Montezuma’s second mistake….

Posted on January 22, 2016 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

“Ignorance of one’s misfortunes is clear gain.”

~~ Euripides ~~

By any other name….

Hajime…. I kinda like this getting done ahead stuff; sure makes this part easier, not having to do it under the pressure of deadline. It takes a bit of creative scheduling, to get it done in between bouts of cat training & being trained by a cat, but, it seems to be working okay. As long as I can keep from talking to bureaucrats too often on the phone, it may even prove to be a workable routine altogether…. Bonus for me, and for Leelu, as she likes status quo, to a certain extent….

Today’s Pearl is a good one, even with an archived rant in the middle section…. The music makes all of it more palatable, believe me…. Just let it play while you read, and it will go down nice and smooth. Trust me. Have I ever failed you? No, of course not. After all, I do get to proof this before it goes out; I find that to be very useful for sticking to the truth, as it gives me time to find & have available any evidence for my assertions. Always handy to have the truth on one’s side, isn’t it?

Not that I’m not human; I’d lie to you for good reason. But, my concept of good, and that of most, differ widely, and, I also provide the opportunity to challenge. As a habit, I will also usually tell you when something is suspect, usually accompanied by a disclaimer, such as “fair warning”…. Then, of course, there’s the nonsense which trips so elegantly from my mind onto the screen for your perverse entertainment, but, we won’t worry about applying any standards to that…. Willie Wonka wouldn’t approve….

Okay, we’ve touched enough bases to have completely stalled the game, so, let’s be off to the oyster beds…. I think we’ll use this old-fashioned method to get us down the page, which looks like this…..

Shall we Pearl?….

“War would end if the dead could return.”

~~ Stanley Baldwin ~~

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Joan Baez in 2014

Image from YouTube.com via Google Images

My musical preferences, as well as my political and cultural perceptions, were influenced greatly by this woman, as is most likely true of many people my age. Her voice, always regarded as one of the purest vocal instruments ever heard, can move from range to range, and melody to melody, with the ease of a slow-moving river, taking the listener’s emotions along for the ride, just from the power of what is heard…. Often, the words don’t matter, though, to be sure, she sang songs that made a big difference in the culture of the time, songs which continue to influence music today…. A legend for good reason, she is, simply, one of the very best singers ever to have raised voice….

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Joan Baez Live

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https://youtu.be/prv-jMSQ3cs

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A new piece is in the works, sort of, but, nowhere near being ready. Hence, the following politirant from the archives, simply because I can, and it bears repeating…. Enjoy, ffolkes, this is one of my better pieces, if only for the tone…. Plus, it kinda goes with the music selection for the day….

From 3/2/2013:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Ignorance kills daily. “

~~ Smart Bee ~~

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Raging at Aging

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

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

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

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

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

~~ gigoid ~~

10/17/2012

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Today’s final pearl is a nine-star classic style, speaking in the usual obscure way of how to look at, and approach, the complex issue of living in a complex universe as humans…. whatever THAT means…. Enjoy, ffolkes; this one, if used correctly, will end up making you feel okay about it all….

“Look round the habitable world: how few
Know their own good, or knowing it, pursue.”

~~John Dryden — Juvenal, Satire x ~~

“Words form the thread on which we string our experiences.” — Aldous Huxley, The Olive Tree

“The weather-cock on the church spire, though made of iron, would soon be broken by the storm wind if it did not understand the noble art of turning to every wind.” — Heinrich Heine

“One must learn by doing the thing; for though you think you know it, you have no certainty until you try.” — Sophocles

“The bow too tensely strung is easily broken.” — Publius Syrus (42 BC) — Maxim 388

“Honesty isn’t any policy at all; it’s a state of mind or it isn’t honesty.” — Eugene L’Hote

“All life is a conjugation of the verb “to eat”” — Subtle Bee

“If the name is not correct, the words will not ring true.” — Confucius

There are places I remember all my life,
though some have changed,
some forever, not for better,
some have gone and some remain.
All these places had their moments
with lovers and friends I still can recall.
Some are dead and some are living.
In my life I’ve loved them all.

~~ The Beatles ~~

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Well, that went well. But, then, it had little choice, given the smooth way it came together. Not your usual Pearl, to say the least, but, then, we do try for a lack of consistency, which we often succeed at avoiding…. In fact, I think we’ll stop there, before I get myself into a hole I can’t get out of without falling back in…. See y’all tomorrow, ffolkes. Fair warning….

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….

Hearken to the Call of the Mild….

Posted on April 6, 2015 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

“In the vacant places, we will build with new bricks.”

~~ T.S. Eliot ~~

Pastoral Urbanity

All euphemisms aside, I feel like crap. Nothing particularly vile going on; pain is a constant, of course, but, it’s not bad today. No, I believe it’s another of my physical ailments giving me its usual fits, which, though infrequent, are rather debilitating. Such being the case, this will have to go quickly, as I just don’t have a lot of energy…. SIGH…. I HATE starting the day tired & grumpy…. well, I don’t mind the grump so much, but, trying to get going when fatigued is a pain in yet another anatomical area of great renown….

Ah, well, such is life, as we say on the streets… Well, I say it a lot; other folks, not so much. Regardless, I’m losing my train of thought here, trying to decide whether to continue this farce, or throw it out & start over…. Instead, I think I’ll give up altogether. It worked so well yesterday, what the hell, eh? Let’ give it another shot….

I’m done. Go read the rest, such as it is….

Shall we Pearl?

“Be still when you have nothing to say; when genuine passion moves you, say what you’ve got to say, and say it hot.” — D.H. Lawrence

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Image from You Tube via Google Images

This man wrote two of the best songs ever written in the English language, yet not many know his name, aside from every musician in the recording business…. For years he was what is termed a “studio” performer, only playing with others as a musician, and allowing others to record his songs…. Then, someone heard him sing; he eventually cut a couple of albums, before he became too uncomfortable in the limelight, which he never sought at all… Among musicians, he is a legend; to the general public he is a minor footnote…. Whatever he is, I consider him one of the best…. Enjoy, ffolkes….

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Fred Neil

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https://youtu.be/FO6CNj5YVF8?list=PLBAAF803C0E45B369

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Those who have been here a while will understand why Kokopelli graces the ranting section today. I’m incredibly late, besides struggling with debilitating physical issues; naturally, this means we go to the archives…. Here is an excellent rant, if a bit long….

From 12/21/2013:

Below, you will find the rant to which I referred above…. it’s another long one, thanks to the support I again found in the archives, but, it’s worth the read, for it will all point toward the rant I’m planning for tomorrow, one that will be a culmination, and a summarization, of all the rants I’ve done up to this point…. For today, please read, and pay attention to this, as it will end up being important for all of us…. a point which I hope to make clear tomorrow….

In order to achieve the proper understanding of this issue, and the following discussion, aka a ‘politirant’ of first magnitude, the article attached to the following link should be read first…. It contains some interesting information that is critical to the dialogue that may ensue, or, in any case, for a full data set to use for analyzing the issue at large…. Go ahead, we’ll wait here….

http://www.sfgate.com/business/technology/article/Judge-NSA-program-is-likely-unconstitutional-5068946.php

It isn’t often this happens twice in a row, but, since I’m always attuned to the possibility of serendipity, it did…. happen twice, that is…. Below, you will find a rant I posted back in early March of this year, which, given the information contained in the article attached to the above link, is astoundingly accurate as a response to the actions demonstrated by the administration in this entire scenario….

First, let me say that I’m very, very happy that a federal judge had the courage and integrity to stand up against the tide of administrative pressure, which, as we all should realize by now, originates from the dens of the shadowy corporate masters, and special interest groups who dictate society’s course to suit themselves…. If you haven’t noted this from what you see happening everywhere in the public sector, well, I can’t convince you, but, it remains, nonetheless, the truth, well-documented in the news….

The government, of this country, and just about every other in the world, is in the control of the corporate special interests who control virtually ALL the money, and, along with that, ALL the resources needed to keep society working. It has been this way for millennia, and they are only getting better at the controls they possess over the happenings in the world around us, honed by centuries of practice and deception…. They are so good at it, virtually nobody even realizes the true nature of their control, or the extent of it…. and, that is just how they like it….

But, there are moments when a bit of progress is made in keeping at least a minimum of mankind free of much of their influence, and this ruling in a federal court is one of those moments in history…. It still remains to be seen whether the rest of the federal courts, up to and including the Supremes, will continue to see the actual truth, or whether they’ll begin to color it, too, with the paint provided by the special interest groups, in whose best interests lie the abrogation of the amendments…. For the moment, though, we can be encouraged, at least a little bit…

I was especially heartened by two parts of this report…. First, the judge acknowledged James Madison, as one of the framers of the Bill of Rights, speaking of his obvious and well-placed mistrust of just this scenario, of corporate interests dictating the abrogation of civil rights, such as in this case, the Fourth Amendment, by those in power, and how Mr. Madison would be “aghast” at how far it has come true today….

Second, I was encouraged to see the steadfast dismissal of the reasoning by the administration’s lawyers on the basis of constitutionality, as it goes to prove the contention by Eric Snowden, that the laws and policies being perpetrated by the NSA would be found to be such, to wit: illegal according to the Constitution of the United States…. which would, in turn, prove his innocence under the laws of our country, which, theoretically, rewards those who speak the truth in defense of their fellows….

Good to know SOMEONE is paying attention in the judiciary system…. even if one of the Shrubs appointed him… That, apparently, didn’t turn him away from the Constitution, unlike the POTUS who gave him the job, who was on record as thinking some of the Bill of Rights went too far in giving people certain rights….

Further than that, the arguments presented below are the correct response to the above, which also goes to prove one small point, to wit: even nine months ago, I knew something was wrong in the pictures I was seeing out in the real world…. Enjoy!….

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From 3/2/13:

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

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

Sometimes, the behavior of the American public toward the political beast reminds me of a shark…. to wit: no memory of the past to slow down their willingness to rush into dangerous situations…. For millions of years, sharks and dolphins have lived together in the oceans. For just about all that time, whenever a shark attacks a dolphin, it gets killed, unless the dolphin is injured in some way, or, it is a baby inadvertently left alone. Always, if things are even, the shark dies, because the dolphins are smarter, and faster swimmers.

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

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

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

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

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

“Ignorance kills daily. “– Smart Bee

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Roses for Noses

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

~~ gigoid ~~

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I’m not sure about this old-school pearl; the parameters weren’t set solidly before beginning to search. It seems my subconscious had something to say, but, it sure escapes me what that might be. The only thing I can figure is, all of them would produce the reaction you see in the above picture of the laughing monk, even if each one were told to Buddha himself…..

“All time in all time. It does not change. It does not lend itself to warnings or explanations. It simply is. Take it moment by moment, and you will find that we are all bugs in amber.” — Kurt Vonnegut Jr., Slaughter-House 5

“Cato said the best way to keep good acts in memory was to refresh them with new.” — Francis Bacon (1561-1626) — Apothegms, No, 247

“Being entirely honest with oneself is a good exercise.” — Sigmund Freud

“I have a grip on reality, just not this particular one.” — Liberated directly from the subconscious mind of gigoid, the dubious, articulated by Smart Bee, in Telepathic Mode

“It is important to do what you don’t know how to do. It is important to see your skills as keeping you from learning what is deepest and most mysterious. If you know how to focus, unfocus. If your tendency is to make sense out of chaos, start chaos.” — Carlos Casteñeda

“How prone to doubt, how cautious are the wise!” — Alexander Pope (1688-1744) — The Odyssey of Homer, Book xiii, Line 375

“When the fox gnaws — smile.’ — Lazarus Long in Robert A. Heinlein’s Time Enough For Love

31. Read between the lines. — Instructions for life

“All mimsy were the borogoves.” — Lewis Carroll

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Don’t ask me where I’m going,
Just listen when I’m gone
And far away you’ll hear me singing softly to the dawn

~~ Pippin ~~

Well, it’s done, thankfully…. Rather than dwell on whether it was worthwhile, I’m going to go…. elsewhere, to do something else. I will, most surely, see y’all tomorrow, ffolkes….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid, the dubious

PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.

“SCRAM!!!!!!!!!!”- Oscar the Grouch

À bientôt, mon cherí….

Probably impossible? Or, possibly probable? You decide….

Posted on March 7, 2015 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

“I am deeply CONCERNED and I want something GOOD for BREAKFAST!:

~~ Zippy the Pinhead ~~

Artist’s rendition of Mars One Colony’s first landing. Picture from Space.com

We all must, at one time in our lives, or another, learn to deal with disappointment. Today is one of those times…..

You see, there is no time to complete this Pearl today; I have urgent business to take care of today, and this blog isn’t QUITE important enough to take precedence over Reality. Of course, that has not always been the case, but, today we have to pay attention, if we hope for any kind of successful resolution to the issue…. All that being said, what this means is another day of cheats….

I feel compelled to point out, however, we could have said nothing about it, letting y’all believe we were being fresh and creative today, instead of merely dutiful. So, if y’all want a less honest blog, well, you’re out of luck there, as well…. Of course, such honesty has no actual effect on the issue, but, it does make me feel better about all of it, so….

That’s all, ffolkes. We’re bailing early again, using #4 method like it was candy….. I’m kind of digging it; how about y’all? Well, either way, we’re outta here for today, so, grab the closest handhold, and we’ll go directly to our destination, where we can begin today’s dive…..

Shall we Pearl?

“Not to know what has been transacted in former times is to be always a child. If no use is made of the labors of past ages, the world must remain always in the infancy of knowledge.” — Cicero

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Spacecraft Dawn approaching Dwarf Planet Ceres Orbit, Space.com

The exploration of our own solar system seems to be progressing nicely, in spite of all the crap going on back here on Earth, in most other areas of human endeavor, such as politics, culture, and, our mad rush toward extinction via environmental disaster, created by our own hand…. It is projects like this in which our salvation as a species exists, in my humble opinion…. We are destined for space, if we can live long enough to get there….

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Dawn Probe Orbits Dwarf Planet Ceres: Full Coverage

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http://www.space.com/28736-dawn-spacecraft-ceres-arrival-full-coverage.html?cmpid=559175#ooid=tzYWFwczo6m5bujUhVXnZSQufeSZ3kQJ

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As promised, here is one from the archives…..

From 3/2/2013:

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

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

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

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

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

“Ignorance kills daily. “– Smart Bee

So be it.

gigoid has spoken

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

~~ Emily Dickinson ~~

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Here’s a cute little pearl, a seven-star gem, which seems to be talking about Life at Large….

“There’s always a bigger fish.” — Qui-Gon Jinn, Star Wars Episode I

“The crash of the whole solar and stellar systems could only kill you once.” — Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881)

“Cato said the best way to keep good acts in memory was to refresh them with new.” — Francis Bacon (1561-1626) — Apothegms, No, 247

“If a rock falls on your head it does positive harm, but shame, disgrace, reproaches, and insults are damaging only in so far as you’re conscious of them.” — Erasmus

“For some, reality is an illusion.” — Smart Bee, talking behind gigoid’s back, again…

“He that feareth is a slave, were he never so rich, were he never so powerful. But he that is without fear is king of all the world.” — E. R. Eddison, The Worm Ouroboros

“I feel better about world problems now!” — Zippy the Pinhead

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‘Tis done. Nothing else matters, though attempts are made which cannot be dismissed. Rather than do so, we will take our leave, without any sort of explanation as to why we are stuck in the royal “we”…. We will try to lose it by tomorrow…. See y’all tomorrow, ffolkes, if we get the chance….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid, the dubious

PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.

“SCRAM!!!!!!!!!!”- Oscar the Grouch

À bientôt, mon cherí….

No worries! ‘Tis only a phlippin’ phantasy….

Posted on February 1, 2015 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

“Adapt or perish, now as ever, is nature’s inexorable imperative.”

~~ H. G. Wells ~~

3D Art by Odeith

Listen up, ffolkes. Here’s the deal. I write, you read. Got it? Good. Let’s get on with it….

I’m very late today, as my body recovers from the release of two months worth of built up stress and anguish, all in a one hour period two days ago. I realized last night, as I wandered the apartment in a daze, after my three hour nap, my body was exhausted, with the kind of bone deep tiredness one can only get by long-term suppression of strong emotions, followed by an almost instant release…. It’s a similar feeling to the evening of the third day of football practice, back in high school, when the severe conditioning required to throw off the lethargy of summer vacation begins to catch up to even the best-conditioned young athlete… I didn’t run or sweat, but, two months of inner raging has the same effect, over time.

All that is probably more detail than necessary, but, we don’t worry about such petty shit here in the intro. If it takes up space, it’s good enough for us. This policy has evolved over the past three plus years of searching for the right opening, a search thus far unsuccessful to any significant degree. I still spend half the morning, it seems, just trying to pull this section together, to the detriment of my advancing arthritis. For example, right now I’m typing with three of the fingers on my left hand actively becoming numb from the circulation obstruction caused by the swelling, arthritic tissue undergoing the stress of movement.

Having again had my overtired, over-stimulated brain keep me up late, then sleeping so hard I missed a pain pill dose, I’m up later than my recent past habit. This makes me nervous, as I bump up against the edge of my self-imposed deadline for posting the daily Pearl. In fact, I’m writing wicked fast, to try to make up some of my lost time. In fact, I’m starting to feel panicked, never a good thing this time of day, hours before the world can supply me with any targets…. they’re all asleep, or getting ready for work….. It’s rude to bite people who haven’t even had their coffee yet….

But, I’ll do my best to get this out in a timely fashion. In keeping with that intent, I’ll even cut this intro short, again, to scoot us down the page into the video section. I think a bit of applied ruthlessness, and our old, familiar emergency method #4, ever useful in these situations, will serve our needs quite nicely. Just in time, too…. my left hand is now fully numb, and typing will be suspended until I can feel it again…. Hang on, we’ll be right back to get us out of here……

There is an old saying among the blogging community, which helps us to realize how important the whole thing is. It’s a grand statement of purpose, in a way, and, if I had any clue what it was, I might feel better. Since I don’t, let’s just remove the packaging from this odd little box, marked with a big 4, & see what happens next…..

Shall we Pearl?

“What a poor appearance the tales of poets make when stripped of the colours which music puts upon them, and recited in simple prose.” — Plato, The Republic. Book X. 601B

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

When I was a kid, cartoons were big, with me, and in mainstream entertainment at large. One of my favorites, as I remember, was Crusader Rabbit, a cartoon character from the early 1950’s, usually shown on the Sheriff John Show, a local program near Ft. Lewis, Washington, where my dad was stationed for four years leading up to when I was 10. I was going to include a number of those cartoons, but, after watching a few minutes of them, I realized, they were really bad, not what I remembered, but, not entirely unexpected…. The networks had barely been formed, and the slick, polished programs you see now weren’t yet developed….

Instead, we’ll go with over an hour of cartoons from a pair, or more accurately, a duck and a pair, who always were my Disney faves…. Donald because of his ranting, of course (I must have known even then what I would be when I grew up….); Chip and Dale, just because they were cute, always using teamwork to beat the bad guys, whomever they were…. I didn’t realize they were the first gay couple, but, hey, I was only a kid…. Enjoy, ffolkes, there’s a lot of good cartoons in this one…. Well, ‘good’ is the best word to use, I should say, without going into a lot of detail over why…. Think, progress in social mores, in one direction, anyway….

Donald Duck & Chip and Dale

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

http://youtu.be/siaA_JqR4fc

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

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

Regular Gentle Readers will recognize the picture, and may simply skip to the poetry section now, but, the following politirant, from early in 2013, while I was still living in poverty, relatively speaking, is quite good. It’s succinct, though long, presenting good arguments with precision and honesty, along with a fair amount of biting wit, if I do say so myself. (I DID do some minor editing, merely fine tuning and proofing to eliminate stuff I missed before…)

It’s one of the best rants I’ve written, all in all, well worth a second read, even for those who’ve been around a while. For newbies, brace yourselves, you are about to learn some new ways to look at stuff you’ve really always known, if you can persuade yourself to admit your wish to learn…. What is, perhaps, the first new item of note, is the certainty of the simple following fact: the only way to fulfill that wish is to realize how much larger is our ignorance than our knowledge…. Listen well, young paduans, as I tell you a true tale….

From 3/2/2013:

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

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

Okay, that’s a good start…. Now, we all know that politicians lie to us…. Please, don’t tell me you haven’t noticed…. It’s what we’ve all taught them to do, by our calm acceptance, thus, our tacit approval, of all the other lies they’ve told, from the very beginning. We expect them to lie… then, when we catch them at it, there is this huge public outcry, as if it had never happened before.

Sometimes, the behavior of the American public toward the political beast reminds me of a shark…. to wit: no memory of the past to slow down their willingness to rush into dangerous situations….. For millions of years, sharks and dolphins have lived together in the oceans. For just about all that time, whenever a shark attacks a dolphin, it gets killed, unless the dolphin is injured in some way, or, it is a baby inadvertently left alone. Always, if things are even, the shark dies, because the dolphins are smarter, and faster swimmers.

Yet, after millions of years, you would think the sharks might learn to let them alone…. They don’t, which is clear evidence of their lack of ability to learn, to remember the past, and generalize future behavior according to its effect. The American voting public has the same problem…. they never learn to expect to be lied to, always seemingly flabbergasted to learn their elected officials are, shall we say, less than perfectly honest?

Quite frankly, the whole process drives me nuts, absolutely bonkers, having witnessed the self-same reaction by the public, thousands upon thousands of times in my life…. What is it about people that does that to them? Why are they so unwilling to use the mind that sits between their ears, rather than just carrying it around from toilet to toilet, which is all most folks seem to do with it? (Almost forgot it was a question….) Perhaps, what some random cynic once observed about people really is true, to wit: “Human beings are merely nature’s finest example of portable plumbing”, or something of that sort…. I wish I knew….

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

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

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

What can be done about this? Not a damn thing…. Not only do I find most people are unconsciously stupid, they are stubborn about it, to boot, even when it is clear how the act of being stupid is hurting them. Rather than use their minds to find a new way of dealing with these issues, they retreat into platitudes and dogma, running right back out to vote for yet another slick-talking idiot, who promises them manna from heaven, or, more accurately, from Washington D.C. Confronted with clear evidence of their idiocy, they become even more stubborn, as they are unwilling to accept they might be wrong, making it acceptable to refuse to examine any evidence of being wrong, or, more often, simply denying its existence altogether.

Politicians, who choose to live in stupidity, by lying and cheating and stealing from their own people, don’t even WANT to choose otherwise. Why should they? They’ve got it easy, with a ready supply of host bodies on which to practice their symbiotic parasitism, a body that not only accepts all their lies, but, by their silent, tacit approval, encourage even further depredations with their complete acquiescence whatever the politicos want, no matter how outrageous, or harmful to their own interests. All the politicians have to say is, the public is in danger, (Danger! Danger, Will Robinson!….), from this, that, or the other, whereupon the public allows them to do whatever the pundits choose, so long as the public can feel safe, from whatever fictional fantasy was constructed, using a lot of smoke and mirrors, convincing them to panic in fear…..

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

It’s an interesting spectacle to observe from the sidelines, but it arouses in me a strong feeling of sadness, with anger underlying, as I watch, day after day, as so many millions of foolish people get taken advantage of by a few assholes. It definitely makes me want to buy a gun, even though I would only use it if pressed; I have a feeling I may get pressed some day in the not-too-distant future, if I continue to make noise about all this.

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

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

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

“Ignorance kills daily. “– Smart Bee
__________________________________

Well, maybe it’s not Hemingway-esque, but, it’s certainly gigoidal….

Note from 2015: See? Not bad, eh? Even the final comment, ripped from the closing section the same day as the rant, is perfectly fitting. I think I’ll keep this one….

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

:Blue Screen of Death: n. [common] This term is closely related to the older {Black Screen of Death} but much more common (many non-hackers have picked it up). Due to the extreme fragility and bugginess of Microsoft Windows misbehaving applications can readily crash the OS (and the OS sometimes crashes itself spontaneously). The Blue Screen of Death, sometimes decorated with hex error codes, is what you get when this happens. (Commonly abbreviated {BSOD}.)

The following entry from the Salon Haiku Contest (http://www.salonmagazine.com/21st/chal/1998/02/10chal2.html), seems to have predated popular use of the term:

Windows NT crashed.
I am the Blue Screen of Death
No one hears your screams.

~~ from The on-line Hacker Jargon File V423 ~~

No big message is implied by including the above; I just liked the haiku. I did find a pretty good poem of mine, from a couple of years ago, which I had almost completely forgotten…. Enjoy, please….

Playing by the Rules

All my days I looked for love,
And found it everywhere I looked.
The years were joyous and fully booked
Seemingly by command from Above.

In return for all of the beauty in Life I found
I played life by the Rules that we all know,
It was from my father I learned the how,
Honest love, given freely, hand-fasted, gladly bound.

It seemed a while as if it were all real,
that fulfillment and contentment could be
as real as the children given us to oversee,
to teach them of Life and Love, and how to feel.

Then, storm clouds of grievous change arrived, unbidden
Insidious, deceitful, three steps forward, one back.
Tearing holes in our beautiful cloth, hearts heard to crack,
Gleeful demons eating life’s bounty, fangs dirty, and hidden.

Pain and sorrow grew, in defiance of all I tried,
Sanctuary turned into a reluctant scene of ritual battle,
Love still lives, but is herded like doomed and pitiful cattle,
While the keening of my soul sounds as if I’d cried.

Betrayal in love is, allow me to assure, no small pain to take.
Time has no power to reduce its place in my heart or soul.
My truest love became a stranger, a powerfully sharp toll,
Solitude has become my lot, no killing time for necessity’s sake.

Love yet surrounds me, everywhere; I’m not one of those fools…
Children are forgiving, I’m glad to be able to say,
They show me life’s solid purpose, the old, right way,
I guess don’t know any other way, than to Play it by the Rules.

~~ gigoid ~~

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

The pearl below is an odd one, a statement anyone who knows me indicates a truly exceptional occurrence, since ‘odd’ could be used to describe everything happening here. First, all of them came up quickly, in the order you see; second, the message created by their congruent directional characteristics is one of great wisdom. Most telling, the quote supplied by Smart Bee, exactly in the center position, which seems like it is a tongue-in-cheek observation, is much more apt than it might appear at first glance. If you stop to think of it, the event described, i.e. changing over to a new concept of service, IS, or WAS, perhaps, a very telling sign. It was one of the first AUDIBLE shots fired by the 1%, in the ages old war being waged between them, and the rest of humanity.

It was almost as if those who run the world were now sure of their hold over society, no longer needing to hide themselves, or their intentions, from those they have oppressed for so long; I remember having a similar thought when I first saw a gas station advertising the policy, thinking to myself, “Well, so much for the concept of customer service. Somebody noticed they could make more money by making the customers supply their own.” Those elite assholes who necessarily hide from their brethren, for their own protection, notified the world they no longer cared about hiding their intentions, though they continue to hide their location in space…. with good reason…. Any who, it all makes this a very special pearl….

“Few men make themselves masters of the things they write or speak.– John Selden (1584-1654) — Learning

“Life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced.” — Soren Kierkegaard

“Never let your sense of morals prevent you from doing what is right.” — Isaac Asimov — Salvor Hardin, “Foundation”

“The real erosion of civilization as we knew it started with the popularity of the self-service gas pump.” — Smart Bee

“It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself.” — Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), Notes on Virginia

When he was in great prosperity, and courted by many, seeing himself splendidly served at his table, he turned to his children and said: “Children, we had been undone, if we had not been undone.” — Plutarch (46-120 AD) — Life of Themistocles

“A good reputation is more valuable than money.” — Publius Syrus (42 BC) — Maxim 108

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

Well, it’s done. Since I haven’t the slightest clue how I did it, I’m going to post it, and be done with it. My brain is officially done, as soon as I hit send on the email to the Pearl Drops, which goes out immediately after posting online (gotta have the IP address for the post to put in the email. See? Not completely disorganized…. See y’all tomorrow, ffolkes, as long as I can remember how to type….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid, the dubious

PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.

“SCRAM!!!!!!!!!!”- Oscar the Grouch

À bientôt, mon cherí….

Not to worry, it always spits like that….

Posted on September 19, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

“That’s the whole problem with science.

You’ve got a bunch of empiricists trying to describe things of unimaginable wonder.”

~~ Calvin (& Hobbes) ~~

Since the picture is one I took, from the deck of a cruise ship, of the Tracy Arm Fjord Glacier, I can begin by saying that it is here not because it a decent shot of a beautiful natural scene, one so true-to-life, the cold in the air can be felt when viewing it, anywhere one may be….. That isn’t the reason, though it does describe what might have been…. but, when I looked at it the other day, as I was going through some old travel pix, to try to convince myself the way I felt was not ALL reality could offer, it struck me how, though it WAS spring when I took the photo, there was great deal of “calving” going on in the glacier’s leading edge….

This degree of calving is NOT normal, not even at the time of year I took the photograph. The simple truth is, there is so much ice crumbling off the glacier because of the phenomenon of global warming, and, the simple FACT that the ocean’s temperature is rising, not just at an alarming rate, but, faster than that…. Now, I know the intro section isn’t the best place for a rant, but, what am I to do when it (my guilt, that is…) jumps out of its chair & slaps me in the face, whenever I consider NOT speaking up…. My knowledge of the degree of danger, for us ALL, is so solidly convincing, I am, as I almost never am, afraid…. very afraid, of the future I see….

Since I am here not to drive y’all away, or intentionally frighten you with what I know to be very real, but, to, essentially, entertain, or, at best, teach a small lesson, or stimulate thought, I won’t take those thoughts any further….. now, anyway…. I have the feeling though, there will be more on this in one of the three sections to come…. It is too important, and too fucking scary, for me to keep it to myself for long… and, though I really don’t enjoy frightening people (think about it; to do so, I must frighten myself first…), this is one I can’t just let go….

Nor, in this case, must I; instead, I’ve reproduced below, in section one, a rant from the past (not-too-distant) which touches on this issue, but, with another actual target involved, also supplying some assertions as to the most likely suspects responsible for the extreme danger we will face, very soon….

For the nonce, (Great word! Too bad it’s fallen out of style… SIGH…. I do what I can to preserve some of the finer, more elegant pieces of English being eliminated by the current climate of ignorance….), I’ll see what I can find wandering around in my head to either begin again, or segue into something more amenable, for the time being…. Hmm… let’s see what’s down this nice, dark corridor over here….

Why look! It’s a really shiny pearl, from one of our favorite contributors…. I think we’ll take what the universe is offering, and make it our final say for this intro section…. Hey, we do what we can to make it better; we just don’t always know what that means, or what it may entail….. So be it…. See y’all down the page a bit…..

“If you want others to be happy, practice compassion.

If you want to be happy, practice compassion.”

~~ The Dalai Lama ~~

….. I found this in Smart Bee without attribution, but, I really thought SB must have taken this from the Dalai Lama, as it sounds exactly like something he would say, or, has said…. which Google confirmed as truth; they ARE his words….

But, I also feel it is a statement as close to PURE TRUTH, as, literally, any words I’ve ever run across in my rather extensive reading…. I don’t claim to know all there is to know, or to have read all there is to read, but, I’ve read enough to know that, in this, I am correct, with NONE of the usual doubt I typically espouse….

Shall we Pearl?…..

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

Still suffering from vertigo, but, at least, it’s now being treated so it will pass eventually…. but, ranting isn’t in the picture yet…. Here’s another from the archives…..

From 3/2/13:

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Ignorance kills daily. “– Smart Bee

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

Ffolkes….Today you are witnessing the next stage in the evolution of this blog…. I’ve learned how to embed videos into the page, and can now put up a You Tube video on any subject they have on the You Tube site, meaning you will be able to have music, of any kind, playing while you read, if you wish…. Or, I could put up material in support of my rants, or whatever I can think of to help entertain, and please anyone who comes by to read…. I’m jazzed, at all the potential…. the possibilities are endless….

To begin, I’ll pull my covers first, followed by an expression of my philosophy of life…. in musical metaphor, of course…. First, a short 11 minute romantic compilation of movie clips, that follow the evolution of the relationship between Lord Peter Wimsey, and Miss Harriet Vane, of the Dorothy L. Sayers mystery novels, in which they both figured as protagonists…. Second, the Jerry Garcia Band, with a live version from 1989, I believe, recorded on Long Island, entitled, “Deal”….. also known as “Don’t you let that deal go down….”

Enjoy!….. I intend to….

Peter & Harriet:

Deal: Jerry & the guys

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

No doubt, I’ve used this poem previously, but, it has been quite a while, and I’m in the mood for Emily….. so, enjoy, anyway….. Please?…..

A narrow fellow in the grass
Occasionally rides;
You may have met him,–did you not,
His notice sudden is.

The grass divides as with a comb,
A spotted shaft is seen;
And then it closes at your feet
And opens further on.

He likes a boggy acre,
A floor too cool for corn.
Yet when a child, and barefoot,
I more than once, at morn,

Have passed, I thought, a whip-lash
Unbraiding in the sun,–
When, stooping to secure it,
It wrinkled, and was gone.

Several of nature’s people
I know, and they know me;
I feel for them a transport
Of cordiality;

But never met this fellow,
Attended or alone,
Without a tighter breathing,
And zero at the bone.

~~ Emily Dickinson ~~

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

Gosh…. Now that I’ve picked up (finally…) on how to post videos, this section can become a fixture for old-school pearls, which also makes my life easier…. fewer actual decisions to make…. while also opening up the opportunity to delegate some of those remaining decisions to SB, which seems to enjoy the freedom….

“Immorality: The morality of those who are having a better time.” — H. L. Mencken

“Life’s disappointments are harder to take when you don’t know any swear words.” — Calvin, Calvin and Hobbes

“The farmer fed apples to his pigs by holding them up to the tree, one at a time. His son, home from college, suggested that time might be saved by knocking the apples out of the tree so all the pigs could eat at the same time. Said Dad, “What’s time to a pig?”– Smart Bee

“In the end it will not matter to us whether we fought with flails or reeds. It will matter to us greatly on what side we fought.” — G. K. Chesterton

“One of the lessons of history is that nothing is often a good thing to do and always a clever thing to say.” — Will Durant, in “Reader’s Digest”, 1972

“Imagination is the highest kite one can fly.” — Lauren Bacall

“Instead of being born again, why not just grow up?” — Smart Bee

Not bad…. not bad at all….

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

Only in the direst of circumstances would I hurry this much….. It’s a special day, though, so, I’ll just go with instinct, and leave it as is…. I will see y’all tomorrow, all things remaining equal….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid, the dubious

Even duct tape won’t help now….

Posted on June 15, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ooh! Ooh! Here’s another one…

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Ignorance kills daily. “– Smart Bee

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

I measure every grief I meet