Twelve degrees off of plumb crazy….

Posted on May 22, 2013 by gigoid

Ffolkes,
And then I woke up….. at sea, again. We are cruising slowly along the eastern coast of Scotland, on the way to Harwich, where the cruise started, ten days ago. It is encouraging to not be seasick, as it means I’ve managed to gain my ‘sea legs’, and don’t have to take any more of the medication, which, while effective, has a side effect that can be most unpleasant, and to which I will not again refer….. I know, it sounds pompous and obscure, but, it is grammatically correct, and better than saying outright that which could drive y’all away in disgust…. Instead, we’ll go on….

The weather yesterday in the port of Invergordon, near Inverness, and Loch Ness, home to Nessie, (the world’s oldest monster, having first been sighted in the fifteenth century), was, to put it simply, miserable and cold. The temperature hovered around 38-40 degrees all day, with a wind that reached gusts up to 50 mph. To get into the town, only a couple blocks away from the ship, we had to walk on a pier about 100 yards long, and I almost lost my hat into the bay a number of times. It was so strong a wind, it literally almost blew me off my feet, and I am no lightweight (I’m about 205 lbs, right now, possibly more after 10 days of eating well…. I’m afraid to actually weigh myself…). It also rained in spurts, so I made only two quick forays off the ship, going a bit crazy again buying little stuff for ffolkes back home….

I did get some nice pix of the landscape, and the quaint village of Invergordon where we are docked. There is a small museum just across from the ship, showing exhibits of the history of the town, and of the area. Inverness has long been considered the capital of Scotland and the Highlands, and the port area has a long history of involvement with the royal navy. I got some nice photos, and found more little pieces of jewelry for my daughter, Patricia, and my adoptive daughter, Cheryl, as well as a couple of cute little stuffed Nessies for my grandson, and Cheryl’s son Marcus. (I told you I went crazy….) I also found more magnets, and a nice pocket watch with a Celtic Knot design for myself. I feel like a real capitalist…..

That last comment is about all the rant I have in me, I think, so we should get started on the rest of today’s pearls…. Section one will be for an old-school pearl, two, of course, will be a poem by somebody, and section three will show the photos I got today in port….. Shall we Pearl?…..
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The following pearl is of the old-school variety, but much fresher….. The quotes sort of picked themselves, with little or no assistance from yours truly, and seemed to know just what they wanted to say, because it took only a few minutes for it all to come together. The point of it all is, of course, left as an exercise for the Gentle Reader, and please don’t throw anything at me….. I’m kind of run down from all the rich food I’ve been consuming for the past two weeks while on this trip. My stomach, and my brain, will both be glad when I’m home again…..

“A man is a very small thing, and the night is very large and full of wonders.” — Lord Dunsany, The Laughter of the Gods

“Patience is sorrow’s salve.” — Sir Winston Churchill

“I prefer to be true to myself, even at the hazard of incurring the ridicule of others, rather than to be false, and to incur my own abhorrence.” — Frederick Douglass

“In the part of this universe that we know there is great injustice, and often the good suffer, and often the wicked prosper, and one hardly knows which of those is the more annoying.” — Bertrand Russell

“It takes courage to grow up and turn out to be who you really are.” — ee cummings

“If you see someone without a smile, give them one of yours…” — Smart Bee

“A poet who reads his verse in public may have other nasty habits.” — Lazarus Long, from Robert A. Heinlein’s “Time Enough For Love”
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Probably the biggest rip-off among all the seriously overpriced stuff one encounters on a cruise is the internet access. The cruise lines have figured out that access is important to their customers, so they will condescend to provide it to them, at a cost that is, needless to say, outrageous…..

I bought the best deal on that access, and I’m paying $0.36/minute. This has been barely enough to get my blog posted each day, with a bit left over for checking email, and reading some of the news. What this means is I don’t have enough time to go look for anyone else’s poetry, so I’m going to go once more to the well, and offer up one of my own for your perusal. I hope you enjoy it…..

Denial of Comfort

Baleful chairs become the enemy, heralded in red
seemingly welcome softness beckons with a smile,
waiting, content with slaughter, they are finally led
screaming in agony, deluged in venom all the while.

Desperate distraction becomes such a friendless fire
for all the patterns of autumn’s pale dismay,
leaving sincerely latent trails in spirals of twisted wire,
while memory insists, again, upon failure, palpably evil, and fey.

Fat, jaded tears would have fallen in good time,
if only the suitable suitor had scaled the garden’s wall.
Credence for discounted prices luckily in their prime
bring only fascinated eyes into such a hallowed hall.

Searching for answers is ever a clever portrayal
with studious accouterments to fulfill each common rule.
Arguably patient pictures of science and honest betrayal
shall evermore languish, in light of passion so elegantly cruel.

~~ gigoid ~~

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As noted above, I got some decent pix of Invergordon, including, at the end of our stay, a local drum and bagpipe band that piped the ship off as it left the dock. I even figured out how to get a few seconds of video, complete with sound, of one of the numbers they played as they marched off. I don’t think I know how to put that up on the blog, yet, but, it was still pretty cool to be able to get it with my new camera…. Any who, here are some of the best shots of the day….

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This will be the final Pearl for the trip, and it may take me a couple of days before I can get posted again, as the trip back to SF promises to be a marathon event…. I have someone to take me from London to Heathrow, but then must find my way onto the plane, where I’ll sit, and stand, and sit, and stand for the next 11+ hours to get home. I have a car set up to take me back to Vallejo, but I expect by then I’ll be pretty well toasted, and won’t be feeling much like writing, or doing anything more complicated than breathing and sleeping for a day or three…. So, I’ll say adieu for the time being, and hope you enjoyed these little travelogues as much as I enjoyed posting them…. See ya in a couple of days…… 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

No worries, there’s plenty of time to…..

Posted on May 8, 2013 by gigoid

Ffolkes,
Fellatio….. Now, if a word like that doesn’t draw the eye, I don’t know what will. Not that I really need any tricks this morning, with plenty to write about. Of course, none of what I have to write is relevant, but, who cares? Tomorrow, I leave for Europe…. Murphy has done what he can to spoil it, of course, by making me fall for the lady down the hall…. I’ll be going, but the one person I want to have with me isn’t able to come along this trip, so, I’ll end up doing everything by myself…. It will take a bit of the excitement out of seeing all those things I want to see, because I’d rather have her with me to share….

It won’t mean I won’t have a good time; that, I think, would be quite impossible. But, when I’m having that good time, I’ll be a bit sad at having it alone. But, then I’ll think about how nice it will be to have someone there to greet me when I get home, and it will be okay. Besides, in today’s modern world, we have Skype…. so, we’ll be able to talk, and even video chat, while I’m gone, and that will help to reduce the sorrow at not having her here. No substitute, for sure, but better than nothing at all. Plus, I’ve already booked another cruise for the two of us…. 🙂 No flies on me….

She’s always wanted to go on an Alaska cruise, so we’ll take one of the new cruises out of San Francisco in late June, which also returns to SF, eliminating a lot of the cost of the trip…. No airplanes or port hotels needed, just a car to the proper wharf in SF, get on the boat, and have fun….. I’m starting to feel just a little bit decadent, and I think I like it…. The old hippie in me is a little miffed, because I’m consorting with the fascist lackeys and enjoying the fruits of my capitalist labors, but the even older hedonist in me is purring, loud and strong….

This will be the last Pearl until I’m in Europe, so there may be a gap until the next one…. I will be flying overnight, going east, which will put me a day ahead…. I’ll arrive in London Friday morning, and won’t post until later in the day, when I can catch my breath from the flight over the pond…. This means there won’t be a Pearl tomorrow, Thursday, unless I can get up really early to put up a quick one…. I’ll try, but that means leaving the computer to be the last item packed, and I may not want to do that… we’ll see…. So, just be aware, there MAY not be a Pearl on Thursday, but will surely be one on Friday, late…..

All of this also means today’s Pearl will be comprised of what I’ll call QuickCheats, to wit: material mostly out of the archives, or what can be found and put together quickly, and a poem from someone else, as nothing is leaking out just now (I do feel a couple of them circling around in there, but apparently, they’re not ready to come out….). Hopefully, none of it will look so familiar it puts anyone to sleep…. but, if it does, there are blankets and small pillows in the overhead compartments….

I think I’ve rambled enough for one morning, and still managed to get the housekeeping done… I even have time for a quick break, but will forgo telling you what I’ll be up to…. And, now, it’s time for the main show…. Shall we Pearl?….
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This may be cheating, but, it’s a good sort of cheat….. This was a rant on gun control that I wrote last year, after one of the spate of incidents in which a bunch of innocent folks got blasted by some crazy man…. Since that particular question is still in the public eye, this is worth a re-run…. (Hmm… I realized my statement may seem a bit calloused… but, that’s merely my attempt to keep emotional distance from the feelings that such events can produce, of sadness and outrage, neither of which will help reach a solution to the problem…) Any who…. abondanza!

“Are we at last brought to such a humiliating and debasing degradation, that we cannot be trusted with arms for our own defense? Where is the difference between having our arms in our own possession and under our own direction, and having them under the management of Congress? If our defense be the _real_ object of having those arms, in whose hands can they be trusted with more propriety, or equal safety to us, as in our own hands?” — Patrick Henry

Here is a subject that is always worth a few words…. I’m a firm believer in the right to bear arms. I do feel that it is probably unnecessary for a private citizen to own, or feel they need, an automatic weapon such as a machine gun, or even an M-16 assault rifle. I can’t think of a lot of everyday situations where one might be called for, but, I wouldn’t want that to be a factor in whether or not I would be allowed to have one, because what Mr. Henry asks above remains valid today….”in whose can they be trusted.. with equal safety… as in our own hands.”

That simple question is one that MUST be answered to even CONSIDER the idea of disallowing citizens the ownership of firearms. It is a certain conclusion, with more than ample evidence, that the police, military, and government agencies and people that I know of, are NOT to be trusted to have the monopoly on guns. Nope, no way will those who seek entitlement and power over others in society ever be trusted fully by the likes of me….

“A strong body makes the mind strong. As to the species of exercises, I advise the gun. While this gives moderate exercise to the body, it gives boldness, enterprise and independence to the mind. Games played with the ball and others of that nature, are too violent for the body and stamp no character on the mind. Let your gun, therefore, be the constant companion of your walks.” — Thomas Jefferson — Encyclopedia of Thomas Jefferson, 318 (Foley, Ed. reissued 1967)

Tom may have gone a bit overboard in his enthusiasm for his personal artillery, but, it does reflect the environment in which he lived, and the culture of the time. In today’s world, of course, physical health needn’t depend on the environment, per se, to provide the exercise our bodies enjoy, and need, to stay healthy and strong. Now we have a fitness center, a faux gym, every third block in major cities, open all night for those insomniacs who want to obsess over their abs. We don’t need to go tramping through the woods with our forty pound musket, trying to spot something appropriate for dinner.

But, even without the need for the exercise involved, if one is going to have a gun, it needs to be used in order to retain its functionality, and one needs to practice occasionally, in order to maintain the skills needed to actually hit whatever at which one is aiming. Society, because of the average person’s fear of guns, and of violence in the whole, has made that more difficult for citizens as time has passed, as those who don’t want to have to deal with violence at all in their lives add the power of the common man’s fears to the effort by the beloved ruling class to take away our guns, which they’ve been trying to do regularly since the inception of this nation.

Our country is still one of the very few in the world where the government actually still has to keep in mind the fact that the citizens are well armed, and able to defend themselves…. Very few governing groups will allow that, and those in power in this country are still trying to get us to give ours up, too. It has been obvious since 1782, when the Constitution and the Bill of Rights came into effect, that those in power would prefer that the populace give up their weapons…. just check Congressional records to see how often a bill is introduced to that effect. To now, all of those attempts have been thwarted, until the latter half of the 20th century, when some limitations were placed on what kinds of weapons would be legal for citizens to own.

But, the effort by the beloved ruling class to disarm the populace continues, and every year I hear talk about new legislation designed to limit the citizen’s access to guns, and place that power monopoly in the hands of the government. I won’t have it, I tell you, and there are a LOT of people in this country who feel the same way…. I have not seen ANYTHING that convinces me at all that the people who run the government are to be trusted with that kind of power. I have seen many, many pieces of evidence to the contrary, especially in the actions of about half of the police forces in the country, who are filled with power hungry sociopaths, who believe they are above the law, and should be allowed to interpret the law to their advantage, and to the advantage of the people who buy them, er…. pay them……

Nope…. none of what I see in society is any evidence of the trustworthiness of the government, and until there is no question of their integrity, (like THAT will ever happen), you won’t be convincing me that they are worthy of my trust…. ESPECIALLY regarding guns…..

“So live that you can look any man in the eye and tell him to go to hell.” — Smart Bee
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It seems that fate has guided my hand, or perhaps just my eye…. The following is an excerpt from the same old Pearl as the above rant… The Pearls from that time had already evolved into the format we now know and love so well, so it just fits right in, just as if it was meant to do so…. which it was….
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As a matter of course, I don’t usually make dedications, but this one just fits so right…. I have a friend on WP, whose site is dedicated to all things beautiful, and everything she posts meets every standard I know of in justification of that. In short, it is a small island in the huge ocean of the WWW where one can go to find a short respite from all the ugliness of modern life, and the vagaries of the human experience…. so here’s one for Carol Welsh, whose site you can find here: http://carolwelsh.wordpress.com/

A Thing of Beauty (Endymion)

A thing of beauty is a joy for ever:
Its lovliness increases; it will never
Pass into nothingness; but still will keep
A bower quiet for us, and a sleep
Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing.
Therefore, on every morrow, are we wreathing
A flowery band to bind us to the earth,
Spite of despondence, of the inhuman dearth
Of noble natures, of the gloomy days,
Of all the unhealthy and o’er-darkn’d ways
Made for our searching: yes, in spite of all,
Some shape of beauty moves away the pall
From our dark spirits. Such the sun, the moon,
Trees old and young, sprouting a shady boon
For simple sheep; and such are daffodils
With the green world they live in; and clear rills
That for themselves a cooling covert make
‘Gainst the hot season; the mid-forest brake,
Rich with a sprinkling of fair musk-rose blooms:
And such too is the grandeur of the dooms
We have imagined for the mighty dead;
An endless fountain of immortal drink,
Pouring unto us from the heaven’s brink.

~~John Keats ~~

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This last pearl for today will be fresh, or as fresh as I can make it from old, unused pearls, that have been lounging around in my stash for some years now…. It should be okay, it’s all straight out of Smart Bee, back when I could trust it to run…. The point of today’s old-school effort will be as obvious as I can make it, but, I’m not giving that a lot of credence, and neither should you…. I would suggest you take notes, as it could be to your advantage later on…..

“I have the simplest tastes. I am always satisfied with the best.” — Oscar Wilde

“One might define adulthood as the age at which a person learns he must die and accepts his sentence undismayed. ” — Robert Heinlein

“Principles have no real force except when one is well fed.” — Mark Twain

40. Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a stroke of luck. — Instructions for life

“Cato used to assert that wise men profited more by fools than fools by wise men; for that wise men avoided the faults of fools, but that fools would not imitate the good examples of wise men.” — Plutarch (46-120 AD) — Life of Marcus Cato

All things good to know are difficult to learn. — Greek Proverb

“Was mir nicht umbringt macht mir streng!”
{What does not kill me, makes me strong!”} — Friederich Nietzsche
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And there you have it… a record breaking Pearl, in re: production time of 75 minutes, so far…. Let’s see if it passes muster…. Oh, it does, it does, at least as well as a number of recent efforts, so we’ll have to let it go, or be accused of discrimination, and I don’t have the time to deal with that…. I apologize for any inconvenience, and please remember to pick up all of your personal items before exiting the vehicle… thanks…. 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

Seven straight hours of polka music….. priceless….

Posted on May 6, 2013 by gigoid

Ffolkes,
And then I woke up….. The plan was in place, all I had to do was get up, get dressed, and call a cab. Piece o’cake…. I think we may have hit a fortunate bump…. It appears Murphy didn’t get the memo on this, so the plan went off like clockwork. The cab came, I rode it to Kaiser, picked up my meds, and made to the lab in time to be fourth in line. This got me out of there within thirty minutes (they are REALLY slow in the reception process….), whereupon I walked to see if there was coffee available anywhere on the way out…. it was, but I didn’t have exact change, so the danger of biting someone was still high…. I called a cab, as the bus wasn’t due for about 45 minutes, I thought…

But, lo and behold, as I walked outside, the bus was pulling up, so I canceled the cab, got on, and was home in 15 minutes, all chores completed, and still not 8 AM…. not too shabby, I’d say, and a huge thank you, to whoever it was that kept that asshole, Murphy, busy long enough for the plan to be implemented…. I hardly know what to do with myself; it’s really unusual for anything involving bus travel around here to go smoothly, and I am way ahead of schedule now. I suppose, if I were smart, I’d jump right in to the dive for today, and count my blessings….

I’m smart enough, so…. Shall we Pearl?….
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I was cruising through some old Pearls to find inspiration, and found instead a pearl that will work well as section one of today’s effort…. It’s from the Ides of October in 2011…..

Ffolkes,

The Sun, life-giving orb of light and warmth, which dies each night, is born again each morning, gloriously aflame with potential. As the world turns in slow majesty, a scene of aching beauty is revealed; small plants and trees stretching their leaves toward the source of warmth, creatures great and small moving over the land, greeting the day with energy and purpose, colorful birds arcing and swooping through the warming air.

With a look at each other, the two young boys grinned, and with a cry of pure joy, took off running toward a nearby stand of trees. Legs pounding as hard and fast as their hearts, evenly matched, they ran with abandon, startling birds and small creatures, laughing in sheer exuberance. As they came to the edge of the trees, they stopped short, by mutual accord. Breathing hard, they gazed into the shadows, thinking about why they had come, why they were here, filling their souls with beauty at the beginning of the day……

I’m told that constant practice makes for constant improvement, and if this is so, then I should be getting damn close to competence, if not perfection. The paragraph above is the start of yet another story that will most likely never be told. I write them principally to keep dross from building up in my psyche, and as a sort of contrast to the reality of the rest of the piece.

An introductory bridge, as it were, carrying the reader into the realms of thought, where I can then provide you with an upgrade to the DABSDS (Defense Against B___S___ Delivery System) that comes installed in your brain. It gives me a chance to limber up my typing finger, and loosen the mental muscle, which, as we all know, is an essential precursor to the use of these peripherals without sustaining injury.

Today’s group of Pearls is an eclectic one, with a diverse, compelling batch of authors. Cultural values from all over the world, and from many different ages of history are represented here, and I think the variety is part of its strength; it goes to show that wisdom is not limited to one book. Indeed, I believe that the admixture that came together today is greatly enhanced by the contrast of ideas, creating a more powerful effect upon the reasoning mind…..hope you enjoy!….

“If I have any beliefs about immortality, it is that certain dogs I have known will go to heaven, and very, very few persons.” — James Thurber

The only real failure in life is the failure to try.

“It is a misconception that spirituality brings everlasting happiness. There is no such thing. Sadness still comes to the wise, but, unlike most people, their clarity of mind allows them to see beyond the temporal emotionalism of the moment. They are farseeing, and so happiness and sorrow become the same to them.” — Deng Ming-Dao

Down, down, down into the darkness of the grave
Gently they go, the beautiful, the tender, the kind;
Quietly they go, the intelligent, the witty, the brave.
I know.
But I do not approve.
And I am not resigned.
— Edna St. Vincent Millay, “Dirge Without Music”

“Writing is not necessarily something to be ashamed of–but do it in private and wash you hands afterwards.” — Lazarus Long

“We turn not older with years, but newer every day.” — Emily Dickinson

Trust yourselves, my friends, so that ye may trust one another…..y’all take care out there…..
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I’ve discovered the flaw in my plan… the one I thought went so well this morning…. It’s now a bit shy of 9 AM, and I’m beat…. totally ready for a nap. To save some time, here is an older poem of mine, from sometime last year….. I hope you enjoy it….

Piraeus calls me, silently….

Sizzle, sizzle, crash, bang, boom.
Intellect burning with subsequent doom.
Lingering long over decisive style,
Whistling up chaos all the while.

Such frozen thoughts may shatter,
Should we infer, but, no matter.
Firing blanks is children at play
Blooded sages all gasp in dismay.

Nonsense is good sense at times
Mundane objectives trip lightly in rhymes.
Fallen angels dance on a pin
Until each sinner enters within.

Fast moments with natural rain
Bring ashes, yet still must remain.
Final thoughts clamor for more
Find them only on a far distant shore.

~~ gigoid

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Just so everything today isn’t old and creaky, I’m putting together an old-school group of pearls for your delectation…. Hopefully, this, too, will feel the freedom of a Murphy-less morning, and turn out well, and quickly…. I think this one might make it onto the Quiz, so you might want to take notes….

Cogito, ergo sum. (I think, therefore I am) — Rene Descartes

Down, down, down into the darkness of the grave Gently they go, the beautiful, the tender, the kind; Quietly they go, the intelligent, the witty, the brave. I know. But I do not approve. And I am not resigned.” — Edna St. Vincent Millay, “Dirge Without Music”

“God is an invention of Man. So the nature of God is only a shallow mystery. The deep mystery is the nature of Man.” — Nanrei Kobori, late Abbot of the Temple of the Shining Dragon, Kyoto, Japan

“A note of music gains significance from the silence on either side.” — Anne Morrow Lindberg

“To a rational being it is the same thing to act according to nature and according to reason.” — Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (121-180 AD) — Meditations, vii, 11

Made still a blund’ring kind of melody;
Spurr’d boldly on, and dashed through thick and thin,
Through sense and nonsense, never out nor in.

— John Dryden (1631-1700) — Absalom and Achitophel, Part ii, Line 413

Cogito sum, ergo sum. Circa basta. (I think I am. That’s close enough.) ~~ gigoid

That turned out well, I think, and this is my blog, so that’s good enough…. 😆
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Well, I don’t think the Pulitzer Committee will need to deliberate very long on this one; I am a realist, after all…..

Whoa! Proofing revealed an Easter Egg! My subconscious must have been paying attention today, and slipped in a facer on my conscious brain; each of the pearl sections today have a quote from Edna St. Vincent Millay, the same quote, but used in one as a poem, and in the other as prose.

It was NOT deliberate on my part; I just found it now, as I was proofing for errors. Boy, the stuff that gets done when Murphy leaves me alone is astounding at times…. It makes me wonder how things might be if he would go away altogether…. SIGH…. Definitely wishful thinking….

Moreover, since both of the old-school pearls work just fine, just as they are, I’m letting this fly, as is, and know it will do just fine…. And, in the final analysis, I don’t care, because it’s done…. I’m outta here, gotta go plan for Thursday…. 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

You can join the looters AFTER church, Billy….

Posted on May 5, 2013 by gigoid

Ffolkes,
I didn’t wake up today; Murphy kicked my bed covers to the floor and made me get up early. He wanted to make sure I saw how thoroughly he fucked me over today…. He has done something to Smart Bee, and it is crashing and burning on me…. Well, not burning, exactly…. It just won’t come off the task bar…. This has happened previously, and usually, an uninstall, followed by a fresh re-install will take care of the problem….. Not today, though. I’ve downloaded a new copy and re-installed three times now, and nothing doing. It still won’t open up on the desktop in a window; it just sits there on the taskbar, laughing at me….. Murphy is such an ASSHOLE!…..

This is a disaster of major proportion around here. I depend on Smart Bee for my quotes, fresh on a daily basis. With over 110,000 quotes in the program’s database, it has never failed to give me what I needed, to supply me with appropriate or stimulating quotes with no fuss. Now, I will have to use my books, and copy them down by hand, or go to a website that has quotes, and look around there. All in all, it’s a huge pain in my ass to have to do without SB, and I am thoroughly pissed now, at that asshole Murphy…. I don’t know what makes this program go wonky like this, and the fact that he does, well, it’s a pisser of major degree.

Since I won’t have the time I generally have, thanks to the convenience of SB, I’d best leave this morning whine in the bottle, and get on with the pearls for today. It’s going to take a while, and I’m really, really pissed, and will need to take a few moments to compose myself, so we’ll let this die a quick death today, and get on with it….. Shall we Pearl?…..
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The thorns which I have reap’d are of the tree
I planted; they have torn me, and I bleed.
I should have known what fruit would spring from such a seed.

— Lord Byron (1788-1824) — Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, Canto iv, Stanza 10

Here, in a three line verse, Lord Byron has explained the flaw that exists in human nature, a flaw that will one day drive the species to extinction, if we don’t find a way to alter its effect on us, as a species. This flaw doesn’t manifest in every human, only in a certain percentage, not particularly large, but full of the people who affect society the most, i.e., the leaders, the politicians, the aristocracy (the rich, or as I call them, the bankers….), and the preachers, all of whom are supposed to be ordering society to benefit ALL of its members.

Instead, these individuals, who have this fatal flaw, have ordered events to suit themselves, hoarding the largest part of the available resources, showing absolutely no compassion or willingness to share, and dismissing as unimportant all of the pain and suffering their actions cause to other people….

This selfishness gene will eventually kill us all, because the BRC, or Beloved Ruling Class, are so focused on their goals, and so unwilling to entertain the idea that their actions are wrong, they cannot comprehend the danger they have created by their pathology, to themselves as well as to the rest of us….

That is the unfortunate thing about any mental aberration; it’s very presence tends to limit what the victim can understand, because they are unwilling to look at the evidence….. No one wants to believe they are mentally off; it doesn’t fit in with our self-image as a competent human being. These folks never understand at all that the way they are leading their lives is a threat to the rest of us; they will only accept evidence that supports their unrealistic view of reality.

Unfortunately for the rest of us, these people are also the ones who are the most willing to use violence, and weapons, to enforce their will, and they already have control of more force than the rest of the public can possibly contend with to force a change. It is a very complex, delicate problem, with no solution that I can see as practical, or with any large chance for success….

The time we have to make the necessary changes to society is growing shorter every hour, as more and more millions of tons of CO (carbon monoxide) is pumped into the air, along with other particulate pollutants. This material in our atmosphere has almost completely destroyed the ozone layer, and the amount of heat reaching the planet from the Sun has raised the ambient temperature of the planet a full two degrees…

Two degrees may not seem like much, but, the fact that the change has taken place in less than a hundred years is a clear indicator that it is quite enough, as it continues to change the climate of the planet drastically. The polar ice is melting more rapidly than ever before, and at a geometrically increasing rate. The amount of oxygen in the air is decreasing in relation to other substances; if it changes two percentage points, there won’t be enough of it for our lungs to breathe; we will suffocate ourselves if it continues. The weather is changing all over the world, as the water from the polar ice melts, and changes the chemical balance of the air everywhere…. As plants die, the process will accelerate, and it will be a toss-up to see what will kill us first….

“Whenever I see a photograph of some sportsman grinning over his kill, I am always impressed by the striking moral and aesthetic superiority of the dead animal to the live one.” — Edward Abbey

Not a pretty picture, is it? Unless, of course, you are one of the power elite, the BRC; then, you’re the one with the gun…. I’m sorry to have to bring doom and gloom into the morning, but, this is a subject that won’t go away, so I pound on it whenever I can…. The quote above, from Lord Byron, stimulated my sense of outrage at the sheer selfishness of the 1% (yet another name for those with the flaw of extreme self-interest….), so I ranted, if mildly. What bothers me the most is that what I’m saying here is absolute truth, and the people who read it are NOT the ones who need to change…. Of course, those folks wouldn’t believe it if they did read it, so it’s rather a thankless task, and relatively futile, to boot…..

“In spite of everything, I still believe that people are good.” — Anne Frank

I think Anne was a better person than I am, because I have lost my belief in what she says here…. I do believe that the majority of mankind is good, or at least tries to be good; I just don’t believe that those ffolkes are the ones that matter to our future, as much as the folks who are NOT basically good, for as long as the innocents allow the harm their leaders continue to cause to the environment in which we all have to live. I don’t know of a solution, other than the obvious one of becoming violent myself, and doing to them what they want to do to me, but doing it first….. But, then I become like them, and I’d have to kill myself, because I’d never be able to look in a mirror again….. I guess there’s only one thing left to do…..

Petition me no petitions, sir, to-day;
Let other hours be set apart for business.
To-day it is our pleasure to be drunk;
And this our queen shall be as drunk as we.

— Henry Fielding (1707-1754) — Tom Thumb the Great, Act i, Sc. 2
__________________________________

Last month was great, in terms of writing poetry, but I missed reading it…. That probably sounds contradictory, but what I mean is that I missed reading other people’s poems, as I haven’t been able to read other blogs as much as I’d like in the last couple of months…. I’m busier out in the BBR, and can’t sit very long anyway. Now, however, the challenge to write a poem is over, and I get to find my old favorites and find new stuff from them…. Call me odd, I don’t care, because I am… Most poets are….

A Song About Myself

I.
There was a naughty boy,
A naughty boy was he,
He would not stop at home,
He could not quiet be-
He took
In his knapsack
A book
Full of vowels
And a shirt
With some towels,
A slight cap
For night cap,
A hair brush,
Comb ditto,
New stockings
For old ones
Would split O!
This knapsack
Tight at’s back
He rivetted close
And followed his nose
To the north,
To the north,
And follow’d his nose
To the north.

II.
There was a naughty boy
And a naughty boy was he,
For nothing would he do
But scribble poetry-
He took
An ink stand
In his hand
And a pen
Big as ten
In the other,
And away
In a pother
He ran
To the mountains
And fountains
And ghostes
And postes
And witches
And ditches
And wrote
In his coat
When the weather
Was cool,
Fear of gout,
And without
When the weather
Was warm-
Och the charm
When we choose
To follow one’s nose
To the north,
To the north,
To follow one’s nose
To the north!

III.
There was a naughty boy
And a naughty boy was he,
He kept little fishes
In washing tubs three
In spite
Of the might
Of the maid
Nor afraid
Of his Granny-good-
He often would
Hurly burly
Get up early
And go
By hook or crook
To the brook
And bring home
Miller’s thumb,
Tittlebat
Not over fat,
Minnows small
As the stall
Of a glove,
Not above
The size
Of a nice
Little baby’s
Little fingers-
O he made
‘Twas his trade
Of fish a pretty kettle
A kettle-
A kettle
Of fish a pretty kettle
A kettle!

IV.
There was a naughty boy,
And a naughty boy was he,
He ran away to Scotland
The people for to see-
There he found
That the ground
Was as hard,
That a yard
Was as long,
That a song
Was as merry,
That a cherry
Was as red,
That lead
Was as weighty,
That fourscore
Was as eighty,
That a door
Was as wooden
As in England-
So he stood in his shoes
And he wonder’d,
He wonder’d,
He stood in his
Shoes and he wonder’d.

~~ John Keats ~~

__________________________________

Today has turned into a traditional Pearl… though the intro is shorter than usual, the rest of it follows format perfectly, with a rant in section one, a classic poet, and poem, in section two, and a third section, which obviously is supposed to be an old-school grouping of pearls…. I confess that I keep a stash of quotes from Smart be, to the tune of about eighty-seven pages of a document, so I’m not as short of quotes as I’d thought to be. I’m going to use it for a couple days, & let the real Smart Bee have a vacation, to see if that will fix the corruption in the file….

I know, wishful thinking, but, it’s worth a shot… If it works, it will piss Murphy off, so I’d do it that way anyway, for just that reason…. Any who, today’s group will be VERY random, so bear with me…. Buckle up, please, we can’t proceed until all seat-belts are fastened securely…. insurance rules…

“A competent and self-confident person is incapable of jealousy in anything. Jealousy is invariably a symptom of neurotic insecurity.” — Robert Heinlein

“Life is a long lesson in humility.” — James M. Barrie

“Ridicule is the best test of truth. — Lord Chesterfield (1694-1773)

“If you hate a person, you hate something in him that is part of yourself. What isn’t part of ourselves doesn’t disturb us.” — Hermann Hesse, _Damian_, 1919

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

— Charles Mackay (1814-1889) — Eternal Justice, Stanza 4

“There are two sentences inscribed upon the Delphic oracle, hugely accommodated to the usages of man’s life: “Know thyself”, and “Nothing too much”; and upon these all other precepts depend.” — Plutarch (46-120 AD) — Consolation to Apollonius

“Now and then it’s good to pause in our pursuit of happiness and just be happy.” — Smart Bee

Now, that’s not bad at all…. a very cogent grouping, I think…. Let yourself flow with it, and you’ll end up in a place you will like, I guarantee… If not, well, that’s okay too…. some of us need to let things stir around a while before consuming it… or something…. Ah hell, just listen to the last one, and all will be well….
__________________________________

Things are just all at sixes and sevens, and I don’t know what I shall do…. I guess I’ll proof it first, then see if I need to kill myself…. It will have to do, as I’d say it meets minimum requirements, and it’s time to go out into the BBR, if the bus is on time….. Enough, she said….. 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

Assign three spinsters to snipe patrol….

Posted on May 4, 2013 by gigoid

Ffolkes,
And then I woke up….. What do you think? Will it work as a template? I think it works well, so let’s use it as intended, okay? Okay…..

And then I woke up…. I didn’t want to, but, I did, anyway. The clock was apparently stuck on “too early”, plus my lady wishes to go somewhere today, before the heat gets too bad. We’ve been having a preview of mid-summer the last few days, with temps in the 80’s and low 90’s…. thank goodness for air conditioning. I used to love the heat, but, over time, I’ve grown less tolerant of how it makes me sweat so badly…. plus, I no longer have the physical outlets, like swimming or playing ball, that can take one’s mind off the heat, or get the body working so it doesn’t mind it so much…. We humans are easily distracted, for sure….

Since I have so much to accomplish today, this Pearl will be what I call a hit or miss type, where each section is done between trips to get stuff done. It will, no doubt, end up being posted rather late in the day, compared to most of the Pearls I create, and will thus be a good preview of how to get this done while on the road. Who knows, it may just work out better than it does now, as it will give me a fresh look each time I complete a section. Wow, I just realized it may also make it impossible to get done, but, hey, that’s the risk I take when changing formats…. Being a stubborn sort, that won’t stop me….

In keeping with the new format, we will now take the first break, bringing this intro to a close, before it gets away from me again, and I start blathering more BS, until both of us are sick of it….. Rather than have that happen, we will now go grab equipment, and dive right in…. Shall we Pearl?…..
__________________________________

Ranting may or may not be on the agenda today; hard to tell what will happen out in the BBR to stimulate outrage, but, it’s a good bet I’ll see something to jerk me around…. In the meantime, I’ve got a bit of time, so we’ll go see what kind of trouble Smart Bee has up its sleeve today…..

— Bother! said Pooh, as he fell into the toilet.

“I take a simple view of life: keep your eyes open and get on with it.” — Laurence Olivier

“Always forgive your enemies– nothing annoys them so much.” — Oscar Wilde

“The modern conservative is engaged in one of man’s oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness.” — John Kenneth Galbraith

“If you don’t like yourself, you can’t like other people.” — Robert Heinlein, Time Enough for Love

“If you are patient in a moment of anger, you will escape a hundred days of sorrow.” — Chinese Proverb

“Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it–even if I have said it–unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense.” — The Buddha

Not too shabby, I’d say…. all good words on how to live; taken together, you have a recipe for peace on Earth…..
__________________________________

I’m off to the store with my lady, and will decide what kind of poetry to pursue while I’m out…. Be right back….. Ah, perfect; we’ll go with an old favorite of mine…..

A bird came down the walk…

A bird came down the walk:
He did not know I saw;
He bit an angle-worm in halves
And ate the fellow, raw.

And then he drank a dew
From a convenient grass,
And then hopped sidewise to the wall
To let a beetle pass.

He glanced with rapid eyes
That hurried all abroad,–
They looked like frightened beads, I thought;
He stirred his velvet head

Like one in danger; cautious,
I offered him a crumb,
And he unrolled his feathers
And rowed him softer home

Than oars divide the ocean,
Too silver for a seam,
Or butterflies, off banks of noon,
Leap, splashless, as they swim.

~~ Emily Dickinson ~~

__________________________________

The trip to the store turned into an ordeal, again, thanks to the miserable bus system here in Vallejo… What should have taken 1 hour took 3 hours, and exhausted both me and my lady; I have yet to see a single bus get to the stop on time, in two years…. amazing. Any who, it got me the outrage I needed to ran, but, I’m too tired to write more than this paragraph, to introduce a pearl from March of 2012, a good one, about modern life, and how to live in a world gone mad…. It also takes the pearl in Section One to a different level, as the Buddha’s words on the subject indicate…..

“Believe nothing merely because you have been told it… Do not believe what your teacher tells you merely out of respect for the teacher. But, whatsoever, after due examination and analysis, you find to be kind, conducive to the good, the benefit, the welfare of all beings — that doctrine believe and cling to, and take it as your guide.” — Buddha

This idea is almost unknown in Western society, and if you require evidence, just look at the TV Guide for this week. Every minute of every day the airwaves are filled with blatant attempts to influence what people think about, what they buy, or should want to buy, how to relate to other people, or who they should vote for in the next election. I don’t think there are more than one person out of a thousand who has an original thought in their head, one not generated by some excited announcer giving them the latest way to waste their time and money.

In addition to the wasteland that is TV, we have religion, always prepared to jump into people’s lives and tell them how they are doing it wrong, and how the only way to get to heaven is to buy into the product they are selling, thereby handing over the keys to their own minds, and checkbooks. If one looks at it objectively, it’s a pretty good gig, this preacher business. All you have to do is be able to tell people what you think is true with a straight face, and stand back and watch the money pour in. Hell, anybody with the chutzpah can become a preacher; it doesn’t even require a license, though it does help to file the certificates and forms that make it so your church doesn’t have to pay taxes; that’s always a bonus item in favor among the truly religious.

“Writing science fiction for about a penny a word is no way to make a living, If you really want to make a million, the quickest way is to start your own religion.” — L. Ron Hubbard

L. Ron was as good as his word…. He was talking to Robert Heinlein one day (they were old friends, having attended Annapolis together in their youth….), and complaining about how his science fiction wasn’t selling as well as Bob’s. He made Bob a bet, that he could start a religion, one that had no basis in reality outside his head, and could become richer than Croesus without having to lift a finger…. Bob took the bet, and L. Ron wrote “Dianetics”, the book that is now the basis for the Church of Scientology.

This “religion” has become a reality, with millions of members worldwide, all of whom are firmly convinced of the truth of what is in their bible; in reality, their bible was a load of crap nonsense that came straight out of L. Ron’s head, and has no actual relation to anything in the real world….. I find it to be one of history’s finest jokes, and the shenanigans of the constituents of the “church” provide me with endless entertainment…. Brilliant!…. And, of course, just desserts for those who have adopted such an asinine philosophy, all based on a joke bet….

“It’s hard to decide if T.V. makes morons out of everyone or if it mirrors Americans who really are morons to begin with.” — Martin Mull
__________________________________

All in all, it came out well, I think, even though I had to dip into the archives again….. C’est la vie! I’m beat, and I can hear my pillow calling me…. Tt,th, th, that’s all ffolkes!…. 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

Twice around the neck should do nicely….

Posted on May 3, 2013 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

“And then I woke up.” — Smart Bee

That, I think, is better….. I’ve searched and struggled, and tried a hundred different ways to open up these Pearls, and nothing works more than once. But, I’ve decided. if I use an ending for my beginning, it could work as a template…. I just write that first line, and follow it up with some of my favorite nonsense, or maybe a poetic quatrain…. or just some oatmeal, figuratively speaking. I may never speak in the literal sense again; things always seem to get serious when I do, so why should I put myself through that? And figurative oatmeal is a piece o’cake, so to speak, without frosting, so that works, too…. Let the Metaphorse be with us!….

I would be very appreciative if anyone can tell me what I said above, literally….. I don’t think it can be done, but I wanted to check with the experts. I wrote it with as few contact points with reality as I could, without it starting to look fake, or as if I was just putting in the time, without any real effort. If there isn’t anyone who knows what I meant by the above, I’ve accomplished my task; if it makes any sense, I’ve screwed it up, again, and we’ll have to start over….. You don’t really want me to have to do that, do you? I didn’t think so…. once through is plenty, when it comes to my intro sections, so it seems…..

Perhaps I should do this more often…. ‘this’ being a very early up, call and jump into cab, zip to hospital lab, and back again, all before starting in on this Pearl. The intro section is sort of writing itself, even though all my eyes want to do is close up shop, & go back to bed….. which could yet happen. In fact, I think that’s a good idea, and goodness knows it won’t hurt anything, as nobody is currently reading my blog anyway…. got a total of five “Likes” yesterday, matching the previous 24 hours, and making it three days now with virtually no visits from anyone, not just regulars…. Is there a WordPress vacation going on, or something?…. Ah well, since I write for me, not for anyone else, it doesn’t matter anyway…. Therefore….. NAP TIME!…. I’ll be back….

“Life eludes logic.” — Smart Bee

Aha! That explains all of it! Now we can get on with the normally scheduled activities of the day, since Smart Bee has taken over the creative process completely. I suppose I could chalk all of it up to getting up so early, but, that’s never been acceptable before, and I doubt it would fly now. Though I’m a firm believer that the worm should have stayed in bed, being the bird is usually a better bet, at least for breakfast. And, yes, we are already lost again, somewhere in the vast fields of illogic…. which, as we all know, is right next door to chaos. Rather than fall over into that realm, I think we should just rip off our clothes, and dive in….. Shall we Pearl?…..
__________________________________

It turns out that my inclination to rant is connected to my overall feeling of security….. For over two years, I took shot after shot at the BRC, organized religion, the sex slavery trade, global warming, overpopulation, and whatever else came under my scrutiny that caused even the slightest degree of outrage.

During all that time, I was struggling mightily to survive in the real world, living on a small fixed income, “depending on the kindness of strangers”, and more importantly, friends, to help me get through each month. The outrage at the issues that concern me seem to have been driven, emotionally, by my economic status, and my anger at the slowness of the federal bureaucracy…..

Now that I’ve been awarded my Social Security benefits, I am no longer in danger of starving, and can look forward to retirement with a bit more positive outlook, since I’ve doubled my monthly income, into a bracket that, while I can’t be labeled as affluent, it does give me the wherewithal to be comfortable. Since that happened, my outrage is harder to find, and I am having a hard time getting worked up too much over the stuff that was bothering me for so long…. I’d hate to think that I’m so shallow as to lose my radical position to bribery…. Money, while it won’t buy happiness, certainly keeps one more comfortable while looking for it…. and, since I was relatively happy when I didn’t have it, there is no reason not to be happy now.

Since I’m not inclined to rant, Smart Bee has been quite cooperative in pulling out acceptable groups of pearls, including the seven-star harlequin variety below…. This one has a message, but, the message is more non-verbal than spoken wisdom…. You’ve got to just close your eyes, (AFTER reading them, of course….), and let them percolate in your mind…. the message will float to the surface after a moment or two…. if not, well, you’ve had a nice little nap, and we can go on….. Enjoy!….

“Remember what the dormouse said… FEED YOUR HEAD…” — Grace Slick

“I don’t ask questions, I just have fun!” — Bugs Bunny

“He can’t be a man cause he does not smoke the same cigarettes as me.” — Mick Jagger

“As you believe, so it is for you.” — Richard Bach

“The laws of conscience, which we pretend to be derived from nature, proceed from custom.” — Michael de Montaigne (1533-1592) — Essays, Book i, Chap. xxii, Of Custom

“And the people bowed and prayed, to the neon Gods they’d made.” — Paul Simon

“His philosophy was a mixture of three famous schools: the Cynics, the Stoics and the Epicureans – and summed up all three of them in his famous phrase, ‘You can’t trust any bugger further than you can throw him, and there’s nothing you can do about it, so let’s have a drink.'” — Terry Pratchett, ‘Small Gods’

I keep telling you, it’s all in the wrist, see?…..
__________________________________

A poem leaked out this morning, so, here ’tis, such as it is…. I hope you like it…..

Funny Bones

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

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

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

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

~~ gigoid ~~

__________________________________

Since I don’t have a rant in me today, I’m going to cheat, and go with a really old Pearl, from October of 2011, before changing to the format we see today…. I like it, and so will you…. (that’s a pre-hypnotic suggestion of a subliminal nature, so you may as well just go with the flow, and enjoy it…. Resistance is futile…..)

Ffolkes,
It’s really too bad that we can’t just shoot somebody when they deserve it; I’ve got a long list of folks who do, as do all of you, I’m sure. But the cops get real upset about it, and then the neighbors will talk behind your back, even the dog probably won’t like you anymore. Plus, later on, when you’re feeling all regretful and stuff, it’s just a pain, and all in all, not worth the bother. Insulting them to their face, or sending them into financial ruin, will just have to satisfy that urge for blood; hell, make it good and nasty, & maybe they’ll go shoot themselves! That’s the ticket…..

In case you couldn’t tell, I woke up with crankypants already on, and I’ve been looking for something or somebody to let it out on for the last hour or so. Feeling this way, and not having an acceptable outlet, is extremely frustrating, and as a former psych tech, I know it’s not good for me to keep all this bottled up inside. I suppose I could go out and find some unarmed idiot to get into an argument with, so I can let it all out on them.

But that isn’t kosher, (kosher means anything not touched by pig blood), nor is it a good policy for improving one’s karmic burden. But then I’d feel like dirt, because one of my own pet peeves is when someone dumps crap on me that I don’t deserve. In the final analysis, that is a lose-lose situation, with both parties walking away feeling worse than when they started.

Ah, the hell with it. I’m just going to go out the way I am, and the world can just deal with me the best it can. I’m outnumbered, so at least it’s a level playing field to start…..I guarantee it won’t end that way……let you know tomorrow how it went……if I survive. The world at large has some pretty good crankypants, too…..

Euripides was wont to say, “Silence is an answer to a wise man.” — Plutarch (46-120 AD) — Of Bashfulness

“He is the best of men who dislikes power.” — Mohammed

“As long as there have been humans we have searched for our place in the cosmos. Where are we? Who are we? We find that we live on an insignificant planet of a humdrum star lost in a galaxy tucked away in some forgotten corner of a universe. We make our world significant by the courage of our questions and by the depth of our answers.” — Carl Sagan

Life must go on;
I forget just why.
— Edna St. Vincent Millay, ‘Lament’, Second April (1921)

“And the vision that was planted in my brain still remains.” — Paul Simon

So ends the bloody business of the day.
— Alexander Pope (1688-1744)
— The Odyssey of Homer, Book xxii, Line 516

A fitting end to another gem….. y’all take care out there…..
__________________________________

All things considered, this went well…. It certainly stood up to the proofing, only needing on letter change, and one line of the poem that needed to be smoother. If I were still working for the government, I could say it was good enough for that, but, since I don’t work for them anymore, standards have to be a bit higher…. Fortunately, it does meet those standards, insofar as they exist around here at all, so…. I think if you use some oxygenated cleaning solution on that, it will come out okay….. 😀 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

Never curl your lip at Art Deco…..

Posted on May 2, 2013 by gigoid

Ffolkes,
Bashing myself repeatedly in the forehead probably isn’t the most productive way to begin the day, even if I am using the old paddle instead of the new one…. The available alternatives, however, seem to leave something to be desired, consisting of a choice between self-flagellation with a cat-o-nine tails, or suicide by immolation….

Neither of those choices gives me a warm fuzzy, and forehead bashing gets old quickly, so I should most likely try to avoid that, too, I guess. It’s hard to know what to do when I’m still half-asleep, but I’m pretty certain I wouldn’t like any of the choices I seem to have this morning…. more’s the pity……

I can see your furrowed brow, there, wondering about why on earth these nasty events are even part of today’s agenda…. Before your face gets stuck like that, I’ll tell you that all three of the described activities are fictional…. That’s right, I made it up, in a blatant attempt for sympathy, first thing…. Why, you ask?

Well, I don’t know, it just seemed like the right thing to do. I don’t have any real introductory remarks, and the template I’ve been using seems to be losing me readers by the bucket full…. Well, maybe it’s that, or it could be something else, but my readership seems to be dwindling, while the number of followers keeps rising…. Statistics drive me crazy, which is why I don’t often pay attention to them….

I have noted, though, some puzzling aspects to the numbers that are shown, and can’t figure out, for the life of me, how to view the numbers I see for this blog. It’s all good, though, as I figured out some time ago, it doesn’t matter to me at all if nobody ever reads what I write. It’s nice to have ffolkes read it, and if it stimulates thought, or a comment, I’m happy….

But, the main reason I write is to clean out my head each day, of all the stuff that otherwise would sit in there and go bad, and end up giving me indigestion, or, worse, mental constipation, a fate worse than death, to me…. Come to think of it, it’s not pretty, so you’d most likely not enjoy it either….

I see that I’ve whined and complained my way through to another legal-sized introductory section, even though the content has little or nothing to do with proper literature….. It’s all just filler…. A sack of sand, as it were, put here to bolster the false image being projected, of a caring, erudite old fart who loves to paint pictures with words…. Well, I guess it’s not a false image, so much as a wishful one…. and, regardless of which kind it is, we’ve gotten far enough to give it a shove into the deep end….. In other words….. Shall we Pearl?…..
__________________________________

I had originally intended to rant a while this morning, but Smart Bee had other ideas. This seven star pearl is presented at the behest of SB, who shoved each of them under my nose, without bothering to tell me why it should be included. As I look the group over, though, it came out pretty well, as some good advice on how to live, and how not to live…. or, as we are fond of saying down at the club, “Just the fax, ma’am”….. enjoy! Memorization of the quotes is encouraged, but, please, no flash pictures; it frightens the Ooompa Loompas……

Those who know others are intelligent
Those who know themselves have insight
Those who master others have force
Those who master themselves have strength.

Those who know what is enough are wealthy
Those who persevere have direction
Those who maintain their position endure
And those who die and yet do not perish, live on.

— Lao Tze

“Often when he was looking on at auctions he would say, “How many things there are which I do not need!”
— Diogenes Laertius (c. 200 AD) — Socrates, x

Thou, silent form, doth tease us out of thought
As doth eternity: Cold Pastoral!

— John Keats (1795-1821) — Ode on a Grecian Urn

“I maintain there is much more wonder in science than in pseudoscience. And in addition, to whatever measure this term has any meaning, science has the additional virtue, and it is not an inconsiderable one, of being true.” — Carl Sagan, The Burden Of Skepticism, — The Skeptical Inquirer, Vol. 12, Fall 87

“The faster you go, the shorter you are” — Albert Einstein (1879-1955)

Fill your bowl to the brim and it will spill.
Keep sharpening your knife and it will blunt.
Chase after money and security and your heart will never unclench.
Care about people’s approval and you will be their prisoner.
Do your work, then step back.
The only path to serenity.

— Tao Te Ching

“If you don’t like yourself, you can’t like other people.” — Robert Heinlein, Time Enough for Love
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It’s been a whole month of not reading very much of other people’s poetry, and I’m glad to be able to get back to whatever I want in this section… I think I strained my brain writing poems on a deadline, and I missed the daily dose of genius…. So, here is today’s pick, from another of my favorite poets…..

The Little Boy and the Old Man

Said the little boy, “Sometimes I drop my spoon.”
Said the old man, “I do that too.”
The little boy whispered, “I wet my pants.”
“I do that too,” laughed the little old man.
Said the little boy, “I often cry.”
The old man nodded, “So do I.”
“But worst of all,” said the boy, “it seems
Grown-ups don’t pay attention to me.”
And he felt the warmth of a wrinkled old hand.
“I know what you mean,” said the little old man.

~~ Shel Silverstein ~~

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“Don’t hit me!! I’m in the Twilight Zone!!!” — Zippy the Pinhead

I don’t know why Zippy so often is able to pinpoint the way I’m feeling, or what I’ve been thinking about, and give it expression in a way that anyone can understand. I’m very much feeling like I’m in the Zone these days, as I try to fill up the hours with productive things, hopefully, with a dual effect…. One, it will help me check another item off the list for my upcoming trip, and two, it will take my mind off the number of days until I leave….

“Yow! I’m having a quadraphonic sensation of two winos alone in a steel mill!” — Zippy the Pinhead

I am both excited, and a bit anxious, about the trip. It will be a fulfillment of a life-long dream, and is coming at a time that is at once convenient, and at the same time, inconvenient. The inconvenient part has to do with the lady I asked to go with me, who has another commitment next month, and still needs to get her passport, as well. She’s already started that process, so she’ll be able to go next trip, which I am planning for later this year…..

“I’m using my X-RAY VISION to obtain a rare glimpse of the INNER WORKINGS of this POTATO!!” — Zippy the Pinhead

So, this time, I’m scouting out the territory, and getting an overview, to mark down the sights I’d like to see when I will have more time for sightseeing in Ireland… This trip will give me several days in London, then the rest on a cruise ship, with day excursions in the port cities we’ll stop to visit…. Since I am also interested in the countryside in Eire, I’ll have to go back to see more of it than I will on this cruise…. But, on this cruise, I should be able to get a lot of good pictures of the sights in the cities we’ll be touring, which include Le Havre/Paris, Dublin, Cobh, Liverpool,Glasgow, Belfast, and a couple others…

“Why is it that when you DIE, you can’t take your HOME ENTERTAINMENT CENTER with you??” — Zippy the Pinhead

I just LOVE the way Zippy brings us right back to reality, by asking the tough questions, those thorny philosophical queries that wake us up in the middle of the night, like this one…. Why CAN’T we take our video boxes with us? What’s up with that?….

It’s stuff like this that keeps me from buying into the whole Heaven/Hell controversy….. none of what either side has to say really makes any sense, so what’s the point? It’s like Bob Heinlein had one of his characters say…. “There is no real, compelling evidence that there is life after death. There is also no compelling evidence there is not. Soon enough, you will know, so why fret about it?”

It is this kind of practical, sensible reasoning that will help me get through this agonizing period until I get to hit the road…. Well, that and my lady’s sweet kiss….. 🙂

“.. ich bin in einem dusenjet ins jahr 53 vor chr… ich lande im antiken Rom… einige gladiatoren spielen scrabble… ich rieche PIZZA…” — Zippy the Pinhead

Translation: “I’m in a (jet plane?) in 53 BC… I’ve landed in ancient Rome… Some gladiators are playing scrabble… I’m ordering Pizza….” Zippy the Pinhead

I guess, what I’m trying to say here is…. Ooooh, shiny! I’ll be going now, out into the Big Blue Room, to pass some more time, however I can….
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“.. I’m IMAGINING a sensuous GIRAFFE, CAVORTING in the BACK ROOM of a KOSHER DELI –” — Zippy the Pinhead

If you are still with me, I commend you for your patience, and your willingness to undergo extreme hardship to reach the end of today’s effort, which it was…. effortful, that is…. Any who, I’m done, so let’s see if it floats…. Hmm…. I guess I’ve seen worse…. It’s all spelled right, anyway….. It will have to do, because I’m NOT doing it over…. 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

Phoned in from somewhere on the road…..

Posted on April 23, 2013 by gigoid

Ffolkes,
Today, the introduction section is a wrap…. which is to say, it won’t be a problem, as I have a lot going on, and all I need to do is talk about it…. easy, peasy, as they say….. Sort of, anyway….. I’m going to Texas today, to see my friend Carole. She is an old high school friend, with whom I’ve been back in contact with for a couple of years. Carole was always a quiet little mouse when we were kids, but she got over her shyness, and is now quite a bubbly personality, with the same sweet nature she had as a child. We’ve become pretty close, as close as a telephone allows, over the last couple years, as we’ve conversed on the phone a lot….

So, today, I’m off to visit her in Texas, where she lives with her husband of over 40 years, and, when she isn’t busy fighting cancer, bakes her little heart out, from all I gather. She is known far and wide in her part of the state for her cakes and pastries, so I’m looking forward to visiting, and getting in on a bit of that sugar…..

Any who…. since I’m going to the airport in a little while, this Pearl needs to get done quickly, and without any fuss…. We’ll see how I do under this kind of pressure….. It does make this intro a piece of cake, as I can dump it anytime to get on with things…. which is exactly what I’m going to do now, because I want to get in the shower…. Shall we Pearl?…..
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You’re destined to get a lot of archived material today, because I have to get this done, and I don’t have a rant in me; too distracted with the trip necessities…. Any who, here is a rant on a subject close to my heart…. against the sex slavery trade that is still a plague on our houses….. This is all truth, hard as it may be… so, pay attention, please…..
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“The advocates of the pornography victims compensation bill seem to think that if we stop showing rape in movies people will stop committing it in real life. Anthropologists call this ‘magical thinking’. It’s the same impulse that makes people stick pins in voodoo dolls, hoping to cripple an enemy. It feels logical, but it does not work.” — New York Times Article

This is propaganda, in its worst form…… First, it is presented as a legitimate article with the attached charismatic factor of being published in (gasp!) the New York Times. If it’s in there, it must be true, right?…. Bullshit. The Times gets it wrong just as often as the National Enquirer; remember a few years back when one of their most popular reporters was busted for making up all his stories, for years? One would do well to always remember to believe only about 25% of what is read, and only then if you know of corroborating information…. otherwise, you are bound to eventually be disappointed in your trust…..

Second, it makes an assertion that is completely false, in order to ridicule the supporters of the legislation they are opposing. I have no doubt this was written by a male, and that he is very likely misogynistic. He first accuses the supporters of the pornography victims compensation bill of sloppy, wishful thinking, which he claims is called ‘magical thinking’ by (gasp!) Anthropologists (whom we all know to be the Final Authority when it comes to labeling the parts of society…) According to the author of the article, “it feels logical, but it does not work.” Hmph. I suppose he has already tried it himself. And, of course, we can consider him an expert on what is logical, because, by golly, he said so….

This is typical propaganda, written to pull the unwary into feeling a kinship with the author. The author makes statements, and claims, that sound pretty bad, in a way that says to the readers, “hey, look, you and me, we’re different than this poor fool!”, and calls on experts, who in reality are, a) not experts and b) didn’t, and wouldn’t, necessarily say what they are claimed to have said….. In reality, Anthropologists would probably agree that movies DO have an effect on societal behavior, and CAN help stop this kind of issue, because it ceases to glorify, and make acceptable, actions that are evil and completely derogatory to women.
If it is made illegal to ban showing rape in movies, it WILL help stop such behavior in society. How can it be considered wrong to rape, when movies glorify it, often showing it as a natural result of the WOMAN’s actions, that inflamed the man beyond his ability to control, thus making her responsible for being raped? How can it be illegal to rape, and yet be legal to show rape in movies? THAT is what doesn’t make sense, unless one accepts the lie that movies don’t affect behavior.

Banning the filming of rape, or any other sexual crime, (of which there are more than enough examples in real life), is NOT THE SAME as “magical thinking”. Nor is it the same as “voodoo” believers’ beliefs in unprovable principles. Rape is NOT a subject for films, especially when they glorify it, as being something natural. It is only natural to misogynists and sexual predators; normal men do not feel like watching a rape for entertainment purposes.

This statement, and the article, are typical of the kind of lies that those who perpetrate the sex slave trafficking in women and children of both sexes. They couch their lies in logical, dispassionate terminology, and quote societal experts to support their lies with scientific proof. The simple truth is that these men are animals, sexual predators of the worst kind, and their only interest is in continuing the ongoing slavery of millions of women who have been trapped into a life of prostitution, and brainwashed into feeling that they are nothing, worth only what their bodies can be sold for, and forced to be raped on a daily basis….. and the general public doesn’t seem to care….

The whole issue is a hot button for me. I start crying, like now, every time I think of the pain and anguish that is felt by these women who are nothing more than slaves to their male animal masters. I am ashamed of my gender, and of my species, for allowing this kind of activity to not only persist, but to assume some kind of acceptance by society at large. Supposedly enlightened people talk about “victimless crimes” and as above, they spout off about “magical thinking” to distract the general public into believing the issue is not a problem; these enlightened IDIOTS are fools, and can be considered to be in the same category as those who deliberately pursue this kind of activity, by default….

Next time you read some article supporting the sex trade, remember that for every ONE woman who voluntarily enters the business of selling themselves for sex, there are, easily, a MILLION women who are not given any choice in the matter, who suffer daily beatings and rapes, and who are treated as if they are cattle, with no rights and no hope of change….

But, there is hope, if they are fortunate; there are women who, by dint of their own strength, and their own will to be free, have successfully exited the business. And those women are carrying their message to a thus-far indifferent public; they are on blogs all over the world, telling their experiences of being slaves, and showing the way to set themselves free…. So far, these voices are a mere drop in a bucket, and will remain so, as long as articles like the one above continue to make their ridiculously dangerous, pseudo-logical arguments to an unwitting public, and the public continues to accept the lies….

But then, the American public is pretty good at accepting lies, aren’t they?……
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In this section today, the haiku is fresh, prompted by the day’s events. The poem is one I wrote some time ago, from the archives….. As every day this month, these are being included as part of the April National Poetry Writing Month Challenge, with the updates to be found here: http://www.napowrimo.net/ I hope you enjoy them…..

Haiku XII

I called an old friend
a few days ago, or so.
Old friends are the best.

~~ gigoid ~~

When life calls, ready or not….

Memories are all we have sometimes
to keep our sanity intact,
with learned phrases and subtle rhymes
lessening life’s vicious, vibrant impact.

Presently all seems composed and intent
in stark contrast to hollow day,
forlorn patchwork emotions of unheralded bent,
fill up night’s bower, leaving hell to pay.

Such vigorous and elevated temper
brings us rare moments to ponder,
filled with lessons all need to remember
lest base perception lose valued wonder.

Laugh loud when entropy sticks fast
leaving shameless anger in its wake.
Let bygones pass quietly into the past
reaping only what is left to take.

Final words of wise imagination
tell us living well’s the best revenge, it appears
ever eluding choirs and congregations
finally finding home, never buried in tears.

~~ gigoid

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In this section, I was going to write a fresh pearl, probably a five star harlequin pearl, but I found this one, which is the same kind, but with a great little point for the day… It’s from sometime back in July of 2012…. Enjoy!….
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It’s time again for an old-school pearl…. these statements all lead to one cogent thought, one that can completely change your life, and how you look at that life…. just let your mind float freely, holding each thought, then adding the next one in, until all have been mixed together thoroughly, to a smooth consistency…. and you will SEE!…..

“Always store beer in a dark place.” — Lazarus Long

Be a hero! Teach your children to think for THEMSELVES! — Smart Bee

“A man who does not think for himself does not think at all.” — Oscar Wilde, “Oscariana”

“You’re not supposed to be so blind with patriotism that you can’t face reality. Wrong is wrong, no matter who says it.” — Malcolm X

“Once you can accept the universe as being something expanding into an infinite nothing which is something, wearing stripes with plaid is easy.” — Albert Einstein (1879-1955)

And, as it has been said for centuries in the alleyways and hidden streets of the world’s greatest cities,….. there you go. You may now consider yourself a yogini of highest rank….. or was that yogurt? No matter, don’t you feel enlightened? I know I do….. with a nice blueberry aftertaste….
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Okay, ffolkes there you have it…. a completely fabricated pearl, over 90% from the archives, and the rest fresh from my fevered brow….. Such as it is, I hope y’all enjoy it…. Of course, if the Like button is any indicator, nobody is going to read this anyway…. But, it’s done, and I gotta go get in the shower, & get ready to fly…. See you tomorrow, from Tejas….. 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

We’ll have to spit-ball the hinges…..

Posted on April 21, 2013 by gigoid

Ffolkes,
We’ve got Trouble, right here in River City, ffolkes….. Don’t worry, I won’t go all Robert Preston on you, and burst into song, or anything like that. I’m merely referring to the empty space here on the page, which, sadly, matches the empty space in my head, the space that SHOULD be composing an intro for today’s Pearl…. Extremely empty space, too…. So empty, I’m sitting here, writing about how empty it is, instead of looking around in the odd corners and niches in there, to find SOMETHING that would work to draw y’all in for the ride today…. but, I’m screwed, and the pooch knows it…. whatever that means….

Forgotten, old and grey, the ancient dogs march along the dusty street, searching for the possibility of food…. Scraggly weeds filled the cracks in the street; abandoned, stripped vehicles litter the sidewalks and alleys, many of them burned out, blackened and stark against the pale concrete of the buildings. Nothing moved, save the slowly searching pack of canines, not even rats, or any of the vermin usually seen in cities. No people walked the empty streets, and the silence bore down on everything in sight, oppressive, adding the weight of time to the heaviness of the air…..

No, I have no idea where that came from…. but it took up the space of a whole paragraph, so it stays…. I suppose apocalyptic scenes such as this one will become common in the future, if what I fear comes to pass….. When the Earth decides it has had enough of the depredations that mankind has perpetrated on this planet, our species will disappear, the same as the T-Rex, the dodo, and the auk, and Mother Nature will spend a few thousand years cleaning off the surface, which we scratched, dented, and broke apart so callously in our paroxysms of destruction, as we looked for sources of fuel for our machines…. and we won’t be missed at all…. Well, the dogs might miss us at first, but, they’ll get over it….

Okay, so now I have to balance the negativism with something lighter, so we don’t fall down into a pit of depression….. Hmm, I know….

“PUNK ROCK!! DISCO DUCK!! BIRTH CONTROL!!” — Zippy the Pinhead

There, that should balance things out…. Of course, Zippy has just mentioned three of the reasons that we will no longer be around…. Any species that comes up with Disco, AND Punk Rock, in the same century, deserves to become extinct, in my humble opinion…. But, then, I really, really HATE Disco…. and punks aren’t far behind in my estimation…. But, it did change the direction most satisfactorily, so, we’ll just sort of ignore the passions that may be present, and get on with the rest of today’s Pearl…. Which, I see, is coming right along, as we now have a sufficient number of paragraphs, and certainly a large enough quantity of BS, to qualify as an intro…. I’d better dive right away, before Murphy notices…. Shall we Pearl?…..
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“Nasrudin returned to his village from the imperial capital, and the villagers gathered around to hear what had passed. At this time, said Nasrudin, I only want to say that the King spoke to me. All the villagers but the stupidest ran off to spread the wonderful news. The remaining villager asked, What did the King say to you? What he said — and quite distinctly, for everyone to hear — was ‘Get out of my way!’ The simpleton was overjoyed; he had heard words actually spoken by the King, and seen the very man they were spoken to.” — Smart Bee

When I first read this, a long, complex, and wonderful rant took form in my mind, on the subject of the gullibility of the public…. Unfortunately, somewhere in the process of getting this moved over and formatted, the rant broke apart, like smoke from a fire, dissipating into the ether without a sound, and leaving me sitting here, with a wonderful pearl, and nothing in my head to write about it…. “Well, shit,” he said, with feeling…..

Smart Bee, or Murphy, or Nasrudin, whichever is responsible for this, thinks they have me trapped, and are probably sitting there, maybe even together, laughing, and waiting for me to explode…. Hah! They’re destined to be disappointment, I’m afraid, because I’ll just switch gears, and make this an old-school pearl, using the anecdote on Nasrudin to point the way for the rest of the group…. So, here you go, a five-star pearl, the point of which is now moot….

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

“Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative.” — Oscar Wilde

“A fool always finds a greater fool to admire him.” — Nicolas Bolleau-Despreaux

“He who knows best knows how little he knows.” — Thomas Jefferson

“Is it not a noble farce, wherein kings, republics, and emperors have for so many ages played their parts, and to which the whole vast universe serves for a theatre?” — Michael de Montaigne (1533-1592) — Essays, Book ii, Chap. xxxvi, Of the most Excellent Men
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Wishes aren’t horses, and neither do I….. which, decoded, simply means I don’t have a new, fresh poem today. I did create a Haiku, which is below…. But, for today’s poem, another treat from the archives is called for, as I just can’t create a poem whenever I wish, much as I’d like to be able to do so…. Nevertheless, I AM making a new haiku each day, so that has to count for something, right?…. Any who….. As every day this month, these are being included as part of the April National Poetry Writing Month Challenge, with the updates to be found here: http://www.napowrimo.net/ I hope you enjoy them…..

Haiku XExplore reality,
my mama said with a smile;
it will teach you truth.

~~ gigoid ~~

Momentary Terror

Absently casual, memories pester endlessly
leaving only bleeding remnants, amiable and loving.
Coming awake, I cry to still the pain, shamelessly.

Elsewhen, time gives surcease, if only to live,
shoring broken pilings, worn and gray.
Passing on, I laugh at the pain, accept all it will give.

Time will build a shelter, warm and ever safe
save for Fate’s busy hands.
Enduring, I follow the pain, knowing it will chafe.

Fixed against a darkened sky of starry black
such beauty brings us to our knees.
Entranced, I welcome the pain, ’tis all I lack…..

~~ gigoid ~~

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“A good indignation brings out all one’s powers.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

Ah, yes, it does indeed….. This is the principle of human nature I exploit when I rant…. Well, I try, anyway…. It seems as if Ralph Waldo had the inclination to rant strike him on occasion, and, competent observer that he was, he examined how it made him feel, and act when he was in ranting mode. When in full flight, ranting makes one feel ten feet tall, able to leap arguments with a single quote, impervious to sarcasm or belittling remarks, and capable of chewing up the toughest pundit and spitting him out, before breakfast….. Whether or not one could actually do so doesn’t matter in the slightest, for it is what we THINK we can do that determines what we CAN do…. Like the dragons of Pern, who could lift any weight when flying, as long as they thought they could….

“Whenever you eliminate the inedible, whatever remains, however unpalatable, must be food.” — Smart Bee

Now, this is a truism; much as it seems like levity, it is quite serious, being a disguised version of a truth uttered by Sherlock Holmes, about Truth, to wit: “As I have previously stated, Watson, when one has eliminated the impossible, what remains, however unlikely, must be the truth.” (God, I hope I quoted it right… I’m lazy, and used the version in my head, rather than googling it to make sure…. but, I’m 100% positive that my paraphrase, if it be such, is completely accurate, in terms of meaning…..) Ranting is an area where this principle is key; it really doesn’t make sense to rant about something that isn’t true, unless the falsity is the actual subject of the rant…. as the following aphorism implies….

“It is a substantial advantage for any philosophy to be based on the truth.” — George Santayana

Of course, this doesn’t mean that being right will make reality conform to how we wish it to be. Much of the world, if not all, is controlled by a group of people who lie, constantly, without shame, completely indifferent to how it affects others, as long as their own needs are met first. But, they only do so because most of the public believes their lies, for the simple reason that it is too hard to believe otherwise. If they begin to see the truth of how they are controlled, they become frightened, often to the point of violence, because they don’t want to know the truth…. unless it comes from a suit on TV…..

“Given a sufficient number of people and an adequate amount of time, you can create insurmountable opposition to the most inconsequential idea.” — Devyver’s law

This is truth, too, sad as it may seem…. The general public will believe just about anything they are told, usually without any sort of critical thought applied to testing its veracity, if it is presented in a manner to which they are accustomed to being told what to do…. If the guy on the six o’clock news says it will rain money, most folks in this country would start looking for a barrel to catch it in, and wonder if it would rain in bills, or in coins… I kid you not…..

This may seem as if I have a poor opinion of the average intelligence of the average American, and in that estimation you would be absolutely correct…. I can say this with complete confidence, as it is a proven fact that the average American’s IQ is below the average for the human race at large….. fact, ffolkes, not supposition…. Of course, I could be lying, but, if so, you can just chalk it up to their bad influence…. If they can use untrue ‘facts’ to prove their assertions, I can, too….

Besides, I can show you almost 50 MILLION pieces of proof of my assertion, without having to look further than the Presidential election last year…. In that election, almost fifty million people voted for Mitt Romney, proof positive that they would believe ANYTHING…. How else could they decide to vote for a man who was PROVEN to have lied during the campaign (independent fact checking organizations showed that he lied just about 50% of the time, or, put more simply, every other time he spoke, he lied...), and indicated, on tape, his complete disdain for over half the people in the country?

It is such an incredibly huge number, it just isn’t possible to understand how gullible people can be, when one sees this statistic, (50 million votes for an asshole….). It is equally hard to believe that so many of our peers are this incredibly dumb, but, truth will out, as it always does….. It also speaks to the number of truly bigoted, racist people that are still in this country, hiding behind their cowardice, and their misguided, ignorant patriotism…. but, that’s a subject for another rant….. (All stupid people aren’t bigots and racists, but ALL bigots and racists are stupid people…..)

“Never underestimate the power of human stupidity.” — Lazarus Long

You won’t get a better, more clear warning than that; on that note, I proclaim this rant, such as it was, to be complete…..
__________________________________

All in all, not too bad…. No fresh poem yet, but a decent rant, and all the rest if fresh…. Now, let’s see if it hangs together well enough to publish…. Well, we have another vote for ‘all in all, not too bad’….. So, it’s good to go, and we’re gone…. 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

Such fabulous shoes require spanking….

Posted on April 18, 2013 by gigoid

Ffolkes,
I should probably know better, by now, than to put fingers to keyboard during that period before the coffee is done. In spite of my advanced years, though, here I am, typing away, with nothing to say, just passing time until my brain decides to function…. Perhaps I should go first to perform my morning ablutions; yes, that is the right idea…. I go now, to worship at the porcelain throne, and contemplate my sins, myriad though they be….. according to the local preachers, anyway….. But, we don’t pay them any mind, as they are just jealous of my shirts…. I’ll be back, as Arnie is wont to say when in Terminator format….

Sorry ’bout that, ffolkes…. as I said, I should know better….. Well, here we are again, in a dangerous place. Why dangerous, you ask? It’s difficult to explain, but I’ll try…. It’s dangerous, for me, and consequently for you, because it’s too soon….. Too soon, you ask? Why, yes, I reply, too soon…. Well, what if we just waited a while? Hmm… not a bad suggestion, I think, but, probably destined to fail, as are almost any attempts to correct the situation, since I detect the hand of Murphy at work in this matter. As with almost everything he touches, waiting will only make things worse, as it gives him more time to turn his creativity to the punishment phase of his operation….

What now? Good question…. maybe I should look for a pearl for a moment or two, to see if there are any instructions or tips from my subconscious, or from the SB hackers….. be right back….

“The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib.” — Old Testament — Isaiah i, 3

Well, that’s an interesting find….. I generally try to stay away from the Old Testament; the pressure of life back then was such that the people who wrote the books in that tome tend to be more than a little touched by the sun, or Son, as you desire….. So, their advice is often a bit out of date, like when it counsels one on proper care of their ass (donkey variety, not human _ _ _ hole types…. Not too useful in changing the oil on your Toyota…. This one seems a bit more useful than most, though I’m really not absolutely certain what kind of metaphor they are trying to make…. maybe something to do with ownership rights; they were sticklers for the laws back then…. Let’s try again, since that one wasn’t quite sufficient….

“A good old man, sir; he will be talking: as they say, When the age is in the wit is out.” — William Shakespeare (1564-1616), Much Ado about Nothing
— Act iii, Sc. 5

As you may have noted in past Pearls, I’m not overly impressed with Shakespeare, either, but have always admitted that he did write some fairly coherent, and majestically beautiful, prose, a category into which this one falls. It’s right on the money, in terms of its accurate take on human nature, in general, though it is a bit harsh on seniors, and does further the stereotype of seniors as being senile, a characteristic not all of us share.

I think this particular play, Much Ado About Nothing, is probably my favorite of all of his works, with the best cache of witty quotes and jokes, including a number of puns, and plays on words….. With Will, it’s kind of like Pearls…. there is a LOT of stuff written, but the gems are often buried in the crap surrounding it…..

And, on THAT note, one not completely inspiring, but true, I see we have reached that tenuous barrier that marks the boundaries of acceptable introductory sections…. In fact, it blew right past acceptable, and is now chasing after totally overboard…. Before it catches up to that, and the ensuing struggle tries to throw us all out of our seats, I think we’ll go for a dive…. now….. Shall we Pearl?
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MORAL, adj. Conforming to a local and mutable standard of right. Having the quality of general expediency.

“It is sayd there be a raunge of mountaynes in the Easte, on one syde of the which certayn conducts are immorall, yet on the other syde they are holden in good esteeme; wherebye the mountayneer is much conveenyenced, for it is given to him to goe downe eyther way and act as it shall suite his moode, withouten offence. _Gooke’s Meditations_

— Ambrose Bierce, “The Devil’s Dictionary”

A reader commented to me recently that my rants have gone soft; she enjoys it when I rake someone over the coals, figuratively speaking, and asked me when I was going to get back on my white horse, or my soapbox, as the cliché may be…. I told her it is most likely a result of having some of the pressure of living removed, by the acquisition of my SS benefits, so much so that I’m finding it hard to summon up the outrage needed to rant effectively…. Like Voldemort told Harry, when he tried to use the Cruciatus Curse against Bellatrix Lestrange, in HP5-The Order of the Phoenix, “You’ve got to MEAN it, Harry!” Funny how not worrying about where the next meal is coming from takes some stress out of one’s life, isn’t it?….. Ha Ha…..

So, anyway, then I saw the above entry from the Devil’s Dictionary, and thought to myself, “AHA!” (I do that a lot…), “Now, here’s a subject worthy of a rant!”…. This is absolutely true, even though morality is sort of like reality…. there are as many versions of what it means as there are people…. of which, each and every one believes that what they perceive is the only correct version, obviously…. Right….

So, you can see the problem right away…. As a society, we have an unfortunate tendency to try to legislate morality, so that everyone is compelled to behave according to a commonly accepted pattern of behavior…. Supposedly, this legislation is supposed act as some sort of magic bullet, that will stop all the bad things from happening, like stealing, killing, and general misbehavior that is upsetting to the rest of society…. It never works, at all, but, we keep on passing laws designed to enforce a common morality anyway….

Such a drama is now being played out on the national stage, as the Senate just defeated the new gun control reforms that 90% of the populace wants in place. Out of a hundred Senators, it only took 45 Republicans to bring the proposed law down, meaning that once again, a very small percentage of people have forced their views on the rest of the public, to suit their own morality, and, more importantly, to suit their own special interests, who paid good money for their votes, dammit!…. I am somewhat piqued about this, but see little in the way of anything to be done that will make any difference, in the big picture…. No matter how stringent the laws, people who want guns will get them, and use them on other people…. The new laws would have made that a bit more time-consuming, but no less possible, or even less probable….

Since I can’t thing of anything positive to suggest, other than to stay alert to what may end up as a critical issue, I will fill out what should normally be a rant, with a number of cogent pearls, to try to jab the stick into the appropriate eyes…. and my friend will have to wait a bit longer for a good, old-fashioned brouhaha, as I get nasty and vicious in my denouncement of the BRC, the churches, and the corporate masters….. I will say this to her….. have no fear, my outrage isn’t gone, just temporarily dormant, and I WILL be back to rant….. meanwhile, enjoy these tasty gems…..

“The greatest lesson in life is to know that even fools are right sometimes.” — Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)

Linear Model: An assumption concerning the nature of reality applied unquestioningly to every relationship as though God had determined that truth must always run in straight lines. — Smart Bee

“The clinching proof of my reasoning is that I will cut anyone who argues further into dogmeat.” — Sir Geoffery de Tourneville (ca. 1350)

“Has history ever recorded a time when the majority was right?” — Lazarus Long

“He would be the finer gentleman that should leave the world without having tasted of lying or pretense of any sort, or of wantonness or conceit.” –Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (121-180 AD) — Meditations, ix, 2

“A great deal of intelligence can be invested in ignorance when the need for illusion is deep.” — Saul Bellow

“If you want to be free, there is but one way; it is to guarantee an equally full measure of liberty to all your neighbors. There is no other.” — Carl Schurz (1829-1906)
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I suppose, in a way, I’ve failed at the poetry challenge for the month, as I haven’t been creating one per day (except haiku, which I produce whenever I wish….. like today’s, which is fresh and clean….), and again today will need to use one from my archives, which, fortunately, have enough to choose from for all the days I’ve missed…. This one speaks to, and about, the friends who helped keep my hope alive when I was struggling, just to get enough to eat….. As every day this month, these are being included as part of the April National Poetry Writing Month Challenge, with the updates to be found here: http://www.napowrimo.net/ I hope you enjoy them…..

Haiku VII

Making it all up
I go merrily along;
waters of Lethe.

~~ gigoid ~~

“But groundless hope, like unconditional love, is the only kind worth having.” — EFF co-founder John Perry Barlow, “Cynthia Horner’s Eulogy”, Apr. 1994

Unsolicited Gratitude

Fear becomes familiar when reality bodes us ill
pain assumes first position, no matter our will.
Powerless, we founder, no strength to prevail
anguished and afraid, against unwanted Fate we rail.

Still, a grain of hope deep inside, hidden well against need
gives us reason to survive, our starving souls to feed.
Failure of courage burdens time, of being bested,
until our souls, in submission, become foully infested.

Bitter tears wash through us each day, with little care,
no thought, no feeling, no wish, or need to be fair.
Rendered clueless, confusion falls upon us, as prey,
we surrender a piece of our soul, little as we may.

Yet, always, a bright beam of hope is seen from afar,
no matter how dreary, or dark, it may seem where we are.
None knows, nor would consent to tell, it seems
from whence it hails, or why it so brightly gleams.

Saving our sanity, absolving our unwanted fears,
dispelling the myths and lies that come with the years.
Each man has known the precious gift that hope may give
And gives glad thanks, as long as he may live.

~~ gigoid

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To attempt to soothe the ruffled feathers of my friend who wants me to rant, I give you now a rant from 2012, post-election category…. It kind of fits in with the morality play above…. sort of, maybe…. any who, enjoy…..
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“Integrity is when what you say, what you do, what you think, and who you ARE all come from the same place.” — Madelyn Griffith-Haynie

Okay, I know we are all probably sick to death of politics, and the election, and everyone would like to have a break from talking and thinking about it….. I know I am. So, I’ll try to make this fairly short, and make it the last political diatribe for at least a day or two. It may be possible, if nothing in the news jumps up to stimulate my outrage (which may be on a short vacation itself….. I hope. I could do with the emotional space….).

Any who…. here is what I was thinking when I came across this little gem…. What if we devised a test, that in some way would enable us, as voters, to determine the relative status of each of the candidates according to this rule? A way, as it were, to measure their degree of integrity, which is something I think we can all agree would be a good thing to see in a politician, unlikely as it may be. If we could, say, set up a scale of integrity, and make it law that a person had to score in the top 5% of the scale in order to merely be eligible for office, I think we might see a whole new set of politicians, who had never before been seen in public.

In fact, in thinking about the current crop of those in office, it is entirely possible that ALL of those in office now might not be eligible…. I am not excluding the President, out of fairness, though I personally believe he might score in the top 10%…. I still have questions about some of the stuff he has signed that didn’t seem to be very well publicized, as they didn’t exactly fit with his image….. The newest version of the Patriot Act, the NDAA, that he signed last New Year’s Day comes immediately to mind….

I don’t care if he did try to mitigate some of the deleterious effects of the law, he still signed the damn thing, thereby seriously endangering a number of the first 10 Amendments to the Constitution. Plus, the method he used to keep it from the public awareness was rather suspect, in my mind, and reminiscent of the old days under Nixon, Johnson, Reagan, and the two Shrubs, may they all rot in whatever level of Hell they are destined to occupy….. (I know, I know…. not being a Christian, that curse has little weight, but, hey, it’s a pretty clear indicator of my opinion of all of them….)

As I suspect it might, this grew to be somewhat more than I intended it to be, so I’ll cut it short here. But, my suggestion above, about the test for integrity that should be a given for political aspirants, is completely serious, and I wanted to get that out. Maybe by the next election, we can get the rest of the country to buy into it…. which should be interesting, and fun. I’ll be looking forward to the expressions on the faces of all the supporters of those now in office, when their people gloriously fail to pass the test…. and to the results it will have on society, should it ever be adopted…. I don’t see any way at all that it could do anything that wouldn’t improve the situation…..

And so I penned
It down, until at last it came to be,
For length and breadth, the bigness which you see.
— John Bunyan (1628-1688) — Pilgrim’s Progress, Apology for his Book
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Well, that went fairly well, if somewhat less than totally creatively…. I’m still looking for that magic bullet, unfortunately; old habits die hard. Nonetheless, I’m done, so that has to count for something, doesn’t it?…. Let’s see how it flows….. Okay, again, not too bad, all in all, so, it’s going out, as is…. gigoid has spoken. Also, gigoid is tired now, and wants to go back to sleep…. Say bye, bye, gigoid…. 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

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

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gigoid

Exploring Consensual Reality

Tag Archives: Robert Heinlein

Twelve degrees off of plumb crazy….

No worries, there’s plenty of time to…..

Seven straight hours of polka music….. priceless….

You can join the looters AFTER church, Billy….

Assign three spinsters to snipe patrol….

Twice around the neck should do nicely….

Never curl your lip at Art Deco…..

We’ll have to spit-ball the hinges…..

Such fabulous shoes require spanking….

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