….

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Without even going back to look, I know this one is going to haunt me at night, unless I can completely block out the memory of today, & pretend it never happened….. which will probably be worth the effort…. I’m not even going to think about it…. I will, however, be back tomorrow…. 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

Creating a plausible bargaining chip….

Posted on June 13, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

I’m fully cognizant of the advantages of staying busy, and it’s true that life tastes better in big bites (thanks, Lazarus…). Both of these contentions are proven, with numerous incidents available as evidence of their veracity…. What isn’t so obvious is the reason I’m writing this paragraph, since the point I intended to make just flew out the window, honking querulously at me as it flew away…. I can’t say I’m terribly disappointed, aside from the damage it has done to this intro already, before I even get a decent start…. In fact, I’m going to try again…

Well, I’d try again, but, it seems that isn’t going to work either…. Every time I turn around, in my head, to find a new starting point, these little glitches keep popping up…. such as this time, when I reached for the keyboard to begin, only to be struck with a massive wave of fatigue, complete with yawn, eyelids becoming heavy as a demo hammer, and some rather extreme lassitude in my muscular system, all of which makes me want to go back to bed…. Add in the stiff lower back, the aching thumb and wrist, and the achy tooth, and we’ve got some serious obstacles to getting this done… In fact, I’m going to ask for a small favor, for a moment…. Wait here, while I go deal with some of this, & I’ll be right back to give it yet another college try….

Okay, well, then…. It seems that isn’t going to do the trick, either…. I’ll do as I said, and give it another effort, but, at this point, I’m afraid I’m going to have to rescind all of our usual guarantees… not that they ever worked, but, they’ve always been there, if only for show…. Moreover, it’s becoming increasingly obvious that I’ve completely lost control of this initial section, which means we’re going to have to resort again to one of the emergency methods of ending this process…. Ah, the hell with it, I’m going with #4 again, if only because it always works, first time out…. I mean, just watch this…. but watch out for the obligatory splashing….

Shall we Pearl?…..

“Beware the Jubjub bird.” — Lewis Carroll

In our culture, Jubjub birds are mostly pale skinned, kind of pasty-looking, & are generally found wearing a pinched expression, with pursed lips and furrowed brow, which someone once told them looks sincere…. They mostly wear blue serge suits, with a white shirt, power red tie, a flag pin, and a fatuous glaze over their eyes, which are known to spin in alternate directions as they try to think…. They talk a lot on TV, (well, they make a lot of noise, anyway….), with a strong tendency to say things that aren’t true….. and they’ll steal anything that isn’t tied down…..

Sound like anyone YOU know of?…..

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

Last night, the Wise Old Pine Cone decided to come with me to attend the local minor league baseball game at a nearby park…. Going to the games is a slice of Americana, straight out of the past century, and for my bourgeois soul, is a very soothing cultural experience, one that restores a great deal of my faith in people, because the entire event is the kind of activity that brings people together, rather than driving them apart….. Here are some pictures of WOPC taking in the game…..

Wise Old Pine Cone at the ticket table by the front gate of the park, asking for his Senior discount….

Wise Old Pine Cone tipping the staff at the snack bar….. Being a wise old cone, he likes to tip well, ahead of receiving his order; this habit ensures it will be good service, and helps make friends quickly….

Wise Old Pine Cone, wondering if he can eat the whole thing….

Wise Old Pine Cone quaffing a brew or two….

Wise Old Pine Cone, taking in the action from his seat in the grandstands, with some hot chocolate to stay warm….

Wise Old Pine Cone, with some gorgeous new friends he met at the park…. making a heart around him for a frame…. He’s really a dog, always flirting with the prettiest ladies in the stands….

Wise Old Pine Cone, insisting on helping gigoid create this morning’s Pearl….. with a great picture on screen… Whenever it flashes up, I can always hear that praying mantis saying “Lunch!”…..

There you have it, ffolkes, another small adventure with Wise Old Pine Cone…. Tune back in tomorrow, or some day, to see what new adventures he can find for me to accompany him, to take his picture while he goes about his daily doings…. (I don’t know, though…. he’s getting a pretty big head over all this…. We’ll have to wait and see how it goes….)

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

Recently, Maya Angelou passed away; she was a brilliant poet, and will be sorely missed in our world, by all who were exposed to her spirit through her work, and by those who were not, as well, for she was one of mankind’s treasures, with the power to lessen the weight of reality by the expression of her spirit, naturally…. There are never enough of them for my taste…. Here is the poem for which she is most well-known, one we ALL should know by heart….

I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings

The free bird leaps
on the back of the wind
and floats downstream
till the current ends
and dips his wings
in the orange sun rays
and dares to claim the sky.

But a bird that stalks
down his narrow cage
can seldom see through
his bars of rage
his wings are clipped and
his feet are tied
so he opens his throat to sing.

The caged bird sings
with fearful trill
of the things unknown
but longed for still
and his tune is heard
on the distant hill
for the caged bird
sings of freedom

The free bird thinks of another breeze
and the trade winds soft through the sighing trees
and the fat worms waiting on a dawn-bright lawn
and he names the sky his own.

But a caged bird stands on the grave of dreams
his shadow shouts on a nightmare scream
his wings are clipped and his feet are tied
so he opens his throat to sing

The caged bird sings
with a fearful trill
of things unknown
but longed for still
and his tune is heard
on the distant hill
for the caged bird
sings of freedom.

~~ Maya Angelou ~~

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

In a way, I miss ranting; the picture pearls are fun, and the Wise Old Pine Cone will be around a long time, I think…. but, it doesn’t quite relieve all the stuff that builds up in my head, so, I’m thinking that I’ll have to let that out pretty soon…. Have no fear, it won’t be today….. plus, I’ll wait for some appropriate event to occur out in the BBR that will stimulate my ire…. That usually doesn’t take more than a day or two, before one of the pundits in D.C. opens his/her mouth about just about anything, an event which invariably provides me with ample reason to get pissed off….

For now, though, it’s time for an old-school pearl, to finish this off…. Enjoy!….

“Success is counted sweetest by those who ne’er succeed.” — Emily Dickinson

“He said that men ought to remember those friends who were absent as well as those who were present.” — Diogenes Laertius (c. 200 AD) — Thales, ix

“Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.” — Albert Einstein

“I should not talk so much about myself if there were anybody else whom I knew as well.” — Henry David Thoreau

“What is laid down, ordered, factual is never enough to embrace the whole truth: life always spills over the rim of every cup.” — Boris Pasternak

“It is well to remember, my son, that the entire population of the universe, with one trifling exception, is composed of others.” — John Andrew Holmes

“Age is a tyrant, who forbids, at the penalty of life, all the pleasures of youth.” — Francois Duc de la Rochefoucauld

In the immortal words of Ruthanne (by Lily Tomlin…), “Thhpht! And, that’s the TRUTH!”….. Ffolkes, I kid you not, THIS is a grand pearl….

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

It is with some trepidation I go now to post this…. I’m pretty sure I have no clue as to what happened here, which is probably just as well, in case it happens again…. What this means for the space-time continuum is unclear, so, I suppose we’ll just have to resort to job one when it comes to Reality, to wit: wait and see…. In the meantime, I’m done, so, I’m outta here…. Thanks for listenin’…..

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

Oatmeal, techno-piracy, and the Legion of Honor…..

Posted on June 12, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

Today’s Pearl is incredibly late getting started; this will require some patience on your part, and some rapid thinking on mine, or we’ll both be lost all day…. It’s sort of like that first button, which, if you don’t get it into the correct button hole, you’ll never get dressed up all right…. We wouldn’t want that, especially given the somewhat amorphous nature of this beast….

All that having been said (WITH, I might add, the inherent embedded apology…. went to a baseball game last night at the local yard, and didn’t get in until late….), we’re going to do the unprecedented, and not have an intro at all…. Well, I suppose this little bit could be construed as such, but, it’s so little, it doesn’t fit in much with the others…. S’okay, though, all shortcuts have been approved, and the apology issued here is good for the whole deal…. There will be a number of them (shortcuts), so, please, remain alert….

So be it…. gigoid has spoken…. On with method #4, so we can get this slow on the road (not a typo….)….

Shall we Pearl?

Don’t you hurry me, sonny, you hurry a miracle man, you get rotten
miracles, that what you want? — Miracle Max, played by Billy Crystal from William Goldman’s, “The Princess Bride”

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

So, here’s the deal…. Below is a link, to an article discussing some of the latest developments over at the NSA, and their continuing campaign to bullshit the American people as much as is humanly possible…. The article is in lieu of one of my own rants, even though I’d find this one a snap, mostly…. right up my ally, and I can FEEL the anger inside when I think about it…. But, I’ll let the author of the article expound on it today… Instead of a rant, I’ll be going with another short episode of the Travels of Wise Old Pine Cone, as I follow him around the neighborhood each day, watching him relate to friends, neighbors, and the environment at large…. Enjoy!….

First, the bad news….

http://theweek.com/article/index/262945/the-nsa-has-a-shocking-new-excuse-for-destroying-evidence

AMNESTY, n. The state’s magnanimity to those offenders whom it would be too expensive to punish. — Ambrose Bierce, “The Devil’s Dictionary”

It’s getting to the point where the BRC had better begin thinking about leaving Eric Snowden alone; Al Gore has come out in support of him, and the public has always been on his side…. If they continue to verify his claims in such prominent ways, it would be in their best interests, I think, to let him be, from a legal standpoint…. I don’t think the public is going to allow them to sacrifice him to their gods of paranoia…. End of short rant….

Now, the good stuff…..

Wise Old Pine Cone stopping in to tour the training center nearby….

Wise Old Pine Cone posing against one of his favorite plants as a backdrop….

Wise Old Pine Cone, being a curious git…. blurry on purpose, to avoid details on someone’s package…

Wise Old Pine Cone, taking a short nap….

Wise Old Pine Cone, reminiscing about the old days….

Wise Old Pine Cone, with another of his Cone friends…

Just so you know I’m not being a troll about being up late, here is a shot of the park outside the center field fence at the ball game I attended last night…. As you can see, it was late; the game was just over, and the lights were still on as people wound their way home….

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

Again, we’re going with one of mine, this time because it’s faster…. This is one of my own personal favorites, because it speaks about my Dad, and what I learned from him…. I’m 63 years old, and he’s been gone since 1984, (thirty years!…. Time does fly…), but, I still miss his calming presence….

Ah Ain’t Sho, but Mebbe So….

Fried eggs got nuthin’ on me
Ah’m not even sure of mah name,
or how Ah come to be;
no idea from where Ah came.

Ah does like a mystery tho’,
puzzlin’ things out so’s Ah knows,
good from bad fo sho,
Ah sho don’t want no rock pillows.

If’n Ah cain’t figure out what’s best,
Ah just falls back on mah Daddy’s words,
seems he knowed just whut’d stand the test,
‘n how to gentle the scaredest birds.

‘Course, he’d lived a good long time,
‘n had lots of stuff go on by;
Went to a war, n’ lost a piece or two,
never once used it fer an alibi.

He tol’ me once Ah’d best learn to learn,
school’s only cool if ya ain’t already a fool.
Yer own good measure you can earn,
by startin’ yer learnin’ with the Golden Rule.

Always seemed to me as Ah growed up,
he mostly only spoke if it wuz true,
‘n by doin’ that clued me to what’s up,
kept me from stuff that’d a made me blue.

Without ever sayin’ the word itself,
Ah learned ’bout honor, ‘n helpin’ others
not some fake stuff from some shelf,
but, knowin’ whut’s right, ‘n that we’re all brothers.

Ah’ve been around long enough now, Ah think
to get around the block at least two times.
I s’pose long as my head don’t shrink
Ah’ll keep on doin’ right, ‘n makin’ these rhymes…..

~~ gigoid ~~

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

Naturally, saving time means old-school…. I’ll be good, though, and find some fresh pearls, instead of pulling one from the archives… Aren’t I nice? Especially for someone still half-way buried in sleep…. Let’s see what happens; this could go several ways, so I hope it finds a good path…. I never quite know what to expect when I push Smart Bee to hurry…. sometimes it comes out well, and sometimes, well… it comes out, which is the BEST thing that can be said of it…. Let’s hope for better than that….

“Memory: what wonders it performs in preserving and storing up things gone by or rather, things that are!” — Plutarch

“We ought never to do wrong when people are looking.’ — Mark Twain

‘The Emperor is not as forgiving as I am.” — Darth Vader (Star Wars)

Although a cloth be washed a hundred times,
How can it be rendered clean and pure
If it be washed in water which is dirty?

— Nagarjuna (c. 100-200 A.D.)

“Hearts will never be practical until they are made unbreakable.” — The Wizard of Oz

“After being asked by a waitress if he wanted his pizza cut into four slices or eight: “Better make it four. I don’t think I can eat eight pieces.” — Yogi Berra

“The death of God left the angels in a strange position.’ — Internal documentation, programmer unknown

Well, it does show some of the effects of hurrying, but, it’s really not bad at all…. Makes a couple of good points, I think…. No worries, either way, it’s done…. so be it….

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

Yes, indeed…. so be it….. I’m not going to push any harder, or any longer…. In fact, I’m done, and 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

It ain’t the curiosity, it’s the stubbornness….

Posted on June 11, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

Forty-eleven different things COULD go here…. in fact, at one point or another, they all have…. gone there, I mean. All forty-eleven of them were more appropriate than this sort of faux-intimate chatter, but, since retiring, I seem to find a lot of things I like to do that aren’t appropriate…. Too bad, so sad, but, what’re ya gonna do? I don’t seem to be able to find a spot in me anywhere that gives a shit, so, the world is just going to have to deal with this one on those terms, and, again, too bad, so sad if it doesn’t like it, because, hey, this may be a world controlled by faceless, shadowy psychopaths, but, it’s still MY head, and nobody gets to tell it what it can do, or think, but me…. So there….

Okay, take a breath, self….

Now that we have the disclaimer out of the way, I suppose there’s another chance here for me to come up with something elegant and stylish to start off today’s Pearl…. Y’know what, though? Elegant and stylish, somehow, just doesn’t seem to fit my mood today, a mood which, if I HAD to describe it in one word, that word would be “unforgiving”….. Yep, more than merely curmudgeonly, more than just a bit grumpy, today I’m feeling like, if anyone, at all, gives me any trouble, or even hints at wanting to do so, they’re going to find themselves in a world of hurt, much akin to how they might feel after having a rugby team use them for a tackling dummy….

Oh, don’t fret, no Gentle Reader has ever been permanently harmed during the creation of these Pearls, and I have no intention of allowing that record to be broken, not today, not ever…. In spite of how it may sound, my bark is much less harmful than my bite…. wait, is that backwards? Okay, well, it’s probably more accurate that way, anyway, so we’ll let it go, and just remind you that pain can be our friend…..

What the hell am I saying? Pain is NEVER our friend; it may be a valuable part of our perception, laying down boundaries that tell us how close to actual damage we are getting, but, actually calling it friendly can lead to corruption of those senses, skewing our view of reality…. It can make us afraid to take risks, if we allow it to decide for us how close we can come to the edge of physical endeavor without falling over….. WE are the ones with a mind, and we need to make those decisions by using more than just one set of parameters, which is what pain is limited to providing….

I know, that’s all a bit esoteric, especially with only one cup of coffee in me…. We’ll let it lie there, as it is, and pretend it isn’t really part of this at all…. It shouldn’t be hard, as there isn’t really much there to chew on; it’s all pretty low-cal brain-food…. In fact, if I’m not mistaken, with this paragraph, we’ve reached the point for which we’ve been slogging…. We’re at the legal limit for intros, and, considering the lack of ANY worthwhile material that, thus far, has been included today, it’s for certain we should immediately employ emergency method #4, and make our escape while we may….

Shall we Pearl?…..

“The options described above interact with each other in strange and as yet to be defined ways.” — Unix Manual, pr(1)

“I’m just sitting here watching the wheels go round and round.” — John Lennon

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

Rather than rant, I’m reprinting a Pearl from 2011, near the very beginning of this blog…. The format was different then; all completed Pearls were in the style you see here, with an intro, and an old-school group of pearls to make the point for the day…. This discussion can lend some validity and perspective to the recent public dialogue regarding the growing gap between the rich and the poor….

At the time this was written, I was a member of that part of society that exists on about HALF of the income that would make life even remotely comfortable; in fact, it was just enough to survive, with NO real quality of life to be found…. Quality costs money, as the BRC is well-aware…. Before I begin to rant, I give you the Daily Pearl of Virtual Wisdom from from 9/10/2011, the day BEFORE the 10th anniversary of a date everyone knows:

Ffolkes,

In all the literature I’ve read over the years, a lot of different authors have painted a picture of the life of those living in poverty. These intent of these pictures is to create in the reader an empathy for the plight of the economically challenged (this phrase, while politically correct, bears no real resemblance to the actuality of being poor, and as such, is inherently evil. It doesn’t describe the reality; it puts another barrier between the real world and the meaning of the written word.This makes it easy to deny the reality, removing any true connection to the feelings involved….). But the empathy created is tempered by what is not painted into the picture. For the last nine months or so, I’ve been introduced to the life of the under-funded, and can state unequivocally that two important pieces of the experience of being poor in this country are missing from the usual descriptions.

It has been said that a hungry man is never bored; I can tell you from first-hand knowledge that this is true. Not knowing where the next meal is coming from keeps the mind focused the search for food/money, and creates a state wherein one cannot afford to spend time on the luxury of boredom. What is missing here are the feelings that accompany that focused state, to wit: a constant, low-grade fear, always present in the background, causing the stomach to jump, the heart to beat faster, and the mind to spend precious energy to keep the fear at bay.

This fear increases the urgency of everything; having to constantly turn the mind to finding money/food adds a flavor of desperation to everything act, and every perception. Former activities that brought relaxation are no longer sought out, there’s no time for them. Never relaxing has a cumulative effect, and the cycle spins faster and faster, contributing even more anxiety to the system. I often feel as if I’m one of those little hamsters on a spinning wheel, a wheel that has no way to stop, and no way to get off…..

The other part that most descriptions of the state of poverty seldom mention is the sense of bone-deep humiliation that goes along with having to ask for help or charity. I can say without hesitation that this is perhaps the worst part of having to struggle to get by, probably because all my life I have been fairly successful, at least to the extent that money and food were not primary issues. Having to ask for a loan from a friend or relative is possibly the most embarrassing and humiliating experience that I have ever had.

Just sitting here writing about it has me tearing up; one of the more unwelcome side effects of post-traumatic stress syndrome is how powerful emotions can surface at the slightest provocation, causing even more embarrassment, and making competent, effective action even more difficult to carry out. Self-confidence is not abetted by feeling humiliated, and self-respect becomes non-existent.

The only way I have found to lessen the despair and fear is to try to remember that things could be worse. Difficult as it may be, and I assure you it is, finding positive notes in the song of life currently being played always helps lessen the sense of dread that is my constant companion. Diving for, and reading, pearls of virtual wisdom helps too; contact with better minds than my own is uplifting, if only for the sense of hope that can be kindled by reading something inspirational, or an idea beautifully expressed. True beauty heals merely by its touch…..

I went diving for pearls yesterday, and found a lot of good quality stuff; here are a few of them……

“Of all the tyrannies that affect mankind, tyranny in religion is the worst.” — Thomas Paine

All nature is but art, unknown to thee;
All chance, direction, which thou canst not see;
All discord, harmony not understood;
All partial evil, universal good;
And spite of pride, in erring reason’s spite,
One truth is clear, Whatever is, is right.

— Alexander Pope (1688-1744) — Essay on Man, Epistle i, Line 289

“The world has achieved brilliance without conscience. Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants. We know more about war than we know about peace, more about killing than we know about living. We have grasped the mystery of the atom and rejected the Sermon on the Mount.” — General Omar N. Bradley (1893-1981)
(And he ought to know….)

“Children today are tyrants. They contradict their parents, gobble their food, and tyrannize their teachers.” — Socrates (470?-399 B.C.)

“I prefer to be true to myself, even at the hazard of incurring the ridicule of others, rather than to be false, and to incur my own abhorrence.” — Frederick Douglass

Never be boastful; someone may come along who knew you as a child. — Chinese Proverb

An odd group, but mine own…..y’all take care out there….

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

Some days, it’s got to be a classic…..

A child said, What is the grass?

A child said, What is the grass? fetching it to me with full hands;
How could I answer the child?. . . .I do not know what it is any more than he.

I guess it must be the flag of my disposition, out of hopeful green stuff woven.

Or I guess it is the handkerchief of the Lord,
A scented gift and remembrancer designedly dropped,
Bearing the owner’s name someway in the corners, that we
may see and remark, and say Whose?

Or I guess the grass is itself a child. . . .the produced babe of the vegetation.

Or I guess it is a uniform hieroglyphic,
And it means, Sprouting alike in broad zones and narrow zones,
Growing among black folks as among white,
Kanuck, Tuckahoe, Congressman, Cuff, I give them the same, I receive them the same.

And now it seems to me the beautiful uncut hair of graves.

Tenderly will I use you curling grass,
It may be you transpire from the breasts of young men,
It may be if I had known them I would have loved them;
It may be you are from old people and from women, and
from offspring taken soon out of their mother’s laps,
And here you are the mother’s laps.

This grass is very dark to be from the white heads of old mothers,
Darker than the colorless beards of old men,
Dark to come from under the faint red roofs of mouths.

O I perceive after all so many uttering tongues!
And I perceive they do not come from the roofs of mouths for nothing.

I wish I could translate the hints about the dead young men and women,
And the hints about old men and mothers, and the offspring taken soon out of their laps.

What do you think has become of the young and old men?
What do you think has become of the women and children?

They are alive and well somewhere;
The smallest sprouts show there is really no death,
And if ever there was it led forward life, and does not wait at the end to arrest it,
And ceased the moment life appeared.

All goes onward and outward. . . .and nothing collapses,
And to die is different from what any one supposed, and luckier.

~~ Walt Whitman ~~

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

Today’s picture pearl will be a bit special… While walking the other day, I found a Wise Old Pine Cone…. You got a glimpse of him the other day, as I took a picture of him, while telling you he would be the featured guest in future picture pearls…. True to my word, here is the first series of pictures detailing the adventures of the Wise Old Pine Cone, as he accompanies me on my journeys around the Big Blue Room, on one of my camera safaris….. Enjoy!…..

Wise Old Pine Cone making a statement about littering….

Wise Old Pine Cone posing for a picture with a group of friends….

Wise Old Pine Cone in an intimate discussion with friends during a visit….

Wise Old Pine Cone enjoying a sunbath with some more friends…. magical wild wheat, basking in the spring sunshine….

Wise Old Pine Cone making fun of authority….

Wise Old Pine Cone stoop-sitting, waiting for a promised iced tea….

Wise Old Pine Cone, home at last…. Can you spot him?…. No, of course not, he’s not in this picture…. Silly readers….

Today, we are taking the envelope to the shredder…. Above are seven photos, displaying the Wise Old Pine Cone on our rounds… Below are seven pearls, all lustrously elegant, ineffably stylish; in short, everything I’ve been looking for since we began today, but could never find, until now…. The part that takes the envelope out of the picture (so to speak…) is that you have to decide for yourselves which aphorism matches up with which picture…. Let me know if you figure it out, and we’ll see if we can’t come up with a prize of some sort, okay?…. Or, just read, and enjoy….

I ‘d be a butterfly born in a bower,
Where roses and lilies and violets meet.

— Thomas Haynes Bayly (1797-1839) — I ‘d be a Butterfly

“Some people confuse boredom with security.” — Smart Bee

“That life is worth living is the most necessary of assumptions, and were it not assumed, the most impossible of conclusions.” — George Santayana

“No man ever wetted clay and then left it, as if there would be bricks by chance and fortune.” — Plutarch (46-120 AD) — Of Fortune

“If you stand straight, do not fear a crooked shadow.’ — Chinese Proverb

“Truth needs no flowers of speech.” — Alexander Pope

“Life without learning is death.” — Cicero

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

I think I built a new neruonic pathway or three today, ffolkes…. Sheer laziness strikes again! In trying to figure out how to get this done, without expending any more mental energy than absolutely necessary, I think I had to forge new paths in my brain, for all the new, strange algorithms, showy yet meaningless philosophical distractions, and tricky instructions for achieving some user interaction, or at least, confusion, which I came up with in producing today’s outburst…. If nothing else, though, it IS done. Or, I think it’s done… I’d better check….

Yep…

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

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

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

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….

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

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 ~~

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

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….

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

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

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

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….)

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

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 ~~

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

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

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

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

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

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

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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