Motivation, denigration, invocation, potato….

Posted on July 18, 2016 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

“I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together!”

~~ The Beatles, “I Am The Walrus ~~

Foxy the Stump….

Hajime…. Today is…. blank? Hmm. As I sat to begin, my mind felt full of relatively creative urges; when I began to type, it all went away. This, of course, tells me our old friend Murphy is hanging somewhere about the premises, looking for trouble. This isn’t to say we can do much about it, except to try to be mindful, so he doesn’t catch us completely flat-footed. It does mean I should speed up this intro a bit, in order to keep ahead of him as long as we can…

I suppose I could abandon all formality, & just dump y’all down the page. But, we’ve got some good stuff here today, so, I’ll ease you in as best I can, with a little prep. For your listening pleasure, I’ve included an hour of Wolfie Mozart, with two of his best pieces one after the other. Our ranting section today is filled with a most excellent guest piece, by our friend Dean Baker, with one of the finest takes on modern culture I’ve seen. Period. There’s also a rather nice old-school pearl, bringing us to the closing section with dispatch if not aplomb. Not bad for an old drunk curmudgeon, eh?

What? Oh, drunk… no, not now, but, much of last night was spent at some level of that condition; kind of fun, & makes sleep come quick…. I guess I could do without the mild hangover, but, the price has to be paid, one way or another, eh? A hot shower, a bit of mild walking, & I’ll be fine. To get moving toward completing some of that, I’ll end this here with my new-found sense of ruthlessness, which, though still a bit uncomfortable, works quite well for this sort of thing…. It works just like this, as you well know….

Shall we pearl?….

“It’s like brother Nietzsche said –being human is a complicated gig,
so give that dark night of the soul a hug and howl the eternal yes.”

~~ Chris, DJ, Northern Exposure ~~

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Wolfie M….

Today’s musical selection is simple. The two symphonies you’ll hear are both from Wolfgang Mozart, the last two he wrote, considered two of his best. Together, they give us an hour of delightful noise, as fine as any ever produced by humans…. I hope you enjoy it….

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Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Symphonies 40 & 41

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https://tormentingthemonkey.wordpress.com/2016/07/14/suicide-citizens-and-lethal-force/

Yesterday, after procrastinating a bit for a day or so, I finally checked out the post of an author/writer/poet/musician/scholar/curmudgeon/magician named Dean J. Baker. I am privileged to be able to call him friend, as I consider him one of the finest artistic souls of our generation. (As a side note of some personal satisfaction, I can safely say I know at least three such souls, none of whom are celebrities in the normal sense, but, are those who, in my more than normal experience, exhibit the qualities I know to be, in human terms, eternal… I guess that will need to be explained further, but, that can be for another time…. To return to reality, real-time…

I found, upon relieving the stress of procrastinating, a literary gem. I’m going to reproduce it today, but, you can read the original at the link above. Considering the recent news, and all the hullabaloo in the news regarding violence in society between the police and the public (which I’ll point out is a mask/metaphor for the true battle, between the narcissist sociopaths and the rational humanists, comprising the two most influential segments of the human bell curve….), this is both an extremely timely examination, as well as both exacting an indictment, and offering a potential direction to take…. I give you, Dean Baker….

Suicide Citizens, and Lethal Force

How stupid do you have to be to get shot by the Police?

Things are obvious. You get stopped. Stopped, not interrupted. Stopped by legal representatives of the Law who are empowered to shoot, and kill you.
They are not going to wait or hesitate to see if you have a gun, if you make a movement. They aren’t saying to themselves, ‘Hey, maybe this guy or girl is reaching for a gummi bear to alleviate their tension at being stopped, so maybe they won’t fire off a quick shot and if they do maybe I won’t get hit.’

Whether or not they’re mean themselves or generally helpful outside the situation has nothing to do with anything. You’re stopped, you stop.

Whether or not the situation dictates that they should shoot you a few more times once you’re down is a legitimate reason for a fast debate since there is reason from examples that they not only shoot to stop you from shooting them, but that they shoot to kill you.

But really, what kind of special retard do you have to be to move, shift, disobey directions meant to keep you safe, them safe, and prevent you from being shot?

Consider this: you likely have one or two .40 caliber guns pointed right at you. In less than five seconds, you can be dead. The news is full of unlawful victims, righteous shootings, and the use basically of lethal force.

Are you an idiot who cannot read? Are you blind that you cannot see these? Or maybe you climbed off the Special Bus that says ‘none of that real world stuff applies to me.’

Then consider the fact that on the side of the Police there is likely an assumption that you are half way intelligent, and/or aware.
And then you move..

Certainly the rules of, and teachings for, policing may need to be reviewed immediately – and more than casually.

I’m not in favor of getting shot, certainly. I detest the idea that people, stupid or not, are getting shot, resulting in trauma all around. What’s going to happen? A citizen-ruled committee that says we must trust that you are a well-intentioned person who may or may not have made an error, so we’ll wait to see.

Duh, no.

The entire idea of policing in regards to stops is to establish bona fides, or not.

The vulnerability rests in the fact that in this society there is a built-in idiot factor.
Doctors won’t inform on a colleague who may be doing irreparable harm. Schools won’t fire a teacher who likely ought to be taking, not teaching, classes. Bureaucracies employ idiots.

You know what I mean – you probably have a relative or friend you know who needs being replaced.

And cops won’t say yeh, some of us are true assholes who ought to be arrested because with their training and knowledge they’re more dangerous than some ignorant citizen.

Until that idiot factor is corrected you’re going to have wrong doing on both sides of the law.

The other side of that idiot factor is punishment that does not fit the crime.

When it’s light, there’s outrage. When it doesn’t exist, and seems to cater to authority, even greater outrage.

People do talk about justice, but make no mistake: there’s also a need for vengeance legally administered. The only real debate is on whether the degree is sufficient to satisfy the counter balanced requirement for justice and revenge combined.

And yes, there are morons who merely want their criminals to say they’re sorry. They’re all sorry they got caught, and those fools who require only acknowledgment are victims-in-waiting.

As for incidents where there are a group of police and one antagonist with a knife, I would think citizens would say ok, disarm the crazy, although from recent reports the Police would say, screw that, kill them.

Citizens would hope that their Police would make an effort to beanbag, taser, or beat the perpetrator. Not simply shoot, then shoot again when they are down as has happened too many times.

If a citizen can defend against such a crazy by shooting them, where’s the difference between them and the Police who do the same if they are in a group?

That sounds and looks like Police rules, not law.

Cops ought to have greater and more useful methods and manners of dealing with the wild ones, most especially if they are contained by being surrounded, or trapped in a vehicle unable to get out because they’re surrounded.

Otherwise, let’s admit to a truth: if you have a knife, and may or may not be crazy, and there is a group of Police around you, rather than finding a way to disarm you, they will kill you instead – all the talk and persuasion is a false idea of Police work when the end result is no different from what a citizen can accomplish.

Let’s at least recognize the idiot factor so changes can be effected, even if it would be stupid to assume people will alter their inclinations.

And as for the retard instigators who are merely glorifying themselves – establishing the fact that they need an authority to rebel against – know that they are simply the other side of authority, without the empowerment, and without the knowledge and practical applications, and thus even more dangerous than what they protest.

Where are they before any incidents? Are they stupid, waiting for a mess to occur before they channel their outrage when it’s more than likely it won’t be organized and thus effective at change? At most that is intellectually lazy and at least it’s a passive violence. Are they really self-servingly waiting for an excuse to exact a self-righteous rage, and thus not to be taken seriously?

However, if they choose the proper channels, establish a grouping of citizens to establish a fair protest against unfair rules and rulings, then to challenge authorities afterwards is as legitimate as the method in which this nation was founded.

Don’t be a tool of the media which enflames for its own end.

Nor the billionaires who fund movements for their own selfish reasons: which are never to the good of the individual citizen. You’re being manipulated by the self-righteous who are getting paid.

©Dean J. Baker

You can purchase Dean’s Books here:

https://deanjbaker.wordpress.com/awards/all-print-books-links/

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“Poetry is what gets lost in translation.” — Robert Frost

Placidly falling in amber waves: old friends

Whiskey, oh, whiskey, I’d forgotten thy balm,
thy loving spread of lassitude, and nature’s own calm.
Misery and pain flee in squalid disorganization,
leaving mirth, happily embraced, in just consolation.

James, old friend, thou has not abandoned me at all,
steadfast and loyal, ever ready to answer my softest call.
Ephemeral illusions of normality come at your instigation
blessed moments of peaceful joy, sans vilification.

Gasps of coherence pound at the door to conscious thought,
muffled explosive memories of battles already fought.
Malleable as the changeable airs of time and circumstance
plaintive calls to reason stand not a single, honest chance.

Sober again, reality’s cold reign brings a new day
ringing in old changes in a new-fashioned way.
To know true freedom’s release from our everyday pain
Is worth a bit of headache, even in the cold, pouring rain.

~~ gigoid, two sheets to the wind, and back ~~

“You will find poetry nowhere, unless you bring some with you.” — Joseph Joubert

12/2/2012

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Naked Pearls

Simple Truths

*********

“You can observe a lot by just watching.”

~~ Berra’s Law ~~

~~ Yogi Berra [Brooklyn Dodger’s Catcher & Major League Philosopher] ~~

*********

“Be not afraid of going slowly; be only afraid of standing still.”

~~ Chinese Proverb~~

*********

“Safety is on the shore, but the pearl is in the ocean.”

~~ Chinese Proverb ~~

*********

“The character of human life,
like the character of the human condition,
like the character of all life, is “ambiguity”:
the inseparable mixture of good and evil,
the true and false, the creative and destructive forces —
both individual and social.”

~~ Paul Tillich ~~

*********

“If there is no wind, row.”

~~ Latin Proverb ~~

*********

“Remember that what pulls the strings is the force hidden within;
there lies the power to persuade, there the life,
–there, if one must speak out, the real man.”

~~ Marcus Aurelius Antoninus — Meditations, x, 38 ~~

*********

“I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.”

~~ Confucius (551-479 BC) ~~

*********

“Costing not less than everything. “

~~ T.S. Eliot ~~

*********

“Love;
While you have life to give
Live;
While you have love to give.”

~~ Piet Hiem ~~

*********

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

Thankfully, this came together well, in spite of my hung over state, and the ubiquitous threat of Murphy hanging about. To show my appreciation in the most relevant way, I’ll end it now, here. I will, however, be back tomorrow to torment, er, try this again. See ya, ffolkes; take that as you will….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid, the dubious

The *only* duly authorized Computer Curmudgeon.

PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.

“SCRAM!!!!!!!!!!”- Oscar the Grouch

À bientôt, mon cherí….

Use all the available pitchblende….

Posted on June 26, 2016 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

“To be alive is to take risks; to be always safe and secure is death.”

~~ Edward Abbey ~~

Summer Flowers

Hajime…. It has become increasingly clear to me how important this process is to my entire being. For the past week, the only part of my day which seems to have any constructive purpose is the time I spend putting this together, along with a small period following the posting of it, during which I try to surf to my favorite blogs, & catch up on comments. Once I’ve done some of that, I have tumbled, without warning, into the abyss of depression, whereupon I start pursuing activities which distract me from that, by sending me to other places in my mind; reading, going for a walk to do chores in town, or sleeping seem to work the best. For the rest, I weep, or recover from such depths of emotional storms.

That is why I have not been getting to the comments, or reading all the blogs & articles I’d like to be able to see. It’s a pisser, to be sure, for the contact with others provided by such surfing has become valuable, and valued highly. At present, I haven’t a clue as to when this might pass; in the past it has been known to last more than a little while. I always seem to find my way back to at least close to my center, but, it can be a trying time until I find the proper path, or stance to assume. One would think, given the strength and breadth of mind I claim to possess, it wouldn’t be such an issue; such qualities don’t seem to be any more defense against it than the chemicals doctors tend to rely on for it. But, it does keep my overall chemical balance in better shape, that’s for sure, and that is a good thing.

All that is really required is patience, and time, and finding that part inside where all we know of life resides. It’s there; we just lose sight of it at times, and need to find our way back to that point. I’m almost there, I think, but, only time can tell, and it’s not ready to do so. Or, I’m not; that’s more likely, and as soon as I can figure out why, I’ll be fine. In fact, I AM fine; I’m just not enough aware of it. I will be, so I’ll just hang on until then….

Now I’ve bored y’all with three full paragraphs of expository revelations of a personal nature, I suppose we should get on with the rest of this mess. So be it. We’ll use a Tardis Toy to get us gone without any further delay; I know just the right one, too. This one is fast, and slick; so fast, you’ll have to watch close, or you’ll miss it altogether…..

Shall we Pearl?….

“The true value of a human being is determined
by the measure and the sense in which he has attained liberation from self.”

~~ Albert Einstein ~~

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

I just felt like some oldies, so, here are perhaps the best example of oldies that can be found…. live. Let’s listen to the lads, like we did for so long, so long ago…..

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The Beatles Live

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https://youtu.be/ZcR5zODpEso

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I’m still rantless, mostly. Here’s one from a couple or three years ago; I checked it out, & it’s all still completely valid…. Go figure….

From 2/7/2013:

“Trust your hunches. They’re usually based on facts filed away just below the conscious level.” — Dr. Joyce Brothers

I find this to be a fascinating statement, from a person many of today’s youth won’t recognize as a celebrity. Dr. Joyce, as we called her when I was young, was a celebrity from back in the 1950’s and 60’s, who became famous at first as a prodigy child contestant on a quiz show, The $64,000 Question; she later found celebrity as a radio and TV talk show hostess, answering questions by callers about relationships, love, and life in general. She had a calm, friendly, confident manner that was easy for people to accept, and her brilliant mind gave her answers a certain depth and cachet that otherwise would have been lost, had she been less intelligent, or less charismatic…..

What I find to be interesting here is her reliance on the subconscious mind for accurate data resolution and interpretation, and her confidence in proposing that people explore that connection. I was around at the time, and the world was NOT in a place, philosophically speaking, where the reliance on subconscious activities was considered to be a mainstream belief. In fact, it almost put her in the category of mystics and clairvoyants, as far as established society was concerned….. To many, she might have well just said that we should all become witches….

I suppose what helped in the long run toward acceptance of this kind of thinking was her documented genius, that gave what she said a certain validity. In addition, she was at her most popular right at the time when society itself was going through some severe upheaval, during the late 50’s and early to late 60’s, so her ideas found more acceptance among the young, then spread to the rest of the culture as the Cultural Revolution went on, and society became more open to such free-wheeling philosophies.

Another effect of that time, that many people lose sight of, is the polarization that occurred in society, as the two intrinsically opposite philosophies, of liberalism and conservatism (as they are understood today….), became the two camps of ideology that would engage in a struggle for control of the government, and society, for the next 60 years, right up to today….. It’s a struggle between two ways of looking at life, and neither one is aware of being under the control of a third party, one that remains in the shadows, unseen and unheard, expect at their own command…..

Okay, here is where those of you who don’t buy into the conspiracy theory of life can skip on to the next section… to your own peril, but, hey, to each his own, right?….. I’m not particularly paranoid about such things as conspiracy; most of the time I think the things the ffolkes who believe in them see, that support their ideas, are seeing examples of human stupidity, rather than conspiracy. But, I am also a scientist, FIRST, and there is just too much evidence that supports the idea that there is a small percentage of humanity that controls the majority of resources (ie, food, land, money, armaments…), and as a consequence, have far more influence and control over the rest of us than is either just, or ethical.

This small group of mega-rich fanatical egotists believe that, because they can, they have the right to hoard all of those resources for themselves, and have the right to determine who should have any access to them. They believe this because they are allowed to do so, having grabbed all the controls (to wit: the guns and money….) long ago, and have arranged matters so that the great bulk of society is not only under their control, but is unaware of being in that position….

To tie this all together for y’all, let me say this…. I have a hunch that this is true. I don’t always have evidence that I can point to that is obviously definitive in the direction of proof of that assertion, but, if what Dr. Joyce tells us is true, my subconscious mind is aware of the facts, and can show me where to find them, if needed. That hunch tells me that, YES, there are a small group of assholes who are in control of society, for their own benefit, and they don’t give a fuck about the rest of humanity…. and there is evidence to support this hunch, even if it isn’t right out in the open where everyone can see it easily.

As yet, I don’t have any viable suggestions about how to go about kicking these punks to the curb; all I know is that we need to do so, and soon, before they kill all of us with their own brand of stupidity…. This isn’t to say they are altogether stupid, or that it is their primary defining characteristic…. but, they are human, and as such are subject to Murphy and his natural law…. So, I suppose it is a matter of watching for the right moment to catch them just at that instant when their own humanity will bring them down….. and hoping that moment comes soon…..

“Do you like “TENDER VITTLES”??” — Zippy the Pinhead

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

Piraeus calls me, silently.

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

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

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

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

~~ gigoid ~~

9/3/2012

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Smart Bee is on strike, apparently; I spent much of yesterday searching without success for enough pearls to fill this section. Nothing doing. Since it’s getting late, here is one from the past to fill in for today….. Enjoy!….

From 2/14/2013:

As is the case in many instances, when faced with a literary conundrum in the morning, I’m resorting to default, and firing up an old school pearl for your perusal and edification (if that can ever be said to be true of pearls….)…. The following seven pearls were, of course, chosen at random, and without conscious volition, but with an eventual destination in mind…. Today, we are fortunate to note that the destination is also random, as is the conclusion to which you will be led, willy-nilly…. That conclusion is, naturally, left as an exercise for the Gentle Reader…..

“I am not young enough to know everything.” — Oscar Wilde

“Democracy is based on the assumption that a million men are wiser than one man. How’s that again? I missed something.” — Robert A. Heinlein

“A heretic is a man who sees with his own eyes.” — Gotthold Ephraim Lessing

If a cat spoke, it would say things like “Hey, I don’t see a problem here.” — Smart Bee

“Some people think only intellect counts: knowing how to solve problems, knowing how to get by, knowing how to identify an advantage and seize it. But the functions of intellect are insufficient without courage, love, friendship, compassion and empathy.” — Dean Koontz

“Am I not destroying my enemies when I make friends of them?” — Abraham Lincoln

“Do your Duty. Honor the Truth. Respect Life. Share your Love.” ~~ Axiom #7, Peruaosophy

I know, I’m a strange puppy…. If it helps, I mean well…. 🙂

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

I did it. I’m not certain exactly how, or even why; nonetheless, it’s done. So be it. I’ll be back again, ffolkes, to see if I can’t actually pull it together enough to do this right. Until then, y’all be strange, or cool, whichever works for you. See y’all tomorrow, given half a chance….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid, the dubious

The *only* duly authorized Computer Curmudgeon.

PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.

“SCRAM!!!!!!!!!!”- Oscar the Grouch

À bientôt, mon cherí….

A stranger sits down, gingerly….

Posted on June 15, 2016 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

“All the knowledge in the world is found within you.”

~~ Anthony J. D’Angelo, The College Blue Book ~~

The Old Swan

206 Kensington Church Street, Notting Hill, London

Hajime…. Last evening, on the advice of a friend, I went out to a bar, to get some socialization under my belt. Naturally, I overdid it, being somewhat out of practice. Had a good time, but, am now paying the price for my foolishness, in the form of a mild hangover, not debilitating to any huge degree, but, definitely an annoyance. SIGH…. Even us smart guys can make poor decisions, I guess; all part of being a Bozo on the Bus….

That being said, what it means is y’all get a break from having to listen to my ranting, or any of my other literary trickery. What I have done is what you’ll get. It’s not too skimpy, but, no rant, and nothing fresh other than the old-school pearls you’ll find. The music is again from our friend Eric C. with what I hope is a tribute to Freddie King, with some really, really hot blues licks. But, since I did that part while severely handicapped by whiskey, I am unsure if I got that part right. So be it…. I checked; it’s a compilation of live cuts, starting with a really hot version of Ramblin’ On My Mind…. That will do nicely.

That’s it, ffolkes. That’s all the fresh in me. Let’s get this done, so I can try again tomorrow to get it done the way I prefer it. For now, we’ll just g on, in our new, efficient way…. prompted by less than sterling competence.

Shall we Pearl?….

“Everyone must row with the oars he has.”

~~ English proverb ~~

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As noted above, whatever you see is what you get….. Enjoy!….

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Eric Clapton
Ramblin’ On My Mind

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https://youtu.be/_BvwlxRwY5w?list=PLbw8R6g9XbgpA-Cig38RiV49hcdihzNc9

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“To generalize is to be an idiot.”

~~ William H. Blake (1757-1827) ~~

I’d intended to use the above to create a discussion, but, in stead, what you get is the five-star pearls you see, which you may use to direct your own, self-propelled rant, in your own mind…. Have fun!….

“Society attacks early, when the individual is helpless.” — B.F. Skinner

“How can you control yourself, master your behavior, when you come from a country where people howl at funerals?” — E.M. Cioran

“The real work of men was hunting meat. The invention of agriculture was a giant step in the wrong direction, leading to serfdom, cities, and empire. From a race of hunters, artists, warriors, and tamers of horses, we degraded ourselves to what we are now: clerks, functionaries, laborers, entertainers, processors of information.” — Edward Abbey

“I distrust those people who know so well what God wants them to do because I notice it always coincides with their own desires” – — Susan B Anthony.

“It was enough to make a body ashamed of the human race.” — Mark Twain, spoken by Huck Finn, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

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Justifiable Insanity

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

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

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

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

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

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

~~ gigoid ~~

12/10/2015

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Naked Pearls

Stuff worth knowing….

*******

“Although a cloth be washed a hundred times,
How can it be rendered clean and pure
If it be washed in water which is dirty?”

~~ Nagarjuna ~~

*******

“What is reason?
Knowledge informed by sympathy, intelligence in the arms of love.”

~~ Edward Abbey ~~

*******

“Whose undertakings are all devoid of desires and purpose,
and whose actions have been burnt by fire-of-knowledge,
him the wise call a sage.”

~~ Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 4, Verse 19. ~~

*******

“Never does nature say one thing and wisdom another.”

~~ Juvenal, Satires ~~

*******

“Life is not separate from death. It only looks that way.”

~~ Native American Proverb (Blackfoot) ~~

*******

“And in the end the love you take is equal to the love you make.”

~~ The Beatles, The last lyric of their last song ~~

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There you have it; that’s the best I’ve got. I hope you enjoyed it; if not, well, you can get a refund of all you paid, except for the time it took to read. Of course, there’s a lot of paperwork for that, so, you might want to think about it. In the meantime, I’m outta here, until tomorrow. That’s a for sure. and for certain…. See ya….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid, the dubious

The *only* duly authorized Computer Curmudgeon.

PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.

“SCRAM!!!!!!!!!!”- Oscar the Grouch

À bientôt, mon cherí….

Indefatigable purveyors of subtle untruths….

Posted on June 5, 2016 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

“I can handle reality in small doses,
but as a lifestyle it’s much too confining.”

~~ Lily Tomlin ~~

Sunset off the coast of Ireland, May, 2013

Hajime…. To get the possibility of whining out of the picture, I’ll just say, tough morning. My laptop, which holds the means for producing Pearls of Virtual Wisdom in its innards, froze big time first time out of the gate today; it froze so hard, it wouldn’t even shut down until I forced a hard reboot. Then, I took a chance and had it restarted normally. All seems to have turned out well, aside from losing whatever work I’d already begun. C’est la fucking vie, as they say in the poorer quarters of any French megalopolis. Me, I’m ignoring reality as best I can, for today, if I allow it any slack at all, I’ll end up in jail…. So be it.

The Pearl you’ll find below changed shape on me, thanks to the reboot. We were compelled by time constraints to go default for our musical selection. In addition, you’ll find both the daily rant, and the poem, came from the archives again. The final old-school pearl is fresh, but, only because it was the only part done when I got up to begin. Such as it is, so shall it be. I have neither the time, nor, the inclination, to spend more time on it, as the whole starting over thing has me in a nasty mood. In fact, it pissed me off so bad, I’m having trouble maintaining any sort of pleasant demeanor; it’s hard when all I want to do is scream and start laying about me with the nearest sharp implement.

To avoid any such unpleasantness, we’ll go now. In fact, we’ll go, now…. Watch this….

Shall we Pearl?….

“A thing derided is a thing dead;
a laughing man is stronger than a suffering man.”

~~ Gustave Flaubert ~~

Side note: Though I can see and understand the truth of what Gus says here, in my current state, my only reaction is, fuck you, Gus… Oh, well. So much for intelligent discourse, eh? Onward, ffolkes….

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

We’re going default today. I had thought to have more time, but all of it got eaten by a frozen computer this morning, requiring a hard reboot, and, starting pretty much over from scratch, as the hard reboot lost all my work. SIGH…. Murphy lives. The music should help…. I’m hoping, anyway. Enjoy, ffolkes, it’s six hours of great stuff….

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Classical Music

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https://youtu.be/g54-_icmfo4

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I had a great start for a rant, but, it all went away with the hard reboot mentioned above. Here is a pretty decent rant from a couple years ago to take its place for today…. I hope you enjoy it; it’s a bit long, but, I thought it said what it had to say fairly succinctly. You can decide for yourselves, as always…. Abondanza!

From 10/2/2014:

“How many lawyer jokes are there? 3, the rest are true stories.” — Smart Bee

I had intended to find some more true stories to share with y’all about lawyers, but, instead, let’s examine the creature as it exists in reality…. Now, I, personally, know a lawyer, and, since he no longer works as one, having recovered, in my mind, both his sanity, and his honor in the process (don’t tell him though, I get the impression he’s still a bit ambivalent/unsettled at how it came about, so, we don’t discuss it…), I feel absolutely no qualms whatsoever claiming him as a friend…. He’s gotten to the point he laughs at some of the jokes now….

He is an intelligent person, of course; no other kind would be my friend for so long (Over 30 years now…), or be able to put up with my own level of insanity…. In my case, of course, that was used to AVOID ever studying law, beyond what I felt necessary to know for my own protection…. I’ve always maintained there are only two kinds of lawyers who come out of law school, no matter which it may be.

The first kind intends to help people find their way through the maze of laws, allegedly designed to to allow them to live safely and with dignity; these lawyers, those with actual morals and ethics, serve justice, and the intent of the law…. Like my friend, they often end up leaving the field, or, sadly, at times, doing the Darth Vader, by turning to the dark side….

The other type is different sort of creature; their purpose for studying law is to find an angle to work, in order to further their own personal goals, which center around money, and power….. These lawyers may end up helping some people, but, at a cost those people can rarely afford comfortably. Mostly, this sort pad their bills with absurd charges, that puff up legal fees until the courts step in, to set regulations as to how much they can charge… whereupon, they merely find another method to get around the definition of “services rendered”….

Of this second type, a certain percentage actually, over time, become so enamored of the process of acquiring money and power, they figure out the only logical course to take, if they wish to continue their upward progress (in their eyes….). So, they mutate, and become politicians (an old Greek word, from “poly”, meaning “many”, and “tics”, meaning “small, dirty, bloodsucking parasites”….), because as legislators, they are allowed to vote themselves the keys to the treasury, calling their motivation “public spirit” and/or “the call to leadership”…. Often the mutation actually begins during school, as all the nutrient factors are present there, and a certain type of sociopathic personality takes to such things naturally, as it serves their purpose so well….

Excuse me a moment, I need to curse….

Okay, I’m back…. see, I can be nice, & not subject y’all to my forays into French colloquialisms…. However, in point of fact, they’re all (all the elected officials at the national level, to be specific….), fucking crazy, loony as a mass of mixed leopards, wolves, vipers, cobras, hyenas, rhinos, hippos, and, oh, a tiger or two, all slithering, strutting, blundering, screaming, locked in a confined space, each displaying the worst characteristics of their perverted, all-too-predatory natures…. And, all of whom are convinced of their own right to tell everyone else how things should be…. I mean, they should know, cuz Jesus told them so….

Yep…. Think about it, ffolkes, and, you, too, folks…. Of the 455 people at the top of the American political heap… (That’s 1 President, 1 VP, 12 Supremes, 100 Senators, 340 Reps at the House, & 1 Armed Forces COS….I think…. He isn’t elected, but, otherwise, I’m missing somebody….), (unless I lost track of how many Reps there are…. that changes at times…)…. Regardless… it’s a small number of persons, considering they make the decisions for so many…

So, ask yourself these questions…. How many of those are lawyers? How many are male? How many are white (Caucasian, or close)? How many are of a faith OTHER than Christian?…. I think you can see the point here…. no matter what the actual numbers may be, when counting the token women and persons of color they’ve allowed to join them, for the show of apparent diversity, it isn’t enough to make any difference in the real agenda that will be forged by those people…. It WILL be according to the white, male, Christian, legally trained (i.e., avariciously self-serving) point of view….

As another point of difference between them and the rest of the population: All of them, every single one, is a millionaire, or more (except perhaps for a few Reps, newbies not yet adept at playing the lobbyist’s for their treats and financial breaks….) Yet each and every one of the named politicians, less-than-500-people, with an average income over a million dollars a year, has better health care, better retirement arrangements, and better wages than anyone else in the country, all voted in by, who else, but, themselves….

Plus, just for good measure, for the great and glorious service they have done for the country, and all the sacrifices they must make to come to Washington, live like movie stars, and decide which lobbyist they should let take them to dinner tonight, why shouldn’t they get those benefits, not just while in office, but, for the rest of their lives?! Whether they are ever elected again or not…. Pretty good deal, eh?…. Wish I’d a thought of it….

And people wonder why I often talk about buying a gun….. I only have four things left to say about lawyers, and their mutated state, politicians….As usual, other people have said it better, so, as is my wont, I turn to them, with these final words upon which to meditate….

“If it weren’t for lawyers, I think we could have invented a universal symbolic representation of reality.”– Smart Bee

(technically, it’s not a joke; it’s merely an observation….)

“It’s possible to fight intolerance, stupidity, and fanaticism when they come separately. When you get all three together it’s probably wiser to get out, if only to preserve one’s sanity.” — Adam Dalgliesh, in Devices and Desires, by P.D. James.

“The dread of evil is a much more forcible principle of human actions than the prospect of good.” — John Locke (1632-1704)

“The measure of a man’s life is the well spending of it, and not the length.” — Plutarch (46-120 AD) — Consolation to Apollonius

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

Accentuated Lessons

Bold statements of calculated intent
Become common rule of the malcontent.
Avarice assumes such attractive wear
Beguiling deception, illusory and fair.

Grasping and pulling with ghostly hands
Legally proper in all the signatory lands.
Seeking and finding each vulnerable soul
Anguish as payment for exacting the toll.

Wraiths of commerce’s invisible dead guards
Still haunt the dreams left in sad empty yards.
While absentee nobles sit in stiffly elegant splendor
Served by sad-faced detainees in abject surrender.

Escape from reality is illusory at best
Often we falter and fail its daily test.
Only when focused on inner strength
Does peace stay with us for any length.

Peace lies within, always…..

~~ gigoid ~~

9/27/2012

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

Naked Pearls

All we need to know….

*********

“I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together!”

~~ (The Beatles) I Am The Walrus ~~

*********

“One cannot collect all the beautiful shells on the beach.
One can collect only a few,
and they are more beautiful if they are few.”

~~ Anne Morrow Lindbergh ~~

*********

“The world is full of cactus, but we don’t have to sit on it.”

~~ Will Foley ~~

*********

“It is not the mountain we conquer but ourselves.”

~~ Sir Edmund Hillary ~~

*********

“Small is the number of them that see with their own eyes,
and feel with their own hearts.”

~~ Albert Einstein ~~

*********

“…the wise man looks into space,
and does not regard the small as too little,
nor the great as too big;
for he knows that there is not limit to dimensions.”

~~ Lao-tzu ~~

*********

“The unexamined life is not worth living to a human.”

~~ Attributed by Plato to Socrates, Apology ~~

*********

“The earth does not belong to man; man belongs to the earth.
This we know.
All things are connected like the blood which unites one family.
All things are connected.
Whatever befalls the earth befalls the sons of the earth.
Man did not weave the web of life;
he is merely a strand in it.
Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself.”

~~ Chief Seattle, 1854 (c.1786-1866) ~~

*********

“Be excellent to each other. Party on, dude.”

~~ Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure ~~

*********

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

At the moment, the only positive note to what has occurred here this morning is, its done. Thank whomever you like for small favors, eh? Moreover, I’m going to show all the perspicacity I can summon, to say, thanks for stopping in, & we’ll try to do better tomorrow. On those wimpy notes, I will bid thee adieu for another day, with the usual caveat, to wit: I’ll be back. On that you may rely, with perfect confidence…..

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid, the dubious

The *only* duly authorized Computer Curmudgeon.

PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.

“SCRAM!!!!!!!!!!”- Oscar the Grouch

À bientôt, mon cherí….

An even number of beatific platitudes….

Posted on May 14, 2016 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

“Who well lives, long lives; for this age of ours
Should not be numbered by years, daies, and hours.”

~~ Du Bartas (1544-1590) ~~

~~ Divine Weekes and Workes, Second Week, Fourth Day, Book ii ~~

Gorse overlooking Glasgow/Greenock Bay, Scotland

Hajime…. Full of jitters, but, game, he sits to write once more, bereft of all peace, mired in darkness and pain. Little does it matter, yet, the demons gnawing at his vital organs allow no rest, no break from the anxiety, diffuse and intangible. The hours of the night just passed, sleeping, only to awaken confused, and afraid, to escape the amorphous dreams, veiled by the dense fog of fear, unnamed, join hands with the day, promising endless, pointless forays into anger, or pain. Thus begins another day, insane….

Good morrow, ffolkes…. I feel better now, having purged, to a small degree, some of the crap I’m fighting to get the hell out of my head. The PTSD which continues to occasionally grace my life with its unwelcome presence, is rather insidious at times, slowly building, without giving advance notice, until it strikes, with full force, usually by filling me with a strong, diffuse anxiety, which, though I know it to be false, is nonetheless disconcerting to experience….

This is generally followed by a period of flashbacks, to some of the more violent incidents in which I was involved over an 11+ year period in my twenties and thirties, culminating in a full-blown rage, the result of the final memory to be brought up, wherein I stepped over the body of a friend to control the asshole who killed him. The rage is from knowing I acted professionally, and did not give in to the desire to throttle the man myself, more’s the pity. If I had, I might be in jail, but, I wouldn’t feel so bad about it…. maybe.

I’m relating all this because it might help to explain my recent absences, and, give y’all notice there may be more to come; I seem to be winning the battle to regain my balance, but, it’s taking longer than usual…. While this is going on, the Pearls tend to suffer; thankfully, I’ve done so many of them, there’s plenty of stuff to recycle, most of which is decent enough to fly by my standards…. But, it also means I don’t get out & interact as much as I prefer, or, as much as I think is deserved. So, please bear with me; it won’t be long, and I’ll be as full of blarney and chutzpah as ever, and things will get back to, well, not normal, cuz we don’t go there, but, more predictable, anyway….

All that said, to our usual little purpose, other than sheer honesty, we’ll get on with the rest of today’s mess, without further blather. In fact, I’ve got a new trick. Watch this…..

Shall we Pearl?….

“The trail is the thing, not the end of the trail.
Travel too fast and you miss all you are traveling for.”

~~ Louis L’Amour, Ride the Dark Trail ~~

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Linda Ronstadt

Image from http://www.rhapsody.com via Google Images

Today, I feel like listening to a great voice, to provide a beacon for me to follow, back to sanity….. This woman’s voice has always had the quality of a siren’s call, for me, so, it will do nicely….. It’s sad she can no longer sing, due to Parkinson’s Disease; fortunately, she has a large body of work as a legacy….. Enjoy, ffolkes; Linda is/was an iconic figure in my youth, and remains a favorite….

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

Linda Ronstadt Live

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https://youtu.be/rnCbhcHcWHw

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“Living is easy with eyes closed, misunderstanding all you see.”

~~ The Beatles ~~

Although the lads from Liverpool provided me with a perfect opening for a rant, I just don’t have it in me today. While searching for an appropriate filler, I came across the following, which is the intro section from a Pearl I posted in early 2014. I copied it, then shut the program, before remembering to find out exactly which day it came from, but, it’s pretty general, anyway, so, it really doesn’t matter. Here then is the intro of which I speak, which is more of a rant, anyway….. I’ve followed it with one excellent pearl which seems to fit, right after Zippy’s comment…. Enjoy!

From the archives in 2014:

Finding just the right words for an opening statement, after repeated attempts to do just that, for what is now getting close to 3 years, can frequently become, not merely a conundrum, but a chronic pain in the ass, at least until Reality steps in to lend a hand…. which it did today….

Just as I sat down to begin, I noted a light playing on the wall of the house across the street, a spot-light moving along, until it found and highlighted a tall, hooded figure skulking on the porch…. The light, which was coming from a police squad car at the corner, pinned the hooded figure, and apparently issued instructions I couldn’t hear, as the figure froze, put up its hands, and walked slowly out to the street, where two police officers met him, frisked, him, handcuffed him, and took him away in their car….

The entire scenario took about one and a half minutes to take place, start to finish, though, afterward, they sat in the car for quite a while, probably running the Unsub for priors, and starting the paperwork for whatever charges they were arresting him, obviously to include trespassing…. It wasn’t overly dramatic, or a particularly gripping scene, but, it isn’t every morning I get to witness crime being fought, and defeated, right here on my street…. It almost makes me feel safe….. Well, that would probably be stretching the truth farther than is good for it, so, I’ll take it back, and just say it was interesting to watch….

At least it didn’t turn into another Rodney King episode…. I’m not sure I can figure out yet how to work the video capture on my new smart phone, so, that’s probably a good thing, as I didn’t have the expertise to be able to film it, whereupon it would have become another in a long series of acts of egregious violence from police upon relatively undeserving victims that DIDN’T slide through the public’s awareness…. Oh yes, it happens…. In fact, NOT hearing about bad things happens, I would wager, far many more times than ever get reported, or captured on film, or digitally, on somebody’s phone, in the modern world….. It has always been so, it’s just not something people like to talk about, or admit…

That, by the way, is something I’ve never understood…. the reluctance of many people to report unethical actions by public servants like police, or firemen…. It’s as if people accept the sense of entitlement that often goes with such service, and automatically, and unquestioningly, give the privileges and perks that so many officers take as their due, without any real justification, other than their own power of authority…. which, in my mind, should produce the exact opposite effect…. It should make the person who holds any such position humble, and grateful, not make them feel powerful, and special, and deserving of all honor, merely for holding a certain kind of job….

However, if I start going into all that, I’ll get all worked up, as I already am, and begin to rant….. Since we’re just getting to the end of the intro, it wouldn’t be appropriate to start one now, so I’ll let that go, for discussion at another time…. or not, who cares? There’s always a new example to pick from, with the police…. The institution, as it exists now in our society, attracts the very worst sort of asshole to its ranks, men, and women, who are only there because it gives them the wherewithal, and the excuse, to be bullies, to assert their authority over others at every opportunity…. THAT type of personality is drawn irresistibly to police work, as it offers them the perfect outlet for their aggressive natures….

Ah well, I guess it’s only natural, but, that doesn’t make it right, or acceptable, in my book…. It does, however, make it enough material written to form the nucleus of an intro, which, after all, is what we were up to….. In fact, I’m going to go ahead, and just drop you here, so I can get on with stuff…. I think you can find the next section without my help…. I’m gonna go dive…..

Shall we Pearl?…..

“I share the belief of many of my contemporaries that the spiritual crisis pervading all spheres of Western industrial society can be remedied only by a change in our world view. We shall have to shift from the materialistic, dualistic belief that people and their environment are separate, toward a new consciousness of an all-encompassing reality, which embraces the experiencing ego, a reality in which people feel their oneness with animate nature and all of creation.” — Dr. Albert Hoffman

(I am forced to comment on this: While I am in complete agreement with the good Doctor on this matter, I fail to see how his uplifting, accurate, totally cool expression of what is needed for us to survive will convince a single person to take it up as truth, or how it will get people to make the necessary changes in human nature…. Telling people that they need to “feel their oneness with animate nature and all of creation.” is going to lose everyone who hears it…. In fact, it is such an off-putting, airhead kind of statement, I’d wager that, in spite of the fact that this is absolute truth, and will help people to save themselves from a certain death, nobody is going to hear it, because they automatically turned off their ears as soon as they heard the words “spiritual crisis”, followed by “spheres of Western industrial society”, and “world view”…. That kind of New Age babble-speak will shut off most folk’s heads in a New York minute….. Too bad, ‘cuz its’ totally true….)

“FUN is never having to say you’re SUSHI!!” — Zippy the Pinhead

” When they turn the pages of history
When these days have passed long ago,
Will they read of us with sadness
For the seeds that we let grow?”

~~ Rush, A Farewell to Kings ~~

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

I know I’m in the now, if only…..

Oh, there it is again, fiddle faddle;
Begone, I said, vamoose, skedaddle!
It looked at me as if I were insane:
Scoffed, it did, filled me with pain.

Where does it come from?
Where does it live?
I’d stick out my thumb,
if I had more to give.

If only, should, would, could it be?
It went away again, this time free.
It will be back again, this I know;
or I’m wrong, and it won’t show.

Who cares?
Who hears?
Such goings on wobble the sphere,
I wish it wouldn’t do that here.

I’ve been wrong before…..

~~ gigoid ~~

4/19/2013

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Naked Pearls

Perspicacity

*******

“I love to doubt as well as know.”

~~ Dante ~~

*******

“Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.”

~~ Aldous Huxley ~~

*******

“Furious activity is no substitute for understanding.”

~~ H. H. Williams ~~

*******

“Ignorance is not bliss — it’s oblivion.”

~~ Phillip Wylie ~~

*******

” I can believe anything, provided it is incredible.”

~~ Oscar Wilde ~~

*******

“Only the half-mad are wholly alive.”

~~ Edward Abbey ~~

*******

“It isn’t easy being green.”

~~ Kermit ~~

*******

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I did it, though I really can’t say exactly how it got done. That’s fine with me, as I’ve learned to trust the process, even with the recent change in my routine, when the upgrade to my email browser forced me to remove one complete step of the process, moving it to another time slot. Since to say more on that would only devolved into geek-speak, we’ll let it go, in favor of a hearty, if somewhat insane farewell. I’ll be back, tomorrow, ffolkes, should I find the proper coordinates for the island of sanity….. or, not. Ta, then….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid, the dubious

The *only* duly authorized Computer Curmudgeon.

PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.

“SCRAM!!!!!!!!!!”- Oscar the Grouch

À bientôt, mon cherí….

Improbable causes in a sugary glaze….

Posted on April 10, 2016 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

“Patience is the best remedy for every trouble.”

~~ Plautus (254-184 BC) ~~

~~ Rudens, Act ii, Sc. 5, 71 ~~

Life Adjusting to Need

Hajime…. Having battled much of the night to achieve what small portion of the waters of Lethe I was destined to drink, the new battle this morning, to complete a worthy Pearl, assumed new parameters, as the sheer anger and fatigue which are the unnatural result of the night’s unwelcome conflict vie to assume the upper hand, thus directing the tenor of today’s mess. Since, as you see, this has created such a high level of pedantry, almost to the point of pomposity, I have to assume the anger has won…. FUCK!…. I have to say, I’m really tired of being tired…. A little break from the pain would be nice, as well….

All that said, to our normal lack of purpose, other than the value one receives from the act of venting, perhaps it would be best to just get on with the day’s business, such as it may be. I’ve got some good stuff, and some not-quite-so-elegant stuff, and, maybe even some great stuff. All that is for y’all to judge, as I am, of course, not the one to ask. Mostly, it’s all standard stuff, but for the most excellent poetry selection today, from a blogging friend who lives in Tokyo, which I will go out on a limb to predict you WILL enjoy immensely.

Other than that, I can’t say exactly what happened, as much of it was slapped together while trying NOT to think about reality; it’s been stuck in a non-pleasurable configuration for several days, as the weather flip-flops from sun to rain, causing the barometer to fluctuate madly, sending my hips, shoulders, back and neck into a series of contortions/spasms/complaints that have been, shall we say, as much a pain in the ass as they were in their own locations. Hmph.

Okay, all done, with complaints, chatty blather, and, probably, readers. What the hell; I’m gonna go finish anyway. If anyone is still there, well, I’ll see you down the page…. Now, if I can figure out how this works….

Shall we Pearl?….

“Do not be too moral.
You may cheat yourself out of much of life.
So aim above morality.
Be not simply good; be good for something.”

~~ Henry David Thoreau ~~

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

As might be suspected, its a day for defaults. Around here, that simply means we go with classical music, picked, as always, according to which picture I saw on You Tube that drew my eye…. Enjoy!…

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Classical Music

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

https://youtu.be/R0kl9xFVSnI

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“Now, that the sovereign power and deity, whatsoever it is,
should have regard of mankind,
is a toy and vanity worthy to be laughed at.”

~~ Pliny The Elder ~~

Okay, so, here’s the deal. I had picked out three pearls on which to base today’s discussion (read: rant…) on religion. However, as I sat to begin, my angst dissipated in the pain each shoulder screamed at me, as they popped when I moved to start typing. Rather than attempt to maintain a coherent train of thought while dealing with that, I have collected another four pearls, to try to make up for, and furnish, the proper indictment of the persistent delusions I believe have held humanity back from reaching our potential for more than 10,000 years.

To get the full effect, stretch your mind from the first pearl, above, through the second, below, on to the final pearl from one of our founding fathers; you’ll get the proper perspective on this perversion of spirit with which we have contended for our entire history. As a final treat, I’ve included a link to the blog of another friend, who lives in Canada…. It’s a compilation of memes, all of which have a cogent comment on modern life, and some good advice on how to face it with aplomb, if not serenity…. Enjoy, ffolkes; it’s probably easier than another 2000 words from me on a subject I’ve probably beaten far too often for anyone’s comfort, though, sadly, not to death….

“The gods can either take away evil from the world and will not, or, being willing to do so cannot; or they neither can nor will, or lastly, they are both able and willing. If they have the will to remove evil and cannot, then they are not omnipotent. If they can, but will not, then they are not benevolent. If they are neither able nor willing, then they are neither omnipotent nor benevolent. Lastly, if they are both able and willing to annihilate evil, how does it exist?” — Epicurus — Aphorisms, c. 300 B.C.

“Any sufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology.” — Niven’s Law

“If fifty million people say a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing.” — Bertrand Russell

“The missionaries go forth to Christianize the savages–as if the savages weren’t dangerous enough already.” — Edward Abbey

“Whenever they burn books, they will also, in the end, burn people.” — Heinrich Heine

“Any system of religion which has anything in it which offends the mind of a child cannot be a true system.” — Thomas Paine

https://talesfromtheloublog.wordpress.com/2016/04/09/philosophical-memes-instead-of-radical-memes-that-make-your-face-red/

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Yesterday, on the blog of a Gentle Reader I am happy to call friend, I read his haiku for the day. It was such an excellent poem, in spite of of its brevity, I had to share it today with all who stopped by. It is below the next paragraph; if you don’t love it, your poetry gene must have been damaged. For me, this can banish the thought of every bad morning I’ve ever had, in three lines…. I hope you enjoy it. I’ve included a link to his site, where you’ll find a lot of other fine poetry and prose, well worth reading….

Afterward, you’ll find a haiku from me in response to his, and, another poem, whose title and author is, at this point in time, completely unknown to yours truly. Who knows? Maybe it’ll be me, maybe somebody else…. Thanks to the Tardis, I’ve got time to figure it out…. Enjoy!….

Sparrows trill, chirp, trill

Sparrows trill, chirp, trill
The right rhythm to wake me up
Soft light through the curtain

~~ Ashi Akira ~~

https://ashiakira.wordpress.com/2016/04/09/sparrows-trill-chirp-trill/

*********

Ashi Akira
grand master of haiku
living peace poems.

~~ gigoid ~~

*********

Serendipity Morning

My mind wants to fly,
my soul wants to hold close, the source,
strong, the moments of time;
each as precious as golden thread,
binding together such elements of longing desire.

Love hovers, always patient,
   seeking the open heart,
reaching for the promise of tomorrow…..
   only for one, only for now, only what is real….
Dreaming, the morning calls,
   heavy with mordant belief,
replete, and eternally alive…..

~~ gigoid ~~

4/1/2013

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

I was going to try to explain this pearl, at least to a degree, as it seemed to be a bit abstruse as it came together; then, I rearranged the entries a trifle, and, whoa! It works, all by itself. Go figure, eh? Now, if y’all have any trouble figuring it out, you can try one of two time-tested methods for doing so. First, read each one, without any thought of direction; let them all percolate a bit, then decide if anything floats up to give a clue. Second, read the first, and last, for a quick clue. Third… oh, right, only two. Never mind; I think it’s pretty self-explanatory, anyway. If not, well, you got to read nine cool things you can work into conversation when appropriate….

“Out of the shadow of night, the world rolls into light. It is daybreak everywhere.” — Longfellow

“All is flux, nothing stays still.” — Heraclitus

“Only a life lived for others is a life worth while .” — Albert Einstein

“Real life is, to most men, a long second-best, a perpetual compromise between the ideal and the possible; but the world of pure reason knows no compromise, no practical limitations, no barrier to the creative activity.” — Bertrand Russell

“Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear.” — Ambrose Redmoon

“The logic of worldly success rests on a fallacy: the strange error that our perfection depends on the thoughts and opinions and applause of other men! A weird life it is, indeed, to be living always in somebody else’s imagination, as if that were the only place in which one could at last become real!” — Thomas Merton, “Seven Storey Mountain”

“And in the end the love you take is equal to the love you make.” — The Beatles, The last lyric of their last song

“There is a time for departure even when there’s no certain place to go.” — Tennessee Williams

“How he lies in his rights of a man!
Death has done all death can.
And absorbed in the new life he leads,
He recks not, he heeds
Nor his wrong nor my vengeance; both strike
On his senses alike,
And are lost in the solemn and strange
Surprise of the change.”

~~ Robert Browning — After ~~

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

Though I cannot claim any particular credit for having reached this point, it’s done. I’ve used as many short-cuts as I could find, but, all in all, I think it works. Time, as it always does, will tell. For the nonce, I’ll take my leave, and go try to find the wherewithal to do this again tomorrow morning. If I can get through today, there’s a pretty good chance I can fulfill my chosen duty for tomorrow, and, that, in the final analysis, is always a good thing. For me, if for no one else, which is, I know, all-too-human of me. Go figure. See y’all tomorrow, ffolkes; I dare anyone to try to stop me….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid, the dubious

The *only* duly authorized Computer Curmudgeon.

PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.

“SCRAM!!!!!!!!!!”- Oscar the Grouch

À bientôt, mon cherí….

Bombastic echoes in a lovely hat….

Posted on March 19, 2016 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

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

~~ Basho ~~

Cross-eyed? Sez who?….

Hajime…. Well, here we are again, ever so happy to be at our desk, bereft of mind, broken of body, and ready to rumble. I know I said I’d have a fully fresh Pearl, but…. reality intervened, so to speak. So, what you get is more wysiwyg, after a fashion. Oh, it’s all relatively fresh, but, completing it all became a bit of a chore when SB decided to portion out pearls at a miserly rate. So, we’ll go to the archives for a rant, and, a poem. Other than that, it’s fresh. Not up to snuff, but, it meets the minimum standard, our default.

I suppose I could chat a bit about my day off, but, as it turns out, it was little more than a period of rest, it seems, as I got little done of a productive nature other than sleep, which, for some unknown reason, came quickly and easily last night. Go figure. At any rate, I have some energy, which I will now proceed to waste shamelessly to get this done. That doesn’t make me a hero, though there are those who might think it does; they’d be off the mark, as there was no altruism or selflessness involved. Just rest and recovery for me; since it seems to have worked, we’ll call it a draw, and move on.

Now we’ve completed the obligatory meaningless drivel for the day, perhaps we should think about getting the slow on the toad for the day. I know I always enjoy life better when it’s in the bag, so, we’ll find a bag, and get in. Why, look! Here’s a nice, reusable shopping bag right here! Funny how that works, eh? We’ll take advantage of the handy prop, which we placed there earlier for just this purpose, so we can say we have lived up to the hype seen in all the ads. Not that we wrote, or even asked for the ads, but, like a hive of bees in your head, there they are. So be it.

That’s quite enough of that, I think. Ffolkes, we’re going on now, before this gets any further out of hand…. Luigi, wake the hell up & get us out of here, now!…. Hang on, ffolkes, Luigi’s still more than just a little hung over….

Shall we Pearl?

“Contrariwise”, continued Tweedledee,
“If it was so, it might be;
and if it were so, it would be;
but as it isn’t, it ain’t.
That’s logic.”

~~ Lewis Carroll, “Alice in Wonderland” ~~

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

Fred Neil

Image from thatsallfolk.free.fr via Google Images

It’s been a while since I listened to this man’s music; too long. He has one of the finest voices, ever, and is, quite simply, a powerful songwriter. He’s not very well known, though there are tunes he wrote which everyone alive has heard, and loved…. For example, “Everybody’s Talkin’ At Me”….. Enjoy, ffolkes…

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

Fred Neil

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

https://youtu.be/NPDGjzhGutU

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

As noted, here is a piece that should fit the bill for today; light, but with a touch of wit, not to mention a stiff dose of inanity… or, maybe that was insanity…. Ah, well, so be it….. Enjoy!….

From 6/14/2014:

In this section, we have been running a new style pearl, (there’s that royal ‘we’ again….), with pictures to go along with whatever quotes and/or comments I come up with…. The latest incarnation involves a new subject of interest, the Wise Old Pine Cone, who has been kind enough to allow me to photograph his wanderings around town, to record his interactions with people, and the environment, as he wends his way around the town….. Yesterday, I posted the photos of when I accompanied him to the local ball team’s night game, which came out fairly well….

Sadly, the Wise Old Pine Cone, by the time we left the ball park, had consumed WAY too many brewskis, and has yet to get out of bed…. He’s pretty small, and a few beers really do a number on him; I’ve seen him stay in bed for three days after a bad session with wine, and beer isn’t any better for him…. He’ll be alright, but, he’ll be out of action for a day or two, so, we’ll have to find something else for this section….. Let me think….

Okay, you’ve convinced me…. I’ll rant….

“There is nothing a man can do to guarantee success, but there is nothing that can defeat him if he won’t give up.” — Greg Praino

Well, perhaps I won’t rant today; it doesn’t mean I’m giving up, but…. I just went to look for a rantable headline from the news…. Of the eleven headlines on the world news page, eight were about various bombings, battles, or other war activities, mostly in the middle east, where the Islamic sects are all fighting to see who will become the sole arbiter of the Muslim future….. never realizing how silly and counter-productive they are being, in terms of survival…. But, then, most people engaged in war are not in a very intelligent frame of mind, anyway….

(And, how can a Muslim extremist group name themselves after an Egyptian goddess over seven thousand years old {Isis}? I thought they hated ANY other religion…. Ah well, stupid is as stupid does…)

The point is, I couldn’t decide WHICH subject to rant about…. There are plenty of wars being fought, none of which make any sense…. There are governments still robbing the people, or oppressing them unmercifully; the churches are still butting into everything, as is their habit…. I see where the Pope is trying to be a mediator between Israel & Palestine (good luck with that!….), and now, the Presbyterian Church is doing SOMETHING over in Iraq, or Iran, to get involved with that whole mess…. what a bunch of idiots!…

Cars and factories are still streaming carbon monoxide, and carbon dioxide into the air by the hundreds of millions of tons, every day, so pollution continues unabated, and climate change keeps changing, so, we can kiss our asses goodbye, once we figure out how long we have…. Religious fanatics and fundies of all varieties continue to wage their holy wars, blaming all that is wrong in the world on anything but their own actions…. Bankers and politicians continue to work together to steal everything that isn’t nailed down from the public, all enforced by paramilitary police forces, blindly obedient myrmidons with guns, and really bad attitudes, due to their completely unwarranted sense of entitlement regarding their psycho/sociopathic need to be seen as authority figures….

All of the insanity I’ve previously commented upon here continues, relatively unabated, as the world skips merrily down what it BELIEVES is the garden path, completely oblivious, calmly seated in a handbasket, never even wondering why it is getting so bloody hot…. And people wonder why I rant….

I found no particular headline to get me started, but, as can be seen by the above, none are really necessary for me to find my anger about the state of the world…. My anger is based in the realization that NONE of it is necessary; if people would take responsibility for themselves, and stand up to the assholes who are oppressing everyone who puts up with it, we could fix this broken puppy….

I’m a realist, though, and, as far as I can see, realistically, it ain’t gonna happen…. so, I’ll pick a few pearls, to make how I feel about it clear, and be done with it for today…. I’m mad, but, so mad, I don’t even want to talk about it any more….. Here, take these…. No worries, you’ll live; there are only five of them….

“I have always thought the actions of men the best interpreters of their thoughts.” — John Locke

“All I know is just what I read in the Congressional Record. They have had some awful funny articles in there lately. As our government deteriorates, our humor increases.” — Will Rogers

“I have never found, in a long experience of politics, that criticism is ever inhibited by ignorance.” — Harold MacMillan

“Look for a tough wedge for a tough log.” — Publius Syrus (42 BC) — Maxim 723

“You know how dumb the average guy is? Well, by definition, half of them are even dumber than THAT.” — J.R. “Bob” Dobbs, ripping off George Carlin, who made that point YEARS before Bob finished puberty….

There you go, ffolkes…. a pointed, bitchy, but accurate, five-star pearl….. Let’s go on, shall we?….

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

Some days, only this poet will do…..

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

~~ Emily Dickinson ~~

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

Naked Pearls

Beginning to End

*********

“When you were born, you cried and the world rejoiced.
Live your life so that when you die,
the world cries and you rejoice.”

~~ Old Indian saying

*********

“Belief gets in the way of learning.”

~~ Robert Heinlein, Time Enough for Love ~~

*********

“There’s an alternative.
There’s always a third way,
and it’s not a combination of the other two ways,
it’s a different way.”

~~ David Carradine ~~

*********

“It is sometimes expedient to forget who we are.”

~~ Publius Syrus — Maxim 233 ~~

*********

“A ship in harbor is safe — but that is not what ships are for.”

~~ John A. Shedd ~~

*********

“If you come to a fork in the road, take it.”

~~ Yogi Berra ~~

*********

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

~~ the Beatles ~~

*********

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

Having completed my vow, I’ll take my leave with less than the usual to-do. I will, however, issue the usual caveat, to wit: I’ll be back tomorrow. I figure that’s fair warning, and, I know for sure it’s the best you’re gonna get. See ya, ffolkes; the odds are running in our favor….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid, the dubious

The *only* duly authorized Computer Curmudgeon.

PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.

“SCRAM!!!!!!!!!!”- Oscar the Grouch

À bientôt, mon cherí….

Montezuma’s second mistake….

Posted on January 22, 2016 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

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

~~ Euripides ~~

By any other name….

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

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

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

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

Shall we Pearl?….

“War would end if the dead could return.”

~~ Stanley Baldwin ~~

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

Joan Baez in 2014

Image from YouTube.com via Google Images

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

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

Joan Baez Live

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

https://youtu.be/prv-jMSQ3cs

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

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

From 3/2/2013:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Ignorance kills daily. “

~~ Smart Bee ~~

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

Raging at Aging

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

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

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

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

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

~~ gigoid ~~

10/17/2012

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

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

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

~~John Dryden — Juvenal, Satire x ~~

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

~~ The Beatles ~~

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

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

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid, the dubious

The *only* duly authorized Computer Curmudgeon.

PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.

“SCRAM!!!!!!!!!!”- Oscar the Grouch

À bientôt, mon cherí….

This is a multi-zone pass….

Posted on January 17, 2016 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

“Lighthouses are more helpful than churches.”

~~ Benjamin Franklin ~~

And your point is…?

Hajime…. Ah, yes, apartment living…. You know the day isn’t going to go well when you’re awakened at 3:30 AM by screaming voices from the other side of the wall…. Once the hullabaloo was done, & the cat settled down, we managed to get back to sleep, only to oversleep…. Hence, today’s later than usual posting (we don’t use the Tardis on weekends if not needed…. maintenance….), paired with the perfect stolen meme to open todays mess. It describes my feelings this morning quite well, thank you very much….

However, rather than take out my angst over having to listen to someone else’s drama so late/early, and, to give my aching arms & hands a break, we’ll cut today’s intro short yet again…. Hell, this makes the third or fourth time in a week; certainly a new record…. and, I say that just as if a) it mattered, and, b) anyone cared at all. Before I get lost & can’t live up to the word ‘short’, we’ll employ this old literary trick, which works like this….

Shall we Pearl?….

“Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it.” — Thomas Paine

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

Image from nytimes.com via Google Images

I feel like something raucous today; this promises to fit the bill just fine…. Enjoy!….

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

Allman Brothers Band
with Eric Clapton

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

https://youtu.be/pb22MYqdugE

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

I’m lazy; so, sue me. I don’t feel like ranting yesterday; therefore, we have no rant today. We do, however have a bit of nonsense from the archives…. You may as well enjoy it; it’s all you get here today…..

From 2/25/2012:

“It’s a buck dancer’s choice my friend, you better take my advice.
You know all the rules by now, and the fire from the ice.
Ain’t no time to hate
— there’s barely time to wait.
Whoa, oh, what I want to know: where does the time go?”

~~ Robert Hunter ~~

Where does the time go? And who says so? Where does your lap go, when you stand up? Where are all those socks that have been lost over the years in the wash? If it’s an unknown soldier, whose side was he on, and how do we know? If Billy stays at his work, baiting lines on a tuna boat, a long time, does that make him a Master Baiter? If Time is a river, or a road stretching out before us, how does it fly? If a butterfly flying away from its cocoon can cause a hurricane on the other side of the world, what happens when an elephant poops? Why on Earth did kamikaze pilots wear helmets? Does your chewing gum lose its flavor on the bedpost overnight?

These are the kinds of things that trouble mankind? Well, no, but I tend to think about them a lot. I’m curious, and there are still a lot of things I have to learn; one can only learn when they admit they don’t know. Why, you may ask, do I spend my time on such nonsense? That’s an easy one. Because I damn well want to, and it’s none of your damn business what I do inside my own head.

But, since you’ve asked so nicely, I’ll put down my curmudgeon cudgel, and tell you. It all started when I was young, and my brother accidentally stepped on my nose. You might wonder what my nose was doing under his foot, but you’ll be disappointed to learn that you’ll never know, because it’s not relevant, or germane to our discussion.

What is relevant is this….. life is hard enough to deal with just as it is; there is pain, suffering, and, a seemingly hostile Universe with which we must contend, every minute of every day. There’s no need to add another layer of difficulty by refusing to see the other side of that seriousness, that little bit of nonsense that is present every where and every when, in everything we do, in everything that happens to us.

We are all Bozos on this bus; when the nose shows, you must let it grow. There will be time enough to be plenty serious when serious problems need to be addressed; when we have the opportunity to experience the other side of existence, it makes good sense to take it. Or, as so aptly put by Willie Wonka:

“A little nonsense now and then, is relished by the wisest men.”

Cheers, and welcome to the parade!…….

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

Visible life

Forty-two days of pressure and internal rain,
leave marks of salvation, often in pain.
Such sharp reminders of yesterday’s remorse
fight heavily to keep a straight course.
Rash moments, bright, and routinely immense
Give us pleasure, bereft of common sense.

Still the night comes soft and eternally dear
to bring out wishful dreams so vitally clear.
Life’s myrmidons give freely in protest
lifting with skill, soul pieces first to infest,
Loudly brash, with no such voices to remain
Sealed in infamy, branded ugliness all too plain.

Now come brave signs of chapter and verse
Shielded by ignorance, irritable and terse.
Gravid portions of in-between retaliation
leave only pale marks of initial gestation
With hope even pallid warriors grow brave
Leading all humanity, to a warm, stale grave.

Hope never falters, nor leaves any trace
Yet lingers forever in a welcoming space.
Cheerful faces yet shine out of time
for tricking and fumbling sweet melody sublime.
Fill in the spaces with a long, strong retort
life is ever visible, if only as last resort.

~~ gigoid ~~

9/15/2012

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

Naked Pearls

Life Lived Large

*********

How does it feel?
To be on your own
With no direction home
Like a complete unknown?

~~ Bob Dylan ~~

*********

“The things that matter most
must not be at the mercy
of the things that matter least.”

~~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe ~~

*********

“Be patient and tough;
someday this pain will be useful to you.”

~~ Ovid ~~

*********

“One’s mind is like a knife.
If you don’t sharpen it, it gets rusty.”

~~ Nien Cheng ~~

*********

“I think we are drawn to dogs
because they are the uninhibited creatures
we might be
if we weren’t certain we knew better.”

~~ George Bird Evans ~~

*********

“Nature is not human-hearted.”

~~ Lao Tzu ~~

*********

“This is living, not to live unto oneself alone.”

~~ Menander ~~

*********

We turn not older with years, but newer every day.

~~ Emily Dickinson ~~

*********

“I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together!”

~~The Beatles. “I Am The Walrus” ~~

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

That’s it. Done. And, not bad, considering. With that in hand, to assuage my non-existent guilt over today’s mess, I’ll take my leave, post-haste, before all my brownie points expire. See y’all tomorrow, ffolkes, tongue-in-cheek, hat-in-hand, and, just-in-time for a new day…. well, here, anyway…. Ta, then….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid, the dubious

The *only* duly authorized Computer Curmudgeon.

PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.

“SCRAM!!!!!!!!!!”- Oscar the Grouch

À bientôt, mon cherí….

Dos Regalos Preciosos….

Posted on December 25, 2015 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

“He’s not the Messiah, he’s a very Naughty Boy”

~~ Brian’s Mum ~~

Christmas in California….

Hajime…. Do you like my Christmas Tree? It’s the only one I have, so, ’twill have to do…. Now we have the niceties observed, let’s allow them to pass into memory, for the nonce, if only to find a proper beginning to what is, if I do say myself, a damn fine example of a Pearl of Virtual Wisdom, such as they are…. We’ve foregone a rant for the day, in favor of kindness. There’s a fresh poem, written yesterday, just for today’s Gentle Readers, and all those who are crazy enough to follow this outlet for all my insanity…. There’s a slick final pearl, and music to get you through it all serenely…. Not bad for an amateur, eh?….

If I talk any further on what is below, it will spoil any surprises, so, I’ll just get on with this intro, so nobody misses anything…. That said, I see I’ve done it to myself again…. Where to from here? Considering our eventual destination(s), I’m not at all certain we can get there from here. However, let no one ever say I retreated from a challenge to my ability to fill up a page…. If I must retreat into nonsense, or gibberish, in order to get us the required distance from the opening quote, why, then, that’s what I’ll fucking do… I will try not to say fuck again…. Oops…. Oh well, let’s move on shall we? (In short, oh, fuck….)

There, how’s that for the obligatory silliness we all know and love so well… Okay, so, some of us don’t…. Too bad; today, this is what I’ve got, and, if we want to get to the meat of the matter, y’all had best just shut the pie holes, and hang on the best you can, because, now, I’m on a roll, and, it’s entirely possible I’ll never even find the end of this sentence, which has already gone at least a line and a half too far for comfort, or even joy…. Whew, made it! What a PITA!

Thank whomever you care to, we made it. Now I’ve gotten the worst of the idiocy out of the way, I thing we can go enjoy the rest of today’s mess… I’ll use one of our infamous Tardis toys…. Ooh, this one is fun! Hold on; this won’t hurt, and it’s wicked fast; we’ll be there before you can blink twice….

Shall we Pearl?….

“To be sensual is to respect and rejoice in the force of life, of life itself, and to be present in all that one does, from the effort of loving to the breaking of bread” — James Baldwin

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

Since today much of the Western world is celebrating their particular beliefs in the divinity of a dead social reformist, in whose divinity I place no credence, I’ll not torture anyone with a bunch of music we’ve all heard since birth, that now is getting rather crusty and disagreeable, for me anyway…. Since I also do not believe any of the other religious philosophies to contain anything close to what exists in the real world I live in, we won’t go with any other type, except one…

You see, as far as I know, Gautama Buddha never claimed any sort of divinity for himself; his philosophy had more to do with our inner beings than how we perceive the outer world, which is, admittedly a scary place, thus setting the stage for the general run of religions to offer their own set of beliefs in a divine creator as a way to answer humanity’s questions as to what happens after death…. Buddha didn’t worry much about that; like everything else in this Reality, he figured we each make our choices, which lead us wherever they take us; no supernatural intervention was deemed necessary to fulfill the requirements needed to achieve this sort of enlightened state….

All that said, as carefully as possible to avoid offense to anyone’s beliefs, we’ll have a bit of Zen meditation music today, to honor what I believe to be the closest philosophy to Reality, Buddhism, as practiced, and modeled perfectly, by the XIVth Dalai Lama of Tibet, whose only religion, by his own words, is Kindness…

Or, as John, and the rest of the lads sung, “All you need is Love….” Enjoy the peace, ffolkes; meditation not required….

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

Zen for Christmas

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

https://youtu.be/TwLV3_I8ey8

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

As a gift for the season, today, there will be no ranting…. Instead, I’ll go all the way back in the archives, for one of the earliest Pearls I posted on WordPress. I’ve cleaned up the formatting, to reflect what I now know, of how to make the posts LOOK the way I want them. Other than that, it’s just the same little weird story line I came up with to begin that day’s post…. It’s an odd one, I know, but, once you get to the punch line, you’ll laugh, no matter how disgusted with the rest of it you may be…. Any bets?

The short, short-story is followed by a most excellent group of pearls, a necklace of gems, for sure…. Enjoy your gift, ffolkes; it, and my love, and best wishes for a happy, peaceful winter go out to each and every one of my Gentle Readers…. May these words of the Dalai Lama guide your steps, and hearts….

“My only religion is kindness.”

From 9/7/2011:

Technicolor ferrets, and red, red wine….

Ffolkes,

The morning fog was lifting as she stepped outside; the day promised to be bright and hot. Another perfect late summer day in northern paradise; day after gorgeous day had paraded by, seemingly oblivious to the oncoming autumn, lulling the world into a drowsy complacency. Moving briskly, the young woman walked up the street toward the old part of town, past lovely old Victorian homes pressed between newer apartment buildings, and on into the busier streets leading to her morning’s destination.

As she passed others on the street, she looked away, toward the shop windows already sporting fall colors, avoiding any eye contact that might prompt a response, or slow her progress. Just ahead she could see the sign proclaiming “Eats!”, and the crowd of people outside, waiting and hoping for an opening inside. As she drew abreast of the door, she could see the people inside, talking, laughing, eating; she could see the staff rushing from table to table, pouring coffee, delivering food, frantically trying to keep abreast of the horde of orders and demands. She thought to herself, “they won’t have to do that much longer!”.

With that thought, she drew the homemade, baseball shaped bomb from her pocket, twisted the knob at the top, and calmly bent over to roll it across the floor toward the kitchen in the rear of the room. She turned away from the door and walked quickly away, twenty steps, then thirty…. Then, BOOM!, the device exploded, sending large pieces of building and people flying into the street, along with most of the crowd in front. As she strolled away she thought to herself, “That’ll teach ’em to burn my bacon!”…….Justice had prevailed…..

Okay, so they can’t all be classic literature. You try to come up with something new every day, and see how easy it is….NOT! Days such as this one it all comes down to whatever pours out onto the screen; I don’t consciously direct the process, but just let it flow. Sometimes it works, and others, well….not so much. You can decide for yourself, I’m sure…..and I’m sure you will. In the meantime, I like this little group, especially the little poem from Emily; it’s a perfect example of why her level of excellence is difficult to reach. Simple words, strung together in a seemingly random fashion, and POW, the idea smacks you right upside the head. Good stuff…..

The good man is the teacher of the bad,
And the bad is the material from which the good may learn.
He who does not value the teacher,
Or greatly care for the material,
Is greatly deluded although he may be learned.
Such is the essential mystery.

~~ Lao-Tzu (fl. BC 600) ~~

**********

“What seems to be no test, no struggle, is the most deceiving test of all.”

~~ Ezra Taft Benson ~~

**********

“And in the end the love you take is equal to the love you make.”

~~ The Beatles, The last lyric of their last song ~~

**********

A word is dead
When it is said
Some say.
I say it just
Begins to live
That day.

~~ Emily Dickinson ~~

**********

“I cannot achieve complete humility — although complete humiliation is always within reach.”

~~ Dan Goodman ~~

(I resemble that remark!…)

**********

Doing it the hard way is always easier. — Murphy’s Paradox

**********

Easier, perhaps, in the long run; it is always so hard to know which way is the hardest. It’s why Murphy is so successful at what he does; reality seems to cater to him, and lets him have his way all too often…..SIGH….. Y’all take care out there…..

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

A Seasonal Gift

Affordable, these moments in time,
all quite free, not costly, nor for sale at all.
Merely more misspent periods making rhyme.
seeking a peaceful heart, as my words fall.

A price, many will tell you, or me,
is due for every transaction.
In truth, everything you see is free;
Illusion seldom offers any real satisfaction.

Some also tell us we need some sort of god,
we’re told ’tis the only path to immortality.
On the path I’ve followed, that seems rather odd;
I’m quite happy with honorable mortality.

Some days it gets a bit lonely, for a bit,
out here in the cold light of reason.
Solitude is, however, well worth it;
Love, felt and treasured, gives warmth all season.

I suppose one could easily say,
this poem is the only gift I’ll give.
If I can teach love and kindness with the words I say,
such will be fine; it’s enough to live.

Happy Winter to All…

~~ gigoid ~~

12/24/2015

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

Naked Pearls

Lessons of Life/Death

One coin, two sides.

**********

“Better a cruel truth than a comfortable delusion.”

~~ Edward Abbey~~

**********

“I am pleased to see that we have differences.
May we together become greater than the sum of both of us.”

~~ Surak of Vulcan, “The Savage Curtain,” stardate 5906.4. ~~

**********

“Any man whose errors take ten years to correct is quite a man.”

~~ J. Robert Oppenheimer, speaking of Albert Einstein ~~

**********

“It’s possible to use karate against a swarm of plankton–but it won’t help.”

~~ Subtle Bee ~~

**********

“Je me presse de rire de tout, de peur d’etre oblige de’en pleurer.”
(I make myself laugh at everything, in case I should have to weep.)

~~ Pierre-Augustin de Beaumarchais ~~

**********

“… don’t you know that there are things, in the best of us,
which no outside should dare to touch?
Things sacred because, and only because,
one can say: ‘This is mine’?
Don’t you know that we live only for ourselves,
the best of us do, those who are worthy of it?
Don’t you know that there is something in us which must not be touched
by any state, by any collective, by any number of millions?”

~~ Kira Argounova ~~

**********

“A heart in love with beauty never grows old.”

~~ Turkish Proverb ~~

**********

“Let us overthrow the totems, break the taboos.
Or better, let us consider them canceled.
Coldly, let us be intelligent.”

~~ Pierre Trudeau ~~

**********
“Death the last sleep? No, it is the final awakening.”

~~ Sir Walter Scott ~~

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

I do love it when a plan comes together, to steal from the Colonel…. We’re done here, so, I will go now. Promise. In keepong with the spirit of the season, and, since there haven’t been any injuries reported, I’ll play nice, ending this here. I will, however, try to do this again tomorrow….

We now return to our regularly scheduled cat-pampering…. See y’all in the mornin’, ffolkes; that’s the only warning shot I’ll fire…..

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid, the dubious

The *only* duly authorized Computer Curmudgeon.

PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.

“SCRAM!!!!!!!!!!”- Oscar the Grouch

À bientôt, mon cherí….

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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