Pike staffs with curlicues….

Ffolkes,

“Bravery is being the only one who knows you’re afraid.”

~~ Franklin P. Jones ~~

Luna 2015


Luna, 12/25/2015

Image found at https://europasicewolf.wordpress.com/author/europasicewolf/


Hajime…. I’m unsure as to why eight hours sleep results in awakening if a foul mood; it’s foul enough I don’t give a shit. Everybody ELSE in the world, today, will just have to deal with it, because, I don’t intend to. For some reason, I woke up with absolutely no patience; not for foolishness, not for rudeness, not even for cat nonsense. Moreover, this time, I am NOT going to be the one making any fucking adjustments. Whoever crosses my path will act with perfect rationality, or they WILL pay a price for not doing so in my presence….

That out of the way, I’ll note today’s effort won’t be much of one, anyway…. I spent much of yesterday working on the no-doubt excessively wordy rant you’ll see today, but, it’s a pretty important one, to me, so, read it anyway, ‘kay? I worked on it pretty hard, even so far as to re-blog another bloggers most excellent piece as part of the lead-in to our subject matter today…. I guess the theme ended up being “how to fix things, or not” which is about as murky and unclear as I can make it… Sorry, not in a mood to be anything but straight-line. In fact, I’m done here; let’s get to it….

Shall we Pearl?….

Cat: Ethereal music wreathed in mystery.

~~ Bastet Bee ~~


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mozart2

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart


I’m in a rotten space, as I’ve noted. One of the few pieces of music tolerable at all are these two symphonies, by the man I consider the most talented musical genius mankind has produced, thus far. Don’t care if anyone feels otherwise; in this mood, this is the only thing that can bring me any peace, so, if you don’t appreciate classical music, you may move on to the ranting section, where you will be encouraged to use the mind you possess for its intended purpose…. See you there, if I can manage not to get arrested before I get there….


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Mozart
Symphonies 40 & 41

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le penseur-rodin

Le Penseur ~ The Thinker

August Rodin

“Never frighten a little man.
He’ll kill you.”

~~ Lazarus Long ~~

~~ from Robert A. Heinlein’s “Time Enough For Love” ~~


At first look, this short, pithy assertion about human nature by The Eldest may not seem particularly apt, nor deep enough to warrant a picture of Le Penseur to begin an examination of such a complex subject…. No worries, mates; it’s much, much deeper than it appears, and, I’m about to explain why…. (For those readers who don’t know why I call Lazarus by that title, ask in a comment, & I’ll explain)

Since the first of our species, long ago, before any modern human can even comprehend, first picked up a rock or stick, to defend itself against an attack by a predator, or, even, another of its own relatively peaceful species when not aroused to violence, (all of which, after all, is a natural function of life on Earth before technology…,), and, by virtue of possessing a weapon, killed his/her antagonist, the human imagination has turned its power to the improvement of the stick, and/or the rock, as a weapon, and, to the various methods of killing other creatures, whether predator or prey, upon which it fastened, as our primary means of fulfilling its natural function, of creation…

We have spent the intervening millenia in creation, mostly along those lines, improving both our weapons of death, and, the use of our imagination, to give free rein to the most vicious side of our animal nature… We became the planet’s most efficient predator, so much more of a killing machine than any other, almost NONE  of our competitors are left, but for the power of Nature itself, which our imagination continues to attempt to control, to turn the very nature of Reality to its own vicious purposes, to the detriment of not only all the other animals and other life forms here, but, to the entire ecosystem, of which we are only a part… In short, we are so intent on the achievement of our own foolish desires, we are killing ourselves…. Stupid is as stupid does, it seems, is a truer representation of Reality than we knew….

If we are capable of viewing our species’ history in this light, the above statement takes on new meaning; the most dangerous human is one who fears…. There have been many sages throughout our history who, in contrast to those who pursue predation as their means of survival, have pointed out the folly of such avarice based upon ignorance and fear, and, of the necessity of learning about the universe, rather than fearing it, as we do…. Most people, because of the fear they feel, are given little chance to ever USE the mind with which we are equipped; from birth, they are taught to fear… to fear God, to fear other people, to fear reprisal of any kind….

The other side of that counterfeit coin is the promise of reward (i.e., the removal of fear), as well as the promise of ‘immortality’, which is, as is eminently clear, merely the province of the Universe as a whole… All of the individual PARTS of that Universe, in Reality, die, and change form into something else…. They, and everything that exists in Reality, ‘die’, and are ‘born’ again, as a different type of energy/matter…. Matter becomes energy, energy becomes matter, in a duet, a dance of Life and Death, through all of Eternity. Or, as much as we can perceive in this form.

That much is plainly visible to the simplest mind, as the proof is visible, in plain sight, in everything we witness in this consciousness we call Life…. This means, of course, the reward promised is fake, for each and every person is already immortal, as a part of the Eternal NOW, in motion through time, moving without cease, until it is destroyed, thus changing form….

One of the worst factors of this approach to Life the majority of our species has chosen, whether consciously, or not, is the sense of false entitlement, and, assumption of superiority which is characteristic of those who ascribe to any such philosophy…. It is particularly egregious, as well as culturally embedded, in the male members of humanity, who have, for all the time since we first became a species of killer apes, have abused their naturally greater physical strength to abuse and intimidate the female of the species, believing ‘might makes right’, no matter the resulting pain, or death, it may cause to others…. Only the wishes and desires of the strong, in their minds, have any validity….

I’ve often used the following meme, from ex-President Carter, to illustrate one of the ways this attitude has manifested throughout history, and, in truth, before we started keeping it in written form. It is a very clear summary of the issue, from the point of view of an intelligent, well-educated man, who was NOT one of those men who feel as most others do….

jimmy sez

    Before finishing this post, I had decided to re-blog the piece of work located at the link you see just below…. I’d like my Gentle Readers here today to take a few moments to read it, if they haven’t already, before resuming this narrative…. In my opinion, the story this woman has conceived is, absolutely, the most powerful, and, the most logically likely scenario for the familiar tale to have occurred, in true Reality, as opposed to what everyone today has been taught to believe…. In my mind, this is, most probably, the actual way Mary became known as the Mother of God…..

Be warned; it is a powerful tale, and not to be taken lightly; if you cannot disengage from your feelings while reading, you WILL weep before you are done…..

 

    Ffolkes, this has to stop. The men of the human race are killing each other, and all of us; raping women, and children; and, are, in general, strutting around the planet acting as if they are the only ones who matter at all…. They are not only dead wrong, but, they, in their extreme ignorance, blinded by the lust for power, and control over others, (which exists only to assuage their own fears of inadequacy), are in the process of killing us all; a species which does not act in concert to survive, will never do so… That particular rule of existence is written right in the basic roots of Universal Reality in this plane of existence….

Kindness, compassion, love, and honor are what characterizes my view of a Man; I see very few of our species living up to that standard…. The most painful irony, and, most painful truth is, most of the men alive on this planet are too ignorant, too weak, too afraid, and too wrapped in themselves to ever realize it….. The man of honor is no longer the majority, in this country, or, in the entire world, I’m afraid. Instead, they exist, only, as a rarity….

Pathetic is what they are; I guess it’s almost time for me to go hunting….

gigoid has spoken.

So be it.


Dont keep calm

    It seems gigoid has more to say….

Yesterday, after writing the above, I read a blog, written by a Palestinian woman I regard as one of the most intelligent humans on the planet; she is burdened by not being free to use her full intelligence, simply by being born in a place that places little regard in women, at all, and, are actively repressive to any who display such power of mind, in public, and mostly, in private….

Moreover, she is trapped in a country which is occupied by another, and must survive, protect her family, and keep herself safe in what is, essentially, a war zone, called Palestine, in Gaza, next to the zone occupied by the Israelis, at whose bloody hands the city has become a festering cauldron of murder, repression, and, quite simply, inhuman atrocity, against an entire culture…. all in the Name of God.

She wrote a long piece in her native language, which Google could only HOPE to come close to translating. However, it was clear enough to me she had written her usual brilliant analysis, with her own reactions, of a recent meeting with a man and woman she considers as mentors in rational Islamic thought. While trying to make sense of the translation, it occurred to me, she was also trapped by the same trap as every other woman, man, and child on Earth, to wit: she has been labeled…..

All of us bear labels; it is human nature to assign a word to another, in order to place them into the proper slot in their mind’s world view… We get so wrapped up in labels, we confuse our real selves with what we have been labeled as being, though it may not have any real relevance to what is in our hearts and minds….

Names, places, religions, skin colors, genders, hair/clothing/body/life styles; we all receive them, and, usually, accept them as true without thinking about it, since it fits into our preconceived notions of self, or others….

And, it’s all another fucking illusion, ffolkes…. To comment on her post, I wrote a more prosaic, somewhat shorter version of the following, which I have decided to entitle….

Manifesto

I was born in the USA;
it is a place on the Earth.

I am not an American.

I am a human.

If I MUST be labeled an American,
then,
I must also consider myself
to be :

Palestinian,
Egyptian,
Israeli,
Chinese,
 Russian,
Irish,
Belgian,
Kenyan,
Tibetan,
Afghani,
AND,
every other country
in the world.

If I am anything,
I am a citizen of Earth,
of Terra,
our Home.

As long as humans regard themselves any other way,
as citizens of different countries,
as proponents of different religions,
as possessors of different colored skins,
or different genders,
or,
as ANYTHING other than a human being,
FIRST and LAST,
we will never learn to make peace with each other.

Applying a label, of any sort, to a human,
is to place limits
on what they can be, or think, or do….

Accepting such labels
as truth
leads only
to death,
without honor,
without hope,
without peace.

Freedom,
true freedom,
has no limits;
there are no labels
among the free.

Humans don’t need
a creator,
money,
fear,
or,
violence.

Humans need
compassion,
kindness,
love,
honor,
and,
each other.

Simple logic,
and absolute truth
about human nature.

You won’t find it
in any version of a Bible,
or of the Quran,
or any other book.

You can only find
this absolute truth
in your own
heart and mind.

~~ gigoid ~~

1/3/2016


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Comedy_Tragedy

Future Shocked:

Weeping, I wake;
waking, I weep, I weep.
I weep for the ages to be lost,
for the children never to be born.

Time comes calling, strident and spare,
nudging us toward the future with bony hands.
No pausing, no waiting, always away,
Frantic hearts unseen, unheard.

Spirits are dark, afraid.
And the Beast hunts, hungry and cruel,
seeking out the weak, and the foolish.

We all weep now…..

~~ gigoid ~~

7/22/2013

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pearls_3

Naked Pearls

Life at Large, Redux

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

“It’s amazing how much one person can do,
little by little,
over time.”

~~ Worker Bee ~~

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

“There are no mistakes.
The events we bring upon ourselves,
no matter how unpleasant,
are necessary
in order to learn what we need to learn;
whatever steps we take,
they’re necessary
to reach the places we’ve chosen to go.”

~~ Richard Bach, The Bridge Across Forever ~~

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

“The chief cause of human error
is to be found in prejudices picked up in childhood.”

~~ René Descartes ~~

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

“The truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it.”

~~ Flannery O’Connor ~~

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

“A lotta cats copy the Mona Lisa,
but people still line up to see the original.”

~~ Louis Armstrong ~~

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

“I do not believe in the creed professed
by the Jewish church,
by the Roman church,
by the Greek church,
by the Turkish church,
by the Protestant church,
nor by any church that I know of.
My own mind is my own church.”

~~ Thomas Paine ~~

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“Children are remarkable
for their intelligence and ardour,
for their curiosity,
their intolerance of shams,
the clarity and ruthlessness of their vision.”

~~ Aldous Huxley ~~

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

“If I were to wish for anything,
I should not wish for wealth and power,
but for the passionate sense of potential;
for the eye which,
ever young and ardent, sees the possible.
Pleasure disappoints; possibility never.”

~~ Soren Kierkegaard ~~

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

“Fortune rarely accompanies anyone to the door.”

~~ Balthasar Gracian ~~


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It’s done, & I’m still in a foul mood…. I’m gonna go play with Leelu, & see if I can find a bit of peace inside…. See y’all tomorrow; I’m pretty sure, if I can keep myself from going out into the BBR, I’ll still be here to do so…. Time will tell, the tattletale….

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

Kowabunga!


À bientôt, mon cherí….


					

All you can do is all you can do….

Ffolkes,

“… denn da ist keine Stelle, die dich nicht sieht. Du musst dein Leben andern.”

“… for there is no place that does not see you. You must change your life.”

~~ Rainer Maria Rilke ~~

~~ “Archaic Torso of Apollo” ~~

small congress

A Small Congress


A bit of housekeeping… Yesterday, when I wrote the lines wherein I wished all my Gentle Readers a happy season, I, apparently, was not completely mindful, as I described my words as a Winter Wish…. It SHOULD have been a Winter/Summer Wish; by forgetting the Nature of Reality’s Duality, I inadvertently withheld the wish for the many (read: several….) Gentle Readers who reside in the Southern Hemisphere, where it is NOT winter, but, summer….. (thanks to the 23.4º tilt of Earth’s axis, in relation to the plane of the ecliptic)…. (Trust me on this…. It’s true….)….

To all of those wonderful friends, in India, Australia, or, wherever you live south of the Equator, my bad…. Sorry ’bout that; everything I said yesterday was sent to you as well… Believe it….

A few days before Christmas, I went back in time, as suggested by a link below the day’s Pearl, at the bottom of the page, to July 26, 2013. I re-read the Pearl for that day, & I liked it well enough to use it today, in toto, but for the poem, which was used a short time ago here. Below this paragraph, written today, you’ll find the Pearl from that date, as it appeared, but, with a different poem, so as to refrain from repetition too often…. Pearls at that time didn’t have a video section, which evolved later, in 2014, so, no video today; sorry…. Not many quotations in the pearls, either; it’s all pretty serious/somber material…. Nevertheless, I hope y’all enjoy it as much as I did….

Plus, posting this gave me a whole extra day to work on the next Pearl(s) you’ll see…. Bonus, for me, and you, as I’ll have more time to make it right…. Here then, is my version of a re-blog, but, of my own work… Works for me…. See y’all at the bottom of the page….

From 7/26/2013:

Ffolkes,

As some of y’all may have noted, yesterday’s Pearl was disrupted by Reality, whereas today’s will be characterized by Fantasy, or a reasonable facsimile thereof….The most pertinent item I recall seems to be the unexpected increase in planetary gravity that hit about 2 PM yesterday…. Didn’t you notice? It seemed quite significant to me;  I had been struggling all day to keep upright, as the normally severe sucking power of our planet pulled at me constantly, no matter what I was doing…. sitting, standing, walking, typing, driving, all of it seemed harder, as if I were swimming through heavy syrup, or wearing extra bags of sand or something…. By eight o’clock at night, I was exhausted from the effort to remain a simian of the modern variety, standing upright like a true hominid….

And, then, I woke up…. t’was a new day dawning, turning the blues and grays of the morning sky to a pale pinkish blue, lifting spirits along with hopes, unbidden. All the bad, mad stuff that filled the last days was gone, banished to wherever such things go when pinned with the light of day, and I am once again filled with piss and vinegar, so to speak, ready for whatever the new day will bring. Of course, being an inveterate planner, I already know what will happen today, at least, according to my schedule, but, Murphy has a tendency to ignore my schedules in favor of his own, with mine usually ending up in the trash, while I adjust to his…. the asshole….

I’m up at my usual hour, and intend to write as usual…. Intentions aren’t always enough, though, so we’ll see how it goes today. It has to be better than it was the last two days, which, even sans the kind attentions of the Murph, I spent in the dumps, thanks to the gift that keeps on giving (PTSD). I’m all better now, having thrown off the unreasoning sense of anxiety that pervaded my conscious mind, and gone beyond whatever it was that triggered the episode…. Once more, I am completely in the dark as to what that might be; I do wish I could figure it out, as it is a pain in the ass, and if I knew how to block its ascent into my consciousness, I would do so in a heartbeat…. Until I do, I am at the mercy of whatever it is, destined to fall into despair in an instant, never knowing why….

Ah well, so what else is new? Life with PTSD goes on, as I said, yesterday, sort of, if we don’t hang on to it too tight, and I’m determined NOT to grip it tightly enough to hold it in its place…. If you see me doing so, please tickle me, or throw some water, or something to let me know, as I’m done with feeling bad for no good reason…. It’s a waste of time I could use to be doing something more constructive….. Of course, writing this blog may or may not fall precisely into that category, but, it’s what I do, so deal…. And, speaking of what I do….

Shall we Pearl?…..

_____________________________

“One of the merits of democracy is quite obvious: it is perhaps the most charming form of government ever devised by man.  The reason is not far to seek.  It is based on propositions that are palpably not true — and what is not true, as everyone knows, is always immensely more fascinating and satisfying to the vast majority of men than what is true.” — H. L. Mencken

With this statement, Mr. Mencken has put his finger on the pulse of America, that is for certain. It goes a long way toward explaining why so many people in this country are so willing to believe the outright, egregious lies that are told to them every single day by the officials they elect every year at the polls that characterize our republic…. They do lie, you know, with almost every statement that comes out of their mouths…. They begin with the most important lie they tell, from which all the others spring, and that is the lie they tell when they tell you that they want to be elected so they can work for YOU! Each and every politician learns early in their career, if they are at all to be successful, they MUST portray themselves as a public-spirited, honest, and tireless worker whose only purpose is to make life better for their constituents….

Of course, nothing could be further from the truth…. NONE of them are at all concerned with any of that nonsense; they are there to carry out their own agenda, which has very little to do with what is good for the general run of mankind…. No, they are there to serve the interests of the men and women who pay them, those lobbyists and special interest representatives who run the businesses of the corporate masters. The people on the street cannot provide them with the perks, or the cash, that the clandestine rulers are able to come up with, other than peripherally, by electing them in the first place…. Once elected, their true colors come out into the light of day, and it can be easily seen how their actions are never congruent with what they have promised to the people who elected them….

It’s all about power and money to these folks, not service. In my entire life of observing politics around the world, I have yet to see a single elected official who could be shown to be honest, not at the national level. The one who came the closest was Jimmy Carter, and his presidency was marked by how little got done, because he was so honest that the true politicians in Congress blocked every reform he tried to institute during his time in office. His actions during that time showed him to be the exception to the usual rule for politicians, which is why, I believe, he was so ineffective as a legislator….

“Invest in America — Buy Japan!”– Smart Bee


Other than Carter, I have seen concrete proof that EVERY President of this country has lied to the American people, not just once or twice, but continuously, about nearly everything. Time and time again, public outcries are heard or seen in the news about some new revelation regarding something some politician lied about, just like it is breaking news or something, when it is actually the normal state of affairs….

I don’t know why it is, but if a man on a TV set, wearing a suit and tie, makes a statement to the public, the general public will believe it, sometimes fanatically, without ever examining it for whether or not it is true… Then, when it turns out they were lied to, they get all upset and vocalize their displeasure, never once admitting it was their own cupidity that allowed the lie to occur in the first place…. It makes me wonder what happened to people in this country, to make them go soft in the head….

“Doctors are the same as lawyers; the only difference is that lawyers merely rob you, whereas doctors rob you and kill you too.” — Anton Chekhov

Did you ever notice how many politicians were lawyers, first? Most of them, as it turns out, for the simple reason that learning to be a lawyer gives a politician two advantageous types of training… One advantage is that law school teaches the student how to lie in every imaginable way, in order to ascertain which kinds of lies are legal…. The other advantage is their primary motivation…. I

f asked, a very large percentage of lawyers will tell you their reason for becoming a barrister in the first place is that it is a good way to get rich, ( without mentioning, of course, that this is true only as long as one doesn’t give a shit about other people, and what that might do to them)…. In other words they make their money by taking advantage of people’s misery, holding them as hostages against their own destiny, in order to gain resources, i.e. money, and its sidekick, power…..

Then the lawyers realize that their training is perfect for politics…. The ability to lie with facility comes in very handy to anyone who wants to be in the public eye, as that is how one gets elected in the first place…. Tell people what they want to hear, and they will vote for you, every time, coming back to the same trough to eat, even though they get screwed, time after time…. Having the facility to ignore what happens to others, due to their own actions, is the other skill so important to the political set, and the training one receives as a lawyer fits right into that category….

“Watching the democratic party in a presidential contest is like watching a washing machine with a defective bearing:  It starts up smoothly enough, but soon, it begins to wobble and shake, jumping violently from place to place, until it tears itself to pieces, spewing dirty laundry all over the room.” –Smart Bee

Some people will say that there ARE some good lawyers out there, and I won’t argue that…. but, they’re still lawyers, not politicians, aren’t they? They’re doing what they can to help ffolkes find their way through the morass of our legal system to get what they need, even occasionally finding some justice….

But, they aren’t going further, and going into public service, are they? They’re still in place, where they can help, but, they are so few and far between, they are hard to find, and so are very busy, seldom having the time or resources to work against their less honest colleagues. Plus, they really are very few in number, as altruists seldom become lawyers in the first place….

I can see that this has evolved into a full scale rant, and we’ve just begun the day, so I’ll call a halt here. I often feel as if I’m preaching to the choir, anyway, when I go through this stuff again…. It’s all familiar material around here, so it isn’t as if I’m presenting new ideas for your examination…. No, this is all old stuff, and, sadly, doesn’t seem to ever create the outrage that I feel in very many other ffolkes… which is too bad…..  I forget who said that “if you keep on doing things the same ways as you always have, things will always be the way they’ve always been….”, but, they were absolutely correct…. We are on a path to our own destruction, clearly, but, nobody seems to care…

Nobody, that is, who seems able to DO anything about it, and they are the ones who will need to make the changes….. The people in authority over the rest of us are wearing blinders in this respect…. The idea that what they are doing is wrong, and will eventually kill us all, doesn’t fit into their world-view, so they won’t believe it, and will continue to refuse to make any of the changes needed to re-direct our steps onto a path less dangerous.

It is up to the rest of us to get it done, and that may entail overthrowing the current crop of rulers, either by the vote, or by the less agreeable option of using the necessary force, while making sure the new crop will act in OUR best interests, rather than their own…. If it does happen, it will be the first time in history, which is fine with me…. just as long as it is not the LAST time in history….

“… democracy is not something you believe in, or a place you hang your hat, but it’s something you do.  You participate.  If you stop doing it, democracy crumbles and falls apart.” — Abby Hoffman
_____________________________

Comedy_Tragedy

    Today’s poem was not originally used in this Pearl; that one, “A Dubiously Soft Morning”, was used just a few days ago…. I’ve replaced it with a poem from the same year, but, of a different tone altogether…. I hope you enjoy it; it’s actually one of my favorites of those I’ve written, because it speaks of my father…. Abondanza!

Ah Ain’t Sho, but Mebbe So….

Fried eggs got nuthin’ on me
Ah’m not even sure of mah name,
or how Ah come to be;
no idea from where Ah came.

Ah does like a mystery tho’,
puzzlin’ things out so’s Ah knows,
good from bad fo sho,
Ah sho don’t want no rock pillows.

If’n Ah cain’t figure out what’s best,
Ah just falls back on mah Daddy’s words,
seems he knowed just whut’d stand the test,
‘n how to gentle the scaredest birds.

‘Course, he’d lived a good long time,
‘n had lots of stuff go on by;
Went to a war, n’ lost a piece or two,
never once used it fer an alibi.

He tol’ me once Ah’d best learn to learn,
school’s only cool if ya ain’t already a fool.
Yer own good measure you can earn,
by startin’ yer learnin’ with the Golden Rule.

Always seemed to me as Ah growed up,
he mostly only spoke if it wuz true,
‘n by doin’ that clued me to what’s up,
kept me from stuff that’d a made me blue.

Without ever sayin’ the word itself,
Ah learned ’bout honor, ‘n helpin’ others
not some fake stuff from some shelf,
but, knowin’ whut’s right, ‘n that we’re all brothers.

Ah’ve been around long enough now, Ah think
to get around the block at least two times.
I s’pose long as my head don’t shrink
Ah’ll keep on doin’ right, ‘n makin’ these rhymes…..

~~ gigoid ~~

4/6/2013


Last posted on WP 9/6/2014
_____________________________

“The belief that there is only one truth and that oneself is in possession of it seems to me the deepest root of all evil that is in the world.” — Max Born, physicist

I like this, mostly because of its clarity and brevity of expression…. It’s perfect no-frills wisdom, with no ups and no extras, all you need for enlightenment in one short, pithy phrase. It also exposes the basic untruth of the mindset against which Thomas Aquinas warned, when he cautioned us to “Beware the man of one book.” I often wonder how the Church scholars managed to rationalize that statement into their set of dogmatic rules, and still canonize Saint Thomas as one of the icons of their faith; this statement is so diametrically opposed to all they teach, how did it become his entry into sainthood, with all the perks that involves, like, I don’t know, what, a better seat at holy dinners?

Any who, all sarcastic smirking aside, it doesn’t make sense, but, then, most of what I have heard and read about the more popular Christian religious sects doesn’t make much sense, either…. People seem to find it compelling, though, and manage to invest a lot of time and energy fulfilling whatever agenda items having those beliefs will engender.

“History does not record anywhere at any time a religion that has any rational basis. Religion is a crutch for people not strong enough to stand up to the unknown without help. But, like dandruff, most people do have a religion and spend time and money on it and seem to derive considerable pleasure from fiddling with it.” — Lazarus Long

These, to me, are the folks who find it easier to go through life allowing what other people believe determine their own thoughts and feelings, as it is less troublesome for them to have someone else do it for them, than making the effort to understand the world on their own…..

I suppose it’s okay, for them, to allow this, but, for me, it would drive me crazy in no time at all to try to believe some of what they would have me believe, because A) It doesn’t make any sense, and B) the assertions made, aside from the fantastic unbelievability of their nature, are offered without any evidence of their veracity, no proof of their actual truth. Given just those two requirements of mine for accepting something as true, none of what I heard in church makes the slightest bit of sense…

But, for well over two thousand years, this church, along with two or three competing churches, with slightly altered versions of the same set of beliefs on the same subject, has attempted to dominate human existence, saying it has the ONLY answers to the eternal questions, to wit: Is there a God? and, if so, What is He/She/It like?…. Simplistic, I know, but, an accurate paraphrased summarization, I think…. Honest, anyway, right? I mean, when one strips down the basic ideas to their bare bones, they sound ridiculous; then, when one sees there is also no real, incontrovertible proof of any of it, beyond logical constructions based on assumptions not proven, they become simply unbelievable, to my way of thinking….

Of course, one must actually THINK about this stuff, and not just assume it is true…. even what I’m saying should be examined for its own veracity…. I think all I need to do to offer proof of most of my assertions is point to either some part of reality, which generally proves without question what is real, or to something in the news that demonstrates the fallibility of what the churches offer as their dogma, which is legion. T

hen, once the information has been presented, it must be examined for it’s connections to what is real, in order to be able to determine for sure that it IS or IS NOT true…. Sadly, in my experience, most people skip that last step entirely, preferring to go along with what they’ve been told since they were little, because to examine it, one must first accept the possibility of being wrong in the first place…. and, that they are not willing to do….

That is the simple truth folks, no matter how much anyone tries to deny it. Reality determines what is true, not belief, or faith, and nothing anyone can say or do will ever change that simple fact of reality. There are no magic bullets, so, if we want to have magic in our lives, we have to make it ourselves, which leaves out the possibility of depending on anything in nature to do so for us, no matter how much we want it to be so, or how strongly we maintain our faith in what is unreal…. As some other philosopher has stated, “Just because a million people believe something is so, doesn’t make it so…. A lie is still a lie, even if a lot of people believe it…….. or, more colorfully…..

“If you call a dog’s tail a leg, how many legs does the dog have? Four. Calling a tail a leg, doesn’t make it a leg.” — Abraham Lincoln

So, spare me, please, the sermons, and pitying looks, because, quite frankly, the concept of Heaven bores me to tears; it sounds as if the Angel Satan throws a better party, and doesn’t expect his acolytes to curry favor…. plus, they never expect him not to lie to them, as he is right up front about it….

“I would rather be ashes than dust!  I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dry-rot. I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet.  The proper function of man is to live, not to exist.  I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them.  I shall use my time.” — Jack London, Jack London’s Tales of Adventure
_____________________________

Such an outburst! I can see that I am right to write every day…. This stuff tends to build up if I go too long without letting it out, and there’s no telling what kind of harm THAT may cause to the space-time continuum…. Let’s see if it reads half as well as it flowed out….. Hmph, well, I think that the Pulitzer committee may want to stand down, but, it’s better than most Pearls, all in all, and it’s all freshly made stuff, so, so be it….  WYSIWYG, today, anyway…. Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you….

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

Which is Why….

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

~~ gigoid, the dubious ~~


À bientôt, mon cherí….


Baffling instants of dawning comprehension….

Ffolkes,

“It’s not denial. I’m just very selective about what I accept as reality.”

~~ Calvin (“Calvin and Hobbes”) ~~

london globe

The Globe Theater, London


Hajime…. ‘Tis morning again. Some would say, at this age, each day upright is a victory. I can almost agree, but for the simple fact it isn’t my preference to always think of Life as a battle, though, because of our nature, battling comes easily to mind; we’re pretty vicious animals, in the final analysis. I don’t even feel any need to try to justify such a statement; just watch any group of two-year olds play together without adults to moderate their actions; then, I’d agree with the idea of battling life as an appropriate description. Alternately, watch the fucking news, or, read the Bible for a while in the Old Testament…. either is filled with war and violence toward each other….

Thus, having ranted in one paragraph, there won’t be any real need to do so below; just as well. I’m suffering an ethical issue myself. This morning I found Leelu playing with a wolf spider, I think. It was a black color, but, though it didn’t LOOK like a BW, rather than chance Leelu getting stung/bitten, even by a wolf spider (not enough poison to hurt, but, their mandibles aren’t very clean & wounds from them can infect easily) I killed the spider, as I couldn’t get at it with a glass to capture it.

Now, I am really feeling bad, guilty & miserable, for having killed a totally innocent creature, when I COULD have found a way to capture and release it outside, which is how I generally deal with spiders…. Hell, I’ve admired spiders since I was a kid, reading Spiderman, and wishing I could jump 20 times my height, or lift a car with one hand…. not ever counting the silk they make….

I’m sure I’ll get over it, but, as I get older, apparently, my heart is opening further to the world’s suffering, adding to it brings no balance…. Ah, well, another ounce to my karmic burden added; no complaints, I earned it….

All that said, I’ll wipe my tears away, and get on with today’s mess…. Not all of it may be fresh today, but, we’ll see how it goes…. No ups, no extras, no tricks today…. We’re off to the oyster beds, now….

Shall we Pearl?….

“Be honest with yourself until the end of your life. Then listen to the slow movement of the Schubert Quintet and kick the bucket.” — Nathan Milstein

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Bo Diddley

Bo Diddley

Image from 8tracks.com via Google Images


Since we’ve been exploring/playing the blues lately, a friend suggested this most excellent bridge musician…. I say bridge because he was one of the first musicians to blend the style of blues to the new ‘rock and roll’ being played in the early 1950’s, influenced heavily by the blues, especially as played in New Orleans (ref: think Chuck Berry, Fats Domino, etc…. both followed Bo’s example into the newer style….. Actually, I’m not positive who came first, but, does it really matter? All of them were pioneers, so who cares who scaled the mountain first, except the one who did?….. I just enjoy the results…..) Unless you hate music, you WILL enjoy this one….


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Bo Diddley
Live with Ron Wood 1987

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We the People...

Men are more apt to be mistaken in their generalizations
than in their particular observations.

~~ Niccolo Machiavelli ~~


“Surely every human being ought to attain to the dignity of the unit.  Surely it is worth while to be one, and to feel that the census of the universe would be incomplete without counting you.  Surely there is grandeur in knowing that in the realm of thought you are without a chain; that you have the right to explore all heights and all depths; that there are no walls or fences, or prohibited places, or sacred corners in all the vast expanse of thought; that your intellect owes no allegiance to any being, human or divine; that you hold all in fee, and upon no condition, and by no tenure, whatsoever; that in the world of mind you are relieved from all personal dictation, and from the ignorant tyranny of majorities. Surely it is worth something to feel that there are no priests, no popes, no parties, no governments, no kings, no gods, to whom your intellect can be compelled to pay a reluctant homage. Surely it is a joy to know that all the cruel ingenuity of bigotry can devise no prison, no dungeon, no cell in which for one instant to confine a thought; that ideas cannot be dislocated by racks, nor crushed in iron boots, nor burned with fire.  Surely it is sublime to think that the brain is a castle, and that within its curious bastions and winding halls the soul, in spite of all worlds and all beings, is the supreme sovereign of itself.” — Robert Green Ingersoll (1833-1899), “The Free Soul”

You know, I was going to rant, using these two statements as a jumping off point; now, upon looking at them, together they form a perfect coin with two sides of the same issue, from a certain point of view. The first old insight from The Prince gives a logical reason for the human inability to form a society without falling into war or conquest…. The second offers a 180º view of humankind, offering, in a sense, a way out of the ancient fallibility we embrace so easily, due to our animal nature, which we have never learned to integrate with our intelligence without allowing it to pervert our moral/ethical behavior….

We allow feelings, generated by the fearful monkey unconscious mind, to dictate the immense power of imagination, turning it to the mechanics of war and violence to achieve our ends, without ever applying our intelligence rationally on a societal level….

And, that’s all there is to say about that… The first tells us how we got here; the second gives/offers us a way out of this suffering, miserable existence, into a more peaceful, rational, ethical society. It’s our choice, but, then, it always has been….

‘Nuff said….

gigoid has spoken.

So be it.

Dont keep calm

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Comedy_Tragedy

A dream, weeping….

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

~~ gigoid ~~

— 8/30/2014 —


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random kitty

A true psycho kitty

Image from zulgobang.blogspot.com via Google Images

Today’s final pearl is possibly the strangest I’ve ever created. The process of selecting the included thoughts was much the same as when I write poetry, to wit: mostly unconscious, and, completely without my input, to any real degree. The pearls you see were presented in exactly the order in which I found them; I don’t see any reason to alter the order, as I don’t understand, yet, exactly what it says, in the larger sense, usually obvious with most pearls….

The picture is one that showed up on Google when I searched for “free images of randomness”, so, I can’t explain that choice either. It just seems to fit….  I don’t know, why don’t y’all peruse the group, and let me know if you come up with any thoughts….

“Any ordinary man can surround himself with two thousand books and thenceforth have at least one place in the world in which it is possible to be happy.” — Augustine Birrell

“Become who you are.” — Friedrich Nietzsche

“The majority of mankind is lazy-minded, incurious, absorbed in vanities and tepid in emotion, and is therefore incapable of either much doubt or much faith.” — TS Eliot

“My mind is not for rent to any god or gov’t.” — Smart Bee, channeling gigoid again

“You know the day destroys the nights.  Night divides the day.” — The Doors

“Everything is simpler than you think and at the same time more complex than you imagine.” — Goethe

“As a general rule, if you want to get at the truth –hear both sides and believe neither.” — Josh Billings

“Breaks balance out. The sun don’t shine on the same ol’ dog’s ass every day.” — Darrell Royal

“Reach high, for the stars lie hidden in your soul.  Dream deep, for every dream precedes the goal.” — Pamela Vaull Starr

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It’s done, and a damn good thing, too. Without going into any details, let us merely say, my remarks above were more relevant than I knew, re: victory over the day. On that cryptic, yet insightful note, I shall bid thee adieu, until I can throw another such piece o’crap together…. That, of course, will be posted tomorrow, hopefully around the same time, but,  at least 24 hours from now…. See y’all then, fate be willing….

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

dozer3


À bientôt, mon cherí….


					

A mess for all seasons….

Ffolkes,

“Everyone is a moon, and has a dark side which he never shows to anybody.”

~~ Samuel Clemens, (Mark Twain) ~~

Galway Bay sea wall

Galway Bay Sea Wall, looking South East


Hajime…. Having daily examples as to the veracity and ubiquitous nature of Murphy’s Laws, it should’nt have surprised me this morning when he decided to make my title all-too-appropriate. As some of y’all know (because I haven’t explained in a while) the titles of these Pearls are NOT connected, in any way other than subconsciously to what takes place below them, in the blog itself. I create them before actually finishing the blog, when I’m preparting the email version to be sent out.

When creating a title, the primary characteristics I shoot for are two-fold. First, it must make little or no actual sense in reality; second, it should have nothing at all to connect it to the contents of the day’s post. That’s it. If it turns out to be a compelling phrase that actually brings new people in to read, simply because of its weirdness, so much the better. Once it is done, and typed into the subject line, THEN I go finish writing whatever parts of the Pearl aren’t done…. Simple, yes?

Today, however, about 30 seconds after writing it in the email, Murphy himself stepped in; I saw it. An invisible hand pushed a jar of magic cream over the edge of the table where my computer sits (I tend to keep it close by….), knocking it to the floor, where the lid flew off, and the cream flew out, spreading itself in a nicely formed splash pattern, all over the couch and floor, BETWEEN two parts of a shelf, where it was nearly impossible to reach….
Perfect place for me to ruin my back completely to clean it up….. SIGH…. He is SUCH an asshole!

However, I managed to get it cleaned up, in spite of the massive pain in my back, the curious cat, who had to investigate both the spill, and the cleanup process, closely enough to be in the way the whole time, and, the immensely painful, dangerous act of trying to get up from the awkward position on the floor needed to get AT the fucking mess…. Now, it has furnished me with WAY more than enough BS to fill up this intro, so, I suppose that would be the iconic silver lining all those assholes talk of all the time….

Fuck this. Let’s get to the oyster beds before somebody comes to the door, and I end up in jail for killing an innocent person, Not a great start to the day, I’d imagine…. Instead, I’ll employ one of our newest toys, which I found in an old cabinet, in a dark corner of the Tardis….. Looks old, but, serviceable…. I’m going to push this button, right here, marked, “Anywhere at all”…..

Shall we Pearl?….

“When we step into the family, by the act of being born, we do step into a world which is incalculable, into a world which has its own strange laws, into a world which could do without us, into a world we have not made. In other words, when we step into the family we step into a fairy-tale.” — G. K. Chesterton, Heretics, CW, I, p.143

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beethoven

Ludwig van Beethoven

Image from dectrendsk.esy.es via Google Images


Even though most of the time I choose to ignore my training as a consumer, like every other American child, I was taught how to make decisions based solely on expediency….. I’m making one such today, simply because Leelu is trying to make it impossible to finish this post before taking an hour to play with her; she just wasn’t satisfied with the half-hour I already gave her…. She’s sitting, now, about four inches from the computer, staring at the screen, trying hard to be in the way….

SIGH…. That’s why you get this choice, because it was simple, and, you can take over the finding of any further selections for yourself, by following the link to the page on You Tube where this version of the Fifth lives…. Enjoy! I gotta go figure out how to get the next section done before she starts biting for attention….

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Beethoven’s Fifth

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All seems infected that th’ infected spy,
As all looks yellow to the jaundic’d eye.

~~ Alexander Pope ~~

~~ Essay on Criticism, Part ii, Line 358 ~~

buddah-out-to-lunch_s


“In the sky, there is no distinction of east and west; people create distinctions out of their own minds and then believe them to be true.” — Buddha

This particular icon, which I stole from another blogging friend, isn’t often seen atop this section. But, this particular example of mindfulness and insight from Gautama Buddha, made its use mandatory. So be it…..

Let’s examine this assertion for its relevance in today’s world, shall we? Why not? We have little better to do than try to discover some of the reasons our world is in the throes of a desperate need for accepting change, for, if we do not, I suspect there is little hope for our entire species, as well as many others, to survive the coming century. Hopefully, we can find a consensus amongst the people of the world which will afford at least an opportunity to live through it, rather than merely more proof there isn’t any chance at all….

How, you may ask, do the words of the Buddha apply today? Well, let’s see….. Hmm…. Perhaps, the quote above the Buddha’s laughing face, by Pope, says, in essence, much the same as does the Buddha; the difference is only one of POV, and, perhaps, a matter of syntax, and, who the fuck cares about that?

We all SHOULD, of course, but, hey, nobody much even likes to say “syntax”, much less learn what it means, or how important it is to communication…. Humans are funny that way; if they don’t wish to learn something ( which is, in essence, denying their very nature, as the creature most able TO learn….)( Maybe….. Hard to say exactly what the dolphins have figured out already that we don’t…. They are the only ones on this planet with a bigger brain, comparatively….), they just WON’T. Perverse, as well as lazy, it seems….

Since we humans ARE lazy, and, I’m human, I’m going to change directions here. The concept under discussion is the human mind, and, how it works for us, essentially. The accuracy of Buddha’s observation, and understanding of that nature shows us, in an unequivocal fashion, how the world’s status today, in a state of inordinate chaos, in society, in government, in personal relations between people, has, at its root, this part of our nature, for it leads us to depend on the illusions and delusions we are taught from the cradle, to use expedience as a reason for acting, to using Ego to drive ALL of our social interactions, until the confusion reaches the point at which we see it, where nobody on the planet has any sort of peace….. not to mention the simple fact we are going to kill our entire species, taking thousands of other life-forms down with us, if we don’t change rapidly the way we are approaching life.

That said, it seems Smart Bee wants to place much of the blame on our theory, a badly mistaken one, that we NEED to be governed, for our own good…. Such bullshit! Let’s see what he/she/it found for us, rather than listen to my ranting any further, shall we? We shall….

“I believe that all government is evil, and that trying to improve it is largely a waste of time.” — H. L. Mencken

“The sense of justice springs from self-respect; both are coeval with our birth. Children are born with an innate sense of justice; it usually takes twelve years of public schooling and four more years of college to beat it out of them.” — Edward Abbey

“On a throne at the center of a sense of humor sits a capacity for irony. All wit rests on a cheerful awareness of life’s incongruities. It is a gentling a awareness, and no politician without it should be allowed near power.” — George Will

“A hand grenade exploded in a school of fish will supply food for days.” — U.S. Armed Forces Survival Manual

“Lawyers: the best argument against gun control..” — Fuckin’ A Bee

“Money confers the power to command the labor of others. Love of money is love of power. And love of power is the root of evil.” — Edward Abbey

“The “beast” is a myth we have created, a scapegoat, upon which we project the image of ourselves we are unwilling to acknowledge. When anyone behaves in a peculiarly unpleasant manner we tend to answer that he behaved “like a beast,” when the fact is, of course, that no beast every behaves so iniquitously as men frequently does… The myth of the beast is perpetuated from generation to generation. The result is a perversely distorted view of the nature of other animals, and a profoundly impoverishing failure to understand our true kinship with the rest of animated nature. So-called primitive peoples have never lost this kinship with other animals… Without the benefit of a Darwinian theory of evolution our technologically less advanced peoples in their creation myths and in their conduct toward the animal world exhibit a far deeper understanding of the interrelatedness of all living things than does so-called civilized man.” — Ashley Montagu,_The Humanization of Man_, 1962

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Comedy_Tragedy

    Poetry-wise, today, I got nothin’. Here’s a poet damn near everyone has heard of, but, few have read, or appreciated, though she is responsible for the very nature of ALL the poetry we see today…. From a VERY LONG fucking TIME AGO, here is the poetess who began much of it all…..

He Is More Than a Hero

He is more than a hero
he is a god in my eyes–
the man who is allowed
to sit beside you — he

who listens intimately
to the sweet murmur of
your voice, the enticing

laughter that makes my own
heart beat fast. If I meet
you suddenly, I can’t 

speak — my tongue is broken;
a thin flame runs under
my skin; seeing nothing,

hearing only my own ears
drumming, I drip with sweat;
trembling shakes my body

and I turn paler than
dry grass. At such times
death isn’t far from me

~~ Sappho ~~

circa 600 BC


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A-laughing-girl-and-her-camel

    I couldn’t help myself. The picture is too perfect for today’s final pearl. You’ll need to read all of them before you will know why…. Tricky, I know, but, hey, works for me, eh? Enjoy, ffolkes. Oh, some of them may appear weird, or out of place. They’re not; just go with it, you’ll see…. Well, I hope….

**********

Know then thyself, presume not God to scan;
The proper study of mankind is man.

~~ Alexander Pope ~~

~~ Essay on Man, Epistle ii, Line 1 ~~

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“Most people prefer certainty to truth.”

— Observant Bee

**********

“Then again, e=mc^2 may only be a local phenomenon.”

— Einstein

**********

“When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro…”

~~ Dr. Hunter S. Thompson ~~

**********

“Healthy mindedness is inadequate as a philosophical doctrine,
because the evil facts which it refuses positively to account for
are a genuine portion of reality;
and they may after all
be the best key to life’s significance.”

~~ William James ~~

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“The things you can’t laugh at control you.”

~~ Buddha Bee ~~

**********

“Take a dog for a companion and a stick in your hand.”

~~ English Proverb ~~

**********

“Love is a dog from hell.”

~~ Charles Bukowski ~~

**********

“‘T is but a part we see, and not a whole.”

~~ Alexander Pope ~~

 ~~ Essay on Man, Epistle i, Line 60 ~~


I like balance. Don’t you? Balance is good….

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Having thus completed THIS duty, I can now go perform the next. That’s how it works; the completion of one duty provides the privilege of acting upon the next. Otherwise, it becomes hard to look one’s self in the eye each morning in the mirror…. See y’all tomorrow, ffolkes, as long as the sun comes up again…. As I’ve said in the past, the odds on that are pretty good….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid, the dubious

The *only* duly authorized Computer Curmudgeon.

PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.

“SCRAM!!!!!!!!!!”- Oscar the Grouch

Featured Image -- 5012


À bientôt, mon cherí….


					

Apocalyptic party favors, on toast….

Ffolkes,

“A religious conservative is a fanatic about a dead radical.”

~~ Observant Bee ~~

Leelu in Denial

I DON’T want to know….

Leelu in Denial


Hajime…. One of the most valuable lessons I’ve learned in my life, as it must be in every life, is to be willing to be patient, when a desired goal, or the completion of a chosen duty, requires us to wait for more than a little while to achieve our desire…. A fancy psychiatrist would label such a task as “delayed gratification”, and would charge you outrageous prices to listen to you while you explore your own psyche to find the key to making it one of your skills. Or, one may, as I found to be useful, learn to watch, and observe the world without judging what I saw, until there was some sort of clear result I could identify, and use for myself, if warranted.

In short, by the age of, oh, four, or five, I had figured out it’s a better thing to be patient, say, to get somewhere where a wall is in the way, rather than get angry at the wall. By waiting, and watching I could learn how others dealt with the wall…. I found, every time, one of them would know a good way around, or over, or through the wall without any difficulty…. The waiting part was filled up watching most people bang their heads against the wall, thinking, by doing so, it would move out of their way…. The wall won that argument every time…. No brainer, even for a four-year-old hairless ape….

Over the years, the patience begun to learn then was often reinforced by other life-lessons, always with the same results, as well as the same average number of people who never learned the lesson…. Not all do, by any means…. Many who do, don’t use the skill for good reasons; it is nonetheless effective for them than it is for those who do use it honorably….. But, sadly, many people, whom I would consider to be more cunning than intelligent, become patient, and crafty, and thus are successful in taking advantage of the less so…. Far too many of them become lawyers, or preachers, or politicians, or ‘cops’, or/and other categories of human activity which attract those who have more ego than integrity…..

Now, at this point, you may predictably and appropriately ask, what the devil does all this have to do with Pearls of Virtual Wisdom?…. Good grief, ffolkes! Y’all have been here enough to know better; it doesn’t have a damn thing to do with any of that. It was just me, wandering around on the keyboard, following a train of thought, to take up this space so I don’t really have to think up anything new….. How’m I doin’?…

Good. Speechless is exactly what I was shooting for…. Now that’s done, we can get this slow on the toad, and, leave, too, for the oyster beds, where, hopefully, I will/have/wouldn’t dare find some damn fine pearls for our morning, or whenever, consumption, digestion, and, well, the rest of that alimentary shit….

Hah! Guido! Fire it up and get me/us out of here; I don’t think we should wait for anyone who isn’t on board already. We won’t have time to frisk them….

Shall we Pearl?….

“You mean now I can SHOOT YOU in the back and further BLUR th’ distinction between FANTASY and REALITY?” — Zippy the Pinhead

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jerry and david full

Jerry & David

Image from YouTube.com via Google Images


Back in the day, after CSN&Y stopped playing as a band exclusively, David Crosby started a project, recording sessions with a number of rock musicians/songwriters/performers of the era…. The band/project was named PERRO, an acronym for the Planet Earth Rock & Roll Orchestra…. This is one of the sessions, with at least one, and, no doubt, more than one, of the best of the best playing along…. I listened to the beginning, which is an instrumental piece showing off some pretty hot licks and outbursts of joyous noise…. Enjoy, ffolkes….

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Jerry Garcia & David Crosby     The Perro Sessions – circa 1971

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Dont keep calmWe the People...

“Humanity has in the course of time had to endure from the hands of science two great outrages upon its naive self-love. The first was when it realized that our earth was not the center of the universe, but only a speck in a world-system of a magnitude hardly conceivable… The second was when biological research robbed man of his particular privilege of having been specially created, and relegated him to a descent from the animal world.” — Sigmund Freud

Dr. Siggy makes a good point in this; like much of what he said, it was, and is, ignored by most people. Some of his thoughts, on human nature, and, psychiatry, were dead wrong, but, mostly, he was a minutely accurate observer of people’s behaviors, and, an astute analyst of the flaws in the nature expressed by those acts. The blow to the human ego that all men felt when the knowledge of which he speaks became public, was so deep, our society is still reeling from the impact. The human ego is so powerfully motivated by belief, it finds it extremely difficult to NOT protect the ego’s delusions, of which it has many, by using the imagination, or, simple denial, to keep the truth of reality from ever entering the consciousness….

This, naturally, has, for a long time, caused numerous problems for people, which continue to the present; problems in their relations with each other on both a personal level, and, on a societal level…. It is clear, obviously so, to me, this flaw in our nature, the inability to put aside ego in favor of reality’s demands, is at the root of practically every issue we face today…. However, I am not in the mood to explore that flaw, or its implications, at this time. So, we’ll go back about a year and a half to a discussion of the effects of this on society, as it exists today, written fresh (mostly) on that date…. It’s a pretty good one, so, bear with the length, if you will….

From 4/17/2014:

“A government that fears its people is a government that should be feared.”

~~ Smart Bee ~~

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/10769041/The-US-is-an-oligarchy-study-concludes.html


“The US government does not represent the interests of the majority of the country’s citizens, but is instead ruled by those of the rich and powerful, a new study from Princeton and Northwestern Universities has concluded.”

My initial reaction to this opening line from the article to which the link leads was, “Oh. Really? How droll….” In case it’s unclear, that is sarcasm….
My second thought was, “Duh…”, because, well, hey, no-brainer, right? It’s only obvious, and has been since the 1850’s, when the “military-industrial complex” became a real person, at least in the courts….. The third thought that went through my mind was, “Why did I have to read this on the front page of a BRITISH news paper, while never having seen a single article on the report from an American news outlet?”

But, then, hey, oligarchy, right? That means the elite, the rich, the BRC, or, as I’m fond of calling them, the Asininnies, don’t want to hear about it, so, none of the news outlets THEY control will ever show that report, or, if they do, it certainly won’t be on the front page…. Any more than they wish to have ANY of their shenanigans paraded in front of the public eye; they’re well aware of how badly the rest of the country would react to that, if the notion that they were oppressing the rest of us, and worse, shamelessly lying about it all, ever became a common perception….

I could spend a few paragraphs here, detailing to you just how they lie, or relating just how often, and how completely these assholes are fucking over the rest of society…. but, it isn’t necessary, when such a plain and obvious indictment is right there in front of me, a report that does nothing if not confirm what I’ve been trying to get across to the people out there who need to know, for a long time now….

“Elections amount to little more than choosing between the scum that floats to the top of the barrel and the dregs that settle to the bottom.” — L. Neil Smith

The perverted masters of society, consisting of that 1% who control the money and resources of our planet, usurped our system of government within DAYS of the signing of the Constitution, and have continued to solidify their control for the last 240 years since that event…. Their biggest victories have come from their purchases, which gave them exclusive possession of the souls and loyalty of the judges in the federal court system, first in the early 1800’s, then, later, to the huge win in the middle of that century, when corporations were first declared to have the same rights as real people, a decision which ensures the establishment in society of the legal precedents that ensure their complete control….

What normal, real person, with merely their own skills and efforts as resources, can compete, monetarily, or time-wise, with a corporation, to buy the loyalty of congress and the courts? Only its owners, or the owners of other governments, er, corporations, who have the resources to contest what they wish, can hope to supply any restraint upon what they desire…. No average person has the time or resources to spend on any issue that a corporation can bring to bear, thus guaranteeing the common man’s views will NEVER take precedence in the courts….

It ain’t a particularly pretty picture, ffolkes, but, it IS an accurate description of modern reality…. more than we could hope, and certainly more than we could ever need, or want…. but, accurate, nonetheless….

Enough so to thoroughly disgust me, to the point I’m not going to rant any more…. I’m getting too worked up…. I can feel my blood pressure going up as I type, never a good thing….. So, we’ll switch modes, and go find some pearls with which to round out this discussion, hopefully with some humor, or at the very least, some bloodthirsty accusations of perversion against those assholes who think we are not on to them….. Enjoy!….

“Hope is very dangerous….” — Servalan

(In our society, it is not merely dangerous, it is toxic….)

“After 2% of the vote is in, the networks tell us who won. It makes the other 99% of us feel a bit unnecessary… How come the networks are so good at picking the presidential winner, and so bad at picking hit shows?” — Smart Bee

(You don’t think they have information they’re not sharing with us, do you? Nah…. of course not…. Why would they do that?….)

(If you believe that, I have a wonderful opportunity for you, a chance to own the biggest bridge in New York, for a very nominal price…. Cash only, no checks….)

“When neither their poverty nor their honor is touched, the majority of men live content.” — Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527)

(This is required learning in the schools that produce the fleets of lawyers who inhabit the halls of government…. Check it out sometime, how ALL the actions our leaders take are designed to keep from arousing the public’s ire, by avoiding the stimulation implied in this rule codified by The Prince….)

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

“All military type firearms are to be handed in immediately… The SS, SA and Stahlhelm give every respectable German man the opportunity of campaigning with them. Therefore anyone who does not belong to one of the above named organisations and who unjustifiably nevertheless keeps his weapon… must be regarded as an enemy of the national government.” — SA Oberfuhrer of Bad Tolz, March, 1933

(I keep expecting to see a bill with this wording hit the floor of the House any time now, with a few minor changes to reflect the passage of time…. Every time there is another random shooting in this country, the pundits break out something like this to put through Congress, in the deluded hope that it might change something, which they refuse to believe cannot be changed, without changing human nature….)

“All you have to do is… Spot The Looney!” — Monty Python

(A very apt description of the voting process here in ‘murrica….) (Addendum from2015: Everywhere else. too, it seems…)

“Being against torture ought to be sort of a bipartisan thing.” — Karl Lehenbauer

(One would think this is true, until you actually look at what they are DOING, instead of what they are SAYING….)

“Faith: not wanting to know what is true.” — Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (1844-1900)

(Another fine delineation of how the voting process works in the oligarchy we call home…. Plus, do you see how smoothly this dovetails in with what the preachers preach from their pulpits?…. Funny how that works, eh?….)

Okay, so that’s eight pearls, an even number, which will never do…. We’ll go with one last pearl, in what I know to be a futile attempt to bring one of them down for good…. I’ll try to make it a good one, a fitting finish to an epic melding of irritated ranting and old school pearling….

“For in religion as in friendship, they who profess most are ever the least sincere.” — Sheridan

(I probably don’t need to make this suggestion, but, since when do I listen or pay attention to crap like that? You can substitute the word “politics” for “friendship” in this, without changing or reducing its validity…. which is why it’s here….)

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Comedy_Tragedy

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 ~~

9/12/2012


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Dance of Joy

Snoopy’s Dance of Joy

Image from pinterest.com via Google Images

Today’s final, old-school pearl is rather special, in a way…. I chose a new icon for this kind of pearl, which I can only call unique. The message, to me, is perfectly clear, as the choice of icon will be, once you have begun the process. If it isn’t clear to you, don’t worry. Just read them all, let them roll around in your head a while, and you’ll begin the dance…..

“Every creature has within him the wild, uncontrollable urge to PUNT.”– Snoopy, aka Charles Schultz (Some sources say this is Unknown; trust me, I know
Snoopy….)

“What I like is when you’re looking and thinking and looking and thinking…  and suddenly you wake up.” — Hobbes

“All I can say is that if, whenever you are asked where you live, you seize yourself by the throat and start choking, it is apt to cause comment” — R. Hull

“Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but, certainty is an absurd one.” — Voltaire

“With one long breath, caught and held in his chest, he fought his sadness over his solitary life. Don’t cry you idiot! Live or die, but don’t poison everything…” — Saul Bellow

A process which led from amoeba to man appeared to the philosophers to be obviously progress, though whether the amoeba would agree with this opinion is not known.” — Bertrand Russell

“Denial ain’t just a river in Egypt.” — Mark Twain

“How infinitely superior to our physical senses are those of the mind! The spiritual eye sees not only rivers of water but of air. It sees the crystals of the rock in rapid sympathetic motion, giving enthusiastic obedience to the sun’s rays, then sinking back to rest in the night. The whole world is in motion to the center. So also sounds. We hear only woodpeckers and squirrels and the rush of turbulent streams. But imagination gives us the sweet music of tiniest insect wings, enables us to hear, all around the world, the vibration of every needle, the waving of every bole and branch, the sound of stars in circulation like particles in the blood. The Sierra canyons are full of avalanche debris – we hear them boom again, and we read the past sounds from present conditions. Again we hear the earthquake rock-falls. Imagination is usually regarded as a synonym for the unreal. Yet is true imagination healthful and real, no more likely to mislead than the coarse senses. Indeed, the power of imagination makes us infinite.” — John Muir, American Naturalist (1838-1914)

“All poets are mad.”

~~ Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy ~~


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All I can say, ffolkes, is, Whew! I’m almost not glad I’m done today; it all came out just how I like it best. Ugly and real, yet, with a certain charm one is forced to acknowledge, only due in small part to the (small caliber) weapons pointed at you…. Think of it as more like fungus; it grows on one.

Okay, I’ll stop. It was just too much fun; cathartic, even purgative, in a gentle way (ALWAYS preferable, trust me; I know. No shit. Well, not currently, but, oh, well never mind. I said I’d stop….).

SIGH. I’m done now. I’ll go. Really, I will, just as soon as I get this one last, traditional failure-guaranteed, final attempt to get ANYONE at all to at least smile out of my head; it’s best, believe me. Would I lie? That way, I don’t let it out on some poor sap on the street, when they aren’t expecting it….. See y’all tomorrow, ffolkes, if I have to hack into somebody’s server farm…. Hah!…. (Boy, that was bad. Can I have another one? No? Oh, okay. Bye for now….)

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

Featured Image -- 5012


À bientôt, mon cherí….


					

Use all the teflon you can find….

Ffolkes,

“A man is not aware of his virtues (if any).

Nevertheless, one hopes that they exist.”

~~ Edward Abbey ~~

superearth1-800x456

Artist rendition of possible Superearth planet found in far reaches of Sol System

Image from:

 http://nerdreactor.com/2015/12/11/scientists-discover-a-new-planet-theyve-deemed-as-a-super-earth-in-our-solar-system/



Hajime…. At 0500 this morning, I was given a reminder of the newest duty I’ve chosen. I was awakened at that time by whiskers tickling my nose, followed by a loud purring, as Leelu sniffed at my face to wake me. The purr began when I opened my eyes to see what tickled me…. Thus notified she was ready to be up, and training. Heaving a great SIGH, I arose, & stumbled to the coffee maker to switch it on, as she mewled madly for the morning play time, dropping her crumpled paper at my feet, and looking at me expectantly…. What can one do?….

She got hungry after a few tosses & returns, and is eating, so, I’m going to cut this short, so we can, maybe, get this posted before she requires further attention…. Trust me, it’s not easy being at the beck and call of a 7 lb. princess…. But, she picked me, out of seven billion people, so, whattayagonnado, eh?….. Let’s go to the oyster beds, while we can….

Shall we Pearl?….

“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

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Crosby_Stills_Nash_and_Young_1970

Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young in 1970

Image from en.wikipedia.com via Google Images


Probably, nobody alive hasn’t heard of this group…. Four of the best singer-songwriters alive who got together for a time, to make music still unequaled in quality and impact by any one of them individually…. Their innate harmonic blend of voices created songs no one who heard them will ever forget…. Let’s enjoy some of it, live from Golden Gate Park, their old stomping grounds in SF…. Abondanza, ffolkes!….

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Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young 11/03/91 – Golden Gate Park

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Dont keep calm

SOCIALISM:
   You have two cows.
 Give one to your neighbour.

COMMUNISM:
   You have two cows.
   Give both to the government.
The government gives you milk.

CAPITALISM:

   You sell one cow and buy a bull.

FASCISM:
   You have two cows. 
Give milk to the government.
   The government sells it.

NAZISM:
   The government shoots you and takes the cows.

NEW DEALISM:
   The government shoots one cow,
   milks the other,
and pours the milk down the sink.

ANARCHISM:
   Keep the cows.
Steal another one.
Shoot the government.

CONSERVATISM:
   Freeze the milk.
Embalm the cows.

~~ Polly Sye Bee ~~


This was yesterday’s third offering from Smart Bee, and by the time I finished reading the list, and could catch my breath from laughing uproariously, I knew I’d found today’s opening lines for this section…. Since laughing so hard put me in too good a mood to rant, we’ll go with the following two most excellent pieces from an archived Pearl, suggested a day or two ago, at the bottom of the page on ECR…. They go together, as it happened to occur that day…I think you’ll enjoy them; I know I did…. It isn’t exactly about the quoted subject, but, rather about those who must deal with the governments as described…. We do lead off with a statement from a politician, though….

Both pearls from 12/1/2012:

From Section the First:

“I am certain that after the dust of centuries has passed over our cities, we, too, will be remembered not for victories or defeats in battle or in politics but for our contributions to the human spirit.” — former US President John F. Kennedy

At last! A worthy pearl! JFK, like the current President, was a superb public speaker, “Ich bin ein Berliner” notwithstanding, and whether he wrote his own words, or relied on his speech writers, he delivered, arguably, some of the most memorable, and insightful, aphorisms in US political and social history. The above statement is a perfect example, as he expresses a sentiment that can only be applauded, if not verified. I say verified because  there is not a lot of verification from the past that history remembers anything BUT the battles. But, one can hope….

Actually, I believe what Jack said here very strongly, in the sense that there are different histories that are remembered, most of which become altered in some way over time, as does all memory. The great teachers and philosophers who have lived have left their mark on the world in more ways than always show, in spite of the records of their deeds not always surviving intact. But, throughout history, there have been men, and women, who have done much to advance the human condition, whose words and deeds were never seen, and never recorded, but, nonetheless. whose effects still ripple down the river of time.

Some of the great minds in history, such as Lao Tzu, Zoroaster, Genghis Khan, Gautama Buddha, Jesus of Nazareth, Mohammed, Aristotle, Socrates, Plato, and many others, all made such advances in the human spirit, and their ideas keep proving their worth every day by their relativity to modern society. Men like Leonardo da Vinci, whose genius was so bright it shines even today, and modern philosopher/scientists such as Albert Einstein, and Stephen Hawking, have advanced that human spirit as much as anyone.

I’m not being as eloquent as I’d wish for such a deep subject…. What I’m trying to get to here is that we all, each and every one of us, have the power and opportunity to do the same as these historical figures, to advance the human spirit, just by the way we live our lives. What the philosophers say, and write, and the wisdom they pass on, is all very good, and a lesson to the rest of us…. But, what the average person does every day in their lives is just as important to the future as any scientific breakthrough, because what they do will determine what their children learn, and THAT is where the advancement really takes place, in the moments of teaching that happens every moment for children, and their adult teachers.

Living a life of integrity, with honesty and duty as the watchwords for action, is the best teaching method there is; to provide a good example for a child holds no less promise for mankind than all the work of all the genius’ of all time. How each one of us approaches life will, in the end, determine what happens to our species as a whole. It isn’t easy, especially given all of the people in society who do NOT wish to have any part of advancing anything but their own interests…. and especially when so many of those kinds of people are in positions of authority. But, it can be done, and is done, every day, by millions of men and women of good spirit…. They are truly the future of mankind, and, if there is any hope for survival, it lies in their honest hands….

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

~~ Smart Bee ~~


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From Section the Third:

“The sage wears clothes of coarse cloth but carries jewels in his bosom; He knows himself but does not display himself; He loves himself but does not hold himself in high esteem. Thus he rejects the latter and takes the former.” — Lao-Tzu

In spite of how it must appear, there is a small degree of organization to this blog’s contents. Most days I try to make sure that the first and third sections, while possibly related, are essentially about different concepts. The second section is, of course, reserved for whatever poetry strikes my fancy that day, whether classic, humorous, or original (Though it does seem that my recent outpouring of original poems has run dry, I don’t think I’m done with that, yet…..).  It seems to work for me…. well enough, at least, to keep my internal critics quiet most of the time.

Today, it seems that most of what I’m seeing for pearls are related somehow to what I spoke of peripherally in today’s first section, to wit: the importance of integrity in human life. Integrity…. hmm…. not the precise word, or the characteristic I am thinking of, actually; it’s more than merely integrity. I suppose one could say the concept to which I’m referring is too mystical an idea to be presented clearly, and not be too far off the mark….

However, not being one to ignore a challenge to my vocabulary, I’ll take a few unseen moments here and find the correct word to facilitate further discussion, because, hey, if I can’t, no discussion, right? Right…. Be right back…. instantly, by all you will know and see…..  Well, the challenge is a strong one, and I think best answered with more than one word to describe what I’m trying to say. Those words are all contained in Axiom #7 of Peruaosophy, to wit:

“Do your Duty. Honor the Truth. Respect Life. Share your Love. “


I know that it is my own philosophy, and some may think that is cheating, but, not so. All that I hold to be true is in that axiom, and it represents the four cornerstones of my personal foundation. I find that when I am able to live up to all of these concepts,  able to use their direction in guiding my actions, my life is much smoother, and my moments of joy are plentiful, to balance the pain that life brings all of us in turn. This, to me, is the best way to advance the human condition, little by little, with the efforts of each man and woman adding its weight to the forward momentum.

Yes, the actions and discoveries that the best of history’s minds bring to us are wonderful, and work to make the lives of every human better…. It is the everyday efforts of each man, though, that takes that wisdom and turns it into reality, by using ideas, and integrity, to add their experience to that of the rest of society. Since there is a large number of folks who do NOT subscribe to this kind of ethical behavior, choosing to make their own self-interest their primary concern, it is the duty of those who do believe in these ideas to carry them out as best they may, so that the world can retain some semblance of harmony. It doesn’t always work, and, in fact, is in constant jeopardy of not working at all, but, it is the only way that will make the changes our society needs to survive…. which is another discussion for another time…..

“And now there is merely silence, silence, silence, saying all we did not know.”

~~ William Rose Benet ~~


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~~ Haiku ~~

Often I don’t see
any reason to exist.
Still, I’m glad I do.

~~ gigoid ~~

12/12/15

Comedy_Tragedy

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


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Glasgow-Greenock Port 041

Sunrise ~~ Sunset


Just as with the photo (my own, taken somewhere off the coast of Scotland), I don’t really know, nor can I tell from what I see, exactly what is happening here…. I do know when the photo was taken, since I was the only one there at the time, but, unless one is enough of a polymath to have already totaled up the available clues to know, it can’t be known for sure which time of day it was taken…. The same issue applies to today’s final, old-school pearl, as I don’t have a single clue as to what it all means…. The process of choosing them was rather unconscious; I just clicked on each as it appeared, and fitted it into whatever weird shape my mind was creating…. It works, and I still don’t know why; though beginning and ending with some elegance, most of them are just weird, if as true as the day is long enough…. If y’all have any ideas, feel free to tell me, as it can only help….

“There is a certain majesty in simplicity which is far above all the quaintness of wit.”

~~ Alexander Pope ~~


“If you take something apart and put it back together often enough, you will eventually have two of them.” — Rap’s Law of Inanimate Reproduction

“Feeling good about government is like looking on the bright side of any catastrophe. When you quit looking on the bright side, the catastrophe is still there.” — P. J. O’Rourke, Parliament of Whores (1991)

“Being a politician is like being a football coach: you have to be smart enough to understand the game, but dumb enough to think it’s important.” — Eugene McCarthy ( I get this one; he WAS a politician….)

“Money, it turned out, was exactly like sex. You thought of nothing else if you didn’t have it and thought of other things if you did.” — James Baldwin (1924-1987)

“The whole problem can be stated quite simply by asking, ‘Is there a  meaning to music?’ My answer would be, ‘Yes.’ And ‘Can you state in so many words what the meaning is?”  My answer to that would be, ‘No.’ — Aaron Copland

:FUBAR: n.  The Failed UniBus Address Register in a VAX.  A good example of how jargon can occasionally be snuck past the {suit}s; see {foobar}, and {foo} for a fuller etymology.” — from The on-line Hacker Jargon File V423 (For those with access to the File, the original FUBAR was a military term, probably originally from the Army Corps of Engineers, meaning, precisely, “fucked up beyond all repair”….)

“Gentleman: A man who knows how to play bagpipes — and refrains.” — Fred Tart

“Dum vivimus, vivamus.”

While we live, let us live.

~~ Latin, originally from the coat of arms of one Philip Doddering, D.D ~~

(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dum_vivimus_vivamus),

with other instances noted in literature.


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Hmm…. Later than usual, but, not bad, given the extra duties I must now perform while trying to get posted…. No complaints, because, hey, chosen duty, right?  Besides, it’s done. So, I’ll follow the example set in the intro, and get us out of here in an efficient manner. That works like this: See ya, tomorrow, ffolkes, rain or shine….

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

Featured Image -- 5012


À bientôt, mon cherí….


					

Oddly decorated with fleurettes of aubergine paraffin….

Ffolkes,

“For every human problem, there is a neat, simple solution; and it is  always wrong.”

~~ Mencken’s Metalaw ~~

~~ H. L. Mencken, A Mencken Chrestomathy ~~

blue eyed tiger

I see meat….

Image from Twitter; @DESPERADO #AmazedbyAnimals


Hajime…. There is now no reason for doing any of this; the whole purpose here, beyond the stated exploration we are compelled to pursue, is to afford me an outlet to purge the dross and drivel from my mind, so it doesn’t sit in there and rot, as it did for many years…. But, if I’m bonkers, as they say, it isn’t working, is it? I mean, if that’s the case, what’s the point? I bet Daffy would know….

But, we don’t have him at hand to ask, so, we’ll have to struggle on, while actively resisting the urge to howl the fire and spit the wind. For sure, and for certain, that would drive off any remaining Gentle Readers I may have accumulated in the recent past…. It probably wouldn’t fret some of them, but, they’re old hands at this, and expect these outbursts of angst in the intro on occasion…. It’s a well-known factoid one can, in time, get used to the volcano in the back yard; one acclimates, so to speak. But, for any newbies, or those who worry, try not to do so for long, as it will wear you out long before I return to any sort of coherency…..

But, then, you knew that, didn’t you? Sure, you did. Don’t try to kid me; I’ve been around the block more than twice; I know what a pile of doggy doo-doo smells like. So, wipe your shoes, and come on in; it won’t hurt, I promise. If you know anything about me, if I can’t keep a promise, I won’t make it. Even in the deepest depths of my darkest dreams of personal hell, that wouldn’t change. My personal critic/teacher, who still watches over my shoulder in my mind, would NOT have allowed any such abrogation of duty…. Dad was tough, but fair. Didn’t say much, but, never had to, to get his point across….

Now I’ve wandered around in my own head, rather indiscriminately, I’m afraid, perhaps we should wander down the page a bit further, to a point we can gracefully slide out of this reality, where weird shit seems to pour out of my head, into our alternate, temporary fantasy reality, where Guido just happens to be waiting, politely, as always, for us to get ourselves organized, choose our beverage, and take our seats. Since all that is checked off, we can be on our way to, well, who the fuck knows? If I did, I’d probably have mentioned it some time ago….. Oh, well; hang on, it’s gonna be one of THOSE days. ffolkes….

Shall we Pearl?….

“History has the relation to truth that theology has to religion;

i.e., none to speak of.

~~ Lazarus Long ~~


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

animals 2-early

Eric Burdon & The Animals, circa 1975

Image from music.naiji.com via Google Images

2015-Animals

Eric Burdon & The Animals, 2015

Image from wallyingram.com via Google Images

In 2011, it was, apparently, the 50th anniversary of the recording release of “House Of The Rising Sun”, by Eric Burdon & The Animals, a British band who followed in the wake of the Beatles, Rolling Stones, etc. (My memory says 40-some years, but, it’s hazy for that period…. go figure….) The band became something of an icon of the era, with around 15 or 20 #1 hits….

I’ve embedded the 2011 performance by the band commemorating the song, and, I can honestly say, it rocks. The second link is to a play list with most of their hits on it, with a number of other excellent video selections, not all from the 60’s & 70’s, & not all this band…. I hope you enjoy this retrospective of an iconic tune, which scandalized all the politically correct of that era, by speaking/singing about the perils of those who frequented the the finest brothel in New Orleans during its heyday…. with all the attendant emotional impact such music can carry…. Let’s see how the boys have held up over the years, shall we?….

You know what? They only got better…. The lead guitar player kills the opening solo performance, exhibiting some incredible licks and brilliant improvisation….. and, what a great guitar!…. It (the guitar) looks as old as I am, but, has one of the best TONES I’ve been privileged to hear….. Every note it makes justs swells with beauty and the joy of simply existing…. the true heart of music…. He and that guitar have made a lot of music together, for a long time…. Don’t miss it….

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Eric Burdon & The Animals
House of the Rising Sun

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Dont keep calm

“I’m pretty good with people on an individual basis, but in groups, I really can’t stand the bastards!”

~~ George Carlin ~~


Trust George to put his finger directly on a feeling common to all of us, at times. It’s what the greatest comedians, who are the jesters, the bards, the conscience of society, do best; expose our own nature for us to observe, in irony, in jest, in Truth…. As a practicing curmudgeon, this statement appeals on many levels, aside from the merely annoying necessity of dealing with mundanes on a daily basis…. In fact, of late, I’ve taken to NOT arming myself so heavily when leaving the house; I’m too tempted to use one of my hidden, lethal toys, just to get the satisfaction of wasting some idiot who is probably better off dead, than annoying the general public…. Not to mention the bonus of removing at least one irritation from our consensual existence….

Ah well, such is life in Amurrica today…. I’m tired of ranting about all that has gone wrong in this country, and in the world at large. Rather than harp on it any further today, I’ve collected a nine-star pearl for your perusal, with a graphic meme from the internet to close the grouping, each of which can be seen as an expression which defines for us most of the reason(s) WHY our national persona has turned into an asshole of such immense proportions…. Some are forthright, clear statements of obvious truths; some require some thought (go figure, eh?). All of them have contributed some way to the mess we now observe, all around us…..

If you disagree with any of them, feel free to say so…. That’s what a true Patriot of this nation does, you know…..

“The discovery of America was the occasion of the greatest outburst of cruelty and reckless greed known in history.” — Joseph Conrad

“Money by right means if you can; if not, by any means.” — Horace (65-8 B.C.)

“I … reject the argument put forth by many fundamentalists that science has nothing to do with religion because God is not among the things making up the  universe in which we live. Surely if a necessity for a god-concept in the universe ever turns up, that necessity will become evident to the scientist.” — physicist Ralph Alpher, Theology of the Big Bang, Religious Humanism, Vol. XVII, No. 1 (Winter 1983), pg. 12

“St. Augustine tells the story of a pirate captured by Alexander the Great who asked him “how he dares molest the sea.” “How dare you molest the whole world?” the pirate replied: “Because I do it with a little ship only, I am called a thief; you, doing it with a great navy, are called an Emperor.” — Noam Chomsky, Pirates and Emperors.

” In truth, there never was any remarkable lawgiver amongst any people who did not resort to divine authority, as otherwise his laws would not have been accepted by the people; for there are many good laws, the importance of which is known to be the sagacious lawgiver, but the reasons for which are not sufficiently evident to enable him to persuade others to submit to them; and therefore do wise men, for the purpose of removing this difficulty, resort to divine authority.” — Niccolo Machiavelli

“Law stands mute in the midst of arms.” — Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 B.C.)

“Most legislators are so dumb that they couldn’t pour piss out  of a boot if the instructions were printed on the heel.” — Savvy Bee

“I believe there is a limit beyond which free speech cannot go, but it’s a limit that’s very seldom mentioned.  It’s the point where free speech begins to collide with the right to privacy.  I don’t think there are any other conditions to free speech. I’ve got a right to say and believe anything I please, but I haven’t got a right to press it on anybody else….. Nobody’s got a right to be a nuisance to his neighbors.” — H.L. Mencken

(Hint: Think Main-Stream Media…. Fox, MSNBC, ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, etc.)

“War is good business – invest your sons.” — Corporate Bee

fabricate-supreme-being

    For those who choose to respond, in any fashion, I’ll point out there is a comment section at the bottom of this page…..

Hmph…..

gigoid has spoken

So be it.


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

Comedy_Tragedy

    Recently, the dark days with which my life was filled came to an end. Well, for now, anyway….. There are, and will be, still times when I hurt, everyfuckingwhere, it seems…. But, they are fewer, and further between, and I can deal with that…. Here is a poem I wrote one time, late last year, when it was particularly noisome being me…..

Elemental, dear Watson….

Don’t worry,
it’s not
me
you hear
screaming.

It is
only
my bones,
giving in,
to
cowardly,
pathologically,
repetitive,
fucking,’
complaints
of
past abuse,
and
all the fun
we had.
playing,
hard.

I don’t mind
too much;
I can spend my
TIME
in another space
in my head,
pretending
my bones
don’t
exist….

It
is,
indeed,
a shame
they
always
come
back….

Fuck.

It
hurts.

More proof,
I guess,
either
God isn’t,
or,
He  is.

IF

He isn’t?
Oh,
Well….

Ante up.
Deal.

IF

He is?
Then,
I don’t fucking care
who
doesn’t like it,

I say,

He
is
a bully,
a coward,
a hypocrite,
and,
truly,
an enormous asshole.

I suppose,
God
 is
what comes,
to,
and
from,
People,

because

 they
feel
a need,
for
someone
to
blame,
for
a
Universe
they
cannot
understand
or
accept.

I
will
take the complaints.

After all,
they
are
my bones.

~~ gigoid ~~

9/14/2014


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

About Hopi Indian Symbols

    What we have today is what I would call a side-view pearl, due to the point of view from which each of the statements was created, and expressed. Some of the quotes you will see will touch on subjects which are part of everyone’s life, but, very few ever really consider. Others will be familiar… All of it, I assure you, will be on your own Final Quiz, when it is time for you to take it…..

“He that fears not the future may enjoy the present”

~~ Thomas Fuller ~~


“How do we come to think of things, rather than of processes in this absolute flux?  By shutting our eyes to the successive events.  It is an artificial attitude that makes sections in the stream change, and calls them things… When we shall know the truth of things, we shall realise how  absurd it is for us to worship isolated products of the incessant series of transformations as though they were eternal and real. Life is no thing or state of a thing, but a continuous movement or change.” — S. Radhakrishnan

“A detective story generally describes six living men discussing how it is that a man is dead. A modern philosophic story generally describes six dead men discussing how any man can possible be alive.” — G. K. Chesterton, A Miscellany of Men

“He knew that insofar as one denies what is, one is possessed by what is not, the compulsions, the fantasies, the terrors that flock to fill the void.” — Ursula K. LeGuin, _The Lathe of Heaven_

“The work of an unknown good man is like a vein of water flowing hidden in the underground, secretly making the ground greener.” — Thomas Carlyle

“He made one of Antipater’s recommendation a judge; and perceiving afterwards that his hair and beard were coloured, he removed him, saying, “I could not think one that was faithless in his hair could be trusty in his deeds.” — Plutarch (46-120 AD) — Philip

“Almost everything you do will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it.” — Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (1869-1948)

“Time is only an illusion produced by the succession of our states of consciousness as we travel through eternal duration, and it does not exist where no consciousness exists in which the illusion can be produced; but “lies asleep.” — H. P. Blavatsky (1831-1891)

Ros:  Do you think death could possibly be a boat?

Guil: No, no, no…Death is…not. Death isn’t. You take my meaning.
Death is the ultimate negative. 
Not-being. You can’t not-be on a boat.

Ros:  I’ve frequently not been on boats.

Guil: No, no, no—what you’ve been is not on boats.

 ~~ Tom Stoppard ~~


There you go. As I’ve always tried to relate to y’all, timing is everything, and, balance is the key…. Stay alert out there, ffolkes. It’s getting strange out there in the Big Room….

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

Okay, then. Thanks to the Tardis I have on loan from the Doctor, it’s done. Since it is, I had this idea I should go post it. I wonder why I didn’t think of that before? Ah well, I guess I was busy. See y’all tomorrow, ffolkes; it’s just one of those things we’ll all have to deal with, as it happens….

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

Featured Image -- 5012


À bientôt, mon cherí….


					

Fifty-seven shades of brown….

Ffolkes,

“If I had my life to live over again, I’d be a plumber.”

~~ Albert Einstein ~~

Leelu-trust me

The Innocent, Earnestly Sincere Face


Hajime…. Today, in section 2 or 3 (I get confused, because this is the intro, so I never know whether or not to count it… Wishy-washy, I know…. Let it be, or we’ll never get anywhere today.), we’ll begin a new direction for ECR. It may or may not end up as a permanent fixture; if it works well enough, maybe I’ll just start another blog page for it. I DO own the domain, and I can have as many as I want, I believe, so, we’ll see…. I think you’ll enjoy it, mainly because I have to think that, or I couldn’t post it…. Duh.

But, who doesn’t like Leelu? How could you not like such a face? But, that’s enough about her. Let’s get back to talking about me, er, uh, blogging.

Okay, busted. But, if I go too far, it won’t work, and Leelu, I know, wouldn’t like that. Since she’s in charge, now, (or, so she believes, anyway….), I try to keep her happy. So, you’ll just have to wait…. We all must learn, at some point, to accept disappointment in life; you may as well get used to it…. No, I’m not going off on a tangential rant, I’m speaking generally, and pontifically, to distract you from the fact I’m not really saying anything either important, or prophetic…. Thank something for that….

Where now? Hmm…. Should I use some literary sleight-of-hand? Perhaps the old…. no, I’ve used that too much. Maybe the…. no, just did that two days ago. How about that….. maybe. I think though,what might work best would be for me to just stop asking myself, and y’all, these silly questions, to which only I know the answers, anyway. If I just clear my head for a moment, I think the proper method will present itself….. Just too much Sturgeon’s Law in my head today, so far, anyway…. Okay, OOOOOMMM MAANNE PAAADME HUUUUUUM!…

Ah, got it! I knew that would do it. It was quick, mainly because it was right there in front of me the whole time. Plus, it’s simple, sustainable (a new PC catch-word), and, no tools or special items needed. Here’s how it works…. watch closely, now….

Shall we Pearl?….

“He was once asked what a friend is, and his answer was, “One soul abiding in two bodies.”” — Diogenes Laertius (c. 200 AD) — Aristotle, xi

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

fuego

Image from jambase.com via Google Images


I’ve never listened to Phish; I only know the bassist sat in for an acoustic session with one of the best guitarists alive, (Eric Clapton, or Leo Kottke, or somebody of their level of expertise…. I forget just now, and I’m too lazy to go look…), so, they must be pretty good. (SIGH…. I looked. It was the bass player, Mike Gordon, sitting in with Leo Kottke…. See my memory isn’t so bad…. and, Gordon is an outstanding bassist, for sure….) If the first cut is any indication, I’ve found a new modern band I can actually enjoy. I hope you do, as well; a lot of folks apparently like their music, so, hey, why not, eh?….. Let’s have a listen, shall we?…..

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

Phish Live
Austin, Texas 7/28/2015

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

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

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


Addendum to the above: I checked this out last night…. This be some good shit, ffolkes…. These guys know how to rock…. and boogie…. and blue notes, too….

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

Zack at Christmas 12-28-2012 003

The Astounding Adventures of Leelu and gigoid on Earth

Chapter 1: Beginnings


Welcome, fellow travelers…. Leelu wanted me to begin today by giving you the background behind these…. Well, there’s just no other word for them but adventures. You see, it started like this…..

As the voice announced the delayed arrival of the next flight to Paris at SFO airport, Leelu Magicat materialized quietly in an unobtrusive corner of the room of private phone booths. Knowing instinctively where she had arrived, she temporarily became transparent to other minds/eyes on this plane of existence, allowing her the freedom to move about without hindrance from any of the numerous humans blundering around the airport facility.

Walking through the crowds, her intuitive vision picked out a human who was going where she knew she needed to be, so she simply followed him, as he walked through the terminal to the BART station, boarding the first train going to Richmond from SFO. She had picked a good time to arrive, late at night/early morning, which thinned the crowds once the train passed San Francisco, allowing her to relax at the proximity to so many minds, intruding rudely and loudly on her own, as their confusion and illusions cried out in gibberish…. It got to be uncomfortable after a time, unless she chose to listen with mindfulness to only one, which was more effort than it was usually worth.

Once leaving the train, the human boarded a bus, to a town called Vallejo, situated on the northeast shore of the Bay, behind an island which had formerly been a US Naval Base, until the Cold War supposedly ended in the latter half of the twentieth century. As the bus came off the freeway, to head toward the central part of town, she had the urge to depart the bus, so, got off before arriving downtown….

As soon as the bus pulled away, she walked in the direction intuited, about two blocks, & saw her destination. As she approached, she assumed the shape she intended to use to train her companion to understand her, to learn from her what he would need in the coming events, and, most important, to her, to him, and to the Universe, to love her….

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

What you have read above is what I have realized, reasoning from perceptions received below my level of consciousness; the information was found in my mind, though I have no idea from whence or where it came to be there…. I figure Leelu has been practicing her telepathy; it’s the only thing that makes sense, given how we met, and how our learning to live together became not merely an obligation from the Universe, but, a chosen duty, making it, for me, impossible to ignore, or abrogate….. I’m funny that way; my father would be appalled if I’d made any other choice…. I’d hate to even think of what my mother might have said, had I chosen to chase her away….

That said, here is what occurred:  I arose one morning, to find myself out of milk/half& half for my coffee. This is, for me, a minor disaster, not to mention a pain in the nether regions; nevertheless, I sucked it up, dressed, and took off on the four blocks to the store…. As I returned home, climbing the first couple steps of the stairs leading up to my door, I heard a soft mewling, like a cat calling a kitten…. When I got to the fourth step, the sound clarified into what was obviously a kitten, not a full grown cat, which I could now see sitting on the rug before my door….

The wee beastie, small but sturdy and, cat clean, heard my steps, immediately striding toward me, mewling madly, as I were late. I topped the stairs, whereupon she began winding in and out between my feet, putting both of us in danger of tumbling down the 14 feet into the yard. I asked her to calm down, so I could get the door open. She sat, looked at me, and waited as I unlocked the screen, then, opened the door for her to enter…. She strode in, as if she had always lived there, politely turning to wait for me to shut the door. When shut, she put her paws as high on my ankle as she could reach, and mewled piteously to be picked up….

What was I to do? I picked her up, whereupon she began purring loudly, snuggling into my hold, and gazing with a direct, clear expression of confidence, trust, and, obvious love shining from them like a beacon, making it perfectly obvious I had been adopted by one of the descendants of Bastet, with whom our species has had an agreement since the dawn of time….

We are now companions; I don’t own her. She is, most likely, what would have been known, in elder days, as my familiar…. To me, she is partner, best bud, and teacher/student…. She has already given me more love, compassion, and lessons about LIFE, just by showing me again how to approach it with passion, verve, style, and gusto…. “Fortune favors the bold”, is one I’ve seen attributed to many sages/kings/warriors throughout history; she is living proof of that ancient adage.

Only Noah, my old heeler/shepherd buddy, who died at age 18 in 2012, taught me as Leelu has begun to show me…. It’s kind of funny, in an ironic way, because, here I am, a 65 year-old self-professed philosopher/scholar/warrior, who is, most happily, back in school, with a teacher who is, as far as I can tell, about five months old…. Go figure, eh?

By observation, confirmed by the veterinarian I had check her out, and give her the necessary inoculations to protect her, she is half Siamese, half Tortoiseshell Calico, a truly magical combination…. As the pictures I’ve included thus far show, she is, and will be, a gorgeous cat, strong, fast, smart as a whip, and, with mental and metaphysical powers we humans not only do not possess, but, often cannot even comprehend…. I’ve counted, and at this age, she already has 40 whiskers, many more than usual even for an older cat…. When she stares at things, alive or inanimate, they KNOW it…. I can feel it through the bathroom door sometimes, if I’m in there too long…

Needless to say, new magical things happen every day; I’ve already related how she saved the Universe once already. She has planted in my mind that she wishes to accompany me when I leave, and wants a halter and leash, so we can practice walking together…. She also wants a carrier she can see out of, so she can travel with me when I feel the wanderlust with which I am blessed/cursed….. It seems she refuses to consider being left alone for very long. If I have to walk four blocks to the store, I always find her, sitting right in front of it when I return, staring holes through it….. and looking at me with disappointment in her eyes…. which she always drops to run forward to greet me….

It’s going to be interesting, in much more than just the Oriental meaning. Life has become more interesting, more challenging, more…. well, just more…. And, I’m pretty sure it’s only going to get more interesting, as Leelu continues to reveal her powers, and tell me more of our actual work here on Earth…. You see, she is on a mission, and we have things we will need to do in the coming years to prepare to take up that challenge…. I can’t wait….

gigoid, the dubious

Leelu’s companion…..

12/11/2015

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Comedy_Tragedy

Justifiable Insanity

An incredibly insane, vivid abhorrence fills me up today,
because of a thought which occurred to me.
I was merely thinking about what all the headlines have to say,
when I was pushed onto a train of thought, you see.

I began to ride the train, resigned to wherever I went, as it willed.
I was directed by imagination, to consider for a moment or two,
to seek how many reasons a Man has given for when he killed,
count them, count them, curiosity demanded, or, suffer, you…..

So, I tried to count the words I’d seen, or read, or heard,
in the reports we see all over the news and TV’s.
I had to grab a dictionary, to check off each word,
my memory is good, but, not for such numbers as these.

It seemed so simple, when I began my chosen task,
how many could there possibly be?
I probably should have known better than to ask,
for every page had an example; look for yourself, and see.

How many did I come up with, many might ask?
Too many to count, as it turns out,
at least, for anyone of flesh and bone to complete the task.
Even a computer would simply freak out.

If you think I’m being funny, well, you are dead wrong.
Just like all the people who die each day, for ideas, principles, or religion,
or any of the tens of thousands who die each hour, because of delusion so strong,
Mankind’s entire history consists of little more than  perverted contagion.

~~ gigoid ~~

12/10/2015


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buddah-out-to-lunch_s

    This may seem like an odd assortment of pearls; it doesn’t SEEM to have any direction, or purpose, or much of a message, other than, perhaps, “huh?”…. ‘S okay, we’ve been here before; trust the process, ffolkes. Just let your mind drift through with each quote as it presents itself; when you reach the end, it will all be clear…. And, if not, you can have every penny you paid for it refunded…. Not a bad deal, all in all…..

“Be ruled by time, the wisest counselor of all.”

~~ Plutarch ~~

~~ Life of Pericles (B.C. 495-429) ~~


“It is an interesting question how far men would retain their relative rank if they were divested of their clothes.” — Henry David Thoreau

“It was the saying of Bion, that though the boys throw stones at frogs in sport, yet the frogs do not die in sport but in earnest.” — Plutarch — Which are the most crafty, Water or Land Animals?

“He alone is an acute observer who can observe minutely without being observed.” — Lavater

“Treat people as if they were what they ought to be, and you help them to become what they are capable of being.” — Johann Wolfgan von Goethe

“An ass is but an ass, though laden with gold.” — Romanian Proverb

“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

“Baby, after considerable thought I’ve reached the conclusion that the only conceivable legitimate answer to the Universe as constituted is a peal of hysterical laughter.” — Keith Laumer, _Night of Delusions_

“Would I lie?”

~~ gigoid, the dubious ~~


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

Okay, I did it. Leelu seems to approve, as she is sitting calmly, watching me type this closing paragraph. Since other duty calls, and she now wants to play, I’d best be about the rest of today…. See y’all tomorrow, ffolkes; who knows? Maybe there’ll be another chapter, or another new poem…. Never can tell around here….. As a blogger friend is fond of signing off…. I love you! Sappy, I know, but, hey, true enough, so, deal…. Ta, then….

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

Featured Image -- 5012


À bientôt, mon cherí….


					

Sneering in bafflement, he punted….

Ffolkes,

“The cat would eate fish, and would not wet her feete.”

~~ John Heywood (c. 1565) ~~

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

Leelu the berzerker

Leelu in Berserker Mode


Hajime…. Life sure can be funny. Since I’m a complex sorta guy, that’s actually a complex statement, as the word ‘funny’ can be construed to mean a lot of different sorts of things about life, not all of which are at all funny, or fun. It’s also why English is such a powerful tool for communicating, as well as a barrier to the same communication. Two people with a different understanding of, and, skill in using the language, may very well not be able to understand each other, at all, though they both share intimate knowledge of it, having grown up using it. Environment, background, education, intelligence, imagination, all can play a part in how the language is used by anyone, and, no two people share the exact same degree of similarity in ANY of those categories.

All of which being said, I am compelled by my own nature to wonder, how the fuck we ever wandered this far out of the trees? C.S. Lewis, I believe, once made the lament,

“Five senses; an incurably abstract intellect; a haphazardly selective memory; a set of preconceptions and assumptions so numerous that I can never examine more than minority of them – never become conscious of them all.  How much of total reality can such an apparatus let through?” — C. S. Lewis

Add in this most-accurate assessment of the human mind’s ability to perceive the universe, and one has to feel a sense of astonished surprise, not only that we have created a world-wide society, but, have done so without ever achieving any sort of world-wide understanding of our own nature….. To observe the antics of the naked apes who infest the surface of this planet, is very similar, in “look and feel”, to watching an old Roadrunner cartoon on Saturday morning. In fact, watching the Roadrunner makes much more sense than much of what I see passing as socio-political activity around the world….

Did y’all ever wonder, as I did, about the two most puzzling things to me about Wile E. Coyote? First, why, when he was obviously the stupidest creature on the planet, was he called “wily”, a word which, even at age four, I understood couldn’t possibly apply to the stupid beast….. I mean, even if he WAS indestructible, (our first lesson in the fiction vs. reality issue…. How many of US could live through a 5000 foot fall, followed by the arrival of a five ton rock on our head? Hell, it would give Superman a moment of pain, if he couldn’t fly….

Second… Why didn’t the idiot ever just start ordering FOOD from the Acme Co.? It seemed to me, as a young, already half-trained consumer, if the company made that many different products, of such amazing variety and complexity, how easy would it be for them to deliver some fried chicken, or even fried rattlesnake, which, I am told, tastes like chicken… But, then, doesn’t everything but beef and lamb taste like chicken?….

But, NOOOO…. Mr. Smart Guy Coyote keeps ordering weapon after weapon, none of which ever worked the way he expected. Which comprised our second lesson in reality vs. fiction, though, as it turns out, that’s pretty much how ANY corporation operates….. S’trewth, swear to god….

SIGH…. I’m doing it again, aren’t I? Ranting in the intro, when I tried to start out looking for ironic humor…. See where good intentions will get you? Oh, well, next I’d have to move on to more lamentations about human nature, and how virtue has all but disappeared from the public arena… Hell, I even found the perfect pearl to go with such a discussion, showing EXACTLY what happened, at least, here in the US…. It is also from C.S. Lewis, one of the more flexible-minded, and, honest Christians to ever pick up a pen… He said, regarding virtue, this:

“Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point, which means at the point of highest reality. A chastity or honesty or mercy which yields to danger will be chaste or honest or merciful only on conditions. Pilate was merciful until it became risky.” — C.S. Lewis  _The Screwtape Letters_

But, that’s a rant for another day, unless, of course, we pick this up in the third section. Who knows at this point? If I did, well, I’d say so; that means simply that I haven’t decided yet. Nonetheless, and, notwithstanding, such is now moot, as Guido has entered the cockpit (don’t even think it….), and we’ll be taking off any moment…. Let’s just do so quietly, and calmly, just as if we knew what we were doing here, okay?….

Shall we Pearl?….

“A gentleman is one who doesn’t demand a lady prove that she is.”

~~ Solomon Short ~~


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

    Though I have plenty of energy, I’m lazy. Since that is true, I’m going with my own default choice of music, which, if you’ve been reading here for any time, you’ll know what that means; you’re gonna hear some classical music…. It was about twenty or more years ago I got fed up with the current crop of music bombarding the airwaves and musical venues. I began to listen to classical music, and have felt the rightness of the decision ever since. Rather than listening to the last 65-plus years of what has been produced (some of which is good, but, mostly, it’s crap…. see Sturgeon’s Law….), I now have several centuries worth of music to explore, from all over the world….. Sturgeon’s law still applies, but, the statistical universe of available music has been filtered for quality for a LONG time; what’s left is a much higher percentage of the good stuff….

Bonus!….. Enjoy, ffolkes…. Don’t worry, it won’t hurt, even if you have perfect pitch…… As is my habit, the compilation I picked simply had the most attractive picture, for my taste….

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gigoid’s Musical Default

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Dont keep calm

What do we do? We have lost our way.
From afar, the Demon cries out,
He is leading us astray.

Skyward soar the whirling demons,
Shrouded by the falling snow,
And then the plaintive, awful howling
Fills my heart with dread and woe.

~~ Alexander Pushkin ~~


Gee…. I wonder if that means more ranting about the present state of world affairs? What do you think? Should we continue in the vein in which I began today’s Pearl, or veer off in another direction? Hmm… Let’s see what the magic 8-ball says….

Oops. Forgot; broke my 8-ball a long time ago. Oh, well. I think I’m not in a mood to rant at the moment. Hang on, & I’ll go see if I can find something to tip the scale in one direction, or another… Don’t worry, I’ve got a Tardis, and this isn’t real…. so, it’s like, you’ll never notice I was gone….

Okay, got it. That actually didn’t take long at all…. Of course, I COULD be lying, but, we wouldn’t want to pick up any bad habits…. It took only a moment, to find this:

“The land of the free!  This is the land of the free!  Why, if I say anything that displeases them, the free mob will lynch me, and that’s my freedom. Free? Why I have never been in any country where the individual has such an abject fear of his fellow countrymen.  Because, as I say, they are free to lynch him the moment he shows he is not one of them.” — D. H. Lawrence

Now, if THAT isn’t a great start to pick up where we left off above, I don’t know an oyster from a mussel. And, I do. Know the difference, I mean. In fact, I also know, being a chef, while mussels, steamed in white wine, fish stock, garlic, and a bit of butter, lemon juice, & parsley, is as close as people ever really get to heaven, only oysters, those ugly, yet somehow noble bivalves, can make pearls. Besides, the only way the oysters themselves are REALLY edible, is breaded, deep fried, and smothered with a LOT of Tartar, or seafood cocktail sauce. Otherwise they’re a lot like eating old shoe leather, unless eaten at ONE specific moment upon cooking. Before, or after that moment, they are virtually inedible… Even for those with ALL their teeth…

But, hey, pearls, you know? Which brings us back to the completion of this section today. I’ll quit fooling around, amusing as it may be, (or not; not my call….), and get to the meat of today’s piece.  I’ll start with an old graphic pearl from one of my most consistent sources for wise, witty comments, to wit:

Albert E & true sin


This statement is possibly the clearest I know, to describe WHY our world is the way it is today. Albert put his finger on the root cause of every problem we face today, i.e., courage in the face of evil. Personally, I have given up any hope of making enough changes in society to protect us from ourselves…. Hope, as Emily D. pointed out, is something that, being human, never goes away…. But, my hope is about gone, for I don’t see us humans finding the understanding which can save us before the planet itself kills us for our effrontery……

Rather than expose y’all to any more of my own negative conclusions, I’d like y’all to read the following article, which my news reader provided to me, and with which I can only agree wholeheartedly. It’s brilliant, to be honest, and, if there is any justice in the world, will go viral quite soon…… It’s by an author named Elizabeth West, and she has hit upon some strong truths…. Don’t try to decide from reading the title; just trust me, & go read it. You won’t regret it…. Not even if I close out the section with my own take/interpretation, (though voiced with a power of expression I can only dream of achieving some day….) of the most probable, ultimately final decision Reality is going to make about the human race… Ms. West might convince you otherwise…..

http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/12/04/abandon-all-hope/

This is the way the world ends,
This is the way the world ends,
This is the way the world ends,
Not with a bang but with a whimper.

~~ T. S. Eliot, “The Hollow Men” ~~


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Comedy_Tragedy

Choosing a Theme

Powerful words playing hide and seek in my mind,
teasing with subtle cruelty, pretending to be kind.
Grand visions and flowery verses of beauty and truth
evaded my inner eye all through the days of my youth.

Affable interludes interspersed with allegorical wit
softened the crimes, against all reason, to finally acquit.
Time became at once an enemy, and an ally
Never once compelled to provide an answer why.

Giving gifts of simple kindness are their own pay,
spreading ripples of compassion are felt far and away.
Love given freely is precious, we are ever told,
increasing love received, more than a hundred fold.

Living long and with passion has centered my soul,
allowing me room, and time, to choose my own goal.
Now I’ve gone past any need to pretend
I love everything in life, even knowing it will end.

~~ gigoid ~~

10/21/2012


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ankh

Naked Pearls IV

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“Everything you know is wrong.”

~~ The Firesign Theater ~~

*********

“Every action in our lives touches on some chord that will vibrate in eternity.”

~~ Edwin Hubbel Chapin ~~

*********

“Virtue is beauty.”

~~ Shakespeare ~~

*********

“There are two kinds of egotists: 1) Those who admit it;  2) The rest of us.”

~~ Psyche Bee ~~

*********

“Half the failures in life arise from pulling in one’s horse as it is leaping.”

~~ Julius Hare ~~

*********

“In war and life, either fight to win or don’t fight.”

~~ Warrior Bee ~~

*********

“She [virtue] requires a rough and stormy passage; she will have either outward difficulties to wrestle with, …. or, internal difficulties.”

~~ Michel de Montaigne — Essays, Book ii, Chap. xi, Of Cruelty ~~

*********

“A misery is not to be measured from the nature of the evil, but from the temper of the sufferer.”

~~ Joseph Addison ~~

*********

“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 ~~

*********

“Don’t worry about a thing because every little thing is gonna be alright.”

~~ Bob Marley ~~

*********

However many holy words you read,
However many you speak,
What good will they do you
If you do not act on upon them?

~~ Buddha ~~


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Well, it’s done. All that remains is to go post it, which will be harder than usual today…. I put a lot into this one, even though the poem isn’t new, and the major rant belongs to another author. Nonetheless, I don’t believe I can do this any better than this turned out, so, I hope y’all enjoyed consuming it as much as I enjoyed putting it together…. I’ll be back tomorrow, to see if I can do it this well one more time….Why not? That would make a total of at least four, over four years…. Not bad, for an amateur…

Spoiler alert: Things ’round here may change some in the near future…. Y’all stay alert, y’hear?…. It could mean your sanity, and mine…. Oops. Maybe not yours…. really. I mean that, or, rather, I didn’t mean that…. Well, never mind, you’ll see….. Just, be careful, okay?…. C 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

Featured Image -- 5012


À bientôt, mon cherí….


					

Pollinated twisty bread, nicely packaged….

Ffolkes,

 

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

~~ George Bernard Shaw ~~

Leelus laser eye

Laser-eye Leelu


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

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

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

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

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

Shall we Pearl?….

 

“Life is the childhood of our immortality.”

~~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe ~~


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grateful-dead-50-email-photo
The Grateful Dead

Images from an email from Dead.net


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

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

 

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BEGGARS TOMB
New Minglewood Blues
Dead Covers Project 2014

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About Hopi Indian Symbols

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

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

From 10/21/2012:

 

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

 🙂


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Comedy_Tragedy

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

 

Dreaming of Calliope

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

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

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

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

~~ gigoid ~~

12/13/2012


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Yin-Yang-symbol-sun-and-moon
Naked Pearls III

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

~~ Samurai Proverb ~~

~~~~~~~~~

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

~~ Buddha ~~

~~~~~~~~~

“Do not eat your heart.”

~~ Pythagoras ~~

~~~~~~~~~

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

~~ Emerson ~~

~~~~~~~~~

“Learn or die.”

~~ Reality ~~

~~~~~~~~~

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

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

~~~~~~~~~

“Adversity is the first path to truth.”

~~ Lord Byron ~~

~~~~~~~~~

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

~~ Josh Billings ~~

~~~~~~~~~

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

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

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


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

 

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

Featured Image -- 5012


À bientôt, mon cherí….