Howling the eternal ‘yes’….

Posted on November 20, 2017 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

“It takes two to speak the truth–one to speak and the other to hear.”

~~ Henry David Thoreau ~~

SF Skyline framed by the Richmond/San Rafael Bridge….

Hajime…. Since making the decision not to post regularly, the Big Blue Room has continued to draw my attention much more frequently than the events taking place in cyberspace. On Saturday, I attended a play in which my grandson played two small parts. I attended with both my kids, as well as my son’s daughter & step-sister. Such family events have been few and far between for me/us, but, the fact we now are able to get together on occasion brings me a lot of satisfaction, to say the least.

I’ve also spent a lot of time walking, putting in about five miles one day, without collapsing into exhaustion; this is also a new, rare feeling, one I welcome in lieu of the lack of physical ability I’ve ‘enjoyed’ for much too long. All in all, I have to say I’m enjoying my time back in Reality more than I thought would be the case, given the state of that frame of existence. Oh, there is plenty out there at which to rage; the continual reminders of homelessness in society, the lack of community feeling fostered by our divisive leaders, the rampant capitalism which most of society tends to ignore, in favor of chasing the shiny, insubstantial dreams offered for their distraction from how much they are being manipulated. Hell, just watching any major sport on TV can stimulate my ranting button, when I think of all the wasted time & money which could be put to use to aid those in need, rather than making the rich richer.

But, mostly, I have been enjoying the blue skies, the rain, the clouds, and the still-extant panorama of life on this planet, all of which helps me to connect with what is real, rather than what is due to humanity’s imagination, and their insistence on forcing reality into the shape they desire. In some way, all of what I now perceive is bringing me closer to clarity, in my thinking, and in my actions. Sadly, I still do not find very many people who can appreciate my thoughts about reality; most of the folks I meet out in the BBR are too focused on the shiny distractions of life, and completely miss the stuff going on that is actually real, and, in my view, much more important than ANYTHING they see on a TV, or their phone, or, on a computer. If I were still giving in to the urge to rant, I’d find no lack of issues about which to do so.

I suppose one could call all the above a paean to Life as I now see it; it seems more important to me to find clarity, and the realness of life, than to engage in any of the nonsensical pastimes society fosters upon us in its paroxysms of insanity. The leaders of this world’s political/religious oriented culture are, in my estimation, ALL verifiably insane…. sociopathic narcissists, mostly, though in certain cases, massive ignorance and bigotry mark them as just plain assholes, akin to what many would call ignorant rednecks. We’ve got one of those in this country, right in the White House; I guess that’s why all the 50 million other ignorant redneck assholes who reside here are in such a dither of entitlement, & busily spreading their particular brand of selfish bigotry as far & wide as they can…

Wow. I think I just spewed out a rant, didn’t I? Ah, well, old habits die hard, I guess. To make up for it, let’s go see what else I’ve thrown together for today’s offering, shall we? I think, given how easily all that vitriol spewed out, it would be a good idea, lest I fall right back into where I no longer wish to go. Instead, let’s make use of this old #4 I found lying here, & get on with the rest of today’s mess. It works just like this….

Shall we Pearl?….

“Men do not quit playing because they grow old;
they grow old because they quit playing.”

~~ Oliver Wendell Holmes ~~

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Each year, in November. the ffolkes who run the official Grateful Dead website dig into the extensive archives of live Dead concert recordings, to share a daily download of classic cuts by the iconic band. Some of the finest performances by the band, with any number of fan favorites, can be added to one’s personal collection. It’s a grand way to collect live music, from a band who played concerts every year on tour, for 50 years, and more. I’ve included two links; the first is to the home web site, the other is to one day’s offering, on which page you can obtain all the previous days’ downloads, for the entire month. I hope you enjoy it, even if you’re not a Dead Head….

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30 Days of Dead
2017

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http://www.dead.net/

http://www.dead.net/30daysofdead?cmpid=dn/2017November1/30DaysDeadIsBac-GetStartedHere-main-more-1&eml=2017November1/4164005/6131962&etsubid=39846924

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Raging at Aging

As old as you feel, we are told, is old as you are,
custom assures such vision will carry us far.
Reality begs to differ, may it be so bold
it is really quite painful, and very, very cold.

The power and strength felt in our halcyon youth
desert us with age, yet another unwelcome truth.
Irony rules our time here on this bountiful earth
as we reflect the changes over time since our birth.

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

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

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

~~ gigoid ~~

10/17/2012

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Naked Pearls

Further notes on Life at Large….

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31. Read between the lines.

~~ Instructions for life ~~

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“Is dishwater dull?
Naturalists with microscopes tell me
it teems with quiet fun.”

~~ G. K. Chesterton ~~

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“If ever I become entirely respectable
I shall be quite sure that I have outlived myself.”

~~ Eugene V. Debs ~~

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“I can handle reality in small doses,
but as a lifestyle it’s much too confining.”

~~ Lily Tomlin ~~

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“Youth, large, lusty, loving-
Youth full of grace, force, fascination.
Do you know that Old Age may come after you
with equal grace, force and fascination?”

~~ Walt Whitman ~~

*******

“Don’t walk in front of me, I may not follow.
Don’t walk behind me, I may not lead.
Walk beside me, and just be my friend.”

~~ Albert Camus ~~

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“The path is the way.
The way is the truth.
It is found, but not held
walked on, but not followed.”

~~ Tao Teh Ching ~~

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SIGH…. I have a cat who is insistent my time at the computer is done; she’s been lobbying for some attention for about 20 minutes now, while I finished ranting in the intro. She’s correct that it is now HER time, so, I’ll just end this here, and now, so I can go throw some paper for her to fetch. or kick her ball around so she can play soccer, which she apparently loves. As for me, & blogging, well, I’ll be back in a day or three, possibly with a new poem, which continues to leak slowly onto the screen. For now, be well, be happy. and for gosh’ sake. be strange. It may not seem like it, but, it really does help…. See ya, ffolkes….

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

When I works, I works hard.
When I sits, I sits loose.
When I thinks, I falls asleep.

Which is Why….

Sometimes I sits and thinks,
and sometimes,
I just sits.

gigoid, the dubious

The *only* duly authorized Computer Curmudgeon.

PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.

“SCRAM!!!!!!!!!!”- Oscar the Grouch

À bientôt, mon cherí….

Lightly flavored with lime….

Posted on June 1, 2017 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

“I will arise and go now, for always night and day
I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;
While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey,
I hear it in the deep heart’s core.”

~~ William Butler Yeats, “The Lake Isle of Innisfree”~~

gull gang

Gang of young Irish Seagulls, Galway….

Hajime…. When one makes the decision to battle internal demons, one takes on an opponent with special knowledge, of all one’s weak points, and avenues of attack. It also means one’s own skills and talents can be used against one; I can attest, it makes any battle sure to achieve epic proportion. I’m not complaining; the alternative is to live in Hell, & that just isn’t going to happen, not while I live. But, it also means any clear victory comes at a heavy cost, at a time my bank account is at a low ebb. SIGH….. It’s a good thing I’ve learned to accept that nothing worth doing is going to be easy….

As I have often related, I do this to stay sane; whether or not it works is probably an area of judgment I would rather not enter, lest the answer be too much to bear. So far, I have lived, and loved, for a long time, and have yet to break my vow to refrain from killing; in some circles, that can be enough. For me, it’s never enough; if I was satisfied with my own state, it would never change. So, I struggle on, to find the center, where change is welcome, for we are balanced enough there to adapt to any change.

Now I’ve thoroughly confused everyone who stumbles in today, with a healthy dose of obscurity, I think it’s best to get the rest of this mess done, & get on with another day in Paradise, or, wherever this is. I can’t say, with any degree of confidence, I can predict how it will go, but, that’s probably a good thing. Too much too easily becomes too much, indeed. Rather than tempt Murphy’s kind attentions, let us adjourn to the meat of the matter, where we may find another piece of the puzzle. If not, well, so much for another day; we can always try again tomorrow, right? Right. For now, let’s do this….

Shall we Pearl?

“Forget about likes and dislikes.
They are of no consequence.
Just do what must be done.
This may not be happiness, but it is greatness.”

~~ George Bernard Shaw~~

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celtic design

When I went to look for inspiration for music today, this is what I found…. Given our opening lines, and the photo I chose, go figure, eh?. I guess you can take the boy out of the shamrock, but….

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Irish Folk Music

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Comedy_Tragedy

Illusory Time

Viewed from askance, the river is long;
deep, uncompromisingly intent, swift and strong.
In duality, perception creates our only reality;
such faux metaphoric paradox enforces mutability.

By two we perceive, both zero, and one;
digital, binary, on or off, such fun.
Separate, melded, we exist, knowing not what we know
ego, striving to be solitary, looking above, seeing below.

Furiously asleep, cultural anomaly claims a victim of choice;
validly unconscious, nobody speaks, nary a voice.
Potential escapees stir in dreams, fighting to wake,
until taking the wheel, for their own bloody sake.

Pots boil in due time, when the fire’s hot,
time exists to our advantage; or, not.
The solitary warrior, head bent in pain,
fights on, with, or without gain.

Night fell, day after day it persisted;
of those who knew, none showed any care, or resisted
Angels, ministers, none had any defense, nor grace;
all that remains is a face.

~~ gigoid ~~

10/22/2016

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pearls_3

Naked Pearls

Pieces of the whole….

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“To say yes, you have to sweat and roll up your sleeves
and plunge both hands into life up to the elbows.
It’s easy to say no, even if it means dying.”

~~ Jean Anouilh ~~

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“Nothing matters very much,
and very few things matter at all.”

~~ Lord Balfour’s Contention ~~

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“Brains first and then Hard Work.”

~~ Eeyore, Pooh’s Little Instruction Book, inspired by A. A. Milne~~

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“Life loves to be taken by the lapel and told: “I’m with you kid. Let’s go.””

~~ Maya Angelou ~~

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“In times of profound change, the learners inherit the earth,
while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped
to deal with a world that no longer exists.”

~~ Al Rogers, Global SchoolHouse Network, at CUE ~~

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“The time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.”

~~ Bertrand Russell ~~

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“Truckin’, like the do-dah man
Once told me “Gotta play your hand.
Sometimes your cards ain’t worth a dime
If you don’t lay’em down.”
Sometimes the light’s all shinin’ on me;
Other times I can barely see.
Lately it occurs to me
What a long, strange trip it’s been.”

~~ “Truckin'” by Garcia, Weir, Lesh, Hunter ~~

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Well, Ollie; this is another fine mess you’ve gotten us into. Fortunately, it’s done, so we can just ignore any warning signs we may have encountered, & be on our way with a smile and a whistle. Well, we could, if I could whistle any more…. I guess I’ll just say, see ya, & let it go at that for today…..

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

When I works, I works hard.
When I sits, I sits loose.
When I thinks, I falls asleep.

Which is Why….

Sometimes I sits and thinks,
and sometimes,
I just sits.

gigoid, the dubious

The *only* duly authorized Computer Curmudgeon.

PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.

dozer3

“SCRAM!!!!!!!!!!”- Oscar the Grouch

À bientôt, mon cherí….

Steam is just excited water….

Posted on April 20, 2017 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

“There is only one blasphemy, and that is the refusal to experience joy.”

~~ Paul Rudnick~~

Shadowy figure seen near library….

Hajime…. ‘Tis indeed a sad thought with which I begin the day, though, as is common, it didn’t begin that way. As I looked at the picture I chose to adorn the first position for today, I realized it is a perfect metaphor, a visual representation of the third query in the Riddle of the Phoenix. My sadness is not the realization I have reached that milestone in my life, but, that there are so few people left in today’s world that will know whereof I speak by identifying it as such. A couple of y’all will, I’m sure, pick it up right away; a few others will, no doubt, get it after a moment’s search of their memory for the referenced riddle. But, the majority of people in the world today won’t know, at all, what the hell I’m talking about…. Well, maybe with a little help from Google….

Oh, well; it’s way too early to go any further along that path, especially when the path I need to walk right now leads us elsewhere. I’ve managed, in my madness, to put together a Pearl for today, though I cannot say exactly how it came to be; it’s all a bloody blur, as I threw it together in rather a hurried fashion, having arisen a bit late, & found SB to be in another snit. With the application of a bit of ruthlessness in making choices, and more than a little bit of threatening behavior toward software, it all came together, in spite of some active campaigning by a cat for her share of my time. The life of a blogger is a strange and wondrous thing, it’s clear….

Since it is done, I guess I’ll continue the ruthlessness, & go get it posted. In order to accomplish that, I suppose bringing this intro to a close assumes a more critical aspect; funny how that works, isn’t it? I’ll just reach over here, into this convenient drawer, where I know I’ll find just the right method to get that done with dispatch…. Why, look! It’s exactly the technique we need! Fancy that! Because three exclamation points in a row is quite enough for anyone, I’ll go ahead, & use this now. Don’t blink, or, you’ll miss it….

Shall we Pearl?

“Are people more important than the grizzly bear?
Only from the point of view of some people.”

~~ Edward Abbey ~~

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Playing For Change

Since you see the logo, you’ll realize, naturally, we’re going default again…. Today, we’ll start with a Song Around the World, featuring a number of anonymous street performers, along with some rather familiar, more famous faces, singing a Grateful Dead tune, the simple, beautiful “Ripple”….. Enjoy!….

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Song Around The World
Ripple

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Increments

Meaning fades to distant reality
while gazing at such triviality.
An insane world, where utter finality
is reward for disability.

Metaphorically, as a matter of course.

Moment to moment, passion blooms,
swells, and fades, swept by new brooms.
Bitter dreams catch fire in empty rooms,
waiting for broken time, which never resumes.

Superficially, with great force.

Dire wolves stand snarling at the door
called to existence from a distant moor;
discordant strains sound a mad, sad roar,
a dirge for those who went before.

Morbidly, without vital recourse.

Honest effort fades from human ken
until entropy finds home in every when.
Illusory fear inundates imagination, then
buries hope, in its own ashes, hidden.

Cruelly, absolutely no remorse.

Silence falls until it shatters the night.
The universe has refused the fight.
Illusion is now reality, such a fey sight.
Who has courage to live in the light?

Really? It could be worse.

~~ gigoid ~~

2/15/2016

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Naked Pearls

Five steps on the path….

*****

The purpose is to identify not with the body which is falling away
but with the consciousness of which it is a vehicle.
This is something I learned from my myths.
Am I the bulb that carries the light,
or am I the light of which the bulb is the vehicle?
If you can identify with consciousness,
you can watch this thing go like an old car.
There goes a fender, etc.
But it’s expected; and then gradually the whole thing drops off
and consciousness rejoins consciousness.
I live with these myths — and they tell me to do this,
to identify with the Christ or the Shiva in me.
And that doesn’t die, it resurrects.
It is an essential experience of any mystical realization
that you die in your flesh and are born to your spirit.
You identify with the consciousness in life — and that is the god.”

~~ Joseph Campbell ~~

*****

“There’s a bit of magic in everything, and some loss to even things out.”

~~ Lou Reed, “Magic and Loss” ~~

*****

“For a man needs only to be turned around
not once with his eyes shut in this world to be lost….
Not til we are lost…. do we begin to find ourselves.”

~~ Henry David Thoreau, “Walden” ~~

*****

“I’m going to happydance among the stars and wear my stripes anyway I want to.”

~~ Stripes the tiger ~~

*****

“I see my life go drifting like a river
From change to change; I have been many things –
A green drop in the surge, a gleam of light
Upon a sword, a fir tree on a hill,
An old slave grinding at a heavy quern,
A king sitting upon a chair of gold –
And all these things were wonderful and great;
But now I have grown nothing, knowing all.
Ah! Druid, Druid, how great webs of sorrow
Lay hidden in that small slate-coloured thing!”

~~ William Butler Yeats, “Fergus and the Druid” ~~

*****

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Y’know? It’s harder than it seems to type with a cat in your face. Leelu wants her morning cuddle, so, I’m done here; the rules of having a familiar do take precedence, as some of y’all know. Today, I hope to make it by a few blogs, but, can’t make any promises; the BBR seems to keep interrupting my solitude with demands for participation. But, in spite of the futility of hope, I do feel some, which, if nothing else, raises the odds it might happen. In any case, I’ll be back again soon, to try this again. One of these days, I’m going to get it right, you wait, and see….. Ta, then, luvs….

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

When I works, I works hard.
When I sits, I sits loose.
When I thinks, I falls asleep.

Which is Why….

Sometimes I sits and thinks,
and sometimes,
I just sits.

gigoid, the dubious

The *only* duly authorized Computer Curmudgeon.

PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.

“SCRAM!!!!!!!!!!”- Oscar the Grouch

À bientôt, mon cherí….

Unreasonable degrees of irony….

Posted on February 7, 2017 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

“A man is a very small thing, and the night is very large and full of wonders.”

~~ Lord Dunsany, The Laughter of the Gods ~~

Morning glorious….

Hajime…. For more than six years now, I have used the creation of this blog as a means of finding my inner balance. The process I developed over that time has furnished me with a routine upon which I could depend to produce a product I considered worthy of publishing for peer review, while simultaneously providing me with a means to organize my thoughts into the mold it most favors, in order to maintain the balance so essential to the peace sought so diligently by our inner self.

Since the real world, which I call consensual reality, seldom provides any of these for us, ( in truth, it often works in the opposite direction, making it hard to find any such means….), it has worked pretty well, such as it is. Of course, I am the sole judge of how well it works, & I am, deliberately, inconsistent in judging its efficacy, thus, most probably, detracting from its efficiency to some degree. But, as the closing introductory quote from Ralphie notes, consistency is just as well left out of the issue. By my standards, writing has worked well to keep me relatively sane, by public standards, if not my own, or, those of others less familiar with my personality); as proof, I offer a simple statistic, to wit: I have yet to kill anyone. Given the almost hourly occurrence of homicidal urges that come to me as I perceive the world, that’s not bad.

In truth, it occurs to me, much of my life has been a long struggle to keep myself from killing people; there are just so many of them who deserve killing, by almost any standard! Oligarchs, politicians, priests, pimps, corrupt cops, the list, to me, seems endless. Each of those categories of humans, on a consistent basis, exhibit the worst traits of humanity…. Fear, cowardice, the ability to lie, or deny reality, without guilt, shame, or the slightest degree of compassion; most of my fellow humans, to my mind, seem to abrogate their very humanity at every turn, refusing to use the intelligence they have been imbued with by nature, and denying their own connection to the rest of creation, insisting they are so special, the rules of the universe do not apply to them.

Moreover, the most basic flaw our species demonstrates regularly, seems to not even enter their perception. This flaw, as I see it, is the ability to deny their own nature, such that their entire approach to reality becomes their own worst enemy. We humans seem to have the unfortunate ability to make the assumption we have the power to alter reality at our whim, a belief not shared by that reality. Moreover, we are so convinced of this false power, we make the automatic assumption we are thus better than the rest of reality. This sense of entitlement, false as it may be, will, in the long run, prove to be a fatal flaw, for it is leading us inexorably to an ignoble end…. which is another simple deduction people refuse to make….

I have wandered around in my mind now for some time today, trying to find a way to succinctly state my feelings & thoughts, trying to explain, to myself as much as y’all, why I haven’t been writing much. I suppose I should take a shot at summarizing, so we can get on with the rest of this mess….

I don’t see much hope for humanity. The flaws in our nature, which we refuse to acknowledge, or attempt to abrogate, are killing us. If we cannot change the paradigm with which we now live, we are ALL going to die, and not comfortably. I suppose the angst and lack of balance I have been experiencing for the past year or so, since regaining a bit of clear-mindedness I had misplaced is a direct result of my sorrow at such an outcome. As a species, we show a lot of promise; it’s unfortunate our own nature prevents us from reaching out to grasp that promise, and make it our own. Instead, we fuss, we fight, we act as if the lies and delusions, upon which our entire culture is based, are real, and will help us live, when, in fact, all we can ever expect, if we don’t change, is ongoing conflict, and misery for the major portion of humanity.

My angst thus, is a persistent sense of sorrow, and anger at those humans who refuse to acknowledge the problems our own nature creates for us…. Since I, too, am human, my feelings cause me to want to strike out, hard, at those who will not see the truth of reality, and how our choices, to live in fear and delusion, have brought us to the brink of extinction. I’ve managed thus far to control those urges, human as they are; I’m having a hard time doing so these days, as there just doesn’t seem to be much reason NOT to follow the injunction of nature, so aptly described by H. L. Mencken, when he said, “Every normal man must be tempted, at times, to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats.”

I have to admit, the temptation is great. However, I see I have, without realizing it, ranted in the intro again. So much so, I’ve made the rant I had started superfluous, & will proceed to delete it, in favor of finishing the rest of this now overlong mess. I can’t say I’m sorry for having done so; if naught else, it was rather cathartic for me, so, we’ll let it go, as is, & trust the chips to fall in convenient places. Since I can’t think of any easy, comfortable method for getting us out of the intro, I’ll just stop here, & hope for the best. I hope you enjoy today’s interlude….

Shall we Pearl?

“A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds,
adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.
With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do.”

~~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, Essays: First Series (1841) “Self-Reliance” ~~

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Today, I feel like listening to the Dead (go figure). Here is the second set (over two hours long) from their 50th Anniversary/Farewell Tour in 2015. Though Jerry, Robert Hunter, & Pigpen are long gone, the music and culture lives on…. Enjoy!….

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Fare Thee Well
Grateful Dead, 7/5/2015
Second Set

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I can feel poems percolating, but, none are ready to leak. Here is one from last year, written during the time I was attempting to regain some balance after more than a year of fighting the symptoms of opioid withdrawal, so kindly foisted upon me by the ignorance & cowardice of the medical industry in this country. Needless to say, it’s a bit more intense than my usual fare, & I hope you enjoy it….

Augmentation: Inner Aye

Distant, peals of thunder, vividly.
Closer, a patter of rain, falling gravidly.
Between the light and the darkness of fear
find merely the remnants of one lonely tear.

Do not hate us, though we have not sinned;
eager for courage, upon whom all hope is pinned.
Tales of insolence, hatred, or fallen virtue
fill us up, not down, in such pristine foreign venue.

Capable hands severed, able hands tied;
the future is angry, all but now denied.
Multiple times, warnings sounded across the pale
nobody heard, nobody came to tell the tale.

Gifted by time, salience fails in epic rhyme;
watchmakers watching, each a separate crime.
Logical solutions refuse to emulsify
forever pretending to cruelly crucify.

Blood will fly alongside pertinent composure,
never seeking, never finding tea, or closure.
Falsely laid trails on mountains of gold
imply no happy endings, no fortunes told.

Ages past have no time for repetition;
further chances only lead to perdition.
Destiny feels a shameful portion of guilt,
for a thousand sand castles, never built.

~~ gigoid ~~

3/2/2016

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Naked Pearls

Esoterica

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“A person needs a little madness,
or else they never dare cut the rope and be free.”

~~ Nikos Kazantzakis ~~

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“Every man is guilty of all the good he didn’t do.”

~~ Voltaire ~~

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True glory consists in doing what deserves to be written;
in writing what deserves to be read;
and in so living as to make the world
happier and better for our living in it.

~~ Pliny the Elder ~~

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It is something to be able to paint a particular picture,
or to carve a statue, and so to make a few objects beautiful;
but it is far more glorious to carve and paint
the very atmosphere and medium through which we look,
which morally we can do.
To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts.”

~~ Henry David Thoreau, “Where I Live” ~~

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“The world is full of cactus, but we don’t have to sit on it.”

~~ Will Foley ~~

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“He knows not how to know who knows not also how to unknow.”

~~ Richard Burton ~~

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“The only thing I know for sure is that I know nothing at all, for sure.”

~~ Socrates ~~

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Although today’s missive is extensive, it feels a bit underdone, if obese. But, so be it; I’m done, & not willing to either start over, or edit. Instead, I’ll trust the process, as I’ve learned to do so well, & let it go without further ado. In fact, I’ll even go so far as to end it swiftly, rather than drawing it out to resemble the intro. I’ll be back as soon as I have enough to say; it won’t be long, I’m sure, as I’m a naturally voluble study in contradictions and subtle notes of irony. Go figure, eh? See ya, ffolkes; that’s a promise I hope to live long enough to fulfill….

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

When I works, I works hard.
When I sits, I sits loose.
When I thinks, I falls asleep.

Which is Why….

Sometimes I sits and thinks,
and sometimes,
I just sits.

gigoid, the dubious

The *only* duly authorized Computer Curmudgeon.

PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.

“SCRAM!!!!!!!!!!”- Oscar the Grouch

À bientôt, mon cherí….

Exploring the color of sound….

Posted on November 23, 2016 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

“I still find each day too short
for all the thoughts I want to think,
all the walks I want to take,
all the books I want to read,
and all the friends I want to see.”

~~ John Burrough ~~

Celebrity Infinity’s Bar, Three Sheets to the Wind…

Hajime…. Some mornings, the irony of what I do here each day becomes too much to bear, unless I retreat into either curmudgeonly irritability, or complete and utter nonsense; while I prefer the latter, the former is more, shall we say, productive, in terms of returning me to relative stability. Naturally, I choose that one, to suit my own lifestyle preferences. Go figure, eh? That’s where the irony comes into the picture, coloring all with its sardonic, pitiless box of crayons, none of which are remotely pastel in nature. Such is life in the Big City, I guess.

Rather than spend a lot of time exploring this well of angst, (which can, conceivably, release demons I’d rather keep caged….), I’ll try to finish off this Pearl, and be done with it for today. Why? Well, why not? Besides, Smart Bee is being ridiculously recalcitrant, making me open and close the program repeatedly to find even one worthwhile pearl. Who needs that sort of aggravation before 8 AM? Not me, for sure. So, I’ll cut this intro short, again, in a valiant attempt to regain some sort of rationality. If you have any compassion at all, you’ll wish me luck…. As for me, well, I’m going to use my often disregarded skill at ruthless time management, in its most efficacious form, to wit: watch this….

Shall we Pearl?….

“To sin by silence when they should protest makes cowards of men.”

~~ Abraham Lincoln (attributed) ~~

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

“In the land of the dark, the Ship of the Sun is driven by the Grateful Dead.”

~~ Egyptian Book of the Dead ~~

50th Anniversary Fare Thee Well Tour

So, I was feeling nostalgic for the 60’s, and, guess what? Yep. Here’s a concert celebrating 50 years of alternative subculture, at its finest…. Enjoy!….

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

Grateful Dead
Fare Thee Well
7/5/2015

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

Qualifications of Passion

Sweetly and soft, her vision comes insistently stealing,
waking gently welcome strength of safely intimate feeling.
No mundane distractions even feebly compare,
to celestial musics that fill such welcoming air.

Joyous celebration is each minute’s lot
whenever I’m near her, and when I am not.
Just knowing she is real and relatively near
provides a glad and final solution to fear.

Trust can heal, and live up to the test,
and even the worst of us become best;
Love, when given, is a type of realistic example
of how life can be simple, yet more than just a sample.

Memory is forgiving, in the face of the Now,
our lessons of necessity will always show how;
Our future is but illusion, until fully grown,
the only option for survival is to call it our own.

Feathered with hopeful dreams of acquisition,
live the passions that have defined my position.
Universal justice demands satisfaction
love is ever my choice, and my only reaction.

~~ gigoid ~~

9/30/3012

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

Naked Pearls

Another roadside attraction….

*******

“I searched into myself.”

~~ Heraclitus ~~

*******

“The world is full of burled and gnarly knobs
on which you can hang a metaphysical system.
If you must.”

~~ Edward Abbey ~~

*******

“We should consider every day lost
on which we have not danced at least once.
And we should call every truth false
which was not accompanied by at least one laugh.”

~~ Friedrich Nietzsche ~~

*******

“If you can spend a perfectly useless afternoon in a perfectly useless manner,
you have learned how to live.”

~~ Lin Yutang ~~

*******

“Every evil to which we do not succumb is a benefactor.”

~~ Ralph Waldo Emerson ~~

*******

“You thought, as a boy, that a mage is one who can do anything.
So I thought, once. So did we all.
And the truth is that as a man’s real power grows and his knowledge widens,
ever the way he can follow grows narrower:
until at last he chooses nothing,
but does only and wholly what he _must_ do.”

~~ Ursula K. LeGuin, _A Wizard of Earthsea_ ~~

*******

“Do not go gentle into that good night
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light”

~~ Dylan Thomas ~~

*******

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

There you have it. It’s late, and, it’s weird, so, all good to go. I’ll try again tomorrow, as long as everybody’s aim stays bad…. I mean, if they’re still shooting at me, that means I’m having some sort of effect, right? Right. ‘Course, I AM human, and subject to delusional behavior at the drop of a metaphor… but, what the hell….. See ya, ffolkes…. Just try to stop me….

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

When I works, I works hard.
When I sits, I sits loose.
When I thinks, I falls asleep.

Which is Why….

Sometimes I sits and thinks,
and sometimes,
I just sits.

gigoid, the dubious

The *only* duly authorized Computer Curmudgeon.

PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.

“SCRAM!!!!!!!!!!”- Oscar the Grouch

À bientôt, mon cherí….

Candid portions of soluble soap….

Posted on July 5, 2016 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

“Dream as if you’ll live forever. Live as if you’ll die tomorrow.”

~~ James Dean ~~

Contemplating the inscrutable….

Hajime…. After a full hour of arguing with Leelu, who thought 0430 was late enough to stay in bed, I’m up, once again staring at a blank screen, wondering what the hell to write. As you see, I opted for the easy way, with pointed remarks about the morning, just so I could get started. Naturally, as soon as I get the first sentence typed, my mind goes blank. SIGH…. It’s going to be a long morning, I can tell….

Fortunately, most of the material needed for today is on hand. We have a guest discussion for the ranting section, with a brilliant analysis of modern times by Dean Baker, and a fine set of Naked Pearls with which to finish. The rest shouldn’t take too long, if I can decide on some music without too much waffling. It’s also fortunate I’m not much at waffling; I’ve always found making decisions pretty easy, if I have the information needed to make one. The only trick will be to find something fresh, which is rather a random operation, anyway….

In the interests of efficiency, (not that it’s a particularly popular category around here), we’ll cut the intro short again, in hopes of finding some sort of rhythm further down the page. Fat chance, right? Oh, well. Such is life in the blogosphere. So they say. Me, I’m going to take them at their word, for now, so we can get on with the rest of today’s mess…. Since I said the word ‘efficiency’, I am obligated to make a serious attempt to achieve it, which means this is all you get…. Go figure, eh?….

Shall we pearl?….

“There is no sin except stupidity.”

~~ Oscar Wilde, “The Critic as Artist”, 1891 ~~

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

Fare Thee Well, July 5, 2015

Last year on this date, the Grateful Dead celebrated their 50th anniversary as a band, by performing several concerts in the Bay Area, and, on the 4th and 5th of July, in Chicago’s Soldier Field. Here is a recording of one of those shows for your listening enjoyment…. Keep on truckin’, ffolkes….

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

Fare Thee Well
The Grateful Dead

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

Yesterday, a friend posted the following discussion of the participants in the upcoming presidential election here in the US. Quite frankly, it’s bloody brilliant, and I wish I’d written it… From possibly the best living English language poet, Dean J. Baker…. Links to his work follow the article…. Enjoy, ffolkes; this is telling it like it is….

Pap

How long has it been since you’ve heard this lie: ‘you are never given more than you can take,’ usually preceded by ‘God.’ Even recognizing it is to acknowledge that you’re a victim of positive attitude propaganda. Pap. Or, bullshit if you feel like saying so.

Most people won’t ever come to the point where they will acknowledge the harm being surrounded by cheerful asswipes can do to someone who rightfully so is building a case of rage and pessimism. It could very well be that feeling the burn, so to speak, will provide a manner or method as of that time unformed which will get you through the leveling of degrees of stress and trauma.

As well most people buy into that pap, and thus are crippled into detouring away from a healthy non-murderous rage.

Any trauma endured – and ongoing – is perversely translated into an opportunity to build a stronger self through life’s variable adversities. Post-traumatic stress, or any great stress, is thus deformed into the chance to grow. Lucky fucking you, huh.

You get to imitate Job, or Jonah, from the Bible. If there was a certainty of an afterlife where you could meet up with those responsible for such bullshit stories permeating into false attitudes in daily life, I’d bet there’d be a long line waiting to kick their asses.

It’s part and parcel of the fictive idea that you alone ought to be enough to raise yourself up, and if you aren’t one of those fortunates, then you’re a socialist. An example of the common depth of thought propagated in many countries now, with the exception of those who simply say We are right, kill everyone else.

I can see where that fog of optimism infects the minds and attitudes of many to the degree that actuates in saving possible enemy combatants under the guise of humanitarianism.

‘But they’re not carrying a gun, or explosives, now.’
‘I know. Let’s wait til later when we’re blown up, or strafed with bullets.’ Besides, if it doesn’t happen to us, we can always wail about tragedy to insulate ourselves from the reality of it.

This takes me back to the first statement about not being given more than you can take. It seems innocent. Hopeful. Designed to help.. not a passive aggression against an overwhelming reality in this and other lands of cheery manipulative crap contrived to drive the despair or stress so far underground it manifests itself as illness – at which time you’ll be told that a positive attitude helps.

‘Ok. I am positive that if I could kick you in the head I’d feel better, so come closer, you focking schmoe.’

This is only one example where a pervasive systematic form of denial can work against the overall health of a society and individuals simultaneously.
It can result in Hitlers, or Hillarys.

Now of course there are those of you who will think I planned on getting to that point in order to establish a rant against… Hillbillary. Or her devil’s adversary, T-Rump.

That they are the result of a grand denial is why they’re used as examples. Almost every single possibility for office of the Presidency has been flawed. It’s to be expected… isn’t it? Or have we been culturally conditioned to lower our sights for heaven and for politics?

You do know what’s at the center of it: money. It puts them out there as possibilities.

The crowd is so effectively disarmed into believing the fiction that they have a choice that nowhere is there the question of why exactly are these trouts touting themselves as leaders.

They will say what they’re going to do – which will change once in office, since it always does.

Not one of them shows a subtle understanding of the effective currents that will affect each and everything that even attempts to get done. So in other words, they pander to what they believe the greater number of people want to hear.

Thus, they lie. They give you the Big Happy coming your way.

Want some pie? Here it is. Oh, but you didn’t say you didn’t want it in your face.

That’s the opposite of the spectrum that says they must have flaws. Hey, she’s one big flaw so let’s elect her: we’ll make history. Not the reality of it being that if she’’ a choice you are history.

Is the country so depraved, so un-edicated, that they’ll take to Bubba Gump articulating outrage and fall for the idiocy that if he can articulate what they think he’ll do a good job? Probably on the Presidential throne.

What I’d want – and I think everyone ought to benefit by – is someone who shows a greater depth and understanding of the nuances of power. I believe any thinking person is repelled by the fact that as it stands T-Rump is blatting out euphemistic courage, and few are equating it with the robber barons knowing what’s best for you: da public.

He’s already got the lease, now he’s trying to own the Company Store.

They are all a trauma waiting to occur; inflicting their perversions of ideas of truth and reality upon a people less and less able to think (reading opinions on the internet and being able to vocalize your version is not thinking, it’s wearing Mr. Ed’s hat, or pontificating like Arnold Ziffle).

I’d have hoped that by now once the years of Tricky Dick and/or Liar Bill (ex-rapist, so things are improving) had gone by to the point where a famous novelist I met once might hesitate in stating whenever he’s going to take a dump that he’s “got to take a Nixon.”

As representative metaphors, Hillbillary stands for advancement and individual persistence – if you overlook integrity and other minor things. And T-Rump stands for the voice of the common person, that great articulate, well-learned and compassionate soul.. as long as they got theirs and you don’t jump the fucking line, ok.

They ought to be taken as these are who you don’t vote for, what you run from, what to avoid if you want a healthy country short-term and longer.

Consider that they each know why they aren’t fit for office, but humility prevents them from enumerating their faults since they know that would allow a balanced perspective to be weighed and decided upon.

Nah, they have plenty of humility they want you to share. Good old pusitive attitude propaganda.

The ‘Party’ as it stands is over.

These people are not icons of what or whom to vote for, but plinths of a society where the fall has only to be witnessed out loud: the emperor’s burlesque is what it’s all about on the surface.

#Politicians Vote NO. A crook, or one who’’ got the lease & now wants to own the Company Store. One dimensional caricatures at the expense of the country.

Voting ought to mean you choose someone better than a crook, with greater depth than the slim pickings of public outrage, and the process not resemble a game of Whack-A-Mole.

©Dean J. Baker

Dean’s site: https://tormentingthemonkey.wordpress.com/2016/07/04/pap/

Dean’s books: https://deanjbaker.wordpress.com/awards/all-print-books-links/
********************************

Adjectives of Quality ~~ Bloody Friday

A baleful lump of ironic introspection
sits upon my shoulder today
leaving traces of fey reflection
with a smattering of true dismay.

Resistance may be futile, many have said,
belief didn’t necessarily follow.
Abnegation of fear marks all bills paid,
leaving such empty threats hollow.

Symbolic courage never sleeps so deeply
as when delusion holds sway.
Bartered virtue, sold far too cheaply,
stands in shame, until honor fades away.

Too many culprits exist to count just one;
all of us bear obvious blame.
Evil is as evil does, only, when it’s done,
it begins again, all same-same.

Nobody seems to care enough to deny the lies.
Ignorant fear rules humanity’s masses.
When evil passes unremarked, innocence dies;
silence equals guilt, leaving only hope’s ashes.

Reality screams; tales of terror unfold,
flames fanned with purposeful malice,
insidious dangers hide beneath atrocity untold
as Gaia weeps into an empty chalice.

~~ gigoid ~~

10/3/2015

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

Naked Pearls

Subtle Points on Life at Large

*********

“Sometimes even to live is an act of courage.”

~~ Seneca ~~

*********

“Do nothing that insults your soul.”

~~ Walt Whitman ~~

*********

“People seem not to see that their opinion of the world
is also a confession of character.”

~~ Ralph Waldo Emerson ~~

*********

“I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestioned ability of a man
to elevate his life by conscious endeavor.”

~~ Henry David Thoreau ~~

*********

“Without accepting the fact that everything changes,
we cannot find perfect composure.
But unfortunately, although it is true,
it is difficult for us to accept it.
Because we cannot accept the truth of transience, we suffer.”

~~ Shunryu Suzuki ~~

*********

“In the bigger scheme of things,
the universe is not asking us to do something,
the universe is asking us to be something.
And that’s a whole different thing.”

~~ Lucille Clifton ~~

*********

“The best thing for being sad, replied Merlin, beginning to puff and blow,
is to learn something. That’s the only thing that never fails.
You may grow old and trembling in your anatomies,
you may lie awake at night listening to the disorder of your veins,
you may miss your only love,
you may see the world about you devastated by evil lunatics,
or know your honour trampled in the sewers of baser minds.
There is only one thing for it then — to learn.
Learn why the world wags and what wags it.
That is the only thing which the mind can never exhaust,
never alienate, never be tortured by, never fear or distrust,
and never dream of regretting.
Learning is the only thing for you.
Look what a lot of things there are to learn.”

~~ T.H. White, The Once and Future King ~~

*********

“I give up, what is the meaning of life?”

~~ Subtle Bee ~~

*********

“Let us go, through certain half-deserted streets,
The muttering retreats
Of restless nights in one-night cheap hotels
And sawdust restaurants with oyster-shells:
Streets that follow like a tedious argument
Of insidious intent
To lead you to an overwhelming question…
Oh, do not ask, “What is it?”

~~ T. S. Eliot, “Love song of J. Alfred Prufrock” ~~

*********

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

Amazingly enough, it’s done; strangely enough, it’s relatively on time, and reasonably complete, in a Pearlish sort of way. I’ll take it, and run, with a glad heart and easy mind. Well, as much as I ever do. I’ll also note, tomorrow’s another day, & I plan to be here, though the plan calls for less angst, and more calm, centered behavior. I’ll echo here the fat chance used above. On that note, see y’all tomorrow, ffolkes; odds on that are, as ever, pretty good….

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

When I works, I works hard.
When I sits, I sits loose.
When I thinks, I falls asleep.

Which is Why….

Sometimes I sits and thinks,
and sometimes,
I just sits.

gigoid, the dubious

The *only* duly authorized Computer Curmudgeon.

PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.

“SCRAM!!!!!!!!!!”- Oscar the Grouch

À bientôt, mon cherí….

Close to the padded cloud….

Posted on June 3, 2016 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

“Make the most of yourself, for that is all there is of you.”

~~ Ralph Waldo Emerson ~~

Dance of the Ferries, Victoria, BC

Hajime…. In an ugly chair, the old man sits, staring morosely at the computer screen before him, eyes fixed on the vast white space upon the screen, empty of all thought or fantasy. To look at him, you might think, “boy, that’s a tough-looking old guy….”, not able to see beneath the rough exterior, to the confusion and deep sense of pain within. As he blinks at the screen, thoughts swirl in his head, none of which translate into any coherent statement worth typing. He shakes his head, slowly, as the tears begin to fall….

I wish thee a good morrow, though I cannot claim to think it so. Today’s Pearl will be, for me, a saving grace, so, the way it looks from the other side, though of some concern, is completely irrelevant, in comparison to how it will seem from here. Since I really don’t much care how well it turns out, as much as I care about getting it done, I won’t make any claims as to the quality, or even the quantity…. Truly, today’s Pearl is WYSIWYG, as much as it is anything else. I am only doing this because, if I don’t, someone will die today who didn’t have to. Quite simple, really, though a bit alarming to those who have never dwelt in the House of Fear for long…..

Don’t worry, ffolkes. I will be fine. Some day. For now, realize this is what keeps me from turning rogue, keeps me from making serious inroads into the population explosion, first-hand. I developed this method of keeping myself under control almost five and a half years ago now, and it’s all I need, or have, that will save innocent lives. So be it. No tricks today, we’re going on now, simply because I’m tired of trying to make this sound reasonably coherent, when all I really want to do is scream epithets and rage…. To save us both from that, I think we should go on. Now….

Shall we Pearl?….

“A man’s ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death.” — Albert Einstein

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

Regular readers here at ECR will recognize this icon, as our default musical position. Here is a collection of some of humanity’s best music, as proven by its survival over the past several hundred years…. Enjoy, please; it’s quite soothing to the savage breast, of which I have a perfect example to offer today….

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

Classical Music

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

https://youtu.be/5LXhPbmoHmU

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

As might be guessed, there won’t be a fresh rant today; here instead is one from the archives. I tried to make it light, as I am not in a mood for much angst, even if I’ve already expunged it once from my system. This will, hopefully, provide some comic, or, at least, lighter material for your perusal…. Enjoy!….

From 3/7/2014:

Early as it is, I won’t give in to my urges to vent….. The easiest, most efficient way to accomplish that goal is to provide myself with a sublimated task, which will give me the sense of venting, without having to actually create the path for it to be released into the blogosphere…. Well, that’s the plan, anyway…. What this means in a practical sense is, of course, an old-school pearl, with parameters set at “rage against the machines”, otherwise known as Sublimated Rant Mode….. Enjoy!….

“Disobedience, in the eyes of anyone who has read history, is man’s original virtue. It is through disobedience that progress has been made, through disobedience and through rebellion.” — Oscar Wilde

“There are scores of thousands of sects who are ready at a moment’s notice to reveal the will of God on every possible subject.” — Smart Bee

“I’d rather that a bigot mistake me for a lesbian than that a lesbian mistake me for a bigot.” — Tovah Hollander

“I consider trial by jury as the only anchor yet devised by man, by which a government can be held to the principles of its constitution.” — Thomas Jefferson

“A person is never happy except at the price of some ignorance.” — Anatole France

“The next best thing to doing something smart is not doing something stupid.” — Flo Capp’s Observation

Truckin’, like the do-dah man
Once told me “Gotta play your hand.
Sometimes your cards ain’t worth a dime
If you don’t lay’em down.”
Sometimes the light’s all shinin’ on me;
Other times I can barely see.
Lately it occurs to me
What a long, strange trip it’s been.

~~ Truckin’ by Garcia, Weir, Lesh, Hunter ~~

Wow…. not bad, not bad at all…. I don’t think a pearl has ever come together so quickly, or so seamlessly as this one…. It took a total of eight minutes, as pearl after pearl jumped up to be included, sandwiched between a very few obviously unsuitable quotes, easily dismissed in jig time…. It was almost as if the universe was rewarding me for having picked the correct venue for this group, which, patently, is an excellent one to highlight such valuable gems as these….

From now on, I think you’ll be able to use this pearl when you want to show someone a real-life example of the definition of the word “eclectic”….. You could probably use it with the same effect to demonstrate the meaning of the word “esoteric”, too, but, that might stretch the minds of those to whom you show it to a point of no return…. It’s entirely conceivable that, upon assimilating the concepts contained herein, they would never be normal again, which, all in all, in today’s world, might not be such a bad thing, eh?…..

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

“A poem is a serious joke, a truth that has learned jujitsu.”

~~William Stafford ~~

Roses for Noses

I have a bozoid personality, of the first degree;
nobody, I mean nobody, knows that better than me.
I often wonder, as the world goes around, and around
how many others have realized just what I’ve found….

I know for a fact, I’m not the only bozoid one;
too many people laughing out there, having fun.
Is their laughter, though, at themselves first?
Or is it some other impulse, like purple liverwurst?….

I’ve always loved to make others laugh and giggle,
since my tender youth, when my ears began to wiggle.
The world is full of humor, but not always easy to find
so laughing at myself I learned never to mind….

We bozos know each other, here, there, and everywhere
there’s no hiding such joy, it just wouldn’t be fair.
We all have one feature, our great bulbous nose,
there’s no doubt at all, cuz it just grows….

There’s nothing like a good, big mistake, a disaster,
to show us the folly of living life faster and faster.
Nothing in the world can ever take the place,
of seeing in the mirror, a happy, smiling face….

Don’t be shy, just let it all hang out;
we bozos have more fun, there’s no doubt.
Life’s too somber and gray if we let it get on top
if we don’t stay loose, the pain won’t ever stop….

My advice to all of you, out there in the world,
let your noses grow round & red, keep your hair tightly curled.
Find a way to let your spirit out often to play,
you’ll never once regret any price you pay.

~~ gigoid ~~

January, 2013

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

Our final pearl today is somewhat resistant to categorization; it put itself together, and I haven’t a clue as to what it might mean. It means something, for sure; I just don’t have the wherewithal to figure out what it is. You decide…..

*******

“The foot feels the foot when it feels the ground.”

~~ Buddha ~~

*******

“I shut my eyes in order to see.”

~~ Paul Gauguin ~~

*******

“Honesty is the best policy and spinach is the best vegetable.”

~~ Popeye ~~

*******

“It is sometimes expedient to forget who we are.”

~~ Publius Syrus — Maxim 233 ~~

*******

What is there more of in the world than anything else?
Ends.

~~ Carl Sandburg, The People, Yes (1936) ~~

*******

“For him who has conquered the mind, the mind is the best of friends;
but for one who has failed to do so, his mind will be the greatest enemy.”

~~ Bhagavad Gita ~~

*******

It’s Like This

Even the samurai
have teddy bears,
and even the teddy bears
get drunk.

~~ Linux Songs/Poems ~~

*******

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

It’s done. I have less clue about it now than I had when beginning, so, you won’t find me trying to make excuses. Not only do I not have any, I couldn’t honorably use them, or even consider them. Instead, I’ll leave you flat, with the dangerous knowledge of our imminent return, tomorrow morning… I’ll be here if I have to kill myself…. and, no, I know that’s neither advisable, nor possible, Sheesh, even I know, if I’m dead, I can’t write. So, you’ll see me again; count on it. Just don’t expect much other than the fulfillment of the promise; it’s all I may have to offer…. See ya…

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

When I works, I works hard.
When I sits, I sits loose.
When I thinks, I falls asleep.

Which is Why….

Sometimes I sits and thinks,
and sometimes,
I just sits.

gigoid, the dubious

The *only* duly authorized Computer Curmudgeon.

PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.

“SCRAM!!!!!!!!!!”- Oscar the Grouch

À bientôt, mon cherí….

Pollinated twisty bread, nicely packaged….

Posted on December 9, 2015 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

“In this world there is always danger for those who are afraid of it.”

~~ George Bernard Shaw ~~

Laser-eye Leelu

Hajime…. ‘Tis indeed unusual for me to feel energetic, or, for that matter, less than homicidal, at this time of day. That’s a simple, obvious direct result of the severe insomnia I experienced for about 3-4 months. Now, after a night of 10 solid hours, again, I find myself feeling almost normal in the mornings, if with a bit more pain than in previous times in life. Hey, I accept, now, I’m 65, not 25; for a long time, like, I think, all of us, we try to deny the passage of time; that feeling of immortality we maintain for much of our youth carries over into middle and elder stages, unfortunately…. Then, something brings us up short, realizing, hey, that hurts! And, it’s something that never hurt before…. and, we realize, our life will never be quite the same….

THAT is, I believe, a moment which must come to us all, like it or not. Oh, we can continue to deny the effects of the passage of time on our bodies and minds; in my opinion, there’s a word for folks who try that…. corpses. Yep, that’s one of those really STUPID things we humans tend to do, and, every time, it will kill us, because, hey, the Universe just doesn’t give a shit about how we feel, about anything, much less a force of nature like aging, and dying…. After all, the process IS merely another example of how our lives are so connected to reality, for all of reality experiences the same aging process…. The Universe, however, doesn’t seem to have a problem with it, as we seem to do….

Ah well, maybe if we’d try, as a species, to understand a bit more about death, perhaps we would handle living with a bit more style and elegance. As it is, much of humanity dies hard, and afraid; it’s considered a lucky man or woman who dies at an old age, in bed, with friends and family at their side. The major portion of life is spent trying to arrange a comfortable death, with the greater part of us failing miserably at that…. Or, at least, that’s the way I see it. I guess maybe I’m getting cynical in my old age, for I see the ever-present battle in Reality being won by Chaos and Entropy, while the Order and Reason attempted by Man, falls into disuse and ill repute.

At this point in this narrative, I see it has already fallen into ranting mode, which is always dangerous here….. Y’know what else. I’m tired of all the doom and gloom I see all over the fucking world, including right here where I live, where every day I see falsely-entitled police forces hassling homeless and poor people, just because they can. I’m tired of the assholes who run this world thinking they can lie, cheat, and steal from everyone else, and get away with it. And, I’m tired of being lied to…. especially that. The so-called leaders of this country, and of every country in the world I read about, in their own words, suffers the same issue; the world is being raped, and pillaged, by just a small percentage, while the rest of us try to get by in a world gone mad….

Fuck it, let’s go find some pearls, to help get rid of some of this angst, and, maybe, in the process, find a bit of humor, and maybe even some hope….

Shall we Pearl?….

“Life is the childhood of our immortality.”

~~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe ~~

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

The Grateful Dead

Images from an email from Dead.net

Last night I was listening to some of the music I’ve downloaded from You Tube. Specifically, I was checking out some of the bands who played covers of Dead music for the Dead Covers Project in 2014. The Project started in 2013, I believe, and has produced some of the finest home-grown, home-made music one can find anywhere. I listened to the one I’ve included, and can tell you, you HAVE to see, and hear the lead guitar solo in this song. About three or four minutes in, the band breaks into some solo breaks. The lead guitar player, like most of the band, is an obvious O.O.F., apparently about 70-75 years old….

I swear, the old fart NAILS the solo; not only does he nail it, he kills it! Fast, clean, and rockin’, he, and the other old farts in this particular band, rocked the house where they played, back East sometime in 2014…. It’s well worth seeing, as are any number of the other covers that amateurs sent in each year…. Check them out; there are a lot of surprises. Some are really bad, but, some, like this one, will amaze you at the musicianship of the players…. Enjoy, ffolkes…. It’s a blast from the past, right here in the future….

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

BEGGARS TOMB
New Minglewood Blues
Dead Covers Project 2014

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

https://youtu.be/KoALTQNFL7Y

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“The belief in a supernatural source of evil is not necessary; men alone are quite capable of every wickedness.” — Joseph Conrad, “Under Western Eyes”

What a wonderful beginning for a rant! Too bad I’m not up to writing one… Plus, I’m in too good a mood to go there, so, instead, we’ll go with this discussion from a very good early Pearl, about a year after coming to WP. I hope you enjoy it; I did…. and, hell, I wrote it, and I’m a harsh self-critic….

From 10/21/2012:

I keep six honest serving-men
(They taught me all I knew);
Their names are What and Why and When
And How and Where and Who.~~ Rudyard Kipling ~~

~~ Just So Stories (1902) “The Elephant’s Child” ~~

I first read the phrase “feeding the Elephant’s Child” in a Robert Heinlein novel, many years ago, and enjoyed it as a metaphor for reading/learning, before I knew from whence it originally came. Once I did know (a moment of illumination whose exact placement in time is hazy….), I liked it even more, from an aesthetic standpoint. The above little ditty is brilliant doggerel, astute observation, and deep insight, all presented in a simple, straightforward style, with a powerful, basic lesson for any would-be philosopher, or any one who wishes to encompass reason as their modus operandi, so to speak. Besides which, I find that another piece of Bob’s advice fits well with this one, to wit: “Life tastes better in big bites….”

“Never wear anything that panics the cat.” — P. J. O’Rourke

I like this, a lot. It summarizes perhaps one of the most elemental rules of getting along in the Universe, in essence saying, “You can learn a lot by watching what happens around you…” It is the perfect companion to the concept of learning as presented above, as it contrives to speak to both sides of Reality, i.e., how you approach reality (the clothing you choose to show to the cat….) and how reality will change to react to your approach (the cat’s opinion of your clothing….) It also gives one a subtle warning about how the wrong clothing can produce unwanted consequences, and we all know how an offended cat is likely to respond…. as Mark Twain once remarked…. “A man who carries a cat by the tail is learning valuable things. He will never again be dim or doubtful. Chances are he’ll not carry the cat that way again, but, I say, if he wants to, let him!” You can’t say fairer than that….

“All that we are is the result of what we have thought.” — Buddha

One can always trust the Buddha to state the most profound thoughts in the simplest way…. I often wonder how he came to such a complete understanding of Murphy, whose presence is acknowledged in all of what the Buddha stated, but whose ministrations seem to have passed by the Buddha’s existence…. either that, or Murphy shows him a lot more respect than he does anyone else alive. At times, it seems that what the Buddha states, such as in this statement, is, in at least one respect, an answer to a question that is raised when Murphy intervenes in our lives…. in simpler words, he explains why Murphy is able to affect us as he does, by cutting through the bullshite we perceive to the truth of what is real….. SIGH…. one of these days, enlightenment will slap me upside the head, and I’ll be able to see Murphy coming…. I hope…

There are many here among us who feel that life is but a joke.” — Bob Dylan

Often I feel as if not only is life a joke, but it is our duty and purpose on this plane of existence to codify that joke, to put it down on paper, or on screen/disc, to free ourselves from the prison of sobriety, achieving an understanding that everything in this silly universe is here for our amusement, and we have been taking it, and ourselves, seriously for entirely too long….. So seriously, we have begun to offend those parts of the universe that just want us to relax and enjoy ourselves, and the time is growing nearer when we will have to admit that the joke is on us, for not being able to change our inner selves enough to be able to handle the humor of our situation…. See, the universe thinks death is funny…. not because it is cruel, but because death is just another part of life, and it doesn’t care about one more than the other…. See, now, isn’t it funny how you never noticed that?…..

I once read a science fiction novel, whose title and author escape me completely; in all it was very poorly written, with prose that did not live up to the good ideas contained in the plot line. However, it was a great plot line, in all….Specifically, there was one chapter I liked, which had a super-genius taking on the task of finding the solution to a mathematical treatise, an equation so complex and advanced that no civilization in the galaxy had ever been able to completely solve it.

The genius/hero of the book shut himself up in his room for three weeks, working on the problem. At the end, he was thinking so hard he entered a trance-like state, computing while nearly dead…. after a week of this, he suddenly opened his eyes, gave a look of astonishment, and burst into uncontrollable laughter for approximately 25 minutes. When he could finally control himself, he simply said, “It’s a joke….” and would never discuss it again….

In a pearl such as this one has grown to be, there comes a time when I have to decide whether to continue on, to try to reach the conclusion that was nebulously hovering somewhere in my mind as I began, or to admit that I have once again wandered into uncharted territory, and might find it a bit tricky to find my way back to clarity. This is that time…. and I’m leaving it up to Smart Bee, as always…. If I don’t find a proper pearl to carry on the tenuous chain of thought I’ve created, then we’ll take the first one that will appropriately wrap it up as a lost cause….. all within a specified number of attempts…. so, here we go… You’ll know in a moment what will happen….

“In a word, neither death, nor exile, nor pain, nor anything of this kind is the real cause of our doing or not doing any action, but our inward opinions and principles.” — Epictetus (c. 60 AD) — Discourses, Book i, Chap xi

There, see?…. That didn’t take long at all…. and I managed to find the perfect pearl to cover both bases…. In this case, we will use it as an ending quote, since it sort of summarizes a lot of the discussion, after a fashion. It could conceivably also be used as a springboard for further discussion, but this has gone on long enough, and I wouldn’t want to lose anybody due to an injudicious application of excess verbiage, culminating in tedium…. Of course, we may have reached that point some time ago, but, hey, who’s counting?…. At any rate, I hope you enjoyed this little foray into not very much….

🙂

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

Today’s poetry choice is here simply for the final line; it fits perfectly with my mood, and, tells us everything we need to know to have life just the way we want it, if we are smart enough to take it….

Dreaming of Calliope

La belle dame sans merci speaks aloud through endless night,
torturing dreams, with powerful words and stentorian phrases.
Manifest visions bathed in unbearable grace and light,
destroying all direction, standing lost, in unfathomable mazes.

Fate plays a part, one that will never face denial,
as fear and courage eternally vie for ascendancy.
Conflict becomes valid, gifting strength in open trial,
but honest emotion wears no costume so fancy.

Blood, sweat, and tears stroll on avenues of gold,
unlikely heroines heralding as in ancient lore;
Sharp, competent knives cut through tales untold,
eternally shifting reality past the naked shore.

Drifting toward origin, bereft of mandate or cause,
finished, nay, abandoned, tied with a figurative bow.
No simple gift from muses to give comfort or pause,
save that all we need to know, we already know…..

~~ gigoid ~~

12/13/2012

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

Naked Pearls III

“To know and to act are one and the same.”

~~ Samurai Proverb ~~

~~~~~~~~~

“Happiness follows sorrow,
sorrow follows happiness,
but when one no longer discriminates
between happiness and sorrow,
a good deal and a bad deed,
one is able to realize freedom.”

~~ Buddha ~~

~~~~~~~~~

“Do not eat your heart.”

~~ Pythagoras ~~

~~~~~~~~~

“Truth is the summit of being,
justice is the application of it to affairs.”

~~ Emerson ~~

~~~~~~~~~

“Learn or die.”

~~ Reality ~~

~~~~~~~~~

“Never let your sense of morals prevent you from doing what is right.”

~~ Salvor Hardin, in Foundation by Isaac Asimov ~~

~~~~~~~~~

“Adversity is the first path to truth.”

~~ Lord Byron ~~

~~~~~~~~~

“Silence is one of the hardest arguments to refute.”

~~ Josh Billings ~~

~~~~~~~~~

‘Tis written: ‘In the beginning was the word.’
Already I stick, and who shall help afford?
The ‘word’ at such high rate I may not tender;
The passage I must elsewhere render,
If rightly by the Spirit I am taught,
‘Tis written: ‘In the beginning was the Thought.’ By the first line a moment tarry,
Let not thine eager pen itself o’er-hurry!
Does ‘thought’ work all and fashion outright?
It should stand: ‘In the beginning was the Might.’
Yet even as my pen the sentence traces,
A warning hint the half-writ word effaces.

The Spirit helps me – from all doubting freed,
Thus write I: ‘In the beginning was the Deed.’

~~ Dr. Faustus, Wolfgang Goethe, “Faust” ~~

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

Well, gosh. It’s done, and I’m NOT exhausted. What a nice way to start the day! Without my usual mistrust of such good feelings, I’m going to take the money and run. Should be easy, as the money doesn’t exist. See y’all tomorrow, ffolkes. I’m afraid there’s just no way to avoid it; it seems to be written in stone…..

Which is Why….

Sometimes I sits and thinks,
and sometimes,
I just sits.

gigoid, the dubious

The *only* duly authorized Computer Curmudgeon.

PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.

“SCRAM!!!!!!!!!!”- Oscar the Grouch

À bientôt, mon cherí….

Vilification process begun, sir. Add fries to that?….

Posted on May 24, 2015 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

“If you make a mess, clean it up.”

~~ Mom ~~

Stolen from ThumbUp and Buddha9

@ Live, Laugh, Love ~~ http://livelovelaughdotme2.com/

Good morning. These are the voyages of the star ship Enterprise, whose mission, should she condescend to accept it, is to seek out new worlds, and new civilizations, whether they want us or not….

Actually, this is gigoid, fooling about with the intro again…. I think I’ll cut myself short, with good reason, too… Let’s do this, instead, eh? (Feeling a bit of a Canuck this morning… don’t fret, it’ll pass…)….

Shall we Pearl?

“A beginning is the time for taking the most delicate care that balances are correct.” — from “Manual of Muad’Dib” by the Princess Irulan

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

I’ve been an unabashed Dead Head for more than 47 years now. Each year, the Dead Net, a loose conglomeration of all Dead Heads who are online, holds an informal event called the Dead Covers Project. Fans who are also musicians make videos of themselves covering Grateful Dead tunes, from across the entire spectrum of music the Dead played, and still play, 50 years on, though their creative icon, Jerry Garcia, passed a few years ago….

Here is a concert by a band that specializes in covering Dead songs. The two lead guitarists are masters, and I would LOVE to have heard them play a set or two with Jerry, or the rest of the band…. The lead female singer is a real, honest to goodness torch singer, and does great justice to the spirit of the band’s music…. This is one I’ve downloaded, so I can play it whenever I please…. Enjoy, ffolkes….

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

Cubensis

Playin’ In The Band

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

https://youtu.be/LDPJcTThiWw

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

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

“It takes all kinds of people to make a world, but did you ever think the percentages were wrong?” — Smart Bee

To answer the question posed, certainly I have; there are far too few of the people who make up today’s world who have any concept of the words Honor, Duty, Loyalty, or for that matter, THINKING…. 97% of the people alive today are bloody frigging slaves, and don’t even know it. Of the other 3%, 2.9% are wandering around going “What the fuck is going on here? How did all these stupid people get born. And why are those little assholes over there laughing?” That last 0.1% are the assholes who have enslaved the rest, and are laughing at all the mundanes who believe whatever bullshit they are told, as long as it’s on TV….

As you may be able to tell by now, I’m not feeling particularly friendly towards the rest of my species…. I find the few people in the world with whom I actually communicate limited to about 25-30 people TOTAL; the rest are either too stupid to bother conversing with, too busy carrying out their slave duties, or, are Asininnies, or simple assholes…. Seriously, that is a fairly accurate breakdown, if a bit, oh, say, PISSY! I feel pissy, whenever I think of the stupidity it took to allow those assholes to gain their foothold of control over society, and how most people don’t even know they are slaves….

So pissy, in fact, I’m really not up for ranting; I find myself merely wishing to spout vilification and bile all over those who would be kings, and those who would allow them that privilege…. Though it’s somewhat cathartic, I prefer to take REAL shots, with arrows, or knives, or at minimum, rocks. Yeah, rocks; that’s the ticket….

SIGH….. Sorry, got distracted by my anger…. Instead, I’ll go fire up Smart Bee, and, then, I’ll do my best to find an old-school pearl, a collection of individual pearls taking good, solid shots at those aforementioned Asininnies, who deserve every ounce of shit we can pile on them…. (Asininnies, as most of you know, include the Corporate Snakeheads, Polly pundits, Religicos, Myrmidons, Pimps, and other assholes of their ilk… You know…. the Predator Class….) Then, all I have to say to them, is a big, loud, meaningful FUCK YOU All, YOU ASSHOLES!

Let’s pearl, shall we?…..

GOD is applied POWER
which is applied GOVERNMENT
which is applied POLITICS
which is applied ADVERTISING
which is applied SOCIOLOGY
which is applied PSYCHOLOGY
which is applied BIOLOGY
which is applied CHEMISTRY
which is applied PHYSICS
which is applied MATH
which is applied PHILOSOPHY
which is applied BULLSHIT

~~ Smart Bee ~~

“Governing a large country is like frying a small fish. You spoil it with too much poking.” — Lao-Tzu

“Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.” — Voltaire

“A thing moderately good is not so good as it ought to be. Moderation in temper is always a virtue; but moderation in principle is always a vice.” — Thomas Paine [Author of the Declaration of Independence and even more, but no politician.]

“A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government.” — Edward Abbey

“In politics, stupidity is not a handicap.” — Napoleon Bonaparte

“One of the chief problems a modern society has to face is how to provide an outlet for the intellectual’s restless energies and yet deny him power. How to make and keep him a paper tiger.” — Eric Hoffer

“A politician has to be able to see both sides of an issue, so he can get around it.”– Smart Bee

But the sunshine aye shall light the sky,
As round and round we run;
And the truth shall ever come uppermost,
And justice shall be done.

~~ Charles Mackay ~~

~~ Eternal Justice, Stanza 4 ~~

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

I’m feeling a bit lazy today…. What, you couldn’t tell? S’alright; I hide it pretty well…. To fulfill the purpose of both the blog, and my laziness, here is a poem of mine, strangely enough, having to do with the same folks of whom we were speaking in the last section…. Well, one part of that group of nasty, ignorant, self-absorbed folks, anyway…..

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,
take careful aim, and piss.

Why the hell not?
It’s worth a shot!

~~ gigoid ~~

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

Ankh ~~ Symbol of Life

Here is an off-the-usual-track pearl about Life at Large, hence the new icon, for pearls of this nature…. Not a bad little packet of good advice from a few of humanity’s most familiar sages, with a few less well-known sources, as well… You may wish to take notes; I have a feeling you will, eventually, be tested on this material, in one of the Quizzes Life presents to all of us in times of ‘interest’….

“Justice consists in doing no injury to men; decency in giving them no offense.” — Marcus Tullius Cicero, De Officiis

“…all life is only a set of pictures in the brain, among which there is no difference betwixt those born of real things and those born of inward dreamings, and no cause to value the one above the other.” — HPL, from The Silver Key

“Anger blows out the lamp of the mind.” — Robert Green Ingersoll

“There is no such thing as a minor lapse of integrity.” — Tom Peters

“What is to give light must endure burning.” — Viktor Frankl

“Education is the best provision for old age.” — Aristotle

“To be possessed of a vigorous mind is not enough; the prime requisite is rightly to apply it.” — Descartes

“Use a mirror in difficult times: You will see both cause and resolution.” — Deng Ming-Dao

“You are only what you are when no one is looking.” — Robert C. Edwards

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

Considering my ongoing/upcoming plans, and, hopefully, their fruition, here is a small bit of irony to finish off the day’s effort; though one must consider the source, viewing this with a bit of tongue-in-cheek dubiousity, the message remains valid, and true, being merely a paraphrase of the very old piece of wisdom from the East, to wit:

“The Journey is the lesson, and the value of travel; the Destination is the reward….” — gigoid’s interpretation of one chapter of the Tao Teh Ching

Or, more aptly re-gifted, in more contemporary language….

“One of the joys of travel is visiting new towns and meeting new people.” — Genghis Khan

There you go…. I think, all things considered, that’s enough out of me for one day…. See y’all tomorrow, ffolkes…. That’s the plan, anyway. We’ll see what Reality has to say about it, en la mañana…. Ta then, luvs….

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

When I works, I works hard.
When I sits, I sits loose.
When I thinks, I falls asleep.

Which is Why….

Sometimes I sits and thinks,
and sometimes,
I just sits.

gigoid, the dubious

PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.

“SCRAM!!!!!!!!!!”- Oscar the Grouch

À bientôt, mon cherí….

Your own, private Readme.txt….

Posted on April 4, 2015 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

“If you never assume importance you never lose it.”

~~ Lao-tzu~~

Gratuitous image by gigoid

Okay, ffolkes, we’re gonna do this a bit differently today….. This is an introductory section, right? Right. So, here is today’s Pearl of Virtual Wisdom. Pearl, meet your readers. Shake hands. Good boy. Now, go & get to work…. “Okay, boss!”….

There, that was easy, wasn’t it? Now we can just get on with it…. I like this….

Shall we Pearl?

“The truth is always the strongest argument.” — Sophocles (496-406 BC) — Phaedra, Frag. 737

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

“If you get confused, listen to the music play.”

~~ Robert Hunter ~~

Robert Hunter, whom you see quoted above, has been the primary lyricist for the Grateful Dead since shortly after their formation, back in the early 1960’s; their 50th anniversary as a group will be celebrated this year, on July 4th in Chicago. The remaining band members will be giving a concert for three days, with Jerry Garcia, the heart and soul of the band, and, one of the most influential rock musicians ever, the only member who won’t be there, having passed in 1995, at the age of 53. The video link below, and the player, provides you with all of the collected videos for this years Dead Covers Project…. Enjoy!….

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

Dead Covers Project 2015

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

https://youtu.be/yErCO7CgbJA?list=PLAxT_DkSwQLvg29d7sVeBKxkfrYoc_ozr

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

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

Le Penseur ~ August Rodin

It’s not late, but, I have stuff to do right away today, so, here is a change of pace….

From 4/3/2014:

I originally intended to rant about this article, but, after perusing it myself, I find it’s only more proof of the prediction I made last week, as to how the pundits in Washington, (you know, those assholes who hang out at the White House, and in the halls of Congress), would be acting in the coming weeks, after the poTUS (Please note: the word president is NOT capitalized deliberately; sufficient respect for the office to justify capitalization must be earned….) stated his intention to “ask Congress” to reform the NSA regulations on spying…. So far, the president has mouthed his lies just as predicted, and the expected response has gone exactly according to what I said would occur…. It’s a gift…..

No, really, they’re going through ALL the contortions I figured they would, just as if they were paying attention to what I said…. which makes it, sort of, lacking in virtue to rail at them right now…. They’re being so PATHETICALLY stupid, it’s hardly worth the time it takes to run them down, and, in fact, doing so might just be considered abusing the handicapped….

So we’ll do this… Read the article, so you know just what they’re up to, silly as it may be…. Right now, they’re just doing as I said, and creating more questions and confusion around the issue of the torture report Feinstein and the Senate want to see, while Obama came out with some new, toothless suggestions for changes to the regulations that don’t really change much of anything…. all of which is muddying water that was already unclear….

After that, come back to this section, where you’ll find the latter half of this pearl, which will consist of an old-school pearl, with the parameters set, once again, to shoot at our beloved ruling class, in all its ugly glory….

http://www.sfgate.com/news/politics/article/Demands-grow-to-release-Senate-torture-report-5369929.php

“Official truths are often powerful illusions.” — John Pilger, _Distant_Voices_, 1992

“This isn’t Anarchy, this is Chaos.” — Smart Bee

“How difficult it is to save the bark of reputation from the rocks of ignorance.” — Petrarch

MACHINATION, n. The method employed by one’s opponents in baffling one’s open and honorable efforts to do the right thing.

So plain the advantages of machination
It constitutes a moral obligation,
And honest wolves who think upon’t with loathing
Feel bound to don the sheep’s deceptive clothing.
So prospers still the diplomatic art,
And Satan bows, with hand upon his heart.
R.S.K.

— Ambrose Bierce, “The Devil’s Dictionary”

“I looked up the word “politics” in the dictionary and it’s actually a combination of two words; “poli,” which means many, and “tics,” which means bloodsuckers.” — Jay Leno

“Every man’s life, liberty, and property are in danger when the Legislature is in session.” — Gideon J. Tucker

“By all means, take the moral high ground — all that heavenly back lighting makes you a much easier target.” — Solomon Short

Not bad at all for a game of “pick up sticks”, post-neo-intellectual version, eh? I think, in truth, if any pundits forgot to duck, several of them COULD be bleeding now….

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

I found another triple poem, written by a classical author of prose and poetry, in the three-poems-in-one style I like immensely. The effort it takes to even THINK about making one of these is daunting, to be sure, but, some day, I’m going to try my hand at this…. This one, I think, is damn good But, then, Blake DID have a pretty decent reputation, didn’t he?

The Tyger

Tyger! Tyger! burning bright          What the hammer? What the chain?
In the forests of the night,          In what furnace was thy brain?
What immortal hand or eye             What the anvil? What dread grasp
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?      Dare its deadly terrors clasp?

In what distant deeps or skies        When the stars threw down their spears,
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?         And water’d heaven with their tears,
On what wings dare he aspire?         Dare he laugh his work to see?
What the hand dare seize the fire?    Dare he who made the lamb make thee?

And what shoulder & what art,         Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
Could twist the sinews of they heart? In the forests of the night,
And when thy heart began to beat      What immortal hand or eye,
What dread hand & what dread feet?    Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?

~~ William H. Blake (1757-1827), ~~

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

Lao Tzu

This one needs little introduction….

“Life is doing things, not making things.” — Aristotle

“I am ignorant of absolute truth. But I am humble before my ignorance, and therein lies my honour and my reward.” — Kahlil Gibran

“There is nothing stronger in the world than gentleness.” — Han Suyin, “A Many Splendored Thing”

“Time is a sort of river of passing events, and strong is its current; no sooner is a thing brought to sight than it is swept by and another takes its place, and this too will be swept away.” — Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (121-180 AD) — Meditations, iv, 43

“Faith does not offer the least support for proof of truth.” — Nietzsche

“Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.” — T. S. Eliot

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

~~ Nagarjuna (c. 100-200 A.D.) ~~

Honor. Courage. Reason. Patience. Compassion. Humility. Perspective. Not in that order, necessarily, but, all present & accounted for…. I don’t know; it all sounds like a pretty good approach to living, don’t you think?…. Well, I do….

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

Well, ffolkes, I made it. Having done so, and without any bloodshed, I’ll softly fold up my tents, and fade away into the day. See y’all tomorrow, presumably….

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

When I works, I works hard.
When I sits, I sits loose.
When I thinks, I falls asleep.

Which is Why….

Sometimes I sits and thinks,
and sometimes,
I just sits.

gigoid, the dubious

PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.

“SCRAM!!!!!!!!!!”- Oscar the Grouch

À bientôt, mon cherí….

gigoid

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

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gigoid

Exploring Consensual Reality

Tag Archives: Grateful Dead

Howling the eternal ‘yes’….

Lightly flavored with lime….

Steam is just excited water….

Your own, private Readme.txt….

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