A long lesson in humility….

Ffolkes,

“For every beauty there is an eye somewhere to see it.
For every truth there is an ear somewhere to hear it.
For every love there is a heart somewhere to receive it.”

~~ Ivan Panin ~~

Colors of dusk

Colors of dusk on San Francisco Bay….

Hajime…. For close to seven years, the early hours of the day, before dawn, were the most productive time I spent, in terms of writing. Now I’ve achieved a degree of physical capability impossible for me during that time, I have rejoined the world of the diurnal, going to bed later at night, and arising well after dawn, just like most of the people in the world. While I find the advances in physical well-being quite elevating, I do miss the productive aspects, and some extent, the ‘oddness’ of nocturnal existence. In any case, I have returned, so to speak, to the world of living, and find it intriguing, if not fully exciting. In the words of the dubious one, so be it.

This Pearl, while fresh, and relatively coherent, still lacks any new material, other than the usual suspects, to wit: the old-school pearl section has all freshly chosen elements, as always. The poem, while one of my better ones, is included here today merely to fill in for the half-completed poem which continues to leak out of my head at a ridiculously snail-like pace. The relatively incomplete nature of what has transpired today can be considered as the result of trying to write while actively engaged with Reality…. In short, it’s not working out quite the way I’d hoped. It is, however, done enough to suit my always low standards; while acceptable, it’s not excellent. Well, perhaps that’s hasty, but, feelings don’t care much about that….

Rather than belabor such a less than useful point any further, why don’t we get on with the rest of today’s mess? I know, we’ll use my favorite fill-in phrase to indicate efficient progress is necessary, with whimsy and fervor…. Ffolkes, let’s get this slow on the toad…. BEFORE it implodes, injuring us all….

Shall we Pearl?….

“And as we stand on the edge of darkness
Let our chant fill the void
That others may know
In the land of the night
The ship of the sun
Is drawn by
The grateful dead.”

~~ Tibetan “Book of the Dead” ca. 4000 BC. ~~

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

Eric_Clapton_Unplugged

No introduction should be necessary for this artist; anyone who doesn’t know who he is has been living in a dark bubble for many moons. He’s played with just about every famous band and/or musician with a guitar in the world, getting better & better all the time. This is one of my favorite concerts, over an hour of some of the best music you’ll ever hear. Enjoy!

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

Eric Clapton
MTV Unplugged 1992

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

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

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

Comedy_Tragedy

Illusory Time

Viewed from askance, the river is long;
deep, uncompromisingly intent, swift and strong.
In duality, perception creates our only reality;
such faux metaphoric paradox enforces mutability.

By two we perceive, both zero, and one;
digital, binary, on or off, such fun.
Separate, melded, we exist, knowing not what we know
ego, striving to be solitary, looking above, seeing below.

Furiously asleep, cultural anomaly claims a victim of choice;
validly unconscious, nobody speaks, nary a voice.
Potential escapees stir in dreams, fighting to wake,
until taking the wheel, for their own bloody sake.

Pots boil in due time, when the fire’s hot,
time exists to our advantage; or, not.
The solitary warrior, head bent in pain,
fights on, with, or without gain.

Night fell, day after day it persisted;
of those who knew, none showed any care, or resisted
Angels, ministers, none had any defense, nor grace;
all that remains is a face.

~~ gigoid ~~

10/22/2016

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

pearls_3

Naked Pearls

Signs on the Path to being Human….

*******

“Everything that has a beginning has an ending.
Make your peace with that and all will be well.”

~~ Buddha ~~

*******

“My imagination makes me human and makes me a fool;
it gives me all the world and exiles me from it.”

~~ Ursula K. Le Guin ~~

*******

“The Master doesn’t talk, he acts,
when his work is done, the people say,
“Amazing: We did it all by ourselves!”

~ Tao Teh Ching ~~

*******

“Not to decide is to decide.”

~~ Harvey Cox ~~

*******

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

~~ Voltaire ~~

*******

“Our care should not be to have lived long as to have lived enough.”

~~ Seneca ~~

*******

“To see the world in a grain of sand,
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
And eternity in an hour.”

~~ William Blake, “Auguries of Innocence” ~~

*******

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

Since I managed to get the intro done in short order, I’m going to apply similar techniques here to bring it home. Besides, at this point in the day, I’m fresh out of anything else to say, or, do…. Rather than play the fool, I’ll play the odds, & leave it at that. I’ll be back in a day or three, with bells on. Maybe. In any case, y’all be well, be as happy as you may be, and remember…. The easy way is always the hardest, so, buckle down & face life, head on…. 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

dozer3

À bientôt, mon cherí….


			

Plaster casts aren’t for fishing….

Ffolkes,

“If you pray hard enough, water will run uphill.
How hard?
Why, hard enough to make water run uphill, of course!”

~~ Robert Heinlein ~~

sunflower

Wild sunflowers….

Hajime…. I had intended this Pearl to be rather a bit more ‘together’, so to speak. However, I’ve been co-opted for babysitting again today, and had to cobble this together fast, while my granddaughter is napping (a pastime I’d love to emulate, but for duty….). I’ve shoved it into basic shape, and all the parts are there, just not with the usual degree of consideration or planning… So be it…

In fact, I am in such a hurry, lest she awaken before I’m done & posted, I’m giving up on any more of an intro; instead, I will now proceed to dump y’all unceremoniously down the page, with no compunction, & no regrets. As noted…. So be it…. I do hope you enjoy today’s effort; it was rushed, but, it’s all there….

Shall we Pearl?….

“A master programmer passed a novice programmer one day.
The master noted the novice’s preoccupation with a hand-held computer game.
“Excuse me”, he said, “may I examine it?”
The novice bolted to attention and handed the device to the master.
“I see that the device claims to have three levels of play:
Easy, Medium, and Hard”, said the master.
“Yet every such device has another level of play,
where the device seeks not to conquer the human,
nor to be conquered by the human.”
“Pray, great master,” implored the novice,
“how does one find this mysterious setting?”
The master dropped the device to the ground and crushed it under foot.
And suddenly the novice was enlightened.”

~~ Geoffrey James, “The Tao of Programming” ~~

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

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

Incredibly late, d/t babysitting duties, thus, default is de rigeur, naturally…. Enjoy!….

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

Classical Music

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

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

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

Comedy_Tragedy

For The Blind Poet, Embraced

I sit to open a vein, exposed in public places,
happy to be written, judging by the faces.

None can see the price so willingly paid,
at the feet of imagination is that cost weighed.

Still shadows of reality shine quite as well
to hide all the bleeding as if under a spell;

While visions and fantasies vie for attention,
hoping to win once-hoped-for final mention.

Technology may or may not rue its day
never knowing or caring its part to play.

All the precious moments of inspiration
Fall ever short of our own imagination.

~~ gigoid ~~

9/30/2012

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

pearls_3

Naked Pearls

Like it, or, not….

*******

“Sometimes there’s no point in giving up.”

~~ Louis Wu. in “The Ringworld Engineers” by Larry Niven ~~

*******

“Be not diverted from your duty by any idle reflections
the silly world may make upon you,
for their censures are not in your power,
and consequently should not be any part of your concern.”

~~ Epictetus ~~

*******

“Change your opinions, keep to your principles;
Change your leaves, keep intact your roots.”

~~ Voltaire ~~

*******

“And though mine arm should conquer twenty worlds,
There ‘s a lean fellow beats all conquerors.”

~~ Thomas Dekker, “Old Fortunatus” ~~

*******

“Death is the only inescapable, unavoidable, sure thing.
We are sentenced to die the day we’re born.”

~~ Gary Mark Gilmore ~~

*******

“Life without the courage for death is slavery.”

~~ Seneca ~~

*******

“and what i want to know is how do you like your blueeyed boy Mister Death”

~~ ee cummings, “Buffalo Bill” ~~

*******

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

There you go; that’s all you get, because that’s all I’ve got…. I may or may not be back tomorrow morning; depends a lot on whether or not I’m needed again to ‘sit in’, as it were… I’ll be back, ffolkes; the question of “when?” shall remain unanswered until the appropriate time…. I shall, as you may expect, see you then…. Be well, be strange, and be alert…. all will be well, if you can do so….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid, the dubious

The *only* duly authorized Computer Curmudgeon.

PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.

“SCRAM!!!!!!!!!!”- Oscar the Grouch

Featured Image -- 13973

À bientôt, mon cherí….


Telling curious tales, in situ….

Ffolkes,

“In’I no expect to be justified by the laws of men.”

~~ Bob Marley ~~

near sunset

Near sunset on SF Bay….

Hajime…. Today’s Pearl is another in a long line of oddnesses I’ve managed to engender over the years I’ve been doing this. It’s complete, in terms of the current formatting & content standards I’ve established, though it does tend to be a bit obscure in spots. That, I would guess, is nothing new for what one generally sees on this site. It’s also quite late, compared to when I usually get posted; that is simply due to my duties yesterday, while babysitting, having kept me from working on any of it until this morning, when I decided, yet again, not to worry about how much time it took, or how late it got posted…. The mere fact it is done, and will get posted, is the most exemplary part of its charm, if any can be claimed at all….

All that, having been said, to our usual lack of concrete purpose, ‘twould, no doubt, behoove me to do what is needed to just “do it”. Far be it from me to deny the critical implications of using the word “behoove”; we’ll just pull up our pants, roll up our sleeves, set our faces with grim resolve, & get it done, just as if that were the original plan. Who’s gonna know, right? Only me, & I ain’t tellin’…. I am, however, finding it easier every time I use it to employ the ruthlessness I’ve developed in truncating this intro section of late. Today, that looks like this….

Shall we Pearl?

“To live only for some future goal is shallow.
It’s the sides of the mountain that sustain life, not the top.”

~~ Robert M. Pirsig, “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance” ~~

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

cream 2005

Cream ~~ 2005, Royal Albert Hall Reunion

Whenever I’m in a ‘mood’, I seem to turn to old rock & roll for soothing. Since the concerts this group put on in 2005 for their reunion contained some of the very best live performances ever seen on a stage, it ends up on my speakers a lot. I figured, since I definitely am in the proper ‘mood’, why not? And, indeed, why not listen to the best?….. Enjoy, ffolkes; if you know anything about musicianship, you’ll enjoy this….

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

Cream ~ Live Reunion
2005

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

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

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

Comedy_Tragedy

Neurons/Parade Rest

Forlorn, he thought, but, then,
no, not really so.
Old, sad, strong; polluted by time’s red pen.
Nowhere left, to be, nor to go.

Tricks, not treats, forever remote,
strike fear into hearts fettered in fog.
Biting deep, stinging, we simper by common rote,
mired eternally in such bilious bog.

Torturous vision, bloody, capitulates in duplicate;
don’t ask for whom the spell trolls.
Ambiguity is real, impossible to extricate,
that’s how it rocks, then rolls.

Spiteful instruments offer no respite, patently.
Filigree lacks properly significant doubt.
Alternative answers formulate motivation, elegantly,
portraying reality as a vulgar lout.

Poltroons, there’s a good word,
for idiotic farmers, enthusiasts who borrow
time, filled with the blood of a bird;
solitary, the trickster cannot follow.

Affable moments trip the light, fantastic;
salacious intimacies fill a shimmering bower.
Night falls, eventually, monastic;
eternity calls with irresistible power.

~~ gigoid ~~

8/11 – 8/15/2016

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

pearls_3

Naked Pearls

Notes on Life at Large….

*******

“Do you have the patience to wait
till your mud settles and the water is clear?
Can you remain unmoving
till the right actions arises by itself?”

~~ Lao Tzu ~~

*******

“Happiness depends upon ourselves.”

~~ Aristotle ~~

*******

“Between the vision and the act lies the shadow.”

~~T. S. Eliot ~~

*******

“Real generosity toward the future lies in giving all to the present.”

~~ Albert Camus ~~

*******
“Doubt is not a pleasant condition but certainty is an absurd one.”

~~ Voltaire ~~

*******

“Why should we be in such desperate haste to succeed,
and in such desperate enterprises?
If a man does not keep pace with his companions,
perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer.
Let him step to the music which he hears,
however measured or far away.”

~~ Henry David Thoreau, “Walden” ~~

*******

“There are worlds out there
where the sky is burning and the sea’s asleep and the rivers dream;
people made of smoke and cities made of song.
Somewhere there’s danger, somewhere there’s injustice,
somewhere else the tea’s getting cold.
Come on Ace, we’ve got work to do…”

~~ The Doctor, “Survival” [Last lines of last episode] ~~

*******

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

I’m not sure if this isn’t the latest I’ve posted a Pearl, ever; if not, it’s damn close to it. Which, of course, means nothing, in the larger picture; it just means I have a choice. I can end it here, and, now, with some aplomb. Or, I can draw it out for some time longer with some of the bullshit I keep handy. Since I’m in a “mood”, (not always a bad thing; today’s version isn’t particularly negative, just ‘odd’…. if that word still has any meaning around here….), I’ll choose the former, mainly because I can then apply the word ‘aplomb’ to myself. That’s enough incentive for anyone, I’d say. Works for me, anyway. See y’all tomorrow, ffolkes, as long as reality refrains from getting too fractious…..

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid, the dubious

The *only* duly authorized Computer Curmudgeon.

PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.

“SCRAM!!!!!!!!!!”- Oscar the Grouch

Kowabunga!

À bientôt, mon cherí….

Oblique references to metaphoric events….

Ffolkes,

“To him that waits all things reveal themselves,
provided that he has the courage not to deny,
in the darkness,
what he has seen in the light.”

~~ Coventry Patmore ~~

lets talk leelu

Okay, so, we need to talk….

Hajime…. Yesterday, for unknown reasons, while productive, was a wash in terms of satisfaction, as each task completed bore its own particular individual issues making it more difficult than either anticipated, or desired. I got it all done, but, was exhausted by 10 AM, & ended up NOT making it to the blogs I wanted particularly to get caught up on. Ah, well, such is life in the big city; everything we do has its piece of dissatisfaction, as we struggle to make sense of an insane world….. I’m reminded, at times like this, of Charlie Chaplin’s movie, Modern Times; not necessarily of the actual events, but, the overall feeling of something being wrong with this picture….

As an elder member of a species whose primary survival skill is adaptability, I’ll utilize all I have learned through the years to throw off that feeling, so I can, if nothing else, complete this Pearl & get on with another day of dealing with reality as best I can. I still have tasks to complete out in the Big Blue Room, so, I’ll see if what I’ve managed thus far will work again for today. In the meantime, rather than explore personal idiosyncracies, such as the need to make sense of things that make no sense, I’ll use my recently-honed skills in time management, mainly comprised of the ability to be ruthless in the act of ‘throwing out the dross’, to move this along as swiftly as possible…. Not my favorite new skill, but, handy at such times as these….

I could choose from among a number of different methods to accomplish this, but, I think I’ll just use the one that works best, to wit: the Drop. It isn’t always the most comfortable, to use or to experience, but, it does the job better than all the others, combined. Which one is it? Easy; this one….

Shall we Pearl?

“The notion that faith in Christ
is to be rewarded by an eternity of bliss,
while a dependence upon reason, observation, and experience
merits everlasting pain, is too absurd for refutation,
and can be relieved only by that unhappy mixture
of insanity and ignorance called “faith”.”

~~ Robert G. Ingersoll ~~

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

bonnie (2)

This morning, I feel like rocking, & one cannot find anyone who can do that better than this lady and her band. From 1989, introduced by Bill Graham at the Oakland Coliseum theater, here is my own choice for redhead of the century (twentieth, if it matters; there’s a different award-winner chosen for this century; if she reads this, she’ll know to whom I refer….)….. Enjoy!….

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

Bonnie Raitt Live

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

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

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

Comedy_Tragedy

Manifesto, sotto voce

In retrospect, I’ve gotta say,
it’s all been rather a muddle.
Life is tough, so ‘they’all say,
Lots of misery, not much cuddle.

Me, I’ve found life a bit different
than ‘they’ seem to have done.
It’s all been rather excellent;
I’ve had loads & loads of fun.

Sure, there’s been some bad shit.
Who can’t say that?
All of that pales, all of it
when one hugs a dog, a child, or a cat.

I’ve seen, fought, and felt, more than my share,
the presence of evil in life.
The pain that remains often seems unfair;
I ask why I chose to deal with such strife.

I can always find the answer in the same place,
right where it has ever resided.
All we need to do is embrace
the joy we’ve given, and been provided.

Simple is good.
Balance is good.

Life can be both.

~~ gigoid ~~

12/19/2015

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

pearls_3

After composing this old-school pearl, comprised of nine most subtle thoughts from a wide variety of people who have long been considered to be among humanity’s most respected minds, I found myself breathless, from the massive illumination it induced. Each individual pearl, which points a particular way, is part of the idea which came to me as I pondered them, one by one, each leading me deeper into the idea, until it became a near epiphany…. To try to fully explain that idea here would require a long dissertation, so, I’ll leave its expression as an exercise for the Gentle Reader…. Allow your mind dwell upon it, as you read, & perhaps you can find it, too…. Enjoy!….

*******

“A man may love a paradox without either losing his wit or his honesty.”

~~ Ralph Waldo Emerson ~~

*******

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

~~ Dogen ~~

*******

“The man who removes a mountain begins by carrying away small stones.”

~~ Chinese proverb ~~

*******

“In walking, just walk. In sitting, just sit. Above all, don’t wobble.”

!! Yun-Men !!

*******

“Illusion is the first of all pleasures.”

~~ Voltaire ~~

*******

“Whence come I and whither go I?
That is the great unfathomable question,
the same for every one of us.
Science has no answer to it.”

~~ Max Planck ~~

*******

“Whenever I climb I am followed by a dog called ‘Ego’.”

~~ Friedrich Nietzsche ~~

*******

“The farther you go, the less you know.”

~~ Lao Tzu, “Tao Te Ching”

*******

“And forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet
and the winds long to play with your hair.”

~~ Kahlil Gibran, “The Prophet” ~~

*******

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

Well, there you go. It’s done, & I have to say, it ain’t bad, all things considered…. I’m off now, though being ‘off’ is nothing new. I’m also going to take my leave, forthwith. Now, seeing that, you might think I have more to say before leaving you, but, you’d be wrong. Not only am I done saying stuff, I’m, as we say downtown, outta here. See y’all tomorrow, ffolkes, as long as reality doesn’t intrude again….

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

Dozer

À bientôt, mon cherí….

Draped in retrospective affability….

Ffolkes,

:Under all speech that is good for anything there lies a silence that is better.
Silence is deep as Eternity; speech is shallow as time.”

~~ Thomas Carlyle — Memoirs of the Life of Scott ~~

~~ London and Westminister Review — Nos. XII and LV (1838) ~~

WOPC and a seal

Pine Cone Whimsey at Pier 39….

Hajime…. All will be well, and, all will be, well, as well as can be. Hmm… That is, no doubt, a little obscure, but, accurate enough. Leelu will be fine; she was reacting to the stress of my three day absence; it turns out this reaction affects her digestion, severely enough to make her ill. A return to routine, a couple days of bland diet, & she’ll be fine. The bond between us is strong, so, some mild, slow behavioral shaping, to get her used to me being gone, will need to be performed, to help her adjust better to my periodic need to be elsewhere for a time. Such is life, so, we’ll do what we can to keep her content, as we are each other’s whole world, in a sense, & I wouldn’t have it any other way…..

I managed to create a Pearl, cobbled together in pieces throughout the day, & on into this morning. I am still processing a lot of my weekend, which included a great deal of heavy lifting, mentally, but, none of it has evolved into anything to write as yet. We have music, a decent, recent poetic effort, and a pretty good pearl for the last section today, all as right & tight as I can make it on short notice/tight deadline. As such, it will have to do, ‘cuz I ain’t doin’ it over. In fact, I’m still pretty tired from all the hours I spent awake, so, I’ll forgo trying to impress here & now, opting, instead, for brevity, in spirit, and in sooth, by ending this before it becomes unwieldy, which often offers no opportunity to come to a dignified close. In point of fact, I intend to do that, here, and now, merely by doing this….

Shall we Pearl?

“Once conform, once do what others do because they do it,
and a kind of lethargy steals over all the finer senses of the soul.”

~~ Michael de Montaigne ~~

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

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

I got a bit of a late start this morning, so, we’re going with our default musical selection, chosen, as always, by the one whose accompanying picture caught my eye…. Today, that happens to be Mozart Symphonies…. Enjoy!….

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

Classical Music
Mozart Symphonies 40 & 41

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

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

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

Comedy_Tragedy

Further Proof

No evidence exists, no rumored promise
of a guide on the path we seek.
Salient information lies hidden, seeking solace;
each possibility lost, no longer unique.

The past cascades through today, resolute;
finished and gone, by all reputable report.
Common failings decry any fever in the root,
as pillars of salt offer up little retort.

Longitude has latitude, one dimension to the next;
truth and lies, mirrored, transform on first exposure.
Born in chaos, living in change, by guile and pretext;
artful insanity, with no rational cure.

‘Tis no wonder, some do say now and then,
such creatures are doomed, by their own hand.
Cursed by the force of their very own ken,
until only the leaving seems very grand.

Perhaps, but, then, say those who doubt,
it’s all part of how it works, in fact.
We can’t know, really, what it’s all about
without completing the final act.

Is there any hurry?

~~ gigoid ~~

6/23/2016

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

pearls_3

Naked Pearls

Learning to Learn….

*******

“If the thraskin puts his fingers in his ears, it is polite to shout.”

~~ Doctor, The Time Monster ~~

*******

“Schooling is what happens inside the wall of the school,
some of which is educational.
Education happens everywhere,
and it happens from the moment a child is born
–some say before–
until it dies.”

~~ Sara Lawrence Lightfoot, A World of Ideas, 1989 ~~

*******

“Each player must accept the cards life deals him or her.
But once they are in hand, he or she alone must decide
how to play the cards in order to win the game.”

~~ Voltaire ~~

*******

“Nothing in the entire universe ever perishes, believe me,
but things vary, and adopt a new form.
The phrase “being born” is used for
beginning to be something different
from what one was before,
while “dying” means
ceasing to be the same.
Though this thing may pass into that,
and that into this,
yet the sums of things remains unchanged.”

~~ Ovid — “Metamorphoses” ~~

*******

“I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I —
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.”

~~ Robert Frost, “The Road Not Taken” ~~

*******

“Do not fear death so much, but rather the inadequate life.”

~~ Bertold Brecht ~~

*******

“By letting go, it all gets done.”

~~ Tao Te Ching ~~

*******

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

Not too shabby, at all, for what it is; I am reasonably content. I shan’t make the error of commenting on its quality; instead, I shall continue the spirit of brevity as so aptly applied in the intro, by using the old “dump ’em where they are” method, which has worked so well for us in the past. Sometimes, ya just gotta do what you gotta do. Since, in truth, it’s already done, I’ll merely say, see ya for now, ffolkes. I’ll be back, probably sooner than I think. What y’all think is, for the most part, not irrelevant, but, unprintable. Well, maybe not, but, what the hell? It got us outta here, didn’t it?…. I know, strange, yet, normal, right?…. Be well, & happy as you may….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid, the dubious

The *only* duly authorized Computer Curmudgeon.

PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.

“SCRAM!!!!!!!!!!”- Oscar the Grouch

Featured Image -- 12254

À bientôt, mon cherí….

Unreasonable degrees of irony….

Ffolkes,

“A man is a very small thing, and the night is very large and full of wonders.”

~~ Lord Dunsany, The Laughter of the Gods ~~

blue

Morning glorious….

Hajime…. For more than six years now, I have used the creation of this blog as a means of finding my inner balance. The process I developed over that time has furnished me with a routine upon which I could depend to produce a product I considered worthy of publishing for peer review, while simultaneously providing me with a means to organize my thoughts into the mold it most favors, in order to maintain the balance so essential to the peace sought so diligently by our inner self.

Since the real world, which I call consensual reality, seldom provides any of these for us, ( in truth, it often works in the opposite direction, making it hard to find any such means….), it has worked pretty well, such as it is. Of course, I am the sole judge of how well it works, & I am, deliberately, inconsistent in judging its efficacy, thus, most probably, detracting from its efficiency to some degree. But, as the closing introductory quote from Ralphie notes, consistency is just as well left out of the issue. By my standards, writing has worked well to keep me relatively sane, by public standards, if not my own, or, those of others less familiar with my personality); as proof, I offer a simple statistic, to wit: I have yet to kill anyone. Given the almost hourly occurrence of homicidal urges that come to me as I perceive the world, that’s not bad.

In truth, it occurs to me, much of my life has been a long struggle to keep myself from killing people; there are just so many of them who deserve killing, by almost any standard! Oligarchs, politicians, priests, pimps, corrupt cops, the list, to me, seems endless. Each of those categories of humans, on a consistent basis, exhibit the worst traits of humanity…. Fear, cowardice, the ability to lie, or deny reality, without guilt, shame, or the slightest degree of compassion; most of my fellow humans, to my mind, seem to abrogate their very humanity at every turn, refusing to use the intelligence they have been imbued with by nature, and denying their own connection to the rest of creation, insisting they are so special, the rules of the universe do not apply to them.

Moreover, the most basic flaw our species demonstrates regularly, seems to not even enter their perception. This flaw, as I see it, is the ability to deny their own nature, such that their entire approach to reality becomes their own worst enemy. We humans seem to have the unfortunate ability to make the assumption we have the power to alter reality at our whim, a belief not shared by that reality. Moreover, we are so convinced of this false power, we make the automatic assumption we are thus better than the rest of reality. This sense of entitlement, false as it may be, will, in the long run, prove to be a fatal flaw, for it is leading us inexorably to an ignoble end…. which is another simple deduction people refuse to make….

I have wandered around in my mind now for some time today, trying to find a way to succinctly state my feelings & thoughts, trying to explain, to myself as much as y’all, why I haven’t been writing much. I suppose I should take a shot at summarizing, so we can get on with the rest of this mess….

I don’t see much hope for humanity. The flaws in our nature, which we refuse to acknowledge, or attempt to abrogate, are killing us. If we cannot change the paradigm with which we now live, we are ALL going to die, and not comfortably. I suppose the angst and lack of balance I have been experiencing for the past year or so, since regaining a bit of clear-mindedness I had misplaced is a direct result of my sorrow at such an outcome. As a species, we show a lot of promise; it’s unfortunate our own nature prevents us from reaching out to grasp that promise, and make it our own. Instead, we fuss, we fight, we act as if the lies and delusions, upon which our entire culture is based, are real, and will help us live, when, in fact, all we can ever expect, if we don’t change, is ongoing conflict, and misery for the major portion of humanity.

My angst thus, is a persistent sense of sorrow, and anger at those humans who refuse to acknowledge the problems our own nature creates for us…. Since I, too, am human, my feelings cause me to want to strike out, hard, at those who will not see the truth of reality, and how our choices, to live in fear and delusion, have brought us to the brink of extinction. I’ve managed thus far to control those urges, human as they are; I’m having a hard time doing so these days, as there just doesn’t seem to be much reason NOT to follow the injunction of nature, so aptly described by H. L. Mencken, when he said, “Every normal man must be tempted, at times, to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats.”

I have to admit, the temptation is great. However, I see I have, without realizing it, ranted in the intro again. So much so, I’ve made the rant I had started superfluous, & will proceed to delete it, in favor of finishing the rest of this now overlong mess. I can’t say I’m sorry for having done so; if naught else, it was rather cathartic for me, so, we’ll let it go, as is, & trust the chips to fall in convenient places. Since I can’t think of any easy, comfortable method for getting us out of the intro, I’ll just stop here, & hope for the best. I hope you enjoy today’s interlude….

Shall we Pearl?

“A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds,
adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.
With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do.”

~~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, Essays: First Series (1841) “Self-Reliance” ~~

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

fare thee well aldotcom

Today, I feel like listening to the Dead (go figure). Here is the second set (over two hours long) from their 50th Anniversary/Farewell Tour in 2015. Though Jerry, Robert Hunter, & Pigpen are long gone, the music and culture lives on…. Enjoy!….

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

Fare Thee Well
Grateful Dead, 7/5/2015
Second Set

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

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

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

Comedy_Tragedy

I can feel poems percolating, but, none are ready to leak. Here is one from last year, written during the time I was attempting to regain some balance after more than a year of fighting the symptoms of opioid withdrawal, so kindly foisted upon me by the ignorance & cowardice of the medical industry in this country. Needless to say, it’s a bit more intense than my usual fare, & I hope you enjoy it….

Augmentation: Inner Aye

Distant, peals of thunder, vividly.
Closer, a patter of rain, falling gravidly.
Between the light and the darkness of fear
find merely the remnants of one lonely tear.

Do not hate us, though we have not sinned;
eager for courage, upon whom all hope is pinned.
Tales of insolence, hatred, or fallen virtue
fill us up, not down, in such pristine foreign venue.

Capable hands severed, able hands tied;
the future is angry, all but now denied.
Multiple times, warnings sounded across the pale
nobody heard, nobody came to tell the tale.

Gifted by time, salience fails in epic rhyme;
watchmakers watching, each a separate crime.
Logical solutions refuse to emulsify
forever pretending to cruelly crucify.

Blood will fly alongside pertinent composure,
never seeking, never finding tea, or closure.
Falsely laid trails on mountains of gold
imply no happy endings, no fortunes told.

Ages past have no time for repetition;
further chances only lead to perdition.
Destiny feels a shameful portion of guilt,
for a thousand sand castles, never built.

~~ gigoid ~~

3/2/2016

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

pearls_3

Naked Pearls

Esoterica

*******

“A person needs a little madness,
or else they never dare cut the rope and be free.”

~~ Nikos Kazantzakis ~~

*******

“Every man is guilty of all the good he didn’t do.”

~~ Voltaire ~~

*******

True glory consists in doing what deserves to be written;
in writing what deserves to be read;
and in so living as to make the world
happier and better for our living in it.

~~ Pliny the Elder ~~

*******

It is something to be able to paint a particular picture,
or to carve a statue, and so to make a few objects beautiful;
but it is far more glorious to carve and paint
the very atmosphere and medium through which we look,
which morally we can do.
To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts.”

~~ Henry David Thoreau, “Where I Live” ~~

*******

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

~~ Will Foley ~~

*******

“He knows not how to know who knows not also how to unknow.”

~~ Richard Burton ~~

*******

“The only thing I know for sure is that I know nothing at all, for sure.”

~~ Socrates ~~

*******

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

Although today’s missive is extensive, it feels a bit underdone, if obese. But, so be it; I’m done, & not willing to either start over, or edit. Instead, I’ll trust the process, as I’ve learned to do so well, & let it go without further ado. In fact, I’ll even go so far as to end it swiftly, rather than drawing it out to resemble the intro. I’ll be back as soon as I have enough to say; it won’t be long, I’m sure, as I’m a naturally voluble study in contradictions and subtle notes of irony. Go figure, eh? See ya, ffolkes; that’s a promise I hope to live long enough to fulfill….

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….

10,000 maniacs won’t be enough; triple it….

Ffolkes,

“The believer is happy. The doubter is wise.”

~~ Hungarian proverb ~~

african-parakeet

And, your point is…?

Hajime…. The good news is two-fold; I’m definitely feeling better, well enough to sit, with proper alignment, for up to 15 or 20 minutes. Also, I can feel a poem in there, percolating. The other face of these events, sad to say, is less positive; sitting remains problematic after a time, and the poem isn’t ready to bleed out yet. I figure Murphy’s got his eye on things, and will screw them up, best he can, but, not going to worry about that, since that’s par for the course. I’ll try to be patient, & stay with the program, just in case there’s an opportunity to stick it to HIM for a change. Fat chance, right?

I’m unsure as to how much time I’ve got to get this done; my back is good to go, but, always on edge to complain. To forgo having to give up altogether, I’m going to piece this together quickly, & be done with it for the day, hoping for more time tomorrow. Not like me to depend on chance, but, what can one do in the face of such conundrum? Going with the flow seems like the safest path to take, and, by gosh, we’re taking it. Not only will we do so, we’ll do it now, for luck…. Luck’s about the only chance we have, so, let’s go find it…..

Shall we pearl?….

“The function of an ideal is not to be realized but
like that of the North Star, to serve as a guiding point.”

~~ Edward Abbey ~~

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

pearls_3

Naked Pearls

Sublimated Rant

*******

“A short saying oft contains much wisdom.”

~~ Sophocles — Aletes, Frag. 99 ~~

*******

“It is hard to free fools from the chains they revere.”

~~ Voltaire ~~

*******

“…You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.”

~~ Bob Dylan, from “Subterranean Homesick Blues” 1967 ~~

*******

“Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich.”

~~ Napoleon Bonaparte ~~

*******

“They begin with making falsehood appear like truth,
and end with making truth itself appear like falsehood.”

~~ Shensione ~~

*******

“The human mind is a dangerous plaything, Boys.
When it’s used for Evil, watch out!
But when it’s used for Good, things are much… nicer.”

~~ the Tick ~~

*******

“I know a lot of people without brains who do an awful lot of talking.”

~~ The Scarecrow, Wizard of Oz ~~

*******

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

Comedy_Tragedy

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 ~~

12/6/2013

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

One of these days, I’m going to learn HTML; the things it does might just make more sense if I knew the language. SIGH…. Formatting issues aside, hopefully fixed, it’s done. To keep from blowing it up entirely, I’ll end it here, with the usual caveat. I’ll be back, and that’s all the warning you’ll get…. See ya, ffolkes….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid, the dubious

The *only* duly authorized Computer Curmudgeon.

PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.

“SCRAM!!!!!!!!!!”- Oscar the Grouch

Featured Image -- 9678

À bientôt, mon cherí….

Intricately crafted examples of metaphoric paradox….

Ffolkes,

“Ignorance doesn’t kill you, but it makes you sweat a lot.”

~~ Haitian proverb ~~

what now

Did you say ‘chase paper’?….

Hajime…. I’m posting very late again today, but, not for any bad reason. On the contrary, it’s been a fine morning. I would share it, but, it’s still too intimate an experience to do so; I’m greedy sometimes, & want to savor it for a time. The time I spent will, eventually, be a big part of my personal cache of memories, in the folder simply labeled “joy”. Can’t say exactly why ’tis so, but, gift horse, right? Don’t want to examine it too closely….

Rather than torture all of us by trying to create some grandiose, compelling intro today, I’ll make these two paragraphs do as a sublimation for the real thing. I doubt seriously y’all will miss it, any more than will I. We also will not be discussing any of the personal quirks, and/or mental issues which would tend to complicate matters in the normal course of events. Of course, around here, there is no such thing as a normal course of events, but, we won’t talk about that, either. Instead, we’ll just do this….

Shall we pearl?….

“Get thee down. Be thou funky.”

~~ Retro Bee ~~

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

fiddler celtic woman mairead nezbitt

Máiréad Nesbitt

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

Today’s musical selection features an Irish artist, a fiddler, who currently plays with the Celtic Woman group. I’ve seen the group on stage a couple of times; each time, this woman’s performance, for me, made the show as special as it was. Quite simply, her performance is infectiously joyous, sharing her own pleasure at playing her music to such a degree it is tangible…. I hope you enjoy it….

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

Celtic Woman

Máiréad – Granuaile’s Dance

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

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

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

Plato-Aristotle

“None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free.”

~~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe ~~

*******

“No slave is ever freed, save he freeth himself.”

~~ Bob Marley, paraphrased ~~

Today’s rant is self-directed, as it should be, given the opening quotes…. Enjoy! Oh, and, keep an open mind on this one; you’ll need it….

From 5/6/2015:

Dubiousity, Redux

In the virtual world, I call myself gigoid, the dubious, for specific reasons…. Rather than use my own words to delineate/describe those reasons, here are some of them, in the form of pearls, (naturally….), as collected by Smart Bee, just as an exercise…. It turned out to be a nice, eleven-star pearl, all centered around the concept of doubt as a function of wisdom…. It seems I’m not the only person in history to put my faith in doubt, rather than the other way around, so to speak…. There are a lot of big names here, and, I only went through the first half of the collection….

Pay particular heed today, ffolkes; these little bits of shiny stuff are more subtly important, to you, than you may realize…. Oh, and, ALL of this will be on your final Quiz…. Don’t blame me, I didn’t make it up….

Shadow and sunlight are the same;
The vanished gods to me appear;
And one to me are shame and fame.
They reckon ill who leave me out;
When me they fly, I am the wings;
I am the doubter and the doubt,
And I the hymn the Brahmin sings.

~~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, Brahma ~~

“Philosophy, means, first, doubt; and afterwards the consciousness of what knowledge means, the consciousness of uncertainty and of ignorance, the consciousness of limit, shade, degree, possibility. The ordinary man doubts nothing and suspects nothing.” — Henri Frederick Amiel

“A lizard ran out on a rock and looked up, listening no doubt to the sounding of the spheres. And what a dandy fellow! the right toss of a chin for you and swirl of a tail! If men were as much men as lizards are lizards they’d be worth looking at.” — D. H. Lawrence (1928)

“Authority has every reason to fear the skeptic, for authority can rarely survive in the face of doubt.” — Robert Lindner

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

Modest doubt is call’d
The beacon of the wise, the tent that searches
To the bottom of the worst.

~~ William Shakespeare ~~

~~ Troilus and Cressida — Act ii, Sc. 2 ~~

Doubt is the beginning, not the end, of wisdom. — Smart Bee

“Freedom of speech and freedom of action are meaningless without freedom to think. And there is no freedom of thought without doubt.” — Bergen Evans, The Natural History of Nonsense (1946)

“If you understand, or if you don’t. If you believe, or if you doubt. There is a universal justice and the eyes of truth are always watching.” — Enigma

“Men become civilized, not in proportion to their willingness to believe, but in their readiness to doubt.” — H. L. Mencken

My guard stood hard when abstract threats too noble to neglect
deceived me into thinking I had something to protect.
Good and bad I defined these terms, quite clear, no doubt, somehow
Ah, but I was so much older then;
I’m younger than that now.

~~ Bob Dylan ~~

Ah, yes, indeed…. I AM younger than that now….. so, there will be more on this subject later…. Ta, then….

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

Comedy_Tragedy

Retrospective, defined in folly….

Yesterday
I wrote a poem.

It bled out of my head,
like I’d been struck with
an axe,
right through the artery,
in the neck,
spraying blood around
everywhere,
like a pulsing garden hose….

It hurt, at first,
then came the feeling,

of quick relief,
of timeless beauty,

of pain avenged,
of lust aroused,

of outrage aflame,
of deep compassion,

of endless empathy,
of truest love….

Now it’s gone, cast away
like pearls before twine.

(Grin…)

You thought
I was going to call you
a pig,
didn’t you?

Hah!

Well, you’re not.
You’re a person.

I know, because
you’re reading this poem…
if that’s what it is.
I think it is,
so,
maybe it is.

Or, maybe,
it will be,
someday, when it
grows up,
and learns to rhyme.
Whew…
Just in time…..

That’s all.
Reality often sucks wind,
y’know?

S’okay, though….
It keeps us busy,
and out of some of the
mischief,
so much part
of our
nature.

We all can do
only what we
do.

Or, don’t.

Two sides, one coin.

~~ gigoid ~~

9/1/2014

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

pearls_3

Naked Pearls

Not so obvious truths….

*********

“I think, therefore I am… dangerous, that is…”

~~ Master Bee ~~

*********

“We don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are.”

~~ Anais Nin ~~

*********

“Do what you love.
Know your own bone;
gnaw at it, bury it, unearth it, and gnaw it still.”

~~ Thoreau ~~

*********

“A man cannot speak but he judges himself…
no man thoroughly understands a truth
until he has contended against it.”

~~ Emerson ~~

*********

“In walking, just walk.
In sitting, just sit.
Above all, don’t wobble.”

~~ Yun-Men ~~

*********

“Really to see the sun rise or go down every day…
would preserve us sane forever.”

~~ Thoreau ~~

*********

“… as sight is in the body, so is reason in the soul…”

~~ Aristotle — Nicomachean Ethics, Bl. I, Ch. 6, 10966, lines 29-30 ~~

*********

“I have realized that the past and future are real illusions,
that they exist in the present,
which is what there is and all there is.”

~~ Alan Watts ~~

*********

“If it had been a bear it would have bit you.”

~~ Jonathan Swift — Polite Conversation, Dialogue i”

*********

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

Did it. Down, dirty, done. Moreover, got nothin’ left to say, so, I’ll just say, see y’all tomorrow. I’m as certain of that as I am of anything in the world…. Fair warning, I’d say….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid, the dubious

The *only* duly authorized Computer Curmudgeon.

PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.

“SCRAM!!!!!!!!!!”- Oscar the Grouch

Kowabunga!

À bientôt, mon cherí….

Substitute candidates from Poughkeepsie….

Ffolkes,

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

~~ Blaise Pascal ~~

tracy arm glacier melt

Tracy Arm Glacier Melt Runoff, Alaska

Hajime…. In the past five years, my sanity has been somewhat of a hit and miss proposition. Now, for some, this might be an issue, which could conceivably cause difficulties in life. However, I don’t suffer from insanity; I revel in it, so, the process is not the same as it is for anyone else, with a typical view of sanity vs. the opposite side of the coin. In my world, being sane is merely a judgment, usually made by others, for others, using only their own silly rules to make the decision, just as if they actually knew what was real, and what was not. Silly humans….

In my world, we believe in humanity, and reality; we, or, I, since I’m really not a royal, know our body and mind are NOT separate things; neither is our sense of “I” anything more than an illusion, created by the power of our imagination to help us find the sense of order our mind requires, to separate us from our perceptions, so the power of our intelligence can imagine itself as real, rather than merely the resultant outcome of a biological process. poorly understood. In truth, we are not separate from what we perceive; to believe so sets us on a path of delusion, for reality does not actually conform to our imagination, much as we like to believe it does.

This belief has led us into a real mess, but, since we are still in the intro, perhaps we should wait to explore such deep matters. In fact, it’s probably a deep and wide enough of a subject to fill up an entire section, with severely rant-like qualities. We’ll see how it goes. We like to rant, but, we don’t know if we are up to it. Uh oh…. Now we’ve done it; we’re stuck in the royal we again. Shit. We hate when that happens. Oh, ’tisn’t a necessarily bad thing, just weird. We know, we’ll use the old royal coping mechanism, so diligently applied by the real royals we see, to wit: sheer denial. We shall act as if we do not see, or hear….

We shall also end this intro here, before it becomes any more onerous, or moves any further from the confines of true reality. We shall hope to fall out of the ‘we’ mode soon, but, if not, well, so be it. Let us try to shock it out, by using one of the more radical Tardis toys to move us along. We shall push THIS button….

Shall we Pearl?….

“Think of doubt as an invitation to think.”

~~ Dubious Bee ~~

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

p lee amazon

Image from amazon.com via Google Images

I often retreat into the past when I’m feeling this way, to find those things forgotten over time. I decided, once breaking out of the royal ‘we’, I was in the mood for some class and style. I can’t think of a better example than one of my first crushes…. Miss Peggy Lee….

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

Miss Peggy Lee

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

https://youtu.be/LCRZZC-DH7M?list=PLAeI1ntmJCZM8Rq6pArnBsNCsN_j-FLRr

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

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

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

Dont keep calm

The rant I’m working on isn’t ready; for all the hype and delay, it better turn out pretty damn good, I’d say, but, we’ll see. For now, here is a self-directed rant, with some pointers to take you on a journey through your mind’s interpretation of reality, to look at some of those things in our public life which are part of what I see as humanity’s issues of contention with reality…. In short, if you follow the dots, the picture will show why we’re all wobbly….

*****

“Discourse on virtue and they pass by in droves.
Whistle and dance the shimmy, and you’ve got an audience.”

~~ Diogenes ~~

*****

“You can fool too many of the people too much of the time.”

~~ James Thurber, “The Thurber Carnival”, 1945 ~~

*****

“Every sensible man, every honest man,
must hold the Christian sect in horror.
But what shall we substitute in its place? you say.
What?
A ferocious animal has sucked the blood of my relatives.
I tell you to rid yourselves of this beast
and you ask me what you shall put in its place?”

~~ Voltaire ~~

*****

“Like…If guns are outlawed,
the lawyer population will explode out of control.”

~~ Valley Bee ~~

*****

“JAPAN is a WONDERFUL planet
— I wonder if we’ll ever reach
their level of COMPARATIVE SHOPPING…”

~~ Zippy the Pinhead ~~

*****

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

Comedy_Tragedy

Recently, there was yet another insane shooting spree by an idiot. This poem is one I wrote about three years ago, after a similar event…. I hope you enjoy it, though ‘enjoy’ may not the most precise word I’m seeking…. But, I hope you enjoy the process….

Modest sounds of impatient concern….

Crowds converge at the raw and grisly scene,
comatose to compassion, curiosity tugging at the hem
with sharp, oh, sharp tools made obscene,
filing the essence of future hopes in spite of them.

Yet who has won the keys to the treasure,
who whipped up the fear of another brother?
Who spent the dreams of the old in selfish measure,
with such arrogant blindness grave issues to smother?

Fateful decisions may prompt still another pause,
to catch and release collective images of insanity.
Surely legitimate anger arises with ample cause
wallowing in self-made entrepreneurs, fluent in profanity.

A quartet of eternities must pass to guarantee change,
regardless of need, or desire, or autonomous manipulation.
Ancient rules and modern aggression is only passing strange
when golden delusion grasps futilely at its related illusory station.

~~ gigoid ~~

8/18/2013

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

pearls_3

Naked Pearls

Random Thoughts on Life at Large

*******

“Who combats bravely is not therefore brave,
He dreads a death-bed like the meanest slave:
Who reasons wisely is not therefore wise,–
His pride in reasoning, not in acting lies.”

~~ Alexander Pope — Moral Essays, Epistle i, Line 115 ~~

*******

“A man cannot speak but he judges himself…
no man thoroughly understands a truth
until he has contended against it.”

~~ Emerson ~~

*******

“The eye sees only what the mind is prepared to comprehend.”

~~ Henri Bergson ~~

*******

“Man is not disturbed about things, but by his opinion about things.”

~~ Epictetus ~~

*******

“Happiness is the harvest of a quiet eye.”

~~ Austin O’Malley ~~

*******

“Love is not all: it is not meat nor drink
Nor slumber nor a roof against the rain;
Nor yet a floating spar to men that sink
And rise and sink and rise and sink again;

Love can not fill the thickened lung with breath,
Nor clean the blood, nor set the fractured bone;
Yet many a man is making friends with death
Even as I speak, for lack of love alone.

It well may be that in a difficult hour,
Pinned down by pain and moaning for release,
Or nagged by want past resolution’s power,
I might be driven to sell your love for peace,
Or trade the memory of this night for food.

It well may be.

I do not think I would.”

— Edna St. Vincent Millay

*******

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

~~ William Rose Benet ~~

*******

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

It’s done. I’m way late, and not at all sure I didn’t forget something, but, as we’re fond of saying downtown, oh, well…. Fuck it. That’s another favorite in the places I hang out, so, we’ll go with that, too. At least, we’ll do that until tomorrow, when I’ll try again to reach some sort of coherent plateau, where I might find my center. If not, well, I’ll try again the next day. So be it. See y’all then, if nobody catches me at it….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid, the dubious

The *only* duly authorized Computer Curmudgeon.

PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.

“SCRAM!!!!!!!!!!”- Oscar the Grouch

Featured Image -- 2780

À bientôt, mon cherí….

Passionate barbers will suffice….

Ffolkes,

“Clay is moulded to make a vessel,
but the utility of the vessel lies in the space where there is nothing. …
Thus, taking advantage of what is,
we recognize the utility of what is not.”

~~ Lao Tzu ~~

Cobh

Cobh, Ireland

Hajime…. Most ffolkes, when able to sleep in a relatively normal fashion, probably wake up feeling pretty good. I can only wish that were the case with me, for it would sure be nice to wake up that way on occasion. As it is, even though I managed to garner six good hours of rest, I am in a foul mood upon awakening. Don’t ask me why, because, apparently, even that pisses me off; I asked myself that simple query, & damn near tore my own head off. This, sadly, leaked over to the point where even Leelu’s morning attention-seeking behaviors prompted a blow-off of steam out of my ears, along with some creative cursing, which probably shocked her delicate sensibilities…..

Now, of course, I can add guilt to the mix, as there’s no reason to take my angst out on an innocent cat (if there be such a thing….). Even though, by now, she ought to have figured out when to leave me be, there’s no justifiable reason to take my feelings out on any creature not deserving of it. So, I’m going to take a break, make up with her, then come back to finish this missive, such as it may be with all the handicaps I’m experiencing in getting it done. I did manage to finish some of it yesterday, during breaks in the fog in my head, which has been slipping in & out of my consciousness for a week or more. The rest will have to come out of whatever is in there this morning…. So be it….

It’s days such as this which make me wish, strongly, for a God upon which to blame the universe. It would be so convenient, if I could only bring myself to believe in such a convenient delusion. But, I can’t, so, that makes it my responsibility to pull my own chestnuts out of this fire…. Again, so be it. If I don’t, it won’t get done. To give us half a chance to do so, I’m going to take that break now, then return, & go on from there. Wish me luck, ffolkes; I have a feeling I’ll need some….

Shall we Pearl?….

“The man who carries a cat by the tail
learns something that can be learned in no other way.
He will never be dim, or doubtful.
Chances are, he won’t carry the cat that way again;
but, I say, if he wants to, let him!”

~~ Mark Twain ~~

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

super session

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

My friend, chuq, who has a blog called In Saner Thought (here: https://lobotero.com/ ) told me he was listening to this yesterday. I hadn’t thought of it for a long time, so, naturally, here it is today for your listening pleasure. An iconic album, with three of the best of the time, playing together with verve, and genius. Enjoy, ffolkes; it doesn’t get much better than this in the rock & roll world….

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

Super Session 1977
Kooper, Bloomfield,Stills

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

https://youtu.be/SKgHhKmQZ50

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

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

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

Dont keep calm

“Hate, the price you pay
For thinking you got the only way…”

~~ Blues Traveler ~~

As iterated above, my state of mind is rather, well, shitty. Trying to rant would, probably, not be a good idea, as the results could conceivably bring charges. Since my lawyer is on permanent vacation, we won’t go there. I’m already feeling enough self-inflicted guilt, so, rather than torment y’all with another piece from the archives, I’ve cobbled together a self-directed rant for your reading pleasure…. Maybe, if I do it right, it will soothe my angst well enough to get through the rest of today sans any further debilitation. (Good luck with that, I’d say, but, hey, it counts that I’m making an effort, right?)….

So, with the opening lines from Blues Traveler echoing in your head, follow the bouncing thoughts through the seven pearls below, and you will find yourself at the end of a perfectly decent rant against the machine, and my work will be done for the day. Even if you end up confused, well, such is life, and that may be even more of a lesson than anything I can provide. Either way, it gets us down to the next section, so, we’re going with it, regardless of how it may appear, or, for that matter, not appear. So be it…..

“The revolution WILL be televised, but you’ll only be able to understand it if you don’t watch the television coverage.” — Russ Nelson

“It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets.” — Voltaire

“If you can see in a given situation only what everybody else can see, you can be said to be so much a representative of your culture that you are a victim of it.” — S.I. Hayakawa, educator and politician

“History is a pack of lies about events that never happened told by people who weren’t there.” — George Santayana

“Much that is dreadful and inhuman in history, much that one hardly likes to believe, is mitigated by the reflection that the one who commands and the one who carries out are different people. The former does not behold the sight and does not experience the strong impression on the imagination. The latter obeys a superior and therefore feels no responsibility for his acts.” — Friedrich Nietzsche

“Well, it just seemed wrong to cheat on an ethics test.” — Calvin

“I feel better about world problems now!”

~~ Zippy the Pinhead ~~

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

Comedy_Tragedy

Today’s poem was selected simply for the title, which fits into the obvious theme for today…. From a bit over a year ago, during my time in Hell, I give you my lamentations….

gigoid’s lament

Not a bit of all the pain I feel
is worse than all I see;
all worldly truth, solid and real,
has faded away, never to be free.

Honor stripped of all regard,
while compassion simply fails;
Ignorance , powerful, hard,
crows as reason wails.

Crushing resistance, mandating the vote,
selling illusion, smiling all the while.
Pundits, speaking purely by rote,
arrange all the lies in a tidy pile.

Stupidity ’tis said, is a risky choice;
the price is always the same.
Reality has no pity, no warning ever voiced,
only a gravestone, carved with, our name.

~~ gigoid ~~

1/19/2015

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

pearls_3

Our final pearl for the day is fresh. It’s rather abstruse, from what I can tell, but, it’s all pretty clearly a lesson in life at large. Since it’s the only part of today’s Pearl that is relatively fresh, it can stay, no matter how it comes across…. I do hope you enjoy it; it IS pretty good, which means it may not entirely fit in with the rest, but, fuck it. I’m not in a mood to care…. Enjoy, if you will….

*******

“As far as we can discern,
the sole purpose of human existence
is to kindle a light of meaning in the darkness of mere being.”

~~ C. G. Jung ~~

*******

“The miracle is not to walk on water.
The miracle is to walk on the green earth
in the present moment,
to appreciate the peace and beauty that are available now.”

~~ Thich Nhat Hanh ~~

*******

“We are all born mad. some remain so.”

~~ Samuel Beckett ~~

*******

“What you leave behind
is not what is engraved in stone monuments,
but what is woven into the lives of others.”

~~ Pericles ~~

*******

“… denn da ist keine Stelle, die dich nicht sieht.
Du musst dein Leben andern.”
(… for there is no place that does not see you.
You must change your life.)

~~ Rainer Maria Rilke, “Archaic Torso of Apollo” ~~

*******

“To demand ‘sense’ is the hallmark of nonsense.
Nature does not make sense.
Nothing makes sense.”

~~ Ayn Rand ~~

*******
“For after all what is man in nature?
A nothing in relation to infinity,
all in relation to nothing,
a central point between nothing and all
and infinitely far from understanding either.
The ends of things and their beginnings
are impregnably concealed from him in an impenetrable secret.
He is equally incapable of seeing the nothingness out of which he was drawn
and the infinite in which he is engulfed.”

~~ Blaise Pascal ~~

*******

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

Well, ffolkes, there you have it. Since I already know just how good this one isn’t, we’ll leave it all to chance, and go post it while I’ve got the chutzpah. Which may not last too long. I’ll be back tomorrow, if only to make sure this isn’t the final words you hear from me. I don’t think I’d be able to live with that. See y’all in the morning, ffolkes, if I decide to let myself live…. Not to worry, that’s just rhetoric…. accurate, but still rhetorical. 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

Featured Image -- 8118

À bientôt, mon cherí….