A hint of rosemary in the air….

Posted on October 18, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

“I bid him look into the lives of men as though into a mirror, and from others to take an example for himself.”

~~ Terence (185-159 BC) ~~

~~ Adelphoe, Act iii, Sc. 3, 61, (415.) ~~

Being normal isn’t one of my strengths. Never has been, so, I really never miss it, a fact I consider a boon, from what I observe about those who choose to accept it as their option of choice. Now, however, I am approaching fast the farthest end of my life, finding myself in an all-too-familiar sounding situation, where age-related issues become the focus of life, as we try to patch, or support, or remove, or somehow find a fix for all the different parts of our bodies that are showing signs of failing strength, and the approach of the final shut-down sequence….

Euphemisms aside, it’s a pisser, for sure and for certain; in my case, I am also feeling rather insulted…. Here I am, one who followed a path of healthy activity levels all my life, following the advice of doctors, and all the supposed experts on health, who recommend that we be active, eat well, and take care of our bodies by making them work hard…. I played every sport known to the American public, and a few they didn’t know; as soon as I got to college, I started studying martial arts, for which the conditioning goes well beyond what most sports require…. It only makes sense to me; one doesn’t wish to be in a middle of a fight, only to give in to feeling “tired”. The opposing fighter won’t care…. and, it could get you killed or seriously injured…

What all those “experts” forget to mention is the principle of moderation, a principle that overrides all the rest. Moderation is the key to successful living, in almost ALL areas of endeavor; even moderation itself is subject to this, as it is good for us to, occasionally, go beyond our limits, or not reach them. It seems to have a balancing effect necessary to full understanding and utilization; it also tends to soothe those feelings of rebelliousness in all of us, that fights against such restraints, allowing us the inner peace to make good choices as to how to live…. It’s actually simple, and not hard to follow….. it’s just not a well-enough known idea to be of complete use to all….

All of that being said, there isn’t a damn thing to do, at this point, about any of it; it’s now officially too late. All I can do now is deal with my systems as, one by one, they show their characteristics of impending failure… My latest revelation from my doctor indicates I have, as is all too normal, (for me, anyway) become a type 2 diabetic; my blood test over the last 3 years show a distinct climb into the red zone for my blood sugar. So, I now must watch my diet even more closely, start taking a new medication to help regulate the blood sugar, and, worst, I get to puncture a hole in one of my fingers 3 times a day to measure and monitor that blood sugar….. Oh, joy….

It doesn’t seem to help to know I don’t need insulin shots; the pill is now the initial treatment of choice. Having to check my blood 3 times a day is a PITA, which, as my fingers get tired of being poked, will become a chore of duty, which will, possibly, make it okay to maintain, but, will also tend to aggravate the angst, to know it could have been avoided, had I had the wherewithal to make some lifestyle changes a few years ago…. But, with all the confidence of an immortal, I did not, disbelieving that I could ever fall prey to such a NORMAL issue….

HONK!….. That’s my nose going off, by the way…. Oh well, enough whining for one day. I’m gonna go pick on some politicians and preachers for a while; that always makes me feel better…. Having poked my finger for the first time, I am free to do what I wish, and, right now, I wish to Pearl…. So, since I see one of our opportunities right ahead there, at the end of this paragraph, I’ll bid thee a temporary adieu…..

Shall we Pearl?…..

“When I was younger, I could remember anything, whether it had happened or not; but my faculties are decaying now and soon I shall be so I cannot remember any but the things that never happened. It is sad to go to pieces like this but we all have to do it.” — Mark Twain

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I have decided to put the daily video section here, in section one, from now on…. This way, you can start the morning’s reading, (or evening’s, I don’t care when…. as long as you stop by…. *grin*) while listening to the music I’ll provide…. Those times when I use a movie, or documentary, or other video genre, we’ll see; those may go even further down than section two… I wouldn’t want to write too much in stone; bad habit….. Any who, enjoy this one, as it was specifically designed by the site subscriber to accompany reading…. The daily rant will show up in section two today, and, if all goes according to plan, will be seen there from now on….

Music for Reading; Various Classical Artists/Composers

http://youtu.be/Qc7UzQB8gtI

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“He must needes goe whom the devill doth drive.” ~~ John Heywood (c. 1565) — Proverbes, Part ii, Chap. vii ~~

“As you know, I planned a trip out there for some time, so it fits in very nicely.” ~~ president George Bush, on his trip to LA after the riots ~~

“Nobody goes to bed hungry in America” — R. Reagan

“Politicians aren’t born, they are excreted.” — Cicero

“That it should come to this!” ~~ William Shakespeare (1564-1616), Hamlet — Act i, Sc. 2 ~~

The above five-star pearl is a lead-in group, mostly aimed at those with whom the following discussion is concerned. Below you’ll find two links to articles discussing two separate, but related issues from the news yesterday, found in the UK Guardian’s US edition online. They are both in-depth pieces, with a bit of egregiously egotistic back patting in the first one, but, both are more involved, in-depth, and in tune with the truth than any news organization from the US I can find, with the most important issues made clear, the culpability of the responsible parties made obvious, and the downright evil prevarication by the FBI director laid out for all to see…. An excerpt from each follows the article link, identifiable by quotation marks….

After those first two articles, I’ve also included an excellent column on the same subject by one of the Guardian’s staff opinion writers, named Trevor Timm. He gives a good summary of the exact points I wish to cover in his opening paragraph, which I’ve included as an excerpt, below the link. After that, I’ll have a few comments, and we’ll see how it goes from there…. Hitch up your belts, & make sure your backpacks are secured ffolkes, this could take a while…. but, as Lord Peter has been known to say, “This ain’t a joke, Charles! It’s important. Damn important!”…..

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/16/-sp-revealed-whisper-app-tracking-users

“Whisper acknowledged that it researches the location of specific users it believes are posting newsworthy information, but emphasised it typically uses GPS data.”

“Whisper stressed the IP location data it uses for people who have asked not to be followed is rough and unreliable.”

“We occasionally look at user IP addresses internally to determine very approximate location,” the company said. “User IP addresses may allow very coarse location to be determined to the city, state or country level.”

“It added: “Whisper does not request or store any personally identifiable information from users, therefore there is never a breach of anonymity. From time to time, when a user makes a claim of a newsworthy nature, we review the user’s past activity to help determine veracity.”

“The company strongly rejected any assertion of wrongdoing. “The Guardian’s assumptions that Whisper is gathering information about users and violating user’s privacy are false,” it said. “The privacy of our users is not violated in any of the circumstances suggested in the Guardian story.”

“Four days later, Whisper rewrote large sections of its terms of service and introduced an entirely new privacy policy.”

“Whereas the previous terms and conditions described all of Whisper’s tracking of user location as “voluntary”, the new terms now warn users to “bear in mind that, even if you have disabled location services, we may still determine your city, state, and country location”.

“Since becoming aware that the Guardian planned to publish its story, the anonymous app has also inserted a new line into its privacy policy.”

“It now warns users that turning on the app’s geolocation feature may “allow others, over time, to make a determination as to your identity”.

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2014/oct/16/fbi-director-attacks-tech-companies-encryption

“…he recognised their embrace of encryption responded to “perceive[d]” market pressures in the wake of Snowden’s disclosures. But Comey suggested that end-to-end mobile device encryption amounted to a safe haven for criminals.”

“Are we no longer a country that is passionate both about the rule of law and about their being no zones in this country beyond the reach of that rule of law? Have we become so mistrustful of government and law enforcement in particular that we are willing to let bad guys walk away, willing to leave victims in search of justice?” he said.”

“Comey acknowledged that the Snowden disclosures caused “justifiable surprise” among the public about the breadth of government surveillance, but hoped to mitigate it through greater transparency and advocacy.”

“Yet the FBI keeps significant aspects of its surveillance reach hidden even from government oversight bodies. Intelligence officials said in a June letter to a US senator that the FBI does not tally how often it searches “through NSA’s vast hoards of international communications, without warrants, for Americans’ identifying information.”

“Comey frequently described himself as being technologically unprepared to offer specific solutions, and said he meant to begin a conversation, even at the risk of putting American tech companies at a competitive disadvantage.”

“Where we may get is to a place where the US, through its Congress, says, ‘You know what, we need to force this on American companies,’ and maybe they’ll take a hit. Someone in some other country will say, ‘Ah, we sell a phone that even with lawful authority people can’t get into.’ But that we as a society are willing to have American companies take that hit. That’s why we have to have this conversation,” Comey said”

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/oct/17/government-internet-backdoor-surveillance-fbi

“FBI director James Comey wants a US government-mandated backdoor into your iPhone and your Google account. But Comey doesn’t want to call his proposed privacy invasion a backdoor. He doesn’t understand how it would work. And he expects everyone who has been horrified by the NSA’s mass surveillance to just sit back, weaken their personal security and trust that the government will never abuse it.”

“Comey also claimed on Thursday that the “Post-Snowden pendulum” needs to swing back in favor of the government, neglecting to mention Congress has passed literally zero laws reigning in government surveillance. In fact, the main reason the major tech companies are pushing forward with encryption is because the government refuses to follow the will of the people and curtail the NSA’s powers at all. If Comey wanted a careful debate about the right balance of privacy and security before decisions like Apple’s are made, like he also said on Thursday night, maybe he should’ve advocated for that when the NSA was massively expanding their powers for years in complete secrecy.”

“Twitter tweet October 16, 2014: “Comey’s right: Deployment of strong crypto should be preceded by thoughtful debate. Which we had & correctly resolved 15 years ago.— Julian Sanchez (@normative)”

“So while we break out the world’s smallest violin as Jim Comey complains about the “Post-Snowden pendulum”, remember: the US government, through its own secret actions, brought this on themselves.”

I can’t say, with any degree of accuracy, but, I’m pretty sure I’ve never heard such a load of pure bullshit, straight from the bull’s butt, in a very, very long time…. When Richard Nixon raised his peace sign fingers, and stated, “I am not a crook.”, was probably the last time…. I swear, this man, this Comey, who heads up the FBI, obviously has the lowest opinion of the American public’s intelligence of almost anyone I’ve ever seen…. The demon-spawn from hell, Newt Gargoyle, or Gribble, or Grinch, Grngich, or whatever his weird-ass name was, came close on a regular basis, as did that ghoul, Dick Cheney, but, this Über-cop, this gestapo at the head of our nation’s largest domestic police force has, I believe. taken the cake….

Moreover, he implies that anyone who doesn’t support his, and the government’s, grab for power over every aspect of our lives is unpatriotic, a cowardly enemy of American principles, which, according to HIM, start (and, by implication, end…) with submissive respect for the “rule of law”, suggesting that the American public should feel privileged to allow them to have access to ALL of their private information…. Of course, the implied insult here is that only criminals and other unsavory characters should have something to hide from them, and their oh-so-perfect moral position….

What a crock of shit! I can’t say it any plainer than that…. and, I’ve probably said enough by now, anyway…. I’ll leave you with one last wake-up pearl, to think about when you’re assigning blame for what is happening in today’s world….. The FBI director, in his remarks, asks what he considers a rhetorical question, to wit:

“Have we become so mistrustful of government and law enforcement in particular that we are willing to let bad guys walk away, willing to leave victims in search of justice?”

I can only answer with a resounding “Yes, we have! We have lost ALL trust in the police. and the government, with good reason. I wouldn’t trust you to tell me the correct time!”

Well, I might not say that last part to his face, maybe, but, I can assure you, I’d want to, very badly, and would have to exert significant effort of will to refrain from doing so…. though, why I would bother, I don’t know…..

“Who’s the more foolish? The fool or the fool who follows him?” — Obi-Wan Kenobi, “Star Wars”

I was going to leave it at that, but, as I finished, I received an email from EFF, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a non-profit activism organization made up of people, like me, and, hopefully, y’all, who are concerned with keeping the internet free of corporate influence and government oppression, to guarantee the open, free interchange of ideas and communication that characterizes how it is supposed to be, as intended by those who created it…. They are one of the entities who brought suit against the government about this issue, in a suit which is now about to be heard by the Supreme Court, along with several others they have supported, or helped to organize…

Below, I have included three links to articles on their home site, which speak to the information and issues of which we spoke above in this section. Each article clearly explains how the government and other entities are trying to subvert the internet, making it a tool for oppression, rather than a tool for expanding human knowledge and culture…. These explain how the government, and their myrmidons, the police, are working to take away the usefulness of having such a means to spread knowledge, wanting instead to keep it for their own use, which involves the control over our lives they so desperately desire….

Good info, ffolkes, well researched and written, very clearly presented…. I’ve donated to this one, which I don’t do, as a rule, but, they’re working hard to protect US, that is, YOU and ME, so, they deserve my support…. If nothing else, it will give you an idea of how the situation stands today….

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2014/10/even-golden-key-can-be-stolen-thieves-simple-facts-apples-encryption-decision

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2014/09/computercop-dangerous-internet-safety-software-hundreds-police-agencies

http://www.wired.com/2014/10/nsa-mind-bender-wont-tell-info-already-leaked-media/

“The best way to lose freedom is not to do anything.” — Smart Bee

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Once again, to avoid any possible litigation over any blame associated with what I write, we’ll stick to my stuff….. It may not come up to the relative value of one of the classics, but, it will do for our purposes…. I do hope you enjoy it…. that’s something, I guess….

Dreaming, I wait….

In the most patient moments of rationality
kindness flows smoothly in a special milieu,
fallow thoughts speed first from equality
to give no anxious fever, anger to eschew.

Indignant mothers and step-sons in-law
shall fade simply from brilliant to grey,
intoning ritual dogma, fresh, avid, and raw,
falling, falling, in massive pastoral disarray.

Safety lives not, save brightly in ignorant bliss,
it follows us all, silent and infinitely frail,
foremost too often, soft as a virgin kiss,
alive, always eager, willing, and pale.

Intimate knowledge finds only the bold few
with courage and virtue to gift, unbidden.
No solemn royal version may pass in review,
true love for man, never to remain unhidden.

Sweet feathers of Emily’s hope uplift,
calm, drowsy episodes bursting with light,
With final glad cries we set ourselves adrift,
swimming in the oceans of natural delight.

When sorrow is banished, in ages yet to come,
roots solidly anchored, cold and remote,
Ample supplies of kindness sit silent and dumb,
and the old stranger shrugs on his faded coat.

Dreaming, then, I wait with shadows in the night
aspiring to inspire, a message from the muse’s heart
Never forgotten images, framed in color bright,
tempt me only, grieving, steeped in serenity’s arcane art…..

~~ gigoid ~~

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George Carlin. What can I possibly add to all that has been said about this man…. His life spanned the period of time from May 12, 1937 to June 22, 2008…. Even though he lived to the age of 70, in my opinion, he shall ever remains an example of “only the good die young”. He WAS young, even at 70, for, right up to the day he died, his mind looked at the world with a child’s eyes, in a fresh, uncluttered way that allowed him to see through every piece of bullshit the world threw up…. and, as my blogs indicate, that is a LOT of bullshit….

George also had a unique way of making us laugh about all the bad things in life, making them, if not more comfortable, at least more palatable, thus giving us the chance at solving some of them…. I miss his wit, and his vision, which saw through every politician and preacher in the world, no matter what their allegiance… For that alone, I shall always honor his memory, and will always consider him my role model for literary activism, as far as possible for an old curmudgeon with too much time on his hands….

Why, you may ask, are we having another video today? Well, it’s simple…. Smart Bee is on hiatus, for a day or three; it’s been bad, and I had to punish it. For a while, I’ll try to replace any old-school pearls you may have found here in section five with whatever comes to mind…. and, George came to mind first…. Enjoy, ffolkes…. Use the link to find a great many You Tubes, with George, and other comedians, as well…

George Denis Patrick Carlin

http://youtu.be/6_zwB6GLpo4

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The process of creating these little gems has grown to resemble nothing so much as Joseph’s Coat of Many Colors; new methods, tacked up right alongside old ones, or patched over them, give it that apocalyptic look so fashionable now; I couldn’t be prouder if I had tried to make it look that way…. It’s also, at least for today, done, which is my favorite kind of Pearl….

Okay, brain gone, nothing left to use… Must go now, find new parts…. See y’all tomorrow, ffolkes….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid, the dubious

PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.

À bientôt, mon cherí….

Bastardized versions of authentic matzo balls….

Posted on June 5, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

It made for a long day, but, it’s over, and going back there is counterproductive, so we’ll kiss yesterday’s pain and misery goodbye, and take what today has to offer, such as it is….

And good morning to you, such as it is….. Having thus disposed of another day by mostly sleeping, or otherwise helping my consciousness to defer the pain through distraction or drugs, (preferably the latter), I sit here again, beset by the demons of silence, who gleefully steal away every creative thought my mind can conjure in the mornings, no doubt egged on by Murphy himself. There are times when I don’t feel like fighting them off, but, I’ve been up a while now, and have already dealt with them as best I could, with what little bit of wherewithal I possessed…. Trust me, you don’t want to know what I did to get them to back off; it’s illegal in most states, anyway, so I’d rather not say what it was, or how I obtained it…

For that matter, you probably don’t want to know ANY of what I’ve done to find myself at this juncture, and, I can’t much blame y’all for that…. So far, as far as I can tell, this is pretty boring, being little more than a guy blathering about nothing much at all. That, of course, is just what we do here, mostly, but, it does get away from me on occasion (such as now….), dragging us all through a period of nonsense, fantasy, or just plain bullshit, just as if we had the right…. which, of course, we do…. You see, if you stop by to read, you have to read whatever I put here, don’t you? Yes, you do….

It’s that, or go somewhere else, and though a LOT of folks, and some ffolkes as well, have been avoiding this lately, I do like to think I’m doing something worthwhile, if not necessary, or even appreciated. I’m trying to help the world, and though it really doesn’t believe it needs it, it does, so I can’t give up, any more than I can stop breathing…. not if I want to be able to look in the mirror each morning, and still be able to meet my own eyes….

Boy, I’m really lost this morning…. I have no idea how I got to the point of moral/ethical motivation, but, the intro probably isn’t the wisest choice for that type of revelation, though it does indicate a degree of honest self-appraisal you won’t find a lot of places…. But, even if honest, it’s not necessarily interesting, or productive, so, we’ll just drop the whole thing now, and try to get ourselves out of here, and on to the day’s more entertaining material…. Well, we can dream, can’t we?….

Shall we Pearl?…..

He that will not when he may,
When he would he shall have nay.

— John Heywood (c. 1565) — Proverbes, Part i, Chap. iii

And, BOY, is that the perfect pearl for this intro, or what?…..

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The following entry is one I repost on occasion, mainly to save myself the personal drama and upset that dealing with this subject creates in me; it’s one of the quickest ways I know to bring out old PTSD-related feelings, arousing my ire, and my angst, along with other feelings best left unnamed…. However, my unwillingness to feel those destructive emotions doesn’t preclude, or override the necessity for this message to be spread; the picture and quote by Einstein guarantees that much courage as a minimum response, in my book…. Please read, and think about the ideas presented here; it is important, more so than you may think or believe, to a lot of women who are at real risk of more than simple harm….

From 10/20/2012:
Raquel Welch: 36-24-36
Bo Derek: 35-24-36
Ann-Margaret: 37-25-36
Bette Middler: 37-25-36
Marilyn Monroe: 37-24-37
Jane Russell: 39-27-38
Jayne Mansfield: 40-23-37
Sophia Loren: 37-25-36

— Smart Bee (?)

So, sue me. It isn’t what you think, unless you are thinking what I’m thinking. I’m not going to say that isn’t possible, or even unlikely…. unless you are thinking it is about some sexist premise that identifies women as objects. Being male, I’m not an expert on spotting or exposing that, but I’ve been around a long time, and have never held with most of what society holds as true about women, unless spoken by a woman who hasn’t proved to be one of the brainwashed….

No, this list is only here to note that what society seems to project, in magazines and advertising, through fashions and trends sponsored by those who determine such matters (i.e., the moneymen… those corporate snakeheads who control society’s resources) as the image of beauty, is not the same as what public opinion obviously feels about what makes a woman beautiful, in terms of weight and shape. All of the women in the above list were, and/or are, considered to be the visual pinnacle of what the public believes is beautiful, as evidenced by the popularity of their work, in film or on stage…. but none of them are at all similar to what the manipulators of fashion would have us believe is the ideal shape….

Whereas models can only be described as slender or willowy, (actually, to me they all look emaciated….), all the women in the list are what we might call zaftig, or Rubenesque, in their visual proportions….. Personally, I agree with the public…. I find Ann Margaret to be much more pleasant to look at than any model in a magazine that I have EVER seen….. And, the fact that I feel entitled to make a judgment makes me as guilty of objectifying women as a man who utilizes brothels for sex…

Thus, if we grant the truth of that revelation, the mere existence of the list becomes the most objectionable piece of it….. It illustrates that the process of objectification is subtle; just applying such standards to women at all tends to cause people to think of them as objects, rather than as people. Society has been male-oriented for a very long time, a state of affairs justified as “might makes right.” Sadly; a lot of what is wrong in the world can be traced to that unfortunate fact.

Men, all throughout history, because of their own insecurities about their own sexuality, and their fear of women in that respect, have set up society so that women have very little say about what happens to them in life; those decisions are made for them by fathers, brothers, or husbands in most of the world. In order to do this, and not suffer pangs of guilt at every turn, men, and women, are taught that it is okay to objectify women, and to treat them as if they are property…. and property needs to be labeled, hence lists such as the one above….

Yesterday, (note: 10/16/2012…..) rmott62 posted a blog, ( http://rmott62.wordpress.com/2012/10/19/your-lies-are-part-of-our-genocide/), which I re-blogged on my site, speaking about this very subject, to wit: how the language we choose can objectify those of whom it speaks. You can probably get a better idea of how insidiously the issue of victimizing women permeates society by visiting her blog; she speaks powerfully, with no punches pulled, from experience, and with great insight, much more forcefully than I ever can, so I recommend to you, very strongly, that you go to her site, and read what she has to say….

If you listen, and believe, it will change the way you look at much of what passes in our society for normal. It will make you ashamed for not noticing…. Every time I go there to read her posts, that is how I feel, and if it is not the same for other men, (women, too!….), well, it should be, for we are ALL guilty of perpetrating the evil, if only by not acting or speaking up…. Silence on this subject is habitual for most of society, & will be for as long as the victimization of women, and the entire prostitution industry, continues to objectify, demean, and drag women of all ages into perpetual slavery….. with the aid of the language itself, and the tacit approval of all those who won’t look at the issue….

“The makers of fortunes have a second love of money as a creation of their own, resembling the affection of authors for their poems, or of parents for their children … and hence they are very bad company, for they talk of nothing but the praises of wealth.” — Plato (428-348? B.C.)

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In perusing old pearls, which I do sometimes when I’m not up to creating them, I found this old poem of mine, which, apparently, I wrote on 10/17/2012, as it appears in the Pearl for that day…. It’s as good as any I’ve ever done, I’d say….

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 ~~

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Here are some pictures to form a pearl, some of which were taken from other sites…. The first one, of the ship and helicopter, is from the London Daily Telegraph’s Day in Pictures feature from June 3, 2014; the second is an artist’s rendition of a new planet around a distant star found by the Hubble Telescope, & released by NASA. The planet picture was found on a number of different sites, and thus is apparently in the common usage category, as long as it is attributed…. Hope you enjoy today’s pix & comments….
“I had rather have a fool to make me merry than experience to make me sad.” — William Shakespeare (1564-1616), As You Like It — Act iv, Sc. 1

My immediate thought on this was, “What a waste of tax money!”….. The copter shot off this in celebration of D-Day, I believe, and the photo itself was classified as the Armed Forces Photo of the Week, for some publication somewhere put out by the armed services….. which, to me, makes it even more egregiously wasteful…. Can you imagine how much it cost to put those two vehicles in that position, then fire off all 60 flares at once…. I’d wager it came to close to a million dollars, or in this case, pounds, as it was a British ship and copter…. SIGH…. I am very afraid, ffolkes, that we humans just don’t have what it takes to survive much longer…..
“The public have an insatiable curiosity to know everything. Except what is worth knowing. Journalism, conscious of this, and having tradesman-like habits, supplies their demands.” — Oscar Wilde

“The tree of liberty only grows when watered by the blood of tyrants.” — Bertrand Barere (1755-1841) — Speech in the Convention Nationale, 1792

The picture, as noted above, is an artist’s view of the newest planet around a distant star found by the Hubble Telescope, in orbit around Earth…. The two quotes, however, have nothing to do with the picture…. Both of them came up while I was looking for an appropriate pearl to go with the planet, and just insisted on being included…. I think it may be from my growing need to rant, which I have been sublimating for about a week now…. Soon, I think, it will require that I let it loose, or it will cause me some problems in my personal life…. For now, just take these with a bunch of salt, and we’ll go on to better things….. Well, different, anyway….
“To live is so startling it leaves little time for anything else.” — Emily Dickinson

I call this shot, “A Shadow’s Heart”. It happened as I tried to take a close-up of these beautiful yellow roses…. As I lined up the shot, I noticed the position of the shadow, and took it as you see it…. Serendipity strikes again! I knew it was better than hoped for when I found the perfect pearl to accompany the picture, first time out….. Honest…. when I looked for the right pearl, Emily was the first one that came up….. I love it when a plan comes together….
— How many members of the U.S.S. Enterprise does it take to change a light bulb?

7….. Scotty will report to Captain Kirk that the light bulb in the Engineering Section is burnt out, to which Kirk will send Bones to pronounce the bulb dead. Scotty, after checking around, notices that they have no more new light bulbs, and complains that he can’t see in the dark to tend to his engines. Kirk must make an emergency stop at the next uncharted planet, Alpha Regula IV, to procure a light bulb from the natives. Kirk, Spock, Bones, Sulu, and 3 red shirt security officers beam down. The 3 security officers are promptly killed by the natives, and the rest of the landing party is captured. Meanwhile, back in orbit, Scotty notices a Klingon ship approaching and must warp out of orbit to escape detection. Bones cures the native king who is suffering from the flu, and as a reward the landing party is set free and given all of the light bulbs they can carry. Scotty cripples the Klingon ship and warps back to the planet just in time to beam up Kirk et. al. The new bulb is inserted, and the Enterprise continues with its five year mission. — Smart Bee

This is an example of what happens when my mind wanders…. I went to look for an appropriate pearl for the nice close-up of an unknown flower, and got caught up reading this…. I like it, it’s funny, and consistent with the Star Trek venue…. For today, that’s all it needs….
I saw young Harry, with his beaver on,
His cuisses on his thighs, gallantly arm’d,
Rise from the ground like feather’d Mercury,
And vaulted with such ease into his seat
As if an angel dropp’d down from the clouds,
To turn and wind a fiery Pegasus
And witch the world with noble horsemanship.

— William Shakespeare (1564-1616), King Henry IV — Act iv, Sc. 1

Here, at the end of all things, (Well, maybe it’s just the end of this pearl, but, Shakespeare is so dramatic, I thought….. Ah, the hell with it…), I have placed this picture, of the day I went strolling on Portobello Road, in London. I met this Charlie C. impersonator, a mime, who insisted on having a picture taken together….. There’s no meaning, to either the picture, or the accompanying quote…. It just seemed to go together…. Mostly, I just wanted to be done, and, now, I am, so there…..

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

And thank goodness for that….. This Pearl, though partially created beforehand, still took a long time to put together…. In fact, so long, I’m considering returning to my bed, to finish what I should have done before, which is sleep until I’m no longer tired…. Maybe, someday…. For now, I’m going to trust my luck, and go post this…. See ya tomorrow, ffolkes, no matter how bad I feel…. Today is proof I can put out a Pearl practically on my death bed, so, be warned….

Y’all take care out there,
and May the Metaphorse be with you;
Blessed Be, dearest Carole, Mark, and Theresa…
and everyone else, too…When I works, I works hard.
When I sits, I sits loose.
When I thinks, I falls asleep.Which is Why….

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

gigoid the dubious

Squeeze the trigger, don’t yank on it….

Posted on December 22, 2013 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

Can you feel it? Is the taste of real terror becoming familiar to your tongue? If not, you should be paying closer attention, because the signs are all in place now, and the show is about to begin…. or end, however one may choose to view the upcoming events on this planet….. None of those events are going to be much fun for any of us, but, hey, we made our choices, and now we have to pay the piper, to mix a more than just a few metaphors into a cocktail…. the literary equivalent of a Long Island Iced Tea, so to speak….

I’m giving here a bit of a preview, of the rant that will follow today…. This is a post I’ve been considering writing for some time, but, I was procrastinating, as I do with most things, because I am a firm believer in the power of anxiety to produce better work…. Well, it works for me, and always has…. I was a terrible procrastinator in school, but, by choice…. I found that the work that I put out when I was rushed and panicked always seemed to get better grades than the ones I completed in good time. So, for a long while there in high school, I never studied, until the night before a test, or the night before homework was due…

It seemed to work for me, as I got straight A’s my sophomore year, and ended up with a 3.9 grade point average over the course of the four years, good enough to be the class valedictorian, albeit in a very small class; there were only 36 students in my graduating class….. For my four years of high school, I ended up with less than an A grade in only four classes, and all of the work needed to do that was produced at the last minute, at times writing in the final answers for a math homework piece as the class bell rang….. I was shameless, too, in my using it as an excuse, and in using my number one status to aid me in manipulating the teachers, to allow me extra time for assignments, for late papers, etc…..

After completing the schooling I wanted, once I started working, I found that I could still procrastinate, but that I had to be a bit more discrete in choosing when to allow it to happen; not all bosses are as easy as my high school teachers…. But, they are still subject to the same manipulations, from those who do good work, believe me…. Being the one to whom everyone at a job goes to for information or help is a valuable position to assume, and I found it to be useful for my entire career in the workplace….

In the same way that I’ve never wanted to be rich, or famous, I never wanted to “rise to the top” at any job, because I was smart enough to be able to see how much harder those folks had to work than the rest of the myrmidons….. Our corporate masters have rigged the game for their benefit at ALL the levels in which they allow participation in the game of life, and the perks and privileges that go along with large amounts of gelt don’t begin until one reaches the very highest levels, at the point where the amount of money being made is sick and insane, much like the power that goes to the heads of those who go into politics…..

Before this becomes a rant all by itself, I’m going to cut it short…. sort of. A bit late to cut it completely off, since it’s already gotten to the point of cumbersome…. But, six paragraphs of my personal history, and my take on reality, should suffice to act as a sufficient buffer between y’all and the weight, and the moderately dangerous qualities that today’s rant will bring to you….

If not, well, y’all know where the bandages are kept, don’t you?…. I’m torn, between writing the rant, and letting it go for a day or two, but, if I do that, I may not get to it, and it all needs to be said….. We’ll see how it goes as we proceed…. I may have to make some adjustments to account for time; I DO have other things to get done today, and they are of significant import, as well…. so….

Shall we Pearl?…..

“I am only one, but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something; and because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do something that I can do.” — Edmund Everett Hale
_____________________________

Here is yet another example of how much I procrastinate…. I KNOW I need to get the rant done, and I know it will be a hard one to write, as it is a subject close to home for all of us, and my emotions will take a beating in getting it all down…. but, first, we’ll go old-school, because I can, and because I want to…. which is the underlying reason for ALL I do, now that I think of it…. I’ll have to think about that…..

“Talking with you is sort of the conversational equivalent of an out of body experience.” — Calvin & Hobbes

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

“Neither the water nor the moon make any effort to achieve a reflection.” — Deng Ming-Dao

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.)

“We become just by performing just actions, temperate by performing temperate actions, brave by performing brave actions.” — Aristotle

“My generation, faced as it grew with a choice between religious belief and existential despair, chose marijuana. Now we are in our Cabernet stage.” — Peggy Noonan, speech writer for presidents Reagan and Bush, 1996

“I like life. It’s something to do.” — Ronnie Shakes

I love it when the last pearl is so perfect for the grouping…. Besides, in this case, we can only agree with the sentiment, observing that it is a far better arrangement than the alternative…. as far as we know….
_____________________________

Kitten: small “homicidal muffin on legs; affects human sensibilities to the point of endowing the most wanton and ruthless acts of destruction with near-mythical overtones of cuteness. Not recommended for beginners. Get at least two.” — strata@psyche.mit.edu

“The cat would eate fish, and would not wet her feete.” — John Heywood (c. 1565) — Proverbes, Part i, Chap. xi

Why, you may ask, are these here? Well, they just seemed appropriate, in light of today’s poem…. You may have noted that, aside from the rant, and parts of the intro, this Pearl has had a lot of humorous, lighter material, even more than is normal…. This is a deliberate attempt to lighten the mood, because the rant is a tough one… so, enjoy this while you may….

Ode to Spot

Felis Cattus, is your taxonomic nomenclature,
an endothermic quadruped carnivorous by nature?
Your visual, olfactory and auditory senses
contribute to your hunting skills, and natural defenses.

I find myself intrigued by your subvocal oscillations,
a singular development of cat communications
that obviates your basic hedonistic predilection
for a rhythmic stroking of your fur, to demonstrate affection.

A tail is quite essential for your acrobatic talents;
you would not be so agile if you lacked its counterbalance.
And when not being utilized to aide in locomotion,
it often serves to illustrate the state of your emotion.

O Spot, the complex levels of behaviour you display
connote a fairly well-developed cognitive array.
And though you are not sentient, Spot, and do not comprehend,
I nonetheless consider you a true and valued friend.

~~ Lt. Commander Data ~~

from “Schisms”, STTNG

_____________________________

Over the last three years, I’ve been ranting, off and on, about three, or four, groups of people whose actions have been causing the rest of us a hard time, and continue to do so, in spite of our best efforts to get them to cease and desist….. These groups, which I’ve labeled with various derogatory names, just to keep them straight in my mind, and yours, are that part of our species that regards the rest of us as prey….

To these assholes, other people are merely on this planet to see that they are supplied with all they wish to have, no matter how those others may feel about that….. Now, I could go into a lot of psychiatric, and/or psychological reasons for all of that, but the plain and simple truth is that they are assholes…. They were born that way, and have never been anything else…. Why they are that way still is another question, though….

Normally, the universe, in the guise of parents, will supply people with good reasons NOT to be assholes, but, many people never get exposed to those reasons, because their own parents don’t believe in them, but rather have a sense of entitlement that, in their minds, gives them the right to walk all over other people to get what they want…. This entitlement arises from one or more of several ideological repositories, each of which, though based on completely delusional material, is so compelling, and so attractive to the mind that embraces cheating and immorality, that it has been solidly in control of the society in which we exist for the entire history we have endured….

The shadowy corporate masters who control society, and who have done so for millennia, are adept at concealing their presence from all but a few, of whom they have complete control, and nothing to fear…… In this way they have manipulated society for all that time, to have the majority of resources and money under their control, thus giving them very real control over the rest of us, as we all have to eat, and they control the food…. it’s that simple…. That, combined with their willingness to use violence, without any compunctions due to compassion, to achieve their ends, has provided them with the means to maintain their control, and keep the rest of mankind in ignorance….

Now, however, their own ignorance, stupidity, and lack of foresight is going to kill them, and there is NOTHING AT ALL they can do about it….. Read this, please, and take heed of what it implies; note especially what it says between the lines of the statistical facts presented…. In other words, read it critically, so you will understand that to which I’m referring…..

http://www.thenation.com/article/177614/coming-instant-planetary-emergency#

This is it, ffolkes…. I’ve been predicting this moment for a long time, though I’d hoped to be wrong for the entire time…. But, it cannot be denied any longer, not now that we have the concrete evidence of our own imminent demise…. I’ve spoken often of a date when a certain flash point will have been reached…. That point has to do with how fast the temperature of the planet is rising, and the changes this will cause to the atmosphere THAT WE ALL BREATHE…. It is my incredibly sad duty to announce, that flash point has been reached…. The new evidence quoted in this article, regarding how fast the permafrost is melting in the Arctic environments, is not merely scary, it is downright terrifying…. It is clear evidence of that flash point I was referring to, and tells us, without doubt, that our time has come….

Do you know what this means, ffolkes? We are talking about an atmosphere that WITHIN FIFTY YEARS FROM NOW, WILL BE DEADLY FOR US TO BREATHE….. That estimate, of MAYBE fifty years, is now ensured of becoming reality….. That’s all, fifty years….. At that point, we all die, ffolkes, and there is no respite, no relief to be found, because, Hey, IT’S TOO FUCKING LATE!…. That’s correct, ffolkes, it’s already too late….

The flash point has come, and gone, and the chemical imbalances that our species has created on this planet will now proceed to kill us all within the next 100 years… Once the process of change reaches the point of parabolic increase, it is IRREVERSIBLE; it cannot be stopped….. And, yes, that figure is right….. I said a hundred years….. That’s if we’re lucky, and scientists DO find some way to slow the process down, once enough people have panicked enough to start trying to fix what we’ve done…

It can’t be done, though….it’s too late, and there is nothing in our technological bag that will fix what we have broken…. For many years, I held out the hope that, no matter how bad it got, we would find a way, through the magic of science, to fix things…. But, sadly, that hope was never realized, things just went from bad to worse, and, now, have progressed to the worst-case scenario…. I’d hoped that this little aphorism below would be true…..

“If the Catholic church couldn’t stop Galileo, then governments won’t be able to stop things now.” — Carlo de Benedetti of Olivetti on the folly — of trying to regulate information technology

But, it wasn’t true, because, without us knowing it, it was already too late, by the time we got the computers….. It’s a sad thing, one that threatens to make me pretty angry…. So angry, in,fact, that I may even consider breaking some of my own personal commandments, and spending some of my remaining years hunting…. Since I’m sure you won’t misunderstand me about that, and, to also make sure I’m not jumping the gun, so to speak, let me say this…. I am pretty pissed off about this…. None of what is happening was NECESSARY, or even likely, not without deliberate ignorance of the assholes who put themselves in charge of everyone else, trying to grab all they could for themselves…. If those assholes had learned to share, like everyone else, we wouldn’t be having these issues at all….

But, no, because the fucking Christians feel entitled, or better than anyone else…. or because the richest assholes on the planet can’t share…. or because the whites hate the blacks and browns, who hate the yellows, all of whom are afraid of the greens, we have been doomed, sentenced to a gasping, unpleasant death at the hands of our own planet, and our own people….. It’s enough to make a strong man want to give up, and start blasting away…. an event that may very well occur before too long….

I’ll be ranting about this again, ffolkes, and may not stop until I get enough ammo to start my hunting…. Now, don’t get me wrong… I know my hunting won’t fix anything, other than soothing a few of my own feelings about all of this…. But, maybe, just maybe, the game I bring down just MIGHT slow things down, even just a little, and that won’t be a bad thing….

Of course, we’re all going to have to come to terms with the fact of our own demise, and sooner than we had thought…. THAT should be an interesting show, to be sure…… Actually, I’m kind of looking forward to the time when all those asses realize what they’ve done to themselves…. I hope I’m around long enough to see some of them get their comeuppance…..

“This ain’t no technological breakdown. This is the road to hell.” — Smart Bee
_____________________________

So, I’m a bit unhappy with the rant…. I wanted it to be even more of an indictment, of the BRC, of the Priestly Hierarchies, of the Shadowy Master Class, and all their myrmidons in the police and military forces of the world…. I wanted it to be an indictment of all the rapacious, evil assholes who have controlled our society right into the dumps, cackling over their profits and indulging in their perversions, fondling their religious icons before fondling small children…. But, I just didn’t have enough in me to do it right…. this time…. I have a feeling I’ll be writing this rant again a few times, with a different approach, but a similar message… For now, let’s see how it floats…. or flies…. either one will do….

Well, it ain’t bad, and it does say what I wanted to say…. but, my sense of displeasure at its efficacy remains, so you will no doubt be seeing more on this subject before too many days pass…. As I’ve made clear above, there isn’t a lot of time left, and if I want to achieve any of my remaining goals in life, well, I might just have to stop procrastinating….

And won’t that be a good thing?…. Well, I have the feeling there are certain members of the shadowy corporate master group who wouldn’t agree with me, but, then I wouldn’t expect them to, so that’s okay…. Their disapproval won’t take them out of the scope’s range…. See you tomorrow, friends…..

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid

Patterns of dark, and darker…..

Posted on November 11, 2013 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

As you all (or even just both of you…. 😆 ) may have noted, I did not post yesterday, with good reason…. Due to the cold that has kicked my ass all week, and my increasing frailty in a physical sense overall, I had to take a full day of rest, at the end of my trip south, to rest enough to drive home…. I found a comfortable motel about 50 miles north of where I had the meetings with my old classmates, the 50 miles being the sum total of miles I had it in me to drive on Friday. I posted Saturday morning, as the motel had a very fast internet connection, then spent the rest of the entire day sleeping like the dead. At 0300 on Sunday morning, I arose to drive home, as that time of day, between 0300 and 0800 or so, seems to be my most active, and I figured I could make the 140 miles without too much problem…..

This was a foolish notion, as it turned out… I had to really push myself to make it, and still had to stop for a short nap halfway home, at a gas station by a closed McCafe, somewhere north of San Jose. I made it, but it was no cinch, fighting pain, fatigue, and restlessness all at once while trying to drive…. Then, after a couple hours of sleep, I got up again, to drive to Sonoma, where I visited with my grandson for an hour, (all the court allows) then drove home and crashed again…. It’s now almost 0430 AM, and I’m up, unable to sleep any more, despite still feeling exhausted…. too much pain, between the back spasms, and the ripping headache centered between my eyes, which dutifully threatens to blow off the top of my head when I cough….

I don’t mean to whine, but this is getting old, ffolkes…. I really am getting tired of the pain, and wish there was something that would cut through all of it long enough for me to sleep for oh, say, just four hours straight? That would be lovely, and so welcome….. But, ’tis not to be, at least not today, so I may as well try to push through it to get something done here…. Since times like these are all I have left to convince myself I’m still a tough old coot, I will, as far as I can….

My visits with my mates were wonderful…. I got to SEE four of my classmates, whom I hadn’t seen in a very long time, one of them since graduation in 1968 (hmm… that’s way too long… 45 years….) Chuck looks grand, and in great shape, (possibly the best of all of us, since he was the baby of the class…. he’s still only 62…. for a couple of days more….) Vicki looks practically the same as she did in high school, only better, and Carolyn and Laura were much the same as with Vicki, at least compared to me, and the degree to which I’ve changed shapes…. All three of them became even more beautiful as women than they were as teenage girls, and that is saying a lot, as I was fortunate to be in a class that was full of ‘foxes’, (as we used to say, back in the days before political correctness….)… Even back then, I felt that there wasn’t a single girl in our class that could be described as less than average looking, and the grown-up versions are even more beautiful, at least to my old eyes….

The only thing about all of the visits I regret is that there wasn’t more time, to hang out, to just talk, but, what we had was wonderful…. plus, now that we’ve established contact, and obtained promises to stay in touch, there will be time to say all the things that we didn’t get to relate in person…. All three of the ladies I saw are now joining the ranks of the Pearly Gates, and will, no doubt, eventually have to say SOMETHING about my ramblings…. they’ve known me long enough not to be shocked by most of it, but, some of it will no doubt prompt reactions, and that will be grand…. I live for dialogue… Chuck has been getting them for a year or two, and is probably immune by now…. 😉

Of course, as is made patently obvious from this blog, I live for monologue, as well…. and that is about enough of that for one morning…. I could ramble a long time about our visits, but, it’s probably best to get on with today’s dive for pearls, since I’m not sure how long I can last before crapping out again…. Thankfully, being retired, I have nothing so urgent on my plate that it can’t be tossed without harm to my schedule…. The absolute BEST part of retirement is that my schedule is all my own, even more so than when I was a kid, with no responsibilities other than to family; I am the only one who gets to make my plans, and THAT is a powerful tool, indeed…. Any who….

Shall we Pearl?….

“Neither do the ignorant seek after wisdom. For herein is the evil of ignorance, that he who is neither good nor wise is nevertheless satisfied with himself; he has no desire for that of which he feels no want.” — Plato (428-348? B.C.)
_____________________________

“Only great masters of style can succeed in being obtuse.” — Oscar Wilde

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

As I have said before, there is more to Keats than meets the eye at first glance…. and this is proof positive my assertion is correct. For several years now, I have included the occasional pearl that spoke of Shakespeare, and how I believe him to be one of the most over-rated, over-quoted, and over-publicized authors of all time. Oh, he was prolific, indeed, and in all that stuff he produced, there was bound to be a winner or two…. But, for the main part, most of what he wrote was just plain bad, and, moreover, I think he knew it, deliberately couching a lot of his creative impulse in language so impenetrable, people just gave up on it, saying aloud how wonderful it was, just so everyone else wouldn’t know they hadn’t actually finished reading all of it….

I don’t expect y’all, or anyone, to accept such a premise without some proof, so, I offer the following, which are a number of examples of Will at his most dense and unknowable, so convoluted in concept and delivery that most folks just say, “oh, how pretty!” and let it go at that…. Whereas, I say, “Bullshit! This doesn’t MEAN anything, and, moreover, is so convoluted, it is impenetrable to the intellect”…. As further indication of how much of his work is of this nature, I must report that there are over a thousand quotes in SB from Will, and only about twelve of them are what I’d consider good literature…. the rest is just crap, that his publicists have made people believe is so good, they don’t understand it…. I call BS, and offer the following as proof…. As usual, my comments are parenthesized….

About some act
That has no relish of salvation in ‘t. — William Shakespeare (1564-1616), Hamlet — Act iii, Sc. 3

(Huh? What?…. Sorry, couldn’t catch any meaning, before the play’s action took us somewhere else….)

And let me wring your heart; for so I shall,
If it be made of penetrable stuff. — William Shakespeare (1564-1616), Hamlet — Act iii, Sc. 4

(Again, huh? What the hell is he talking about? And don’t tell me there is a cultural meaning that is only clear to those who lived in his time…. I’d bet NOBODY understood it, even back then….)

The weakest goes to the wall. — William Shakespeare (1564-1616), Romeo and Juliet — Act i, Sc. 1

(Really? Why is that?…)

Potations pottle-deep. — William Shakespeare (1564-1616), Othello — Act ii, Sc. 3

(This one is particularly dense, even considering the language changes over the intervening 400 years…)

Adversity’s sweet milk, philosophy. — William Shakespeare (1564-1616), Romeo and Juliet — Act iii, Sc. 3

(Eeuuuw! Disgusting image….)

But in the gross and scope of my opinion,
This bodes some strange eruption to our state. — William Shakespeare (1564-1616), Hamlet — Act i, Sc. 1

(Maybe politics was different back then, but, still, what does this MEAN?….)

That he is mad, ‘t is true: ‘t is true ‘t is pity;
And pity ‘t is ‘t is true. — William Shakespeare (1564-1616), Hamlet — Act ii, Sc. 2

All I can say is, ‘t is indeed a pity…. the pity is we spend so much time lionizing this man as a writer, when all he was, in reality, was his time’s most prolific hack, but with a really good publicist…. In today’s world, he would have been the highest paid writer at the National Enquirer…..
_____________________________

Since I used Keats as the lead for the above Shakespeare mini-rant, here is something to bolster my opinion of him, and his work, which is, needless to say, much better appreciated around here than Will….

An Extempore

When they were come into Faery’s Court
They rang — no one at home — all gone to sport
And dance and kiss and love as faerys do
For Faries be as human lovers true —
Amid the woods they were so lone and wild
Where even the Robin feels himself exil’d
And where the very books as if affraid
Hurry along to some less magic shade.
‘No one at home’! the fretful princess cry’d
‘And all for nothing such a dre[a]ry ride
And all for nothing my new diamond cross
No one to see my persian feathers toss
No one to see my Ape, my Dwarf, my Fool
Or how I pace my Otaheitan mule.
Ape, Dwarf and Fool why stand you gaping there
Burst the door open, quick — or I declare
I’ll switch you soundly and in pieces tear.’
The Dwarf began to tremble and the Ape
Star’d at the Fool, the Fool was all agape
The Princess grasp’d her switch but just in time
The Dwarf with piteous face began to rhyme.
‘O mighty Princess did you ne’er hear tell
What your poor servants know but too too well
Know you the three great crimes in faery land
The first alas! poor Dwarf I understand
I made a whipstock of a faery’s wand
The next is snoring in their company
The next the last the direst of the three
Is making free when they are not at home.
I was a Prince — a baby prince — my doom
You see, I made a whipstock of a wand
My top has henceforth slept in faery land.
He was a Prince the Fool, a grown up Prince
But he has never been a King’s son since
He fell a snoring at a faery Ball
Your poor Ape was a Prince and he poor thing
But ape — so pray your highness stay awhile
‘Tis sooth indeed we know it to our sorrow —
Persist and you may be an ape tomorrow —
While the Dwarf spake the Princess all for spite
Peal’d the brown hazel twig to lilly white
Clench’d her small teeth, and held her lips apart
Try’d to look unconcerned with beating heart.
They saw her highness had made up her mind
And quaver’d like the reeds before the wind
And they had had it, but O happy chance
The Ape for very fear began to dance
And grin’d as all his uglyness did ache–
She staid her vixen fingers for his sake
He was so very ugly: then she took
Her pocket mirror and began to look
First at herself and [then] at him and then
She smil’d at her own beauteous face again.
Yet for all this — for all her pretty face
She took it in her head to see the place.
Women gain little from experience
Either in Lovers, husbands or expense.
The more their beauty the more fortune too
Beauty before the wide world never knew.
So each fair reasons — tho’ it oft miscarries.
She thought her pretty face would please the fa[e]ries.
‘My darling Ape I wont whip you today
Give me the Picklock sirrah and go play.’
They all three wept but counsel was as vain
As crying cup biddy to drops of rain.
Yet lingeringly did the sad Ape forth draw
The Picklock from the Pocket in his Jaw.
The Princess took it and dismounting straight
Trip’d in blue silver’d slippers to the gate
And touch’d the wards, the Door full courteously
Opened — she enter’d with her servants three.
Again it clos’d and there was nothing seen
But the Mule grasing on the herbage green.
End of Canto xii.

Canto the xiii.
The Mule no sooner saw himself alone
Than he prick’d up his Ears — and said ‘well done!
At least unhappy Prince I may be free —
No more a Princess shall side saddle me
O King of Othaiete — tho’ a Mule
‘Aye every inch a King’ — tho’ ‘Fortune’s fool.’
Well done — for by what Mr. Dwarfy said
I would not give a sixpence for her head.’
Even as he spake he trotted in high glee
To the knotty side of an old Pollard tree
And rub’d his sides against the mossed bark
Till his Girths burst and left him naked stark
Except his Bridle — how get rid of that
Buckled and tied with many a twist and plait.
At last it struck him to pretend to sleep
And then the thievish Monkies down would creep
And filch the unpleasant trammels quite away.
No sooner thought of than adown he lay
Sham’d a good snore — the Monkey-men descended
And whom they thought to injure they befriended.
They hung his Bridle on a topmost bough
And of[f] he went run, trot, or anyhow–

~~ John Keats ~~

A bit long, I’ll admit, but, oh, so much better, in imagery, in feeling, in CLARITY of thought…. Yay, Keats….
_____________________________

So far, what has happened is pretty amazing…. not for its brilliance, which is obviously less than blinding, but for the fact it is done at all… My head is still pounding behind my right eye (maybe it’s a tumor! Oh, no!….), my back is still spasming, if a bit less dramatically, and I’m still awake, sadly…. But, the coffee is good, and so is the poetry, so, I’m content…. Content enough to go for an old-school pearl, if Smart Bee will cooperate…. If nothing else, it will get us through another day here at ECR without any major catastrophes of a real-time nature….. Let’s see what’s in there today for us to find….

“Get a shot off FAST! This upsets him long enough to let you make your second shot perfect.” — Lazarus Long

“It is better to be violent, if there is violence in our hearts, than to put on the cloak of nonviolence to cover impotence.” — Mohandas K. Gandhi

“It matters not how long you live, but how well.” — Publius Syrus (42 BC) — Maxim 829

Much water goeth by the mill
That the miller knoweth not of. — John Heywood (c. 1565) — Proverbes, Part ii, Chap. v

” “. . . Eye of Newt, toe of frog . . .”, believed to be the first recipe for an explosive mixture — …the forerunner of gunpowder”– Smart Bee

“Sick cultures show a complex of symptoms … but a *dying* culture invariably exhibits personal rudeness. Bad manners. Loss of consideration for others in minor matters. A loss of politeness, of gentle manners, is more significant than is a riot.” — Friday’s boss, Dr. Richard “Two-sticks” Baldwin, in Robert Heinlein’s “Friday”

“Hey! You’ve been taking drugs again, haven’t you?”– Smart Bee

Okay, I give up…. Smart Bee is in a mood, and doesn’t want to play nice, so we’re going to go now, and leave you to your own ruminations, which could be no more confusing than any of the forgoing…..
_____________________________

No matter how weird this one turns out to be, it’s still getting posted, if for no other reason than to verify my own stubbornness and lack of any sort of pride….. Let’s see just how strange it turned out, shall we?…..

I like to consider myself a well-read, well-rounded person, with a very good vocabulary at hand for my immediate use, but, I’m struck speechless by this…. you wish…. 🙂 No, really, given the handicaps under which it was created, it’s pretty, well, not bad…. Definitely meets all the parameters for your average Daily Pearl, so, off it will go, to be sent via the cloud to about 50 or so private recipients, followed by posting to the internet, for the thirteen other regular readers I have remaining…. Such as it is, it’s the best I’ve got…. I hope y’all enjoy it…. Me, I’m going back to bed, hopefully, to sleep for a couple of hours to get me through the day…. I’ll be back tomorrow, and if you receive no other threats like that today, consider yourself lucky…..

😈

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid

Filled with fanatical fervor for fennel cakes….

Posted on August 1, 2013 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

“The attacker must vanquish; the defender need only survive.” I had forgotten this lesson, until today, when Smart Bee remembered it for me. It’s one I learned a long time ago, first learning to use it in a physical sense, then later hearing it spoken aloud, and explored as a concept one may use to form strategy and/or tactics, and ultimately, use to deal with real issues in life. I’m not sure, but it probably originated in The Art of War, the classic tome by Sun Tzu, that is still used today in military colleges all over the world, as the primer in that subject, the basic knowledge that all warriors need to understand. It is also an idea that many writers could use to make life easier, should they choose to observe it in their work….

I’ve been approaching this whole writing thing with a bass-ackwards POV, assuming that certain standards needed to be met, in order to consider myself successful. In point of fact, nothing of the sort is true, and following that path only leads to ultimate frustration, as one’s needs and desires bump up against Reality, always a sure-fire clusterfuck.

In Reality, standards only exist for the convenience of the natives; they don’t really apply to the real world at all, as the parameters for that are completely flexible, and change all the damn time. Reality doesn’t CARE, you see, only we do, so we try to place our own hang-ups, our neurotic need for some kind of understandable order, onto Reality’s shoulders, whereupon it just shrugs it off, every time….

The truth of the matter is that all I need to do is please myself, and not worry about the rest of it….. The purpose behind my performing this exercise is to maintain some semblance of sanity…. I’ve found that if I DON’T get this stuff out of my head, it tends to cause problems for me, and ultimately, for everyone else with whom I come into contact.

I am afraid that if I didn’t get it out of there, it could eventually creep out into the real world, and start affecting the parameters of the space-time continuum, with unpredictable, but most likely bad, results for everyone. Sudden shifts in how space and time operate are not particularly welcomed with glee by most of this universe’s inhabitants; they tend to get annoyed, once they’ve stopped screaming in abject terror….

As you might guess, I don’t want that to happen, so, I try to get all this out of my brain every day, lest bad stuff occur… it’s just better for everyone if I do…. Yep, that’s me all over…. altruistic and generously compassionate. See, it says so, right here on the label….. If you can buy into that, I’d like to speak to you later about an investment opportunity, just for you, with no risk attached…. Bring cash, okay?….

Since I’ve made this decision, which, essentially says that I can do whatever I damn well please, I feel a lot better, understandably. It takes a lot of pressure off to know that one needn’t give a shit about anything anyone thinks, or anything anyone can do; quite liberating, you know? I’m not sure as to how that will translate into the pearls, but, hey, any changes are good, as we say around here…. Besides, how could it get worse? Here now, stop that snickering, and be nice….

Shall we Pearl?….
_____________________________

These days, the urge to rant is almost constant…. the primary stimulant is always a news headline, and is always out there somewhere, on the net, the radio, the TV, or in a newspaper, for me to find. I seldom need to even read the articles behind the headlines, as the irony comes clear quite well without doing so, and reading the entire set of lies that the pundits are trying to sell us just makes me more angry, which can make the rant more vicious.

No, there isn’t any difficulty in finding rantable material, the issue I’m having is in the motivation to do so, which seems to be waning a bit, leaving me feeling lazy…. It’s waning, I know, because my overall life is making me happier than it has in a long time, so it’s not as if I want that to change; that would be downright stupid.

It does make for less compelling Pearls, though, even though I think they are best when they’re a bit obscure. I was always taught that obscurity, used in this fashion, makes people work their minds harder, and that’s always a good thing, so that’s what I do…. Ranting is for ME, to get that angst out of my head….. creating old-school pearls is done with the reader in mind, to entertain and challenge, hopefully mixing in a bit of humorous irony, just for flavor (it’s the chef in me…. gotta feed people, even if only their heads….).

What I’m winding up to say here is that once again, we’ll go with an old-school pearl in this section today, because I’m not going to rant, having decided to leave that off today’s menu, as explained, in no doubt excessive length, above…. So, sit on back, relax, and limber up the old gray cells, ’cause this pearl’s for you!….

“Your knowledge would be useless without my ignorance!” — gigoid (Just kidding, found it in Smart Bee…. but, I could have said it!….)

“If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude. Don’t complain.” — Maya Angelou

“Aristotle was famous for knowing everything. He taught that the brain exists merely to cool the blood and is not involved in the process of thinking. This is true only of certain persons.” — Will Cuppy

“The Golden Rule is of no use to you whatever unless you realize it is your move.” — Frank Crane

“He thought he saw a Buffalo
Upon the chimney-piece:
He looked again, and found it was
His sister’s husband’s niece.
‘Unless you leave this house,’ he said,
‘I’ll send for the Police!'”

— Lewis Carroll, “Sylvie and Bruno”

There! If that isn’t inscrutable enough for you, you’ll have to look elsewhere for your curly fries…. Oh, hell, okay…. Here’s a couple more, just so nobody can complain about not getting enough information to work with….

“We are born for a higher destiny than that of earth.- There is a realm where the rainbow never fades, where the stars will spread out before us like islands that slumber on the ocean, and where the beings that pass before us like shadows, will stay in our presence forever.” — Bulwer-Lytton (1803-1873)

“A string of excited, fugitive, miscellaneous pleasures is not happiness; happiness resides in imaginative reflection and judgment, when the picture of one’s life, or of human life, as it truly has been or is, satisfies the will, and is gladly accepted.” — George Santayana

Okay, if THAT isn’t enough, it’s simply too bad, because these two, in conjunction with the other five, make up a damn good set of directions for enlightenment, for those who care to follow it to its logical end…. Never tell me I never give anything away for free….
_____________________________

In keeping with today’s theme of altered parameters and distorted paradigm, I give you a poem of mine, one that I’m quite proud of, all in all, and seemed to fit in to today’s theme… or not, but, hey, it’s at least got a good message of its own….

Off the proverbial cuff….

I never meant to kill that period of time,
it didn’t give me any choice.
It tried to hem me in without reason, or rhyme,
refused me any vote, or any voice.

You have to admit, I buried it deep and fast,
just as if I cared.
I knew, though, it would never last,
or ever be fully repaired.

No news, no pictures can bring it back,
once is all we get.
No pleas of public good, or even public lack;
in stone the past is set.

Futuristic visions now occupy my dreams,
I’m ready to go on.
Look! It fills up the screen, and it gleams!
Where’s the moment I’m sitting on?

Now, I remembered, at long, long last,
is all we really can hold.
Every moment goes by so bloody fast,
we’d best fill them all with beauty, warm and bold.

~~ gigoid ~~

_____________________________

“.. I see TOILET SEATS…” — Zippy the Pinhead

More often than not, Zippy seems to show up either as the opening pearl for a group, or as the concluding pearl. He often ends up in the middle of a group, too, probably more often than anybody but Smart Bee, whose only limiting factor is whether or not Google can find out who originated an unattributed quote….

The above, for some unknown reason, (and, no, I don’t want to know….), just reached out and grabbed me, saying, “Use ME!”, and I thought to myself, “Why not?”…… I’m pretty easy about that sort of thing, as you’ve seen….. Any who, what this means is another old-school pearl, as this is just too broad a statement to use for a rant….

I suppose it could conceivably be translated into an unusual sort of metaphor for society, or the mountains of knowledge (I can see them now, forests of toilet seats, reaching off into the distance as far as the eye can see from the top of the mountain….), but, even I have my limits, thankfully. NO, instead we’ll just let SB, and Zippy, figure out what they want said, and pick out the quotes that will shine the light on that path…. I hope….

“A hard beginning maketh a good ending.” — John Heywood (c. 1565) — Proverbes, Part i, Chap. iv

“A human being is a part of the whole, called by us Universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest–a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole nature in its beauty.” — Albert Einstein

“To set the mind above the appetites is the end of abstinence, which one of the Fathers observes to be, not a virtue, but the groundwork of a virtue.” — Johnson

“Freedom is meaningless unless you can give to those with whom you disagree.” — Thomas Jefferson

“Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge of Truth and Knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods.” — Albert Einstein

“Muddy water let stand becomes clear.” — Lao Tse

“I’m mentally OVERDRAWN! What’s that SIGNPOST up ahead? Where’s ROD STERLING when you really need him?” — Zippy the Pinhead

Okay, pay attention, please…. Back away from the screen, and carefully put down the mouse… We ended up in a place where the slightest wrong movement could produce a head-bomb of such destructive power, it could wipe out years of preconceived notions, a circumstance for which my insurance is not nearly extensive enough, neither to cover any damages that would ensue, nor provide any needed therapy in the coming years, should someone make a mistake….

There, all safe now… Sorry, didn’t expect that, but, that’s what happens sometimes when I let Zippy have his way. I think that’s probably enough fun for one day….
_____________________________

I happen to agree…. that’s probably enough for one day, fun or not….. Let’s check it out for typos and inconsistencies…. well, typos, anyway….

I’m forced to admit, some days it just comes out better than others…. Some day, I’ll figure out how to make that true for every day. For now, though, this will do quite nicely, and right on time, too! Sans further folderol….. Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you….

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

Jack in to any available node….

Posted on June 26, 2013 by gigoid

Ffolkes,
‘Tisn’t often one has the chance to upstage Murphy; therefore, Bozo that I am, I bit the bullet, and wore the yarmulke. It wasn’t any skin off my nasal unit, and it made the Duchess happy, so I didn’t see any reason not to…. that is, not until someone showed me the latest post from the South. In the event there isn’t any loose powder available in those quantities, some of the regulated sort was included to soften the blow. Also, rather than attempting a newly hatched plot, one of the those cute, but legal sub-plots can act as chaperon, or, perhaps, as resident sycophant. All seven of the first born heirs are slotted to attend the ceremony, in the full regalia of their office…..

Okay, enough of that…. I haven’t practiced my piffle for a while, and it shows…. I used to be able to put out a paragraph like that in jig time. Now, it takes me half a cup of coffee and more just to get this far without working meself into a frenzy. Of course, at this stage of the process, frenzy is good, or so they tell me….. Regardless of all that, it felt good to get it out, and is certainly better for all parties on the screen, than it would be sitting in my head, decaying…..

I’m in a bit of a mood, what with trying not to explode from waiting until Saturday, and dealing with the last week of details for the trip. Today, I have to go pick up the last of the stuff needed for lift-off, and hope like hell the new computer I ordered arrives in time to configure it before I leave; otherwise, I’ll have to spend more time than I want to in getting it ready for use on the trip. Since I don’t use ANY of the software packages that come with new comps, but use free stuff I get off the Internet (Firefox, Thunderbird, Anti-virus, firewall, open source office software, etc…..), it takes a bit of time to get all of it downloaded, and installed….

I can do all that, but, I wanted to have it done before leaving, rather than having to spend time on board to get it set up…. Ah well, the corporate agency who is supposed to be sending it doesn’t care what I want, and there isn’t anything I can do at this point but be patient…. I can be so, for the right reasons, but indifference is one I have a hard time accepting, even when inevitable….. C’est la vie, as I’ve had occasion to say before…. One must pick one’s battles, I guess, and this week is not one to begin a new conflict; I have quite enough to think about, thank you, and don’t need to get worked up over stuff I can’t change….. Damn, when did I get old?…

Time was, I’d have jumped into the fray with the computer company, nagging them mercilessly for dragging their feet on this order, right up to the day the article was due, earning the undying enmity of numerous telephone droids, and, hopefully, annoying at least a couple of mangers in the process. Today, however, I’m old, and choose instead to put off or even dismiss any angst over the enforced wait, and just go with the flow, trusting to my own skill to get done what needs being done on the computer, even if it doesn’t arrive until 5 PM Friday, the absolute last time and day the company legally has to get it delivered, without breaking their own contract….. I can’t say which method is more effective, but, this way I save myself a lot of uproar….

Plus, there is the added bonus of providing myself with an almost endless supply of useless prattle to use in these intro sections….. which, I see, has reached a limit of legality, and is good to go…. which is also good, as I will need the time….. Any who, I suppose it’s time to get this slow on the road (no typos…), so I’ll stop tormenting y’all now….. Shall we Pearl?…..
_____________________________

A new blogger came by to read my blog a few days ago, and ended up following it… Since I always try to check out the site of anyone who does so, I went over there to see it, and found it to be interesting, with an apparent array of subject matter that is frequently discussed here on ECR…. The post for June 17 was one I found to be not only amusing, but sharp as a stiletto, and just as dangerous for those who tend to use their brains to sit on…. The title tells us the nature of the list that comprises the post, a list which I found to be ironically funny, and quite telling as an indictment of the BRC ( my own nemesis, which can lay claim to all of these observations)….. For example, it begins like this….

“All men are created equal” was written by people who kept slaves……..
The “Bible” was written by people who believed that the world was flat
“In God We Trust” Is not ‘Separation of Church and State;…..”

You’ll find the full post here:

http://fkuverymuchandhavaniceday.wordpress.com/2013/06/17/fallacies-and-the-illusion-of-freedom-by-connie-sambrook/

I had intended to use some of the statements as part of a rant, but, instead, I am going to just highlight my new friend’s blog, and let her words stand alone… perhaps I will use some at a later date, as there is much here on which I have previously spoken, and, I am shameless in exploiting what I need to use in a rant…. as all authors must be…. No worries, I always give complete attribution…. Any who, check out Ms. Sambrook’s blog… She’s just getting started, and will appreciate the welcome by the WordPress family….

Plus, it gives me a complete section, saving me a LOT of time, which I need today to get stuff done out in the Big Blue Room… Enough dithering, onward…..

“Live in a world of your own, but always welcome visitors.” — Smart Bee
_____________________________

I believe I mentioned that I’m in a mood…. and the only way to effectively deal with that is to stir a bit of classicism into the pot…. Well, it works for me….

Ode To Psyche

O Goddess! hear these tuneless numbers, wrung
By sweet enforcement and remembrance dear,
And pardon that thy secrets should be sung
Even into thine own soft-conched ear:
Surely I dreamt to-day, or did I see
The winged Psyche with awaken’d eyes?
I wander’d in a forest thoughtlessly,
And, on the sudden, fainting with surprise,
Saw two fair creatures, couched side by side
In deepest grass, beneath the whisp’ring roof
Of leaves and trembled blossoms, where there ran
A brooklet, scarce espied:

Mid hush’d, cool-rooted flowers, fragrant-eyed,
Blue, silver-white, and budded Tyrian,
They lay calm-breathing, on the bedded grass;
Their arms embraced, and their pinions too;
Their lips touch’d not, but had not bade adieu,
As if disjoined by soft-handed slumber,
And ready still past kisses to outnumber
At tender eye-dawn of aurorean love:
The winged boy I knew;
But who wast thou, O happy, happy dove?
His Psyche true!

O latest born and loveliest vision far
Of all Olympus’ faded hierarchy!
Fairer than Ph{oe}be’s sapphire-region’d star,
Or Vesper, amorous glow-worm of the sky;
Fairer than these, though temple thou hast none,
Nor altar heap’d with flowers;
Nor virgin-choir to make delicious moan
Upon the midnight hours;
No voice, no lute, no pipe, no incense sweet
From chain-swung censer teeming;
No shrine, no grove, no oracle, no heat
Of pale-mouth’d prophet dreaming.

O brightest! though too late for antique vows,
Too, too late for the fond believing lyre,
When holy were the haunted forest boughs,
Holy the air, the water, and the fire;
Yet even in these days so far retir’d
From happy pieties, thy lucent fans,
Fluttering among the faint Olympians,
I see, and sing, by my own eyes inspir’d.
So let me be thy choir, and make a moan
Upon the midnight hours;
Thy voice, thy lute, thy pipe, thy incense sweet
From swinged censer teeming;
Thy shrine, thy grove, thy oracle, thy heat
Of pale-mouth’d prophet dreaming.

Yes, I will be thy priest, and build a fane
In some untrodden region of my mind,
Where branched thoughts, new grown with pleasant pain,
Instead of pines shall murmur in the wind:
Far, far around shall those dark-cluster’d trees
Fledge the wild-ridged mountains steep by steep;
And there by zephyrs, streams, and birds, and bees,
The moss-lain Dryads shall be lull’d to sleep;
And in the midst of this wide quietness
A rosy sanctuary will I dress
With the wreath’d trellis of a working brain,
With buds, and bells, and stars without a name,
With all the gardener Fancy e’er could feign,
Who breeding flowers, will never breed the same:
And there shall be for thee all soft delight
That shadowy thought can win,
A bright torch, and a casement open at night,
To let the warm Love in!

~~ John Keats ~~

_____________________________

This will be a speed pearl, picked randomly, as fast as I can find them…. gotta go, gotta go, gotta go right now…..

“Men do less than they ought, unless they do all that they can.” — Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) Scottish historian

“Anyway, I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and nobody’s around — nobody big, I mean — except me. And I’m standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff — I mean if they’re running and they don’t look where they’re going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That’s all I’d do all day. I’d just be the catcher in the rye. I know it; I know it’s crazy, but that’s the only thing I’d really like to be. I know it’s crazy.” — J. D. Salinger, “Catcher in the Rye”

“Every cocke is proud on his owne dunghill.” — John Heywood (c. 1565) — Proverbes, Part i, Chap. xi

“Who shall silence all the airs and madrigals that whisper softness in chambers?” — John Milton (1608-1674) — Areopagitica

“He who fights with monsters might take care, lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.” — Friedrich Nietzsche, (1844-1900), “Beyond Good and Evil” IV, 146

Well!…. That was exceptional! I’ll have you know, this is possibly the best pearl I’ve put up in a long time… and it took a total of nine minutes to find… I’m a happy camper…. 🙂 And, yes, I AM easily amused….
_____________________________

I’d spend some time to compose a brilliant finish to this; section three deserves it…. But, time presses, and I have a bus to catch in twenty-two minutes, so…. Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

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

Clocks are intensely rabid this month….

Posted on November 12, 2012 by gigoid

Ffolkes,
“Peculiar” seems to be the word that governs my current existence…. I’m giving up…. It’s not quite 5 AM, and I am once again sitting here staring at the screen, wondering what form today’s madness will take. I’ve been tossing and turning since about 3, trying mightily to convince myself to resume slumber, but two hours of that is enough. It means another day of intermittent fatigue, coupled and contrasted with periods of manic activity designed to keep my head occupied with anything but my situation. Fortunately, the pain is only half of what is keeping me from sleeping. Somehow, it is easier to deal with the angst and emotional distress that comes with the insomnia than it is with the pain when it is sufficient to cause me to awaken…. I can’t say why that is, but, there you go…. one more mystery for the ages…..

Since I’m up, I suppose I’ll start in on today’s Pearl; all the books I’m currently reading don’t seem to appeal this time of day. I’ve been reading some old mystery stories by G.K. Chesterton, whose work I knew only by reputation. I have used many of his aphorisms in my pearls, and, in reading some of his fictional stories, find him to be an extremely intelligent and insightful author, as well as an impressive wordsmith. Hmm, strange, Spell Checker doesn’t like that word, and it is such a good one; descriptive and precise… Ah well, I’ll have to add it to the dictionary, so SC won’t freak every time I use in in future; I hate having to cater to software, and I refuse to put a space between the two elements that make up such words, just because SC wants it….

Any who, enough with the aimless rambling, even though I’m getting rather good at it. One thing I am glad of, and that is how much easier typing has become over time. I guess writing over a million words using a keyboard has other effects than just wearing out plastic keys…. which is happening to this laptop. There are now five letters that are completely obscured, the paint having been rubbed off, and the space bar is developing a shallow depression from being struck so many times. It kinda makes me proud, ya know? My typing speed and accuracy has increased in the last two years, as well. I haven’t measured it, but I can compose, and edit, a 2000 plus word document in less than an hour, on a day when the ideas are flowing well. Not too bad for an old fart with flat feet and flatulence….. 🙂

On that elegant note, we should probably begin the day’s dive into my head, perilous as that may be. It can’t be any worse than what has already occurred today, and who knows? We might get lucky, and find something of value hiding around a random corner in the back corridors of my mind. Of course, there is always a risk, but have no fear…. nothing I write is intended to harm, and very little is contagious (hopefully, only the outrage is catching….). Just use gloves when handling it, and you’ll be fine….. Shall we Pearl?…..

No letters of the alphabet were harmed in the creation of this blog…..
__________________________________

“An oppressed people are authorized whenever they can to rise and break their fetters.” — Henry Clay (1777-1852) American Statesman — Speech, House of representatives, March 4, 1818

It is a most peculiar feeling, at my age, to become more radical in my opinions of society, and of the corruption and disparity that exists in equal measure at almost every level of that society. In my college years, of course, I spent my share of time and energy protesting the illegality and insanity of the war in Southeast Asia; in this I was not in any way different than many millions of my peers. The extent and depth of that urge to protest, however, was not as great as it is now, for the simple reason that I now have more experience in real life, and know far better just how corrupt our government has become.

Sure, we had Nixon to pick on, and Johnson, and Reagan. But, in retrospect, I can now see that the latter day politicians we now have in the public sphere are much more evil than any of those three (though, in Reagan’s case, that would be hard to top…. he was an evil man, to be sure….) (Nixon was just a pathetic loser, trying to be bigger than he was; Johnson was pretty evil in his own right, being the kind of guy who would smile as he inserted the knife in your back…..). The Shrubs are living proof that despotism and nepotism go hand in hand, and that an evil nature can be inherited.

In the recent election, I was encouraged to see that those in this country who value a life with honor over expedience were more numerous than those who are corrupt. The current President is, all in all, by all accounts, a good man, with the interests of the common people, if not foremost in his mind, at least present in his regard. But he is only one man, even if he is at the pinnacle; the man at the top operates under severe handicaps in getting anything done, especially now, with the large number of absolutely criminal psychopaths who inhabit the houses of Congress. This continuing disparity of purpose between honest men and those who are corrupt promises to become a battleground of some note in the next two years, leading up to the election in 2014, when the controlling percentage of the houses will next be addressed.

I have, in the last two years of living on low income, become more aware of the problems faced by so many of my peers in this country, and I am not anywhere near as handicapped as are many others. It has given me both an appreciation for the adaptability, and the courage and inner strength, of those in our society who are trying to live with less than the minimum amount necessary to do so, and a sense of outrage that such qualities are necessary. I have lived so long with enough, and more, that learning to do without has been a struggle of some proportion, a struggle different from those who are struggling to survive, and have done so for their entire lives. I have friends, and resources, that many do not have, and those will not allow me to sink into total poverty and despair. I also now have a strong desire to see some of this disparity eliminated from society, even if I have to resort to Robin Hood style activities to accomplish a redistribution of wealth….

Robin Hood…. hmmm…. You know, the more I think about it, the more attractive that sounds. Not the name itself, mind you, but the practice of robbing the rich to give to the poor. In fact, it sounds wonderfully attractive, and makes me all tingly with anticipation. I believe that it might just be possible to arrange things so that money that now resides in the pockets of corrupt officials, or asshole rich folks such as the recent failed candidate for Prez to find its way into the hands of ffolkes who would put it to more honorable, and more humanitarian use.

Actually, it just occurred to me that I could add churches to that list of potential…. let’s call them donors, okay? The coffers of almost any of the major religions are chock full of money they stole from the poor anyway, and very little of it ever finds its way into the charitable activities that they hold up in their defense, and in my opinion, would be much better utilized by taking it away from them, using whatever means are at hand, and giving it directly into the hands of the people who can put it to a more honest use.

I know this sounds like a bunch of talk, and as such is of little real value…. but, I tell you now, and with sincerity, that I will be thinking about this most seriously, and I intend to come up with a plan or two that will serve to achieve Robin’s purpose, and not just here on this blog, but in the real world. Those plans could take any number of shapes, but they all will have the net result of helping those who need it, by taking the resources they need from people who have either stolen them, or gotten them by chicanery, or merely hoarded that which they inherited, knowingly keeping it from being of any use to anyone but themselves…. You can take that to the bank…. where I will pick it up and take it to the poor…. So be it….

“And I’ll try not to sing out of key…” — Ringo Starr
__________________________________

Old Men

People expect old men to die,
They do not really mourn old men.
Old men are different. People look
At them with eyes that wonder when…
People watch with unshocked eyes;
But the old men know when an old man dies.

Ogden Nash
__________________________________

“..the television, that insidious beast, that Medusa which freezes a billion people to stone every night, staring fixedly, that Siren which called and sang and promised so much and gave, after all, so little…” — Ray Bradbury

I’ve never been a heavy TV watcher, always preferring a book to the tube. But, being an American, I did kind of keep track of what it was doing, if only to stay in touch with what most of the country was thinking, or whatever they do in place of that activity. Since retiring and moving to where I am, I haven’t had one, so I’ve now been pretty much completely out of touch with it for over two years. I think the only TV I’ve seen in that time has been whatever game was playing in the bars I used to go to…. Since my reduction in income almost two years ago, even that habit is non-existent, as I haven’t been into one in that time…. Oh, wait, okay, once, which was enough to convince me I’d lost my taste for it…..

In truth, I regard television the same way I do rattlesnakes…. interesting, but dangerous, and just easier to avoid than to engage. Most people never think objectively about either the act of watching the TV, or about the content, and intent, of what they watch. In fact, I would say the average American regards what he sees and hears on that medium to be the gospel truth, insofar as they have any idea of what that may be. It is almost as if they have come to believe that the activities of the people on TV are more real than their own lives, and therefore have more validity. How often have you heard a conversation between two followers of a soap opera talk about the characters on the show as if they are real people, with real problems, instead of being merely the imitation of life that springs from the fertile minds of the writers….

This is where the dangerous nature of the beast enters the picture, and it has never been more clearly indicated than in the recent election. The race for the Presidency was made out by all the TV pundits and polls to be close the entire time; the final results show just how inaccurate that was in reality. Polls, being composed of statistics, can be made to show whatever one wishes them to show, and the results can be manipulated by merely changing the demographics of the respondents. But, a clear-cut decision wouldn’t make for good TV, or for what the networks considered enough drama. Neither would it suit the networks to allow the voters to receive clear messages…..

So, all the pundits who supposedly “analyzed” the polls, and the opinions of the populace, talked about how close the race was, and doctored and manipulated the actual words of each candidate to suit whatever their own particular desires were, thus manipulating the voting public. Fortunately, a lot of their manipulations came to naught, as there was a large percentage of those who voted who never spoke to a poll taker, or let on, in any way, how pissed off they were at what was being promulgated by the TV media hounds….. It became clear late on election night that the actions of the challenger had angered and alienated far more of the voting public than was understood by either that party, or by the media, and the result was a landslide victory for the incumbent….. fortunately…..

It’s my firm opinion that there should be a lot more oversight when it comes to what the TV networks are allowed to do. Yes, we have free speech in this country…. but does that mean that they should be free to lie to, cheat, and manipulate the voting public without consequence? It seems to me that there should be some value placed on Truth in these events, and that the organizations which report on public or governmental activities should be held responsible when they deliberately lie, with or without the intent of manipulation. I also believe that there should be penalties exacted on any public official who is caught telling a lie to the public…. If that were the case, then at least two of the candidates for the highest offices in this country would now be facing jail time, for sure and for certain…. It disappoints, and even angers me no end, that none of what Romney and Ryan lied about in their campaign (which was practically everything that came out of their mouths….) will ever be challenged, or better yet, prosecuted…..

It seems that I could go on in this vein for a very long time without running out of things to say on the subject. My enthusiasm for it has waned a bit, though, as it does when I’ve said all that is important to say…. I say it should be law that anyone in an elected position should be held to an even higher standard than the public when it comes to honesty and truth, and the penalties should be severe enough to make anyone who wishes to run for office think long and hard before trying to fool the public. I know, I know, it would change the face of American politics forever, and people might not know exactly how to deal with the truth, after having been lied to for so long. But, in my mind, the end result would be a far more responsible government, one whose actual goal was to look after the best interests of the people, instead of being a sinecure, with the keys to the treasury given over into the hands of thieves…..

And the TV networks would have to find a new way to operate, without the advantages of being able to lie without subsequent punishment, or even mere disapproval….. who knows? We might even end up with something worth watching……

A man may well bring a horse to the water,
But he cannot make him drinke without he will.

— John Heywood (c. 1565) — Proverbes, Part i, Chap. xi
__________________________________

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

It appears that getting up so early stimulated my Opinion-o-matic, which apparently operates without a lot of dependence on Smart Bee, or any other form of mental goad. Only five pearls in the whole shebang, with well over 2500 words of rather sincere ranting (hence the quote from Oscar….). All in all, it should make for an interesting read, and hopefully will stimulate some random cogitation among the Gentle Readership. If not, well, I’ve been ignored before, and will be again…. I’m used to it. 🙂

If any of the above gives you cause to disagree strongly, or agree even weakly, feel free to let me know in the comment section, or, for those of you receiving this via email, tell me in a Reply…. I can take it, as long as you stick to logic and/or reason; constructive criticism will be sincerely considered, and, appropriately, flaming and other forms of antagonistic asininity will be cheerfully deleted….. Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

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

gigoid

Kowabunga!

Closets full of shabby tigers…..

Posted on October 12, 2011 by gigoid

Ffolkes,
Procrastination has always been my friend, at least most of the time. All my life, I remember putting off homework and school assignments until the very last minute. I always thought that by reading the material a short time before the test, it was freshly memorized, and I remembered more of it than if I had read it the night before. I also sort of enjoyed the sense of panic and purpose that goes along with meeting a deadline at the last possible moment. Since I was valedictorian of my high school class, and carried a solid 3.9 GPA, it must have worked fairly well.

The method doesn’t work quite as well at the University level, as the depth of knowledge needed for excellent performance is much greater than at the HS level; the material must be absorbed, not merely memorized, in order to demonstrate true understanding of the subject at hand. But there too, many were the times I’d put off an assignment to the last possible minute, and still was able to meet the deadline. I guess one could say that I refined the technique, paring off the useless slough, yet keeping the edge of desperation so necessary to successful completion of any project on time. My grades were not as good as in high school, due in part to the social factors of living in Berkeley during the 1960’s, which rather distracted me (and a lot of people my age) into choosing social expression in lieu of studying. But more importantly, my procrastination was not eliminated, but rather made slicker, and more efficient.

This refinement continued throughout my work career, where I learned again that, oddly enough, my work was more efficient when I forced myself to get it done quickly. I seem to have developed a state of mind that enters panic mode when needed, using the feeling of desperate haste to drive my thoughts into the channel that serves best to complete the required actions. When finished, the panic goes away, and I’m left with the usually excellent results, and more positive reinforcement of my procrastinating behavior. Now that I’m retired, I find myself continuing the habit, which has always served me well. There is no real proof as yet that it is less useful now, but there are certainly enough opportunities to practice, for sure.

So, we’ll see how it goes, and I’ll decide later whether or not to continue with it, or try to become one of those folks who never waits to the last minute. I guess only time will tell…….and the longer I wait to make the decision, the more obvious becomes my choice……

“Reading maketh a full man, conference a ready man, and writing an exact man.” — Francis Bacon (1561-1626) — Of Studies

“… But when he [the people’s champion] has disposed of foreign enemies by conquest or treaty, and there is nothing to fear from them, then he is always stirring up some war or other, in order that the people may require a leader.” — Plato (428-348? B.C.), “The Republic”
(Which just goes to prove the idea that history repeats itself…..)

He that will not when he may,
When he would he shall have nay.
— John Heywood (c. 1565)
— Proverbes, Part i, Chap. iii

“Live dangerously and you live right.” — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Faust (1806)

As I grow older and older
And totter towards the tomb
I find that I care less and less
Who goes to bed with whom.
— Dorothy L. Sayers

Think all you speak, but speak not all you think.

The last line says it all…..always keep something in reserve, because it is for sure and for certain that you will need it some day…..y’all take care out there…..

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

gigoid

Kowabunga!

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: John Heywood

A hint of rosemary in the air….

Squeeze the trigger, don’t yank on it….

Patterns of dark, and darker…..

Filled with fanatical fervor for fennel cakes….

Jack in to any available node….

Clocks are intensely rabid this month….

Closets full of shabby tigers…..

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