Concrete oatmeal & hockey puck biscuits…. Yum!

Posted on December 14, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

“Life without the courage for death is slavery.”

~~ Seneca ~~

There is a nice back story to this picture of a bear in a tree, which came from the London Daily Telegraph feature last week, the Animal Pictures of the Week…. This four year old female brown bear (don’t ask me how they know….) was observed to climb this tree, all the way to the top, where, after distributing its weight to sit comfortably, it proceeded to sit in the sun, enjoying the magnificent views of the valley in the warm sun, for about four hours before climbing down to amble off…. Just an afternoon off from whatever bears do, I guess…. She does look rather content and peaceful, doesn’t she?…. It was rather nice to see something in the news that didn’t end up depressing me….

That does, however present us with a conundrum, to wit: now what? Having spoken to the picture, it’s too late to chime in with a bit on the quote from one of our favorite ancient sages, even if it went with the picture’s theme…. which it doesn’t, somehow…. I suppose there is some slight degree of similarity in the two, which COULD be exploited to create a bit more discussion, but, what would be the point, when I’ve already said it’s beyond the pale? That’s what I get for opening my trap so quickly, I guess…. There are still some things to learn about this business, I’d say….

Of course, I only need to learn them for MY benefit; I don’t imagine y’all care one way or the other…. Hell, I can barely get y’all to comment any more; too much material I suppose, with too many quiet questions in them to pick from…. I suppose it would also help to have a few more readers come by to take in what I’ve written, but, I’m not going to get my hopes up on that event ever happening; I don’t put any effort into increasing readership, with good reason…. I’m lazy, and I’m lazy…. Oh, and did I mention, I’m lazy?….

Not really; I used to be lazy, but then I discovered the power of metaphor, and I got even lazier…. Now, I work at it assiduously, with high hopes of qualifying for the national tournament next year, in Madison Square Garden, the big one held each spring, after the winter’s beard contest, whose entrant contestants are picked from the previous year’s finalists, has been completed…. It doesn’t always take place; some years they’re too lazy to get it done…. These folks are serious about their work, I tell you….

But, now that I’m retired, I’ve got all this time to practice, so, I know I can make a good run at the top spot this year; I’ve been aided by my recent pain levels, which have helped me to NOT do much, a firm prerequisite for any serious competitor in this field of non-endeavor. Nobody is going to look twice at someone who has a job, or any such regular form of activity of any variety…. It’s just too much work…. Hah! I guess that’s the whole point, isn’t it? Yep, ’tis, indeed….

On that note, we’ve definitely slipped out of reality, and into fantasy, which means we don’t have to pay any further attention to any of the rules of engagement…. and, we can leave the intro with no further nonsense needed…. Besides, I don’t know about y’all, but, I’ve had just about enough of this silliness…. In fact, more than….

Shall we Pearl?

“Don’t try to have the last word. You might get it.” — Lazarus Long

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

Today’s video is another blast from the past…. In this particular case, it’s a blast from MY past…. I was AT this concert, and, if y’all watch closely, you could see me wandering around the stadium, dressed in a tuxedo without a jacket, to go with my wife, who dressed in gold lame with a glittering gold wig…. Just getting into the spirit of the night’s events, don’t y’know?….. Enjoy, ffolkes, I did…. for sure….

Grateful Dead Oakland Stadium 7 24 87 View from the Vault 4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFpSbAzhgdg

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

“Since the whole affair had become one of religion, the vanquished were of course exterminated.” — Voltaire

“Philosophy is questions that may never be answered. Religion is answers that may never be questioned.” — Smart Bee

“Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.” — Voltaire

It has been a good long while since I ranted about religion…. It’s a big subject (which is why it takes three pearls to start us off….), which makes for big rants…. However, I try not to let them get away without at least a mention at least some of the time, especially when I’m talking about the BRC and the other Asininnies, with whom the major churches work hand in hand to keep mankind from ever reaching its true potential…. Yes, indeed, I DO see the established religions of the world as villains, though many of them are no more than unwitting fools, just more victims of their delusional belief system….. But, many more of them are just manipulative sociopaths, much like their counterparts, who infest, er, inhabit the political world….

Consider, if you will, preachers/priests/imams/rabbis, or other religious leaders, whom I tend to lump together in a group I call the Dogma Dogs, and politicians, whom I call Fools, (or, sometimes, Assholes….) of all varieties, whether elected, monarchical, tyrannical, or whatever…. These two seemingly separate, yet symbiotic groups, each of which is comprised in the main by sociopathic con artists, have been working hand in hand, quite efficiently, for millennia…. Each uses similar methods to work toward their ends, but, ultimately, their will is enforced, on the one hand, supposedly, by a distant, impartial, but all-powerful supernatural being, and, on the other hand, by their faceless police and military myrmidons, all for one simple purpose…..

That singular, shared purpose, is to maintain the status quo in re: power and control over the money, the resources, and thus, the majority of mankind, with themselves at the top of the societal heap…. The control these silent, faceless despots hold over the whole of mankind would never have lasted so long, without the help they receive from the religious brainwashing by the different churches, which is first applied to ALL the babies they can get to, an event generally occurring before people have the mental defenses to resist, or avoid it…. This mostly system of passing on an entire set of delusions to each new generation, without ever examining it for its relevance to reality, is a large part of the reason the aforementioned societal control has been in place for so many centuries, without most people ever being aware of it….

How can these people be aware of any of the truth of their beliefs? They have been told since they were small, by the people they most trusted to tell them the truth, that this supernatural being (over which they have NO influence beyond their mandatory worship, submission, and good behavior…. i.e, obedience to custom….), has decreed them to be part of the elite of the real world, thereby guaranteed to live forever, together with those others of our kind, in the world that comes after this one….

Of course, none of these claims, of immortality, of divine intervention, or, any of the other claims made, is provable by any physical means, but, these folks believe it, and pass it on to their kids, thus preparing them for the lifetime of mind control, and submission to both divine and temporal authority, just the state of mind the ruling class prefers them to have…. It makes things SO much easier for them, when the entire populace is trained to believe anyone in a position of authority….without question….

And yet, a few people manage to see through the early years of foggy thinking…. In fact, here’s one of them now….

“Whenever we read the obscene stories, the voluptuous debaucheries, the cruel and torturous executions, the unrelenting vindictiveness, with which more than half the bible is filled, it would seem more consistent that we called it the word of a demon than the Word of God. It is a history of wickedness that has served to corrupt and brutalize mankind.” — Thomas Paine — The Age of Reason

Even amongst themselves, the proponents of SOME religions, (not all, but, most..), get just a little carried away in the defense of their own particular interpretation of holy writings…. most of which are deemed holy because everybody has always said they’re holy…. That’s it…. that’s the best reason any of them will give me… Go figure…. Some of them get so carried away, I’m required by insurance law to mention that the following is a joke, but, only because I say it’s a joke….

“My god can beat up your god!” — Smart Bee

Well, okay, so it wasn’t me at all…. SB is obviously making a point, not a joke, about all the different Christian (Muslim, Jewish, Buddhist, etc.) sects, each of which seems to feel they worship a different God than all the others…. At least, that’s the way they act to each other all the time…. All of them, even when pressed to answer plain, visible evidence to the contrary, maintain their own vision over everyone else’s, even those, no, especially those, who profess not to believe any of it…. For example….

“Why, when no honest man will deny in private that every ultimate problem is wrapped in the profoundest mystery, do honest men proclaim in pulpits that unhesitating certainty is the duty of the most foolish and ignorant? Is it not a spectacle to make the angels laugh?We are a company of ignorant beings, feeling our way through mists and darkness, learning only be incessantly repeated blunders, obtaining a glimmering of truth by falling into every conceivable error, dimly discerning light enough for our daily needs, but hopelessly differing whenever we attempt to describe the ultimate origin or end of our paths; and yet, when one of us ventures to declare that we don’t know the map of the universe as well as the map of our infinitesimal parish, he is hooted, reviled, and perhaps told that he will be damned to all eternity for his faithlessness…” — Leslie Stephen (1832-1904), “An agnostic’s Apology”, — Fortnightly Review, 1876

Rants about religion can get away from me; trust me, I’ve got priors…. Since I’ve already gone well past my comfort zone to accomplish this much, I’ll leave it here, sans any firm conclusions, or, for that matter, any real answers to the problems implied…. I don’t know the answers, anyway…. How does one go about changing human nature, which seems to be willing to allow this sort of degrading behavior without the blink of an outraged eye…. Ah well, all I can do is keep my own counsel, and avoid all the crap that tends to splash around whenever these idiots are spewing their bile…. Oh, and, I can rant every once in a while, if only to give myself some relief from having to watch this sad story unfold…. I think we’ll move on, after one appropriate pearl to seal the deal…..

Here we go…. Here is an alternate version of the first chapter of Genesis, which makes as much sense as the one currently in vogue throughout the Christian world….

In the beginning, God created the Earth and he said, “Let there be mud.”
And there was mud.
And God said, “Let Us make living creatures out of mud,
so the mud can see what we have done.”
And God created every living creature that now moveth,
and one was man.
Mud-as-man alone could speak.
“What is the purpose of all this?” man asked politely.
“Everything must have a purpose?” asked God.
“Certainly,” said man.
“Then I leave it to you to think of one for all of this,” said God.
And He went away.

~~ Kurt Vonnegut, Between Time and Timbuktu ~~

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

Since today’s rant is on the perils of religion, here is a poem that fits right in with the theme….

Rejection

“Jesus loves me, this I know,
For the Bible tells me so…”
I’d be crying a river, I thought
if ever such crap I bought.

Sorry if it hurts your sense of style,
but, hypocrisy always gives me bile.
Being lied to accidentally is okay,
but, deliberate lies make me angry, and fey.

Oh, God, hear what I pray!
Keep me from your followers today.
Having to listen to so much that is wrong
makes me puke, before it makes me strong.

I don’t know why it isn’t clear to other folks,
which is alright, you know, different strokes.
But, why should that mean that they must
force me to believe, or fail in trust?

Spare me the lies, and the make-believe,
fairy tales are easier to hear, and to weave.
They give us a lesson which we can feel
but don’t pretend at all to be real.

Reality can scare us, that’s a given fact,
still, met with care it will leave us mostly intact.
Met without fear, standing tall and alone
Life will allow us to make it our own.

Folly beckons, and so many follow
mass delusions seem to me most hollow.
I’ll have to stick to my own chosen way
while so many go so sadly astray.

It’s lonely at times, it may seem sad,
but really isn’t, and I’m quite glad,
that knowledge is always stronger than fear,
year after year, tear after tear…..

~~ gigoid ~~

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

LAW, n.

Once Law was sitting on the bench,
And Mercy knelt a-weeping.
“Clear out!” he cried, “disordered wench!
Nor come before me creeping.
Upon your knees if you appear,
‘Tis plain your have no standing here.”

Then Justice came. His Honor cried:
“_Your_ status?–devil seize you!”
“_Amica curiae,_” she replied–
“Friend of the court, so please you.”
“Begone!” he shouted–“there’s the door–
I never saw your face before!”

G.J.

~~ Ambrose Bierce, The Devil’s Dictionary ~~

All of us, I think, have our favorite lawyer joke. Mine has always been the one that goes,

“Q: How do you tell the difference between a dead snake, and a dead lawyer on the road? A: There are skid marks leading up to the snake….”

There is good reason for all those jokes, you know; you see, they’re NOT jokes…. They’re all true…. Don’t believe me? Let’s ask Smart Bee to see what it can find on the subject….

“Cato instigated the magistrates to punish all offenders, saying that they that did not prevent crimes when they might, encouraged them.” — Plutarch (46-120 AD) — Roman Apophthegms, Cato the Elder

Hmm… No, no SB… the OTHER direction…. sheesh…

“Lawyer: only person in whom ignorance of the law is not punished.” — Smart Bee

Okay, right you are…. Now, THAT’s better… Okay, the rest, please… and, no worries as to the #; we’ve got time….

“One lawyer can steal more than a hundred men with guns.” — The Godfather

“It could probably be shown by facts and figures that there is no distinctly native American criminal class except Congress.” — Mark Twain Following the Equator (1897)

Half, or more, of Congress, of course, is composed of lawyers; the other half never acts without consulting one of their own…. Most of the rest of them work in the Judicial Branch of the federal government….

“We could do that, but it would be wrong, that’s for sure.” — from the best-loved quotes of Richard Milhouse Nixon (Yes, he was…. Duke University School of Law, 1937)

“If it weren’t for lawyers we wouldn’t need lawyers.” — Smart Bee

LAWYER, n. One skilled in circumvention of the law. — Ambrose Bierce, The Devil’s Dictionary

— How many lawyers does it take to change a light bulb? — None, he’ll have the paralegal do it. But, you’ll get the following bill:

Item                            Light bulb
Charge                           $2185
(Itemization of bill charges)
Lawyer’s time (1 hr. minimum) $ 400
Connectivity charge            $ 100
Staff charge                   $ 250
Secretary prepared bill        $   2
Research fee                   $ 422
Consulting fee                 $ 431
Paralegal processing fees      $ 25
Specialized equipment          $ 122
Bought bulb                    $   5
Overnight express delivery     $ 34
Rule 453.957(B)(1) charge      $ 394

The thing that has always bothered me the most, about lawyers at large, is this; they CHOOSE the kind of lawyer to be, remember…. 99% of them turn out to be corrupt, at least partially because of what Mark observed in human nature, (and, our final pearl for today), when he noted, to wit:

“A man cannot be comfortable without his own approval.” — Mark Twain

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

Given the state of my hands today, it’s a good thing this went swiftly…. It also helped that much of it was done yesterday, between bouts of agony…. Ah yes, cheating… the American way…. It’s now 0435, and, once again, I’m done…. Now, I get to wait for the rest of the world to wake up, so I can sit around and watch it sink a little further into insanity’s fatal dream…. See y’all tomorrow, ffolkes, if Fate is kind….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid, the dubious

PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.

À bientôt, mon cherí….

Patagonian cricket league posters on sale….

Posted on December 13, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

“Don’t get hit.”

~~ First rule of fighting ~~

There is no doubt the world in which we live is in a sorry state; there is too much evidence of that to deny, even for one of my dubious nature…. Yet, we each go on, blithely behaving as if tomorrow never comes, just as we have for our entire history, without any acknowledgment, or even awareness, of our own impending doom as a species. In spite of the mountains of evidence to indicate how serious is the situation we find ourselves in today, no governing body, no major world leaders, and nobody of any societal significance is doing anything about it, other than some little noise-making in the news now and again, and a constant parade of lesser personages, such as yours truly, who keep trying to get everyone else to FUCKING PAY ATTENTION!

Alas, our noise, true and attractive as it may be, is drowned out, in the cacophony of complaints and bullshit that the political pundits keep laying out; they have the control of the media, having trained them to react just the way they planned to every new piece of insanity, to wit, with hyperbole, outrage, focus on the negative and/or insignificant, and misdirection, always trumpeting who is to blame, rather than calling for real answers….

Instead, they are trained to focus on completely irrelevant issues, having little to do with the core of the problems, which are never discussed, at all…. Any actual discussion of problems is discouraged, as being counter-productive…. What is never stated is this; all that information we are not hearing IS counterproductive, but, not to us, but, to those who are in positions of leadership… If the news was actually reported correctly, the pundits would be running for the border, trying to escape the mobs….

But, that would be an ideal world, and the one in which we spend our time is NOT one of those, by any stretch of the imagination…. Ah well, we’ve made our bed, we must now lie in it…. Sadly, the house, in which the bed might be found, is right in the path of flowing lava…..

I see now that the metaphorical structure I’ve built up with such enthusiasm just fell apart, into small pieces…. I can see it lying there, on the ground at my feet, mocking me with bitter laughter…. Silly things…. But, having it all fall apart like that does make it clear, at least to me, that I’ve gone completely off the rails here this morning, haring off down a rantable path, without ever checking to see if my brain was on…. which, I’m pretty sure, it wasn’t…. At least, I can’t find any evidence anywhere in any of the above paragraphs that would indicate power to the lobes…. Hell, I’m almost positive I wasn’t even awake yet when I started; I’m barely awake now….

Ah well, it’s done what, apparently, it was designed to do, which is get me to this point, far enough down the page to feel as if we’ve actually done something worthwhile…. We HAVE gone far enough to make this legal, which, as y’all know, is all we really care about…. As it now meets all state and federal regulations, nonexistent though they may be, we can use the opportunity that presents itself to make our escape…. Besides, I believe I may have just used up ALL of my ability to type for the day, just getting this done…. Oh, well…. I’m taking us down, ffolkes, so, you’d best hang on…..

Shall we Pearl?

“A gentleman is one who never hurts anyone’s feelings unintentionally.” — Oscar Wilde

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

One of the saving graces of humankind is our ability to make music…. classical, blues, jazz, it all expresses our nature, in one facet or another…. Here is the an example of the best of the blues, the one musical genre most likely to be of use to us in the coming years, as we learn how our own nature has been our undoing….

This Is The Blues – Volume 1

http://youtu.be/f_9zy9ZYEkA

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

As noted, my hands are done typing for the day, so, here is a discussion from the past, with all our favorite targets in attendance….

From 9/19/2013:

“A lie would have no sense unless the truth were felt as dangerous.” — Alfred Alder

So, I was going to forgo a rant today, giving my back, and your brains, a bit of a break, but, when I went to peruse the news, I saw the latest discussion of what is happening in the House of Idiots in Washington, D.C., regarding the budget resolutions being discussed, wherein the possibility of a shutdown is threatened, if the Retardicans and Demobutts can’t come to some kind of compromise.

It seems the Retardicans are still upset about Obamacare, and the notion of helping the middle class, as well as the lower classes (gasp!), to obtain medical insurance coverage at a reasonable cost. This idea, of being fair and ethical, seems to have struck them in the wrong place, and they have been whining and complaining ever since it became law, frantically searching for ways to undermine the whole program, with the ultimate goal being to stop it altogether….

The entire issue, of course, is just smoke, to cover up the simple racism that these assholes won’t cop to…. It is STILL stuck in their craw that they somehow allowed a BLACK MAN to get elected to the highest public office. They have looked for, and desperately latched onto, every possible way they could find to block every piece of legislation the White House has espoused, no matter how much such legislation would help the public, ever since Obama was first elected.

The publicly stated goal of the Retardican Party in 2008, right after the election, was to make Obama a one-term President; having failed at that, their new goal became the eradication of ANY laws, or any beneficial reforms, that were accomplished during his administration…. Hence, the campaign against healthcare reform, which, ultimately, is not in their best interests, but, hey, who needs common sense?….

I’m almost too disgusted with the entire bunch of them, Retardicans and Demobutts both, to even continue this rant….The right wing continues to shoot itself, and the public, in the foot with their intransigent inflexibility, and their unreasoning paranoia about the POTUS, while the left side continues to wander around letting whatever the administration says or does go without question or review, as if somehow a man who was politician enough to get elected to the Senate, then the Presidency, all of a sudden became the world’s most truthful man…. Sorry, folks, it just doesn’t follow….. such trust in ANYONE who is an elected official in this country is plain silly, and doesn’t show much real common sense….

I see NO ONE in the public venue whom I would trust to make decisions for me, on ANY subject, much less those that can affect my life, and the quality of same…. Sorry, I just don’t see ANYONE who seems to be honestly interested in anything beyond their own agenda, and those agendas have nothing to do with mine, or what I see as beneficial for everyone…. They just don’t…..

I also, unfortunately, don’t have any viable solutions, which is why my rants often are short…. I mean, I do know what would help, and that is for everyone in the world who does have common sense to get together, join forces, and tell the assholes to stop…. But, they have guns, which they are practiced in using to get their way, whereas, most of US aren’t willing to contest matters on that level, so, that probably isn’t ever going to happen…. Not until more of our side are willing to use force to get our way, just as they have always done….

Since I don’t see it happening, we may as well just kiss our asses goodbye, because the eventual outcome of such idiocy is death, and I don’t mean individually, but rather, as a species…. Stupid is as stupid does, as somebody once said, and when I look around the world these days, stupid is pretty much all I see…..

Hell is the place of those who have denied;
They find there what they planted and what dug,
A Lake of Spaces, and a Wood of Nothing,
And wander there and drift, and never cease
Wailing for substance.

~~ William Butler Yeats ~~

~~ Responsibilities and Other Poems (1916).The Hour-Glass ~~

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It has been said that intelligence is both a blessing, and a curse…. I’m here to testify….

Intelligent Crimes

The value of wit is often said to cause harm,
for those who think, such is its greatest charm.
The new and the bold cannot be fulfilled
if innovation and change is left unwilled.

Society behaves at its base as a mob
conformity and submission its primary job.
Any sign of rebellion against the mob’s rule
is met with resentment, naming such rebel the fool.

Intellect and talent are looked at askance,
expressing artistry stands nary a chance.
To stand out from the rest of mankind
is fraught with danger, for body and mind.

Often I stand to watch in solemn dismay
as beauty and joy are left by the way,
ignored and reviled by the unwashed masses
who prefer darkness, and acting like asses.

With shouts of derision the normals make known
their fear of intelligence, greater than their own.
They hope to stop all semblance of progress;
for thoughts and ideas, they couldn’t care less.

The world struggles on in spite of all opposition,
managing to maintain its advanced position.
Pulling the foolish along in spite of reluctance,
helping each to learn the survival dance.

Hard though it may be to keep up with the future
genius manages its plans to develop and nurture.
In the final analysis, those who live by reason
enjoy life the most, season to season.

~~ gigoid ~~

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

Thankfully, I had a few moments yesterday, (very few, in retrospect, but, enough….) when the pain was in abeyance sufficiently for me to spend some time perusing Smart Bee for some appropriate pearls…. Here is what we were able to come up with…. It’s all pretty good advice, or, at minimum, viewpoints worthy of examining as helpful; taken together, they all show us how to live as well as we can, from an ethical/moral standpoint….

“There is in us a tendency to locate the shaping forces of our existence outside ourselves. Success and failure are unavoidably related in our minds with the state of things around us. Hence it is that people with a sense of fulfillment think it is a good world and would like to preserve it as it is, while the frustrated favor radical change. The tendency to look for all causes outside ourselves persists even when it is clear that our state of being is the product of personal qualities such as ability, character, appearance, health and so on.” — Eric Hoffer

“Let us treat men and women well; Treat them as if they were real; Perhaps they are.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)

CALLOUS, adj. Gifted with great fortitude to bear the evils afflicting another. “When Zeno was told that one of his enemies was no more he was observed to be deeply moved. “What!” said one of his disciples, “you weep at the death of an enemy?” “Ah, ’tis true,” replied the great Stoic, “but you should see me smile at the death of a friend.” — Ambrose Bierce, “The Devil’s Dictionary”

“A gentleman is one who never hurts anyone’s feelings unintentionally.” — Oscar Wilde

“It is impossible for a man to love his wife whole-heartedly without loving all women somewhat. I suppose that the converse must be true of women.” — Lazarus Long

“Loneliness is the poverty of the self. Solitude is the richness of the self.” — May Sarton

“He preferred an honest man that wooed his daughter, before a rich man. “I would rather,” said Themistocles, “have a man that wants money than money that wants a man.” — Plutarch (46-120 AD) — Themistocles

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

My normal (hah!) routine is shot to shit…. It is now 0330 in the AM, and this Pearl is done…. I’ve been up too long already, and may just go back to bed, in the forlorn hope of actually getting comfortable enough to sleep, with my hips, hands and shoulders all singing to me, a song of misery played on the strings of my nervous system…. Ah well, so much for another day in Hell…. No worries, I’ve got my ticket to Oblivion, right here in my pipe…. See y’all later, ffolkes…. maybe even tomorrow…..

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid, the dubious

PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.

À bientôt, mon cherí….

Perfectly executed pirouettes, en point….

Posted on December 12, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

“A note of music gains significance from the silence on either side.”

~~ Anne Morrow Lindberg ~~

As the full moon rose between the palms, the clouds covering much of the sky parted, showing Luna’s pale, aged face, brightness its only remaining claim to beauty…. Dark feelings of premonition stole into the soul of the man standing in the shadows, watching the moon’s slow progress above the horizon, promising Death before the night was over. With no choices left to him, he pulled his robe closer, adjusting the hood to conceal his dark features, rigid with strain. As he turned to leave his place of hiding, he mouthed one last prayer to the gods for success, with little hope it would be heard….

It was a tough choice today, to go with the quote, or with the picture…. Apparently, the picture (one of mine, obviously…) got picked, though, in retrospect, the quote might have been simpler to use…. It IS a ready made invitation to discuss a number of subjects, such as human nature, speech, writing, music, and, of course, Bozoid tendencies…. the last, of course, a subject one can apply to almost ANY statement, since it is a Universal quality, common to every human alive…. We can’t get away from it, making it a perfectly suitable for rants of all kinds, as our bozoid natures lead us into ever more complex situations involving our tendency to make BIG mistakes….

I suppose that’s why my sub-conscious mind nudged me into using the picture; it recognized that using the quote would more easily lead to ranting, a habit we’re trying to stop from happening too early in the Pearl…. I haven’t had a whole lot of luck at it, as yet; it’s almost impossible to make any reference to modern society without bumping up against something rantable. I know, I’ve tried…. Ah well, we all know what Yoda said about trying, don’t we?….

Today is the first day I’ve awakened with no more pain than is usual for the period after lying down for so long…. My physique is at a point where being in ANY position, sitting, standing, or lying down, will, after a time, begin to hurt more than it helps, and sleeping at night is no exception….

In fact, I’ve pretty much given up on any normal schedule of sleep/awake time, as I’ve begun to awaken at about 0200, with increasing messages from various body parts that it’s time to get up…. I manage to stay abed until 0300, but, that’s as far as I can push it; I must get up, or continue to get worse pain in my legs and hips, not to mention the lower back, which always needs a large dose of magic cream upon arising in the morning, in order to be able to sit up straight…. SIGH…. it’s getting a bit expensive, too; magic isn’t cheap….

Ah well, so much for whining…. and, definitely enough of it for one day…. I’ve decided to keep trying to post daily, as much as possible, even though it hurts more all the time…. But, I remembered…. It’s going to hurt anyway, so, I may as well just keep on keepin’ on, as best I can…. So be it…. gigoid has spoken….

Shall we Pearl?

“Every investigation which is guided by principles of Nature fixes its ultimate aim entirely on gratifying the stomach.” — Athenaeus (c. 200 AD) — The Deipnosophists, vii, 11

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Here is some old rock and roll, but, with a jazz flavor, by one of the finest fusion artists of our generation…. No one does rock with a jazz flavor like this man…. Enjoy!

Van Morrison – Moondance Full Album (Vinyl)

http://youtu.be/hx8LrtNHa1M

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“Everything tastes more or less like chicken.”

~~ Jeffery F. Chamberlain ~~

The following desperately long rant, which takes aim at the BRC at large, (and politicians in particular), was found while perusing the archives, to find material for this section that would save my hands the effort of typing for at least one section…. It’s quite long, but, remains as valid today as the day it was written, over a year ago…. Funny how that works, eh?….

From 9/18/2013:

Yesterday, a new reader was gracious enough to leave a nice comment, and to offer a couple of articles for my perusal, as possible subjects for a future rant…. Both articles are definitely rant-worthy material, so, I’ll oblige his suggestion by starting here….

I talk a lot about the BRC, (Beloved Ruling Class….), and the thievery they commit daily against the public, but, I don’t always provide a lot of examples, preferring to allow ffolkes, and/or folks, to seek out their own evidence…. This is because there is just so damn much of it, and it is so easy to find, I find it a better way to drive the point home, for people will believe it more when they come across the proof themselves, rather than having me provide it for them…. That way I can’t be accused of making it up, or coloring it…..

This article, supplied to me by a reader, is a perfect example of what I’ve often said about the news, to wit: it’s chock full of evidence of the chicanery and nonsense being perpetrated by our beloved rulers, and I don’t even need to point it out, for it’s right there for all to see…. Please, take a moment to read this one, about the governor of Louisiana, that fine old den of corruption in the southern US…. Try not to let the lack of hard evidence presented by the author to support the assertions made influence you, at this point…. just accept it as true for the sake of the argument they make, and worry about the actual paper proofs later…. It’s all there, believe me….

http://grist.org/news/bobby-jindal-to-axe-officials-who-took-on-big-oil/?utm_campaign=daily&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&sub_email=dlw38%40sbcglobal.net

What amazes me most in this article is the sheer effrontery shown by Governor Jindal…. He has no compunctions whatsoever in showing his corruption for all to see, blithely firing people who are trying to make his special interest supporters toe the legal line for their actions, and, in the process, help the people of his state. No, he just ignores any and all cries of outrage, and continues to stuff his pockets with the money they’ve poured into his campaign coffers, while the people of the state, and the state’s environment, get shredded by the corporate assholes who caused the entire problem….

This article shows exactly how far the issue of corruption has progressed in society, as the leaders we have elected are no longer bothering to cover up most of their machinations… This assbite is blithely showing his colors, bright and clear, in the public eye, deliberately firing people who might have made a difference, with no thought or regard for what his own constituency may want. His loyalty is all with the companies who have raped and pillaged the coastal marshes in their search for sources of oil, because they are the ones who are paying him; the people can just go to hell, as far as he is concerned….

But, as I have pointed out previously, the people of Louisiana have only been given exactly what they deserve, for they are the ones who believed his lies during the election process, and elected him to office, knowing full well he was going to screw them over…. I sometimes wonder how these people manage to dress themselves, or feed themselves without help…. I am not particularly surprised by the situation there, though it saddens me to see it. Those marshes and coastal waterways are an important ecological formation, with a lot of animal life that depends on it to live, and I hate to see that get screwed up….

The other article sent by my friend, Dave, is, though also not particularly surprising, even more disturbing, as it shows just how pervasive is the extent of corruption in government…. Canada has the reputation of having one of the most responsive governments in the world, one that seems, for the most part, to care about the people for whom it functions, and tries mostly to do things in a way that promotes societal well-being…. That is their reputation, anyway, even if not fully deserved….

It seems, however, that the madness that infects all the other states in the world seems to have found a place to germinate in the Canadian bureaucracy as well, causing its members to begin to follow the path to madness all the others have been flying down for many years….. This article describes a new policy being promulgated among the Canadian bureaucracies that will easily qualify them to join the ranks of those governments that have given up hiding their paranoia, and are busily pursuing insanity as a way of life….

Scientists, whether employed by universities, or private industry, or the government, are notoriously touchy about being told what to publish; this is an issue that is well-established in history, with the outcome always coming down on the side of the scientists…. In other words, history has shown us, many times, that it is counter-productive for society to muzzle researchers, for they always find a way to get the knowledge out, and all attempts at squashing it are a waste of time…. They (the BRC) keep trying, but, they don’t seem to learn from the past, a sure way to find oneself extinct, as Reality has a way of enforcing its will that is quite unstoppable by any human intervention…..

But, stupidity will have its way, so, they keep trying…. Read the article ffolkes, and realize just how far the world has gone toward piling itself against the wall of reality….. I mean, really….. snowflakes? They’re afraid of snowflakes?…. No, they’re afraid of knowledge, and it makes the BRC nervous to think about the public having all the facts…. Hence, their commitment to blocking the spread of knowledge at every turn, and trying to confuse and distract the public from seeing what they are up to behind the scenes…..

http://grist.org/climate-energy/canada-bans-researchers-from-discussing-snowflakes-findings-scientists-protest/?utm_campaign=daily&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&sub_email=dlw38sbcglobal.net

The proof is there, ffolkes, for anyone to find…. The supposed leaders of our society, at all levels, are corrupt, not to mention clinically insane. They lie to the public in order to get elected, then continue to lie, cheat, and steal for as long as they are allowed to do so. They reward their constituents with more lies, and now have the nerve to show their true allegiance right out in public, as soon as they are sworn into their offices, laughing in the face of the very people who elected them….

Isn’t it about time we all looked at our own complicity in this situation? How long are the people of this country going to allow their public officials to act, not only in ways that don’t benefit the public, but in ways that are actually dangerous to them? How long will the public ignore the unprincipled acts of liars and cheats, whom they have chosen to be their leadership? I’m afraid the answer is all too obvious, to anyone who is able to see, and think about what there is to see…. My own answer to those questions is, it’s already been too long….. I haven’t seen any indication, in history, or in the present, that would show the public was able to throw off the yoke of the unseen masters of society, those super-rich, selfish assholes who determine just how events will transpire….

There is no point in history where mankind has been free of the influence and control of those in society who control all the resources. None…. If anyone can look back, and point out to me any time when that isn’t true, please, do so, and I will discuss the ramifications of that with great pleasure…. But, I’m a fair student of history, and I don’t find any place, anywhere in history, when our species has been free of the control of these silent rulers…. nor do I think we’ll ever be able to do so, not until a much greater percentage of the public is allowed to see the evidence of their handiwork, and realize just how badly, and how long, they have screwed the rest of us….

But, hey, it DOES give me something to rant about, whenever a new piece of evidence is allowed to be published…. Even if the stuff that we see isn’t any real threat to them, it’s encouraging to see that there is SOME degree of resistance to them, even if it is doomed to failure in the long run…. The people who run the world, for real, have had a long time to practice staying out of the public eye, and running things from the shadows….. They’re very good at it, so, don’t expect any large revelations, or any huge lights being thrown on the shadowy limits of their existence…. They won’t allow anything that has any real chance of doing them harm to occur, you can be sure of that…..

Including shutting up people like me, should they ever feel the tiniest bit threatened by my words, or my attempts to make known just how deeply their control extends into our lives….. If I was doing them any real harm, you can bet they would have shut me down by now, so, it’s clear that, for now at least, I’m just another voice, shouting in the wilderness, without any real hope of harming them, or even giving them a moments discomfort….. But, I’ll keep trying, because, hey, that’s who I am….

gigoid has spoken…. so be it….

“A form of open-mindedness is the pathway to wisdom. Close your mind and you open the way for ignorance to flourish, but you will never even know it.” — Smart Bee

Whoops…. Sorry, thought I was done. But, then, this pearl dropped into my lap, and it just MADE me add it in here, to make the point, finally, and completely…. The following paragraph is unattributed in Smart Bee, my quote database, so I don’t know who said it first… Nor, I think, do I WANT to know, for they are evil, evil, I say…. This is a perfect statement of the attitude of almost every human being alive today, at least, every one of them who is involved in the governing of countries….. Read it, think about it…. this is EXACTLY the way they view the world, and it is sick, sick, sick, ffolkes…. no other word fits so well…..

“It is not possible to find morality in struggles for power. Your enemies view you as you do them and likely regard themselves as virtuous in their attempts at mayhem upon you. In struggles for power, your judgments should be based entirely on self-interest and finding as direct and economical a route to your goal as possible. If that route is bloody and barbaric, so much the worse for those who oppose you.”– Smart Bee, channeling any politician, dogma dog, or other card-carrying member of the BRC….

Note from 2014:

Whew! I believe I got a bit carried away there, didn’t I? Ah well, it’s all true, so, what the hell; such truths always bear repeating, though no one may listen at all…. At least I’ve gotten it all out of MY head…. but, I’m left with the following all-too-true observation as my only remaining available, and appropriate, comment….

“Taxation WITH representation ain’t so hot either.’ — Gerald Barzan

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A new poem is still in there, percolating behind the veil of consciousness… Since there is no way I will force it out before it’s ready, we’ll once again have to resort to the archives…. So be it….

Pure Truth: Elsewhen

Everything I say and do, I’m sure,
only comes from what I know.
If what I’ve said or done is good, and pure,
I can say it’s not just for show.

Sometimes people don’t quite get me.
It can be a pain, for sure.
I try not allow it to keep me from being free,
especially when my thoughts may be impure.

In fact, I try quite hard most of the time,
to keep from hurting folks.
If any culture more often approached sublime,
I wouldn’t have to take so many pokes.

Now I’ll make another sacrifice, for y’all,
not for karmic advantage, not merely so….
But, to save me from yet another downfall,
I’ll stop here; ensign, make it so….

~~ gigoid ~~

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Sometimes, a pearl comes together without much conscious help from me; it’s certain that SB is often of little help, though today doesn’t seem to be a case in point…. This one, though a trifle complex & obscure, nonetheless hits me in just the right spot, so, it’s in, with no argument…. Not that it will be of any help to you in deciphering whatever it is trying to say, but, remember, better out than in, I say, and it’s true, at least in spirit, no matter what part of life we’re discussing….

“Your paradigm is so intrinsic to your mental process that you are hardly aware of its existence, until you try to communicate with someone with a different paradigm.” — Donella Meadows, The Global Citizen

“Dionysius the Elder, being asked whether he was at leisure, he replied, “God forbid that it should ever befall me!” — Plutarch (46-120 AD) — Dionysius

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

“He said that there was one only good, namely, knowledge; and one only evil, namely, ignorance.” — Diogenes Laertius (c. 200 AD) — Socrates, xiv

“Weary is the path that does not challenge. Doubt is an incentive to truth and patient inquiry leadeth the way.” — Smart Bee

“Old places and old persons in their turn, when spirit dwells in them, have an intrinsic vitality of which youth is incapable, precisely, the balance and wisdom that come from long perspectives and broad foundations.” — George Santayana

“My life is a simple thing that would interest no one. It is a known fact that I was born and that is all that is necessary.” — Albert Einstein

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The effort expended yesterday, during another day of agony, to complete as much of this as possible ahead of time, has worked out quite well… Here ’tis, only 0430, and today’s post is done…. Well, the hard part is done, anyway…. Posting it is fairly simple, so, we’ll get to that, and maybe get a good start on tomorrow… What the hell, my schedule/routine is in deep modification mode, so why not? See y’all later, ffolkes…. tomorrow, if I’m lucky…. Y’all, of course, will need to decide, whether luck has anything to do with it, for yourselves….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid, the dubious

PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.

À bientôt, mon cherí….

Unbeknownst the vicar, vice entered the parish….

Posted on December 11, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

“All men are created unequal.”

~~ Lazarus Long ~~

The opening quote, familiar as it is, really is more accurate, and, thus, more truthful, than how people generally think, if and when they do, about equality…. A similar phrase on the subject, as used in our Declaration of Independence, in fact, uses not only the opposite side of meaning, but, also a separate connotation of the word ‘equal’ than is applied by Lazarus…. Each could be made more clear by identifying its own referred meaning, but, that destroys the effect of the bare statement….

In sooth, in the Declaration, it would have been more accurate in terms of meaning, intended or not, to say, all men are equal in the eyes of the law (Patently, an untrue statement, by the way; I challenge ANYONE to name one nation, just one, that exists now, or has ever existed in history, that has demonstrated equality for all under the law…. That’s all…. just one….)… But, then, Lazarus could have been more polite, at least, to say that all men are born unequal in their abilities and talents…. Then, both would be right, if less compelling, (i.e., boring), in both cases….

Which is probably why they each said it the way they did, to confer to what they said their own strength of belief, that their meaning would be understood…. or, in Lazarus’ case, probably, to indicate he really wouldn’t care…. In some ways, he’s rather a dick, but, I guess it would take more than just a bit of dickishness to survive over 2500 years in human society…. There are a lot of mean, tough assholes out there….

Most of them, unfortunately, tend to use Lazarus’ version of this idea as their modus operandi, more than the one espoused by the Declaration, as is patently obvious by the most cursory examination of our modern culture…. There is no equality ANYWHERE in the systems of government that are in power around the world, no matter what sort of lip service each might make to the concept…. and the inequality gap gets wider all the time….

I’m not the first to notice this; articles on the income gap are legion in today’s news…. It is abundantly clear the division in society between the haves and the have-nots has never been more obvious, or larger…. But, I digress….

From what, you might ask? Well, hell, I don’t know… I do know I’m ranting, which I swore not to do in the intro any more…. which is what prompted the sudden change of direction we just experienced…. Where we might end up now is anyone’s guess…. Well, not mine, because I’m not going to waste my time in fruitless speculation…. I refuse to torture myself that way so early…. Hell, I haven’t even had coffee yet…. Wait! There it is now…. I’ll be back….

Ah, well, I can tell from reading the above, I may as well just say, so much for another intro…. I’ve had a bit of coffee now, so, let’s see what happens next….

Shall we Pearl?

“In writing, fidelity to fact leads eventually to the poetry of truth.” — Edward Abbey

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I’m in the mood for some classic Dead…. So be it…. gigoid has spoken….

The Grateful Dead – Blues For Allah (Album, September 1, 1975)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sE_hm9qKRyc

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“This man, I say, is most perfect who shall have understood everything for himself, after having devised what may be best afterward and unto the end.” — Hesiod (c. 700 BC) — Works and Days, Line 293

Typing is still too painful to contemplate for an entire rant; here is a discussion from the archives, not quite a rant, as much as a lesson in Life, complete with koan….

From 8/16/2012:

“Nothing in the world is more flexible and yielding than water. Yet when it attacks the firm and the strong, none can withstand it, because they have no way to change it. So the flexible overcome the adamant, the yielding overcome the forceful. Everyone knows this, but no one can do it.” — Lao-Tzu

Water…. the power of water is unmatched over time; just ask the Grand Canyon. Water ties us to the universe; our physical make-up depends on it for survival, as well as mere existence. It is so soft, and yielding, yet cannot be destroyed at all; one can only cause it to change form, from ice, to water, to steam, all of which hold the same properties as the middle state, though slightly differently interpreted. Most important, to the scholar’s mind, is its nature…. emulating its spirit, becoming like water, is the goal of almost all meditation practice, as well as a goal of the martial artist….

“My writing is like a ten gallon spring. It can issue from the ground anywhere at all. On smooth ground it rushes swiftly on and covers a thousand li in a single day without difficulty. When it twists and turns among mountains and rocks, it fits its form to things it meets: unknowable. What can be known is, it always goes where it must go, always stops where it cannot help stopping — nothing else. More than that, even I cannot know.” — Su Shih

One of the most powerful of concepts in martial arts is the emulation of water. The student is taught to learn how to move like water, to move with the rhythm of the universe as energy flows from one point to another. One of the most valuable techniques I’ve seen to teach this lesson is one where the student stands in a balanced stance, one foot forward; the arms are held in front of the body, as if holding a large ball. The student then moves his weight from the back foot to the front foot, then back again, while moving the ball in a slow circle, pushed away when moving forward, and brought back when the weight shifts to the rear….

The trick to learn is to be like the tide, accepting the water as it flows in to its highest point, then moving with it as it irresistibly flows back into the sea, as the weight moves to the front foot. A smooth shifting of the weight, and finding the correct rhythm teaches both balance, and strength, and the power of moving like water…. Learning to use gravity as an ally, instead of a limitation, gives one an unimaginable advantage over one who does not know how to do so….

In addition to the physical lessons that water has to teach us, it also provides the intellect with a subject of study, to find the nature of water in its most real state. Learning the nature of water brings us closer to an understanding of all nature, and how we may fit into it with the most beneficial attitudes. The path of least resistance, followed by water as it flows downhill, teaches us to learn to find the same path for ourselves.

The immutability of water teaches us how to respect, and yet resist changes to our nature, while remaining in touch with those parts of the universe that are within all of us…. The flexibility of water teaches us to remain flexible ourselves, to learn to recognize when it is time to be ice, when it is time to be steam, and when it is time to flow like water in its normal state…..

Joshu asked the teacher Nansen, “What is the True Way?”

Nansen answered, “Every way is the true Way.”

Joshu asked, “Can I study it?”

Nansen answered, “The more you study, the further from the Way.”

Joshu asked, “If I don’t study it, how can I know it?”

Nansen answered, “The Way does not belong to things seen: nor to things unseen. It does not belong to things known: nor to things unknown. Do not seek it, study it, or name it. To find yourself on it, open yourself as wide as the sky.”

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

I can feel a poem percolating, but, it’s not yet ready to come out of hiding, so, we’ll go with an older poem of mine, to keep from getting any of the splash on anyone else….

Seeing is Conducive to Belief

Folly sits so comfortably upon my fevered brow
one would easily believe that I would know how
to look at Life with a jaded, weary eye
seeing enough, and more, to know Why.

Such seems the case, as I will it to be,
an open book of a face, it looks so like me;
what’s known to be so, needs no close attention
familiar sights require no minding, nor mention.

The eye is drawn at once to the stark and new,
and sent back to sleep by successful review.
Once we find evidence we feel we understand,
curiosity languishes, dismissed at command.

Ancient sages knew the insidious value of illusion,
preachers and pundits know the power of confusion.
Each pair of eyes contains its own point of reference,
each mind sets its own standards of preference.

Seeing is believing, for those who live in thrall,
accepting what is perceived is all they ever recall.
Unknown to them, reality follows another set of rules,
Deeper, more dangerous, and no place for fools.

~~ gigoid ~~

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

Today’s final pearl is what I’d call a random, harlequin, jigsaw pearl…. But, somehow, y’know, it works…. Enjoy, ffolkes, this one is a real ride in a fast car on a mountain road…

“Nobody’s perfect… We are what we are!”

~~ Smart Bee ~~

“Long were the days of pain I have spent within its walls, and long were the nights of aloneness; and who can depart from his pain and his aloneness without regret?” — Kahlil Gibran, “The Prophet”

“Faith is good, but skepticism is better”

~~ Giuseppe Verdi ~~

“For a man can lose neither the past nor the future; for how can one take from him that which is not his? So remember these two points: first, that each thing is of like form from everlasting and comes round again in its cycle, and that it signifies not whether a man shall look upon the same things for a hundred years or two hundred, or for an infinity of time; second, that the longest lived and the shortest lived man, when they come to die, lose one and the same thing.” — Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (121-180 AD) — Meditations, ii, 14

“If you wish me to weep, you yourself must feel grief.”

~~ Horace (65-8 BC) — Ars Poetica, 102 ~~

“Never let the future disturb you. You will meet it, if you have to, with the same weapons of reason which today arm you against the present.” — Marcus Aurelius Antoninus

For my purpose holds…
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.

~~ Alfred, Lord Tennyson ~~

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Let if suffice to say, today’s post is a testament to perseverance, and let it go at that…. I’m, done, and, I’m outta here…. See y’all again, ffolkes…. maybe even tomorrow….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid, the dubious

PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.

À bientôt, mon cherí….

Visions of twisted shorts….

Posted on December 10, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

“A man who fears suffering is already suffering from what he fears.”

~~ Montaigne ~~

In the past two weeks, or a bit more, I’ve been experiencing an entirely new kind of pain, to add to the already ample amount I have each day from my back, and hips…. The weather seems to aggravate the arthritis, so, during the times when the barometer is reflecting the conditions which bring us precipitation, my hands, shoulders, and skeleton at large have begun to ache, severely, for long periods of time, ultimately reaching what seems to be a crescendo of pain, where my entire skeleton sings to me of its agony, in no uncertain terms…..

This pain is quite rude, too, in that it pretty much ignores anything I take for it…. The only help seems to come from edible cannabinoids, which is problematic, in that the dose needed to deter some of the effects of the aching joints is sufficient to make me very drowsy, and ready to sleep…. That might be okay, but, it happens in the middle of the day just as often as at night, and I can only sleep so much before even THAT causes more pain, from lying down too long….

Getting these Pearls done has been a nightmare of some proportion, much of the time…. I work on them a day ahead, doing as much as I can before the morning, so I don’t have to do much but write a few lines of introduction, then cut & paste the rest into the right formats for email, and for WordPress…. It seems to me to be a choppy way to compose, but, it’s been working, mostly, so, and, since I don’t have any choice, I’m good with it, as long as my readers are…. Not that there are so many of them it would cause a huge reaction, should I cease to write altogether…. my reason for writing isn’t for them, anyway…. I still don’t know where I’d be if not for this blog; getting a lot of this stuff out of my head has kept me sane for some time now….

So, why am I relating all this, which is probably TMI, anyway? I’m not sure, unless it’s to warn y’all I may not post every day from now on…. If I don’t, it will be because I am unable to write, not unwilling; I just wanted to make that clear…. It isn’t anything anyone should worry about; my pain is here to stay, so, it’s just something I must learn to deal with, no matter how bad it gets….. There is no cure for what ails me, as it goes along with aging…. and there’s no turning back the clock…. I don’t intend to let it keep me from doing what I want to do, so, I’m the one who must learn to cope with its effects….

That said, anyone out there who feels I should do things differently is welcome to say how; I probably won’t listen, but, you’re welcome to chime in with any suggestions you may have…. I’m of an age, and curmudgeon enough, I’ll most likely ignore anything that doesn’t fit in with what I already am doing, but, I’m compassionate enough to know it is well-intended, and will try not to make fun, or be derogatory in my responses…. It’s hard to be nice right now, much of the time, so, I do try to mitigate my responses to reflect less of my mood….

This much typing has taken me almost an hour, in short spurts, and I see I could keep going for almost ever…. but, I won’t…. I’ll mention that the picture, from Space.com, is an artist’s rendition of the Pluto research satellite, which NASA launched years ago; the craft has just been awakened from its hibernation to begin its research, as it is approaching the fly-by range of its cameras, coming ever closer to Pluto, and its companion moon/satellite, Charon after a long voyage from Earth orbit, through the entire solar system…. We humans are on the verge of real space travel, with the only question remaining the question of whether or not we will be extinct before we can get there….

For now, though, I’ve got a Pearl to finish, though it be made much of older, archived material…. which is all my hands will allow today….

Shall we Pearl?

“Slight not what’s near through aiming at what’s far.” — Euripides

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

Just a bit of easy listening to get me through the morning….

50 Golden Moments of Classical Music – The Best of Baroque – Klassische Musik

http://youtu.be/hyHl0Ysteg8

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

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

~~ John Milton (1608-1674) — Paradise Lost, Book ix, Line 782~~

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/12/09/us-usa-cia-torture-idUSKBN0JM24I20141209?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/dec/09/truth-guantanamo-torture-abu-wael-dhiab

Due to my inability to write enough to rant today, here is a shortened rant/old-school pearl from the archives, to highlight the idiocy/insanity implied in the above two articles, just two of hundreds on the subject in the news yesterday…. SIGH…. Same shit, different day….

From 8/9/2012:

Since I have already ranted, I’ll save you from another right away by giving this old school pearl…. These quotations all point in the same direction, and will lead eventually to yet another fine reason to mistrust the beloved ruling class…..

Then came the churches,
then came the schools,
then came the lawyers,
then came the rules.

~~ Mark Knopfler ~~

“A man cannot be too careful in the choice of his enemies.” — Oscar Wilde (1854-1900), “The Picture of Dorian Grey”, 1891

“People are always talking about tradition, but they forget we have a tradition of a few hundred years of nonsense and stupidity, that there is a tradition of idiocy, incompetence and crudity.” — Hugo Demartini, in “Contemporary Artists”, 1977

“People are very open-minded about new things — as long as they’re exactly like the old ones.” — Charles F. Kettering

The Government is my shepherd, I shall not work. It maketh me to lie down on good jobs. It leadeth me beside the still factories. It destroyeth my initiative; It leadeth me in the paths of the parasite for politics sake; Yea, though I walk in the valley of Deficit Spending, I will fear no evil, For the Government is with me; its doles and its vote-getters they comfort me. It prepareth an Economic Utopia for me by appropriating the earnings of my grandchildren. It filleth my head with baloney, my inefficiency runneth over; Surely the Government shall care for me all the days of my life And I shall live in a Fool’s Paradise forever. — The Government’s 23rd Psalm

“By definition, a government has no conscience. Sometimes it has a policy, but nothing more.” — Albert Camus

No matter how you vote, a government still gets elected. — Smart Bee

That should about do it, I think….. if nothing else, one may get a clear picture of how I feel about government…..

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

To go along with the above (not a) rant, and today’s apparent theme(s), here is another fine poem from Ogden Nash, telling it like it is….

À Bas Ben Adhem

My fellow man I do not care for.
I often ask me, What’s he there for?
The only answer I can find
Is, Reproduction of his kind.
If I’m supposed to swallow that,
Winnetka is my habitat.
Isn’t it time to carve Hic Jacet
Above that Reproduction racket?

To make the matter more succinct:
Suppose my fellow man extinct.
Why, who would not approve the plan
Save possibly my fellow man?
Yet with a politician’s voice
He names himself as Nature’s choice.

The finest of the human race
Are bad in figure, worse in face.
Yet just because they have two legs
And come from storks instead of eggs
They count the spacious firmament
As something to be charged and sent.

Though man created cross-town traffic,
The Daily Mirror, News and Graphic,
The pastoral fight and fighting pastor,
And Queen Marie and Lady Astor,
He hails himself with drum and fife
And bullies lower forms of life.

Not that I think much depends
On how we treat our feathered friends,
Or hold the wrinkled elephant
A nobler creature than my aunt.
It’s simply that I’m sure I can
Get on without my fellow man.

~~ Ogden Nash ~~

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

This is the only fresh pearl today; even this was picked out in that haphazard fashion necessitated by dealing with unrelenting pain…. It didn’t come out too badly for all that, I think…. but, you can make your own judgment on that, can’t you?….

“Impartiality is a pompous name for indifference, which is an elegant name for ignorance.” — G. K. Chesterton, The Speaker, 12/15/00

“Our virtues and vices spring from one root.” — Goethe (1749-1832)

“The person who knows how to laugh at himself will never cease to be amused.” — Shirley Maclaine

“It is not the one with many possessions who is rich, but the one who has no needs.” — Philoxenos

“It is impossible for a man to be cheated by anyone but himself.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

“A noble spirit disdaineth the malice of fortune; his greatness of Soul is not to be cast down.” — Akhenaton? (c. B.C. 1375)

“Most powerful is he who has himself in his own power.” — Seneca

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

I suppose I should finish this…. By the time I finished that last pearl, I had to take a long break, to feel my hands again…. Never mind…. I’m done, and I can’t, at this point, say whether or not I’ll be back tomorrow…. I hope so, but, I’m not going to get my hopes up…. if you know what I mean…. See ya, ffolkes, some time or another…. maybe….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid, the dubious

PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.

À bientôt, mon cherí….

Casting the runes unnerves some people….

Posted on December 9, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

“Are you mentally here at Pizza Hut??” — Zippy the Pinhead

There may be many out there who read this, (which shows just how optimistically silly a mood I’m in; I can count, and, only a few hardy souls brave these pages each day…), who will question my use of the infamous pinhead to start out the day, but, to look at the expression on Albert’s face, he knows exactly why Zippy is at the top, as well as the answer to his query, which, naturally, is delivered in a piteously querulous voice, filled with apprehension and angst…. how else? I know for a fact Albert had a very silly side; I have a graphic example, to go along with ample text evidence, which has been presented here previously…. My graphic proof is, of course, this picture….

Previously, I’ve related what Albert said about Life, to wit: “After figuring out the shape and characteristics of space and time, wearing plaid with fuzzy slippers is easy.” (Or something like that….) There’s graphic proof, or suggestive evidence, anyway, of this one, too…. See?….

I’m really not making fun of Albert; I don’t have the chops to carry that off, obviously…. In fact, my irreverence is taken from him, and his own attitudes about living, as I understand those attitudes from my reading about him…. Sadly, he died when I was five, well before I had any chance to realize how wise he was; most of my knowledge of him comes from what he left behind, the legacy of what he wrote, and what others wrote about him…. That alone has been sufficient for me to realize he was one of the two or three wisest men who lived in the twentieth century, not only for his work in helping mankind to understand the physical world, but, for his insights into human nature, and life at large…. Plus, he was damn silly at times, obviously with a great sense of humor, and a keen appreciation for the absurdity inherent in reality…. The latter is a sure way to get MY attention, as y’all know….

Now, a large portion of that legacy, of information of his life, in the form of papers, letters, and pictures, of him, by him, and about him, covering much of his early life, is a much larger body of information, available to anyone who can access the internet. Princeton University, with which Einstein was closely connected for much of his adult life in the United States, has digitized ALL of the papers they had in their possession, and with the approval of the Einstein estate, have posted them online, without restrictions, for anyone to read…. Much of it is in its original German, the language of Albert’s youth, in which language he wrote his personal letters all his life; for those who don’t speak or read German, an English translation of each document is made available….

You can find it all at this address:

http://einsteinpapers.press.princeton.edu/vol1-doc

I, for one, will be spending a great many hours, happily perusing as many of those pieces of Albert’s mind at different points in his life as I can tolerate, both in German, (when I can follow it…. it’s been a long time, and I learned it well after he learned to write it; it will be thick, for sure, but, I’ll have a translation right there to help…. Yay!….), and in English…. Mostly the latter, I’m sure; it has been a VERY long time since I read any German…. But, who knows? Maybe it will break loose a whole big bunch of memories, or give me reason to find someone to speak it with me…. For now, I’ve meandered quite enough… we’ve got a lot of silly to get to today, I think….

Shall we Pearl?

“It is a profitable thing, if one is wise, to seem foolish.” — Aeschylus

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

Ffolkes, nobody has a stranger view of the universe than this man…. For your viewing pleasure, I give you now, the world’s most DIFFERENT mind….

Steven Wright Special (1985)

http://youtu.be/UB8ZDrNb3B0

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

“He asked me if I knew what time it was. I said, `Yes, but not right now.'” — Steven Wright

It isn’t every day I delete a rant which I’ve completely finished, but. yesterday, that’s exactly what I did…. I had it polished, buffed, and fitted out with appropriate pearls, all fresh crap straight out of my head, taking aim at myself, the Asininnies, aka the BRC and the Dogma Dogs (yes, that’s their new name…), the drones, and all us fools caught here on this particular plane of existence. Accurate aim, too, I think, though, the longer it’s gone, the better it gets, of course….

Dumb ass that I am, I failed to close the program I wrote it in, which then auto-saves whatever I’ve written there, so, when I inadvertently clicked the shut down button, forcing programs to shut down, all I’d done in the last eight hours, two or three minutes at a time, then breaking for pain, well… it all just went away, to wherever electrons go when they’re not given a memory address to stay in, so we can find them later….. SIGH….

Now what? I know…. I’ll go extreme….

“Hiccuping & trembling into the WASTE DUMPS of New Jersey like some drunken CABBAGE PATCH DOLL, coughing in line at FIORUCCI’S!!” — Zippy the Pinhead

Now, THAT is monumentally silly! Sad, yet, silly…. Sort of like today’s Pearl, come to think of it…. I suppose now I’ll have to make a pearl here, to keep from breaking into a song, which would then turn into a rant, against Mary Poppins, or some such idiotic icon of her level of respectability…. If what we’ve seen so far is any indication, we’ll do fine, as long as we can keep from sucking milk up our noses…. Let’s not think about it coming, or going, in ANY other direction, okay?…. Instead, let’s go find some pearls, of the random silly variety….

Birth, n.: The first and direst of all disasters. — Ambrose Bierce, “The Devil’s Dictionary”

“Nobody HAS to do anything.” — McCabe’s law

“Always watch where you are going. Otherwise, you may step on a piece of the Forest that was left out by mistake.” — Pooh’s Little Instruction Book, inspired by A. A. Milne

“Be good to your friends, or they may develop psychokinetic powers and destroy Tokyo.” — Smart Bee

“Where do we keep all our chainsaws, mom?” — Calvin & Hobbes

“A bowl of oatmeal tried to stare me down — And won.” — John Prine

HASH, x. There is no definition for this word — nobody knows what hash is. — Ambrose Bierce, “The Devil’s Dictionary”

Enough! Any sillier, and we’d start circling the drain, clockwise….

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

Nobody does silly better than this poet….

Adventures of Isabel

Isabel met an enormous bear,
Isabel, Isabel, didn’t care;
The bear was hungry, the bear was ravenous,
The bear’s big mouth was cruel and cavernous.
The bear said, Isabel, glad to meet you,
How do, Isabel, now I’ll eat you!
Isabel, Isabel, didn’t worry.
Isabel didn’t scream or scurry.
She washed her hands and she straightened her hair up,
Then Isabel quietly ate the bear up.
Once in a night as black as pitch
Isabel met a wicked old witch.
the witch’s face was cross and wrinkled,
The witch’s gums with teeth were sprinkled.
Ho, ho, Isabel! the old witch crowed,
I’ll turn you into an ugly toad!
Isabel, Isabel, didn’t worry,
Isabel didn’t scream or scurry,
She showed no rage and she showed no rancor,
But she turned the witch into milk and drank her.
Isabel met a hideous giant,
Isabel continued self reliant.
The giant was hairy, the giant was horrid,
He had one eye in the middle of his forehead.
Good morning, Isabel, the giant said,
I’ll grind your bones to make my bread.
Isabel, Isabel, didn’t worry,
Isabel didn’t scream or scurry.
She nibbled the zwieback that she always fed off,
And when it was gone, she cut the giant’s head off.
Isabel met a troublesome doctor,
He punched and he poked till he really shocked her.
The doctor’s talk was of coughs and chills
And the doctor’s satchel bulged with pills.
The doctor said unto Isabel,
Swallow this, it will make you well.
Isabel, Isabel, didn’t worry,
Isabel didn’t scream or scurry.
She took those pills from the pill concocter,
And Isabel calmly cured the doctor.

~~ Ogden Nash ~~

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

I’m not entirely sure what this pearl is trying to say, but, it all seems pretty important, so, I’m letting SB do what it wants with it…. Maybe there will be a point, but, given today’s theme, it’s somewhat in doubt…. making it a perfect ending pearl….

“Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught.” — Oscar Wilde (1856-1900)

“Common and vulgar people ascribe all ill that they feel to others; people of little wisdom ascribe to themselves; people of much wisdom, to no one.” — Epictetus

“The doctrine of human equality reposes on this: that there is no man really clever who has not found that he is stupid.” — Gilbert K. Chesterton

“The only lifelong, reliable motivations are those that come from within, and one of the strongest of those is the joy and pride that grow from knowing that you’ve just done something as well as you can do it.” — Lloyd Dobens and Clare Crawford-Mason, Thinking About Quality

“Integrity needs no rules.” — Smart Bee

“We keep, in science, getting a more and more sophisticated view of our essential ignorance.” — Warren Weaver

“The United States is a nation of laws: badly written and randomly enforced.” — Frank Zappa

Oops! Sorry, ffolkes, that last one slipped by me for a moment…. It’s too true to be cut, so, I’ll just find one more pearl, to finish this off properly, and leave it where it is, as a nod to its excellence…. Here’s the right one to end with….

“Time as he grows old teaches many lessons.” — Aeschylus (525-456 BC) — Prometheus, 981

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

My brain is clear, my conscience, though challenged, is clean, and, I don’t even like Jesus just now; I suppose I make a damn poor Amurrican. Since that’s a moniker I hope never to have applied to me, in any fashion, I’m outta here, before it occurs to someone just how silly this all is…. Oh, right. I guess it’s a bit late for that, isn’t it? Oh, well…. See y’all tomorrow, ffolkes, if I can’t talk myself out of it again….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid, the dubious

PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.

À bientôt, mon cherí….

Any soft-pedaling should look natural….

Posted on December 8, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

“Sometimes even to live is an act of courage.”

~~ Seneca ~~

I can thoroughly identify with Seneca today; his statement on life gives a perfect voice to how I feel…. For about ten days now, I’ve been experiencing a new physical phenomenon, during which much of my skeleton sings to me, while my left hip, shoulder, and my hands all provide a counterpoint of shrill, soprano high notes to augment the song being sung, with sharp high notes, shooting into my brain with knife-like intensity, just for fun….

This takes place for a good portion of the day, interspersed with minor periods of relatively pain-free time, during which I try to act normally, just as if I didn’t think it would start again in a few minutes…. Otherwise, I’d have never gotten anything done, at all….

It’s not only becoming tiresome, it’s gone beyond old, into ancient news, that I’d just as soon turned to dust, along with me, and everything else, because I just don’t give a SHIT about any of it…. In fact, I’m seriously considering withdrawing from the human race completely, & becoming a reclusive curmudgeon, even more so than I already am, to the point of claiming hermit status…. I swear, I’m not far from just buying weapons, and putting up signs that trespassers will be shot…

Add into the daily picture that there are other people to deal with, and I’m convinced…. It’s time. I am sick and fucking tired of having to deal with other people, at all…. I’m at a point where even friends are included in those who are annoying me; I am almost ready to start biting ffolkes, which I can truthfully say is the first time in my life to have experienced this kind of angst, so great even those I care about are excluded…. and I don’t feel an ounce of guilt about it, either…. Even the compassionate concern people can show would be unwelcome just now; I’m just not in the mood to be nice to anyone….

In fact, at the moment, ‘nice’ sounds really stupid, and not at all the kind of thing I want associated with my name…. Some of what is transpiring in my life just now is a result of my being ‘nice’, and I can tell you, for sure, that old saw about ‘no good deed goes unpunished’ is spot-on the money….. I’ve acted out of compassion, producing results which are all-too-predictable, as well as uncomfortable; in addition, such produces critical judgments from others, which, while true to varying degrees of context, nonetheless do naught to help me feel better about any of it…. I just can’t help operating from the basis of compassion; call me a fool, but, it’s just the way I’m made…. I guess I took the sage seriously, when he said,

“Our purpose in this life is to help each other, and if you can’t help them, at least don’t cause them any harm.” — Buddha

Now, of course, it’s all muddled, and unclear…. So, I now must wait, until right action becomes clear, a process complicated by pain, and the difficulty it adds to thinking at all…. You see, all I want to do right now is crawl in a hole, and hide from it all…. Unfortunately, that would be even MORE uncomfortable than I am already…. not to mention what it would do to my hair…..

No, it wasn’t a typo; I just wanted to see if y’all were paying attention…. I wasn’t, so, it kind of caught ME unawares, as well…. Oh well, I can see it’s going to be one of those days…. I may as well get us out of here, and start trying to fill in the rest of this mess…. Oh, look, here’s an opening into the rest of the Pearl, right there ahead in the fog…. See it? It’s kind of a shiny one, isn’t it? Let’s catch it while we can, okay? Okay…. Hang on, ffolkes, I’m taking us in!….

Shall we Pearl?

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

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

Music always works for me…. Here is a playlist compilation of the best movie themes played by an orchestra…. Enjoy!…

Great Orchestral Movie Themes

http://youtu.be/tc9nVR6jOxU?list=PL5AC591AD481576F9

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

“One always overcompensates for disabilities. I’m thinking of having my entire body surgically removed.” — The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

“There is no opinion so absurd that some philosopher will not express it.” — Cicero

I’ve decided to let my sense of the absurd take over the rest of today, so, this is all you get in the way of a rant…. These two pearls express almost perfectly how I feel; rather than complicate my life, and yours, they will have to do…. If nothing else, take with you the lesson implied….

So be it….

gigoid has spoken…. Well, sort of….

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

A couple of months ago, I wrote a poem during another episode of pain much like this has been…. Since I’m being absurd, here ’tis again…

Tempered Flesh, with Blood

Tiresome, the darkness, sitting in the sun,
submissively balancing over the pit.
Quiet as old terror, each brick one by one
building crescendo, sans music, sans style, sans wit.

Shadows thrown offer speculative fiction,
earning respite from burgeoning miscellany.
Light’s presence offers potential benediction,
if not divine, perhaps, then, beautifully zany.

Hours pass in days, minutes in a week,
challenging Reality to argue, adding a subtle smirk.
One humbly submits in hope of grace, small respite to seek,
in spite of prescient insistence ’twill never work.

Wave upon wave crash against the bloodied shore,
wearing down all natural defense.
All light is extinguished, darkness evermore;
if preserving life and love, sin no more.

~~ gigoid ~~

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

This pearl was constructed for the most part, yesterday, during a period of space from the agony that held sway most of the day. The final two entries, (though fifth and sixth in the list below) were picked out this morning, to fill in the necessary remaining thoughts leading to our point…. That point, naturally, has been left as an exercise for the Gentle Reader….

“It is in the shelter of each other that people live.” — Irish proverb

“Life is better than death, I believe, if only because it is less boring, and because it has fresh peaches in it.” — Alice Walker

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

“The chief good he has defined to be the exercise of virtue in a perfect life.” — Diogenes Laertius (c. 200 AD) — Aristotle, xiii

All cruelty” springs from weakness.” — Seneca

“No human thing is of serious importance.” — Plato

‘T is strange, but true; for truth is always strange,
— Stranger than fiction.

~~ Lord Byron (1788-1824) — Don Juan, Canto xiv, Stanza 101~~

Hmm… I hadn’t noticed before putting all of it together, but, this seems to be a paraphrase of Axiom #6 of Peruaosophy, to wit: “And God so loved the world, She said, “Quit whining!”…. Works for me….

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

All in all, I think I’ve done well, if only because I made it this far….. Y’all can make your own judgments as to that; that’s your job, after all…. Me, I’m outta here…. See y’all tomorrow, ffolkes, if I haven’t retreated to some cave in the mountains….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid, the dubious

PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.

À bientôt, mon cherí….

Salvation in a plastic cup….

Posted on December 7, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

“To use words but rarely is to be natural.”

~~ Lao Tzu ~~

According to Lao Tzu’s observation, this little fellow is as natural as he can be; cheeky little devil, too, he was, marching right up to me as I took his picture, virtually demanding I come up with a treat of some kind. I shared a small piece of my muffin with him, which he seemed to appreciate, snatching it up & devouring it right in front of me…. Afterward, though, he turned away, ignoring me completely, once he decided I was no longer a food source…. Ah well, I don’t suppose it’s unnatural for him to be a scrounge, considering where he hangs out, in the local park with all the drug dealers and their customers; food treats wouldn’t be among the stuff they drop on the ground….

Now I’ve spoken about the opening entries, where the hell am I supposed to go with this? It’s not as if I’m bursting with energy, or lacking in my usual degree of obstacles to getting this done; the day has begun with a sharp knife seemingly buried in my left shoulder, right in the joint under the scapula, a delightful condition which makes me want to bite myself already….

I have a feeling there will be some rather frightened, sweaty people going home after work today; I need to go out into the world later, to carry out some business. In the state I’m in, there is almost certainly going to be strained interactions; my tolerance for foolishness is at a premium, and there are a LOT of fools on the loose today, what with the Christmas shopping frenzy currently taking place in this country….

Oh, well, they’ll just have to watch their step, I guess, because I’m in no mood to put up with any nonsense. In truth, I (almost) enjoy forays into the commercial world this time of the year; it offers so many opportunities to let out those little annoyances that we all save up throughout the year, onto targets well-deserving of our ire, as they share their ignorance and foolish incompetence with the rest of the world, dressed up like elves….

Y’know, I think I’ll switch directions altogether here…. This one seems not to lead anywhere I’d really like to be; this season is hard enough without letting myself get all worked up over the foolishness of the world. I already know I’ll be beset by crowds of shoppers, all hurrying to complete their lists before anyone else, so they can get home to practice their egg nog recipes, or bake more fattening cookies, while humming “God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen” along with the Muzak playing in the elevators… However, there really isn’t any reason to let myself get worked up over any of it…. Instead, I’ll just be ruthless, ending this here, while I still have a bit of control over what may happen…. In fact, we’re leaving, now….

Shall we Pearl?

“Sometimes I think we’re alone. Sometimes I think we’re not. In either case, the thought is quite staggering.” — R. Buckminster Fuller

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

Deciding on a video each day has been added to those daily tasks I have set myself which fall into the PITA category after a time…. Coming up with an interesting story, or bit of music, or just an idea, or meme, is the same sort of task as finding material for ANY pearl, to wit: not as easy as it seems it would be…. This, no doubt, has to do with doing it every day; everything seems more complicated when it’s a daily ritual. A kind of importance beyond its apparent position is lent to each one, as it must hold the readers’ attention, and provide some entertainment…. That’s the idea, anyway…. Ah well, there’s no sense in complaining about it; I did it to myself, didn’t I?

Here, then, is a bit of classical music, with some cultural panache, to soothe my fevered brow…. well, maybe not fevered, but, bothered, for sure…. No worries, ffolkes, it’s self-inflicted, so, you shouldn’t have to worry about splashes…. Just enjoy the music…..

The Lord of the Rings Symphony

http://youtu.be/mfFQuhWaA_k

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

My hands are again unable to maintain typing for any length of time, necessitating another trip to the archives in order to complete today’s Pearl…. I’m not going to even comment on this one; no matter what it is, or what it’s about, it will have to do…. So be it, gigoid has spoken, for what it’s worth….

From 6/9/2012:

My life, described in six words….

“Looked for love, found it everywhere.” — gigoid, to KDFC DJ Hoyt Smith, 2009….

While listening to the radio one day, the DJ was talking about a meme activity he had been received via email earlier that day from a listener. The challenge was to describe your life in exactly six words; he gave several examples of those who had already responded, and asked the listening audience to call in with their own. After a couple of moments the above six words floated to the surface of my mind, almost unbidden, so I called in, and, to my surprise, my call was taken, and my quote was put out over the air.

For life, with all it yields of joy and woe,
And hope and fear (believe the aged friend),
Is just our chance o’ the prize of learning love,–
How love might be, hath been indeed, and is.

~~ Robert Browning (1812-1890) — A Death in the Desert ~~

Considering that what I said in those six words is as true as the day, it felt kind of good. Fortunately, it didn’t lead to any more than 15 seconds of fame, the time it took to say my name, and my contribution…. It isn’t that I was hoping it would lead to an appearance on Letterman or anything, but it did feel pretty good, as I am proud of the quote….

Of course, I’ve never found the secret to getting love to stay, other than that love between friends that is so important. Our culture, so tenuous in its support of monogamy, provides people with so many ways to leave a relationship without penalty, no one seems interested in making them last an entire lifetime any more. It’s like, “Oh well, that didn’t work… there’s lots of fish in the sea….”, and, off they go into the dating world again…. Frankly, it makes me dizzy….

I can’t say I know what the problem is in society that dooms relationships these days; if I did, then it wouldn’t be a problem, as I’d know what to avoid…. What I do know is that on five occasions in my life, I’ve given my heart to a woman, and spent all my energy giving my all to that relationship, faithfully and fully. On all of those occasions, the woman eventually decided, for their own personal reasons, that they didn’t want to continue, and left. I guess they like Will Shakespeare more than I do… as they seemed to take on his attitude…

“I dote on his very absence.” — William Shakespeare (With all he wrote, even HE came up with something coherent occasionally….)

I’ve been fortunate, I guess, in that of those five times, only three were painful in their intensity; two of them were relatively amicable breakups. But, it hurts when a woman I’ve loved for 23 years, and intended to die with, decides she’d rather pursue other options; it hurts, a lot…. It also hurts when a woman has said she loved me for ten years, and has been lying the whole time…. that kind of betrayal has a very lasting pain, and is slow to pass…

I hear you reproach, “But delay was best,
For their end was a crime.” Oh, a crime will do
As well, I reply, to serve for a test
As a virtue golden through and through,
Sufficient to vindicate itself
And prove its worth at a moment’s view!
. . . . . .
Let a man contend to the uttermost
For his life’s set prize, be it what it will!
The counter our lovers staked was lost
As surely as if it were lawful coin;
And the sin I impute to each frustrate ghost
Is–the unlit lamp and the ungirt loin,
Though the end in sight was a vice, I say.

~~ Robert Browning (1812-1890) — The Statue and the Bust ~~

Pain is an old friend, though, in all its various guises, and I know it always passes in time. Now I am looking for love again, in my own time, still trying to find that one woman who can be both loving and honest, over time. The ones I’ve known so far have all had a problem with that last part…. it’s not something our society teaches well. But, until I find her, I’ll have to make do with the pain…. But, I know she is out there, somewhere….. There’s got to be some woman who would enjoy being worshiped by an old, fading, but faithful, romantic curmudgeon with a soft spot for dogs, cats, and kids….

In the desert a fountain is springing,
In the wide waste there still is a tree,
And a bird in the solitude singing,
Which speaks to my spirit of thee.

~~ Lord Byron (1788-1824) — Stanzas to Augusta ~~

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

The above is, of course, merely a complaint, during one of those days when being alone was becoming tiresome…. To prevent falling into a rut, here is a poem, of mine, which speaks to another subject entirely…. In fact, it’s my most recent poem, and speaks to more than one subject…. I think…

A dream, weeping….

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

~~ gigoid ~~

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

Okay, so, I gave Smart Bee its head yesterday, and this is what it came up with, after a period of conflict over whether or not it would be done at all… I won…. It seems to be another pearl addressing how to express human nature with some dignity, and how to maintain one’s honorable opinion of one’s self….

“He who boasts of his ancestry praises the merits of another.” — Seneca

“An ancient buddha said, Mountains are mountains; waters are waters. These words do not mean mountains are mountains; they mean mountains are mountains.” — Dogen

“No man is an Island, entire of it self; every man is a piece of the Continent, a part of the main; if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friends or of thine own were; any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankind; And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.” — John Donne (c.1571-1631) — Devotions upon Emergent Occasions (1624) “Meditation XVII”

“One should seek virtue for its own sake and not from hope or fear, or any external motive. It is in virtue that happiness consists, for virtue is the state of mind which tends to make the whole of life harmonious.” — Diogenes Laertius (c. 200 AD) — Zeno, (B.C. 335?-264), liii

“Since we cannot know all that is to be known of everything, we ought to know a little about everything.” — Blaise Pascal

“A man’s ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death.” — Albert Einstein

“Depend not on fortune, but on conduct.” — Publius Syrus

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

Regardless of how any of this came out, it will have to do, as I don’t have the time, or the wherewithal, to go back & start over…. In any case, I’m calling it done, and beating a retreat while I still can…. See y’all tomorrow, ffolkes…. I don’t seem to be able to stop myself….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid, the dubious

PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.

À bientôt, mon cherí….

Numerous system monitors attended in mufti….

Posted on December 6, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

“A wise player ought to accept his throws and score them, not bewail his luck.”

~~ Sophocles (496-406 BC) ~~ Phaedra, Frag. 862 ~~

For the last 10 days or so, we’ve had some weather here in NorCal, mostly of the rainy variety. While the resultant water levels in our reservoirs, miniscule though they may be, are welcome, it’s been something of an ordeal for me, as I have reached a stage in my life where all those old wives tales, and cultural truisms about aging are coming home to roost, right here in my own skeleton. We hear all our lives how old ffolkes can predict the weather, due to feeling pain in the joints prior to any changes…. I’ve always assumed it was a myth, but, since my own joints have started to complain whenever the weather gets wet, I can see how it may eventually become precognitive….

While it may be convenient to know when rain is coming, I can’t see why we have to use pain as our gauge….. but, then, nobody asked me, did they? Nope…. In fact, I’d wager NONE of us got asked; it’s just the way it is, and we can like it, or lump it…. Me, I’m trying to figure out how to either ignore it (the pain), or bury it in an avalanche of heavy drugs; the former is better for my liver, but the latter is more efficient in dealing with the pain…. so, I’ll take the risk… At this end of my life, it seems like a better deal, as my days are numbered, anyway…. I’d rather be comfortable, which, I’ll admit, is awfully human of me….

But, though that is a perfect lead-in for a rant on human nature, I’m not in the mood to rant…. It does happen, even though it still may force its way into the forefront of my consciousness, should any stimulus catch my attention, such as a random headline about the BRC, or another of our current crop of Asininnies…. There are a lot of opportunities just now for obtaining rantable material; the issues now in the public eye are perfect examples, to wit: the recent spate of injustices by police and grand juries, or the immigration mess going on in Congress…. But, none of it inspires me today; I’m still recovering from the last ten days of misery and drug-induced mental fog, I suppose; even my emotional responses are blunted right now, due to energy levels at rock bottom….

Due to the pain I’ve had, I’ve been filling in parts of these Pearls whenever I can, at times when my hands are more flexible, without the constant ache…. So, they seem a bit choppy to me, even though the finished product may not reflect that. S’okay, though, as I don’t believe it has caused much of an actual loss of quality; that has already been determined to be little affected by whatever method I choose…. probably something to do with the overall averages, which don’t seem to reflect all the methodology differences. Whatever it is. it works for me, especially since the process of describing the issues has brought us to the jumping off point, once again without our cooperation, or our notice….

I’m going to take advantage of that, right here, right now…. As you may have guessed, for y’all, that means just one thing, to wit: it’s time for y’all to tighten up those belts, put down your adult beverages, and hang on, because we’re goin’ in hot and hard…. Well, perhaps not so hot, but, hard, for sure…. We’ll be okay; we just upgraded the bumpers…. See how shiny they are now?…..

Shall we Pearl?

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

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

Here is a classic Sherlock tale, A Scandal in Bohemia… In this episode, Holmes comes up against the only woman, in his eyes, who ever bested him in a case, the beautiful Irene Adler…. These You Tube versions of the old BBC shows are, in my mind, excellent interludes of pure entertainment, made even more enjoyable for the lack of commercials…. Enjoy….

The Adventures Of Sherlock Holmes – S01E01 – A Scandal In Bohemia

http://youtu.be/ou_CarzFiEM

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

“It’s even worse than you think…..” — Smart Bee

Here is a virgin rant…. This is one of my earliest rants against the system, as it exists in today’s world. It shows some of my more egregious writing style errors, some of which I’ve cleaned up to reflect what I’ve learned in the interim…. All the points listed herein are still valid, even though my own situation, as described at the end, has improved vastly, since I fully retired on SS disability…. Today’s rants, much more specific in terms of targeted categories, were built on the same angst as this one; now, they are simply more effective at indicting the responsible parties…. Constant practice makes for constant improvement, eh?…. Well, one may hope….

From 6/7/2012:

“Our days are happier when we give people a bit of our heart rather than a piece of our mind.” — Smart Bee

I think this is obvious to the point of becoming natural law. It’s a very close insight into human nature, and I don’t know about y’all, but it sure is true for me. Today is a perfect example of this….

I feel trapped a lot of the time. Hemmed in by the very society who is supposedly there to support me in my efforts to pursue my life’s goals and aspirations. Of course, anybody over the age of 10 realizes any support from society most often resembles a slap to the head, but, the point is, society’s purpose for existing is to aid it’s citizens in maximizing their experiences, for their own benefit, which, in the process, benefits society. I mean, that is what its purpose is MEANT to be; I don’t think it would be very beneficial to continue, if this isn’t the case. Society is supposed to work in such a way that all of its members have an equal chance to succeed in whatever they undertake in life… ostensibly, it’s sole reason for existing at all….

In reality, it doesn’t work that way, for the simple reason that some of the folks in the game have changed the rules; simply, they play by rules which suit themselves, and what they want. What they want is total control of everyone else…. They’re pretty good at it, too. For close to 8,000 years now, the beloved ruling class has set things up in our culture to favor themselves. They have lied, cheated, stolen, killed, repressed, oppressed, and generally acted in a manner that the rest of humanity considers immoral, unethical, and inhuman, at the core. They have done this right in front of our eyes. The rules and laws that are agreed to by all were written to favor those in power, not those who serve.

Though every church shouts out how moral and ethical it is, and spouts off about the virtue of faith and obedience, they do so not from spiritual surety, but from avarice and ambition. Though every government claims to have the welfare of the people as its purported goal, the only people who gain are those who are already wealthy. The rest go on welfare alright, but not the kind they should be able to expect….

And that is why it pisses me off so badly…. as humans, all we really want to do is be happy. It isn’t so much to ask. Most folks are happy when they have enough to eat, a place to sleep, and someone they love to be around. It soothes our nature to be able to share such feelings, hence the accuracy of the quote from Smart Bee above. We just feel better when we can share good feelings with others…. But, we are constantly blocked from doing so, by the society we live in.

In today’s culture, we are put in a situation where it takes all of our time and effort just to obtain the things we need; food, shelter, clothing. Gathering enough resources to ensure an ample supply of all three takes more than one person can make, thanks to the economic picture in a world where 1% of the population controls 99% of the money and resources. Unless one throws aside all of one’s humanity, becoming one of the ruthless ones, indifferent to the suffering of others, who inhabit the 1%, making enough to get by in today’s society just isn’t possible… I know, I’ve spent the last 55 years trying, and I’m a pretty talented guy….

Now, I don’t care about being rich. “If you want a life of trouble, fill your house with treasures…”, a Chinese proverb so old I don’t know who said it. But, I’ve believed it all my life; as a result, I’ve always worked only to get enough to live comfortably, and to provide stability and opportunities to succeed for my family. I’ve never given in to the urge to take advantage of others, or to cheat, or steal, or lie in order to get ahead; if I didn’t get ahead on merit, I stayed where I was.

It didn’t seem to matter much, anyway. The system is set up so that, at each step up the ladder of financial gain, the rules become more complicated, and are still set up to deny advancement. (I.E., as you make more money, they take more taxes…. In order to borrow money, you must already have money…. etc…) Lately, the government has been less creative in their lies as to why they are taking money from the average Joe….

In all three of the last raises I earned when I was still working, the extra money in my check was taken away by furloughs, a method of reducing my hours. Each time I expected to make a bit more, they would take away another day’s work, thus eliminating the advancement in pay…. The justification given was rationalization implying state employees made too much anyway, so, taking away their money was going to balance the budget… Funny how that didn’t work out that way….

Being retired from working has had two effects for me…. It gives me way too much time to be able to look at reality, to find the flaws and kinks causing all the friction and conflict in the world. Unfortunately, it has also made the task of obtaining the three necessary items for survival more difficult, by reducing my income drastically, to the poverty line, and at the same time, making it more physically difficult to accomplish what I need to do. SIGH…. Murphy is such an ASSHOLE!

Okay, I’m done. I could go on most of the day, but it’s starting to sound whiny to me. I’m not a victim. I will be alright, eventually. I will be more than alright. But, it pisses me off royally that I can’t spend more time sharing my heart with others, rather than sharing my thoughts…. My heart is much more fun to be around, mostly…. at least I’d like to think so. Now, if I can only get it to climb out of the hole of depression it has crawled into so much lately, perhaps I can find a way to cheer it up…. as long as Murphy will give me a breather now and again….

“Don’t ever become a pessimist, Ira; a pessimist is correct oftener than an optimist, but an optimist has more fun — and neither can stop the march of events.” — Robert Heinlein, Time Enough For Love

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

As many of y’all know by now, every once in a while, you’re going to see a poem, or two, by this lady…. I’ve decided more than enough time has passed since we saw her; therefore, to be as pompous as possible in two short lines, today’s choice is one of my favorites of hers…. It never fails to soothe my fevered brow….. and the pomposity soothes my sense of propriety, for whatever THAT’S worth….

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 ~~

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

Today’s final pearl is what Mary Poppins would term “PPIEW” (Practically perfect, etc….) Each one is a strong stand-alone pearl, while, together, they form a nearly perfect set of standards for anyone wishing to live an honorable life, based on reason and compassion…. Enjoy, ffolkes; even the format today will help to center your thoughts….

Virtue, dear friend, needs no defence,
The surest guard is innocence:
None knew, till guilt created fear,
What darts or poison’d arrows were.

~~ Horace (B.C. 65-8) ~~

“I don’t think it would have all got me down quite so much if just once in a while- just once in a while- there was at least some polite little perfunctory implication that knowledge should lead to wisdom, and that if it doesn’t, it’s just a disgusting waste of time.”

~~J.D. Salinger~~ Franny & Zooey ~~

“No matter how cynical you get, it’s impossible to keep up.”

~~Lily Tomlin~~

And bear unmov’d the wrongs of base mankind,
The last and hardest conquest of the mind.

~~ Alexander Pope (1688-1744) ~~The Odyssey of Homer, Book xiii, Line 353 ~~

“The only way to compel men to speak good of us is to do it.”

~~ Voltaire ~~

“It is your resistance to ‘what is’ that causes your suffering.”

~~ Buddha ~~

So live, that when thy summons comes to join
The innumerable caravan which moves
To that mysterious realm where each shall take
His chamber in the silent halls of death,
Thou go not, like the quarry-slave at night,
Scourged to his dungeon, but sustained and soothed
By an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave
Like one that wraps the drapery of his couch
About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams.

~~ William Cullen Bryant (1794-1878) ~~ Thanatopsis ~~

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

I’m not sure how it happened, but, this one came out fairly well, even without a fresh rant…. go figure…. Ah well, I’ve got enough time in at this job to be able to say, without fear of contradiction, it’s done, and that’s all there is to say about it…. See y’all tomorrow, ffolkes; I don’t think I’m up to pushing my luck any further….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid, the dubious

PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.

À bientôt, mon cherí….

We boil the spread sheets, but, all clip art gets baked….

Posted on December 5, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

“Nothing can be done at once hastily and prudently.”

~~ Publius Syrus (42 BC) — Maxim 557 ~~

I’ve been using a lot of space photos lately; this one is an artist’s rendering of the newest NASA manned spaceflight capsule, the Orion, as it docks at the ISS. Having always been a space flight enthusiast, an amateur astronomer, and a reader of science fiction, it all fascinates me. I had originally intended to study astronomy or astrophysics in college, and always wanted to be an astronaut, every since the very first manned flights, back in the early 60’s….. I even made a personal vow, at age 11, that I would not die on Earth, but, would be buried on another planet, even if only the Moon…. A bit fanciful, but, I still mean to try to survive long enough to get off Earth at least once….

Chances are getting slim that will ever happen, but, hey, a man has to have a dream, right? My dreams these days involve survival of the species, mostly, as that seems to me to be our most pressing circumstance, as humans…. We don’t have much time left, if any, to make an effort to establish ourselves on another planet, or planetoid, by which, I refer to moons, asteroids, comets, etc…. There are lots of places in our solar system containing abundant natural resources, easy enough for us to find and utilize, though not all of them are other planets…. In fact, there are fewer obstacles to overcome in order to colonize the asteroids than we may encounter trying to live on Mars…. It is amazing how much EASIER it is to live without gravity getting in the way, technologically speaking…..

Whether we try to establish colonies on Mars, the asteroids, our own Moon, Luna, or the moons of Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune, and Uranus, (of which there are more than a hundred….), it is becoming more imperative each day that we make some sort of decision, and get started on doing so, without any further delay….. We don’t have a lot of time before living on this planet will become an even greater technological challenge than living in space, with no gravity, and abundant solar and nuclear power, an existence made much easier to maintain than here on Earth. where we will see the necessity to find or manufacture our own air, food, and water…. None of these are impossible tasks, but, they won’t happen unless we first admit the danger, and the necessity to establish more bases for humanity to survive, in various points around the solar system…. If we continue to confine ourselves to one planet, we won’t survive at all….

Okay, I’ve now ranted, though it may not seem as if I have…. It sort of crept up on all of us I think…. After looking over what I’ve written above, I can’t say there is anything missing, or flawed, so, it will do, both as an intro, and as a mini-rant…. I didn’t mean to start out so strongly, but, the picture got me going; a view of the infinity of space will always stimulate my mind’s eye, pointing it toward the possible futures we may experience…. The planetary environmental crisis here on Earth is worsening each day, with new weather patterns being noted all over the world…. The coming year is predicted to be the warmest our planet has EVER experienced, according to all the historical and environmental evidence there is to be found, and we still don’t know how that will affect us, or the rest of our planet’s ecological balance…

Before I hare off in another direction, with a new rant on a new, related issue, I think I’ll take this opportunity to get us out of the intro, and down the line to the video section…. Today’s Pearl is going to be a fairly fresh one, even if the rant section may have to go with an archived piece; I don’t like to rant twice, and this is already enough to make ffolkes uneasy, I’m sure…. We’ll see how it goes when I get there…. for now, I see our turn coming up, so, put your liquid refreshments in their holders, tighten your belts, and hang on, because we’re going in…..

Shall we Pearl?….

“Man is a rational animal who always loses his temper when he is called upon to act in accordance with the dictates of reason.” — Oscar Wilde

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

Okay, so, what did you expect? More cats? No way; I don’t like to repeat myself…. Today, you get PUPPIES!….

The Cutest Puppies Compilation

http://youtu.be/amtuB-2wGeQ

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

I went through the news yesterday, where I found the BRC, and the Asininnies, to be in full control. The news is mostly concentrating on the race issues brought to the surface of the nation’s attention, stimulated by the recent court failures to prosecute police officers who kill citizens. While this is, of course, an issue that must be addressed, it does focus attention elsewhere than on the actions of our leaders, thus giving them the time and space to hide their true agendas from public view, by acting clandestinely to secure their aims…. The lack of any other news of significance is a sure sign that things are worse than they seem….

So much so, I am unable to find a reason to rant…. Oh, it’s not as if there isn’t any subject to rant about; the problem is that there are too MANY subjects to choose from, each of which represents yet another way the predators who prey on society are displaying their lack of compassion for any of the other members of their species, using them simply as a means of consolidating their own powers. To anyone with more than two neurons working together, it is quite obvious; to those who base their lives on accepting what they are told, nothing is amiss, at all…. After all, it’s Christmas, right?

Rather than spend eight or ten paragraphs trying, once again, to bring their chicanery to the attention of anyone happening by to read, I’m putting together an old-school indictment, to indicate to those who come by, exactly where they can see for themselves just how badly we are all being screwed, by those who would have us believe in their altruism…. which, in fact, does not exist at all…. So, here are some observations about those assholes who would be king…. Pay close attention, ffolkes, and any of you folks who might see this; it’s all true as the day….. Let’s see how vicious we can be this early in the day, shall we?….

One murder made a villain,
Millions a hero. Princes were privileged
To kill, and numbers sanctified the crime.

~~ Beilby Porteus (1731-1808) — Death, Line 154 ~~

“The truth is often a terrible weapon of aggression. It is possible to lie, and even to murder, with the truth.” — Alfred Adler (1870-1937)

“The question is, why are politicians so eager to be president? What is it about the job that makes it worth revealing, on national television, that you have the ethical standards of a slime-coated piece of industrial waste?” — Dave Barry, On Presidential Politics

“The American Republic and American business are Siamese twins; they came out of the same womb at the same time; they are born in the same principles, and when American business dies, the American republic will die, and when the American Republic dies, American business will die.” — Josiah W. Bailey

“In many if not most elections, the consequences come to about the same result as two bald men fighting over a comb. Whichever one gets elected is going to commission the design of a new comb, and it is going to be expensive. Of course, most government expenditures are not as significant as the purchase of a new comb, but the point is made.” — Smart Bee

JUSTICE, n. A commodity which is a more or less adulterated condition the State sells to the citizen as a reward for his allegiance, taxes and personal service. — Ambrose Bierce, “The Devil’s Dictionary”

“Politics is a pendulum whose swings between anarchy and tyranny are fueled by perennially rejuvenated illusions.” — Albert Einstein

And remember, let’s do it to them before they do it to us. — Final line, US Senate Oath of Office

“Man is descended from a hairy, tailed quadruped, probably arboreal in its habits… For my part I would as soon be descended from [a] baboon … as from a savage who delights to torture his enemies … treats his wives like slaves … and is haunted by the grossest suspicions.” — Charles Darwin (1809-1882)

“Giving power and money to the government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys.” — P.J. O’Rourke, former Gulf War correspondent, summing up what he learned during two years of research on how our government functions

“It is terrible to contemplate how few politicians are hanged.” — G. K. Chesterton, The Cleveland Press, 3/1/21

Well, it took eleven pearls, but, I think we finally achieved the proper degree of disdain and vituperation…. If not, we can always try again tomorrow….

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

Just to keep this all in my court, here is another old one of my own….

Random Visions/Coloring Between the Lines of Grief

Everywhere is dark, and shining,
with points in dissonant pain.
Sharp, senses dull past divining,
tears burn, a torrential rain.

Escape! Flee within to cower,
find an unconscious cave.
Call on Morpheus’ power
deny reality’s beckoning wave.

Light breaks, drawing the inner eye,
leading to the slippery slope.
Risk is critical, we may only sigh,
yet welcome, for bringing hope.

Sanity seems far out of reach
Insanity’s a stronger friend.
Decisions made will merely teach
our way toward Death to wend.

Lost, while still on familiar ground,
the future yet undesigned.
Making way on paths unfound,
to Now, as yet undefined.

~~ gigoid ~~

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

Okay, not bad…. All that is left now is to put together an old school pearl…. I’m getting a bit dazed and confused; it happens sometimes when the news is making me nervous with its lack of stuff to write about; I’m always concerned the Asininnies are busy behind the scenes, preparing more nasty surprises for us, usually springing their crap on Monday mornings, when everyone is busy worrying about getting back to work…. I think I’ll let Smart Bee pick out the rest…. I’ve chosen the the first two pearls, and SB will choose the other five; for fun, you can try to pick out the two I put in, to see if it is as obvious to you as it is to me…. or, you may just enjoy them, taking the meaning as you may….

“If I do not do it now, when shall I do it?” — Dogen Zenji

“Anacharsis said a man’s felicity consists not in the outward and visible favours and blessings of Fortune, but in the inward and unseen perfections and riches of the mind.” — Plutarch (46-120 AD) — The Banquet of the Seven Wise Men, 11

“Here is the beginning of philosophy: a recognition of the conflicts between men, a search for their cause, a condemnation of mere opinion, and the discovery of a standard of judgment.” — Epictetus

“If a man take no thought about what is distant, he will find sorrow near at hand.” — Confucius

“Food for thought is no substitute for the real thing.” — Walt Kelly, Putluck Pogo

Well…. There you go. A nearly perfect five-star pearl, to balance the eleven-star version above…. of which I will say this; I could have made that one even longer. There seems to be no end of quotes vilifying the Asininnies; they’ve been a pain in society’s collective ass for a long time… But. these five sparkling gems almost balance out the dirt they tend to toss around….

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

Okay, so much for another morning…. Given the amount of pain in my hands and shoulder, I’m astounded I got this done at all…. I have yet to proof it, but, it felt as if it actually had something worthwhile to say, even if it didn’t say it as well as I might like… Nonetheless, it got said, so, that will have to do for another day…. Living up to that initial quote, from our old friend, Publius Syrus, was harder than it seemed; still, perseverance, as is its habit, managed to win the day…. I’ll see y’all tomorrow, ffolkes…. Well, that’s my intention, anyway….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid, the dubious

PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.

À bientôt, mon cherí….

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: Smart Bee

Concrete oatmeal & hockey puck biscuits…. Yum!

Unbeknownst the vicar, vice entered the parish….

Casting the runes unnerves some people….

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