Perhaps he’ll wait for the proper moment….

Posted on September 14, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

“Whenever a thing changes and alters its nature, at that moment comes the death of what it was before.”

~~ Lucretius ~~

What you see above is a digital map, with colors added to provide clues as to the composition of the surface it represents… The surface in question is located on an asteroid, orbiting around the sun, off in another part of our solar system, in an orbit that will take it close to the sun in the next few months, before sending it out and away again, in its long elliptical orbit…. It’s name, given in hopes it will give us the same sort of history-changing data as the original bearer of the name, is the Rosetta asteroid, as in the Rosetta Stone….

The European Space Agency, nearly, or, perhaps, even more than a year ago, launched an unmanned, automated probe rocket to catch up to the asteroid in its orbit, taking many months to do so, with the intention of establishing itself in orbit around the small planetoid object, to collect data from close by, and to eventually send a small probe, loaded with instruments for collecting samples and performing tests, down to land on the surface, where it will perform various scientific procedures to collect even more data about the asteroid’s composition and structure…

This data will tell us what is made of, how old it is, and many other pieces of information, all of which will advance our understanding of asteroids, and the solar system, in general, and specifically, in much greater detail than we could ever find out by just observing from afar…. In the process, unknown and unacknowledged, except by a very few people who can see the bigger picture, this mission is the first step in what may be the ONLY possible way for our species to survive into the future….

This landing on another piece of real estate in our solar system signals the advent of the true Age of Space for our species, and, with the rapidity of the coming environmental crisis here on Earth, colonizing the asteroids, and/or Mars, or, potentially, the moons of Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune, and Uranus, may be our only hope of keeping ANY of us alive…. I hate to be pessimistic, but, as far as I can see, this is not something that is debatable any longer…. our time is coming, and sooner than anyone wants to believe….

Yes, we’ve walked on the Moon, and we may yet also colonize that planetoid, as it is so close to Home…. but, the possibility of not being able to live on the surface of the Earth any longer is a distinct threat to our having any future at all…. We may be too late already to save the Earth from becoming toxic to our lungs and metabolism, not to mention the effects of the rising of the seas on our fresh water supplies, and ability to grow the foods we eat….

Our ONLY hope is, quite possibly, to establish colonies on the nearest bodies we can get to, as fast as we can muster the resources and technology to do so, then, when established as self-supporting, spread from there into the rest of the system…..The material resources are there; the asteroids, many eons ago, were another planet, larger than Earth and Mars, that broke up to form the belt between Mars and Jupiter we see today.

These orbiting chunks of rock, some as large as some of our smaller continents, some as small as dust, are chock full of all the metals, minerals, and substances, including water, in the form of ice, we would conceivably need to keep civilization functioning (Saturn’s rings, for example, are supposedly made of ice..) Power is more than plentiful, in the form of sunlight, as well as nuclear fission (much safer to produce and handle in the vastness of space), or, nuclear fusion, if and when we discover its secrets, as well as the chemicals needed for rocket fuels, all are to be found, relatively easily, in the asteroids….

So, the map above, a digital image made from composites taken AT THE SITE, represents the first exploration into our solar system, beyond the Earth/Moon/Mars neighborhood, with the specific intent to explore the possible uses of the rest of the solar system in saving, and continuing human existence…. as such, it is much more significant, and important, than many people are aware of…. and, less aware than they NEED to be, if they want to secure a place in that future….

Unless, of course, y’all hang around here, where, you can be sure, I’ll be keeping a weather eye on all of it, and will let y’all know how the countdown is progressing, whether it means counting down to the time when Earth is no longer able to serve as our Home, or counting the time until we will need to be gone elsewhere, if we wish to make a new Home, in Space…. at all…… Count on that, for sure….

Gosh, look Ma! It’s an intro! Why, so it is Bubba! Let’s tell gigoid, so he can….. Never mind, I’ve got it…. Hold on, ffolkes…..

Shall we Pearl?….

“Any certainty is a delusion.” — Smart Bee, with gigoid’s full agreement

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

On a normal morning, I’d use the article below to begin a rant; today, that just isn’t going to happen. The above was done prior to getting up today, without knowing I’d wake up in a world of hurt at 1 AM, again, at 3 AM, with me, exhausted, but, giving up on sleep about a half hour ago…. Add some plumbing issues, first thing, and you’ve got an interesting morning shaping up….. Without descending into whining, let’s just say that this Pearl will be the fastest ever posted, start to finish, and leave it at that, without going any further into why I need to get done so fast…

This article actually is good news, as a Federal Court put aside a conviction of a citizen, because the military had used their technology and ability to hack into PRIVATE computer systems, in the homes of American citizens, justifying it by claiming they were looking for evidence of criminal (collection of child pornography, etc.) activity by naval personnel, and for evidence of terrorist activity, simply because they have a naval base in the state where it took place, to wit: Washington state….

Read the article, it gives a chilling account of how the government, and the military, is spying on its own citizens, without their knowledge, and, even more disturbing, have software already in place that allows them to access any computer, in anyone’s home, as long as it connects to the internet… I hate to say I told you so, but, I did…. they are spying on us, looking right into our homes to find out what we are doing…. because, quite simply, they can, and they feel they have that right, since nobody is stopping them….

This attitude has spread so deeply into the entire government of this nation, now, the president (note, no capital, as that would show more respect than he deserves….) thinks he has the power to wage war, whenever he feels it would politically expedient, such as now….. He wants to be remembered as the president who fought terrorism…. when what he is, is the president who pulled the covers off the charade being carried out by all of our branches of government, of turning this country, officially, and permanently, into the oligarchy it has actually been for many years…. Now, they aren’t even bothering to hide their disdain, and complete dominance of the American public…

I hurt, so, it’s natural to rant… but, it hurts so much, both physically, and emotionally, I can’t do it any more today…. This article makes note of a hopeful sign, but, also signals the advent of a time when the rich, powerful assholes in charge of the world’s governments are not going to bother to hide their control much longer…. Mark my words, they are going to have to assume tighter control soon, or the possibilities for revolution offered by the Internet will cause them to have to fight out in the open to maintain their position…. and, unfortunately, except in this country, THEY have most of the weapons in the world, and, if recent history is any indication, they won’t hesitate to use them on their own people…. witness Ferguson….

Enough, read, and weep…. then, I’d suggest you do what I plan to do, which is to stock up on ammunition, for ALL the weapons I possess…. I’ll add a few pearls afterward, to help soothe the angst that surely will follow….

http://blog.sfgate.com/crime/2014/09/12/porn-conviction-tossed-over-militarys-surveillance-role/?cmpid=hp-hc-bayarea

Mostly, the following ended up being stuff that our Beloved Ruling Class would believe, or, describes them, or is something one or more of them has actually stated at one time or another… or, in a couple of cases, shows what they would have said, if they were in the habit of telling the truth…..

“Why bother building any more nuclear warheads until we use the ones we have?” — overheard at the lunchroom mess in the Pentagon

“The Bible is an opiate to keep the beasts of burden patient.” — Pope Leo X

“The keenest sorrow is to recognize ourselves as the sole cause of all our adversities.” — Sophocles

“In the first place, God made idiots. That was for practice. Then he made school boards.” — Mark Twain

“After he got good at school boards, he finished up by making Congress.”– Mark Twain (found later, in his notes, as originally intended as part of the previous quote…) (Okay, I made it up…. if he’d thought of it, he would have….)

“It is our duty to make the best of our misfortunes, and not to suffer passion to interfere with our interest and public good.” — George Washington

“How dieth the wise man? As the fool.” — Smart Bee

Quick after-note: Look at the somewhat out-of-place-with-the-others quote by Georgie W., our first president. In response, I have two short questions…. First, can you think of a single national-level elected official in this country who could, or would make such a statement? I don’t think I have to answer that; you can do it yourself to find the only response, to wit: no way. Second, what the fuck happened?….. Where did they go wrong? Okay, that’s three, so, we’ll just go on, leaving this to fester….

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

Today, for reasons given, y’all will have to have one of mine, for the simple sake of speed…. I do hope you enjoy it…. Here is one I wrote on a morning much like this one, about three years ago….

Denial of Comfort

Baleful chairs become the enemy, heralded in red
seemingly welcome softness beckons with a smile,
waiting, content with slaughter, they are finally led
screaming in agony, deluged in venom all the while.

Desperate distraction becomes such a friendless fire
for all the patterns of autumn’s pale dismay,
leaving sincerely latent trails in spirals of twisted wire,
while memory insists, again, upon failure, palpably evil, and fey.

Fat, jaded tears would have fallen in good time,
if only the suitable suitor had scaled the garden’s wall.
Credence for discounted prices luckily in their prime
bring only fascinated eyes into such a hallowed hall.

Searching for answers is ever a clever portrayal
with studious accouterments to fulfill each common rule.
Arguably patient pictures of science and honest betrayal
shall evermore languish, in light of passion so elegantly cruel.

~~ gigoid ~~

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

The following pearl is an odd one, and I’m not sure exactly what point SB, or my subconscious was trying to make…. but, it’s not bad, if you look at it with the thought in mind, it is merely a series of comments on life, without expecting any of them to actually mean much in terms of how to live life, or what to expect from it…. It just sort of says, “Here, look at this for a minute… interesting, eh?”

Hey, they can’t ALL be perfect necklaces made up of gorgeously matched gems; some of them are the artificially induced sort of pearls, which, while beautiful in their way, and of value, when viewed with proper appreciation, are not going to have the same effect as the more compelling sort…. which, if you think about it, is just like life itself…. maybe they’re deeper than they seem…. Whatever, they work, so, here they are….

INTRODUCTION, n. A social ceremony invented by the devil for the gratification of his servants and the plaguing of his enemies. The introduction attains its most malevolent development in this century, being, indeed, closely related to our political system. Every American being the equal of every other American, it follows that everybody has the right to know everybody else, which implies the right to introduce without request or permission. The Declaration of Independence should have read thus:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, and the right to make that of another miserable by thrusting upon him an incalculable quantity of acquaintances; liberty, particularly the liberty to introduce persons to one another without first ascertaining if they are not already acquainted as enemies; and the pursuit of another’s happiness with a running pack of strangers.”

— Ambrose Bierce, “The Devil’s Dictionary”

“While my BRAINPAN is being refused service in BURGER KING, Jesuit priests are DATING CAREER DIPLOMATS!!” — Zippy the Pinhead

“The emperor has no clothes.” — Michael, my former neighbor’s “odd” son, pointing at the POTUS (Obama, at the time….) on TV…. (It isn’t my label in that description…. Micheal, about 7 years old, is considered a “problem” child in school, for two of his behaviors they can’t understand…. First, he has little impulse control, and whatever he sees, or thinks, or does, or. or… he tells the nearest person about it, whether he knows them or not…Second, he is considered different because he “sees” things other people don’t, and can’t…. Some are of things far away, and patently outside his experience, that, somehow, always turn out to be true visions of future events, or just stuff he shouldn’t be aware of, logically, as it happened elsewhere in the world, a week after he shared it…. Spooky, but, damn fascinating, isn’t it? People are strange…. thank goodness…)

“Somebody has to do something, and it’s just incredibly pathetic that it has to be us.” — Jerry Garcia (1942-1995), Musician, the Grateful Dead

“The Bible tells us to love our neighbors, and also to love our enemies; probably because they are generally the same people.” — G. K. Chesterton, ILN, 7/16/10

“For the record, pot, like the “Reader’s Digest”, is not necessarily habit-forming, but both can lead to hard-core addiction: heroin, in one case, abridged bad books in the other. Either way you look at it, a withdrawal from a meaningful life.” — Mordecai Richler, “Going Home Again”

“It takes a big man to cry, but it takes a bigger man to laugh at that man.” — Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey

For the life of me, I can’t do it…. Moreover, I’m going to ask y’all not to try, either, as it’s given me a headache just trying to follow that path…. The above pearl’s meaning, or directed train of thought(s), is, as far as I can figure out, completely inscrutable to the human mind, or, mine, anyway… and my subconscious ain’t talkin’, more’s the pity. Good thing it’s over…. and, please, don’t go back & read it again…. Once was probably enough for this one…. I guess it IS cute, though, with a smirk or two in it, in spots….

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

“As I grow older I find I don’t have to avoid temptation any longer–now temptation avoids me.” — not attributed in SB…. however, I can testify….

“The ideals which have always shone before me and filled me with the joy of living are goodness, beauty, and truth. To make a goal of comfort or happiness has never appealed to me; a system of ethics built on this basis would be sufficient only for a herd of cattle.” — Albert Einstein

“A little sincerity is a dangerous thing, and a great deal of it is absolutely fatal.” — Oscar Wilde

Well, ffolkes, I’ve done all the damage I can do for one day, especially today…. I’m outta here to go drug myself into insensibility…. Provided I wake up by then, I’ll see y’all tomorrow…..

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

PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.

Sacre bleu! Houp la! À bientôt, mon petite cherí….

Thirteen metric tons of bio-hazardous waste? How droll….

Posted on September 11, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

“If the life of natural things, millions of years old, does not seem sacred to us, then what can be sacred?” — Edward Abbey

I’m sorry, but, the woman just looks too clueless for this to be a real picture…. not to mention the rather frozen look in the dino’s eyes… though it DOES look to be frozen in delight, at what appears to be LUNCH!…. But, as I said, even taking the perspective into account, if the dino were real, she wouldn’t have been able to avoid SMELLING him, or, more accurately, its breath, as the carrion- and fresh-carcase- eating predator it was…. Whew, can you imagine the pungent stink attached to a huge creature’s mouth like that? Awesomely toxic, I would imagine, not to mention the mere presence of Eau de corpse, an odor that would make it hard to miss, for any creature with a half-way efficient nose…..

Oh, and, by the way, the quote from Ed Abbey? Brilliant, and, in many ways, if it is the only thing you take away with you from today’s post, you will not have been wasting your time…. Just sayin’, y’know? ….

So, where was I, before my silly parenthetical mind hopped over a couple of dimensions, to take up a totally different subject, than that with which we began? Oh, hell, it doesn’t matter, anyway; this will get all twisted around if I try to justify any of it. That happens every time I forget….. with the new Tardis, I may never actually know, precisely, or, with any degree of confidence at all, just when I am…. Not where, when…. I could be writing this last week, or next week, or, in a previous life; I most likely, will, or did, or plan to, or well, you see the problem, right?…. Since the advent of the powers of a Time Lord. I’m having to learn a completely new and different way to both talk, and write, not to even mention think….

So, since it no longer matter at all where we started, I’ll just go on…..

“What’s the metric unit of pain? The Angstrom.” — Smart Bee

It took me about 10 seconds, but, once I got it, I just about FOMCL, because IWLSHICLCOMMO, y’know? Get it? Pain? Angst(rom)? (*** See below for acronym definitions…) Bwahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!

Classic, and priceless, this almost killed me…. it’s just so ME!….. On this scale, I live at approximately 12 Å, ( “Å”, naturally, is the symbol for angstroms, an actual scientific scale, though normally applied to measure the brightness of light on the electromagnetic scale that describes the rainbow of colors that make up the light we see….), on a scale of 27 Å as maximum (think massive tooth impaction/infection, or, childbirth…. either wodl hit around 27 Å…), with daily forays into the twenties….

Probably, I’m running an average daily rate of about, oh, right now, factoring in the arthritis flare-up the last few days… about 18-20 Å….. As I type, that’s about where we are, which is just at the upper limit of what I can control, and still be able to type without whimpering piteously, as is the case when it goes past twenty….

All that said, people may wonder why I still have to write this blog every day, or, why I have to say so much, if it hurts so badly…. Well, that, to me, is simple…. and, can be expressed by three pieces of graphic art, that just happen to be in my archived files…. I suppose you could say that the following three entries comprise a statement of purpose that is as close as I’ll ever come to making up a mission, or vision statement….. with one caveat, which merely says this:

I’ve lived with, and played with, pain, all of my life one way or another; it is not something I will ever allow to completely dominate my decisions about how to live, or what I am capable of doing. Pain may be my enemy, but, it is an enemy whom I have long held at bay, consistently battling it to a draw, throughout all the years of my life; I don’t intend to allow that to change at this late date…. Giving in & letting it control my life is unacceptable….

Onward….

When I am unsure of how to proceed in any given situation, I imagine my father standing behind me, observing me. If I hesitate, he will whisper a number in my ear, from this list of Rules he taught me, that tells me how to approach whatever it is that confronts me….

A Warrior of Light never gives in, and never gives up…. to do so not only would destroy all honor, but would nullify all our previous efforts…. This last graphic, below, from Albert, gives you the last piece of me, that keeps me writing this blog, taking pot-shots at the BRC and the Asinnnies, the true perpetrators of evil, just so I don’t have to place myself in the latter group, thus ensuring I can look myself in the eye each morning in the mirror…..

*** Acronyms from above:

“almost

FOMCL = Fell out of my chair laughing….

because,

IWLSHICLCOMMO = I was laughing so hard I completely lost control of my medulla oblongata….”

So be it…..

gigoid has spoken.

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

From January 29, 2013, as the intro to the intro:

At the age I’ve reached, one of the best lessons I learned, long ago, is/was the value of routine. Developing a routine of efficient activities to organize the start of the day is one of the most important tools one can find and use in the work-a-day world. It allows one to get to work on time, with everything in hand that is necessary to the day, and with mind and body prepared for the tasks ahead, without undue stress or worry.

When this routine is disrupted, it can affect the tenor of the entire remainder of the day, like ripples in a pond spreading out from the point of impact, or a mathematical error in computing an orbit, an infinitesimal flaw that grows bigger with each new computation, at an alarming rate, faster with each passing nanosecond…..

I’m starting to believe that even Murphy is not immune to the power of schedules and routines. When I was younger, and still going to work daily, if I observed the details of my routine with enough concentrated attention, he seemed to stand back and not bother with me, waiting for other times to step in with his decidedly infantile sense of humor. If he was very, very clever, he sometimes could affect a small part of the routine, and cause a bit of uproar, but generally, I’d get so focused on carrying it out, he couldn’t get me to pay any attention to him, so, off he’d go, to find someone more vulnerable…..

All of which means that there is a hidden power, involved in the acting out of routine behaviors, carried out time after time until they are ingrained, a power of organization and will, that, somehow, is able to resist the oppositional power of chaos that Murphy so adeptly subjects us to whenever he can….

**Note from 2014: the above is here to supplement yesterday’s recounting of Murphy’s latest escapade here at gigoid’s house, at gigoid’s expense… Sorry, do I still sound pissed off? I guess I do…. Ah, well, I’ll get it out right now… & be done with it all….

When Murphy got me yesterday, and, to give him his due, he got me good, I had fallen into the mental trap, whose reasons for existing at all are connected to my own thought patterns, and the exercise of my will used to control those patterns, of taking the power of routine for granted; I placed too much credence on its ability to keep Murphy occupied elsewhere, if my own state of mind was not focused enough for it to work…. THIS is why I got caught yesterday with my pants not down, but, in danger of bursting into flame, so to speak, and to mix metaphors horrendously…. In short, I was a complacently oblivious Bozo, this time to my dismay, not my pride, or even bemused acceptance…

That said, since I now know how to avoid any repetition of such events, we can move on for the day, content this section served at least one or two socially acceptable purposes to good effect…. I’m going to continue my campaign to keep things lighter, and shorter, by going directly into an old school pearl, filled with good thought, advice on living, and general, all-around good stuff, as we call it here, when we can’t think of any good words, and the thesaurus is buried somewhere…. Enjoy!

“The test of all happiness is gratitude.” — G.K. Chesterton

“Anyone who considers protocol unimportant has never dealt with a cat.” — Robert A. Heinlein

“Curiosity may have killed the cat, but where human beings are concerned, the only thing a healthy curiosity can kill is ignorance.” — Smart Bee

“You are not thinking. You are merely being logical.” — Neils Bohr to Albert Einstein, during a debate on Quantum Mechanics

“Do good by stealth, and blush to find it fame.” — Alexander Pope (1688-1744) — Epilogue to the Satires, Dialogue i, Line 136

“No one can see their reflection in running water. It is only in still water that we can see.” — Taoist Proverb

“To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it.” — G. K. Chesterton, A Short History of England, Ch.10

Wow. That’s it. Just…. wow. Now, THAT is a great pearl….. a group of some of the finest gems in our language, presented and arranged for your sublime delectation, in a wonderful display of serendipity, as Smart Bee just laid them out, one after another, in less than three minutes…. Bonus!

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

I’m in a mood…. what kind of mood is, at this point, undetermined; being human, however, I’m sure I’m in one. The sign are all there, and clear…. This means, if I do as I intended, and try to write a fresh poem, it would probably reflect that mood…. Quite simply, at this juncture, I don’t trust my mood enough to allow that to happen; the results could conceivably cause me to cease writing altogether, and then where would my sanity be?

Nowhere, that’s where…. So, I’ll go for someone else’s work, and be done with it, knowing my mood will direct whatever choice I end up making…. I just hope it doesn’t explode, which has happened in the past, to our chagrin, not to mention surprised shock and awe…. Well, whatever it may end up as, try to enjoy it, okay? I DO generally go with classic, so, that may help…. We’ll see, I suppose…. Wish me luck…. Ah, thanks, that worked; here’s one of my favorite all time poems, by my all time favorite poetess, which will do just fine….

A bird came down the walk

A bird came down the walk
He did not know I saw;
He bit an angle-worm in halves
And ate the fellow, raw.

And then he drank a dew
From a convenient grass,
And then hopped sidewise to the wall
To let a beetle pass.

He glanced with rapid eyes
That hurried all abroad,-
They looked like frightened beads, I thought;
He stirred his velvet head

Like one in danger; cautious,
I offered him a crumb,
And he unrolled his feathers
And rowed him softer home

Than oars divide the ocean,
Too silver for a seam,
Or butterflies, off banks of noon,
Leap, splashless, as they swim.

~~ Emily Dickinson ~~

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

I promised I’d keep from ranting so often, and have decided that graphic art, from other sources, may be at least part of a solution… Here is one attempt to see if it works….. On the UK Guardian web site, they have a link to a complete series of stories around the original leaks by Edward Snowden, re: the illegal spying by the NSA, that is STILL FUCKING HAPPENING. Oops, was that too loud? Sorry, it continues to annoy me, as you can see, just a LITTLE FUCKING BIT… Any who, on that page at the Guardian.com, are links to this artist’s take on the issues, using her/his comic persona, Brenda the Civil Disobedience Penguin, to do so…. Enjoy, ffolkes…. this is bloody brilliant….

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

Well, all thing considered, that went well…. which it very possibly may not have done, given the usual state of affairs here in the morning…. Today the new Time Lord powers helped quite a bit, so, I guess I’m getting a little further along the learning curve on that…. It will do, since this one, even shortened as it may be, exceeds the average by a good portion…. Whatever, right? I’ll be going now…. See y’all tomorrow, most likely…. The odds on that are looking good….

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

No, no, not the taffeta!….

Posted on September 1, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

“Courage is not the towering oak that sees storms come and go;

it is the fragile blossom that opens in the snow”

— Alice M. Swaim

Today’s picture, which goes well with the opening pearl, is one of my own. The flower is one I found while out walking, picking this one to put on my hat for the day, as is my habit whenever I go out. When I got home, the gorgeous thing was still fresh and beautiful, so I laid it on the black surface of the couch, and took some shots of it, in addition to a couple others, including one of how it looked on the hat….. I am very pleased with this shot; the colors are both vivid and delicate at once, and the background black makes it almost glow… Not bad for an old curmudgeon, eh?

Now that my shoulder is back in the socket, after getting thrown out by patting myself so hard on the back, I think I can continue to type… not that it seems to make any difference in anything. It’s a good thing I don’t do this for money, or for self-promotion; I’d be starving, big time. I’m pretty sure the sobriety and deeply controversial nature of most of my ranting, along with the length of what I write, has been striking many of my usual readers with its repetitive qualities, such that not many are stopping in very often of late to read…. Oh, I’m getting readers, and have had some great dialogue in the comment section; just not a lot of traffic overall….

S’okay by me… I write to stay sane. I also figured out something the other day, as I sat one early evening, thinking about, well, stuff…. I do that a lot…. just sit, and think. Always have; it seems to provide me with the time alone in my head that I need to feel as if I’m keeping up with things in there; you know, sweeping out old bullshit, programming new stuff, planning for future events, examining new ideas and stuff learned for validity, truth, and/or flaws in reasoning, stuff like that…. If it were a computer (my head) you could call it file maintenance, or defragmentation, or maybe running a registry cleaning software program…

Any who, while sitting and thinking, I realized that the routine I’ve developed over the last three years has been my mind’s adaptation to retirement, which it accomplished in order to keep me young…. All my life, I had routines that I built to deal with the demands of life, all of which involved getting up early in the morning, to get a jump on the necessary thinking, organizing, and just plain waking up that can make the difference between a good day, and a bad one, no matter what kind of work I, or anyone, is involved in; good planning makes for good outcomes…. Now that I have no real reason to get up in the morning, my mind decided to give me one, and made it necessary for me to write….. otherwise, I would certainly have gone mad…. stark raving mad, rather than my current level of mild anxiety mixed with unpredictable, intermittent emotional fragility, easily handled…

So, my job now is to write each day, in order to keep the demons from staying too long, joining up with their mates, and giving me REAL problems to deal with… If in the process, I can write something that makes someone smile, or think, or burn with outrage, or fall on the floor laughing, then I’ll be content…. Money isn’t necessary to make me feel satisfaction; I get mine from a well-turned phrase, or an apt insult to someone who deserves more than I can hit them with…. it’s enough for me….

Why look! I’ve meandered and blathered again, mostly about stuff that means little to nothing, and have again arrived at a suitable jumping-off point just at the right moment, when I’d finished my egotistic drivel…. This means we don’t even need to use one of the emergency methods, though, we did go a bit long again…. S’fine…. it’ll all come out in the wash, right?

Shall we Pearl?…..

“Too much sanity may be madness. And maddest of all, to see life as it is and not as it should be!” — Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote

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

Since the intro went so long, even without ranting, I’ll go old-school in this section, to try to keep from scaring anyone away this early…. Here is a pearl with parameters set to poke at our Beloved ruling class, and the public morality that allows them to keep on keepin’ on with their unruly shenanigans…. Hopefully, today, we’ll see some blood….

“Americans like to talk about (or be told about) Democracy but, when put to the test, usually find it to be an ‘inconvenience.’ We have opted instead for an authoritarian system *disguised* as a Democracy. We pay through the nose for an enormous joke-of-a-government, let it push us around, and then wonder how all those assholes got in there.” — Frank Zappa

“A man that expects to train lobsters to fly in a year is called a lunatic and is locked up. But a man that thinks people can be turned into angels by legislation is called a reformer and allowed to walk free.” — Mr. Dooly

“A pig ate his fill of acorns under an oak tree and then started to root around the tree. A crow remarked, `You should not do this. If you lay bare the roots, the tree will wither and die.’ `Let it die,’ said the pig. `Who cares so long as there are acorns?'” — Smart Bee

“Nothing links man to man like the frequent passage from hand to hand of cash.” — Walter Sickert (1860-1942)

“And the Clinton administration launched an attack on people in Texas because those people were religious nuts with guns. Hell, this country was FOUNDED by religious nuts with guns!” — P. J. O’Rourke

“Sure we’ll have Fascism, but it will come disguised as Americanism.” — Huey P. Long

“Instead of giving money to found colleges to promote learning, why don’t they pass a constitutional amendment prohibiting anybody from learning anything? If it works as good as the Prohibition one did, why, in five years we would have the smartest race of people on earth.” — Will Rogers

Not too shabby at all; there’s some sharp sticks in there, ffolkes…. hope they caught one of the bastards right in the eye….. I love starting the day with some good red, American politician blood flowing…. It keeps all of us on our toes to see that shocking red color, and to know it’s our own fault if we let it continue this way…. Besides, they breed like flies, and there’s always another one ready to step into the old one’s shoes, bloody or not…. Sometimes, I swear, shooting politicians is like trying to stem the tide…..

Oops…. sorry, all you folks over there at the NSA…. I used the words “shoot” and “politician” in the same sentence; it’s a figure of speech. We’re only shooting insults, not bullets…. Bloody idiots…..

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

Here is another new poem, just bled out yesterday, that speaks for itself….

Retrospective, defined in folly….

Yesterday
I wrote a poem.

It bled out of my head,
like I’d been struck with
an axe,
right through the artery,
in the neck,
spraying blood around
everywhere,
like a pulsing garden hose….

It hurt, at first,
then came the feeling,

of quick relief,
of timeless beauty,

of pain avenged,
of lust aroused,

of outrage aflame,
of deep compassion,

of endless empathy,
of truest love….

Now it’s gone, cast away
like pearls before twine.

(Grin…)

You thought
I was going to call you
a pig,
didn’t you?

Hah!

Well, you’re not.
You’re a person.

I know, because
you’re reading this poem…
if that’s what it is.
I think it is,
so,
maybe it is.

Or, maybe,
it will be,
someday, when it
grows up,
and learns to rhyme.
Whew…
Just in time…..

That’s all.
Reality often sucks wind,
y’know?

S’okay, though….
It keeps us busy,
and out of some of the
mischief,
so much part
of our
nature.

We all can do
only what we
do.

Or, don’t.

Two sides, one coin.

~~ gigoid ~~

Hmm…. well, that was…. is…. something different, for sure, and for certain….

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

“I was brought up in the other service; but I knew from the first that the Devil was my natural master and captain and friend. I saw that he was in the right, and that the world cringed to his conqueror only from fear.” — George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950), “The Devil’s Disciple”

It is possible, if one reads with intelligent absorption, and open perception, to hear the echoes of sardonicism in Shaw’s words; for my own part, I can almost SEE his tongue, firmly lodged in cheek, while he wrote this, struggling with all his might not to burst out into maniacal laughter….. This may have been the single most satisfying phrase anyone has ever had the fortune to write; it pokes the entire Western culture, with its overbearing elitism, its incredible arrogance, its pompous, stuffy demeanor, and its sheer insane insistence on basing an entire society based on a set of delusions fostered upon them by insane fanatics with no other morality than the dictates of their own perverted fears of the unknown, right in the proverbial eye….

It’s wonderfully antagonistic, too… I like that. Shaw had a lot of fun with this one, for, by it’s nature, his contention sets itself up in direct opposition to every point of morality favored by those in Christian society; since his own philosophical structure is NOT based on delusions, it is simple for him to see, and point to all the nonsense in the dogma that is supposed to act as the guide for his behavior…. which only enrages them, as they have no hold on him, or any way to shut him up, without showing themselves as the lying, or at least, misguided fools they are….

Now, I could discuss (rant about) this for a long time, and would enjoy every moment. It’s great fun to think up ways to annoy those hidebound dinosaurs; it IS a bit dishonorable, as it is not very nice to engage in battles of wit with unarmed opponents, but, then, I’ve never been very nice… not about this. But, in hopes of luring perhaps a few of my readers back, I’ll use this opportunity to reproduce an old-old-old school pearl, first posted here on 10/31/2011, when the entire Pearl of Virtual Wisdom was an old-school format…. So, what you will now see is the whole Pearl from that date….. Enjoy, it’s a good one…..

Ffolkes,

Due to circumstances that are completely within my control, I have lot to do today, so I will be using the old format for this morning’s offering, with just a short intro, and then some mighty fine virtual food for thought. Between fighting off depression, scratching for change, and juggling creditors, I have neglected my homework, which only hurts me, so there ya go. I sleep a lot, probably because when I’m asleep, I feel more in control of my life.

Pitiful, isn’t it? Ah well, life is Change, and this situation too shall pass in time. I’ve procrastinated almost as far as I can with the homework, though I’m sure I’ll come up with at least one or two ways to put it off before I actually get to it. I’m creative in that respect, if in no other…….any who, here are today’s Pearls, all of which can be found in Category “Finest Kind Stuff”………

“To be “matter of fact” about the world is to blunder into fantasy…. and dull fantasy at that, as the real world is strange and wonderful.” — Robert A. Heinlein

“All the knowledge in the world is not wisdom”. — Albert Einstein

“Invisible Pink Unicorns are beings of great spiritual power. We know this because they are capable of being invisible and pink at the same time. Like all religions, the Faith of the Invisible Pink Unicorns is based upon both logic and faith. We have faith that they are pink; we logically know that they are invisible because we can’t see them.” — Steve Ely

(Sound familiar? Has a certain Tea Party ring to it, no?…..)

You ‘d scarce expect one of my age
To speak in public on the stage;
And if I chance to fall below
Demosthenes or Cicero,
Don’t view me with a critic’s eye,
But pass my imperfections by.
Large streams from little fountains flow,
Tall oaks from little acorns grow.

~~ David Everett ~~
(1769-1813)
— Lines written for a School Declamation —

The wages of sin are high but you get your money’s worth. — Smart Bee

“Please come home with me… I have Tylenol!!” — Zippy the Pinhead

Well, there you go, Ollie, another fine mess…..and in Technicolor too! Y’all take care out there…..

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

With this Pearl, I declare this blog officially back to relative normalcy; up at the usual time, finished at an appropriate hour, and posted before 7 AM…. I’ll take it. In fact, I’ll take it as it is, and be done with it for today…. I’ll see you mañana, amigos…..

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

PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.

Lately, it all seems less filling….

Posted on August 31, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

“Hand me a pair of leather pants and a CASIO keyboard — I’m living for today!”

~~ Zippy the Pinhead ~~

“You said you want me to WHAT?”

“FfYou ffhave fNO ffidea ffhow ffGOOD ffthis ffffeels! Thpptt!”

To begin, let’s get this out of the way…. Both pictures are from the SFGATE.com Day In Pictures photo feature, one each from two consecutive days, yesterday and the day before…. I’m including both, here at the beginning for a couple reasons…. First, I like them. Second, they both go with the excellent outcry from our old friend Zippy, which just happens to coincide with my mood…. my mood now, not when you’re reading this, though it may extend that far into the future…. who knows? For now, though, it’s just right…. Third, I named these two with my own file names, to remind me of the anthropomorphic images that crossed my mind upon first viewing them… The captions you see are what came later, after percolating….

The first one I call, Morpheus the koala… Isn’t he the cutest, sleepiest little thing you’ve ever seen?…. That, of course, is before the second thought that occurred to me, to wit: I wonder what he’s thinking, with that expression? From that perspective, he obviously is a bit suspicious, and not altogether sure of what he’s looking at…. which, given the nature of the koala, isn’t a surprise; plus, I don’t think their vision is very acute…. Logically, their first instinct, when they see anything, is to figure out whether it is predatory, thinking of them as food, or, is it food for them?

The writer who writes the comments under each picture on SFGATE saw the expression yet another way, by, quoting a look-alike from a movie …. “Do. Or do not. There is no try.”, quoting, of course, Yoda…. thus, proving they were too lazy to do any research, lacked creativity, or felt compelled to go for the cheap laugh by the pressure of working on a deadline….

The second picture I titled “earthshaking news”, but, my actual first thought was that it must be an Irish squirrel, on his way home from the public house, with a snoot full of rye whiskey under his belt (although “belt” may be a more accurate term for what he did with the rye, rather than where it ended up….). He reminds me of the old saw, that says, “An Irishman is never too drunk, so long as he can lay on his face, clutching the grass to keep from flying off the Earth”…. In truth, the little beastie is probably just cooling off his, well, private parts, on the cool branch…. That, or he’s expecting an earthquake…. hence, the title….

Why look, ffolkes! We’ve come to a point where it is not only appropriate to bring this introduction to a close, we can do so with the knowledge we actually composed something that actually has the look, the feel, and the traditional structure of such a device. Not only that, but, it’s seemingly ambiguous enough to act as a segue into almost any subject…. I sure wish I knew how this happened… I could do it again, if I could figure it out, and get it down on paper, or, at least, in my head with a note to remember it….

Unfortunately, I’ve already used up all the common sense, and typical patterns of behavior for one day, so, we’ll just toss this one overboard with all the others from the past, just as if it had never been exactly what I need, or want…. SIGH…. Sometimes, being odd is not much fun…. but, then I remember the alternative, shiver clear down to my toes, and give myself a happy smile, knowing that “normal” just isn’t for me…. Now, if I could only decide whether I’m serious about that, or not, I’d be able to at least ring it in with a Treble Bob Major, if not a Minor….

Shall we Pearl?…..

Where is the Life we have lost in living?
Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?
Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?

~~ T. S. Eliot ~~

Choruses from the Rock

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

“Stupid is as stupid does.” — Mama Gump

Yesterday, during a rant in section one of the Daily Pearl, I made a comment, wherein I accused Bill Clinton of being an idiot, and a husband, in the same breath…. While his persona exhibits elements of both adjectives, neither one fits completely comfortably; if it was a suit, you’d think it was poorly tailored. He IS an idiot of course; letting one’s lust control their actions while in the White House as the President, is kind of a give-away on that…. and he IS a husband; it says so right on the license available for anyone to see somewhere in what, oh, yeah, Arkansas, or Alabama, or wherever it was they got married… Who knows, maybe it was in D.C. after they left Little Rock, or whatever… But, obviously, he isn’t terribly good at either one….

Any who, I wanted to clarify that, while also acknowledging that, in truth, Bill is a VERY smart guy…. I don’t care who you are, you don’t get to be a Rhodes Scholar if you don’t have a few neurons to bump together… He also plays a pretty mean sax, which is also an indicator of superior, or at least multi-talented, intelligence…. All of which goes to prove that intelligence alone has little, if any, survival value. Possessing a high IQ does not give one the ability, necessarily, to USE it in a way that helps one advance, in any respect….

Ethically, morally, or in terms of worldly success, as in being rich, famous, or celebrated in some fashion, smart guys don’t always win against the mundanes, simply because they are often not paying attention to what is important to those with less on their minds… In Bill’s case, he tried to take his multi-tasking to a new level, and failed, miserably…. Common sense often escapes the most intelligent members of this species; they tend to be a little less balanced out on the fringes of the bell curve…. too much going on in their heads, that ends up distracting them from what they’re doing in the real world, and that they are being watched, always…

That’s all…. just sayin’….. Smart don’t mean smart, if you know what I mean…. Sometimes, a little bit of street cred, a little low animal cunning, as it were, can go a long way to being more useful than having a degree, or being able to quote poetry…. Unfortunately, when someone like that learns the law, then turns to politics, there is no end to the harm they can cause…. Witness just about every president in my lifetime…. Most of them weren’t the most intelligent, though smart enough to get through law school; they are definitely the most corrupt, and the most vicious sociopaths, that is for sure and for certain, but, overly intelligent, they were NOT…..

Sorry, but, I just calls ’em as I sees ’em, ffolkes, and that’s the way it’s been for my life; I can count, on fewer than the fingers on only ONE of my hands, the number of presidents I respect, at all, and only one of those is still alive…. That one will go down in history as an ineffective president, because he had the unfortunate quality of possessing both intelligence, and integrity, not to mention compassion…. which are three qualities that no other president since 1962 has possessed. to any appreciable degree, and definitely not together in the same man, other than the one…. If you disagree, fine…. comment, and tell me why, so we can discuss it…. But, please, make it worth my time, because there isn’t a lot of evidence I’m aware of for you to choose from..

Any who, that’s it…. just wanted to make clear why I thought Bill was an idiot husband…. I’ll avoid any comments as to WHY he is uncomfortable as a husband, married to a woman who is just as sociopathic as he is…. a woman completely lacking any sort of real compassion for others, because it is subsumed in the vast furnace of their ambition….

There is no room for compassion in one who wishes to lead a nation, especially one with the power and resources of this one, along with the historically traditional imperative, and true national pastime, of proselytizing democracy, and our twisted versions of Christianity, on anyone in the world who doesn’t have them…. whether they want them, or not….

Sometimes, that interference in the lives and interests of other nations in the world manifests in the guise of business, to spread our capitalist markets, which require constant expansion to prevent collapsing under their own weight…. Or, our insistence on playing busybody is justified with the pretense of humanitarianism, with rationalizations ranging from saving them from godless communism, to fighting the evil of “Muslim extremists, and/or rebel insurgents” who are fighting terrorist civil wars, “killing their own people, including, gasp, children and old people!”

These wars, though being fought over what seem to me to be all-too-familiar sounding, minute, yet firmly idiotic differences of interpretation of scripture, are still CIVIL wars, even if religiously motivated …. I won’t comment on this scripture, allegedly also “divine” in origin, in the book of collected dogmatic delusions that were left to guide them by their version of a mortal, yet, somehow, also immortal, and, thus, divine, (by the time-tested use of “ipse dixit” reasoning) prophet of the ONLY god, or Allah, or Baha’u’lah, or whomever they worship/idolize/follow/are enslaved by…. Well, I wasn’t planning to comment, but, I suppose I just did….

However, my point remains valid, despite my opinion of Islam, or Christianity, or Hinduism, or Buddhism, or any other religion…. As far as I’m concerned, they are ALL the possessors of a SMALL piece of the Truth about Reality in this Universe, but, they have erroneously chosen to misinterpret the meaning of their piece, and have beaten their dead horses, killed by that error, into a sad, bloody pulp, unrecognizable, and useless for anything other than making everyone’s life more difficult, and divisive…. I can’t say it much clearer than that, about religion, or politics, either….

Instead I’ll say that it’s a shame there is probably no one to run against Hillary who can win, because she’ll be, unfortunately, as cruelly self-serving, as dishonest as, well, a politician, as unaware of, and as little concerned with the plight of the common man, and as falsely “transparent” in their actions and words, as any man who has ever held the office…. including Tricky Dicky and LBJ, who were about as underhanded, and corrupt as any politician who ever lived….

The scary part of that, if not the scariest part of the whole shebang we call the future? If there IS anyone who can win against her, things in this sad old country, and, no doubt, the rest of this sad, old world, will go from bad, to very much worse, in a very short time…. Think about it….

Just watch…. I hate being right in these cases, but, my track record is, sadly, practically unblemished, as I have called just about every election at the national level, for all those years of repetitive foolishness I’ve witnessed….

“It is discouraging how many people are shocked by honesty and how few by deceit.” — Noel Coward

“…there are periods of history when the visions of madmen and dope fiends are a better guide to reality than the common-sense interpretation of data available to the so-called normal mind. This is one such period, if you haven’t noticed already.” — The Illuminatus! Trilogy — Robert Anton Wilson

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

At last! This bled out of me last night, in a frenzy of typing, editing, and staring off into space…. I feel LOTS better now….

A dream, caught weeping….

“Never a dull moment to spare”, he said
with a crooked grin, and a broad wink.
“Can’t keep Reality hanging by a thread….
what would Chaos, or Entropy think?”

So, we plucked up our dreams of old,
to carry us on, in dutiful, strong arms,
stuffed a candle in the remaining fold,
for luck, and perfect proof against charms.

Storms follow the sun, but, never stay;
lessons round every corner, all free.
Past fleeting doubts, in a sad disarray,
the journey becomes the reason to be.

Simple kindness manifests untold riches,
in defiance of common cause’s demise.
Bold courage, hanging in stitches,
mends wounds that come as no surprise.

Still, waters run deep, ’tis said by many.
Too much pain cannot apprehend
the salient, sharp points of epiphany,
nor, plainly, to wisdom aspire to pretend.

Folly dogs even the simplest truth,
fumes of toxic ignorance and bile,
alienated as a loose rotten tooth;
it often hides itself, for a long while.

Sought after eons ago, we cried out,
to believe, to suffer no more doubt.
But found instead good reason,
for love, and truth, from season, to season.

~~ gigoid ~~

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

Y’all probably can’t see behind the screens, but, I’m here, late, rushed, but, content…. I bled out that poem last night, then slept like a baby (well, like a huge, hairy, old, restless baby, anyway….) for a good seven hours straight, only awakening twice to turn over…. I feel much better, and can slide right in here, just as if it were all of a piece…. which, come to think of it, it is….

So, here’s an old school pearl, for your reading enjoyment this fine holiday weekend morning…. I have no clue at all as to the parameters; I’m letting SB have its head…. Enjoy!

“By words the mind is winged” — Aristophanes (c. 450-385 B.C.) — The Birds (414 B.C.), line 1447

“There’s more to living than not dying.” — found inscribed on my eyelids this morning…. gigoid

“If 150,000 people do something really stupid………it’s still stupid.” — Smart Bee

“The mind, conscious of rectitude, laughed to scorn the falsehood of report.” — Ovid (43 BC) — Fasti, iv, 311

“A man can only do what he can do. But if he does that each day he can sleep at night and do it again the next day.” — Albert Schweitzer

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

“By letting go, it all gets done.” — Tao Te Ching

Damn near perfect…. So be it….

gigoid has spoken.

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

Well…. I hardly know what to say at this point. It would, no doubt, be for the best to wind this up now, and be on our way. Not being the sort to challenge the dictates of Reality, at least, not when it slaps me right in the ear like this, I’ll go along with that….. See y’all tomorrow, 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

PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.

Metaphoria is no longer a threat…. it’s Reality….

Posted on August 30, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

“A note of music gains significance from the silence on either side.” — Anne Morrow Lindberg

“When you’ve seen one non-sequitor, the price of tea in China.” — Smart Bee

“Remember – more than three shakes is a wank.” — Written on urinal

“Pulchritude possesses exclusively cutaneous profundity.” — Smart Bee

“A pearl of virtual wisdom gains significance from the ignorance of the bozo on either side.” — gigoid

Hmm…. it seems I’ve decided to start the day with a five star pearl, complete with graphics, to state the underlying premise of the pearl’s meaning/POV/relation to reality….. In this case, it’s all very real, and connected, or, if not, it wants to be… and should be…. We here at ECR are, in spite of all evidence to the contrary, not into the abuse of language, unless needed to ward off the forces of evil, or protect the innocent…. which, in our society, either happens all the fucking time, or seldom, and, never, with any real predictablilty…. I know, that’s just the way it is, but, I don’t have to like it, exactly, do I? No….

Fortunately, though, I do….. Like reality, and English, and, for that matter, any and all languages…. not that it’s ever done me any good. People still don’t understand me, but, that’s one of those, “been there, done that” sort of things, so we won’t go there in the intro; we’d never get anywhere if I start whining too early…. I do TRY to be an adult, even if it doesn’t always work…. Since I have now completely lost my way, with not a single clue as to what I meant to do when I started writing, I’d best begin the long, slow process of casting around for something to actually address…. SIGH…. You are SO strict!…..

Now, don’t you feel better? I know I do; getting that much nonsense out in just two paragraphs is quite a release…. Plus, it gets some of the administrative BS out of the way without letting anyone know it’s even happening, right in front of them…. I’m not even required to tell you what that means, or even costs, as it’s all covered in the forms you signed on the way in…. after, of course, we accessed your account for the entrance fees…. You knew about that part, right?….

No? Oh well, your signature says you did, so, we’re covered, and you’ll never notice the hidden fees, anyway; it’s working like planned, and that’s good. The revolutionary committee can use the funds…..

Let me caution you, though, and remind you; this is all a joke, right? Y’all didn’t sign anything, and I have no frigging idea who is even out there, unless they let me know by commenting, or hitting the Like button…. the Net is still THAT anonymous, anyway, though I’m sure the NSA has a way to know who is where, reading what…. That, after all, is what metadata is all about, and they’ve had over ten years to play around on our internet without most of us knowing anything about what they were doing…. not until Edward Snowden dropped his bombs, anyway….

Since it IS a joke, I’m going to pretend as if we actually had a punch line ready, to bring matters to a satisfactory close…. We don’t, of course, have anything of the sort, but, since we’re only pretending, I didn’t want to pay for a real punch line, so y’all will have to make do with what is in the bag over there…. You see it? Yeah, that’s it, the grimy yellow one with the nuclear material logo…. If you’d just hand in to me….. Thanks… Oh, my, it IS filthy, innit? Oh, but, look, here’s a #4 ending…. we can plug it in right here, and….

Shall we Pearl?…..

“A heart is not judged by how much you love but by how much you are loved by others.” — The Wizard of Oz

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

“Why ask me? I’m just visiting reality.” — Smart Bee, channeling gigoid again….

Okay, ffolkes, your vacation is over….. Below is a fresh spate of ranting, with an old-school pearl at the end, comprised of quotes that jumped up for attention when looking for some enhancement for future pears, and for a specific type of quote for another section…. They fit in with what the headlines had stimulated me to write, I couldn’t resist, naturally, even though the ranting portion of what is here is ample for any section on its own….

I have, apparently, lost all sense of proportion when it comes to this sort of outrage, engendered in me when I observe the crap going on out there in the public arena, because it seems to be the only way to reduce the negative effect on me…. Well, it’s the one I’ve chosen, so, either way, here it is… Like reality, even if you’re only visiting, as I tend to do on occasion, you have to choose, and then deal with the consequences of your choice….

http://blog.sfgate.com/techchron/2014/08/28/cops-cuff-12-protesting-low-security-guard-wages-at-sf-apple-store/?cmpid=hp-hc-bustech

It occurred to me when I was perusing the headlines that, in the recent past, we’ve seen a LOT of headlines just like this one. Without reading the article first, I wanted to note the following thought/question that came to mind…. I was under the impression that, in the United States, protesting was protected by one of the amendments to the US Constitution, as part of the first 10, known generally as the Bill of Rights….

One of them, specifically the First Amendment, (indicating its importance in the minds of the men who created it as our guide to how we would have our government structured, and operated….), guarantees the right of any American citizen to peacefully assemble, to petition the government for a redress of grievances, by specifically stating that Congress, or the States, may not create and pass any laws to the contrary…..

In spite of this, how often do we see American citizens, not merely arrested for exercising their right to protest, but, abused, jailed, and prosecuted for it…. under the guise of “protecting the public order”, which has become more important to many than their freedom…. Okay, now I’ll go read the article, to see what the police and government have to say that justifies ignoring the First Amendment to the US Constitution…. After, I’ll most likely rant to beat the band, so, if you’re going to skip that, now would be the time to read the poem….

So, it seems to be an acceptable phenomenon, at least to the media, for the police in such instances to not even have to comment on why they made arrests, unless they do so with some sort of overreaction, or in an abusive manner than will grab headlines…. They just make strategic arrests of those they believe are the active leaders of the protest, with the intent, and usual effect, of both removing the direction the activists provide, and intimidating and distracting the remaining citizens, er, protesters…..

Hell, you can tell how the issue has progressed, or, if you will, evolved…. All you have to do is to listen to the police, on their radios, talking to each other…. Listen to the words they use to describe the citizenry…. mostly they are words that objectify the people, by calling them names that take away their humanity…. suspect, unsub, subject, male & female individuals, etc…. all are removed from any emotional content, and placed in the arena of battle language….

Enough on those fools…. Next we come to a governor of one of our fine states, his wife, and the corporate asshole who gave them money to give his business a boost…..

“As if the world and they were hand and glove.” — William Cowper (1731-1800) — Table Talk, Line 173

http://www.sfgate.com/news/crime/article/Closing-arguments-set-in-former-Va-governor-trial-5720480.php?cmpid=hp-hc-nationworld

I can’t even write about this, ffolkes…. In this story, none of us come out looking very good…. Not the governor and his wife, not the man who bribed them, not the state, or the courts, and, most specifically, not the public, as the story unfolds without anyone commenting much, or even actually paying much attention (other than the few media hacks who keep dragging it back into the public eye whenever somebody in the court at their trial scratches an itch…. The media, on this story, seems to feel that if they keep shoving our faces in it, we’ll think they’re cool for kicking everybody when they’re down…. In truth, the whole issue disgusts me so much, we’ll go on….

http://www.sfgate.com/politics/article/Hillary-Clinton-on-Ferguson-We-are-better-than-5719406.php?cmpid=hp-hc-bayarea

Hillary is all about implications and subtext when she talks these days; she knows everything she says is looked at with a microscope decorated with the Presidential Seal…. she REALLY, REALLY wants to be president of this country. You can see it all over her face, especially in the picture adorning the page where you’ll find the article above….. She is shamelessly using the tragic events in Missouri to spread all the lies and innuendo she can, getting the public broken in, and used to hearing this sort of crap from her, all the while creating an image, showing herself as the thoughtful, compassionate woman, yet, one strong enough to run this superpower country, better than any man, especially her idiot of a husband….

Now, if anyone can point out anything…. anything at all, in what she says, or does, to alter that opinion, please, feel free to bring it up, along with any justification arguments you may wish to add…. I don’t expect much response, as there isn’t anything out there that fits that description, that I’ve been able to find, anyway, and I looked pretty hard…. Hillary is a politician, not a woman, or a man-like woman; she’s one of the psychopathic, mega-maniacal, arrogant assholes who want to control everything everybody else does, for their own aggrandizement and personal gain, not because they are altruistic at all, but, because they are possessed of overpowering ambition, and a complete lack of human connection, that allows them to sociopathically create their own set of rules, where everyone in the world loses, except for them….

Sorry, all you hopefuls out there, with the great desire to see a woman in such a position of power, wrongly thinking it will make any difference at all…. This is not, as I said, a woman, but, a politician, right down to her bones…. And, as per my personal experience over the last 50+ years of observing and analyzing presidential elections, and the candidates who run for that office, has shown me, there is not a single politician at that level of the game who tells the truth, at all, unless it somehow will benefit them, and help them achieve their goals…. It is the nature of the beast; a politician can no more keep from lying than they can keep from acting like an asshole…. which means, never…

And yes, it pisses me off, that they even have the chance to get their fingers in the public treasury, and direct this nation for a period of time it usually takes two decades to recover from, or longer….

Enough for now…. y’all can, no doubt, fill in your own ranting on these issues, so, here are a group of pearls to help keep the outrage simmering, or, at least, allow you to laugh about it….

And finds, with keen, discriminating sight,
Black ‘s not so black,–nor white so very white.

~~ George Canning ~~
(1770-1827)
— New Morality —

“Riches are the savings of many in the hands of one.” — Eugene Debs (1855-1926)

QUORUM, n. A sufficient number of members of a deliberative body to” have their own way and their own way of having it. In the United States Senate a quorum consists of the chairman of the Committee on Finance and a messenger from the White House; in the House of Representatives, of the Speaker and the devil.” — Ambrose Bierce, “The Devil’s Dictionary”

Blest paper-credit! last and best supply!
That lends corruption lighter wings to fly.

~~ Alexander Pope ~~
(1688-1744)
— Moral Essays, Epistle iii, Line 39 —

“Justice is itself the great standing policy of civil society; and any departure from it, under any circumstance, lies under the suspicion of being no policy at all.” — Edmund Burke

“Now we are going to set this pile of evil ablaze. But remember, because these are children’s toys, the fire will spread quite rapidly. So, please stand back and try not to inhale the toxic fumes.” — Minister in “Krusty Gets Busted”, from The Simpsons

What a great finish! Krusty knows how to stick it to the establishment, right in the eye with a sharp, filthy stick…. my kinda guy….

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

In honor of the whiskey I consumed late last night, in a frantic, futile attempt to smother the pain long enough for the meds & chocolate to kick in, so I could sleep, here is one of the poems of the most famous poet of all time…. who never wrote a poem without being firmly drunk…. Enjoy!….

Alone And Drinking Under The Moon

Amongst the flowers I
am alone with my pot of wine
drinking by myself; then lifting
my cup I asked the moon
to drink with me, its reflection
and mine in the wine cup, just
the three of us; then I sigh
for the moon cannot drink,
and my shadow goes emptily along
with me never saying a word;
with no other friends here, I can
but use these two for company;
in the time of happiness, I
too must be happy with all
around me; I sit and sing
and it is as if the moon
accompanies me; then if I
dance, it is my shadow that
dances along with me; while
still not drunk, I am glad
to make the moon and my shadow
into friends, but then when
I have drunk too much, we
all part; yet these are
friends I can always count on
these who have no emotion
whatsoever; I hope that one day
we three will meet again,
deep in the Milky Way.

~~ Li Po ~~

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

Above, you may have noted my use of the word ‘futile’ to describe my attempts at sleeping last night…. While forgoing any details, suffice it to say that very little of what I attempted had any success, and leave it at that…. So, what you get here, in the depths of my fatigue and liver-related misery, is the fastest sort of pearl I can create…. Let’s see what Smart Bee has in the way of items to ease me out of here with the least fuss, and noise…. Wish me luck….

“Even in mathematics, the sacred yoni appears in both the shape and substance of 0, the void, while the lingam appears in the shape and substance of 1, the creative lightning, and out of the union of the 0 and 1, all of the numbers of creation can be generated in binary notation.” — Robert Anton Wilson

“What the people believe is true.” — Native American Proverb (Anishinabe)

“Prize that which is best in the universe; and this is that which useth everything and ordereth everything.” — Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (121-180 AD) — Meditations, v, 21

“I never like to think of the future. It comes soon enough.” — Albert Einstein

“Remember, people will judge you by your actions, not your intentions. You may have a heart of gold — but so does a hard-boiled egg.” — Smart Bee

“Only ideas that we actually live by are of any value.” — Hermann Hesse

A truth that’s told with bad intent
Beats all the lies you can invent.
It is right it should be so;
Man was made for Joy and Woe;
And when this we rightly know,
Thro’ the World we safely go,
Joy and woe are woven fine,
A clothing for the soul divine.

~~ William Blake ~~
(1757-1827)
Auguries of Innocence, 53

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

Okay, not too shabby, considering the source, and the condition of the source….. Quality, or lack thereof, notwithstanding, it’s done, and nobody can make me do it over…. which is probably just as well…. See y’all tomorrow, 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

PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.

Sober reflection is due, to underscore the value of former mushrooms….

Posted on August 28, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

“So live that you can look any man in the eye and tell him to go to hell.” — Smart Bee

Is that not the very face of utter devotion? Is he not completely focused on the next words coming from the person at whom he is gazing with such adoration, and hopeful expectation? This is, to me, the very best way to teach children about the joy and power of love, and the duty that comes with it, duty owed to the one who loves with such loyalty and steadfast purpose. Very few humans, in my experience, ever reach the same level of absolute trust and/or sheer devotion, motivated only by a heart innocent of deceit, or deliberate cruelty… I find most humans can rationalize almost any sort of ethical or moral failure, many do so without any sort of guilt or remorse…. But, not a dog, or any other so-called “lower” creatures in the entire animal kingdom….

Oh sure, there are some who are dangerous, or even, seemingly, harshly violent toward other creatures; but, none of them ever kills for pleasure, none of them ever make a habit of fouling their own nest, and none of them ever CHOOSE to be deliberately immoral. When they do act in a way that seems connected to a dark purpose, it is a learned behavior, and not natural to their innate nature; in fact, when they do act out of character with their inner spirits, most animals tend to display all the signs of illness, or even insanity. It is as if acting against their nature is instinctively proscribed for them…. It makes one wonder about which of the animals is really at the top of the chain of life…. Well, I wonder, anyway….

I’m not sure why I got so far into that, especially this early; I love animals, though, and regard them as better company, most of the time, than almost any human, but, that doesn’t explain how, or why, such an emotionally-charged, yet completely off-the-wall, less-than-earth-shattering subject escaped out of wherever it’s been hiding in my head, & found its way out onto the screen…. Apparently, that face, that wonderful, loving face, got to me, before I was prepared for it, with some thoughts I’d already washed clean of any sappy romanticism…. I suppose it’s just one of those things we closet romantics have to expect now and again, when we let our guard down, or temporarily put aside our training in curmudgeonry….

“But” he whined, ” now what?” After that start, ffolkes, your guess is probably as good as mine, and I have no clue…. I’ll have to put a team on that, & have them get back to me on a rush basis, okay? Let me just text over to my admin, so he can do that….. Shouldn’t take long, so, relax, grab a beer, or whatever is there, and hang for a few…. we’ll be right back with something new to ~~drag~~ ~~lure~~, um, bring, that’s it,to bring you back to your seats, and back into the grip of our will…. Bwwaaahaahahaha!….

Okay, I’m out of jail now; it only cost me about $5000 in bail, part of which I’ll get back when I show up for the hearing…. That’ll be after the lawyers take their insane percentage for whatever they do…. I once got one of their bills, in which I was charged one quarter hour of the hourly rate, which was, as it turns out, $250.00; the charge, then, for a quarter of that hour’s assigned value, was $62.50, for the difficult, complex, incredibly complicated procedure, known as, and listed as, “opening a new file”…..

Really; that’s exactly what it said….. I asked the lawyer if that meant that they charged me more than $50, for calling their secretary, having them walk to the cabinet to obtain a fresh manila folder, then making a label for it with my name on it? Or, I continued, was there something I’m missing here about how complex it is to open a file?…. I was really kind of hurt when he didn’t smile, or answer the question….

But, then, I’ve found that MOST lawyers I’ve met, at least the ones without scruples, don’t have one… a sense of humor, that is… Me, I’m a Bozo, and I don’t have any choice in the matter….funny crap follows me around….

In fact, I see some now…. let’s go see if we can make it blow water out its nose, okay?

Shall we Pearl?…..

“Hello seeker! Now don’t feel alone here in the New Age, because there’s a seeker born every minute.” — The Firesign Theater

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

Yesterday I walked…. a lot more than is usual for me of late, though not enough to put me down…. In fact, my recent forays seem to have had a beneficial effect on my stamina, as I slept, and now feel pretty okay…. not bad for this time of day, when massive quantities of magic cream find its way onto my body, to help the morning background of pain from hips and shoulders…. the back waits until they’re done, so that helps some, but, this writing helps as much, to distract me from the worst of it….

I am, though, a bit tired still, so, here is a discussion from a long time ago, on this blog, anyway, back in the early days, before Pearls assumed their current manifestation…. The angst was there, but, it looked different….

From 12/17/2011:

“If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy.” — James Madison

“A society that will trade a little liberty for a little order will lose both, and deserve neither.” — Thomas Jefferson

The Homeland Security Act, passed shortly after the 9/11/01 terrorist attacks, is, to my way of thinking, the first time in our history that the American people have voluntarily allowed abridgments to our personal liberties to be enacted. The way I see it, quote #1, by James Madison, called that one perfectly. Our beloved ruling class, having decided we have “too many rights” (a direct quote from the junior Shrub, btw) in the Bill of Rights, carefully orchestrated events to provoke an attack on our home shores, knowing they could then fool the public into accepting their abridgments on our freedoms. And, to proceed to Mr. Jefferson’s comment, WE LET THEM DO IT! Anyone who rose up to speak against this vile, manipulative legislation was immediately shouted down as being unpatriotic.

For most of my life, I have avoided guns. Being a fairly smart guy, I noticed at a young age that most of the folks who get shot were carrying guns; it makes sense to me to reduce the chances of becoming a target in this most simple way, i.e., never carrying this kind of weapon (though it would be a very big mistake to assume that I carry NO weapons; in fact I carry four at all times, all of different kinds, none of which are guns). However, since the PTB (powers that be) have begun to try to take away my rights, I figure I’d better grab myself a bunch more firepower, before I no longer am allowed to do so.

If worse comes to worst, I WILL fight, if they come for any more of my rights. I will not let the blood and sacrifice of my countrymen and forefathers, and my own father, for that matter, be in vain. I’m about done with putting up with these kinds of issues, and am drawing near the point of acting on my feelings. In one sense, I hope they stop and reconsider trying to further reduce our liberties, because if they don’t, I’m going to REALLY get mad, and they will find themselves with a whole new issue to deal with……I’m a Scorpio, a triple Scorpio, for that matter; I was born under the sign of the God of War. You do NOT want to make me into an enemy…..

The vultures are circling…they have the faces of presidential candidates and carry bowling balls in their buttered claws….

Note from 2014: Apparently, even back then, I was a trifle upset with the Beloved Ruling Class; these days, the same issues arise on an almost daily basis, as the second incarnation of the Homeland Insecurity Act was signed on New Year’s Eve in 2011, by our “transparent” president, who apparently didn’t want any crap from the public or the media about doing so….

Why else do it while the entire country is out drinking away the feelings of fear whipped up by the fanning of the public’s rage over the terrorist acts of that infamous day?….Which, in truth, was an act which entirely ignores our response to that terrorist act, wherein we have killed, many times more than 10 times the number of Americans who died that day, in revenge upon people who had no part in it…. In truth, our country’s response strongly resembled an enraged bull in a china shop, without the dignity of having a valid reason to be there….

I’m done now…. Obviously, this is a mini-rant, which I’ve turned into a full out, extra long rant on numerous occasions…. So, I’ll give y’all a break this time…. Next time we are supposed to go vote, you can return the favor, and don’t…. It only encourages the assholes when we do…..

“We need a president who’s fluent in at least one language.” — Buck Henry, comedian, 1992

“The bad thing about experience is that it teaches you the stuff you don’t want to know.” — Smart Bee

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

Today, only one poem will do to follow that section, and it’s one of mine, from a couple years back…. It speaks directly to the relevant issues discussed above…. Enjoy!….

Geezer to Congress, with Love

Politicos don’t care much ’bout seniors and their ilk,
except for their money, I thinks;
Though they talk as if they’d cozen them in silk,
what they actually do, it stinks.

“The banks are failing, we can’t allow that!”,
steal from the aged, that’s their plan.
“Their life’s ending, that’s plainly where they’re at,”
lie shamelessly, because they can.

Maybe just once, if we all act together,
it couldn’t miss.
Right on their shoes, no matter the weather,
we’ll take careful aim, and piss.

Why the hell not?
It’s worth a shot!

~~ gigoid ~~

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

The following pearl, made up of randomly chosen pearls, is, sort of, unique….. Now, you may wonder how the hell something can be “sort of” unique… according to the definition of the word, things either are unique, or they are not unique, period. But, then Daniel Webster had never heard of the concept of diving for pearls of virtual wisdom, or for that matter, even cared…. which goes a long way toward explaining why he might not be the best one to make any final decisions about “connotations”, as his entire persona was hardwired to focus on the “denotation” of words….

Also, in this case, it has no real bearing one way or another, because it’s just a trick, to get you to forget about anything that has gone before….. just in case you might be thinking about a civil suit for damages…. Of course, now I’ve descended into plain silliness, and am once again wasting time and words galore in the pursuit of nonsense…. S’okay, I’m used to it, and, by now, y’all should be as well…. Regardless, we were talking about this pearl…. All of the quotes you see, all nine of them, were spit out by Smart Bee in the order you see, one right after another…..

I’ve witnessed the million monkeys, ffolkes….. they have produced the works of Shakespeare, in its entirety, right here on this blog….. The odds of what you see approach the same level as the odds of the Earth falling out of its orbit in the next five minutes…. they are astronomically small…. That said, I’m going to let them speak for themselves, especially since I know the perfect pearl awaits you at the end, in the final entry, to make it all clear….. Enjoy!…. It isn’t often you’ll see a nine-star pearl, especially one that essentially was gifted to us by the Universe…..

I’m Nobody! Who are you?
Are you- Nobody- Too?
Then there’s a pair of us?
Don’t tell! they’d advertise-you know!
How dreary-to be- Somebody!
How public-like a Frog-
To tell one’s name-the livelong June-
To an admiring Bog!

~~ Emily Dickinson ~~

“Adversity makes a man wise, not rich.” — Romanian proverb

“I don’t think math is a science. I think it’s a religion.” — Calvin

“Be on your guard against a silent dog and still water.” — Latin proverb

“Almost all reformers, however strict their social conscience, live in houses just as big as they can pay for.” — Logan Pearsall Smith (1865-1946)

“When I examine myself and my methods of thought, I come to the conclusion that the gift of fantasy has meant more to me than any talent for abstract, positive thinking.” — Albert Einstein

“A doctrine insulates the devout not only against the realities around them but also against their own selves. The fanatical believer is not conscious of his envy, malice, pettiness and dishonesty. There is a wall of words between his consciousness and his real self.” — Eric Hoffer

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 —

“MERYL STREEP is my obstetrician!” — Zippy the Pinhead

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

Well, that was something…. I’ll try hard to figure out what, but, later; for now, it will do….. Since that is the case, I really have no excuse to hang around any longer, so, I’ll submit to the demands of reality, this time, and be on my way into the day…. Should be a good one, I think, it it doesn’t get too hot…. See y’all tomorrow, 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

PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.

Subtle as a slap in the face…..

Posted on August 25, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

“Faith is believing what you know ain’t so.”

~~ Mark Twain ~~

I could not resist the picture; somehow, the hat gives the chicken a rather insouciant air, though the expression does show a bit of uncertainty about such goings on….. plus, it makes a pretty good picture to illustrate Mr. Twain’s piece of insight into human nature…. I suppose chickens aren’t the most cosmopolitan of creatures, so we’ll allow that a bit of trepidation, under these conditions, doesn’t seem out of place… Moreover, it has provided me with a golden opportunity to display some perfectly robust nonsense in the intro, which can always benefit from the application of something new and different…. Of course, I’m not sure how y’all will feel about it, but, when has that ever stopped me?….

I’m very late getting up today, from an efficiency standpoint…. though with good reason. Yesterday was a busy one, for me, with a lot of plans made, & prepared for, only to suffer last minute changes…. I was going into the deeper wilds of the urban Bay Area, to spend some time at my alma mater, at the UC campus in Berkeley…. Just as I was leaving to catch the shuttle to BART, a call came, requesting I help a friend with a computer issue…. So, instead of a photo safari to catch the denizens of UCB at play, I geeked with my friend for an hour and a half, thus scratching all plans for the safari…. ‘Twas far too late to start by the time we got the machine rebooted, with all the changes we made….

So, I stayed in, and puttered around the house all afternoon & evening, sans my optional, but usually welcome afternoon rest (aka, my nap…. I’ve mentioned before how we retirees do love our nap times; they remind us of how great it is to have the power of choice in taking one…. for most of my life, I’ve had to push through fatigue to continue my job, or whatever, especially after becoming a father…. I became the master of the nine-minute nap, which I’d slip in between jobs at one point…. I LOVE being able to lie down & give my back a break, whenever I want to, just because, now, I can….) It isn’t surprising or unusual for me to oversleep after such a day, so this morning, while not a surprise, is still a minor conundrum….

What to do to be efficient enough to make up the hour I dropped out?. Aha, I’ve got it! I’ll use the Powers of the Time Lord, that so conveniently happen to be part of our phantasmagorical tool chest…. I’ll get in, jump forward an hour, and a half, (to give myself a bit of room), and we’ll all be good to go…. None of this will then make any particular sense, but, that’s nothing new, is it? In today’s odd situation, we could even call it maintaining the status quo….. though our status has never been very quo….

Ah well, so much for nonsense; apparently, it doesn’t function any better than actual sense, at least not at this hour of the day…. It has however, made a genuine contribution to the saving of this Pearl, if such is possible; we ARE five or six paragraphs in now, and there haven’t been any casualties, or injuries…. that’s always a good start for the day…. And, we’ve already made up about 29 minutes of the hour I slept in today…. Not bad for government work, eh? Oh, right…. Never mind…

Shall we Pearl?….

“Except for our thoughts, there is nothing absolutely in our power.” — Descartes

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

“Any ordinary city is in fact two cities, one the city of the poor, the other of the rich, each at war with the other; and in either division there are smaller ones — you would make a great mistake if you treated them as single states.” — Plato (428-348? B.C.), “The Republic”

It’s funny where some of the evidence can be found…. What evidence, you ask? Well, as is my habit, and my chosen duty, I’m gonna tell ya, so, grab a drink of some sort, have a seat, & we’ll get to it, right smart….

Most days would find me in this section, ramping up to rant, and today’s quote from Plato would make a nice entrè into that process…. if that was going to happen. But, in the interests of efficiency, and in hope of convincing y’all I’m not the pedantic, obsessive old curmudgeon I seem to be most of the time, we’ll do this a little differently today…..

Below is a link to an article…. the article itself is merely a celebrity feud kind of piece, with a couple of BBC broadcasters trading insults over their public persona’s relative sliminess…. but, one of the protagonists made a very telling statement in the last lines of the piece, that I thought gave us all a pretty good idea of the worst manifestation of a problem our society faces in today’s world, to wit: the concept of corporate personhood….

But, rather than ranting about what should be obvious, I’ll be subtle…. after the article you’ll find a pearl, of either five or seven stars, that will direct your thoughts toward the conclusions made obvious (to me…) exactly how the ruling classes, and those who support them, such as the entire pantheon of rich celebrities, who are as far from being “average guys” as the nearest galaxy, several million light years away, and all of whom benefit from the process of widening the gap between the rich and the poor…. this network executive from the BBC made a statement that shows us exactly why the world is so screwed…. Read the article, then the pearl(s)…. You’ll see what I mean….. enjoy, ffolkes…. It’s got to be less trying than a rant, yes? Yes….

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/celebritynews/11053269/Frankie-Boyle-BBC-should-sack-cultural-tumour-Jeremy-Clarkson.html

“On the subject of why Clarkson had been defended while he had been criticised by the BBC Trust for his material, he claimed executives steered away from jokes about current affairs which had “content”. ….Speaking at the same festival, Danny Cohen, the director of BBC television, emphasised that Clarkson was not “untouchable”, saying no-one was more important than the corporation.”

The bold italic sentence is the point of this exercise, in case you didn’t catch that….. Now, just follow the bouncing thoughts…. You know, I’m going to make this even simpler…. I’ll put these all in the center position, which should make each one clearer, especially in relation to its neighbor in the pearl…. Don’t worry, you’ll see what I mean…..

“War is a matter of vital importance to the State; the province of life or death; the road to survival or ruin.
It is mandatory that it be thoroughly studied.”

— Sun Tzu —

[clop clop]

GUARD #1: Halt! Who goes there?

ARTHUR: It is I, Arthur, son of Uther Pendragon, from the castle of Camelot.
King of the Britons, defeator of the Saxons, sovereign of all England!

GUARD #1: Pull the other one!

— The Quest for the Holy Grail (Monty Python)

“You can never have a revolution in order to establish a democracy. You must have a democracy in order to have a revolution.”

— G. K. Chesterton, Tremendous Trifles, 1909

“If it weren’t for lawyers we wouldn’t need lawyers.” — Smart Bee

“Never laugh at live dragons.” — Bilbo Baggins

He that will not reason is a bigot.
He that cannot reason is a fool.
He that dares not reason is a slave.

— William Drummond, “Academical Questions”

“If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on the human face– forever . . . And remember that it is forever.”

— George Orwell —

‘1984’

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

I’m in the mood for something real…. and I know the perfect poet for that….

Bluebird

there’s a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I’m too tough for him,
I say, stay in there, I’m not going
to let anybody see
you.
there’s a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I pour whiskey on him and inhale
cigarette smoke
and the whores and the bartenders
and the grocery clerks
never know that
he’s
in there.

there’s a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I’m too tough for him,
I say,
stay down, do you want to mess
me up?
you want to screw up the
works?
you want to blow my book sales in
Europe?
there’s a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I’m too clever, I only let him out
at night sometimes
when everybody’s asleep.
I say, I know that you’re there,
so don’t be
sad.
then I put him back,
but he’s singing a little
in there, I haven’t quite let him
die
and we sleep together like
that
with our
secret pact
and it’s nice enough to
make a man
weep, but I don’t
weep, do
you?

~~ Charles Bukowski ~~

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

Swimming right along…. Here is a history lesson about this blog…. This is so old, it is one of the Pearls I use to demonstrate the term “old school”…. whenever I say that, this is the format to which it refers…. It’s also a damn good pearl, so, feel free to enjoy it….

From 6/2/11:

Ffolkes;

According to Princess Irulan, beginnings are delicate times, a phrase neatly turned to tell us all something we already know in the deeper parts of our souls. Time is gravid, huge and vital with might be’s and maybe’s and what if’s. It is well at these times to act with extreme caution, knowing the slightest misstep can bring catastrophe; it is also well to use caution in choosing when to act, for prematurity can be as deadly as sloth. Inaction is moot, a null choice, though choice it be; not choosing is choosing as well.

Once chosen, we are once again witness, hopeful that our choice is meet, and the birth of new events will see us still standing, afraid but unbowed. Thus the cycle of life turns, and we can only hope that we have once again the chance to choose, to act correctly at the proper moment, and reap the benefits of karma…….

“I like living. I have sometimes been wildly, despairingly, acutely miserable, racked with sorrow, but through it all I still know quite certainly that just to be alive is a grand thing.” — Agatha Christie

“A man who carries a cat by the tail is gainin’ valuable experience. He will never be dim, or doubtful. Chances are he won’t carry the cat that way again, but I say, if he wants to, let him!”– Mark Twain

“Once you can accept the universe as being something expanding into an infinite nothing which is something, wearing stripes
with plaid is easy.” — Albert Einstein

“Purity engenders Wisdom, Passion (engenders) avarice, and Ignorance (engenders) folly, infatuation and darkness.” — Bhagavad Gita (c. B.C. 400)

“We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.” — Oscar Wilde

Further than this, deponent saith naught….. y’all take care out there…..

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

Well, I think I did it…. Yep, it’s done, so, I can give in….. Somehow, upon arising, I did something to my back, and it is screaming at me right now, trying to get me to give up & return to a supine position…. Instead, I’ll go take a shower, consume massive quantities of drugs & caffeine, and hope for the best…. for the nonce, at least…. After the nonce ( smile ), we’ll see what happens….. Y’all are free now, to go do something, anything, more constructive than this….. See y’all tomorrow, 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

PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.

For proper digital magic, pixel dust is required….

Posted on August 22, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

“And I said to myself be still, wait without hope. For hope would

be hope of the wrong thing. Wait without love. For love would be love

of the wrong thing. Wait without faith. For the faith and the hope

and the love are all in the waiting.”

— T.S. Eliot

I really do love when a plan comes together…. It makes what T.S. wrote above even more beautiful, to know all at once how it feels when the hope, and faith, and love, are true to life…. Of course, such feelings are fleet, lasting only as long as we can hold onto them, to copy into permanent memory, where we can find them later, when we have the time to think back to better times….

I’ve no clue as to how that turned so melancholy…. It may be the flower you see; it’s one of my better shots of a rose, sharply defined and filled with the beauty of the unique pattern of petals each rose shows as it’s own, much like a snowflake…. but, when you look a bit closer, you can see this rose is old, has been open for some days, and will soon lose its petals to age, falling one by one, until the beauty is all gone, killed cruelly, its beauty stolen by time, as it always is…. I guess that’s a bit melancholy….

It’s too early to stay that way, though, so we’d best look for another way to start this Pearl; nobody wants to hear me rant when I’m filled with melancholia…. I reckon it’s hard enough when I’m filled up with angst and/or outrage, at the latest shenanigans of the political or religious idiots who like to call themselves leaders, or preachers, or the most dangerous sort of Asininny these days, policemen….

Truth be told, these days, you may as well just call them paramilitary fanatics, as policemen, for they seem to be changing the face of public safety, from the familiar one, of the well-known officer of the law, who knows everyone in his constituency by name, to the faceless, armored warrior with no investment in community, or protection of people, but, only the protection of property and business rights….

There, how was that? A short, one paragraph mini-rant, served up for your morning pleasure with just a touch of smarm to go along with the ridicule…. it adds a bit of flavor to an otherwise tasteless group of people…. Those who serve themselves before thinking of others, from whatever motivation they may claim, have no class, no taste, and, in my opinion, no reason to be allowed to live, not if they’re going to be assholes all their lives…. That’s my opinion, but, it is, I should think, one very popular, if not often expressed, or acknowledged…. I have a feeling that, these days, there are a LOT of people out there who would have something to say about the issue, if pressed….

That’s the whole problem, you see… People only speak out about such issues when pressed, so the problem grows larger with time, because nobody wants to be the first to criticize…. Well, you know me now, so, you know I won’t bother to wait, to tell the assholes I think they’re living up to the names I call them; I enjoy it, and would love to be able to do it face to face more often than I already do…. Of course, it’s tricky thing, baiting cops…. most of them don’t have much of a sense of humor; it comes from taking one’s self too seriously, a common trait among bullies, and those who resort to aggression as their tool of choice in interactions with others….

Ah me, such is the blogger’s life, and I am loving it… at least, I am now that my internet service is back, and my routine is once again relatively normal, or what passes for such on this blog…. I will admit, what most folks, or even ffolkes, call normal doesn’t resemble what happens here too often, but, that’s just fine with us…. we, or more accurately, I have no problem with “Abbie Normal”…. In fact, it’s where I live most of the time, so, for me, the process of ranting, and taking shots at Asininnies of all shapes and sizes, is probably a good way to keep me from going out to buy a gun, which I would be sorely tempted to use, to improve the scenery of our country, so long perverted by so many….

Now that I’ve ranted a bit, and sublimated my need to act into a more literary solution to my need for expression, we’ll take this slow on the road, down into the nether sections, where we can find something a bit less dreadfully mundane to discuss…. Well, we’ll try, anyway…. I’m just hoping there aren’t any major issues to resolve along the lines of the last time we took off on time…. I HATE having to break my promise to myself to never kill anyone before breakfast has been served, so as not to spoil anyone’s appetite…. Plus, I’m getting low on the cleansers needed to get the blood stains off the concrete….

Shall we Pearl? Before I get any weirder?….

“It is a blessed thing that in every age some one has had individuality enough and courage enough to stand by his own convictions. I believe it was Magellan who said, “The church says the earth is flat; but I have seen its shadow on the moon, and I have more confidence even in a shadow than in the Church.” On the prow of his ship were disobedience, defiance, scorn, and success.” — Robert G. Ingersoll, quoted in _The Great Quotations_

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

“It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.” — New Testament — Acts ix, 5

In truth, it’s never really been all that hard for me….. 🙂 Sorry, couldn’t resist…. Since I am back to my nearly-normal routine today, I had thought to create a fresh rant for this section…. However, I’m in too good a mood to pick something I know will just end up making me mad, or sad, or just plain pissed off, at least one of which is necessary to give any rant what it needs to succeed, to wit: some passionate anger, directed at a worthy target….

I know it wouldn’t be hard to slip over to a news site, pick out a headline, load up the old metaphoric cannon, & let fly; what with the state of affairs in Missouri, the Ukraine, Iraq, and Syria, there’s no dearth of material from which to choose targets worthy of the term, “evil fucking assholes”, most of whom the world would be better off for their having never being conceived in the first place….

It seems, at the present time, all over the world. ALL of the Asininnies are in full-out summer madness, killing each other, right along with the innocents alongside them, left, right, and straight down the middle…. Women, and children, and millions of poor, defenseless people are being killed, or enslaved, or otherwise made to suffer at the hands of their own alleged leaders and protectors, all of whom are more interested in achieving their own selfish, avaricious agendas than thinking of ways to help anyone else…. especially if that anyone else is of another religion, skin color, gender, or practically ANY sort of difference in lifestyle or appearance from their own… If you’re a pink monkey, the brown monkeys will hate you, for not being brown….

See, I almost fell into a rant right there, just talking about those assholes, without having to resort to any actual instances of proof, of which there are almost too many to count, or pick from…. Instead, I am going to do something altogether new, (I hope….)… First, below is a link, to one of my older posts, which I’m putting here rather than just re-blogging it… If you go to read it, you will find it to be a travelogue entry, perhaps the best of all that I posted while on my trip to Europe in 2013…. ‘Twas written near the end of the cruise I took around the British Isles, a lifelong dream of mine, and has some good photos, some good memories, and no ranting…. Thus, it fits my mood, and need, just fine….

After you read it, I am putting in a short, five star pearl, composed to give y’all just a taste of how I look at Life at Large, and try to meet it, head on…. Well, so to speak…. the head I tend to put on is often not in what might be called the most reliable, or even the most comprehensible state… but, I sure have fun with it, so, maybe you will too…. Enjoy, ffolkes, and try to appreciate my tact and diplomacy today; it’s all I’ve got at this point…. Could be worse, right?….

https://gigoid.me/2013/05/21/the-sign-said-it-would-float/

And, now, a word from Smart Bee, and few of his most insightful, intelligent friends….

“Today for show and tell I’ve brought a tiny marvel of nature: a single snowflake. I think we might all learn a lesson from how this utterly unique and exquisite crystal turns into an ordinary, boring molecule of water, just like every other one, when you bring it in the classroom. And now, while the analogy sinks in, I’ll be leaving you drips and going outside.” — Calvin, “Calvin and Hobbes”

“I stopped opening my mail and now my life is so much simpler.” — Albert Einstein

“Go not to the elves for counsel, for they will say both yes and no.” — J. R. R. Tolkien

“In most instances, all an argument proves is that two people are present.” — Smart Bee

“Do I look like someone who cares about what God thinks?” — Zippy the Pinhead

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

Any of you who really know me knows who today’s poet will be; when I need a dose of the real thing, with no ups, no extras, I always turn to “este poeta”….. I won’t even bother to suggest you enjoy it; that’s your choice anyway. But, I happen to know, it’s worth enjoying…. Plus, if you’re as fond of metaphor as I am, this will fit right in today….

A Dying Tiger — moaned for Drink —
I hunted all the Sand —
I caught the Dripping of a Rock
And bore it in my Hand —

His Mighty Balls — in death were thick —
But searching — I could see
A Vision on the Retina
Of Water — and of me —

‘Twas not my blame — who sped too slow —
‘Twas not his blame — who died
While I was reaching him —
But ’twas — the fact that He was dead —

~~ Emily Dickinson ~~

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

To go with tradition, this will be a random, harlequin style, old-school pearl, the best kind, as well as the quickest to create…. I’ve been enjoying myself so much, I’ve dawdled, and it’s nearly time to be done… So, here….

“Fain would I climb, yet fear I to fall.” — Sir Walter Raleigh
“If thy heart fails thee, climb not at all”. — Queen Elizabeth I

“Love withers under constraint: its very essence is liberty: it is compatible neither with obedience, jealousy, nor fear.” — Percy Bysshe Shelley

“I’m thinking of starting my own talk radio show. I’ll spout simplistic opinions for hours on end, ridicule anyone who disagrees with me, and generally foster divisiveness, cynicism, and a lower level of public dialog . . . imagine getting paid to act like a six year old!” — Calvin, “Calvin and Hobbes”

“Puns are little plays on words that a certain breed of person loves to spring on you and then look at you in a certain self-satisfied way to indicate that he thinks that you must think that he is by far the cleverest person on Earth now that Benjamin Franklin is dead, when in fact what you are thinking is that if this person ever ends up in a lifeboat, the other passengers will hurl him overboard by the end of the first day even if they have plenty of food and water.” — Dave Barry, Why Humor is Funny

(But, they’re so much PUN!…. Sorry, couldn’t help myself….)

“They are voting whether to keep a governor two years or four. I think a good, honest governor should get four years, and the others life.” — Will Rogers

“If God considered woman a helpmeet for men, He must have had a poor opinion of men.” — Smart Bee

“It is the quality rather than the quantity that matters.” — Lucius Annaeus Seneca (4 B.C. – A.D. 65)

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

Having thus discharged my single duty for the day, I will take my leave, content to know I’ve done all I can do…. We won’t discuss whether or not this is something worth doing; not going there today. Or, ever, probably…. Either way, I’m done, so, I’ll go now, and leave y’all in peace…. Tomorrow, then, to be sure….

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

PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.

Illuminating me softly with his bhang….

Posted on August 17, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

“Ask of friends only what is honorable.”

~~ Marcus Tullius Cicero ~~

(106-43 B.C.)

I’d never do that….. in fact, I’m going to apply this sentiment to myself. The routine I have established over time to produce this blog on a daily basis is completely in the toilet today; it’s already after 6 AM, two full hours after I usually begin the process. Yesterday, being moving day for Pat, exhausted me, though I personally didn’t do much; that sort of activity is always a bit stressful, even when there are no hard feelings involved….. It is still a big change, as I’m now living alone again…. No worries, I enjoy my own company….

Since the internet was in Pat’s name, I am having to wait about five days to get internet service back online, waiting for one of the multinational mega corps to hook me up with a phone & portal…. I think I went with the Death star logo folks…. Regardless, I’m offline for a week, and will have to adjourn to a Wifi spot somewhere later on to post….. SIGH…. The things I do for my art….

I overslept two hours, and still feel as if I should be abed…. it hurts everywhere…. In fact, I’m going to finish this Pearl, to the point I can go to post it somewhere, then lay down for a while again…. You’ll never know it, all you’ll see is a very late posting from me for today, and possibly for the next few days…. I don’t know yet how hard it will be to get to a spot where I can log on to WordPress, so, that remains to be seen…. For now, I’ll close this intro section, which, strangely enough, is the closest thing to a REAL introduction I’ve had come through here in some time…. Oh, look out, we’re diving now….

Shall we Pearl….

“Mark how fleeting and paltry is the estate of man,–yesterday in embryo, to-morrow a mummy or ashes. So for the hair’s-breadth of time assigned to thee live rationally, and part with life cheerfully, as drops the ripe olive, extolling the season that bore it and the tree that matured it.” — Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (121-180 AD) — Meditations, iv, 48

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

You’re going to get archived material today, ffolkes, that’s all there is to it…. I hurt, I’m tired, and I wanna go to bed, so, old stuff it is…. Here is an unusual piece, for me…. I don’t usually write reviews, or essays on fictional characters, but, for an old closet romantic such as myself, this was irresistible…..

From 4/5/2012:

Visions of Truth and Beauty; The Tragedy of Severus Snape

The character of Severus Snape is, as revealed in the seven novels that comprise the epic creation by J. K. Rowlings, (which I choose to entitle Harry Potter, and The Chronicles of The Infinite Magic of Love, hopefully with her approval and blessing), in my somewhat less than humble opinion, destined to become, if not synonymous, at least analogous, with that of Cryano de Bergerac, John Smith the Puritan, or the man from Tale of Two Cities, whose name escapes me (suffering functional disparity as I am from early onset Alzheimer’s and the subsequent prophylactic application of sour mash bourbon), who said, “It is a far, far better thing that I do than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known”. Sounds a little sappy for gigoid, doesn’t it? Well, you know what? I am completely and utterly serious…..

As I do not know Ms. Rowling, other than through her writing, and her pubic persona, which is carefully controlled, relatively speaking, I cannot say if it was her intent to create a character of such power that he would be forever enshrined amid the most famous of the heroic willing victims of tragedy in literary history. It is moot, anyway, because she has….

Here is a man who spent his entire life enduring unrequited love, love that, in his mind, could have been his, had he chosen differently. Yet, knowing that he could never have his deepest desire without destroying that which he loved, he still acted with honor to do all he could to keep the object of his obsession safe, to honor her and the love he felt, even after her death, and in defiance of the threat of his own. He braved the wrath of the most terrifying of villains for almost 20 years, betraying that master of evil at every turn, to do what he could only hold as his Duty; he did this, knowing full well that in the end, he would have to kill the only man in the world who trusted him, and that he would die because of it. And, he knew as well, that his sacrifice would never be known to anyone but the son of the man he most envied in life, the son that might have been his…..

I’ve read a lot of what may be termed as classical literature, and in all that I’ve read, I have never found a character who fit the mold of the tragic hero any better, or more deserved the title of nobility it implies. Though flawed and miserable, Snape makes the hard choices, correctly, at the most critical junctures of his life, all for love of his Lily. As Dumbledore exclaims when he sees the Patronus that Snape produces, a doe, identical to that of Lily, the only other human being he has ever loved, “Lily! After all this time?” Snape merely replies, “Always….” Now, that is a hero, flawed and unlikeable as he is….. a hero that will go down in history, along with many of the characters from this series of books that will one day certainly be called “classics”……

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

As is patently obvious, all of the material for today’s Pearl came from April of 2012; apparently, it was a good month for Pearls…. Here is one of the poetry sections, which is a bit different…. Any comments, or answers to the age-old question posed in the entry are welcome, even in today’s modern world….

From 4/6/2012:

Limericks are art forms complex,
Their topics run chiefly to sex.
They usually have virgins,
And masculine urgin’s,
And other erotic effects.

~~ Anonymous ~~

Haiku are always
calmly directing our eyes
pointing to the way.

~~ gigoid ~~

So, it occurred to me, after writing the above haiku, to ask myself, “Self, which came first, the limerick or the haiku?” At first, I thought I was just being silly. Then I realized I really wanted to know. So, here is the deal….. I would like anyone who has any idea on this to please respond, either by commenting, or by posting a reply; if I follow your blog, I’ll be notified of either method of response, and be able to reply. No prizes will be awarded, though I will mention your name, and your answer to this time-honored query. (Well, it’s been honored for the two or three minutes since I asked it, and by the time you answer, it will be more so….) So, join in the fun, and the challenge, and send me a response today! You won’t regret it, much…..

The Quitter

It’s the plugging away that will win you the day,
So don’t be a piker, old pard!
Just draw on your grit, it’s so easy to quit:
It’s the keeping-your-chin-up that’s hard.
It’s easy to cry that you’re beaten–and die;
It’s easy to crawfish and crawl;
But to fight and to fight when hope’s out of sight–
Why, that’s the best game of them all!
And though you come out of each grueling bout,
All broken and beaten and scarred,
Just have one more try–it’s dead easy to die,
It’s the keeping-on-living that’s hard.

~~ Robert W. Service ~~

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

This section is one of the many done this week ahead of time, to account for not having internet service at home for the week…. It’s a good one, from the time before Pearls of Virtual Wisdom had assumed the format we know and love today…. When first posted, this was one of five sections in each day’s Pearl…. See how lucky you are now? Only three to cope with these days…..

From 4/3/2012:

“A conclusion is the place where you got tired of thinking.” — Matz’s Maxim

Upon reflection, although this is a fine pearl, I’m not going to discuss it now. I’m already tired of thinking, so here is my conclusion on this: he’s got a good point. Now, let’s start this section over…..

“A life directed chiefly toward the fulfillment of personal desires sooner or later always leads to bitter disappointment.” — Albert Einstein

Now, there’s a pearl! Albert Einstein is generally regarded as one of mankind’s most brilliant members, but most people do not have the capability to see how or why this is so, other than knowing that he was responsible for E = MC²; it is only by extension he is blamed for the atomic bomb. But if one takes the time to look past this bit of common knowledge, to look at his statements of philosophy, and life in general, of which there are a great many recorded, it becomes clear at once…. the key to his genius lay in the simplicity of his thought processes.

Albert looked at the world, and the universe at large, through eyes that refused to look away from the simple elegance of the underlying nature of reality…. Instead, he focused on the small, basic thoughts, ideas, or physical properties that best described what is real and true. He also did not add superfluous judgments, or unseen factors to what he perceived, but, rather, again, focusing on that part of the concept that is important, not those parts that are extraneous to its purpose, and our understanding. He thus was able to see further into the nature of reality than is common to the rest of us, who are prone to complicate our perceptions with our prejudices, and/or misconceptions.

The quote above is a perfect example of this quality; it looks directly at human nature, showing us how our own attitudes and desires can, potentially, be the cause of our own difficulties in life, thus giving us the opportunity to turn our efforts in a direction that will ultimately be more beneficial. The statement clearly lays the responsibility for the tenor of our lives right in our own laps, where it belongs, but does so without condemnation or insult, merely dispassionate truth. Albert was truly one of humanity’s greatest treasures, and his words will, hopefully, continue to help guide people through life far into to the future…. provided there is one….. but that’s a different subject altogether…..

“I don’t know what your destiny will be, but one thing I do know: the only ones among you who will be really happy are those who have sought and found how to serve.” — Albert Schweitzer

(I know, I know….. not the same Albert. But, it was deliberate, and I’m just doing what Murphy wants….. As is sometimes common, as soon as I finished the above section, the absolute perfect ending pearl popped up, demanding to be included. I think Herr Schweitzer was thinking of Herr Einstein when he related this thought, anyway….. I know for sure that Albert Einstein was a happy guy; I have pictorial proof, which I have shared below…..so there…..)

Note from the future:

To drive home the point being made in the last bit, I will also report that one of my favorite lines from Albert, again proving his sense of humor, goes something like this…. “After imagining, refining, and proving the Theory of Relativity, which describes a large part of how the entire Universe works, wearing fuzzy slippers with plaid pajamas is easy….” I can’t vouch for the authenticity, but, I swear I read it somewhere, and he really did say it…. You may not believe it, but, I actually have visual proof of it; he said it during an interview in the early 1950’s, for a newspaper back East, which took this picture that day….

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

Routine, or no routine, it’s done…. In record time, too; it only took forty-three minutes to do the intro, and fill in two sections. Not too shabby for a Pearl without routine…. Now comes the hard part…. I must wend my way out into the Big Blue Room, taking my computer with me, to go post this somewhere…. Fortunately for me, those sort of establishments have just what I need to assist me in getting it done….. more caffeine and sugar!…. My Doc won’t like it, but, hey, we all do what we gotta do, right? Right…. See ya tomorrow, ffolkes, if things go according to plan….. If Murphy doesn’t hear about it, we could get lucky….

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

Look honey! It’s the official White House Pornographer…..

Posted on August 13, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

As a matter of self-preservation, a man needs good friends or ardent enemies,

for the former instruct him and the latter take him to task.

~~ Diogenes ~~

I’m enjoying the latest format for these Pearls; it took me close to three years here on WordPress to figure out how to give myself the impetus to begin each day, but, with a quote, and a picture, it’s almost too easy….. I can go with one of them, or the other, or I can use both, or neither; any of those seems to work just fine to get me going…. Today, you should know I found this, again, in the photo collection on the London Daily Tell, er, Telegraph, from a week or so ago, This Week in Animal Pictures, but, I gave it my own title, “crane style kung fu”, since it is a rather perfect representation of that style of the art’s “look and feel”…. The two huge birds, disputing over a patch of the lake, give us the exact form to emulate…

Of course, once I’ve used the picture, or the quote (in this case, obviously, only the former…. the quote stands alone, and really doesn’t need anything from me today….), then I have to once more figure out where to go from there…. Sometimes, the picture, or the quote, or, most often, the combination of the two, will provide that direction…. I screwed it up today, going for the attribution, and the kung fu reference…. That, as you can see, has left me right here, in the middle of nowhere, with nowhere to turn…. I am, indeed, a Bozo, of the First Degree….

However, even a Bozo gets productive on occasion; we just don’t like to let that get spread around too much, as it can de-sillify the image…. and, yes, I just made that word up, de-sillify, which means, to make a Bozo less silly than before… Before what? Why, before being de-sillified, of course… There isn’t a Bozo alive who can convince me they enjoy the process, even WITH all the modern improvements to keep the bleeding to a minimum, so don’t bother asking….

There…. that feels better…. Sometimes, when the nose grows, you just gotta let is show, you know?…. Today, I think you may need all the silly I can provide, as the rant/discussion/essay/sober, reasoned discourse in section one, which I began yesterday, has grown beyond all reason, and is probably long enough for three Pearls…. In fact, it’s so involved, I’m going to use one of the best emergency methods for getting us out of here…. You may recognize it…. #4? I thought you might…. Here it is, in fact, so….

Shall we Pearl?…..

“Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value.” — Albert Einstein

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

Ffolkes, you will probably need to gird your grid for a big one….. The pearl below has been evolving for a full day, growing beyond my ability to restrict its size, due to the relatively verdant field of subject matter with which I chose to work, the scope of the discussion, and the critical nature of the issue on which I am trying to focus, to wit: all of the available evidence at hand indicates that the human race has entered a stage of civilization that, in every historical case, has led directly to its demise, and disappearance. Moreover. because of the technological advances we have made, as a species, this time, that demise will be world-wide, and will preclude any possibility of ever rising again…

Now, I know that sounds rather pessimistic, as well as cynical; I can’t help that. The evidence is too ubiquitous, and too convincing to me, to ignore, or to minimize. Below, I am going to provide links to articles from only ONE source of news. The breadth of the problems described in those articles are connected to the worst characteristics of human nature, and are symptomatic of the culture’s deterioration we are facing. Each one shows humanity at its worst, and the worst part of it is, all of the protagonists in the stories, on both sides of whatever issue is being discussed, all demonstrate those qualities that continue to cause the problems to be insoluble by any known means…

I’ve got a lot to say about this, so, we’ll start with some art…. It’s just a picture of me, and one of the guys I’ve talked all this over with…. though in the case of this gentleman, our conversation was completely non-verbal…. Now that I stop to think about it, it made it all much less susceptible to misunderstanding…. Below the picture, we’ll begin our assault on the Asininnies latest shenanigans, and our discussion of how it all connects to create another link…. showing the path to extinction we are all following so blindly….

“At once it struck me what quality went to form a man of achievement, especially in literature, and which Shakespeare possessed so enormously — I mean negative capability, that is, when a man is capable of being in uncertainties, mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact and reason.” — John Keats (1795-1821)

Trust a poet to come up with exquisitely crafted, delicately balanced, subtly nuanced, completely negative statement (otherwise known as an insult….), about someone mostly everyone in the world admires, and make it almost sound as if he is administering praise, when, in fact, he just poked Willie S. with a very sharp stick in the reputation…. Of course, it is also obscure enough that you may question exactly how it applies to blogging here in section one, which is generally reserved for rants, or rant-like facsimiles…. and, it would be a good question, as the connection IS rather tenuous, at best…. However, I’ll try to make it clear….

I speak often about how the world is screwed up, an assessment of existence for which I lay much of the blame on several aspects of human nature, and the way those characteristics affect our society and culture…. I think it can all be boiled down to one particular area of examination, which is the way we, as human beings, deal with the matter of Truth…. There is, of course, more than just this issue involved, but, how we handle clear, correct expressions of Reality, in our dealings with the world, and each other, is one that has far reaching side effects on every area of human discourse, which is a long winded way of saying, on our history….

“Honor isn’t about making the right choices. It’s about dealing with the consequences.” — Midori Koto

In today’s complex world of the Future, it can easily be shown how Truth is considered to be something that is susceptible to human alteration, according to whatever whim or reason they may have for doing so, whether honorable, or otherwise, whether selfish, or otherwise…. I’ve shown many, many instances of how the government of this country, and many of its other official entities, such as the courts, the police, the churches, and ALL of the bankers, continuously, and purposefully lie to the public…. Not only that, but, they spy on us, and keep their own secrets about doing so….

Then, when confronted, they create a huge hullabaloo, all starting with denial, fading into reluctant admission, then justification, then distraction, then…. time passes, and the public is given some other catastrophic event to put fear into them, such as a mass shooting, or an alleged terrorist threat….. It always follows the same basic pattern, with the intent, and result, of nothing changing at all….

Below you’ll find a number of links, to articles that show how the White House, the Congress, the Federal Courts, the police, and, even the public attitudes toward Truth, are shown in the light in which they use them, to wit: they all regard Truth as more of a myth than a reality…. The article on how resumes for work contain falsifications is particularly disturbing, for it shows just how far the corruption has spread to the general public…. Well over HALF the public saw fit to include lies on their resumes… The companies doing the hiring reinforced the corruption by, to some extent, rewarding almost half of the resumes with lies, by considering other factors other than the lies in the hiring process…. In other words, about half of the lies were accepted as OKAY….

SIGH…. The last article is different from the rest, though it touches on the general issue quite nicely…. Mr. Carroll offers another viewpoint than mine, with some similarities, and some differences…. As always, his thoughts on the matter are quite insightful, making an excellent addendum, and ending note, for what would otherwise be completely depressing material….

I’ll let you get to the articles now, with this bit of housekeeping… I tried to help a bit, to indicate the point being made by the inclusion of each article, by including the excerpts I pulled out below each link…. They show the most disturbing points in each article, to my way of seeing them…. Good luck, I know it’s a lot, but, this is turning out to be something of a manifesto of my world-view, & I think it will be worth the effort to cover all of it…..

http://www.sfgate.com/nation/article/Judge-won-t-force-U-S-to-release-spying-program-5681970.php?cmpid=hp-hc-bayarea

“Michael Rumold, a lawyer with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, said the lawsuit has been successful but the ruling was disappointing….”It’s troubling to see courts sign off on government secrecy arguments when the general public knows the truth,” he said.” — excerpted closing lines from the article, summing it up nicely….

http://www.sfgate.com/news/crime/article/Vandalism-looting-after-vigil-for-Missouri-man-5680580.php

“Witnesses have said that Brown had his hands raised when the unnamed officer approached with his weapon drawn and fired repeatedly. ” — excerpted from the article

http://www.sfgate.com/news/crime/article/Chief-Police-killed-California-robbery-hostage-5681892.php

“….. results of a preliminary ballistics report show that police in the city of Stockton fired the 10 bullets that struck Misty Holt-Singh, 41, and all her wounds likely came during a final burst of gunfire,….”

“33 officers fired at the vehicle, most of them during the final shootout. Officers were under constant fire and were concerned the suspects would kidnap other hostages, take over businesses or even a school.”….

“We believe July 16, 2014, brought dynamics never before seen in law enforcement,” he said, adding that the suspects attempted to kill officers, fired more than 100 bullets and had about 200 rounds remaining when the gunfire ended.” — excerpted from the article

http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/State-Supreme-Court-yanks-Citizens-United-measure-5682420.php

“If approved by the voters, it would have asked Congress to submit a constitutional amendment to the states that would authorize federal lawmakers to limit campaign spending and would specify that only people, not corporations, have the right of political free speech.”

“In the 2010 Citizens United ruling, a 5-4 majority of the nation’s high court said federal laws that limit spending by corporations or labor unions on political causes violated freedom of speech….. ” — excerpted from the article

http://blog.sfgate.com/gettowork/2014/08/12/most-memorable-resume-lies/#25719101=0

“58 percent of hiring managers in a recent CareerBuilder survey saying they have caught a resume lie.”….. “Fifty-one percent of respondents said they would automatically throw out a resume containing a lie, 41 percent would base their decision on the type of lie, and 7 percent would overlook a lie if they liked the job candidate.” — excerpted from the article

http://blog.sfgate.com/nov05election/2014/08/06/what-would-the-founders-say-cagop-barring-media-from-qa-with-party-chair/

“…. a response from GOP state vice chairwoman Harmeet Dhillon…. “There are open press and closed press events at every convention (Brulte) has run. There will be open press events and press conferences at this convention. Closed press is to allow delegates to ask him sensitive questions about strategy and finances that the public and our opponents are not entitled to know. … And neither does John Burton (the Democratic state chairman) invite the Chronicle to every meeting of delegates to his party.”

“We asked Tenoch Flores, spokesman for the California Democratic Party, about its rules regarding press coverage of convention events. His response: “It is our policy that any delegation meeting taking place at convention is open to press.”– excerpted from the article

and, finally, a voice of reason….

http://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/carroll/article/Notice-your-urges-when-I-say-you-can-5682102.php

“I favor considered opinion over uninformed opinion. It’s a liberal bias…..”

“Experts are not always right. Scientists are not always right. But most of the time they are. We built a very fine country on the basis of Enlightenment rationality. Thomas Jefferson and those folks very much favored knowledge over ignorance, reason over superstition.”– excerpted from the article

Truth. Lies. Human nature….. What a mess, eh? I can only hope that, somehow, the strength and beauty of human nature, the incredible creativity and passionate imagination our spirits have the potential to express, just as much as it does our flaws, will gain ascendancy in the coming years, becoming the rule of human behavior, rather than the exception, and that we can overcome the reckless, selfish, violent spirits among us to reach for that potential…. Being a curmudgeon, and somewhat of a cynic, at least in regard to human nature, I find myself reluctant to hope…. but, it’s like Emily always said….

Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without the words,
And never stops at all,

And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.

I’ve heard it in the chillest land,
And on the strangest sea;
Yet, never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me.

~~ Emily Dickinson ~~

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

Here is a poem, that you may have seen just recently, as I only wrote it less than a month ago…. However, in searching for another poem of mine I was going to use, I opened this one, and found it to be a perfect match for the theme in section one…. I wrote this last month, on the 19th, so all of it must have been in my head when I put together the above rant…. Any who, I hope you enjoy it, it’s not bad…

A Few Words of Note

In place of ranting and raving about assholes every day
maybe I’ll try something more fun.
Rather than throwing words at all the assholes on public pay
I’ll switch to shooting at them, with a gun….

Should I actually hit one, purely by mistake,
maybe it would wake them up.
Maybe, if they had to think, or actually cut us a break,
we’d see a chance to win at life, to take a step up.

Our nation, such as it is today, was founded by men who told the truth;
that morality disappeared long ago.
Simple ethical strength so bright, so prevalent in our country’s youth
was soon corrupted, corporate interests now run the show.

Nothing would please me more than to fire off some rounds,
if only to gain their attention.
But, I can no longer run, I’ve gained too many pounds;
so, my keyboard and intellect must serve to fulfill my intention.

I won’t stop, of that you may be sure
I love my freedoms, and the philosophy from which it springs.
Tom, and Ben, and John, and Pat, those patriots pure
gave me their example, and the inner peace it brings.

If bullets won’t persuade our elected liars to toe the ethical line,
I’ll throw my most powerful words…..
If nothing else, it will make them wriggle to escape, or voice their pitiful whine,
thus exposing themselves for what they are…. plain and simple turds.

~~ gigoid ~~

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

Since the first section went so epic, we’ll go simple here in section three for today…. An old-school random harlequin pearl should do nicely, all fresh and sassy…. I’ve always wanted to call a pearl “sassy”…. I think seven stars today would be just fine….

“Lawyers: the larval form of politicians.” — Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, 37th edition (not really)

“To use words but rarely is to be natural.” — Lao Tzu

“We have met the enemy; in fact, we elected him.” — Cruickshank’s Law #1

“The opposite of bravery is not cowardice, but conformity.” — Dr. Robert Anthony

“Albert, stop telling God what to do.” — Niels Bohr

“The ability of our people to deceive themselves is the highest art of the nation.” — Smart Bee*** (see below)

***(It should be noted that, for this pearl, I Googled it, to see if anyone had actually claimed this bit of sardonicism…. and found that there were, literally, dozens of politicians who have used this…. I’m hoping they were making a joke, but, sadly, I don’t think they were…..)****

****(all of that, of course, is a big, fat lie…. It COULD be true, but, I did make it up…. Full disclosure: I didn’t want to tell you it wasn’t real…. It SOUNDS as if it could be, that’s the problem….)

Now, for the final, most excellently silly pearl, we will rely on our old friend….

“Awright, which one of you hid my PENIS ENVY?” — Zippy the Pinhead

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

I could make excuses, but, I won’t. In fact, I’m so burnt from creating this, I’m going to put it up without even proofing it…. and the typos can just go to hell…. See ya tomorrow, 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

View Full Profile →

	katiemiafrederick on Are those Foster Grants to blo…
	katiemiafrederick on Funk-o-matic accessories are o…
	katiemiafrederick on Dodge those taxes with dignity…
	katiemiafrederick on Dodge those taxes with dignity…
	katiemiafrederick on But…. but…. what a…

gigoid

Exploring Consensual Reality

Tag Archives: Albert Einstein

Perhaps he’ll wait for the proper moment….

Thirteen metric tons of bio-hazardous waste? How droll….

No, no, not the taffeta!….

Lately, it all seems less filling….

Metaphoria is no longer a threat…. it’s Reality….

Sober reflection is due, to underscore the value of former mushrooms….

Subtle as a slap in the face…..

For proper digital magic, pixel dust is required….

Illuminating me softly with his bhang….

Look honey! It’s the official White House Pornographer…..

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: