It requires a subtle artichoke to turn colors….

Posted on May 21, 2013 by gigoid

Ffolkes,
And then I woke up….. really damn early. But, then, considering that I fell out completely at about 7:30 PM, it isn’t particularly surprising to wake up at 5:03 AM. I believe I’m beginning to reach the end of my energy for exploring new territories, and for living the high life. Last night, our first whole day at sea, was formal attire for dinner, and I was just not into either getting dressed up, or for making nice with strangers. Even though I’ve made some friends while on board, not many have pursued the relations, nor have I sought to continue any; everyone, me included, seems to be satisfied with brief, friendly, but not particularly open encounters.

This suits my curmudgeonly nature just fine, as I am tired to the bone, of people, and places. Two more days will give me my complete fill of all of it, I’m sure, and I will be glad to fly home, miserable as the flight promises to be, stuck once more in a confined area with 499 others, all pumping body heat, for eleven or more hours. Once I am actually home, I will be very happy to stay there for a long time…..

None of which even considers how glad I’ll be to see Patricia…. It isn’t easy to do this cruising thing alone, even when one is as centered as I am, and able to enjoy being alone. It’s a lot more fun with someone else to share the experience; I found myself wanting to turn to her during the trip, to say “Look!” or “Isn’t that beautiful?” or a hundred other ways to acknowledge the beauty or interesting nature of what I encountered …. Ah well, we’ll be going on a cruise ourselves at the end of June, so, I have that to look forward to…..

In the third section today, I’ll put the few pictures I got yesterday, of some of the desolate islands that make up the Greater Hebrides, and the Orkney Islands which dot the ocean at the northern end of Scotland. The ocean was much more deep ocean in nature, with swells of about 3-4 feet, enough that this massive ship, complete with with stabilizing fins, and a competent master, still tended to rock and roll a bit. I was happy to find that I had acclimated to the motion, though, and never felt a twinge of nausea, even when gazing out to sea, watching the birds, and looking for dolphins, which are known to greet ships in the area, according to the natives in Greenock. The only fin I saw, though, was not a dolphin fin, but a smaller shark of some kind, chasing some prey near the surface…..

The last paragraph sums up my day at sea pretty well; it was a pretty slow day, which gave me time to feel all the aches in my calves from the extra walking I did in Greenock port; I figured out I probably covered about four miles, way more than I’m used to, so some soreness is kind of welcome, in that sense. But, it made for a relatively slow day for events, with the menu at each meal being the most compelling decision I had to make, as the menu depends on which venue one chooses…. buffet, dining room, snack outlets (pizza, gelato, etc….), casual bistro style dining, and the rest of the choices on board. It’s a tough job, but, someone has to do it, so, I gave it my best shot, as it were…..

Wow, I didn’t realize I had that much BS stored up in there…. That’s what I get for not writing for several days, other than to discuss the pictures I took. There’s so much, I think I’d best call a halt here to work on the photos, or I’ll ramble on for days…. Six paragraphs of nothing much is legally enough for an intro section, so we’ll go on to something else now….. Shall we Pearl?……

“Never before have I encountered such corrupt and foul-minded perversity! Have you ever considered a career in the Church?” — Black Adder II

(I know, complete non-sequitor, but, it’s such a great line, I had to throw it out there…. It’s perfect for a religirant, if I was in the space for one, so I give to you, gratis, in place of said rant….. Okay, now we’ll get on with the show….)
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As yet, nothing rantable has sallied forth to be written, other than the above quote, which stands alone quite well, so I’m going with an old-school pearl. This one was picked in an extremely random fashion, so I can’t say how it will turn out. I trust Smart Bee, though, so we’re going with it, no matter how hard it is to figure, or how obscure it gets…. Some days, that’s just the way I am…. Yep…..

Around existence twine,
(Oh, bridge that hangs across the gorge!)
ropes of twisted vine.

— Basho

“The one who tells the stories rules the world.” — Hopi proverb

“Fight for your opinions, but do not believe that they contain the whole truth, or the only truth.” — Charles A. Dana

“Closed eyes are not always sleeping.” — Smart Bee

“Honor is the reward of virtue.” — Cicero (B.C. 106-43)

Finally he released the young man, and waded back to dry land. Then Socrates questioned the man. `What did you most want just now?’ The young man replied, `Air.’ `When you want knowledge as much as you just wanted air, you shall have it.’– Some random Greek historian

“2nd star on the right, then on until morning.” — from Peter Pan, by J.M. Barrie, and James T. Kirk, stardate unknown
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In the interests of…. well, something that now completely eludes me, I am going today with one of my poems…. I don’t know if y’all remember this one; it’s one I wrote during the NaWriPo poetry challenge of recent vintage, and is one of my personal favorites…. I hope you enjoy it too….

Ah Ain’t Sho, but Mebbe So….

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

~~ gigoid ~~

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Okay, here is where I bore you to death, with the sum total of pictures I was able to get yesterday, cruising in the North Atlantic….
See what I mean? A VERY slow day, sea-watching-wise…. Oh well, it should be better in Inverness, and at Loch Ness, later today…. I hope…..
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Having thus used up the hours that I awoke early to find in front of me, I’ll now leave you to fend for yourselves the rest of the day, as I must do….. Shouldn’t be too hard, I’m all shopped out, and my legs ache, so I think my time ashore will be limited to just what it takes to get some good pictures to share with y’all…. In the meantime….. Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid

If it would only wiggle, we could save it….

Posted on May 19, 2013 by gigoid

Ffolkes,
And when I woke up, I was in Ireland again….. Morning, ffolkes…. My consistency in posting has been shot all to hell by this trip, and I can’t say I’m too upset by that, because, hey, cruise ship, y’know? My sense of time is completely whacked, other than to know which meal is being served at one of the half-dozen eating venues on board. Plus, yesterday, I finally got my massage, compliments of guest services, to make up for a few little hitches in their service on the first couple of days I was here…. and it turned both my muscles and my mind to mush….

We spent yesterday in Liverpool, the home of the Beatles, and I was kind of looking forward to seeing the Cavern Club, if nothing else. However, the weather decided to turn wintry, with a temp in the low forties, or less, and a drizzle most of the day. I did get off the ship, to walk around the pier and watch the Ferry Cross the Mersey wend it’s way across the river, and the pictures I took are below in section three…. Today we are in Belfast, Ireland, which is actually still part of the British Isles, and uses their currency, the Pound Sterling, rather than the Euro, which is used by the rest of Ireland. If that is confusing to you, think how they must feel living here….

I’m enjoying the cruise much more now, as I’m learning the ins and outs of the ship, and have made my connections with certain members of the crew… meaning I charmed the hostess in the dining room to seat me alone, so I could enjoy the four course meal, with wines paired perfectly, and didn’t have to make nice with six other people whilst doing so…. As you might guess, it is a big strain on my curmudgeon tendencies to be nice to people all the time….

Of course, dining alone has its hazards, as the nearest table was occupied by a crashing bore, who was regaling his mother with every little piece of Beatles trivia he read in People magazine, and criticizing the town, the people, and everything in general at the top of his voice….. I almost got up and hit him with my walking stick…. fortunately, right at that moment, they brought the Grand Marnier Souffle and my B&B, so he got to live…

Enough rambling and boasting…. I feel like actual pearling today, so fasten those seat belts a little tight; we may hit some turbulence, and we don’t want any injuries we haven’t planned for…. Shall we Pearl?…..

“First, I’m going to give you all the ANSWERS to today’s test.. So just plug in your SONY WALKMANS and relax!!” — Zippy the Pinhead
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When I say I feel like pearling, what I mean is I feel like an old school pearl, where I pick an idea, and use the quotes to lead the Gentle Reader to that general area, so they can enjoy the thrill of discovery, and hopefully, epiphany…. This group is the first since I re-loaded Smart Bee (again….SIGH…..), and could be a good one…. or not, the odds are about even…. Enjoy, mis amis….

“Expect the unexpected, for it will happen, usually when least expected.” — Smart Bee

“And the wind shall say, Here were decent, godless people their only monument the asphalt road and a thousand lost golf balls.” — T.S. Eliot (1888-1965)

“I feel my immortality oversweep all pains, all tears, all time, all fears, – and peal, like the eternal thunders of the deep, into my ears, this truth, – thou livest forever!” — Byron (1788-1824)

“He who is unable to live in society, or who has no need because he is sufficient for himself, must be either a beast or a god.” — Aristotle

“A good listener is not only popular everywhere, but after a while he gets to know something.” — Wilson Mizner

“Like strength is felt from hope and from despair.” — Alexander Pope (1688-1744) — The Iliad of Homer, Book xv, Line 852

“It has long been known that one horse can run faster than another – but which one? Differences are crucial.” — Lazarus Long
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Since both Pope and Byron were included above, it’s only right that our poetry for the day come from that era, and from the period’s acknowledged master…. Keats…. Hmm…. something is up with either Google, or the on-board network, as I can’t get it to go to Poemhunter.com, where I find most of my poetry for use here…. So, you’ll have to make do today with one of mine, written last March sometime….. I like it….

After the odyssey….

Portraits of iconic symbols, crashing, singing, forgotten;
evolving into mature innovation, as yet pale, and rotten.
Still water justly breeds, impenetrable primal verses resound;
unholy moments tarry, emotion swirls in passion unbound

Spiritual ovulation precedes each pregnant pause;
gravid, time moves on, following destiny’s cause.
Cast adrift on waves of confusion, to a final, damp landing;
salvation beckons sweetly, fed well on understanding.

Dreams directly fall, in night’s grey bower, unbidden;
lingering flavors in simple taste, lovingly, cleverly hidden.
Childish laughter sounds, joyful, bright, and clear;
no need ever to hide, no more monsters to fear.

Temper most foul arrives under unregistered mail;
forgotten taunts live on, lashed by an ancient flail.
Plain dealing delivers such lasting specks of honest hate;
savage in retrospect, never hasty, always running late.

Forever, cries an ambient lover of the pending night;
his pale, weak issue forms its own failing light.
Still, fortune favors such as those who apprehend;
Sweet love of Gaia, let it never end.

~~ gigoid ~~

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Okay, they aren’t much, but these are the shots I took of Liverpool….

The view from the deck of the Infinity…
On the waterfront….

One of the beautiful buildings across from the docks….

And a really poor photo of the Ferry Cross The Mersey…

That’s all for today, ffolkes….
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I find the process of creating these Pearls is both enhanced and made more difficult by being on the road, so to speak. But, that is a personal problem, and has nothing to do with you, so don’t fret, all will be well, eventually. I’m off to explore today’s venue, Belfast, Ireland…. Wish me luck…. Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid

Such pretty little teeth you have…..

Posted on May 15, 2013 by gigoid

Ffolkes,
The sun rose slowly, majestic, climbing up to sit on the horizon over the deep expanse of the Atlantic Ocean, halfway to Ireland from the coast of France. As I watched its regular progress toward the zenith, I reflected on the time just spent…..

It seems my muse has deserted me, just when I needed her the most….. Now I’m going to have to re-load Smart Bee, so I can find her again, hiding in one of the quotes I’ll see eventually. We are speeding toward Cork (Cobh), the town on the Irish coast nearest to where the Titanic went down in the early 20th century. It will be my first time off the ship, as I didn’t want to visit Paris for just one day (and, as I discovered, the one day of the week when the Louvre is closed, meaning my only reason to go wasn’t happening….), and I had no interest in the isle of Guernsey, where we’ve been anchored all day…. So, I’m going to go load SB; I’ll be right back to start today’s Pearl…..

“I’m a fucshia bowling ball somewhere in Brittany” — Zippy the Pinhead

Trust Zippy to come up with an appropriate statement to fit any occasion… In this case, he describes my feelings for much of the day yesterday. Since coming aboard this ship, I’ve had several instances of having the staff tell me something, and not having it happen. In and of themselves, each of the incidents might not have been a big deal, but coming one after another, I rapidly lost patience, thanks to the emotional morass that exists in me at all times…. I just don’t deal well with stress anymore…. After the last incident, in the spa, it took me hours to regain my equilibrium, and I still didn’t get my massage! I know that we all have to learn to live with disappointment, but it isn’t supposed to be like this when I’m paying these prices….

Rather than spend another day in the dumps, however, I resolve to put it behind me, at least long enough to put out this Pearl, now being written at 0430 in the morning, because that is when I awoke, fully charged, having gone to bed at 9 PM last night, and spent all night dreaming about…. something. Any who, this meandering batch of BS will serve well enough as an intro, at least until I can find something better….. Shall we Pearl?…..
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Sometimes, Smart Bee is smarter than usual. These five little aphorisms point in a direction that will enable me to bring back some balance, and hopefully, allow me to find my center sometime before the cruise is over…. These are all excellent advice, for any day, not just the difficult ones…..

Be happy while y’er leevin,
For y’er a lang time deid.

— Scottish motto for a house

“If you can spend a perfectly useless afternoon in a perfectly useless manner, you have learned how to live.” — Lin Yutang

“There are always options.” — Worf, “The Emissary”, stardate 42901.3

“To a man of strong character misfortune may do him more good than harm.” — Roger Bacon

“On the other hand, life can be an endless parade of TRANSSEXUAL QUILTING BEES aboard a cruise ship to DISNEYWORLD if only we let it!!” –Zippy the Pinhead
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I haven’t thought about poetry in over a week now, having been somewhat preoccupied with this trip. I find myself in need of some Emily D….

Me! Come! My dazzled face
In such a shining place!

Me! Hear! My foreign ear
The sounds of welcome near!

The saints shall meet
Our bashful feet.

My holiday shall be
That they remember me;

My paradise, the fame
That they pronounce my name.

~~ Emily Dickinson ~~
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In the interests of keeping it simple, here is a picture from my stay in London…. I got several good shots while riding around on the double-decker tour bus, but, since I can’t upload many pix on this network connection on board ship, I’m limiting it to one good shot per Pearl…. This is a picture of the Houses of Parliament with the tower of Big Ben…..
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Not too bad for an off-the-cuff effort….. and, regardless, it’s going to go out, as is…. My plan for today is to brave the rainy weather in Cork, Ireland, long enough to find a sweater or two….. I will try to post again tomorrow, but, given the unreliability of the connections I have, it may or may not be possible…. I’ll do all I can, though, to put out something….. Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid

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

Posted on May 8, 2013 by gigoid

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“So live that you can look any man in the eye and tell him to go to hell.” — Smart Bee
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It seems that fate has guided my hand, or perhaps just my eye…. The following is an excerpt from the same old Pearl as the above rant… The Pearls from that time had already evolved into the format we now know and love so well, so it just fits right in, just as if it was meant to do so…. which it was….
—————————————-

As a matter of course, I don’t usually make dedications, but this one just fits so right…. I have a friend on WP, whose site is dedicated to all things beautiful, and everything she posts meets every standard I know of in justification of that. In short, it is a small island in the huge ocean of the WWW where one can go to find a short respite from all the ugliness of modern life, and the vagaries of the human experience…. so here’s one for Carol Welsh, whose site you can find here: http://carolwelsh.wordpress.com/

A Thing of Beauty (Endymion)

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

~~John Keats ~~

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid

You can join the looters AFTER church, Billy….

Posted on May 5, 2013 by gigoid

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

— Henry Fielding (1707-1754) — Tom Thumb the Great, Act i, Sc. 2
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Last month was great, in terms of writing poetry, but I missed reading it…. That probably sounds contradictory, but what I mean is that I missed reading other people’s poems, as I haven’t been able to read other blogs as much as I’d like in the last couple of months…. I’m busier out in the BBR, and can’t sit very long anyway. Now, however, the challenge to write a poem is over, and I get to find my old favorites and find new stuff from them…. Call me odd, I don’t care, because I am… Most poets are….

A Song About Myself

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

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

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

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

~~ John Keats ~~

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid

Assign three spinsters to snipe patrol….

Posted on May 4, 2013 by gigoid

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A bird came down the walk…

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

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

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

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

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

~~ Emily Dickinson ~~

__________________________________

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid

Twice around the neck should do nicely….

Posted on May 3, 2013 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

“And then I woke up.” — Smart Bee

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

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

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

“Life eludes logic.” — Smart Bee

Aha! That explains all of it! Now we can get on with the normally scheduled activities of the day, since Smart Bee has taken over the creative process completely. I suppose I could chalk all of it up to getting up so early, but, that’s never been acceptable before, and I doubt it would fly now. Though I’m a firm believer that the worm should have stayed in bed, being the bird is usually a better bet, at least for breakfast. And, yes, we are already lost again, somewhere in the vast fields of illogic…. which, as we all know, is right next door to chaos. Rather than fall over into that realm, I think we should just rip off our clothes, and dive in….. Shall we Pearl?…..
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It turns out that my inclination to rant is connected to my overall feeling of security….. For over two years, I took shot after shot at the BRC, organized religion, the sex slavery trade, global warming, overpopulation, and whatever else came under my scrutiny that caused even the slightest degree of outrage.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I keep telling you, it’s all in the wrist, see?…..
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A poem leaked out this morning, so, here ’tis, such as it is…. I hope you like it…..

Funny Bones

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

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

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

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

~~ gigoid ~~

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid

Never curl your lip at Art Deco…..

Posted on May 2, 2013 by gigoid

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

— Lao Tze

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

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

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

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

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

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

— Tao Te Ching

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

It’s been a whole month of not reading very much of other people’s poetry, and I’m glad to be able to get back to whatever I want in this section… I think I strained my brain writing poems on a deadline, and I missed the daily dose of genius…. So, here is today’s pick, from another of my favorite poets…..

The Little Boy and the Old Man

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

~~ Shel Silverstein ~~

__________________________________

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I guess, what I’m trying to say here is…. Ooooh, shiny! I’ll be going now, out into the Big Blue Room, to pass some more time, however I can….
__________________________________

“.. I’m IMAGINING a sensuous GIRAFFE, CAVORTING in the BACK ROOM of a KOSHER DELI –” — Zippy the Pinhead

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid

Lots of flavor left in that carburetor….

Posted on May 1, 2013 by gigoid

Ffolkes,
Four or five years ago, if anyone had told me that the scariest thing I’d ever seen in my life would manifest itself every morning, in the guise of a blank sheet of paper, I’d have laughed, quite a lot….. Now, I see exactly that frightening sight, every day when I sit down to write this nonsense, experiencing waves of panic and anxiety, over whether or not I’ll find anything worthwhile to say. Much of the time I end up discussing my fear, or lamenting the dearth of ideas with which my early morning brain has to offer; this fear often leads to some pretty deep BS, and occasionally, a decent piece of fictional meandering…. Most of the time, however, is spent composing paragraphs like this one, full of personal, useless information, good only for those keeping score, i.e., nobody…. not even me….

I don’t know why we’ve never been raided; I’d have thought that, by now, one of the neighbors would have complained about the moaning and screams that often escape during the stunt portion of the show. But, nope, the authorities have, thus far, ignored our little operation, in spite of the frequently seditious material that gets written and displayed here. I suppose the correctly constructed sentences, with relatively correct grammar and punctuation throws them off a bit…. As we all know, if a message is presented in a certain way, or offered by certain parties on TV, it doesn’t have to be true for people to buy into it, no matter how outrageous, or untruthful it may be….. In fact, they (the BRC…. you know, politicians…..) count on this very fact to ensure their continued profit as the keeper of the keys to the treasury.

Don’t worry, I’m not going to rant now…. I’m not sure I’ve got one in me today. Even this James Joyce-style stream of consciousness stuff isn’t going very smoothly, at least not from this end….. I couldn’t say how it’s coming across to y’all….. which is a problem for us bloggers. It would be nice to be able to watch people’s faces as they read my work; it would tell me a lot about how well, or, conversely, how badly, it was constructed, and whether or not it is having any effect at all, in terms of stimulating cogitation and/or conversation…. Garnering comments is always a good sign that what I wrote affected someone, and I love the dialogue with other bloggers from around the world…..

I’ve blathered and meandered long enough, I guess. Three paragraphs, chock full of nothing much. but for immaterial comments, and space-filling pomposity, are all I care to write, and more than I should make ffolkes read so early in the day… But, perhaps they won’t see it until later, so, that won’t wash either…. Shoot, I can’t seem to get anything right today; it might be best for all of us if I just crawl back into bed, and not take any more chances today….. I have a feeling that things could get quite sticky….. If nothing else, I’ll be walking on eggshells all day, waiting for the other shoe to drop…. I’m going to dive now, as I think it might be safer in the water….. Shall we Pearl?…..
__________________________________

Often, I feel confused….. then, I open my eyes and take aim. But, that’s just me…. Here is a seven-star old-school pearl, with a point worth exploring. It’s a little obscure, but, not too much so…. and, it has the added advantage of being correct, to about six places….. Well, my calculator says so, anyway, and that’s all that matters….. Enjoy!

25. Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer. — Instructions for life

“Now, more than ever, it is evident that `good taste’ only refers to that which reinforces the status quo.” — Andre Peret

“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”

“At the doctor’s office, I noticed, there are two castes of people, those with cancer — the patients – and those without – the doctors, nurses, secretaries, and receptionists. The latter gossip among themselves and treat the patients with the mild contempt reserved for those on the other side of the glass, the diseased ones. What they don’t realize is that the glass partition separating us is an illusion. They don’t know they are not safe either; that human life is a space shuttle full of Krista McAuliffes. This is what cancer patients know. It is our little secret.” — Judith Hooper, “Beauty Tips for the Dead”

“Once when Phocion had delivered an opinion which pleased the people,…he turned to his friend and said, “Have I not unawares spoken some mischievous thing or other?” — Plutarch (46-120 AD) — Phocion

“…and remember you’re a Man, not just god, and for you there aren’t and never will be any easy answers, only questions, and no reasons, only causes, and no meaning, only intelligence, and no destination and no kindly magic smiling down from above, and no fires to goad you from below, only Yourself and the Universe and what you make out of the interface between the two equals.” — Keith Laumer, _Night of Delusions_

“Nothing is impossible. Some things are just less likely than others.” — Jonathan Winters in “The Twilight Zone”
__________________________________

All last month, I tried to post my own poetry each day, to meet the April Challenge of the National Poetry Writing Month…. With the (extensive) help of my archives, I managed to do so, even coming up with 18 new haiku…. but, now, I’m in the mood for somebody else’s poetry…. So, we’ll go with an old favorite of mine…. enjoy!…..

Columbus

Once upon a time there was an Italian,
And some people thought he was a rapscallion,
But he wasn’t offended,
Because other people thought he was splendid,
And he said the world was round,
And everybody made an uncomplimentary sound,
But he went and tried to borrow some money from Ferdinand
But Ferdinand said America was a bird in the bush and he’d rather have a berdinand,
But Columbus’ brain was fertile, it wasn’t arid,
And he remembered that Ferdinand was married,
And he thought, there is no wife like a misunderstood one,
Because if her husband thinks something is a terrible idea she is bound to think it a good one,
So he perfumed his handkerchief with bay rum and citronella,
And he went to see Isabella,
And he looked wonderful but he had never felt sillier,
And she said, I can’t place the face but the aroma is familiar,
And Columbus didn’t say a word,
All he said was, I am Columbus, the fifteenth-century Admiral Byrd,
And, just as he thought, her disposition was very malleable,
And she said, Here are my jewels, and she wasn’t penurious like Cornelia the mother of the Gracchi,
she wasn’t referring to her children,
no, she was referring to her jewels, which were very very valuable,
So Columbus said, Somebody show me the sunset and somebody did and he set sail for it,
And he discovered America and they put him in jail for it,
And the fetters gave him welts,
And they named America after somebody else,
So the sad fate of Columbus ought to be pointed out to every child and every voter,
Because it has a very important moral, which is, Don’t be a discoverer, be a promoter.~~ Ogden Nash ~~

__________________________________

When I leave for Europe, one of my plans for this blog is to post pictures of wherever I’ve been that day, in London, Paris, Dublin, wherever. I got a new camera, and have been experimenting, and think I’ve got it set up so the pictures I take can be worked with on the computer easily, after adjusting the size of the pictures the camera is set to take… The first batch I took were HUGE, taking up several pages of space, so I had to figure out what the correct setting was; I think I’ve got it right now. The picture below should stand as proof…..
So, in the future, look for more pictures from gigoid’s camera, as I aim it at everything I see out in the Big Blue Room…..

😆
__________________________________

As I hinted yesterday, this blog is evolving…. and today is the first new version, I think. Let me see how it works….. Well, it works for me…. and since all I can think about is going back to bed, it will have to do…. after all, all you can do, is all you can do, and I’ve done all I can do…. huh? Never mind…. Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid

Save that lanolin, we’ll use it on the new busboy….

Posted on April 30, 2013 by gigoid

Ffolkes,
I know, now, how the White Rabbit felt, as he hurried down the rabbit hole to Wonderland, “I’m late, I’m late, for a very important date…” Even though the only thing I’m late for is posting this Pearl, I feel the same sense of panic and hurry as did he….. No reason, really. I did sleep a bit late, and had to spend the first twenty minutes repairing and reloading Smart Bee…. it pulled its bi-monthly corrupted file trick, which requires a quick delete and re-load of the entire program, plus a re-start of the computer…. No big deal, but time consuming…. which brings us to the present moment….

Egad, what a mess…. I’ve managed to completely screw up my transaction record, so I have no idea of exactly how much is in my account, and it’s time to pay bills for the month. I’m going to have to pay everything, then stop using the cards at all until it all catches up, and I can reconcile the record with reality…. SIGH…. I never was very good with money; it comes from never having much of it to deal with, along with a hearty disregard for the concept itself… “If you want a life of trouble, fill your house with treasures.” I first heard this, and took it to heart, when I was about 11 years old, and made a conscious decision at that time to never try to get rich…. I’ve done that, quite well, actually…..

That’s all Big Blue Room stuff, though, and has no place here in ECR…. though it IS reality, I question the relevance for anyone reading this missive, so we’ll leave that behind, and find some other way to lead into today’s post…. That will be quite a trick, as I haven’t a clue as to what will happen today. I left the entire template blank, other than the usual suspects, intending to let myself go into an artistic trance, just typing away until my fingers wore out, and then seeing what was worth keeping…. much like I write a poem, in truth. But, my left wrist hurts from too much typing anyway, and I can’t seem to find a trance-state anywhere, in my head, or out. So much for that idea….

But, look, we’ve got three paragraphs again, just chock full of irrelevant BS, about rabbits, corrupted files, checkbooks, and mysticism colored by whimsy. Perhaps it isn’t exactly Hemingway-esque, but it’s certainly better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick, and it does allow us to move on to something that MIGHT be instructive, if not entertaining. We often blur the two around here, so it’s best not to ask which it is supposed to be…. we don’t always know, and hate to be embarrassed…… Shall we Pearl?…..
__________________________________

“I can’t keep from fooling around with our irrefutable certainties. It is, for example, a pleasure knowingly to mix up two and three dimensionalities, flat and spatial, and to make fun of gravity.” — M. C. Escher

If you’ve seen Escher’s work, you’ll know that what he says here is truth, a truth graphically demonstrated by the visions he transfers to each canvas. Though I doubt I’ll ever be hailed as such a genius as he, I like to think that what I write attempts to do the same, but rather than with dimensions of space, I play with the elements of belief that we humans hold, regarding certain aspects of society. In other words, it is a pleasure to knowingly point out the lies and the truths that people hold as certainties, and to make fun of how seriously the lies are taken, which we can equate to the force of gravity…. believing these lies is what holds us back from our potential, just as gravity holds us bound to the surface of the Earth…..

Just as Escher’s paintings release us from the laws of space and time, and of how to perceive them, our imaginations can release us from the repression heaped on us by the BRC and the 1%. When we stop believing the lies we are told, we can stop being puppets of the power of custom. Just because a lot of people believe something doesn’t make it true; only the facts of the matter can do that. In the act of accepting the lies we are told by those in authority, we become party to their chicanery, accessories, before and after the fact, to the crimes being perpetrated on society, and on the Earth as a whole….

“It happened that a fire broke out backstage in a theater. The clown came out to inform the public. They thought it was just a jest and applauded. He repeated his warning, they shouted even louder. So I think the world will come to an end amid general applause from all the wits, who believe that it is a joke.” — Smart Bee

I think Smart Bee might have a point here….. Most people don’t look past the surface of what they perceive; they accept whatever they are told, as long as the one delivering the message is in the appropriate costume, or setting. Put a moderately good looking man in a suit, have him sit at a desk looking studious and concerned, and people will pretty much take whatever he says as gospel, even if it has absolutely no truth in it, or any connection to reality whatsoever….. The public’s reaction to the possibility of global warming resembles the above statement quite a lot. Same with the question of overpopulation, either of which issue will certainly lead to war and misery, as a minimum, or extinction as a species, eventually, as a maximum result….

Whenever I bring this up, though, I am met with a silence that is deafening, and which serves as proof of exactly what I am saying…. This is the kind of message that no one wants, to hear, or to believe is real…. So, they don’t. Or, they just ignore it, thinking it will go away if they look at it again in a few days…. Guess what, ffolkes….. It”s real, it’s not going away, and that is a FACT, not a supposition, or speculation, or misread data, or conspiracy, or anything else…. it’s a fact…. And the only way to change it, is for EVERYONE to decide to turn 180 degrees from the path we are on, even if it means getting rid of those among us who don’t want to go that way… because that way means DEATH…. for all of us, without exception…. Deal with it…..

“I used to be an idealist, but I got mugged by reality.” — Smart Bee
__________________________________

Okay, no cheating today…. It’s the last day of the National Poetry Writing Month, so I’m going to do my best to come up with a fresh haiku, and a fresh poem…. We’ll see how it goes, eh?….. As every day this month, these are being included as part of the April National Poetry Writing Month Challenge, with the updates to be found here: http://www.napowrimo.net/ I hope you enjoy them…..

Haiku XVIII

More beautiful days,
the weather is amazing.
Soaking up the sun.

Off the proverbial cuff…

I never meant to kill that period of time,
it didn’t give me any choice.
It tried to hem me in without reason, or rhyme,
refused me any vote, or any voice.

You have to admit, I buried it deep and fast,
just as if I cared.
I knew, though, it would never last,
or ever be fully repaired.

No news, no pictures can bring it back,
once is all we get.
No pleas of public good, or even public lack;
in stone the past is set.

Futuristic visions now occupy my dreams,
I’m ready to go on.
Look! It fills up the screen, and it gleams!
Where’s the moment I’m sitting on?

Now, I remembered, at long, long last,
is all we really can hold.
Every moment goes by so bloody fast,
we’d best fill them all with beauty, warm and bold.

~~ gigoid ~~

__________________________________

Though today’s first section cannot be strictly considered as a rant, it was an indictment, so we’ll count it as one…. That gives me the excuse to go with an old-school pearl. Today we’ll go completely random, with Smart Bee as the only one deciding what should be included…. Let’s see what comes up from the depths today, shall we?…..

“The earth hath skin, and the skin hath diseases. One of these…is called man.” — Nietzsche

“Labour to keep alive in your breast that little spark of celestial fire,–conscience.” — George Washington (1732-1799) — Rule from the Copy-book of Washington when a schoolboy

When asked, “If you find so much that is unworthy of reverence in the United States, then why do you live here?” Mencken replied, “Why do men go to zoos?”

“Entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem. (Entities must not be multiplied beyond necessity.)” — William of Occam, Occam’s Razor

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

“You know, of course, that the Tasmanians, who never committed adultery, are now extinct.” — W. Somerset Maugham (1874-1965)

“UH-OH!! We’re out of AUTOMOBILE PARTS and RUBBER GOODS!” — Zippy the Pinhead

Perhaps going TOTALLY random was a mistake; this is pretty inscrutable. So inscrutable, even I am not sure what the point is, other than to point a finger at Man, for….. something…. Maybe the finger should go up the nose, to remove any foreign bodies that may have been inadvertently ingested through the proboscis….. Oh, well, it isn’t bad, so just enjoy them individually, and I’ll leave them off the Quiz….
__________________________________

Aye, very late indeed…. let’s see how it proofs….. Hmm…. it’s not responding; it may be dead…. Oh well, it’s done, so I’m not going to fuss with it any further…. Besides, I’m hungry…. Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid

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

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Exploring Consensual Reality

Tag Archives: Smart Bee

It requires a subtle artichoke to turn colors….

If it would only wiggle, we could save it….

Such pretty little teeth you have…..

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

You can join the looters AFTER church, Billy….

Assign three spinsters to snipe patrol….

Twice around the neck should do nicely….

Never curl your lip at Art Deco…..

Lots of flavor left in that carburetor….

Save that lanolin, we’ll use it on the new busboy….

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