Idiosyncratic lizards pull less weight….

Posted on January 9, 2016 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

“The world is ruled by feelings, not reason.”

~~ Zen-ish Bee ~~

Dusk at Murphy’s Bar

Spanish Arch, Galway

Hajime…. Today’s Pearl may be a bit choppy, both in appearance and overall impact. Can’t be helped. No excuses offered, nor, most likely, desired, or, if offered, accepted. ‘S okay by me. I’m too strange today to worry about it. The nice thing, sometimes, about being so fucking weird nobody else understands you is: nobody asks for favors. Nor, with good reason, do they approach one unnecessarily, and the ‘necessary’ is the part I get to decide. Goodie for me….

So, how y’all been? Me, I’ve been getting stranger all the time, and, I like it. Of course, it does get a bit lonely at times, but, believe me, the perks outweigh the burden of solitude. Besides, solitude is only a burden when one has a fear of being alone; I, like most curmudgeons and, for that matter, Smart Bees, have no such fear, having long ago come to terms with such ignorant reactions to childish fears. I treasure my solitude, for it makes the time spent with those I love that much more poignant, and sweet.

All that said, to little purpose, as usual, we’ll shorten your torture, and get on with the slow, as per the instructions on the package. Should you find yourselves without merit or direction, well, you’re on your own. But, if you need a hand, ours will be there, held out for you to grab. We hope. That we would if we could is a given; whether we are able is yet another question we cannot answer. Life is full of disappointments, so, we’d all best get used to it. Since that is the case, let us be off, without further nonsense from the aforesaid deponent, who prefereth to sayeth not…. at least, not any more….

Told ya I was strange today….

Shall we Pearl?….

“If man evolved from the ape, how come there are still apes around?”

“Some of them were given choices.”

~~ Johnny Hart’s comic strip B.C. ~~

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The Yardbirds

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

The forerunner of all future supergroups, the Yardbirds were composed of five musicians, all of whom went on to become superstars in their own right…. These guys were the pioneers of modern rock & roll, ffolkes, and, they were hot…. Enjoy… How can you not, with Clapton, Page, Beck, and the boys showing their genius, at an early age….. Just look at those baby faces!…..

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

The Yardbirds Live
Full Album

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https://youtu.be/0tp1MSsSOBo?list=PL1KqX2f10oFjrL3Bv9scP6wjo1sbTYkhZ

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I began a long, wandering introspective piece yesterday, but, have not finished it; proper self-examination cannot be hurried. So, here is a relatively short rant, on our old buddies, the assholes who comprise our Beloved Ruling Class, (thanks for that term to Joel Rosenberg)…. Enjoy! Hell, why not? I did….

From 2/3/2013:

“A power has risen up in the government greater than the people themselves, consisting of many and various and powerful interests, combined into one mass, and held together by the cohesive power of the vast surplus in the banks.” — Johann L. Uhland (1787-1862) — Speech, May 27, 1836

Mr. Uhland is correct in his observation, if a bit slow in making it. The usurpation of the US Constitution and the Bill of Rights began within moments of its adoption as law, and has been continuing on a daily basis ever since. In the fight against that usurpation, a major battle was lost sometime around the middle of the 19th century, around 1836 or so, when a corrupt federal judge, at the insistence of his corporate masters, approved a legal decision that gave corporations the same rights as people, opening the door to further machinations by which the banks and corporations could, have, and continue to, steal from the public without consequence…..

Today, there is a new push to reform some of the laws that enable the moneylenders to control society as they do; the concept of corporate personhood is under fire by an enraged public, tired of the endless cycle of working to try to get ahead, only to find that there is no path visible to go anywhere but down. As that astute social philosopher, George Carlin, pointed out, they (the bankers and corporate rogues) don’t want a populace capable of critical thinking; they just want workers smart enough to operate the machines, but not smart enough to wonder why they are doing so for so little compensation.

Modern technology has, thanks to the Internet, made keeping this issue out of the public eye impossible, and the corporate stranglehold on society is being challenged much more often. In one sense, this new-found spread of information is holding back the needed changes, as a lot of energy is dissipated in the public discourse that might otherwise build up into the kind of frustration that leads to revolution, and societal upheaval. But, it is also making it much harder for the miscreants who want to control everyone else keep their machinations out of the public eye. There are too many holes for them to plug….

The power these self-serving assholes hold over the rest of us is accustomed to being able to hide from public scrutiny, and I’m sure there will be attempts made to curtail some of the information they are concerned about making common knowledge. In fact, according to some of my latest email updates from the EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation), there are a number of bills trying to get forced through Congress, without public discussion when possible, that are intended to limit the freedom of speech that is currently unrestricted, for the most part. A recent setback occurred when an honest judge (i.e., one that stayed bought….) rewarded his corporate masters with a decision regarding cell phones that is a serious threat to a number of technological freedoms…. In other words, the fight continues today, and it is just as important today as it was back in 1776, and 1836, when the battle was joined…

The Beloved Ruling Class, and their corporate owners, will do all they can to limit the public’s awareness of what they are doing, and they will continue to try to erode the rights of the common man. They have, by their historical behavior, and their current actions, indicated their intent quite clearly… and that intent is to arrange matters so that what they want is law, and the rest of us can go fuck ourselves silly…. because they don’t care. These people are not concerned with anything that does not serve their own ends, and will lie, cheat, steal, and kill to maintain their power…. This is not supposition, this is fact, based on history, and on observation of current events….

I guess the only real question to be answered is, how long are the rest of us going to allow them to have their way? They are killing us all with their indifference to anything but their own purposes, and we are letting them do it. Myself, I’m getting a bit tired of it, and would like to see society become a bit more active in the resistance shown to the chicanery toward the rest of us, all perpetrated by the Powers That Be… up to and including revolution…. But, then, that’s me…. I’m a bit impatient, and I’m tired of their shit….. I’m hoping more people are getting that way, as our only hope of survival in the long run is to kick the bastards out…..

“All the world over, I will back the masses against the classes.” — William Ewart Gladstone (1809-1898)

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Dead Hands,Typing…

Puzzled anew by anomalous blocks of pain
caught, bemused, chained to routine, insane.
Stilled within breathless beauty
Engaging epiphany, insistent, called to duty.

Knees bent in lieu of a faithful rendition
suffuses, confuses, locked into stale perdition.
Clearing corrosion with hands encased in stone
Singular frozen follicles, masked by bone.

Partial focus brings unfiltered flavors to light
coloring each particle in simple delight.
Forlorn, novel conceptual artists singing in tune
nine notes in harmony, soft as the moon.

Honed blades of carbon steel flash in rhyme,
filling sensual receptors well past closing time.
Borrowed from neighbors in a week-old game
still bloody, without a proper name.

No flooded memories can justify such cost
no simple stationery, bilious, afraid, lost.
Ten times ten will never be enough
To fill so empty a stolen trough.

Bartering simplicity takes well into the night
solidly temporary pillars turned bright.
Unknown to all the pretty children who came
none were called, none had any remaining flame.

~~ gigoid ~~

2/25/2015

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Naked Pearls

Consensus at Large

*********

“I count life just a stuff
To try the soul’s strength on.”

~~ Robert Browning — In a Balcony ~~

*********

“The truth is incontrovertible.
Malice may attack it.
Ignorance may deride it.
But in the end, there it is.”

~~ Winston Churchill ~~

*********

“Courage is the willingness of a person
to stand up for his beliefs in the face of great odds.
Chutzpah is doing the same thing
wearing a Mickey Mouse hat.”

~~ Yiddish Bee ~~

*********

On Monday, when the sun is hot,
I wonder to myself a lot;
‘Now is it true, or is it not,
‘That what is which and which is what?’

“On Tuesday, when it hails and snows,
The feeling on me grows and grows
That hardly anybody knows
If those are these or these are those.”

“On Wednesday, when the sky is blue,
And I have nothing else to do,
I sometimes wonder if it’s true
That who is what and what is who.”

~~ A.A. Milne, Winnie The Pooh ~~

*********

Virtue is not left to stand alone.
He who practices it will have neighbors.

~~ Confucius ~~

*********

The reward of one duty is the power to fulfill another.

~~ George Eliot ~~

*********

“Every animal knows more than you do.”

~~ Nez Perce Proverb ~~

*********

“Now I’m having INSIPID THOUGHTS about the beautiful, round
wives of HOLLYWOOD MOVIE MOGULS encased in PLEXIGLASS CARS
and being approached by SMALL BOYS selling FRUIT..”

~~ Zippy the Pinhead ~~

*********

“All in favor say aye.”

~~ Chairman Bee ~~

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

Having completed my chosen duty, I’ll forgo any further torturous, winding exclamations, in favor of this short, sweet fare-the-well…. See y’all tomorrow, ffolkes…. it seems there is no way to prevent me from doing so, short of killing me, and, so far, nobody big or bad enough has shown up to give it a shot….. Hah!…..

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….

Frugal memories of Cracker Jack….

Posted on August 24, 2015 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

“I’m not crazy. I just don’t give a shit!”

~~ gigoid, the dubious ~~

Frightened Feline, Stumped

Good morning…. I suppose it’s only natural to be a bit thick at this time of day, regardless of how much sleep I may have been blessed to receive. But, does it have to be thick as a brick? It sure would make it easier if it didn’t take so damn long to find two neurons willing and able to work together long enough to get started on this, at least until the coffee can kick in. Of course, that would eliminate more than half of my opening ideas, since I generally end up doing just as I’m doing now, to wit: beginning the day with whining and complaints at how early it is….

I would imagine it’s getting as old for y’all as it is for me; it’s really a shame I can’t seem to think of anything else much of the time. Nobody told me it would be so difficult to come up with interesting, believable, compelling literature first thing in the damn morning. And, damn if I’m not experiencing some of the strongest feelings of deja vu I’ve ever felt…. What to you think? Should we go for three full paragraphs of cheap whining, or just get on with the regularly scheduled insanity? I vote for getting the hell out of here….

Since my vote is the deciding factor, that’s what we’ll do. Sorry for the boring intro; I’m sure you’ll give me, just this once, the benefit of the doubt, and forget the whole thing, won’t you? No? Ah, well, fuck it, then…. Luigi, fire that puppy up, and get us out of here, now! I’m done with this….

Shall we Pearl?….

He that holds fast the golden mean,
And lives contentedly between
The little and the great,
Feels not the wants that pinch the poor,
Nor plagues that haunt the rich man’s door.

~~ William Cowper ~~

~~ Translation of Horace, Book ii, Ode x ~~

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Image by Susan at

http://birdsanddogs.com/2015/08/23/a-new-trail-tiger-mountain-trail/

Today’s video has been preempted by pictures…. One of the more consistent Gentle Readers of this blog has moved, and is involved in exploring an area of the country new to her and her partner and dogs. They discovered a very beautiful hiking area near where they are looking for a home, and posted some picture of the hike…. I thought they were great pictures, of a very beautiful part of the country, so, rather than a video today, here are a couple pictures, and the link to her site, where you can see the rest…. They’re worth it, even if the drought is affecting the forests heavily…. Enjoy!….

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“The Earth is degenerating these days. Bribery and corruption abound. Children no longer mind their parents, every man wants to write a book, and it is evident that the end of the world is fast approaching.” — Assyrian Stone Tablet, c.2800BC

Mankind, as a species, is fond of touting how special he is; one is constantly hearing how advanced our culture is, how magnificent the works of art we have produced, how wonderful is our species! The pinnacle of Creation! Which makes us, possibly, about the stupidest creatures ever conceived, for basing our sense of entitlement on a massive sense of delusion and denial of reality….. If we can assume, for the purposes of discussion, the tablet referred to in the above quote was created on today’s date all those years ago ( as likely a date as any other day….), our species has made absolutely NO progress in the past 4,815 years! Whoever wrote those words on the tablet could easily have been born in 1950, for our world today exhibits EXACTLY the same symptoms of decay as described…..

Now, I don’t know about y’all, but, it seems a little specious to claim such a position of ascendancy when we cannot even bring ourselves to make sure everyone in the species experiences the same advantages as any other; what is the point of having a society/culture, if it doesn’t provide the same advantages to ALL its citizenry? None I can see. Yet, we continue to behave as if there is no tomorrow, lying, cheating, preying upon each other as if the future did not exist…. There are times when it seems we understand, for there is evidence, such as in movies, when a character can make a statement that catches the fancy of the public, who repeat it endlessly, without ever realizing it applies to themselves…. such as, “My mama says “stupid is as stupid does….”

Yes, Forrest’s mama had it right; what wasn’t clear to most folks is that it was talking about THEM. Most of the people I see in this world have no clue they are a slave; they live their lives just as if they had some choice in what they do, never realizing they are hemmed into such a narrow field of existence, they cannot see they are confined at all, believing themselves to be free men…. And the beat goes on, as it has for almost 5000 years, without ever getting anywhere that might actually brings us all into a future we can live with….

This rant isn’t going much of anywhere; I’ve already whined and complained for four paragraphs, without ever buckling down to any specifics…. Part of that is the simple fact there is SO MUCH about which I could rant, it’s hard to pick one…. Should I rail against the industrial machine? Should I indict the pundits, who lie and cheat and steal their way around the halls of government? Should I condemn the Dogma Dogs, who sycophantically endorse the corporate mandate, promising immortality and manna from heaven for the privilege of wearing a slave collar? Or, should I just bemoan the fact of my peer’s lack of honor and strength of will? Any and all of these are part of the core problem, but, I’m tired of them all…. and, that’s only a partial list!….

Ah, the hell with it. I’m gonna go find some pearls to sublimate, and be done with it for today…. We’ll all just have to deal with it…. If the group gets a bit smarmy, well, chalk it up to the mood I’ve put myself in with this rant….

“Bother!” said Pooh, as he found his smack had talc in it. — Smart Bee

“It is alarming and also nauseating to see Mr. Gandhi, a seditious Middle Temple lawyer, now posing as a fakir of a type well known in the East, striding half-naked up the steps of the Viceregal palace, while he is still organizing and conducting a campaign of civil disobedience, to parley on equal terms with the representative of King-Emperor.” — Winston Churchill, — speech to the West Essex Conservatives, February 23, 1930

“It makes no difference who you vote for– the two parties are really one party representing 4 percent of the people.” — Gore Vidal

“And if I said a year ago that these [social] programs weren’t working, perhaps I have been vindicated.” — President George Bush, on how Lyndon Johnson was to blame for the LA riots

“Definitely, times have changed. If you flunk out of high school today, you will likely have to settle for being just Vice President.” — Smart Bee

“I can picture in my mind a world without war, a world without hate. And I can picture us attacking that world, because they’d never expect it.” — Deep Thoughts, by Jack Handey

“Keep the war alive.” — A White House official, — describing President Bush’s 1992 reelection strategy

“Do unto them before they do it to you.” — American proverb

“Talk of revolution is one way of avoiding reality.” — John Kenneth Galbraith

“Whenever you hear a man speak of his love for his country, it is a sure sign he expects to be paid for it.” — H. L. Mencken

“You’re standing where I want to pee.”

~~ gigoid, to Ronnie Raygun, in one of his favorite dreams ~~

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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 ~~

Written 9/3/2012.

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Now, THIS is a pearl!….

When the night has been too lonely,
and the road has been too long,
And you think that love is only
for the lucky and the strong,

Just remember in the winter
far beneath the bitter snows,
Lies the seed, that with the sun’s love,
in the spring becomes The Rose.

~~ Bette Midler, “The Rose” ~~

“If passion drives you, let reason hold the reins.” ~~ V. Smart Bee ~~

“Waste no more time arguing what a good man should be. Be one.” — Marcus Aurelius

“The bird of paradise alights only upon the hand that does not grasp.” — John Berry

“In morals, what begins in fear usually ends in wickedness; in religion, what begins in fear usually ends in fanaticism. Fear, either as a principle or a motive, is the beginning of all evil.” — Mrs. Jameson

“The mountains, too, at a distance appear airy masses and smooth, but seen near at hand, they are rough.” — Diogenes Laertius — Pyrrho, ix

“Do every act of your life as if it were your last.” — Marcus Aurelius

“To him who is in fear, everything rustles.” — Sophocles

Do I contradict myself?
Very well then I contradict myself
(I am large, I contain multitudes).

~~ Walt Whitman, ‘Song of Myself’ ~~

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Well…. That was something. Rather than try to figure out exactly what, I think I’ll just go proof, and be done with it. Given the state of my attitude so far today, it’s probably for the best if we don’t make any further attempts at rationality; besides, my lawyer’s on vacation, so, I’d rather not have to deal with any consequences just now.

It’s Monday. I’m going to pretend it’s Sunday, again. I can do that; I’m retired….. See y’all tomorrow, ffolkes, if I can remember where I parked the Tardis….

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….

“Daft!”, he cried. “They’ve all gone daft!”

Posted on June 3, 2015 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

“Sic Biscuitus Disintegrat.”

~~ Adrian Ogden ~~

Spring in England

Image from UK Guardian Animal Pictures of the Week (See the cows on the farm?)

Good morning…. Let’s have a small Quiz, shall we? No worries, there won’t be a grade, or a prize, just self-satisfaction, or, stimulation, to take the opportunity to learn…. even if it is only something about yourself, and how you react to quizzes…

If you understand the opening quote today, above the picture, and wish to participate, say so in the comment section… Caution! Don’t give your translation, if you know, so others have the same opportunity, without being tempted to, well, cheat. If you do cheat, just say so; for example, if you used your handy-dandy translation software (What? You don’t have any? Well, go get some; it’s invaluable if you wish to see what folks in other countries have to say, without sounding dumb by asking…), say so. It’s not a shameful act; at least you were curious enough to look….

If you don’t know, well, that’s okay, too. Unless taken in school, there aren’t a lot of places these days where one can pick it up….

I was lucky to be able to figure it out; the Latin phrase you see is close enough to Spanish, (which I’ve spoken since my youth…), and Italian, (which is quite similar to Spanish), to figure it out by context and deduction… It’s a great little aphorism, chock full of traditional homespun wisdom….

But, then, maybe it’s just me who gets excited over stuff like that…. Oh ,well, it filled up the intro section, didn’t it? Yep….

Shall we Pearl?

“Frivolity is important. Frivolity is the species refusal to suffer.” — John Lahr

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Today, we’ll just take it easy, a bit of a break with some classical music…. Enjoy!

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

Classical Break

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https://youtu.be/jgpJVI3tDbY

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I’m in a place today where ranting would be impossible…. So, here’s an old one…

First posted in the first half of 2102:

“I am ready to meet my Maker. Whether my Maker is prepared for the great ordeal of meeting me is another matter.” — Sir Winston Churchill

“….for DEATH awaits you all, with nasty sharp pointy teeth!” — Monty Python and the Holy Grail

Death. The great equalizer. Nobody gets away from it. As a matter of fact, it has been proven, beyond a shadow of doubt, that everyone who breathes air, dies. So, air must not be good for us, right? That’s logic…. Of course it’s logical. It is also, however, not true, and serves as an example of the fact that logic doesn’t always lead to the correct answer to any particular question…. sometimes you gotta just go by what is real….

I like the first quote, by Winnie C., the PM…. When my turn to find out what happens after we die comes around, should the Christian viewpoint turn out to have been true, I would prefer to meet my maker with this same attitude. To my way of thinking, if it (Christianity) IS true, then God has a lot to answer for…… Seriously…. I’m sorry, but I just can’t believe in any deity who would allow his creation to show such perversions as this species has shown. Whenever I bring this point up to a priest, or theologian of any sort, all I get is “God works in mysterious ways….”

Yeah? Is that right? You say there is some hidden purpose to those actions we don’t understand? Well, fuck God then, because he’s acting like an asshole. I don’t care a whit if there is some hidden purpose; there is NO ACCEPTABLE REASON to suppose that a merciful God would condone child molesters, or rapists, or torture, (even during war). I don’t believe it; it is neither logical, nor rational…. Most importantly, it isn’t reasonable….

Claiming that God is beyond our understanding, and therefore we cannot understand his reasons for allowing such actions, is pure bullshit. If he is that far above us, why are his morals so perverted? I don’t care what you say, I won’t accept the rape of a child as being justifiable from ANY standpoint. None. And if God does have some justification, well, I ain’t buying it. No matter what it is, it isn’t right…. And going along with it, believing the lie, is just another cowardly way of avoiding responsibility….

Men are responsible for these actions, not God. Men kill, and rape, and pillage, and manipulate and coerce their fellows into performing acts of heinous nature. Numerous times in our bloody past, this killing has taken place in the name of God, as the fanatical zealots so common to Christianity, throughout its vicious history, carried their own particular brand of oppression to new lands, forcing the natives to swallow their version of reality, regardless of how they felt about it.

This blind, unreasoning zealotry continues today, with the current Republican candidate all set to bring the US right back into the Stone Age, should he. through some cruel quirk of fate, be elected as POTUS. If that happens, I’m pretty sure Armageddon will be close behind, as I don’t think the rest of the world is going to sit still long enough for him to cram his own faith down their throats. Hell, right here at home, should he be elected, I’d be surprised if there isn’t a revolutionary upheaval within a few months of the election. I know I would certainly be considering assassination as a viable political tool…. It is now legal for us to use torture as a resource, why should we balk at assassination?

Ah me…. I guess I got too much sleep. It seems to have awakened my old hippie instincts; I haven’t talked revolution in oh, six or eight months now…. I suppose I’ll just have to wait until November, to see which way to jump…. Let’s hope for the best, but prepare for the worst. That’s always the best policy…. for survival, anyway…. and that may become our primary goal, if things keep on keepin’ on….

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

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Random Exposure

If I only knew what I was doing here,
I could give others a clue.
Reality gets stranger every year,
and I’m not sure what I should do.

Singing happy old tunes, in an old, gravely voice,
gives me a lot of pleasure.
I’m only glad I can still make a choice,
to look at life, to take its measure.

Memorable moments keep passing by
gilded, framed in precious emotion.
I never have to ask anyone why,
no need for a stronger potion.

Everything in life is clear, to me
there is no doubt, no misunderstanding.
We’re all good, as you can see,
members of Life, in good standing.

Life can be hard, or it can be great fun;
the right path is there for each of us to take.
That choice is often a difficult one;
pay close attention to the choice you make.

~~ gigoid ~~

Written 4/22/2013

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

We begin today’s final old-school pearl with Socrates; hence, the picture. The point of the pearl is also one Socrates might have explored in his school, back in the day, in ancient Macedonia…. We finish with a very cogent, powerful statement from one of our greatest artists, who has obviously not limited herself to understanding just music in her life, but, has used her connection to increase her knowledge of Life at Large…. This is all stuff that will definitely be on the Final Quiz…..

“The way to gain a good reputation is to endeavor to be what you desire to appear.” — Socrates

“It takes a wise man to recognize a wise man.” — Xenophanes

“Before honour is humility.” — Smart Bee

“It is better to be defeated on principle than to win on lies.” — Arthur Calwell

“As great scientists have said and as all children know, it is above all by the imagination that we achieve perception, and compassion, and hope.” — Ursula K. LeGuin

“To a reasonable creature, that alone is insupportable which is unreasonable; but everything reasonable may be supported.” — Epictetus (c. 60 AD) — Discourses, Book i, Chap. ii

“Age ain’t nothin’ but a number. But age is other things too. It is wisdom, if one has lived one’s life properly. It is experience and knowledge. And it is getting to know all the ways the world turns, so that if you cannot turn the world the way you want, you can at least get out of the way so you won’t get run over.” — Miriam Makeba

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Hmm…. Today’s was the first Pearl put together on the road, a day late & probably more than a dollar short…. But, here ’tis, so, we’ll all deal, eventually…. For now, this is what you get, and I will be back tomorrow, at a reasonable (for me) hour…. See y’all tomorrow, 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

À bientôt, mon cherí….

If yes, then, no. Otherwise….

Posted on May 29, 2015 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

“When in doubt, tell the truth.”

~~ Mark Twain ~~

Artist’s rendition of EUSA Mars Lander “Insight”

Due to land on Mars in 2016, recorded by two satellites soon to be in orbit around Mars.

Image from Space.com

Good morrow, mon amis…. Today’s Pearl is somewhat special…. It was created mostly yesterday, with some from even the day before. Parts of it are from the archives, including the following intro section from a Pearl a couple years ago that speaks of some recent discussions here, and, in my opinion, is quite good, if your standards aren’t strictly Puritan…. It might not be Ibsen, but, it’s art, to paraphrase a character in a book…. (Go figure….)

The rest is, I think, also pretty fair, all things considered, though not necessarily in the same order as all things.

Huh? What did he say?

Ah well… Don’t fret; we’re going to just go on ahead as if it never happened. Two minutes from now, I promise, you’ll have forgotten this moment of disturbance in the Metaphorse completely….

Alright, Luigi; they’re as ready as I can get them. Take it away….

From 6/22/2013:

Ffolkes,

‘Tis a sad commentary to note one’s entire life boils down to one moment, particularly when, in that moment, one realizes the greatest skill one has developed is the ability to dither, or blather, or, as they used to say, to speak piffle….. Disheartening, to say the least; I had hoped for something a bit more dignified, or at least more useful. Piffle, as it was called in the previous century, is only useful to those who speak it, or, to those who understand and appreciate it; it’s a very small number…. The rest of society views piffle somewhat askance, as they have no idea either what is said, or what it may mean…. which, ultimately, is their loss…..

Of course, I can’t claim to be anywhere near as good at it as, say, Lord Peter Wimsey, from Dorothy L. Sayer’s novels; her books tend to intimidate as much as educate, as I believe she wrote with the Oxford Dictionary at close hand (seldom having to open it, I would guess…). Every page she wrote was filled with brilliant demonstration of a writer who loved the English language, one who seemed to use ALL of it in her writing. In my most egotistic dreams, I write only half as well as she did, for I don’t ever expect to be able to match her expertise, or her originality. Only someone with such a strong love, and full understanding, of the language could use it in such a way as to make it ironically humorous, while at the same time, pointedly insulting, laughingly charming, thrillingly suspenseful, or scathingly brilliant.

SIGH…. To my everlasting regret, I can’t do that, not as well as I’d like. It is a constant disappointment to me that I cannot; it’s one of the few skills in my life that I can say truthfully that I have been unable to master, once I set my mind to its acquisition. Perhaps, before I pass on to the next dimension, or whatever happens after we die, I’ll get closer to writing better piffle; I hope so. If not, well, I can always go back and read more of Ms. Sayers’ work, though I believe I’ve already consumed all of her Lord Peter stories…. They are the kind of books one can read over and over, finding something new every time….

All of the above is what could be called a distraction. I wrote it as a sublimation of the desire to whine about the intro again, hoping to distract both y’all and myself from the fact that this section once again is filled with material that has no real connection to anything, other than as a means to pass the time until my brain kicks into gear sufficiently to start writing something more nourishing to the mind. There may be those among you who would point out the lack of ANY material here that meets that standard, but, I don’t expect them to speak up; they’ve been threatened about doing so, and have assured us of their silence in this matter….

Of course, I can’t expect that threat to hold them off forever, so it’s probably better to just get on with the business of the day…. According to the stats I’ve seen recently, very few readers will see this anyway…. My number of followers keeps growing, but the number of Likes per day continues to drop…. I’ve averaged about four Likes per day for over a week now, though stats indicate my following is up to 270….

I don’t much care if ffolkes don’t always Like what I write, but, it’s a bit disheartening to think that no one at all cares to read it…. But, it doesn’t really matter, since I don’t much care one way or the other about fame, or money…. only about sanity (my own…), and sanity is the reason I write…. Not that what you see here is particularly sane by normal standards, but those aren’t valid here without permits anyway…..

Shall we Pearl?

“Anyone who considers protocol unimportant has never dealt with a cat.” — Robert A. Heinlein

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All us hippies are getting old…. Here is the fourth band who is celebrating their 50th anniversary as a band this year; the Stones, of course, decided to go on tour, I suppose to show they’re not too old to rock…. If their music is any indication, they’re definitely not too old…. Enjoy, ffolkes… I do suggest not looking too closely at the boys; the tour date I’ve included was just last year, and they’re looking a bit worse for wear….

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The Rolling Stones

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https://youtu.be/a3KJg8qw47E

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“To the uneducated, an A is just three sticks.”

~~ Pooh’s Little Instruction Book, inspired by A. A. Milne ~~

OCCIDENT, n. The part of the world lying west (or east) of the Orient. It is largely inhabited by Christians, a powerful subtribe of the Hypocrites, whose principal industries are murder and cheating, which they are pleased to call “war” and “commerce.” These, also, are the principal industries of the Orient.” — Ambrose Bierce, “The Devil’s Dictionary”

Recently, the Supreme Court, or one of the higher Federal Courts below them, made a decision which vindicated Edward Snowden completely (though you couldn’t tell that by the actions of the current administration, who continues to seek to prosecute him to literal death…), ruling the collection of data performed by the NSA was just as illegal as everyone knew it was…. I’m a bit under the weather, enough to preclude a fresh rant today, so, here is one of the better politirants from 2013; in fact, from the same day as the introductory section used above… Go figure…

From 6/22/2013:

“The rights of one are as sacred as the rights of a million.” — Eugene V. Debs, US labor leader.

(Note: Debs received one million votes in 1920 as candidate for US President, while serving a 10-year jail sentence for having said in June 1918: “Wars throughout history have been waged for conquest and plunder…the master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles.”) — Smart Bee

This has been sitting around for a couple of days, since I found it in SB. It’s the perfect beginning for a politirant, and the news of late has provided a number of interesting side notes to this idea, so I find myself in the position of being compelled to rant, which is the best attitude to start with….

The recent news has shown a number of items concerned with the revelations just released a few weeks ago, when a former NSA contractor spilled the beans about how the US government has been spying on its own people, collecting personal data from phone records, mercantile records, and from review of emails and other data mined from the internet… The revelations, of course, are in the process of being denied and/or devalued by that government, who are trying to convince the public that the spying is “transparent”, and that the information is NOT being collected to investigate American citizens…. This, of course, is a bald faced lie, and anyone who believes it deserves anything that happens to them….

The government of this country is in the hands of people who are controlled by the corporate masters of society, sometimes willfully, most times without their complete knowledge. They (the corporate masters…) don’t give a SHIT about the rights of anyone else, so the above statement that got Mr. Debs in trouble is shown to be perfectly true. The people who control society don’t believe in the sacred nature of rights, for anyone who isn’t them, so it can be said that the rights of one are as sacred as the rights of a million, because to the 1% (a number that is actually far larger than the number of real masters of society…. that’s probably closer to .001%…..), neither one is sacred at all….

What disturbs me a lot of the time is that there are still a lot of people who believe that, of the choices available in the political spectrum, one side or another is better, and showing support for one of them will direct matters to a more favorable (for the people) resolution…. The fact is, neither the Republicans, nor the Democrats, nor any of the Independents who are in office, or trying to get into office, have any interest at all in doing anything other than establishing their own agenda as the one used by society. Those agendas have nothing to do with helping the general public; they are designed to benefit only those who ascribe to the correct philosophy. No matter which political party or entity you choose, you’re going to get screwed, in the final analysis.

“The art of government is the organization of idolatry.” — George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950)

If you still think that Barack Obama is going to help the common man, well, I suggest you listen to the crap he is putting out right now about this surveillance. Remember, too, that he signed the law that killed the Bill of Rights, on New Year’s Eve of 2012, the infamous National Defense Authorization Act, which makes it legal for the government to arrest citizens without a warrant, to hold them in an unknown place, without any oversight or review of rights, and try them in a secret court, without legal representation. It authorized the use of drones in a domestic fashion (which they continue to lie about, and say they aren’t using them…. when reports from all over the country provide relatively incontrovertible PROOF that they ARE using them….), and, most assuredly, authorized the illegal wiretapping and internet data mining that is currently going on, even though it has been exposed.

We may as well begin referring to the first 10 Amendments to the Constitution as the Bill of Former Rights, because, face it, ffolkes, you don’t have them anymore. I’ve heard it said that they are not rights, anyway, as a right is something nobody can take away from you…. More accurately, you have no rights that you are unable to defend…. and the government has slyly convinced most people that they don’t want those rights anyway…. Look how many formerly intelligent people are jumping on the bandwagon about gun control, forgetting all that our forefathers cautioned us about, when they warned about the possible encroachment of big business and the churches into the workings of government…. Jefferson, Madison, Adams, Mason, Franklin, all of them mistrusted the corporate interests and the preachers, having suffered much at their hands, and they tried to warn us against listening to them….

But, what happened to Eugene Debs back in 1919, when he was sent to prison (in direct violation of the right to free speech….) was not the first indicator that things had regressed, and the trend toward government takeover of the rights of US citizenry has continued right up to today. The recent revelations about spying, you will see, will be quashed, and ignored by those in power, as there is now nothing we can do to stop them from doing whatever they want…. According to the laws we let them slip by us, it’s all legal ffolkes…. We are screwed, and the only good thing I can see about it, is that, due to global warming, climate change, and the imminent destruction of the human species by our own pollution, we won’t have long to put up with it….

Books are burning
In the main square, and I saw there
The fire eating the text.
Books are burning
In the still air
And you know where they burn books
People are next.

~~ “Books Are Burning”, XTC ~~

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This poet needs no introduction; as well, you’ve seen him frequently on these pages…. Here is one I’d never seen until today; it confirms my opinion of Ogden’s poetry, as the work of a genius, who like to hide his talent behind silliness… and did it very well….

The Bargain

As I was going to St. Ives
I met a man with seven lives;
Seven lives,
In seven sacks,
Like seven beeves
On seven racks.
These seven lives
He offered to sell,
But which was best
He couldn’t tell.
He swore with any
I’d be happy forever;
I bought all seven
And thought I was clever,
But his parting words
I can’t forget:
Forever
Isn’t over yet.

~~ Ogden Nash ~~

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The pearl for today’s final section was created ahead of time; I managed to find a period of space yesterday morning while trying to distract myself from physical issues, combined with the near constant hunger that goes along with dieting, as a matter of course…. So, it’s a little different, not in the quality of the pearls, or of the message it somehow imparts rather well…. It’s just…. different…. I think you’ll enjoy it, and, if not, well, you can always get your money back…. Just ask the laughing Buddha for it…

There is a time in the tides of men,

Which, taken at its flood, leads on to success.

On the other hand, don’t count on it.

~~ T. K. Lawson ~~

“In the dark colony of night, when I consider man’s magnificent capacity for malice, madness, folly, envy, rage, and destructiveness, and I wonder whether we shall not end up as breakfast for newts and polyps, I seem to hear the muffled cries of all the words in all the books with covers closed.” — Leo Rosten

“Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.” — Winston Churchill

“Freedom is a hard-bought thing – A gift no man can give.” — Opening lines, Settler’s Song, by Jessamyn West

“He that respects himself is safe from others; He wears a coat of mail that none can pierce.” — Henry Wordsworth Longfellow

“It wasn’t until late in life that I discovered how easy it is to say ‘I don’t know’.” — W. Somerset Maugham

“Commitment is what transforms a promise into reality.” — Abraham Lincoln

“To believe in something, and not to live it, is dishonest.” — Mohandas ‘Mahatma’ Gandhi

He who knows man is clever;
He who knows himself is enlightened.

He who conquers men has force;
He who conquers himself is truly strong.

~~ Lao Tzu ~~

See? Told ya…. different. Now, maybe you’ll listen…. You can trust me. I’ve never been elected to anything….

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Done…. and, amazingly smoothly, too. It makes me a bit suspicious…. Ah well, we’ll trust the Universe, for once, though my experience tells me to have caution; a lot of times, when deciding to trust, it turns out badly. But, since my hands are going numb this morning, we’ll have to go with it…. See y’all tomorrow, ffolkes, if I can feel my hands….

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….

Twice as many diphthongs as needed, or desired….

Posted on November 14, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

“Diogenes said once to a person who was showing him a dial,

“It is a very useful thing to save a man from being too late for supper.”

~~ Diogenes Laertius (c. 200 AD) — Menedemus, iii ~~

Time moves on, day by day, whether we pay much attention to its passage, or not; though we seem to be the only creatures we know who bother to formalize its presence, by counting each tick of a second on the Cosmic Clock that rules this Universe…. In fact, I believe we are the only creatures who have bothered to name it, or count each time the clock moves its hands…. For us, it offers us the opportunity to supply meaning to our perceptions, to separate them from all the others our over-active sensory receptors react to at the same time…. In short, we use Time as a convenient way to organize the way we look at the world, thus fulfilling the old saw, common to most cultures, that says Time was invented so everything didn’t happen all at once….

Okay, I know, that was a long, windy method of telling a really old joke, but, hey, what do you expect at 5 AM? Especially on a day when I awake at 4 AM & spend an hour trying to convince myself it’s worthwhile to get up, be cold, grumpy, & half-asleep for the first ten minutes, until some coffee and the heater have some little effect, giving me a chance to slather on some magic cream to the points that hurt the most when I get up…. I suppose it’s getting to the point where the time in bed is more attractive than getting up, which has NOT been the case for a long time….

Yet, I keep arising, and though I seem to get slower each day getting to the point where words I can trust to be coherent flow out of my head, and can begin the process of making a Pearl of Virtual Wisdom…. I suppose this task, though only a self-chosen duty, as opposed to one chosen for a reason other than selfish needs, has assumed an importance greater than my need for sleep, which grows smaller each day, it seems…. Whether I get 8 hours, or 4, I still wake up between 4 and 5, and must arise to consume caffeine, which leads inevitably to typing….

Ah well, though I always enjoy my moments of introspection, it isn’t getting this done, beyond helping to move down the page a bit further than we began…. I can vouch, however, for the quality or ability to draw readers in for the full monty, or in many cases, the lack, or absence of same…. I mean, y’all know as well as I do how often we end up spouting sheer nonsense in this section; it can be a trying time, I’m sure, for those looking for a bit of quiet morning thinking…. but, it saves my ass (figuratively, of course…) quite often, so, deal with it, won’t you?

Me, I’m going to go into Sandbag mode, and drop you right over there, at that convenient, if a bit malodorous space on the verge of the town dump…. Sorry about the odor, it’s the only spot we could find this morning….. they got a new load of some OLD crap dumped there yesterday, and it is beginning to get really ripe…. We won’t be there long though, and, naturally, you’ll find a mouth and nose covering in the seat back in front of you, should you choose to use it…. We aim to serve…. we don’t often hit that target, but, we do aim to….

On that note, I see our opening coming up, so hold on tight to those stanchions, ffolkes, it could get bumpy….

Shall we Pearl?

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

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Well, okay, so I’m lazy; this is NOT breaking news…. But, because I am, y’all benefit in this case…. Here is a most excellent, if a bit overacted, classic Sherlock tale, a well-adapted classic tale from the files of Dr. Watson…..

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: The Three Gables

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-4tsEIUVps

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“Our Constitution … gives to bigotry no sanction.” — George Washington

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/nov/11/us-observe-armistice-day-more-comfortable-war-than-peace

The quote from our Founding Father above the link was, I am afraid, not just optimistic, but, probably, overly so, given that the attempts to suborn that very principle began within moments of the signing of the Declaration, and the passage of the Constitution…. All of the good intentions of the men who wrote those documents were condemned to memory very soon after the ink was dry on the signed copy, as the corrupt bankers, and the equally corrupt preachers began their campaign to nullify the reforms those documents represented….

Thomas Jefferson knew the dangers, and voiced his fear of the loss of liberty many times over the years, while he witnessed the abrogation of civil rights that each new court decision brought, due to the money to corrupt the federal judges began to flow as soon as the court system was in place…. By the mid-nineteenth century, the federal court system was primed to make any decision desired by those bankers and priests, thus securing the control over the government they had sought since before the actual signing of the Declaration….

That period in the middle of the century was when the now infamous decision was made, to classify corporations as “people”, forever surrendering any hope of liberty or justice that might otherwise have been our legacy….. Proof of Jefferson’s fears? He wrote many letters to friends and colleagues, all of which stated the opinion described by the following….

“…when all government… in little as in great things, shall be drawn to Washington as the centre of all power, it will render powerless the checks provided of one government on another and will become as venal and oppressive as the government from which we separated.” — Thomas Jefferson, 1821

Jefferson, like Thomas Paine, like Ben Franklin, George Mason, and many others of the Founding Fathers of this country, was mistrustful of the powers that be, not trusting them to keep from attempting to remove all the reforms they espoused with their revolution. They feared the professional politician, the bankers, and the priest/preachers, who care nothing for the people, beyond what they can steal from them, or use to control them; letters we have today illustrate those fears, which, I may add, have certainly been proven to be justified….

Our government is now run by oligarchs, old, rich, white Christian bigots, who attempt, all too successfully, to railroad their misogynistic, racist, divisive agenda into law…. and, if their latest efforts are as successful, they may be able to alter the laws until ONLY they, and those they are able to manipulate, are allowed to vote, their dream come true….

“In our society, the Republicans set out to prove that the Democrats can not be trusted to run the government. And the Democrats set out to prove that the Republicans can not be trusted to run our government. The real problem here is that both the Democrats and the Republicans have come up with something which is absolutely true and perfectly correct. This means that the people get to pull some sort of horrible trick on themselves and live with their choice for four years.”

The link above. and the quotes I’ve added here between the short diatribes against the Asininnies, will have to serve today as my rant…. I’ve already typed too much, and the pain now enveloping my hands is astounding in its intensity…. Damn this hurts! Ah well, I’ll have to finish up with a few more pearls, and be done with it…. Besides, by now, y’all MUST know how I feel about the corruption and loss of liberty we must suffer to observe, in this country we so love…. If I had my druthers, I’d start picking them off, one by one…. but, sadly, I’m afraid there are too many of them to be of much use acting alone….

Maybe, just maybe, my dearest dream will come true…. One bright morning, very soon, the rest of humanity will wake the fuck up, and begin the process necessary to take back our country, kicking the assholes who have tried to take it all away into the deepest, darkest hole we can dig for them, until we can finally be done with all the bullshit they’ve caused…. Ah well, we all can dream, can’t we?….. Here’s a few well-aimed shots at the assholes now, all perfectly phrased to highlight those we call pundits and preachers…. or, as the FF’s named them, the bankers, priests, and professional politicians….

“There ought to be one day — just one — where there is open season on senators.” — Will Rogers

“People are idiots.” — The Dilbert Principle — Scott Adams, Dilbert creator, author, re-engineering sage, 1996

“Any country with “democratic” in the title isn’t.” — Murray’s Rule

“Liberty is so much latitude as the powerful choose to accord the weak.” — Judge Learned Hand

“Abuse of power isn’t limited to bad guys in other nations.”It happens in our own country if we’re not vigilant.” — Clint Eastwood

(Clint, I hate to be the one to tell you…. we weren’t….)

“[E]lections amount to little more than choosing between the scum that floats to the top of the barrel and the dregs that settle to the bottom.” — L. Neil Smith

“When I’m in office I always keep Members of Parliament talking. If they stopped they might start thinking.” — Winston Churchill (1874-1965)

Well…. there you go…. I might add, these pearls were chosen from an almost unlimited field of appropriate quotes, all in the same vein as these….. which leaves me no choice but to add a final comment from our old friend, Zippy….

“Uh-oh — WHY am I suddenly thinking of a VENERABLE religious leader frolicking on a FORT LAUDERDALE weekend?” — Zippy the Pinhead

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I was up a bit late, and my hands have slowed down the process a bit, so, I’ll once again need to subject you to one of my own poems…. I’ll try to pick a good one, if such exists in my collection….

Unheralded Sagacity…

To many, who will not see beyond their nose
the world becomes a dangerous place,
a bullet in every gun, a thorn with every rose,
no magic comes to save us, reality leaves no trace.

Minds closed, wrapped tight in manufactured fears,
men become clay, easily molded into complacent form.
No chains needed, held in thrall for years,
lies become gospel, when dishonesty is the norm.

Shed the chains you wear in durance, in kind;
Oh, ye of little faith, and much doubt
Strength is found in an unfettered mind,
Cry “freedom” with a great shout.

No help from any gods can hinder so much
as our own lack of confidence;
finding the light within, knowing it as such
confirms us, becoming consequence.

Illumination…..

~~ gigoid ~~

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I am now so late, I will have to resort to posting an older pearl, from the archives…. Ah well, it’ll be a good one, I promise….

From 7/23/2013, a pearl with message that complements today’s rant/old school pearl in section two…. Enjoy!:

Baffled by my own mind’s attempts at coherency this morning, I digress, as usual. But, I do it so well, you wouldn’t even have noticed, if I didn’t point it out for you…. It’s all just part of the service here at ECR. where we try to make every dish as attractive as the one before, which was, if I must say so myself, damned attractive, for a dish.

Until we can actually achieve anything close to that, however, we’ll have to continue to go with old-school pearls, because, well, because…. Besides, it’s much better than listening to me rant, right?….. Whoa, wait a second, let’s not all shout at once…. Okay, I get the picture…. Sniffle….. Here, then…. Smart Bee is being a butt, so here is a pearl from last year….

“The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the deadly light into the peace and safety of a new dark age.” — H.P. Lovecraft, The Call of Cthulhu

Sometimes, I think we have already arrived at this point in time….. but, if not, then we are not far away…… with this firmly in mind, please find the following, all of which lead one gently to an idea that may, or may not, make you feel better. Which, of course, is NOT the purpose…. nonetheless, the conclusion framed by these quotes is one you NEED to know……

“It has been said that man is a rational animal. All my life I have been searching for evidence which could support this.” — Bertrand Russell

“Where ignorance is our master, there is no possibility of real peace.” — Dalai Lama

As a man can drink water from any side of a full tank, so the skilled theologian (politician’s too!) can wrest from any scripture that which will serve his purpose. — Bhagavad Gita

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

“Anyone who isn’t confused doesn’t really know what’s going on.” — Edward R. Murrow

“The only real failure in life is the failure to try.” — Smart Bee

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I have fulfilled my duty, and, shall proceed now to take my leave of you, sans any further to-do…. a turn of phrase, no doubt, several hundred years old, with a meaning that has probably gone through a number of changes, according to current usage on the street…. But, it still works to describe this situation, quite well, actually, so, you’ll just have to accept it the way it is, and not worry about what it may or may not mean…. I see that my tendency to grow pompous at the drop of a cliche has reached new heights of idiocy, so, I shall take my leave before I pull my covers off any further…. I’ll see y’all tomorrow…. well, I will, as long as I continue to be unable to talk myself out of it….. See y’all then….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid, the dubious

PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.

À bientôt, mon cherí….

Man the focs’l! Avast me hearties! Yar!….

Posted on July 19, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

“A man can only do what he can do. But if he does that each day he can sleep at night and do it again the next day.” — Albert Schweitzer
The pub pictured above, is, as can be noted by the mirror over the bar, the The Old Swan, in Kensington, just around the corner from the B&B where I stayed in London, in Abbey Court, quite near Portobello Road. It could be considered as my neighborhood pub for when I am in that city, as it felt like home from the first time I walked in…. During the three days I spent in London, I was in here four times, for three meals, and a night out, once I’d gotten over my jet lag. It was everything an English pub was advertised to be; comfortable, friendly, and bursting with tradition, from the dark wooden walls, to the pretty barmaids, and the warm fire in the hearth….

For three years now, damn near, I’ve been trying to create an environment here, on this blog, that would make ffolkes feel the same about coming here as I did about going to the Swan, with the same sort of welcoming atmosphere, sans food and drink….. Instead, here, we serve dishes of a more intellectually fulfilling nature, rather than those of a savory, aromatic, stomach-filling sort…. The intent is a bit different, too…. The pub’s focus is on providing a place to relax and socialize, rather than one designed to stimulate thought, and to illuminate that which is kept deliberately dark, thereby arousing the passion to make changes…. all in the hope of helping the world to make the changes needed to save our ignorant asses….

That goal, of course, is probably not realistic, but, it’s the only one I find to be worthwhile, since, if we don’t manage to make the aforementioned necessary alterations in how we approach living, we, as a species, are certainly going to die…. I hate being so pessimistic; it really isn’t my nature to lose hope, or to give up…. but, between the intransigence of those in power, the ignorance of the great unwashed masses, historical inertia, and the unfortunate tendency of our species to express the violence in our nature rather than the compassion that exists within us as well, I don’t see the necessary changes as having much chance of being made in time to fix what we have made of our nest….

That lack of hope doesn’t keep me from trying though, and, if the last three years is any indication, my efforts are, if nothing else, prodigious…. I guess it wouldn’t be out of line to say I must have had something to say, because I’ve certainly said something, to the tune of about four thousand PAGES, holding more than three million words that have been inside me for years, waiting for their chance to come out to play…. I’m not sure how many are left in there, but, as you can see, there doesn’t seem to be any lack of them to pick from…. thank goodness…..

In fact, I’m pretty sure we’ve put enough of them together so far today to have reached one of our potential points of entry into the later sections…. Yep, there’s the ending of this intro coming up right there, up there a few lines ahead of us…. Probably a good thing, too, as this was beginning to unravel, or, as we like to say around here, it was “preparing for burn”, or “damn, what the hell was that?”….. I’m sure you know whereof I speak, as it tends to happen here on an almost daily basis…. I’m not going to bother naming it, or trying to define it, but, y’all know exactly what I mean, don’t you?…. I know you do, but, if it embarrasses you to admit it, that’s okay…. We all know, so, it’s cool….

Oh look, it’s the ending I saw….. Good, the water looks inviting today….

Shall we Pearl?…..

“Scilurus on his death-bed, being about to leave four-score sons surviving, offered a bundle of darts to each of them, and bade them break them. When all refused, drawing out one by one, he easily broke them,–thus teaching them that if they held together, they would continue strong; but if they fell out and were divided, they would become weak.” — Plutarch (46-120 AD) — Apophthegms of Kings and Great Commanders

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

“All men profess honesty as long as they can. To believe all men honest would be folly. To believe none so is something worse.” — John Quincy Adams (1767-1848)

In the course of this blog, I’ve ranted many times about how the Asininnies, or, at least, those in that group who speak to the public, consistently lie about their actions, as well as their motivation for those acts. Moreover, I’ve tried to relate how the ignorance of those who listen to those lies, believing them implicitly, is as much the underlying cause as the lies themselves….. In support of that opinion, I offer the results of the presidential election in November of 2012, when 55 million Americans voted for a man who lied to them more than 50% of the time, a figure corroborated by more than just two fact-checking organizations….

Yes, you read that correctly…. 55 million Americans chose to vote for a man who was a proven liar, just so they wouldn’t have to consider the idea of having a black man as President for another four years…. Not that the established conservative political coalition would allow him, or his political allies, to actually DO anything for the people; the GOP has managed to throw up a roadblock on EVERY piece of legislation designed to help the public for the last six and a half years, becoming in the process the champion “do-nothing” Congress of all…. This Congressional group has considered fewer bills than ANY other of its predecessors, and has passed even less of it, thus earning their championship with a truly monumental, record-breaking LACK of work…. or, progress….

“A long tradition has regarded low self-esteem as a powerful and dangerous cause of violence. Our review has indicated, however, that it is threatened egotism rather than low self-esteem that leads to violence.” — Case Western Reserve University psychology study as quoted in Thomas C. Palmer, Jr.’s Boston Globe article (3-31-96), — Self-Esteem Self-Threatening?

I ask you, sincerely, as an experienced, retired mental health professional, what is legislative obstruction other than passive-aggressive violence to the public, like a spiteful child complaining of a lost entitlement?…. As far as I can see, the House of Representatives Republican majority has done NOTHING other than act like spoiled children for the last seven years, since BEFORE the ’08 election, when the threat of a black president first surfaced…. and, in the process of their throwing their series of legislative tantrums, have managed to slow the process of healing so needed by the economy, and the national psyche….

In spite of their efforts, the economy has improved, a LOT; unemployment and inflation are at their lowest rates since the first Shrub started raiding the public coffers, the banks are fat and happy, and even the middle class has seen an improvement in their overall economic picture…. It’s looking as if the American economy is finally starting to recover, a little bit, from the disaster of the Reagan years, and the complete catastrophe that was the legacy of the Shrubs, both Senior and Junior, each of which created their own particular mess in the money world, giving new meaning to words such as nepotism, corruption, and cronyism….

I’m going to give y’all a break today; I’ll end this rant here, & finish off this section with some appropriate pearls…. I’ve made the point I wanted to make, if only minimally…. but, I feel myself approaching a level of anger at such immorality which could potentially affect the quality of the argument, so, I’ll let it go, and just reinforce my point with pearls…. Remember, ffolkes, you have to listen closely to what they say, and make the effort to determine its veracity, or lack thereof, before buying into anything that comes out of a politician’s, or a preacher’s, or a banker’s mouth…. They don’t have a good track record at truth-telling…. nor, as far as can be seen, do they have any interest, or investment, in learning to do so

“The best argument against democracy is a five minute conversation with the average voter.” — Winston Churchill

“What one fool can do, another can.” — Ancient Simian Proverb

“What we wish, that we readily believe.” — Demosthenes

“Men of power have no time to read, yet the men who do not read are unfit for power.” — Michael Foot

ARTHUR: I am your king!
WOMAN: Well, I didn’t vote for you.
ARTHUR: You don’t vote for kings.
WOMAN: Well, ‘ow did you become king then?

— Monty Python and the Holy Grail

“POLITICIANS do it, but they stay in too long and make you pay for it afterwards.” — Smart Bee

“What is it not to sin? Do not ask much; go, the silent flowers will tell you.” — Angelus Silesia ne Johannes Scheffler (1624-1677)

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

Hang on…. I just finished section one, and don’t have a clue as to a poem for this section…. yet. I’ll be back… I won’t be Arnold, but, I’ll be back…. Uh oh, stand back, ffolkes, I feel a poem bleeding out….

A Few Words of Note

In place of ranting and raving about assholes every day
maybe I’ll try something more fun.
Rather than throwing words at all the assholes on public pay
I’ll switch to shooting at them, with a gun….

Should I actually hit one, purely by mistake,
maybe it would wake them up.
Maybe, if they had to think, or actually cut us a break,
we’d see a chance to win at life, to take a step up.

Our nation, such as it is today, was founded by men who told the truth;
that morality disappeared long ago.
Simple ethical strength so bright, so prevalent in our country’s youth
was soon corrupted, corporate interests now run the show.

Nothing would please me more than to fire off some rounds,
if only to gain their attention.
But, I can no longer run, I’ve gained too many pounds;
so, my keyboard and intellect must serve to fulfill my intention.

I won’t stop, of that you may be sure
I love my freedoms, and the philosophy from which it springs.
Tom, and Ben, and John, and Pat, those patriots pure
gave me their example, and the inner peace it brings.

If bullets won’t persuade our elected liars to toe the ethical line,
I’ll throw my most powerful words…..
If nothing else, it will make them wriggle to escape, or voice their pitiful whine,
thus exposing themselves for what they are…. plain and simple turds.

~~ gigoid ~~

Well, they can’t ALL be great…. It rhymes, and it’s a good message… I like it, but, then, I DID write it, so…. It will do, for now; it could conceivably get some editing done on it in the future, but, for the moment, I have to go stop the bleeding, so I can get all this posted…. Now, where did I put that gauze?….

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

Time for some more old-school pearling, ffolkes…. Smart Bee has been pretty cooperative so far, so, I’m going to push my luck, & see if we can come up with another pearl of virtual wisdom to finish off today’s effort….. Go, SB!….

“When ideas fail, words come in very handy.” — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

“A guilty conscience never feels secure.” — Publius Syrus (42 BC) — Maxim 617

“Christ believed in hell. I do not myself feel that any person who is really profoundly humane can believe in everlasting punishment.” — Bertrand Russell

“If you have had your attention directed to the novelties in thought in your own lifetime, you will have observed that almost all really new ideas have a certain aspect of foolishness when they are first produced.” — Alfred North Whitehead

“You must turn and face the tiger to learn it is made of paper.” — Smart Bee

“I grow old ever learning many things.” — Solon 630 – 555 BC

“.. I think I’d better go back to my DESK and toy with a few common MISAPPREHENSIONS…” — Zippy the Pinhead

I rest my case…. The most cogent of the above aphorisms came from SB itself, which, obviously, goes to prove my assertion….. I hope you enjoyed this one, it’s pretty good….

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

When I awoke this morning, I had no idea this would all flow out before I was done…. It’s all fresh, and all punctuated, so, I’m going to take my chances with it as it is, sans any further perusal, and trusting to my basic skills to protect me from the grammar Nazis out there…. See y’all tomorrow, ffolkes…. I feel lighter, for sure…..

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid the dubious

One of our nuclear clothespins is missing….

Posted on April 10, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

Don’t tell the monitors, but I think we’re going to have to cut back on the number of virgins we are sacrificing to the gods so they’ll smile upon this blog…. It’s not for any other reason than the fact we are beginning to run into the old Roman firewood conundrum, from back in the days when wood, wind, and water were the only energy sources we had as humans….

Rome, that ancient city, in time grew so large that it became problematic for the Romans to find firewood in the hills above and around the city. After several centuries of population growth, trees became scarce near the city, and the men who worked to gather it, who were called ‘carbonara’, eventually had to make week-long, or longer, forays into the mountains, and further into the countryside, in order to find a source of wood sizable enough to suit their needs.

During these trips, the men would take with them the food and supplies they needed to live for the time they were gone…. As Italians, their foods ran to the simple, but savory, with pasta, bread, and wine as the staples…. all of which travels well, meaning they could take the ingredients with them to use while on the trip…. Dried pasta, dried vegetables (peas, mushrooms, etc.), onions, garlic, pancetta, bread, wine, and cream, for example, in the form of a cow that they herded along the road with them as they went to look for their wood….

Any chefs in the audience may have noted that ingredients listed are those needed to produce the classic Italian dish, Pasta Carbonara, named after the men who kept the fireplaces of ancient Rome supplied with wood during the winter…. I can testify as to its deliciousness, and, in fact, it is my favorite of all the Italian dishes I make, save perhaps Pasta Vongolé, which is made with fresh clams, garlic, white wine, and cream, if desired…. I do both dishes superbly, if I do say so myself….

How does this silly but interesting history relate to this pearl? Well, I’ll tell ya, if you’ll hang on a moment…. Remember what I said about cutting back on our virginal sacrifices? Well, we’re having the same issue finding virgins as the Romans had with their firewood…. It’s taking longer and longer to FIND one that is willing to be sacrificed; last week I had to go all the way to hills above Bakersfield, to harvest one from a junior high school up near Yosemite, which is a good four or five hour drive…. This meant I had to listen to the babble of a 13 year old virgin all the way home, unless I felt like being mean, & sedating him….

Now, I’ll bet y’all are wondering what we do with our virgins after we use them…. which is something you’ll just have to wonder about for a long time, because I have neither the time, the inclination, nor the legal requirement to tell you….. Suffice it to say they are NOT killed, but are placed into an environment where their virginity will not cause them any further harm, and allowed to live out their lives in ignorance of the service they perform for society…. It would only confuse them, and make them less valuable as a trained consumer for the corporate masters..

Okay, I’m done now…. That was quite a mouthful for a relatively poor joke…. If it was a scam, we’d have to call it a long-con, and wait up to a year for the punchline to hit home….. But, since this is a daily blog, we can just call it what it is, which is, of course, nonsense and drivel, fresh from my fevered brain, all for the purpose of filling up space in this section, solely designed to bring us to the point where I can say, without any fear of retribution or heckling beyond the norm….

Shall we Pearl?….

“There is nothing so awkward as courting a woman whilst she is making sausages.” — Laurence Sterne

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

Today’s first section will be a Newsy Pearl, with articles ripped from the world’s news, and comments on those articles by gigoid the dubious at his angst-filled sarcastic best (hopefully…)…. Abondanza!….

First, a public service announcement…. A Swedish cyber-security group has found a flaw in the secure internet protocol that two-thirds of the servers on the Internet use, a flaw which provides a route for hackers to exploit, enabling them to obtain data and information from many different commercial and non-commercial sources on the web…. They also found that this flaw has been present, unknown to any but a few, for over two years, and MAY already have been exploited by hackers to steal millions upon millions of passwords and information about people…. It’s called Heartbleed, and, apparently, there is no way to tell how much data has already been compromised….

The authorities have decided to finally let the public know about this, and suggest that ALL users who use the internet change ALL their passwords, advising all those users to also take other steps to further protect and secure their data…. Nice of them to let us know, eh?…. Any who, pass it on, because we ALL need to pay attention to this one…. They’ve been to the barn, but left the door open…. you may want to close it, as best you can….

http://www.sfgate.com/business/technology/article/Online-security-flaw-exposes-millions-of-passwords-5386933.php

Now we’ll go on to the “Cuban Twitter” issue, that brilliantly programed distraction from Barry’s house, wherein the administration is working like mad to keep us from paying too close attention to what they are NOT doing to reform the NDAA and the NSA’s rabid, out-of-control spying…. While all the hullabaloo about this latest piece of stupidity plays itself out on the public stage, discussing the ins and outs of A PROGRAM THAT NOT ONLY FAILED BUT IS NO LONGER IN PLACE, the NSA quietly continues to mine the metadata on phones and computers all over the world, including right here in the USA…..

Yep, this issue, along with the loud, idiotic feud currently being played out between the Senate and the CIA, is the perfect subject to pull attention away from the NSA, as it gives the media, and their dupes, the general public, something on which to focus their ire, instead of having it focused solely on the Department of Cybersecurity, or whatever it’s called….

You know, that well-known organization that coordinates all of our spying with the NSA, (Homeland Security now includes the NSA, CIA, FBI, and whatever clandestine organizations in other departments, such as the branches of the military, all sharing information to keep their paranoia fresh), in their avowed search for terrorists, which includes their continuing joint abuse of the American people’s personal meta data….

Go ahead, read the following, and I’ll see you on the other side…. The initial comments you will see were written yesterday, prior to writing this, and may repeat certain portions, for effect….. sort of a reverse time warp, you see…..

“Hain’t we got all the fools in town on our side? And hain’t that a big enough majority in any town?” — Mark Twain, Huckleberry Finn

http://www.sfgate.com/news/politics/article/Angry-exchange-on-Capitol-Hill-over-Cuban-Twitter-5387870.php

http://www.sfgate.com/news/politics/article/US-penned-political-satire-in-secret-Cuban-Twitter-5387849.php

Here’s the latest on the Cuban Twitter smoke screen… which is obscuring the other smoke screen, the Saga of DiFi and the CIA, both of which are distracting the public’s attention from what is actually happening NOW…. which is the same old shit/stuff these stories are blathering over, to wit: the out-of-control spying and lying that is going on in Washington, and all over the world, all of which gives me the distinct impression the BRC seems to be is waging a war of attrition against its own citizens.

The techniques of information manipulation, to misdirect the attention of the enemy to where it cannot see the actual events that transpire behind the scenes; the lies told bare-faced, claiming innocence with bloody hands…. Well, you get the picture…. The people who are in charge of our nation, ffolkes, are NOT very nice people, and are waging a war against YOU, ME, and everyone who doesn’t fall in line with their insane view of the world….

If you think I’m judging them harshly, well, you may be correct…. But, guess what? They are supposed to be MY public servants, not the other way around, and I’m not going to act as if they have any right to do any of what they are up to, not as long as that is true….. I don’t buy into the sense of entitlement they assume, and happen to believe that they are not only NOT the best of us, rising to the top like cream in milk, but, in fact, I see them as more like the scum that rises to the top of any polluted stream…. It fits them much better, in terms of both visual aspect, as well as their, shall we say, less than flowery odor….

This whole issue, making a big fuss over something that is over and done, and was a mistake to begin with, is just another way to distract the public, keeping them from thinking about the stuff that Edward Snowden revealed, all of which IS STILL GOING ON.

That is what they don’t want us to know, ffolkes, and they’ll do anything to keep us focused somewhere else, even if that means giving up some poor bureaucrats who were only doing what they were told, serving them up as scapegoats to hide their own actions, allowing the press and public to judge these poor fools, to let Congress crucify THEM for having stupidly done a poor job, at what was never anything but a stupid idea…. If it keeps us from looking at what the NSA is doing, all the better, in their view….

I said above that I see our own government perpetrating what I see as acts of war against the American people; I consider that to be gospel truth…. The Beloved Ruling Class, at least, the one I’VE been watching, has been using Sun Tzu’s Art of War to carry on a campaign of disinformation and manipulation of attitudes for many years now….. If you’ve ever read it, it is very clear how the government’s actions and statements are designed to use the principles outlined therein to confuse and misdirect the public’s minds….

With this latest administration, that campaign has reached new levels of intrusion into people’s lives, stealing from them not only their money, with outrageous tax structures and an economic system designed to steal even more of what they earn, but, has also made serious inroads into eliminating the Bill of Rights, taking away liberty after liberty, all in the name of “Homeland Security”, an oxymoron if I ever heard one… Now, they aren’t even waiting for us to spend the money, but are using our own computers and phones to increase their level of control over our fates….

Bah, humbug…. I’m pissed again, and it’s still early…. I’m going to stop now, and go on to the next section, where I hope the poem I’ll choose will have a calming effect on me…. I am not looking forward to carrying this around all day….. and, I’m sure y’all are as tired of hearing about all this, as I am about having to write about it…. Believe me, I wish there wasn’t so damn much wrong in today’s world…. Maybe if there was a bit less, I’d feel as if I could afford to turn my head toward a subject somewhat less critical, but much more amiable to my spirit….

SIGH…. Such is life, and we have to take it the way it comes…. In doing so, however, it would be wise to remember….. despite any desires or wishes YOU may have, you are at war, ffolkes….. and the enemy lives very close at hand….

I’m gonna go Pearl now….

“Most essential qualification for a politician: The ability to foretell what will happen tomorrow, next month, and next year- and to explain afterward why it did not happen.” — Sir Winston Churchill

“Nothing is more admirable than the fortitude with which millionaires tolerate the disadvantages of their wealth.” — Nero Wolfe, Rex Stout (1866-1975)

“He whose pride oppresses the humble may, perhaps, be humbled, but will never be humble.” — Lavater

“Diplomats are just as essential to starting a war as soldiers are for finishing it … You take diplomacy out of war, and the thing would fall flat in a week.” — Will Rogers

“Firmness in politics is called obstinacy anywhere else.” — Smart Bee

“No man is good enough to govern another man without that other’s consent.” — Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865)

“If you want the present to be different from the past, study the past.” — Spinoza (1632-1677)

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

Maybe it’s just me, but I think this poem is beautiful…. so much so it is one of the best ever written, in my somewhat less than humble opinion….

Part of its charm, for me, comes from the sheer symmetry of the rhyming pattern Wordsworth used… Four lines with alternating ending rhymes, followed by a couplet that also rhymed perfectly…. Twenty-four lines, four stanzas, and a visual aspect as sharp as a photograph, in describing the flowers, and in the way it appears on screen, or paper…. Just look at it…. centered, balanced, complete within itself….

Carrying the pattern through to the ending verse, for me, creates a visual aspect that matches the sheer beauty of the experience he is sharing with the reader…. It assumes an almost mathematically precise symmetry for me, displaying the sheer beauty of nature in all its undisciplined magnificence….. One of my all-time favorite poems, for sure…. and always guaranteed to soothe the spirit…. I defy ANYONE to say they don’t feel better after reading this…..

Daffodils

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o’er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed–and gazed–but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.

~~ William Wordsworth ~~

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Having completed the obligatory ranting for the day…. (hell, given what I wrote yesterday, I could consider myself done for the week….) I don’t feel compelled to do so any further, and in fact, plan to finish up as quickly as I can, & go take a nap….. As a retired dilettante, I have that right, and I exercise it frequently, to keep it supple…. Moreover, I like it, so, there…..

I think, given the apparent direction my mood is taking, on the evidence of that last sentence, it intends to go somewhere none of us particularly want to go, so, I’m going to go pearling again, with no particular parameters to guide my hand, only a vague sense of nonsense…. whatever THAT might be….

Pluralitas non ponenda est sine necessitate. (Multiplicity is not to be asserted when it is unnecessary.) — William of Occam [Occam’s Razor]

“There is a time for thinking and a time for NOT thinking. And THIS isn’t one of them.” — Paul the Samurai

“A gleekzorp without a tornpee is like a quop without a fertsneet (sort of).” — Smart Bee

“Real glory springs from the silent conquest of ourselves.” — Joseph P. Thompson

“I put aside my copy of “BOWLING WORLD” and think about GUN CONTROL legislation..” — Zippy the Pinhead

“As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain, and as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality.” — Albert Einstein

“Trouble rather the tiger in his lair than the sage amongst his books. For to you Kingdoms and their armies are things mighty and enduring, but to him they are but toys of the moment, to be overturned by the flicking of a finger.” — Chinese proverb

Hmm…. an eclectic little group, eh? In looking at the whole pearl, I think I would suggest shuffling them around a bit, to see if a different configuration will shake it down to a point where it’s a bit more transparent, or at least organized into a sequential thought pattern…. Or, not….

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

Having dutifully proofed, edited, and polished, I consider this done…. Moreover, after carefully performing the appropriate calculations, I am convinced there really isn’t any more damage I can do…. That means it would be a good idea to end this now, and get on with the rest of the day….

Oh…. Okay, that means me…. Very well…. See y’all tomorrow, ffolkes, provided the BRC hasn’t found me yet….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid the dubious

All the artichokes were bronzed in individual sterile containers….

Posted on September 23, 2013 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

‘Tis a sad and fearful thing, when I see nothing more than a vast plain of blankness upon first gazing into my mind in the morning….. Since it matches the blankness on the screen at which I’m gazing, it doesn’t bode well for the day’s Pearl when I do….. But, being the tough son of a bitch I am, I persevere, blindly blundering ahead, pushing aside the fear and loathing that accompanies such inauspicious beginnings, to make yet another attempt at breaking through the boundaries of reality, into the ethereal realms of reason, and hopefully, enlightenment…. or, at minimum, illumination…. Hell, I’ll settle for getting my eyes all the way open….

Or, we can just have some oatmeal, and get on with it…. That sounds a lot more attractive than the first paragraph, especially since we can add brown sugar and milk to the oatmeal to sweeten it…. The only thing I can add to the first paragraph would be hope, which is in short supply these days in this reality….. Of course, the oatmeal doesn’t get the Pearl done, but it increases the chances of it reaching at least a modicum of coherence, whereas, given the parameters implied in the first few lines, we couldn’t hold out much hope for that to happen….. If you manage to decipher all of that, well, I think you’ll see what I mean…

I admit it, I’m lost already…. Three short paragraphs in, and I’m toast…. I’m seriously considering reprinting an old Pearl, from a couple of years ago, just so I can be done with this, but, that would be cowardly, a quality I refuse to countenance in myself. I’ll end up going old school, if I’m smart… but, knowing myself as I do, I also could conceivably fall into another rant, since the BRC and the Priestly Hierarchies continue their policy of taking advantage of everyone else’s good nature, and have no intention of stopping. I can’t help it, they just do this stuff right out there in public, so what is a curmudgeon to do, but point at it, and laugh, as long and hard as I can?….

The laughter, it helps, though it really isn’t funny, is it? But concentrating on the futility and hopelessness won’t make anyone feel any better, either, and I DO try to keep from bumming people out deliberately…. It isn’t my fault the world’s news is what it is; I just look at it, and write about what I see, which, for the most part, astounds me on a regular basis… How else to describe my reaction to the depths of ignorance, and height of arrogance & entitlement that I observe in so many of the world’s so-called leaders? Astonishment is the only possible adjective to give the strength of my outrage at their sheer avarice, and their shameless absence of virtue….

There, I’ve ranted…. short, and not too detailed, but, I think it works…. And, I did remember to include the religious hierarchies today, which, for the last few days, I’ve neglected to do…. The churches and their delusional leaders are the most important of the supporters of the BRC, for they too know all the tricks of mind-control of the unwary, having practiced those techniques for many thousands of years now, to manipulate and control the masses of the faithful, who are the source of their great wealth, as well as their labor pool.

In these modern times, I’m sure the churches are ever so thankful for the newest way to tap the masses for their spare change, to wit: crowd-funding…. It fits right in with car washes and bake sales, as a way to get the ignorant to give away their spare money, to causes they believe will be fruitful in some way, but, actually will end up the same place as their tithes, and their taxes, and most of the rest of what they earn…. in the pockets of politicians and priests, as payment from their corporate masters for their continued support of the thievery happening at every level of society, except the top…..

If you think of the idea of trickle-down economics, but reverse it, you’ll get the picture of how our society ACTUALLY works, in a financial sense…. Everything trickles up, ffolkes…. just follow the money, and you’ll be…. well, perhaps not surprised, but, at the least, chagrined, to find where ALL of it ends up…. But, hey, who am I but one of the schmucks who lets them get away with it?….. I suppose it’s probably a good thing I’ve never owned a gun…. I’d be awfully tempted to use it…..

My dad taught me about guns…. He considered it as his duty to teach us (his children…) how to use them correctly and safely, and how to respect them for the tool they are (One part of which taught us that’s ALL they are, too, by the way…. just a tool, a big hammer; one that throws a lot of nails a long way, quickly…. but, still, just a hammer….). If I owned one, or more of them, however, I would most likely feel duty bound to use them for personal purposes, which, while I would see any such actions as being beneficial to society, those same actions might be viewed differently by that society itself, especially given the control over the news media that the BRC has…. Plus, I can count, and there are more of them with guns than there is/are(?) of me; strategic planning would seem to dictate a different approach, as that one is pretty much doomed to failure in the long run…. I just don’t have, and can’t get, as many bullets as they already have….

S’okay, I don’t mind…. guns have never been my preferred weapon of choice, anyway…. What I have between my ears is a much more versatile tool, and much more powerful in the long run… After all, I have based my life, in many ways, upon the following aphorism, which, if you examine it closely, and think on it a while, will show you who, and what I am… or, at least, who I try to be…. Of course, there IS no try, is there… Do or do not…. I do, mostly….

“Trouble rather the tiger in his lair than the sage amongst his books. For to you the Kingdoms and their armies are things mighty and enduring, but to him they are but toys of the moment, to be overturned by the flicking of a finger.” — Gordon R. Dickson, The Tactics of Mistake
_____________________________

Well, I ranted in the intro again, so, we’ll go old-school here, to bring a wee bit of balance to things…. Hope springs eternal, it seems…. Any who, I’m not going to set any parameters, but, it seems of late Smart Bee has had its own agenda in that respect, anyway, so, we’ll just see what comes up, and where it goes…. Enjoy!

“If history repeats itself, and the unexpected always happens, how incapable must Man be of learning from experience.” — George Bernard Shaw

Like leaves on trees the race of man is found,–
Now green in youth, now withering on the ground;
Another race the following spring supplies:
They fall successive, and successive rise.

— Alexander Pope (1688-1744) — The Iliad of Homer, Book vi, Line 181

“Obsessed by a fairy tale, we spend our lives searching for a magic door and a lost kingdom of peace.” — Eugene O’Neill

“Under the most carefully controlled conditions of temperature, density, and pressure, the organism will do what it damn well pleases.” — Harward’s Law

“There are no winners in life; only survivors.” — Smart Bee

“I wish they would only take me as I am.” — Vincent Van Gogh

“Know ye not why We created you all from the same dust? That no one should exalt himself over the other.” — Baha’u’llah

Onward, as they say in the movies; fear not, mes amis, all will be well…. I just took my medications…
_____________________________

In the interests of not letting anyone else take the blame for any of what has occurred here today, I will use one of my own poems, one which clearly states who and what I am…. well, sort of clearly….

Ah Ain’t Sho, but Mebbe So….

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

~~ gigoid ~~

_____________________________

See, now we’re in the third section, and I get to do whatever I want; it’s in my contract….. So, since I don’t feel like ranting any more today, or maybe ever, I’m going back to the same old taxi stand where I leave from when I’m in a hurry, in a figurative sense…. Who knows what will come out of this one? I certainly don’t….

“Here pigs will fly, lightning will strike twice, hell will freeze over, and eventually, things will get really interesting…” — Smart Bee

“Shake off all the fears of servile prejudices, under which weak minds are servilely crouched. Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call on her tribunal for every fact, every opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason than that of blindfolded fear.” — Thomas Jefferson, Letter to Peter Carr, Aug. 10, 1787

“The world will never have lasting peace so long as men reserve for war the finest human qualities. Peace, no less than war, requires idealism and self- sacrifice and a righteous and dynamic faith.” — John Foster Dulles

“If a rock falls on your head it does positive harm, but shame, disgrace, reproaches, and insults are damaging only in so far as you’re conscious of them.” — Erasmus

“Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened.” — Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965) — Churchill’s Commentary on Man

“Is consciousness just a special form of hallucination?” — Frank Herbert

“The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.” — William Shakespeare (1564-1616), As You Like It — Act v, Sc. 1

I don’t often use Willy’s stuff, but, he was so prolific a writer, even HE got some of it right….. 🙂 I didn’t know where it would go, but, it sure ended up there, didn’t it? I like it, so, I guess that makes me stranger than even usual…. Oh, well….
_____________________________

Yes, and no, I suppose, is the best response I can come up with, at least until I can go over this with a clear head…. and that could take days. I guess I’ll have to do that now, instead….

I reiterate, I have no idea how that happened, officer…. I’ll be going now, to look for my peace of mind, which I somehow dropped somewhere…. I’ll find it around here somewhere, I know it…..

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid

Breaking news: Cop bitten by doughnut….

Posted on May 29, 2013 by gigoid

Ffolkes,
And then, I woke up….. at that magical hour of the day, when it reads as a perfectly balanced trio of primes, at 3:33….. or, as the Martians would say, a three, filled. It truly is a magical time, when nobody else is stirring, and I have the thought waves pretty much all to myself. I can direct the flow of them, or let them carry me off to a place where nothing is too fantastic to consider, and nothing is forbidden to think, or to say….. It’s a place in my mind I go to a lot, especially when I’m feeling stressed, or blue, because it’s impossible to feel bad there, where total freedom, of thought, of action, of life is not merely encouraged, but demanded…..

Then, of course, I come back to reality, reluctantly, but always in a better frame of mind with which to approach whatever is happening out there in the BBR, or as we sometimes call it, the scary bad place outside the door….. Sometimes, it’s scarier than what can go on in my head, which is going a good ways, but, after a visit to my “happy place”, I can deal with the fear much more easily. Deal with it I will, for fear is one thing that will never rule my life, no sir…. I’ll have none of that, thank you very much. I see far too many of my planetary peers letting fear determine their attitudes and how they deal with reality, and it is no way to live at all, not for anyone who treasures the power of mind….

How did we get so serious? I just started babbling, and all of a sudden, it’s a mini-rant against fear, which, though a common enough subject, and enemy enough to rant about, I’m barely awake, and have only had one sip of that life-giving nectar of the gods, coffee, so a rant would soon fall down into incoherence, unless I got all pissed off or something, and who needs that at this hour of the day? Not me, certainly, though it IS a way to wake up thoroughly…. just not the most pleasant way, which is more what I’m in the mood for today. Easy is good, I’m thinking…..

Good enough to have provided almost four paragraphs, of not entirely useless material, and at least given me an opportunity to get going with some slight dignity, if not panache. Hell, I’m just happy I’m awake enough to be able to access words like “panache” without blushing, it being so early and all…. and what are all the computer noises about, eh? It keeps making this “doh, don’t” kind of noise, almost like the Law and Order noise when a scene changes…. but we’re not changing scenes….. Makes me wonder what’s going on in the background that it isn’t telling me about…..

“Life is like quotations. Sometimes, it makes you laugh. Sometimes, it makes you cry. Most of the time, you don’t get it. — Smart Bee

If THAT doesn’t give you an idea of how today is going, I don’t know what will….. Shall we Pearl?
__________________________________

“To know that one has enough is to be rich.” ~~ Lao Tzu

Though it may sound like it, this is not an endorsement, of either poverty, or affluence. In fact, it is the exact middle ground between the two, that is the meaning herein, the part that contains importance for us as humans, in a society that challenges everyone to become one, or the other, not being content with merely being content with what one possesses. As usual, I’ve probably obscured the basic idea, when I meant to clarify….. SIGH. Sometimes it’s hard being me, what with my natural tendency toward pomposity of speech…. Comes from reading too much alone, and getting comfortable with too many writing styles to remember which one I’m currently using myself….. or, maybe I’m getting old….

Regardless of any of that, I have recently been struck by how apt this aphorism has been in my recent life. I think I’ve done pretty well at dealing with the sudden, exhilarating experience of having more money than I need on a very basic level. Most of my impulsive buying has been prompted by two desires, both of which I’ve managed to fulfill without going completely insane, and blowing it all. One desire is to see those places I’ve always wanted to see; the other is to be able to provide assistance, of a financial nature, to my kids, and grandson, both while I am alive, and after I pass on to the next adventure in the ongoing saga of gigoid, wherever it may lead.

In addition, I find it a very pleasant experience to give in to the urge to buy gifts for the people I love, without having to stop to consider the long-term effect, or worry that it will cause me a strain to do so. Not that I can buy everyone a car, or anything, but it’s really nice to buy flowers now and again, and be able to enjoy doing it…. Even if it doesn’t make me so, it makes me feel rich, to know that I have enough, enough to be able to live, and be able to help whomever I wish to help….

“Kids, the seven basic food groups are GUM, PUFF PASTRY, PIZZA, PESTICIDES, ANTIBIOTICS, NUTRA-SWEET and MILK DUDS!!” — Zippy the Pinhead

As I perused the above, while looking through SB for an appropriate quote for this discussion, I realized this was a perfect choice, because, I can always count on Zippy to provide the proper perspective to any discussion that threatens to become mundane, which the above was certainly doing…. (I wonder if I have enough teeth to eat Milk Duds anymore?) Besides, he forgot coffee, unless that is counted as a pesticide, or an antibiotic…. Nevertheless, what I’ve discussed above is all true, and I must say, not only is it a good feeling to be flush for a change, if not exactly rich, it is a good thing to be able to appreciate my good fortune, and the culmination of a long period of hard work, defined as “waiting patiently for the feds to turn lead into gold”, so to speak…

So, if you are fortunate enough in your life, to have enough, maybe you will join me in appreciating what we have, and thinking how we can help others by sharing our good fortune…. It’s a darn sight better than hoarding it, or worrying about spending the fruits of our life-long efforts foolishly, and a lot more satisfying in the long run…. I guarantee…..

“I have more than enough of almost everything.” — Smart Bee

“No man is free who is not master of himself.” — Epictetus
__________________________________

Striking Gold

Madness comes and goes, it’s true,
whenever it chooses to do so.
Living’s much like wearing a shoe,
when all you are is a toe.

~~ gigoid ~~

In perfect demonstration of this, I offer the above….. such as it is, it is deeper than it may appear, and quite relevant to my internal life, where I spend probably far too much of my time…. As a balancing act, I offer the following, which is the first one that caught my eye today…..

It’s All I have to bring to-day,
   This, and my heart beside,
This, and my heart, and all the fields,
   And all the meadows wide.
Be sure you count, should I forget, —
   Some one the sum could tell, —
This, and my heart, and all the bees
Which in the clover dwell.

~~ Emily Dickinson ~~

__________________________________

The above first section is possibly one of the weakest, yet still reasonably valid pieces I’ve done in a long while. I knew what I wanted to say, but it came out all weird, and rather than try to bring it back, I just let it fly wherever it chose, which turned out to be a bit odd…. Not to say that “odd” is anything new here, but, that wasn’t how it started out….. Oh well, I guess I’ll just go cruising through SB to see what throws itself at me, and sticks…. Hopefully, it will make a bit of sense, but, if not, well, it will fit right in with a lot of what I do around here in the early mornings……

Scimus te prae litteras fatuum esse. (We know that you are mad with much learning.) — Petronius (d. c.66 A.D)

“Back when I was attending the University of Utah, The Daily Utah Chronicle ran a joke ad for a debate between Phil Donahue and Whiskers the Lamb. Over 30 people showed up. (what they were expecting, God only knows.) — unknown, but not Smart Bee, because SB is a program, and this is obviously the memory of a real person; I just don’t know who, and neither does Google… It is listed as an unattributed joke on some IT website called anvari.com, but, other than that, the only reference on the web was a post of my own, from a couple years ago, when I used it in another Pearl…. Whew!

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

I saw Eternity the other night,
Like a great ring of pure and endless light,
All calm, as it was bright;
And round beneath it,
Time in hours, days, years,
Driv’n by the spheres
Like a vast shadow mov’d; in which the world
And all her train were hurl’d.

— Henry Vaughan — The World

“I am an optimist. It does not seem too much use being anything else.” — Winston Churchill

Well…. Sometimes, serendipity just astonishes me. It may seem a bit elusive, but, I consider the above to be one of the best five-star pearls that Smart Bee has ever come up with…. The important part of that is that I don’t really know why, it just is…. balanced, whimsical, and ultimately, perfectly real, with some self-deprecation and hope thrown in just for good measure….. So be it, gigoid has spoken, and it is good….
__________________________________

Okay, I have to see if it is as weird to read as it was to write…. Hmm, well, better than I’d hoped, so, off it goes…. It’s been real, AND fun, so, I’m already in the plus column for the day, and it’s just barely dawn… Time for a nap…. Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid

Sucked into the blonde event horizon….

Posted on April 25, 2013 by gigoid

Ffolkes,
Well, I survived the Lone Star state, albeit a bit worse for wear, and my pockets significantly lighter. All in all, it was an instructive journey, in a lot of ways….. A number of events that happened during the trip were obvious life-lessons, and have taught me that a) I’m not a kid anymore; b) packing light is a good thing; and c) take what is offered, especially perks due to age or disability…..

Oh, and I also found out that not only does Murphy follow me around, he delights in taking advantage of the subtle cruelties offered by travel…. such as convincing myself to take a cab home from the airport, giving me an clueless driver who proceeded to take the wrong freeway on the way to Vallejo, treating me to a memory-filled jaunt through the streets of Berkeley, in order to get back on the right freeway, and, adding another hour to the trip…. If I had sat back and closed my eyes, we would have ended up in Fresno…

I found out that I’m no longer the invulnerable, indefatigable young man I used to be. I used to be able to drive as long as I needed to drive, without becoming overly tired, hour after hour; this time, a four hour drive around central Texas, and I’m ready for a week off, with lots of sleeping on the agenda. An almost four hour plane ride from Austin to Oakland almost killed me, coming on top of the drive, and the four hour wait to board the flight, which Murphy had been so kind as to delay in its trip to Austin. Even waiting in the airport was hard, as the seats in most of the ones I’ve been to are not well designed for long periods of time, especially the ones near the Internet hot spots…..

Packing light is a learned skill, one I’ve always been fair at, just not experienced enough to become totally efficient. I end up carting around a bunch of stuff that I never use on the trip, making it dead weight. Until I can get a good ultra-thin laptop designed for travelers, I have to take my laptop, which is not huge, but still weighs enough to strain my pitiful back muscles. I need to learn not to take enough stuff to set up a new bivouac, and save the weight for stuff I pick up along the way. I didn’t need a lot of what I ended up taking, so this was an quite instructive trip in that regard…

Part of what made it hard is my own stubbornness against accepting the fact that I’m disabled. I didn’t want to be one of those folks who use a wheelchair to get around in the airport, preferring to walk, even though I have to walk with my stick, and limp a lot of the way due to hip pain. Then, since I didn’t claim my disability, I ended up standing around in lines, hurting, wishing I’d used the wheelchair, as those passengers board first. If I take the perks, I would be able to go through the security check points without having to stand in long lines, as well as boarding the plane first. I no longer give a shit about appearing to be disabled, because, hey, I am disabled….

In the future, I’m going to take all the perks I can, because I just don’t have the strength any longer to put up with the physical demands that even flying presents. Planes are faster, and more comfortable than a train, as the train is constantly rocking and rolling on the tracks, whereas the plane is relatively smooth, other than the pockets of turbulence. The seats on a train are more comfortable, for sure, and it is usually less crowded, and not so stuffy on a train as it is on the plane. But, those are the ONLY advantages, as far as I can see…..

I’m glad I took this trip, and not just because I got to see my high school friend for a good visit. I also am convinced that what I’ve learned on this trip will help me in my upcoming big trip to Europe next month (I leave in 14 days!…..). I’m packing light, going to check my big bag, and keep only my meds, my laptop, and a book with me on the plane (And my tickets & passport, of course…..). I’m going to take all the disability perks I can. And, I’m going to have a great time, even if Murphy tries to come along; I’ll just bribe him somehow to take a vacation with me, so he’ll leave me be for a few days…. It sure would be nice to be free of his attentions, even if it’s only for a short while.

I see that I’ve rambled on quite a bit here, and we’re still in the intro section. I guess I’m making up for yesterday’s post…. I do have other stuff to do today, like a dentist visit, so I’d best get on with today’s dive…. I hope I didn’t bore anyone, or lose any readers from prattling on for so long about a simple trip, and will now try to maintain a bit more focus on the purpose here…. not that I always know what that purpose may be…. Nevertheless, we go on….. Shall we Pearl?…..
__________________________________

“Dwell not upon thy weariness, thy strength shall be according to the measure of thy desire.” — Arab proverb

Well, Smart Bee is quite perceptive this morning….. In the discussion above regarding strength and the demands of traveling, this takes on new significance. It is a truism, especially true for men; more so, I think, than for women (and nothing sexist meant by that…. men and women are different…. get used to it….). I know that, for me, having a purpose gives me the strength to complete the task, no matter what it may entail. I’ve stayed up for 2 or more days, at times, when there was good reason, and felt no ill effects afterward, other than a strong desire to sleep for a long time. Even when I am already tired, bringing my mental focus onto whatever strong reason I have to assume a duty will always dismiss the fatigue, and draw upon inner resources to give me the energy to keep on working, or doing whatever needed doing.

I don’t believe this is any different for me than it is for anyone else; as humans, we have a strength of will that, if honed and sharpened, can give us the ability to put aside mere physical demands, overcoming any such weakness by the application of will power. A perfect example of this was when I drove to Austin from Houston, yesterday, on the way home. The four hour drive came after a very long day the day before, about 3 hours sleep, and an emotional visit with my friend… I was completely drained, I thought…. But, then, on the drive, I realized that if I gave in to my fatigue, I’d get stuck in Texas until I recovered…. So, I stopped, got some fresh air, and pushed on, replenishing my strength with the promise of rest when I arrived at the airport….

Even though I had to tell myself a lie like that (the physical demands at the airport meant no rest at all for me, but I didn’t tell myself that while driving….) by accepting the duty involved, I was able to draw upon hidden resources of energy to get me through the drive. I needed a lot more lies to get me all the way home, to make it through the 4 hour wait, the 4 hour flight, and the unexpected extra hour on the cab ride from the airport to my house…. I made it, as always, and seven hours of sleep in my own bed seems to have fixed all my problems…. at least, if how much I write is any indication… I’ve been at this for about an hour now, and I’m already approaching a couple thousand words, in the first section….

I’ll not torture y’all any further on this thought, except to say this…. We, as humans, have the will power to accomplish anything…. anything at all. If our minds can conceive of a thing, we can make that thing a reality, whether it is large or small, simple or complex, long or short of duration. None of that matters, when we have decided on a course of action…. It is a valuable characteristic, and not well understood by most people; they use it without ever considering its true power, or its importance to them. Learn to focus the will, to bring your attention onto what is duty, freely chosen, and you will find that there is nothing you desire that you cannot achieve…. Word…..

“And now there is merely silence, silence, silence, saying all we did not know.” — William Rose Benet
__________________________________

In the attempt to stay with fresh material, I am including here a haiku I wrote while on the plane home from Texas…. The poem was begun when I finally got home, while I was trying to relax enough to go to bed; I finished it just a few minutes ago, which gave me the title….. It’s not the best I’ve ever done, and may go through more editorial changes, but, it will do for one of the first poems I’ve tried to write on demand, instead of waiting until it leaked out of my head…. As every day this month, these are being included as part of the April National Poetry Writing Month Challenge, with the updates to be found here: http://www.napowrimo.net/ I hope you enjoy them…..

Haiku XIII

Flying home tonight,
long, hot, interesting flight.
Will it ever end?

Pensive early and late….

Endings aren’t always a new beginning
I’m sad to say.
Sometimes it’s just an ending
there’s always a price to pay.

Still, it’s only money, he said
watching it piss away
Did everything ‘cept meet Fred
‘n had a good time the whole way.

Even the bad stuff turned out well,
life lessons are just that way.
Knowing what’s right, you can’t always tell,
we don’t always know the right things to say.

I’ll take all the hard times, without complaint,
learning isn’t always easy to take.
Kindness, patience, compassion without restraint,
are still the best decisions we can make.

~~ gigoid ~~
__________________________________

Well, I haven’t really ranted today, but, I’ve held you captive long enough, so I won’t start one now…. We’ll go old-school for the final section, with a five, or seven star pearl of great luster, with an inspiring core meaning to each of the included quotes, all tied up with a logical bow…. I hope. Smart Bee sometimes has its own ideas of what is right for a particular pearl, so we’ll see what comes together, and hope for the best….

“Don’t despair over futility; remember, it also rains over the ocean.” — Smart Bee

“A man begins cutting his wisdom teeth the first time he bites off more than he can chew.” — Herb Caen

“History records no more gallant struggle than that of humanity against the truth.” — Smart Bee

“Decay, inherent in all component things.’ — Buddha-last words

“The power of man has grown in every sphere, except over himself.” — Winston Churchill

“Know the enemy and know yourself; in a hundred battles you will never be in peril. When you are ignorant of the enemy but know yourself, your chances of winning or losing are equal. If ignorant both of your enemy and of yourself, you are certain in every battle to be in peril.” — Sun Tzu (fl. c. B.C. 500)

“I am not an animal! I am … well, not an animal.” — Smart Bee

I knew Smart Bee would get its six cents in, but, I can’t complain, because it’s fine, just the way it is….. This one will be on the Quiz, ffolkes, so I hope you took notes… 🙂
__________________________________

Whew! What a relief….. I guess I needed that, which is why I went overboard on the personal revelations today….. Let’s see how it proofs…. Hmm, not too shabby, and much better than I had thought it might be after such an exhausting trip. I’ll take it, and so will you, and like it…. Hah! Gotcha!….

Okay, no more Stooges humor…. I’ll let you off with a warning, this time…. and, no, I have no idea where THAT came from. I suppose it’s been sitting in my head for several days, waiting for me to lose focus for just an instant, so it could take over my fingers….. Don’t take it personally, please, it’s just a yoke…. Oh, boy, now I’ve really done it… Sorry ’bout that…. Bye now…. Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid

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

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Tag Archives: Winston Churchill

Man the focs’l! Avast me hearties! Yar!….

One of our nuclear clothespins is missing….

All the artichokes were bronzed in individual sterile containers….

Breaking news: Cop bitten by doughnut….

Sucked into the blonde event horizon….

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