Definite traces of apoplexy….

Posted on May 16, 2016 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

“All men are created unequal.”

~~ Lazarus Long ~~

Looking south from La Bufadora, Ensenada, Baja Mexico

Hajime…. Today’s effort, which has already suffered a start-over, is rather eclectic, general, and long enough to choke a horse. But, it’s okay, because it’s all proven material, having come from yet another deep dive into the archives. As noted previously, I’m leaving on a trip tonight, and won’t be posting tomorrow morning, unless I have time to find one to re-blog (yeah, that’s the ticket….). So, I’ve tried to put together a worthy one to hold y’all until I can return to the keyboard with something fresh…..

In order to keep from making it TOO long, I’ll make this intro short, as has been our habit of late. It’s a good habit, I think, especially considering some of the intro sections we’ve created in the past, many of which approached a thousand words or more. But, we’re not going that route today; in fact, now I’ve related that, we’re done here. Let’s go on to the rest of today’s mess, before Murphy notices we’re gone, okay? Okay….

Shall we Pearl?….

“Since everything in life is but an experience perfect in being what it is,
having nothing to do with good or bad,
acceptance or rejection,
one may well burst out in laughter.”

~~ Long Chen Pa ~~

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We are going with our default today, simply to save time & energy, of much use elsewhere in today’s schedule…. Enjoy!….

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Classical Music

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https://youtu.be/hDhTqF3_JWs

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Today’s rant is a general, all-purpose rant against the Asininnies, from the early part of 2013, while my supply of angst was nearly limitless. It’s a bit lengthy, as I took shots at most all those I consider to be part of the problems we face in today’s world. I hope you enjoy it….

From 3/15/2013:

“Republican views of the world differ from Democratic views of the world. The reason for this is that these views are based on different compilations of misinformation.” — Smart Bee

There are moments, such as this one, when I believe the people, or person, who put together the database known to me as Smart Bee, is perhaps the most intelligent creature on this planet….. I’ve been ranting about politicians for years, trying to show people how dangerous it is to believe ANY of the stuff that either party is slinging at us to try to convince us they are worthy of our votes. Now, in one short aphorism, of two lines, we are given a perfectly reasonable explanation for all of the crap we hear from them…. Essentially, this says that every one of them is full of shit, and everything they say and do is destined to fail, because it is ALL based on incorrect information, or, to be more accurate, on unwarranted assumptions about reality…..

The most important part of this description is its impartiality of indictment. Both parties are brought into scrutiny, and found wanting, of any real knowledge of the truth, because they are both basing all of their premises on false beliefs, just for starters. Add to that, since they are politicians by choice, their genetic predisposition is to self-aggrandizement, and they show an inherent inability to tell the truth. It becomes rather easily seen why our society has become, well, insane…. It’s a short trip to crazy from where they begin the journey…. and they don’t take any detours on the road….

You see, both parties are convinced of a complete falsehood, one that humanity has been struggling with for centuries…. This lie is so basic, it colors and affects everything they do to try to manipulate the world into going the way they wish it to go. As long as they continue to try to do this, our society is doomed to failure in the long run, for the lie goes against the very nature of reality…. Simply put, these people believe they can legislate morality…. They believe that they can make laws, and people will go against their very nature to follow them, in spite of the fact that the law they propose is contrary to what comes naturally to humans, to wit: self-centered, grasping behaviors that only benefit the perpetrator, and no one else…..

We have laws against stealing…. and the most accomplished thieves we see in our culture wear suits and live in Washington D.C. We have laws against killing each other, but, people still get killed, and, if the killers do so while wearing a flag, or a badge, they are considered heroes, no matter how many they kill. We have laws that supposedly protect women, children, and the aged, from suffering abuse, but, just look around you, and you will see no end to the depredations that society allows to be perpetrated upon these three most vulnerable members of our society, all very much within the legal limits of the public morality, as given in the law books….

“[…] For all our conceits about being the center of the universe, we live in a routine planet of a humdrum star stuck away in an obscure corner […] on an unexceptional galaxy which is one of about 100 billion galaxies. […] That is the fundamental fact of the universe we inhabit, and it is very good for us to understand that.” — Carl Sagan

The people who get involved in politics, and religion, for much the same reason, believe they are special, and entitled to take all they can from the universe, because they are the be-all, and end-all of the evolutionary ladder. It says so right there in the Bible….. They don’t care that reality says differently, because their sense of denial has been fine-tuned since shortly after they were born, and they are capable of ignoring facts right up until they slap them in the face…. (Witness the Republican melt-down in the last Presidential election, when the Republican party got slapped in the face by their own lack of contact with reality…..)

In spite of all the massive amounts of evidence to the contrary, these folks believe in their own divine entitlement as the lords of creation, chosen by God to do with this planet as we would, without regard for any of the other creatures that live here with us, or for the beauty and balance of the land that sustains us. As far as they are concerned, other people and animals, and natural resources, are theirs to do with as they wish, with God’s blessing…. The fucking assholes…..

I apologize for the vulgarity, to my readers, but not to those at whom it is directed…. To them, I say, fuck you, and fuck you again…. I regard all politicians, priests, preachers, police, lawyers, judges, and corporate misogynists of all shapes and sizes to be INSANE…. floridly, and viciously insane, without any of the moral standards that the rest of mankind embraces. These assholes are responsible for our imminent demise through environmental destruction of the ecosphere, as well as for the endless preying on the weak and vulnerable to suit their own depravity, and lack of moral fiber.

“All ambitions are lawful except those which climb upward on the miseries or credulities of mankind.” — Joseph Conrad

Sexual slavery, corporate collusion to fix wages and prices, legislative corruption and oppression, judicial malfeasance and more corruption, governmental incompetence, religious repression and collusion with politicians, all serve the purposes of the ruling class to a T, no matter how much suffering it causes to others…. As long as they have what they want, nothing anyone else says or does matters at all….

I hate to be a harbinger of bad news, but, I call ’em as I see ’em, and I see what is real…. None of what is wrong in the world will change, until the major portion of mankind makes a change of spirit, and the people, as a whole, decide that the few among us who are bold enough to act must, in fact, act. The evil among us will not go away, or stop, of its own accord, and waiting for them to come around to a more amenable state of mind isn’t going to work, as that just isn’t going to happen.

If we wish to survive, they have to go, and mankind must find a new way to get along with each other than the out-dated ways we have been trying for millennia… Those old ways leave too much power in the hands of people who will give in to the temptation that goes along with such power over others, and must not be allowed to happen any more, not if we wish to survive to see any future at all….. The universe doesn’t care one way or another, so we’ll have to be responsible for our own actions…. as we have always been, and have always been afraid to admit….

“If we do not permit the earth to produce beauty and joy, it will not produce food either.” — Joseph Wood Krutch

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Today’s poem is from a poet who has graced our pages before. Simply put, she’s one of Mankind’s treasures, though she was a broken spirit, with a lost soul, who finally ended her own pain. Before she left us, she gave us the power of her genius; it wasn’t enough to save herself, but, what she wrote gave it all to the world….. I hope you enjoy this example of that genius….

Insomniac

The night is only a sort of carbon paper,
Blueblack, with the much-poked periods of stars
Letting in the light, peephole after peephole . . .
A bonewhite light, like death, behind all things.
Under the eyes of the stars and the moon’s rictus
He suffers his desert pillow, sleeplessness
Stretching its fine, irritating sand in all directions.

Over and over the old, granular movie
Exposes embarrassments—the mizzling days
Of childhood and adolescence, sticky with dreams,
Parental faces on tall stalks, alternately stern and tearful,
A garden of buggy rose that made him cry.
His forehead is bumpy as a sack of rocks.
Memories jostle each other for face-room like obsolete film stars.

He is immune to pills: red, purple, blue . . .
How they lit the tedium of the protracted evening!
Those sugary planets whose influence won for him
A life baptized in no-life for a while,
And the sweet, drugged waking of a forgetful baby.
Now the pills are worn-out and silly, like classical gods.
Their poppy-sleepy colors do him no good.

His head is a little interior of grey mirrors.
Each gesture flees immediately down an alley
Of diminishing perspectives, and its significance
Drains like water out the hole at the far end.
He lives without privacy in a lidless room,
The bald slots of his eyes stiffened wide-open
On the incessant heat-lightning flicker of situations.

Nightlong, in the granite yard, invisible cats
Have been howling like women, or damaged instruments.
Already he can feel daylight, his white disease,
Creeping up with her hatful of trivial repetitions.
The city is a map of cheerful twitters now,
And everywhere people, eyes mica-silver and blank,
Are riding to work in rows, as if recently brainwashed.

~~ Sylvia Plath ~~

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Our final pearl of the day is a short, five-star statement which speaks of some of the more subtle, but, important points about how to live life well. Short it is, but, I guarantee, it’s long on wisdom…. Sometimes, it’s the shorter pearls that pack the most punch….

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“It was a high counsel that I once heard given to a young person,
“Always do what you are afraid to do.””

~~ Ralph Waldo Emerson ~~

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“Tenderness and kindness are not signs of weakness and despair,
but manifestations of strength and resolution.”

~~ Kahlil Gibran ~~

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“It is not good for man to achieve all they wish.”

~~ Heraclitus ~~

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“Happiness depends upon ourselves.”
~~- Aristotle ~~

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“How admirable, he who thinks not,
Life is fleeting,
When he sees the lightning!”

~~ Basho ~~

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Oddly, for a change, today’s thrown-together-in-a-rush Pearl came together smoothly; so smoothly, I’m caught without much to say here at the end. I’m not going to predict its quality, any more than I would ever do so, but, it feels okay, and we’ll let it fly solo, just as it is. So be it. Hopefully, I’ll have time to find a re-blog for tomorrow; after that, it’s all up in the air as to what may occur. But, then, that’s pretty much always the case, and not just here on ECR. See y’all down the road a piece, ffolkes. I may be late, but, I’ll be here, come what may….. See ya…..

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid, the dubious

The *only* duly authorized Computer Curmudgeon.

PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.

“SCRAM!!!!!!!!!!”- Oscar the Grouch

À bientôt, mon cherí….

Too shy to prance….

Posted on April 29, 2016 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

“One thorn of experience is worth a whole wilderness of warning.”

~~ James Russell Lowell, Shakespeare Once More ~~

“It all moves ~~ nothing stands still.” — Heraclitus

Sonoma Creek, Spring 2016

Hajime…. Today’s Pearl will be another truncated version of the usual post. Reality continues to demand my attention during the time when I generally put together these pieces; since trying to change reality is a rather fruitless pastime, we’ll go with what we can do, and be done with it. Moreover, I don’t feel I can even spend the time to be silly, or tricky, or even odd, to any significant degree, so, I’m also cutting this intro off at one paragraph, at whose end we have already arrived. What you will see below will be all we can do; as you well know, around here, we are firm believers in doing all we can do, for, after all, all you can do, is all you can do….

Shall we Pearl?….

“The deadliest bullshit is odorless and transparent.”

~~ William Gibson ~~

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royalty-free-clip-art-vector-logos-of-black-and-orange-floral-acoustic-guitars-by-seamartini-graphics-6573

Y’all must have known, after seeing the intro, what kind of music we’d have today. Obviously, we’re going to our default on that, so, enjoy!….

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Classical Music

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https://youtu.be/1rlU2WQ_Wf4

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“I remember now.
I remember how it started.”

~~ Queensryche ~~

In truth, I do remember…. But, this rant grew on me, until, at the last, it fell apart on me. I suppose I got too ambitious, but, I can explain. You see, I found the pearls you will find below, which seemed to me to be a fine outline for an ultimate rant, one that would cover all the ideas I hold regarding human nature, and how it has contributed to the problems we face in the world today…. That, apparently, was too much to put together…. So, I decided to trust the process again, since I’m short of time and material for today, and go with the pearls themselves, in old-school style, and let the Gentle Readers create their own rant in the comfort and safety of their own mind…. Slick eh?

So, here are the pearls; it shouldn’t be too hard to figure out what I would have written; they’re pretty clear to me…. I hope you enjoy this little cheat. Hey, it’s better than a thousand more of my words on what is essentially ‘bad stuff’, right? Right…. Let’s do this, ffolkes, and get on to the poem for today…..

“You are a slave!”

~~ Morpheus, The Matrix ~~

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“There’s nothing more demoralizing than money.”

~~ Sophocles ~~

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“… men say the gods have a king
because they themselves either are or were
in ancient times under the rule of a king,
For they imagine not only the form of the gods,
but their ways of life to be like their own.”

~~ Aristotle, Politics ~~

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“In God We Trust.”
I don’t believe it would sound any better if it were true.”

~~ Mark Twain ~~

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“Security is the individual’s responsibility.”

~~ Reality Bee ~~

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“True myth may serve for thousands of years as an inexhaustible source of intellectual speculation, religious joy, ethical inquiry, and artistic renewal. The real mystery is not destroyed by reason. The fake one is. You look at it and it vanishes. You look at the Blonde Hero–really look–and he turns into a gerbil. But you look at Apollo, and he looks back at you. The poet Rilke looked at a statue of Apollo about fifty years ago, and Apollo spoke to him. ‘You must change your life,’ he said. When the true myth rises into consciousness, that is always its message. You must change your life.” — Ursula K. LeGuin

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“Hardly a pure science, history is closer to animal husbandry than it is to mathematics, in that it involves selective breeding. The principal difference between the husbandryman and the historian is that the former breeds sheep or cows or such, and the latter breeds (assumed) facts. The husbandryman uses his skills to enrich the future; the historian uses his to enrich the past. Both are usually up to their ankles in bullshit.” — Tom Robbins

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Platitudes for Attitudes

Platitudes shake us, attitudes break us.
Life can be a real pain, y’know?
Still, if we don’t fight where it takes us,
it’s a pretty straight row to hoe..

A lot of what we see and hear
isn’t always in the best of taste.
Life at large can be one long frisson of fear.
Making an effort often seems a huge waste.

Pundits, dogma dogs, myrmidons, oligarchs & pimps;
assholes and predators every one.
Twisted, sick, anti-humans; anomalous, ignorant wimps.
Logic says, every time, lobotomize ’em, & be done.

Illusions, delusions, confusions, a dedicated data dump,
bilious, divisive, spicy with hatred and fears.
Inflation, immigration, promises from the clownish Trump
Leaving even our basest survival heavy with tears.

Ancient sages left signs on the path to peace,
for those with wit to see.
No need for undue effort, no quest for golden fleece.
All we ever need to do, is be.

~~ gigoid ~~

8/29/2015

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Naked Pearls

Thoughts on Life at Large

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“There is no wealth but life.”

~~ John Ruskin ~~

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“A propensity to hope and joy is real riches;
one to fear and sorrow real poverty.”

~~ Hume ~~

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“To laugh often and love much,
to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children;
to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends;
to appreciate beauty, to find the best in others, to give of oneself;
to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child,
a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition;
to have played and laughed with enthusiasm and sing with exultation;
to know even one life has breathed easier:
this is to have succeeded.”

~~ Ralph Waldo Emerson ~~

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

~~ Andre Gide ~~

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“It is never too early or too late to care for the well-being of the soul.”

~~ Epicurus ~~

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“How can I lose faith in the justice of life, when the dreams of those
who sleep upon feathers are not more beautiful
than the dreams of those who sleep upon the earth?”

~~ Kahlil Gibran ~~

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“It can’t rain all the time
The sky won’t fall forever
And though the night seems long
Your tears won’t fall forever.”

~~ The Crow ~~

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Well, I did it, in spite of myself. Don’t ask, & I won’t be compelled to tell an untruth to protect my ego, okay? It’s silly enough without garnering attention for such indulgence. I’m thinking, given our state of mind, it’s time to shut this down, & try again tomorrow. Maybe I’ll find some wherewithal, or perhaps bit of coherent thought hiding in a far corner of my mind to share. If not, well, we’ll see what we can do. In any case, we’re done for today, which I am sure is a great relief to all. I’ll see y’all tomorrow, ffolkes, should reality fail to stop me, again….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid, the dubious

The *only* duly authorized Computer Curmudgeon.

PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.

“SCRAM!!!!!!!!!!”- Oscar the Grouch

À bientôt, mon cherí….

Melting Jell-O in a small black pot….

Posted on April 28, 2016 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

“I can’t be late–I just got here.”

~~ gigoid ~~

Sitka Slim at the Fish House, Ketchikan

Hajime…. The first quote you see today is more relevant than I’d thought it to be when I picked it yesterday. This morning, the real world, you know, the Big Blue Room outside this room where my computer lives, has dropped some rather urgent issues in my lap, which must be dealt with forthwith, before they grow larger. So, today, all you’re getting is what you see before you. I’m taking a day off, completely, once this is done, to deal with reality’s demands. So be it. I’ll do my best to complete a Pearl for tomorrow, and am hopeful of success in that. Time, who can’t seem to keep quiet, will tell whether that is a reasonable hope, or, not.

All that said, hopefully to some good purpose, I’ll take my leave for today, with wishes for y’all to experience a peaceful, joyous day. If reality has other plans, well, I wish you strength and serenity in the face of it. I’ve included one small set of pearls, just for luck. Otherwise, this is it, and, more than I’d planned. Since this is the intro, I’ll just say, see ya at the end….

Shall we Pearl?….

“The real in us is silent; the acquired is talkative.”

~~ Kahlil Gibran ~~

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“Not every soil can bear all things.”

~~ Virgil ~~

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“It is by will alone that I set my mind in motion.”

~~ Mentat Prayer ~~

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“If one would know the truth, look to the beginning.”

~~ Dubious Bee ~~

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“The beginning of knowledge is the discovery of something we do not understand.”

~~ Frank Herbert ~~

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Because I could not stop for Death —
He kindly stopped for me —
The carriage held but just ourselves
And immortality.

~~ Emily Dickinson, Because I Could Not Stop For Death ~~

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Okay, that’s it; it’s all I’ve got, in time, or effort, to spare today. I will, as noted, be back tomorrow, as long as their marksmanship continues to be poor…. Ha! See ya….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid, the dubious

The *only* duly authorized Computer Curmudgeon.

PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.

“SCRAM!!!!!!!!!!”- Oscar the Grouch

À bientôt, mon cherí….

Deploy the ducks, Desmond….

Posted on April 24, 2016 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

“Heresy is another word for freedom of thought.”

~~ Graham Greene ~~

Beacon Hill Park, Victoria, BC

Hajime…. Our Pearl today is a bit of a poser for me, but, I decided that won’t stop us, not today. I’m going to visit my grandson, and I am determined nothing will get in the way of that. I am so focused on that, I’m going to give y’all an unprecedented opening, as short as I can make it. Today, literally, what you see is what you get, because I’m flipping the switch on our most radically efficient Tardis toy, right now. I’d hold on if I were you….

Shall we Pearl?….

“At the root of human responsibility is the concept of perfection, the urge to achieve it, the intelligence to find a path toward it, and the will to follow that path, if not to the end at least the distance needed to rise above individual limitations and environmental impediments.” — Aung San Suu Kyi

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Johann Sebastian Bach

Image from openculture.com via Google Images

I decided yesterday I wanted something inspiring, classical, and new to this venue. I don’t believe I’ve used these, but, if I have, I shall expect y’all to respect my privacy, and say nothing about that. I’ll return the favor in the foreseeable future…. Right. Regardless of all that, I think you’ll enjoy these; a lot of people think they’re pretty special, myself included…. Enjoy!..

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Johann Sebastian Bach
Brandenburg Concertos

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https://youtu.be/NCPM8DEsvmc

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The fresh rant upon which I’ve been working continues to morph on me, so, we go once again to the archives, this time for another in our long series of indictments of the Dogma Dogs and their millennia-long deception, for which they will forever be damned, according to their own morality, what little of it exists… Deluded assholes, insisting on sharing their delusion with others, to our mutual denigration…. Enjoy!…. Or, not, up to you, as always….

From 11/24/2012:

“Happy is he who dashes the heads of his enemy’s children against rocks.” — Psalms 137:9

I don’t know about you, but that kind of strikes me as a little harsh, don’t you think? I mean, talk about exploring the deepest depths of evil possible to the soul of man! And we thought that our modern rock and rap lyrics were funky?….. Rappers get pretty nasty, but I haven’t heard this degree of nasty from anyone on the radio…. yet…. Not that I haven’t heard some egregious BS, but nothing so graphic and personal as this little song from the priests of Judaism…. fine upstanding fellows that they are…. NOT!!

First, I have to say, I hope this is a sham, or at the very least, a misquote. If it is an accurate reprint from that Psalm, well, it indicates a number of things to me, some about the past, some about the present…. Mostly, though, when I read it, I get a horrible visual image in my mind’s eye of some grinning moron holding a baby by the ankle, and….. no, I’m not going there, even for the writing practice…. I guess I’m a coward, if that means I’d have to continue to make graphic a concept that should never ever have even occurred to anyone, much less been written down….

What was the purpose of this, I wonder? As a teaching song? As a victory hymn? From an Old Testament version of the 3 Stooges? I’m not even sure I want to know that much about it, come to think of it…. It kind of makes one wonder, what kind of culture would have such a concept as a part of its morality…. but, sadly, through most of human history, if I’m not mistaken, acts like this, and others just as egregiously violent and cruel, have occurred over and over, and continue to do so today in some parts of the world, where civilization is only a thin veneer over the native cultures.

Our own society shows signs of the kind of culture that would grow out of such concepts, a sort of casual attitude about violence when aimed at an objectified enemy. The less humanity we ascribe to those enemies, the easier it is to perform inhumane acts against them…. Just another of the charming traits of which our species may boast….. It fits right in with our tendency to react with anger to fear, and with our tendency to act violently to achieve our ends. Sometimes, it’s enough to make me wonder how we got as far as we have down the evolutionary path.

“What wisdom can you find that is greater than kindness?” — Jean-Jacques Rousseau

This concept is probably what has saved us, at least to this point. We are indeed creatures of a dual nature, reflecting the duality of existence in which we live, and perceive in the universe. The light to our dark side, our saving grace, are these elements of compassion and empathy that we can also display, given the right circumstance and opportunity. The Dalai Lama, who has been known to show some rather deep wisdom, has said that compassion and kindness are his entire religion, and that mankind cannot survive without living according to the precepts of such characteristics. I happen to believe he is most likely correct.

The attitudes that that Old Testament culture created and sent crashing through Time are bound to lead us to extinction, for they completely ignore the laws of nature. Our own greed and unwillingness to accept our own place in nature will remove us from this life, as surely as we are stripping the earth of its material resources in our search for wealth and power. None of the people involved in that effort to achieve power are either aware of, or willing to consider, their own complicity and guilt, and will fight to their own death to preserve their assumed right to oppress the rest of reality in their personal quest for domination.

The sad part is that they are taking the rest of us with them down that road…. and it is all because basically, deep down where it counts the most, a lot of people are, quite simply, assholes….. Quite frankly, the universe will be better off without the great majority of them. It’s a shame all the good ffolkes have to pay the same price, isn’t it?…… Ah well…..

“May you be in heaven a half hour before the devil knows you’re dead” — An Irish toast

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Fatal Supplication

But what becomes of our deepest dangerous dreams?
Does fantasy rescue any part of life’s imperiled favor?
Reality becomes but silvery pairs of mismatched teams,
Dining with affable elegance, such diffident waste to savor.

Who decides what sorrows to carry bravely to term?
Will fragrant moments of sanity make hasty manifestation?
Only Time’s patient mutability sends messages so firm,
Yet salient impersonal vexation lends credence to ripe imagination.

Can folly bring out sadness and rampant visions of beauty?
What kindness can be found in distant open relations?
With countless faces the dead disturb with dire impunity,
From separate caches of wisdom come simple stylish privations.

Shall shallow emotion serve to provide such explanations?
When does avaricious intensity assume primary focus?
Plain answers slide softly through with multiple mitigations,
While conceptually indignant concepts engage a fatally personal locus.

~~ gigoid ~~

9/20/2012

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Our final pearl for today is a collection of nine most excellent gems of brilliant luster, all speaking in a general way of Life at Large, with an ample portion of Things We All Should Know, But Often Forget. There’s also a bit of Things You May Never Have Considered, which provide just the proper bit of spice to liven it up. All in all, it’s a damn good pearl, so, pay attention. There might just be something you need….

“We are born naked, wet, and hungry. Then things get worse.” — Bumper Sticker

“We’re not talking about the same thing,” he said. “For you the world is weird because if you’re not bored with it you’re at odds with it. For me the world is weird because it is stupendous, awesome, mysterious, unfathomable; my interest has been to convince you that you must accept responsibility for being here, in this marvelous world, in this marvelous desert, in this marvelous time. I wanted to convince you that you must learn to make every act count, since you are going to be here for only a short while, in fact, too short for witnessing all the marvels of it.” — Don Juan

“At ebb tide I wrote a line upon the sand, and gave it all my heart and all my soul. At flood tide I returned to read what I had inscribed and found my ignorance upon the shore.” — Kahlil Gibran

“A dreamer is one who can only find his way by moonlight, and his punishment is that he sees the dawn before the rest of the world.” — Oscar Wilde

“Animals have these advantages over man: they never hear the clock strike, they die without any idea of death, they have no theologians to instruct them, their last moments are not disturbed by unwelcome and unpleasant ceremonies, their funerals cost them nothing, and no one starts lawsuits over their wills.” — Voltaire

“Love is friendship that has caught fire. It is quiet understanding, mutual confidence, sharing and forgiving. It is loyalty through good and bad times. It settles for less than perfection and makes allowances for human weaknesses. Love is content with the present, it hopes for the future, and it does not brood over the past. It’s the day-in and day-out chronicle of irritations, problems, compromises, small disappointments, big victories and working toward common goals. If you have love in your life, it can make up for a great many things that are missing. If you don’t have love in your life, no matter what else there is, it’s not enough.” — Ann Landers

“I say love, it is a flower; and you, it’s only seed.” — (Bette Midler) The Rose

“When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe.” — Muir’s Law– John Muir, American Naturalist — My First Summer in the Sierra , 1911, page 110.

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

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

“Heaven doesn’t want me and Hell’s afraid I’ll take over….”

~~ gigoid ~~

How do you like the latest incarnation of our newest innovation, to wit: a final, closing pearl upon which to set loose my final creative urges, whatever they may be? I have yet to make a final judgment on whether to continue, but, today’s version is one I like. I found the above statement without attribution; not surprising, as I’ve heard it many times for most of my life. Since it fits my persona so well, I thought I’d just claim it for today, without any intent to harm, with merely the desire to be silly, and, perhaps, eke out one final chuckle from the Gentle Reader…. Without knowing how it will work, I’ll make my escape, with the usual caveat; I’ll be back tomorrow to try again…. See ya….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid, the dubious

The *only* duly authorized Computer Curmudgeon.

PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.

“SCRAM!!!!!!!!!!”- Oscar the Grouch

À bientôt, mon cherí….

Prunes provide a moveable feast….

Posted on April 4, 2016 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

“A man is not aware of his virtues (if any).
Nevertheless, one hopes that they exist.”

~~ Edward Abbey ~~

Tower of London from the Thames

Hajime…. ‘Tisn’t often I’ll begin by apologizing, but, that doesn’t cause it to mean less, to me, at least. Today, I’m doing so to explain the Pearl you will see, as it is one I probably will try to forget, if only for the cost of getting it done. Without complaint or retreat into plaintive excuses, I’ll merely say I was unable to sleep again, until late this morning, thus making me late getting started, as well as beginning another day with fatigue rather than any particular enthusiasm. Oh, well.

That said, the Pearl should, after a fashion, speak for itself. Most of it won’t be too fresh, as I don’t have any fresh on hand, or, for that matter, in mind. In fact, with what I have in mind, I probably couldn’t pass a test to get into kindergarten. I am, nonetheless, rather determined to get it done, no matter how it turns out, if only to soothe my own disappointment. One must find one’s reasons to go on oneself, mustn’t one? One must, and one has done. So be it.

Since I don’t have much, what you see is, once more, what you get. I, for one, am going on; y’all can follow if you like….

Shall we Pearl?….

“Once the realization is accepted that even between the closest human beings infinite distances continue to exist, a wonderful living side by side can grow up, if they succeed in loving the distance between them which makes it possible for each to see each other whole against the sky.” — Rainer Maria Rilke

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

Yep. Classical music, as the icon indicates so clearly. Well, it’s clear to me; listen up to the music, and it may do the same for y’all…. or, not. So be it.

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

Classical Music

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

https://youtu.be/k353I-9GgIM

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

Since I don’t have the wherewithal to produce a rant, here is a rather extensive discussion from early in 2013, on the subject of gun control…. a subject which is rather important to ALL of us, in the long run. Me, I’m of the same opinion as Clint Eastwood, an eminently sensible man, all in all, to wit: “Gun control means, if there’s a gun in the room, I want to be the one controlling it.” Y’ll can do as you like in the matter…. Enjoy!….

From 2/9/2013:

“Is this an out-take from the “BRADY BUNCH”?”

~~ Zippy the Pinhead ~~

I’m rather hoping it is, in sooth…. if not, we all are in serious trouble, up the proverbial creek without a hint of a paddle. Not that it should be anything new or unfamiliar, as most of our history has been spent thus occupied. Of course, previous centuries didn’t have the distinct advantage of having either the Brady’s, or Zippy, in all his insane wisdom, as cultural icons, as well as ethical touchstones….. They had to make do with Socrates, and Plato, and stuffy old guys like that….. Aristotle was practically a rock star in his day, and remains a pretty smart dude, by all evidence, but I still prefer Carlin, I think, for the most cogent philosophy for modern times….

“In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the assistance of counsel for his defense.” — The Constitution of the United States of America Amendment 6, 1791

For a moment, I wondered what my unconscious mind was thinking when it made me copy and paste this amendment into the pearl, as a pearl…. especially as it seems to be in conjunction with the Zippy quote…. Here I am, five minutes later, still wondering what the hell I was thinking…. It happens that way sometimes…. just give me a few moments here, and I’ll come up with it…. Aha! Got it! Naturally, I only needed to go back to basics…. The answer to the question of how the two quotes are related is…. Reality….

Aye, that’s right, reality. It’s what we do here, explore reality, and all its implications, ramifications, and delineations. Also, it’s temperature. Well, perhaps that isn’t the right word, but…. Reality, as is clear and obvious to the most casual observer, exists in varying degrees (hence: temperature…. see?). The degree of reality that is included in an out-take from the Brady Bunch is clearly not the same degree of reality that is implied in the Sixth Amendment. I’d say, the Amendment would hit around 8 or 9 on the real scale, with 10 being the Reality of Amber, where all roads lead. (See Roger Zelazny’s book, The Courts of Amber…..), whereas the highest the Brady’s could hope for would be a 2 or a 3 on that same scale. They’re too oppositional in nature to be rated otherwise, as well as being on opposite ends of the scale of Relative Importance to ME and YOU…..

Now we get to the meat of this matter…. Of late, there has been a lot of public discourse regarding gun control, as a result of the media’s steadfast love of gore and manipulation. Another school shooting took place a few weeks ago, wherein some crazy idiot got hold of some firearms and used them in an insane manner. This, of course, all morality aside, is still a reprehensible act, and, IMHO, most easily solved by just taking one of his own guns and using it on him, at the time of his crime. Bang, problem solved, and since he’s standing there over the bodies he has made, no question of guilt. In such cases, the why of his guilt should not matter; whatever it is, it is reason enough to put him down, in defense of humanity. The other questions can be answered after the children have been defended….

Sadly, there are two segments of humanity who don’t agree with this logical outcome. One segment is what I term the humanitarians, a misleading term, since it usually involves the denial of much of human nature. The other, of course, is our old nemesis, the BRC…. our Beloved Ruling Class…. Neither of these groups will agree that allowing people to have guns should be allowed, or that killing the killers is a proper solution for the issue. In both of these positions, they are dead wrong, and, more, they know they are. This serves to make their arguments more shrill, more emotionally based, and, in their eyes, more valid, in some strange form of weird logic….

“Everybody in this room is wearing a uniform, so don’t kid yourself…”

~~ Frank Zappa ~~

One of the most edifying parts of this discussion, for me, is how it makes it so easy to identify those who are wearing the uniforms, and from what camp they are from, according to their colors and insignia. You can tell the humanitarians, they’re the ones wearing the faux-camouflage pants, in support of the troops, they’ll assure you; they want the police to be the only ones who carry guns, believing, for some unknown reason, that police are somehow more moral or ethical than other people. (Of course, they also would have trouble if you asked them to define the words, “moral”, or “ethical”, in any other terms than those used in a philosophy paper they memorized in college, or in seminary….)

The BRC are always easy to spot, as their sense of entitlement provides them with all the armor against opinion, or law, they ever need. They want guns to be only held by the militia, (which they control), or the police (whom they also control), because it makes them nervous as hell to know there are guns out in the land, in the hands of people who would use them, for certain, if they attempt to perform their illegal lying, cheating, and stealing anywhere in their presence. It also makes them nervous knowing that they would be in danger for real, if the truth about what they do is ever made public with enough evidence to convince the masses to act…. They don’t want to have to worry they will be over-matched in firepower when that day comes along….

SIGH…. I’ve opened a can of worms, again, I know it….. I’m not going to claim to have all the right answers to the situation we find ourselves in today. Though it is a different world, technologically and culturally, from the time when the Second Amendment was written, deciding to abandon its precepts on that basis is not, and should never be, enough to justify any change in a law that is so important to the common man, the very people for whom the laws were created, to protect them from the self-same usurpation that is now being attempted. Once the law is amended, and weakened, the term “slippery slope” becomes very real, and a valid fear for those people.

To put a cap on it for now, I’ll say this…. Quite simply, I do not trust those who would take the right to bear arms from the people. I have seen NO evidence, in history, or in recent current events, that ANY governing body, or ANY group, or ANY single person, of ANY persuasion can be trusted to have guns, and use them solely for the benefit of the people, without turning them to their own purposes, first. NONE. You can’t show me any, either…. Go ahead, I’m listening….

I have studied people every day of my life, and I know too much of human nature to ever believe what I’m told of another person’s intentions; even the best intentions can change in mid-stream, turning its back completely on any commitments made previously. People lie, they cheat, they break in their minds, and they can’t, as a whole, ever be trusted to act rationally on a consistent basis….. at least, not any more rationally than can I myself….

“In all matters of opinion, our adversaries are insane.”

~~ Oscar Wilde ~~

Such being the case, I’d rather keep my guns, thanks. I’ll accept the risks that go with that freedom, which includes the risk of bad people getting their hands on guns, and doing bad things to others. Don’t worry, if they do it in front of me, I’ll help…. and not by running away and hiding…. Life is dangerous, ffolkes, and one either learns to get along with that idea, or one spends a lot of time worrying about shit that can’t be changed…. A very unhappy state of affairs, to my way of thinking, and not very realistic in the long run….

“When the panorama of human existence becomes chaotic and confused,
it is quite soothing to watch the sun rise in the East.”

~~ gigoid~~

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

Blithely Untitled

A poem came to me today, willy, nilly,
along with a sharp blow to the head.
Since it left me feeling just a bit silly,
anything that rhymes should lessen the dread.

Manifesting destiny into a small, insidious group
we push on toward sanity, concentrating hard.
Full engaging moments spent navigating the loop
shall ever make a difference to victims found in the yard.

Still corpses of creatures, straight out of nightmare
fill up the corners of our tortured minds.
While ever saddened, the iconic male, most debonair,
gazes softly, ironically, at all the mutual interest he finds.

Moronic public statutes compel outbreaks of sanity,
responding to momentary impulses toward inducing peace.
Still, the motions get completed, in fertile stages of inanity
while the bulk of our inmates can find no surcease.

Reluctant motivation to continue is unbound,
striving to ascertain how far there yet remains to go.
No precognitive guesswork will make any less of a sound
to soften the final strains, or teach us to truly know.

~~ gigoid ~~

2/7/2014

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

Today’s final old-school pearl is the only fresh material I can provide today; in spite of its relative freshness, it’s a little strange. But, it works, as it is merely giving us some stuff about living we may have either forgotten, or, overlooked in our haste to be…. In any case, none of it will hurt you, and may even help… Go figure…..

Though man a thinking being is defined,
Few use the grand prerogative of mind.
How few think justly of the thinking few!
How many never think, who think they do!

~~ Jane Taylor ~~

~~ Essays in Rhyme, (On Morals and Manners, Prejudice, ) Essay i, Stanza 45 ~~

“The hard questions always have more than one right answer. The easy questions have no answers at all. That’s the universe’s way of keeping things balanced.” — Solomon Short

“It is better to know nothing than to know what ain’t so.” — Josh Billings

“Yesterday is but today’s memory, and tomorrow is today’s dream.” — Kahlil Gibran

“Look to the essence of a thing, whether it be a point of doctrine, of practice, or of interpretation.” — Marcus Aurelius Antoninus — Meditations, viii, 22

“A happy person is not a person in a certain set of circumstances, but rather a person with a certain set of attitudes.” — Hugh Downs

“Nobody ever died of laughter.”

~~ Max Beerbohm ~~

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

It’s done, and that’s the best I can say of it. Today is what we call REALLY trusting the process. So be it. I’ll try again tomorrow, if I can manage to rest/sleep enough to waken with a functioning neuron or two. In any case, see y’all tomorrow; personally, I don’t seem to have much choice, if I am to remain in the vicinity of sanity….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid, the dubious

The *only* duly authorized Computer Curmudgeon.

PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.

“SCRAM!!!!!!!!!!”- Oscar the Grouch

À bientôt, mon cherí….

Radio arguments on TV….

Posted on February 18, 2016 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

“To live is so startling it leaves little time for anything else.”

~~ Emily Dickinson ~~

Best Shot One

Hajime….. Inflatable cushions of hand-crafted silk dance amorously on waves of intense blue gazebos, trimmed in virulent aubergine, bellowing in unison to the dulcet melodies of an unseen orchestra, named Harold. As the music swells, so does the crowd, for ’tis the eve of destruction all have anticipated for so little time, it all seems new and bright. For shame, (for the few), and, glory, (for the fewer), they flit through gardens of brilliant pink flowers, glazed with incredibly bad hollandaise. But, wait, there’s more! If you act now, there can also be tuna! Nebulous as it may, or may not seem, it all blossomed like a young banana plant in Siberia, plastering itself into retinal patterns, but, won’t open the vault without some caramel sauce. Afterward, they all went home….

Well, that felt good. I happened to glance at the opening of yesterday’s re-blog before starting this intro; what you see is what I got. I guess I needed that, and so did you. That’s my story, anyway. For those who haven’t seen a lot of ECR yet, welcome to my head; if I hadn’t mentioned it, you might wish to keep your own heads handy, for things can get a bit strange here, at the drop of a cliche. Sometimes, I feel like the description of the mind of the Tick…. a vast plain of featureless white, with something shiny glittering in the far distance…. Other times, I feel like the center of a crowded galaxy, with stars so close together, night become impossible, and the light is supreme…

Then, I wake up, and sit down to write this blog, to save what few dregs of sanity that may linger in those featureless plains….. or, I let myself wander around the back corridors in my head, which seem to be endless, like the Tombs of Atuan, filled around each dark corner with treasures from ancient ages, bound with magic. Or, I drink my coffee first, and the intro looks entirely different than what we are going through today. And, no, I don’t have a clue as to why this is happening…. nor do I wish to know… It works for me; y’all are on your own, as we humans are in this universe. So be it.

Hey, I have an idea. Let’s get this slow on the toad, okay? Sounds like a plan. If it doesn’t work out, well, I’m sure y’all will let me know in the questionnaire we don’t hand out. Alternately, leave a comment, playing nice, of course…. I mean, be as critical as you like; just keep it civil, check? Check. Housekeeping finished, let’s do this….

Shall we Pearl?….

“Truth can be a dangerous thing. It is quite patient and relentless.”

~~ R. Scott Richards ~~

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

Leon Russell

Image from http://www.express.co.uk via Google Images

I had not realized Leon was still around, playing his heart out, but, he is… Since I’ve loved his music since the mid-1960’s, I was happy to find this video, of a concert from 2015…. Yay!…. Enjoy, y’all, Leon’s one of the originals…. Nobody like him. At all….

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

Leon Russell Live

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

https://youtu.be/nhp_1T5dCo4

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

I had a bad scare a short time ago; my computer crashed, with a message it couldn’t FIND a hard drive to boot….. YIKES! Now I need to start looking for a new computer, and backing up all my files…. To save some time, I won’t rant today, though I had a great opening quote with which to work…. Y’all will just have to wait for it…. Here is a much lighter pearl from a few years ago, to fill in the space today, while I go save my work from being lost forever…. Have fun…. I won’t be, so, somebody may as well enjoy the day….

From 4/22/2013:

So, there I was, cruising around Smart Bee, looking for pearls, when it occurred to me that I was engaged in a futile pastime, from the standpoint of the Universe…. I mean, what do I hope to accomplish with this stuff I write?…. Nobody’s mind will be changed, nobody will stop the carbon monoxide from getting pumped into the air, nobody is going to get mad enough to throw out all the assholes who are screwing us all…. This makes what I’m doing an exercise in mental masturbation, essentially, with as much hope of changing society as….. well, there is no hope for society, so I can’t think of a metaphor for it…. Nor is there any hope of anybody taking any of this seriously, even if read…

Having thus determined the absolute uselessness of our pastime, I will continue, fully cognizant of how lame it is…. I’m calling this a Pearl of Forlorn Lost Hope…. sort of…. Actually, it’s a subliminal pearl, and will worm its way into your head, where it will work on your attitudes, polishing and brightening them without you ever noticing…. By late this afternoon, you will have done a complete 180 from wherever you were, and will enjoy the rest of the day (that’s a subliminal post-hypnotic suggestion….) Enjoy…..

“Does history repeat itself, the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce? No, that’s too grand, too considered a process. History just burps, and we taste again that raw-onion sandwich it swallowed centuries ago.” — Julian Barnes

“Accept the things to which fate binds you, and love the people with whom fate brings you together, but do so with all your heart.” — Marcus Aurelius

“But whether there’s some grand design really matters little to me. My only hope was this: to see what might be, to believe that it should be, and then to do all I could to bring it to pass, whatever the cost. When a life spins out as joyfully as mine has done, then the price, once paid so painfully, is now recalled in gladness. I have received full value. Here among the shepherds, my cup is filled with the water of life; it overflows.” — Orson Scott Card, “Treason”

But sure the eye of time beholds no name
So blest as thine in all the rolls of fame.

~~ Alexander Pope, The Odyssey of Homer, Book xi, Line 591 ~~

” It is now some years since I detected how many were the false beliefs that I had believed to be true since my earliest youth. And since that time, I have been convinced that I must once and for all seriously try to rid myself of all the opinions which I had formerly accepted, and begin to build anew, if I wanted to establish any firm and permanent structure for my beliefs.” — Rene Descartes, Meditations

The human heart has hidden treasures,
In secret kept, in silence sealed.

~~ Charlotte Bronte ~~

“There is no cure for birth and death other than to enjoy the interval.” — George Santayana

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

Funny Bones

Dreaming the way home, lost, unseen,
from the dance, where
he felt so free, and clean.
Sorrow couldn’t find him there.

Waiting, filling up the hours, hoping,
some connection can be found
keeping busy as bees, coping.
Love creeps in, without a sound.

Fat days, skinny nights, passionate
visions of semi-conscious entities,
cannot seem to fully illuminate
or hide our innermost frailties.

Resolute, find the perfect sense, codify
simple rules with every breath
never waiting, anxious to modify.
fear nothing in life, not even Death.

~~ gigoid ~~

5/3/2013

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

Naked Pearls

Esoterica on the Elements of Living

“At ebb tide I wrote a line upon the sand,
and gave it all my heart and all my soul.
At flood tide I returned to read what I had inscribed
and found my ignorance upon the shore.”

~~ Kahlil Gibran ~~

*********

“There is always more than we see.”

~~ Sagacious Bee ~~

*********

“Better a cruel truth than a comfortable delusion.”

~~ Edward Abbey ~~

*********

“What wisdom can you find that is greater than kindness?”

~~ Jean-Jacques Rousseau ~~

*********

“To develop a complete mind:
Study the science of art;
study the art of science.
Learn how to see.
Realize that everything connects to everything else.”

~~ Leonardo da Vinci ~~

*********

“Love isn’t love until you give it away.”

~~ Romantic Bee ~~

*********

“Enough is as good as a feast.”

~~ John Heywood, Proverbes, Part i, Chap. xi ~~

*********

“Real life is, to most men, a long second-best,
a perpetual compromise between the ideal and the possible;
but the world of pure reason knows no compromise,
no practical limitations,
no barrier to the creative activity.”

~~ Bertrand Russell ~~

*********

“If you don’t control your mind, someone else will.”

~~ John Allston ~~

*********

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

Thankfully, the process held up to the challenges today. I’m going to get this posted before something else happens. I’ll see y’all tomorrow, provided I still have a functioning computer…..

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid, the dubious

The *only* duly authorized Computer Curmudgeon.

PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.

“SCRAM!!!!!!!!!!”- Oscar the Grouch

À bientôt, mon cherí….

Truck stop pastries for lunch & dinner….

Posted on January 31, 2016 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

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

~~ George Bernard Shaw ~~

The Spanish Arch ~ Galway, Ireland

Hajime…. Bilious clouds of noxious fumes rose up to obscure the hallway, as Perry Gomes carefully passed by the broken pipes, from which the gases were leaking. Perry thought to himself it wasn’t surprising, when two buses full of commuters crashed into each other, then bounced into the pumping station; a bit of damage was to be expected. Perry, who worked for the company which maintained the gas lines, was tasked with going into the mess to assess the damage. As he peered down the hallway, in the light of the near-useless flash, he could see something moving, thrashing about against the walls, smashing all in its path. “My God,” he thought, “it’s an intro to a Pearl! How will we ever fix that!”

No telling, actually. Perry’s obviously got his work cut out for him, and, since we are responsible for his being in the situation in the first place, we abandon him to his fate with some reluctance. However, should we wish to get today’s mess on the toad, we’ll need to ignore any and all distractions, just to find the wherewithal within to do so. Not an easy task when one is still wandering around in a creative daze, having just come up with yet another way to NOT write an actual introduction…. It’s a gift.

That said, and, thankfully, done, we’ll make our usual executive decision, and put the slow on the toad. We have no regrets, other than having again fallen into the royal ‘we’, just as if we had time to deal with it. Fuck it. I’m done with this. We are outta here, now…. Watch this!….

Shall we Pearl?….

“The psychic task which a person can and must set for himself
is not to feel secure,
but to be able to tolerate insecurity.”

~~ Erich Fromm ~~

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

Today’s music is a nod to one of my blogging friends, who prefers to listen to his classical music played on the guitar. Here is the man who single-handedly brought this kind of music to the world’s awareness, back in the mid-twentieth century…. Considered to be the Master of the guitar, his expertise and artistry are legendary, for good reason…. Enjoy!….

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

Andres Segovia
Classical Guitar

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https://youtu.be/uRz3AQx21y8

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

Not only do I not have a rant ready, I don’t even feel like ranting. Go figure. At least, this way, I get to use my new icon again…. Here’s a short discussion & old-school pearl about the wisdom mankind pretty much ignores….

From 6/27/2014:

“Waste not the remnant of thy life in those imaginations touching other folk, whereby thou contributest not to the common weal.” — Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (121-180 AD) — Meditations, iii, 4

I end up using a lot of quotes from Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, all of which seem to me to be pretty well-reasoned and insightful re: human nature, and ethical/moral behavior….. In fact, I find there are as many, or more, insightful, reasoned philosophers who lived before Christ was born… (not that I care that much, but, it’s the point in time our society has agreed upon to use as the basis for our calendar, thus making it the obvious, most convenient, and expedient, choice as a marker, in order to organize people into their time periods for reference and identification)…..

Marcus Aurelius, Socrates, Plato, Plutarch, Aristotle, Cato, the Elder and the Younger, Gautama Buddha, Lao Tzu, Confucius, and a host of others from all cultures in the world, passed their wisdom to us throughout the ages, and have always seemed to me to be superior in their reasoning to any of the more modern philosophers to whom I’ve been exposed….. which you will see reflected in the quotes you see here…. I have no apology for that, and don’t plan to change it, so, I hope y’all enjoy them, because they’re not going away…. In fact, I’m going to put together a pearl with parameters limiting it to quotes over 1500 years old, or more…. I would suggest you enjoy it, but, it’s not necessary with such classical wisdom to offer….

“Before enlightenment, one carries water and chops wood. After enlightenment, one carries water and chops wood.” — Zen Proverb

“Whatever you can lose, you should reckon of no account.” — Publius Syrus (42 BC) — Maxim 191

“…for the most part happiness consists in being willing to be what you are.” — Erasmus

“As surgeons keep their instruments and knives always at hand for cases requiring immediate treatment, so shouldst thou have thy thoughts ready to understand things divine and human, remembering in thy every act, even the smallest, how close is the bond that unites the two.” — Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (121-180 AD) — Meditations, iii, 13

“Nothing made the horse so fat as the king’s eye.” — Plutarch (46-120 AD) — Of the Training of Children

“He is a fool who lets slip a bird in the hand for a bird in the bush.” — Plutarch (46-120 AD) — Of Garrulity

“The trouble with Nixon is that he’s a serious politics junkie. He’s totally hooked… and like any other junkie, he’s a bummer to have around: especially as President.” — Hunter S. Thompson (b. 1939), journalist — The Great Shark Hunt, Jacket Copy for Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1979)

(Oops! Sorry, that slipped in there due to appending to the clipboard, rather than overwriting…. but, it’s kinda cool, I think, so, it can stay…. just ignore it after reading, and go on to the final pearl, which you see in its designated place, right down there on the line below this….)

“It behooves a prudent person to make trial of everything before arms.” — Terence (185-159 BC) — Act iv, Sc. 7, 19, (789.)

Since we were so rudely interrupted by Hunter’s oh-so-poignant observation of reality, I’ll add one more, to show that the ancients possessed as subtle a sense of humor as any modern pundit, for sure and for certain….

“Anaximander used to assert that the primary cause of all things was the Infinite,–not defining exactly whether he meant air or water or anything else.” — Diogenes Laertius (c. 200 AD) — Anaximander, ii

Well, a bit disjointed, but, it works for me…. So be it…. gigoid has spoken

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

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 ~~

4/30/2013

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

It’s old-school, and, classic; seven stars of virtual wisdom, all about being human…. such as we are….

“Experience is a hard teacher because she gives the test first, the lesson afterwards.” — Vernon Sanders Law

“‘Casting Out Fear’ ought to be the motto over every school door.” — A.S. Neill

“Don’t ask of your friends what you yourself can do.’ — Quintus Ennius

“I exist as I am, that is enough.” — Walt Whitman

“Anacharsis said a man’s felicity consists not in the outward and visible favours and blessings of Fortune, but in the inward and unseen perfections and riches of the mind.” — Plutarch, The Banquet of the Seven Wise Men, 11

“And forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair.” — Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet

“Though nothing can bring back the moments of splendor in the grass, of glory of the flower, we will grieve not . . .” — Wordsworth “Intimations of Immortality”

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

I have fulfilled my chosen duty. I’m tired, and Leelu wants her play time, in her new cat tower. Therefore, without further nonsense, I shall bid thee adieu for another day. Hope yours goes well; I’m planning on hiding today, so I can avoid any jail time. See y’all tomorrow, ffolkes, as long as the warrants don’t come through….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid, the dubious

The *only* duly authorized Computer Curmudgeon.

PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.

“SCRAM!!!!!!!!!!”- Oscar the Grouch

À bientôt, mon cherí….

Barking at optimisitic nihilists….

Posted on January 20, 2016 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

“When it’s dark enough you can see the stars.”

~~ Ralph Waldo Emerson ~~

Greenock Hilltop View, Scotland

Hajime…. Late again, dammit! Ah well, such is life in the big city, I suppose. Since there is little to say without going into issues not appropriate for a family blog…. Wait a minute! Who said this was a family blog? Fuck that! I don’t intend to alter my language for anyone’s false sense of propriety, thank you very much…. But, then, I gave up on making the front page of WP long ago; one ‘fuck’ and that was history. So be it, he said, with a smarmy grin….

The smile fades, though, as he realizes he is, once more, lost in the intro…. Nowhere to go from here but down, it seems, so, we may as well bail early again. How about it, ffolkes? Let’s do this…. we’ll just pretend none of it happened, at all, and get on with the rest of today’s mess, just as if we intended it to go this way…. That looks like this….

Shall we Pearl?….

“Inside myself is a place where I live all alone,
and that’s where you renew your springs
that never dry up.”

~~ Pearl S. Buck ~~

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

The Four Seasons

Today’s musical selection is one I listen to regularly, for it is one of the most delightful pieces ever written. It also gave me a chance to use the fine picture you see, which I stole from another blogger, who just laughed when I asked permission…. ‘S okay, she was joking, right? At any rate, it’s worth listening to, if only for how it makes you feel…. Enjoy!….

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

Antonio Vivaldi
The Four Seasons

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

https://youtu.be/GRxofEmo3HA

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

The discussion upon which I’m working isn’t done yet, so, we’ll go back about two years for a strange little discussion of life at large in today’s world, such as it is…..

From 1/23/2014:

I am bound and determined (what a clunky, awkward phrase! How did it ever survive in the English language for so long?….)… any who, I am firmly invested in having a laugh or two now, even if I have to resort to picking on my own bozoid tendencies…. There are certainly enough of those to go around, which any of my exes would be happy to tell you…. Bozoid tendencies? What are those? Well, really, ffolkes, do you need for me to explain that? The very words are pretty self-explanatory…. but, I guess it’s been awhile since I expounded on my version** of this theory, so, to answer, quickly….

Bozoid tendencies are those human characteristics that are embedded in our species’ persona, hard-wired, as it were, into our psyches, that can only be described as being “clownish”, and cannot be suppressed, no matter how dignified or stuffy one tries to be…. It can be best expressed vocally by the phrase, “I came, I saw, I screwed up.”…..

At some point in life, each and every one of us will do something really stupid, right in front of the most embarrassing group of people possible, such as family, or an entire stadium of excitable fans, or a restaurant full of strangers…. Often it is something as simple as forgetting a wife’s birthday, or forgetting to close a zipper, ensuring a wardrobe failure at the wrong time, or it could be as compelling a moment as running the wrong direction in a Super Bowl…. but, we all do it at one time in our lives, without exception…. Hence, the theory of Bozoid Tendencies….

** Inspired by the metaphoric brilliance of the Firesign Theater’s audio improvisational album, “I Think We’re All Bozo’s On This Bus!”, the Theory of Bozoid Tendencies was first discussed and codified in Berkeley in 1969…. This is the period when gigoid (that’s me….) spent a lot of time in such discussions with other burgeoning social philosophers, all UCB students of various vintages, in various dark, smoky venues, in various stages of mindfulness due to either extreme use of sober imagination and logic, to the often brilliant scintillation of drug induced excitement of the imagination, whether the drug was wine, beer, MJ, or something more exotic, if infrequent. Having obviously survived the experiences intact, the Theory has been shown to be valid in many, many instances over the years, in myself, and in the world at large…. with most of such proof provided in the daily news…. when not in the mirror….

With all of that in mind, we’ll now search for some pearls that can make me laugh…. you’re on your own, this one will be according to MY sense of what is funny, and what isn’t…. So there…. I TOLD you we all have a sense of entitlement, didn’t I?….. Besides, if nothing else, YOU can laugh at MY sense of entitlement, or my humorous standards, if you so desire, and I can laugh at myself (I’m easily amused….)…. just for making the effort, which goes to the evidence folder for the theory’s validity….

“A guinea pig is not from Guinea but a rodent from South America. A firefly is not a fly, but a beetle. A giant panda bear is really a member of the raccoon family. A black panther is really a leopard that has a solid black coat rather then a spotted one. Peanuts are not really nuts. The majority of nuts grow on trees while peanuts grow underground. They are classified as a legume-part of the pea family. A cucumber is not a vegetable but a fruit. — Smart Bee

(Just a few of the reasons I love the English language…. and the English mind, which is completely twisted…..)

“I think you ought to know I’m feeling terribly depressed.” — Douglas Adams — The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, Marvin

(And I think I have very good reason to be depressed, don’t you?….. So much so, I have to laugh, so I don’t cry….)

“The education of a man is never completed until he dies.” — Robert E. Lee

(Don’t know exactly why, but this, to me, is funny…. perhaps more funny, strange, because of the irony, than funny ha ha, but, funny….)

“Life isn’t fair.” — L.J. Smith

(This reminds me of my favorite line to try to gently remind someone they are whining for no reason; simply ask, “Who was the one who lied to you?” “Who was who?” “The one who told you life would be fair.”…. First heard from my father, at a young age….)

(Okay, so, I’m not funny today…. I’ll quit with the comments, and find a solid final threesome of pearls for ya….)

I met a traveler from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read.
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed;
And on the pedestal these words appear:
“My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!”
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

~~ Percy Bysshe Shelley, “Ozymandias” (1819) ~~

“Everything that goes up must come down. But there comes a time when not everything that’s down can come up.” — George Burns (1896-1996)

You know it’s going to be a bad day, when you find a note on your door that says, “Knocked, you weren’t in. — Opportunity” — Smart Bee

You may well ask yourself why I felt compelled to include the excerpt by Shelley in there, but, I, being the curmudgeon that I am, will only say that I know that my Gentle Readers will be able to look at that, in juxtaposition with everything else I wrote today, and see why I fell over laughing when I saw it come up on the screen, and why it’s a particularly funny joke right now…. The others, well, as I said, you’re on your own…. I laughed….

😆

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

“Poetry–even bad poetry–may be our final hope.”

~~Edward Abbey ~~

Rhyming is better than lying….

It’s all too, too much, he cried
I can take no more!
It’s all crazy, my brain is fried,
battered, bloody, and sore.

Talking heads shout out hatred and fear
jam for my morning toast.
Pointing fingers far, middle, and near
enemies everywhere, almost.

Women, gays, and seniors fall prey,
easy targets, slow and weak.
Convenient fools, wanting only to play,
used, and abused, even as we speak.

It enough to drive me floridly insane,
or want to buy a gun.
I may end up in jail, or in massive pain,
but, oh, it would be fun….

~~ gigoid ~~

4/1/2013

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

Today’s final section is comprised of a seven-star classic, with a subtle message for those who enjoy life as it is…. Trust me….

Living Dead
the path is chosen,
to live forever
is to die forever.

To not know
when you’ll die
is to find life
wherever you are.

~~ Alagad ~~

“You see things, and you say “WHY?” But I dream things that never were, and I say “WHY NOT?” — George Bernard Shaw, “Back to Methuselah”

“All life is based on death. Nothing exists except by feeding on something else. Even photosynthesis depends on the heat-death of the sun. Humanity is not
exempt. Embalming doesn’t cheat the worms, it cheats the system. But only temporarily.” — Solomon Short

“Because you’re not what I would have you be, I blind myself to who, in truth, you are.” — Madeleine L’Engle

“Character is like a tree and reputation like its shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.” — Abraham Lincoln

“Do not eat your heart.” — Pythagoras

“A little while, a moment of rest upon the wind…” — Kahlil Gibran

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

It’s done. That is all you’ll ever hear me say of it, as it was slapped together with great rush, and, I won’t be held responsible for the results, not without a warrant. Since it IS done, I’m going to do the expedient thing, so highly prized in today’s world, and bail. See y’all tomorrow, with the usual caveats in play….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid, the dubious

The *only* duly authorized Computer Curmudgeon.

PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.

“SCRAM!!!!!!!!!!”- Oscar the Grouch

À bientôt, mon cherí….

All the Djinn joints in all the world….

Posted on January 1, 2016 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

“There are two lasting bequests we can give our children.
One is roots.
The other is wings.”

~~ Hodding Carter, Jr. ~~

Pointing the Way

Hajime…. I’m up rather late, though I went to bed early. C’est la vie! It’s a new year, again, so, all can be forgiven, claimed merely as building new habits…. Sure, that’s it…. It’s my story, and I’m sticking to it….

Today’s mess is, for a Pearl, a bit choppy, from this end; it may look smooth and simple, but, believe me, it was not. That said, and, to begin new methods for a new year, I’ll curtail any urges to go silly, or weird, or anything other than efficient…. In truth, this is a ploy, to lull your sense of security into believing me; tomorrow will probably see a return to the general run of idiotic literary tricks and illusions we use to fill up space…. None of that today…. Nope, we’re going straight from here to the oyster beds, and be done with it…. How’s that for efficient? It works like this….

Shall we Pearl?….

“There’s nothing on my mind that couldn’t be expressed by a long insane outburst of hysterical rage.” — Ashleigh Brilliant

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

Image from beatchronic.com via Google Images

For the last couple of months, since hearing the first of many songs published by this organization, I have been trying to promote the ideas they espouse, as the only way, for the moment, I can show my support. The video I’ve included is a compilation of a large number of their songs, put up on You Tube since 2013, by one of their other admirers…. It gives a good feel for what they do, and the joy it creates wherever they do it….. Enjoy, and then, consider helping out by joining the organization…. It combines our two best weapons against the machine, to wit: Love, and Music….

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

Playing for Change
A Better Place

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

https://youtu.be/Ob_AScYiAzk

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

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

“It is the mark of an educated mind
to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.”

~~ Aristotle ~~

The sense of touch, of which our skin is the primary perceptive organ is, when one stops to consider, the ONLY sense we actually possess as humans….. Hearing, taste, smell, sight, all are merely extensions of that one sense; more advanced, more complex ways of perceiving different types of energy/matter, of which the universe is composed, but, still, only a variation of what the skin does at its most basic level of nerve function.

Each of the organs we possess to collect those perceptions are based on increasingly small particles to be perceived, yet, all MUST be touched by those particles, little pieces of the universe, in order to function, at all. The tongue must have particles of food touch it before tasting; the ears are more finely tuned, to the touch of sound waves, molecules of air in motion. The nose is even more delicately tuned, to detect specific molecules in the air which signify what is perceived there; very delicate particles, indeed, as it can detect tiny, invisible molecules, such as pheromones from our glands, below the level of consciousness…

The eyes are the last, most complex organ, evolved to detect almost the tiniest of particles in the universe, light waves from an energy source in specific frequencies and amplitudes, below even the molecular level, also unconsciously…. (I say, ‘almost’, because, without aid, we cannot perceive at the atomic level, nor sub-atomic particles….) In point of fact, all the direction of our entire perceptive system is generally an unconscious process…. The brain we possess as humans has evolved, clearly, as a means of processing all that complex, fascinating data, all compiled by five varieties of ONE sense…..

This simplicity, combined with the dual nature of the complexity it mimics in Reality, is why we are constantly being fooled by the universe, because Reality isn’t limited to just one type of matter/energy to be perceived. If one can accept the inevitability of this proposition/assertion, it is only the simplest of logic to discover there are, most likely, many OTHER types of energy/matter for which we do not possess any sort of perceptive organ, capable of even detecting its existence, at all…. We are surrounded by a mystery whose limits, and/or existence, we cannot perceive, or possibly comprehend….

But, we humans, with this nearly unlimited imagination, caught in a small, insulated shell, with hardly more perceptive ability than the rocks upon which we so often founder, think we can dream up a God, and, read His mind, too…. Pathetic little monkeys is all we are, naked, hairless, and afraid, with a nature too fucking vicious and stubborn to even admit how small and unimportant we are in the scheme of things. For us to even believe we can see ever HALF of what REALITY really exists as, is the height of arrogance, and stupidity…. But, then, looking at history, what else is new?

“Science has made gods of us
before we were even worthy of being men.”

~~ Jean Rostand ~~

We humans seem to think our minds, and imagination, are proof against whatever Reality may come up with; how else to explain such arrogant foolishness in the face of an entire universe, which, clearly, barely registers OUR existence, at all. It certainly has no pity for us, or any other such emotional response; for fuck’s sake, ffolkes, the universe doesn’t care about humans any more than a star, & it blows them up on a regular basis. If there were living creatures on planets around such a star, do you believe the star wouldn’t blow because they were there?…. Pretty unlikely, from all the evidence available, I would say.

Yesterday, on the last day of the year, I took a walk, as I needed to get outside, and, off my ass for a while…. I set a nearby store as my goal; the round trip is about mile, and the weather was cold, but, clear…. Before I reached the half-way point, the store, I had witnessed three objects/events/indications of the failure of the American Dream, as epitomized in two statements, one from Thomas Jefferson, echoing wisdom he had read by our opening sage, Aristotle, to wit:

“If a Nation expects to be ignorant and free in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be … If we are to guard against ignorance and remain free, it is the responsibility of every American to be informed.” — Thomas Jefferson

“If liberty and equality, as is thought by some, are chiefly to be found in democracy, they will be best attained when all persons alike share in the government to the utmost.” — Aristotle

Both of these statements imply the necessity for each person in a democracy to take ‘personal’ responsibility very seriously, to educate themselves, and to monitor the activities of those they’ve chosen to govern…. Anything less will, and, sadly, has led us to the exact place we have come in America…. There is NO common feeling among the population which promotes or facilitates such responsibility; the signs are everywhere….

A block from my door, I came upon an open field, next to a building housing a printing company. The open area, next to the sidewalk, is now covered with trash, not merely bags or thrown down wrapping papers, but, broken couches, tables, torn clothing, and, literally, spoiling trash & food all over, covering a good half-acre of ground, all thrown there, obviously, from passing, or pausing vehicles….

At the next corner was further proof of people’s lack of ‘commhair’, (Gaelic for ‘community’), where I found, lying right next to the sidewalk on the corner, the body of a dog, obviously run over by a motorist, who had then pulled it off the street, & left it, covered partially with cardboard, (from the trash lying nearby), to rot, right on the street, where children, old folks, and animals walk daily…. By the time I got there today, it had been there about five days, without anyone reporting it, (I had tried several times, but, could never reach anything but recordings, at the police and city bureaucracies I called), or, burying it, at the very least….

On my way back, I stopped at the newspaper office, at the corner opposite the open field where the trash and corpse lay… I asked the receptionist if the paper had a number for the police or city where what I’d found could be reported for disposal…. She sent me back to the news room, where I explained the issue to a couple of reporters there, working on the next issue, I suppose….

They listened politely, with some slight empathy at what I described, but, didn’t seem to grasp the simple fact they were looking at a blockbuster story, if they chose to address the issues involved, i.e, the lack of community spirit prevalent in society, as well as the inability forced upon the public to seek help from those we elect to TAKE the responsibility for such things from us…. I had to smile, shake my head, and leave, having done all I could do to resolve my own sense of responsibility….

I went outside, & sat on a bus bench outside the paper’s office, & thought of what I had just experienced on my walk…. whereupon, I began to weep…. I felt such a strong sense of sadness, at the death of the American Dream, fought for so bravely by those founding fathers, and protected, sincerely, by thousands and thousands of true Americans since then, including my own father, against the depredations of those who would deny us our freedoms as secured by the Constitution…. I sat there, silently, with tears running down my face, for about five minutes before I could get up, cross the street to avoid the now-ripely-odoriferous canine corpse, to finish my walk….

It’s all dead, and nobody even realizes it, but for a few true Americans, who have educated themselves, and have watched, in pain and anguish, as our government has steadily been BOUGHT by corporate influence; in the courts, since the mid-nineteenth century, and for the entire twentieth century, as those inroads into one branch have spread, like the only true form of life Man has created, the computer virus, carrying its load of evil and selfishness into Congress, and, the White House, until none of those three branches have any interest in pursuing anything but their own agendas, none of which are concerned with securing anything for the people who live here…..

The general run of American has no courage, no education, and no actual freedom to do anything other than follow custom, which they do not even realize is a slave’s collar. The evil inherent in the philosophy of “me first” has killed the hopes of those who founded this country, as well as removing it from the reach of the average man, which, in essence, was the primary intent of the Bill of Rights, all of which are now merely a Bill of Suggestions…. as long as they don’t get in the way of the bottom line profits of the oligarchs who now run most of the world….

The courage to speak out against the madness, the courage of a child, to say, “Look! The Emperor is naked!”, is now gone from the American spirit, as well as from much of the world…. and, we all have heard what happens when evil goes unnoticed, allowed to remain in the dark, where it would have us all exist….

“Oppression can only survive through silence.”

~~ Carmen de Monteflores ~~

In a way, I hate starting the New Year with such a depressing rant…. yet, I have a feeling it is needed just now…. All of us, those who can see, as well as those who do not, need to begin anew, to face Life with more courage, and honest effort to show ourselves to be truly human… that is to say, Kind, Compassionate, Brave, and, with Honor as our standard of existence. Anything less than that just isn’t going to overcome the damage already done to society, and, the entire planet’s ecosystem….

“Earth felt the wound; and Nature from her seat,
Sighing through all her works, gave signs of woe
That all was lost.”

~~ John Milton — Paradise Lost, Book ix, Line 782 ~~

You may believe that, or not; the Universe doesn’t really care….

I do; I can’t seem to help myself, even though I know human nature all-too-well…. I love the silly critters; I am one. So, I’ll keep on spouting off, or, ranting, or, whatever I need to do to spread the Love I feel…. It is, in the final analysis, the only damn thing we have to fight back with….

gigoid has spoken, quite enough for one day….

So be it.

Dont keep calm

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

New Year Haiku

The old year is gone.
Who knows what the next will bring?
Glad to say, not me.

~~ gigoid ~~

12/31/2015, 8:05 PM

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

Our final old-school pearl today is, as is often the case, a bit obscure. It’s a classic seven-star bracelet of gems, with a message; my problem is I don’t know exactly how to express it….. I guess it’s kind of like a New Year; ya never know what’s gonna be up ahead, waiting for you to learn…. Enjoy!….

“All our words are but crumbs that fall down from the feast of the mind.” — Kahlil Gibran (Sand and Foam)

“Every one is bound to bear patiently the results of his own example.” — Phaedrus (c. 8 A.D.) — Book i, Fable 26, 12

“Charity sees the need not the cause.” — German Proverb

“How bold one gets when one is sure of being loved.” — Sigmund Freud

“The wishbone will never replace the backbone.” — Brave Bee

“Honesty is the best policy – there’s less competition.” — Van Roy’s Law

“Do not the spirits who dwell in the ether envy man his pain?” — Kahlil Gibran

Aha! Got it! I think I have figured it out; hint…. it’s advice on how to approach new challenges…. 2nd hint: K.I.S.S…..

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

I am done, thankfully. The new year seems to have brought a bit of attention from our old pal Murphy, who has a new trick; he’s fussing with the software, causing it to freeze every couple minutes, to wait for it to catch up to my commands…. SIGH…. Ah well, it’s done, so, we’ll press our luck a bit, & try to post it…. Wish me luck…. For the nonce, I shall bid thee adieu until tomorrow, when, hopefully, I’ll have fixed this, or, found a workaround…. Until then, ffolkes, y’all enjoy the day off, and all the festivities you can tolerate without getting homicidal…. Ta, then, until they figure out a way to stop me from doing this again….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid, the dubious

The *only* duly authorized Computer Curmudgeon.

PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.

“SCRAM!!!!!!!!!!”- Oscar the Grouch

À bientôt, mon cherí….

Flip ‘er over & we’ll check the O-rings….

Posted on November 28, 2015 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

In Gaelic/Irish:

“Tá tú bualadh mo chroí, an anáil i mo chorp, an solas i mo anam.”

“You are the beat of my heart, the breath in my body, the light in my soul.”

~~ Spoken to Eve Dallas by Roarke ~~

~~ Excerpt from “Indulgence In Death” by Nora Roberts ~~

Leelu in fierce battle with paper and shoe….

Today’s Pearl was actually the one destined to be posted yesterday. Since I slept, and celebrated by taking the day off from posting anything other than a notification of same, I’m going to be lazy (what else is new?….) and use it today. It’s okay, it’s all reasonably connected to today’s reality, sufficient unto the day….. Carpe diem, as they say….. Let’s get right into it, shall we?…..

Hajime…. I may have to stop using that particular opening for a while. It is losing some of its meaning by my own lack of ability to sleep; there’s never any end, so how can I begin? I had no idea the human body could withstand such a prolonged stint of sleeplessness, without becoming terminal, or, as we like to call it, dead. As it turns out, the human body can stand almost any level of pain, or fatigue, or all-around miserable abuse; what actually suffers is our mental state, as we become tired, and lose the edge of sharpness necessary to successful reasoning. The hallucinations aren’t particularly helpful, either…. No, it’s the leg aches from constant pacing, and the anxiety that comes with the restlessness, and the general sense of futility of almost anything…

Yep, Depression aggravated by physical stress. Situational, naturally; there’s got to be an end to it sometime. If my calculations are correct, it could stop any day; the most it can last is another two weeks…. Since I’ve already done that much, and more, I can hack it. And, if I live through it, I’m going to, first, sleep for a week straight, then go hunting….

Not really, though it’s really tempting. But, at least, if I ever need to, I’ve had so much time on my hands, I came up with at least three new almost infallible murder plots (for books, of course….) to try out. Even worked out details & timing…. The thought of the targets I would select got me through more than one long night, imagining the lovely mist it would make when…. well, let’s not go there….. Too early in the day…. or in the Pearl, anyway.

But, not too early to get started. I’ve been informed Luigi has another day off, and Guido, that pro, has everything ready to go. After y’all….

Shall we Pearl?….

“Grief can take care of itself, but to get the full value of joy you must have somebody to divide it with.” — Mark Twain

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

Lou Reed

Image from http://www.freepik.com via Google Images

Lou Reed is another rock artist whose attraction is primarily based in his unique vision of his music, and a unique singing style. Gritty, simple, and compelling, voice and words combine with solid rock to provide a one of a kind performance no one ever forgets. Enjoy!….

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Lou Reed Live 9/25/84

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https://youtu.be/yOoXjYppyMM

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Fum and Gebra

Proof of the Connectedness of All Life.

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

https://youtu.be/Iqmba7npY8g

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

“There is only one universal passion: fear.”

~~ George Bernard Shaw ~~

I speak here a lot about what is wrong with our world and society; there’s a lot to talk about in those areas, which is, I think, something upon which everyone can agree. Hell, each and every one of us humans will spout off about what’s wrong at the slightest provocation; we’ve always been a species of whiners, it seems to me. Everybody has an opinion, and most of them are firmly held opinions of what they DON’T like in life, especially when it comes to how their interactions with others progress.

For the most part, I see these “opinions” to be, more accurately, “convictions”, the difference being a conviction usually is placed in our consciousness BEFORE we can reason, and has the force of social custom mandating its belief. An “opinion” is a reasoned belief, formed in one’s own mind, after forming one’s own beliefs…. Thus, it’s clear that much of the actual intercommunication which occurs between most people is merely a confirmation of what we all have been told since we were born, an insidious form of mental slavery…. Our only defense against assuming the collar of the mental slave is our ability, if we choose to acknowledge it, and are brave enough to use it, to learn, to eliminate our fear, thus forming our own opinions of reality, based on what we know, instead of what we are told by others.

In short, our species, in all-too-many cases, makes a deliberate choice to be ignorant, very early in life; most of these folks do so in order to save themselves the effort and pain of using their intelligence or imagination, which frightens them. So, they learn to depend on what they are told by others to form their beliefs, thus operating under the impetus of conviction rather than reasoned will.

Closer examination reveals the decision to pursue ignorance is always, always based on fear; fear of the unknown, without the courage to face the fear long enough to learn, which is the only way to remove the fear. So, we see that courage plays a big part in the process, as well. In my experience in life, every part of it in which we are successful has required, at first, the courage to begin. In my mind, I equate this fear of the unknown, and the lack of courage to face it, as yet another form of mental slavery; giving up one’s own mind to allow others to dictate its contents, and its beliefs.

This mental slavery extends into every aspect of our society, as the greater number of people in the world haven’t the will to ever even consider that all of what they’ve been told in their life was, for the most part, just a lie used to manipulate them. I can understand their reluctance; it’s not an easy thing to admit one has been wrong any time; to admit one’s entire set of beliefs is wrong just isn’t something most people will consider, in any way. It would destroy their entire frame of existence, and leave them without the tools to find their way back to any sort of sanity.

“Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies.”

~~ Friedrich Nietzsche ~~

The difficulties the choice to fear life creates in society have manifested since the beginning of recorded history for mankind; it’s all too obvious to me that we have always been a species that prefers to live our lives based on illusions, which makes us vulnerable to those of us who have no actual humanity in their soul, and no compassion for others at all. These narcissistic predators manipulate, and lie, and steal, and do whatever they feel is necessary to gain their own desires, most of which center around the power and control of their fellows. Of course. this need to control is also based on fear. but. hey, try to tell THEM that! They’ll never listen; they’re having too much fun oppressing everyone else; what’s in it for them to admit they’re complete assholes?

Now, in this predator class of psychopathic humans I include a number of categories (we humans do love to organize our thoughts by category, don’t we? Well, it IS rather convenient….), to wit: Politicians (includes lawyers), professional police and soldiers, priests, imams, pastors, and all other proponents of a supernatural element of creation of Man, (ie. religionists), oligarchs in all their manifestations (bankers, the 1%, corporate heads, the shadowy elite who hide their malevolent influence from plain sight, manipulating mankind from unseen enclaves for their own aggrandizement), any and all of those who sell or deal with selling the weapons of war , snakeheads (pimps & human traffickers), abusers of women, children, or animals, or, most generally, anyone who believes they are, in any manner at all, any more important a piece of this universe than any other.

That last one is the key, you see. It’s an ego driven characteristic, to which humans are particularly susceptible, to assume that, just because we are human, an “I”, we are somehow, in some way, special, making us, in some way, more important than other parts of that universe. I don’t know exactly where it comes from; I’ve never actually felt a need to BE special, at least not more so than anyone or anything else. But. apparently, according to what I can ascertain through a passing knowledge of all of HISTORY. almost all of mankind DOES. to some extent. have this need. Perhaps it is an unconscious reaction to the sheer dispassion of the universe; obviously, in true reality, nothing is more important than any other. It’s only a man-made distinction.

Perhaps the difference is the lengths to which one is willing to prove it; personally, I don’t care if anyone other than those I love have any opinion of me at all, never have, so I’ve never felt a pressing need to prove I’m special in any way. But, for those who occupy any of the above categories, there is no limit to the depths of perversion or violence to which they will descend, in order to achieve their ends. Lying, cheating, stealing, killing, all are acceptable in their eyes, if only they get what THEY want…..

“Keep me away from the wisdom which does not cry,
the philosophy which does not laugh,
and the greatness which does not bow before children.

~~ Kahlil Gibran ~~

To read what I’ve been writing, one might think I am of the opinion “I” am special, for I am holding forth in such a way as to make it seem so. I know this, but, to impart what I have to say, I must at least say it. I’m not perfect, not by any means. I can think, and I can survive. For 65 years, I’ve done both, but, neither of those have made me rich, or famous, or even, at this point, loved by other than family and friends (which is enough for now), or even particularly happy, though that, as always, and for all of us, is completely up to me.

What I believe I am, at this point in time, is clear-sighted, in re: Life at Large. This clarity of vision is part of why it is hard to be happy, for all I see happening in the world, on the larger scale, tells me there are hard times coming for everyone. Sure, life in the trenches, where most of us live. still exhibits examples of how good life can be, mostly in the relations people have with each other. But, on the world stage, our species is approaching a number of potentially lethal crises, of which 98% of the people alive are not even aware.

It’s easy to show the truth of that assertion; the evidence is presented every day on the news, on the internet, and, most tellingly, in the small, daily events which show just how corrupt, and perverted, and, sick our society has become. If I have to detail each one for you, you’ve already missed the point, which is to see the whole picture. The whole picture our species has painted is out of focus, ill-conceived, and, in the ultimate sense, a complete and utter tragedy….

Why a tragedy? Because, quite frankly, with the power of imagination we possess, along with the POTENTIAL for virtue with which we are imbued, we could have been much more. In fact, we could have been “special”.

Instead, we have become a scourge, a lethal threat to not only our planet, and every other creature living on it, but, to our own species, as a small percentage sucks the souls of the rest of the species for their own self-interest, which is nothing more than the cowardly, ugly habit of preying on their own kind. In short, cannibals. Or, as we call them here, Asininnies…..

I could do this forever, it seems. That’s the problem; there are SO many problems, it seems there is no end to them. Another problem? Almost all of them can lead us to extinction, one way or another.

It pisses me off, but of all the permutations of possible futures for mankind I can formulate in my imagination, using what I know of history and our nature, only one, or maybe two paths remain open to us that can lead us to what I consider our true destiny as a species, which is to explore the stars. What other purpose could our imagination have., but to lead us there? Only the infinite nature of the entire universe can fulfill the potential promise we have in the power of our minds. But, until we can learn to live in harmony on THIS planet, I don’t think we’ll make it very far out into space. The odds, at this point, are against it….

Oh, and the video at the top? Of Fum, and Gebra? I imagine some of y’all are wondering how it fits in to this discussion. Simply this; watch the video. Also, watch the video of how Fum and Gebra became friends. As you watch, note, please, how you feel to watch them play, and interact. Then, think of the paths of which I spoke, those available to us which have the only chance we have to survive into the future….

Fum, and Gebra are showing us one of those paths, the one I would prefer to take, to wit; to learn our ACTUAL place in the universe, join in friendship with the other animals we live with, to become a part of the real organism of which we are a only a part, Terrestrials. When we are capable of opening our minds to such a possibility, we MIGHT just find a way to survive the next hundred years. If not, well…. I suggest you prepare for hard times, like we have never seen before…. Me, I’d rather go to the stars…..

gigoid has spoken.

So be it.

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

Life as we know it….

As we grow and learn to be, in this sad, yet joyous parade,
we only have our Self with which to face life;
small, we are, and weak,
but, smart.

Reality, in studied contrast, is an invisible, ubiquitous shade
dispassionate ambivalence brings us mostly strife.
It’s never enough to seek.
Take part.

The universe won’t make a compromise, but will make a trade.
Give away your fear for knowledge, and a reasoned life.
It often requires a tweak;
live Art.

Love is an essential part of our own particular charade
without it, life can be filled with strife.
Souls perch high on a peak;
sweet, tart.

Pain always balances with joy, the price has to be paid;
for us humans, each must be equal in life.
To know one, the other must speak.
Never apart.

We are all actors, playing parts we’ve chosen to have portrayed;
the director’s absence produces endless strife.
Trying to make sense brings only pique.
Go. Start.

~~ gigoid ~~

Written 11/27/2015.

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

Today’s final, old-school pearl is a good representative for today’s Pearl. Freshly produced, well-balanced, wide-ranging in its subject matter, yet, all well-interconnected as part of the message it conceals amongst the concepts presented. It’s not a difficult message, even if some of the concepts are a bit esoteric in presentation; that’s because the message itself it simple. Since that is so, you can bet all of this will be on the Quiz, so, taking notes is acceptable…. Enjoy!

“Grown-ups never understand anything by themselves, and it is tiresome for children to be always and forever explaining things to them.” — Antoine de Saint Exupery, The Little Prince

“Integrity is what we do, what we say, and what we say we do.” — Don Galer

“The life of money-making is one undertaken under compulsion, and wealth is evidently not the good we are seeking, for it is merely useful for the sake of something else.” — Aristotle

“Do something every day that you don’t want to do; this is the golden rule for acquiring the habit of doing your duty without pain.” — Mark Twain

“Good character, like good soup, is usually homemade.” — Practical Bee

“Courage is not the towering oak that sees storms come and go; it is the fragile blossom that opens in the snow” — Alice M. Swaim

“The worst sin towards our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them; that’s the essence of inhumanity.” — George Bernard Shaw

“Great thoughts come from the heart.” — Marquis of Vauvenargues (1715-1747) — Maxim cxxvii

“”On with the dance, let joy be unconfined” is my motto, whether there’s any dance to dance or joy to unconfine.” — Mark Twain

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

Today’s Pearl is done. I say that with some small sense of relief, yet, also, some reluctance to stop what became an epic of its kind. I haven’t checked, but, it could be one of the biggest Pearls I ever created, all in all; moreover, all of was/is completely fresh, written solely for this post. Not bad for someone who has been inhabiting one of the lower levels of a personal Hell for sixteen days, all of which, individually, and, taken together, have been illuminating. Tomorrow should indicate whether a corner has been turned. Until then, y’all be real. I’ll be back to take another shot at this in the morning….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid, the dubious

The *only* duly authorized Computer Curmudgeon.

PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.

“SCRAM!!!!!!!!!!”- Oscar the Grouch

À bientôt, mon cherí….

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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Exploring Consensual Reality

Tag Archives: Kahlil Gibran

Melting Jell-O in a small black pot….

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