Such a waste of appealingly bitter waffles….

Posted on July 26, 2015 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

“No human thing is of serious importance.”

~~ Plato ~~

Struggling Beauty

Good morning….

“Sleep is a weapon.”

~~ Philip D’Anjou, “The Bourne Identity” by Robert Ludlum ~~

I first read the above words in the 1970’s, I think, when the book was first published. Regardless of the book’s qualities, I’d have liked it, anyway, if only for that line…. It’s such a powerful idea, and is, to my own knowledge, a very important piece of data for anyone to know, at least, if they’re the kind of person who enjoys life. It has so many applications to every part of life, it touches on all we do, and all we accomplish….. Without a sharp, strong, flexible weapon, life can be very hard, and very dangerous…. The weapon, of course, is our own mind….

Why is this relative to our purpose here today? Well, that’s simple actually…. Sleep, or rather, finding the means within myself to sleep, has become one of the more pressing issues in my life, as I am currently unable to predict at all when I’ll be able to go down for some rest…. Some days, I feel like I’m back in boot camp…. Of course, I never went to boot camp, aside from having been raised by a Master Sergeant… I guess that would count…

I’m not going to go into all the reasons for my reluctant insomnia; it’s TMI, and, no doubt, pretty boring for anyone not going through it. I will say, it’s not the kind of thing designed to make one into a happy camper, an assertion of which I possess no doubt whatsoever as to it’s truth….. In short, FUCK ME! THIS IS A PAIN IN THE BLOODY ASS!

Okay, I’m done. We can go now, to see if there is anything else in my head that might have some little entertainment value…. It may be a long search, so grab some of the trail mix before we head out; it could be a long time to lunch….

Shall we Pearl?….

“A beginning is the time for taking the most delicate care that balances are correct.” — from “Manual of Maud’Dib” by the Princess Irulan

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Image from blu-ray.com via Google Images

Today’s video selection is a classic Science Fiction movie, long considered the definitive “First” in that genre. Shot on a minimal budget, with young stars, such as the then-unknown Leslie Nielsen, alongside fading Hollywood stars, such as Walter Pidgeon, the movie was shot as an entirely serious movie with a dramatic plot; it came out unintentionally hilarious, and campy, due to the special effects, for which the kindest word to describe would be “cheezy” ….. (Look at that robot!…. and, the alien landscape!…). I’ve included links and players for the official trailer, as well as some of the outtakes from the shooting process. To watch the entire movie, you can pay $2.99 to You Tube, or follow a link to many sites streaming old movies online…. Type “forbidden planet full movie” into the YT search bar, & it will furnish you with any number of links to the movie… Enjoy!…

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Forbidden Planet

Trailer & Outtakes

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https://youtu.be/AxQ9GG6hUDM

https://youtu.be/5dd-5qR5AD4

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Last posted on 11/20/2013:

Below you’ll find a short, but concise, religirant, another blast from the past, as I continue to mine my archives for material I can use today, to save me a bit of time, and mental energy, which I can always use to decide where I’m going for my next trip to…. ANYWHERE!…. Any who, all personal idiosyncrasies aside, this one is pretty good, I think, so pay attention, if you please, and take heed of what it says, for it is good advice, if naught else….

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Today’s effort is, to my chagrin, falling somewhat short of my expectations; not surprising, given the handicaps with which we began our journey today…. As I mentioned above, or, not, I’m going to cheat; this, of course means we go to the archives for our thoughts for today…. This one is pretty good, I think, but, regardless of its quality, it’s going to have to do…. Enjoy, ffolkes, it’s the best we’ve got today….

From April 27, 2012

“He that doubteth is damned.” — Romans 14:23

It took a while, but it was worth the time spent searching…. This is a perfect example of how, if we let them, all those folks who would have us believe that the Bible, (or any other sacred books inspired by alleged supernatural entities), is a direct line of information from God, will go to almost any lengths, trying to trick us into doing exactly what that book tells us to do. In this case, they apply both guilt and fear of retribution in the next life if we question any of what we are told by that book, or any of what we are taught by those who hold it as truth….

I have previously written here as to the value Doubt possesses, in the bag of tools people have to get by in this complex, confusing universe we inhabit. It is our only defense against information or events that can cause, or even intend, us harm, rather than good; such information invariably is given to us by other people, whose only intent in doing so is to achieve some sort of power or control over us. I don’t think this is a particularly hard concept to understand; its proof lies in almost every interaction we have when faced with organized religions. Anyone who has studied the psychology of humans can point out the techniques of behavioral modification used by the religious hierarchies to assert their will upon the public….

The above short little warning/threat, drawn directly from the Christian Bible, (Old Testament, if memory serves….), implies that anyone who does not bend over in submission to its decree will spend eternity in Hell. Hmm, a bit harsh, don’t you think? For merely entertaining a question regarding the accuracy of a concept presented, one with no evidence that proves its reliability? The Universe at large presents us with such false information regularly; anyone who doesn’t learn caution in such instances is liable for the consequences, which can be severe, such as in the case of being confronted by an apparently friendly, but in reality, rabid dog. Rabies is no picnic, from all reports, so, Doubt, used as a tool in such instances, is very appropriate, patently a valuable one.

However, in the minds of the folks who are selling faith-based products, Doubt is the last thing they want people to have in mind when considering what they say. It tends to cause their arguments to fall apart right in front of their eyes, and they cannot make the sale that way. If they can’t convince people to accept what they say without questioning it, their entire house of cards will come tumbling down around their ears, and they would have to give up all those nice little perks that go along with having everyone believe everything they say, like having poor people willingly give up 10% of their earnings in tithe, or getting to reside, with no rent, in a house built by the labor of others…. Did you think they would give that up easily?…. Well, then you’ve lost your strongest ally against such degradations to your sensibilities…. a healthy sense of Doubt….

“Fear not, for I have given you authority to do so.” — Smart Bee, via some random preacher’s King James version….

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As intimated would be the case today, here’s one from the archives….

After the odyssey….

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

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

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

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

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

~~ gigoid ~~

Written 3/10/2013.

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I’m not sure about this one; it’s an odd, obscure little pearl…. I like it, so, it stays…. Follow the bouncing ideas, and you’ll get to a lovely surprise…. Trust me….

“Man is the only animal that blushes. Or needs to.” — Mark Twain

“Bear, do not blame, what cannot be changed.” — Publilius Syrus

“The truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it.” — Flannery O’Connor

“Virtue is its own revenge.” — E. Y. Harburg

“A dead thing can go with the stream, but only a living thing can go against it.” — G. K. Chesterton, Everlasting Man, 1925

“Before enlightenment, one carries water and chops wood. After enlightenment, one carries water and chops wood.” — Zen Proverb

“In a mad world, only the mad are sane.” — Akiro Kurosawa

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I suppose they can’t all be gems…. Whether this came out good, or bad, or indifferent has now become irrelevant, when weighed against the fact it is done. So be it. I don’t know why, but, I’m a grump…. I guess I’ll go out into the BBR and torment some mundanes…. See y’all tomorrow, ffolkes; it’s the primary reason I’m not in jail yet, so….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid, the dubious

The *only* duly authorized Computer Curmudgeon.

PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.

“SCRAM!!!!!!!!!!”- Oscar the Grouch

À bientôt, mon cherí….

No, sorry. Wrong imaginary number….

Posted on July 25, 2015 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

“I’m afraid of no man, and very few women.”

~~ Smart Bee, speaking for gigoid ~~

Ironic Tulips in Oregon

Good morning…. In the perhaps misguided hope of continuing to be able to use that assessment, I’m NOT going to relate any of the events which took place yesterday during my foray into the BBR. Suffice it to say, my lawyer tells me I should be able to escape prosecution, since none of the participants died, or received any lasting injuries. Also, the two poor wee myrmidons are expected to fully recover from their confusion, so, there’s no way they can hold me responsible, since I wasn’t the one who called them. Besides, they got the fire out without any injuries or real damage to their silly war wagon; it wasn’t my fault they tried to…. well, never mind, you can read about it in the news….

Believe me, it was quite a day, and I was really glad to get home. Too bad it got me all worked up, & sleep became impossible. Did you know it’s really dark outside at 3 AM? Who knew?

Ah well, fudge it. Luigi, fire it up & let’s hit it; I’m in the mood to go rogue!…..

Shall we Pearl?….

“Anytime I see a person fleeing from reason and into religion, I think to myself, there goes a person who cannot stand being so goddamned lonely anymore.” — Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

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

I’m tired, which translates as ‘lazy’, so, here is today’s video selection, with a couple hours of classical music, in a collection the uploader called “The Most Relaxing Music in the Universe”. You will tell me if you think it is so, yes?…. Enjoy!….

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Classical Music Mix

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https://youtu.be/qfh7MwKQY7U

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I was cruising through Smart Bee’s database, on a search for stimulation to distract myself, when I came across the following quote…

“Among the many handicaps of old age which must be lived with is wisdom.”

~~ Smart Bee ~~

The attribution was given to SB after performing a search for the author; anvari.org, the largest dB I know of for such searches, had none listed, so it goes, as is our policy to SB…. On the same page was a quote along the same lines by a frequent visitor here, our old mentor, Henry L. Mencken, who wrote his thoughts around the turn of the twentieth century, having lived from 1880 until 1956. I’ve enjoyed many of his quotes, as he seemed to have a very clear view of reality, with no fear of saying exactly what he thought, without regard for who might be offended. If it was truth, as he saw it, he told it…. The quote he contributes today is as follows:

“The older I grow the more I distrust the familiar doctrine that age brings wisdom.” — H. L. Mencken

Now, since I’m getting to an age where I might consider myself to have entered my “golden years”, I can attest to the accuracy of each of these statements; now we’re going to explore why….

Why would I look at wisdom as a handicap? Actually, that part is easy…. Wisdom, if you will, has the particular quality of bringing with it the ability to see things very clearly, to recognize motivation, or causes, with much more skill and accuracy than anyone younger is capable of achieving, simply because the experience of growing older provides us with those skills. They do not come naturally; only the passage of time will bring them to anyone…. It also isn’t anything that is subject to change; there is no other way to gather experience, except by existing over time….

But, then, one day, soon after acquiring this ability to see clearly those parts of reality which signal change, it becomes clear also, there is a reason for the old saying we’ve all heard, “Ignorance is bliss.” The reason for this is simple; we expected our knowledge to make our lives simpler, and more comfortable. In the most basic sense, it does so, of course, by showing us how to avoid trouble, thus saving time & energy dealing with it, and with its aftermath, often more terrible. It also, however, shows us, time after time, and in every place we look, just how dangerously stupid are the general run of people, and how their lack of awareness of their own place in the scheme of things, makes the world a more dangerous place for everyone….

If I have to explain why that is true, then I’m preaching to the wrong choir…. Nonetheless, it’s true; for me, it’s the part of being aware of Reality which makes it both a blessing, and a curse, thus reflecting Reality itself.

“Lying to ourselves is more deeply ingrained than lying to others.” — Fyodor Dostoevsky

This idea can be seen to explain virtually everything wrong in today’s world. The simple fact of its veracity allows those with no morals or compassion to justify to themselves any sort of behavior at all, no matter how viciously immoral, or how it may affect anyone else. It also allows them to take advantage of all those who cannot bring themselves to look the Universe directly in the face, preferring to hide behind ignorance and lack of will, letting those with more boldness and strength determine the course of their lives for them. This pattern was established in the very first culture humanity created, when the first asininnies discovered just how gullible the rest of humanity was….

I’m not sure, at this point, exactly where this is taking us. I intended to speak about aging, and using what we learn to make our life more worthwhile, according to our own standards…. It has, apparently, degenerated into the beginning of a rant against the asininnies and our current societal mess, but, I really don’t feel like going there today; I’m too close to the edge of rage already, from the events of yesterday. If I started on all that now, I’d probably end up going out again, fully armed…. Probably not the best idea in this frame of mind….

So, I’m going to do something I almost never do…. I’m dumping this whole section. What you see is what you get, and we’ll come back tomorrow with something a bit more entertaining, if not more compelling. This one, obviously, is a wash, start to finish…. Ah well, so much for good intentions, eh? I’ll leave y’all with the following thought, which, somehow seems to say what needs to be said at this juncture…;

“And I said to myself be still, wait without hope. For hope would be hope of the wrong thing. Wait without love. For love would be love of the wrong thing. Wait without faith. For the faith and the hope and the love are all in the waiting.” — T.S. Eliot

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Here’s an older poem, from 2012, which I had slotted for use a couple days down the line…. It will do nicely for today, instead….

Semblance of Time

The dreams and visions of modern times are pallid and pale
filled with fear and loathing instead of joy and wonder.
Reality is aging poorly, submitting less data to loudly regale
Sad faded images lacking substance, or proof of thunder.

Sisters and brothers of nightly performance speak in spite
building up scars to protect, or keep a semblance of sanity.
Knowing illusion is near and dear, steeped in muscular delight
while compassion and intelligence get smothered by humanity.

Loneliness soon became the friend of many sizes of fools
stealing through mazes of social tests as if truly wise, or old
while companies of sterile opportunity are hiding their tools
from anyone who might be feeling even a little bit bold.

Painful momentary flashes seem to outline society’s fate
until soft, heavy monuments to elder gods fall from grace.
We’re all getting tired of being told we’re far too late
and never ever nearing tolerance, nor regaining any face.

A hard message awaits us all when we dare to even stay
of life’s uncaring disposition and curmudgeonly faux heart
Only with the strength of a hero may such tales make way
Only a poet may turn such pain into a valid work of art.

~~ gigoid ~~

Written 10/5/2012.

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It was a struggle to decide which of the various icons to use today to adorn this section. I’m not even sure why I chose the laughing Buddha, but, it seems to fit the ‘look and feel’ of how this pearl came out…. I forgot to give SB any parameters, which can be a good, or a bad thing. In this case, I think it came out pretty well. It seems to be a collection of thoughts on one’s best approach to Life, with a bit of humorous insight thrown in…. sort of….. Hell, you tell me; I think it works…..

Virtuous and vicious every man must be,–
Few in the extreme, but all in the degree.

~~ Alexander Pope — Essay on Man, Epistle ii, Line 231 ~~

“Be not anxious about what you have, but about what you are.” — Pope St. Gregory I

“The way up and the way down are one and the same.’ — Heraclitus

“In the sky, there is no distinction of east and west; people create distinctions out of their own minds and then believe them to be true.” — Buddha

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

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

“In every man’s heart there is a secret nerve that answers to the vibrations of beauty.” — Christopher Morley

“Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way in the answer.” — Rainer Maria Rilke

“To thine own self be cool.”

~~ Smart Bee ~~

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In gazing back over what has occurred today, I’m struck by only one thought; it’s done. Thankfully, I will take that as a sign to use the most efficient method for ending this, which looks a lot like this…. See y’all tomorrow, ffolkes, since I will still be crazy after all these years, and, I can’t think of any reason not to do so…

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid, the dubious

The *only* duly authorized Computer Curmudgeon.

PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.

“SCRAM!!!!!!!!!!”- Oscar the Grouch

À bientôt, mon cherí….

Barking at unfamiliar toads….

Posted on July 24, 2015 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

“Honor is the reward of virtue.”

~~ Cicero ~~

Simple Beauty

Good morning…. I say that, not because it necessarily IS a good morning, but, rather, in the hope it will become true by the power of suggestion. It’s a social nicety to start the day with such ambiguity, which I suppose serves some sort of purpose, though, what it might be escapes me at the moment…. We humans do like to have a purpose; it gives us the illusion we’re in some sort of control of reality, when, in fact, nothing of the sort is true…. Perhaps it will be an indication of burgeoning maturity, should we ever learn to look at reality without our colored glasses….

Oh, well…. a little early for such depth….

Shall we Pearl?….

“The border between the Real and the Unreal is not fixed, but just marks the last place where rival gangs of shamans fought each other to a standstill.” — Smart Bee

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Image from amedram.com via Google Images

When these three artists decided to do an album together, it was greeted with a lot of hoopla, all of it well deserved…. Three of the finest female singers alive blending their voices in thrilling harmonies for an entire album, which completely lived up to the hype…. All three women have incredible voices, each with a slightly different timbre, blending together perfectly…. The song I’ve included below is but one of the fine pieces from the first of two albums they made, entitled simply, “Trio”, and “Trio II”…. You can find the rest of the album(s) on You Tube by following the link to the You Tube page where it resides…. Enjoy!….

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Dolly Parton, Linda Ronstadt, Emmy Lou Harris

The Pain of Loving You

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https://youtu.be/CsoicHv7xkk

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PAY ATTENTION!

“I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country…. Corporations have been enthroned, an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money-power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until the wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed.” — Former US President Abraham Lincoln, Nov. 21, 1864 — letter to Col. William F. Elkins — printed in “The Lincoln Encyclopedia”, — ed. Archer H. Shaw, Macmillan, 1950, NY

Well, we missed it, didn’t we? The exact issue lamented in the above quote from our old friend Abe has come to pass in today’s world, in spite of numerous and frequent warnings from some of our nation’s most respected historical figures, including Tom Jefferson, Tom Paine, and Ben Franklin, all of whom predicted the same issue, predicting the problems we are dealing with today over 200 years ago…. The wealth of this nation is concentrated in the hands of a few assholes oligarchs, none of whom have demonstrated the slightest bit of concern over the pain and suffering their avarice has caused….

I’ve ranted about this now for quite some time, and, frankly, I’m getting tired of bringing out the same old arguments, which, though true, don’t seem to cause the same indignation and rage in others as they do in me. Barry Crimmins was right when he said, (I may be quoting slightly inaccurately as to his exact words, but, the meaning is exactly the same…), “Mankind seems to have an incredible talent for missing the point….” So, today, rather than waste energy doing what I know will only piss me off, I’ll take some sublimated shots at those Asininnies causing so much anguish for the rest of us here on Earth….

It’s a mixed group of indictments, with various targets, all of whom bear some responsibility for the mess we’re in…. No worries, it’s all pretty straightforward; you won’t have to think much, which should please those “real Amurricans” who might have stopped in…. I guess I could have just said “should please those slaves”, and been just as accurate….

Fuck it. Here, read these, then, if you wish, go out and, I don’t know, kick a pundit, or spit on a dogma dog, or point at a cop and laugh, or something , you know, positive…. Enjoy this, too, if you would, please….

“…I probably shouldn’t point at the word ‘reptiles’ when I say ‘businessmen.'” — Rajeev Pandey

“It is easier to harness human nature than to fight or repress it.” — Smart Bee

“Beware lest you lose the substance by grasping at the shadow.” — Aesop

“I cannot believe in a God who wants to be praised all the time.” — Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

Corruptissima republica plurimae leges. [The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws.] — Cornelius Tacitus, 56-120 A.D., Annals III 27

“Anarchy works. Italy has proved it for a thousand years.” — Edward Abbey

“Do you know Presidents talk to the country the way men talk to women? They say, Trust me, go all the way with me, and everything will be all right. And what happens? Nine months later, you’re in trouble!” — Murphy’s Discovery

“The right divine of kings to govern wrong.” — Alexander Pope — The Dunciad, Book iv, Line 188

“If there are no stupid questions, then what sort of questions do stupid people ask?” — Dogbert

“What good is it to me, after all, if there is an authority always busy to see to the tranquil enjoyment of my pleasures and going ahead to brush all dangers away from my path without giving me even the trouble to think about it, if that authority, which protects me from the smallest thorns on my journey, is also the absolute master of my liberty and of my life?” — Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859), Democracy in America

“Conservative Nightmare: A Liberal Biblical Scholar.” — Smart Bee

“Politics is war without bloodshed while war is politics with bloodshed.” — Mao Zedong, “Quotations from Chairman Mao”, 1966

“Christendom is that part of the world where, if a man declare himself to be a Christian, his hearers laugh at him.” — H. L. Mencken

I’ll drink your health; share your wealth;
run your life; steal your wife …
… you can call this song ‘The United States Blues’.

~~ The Grateful Dead ~~

Hmm… Well, that’s probably enough, if not already too many; these don’t usually run to 15 pearls…. It seems there are a lot of people with a lot to say about all of what is happening today; too bad nobody’s doing anything about any of it….

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Today’s poem is an old one; I hadn’t posted it for quite a long time, so, it seemed an appropriate time, what with all that’s happening out in the BBR these days…. If I experience any terror at all, it is the fear that the dream born in this country in 1776 has died, right before my eyes…. I created this in 2012 sometime, (forgot to look it up, and I’m too lazy right now…. If it’s important to ya, leave a request in the comments, and I’ll go look it up when I see it…. ‘kay?) I edited it in three places where I thought it would improve the flow without altering the meaning… Somebody, another, more famous poet whom I forget also, said, I think, a poem is never finished, it is just put aside…. Enjoy!….

Terror at Constitution Hall

Standing quiet, waiting on hope’s bright wing,
a stranger heralds the gift of Time.
Lyrical, spherical melodies we sing,
yet in silence, as a mime.

If fortune favors the bold and free,
truth may be spoken with courage unveiled.
But fortune’s oft capricious and cruel,
then truth is naught but cold, with freedom failed.

Humanity has rights, ’tis often said,
if courage and truth can prevail.
If fear and ignorance are the diet we’re fed,
Life without liberty can be the only end to this tale.

~~ gigoid ~~

Written 11/23/2013; edited 7/21/2015.

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Today’s final old-school pearl is a short, simple pearl, merely listing some of the more valuable little pieces of wisdom about Life I’ve found in the course of my journey…. All of these are the sort that, if utilized as a means of improving one’s own existence, will bring happiness and freedom into full bloom for those choose to do so…. Enjoy!…. Sometimes, seven is all you need to make a good pearl….

“Go into yourself and see how deep the place is from which your life flows.” — Rainer Maria Rilke in Letters to a Young Poet

“Be *excellent* to each other.” — Bill, or Ted, in Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure

“And now here is my secret, a very simple secret; it is only with the heart that one can see rightly, what is essential is invisible to the eye.” — Antoine de Saint-Exupery

“To change one’s life: 1. Start immediately, 2. Do it flamboyantly, 3. No exceptions.” — William James

“It’s too bad ignorance isn’t painful.” — Smart Bee, getting it in one, again.

“Happiness is the harvest of a quiet eye.” — Austin O’Malley

“Where there is love, there is life.” — Mahatma Gandhi

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Okay, it’s done. Beyond that, I’d be a fool to think I have the capability of judging. I’m not entirely sure how it got done, as, I am tired, sleepy, and barely awake enough to have remembered to tie off the drawstring on my pants. But, when I go back over it, I see all the parts necessary to fill in the template for a Pearl… So be it. I’ll come back later and see if I said anything too stupid to leave posted…. I hope it’s okay; I don’t really remember much of the process; I must have shorted myself on the amount of coffee/caffeine I measured into the coffee pot…. Ah well, c’est la vie. See y’all tomorrow, ffolkes, provided my EOA isn’t too active; if that happens, I’ll be lucky to remember my name….

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….

Puccini? No. Verdi? Ah!…. Book ’em, Dano…

Posted on July 23, 2015 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

“Sex is better than reading; no overdue fines.”

~~ Jean-Luc Picard ~~

Ye Olde Man & Scythe, est. AD 1251

Image from the UK Telegraph, article on the oldest pubs in England, July 2015

Good morning…. I wasn’t entirely sure it would be…. Yesterday morning, I fell into a very Murphy-like trap, no doubt of my own making in some way; most of his work is usually connected somehow to a moment of inattention on our part…. Just because I complain about Murphy’s Law doesn’t mean I don’t also understand karma…. It’s all on me, ultimately. Like most ffolkes, and, for that matter, all folks, we need to vent the frustration of our own stupidity now and again…. Thankfully, my whining never lasts long; then, I can get on with fixing whatever I’ve broken, metaphorically, or literally…

Yesterday’s troublesome issue fell into the latter category. Firefox has been my browser of choice for many years, but, the latest version doesn’t seem to agree with one or more of the security programs I choose to use; essentially, every time I opened it up, it froze up on me, big time…. I was unable to successfully troubleshoot it, so, I had to figure out a workaround, which meant I didn’t get posted until about 0715, much later than usual. The mere fact yesterday’s mess got posted at all should earn me a ‘geek of the week’ award. for finding a quick workaround, that promises to be a better fix than planned…. Essentially, I switched to Opera, as my default browser, and all seems to be well… That works for me, for the nonce, which is way better than not, anachronism or no….

Right. I’ve done it again, haven’t I? I’ve blathered to open up the day’s adventure in folly, thus guaranteeing a certain degree of peretroinyeka, which is an obscure, not to mention non-existent Ukrainian word meaning “nothing at all”. See, my lawyer told me to stop making guarantees, so, well, we have to resort to little tricks like that to keep from breaking any rules that could lead to litigation…. The budget won’t stand it any more….

Okay, we’re lost good and proper now, aren’t we? I may as well just throw my hands up, and be done with it. Nothing else seems likely to get us anywhere at this point…. So, imagine, if you will, me, rolling my eyes, throwing up my hands, and cursing the gods of blogging, whom we know as Norm and Nancy the Nifty…. Okay, okay, I’ll stop. You don’t have to get all weirded out…. Shoot, go back above, & have a pint in the pub, then we’ll get started… Go ahead, we’ll wait…. Ah hell, no we won’t…. Luigi, let’s go; we’ll give them a refund when we get back….

Shall we Pearl?….

“Sigh… Every day I thank my statuette of Wilma Flintstone that I was born normal.” — Zippy the pinhead

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Image from bbc.co.uk via Google Images

Jack Bruce is one of my favorite old time rockers; he’s remained true to his music, and way of life, since I first heard/saw him, way back in his days with Cream, in the 60’s, of which time I have many good memories….. Contrary to popular belief, not ALL of us were so stoned we don’t remember it…. I will confess to partaking of my share, and possibly more, but, hey, we were all young once, right? Here is a documentary on Jack’s life and work which I think y’all will enjoy…. Besides, it get us down the page with some really good music…. Enjoy….

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Jack Bruce – The Man Behind the Bass

(BBC Documentary)

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https://youtu.be/w3KBEq95N5U

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“Men rattle their chains to show that they are free.”

~~ Smart Bee ~~

“…and so castles made of sand slip into the sea eventually.”

~~ Jimi Hendrix ~~

Though I’m up in plenty of time, I’m not in a ranting mood; I feel better than usual, which causes less angst to accumulate…. It did give me time to find a good rant for today, though. This one is, sort of, a summary of indictments of our Beloved Ruling Class, may their skin itch unbearably…. It’s fairly short, and, I think it’s one of my best…. but, then, I’m biased…. You tell me what you think, if you should feel the urge…. Otherwise, just read, and think about it; I’ll be happy with that….

Written June, 2012; last posted November, 2013:

“….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

The framers of the Constitution knew what they were doing when they tried to build in safeguards into the system of government they chose after the revolution against England. They structured it with checks to the balance of power in each section, Executive, Legislative, and Judicial, reserving, as well, several rights to the people that had historically been reserved for the governments themselves, including the right to bear arms, one every government in history has tried to restrict for its own use. The right to bear arms, the right to vote, the right to gather to protest, to speak freely, all these have, at one time or another through the last four or five millennia, been restricted by governments, until men like Jefferson, Mason, and Washington took those rights for themselves, supposedly securing the same opportunity to their descendants.

In fact, I regard it as proof of this assertion, to find that the government, not only of this country, but all of them, is STILL trying to restrict the rights of the populace to bear arms. To my way of thinking, the most recent attempts by the government to curtail the public’s ability to obtain the means to protect themselves adequately merely serve to point out how accurate are statements such as the above, showing how little human nature has evolved, or advanced in the intervening years…. I’d be hard pressed to call the changes we’ve seen anything other than a retreat, from achieving a more civilized society. The populace continues to live in fear, most of which is manufactured by that very same government, to distract them from what is going on behind the scenes; for example, observe the data mining and illegal surveillance being carried on by Saint Obama and the current administration….

Sorry to apply the sarcastic epithet to the POTUS, (no, I’m not, but, I AM polite….), but, his recent actions have revealed a lot of stuff that indicates, yes, he IS a politician, and, as such, has been lying to the public on a regular basis since entering office, a habit much practiced by all those who enter those hallowed doors, as it turns out.

Historically, it seems, ever since I’ve been alive, for the last 64 years, each and every man who has been in the White House, with the possible exception of Jimmy Carter, has lied to the public on a regular basis, without qualms, and without apology…. This isn’t news, or new news, at all…. just go back over the headlines and op-ed pages over that period, and the evidence of what I have asserted is plain to see….

This is why I won’t ever consider any alterations to the second Amendment, or the First, or to any of them…. I still regard them as law, and see any attempts to restrict them as being acts of treason against the principles by which they were conceived and enacted. I DON’T trust ANY politician, not one who spends millions to get elected, even if, or especially if, the money isn’t theirs…. The mere act of WANTING to be an elected official implies insanity to me, either of a sociopathic nature, or an evangelical one, either of which is dangerous to allow into any position of authority over others, as they will ALWAYS act to serve their own self-interests first…..

’Nuff said….. gigoid has spoken, and has no more to say on this subject, except….. Leave my Bill of Rights alone, or pay the consequences…..

“Disobedience, in the eyes of anyone who has read history, is man’s original virtue. It is through disobedience that progress has been made, through disobedience and through rebellion.” — Oscar Wilde

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Note from 2015:

I’d been working on an old-school pearl for this section, when I found the above & decided to re-use it. As it turns out, what I’d been working on was right in the same vein, so, I just left the needle where it was, and here they are, to finish this section with a bang…. sort of…..

And Katerfelto, with his hair on end
At his own wonders, wondering for his bread.
‘T is pleasant, through the loopholes of retreat,
To peep at such a world,–to see the stir
Of the great Babel, and not feel the crowd.

~~ William Cowper ~~

~~ The Task, Book iv, The Winter Evening, Line 86 ~~

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

“All governments need enemies. How else to justify their existence?” — Edward Abbey

“We must never forget that if the war in Vietnam is lost… the right of free speech will be extinguished throughout the world.” — Richard Milhouse Nixon, 10/27/65

(Yes, he actually said that, in public…. No, I have no idea what he was thinking….)

How sharper than a hound’s tooth it is to have a thankless serpent.” — Smart Bee

“And some of your elders remember pleasures with regret like wrongs committed in drunkenness. But regret is the beclouding of the mind and not its chastisement. They should remember their pleasures with gratitude, as they would the harvest of a summer. Yet if it comforts them to regret, let them be comforted.” — Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet

(No, I don’t always understand myself…. but, it fits, doesn’t it?….)

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A new poem has been leaking out, a few verses at a time, for several days; it has apparently stalled after two stanzas, & I don’t want to force it, or it could simply disappear altogether…. Here’s a two-fer sublimation, with a couple of my older poems, along the same lines as today’s overall theme, whatever that may be…. Enjoy, please….

Momentary Terror

Absently casual, memories pester endlessly
leaving only bleeding remnants, amiable and loving.
Coming awake, I cry to still the pain, shamelessly.

Elsewhen, time gives surcease, if only to live,
shoring broken pilings, worn and gray.
Passing on, I laugh at the pain, accept all it will give.

Time will build a shelter, warm and ever safe
save for Fate’s busy hands.
Enduring, I follow the pain, knowing it will chafe.

Fixed against a darkened sky of starry black
such beauty brings us to our knees.
Entranced, I welcome the pain, ’tis all I lack…..

~~ gigoid ~~

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Making Room

Our souls, they say, are like shapeless, infinite bags
in which we put all our pain, all our joyous wonder.
Broken hearts and thrilling love, riches to rags,
endless perceptions of serenity, and thunder.

‘Tisn’t simple, this spiritual journey to peace
memory is fickle, easily led astray;
darkness, ever lurking, without surcease
turning innocence to harm, from simple play.

Balance is the key.

Timing is everything.

Good can change bad, bad can change good.

Pain makes room for more joy in our souls.

The only power we need is the power to change ourselves.

~~ gigoid ~~

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Aristotle_Bust_White_Background_Transparent

When y’all see Aristotle at the top of this section, it should be clear it’s time to put on your thinking caps. Although this nine-star collection of gems has only one entry by one of Mankind’s earliest polymaths, the point(s) being presented are all well within the sphere of influence of his ideas. One of his sayings was, (not the one included here), in fact, the inspiration for axiom #4 of Peruaosophy, which, as you all know, states, “Excellence is its own reward.” Each of these, then, is a reward to its author, and a gift to all of us…. Enjoy….

Als das Kind noch Kind war, gab es diese Fragen:

Warum bin ich mich, und warum nicht dich?
Warum bin ich hier, und warum nicht dort?

“When the child was a child, there were these questions:

Why am I me, and why not you?
Why am I here, and why not there?”

~~ Rainer Maria Rilke ~~

“Know, first, who you are; then adorn yourself accordingly.” — Epictetus

“The only courage that matters is the kind that gets you from one moment to the next.” — Mignon McLaughlin

“Belief is the death of intelligence.” — Robert Anton Wilson

“… as sight is in the body, so is reason in the soul…” — Aristotle — Nicomachean Ethics, Bl. I, Ch. 6, 10966, lines 29-30

“All I know of love is that Love is all there is.” — Emily Dickinson

“Love withers under constraint: its very essence is liberty: it is compatible neither with obedience, jealousy, nor fear.” — Percy Bysshe Shelley

“Curiosity will conquer fear even more than bravery will.” — James Stephens

And if I laugh at any mortal thing,
‘T is that I may not weep.

~~ Lord Byron ~~

~~ Don Juan, Canto iv, Stanza 4 ~~

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It can be a challenge to actually determine the quality of each day’s mess around here; it’s all a bit close to home for accurate judgment with an objective eye…. Nonetheless, I’ve spent enough time on this one to ensure a pretty high degree of, if nothing else, relative coherency, if not outright clarity…. both of which would be, no doubt, a refreshing change for y’all…. I do love my obscurity. But, it’s enough; my sanity is intact for another day, so, I’ll take it out into the BBR and give it a test run up against the real deal…. See y’all tomorrow, ffolkes, unless one of you tracks me down, & shoots me… Oh, with a camera, of course…. Bye!….

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….

Pilot fish? Biscotti? Auroral halos? What IS all this?….

Posted on July 21, 2015 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

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

~~ The Beatles ~~

Image of Guangxi Province, China, found on the UK Telegraph Website

Good morning…. There is hope! As a scientist for most of my life, I am willing to change my theories in the face of new data that is indicative of the need for a change. For some weeks now, I’d about given up hope of ever sleeping more than a couple hours at a time, having been so disrupted by the forced medicine change perpetrated upon me by my own doctors. But, last night, I actually slept, with some small awakenings, for a full eight hours, or close enough as to make no difference…. The difference in my own state of mind is astounding, once one gets past the astonishment, filling me with the hope I can repeat the experience tonight…

In short, Right Fucking On! Or, as we used to say, Yippee, hippie! Well, okay, we didn’t say that, but, we felt like it!….

And, now, we can get on with this mess, without any further nonsense…. Another YAY, if you please….

Shall we Pearl?….

“Virtue is the beauty, and vice the deformity, of the soul.”

~~ Socrates (B.C. 469-399) ~~

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Today’s musical video choice is a form of celebration for last night’s gift, a long rest in the arms of Morpheus…. This, however, will NOT put you to sleep. It’s one of my favorite old rock bands, famous for hard-driving, brilliantly improvisational southern rock & roll, in a concert from their heydey, in March of 1971. I give you. the Allman Brothers Band, at the Warehouse, New Orleans…. Enjoy, ffolkes…. I’m going to, for sure….

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The Allman Brothers

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https://youtu.be/kg7ssACzQhc

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Our world is poised on the cusp of an uncertain future; in my most optimistic examinations of the evidence all around us, there is conflict coming to society. All I can see is turmoil and human pain, in an ever increasing spiral of insanity, as the long-awaited collapse of the current system of economic dominance, to wit: capitalism, enters the final death throes, shaking itself apart at the very seams, which are merely illusions, held together by ideas long out of date, and ultimately self-destructive. In short, the house of cards is coming down, ffolkes, and there isn’t a damn thing anyone can do about it at this point.

Oh there are signs of hope, but, they are almost buried by the obvious signs of corruption and decayed morality which will, ultimately, spell our doom, unless we can find a way to change human nature in the next, oh, five minutes or so….. You think I’m being facetious, but, I’m not; that is a very literal warning, in real time…. My assessment is based on too many pieces of evidence to ignore, or deny, and I’m not particularly happy about it, but, then, Reality very seldom asks our permission for anything, now, does it?

One of the ways our species seems to use, to its undying regret, is to attempt to legislate behavior, or morality, which is the cause of the behavior, into a moral guideline, supposedly for the benefit of all. This, of course, is sheer nonsense, for you cannot legislate human feelings or motivational emotions. It just isn’t possible to make a law that causes people to stop committing offenses of morality; laws do not reach into the human psyche like that. Laws of society have no effect whatsoever on how people feel, or act, and to think so is sheer folly. Yet, for centuries, people have tried to make laws to adjust behavior; I defy ANYONE to show ONE TIME in history in which it worked…. Go ahead, I’ll wait while you look….

I’m pretty confident you wont’ find any such examples…. I’m full of energy, having slept well last night for the first time in, literally, months. As a result, I think I could keep ranting on this for some time…. But, I know y’all have better things to do, so, I’ll sublimate the rest of my angst into an older rant, on a subject which highlights our subject today….

This country has attempted any number of times to abrogate the Second Amendment of the US Constitution; regulations already exist which have decreased its universality, placing restrictions on the process of obtaining and licensing (!!!) a gun…. The following rant was written in response to one writer’s suggestion for a change to the Bill of Rights, which he felt would be useful. This is my response….

From 9/19/2012:

A while back, I wrote a comment regarding another blog, concerning the proposal made in that blog of writing some new amendments to the Constitution. Most of the suggested amendments made good sense, as they removed most of the entitlements that Congress had awarded itself over the years. However, there was one suggested change with which I wholeheartedly disagree…. this is the response to that suggestion… the address of the original blog is included, in case you want to read it first….. To wit:

In Response to a Proposed 35th Amendment:

From the blog site at:

http://lennemi.wordpress.com/2012/04/05/a-proposal-for-a-new-bill-of-rights/#comment-234

After reading the above blog, I posted the following comment:

Sir, or madam,

Excellent post, well reasoned and presented…. I have a few comments, if I may….

It has long been a delusion in human society that morality can be enforced, or induced at all, by legislation. This is, as proven time and time again throughout thousands of years of human history, an idea that is doomed to fail, every time it is attempted. That is not speculation, or guesswork. Look it up…..

Therefore it is my suggestion that you forget #35, in favor of the Second Amendment already in place in the Bill of Rights; this concept is based on a false assumption, and making a flat statement of what (YOU believe) my rights are, or should be, is not acceptable to me as a citizen of this republic, or as a human being responsible for my own actions .Bearing arms is not a privilege, nor will I, and most likely at least 150 million, or more, other people in this country, accept that idea for a moment, a fact that should be obvious to any one with practical understanding of reality.

I do not, nor will I ever believe that Federal, State, or Local jurisdiction have either the right, nor the authority to say differently, and I doubt seriously that there are very many in this country who do believe that. I reject utterly the statement that they, or you, or anyone else, has the right to decide for me what I will or will not own, or keep, or use in my defense. After guns, free speech would be the next to go….any bets?

That, my friends, is a fact of life, and of human nature. We only have those rights we can defend…. and, this is merely another doomed attempt to legislate morality into human nature. Violence exists. Period. Get used to it, because you are not going to remove it from people’s core nature, or from reality, any more than attempting to remove guns will stop crime, or killing, or the tendency toward violence that is part of the nature of Man. Better to understand the impulse, to work toward educating people in how to cope with that part of themselves constructively, rather than destructively…..

The rest of your amendments are perfectly in alignment with what I believe is needed to improve the conditions of inequality and elitism so prevalent in today’s society, and would likely receive my full support.

To be honest, up to recently, I never owned, or saw a need to own a gun. As one who has followed the Warrior’s Path since my early teens (and probably before; I was raised on army posts from birth to age 10), a long-time student of martial arts, and the theories of war, I learned how to deal with violence in many ways, with many techniques, a large number of which I had to apply in my work for years, physically controlling out-of-control psychotic mental patients, without hurting them, or getting hurt. I got pretty good at it, especially in recognizing it before it manifested fully, and diverting it. I am very familiar with violence, in a great many of its guises. So, I can generally deal with whatever physical violence may occur in my immediate vicinity.

Now, however, I’m not as fast as I once was, nor as well-conditioned; I’m better at foresight, though, it comes with age. Moreover, I can foresee a time when I could conceivably need the equalizing factor of a weapon like a gun, in order to live up to my standard of handling events without injury, as far as I can….. So, I’m probably going to buy one or two… because of that aging, and even more, because of insane (sorry, don’t mean to flame; but, it isn’t fully sane to attempt to change human nature) talk such as this, of watching society willingly slip on their slave collars… It is NOT going to happen in my little corner of the world….

If anyone, or anyone’s brother, or anyone else, tries to take away the Second Amendment rights I now have, well, I can only say, good luck with that….. and bring lots of friends… You’ll need them….

Oh, I’d also keep in mind…. Those folks like the police in Sanford, Florida who were complicit in covering up the murder there (of Trayvon Martin), aren’t going to disarm themselves, now are they?…. How far will you trust them to behave with honor, and respect for YOUR rights? Get real…..and I don’t mean that disrespectfully, but in hope that you will open your eyes to what is plainly there to see….

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Near the end of next month, I’m planning to return to Ireland, to spend some time exploring the country, and the culture…. One of my grandmothers was born there; the other was born in a small village in England. I intend to try to find both their birthplaces, to see where some of my own roots were originally planted…. To celebrate in advance, here is a poem I wrote back in my time of poverty, prior to securing my retirement the way it is now. It shows fairly well how I feel about the Emerald Isle….

Days and Nights of Eire

Comforting, a dream creeps oft into my mind
On the elven hills of Eire lives the vision I find.
Elegant, gracious, everlastingly draped in beauty
Just payment of simple homage lives as joyous duty.

Fairies and druids walk abroad in ghostly parade
Gracing each hearth with its own welcoming shade.
Castles and heroes yet live in tale and song
Proving love for the land in each heart strong.

From cold of winter into glorious young spring
Brown, and gray, to emerald green songs to sing
Soft rains always follow winter’s great tempest
Eire dons its emerald coat from east to west.

Old and strong, connections call out in dreams
Nothing that was known remains as it seems.
Immersion in ancient runes and battle hymns
Offering sanity in place of grievous whims.

Time and place can tell a much different tale
Judgment should never be a final sale.
Yet something solid and real calls me to go see
Where dreams of loving beauty may actually be….

~~ gigoid ~~

Written 11/3/2012.

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Today’s final old-school pearl is destined to be a classic. I was careful in creating it, to choose just the right quotes to fit the point(s) made, as well as the Apple configuration elements (the ‘look and feel’… Yes, it’s an ironic dig at Steve-O’s sense of entitlement…). I believe it may be one the finest examples of the genre I’ve ever put together. Every one of the quotes has a significant piece of advice or point about living with virtue; anyone who can make these a part of their life is bound to find peace within themselves, for together, what we have here is a road map to happiness, and freedom…

I might also add, I’d wager serious money all of these will be on the Final Quiz waiting for us at the door to the next world, so, paying attention could make all the difference in where we end up…. Think about it….

“You’re only dancing on this Earth for a short time
And though you want to last forever,
You know you never will.
And the good-bye makes the journey harder still.”

~~ Cat Sevens ~~

Love is not something you have; it is something you do. — Limon

“Who then is free? The wise man who can command himself.” — Horace

“What’s money? A man is a success if he gets up in the morning and gets to bed at night, and in between he does what he wants to.” — Bob Dylan

“Practice random kindness and senseless acts of beauty.” — Anne Herbert, Co-Evolution Quarterly, 1983

“Cultivate only the habits that you are willing should master you.” — Elbert Hubbard

“Be not unwilling in what thou doest, neither selfish nor unadvised nor obstinate; let not over-refinement deck out thy thought; be not wordy nor a busybody.” — Marcus Aurelius Antoninus — Meditations, iii, 5

“Our life is short, but to expand that span to vast eternity is virtue’s work.” — Shakespeare

“I expect to pass through this life but once. If, therefore, there be any good thing I can do to any fellow being, let me do it now, and not defer or neglect it, as I shall not pass this way again.” — William Penn

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

Do not stand by my grave and weep.
I am not there. I do not sleep.
I am a thousand winds that blow.
I am a diamond glint on snow.
I am the sunlight on ripened grain.
I am the gentle Autumn rain.
When you awake in the morning hush.
I am the swift uplifting rush
Of quiet birds in circling flight.
I am the soft star-shine at night.
Do not stand by my grave and cry.
I am not there… I did not die.

~~ Prayer of the Makah Indians ~~

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It’s probably not smart to think what happened today will ever happen again, but, we can hope. This one came together like billy-oh, as they used to say, which, no doubt, is directly attributable to the massive sleep I from which I arose a while ago. Still, it’s nice to have it work the way it is designed to work. In fact, I think it would be wise to take the money, which is never anywhere to be found, and run for the border….. and, no, I’m not going to Taco Bell. Haven’t subjected myself to that in years….

See y’all tomorrow, ffolkes. That’s both a promise, and. a threat….. We only threaten misguided concepts, so, not to worry, right? Right. See ya…..

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid, the dubious

The *only* duly authorized Computer Curmudgeon.

PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.

“SCRAM!!!!!!!!!!”- Oscar the Grouch

À bientôt, mon cherí….

Three platters of the Gorgonzola Nuggets, please, with extra irony….

Posted on July 20, 2015 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

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

~~ Laurence Olivier ~~

Pluto as seen from Charon

Artist Ron Miller’s Images of Pluto and its Moons

http://gizmodo.com/stunning-pluto-art-makes-me-want-to-hike-the-norgay-mon-1718832094

Good morning…. While perusing more old Pearls, I found the following in an opening section…. It’s pretty cool, so, let’s start the day the same way we did in February of 2012….

Patterns of light, both bright and fearful chase each other madly ’round and ’round, mad peals of laughter shrieking through the cool night air. Ghostly figures of unheralded regrets vie for position closer to the oddly shaped harpsichord in the foyer, while the thief of lost hope and hsi cohorts silently steal away. As the outer walls grow nearer, madness fades, and the silent myrmidons forge ahead, further into the day, further from the night’s insanity, until reality assumes a more familiar form and face, and faded regrets hold no more power over the hearts of the unmindful……

As is often obvious, reality can be pretty fluid in my world. I don’t insist that it stay in familiar patterns just to make me more comfortable; that never works in any case. Also, I find that reality becomes more palatable, more amenable the less one tries to have any influence over it; it seems to resent, and resist, any such foolery, and has been known to revolt altogether when attempts are made to make it conform to any preconceived notions. And to be honest, I don’t blame it at all….. let’s see what’s in the hopper for us today, shall we?…..

Shall we Pearl?….

“Ambition has but one reward for all:

A little power, a little transient fame,

a grave to rest in, and a fading name.”

— William Winter

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Image from en.wikipedia.org via Google Images

J.S. Bach is well-known to all but a few humans, for good reason, as he left humanity a very large legacy of some of the finest music ever produced. Here for your listening pleasure are all six of the Brandenburg Concertos…. Telling anyone to enjoy this is superfluous verbiage, so, I won’t say it, but, please do…. Was that convoluted enough for you?….

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J. S. Bach

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https://youtu.be/NCPM8DEsvmc

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Yep…. Y’all know what this logo means…. It’s another example of gigoid’s laziness, for which he is making no apology whatsoever…. You try getting up at 0100 to twitch, wishing for oblivion, & see how perky YOU are at 0430…. I’m exhausted, having had no more than 3 straight hours of sleep for what seems like months…. Oh, wait, it HAS been months…. Ah well, such is life at this moment in time, and, using the powers of a Time Lord for personal business isn’t allowed…. Ah well, let’s go take a few shots at some lawyers, okay? They usually deserve whatever crap we can throw their way….

From 1/11/2014:

“Lawyers, I suppose, were children once.” — Charles Lamb

Mr. Lamb makes here an assertion that he has, no doubt, been forced to defend, physically, in more than one bar…. especially in those bars near the courthouse…. Actually, any OTHER bars would most likely appreciate this, and reward him with a groan, or even a chuckle or two, (in some parts of town, they’d even buy him a drink….) even though most folks tend to become angry and depressed when thinking about lawyers…. It goes with the territory, you see. Lawyers, as all of us are aware, come in only two varieties, one of which is socially acceptable, and one that is socially outcast…. a distinction based upon how they approach their practice of law….

One type of lawyer is the kind who goes into the law because they believe in it; they like justice, they like to see that justice work….. These barristers try to help others find justice, even when the system of law is obstructive to that purpose, by the intent and influence of the OTHER kind of lawyers who inhabit the field. These people use their knowledge of the ins and outs of the legal system to help others find their way through it, motivated by impulses of a morally superior nature….

The second type of lawyer is that group of people who make it through law school, with the sole purpose making the law work FOR them, to furnish them with power, money, and control over others, whether as a lawyer, a judge, a politician, or a banker, which are the four ways that most lawyers choose to use their education….. They are motivated by avarice, entitlement, and self-love, and have no investment at all in helping others, unless that somehow advances their own agenda….

Now I’m depressed, and pissed off…. I have had my own experiences with both kinds of lawyers; I even count one of them among my long-time friends, mostly because he is a person who spends a lot of time agonizing over the motivations involved in pursuing the law, and his own struggles with dealing with the other type in the system…. He would have been the first kind of lawyer, had he stuck with it; as it is, he is not currently practicing, and is much better off for it, IMHO….

But, there are so fucking many of the kind who are in it for what they can get out of it, they tend to seem like the ONLY kind…. It also seems as if every one of the lawyers in that group is involved in the government of this country, at one level or another, which, arguably, is a fucking nightmare for the rest of us…. These Asininnies have penetrated to all levels of society, taking over in positions that need their expertise, and cementing their own part in keeping the status quo intact…. From the White House, to the halls of Congress and Senate, to the Supreme Court, our country is in the hands of assholes with law degrees, all vying for the primary position of power, and not a single one of them concerned AT ALL with anyone else in the country….

It’s been this way for a good long while now, and shows no signs of ever becoming different…. because people have stopped noticing, or don’t care, because they’re too busy trying to stay alive in the impossible world that has been created for us…. I could rant here about how this is going to kill us all, but, you’ve heard me on that subject before, and it won’t change anything to go over it now…. I don’t see that there are a lot of options left in the world for any of us, not without some seriously revolutionary spirit developing, enough to actually fight back AGAINST all those who would maintain things as they are….

That’s the issue, ffolkes, right there…. The people now in power want the status quo to be maintained, as long as they possibly can, so they resist all efforts to educate the world about the need for change. They won’t quit doing that, unless someone else MAKES them stop… and, honestly, do you see anyone at all who will do that? Neither do I….. I am willing to help, if I could see anyone at all who had any chance at making any changes, but, I just don’t see it anywhere….

“THEY” have too much control, and “THEY” are willing to let things go on the way they are as long as their profit margin doesn’t fall below their expectations…. Add to that the fact that “THEY” don’t give a shit about what anyone else wants, and you’ve got a pretty good idea of where we stand, here, January 11, 2014, in America, as well as on Planet Earth at large…. You can thank the Asininnies, and you can thank yourselves, as I do, for we all played our part in the story line….

And of course, No soap, radio….

(The Joke: Two elephants are sitting in a bathtub, scrubbing away. One elephant pauses and cries out to the other, “Pass the soap!” And the other elephant shouts back, “No soap! RADIO!” All the kids burst out laughing at the hilarious rejoinder and they slap one another on the back with glee. The sucker in the group cracks up, too and exclaims how funny it is — only to be mocked by the rest because there is no joke.)

Get it, ffolkes? This is no joke…..

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Sometimes, introduction is superfluous…..

Gold Mouths Cry

Gold mouths cry with the green young
certainty of the bronze boy
remembering a thousand autumns
and how a hundred thousand leaves
came sliding down his shoulder blades
persuaded by his bronze heroic reason.
We ignore the coming doom of gold
and we are glad in this bright metal season.
Even the dead laugh among the goldenrod.

The bronze boy stands kneedeep in centuries,
and never grieves,
remembering a thousand autumns,
with sunlight of a thousand years upon his lips
and his eyes gone blind with leaves.

~~ Sylvia Plath ~~

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If you know anything about Kokopelli, you’ll know why he adorns the top of today’s final section. If you don’t know anything about him, when you’ve finished this pearl, you’ll have a better idea…. Trust me…. Or not, up to you….

perfect is boring.
the only way to make it live
is to get a bit of blood in it,
to make it messy —
and human.

~~ callan williams ~~

“All life is an experiment.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

“How did the great rivers and seas gain dominion over the hundred lesser streams? By being lower than they.” — Lao Tzu

“Forgive many things in others; nothing in yourself.” — Ausionius

“Only ideas that we actually live by are of any value.” — Hermann Hesse

“Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we find it not.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

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 ~~

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Today’s Pearl is one I’d call a stealth pearl; it was created without the full knowledge or use of my mind; after this long, I can do this in my sleep…. Of course, I’m not getting any sleep, so, that’s sort of irrelevant just now; maybe I can use it to get some sympathy…. Nah, that’s too easy. I know, I’ll just post it, and practice my cat attitude, wherein I don’t give a shit what happens, as long as I can get my nap…. See y’all tomorrow, ffolkes, provided I’m still coherent enough to do so….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid, the dubious

The *only* duly authorized Computer Curmudgeon.

PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.

“SCRAM!!!!!!!!!!”- Oscar the Grouch

À bientôt, mon cherí….

Calculated intent, or entropic happenstance?….

Posted on July 18, 2015 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

“Only the madman is absolutely sure.”

~~ Robert Anton Wilson ~~

Ice Wolves Desert Sunset

Image created by Europaicewolf, at:

https://europasicewolf.wordpress.com/2015/07/12/wolfie-chew-sticks-you-turned-the-air-blue/

Good morning…. Mornings such as this one seem to challenge the believability of that statement, but, as a social nicety, it’s de rigeur; that means, in the final analysis, there is nothing to be done about it. Thank goodness, too, because just putting that sentence together challenged my capabilities pretty strongly, and, the outcome remains in question, as you see….

That all said, I think we’ll just get on with this, for I can see by what I’ve done so far, there could be trouble today…. I hope not, but, keep your eyes open, and stay alert…. No telling what may happen….

Shall we Pearl?….

“If you want to be respected, you must respect yourself.” — Spanish Proverb

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Image from wikimedia.org via Google Images

Felix looks a bit uncertain in this picture, a quality it shares with almost all the pictures of him I saw on Google. Given his status as a child prodigy, I don’t blame him; a lot of pressure gets placed on such savants, tending to keep them from ever becoming entirely comfortable with their peers, who generally regard them with jealousy and suspicion…. He managed to live through it, I suppose, probably using his music to express the angst that living brought him… Whatever it was, he made some incredible music…. Here is a bunch of it…. Enjoy, ffolkes….

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Felix Mendelssohn

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https://youtu.be/sWiCHa9DFOY

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I told one of my favorite readers a short while ago I would try to produce more fresh rants…. Naturally, ever since then, I keep stumbling over old rants and discussions worth posting again…. It’s often irresistible to do so, since it saves me the most time in creating these missives, and, as we all know, I’m lazy as shit. So, here you go, a nice little discussion of beauty, and perfection, gigoid-style…

From 9/19/2012:

“Beauty as we feel it is something indescribable; what it is or what it means can never be said.” — George Santayana

This observation by Mssr. Santayana seems to me to explain most of the movies that come out of Hollywood, or anywhere else. Each of us, though we cannot always say what we see as beautiful, knows what it looks like when we encounter it; every movie made is an attempt to attract people with visions of commonality, beauty that all can agree on, and, of course, pay money to see. It’s a manufactured market, only there because people want to experience those feelings, and are convinced that they can by participating in the public viewing of someone’s idea of beauty (or comedy, or evil, or any other intriguing related emotional experience)….

It reminds me of the concept of perfection…. We all have heard that “nobody is perfect”, or “nothing is perfect”, and there are numerous philosophical treatises that attempt to prove that perfection is beyond human attainment. My question for these people is this: if there is no such thing as perfection, then why do we have its image in our minds? It seems more logical to me that perfection is merely very rare, but examples of it are bound to occur, just by the law of averages, and when it does, we have the perceptive ability to see it, to acknowledge and appreciate its perfection….

The statement also can be viewed as another way of looking at the nature of reality, or the Tao of life. Is not the very first line of the Tao Teh Ching a paraphrase of the above? “The Tao that can be named is not the true Tao.” It touches on the very base of natural law, of how reality is not what we can say of it; it is more than just the description of it. By observing what is real, our perceptions remove the part of what has occurred that gives it body and substance, what makes it real…. If Albert Einstein’s God is the true one, then He left clues to this aspect of reality all over, but especially in physics, as noted by the famed Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, which so poignantly points out the folly of placing one’s total faith in what is perceived…. because by seeing it, it has already changed, to suit another of reality’s aspects, Change….

Axiom # 2 of Peruaosophy states: “The Nature of the Universe is Change. Unpredictable, innovative transformation of Reality is the Norm. If you have a problem with this, you are in for a rough ride.” Since Peruaosophy is my own philosophy, I can tell you, without fear of lying, that the axiom is absolutely true. It has been tested by every method I could think of, all through my life, and I can assure you that it is a factual statement. Trust me….

Okay, so you don’t have to take my word for it…. test it yourself. If you can find a single time when you can say that it is untrue, you document that, and send it to me. I’ll check it out, if any are sent in, but I have serious doubt that I’ll get any replies, as I’m confident of the axiom and its veracity. It doesn’t mean it is better, or more real than any other viewpoint or world view, but I’d wager it stands up to any of them without flinching or looking away….

Now see what I’ve done? I’ve talked myself into a corner, and can’t figure out how to tie all this mental meandering together with any aplomb. I’m sadly short of quotes, so we’ll have to make do with whatever I can come up with on short notice….. let it suffice to say that I believe in beauty, as little as it can be described, and I believe in perfection, in reality, and in the nature of everything…. After all, to be perfect, one would need to also be perfectly imperfect, else how would one tell? And I know for a fact that many of us are imperfect; at times, I am so myself, on rare occasions….. 🙂 Besides, nature itself is full of examples of perfect beauty, anyway…. just take a walk in a garden when it is blooming with roses, and you will find any number of physical examples of the concept……

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart: the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned….

~~ William Butler Yeats, The Second Coming ~~

His head,
Not yet by time completely silver’d o’er,
Bespoke him past the bounds of freakish youth,
But strong for service still, and unimpair’d.

~~ William Cowper (1731-1800) — The Task, Book ii, The Timepiece, Line 702 ~~

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Fine and Good, Good and Fine

A pig in a poke’s got nothing on me,
cuz I’m as confused as a man can be.
This ol’ world’s got me spinnin’ around
cussin’ and spittin’, a penny for a pound.

Forty ‘leven times since I was a kid, well,
I’ve fallen in love, ‘least too close to tell.
Every damn time, it all went to crap,
Forty ‘leven times I’ve felt like a sap.

‘Course, each time it happens, I forget the last;
why not? I’m havin’ such a blast….
Livin’ in each moment, filled with joie de vivre,
’til it’s all gone away again, nothin’ left up my sleeve.

Don’t want y’all to think I’m sad or blue,
life’s full of sorrow, lots for me, and/or you..
T’other side of that coin, we can be glad,
is joyful love, and that ain’t at all bad.

My road’s been littered with parts o’my heart,
each one colored with trust, which ain’t always smart.
Yet, long as I don’t lose my connection to joy,
I’ll find my own true love, and be a happy boy.

It’s been some kinda fun, even when I’d take a fall,
and doin’ it over makes no sense at all, at all
Day after day, I keep on keepin’ on, as it’s said;
Guess I’ll keep on doin’ that ’til I’m dead.

‘Nuff said….

~~ gigoid, tongue firmly in cheek ~~

Written 3/23/2013.

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Our final old-school pearl for today is pretty fresh, having been plucked from the depths of the Smart Bee database late yesterday afternoon. I can’t say what it’s about, mainly because I forgot to set any parameters; it will have to do as it is, no matter what it says… I doubt it’s anything out of the realm of possibility, so, we’ll just let it go…. Enjoy, ffolkes; you can be sure it won’t be on the Quiz, since we don’t have any idea what’s in there….

And who (in time) knows whither we may vent
The treasure of our tongue? To what strange shores
This gain of our best glory shall be sent
T’ enrich unknowing nations with our stores?
What worlds in the yet unformed Occident
May come refin’d with th’ accents that are ours?

~~ Samuel Daniel — Musophilus, Stanza 163 ~~

“Do not believe what I tell you here any more than if it were some tale of a tub.” — Francis Rabelais — Works, Book iv, Chap. xxxviii

“If life must not be taken too seriously, then so neither must death.” — Samuel Butler

“Trust no one and be honest with all.” — Claudius the God

“Excess of grief for the deceased is madness; for it is an injury to the living, and the dead know it not.” — Xenophon

“Son coeur est un luth suspendu; sitot qu’on le touche il resonne.” (His heart is a lute; no sooner touched than it resounds.) — Pierre Jean Beranger

“The turning point in the process of growing up is when you discover the core of strength within you that survives all hurt.” — Max Lerner

You may be infinitely smaller than some things, but you’re infinitely larger than others.” — Smart Bee

For I say this is death and the sole death,-
When a man’s loss comes to him from his gain,
Darkness from light, from knowledge ignorance,
And lack of love from love made manifest.

~~ Robert Browning — A Death in the Desert ~~

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Fortunately for us all, the trouble I predicted never happened; dodged a bullet there, we did. Since we’ve been so lucky, I’m going to rest on that laurel, and get us the hell out of here before it blows us all to hell…. See y’all tomorrow, ffolkes; they’ve gotta run out of ammo soon….

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….

Unwelcome signs of renewed affability….

Posted on July 17, 2015 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

“Do you believe in reason?”

~~ Smart Bee ~~

Pluto

Image by NASA’s New Horizons Spacecraft, on flyby of Pluto 7/14/2015

Good morning…. Gird your grids for a big one, ffolkes…. This one got away from me…

Yesterday, in the afternoon, I had a period of what I call F.T.D. time, (fuck the doctor) in which my attention required distraction from physical issues… In short, I went pearling, to keep from giving in to screaming bones and twitching muscles, (courtesy of 2 ignorant Kaiser employees who mistakenly call themselves doctors…), which generally makes me want to hurt things…. Any who, I found an old intro that was, to be frank, amazingly strange and wonderful, for some reason… It’s long, and it wanders around unmercifully…. but, it got where it meant to go, and did it with some aplomb… I like it so much, I’m going to subject you to it again, and I don’t even care I may lose half my readers in the process…

Here, then, is the intro section from 6/24/2014….

Ffolkes,

Seemingly, my ego knows no bounds…. or, I’m becoming too much a blogger, having lost track of what is important in the search for material about which to write EVERY DAY…. I also figured out it’s the ‘every’ part that makes the difference; once one has committed to a fresh post each day, there is no more leniency allowed…. or so it seems to me….

Ego, though, is NOT allowed to be the driving force behind all I do; that particular battle has been waging inside me for most of my life, ever since I learned allowing ego to drive one’s bus is to court a life full of misery and pain, not always my own…. which only makes it worse. So, I try to focus on duty, instead, which may have elements of ego in it, from the process of choosing, but, duty, by its nature, and by what I was taught about it, does not lend itself well to ego driven choices. As one who accepts the entire concept of duty, as well as what it means, one realizes duty to others is the only one that counts toward earning self-respect….

I suppose all that’s a pretty high-falutin’ chain of reasoning, basically amounting to an outburst of well, bullshite, ostensibly lamenting my lateness, which, today, is great, indeed…. Having slept an hour past my normal time to arise, the coffee, while ready, has been cooking for all that time, and should make up the difference in time by loading me up with a truly massive dose of caffeine in the first cup…. I can attest, actually, as I can feel my typing speed increasing as I type this sentence…. Not bad, eh? Another couple blathering, wandering paragraphs, and this will look just like a Pearl that started on time…. whatever that may be…..

Face it now, ffolkes…. when I’m this late, there’s no telling what may happen; this process is already about as random as I can make it…. When fate steps in to fuss with the timing, or the layout, or any of the interior furnishings, the degree of randomness only increases, not arithmetically, but, worse, hyperbolically…. which, though, perhaps, a bit canny, is NOT in itself hyperbole…. Besides, I really meant to write the word, “parabolic”, which is the correct word for my meaning…. hyperbolic merely describes the end result better, as it’s meaning implies a parabola with a slope approaching infinity…..

I should know…. hyperbole is one of my favorite tools as a writer, especially when writing about politicians, or preachers, who both have made the use of hyperbole a part of their everyday patterns of communication…. If you don’t believe me, just go listen to a sermon, or a political speech some day, counting the number of times the pastor-person employs it in their speech; it might just amaze you….. Me, I got tired of it, so I don’t much listen any more…. Of course, in my case, that started at about age 4, so I’ve had lots of practice at ignoring their nonsense….

Look, it’s an intro! Not just ANY intro, either…. It’s got a mini-rant flavor to it, and actually sets the stage for what MAY come after…. I can guarantee no fresh rant today; there isn’t time to go further into that sort of byplay with my targets with what is left of my morning. But, that’s okay, I’ve got a good one on tap from the archives, as mentioned earlier this week…. The Wise Old Pine Cone is gone for a day or two, attending a tournament down south with his paduan…. Unfortunately, I couldn’t go with them, so I won’t have any pictures of that…. The old one has promised me I could take some shots of an upcoming lesson when he returns, so, that will be good…. For now….

Shall we Pearl?…..

“A man who does not think for himself does not think at all.” — Oscar Wilde, “Oscariana”

Not too shabby, I’d say…. Let’s get right on with today’s mess….

Shall we Pearl?….

Call any vegetable,
Call any vegetable,
And the chances are good
That the vegetable
Will respond to you.

~~ Frank Zappa, Lyrics in “Absolutely Free” ~~

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Image from free-covers.org via Google Images

Recently, one of my Gentle Readers commented on how often I retreated to the past for this video section…. My primary response was to go “Thtptptptpt!”, but, since it was a friend, I merely said I’d see what I could do…. To show I was listening, here’s a band we’ve all listened to for a very long time, since they began back in the 60’s…. On the page where I found this video, of a show in 2013, there are videos of live concerts by this band dating from 1969, right up to 2015…. Ffolkes, I give you one of the finest musical groups to ever sit down to play….. Chicago….

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Chicago Live

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https://youtu.be/bADzaPb4W4w

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“Well, O.K. I’ll compromise with my principles because of EXISTENTIAL DESPAIR!

~~ Zippy the Pinhead ~~

Of late, my level of angst seems to have dropped below the level necessary to produce a rant of sufficient vitriol to cause some damage. I’m still having some issues there, so, I’m cheating again, with a fairly cogent, reasonably short little diatribe from a couple years ago…. It will have to do….

From 3/17/2013:

“If you have an important point to make, don’t try to be subtle or clever. Use a pile driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again. Then hit it a third time–a tremendous whack.” — Sir Winston Churchill

I’ve used this quote previously, usually as part of a group of pearls leading to some point or another; it’s a very good quote, strong, positive, with a solid essence of meaning. It’s also damn good advice, which I try to heed at every opportunity I give myself to rant…. Winnie had a very good point here, mainly because he had the task of getting an entire island full of asses who believe themselves to be independent minded to work together to save those selfsame asses from the Germans, who were themselves displaying their own form of assholiness…. A bloody disgusting task, if you ask me, but, he was obviously the man for the job, as he seldom gave a shit about what anyone else thought, about much of anything….

The insight shown in this statement, however, is much deeper than is at first apparent…. Winnie understood that the average Englishman, as is true for the whole planet, as a rule of thumb, is pretty stupid, and stubborn to boot, being mostly unwilling to listen to anything they don’t wish to hear, whether smart or dumb, much less see any need to act on it. This, as might be clear to others, as it is to me, is NOT a particularly valuable frame of mind if one wishes to survive, and Winnie, knowing his people, was quite willing to use a two-by-four as his primary teaching tool to get his points across to the idiots he was forced to deal with during WWII….

Sad to say, this stupidity on the part of the larger part of humanity continues to this day…. Witness, if you will, the current crop of movies, if you wish to get a clue as to where the mind of humanity is focused…. It may amaze you, and will most likely depress you, to see that there is not a single movie about anything more serious than adolescent acne anywhere to be seen… Oh, there are what are termed psychological thrillers, but, they are mostly just shock literature, designed to make a good screenplay more than to explore the human psyche…. Nothing out there is remotely intelligent, because there just isn’t a market for it…..

I’m not proposing any solutions here; this is strictly a gripe session, for my benefit only. I get so tired of watching the parade of human events, because it so often turns sad, and depressing, to see how stupid and ignorant people can be…. and how cowardly most people are in asserting morality in public…. You know a society is going downhill when the police drive around acting as if they are under siege, and the people do not trust them at all to show either fairness, or restraint. In the town where I live, the worst traffic offenders I see on a daily basis are the police, who set the worst possible example for other drivers, even, and especially, when they are NOT responding to calls….

And the government wonders why nobody trusts them? Our society is sick, ffolkes, and I’m out here with my pile driver to hit that point again. That last paragraph was my second hit, and now, the tremendous whack of which Winnie spoke….

We are all responsible for the sorry state of the world, equally…. Those of us who are not actively engaged in actions which are destructive, are guilty of not speaking up often enough to get the attention of those who are, nor are we engaged in doing anything which will stop their deliberate depredations. They are guilty of being assholes, yes…. but we are all guilty of complicity in that, and can claim no less responsibility for when we fall down the hole we’ve been digging for ourselves…. And, that is the TRUTH….

“I’m amoral, and it’s been bothering my conscience.” — Smart Bee

“To escape criticism — do nothing, say nothing, be nothing.” — Elbert Hubbard (1856-1915)

“You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge the other, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things.” — Romans 2:1

(I’ve always maintained there is a lot of good advice in the Bible, as long as one doesn’t go all fanatic about its origin…. this is a perfect example of that contention….)

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Funny Bones

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

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

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

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

~~ gigoid ~~

Written 5/13/2013.

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Those Gentle Readers who come here often will recognize today’s picture for this section. It’s Lao Tzu, of course, author of the Tao Teh Ching, the Taoist Master I consider as one of my mentors, as far as any ancient sage can be. The pearls you will find below are typical of the ideas Lao Tzu concerned himself with in speaking of the Tao, all of which are representations of the Reality he saw, and knew he could not fully describe…. In short, these are rules for living, any of which, when applied to one’s approach to life, can be of great comfort and value, bringing serenity, and joy, to balance the pain and strife with which the Universe presents us to cope with as a matter of course….

The most significant part for me is that all of these gems were given to me by SB in one swell foop…. Yep, the first seven pearls I looked at were these…. I think that says something about synchronicity, as well as serendipity, two of the nicer manifestations of the forces of entropy in our world…. Enjoy!….

“No one regards what is before his feet; we all gaze at the stars.” — Quintus Ennius

“Do not turn back when you are just at the goal.” — Publius Syrus — Maxim 580

“Je plie et ne romrs pas. (I bend and do not break.)” — Jean de la Fontaine

“I am defeated, and I know it, if I meet any human being from whom I find myself unable to learn anything.” — George Herbert Palmer

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

We view things not only from different sides, but with different eyes– we have no wish to find them alike.” — Pascal

“What is happiness except the simple harmony between a man and the life he leads.” — Albert Camus

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Given the circumstances under which today’s Pearl was constructed, the mere fact it is done should be noted for historical relevance; few instances in the long history of mankind will demonstrate the degree of silliness, and sheer irrelevance, shown here today. Not only that, but, it was completed completely in the nude!

Not really; it’s a bit chilly for that; but, I was nude under my clothes; does that count? Yes, I’m a bit punchy. It may not look like it, but, this one took a lot out of me, in spite of the lack of fresh material…. Oh well, enough whining; we’ve all got better stuff to do, now this is out of the way. Y’all should go do that, and so shall I…. I’ll be back tomorrow, ffolkes; that’s the only warning you’ll get…..

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….

Baleful glances from a painfully shy basilisk….

Posted on July 15, 2015 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

However many holy words you read,
However many you speak,
What good will they do you
If you do not act on upon them?

~~ Buddha ~~

$fractala$

“fractala”

Image by europasicewolf, at https://europasicewolf.wordpress.com/2015/07/12/wolfie-chew-sticks-you-turned-the-air-blue/

Good morning…. Thanks to the machinations of the machine, which we laughingly call modern society, I’m up, even though it’s not actually anywhere near morning. Technically, I suppose, I have to call it that, as we are an hour and a half into the new day. Somehow, I find it insulting to actually think of this hour as the hour to arise from bed, theoretically, and literally full of piss & vinegar, ready and eager to face the day…. Being force to get up due to twitching, and/or hurting, doesn’t quite fit the picture I had in mind when I thought of retirement….

SIGH…. Okay, enough obscure whining. I’m up, though I don’t really want to be; I’m dealing. I’m as awake as possible at this hour, I’m typing, I’m getting pissed off….. Slow down, there, big fella…. We’ve got lots of time; no need to get worked up right out of the gate…. Breathe, sip, breathe….

I’ll say this…. By the time I get to Ireland, and back, I’m gonna be as tough as an old boot…. maybe tougher. Enough on that….

In fact, since I have been recorded as having vowed I shan’t rant in the intro, (lovely phrase, what?…. It’s almost alliteration….”shan’t rant….” Hah!….), I’ll use this opportunity to tell Luigi we can head right over to the oyster beds, without the usual side-trip for the purposes of distraction…. Ooh, I shouldn’t have said that, should I?….

Oh, well, so much for artistic license….

Shall we Pearl?….

“If the cats could figure out how to work the can opener, they would have the locks changed while we were out.” –Smart Bee

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

Image from YouTube.com via Google Images

Ffolkes who grew up during the same years as I did will remember this lady’s music very well; she was one of the most popular artists of her time. I will add my own opinion, to wit: her fame was well-deserved. I give you one of the legends of Rock and Roll, from the earliest days…. Miss Brenda Lee, the four-foot, ten-inch package of dynamite….

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

Miss Brenda Lee

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

https://youtu.be/Eetl-IPD0ik

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

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

Okay, so here’s the deal…. The last section is a rantish old-school pearl, and today’s poem is as fresh as it gets, meaning I’m experiencing a degree of temporary weakness due to blood loss. Therefore, to prevent the occurrence of untoward results, I won’t even attempt to create a fresh rant…. Instead, here is a pretty decent little politirant/indictment of our BRC, complete with an old-school pearl as an integral part of the piece…. Enjoy, such as you may, or wish….

From 8/14/2013:

Today’s format got somewhat disrupted, due to the first section’s departure from normal activity…. Well, as normal as it ever gets around here…. Any who, in this space, fashion would dictate I rant, and, I actually have the proper subject for same in hand. Actually, it’s a subject that isn’t going to go away, and will continue to remain in the forefront of the news for some time to come, as the solution is one the BRC is unwilling to permit.

I’m speaking of the current flap over the surveillance of the phone records and other data being compiled by the NSA and other clandestine spying agencies….. I would have said “intelligence agencies”, but, I’m not in the habit of using oxymorons, as a rule….

I COULD rant, as I have a lot of thoughts and feelings on the issue, but, yesterday, I read one of the most complete, perfectly written and researched articles on the subject that I’ve seen thus far. It is written by Jennifer Hoelzer, who was formerly the chief of staff for Oregon Congressman R. Wyden, the most outspoken critic in Congress of the spying by the administration. In responding to the President’s formation of an independent committee to examine the surveillance guidelines, in order to address “public concerns”, she outlines her part, and the parts played by all the participants, in a clear, effective manner, calling all the responsible parties to task for creating the issue in the first place.

It’s a great piece, and a must-read for anyone who wishes to have a thorough understanding of all the important major points, including an accurate timeline of the significant events….. I offer these two articles, one reporting on the President’s announcement, and the piece by Ms. Hoelzer herself. Please read them, and you’ll see what I am saying is truth….

http://news.yahoo.com/-obama-orders-panel-to-review-possible-spying-abuses–185415834.html

https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130810/09240524136/jennifer-hoelzers-insiders-view-administrations-response-to-nsa-surveillance-leaks.shtml

As compensation, to me, for not ranting about this today, I offer these pearls, to speak to the issue in my own unique manner….

“Nationalism is an infantile sickness. It is the measles of the human race.” — Albert Einstein

“A state which seeks to subordinate the citizen wholly to itself and merges the person into an impersonal mass, commits a collective murder.” — C. C. Martindale, _The Catholic Bedside Book_, 1953

“A Sept 13 1987 Boston Globe story indicated polls show almost half of Americans think the phrase ‘From each according to his ability, to each according to his need’ comes from the US Constitution.” — Chomsky’s Necessary Illusions

“Say what will convince, not what you believe.” — Bureaucrat’s Law #2

DIPLOMACY, n. The patriotic art of lying for one’s country. — Ambrose Bierce, “The Devil’s Dictionary”

“Experience keeps a dear school, but fools will learn in no other, and scarcely in that; for it is true, we may give advice, but we cannot give conduct. Remember this: They that will not be counseled cannot be helped. If you do not hear reason she will rap you over the knuckles.” — Benjamin Franklin(1706-1790)– Maxims prefixed to Poor Richard’s Almanac, 1757

“As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one.” — Rom 3:10

Yes, the last one was used recently in another pearl, but, I do that sometimes, when it is a perfect fit…. If all this doesn’t convince you of how serious the situation here on Earth is becoming, well, all I can say is, either you didn’t read it all, or you have more resistance to the truth than is good for you…. Any comments are welcome, even encouraged, and will be answered ASAP, back pain permitting….

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

This poem is the result of the last three of four days of no sleep…. Gee, do ya think it could be any darker?…. Go figure…. Try to enjoy it anyway, okay?…. Thanks; it bled a lot….

Mad Dogs at Bay

Wicked, angry red scenes of imminent demise
haunt my dreams each night.
Fearful visions of destructive surprise
leave me sweating in terror, as well they might.

Small, mean, ugly, with beady little eyes,
pundits gather like maggots, bloated and vile,
grunting, snuffling, mumbling outlandish lies,
enslaving the ignorant with patience and guile.

Society’s denizens exist as volunteer slaves.
Living and dying by script, completely blind.
Never allowing any resentment, no making waves.
Never knowing joy, nor any peace of mind.

Free men will not be controlled, ’tis said;
No coercion, no illusion can cloud their sight.
No threats, no pain, no fear they dread;
their only duty to keep to the right.

Dreams are mere reflections of our inner fears,
whispering, close against doors shut fast.
Mocking our mostly irrelevant tears,
clearly marking the future as our sordid past.

~~ gigoid ~~

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

No, the logo is correct; today’s final old-school pearl is a seven star series of comments about a subject of current interest to all of us, to wit: the ever-widening wealth gap in the world at large…. Here is what I found that seemed to make some sort of sense about it all…. It’s a bit abstruse in spots, but, it gives one a feeling for the reality of the issue…. Well, I think so, and that’s what counts around here, right?….

“Banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies.”

~~ Thomas Jefferson ~~

“The beginning of wisdom is to call things by their right names.” — Chinese Proverb

“It did not matter, after all. He was only one man. One man’s fate is not important. If it is not, what is? He could not endure those remembered words.” — Ursula K. Le Guin, spoken by Gaverel Rocannon, Rocannon’s World

“If you wish a life of trouble, fill your house with treasures.” — Chinese Proverb

“A monied aristocracy in our country … has already set the government at defiance.” — Thomas Jefferson

RICHES, n.

*** ” A gift from Heaven signifying, “This is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased.” — John D. Rockefeller

*** “The reward of toil and virtue.” — J.P. Morgan

*** “The savings of many in the hands of one.” — Eugene Debs

To these excellent definitions the inspired lexicographer feels that he can add nothing of value. — Ambrose Bierce, The Devil’s Dictionary….

“With virtue you cannot be entirely poor…,

Without it you cannot be really rich.”

~~ Chinese Proverb ~~

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

Oh. My. Golly. (Sorry…. My lawyer told me to stop using the word ‘God’….) It’s done. I’m, well, not flabbergasted, because. hey, who would be at 3:33 am on a Wednesday in July? No matter who one might, or, might not be, it’s too frigging early for flabber, or gasting, anyway, I don’t care what anybody says. Moreover, I think it’s probably illegal in this state. What state? The state of Confusion, naturally…. I’m afraid it must be time to go roast that chicken. See y’all tomorrow, ffolkes, provided I can find a small piece of my sanity somewhere; I had it right here when I went to bed….

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….

Great deals on used sidewalks….

Posted on July 14, 2015 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

“Life is full of surprises when you’re up th’ stream of consciousness without a paddle…”

~~ Zippy the Pinhead ~~

Surreality on a Train….

Good morning…. Today’s opening quote from Zippy is one with which we are very familiar in these parts. Without going into what would no doubt be described as Too Much Information, let us merely say, in the interests of full disclosure, I’m going to cheat. You won’t be required to do anything out of the ordinary, other than the two new injections required by law. Don’t worry, it won’t hurt (much), and it’s GOOD for you. We have the assurances of our BRC this is true; now, don’t you feel better?

Hah!…. Sure…. Let’s do this…..

Shall we Pearl?….

“Work is not an end in itself; there must always be time enough for love.” — Robert Heinlein

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

It’s been a while since I thought of this band…. I like them a lot; they’ve made some great, innovative music over the years. Here is a live concert from not very long ago. It’s nice to think they’re still making new music for us to enjoy….. So, please do so….. Otherwise, we don’t get our kickback….

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

Blues Traveler

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

https://youtu.be/JQv66WUDEFw

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

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

The following rant(s) makes up a rather long ranting section; I don’t mind, because the subject matter is one I believe in strongly. The message is one ALL of humanity needs to heed….

Last posted in June of 2014, created in May of 2012:

It has been a long while, too long, since I posted anything on the subject of human trafficking/sex slavery, one I consider to be truly evil, with its own category of posts that touch upon the issue…. To make up for that, below this paragraph you’ll find TWO rants on the subject, both from May of 2012, when I first began to write about it…. Please pay attention to these rants, ffolkes, and spread them around if you will, to spread this message to all who need to hear it, which is virtually everyone alive…. Men, especially gentlemen, have a big responsibility to uphold, and need to be made aware of how they are failing to do so….

Free our sisters, free ourselves…. take note, ffolkes, and pass it on….

From 5/2012:

O men with sisters dear,
O men with mothers and wives,
It is not linen you ‘re wearing out,
But human creatures’ lives!

~~ Thomas Hood — The Song of the Shirt ~~

Yesterday, I reblogged an article posted by rmott62, a very strong, inspiring young woman who writes about her experiences as a sex trade slave. I use the word “slave” deliberately, for no other word describes how the women, and children who are trapped, abducted, or even tricked into becoming prostitutes. I have reblogged her work, and the work of a couple others who have been fortunate enough to have exited the system in which they were entrapped, several times, and I will continue to do so as long as she, and I, still are publishing. I do this because I am ashamed….

Yes, ashamed…. I am ashamed at myself, and of all the other men in the world who turn their faces away from this issue, and pretend that there is nothing they can do about it. I am ashamed that this practice, of raping and abusing women and girls, just for their own pleasure (though I fail to see how it can be pleasurable to rape or abuse…), just because they can, not only has been present for thousands of years, but continues unabated in today’s supposedly enlightened culture. To my way of thinking, all of us men are responsible for this, and it is our DUTY to do whatever we can to put a stop to it.

Back in the days when mankind lived in caves, when a man in the tribe became dangerous to others in the tribe, for stealing, for abusing others, for whatever reason they had that went against what was good for the tribe, the other men in the tribe made it a point to discipline that man. It may have been merely a physical beating, or banishment from the tribe, or even death, but the other men took it upon themselves to see that the will of the tribe was upheld. Somehow, when culture grew, and started inhabiting cities, and there was more interchange between various tribes, the system broke down. The people of the society were now supposed to be protected from such depredations by law….

But, at about this time, the unscrupulous among us started to solidify their power over society; the richest among the tribes were those who made the laws; they were also the same ones who saw nothing wrong with raping and abusing women, assuming that was their privilege as one of the beloved ruling class. And so the laws were made to reflect that attitude, and the die was cast. This system has survived the centuries, and now the attitude that prostitution is an integral part of society is so ingrained that even those without any other kind of power over others can go to a brothel and act out their sick fantasies, at the expense of a woman or child who has no defense against the violence that occurs if they should object…. and if there is a discussion it is always about a “victimless crime”….

It disgusts me, right down to my core. It is perhaps the sickest part of our society, and very few people are even aware of it. There is certainly no discussion in the public at large of the issue; it is far too volatile for any politician to ever take the chance of siding with the women who are being abused. Hell, a good half of those assholes in office are trying to take away the few rights women have managed to get into law over the last 40 years; Roe vs. Wade has already been set aside, and the asshole men who can’t stand the thought of a woman having the right to choose anything, much less their own sexual nature, are trying to make sure it never gets revived.

I’m not sure what can be done, at least not on a society-wide scale. The attitudes, and laws, have been so set in stone for so many years that it may require surgical removal to make any progress. But, on a smaller scale, I can make noise about it, and try to shame any man who believes otherwise that he is not only a fool, but an asshole fool, and doesn’t deserve to call himself a man. When I was in college, the women’s rights movement was in its beginnings, and there was a phrase coined that says it all, to me…. Free our sisters, free ourselves….

None of us men will ever be truly and completely free until we have freed our sisters from such servitude. That is a fact. It is not just my opinion, it is a fact, and we would do well to pay heed…. and those who engage in this industry had best watch out, for if no one else does, I will be looking for them, and when I find them, I will do all I can to end them. You can interpret that however you wish; I have no doubt in my mind as to what I mean, and I mean “end them”…..

______________________

From 5/2012:

“I’m just sitting here watching the wheels go round and round.” — John Lennon

Men are afraid of women… hence all the jokes about them taking over, over slyly ruling us without us knowing it. Men’s fears of just that thing are what cause him to hate women, because they do not understand them, and fear arises out of lack of understanding. Here are a few examples of such lies, the lies that perpetuate the war between the sexes…..

“My notion of a wife at 40 is that a man should be able to change her, like a bank note, for two twenties.” — Warren Beatty

A lady is one who only shows her underwear intentionally. — Smart Bee

— Yo momma……so fat she has to buy two airline tickets. — Smart Bee

“A beautiful woman is paradise for the eyes, hell for the soul, and purgatory for the purse.” — Smart Bee

“Passionate kiss like spider web, lead to undoing of fly.” — Confucius say (No, he didn’t, but liars don’t care….)

Really, really sexist and paranoid, yes? Yes….

The mere existence of these jokes, and others like them, indicates clearly what men are afraid of in women, and that is their sexuality. We… well, men, not necessarily we men, because not all of us hate them… No I don’t understand them, but that doesn’t make them any less fascinating or wonderfully different. I am aware of my own self, and my own powers, and they have naught to do with what women can do; I feel no need to compare the two, or to assume one is stronger or better. They are just different, and what is different about women is not to be feared, even if not understood. It is just to be learned, that’s all….and the learning is a totally awesome trip, I assure you….

But, back to the sexuality that men fear. It is because these men have never learned to understand themselves, or their place in the scheme of things, that makes them unable to understand women, and turns their ignorance to fear, from thence to hatred and abuse against them. Men cannot stand the thought that a woman might be more important than him, and that is a certain sign of lack of confidence, and of ignorance. Men who know their place in life, and who are confident of their own ability to cope with that place and its demands, have no need or desire to be more important than anyone; they are complete within themselves….

Too many men in this world don’t come anywhere close to this kind of self-knowledge; most go through life without exercising more than two neurons at once, and those tend to lose function whenever the blood goes elsewhere than the brain (such as during an erection). Most men are so afraid of women that they spend half their life telling jokes like the above, and spreading the nonsensical lies that perpetuate this atrocity.

Yes, atrocity, because it is this fear and loathing, of both themselves and women, that leads to issues such as domestic abuse, sex trafficking, prostitution, and abuse of children. The only women who are actively engaged in these activities are those who have been brainwashed to believe the crap they’ve heard all their lives, and who have given up their own humanity; they are very few in number. Otherwise, it is men who perpetrate these vile actions on women…. all because of their own fear and ignorance…. and I say, shame on them, for they are not men, in my world…. they are vicious, unredeemable beasts, and should be put down like the dangerous creatures they are…..

“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

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

Dreaming, I wait….

In the most patient moments of rationality
kindness flows smoothly in a special milieu,
fallow thoughts speed first from equality
to give no anxious fever, anger to eschew.

Indignant mothers and step-sons in-law
shall fade simply from brilliant to grey,
intoning ritual dogma, fresh, avid, and raw,
falling, falling, in massive pastoral disarray.

Safety lives not, save brightly in ignorant bliss,
it follows us all, silent and infinitely frail,
foremost too often, soft as a virgin kiss,
alive, always eager, willing, and pale.

Intimate knowledge finds only the bold few
with courage and virtue to gift, unbidden.
No solemn royal version may pass in review,
true love for man, never to remain unhidden.

Sweet feathers of Emily’s hope uplift,
calm, drowsy episodes bursting with light,
With final glad cries we set ourselves adrift,
swimming in the oceans of natural delight.

When sorrow is banished, in ages yet to come,
roots solidly anchored, cold and remote,
Ample supplies of kindness sit silent and dumb,
and the old stranger shrugs on his faded coat.

Dreaming, then, I wait with shadows in the night
aspiring to inspire, a message from the muse’s heart
Never forgotten images, framed in color bright,
tempt me only, grieving, steeped in serenity’s arcane art…..

~~ gigoid ~~

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

Today’s final section’s entry turned out to be an odd little pearl; it took SB three separate tries to get it right, and, it still looks as if it could be bigger. It’s actually fine the way it is, with a fairly coherent little message on how to approach the process of growing into your humanity…. Well, okay, so, maybe not QUITE so rarefied a concept, but, it works for me…. Enjoy!….

Living Dead
the path is chosen,
to live forever
is to die
forever.

To not know
when you’ll die
is to find life
wherever
you are.

~~ Alagad ~~

“To know others is wisdom. To know yourself is enlightenment.”

~~- Lao Tzu ~~

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

~~ Ralph Waldo Emerson ~~

“Each of us bears his own Hell.”

~~ Publius Maro ~~

“Change is inevitable, growth is intentional.”

~~ Glenda Cloud ~~

“It is a good thing to be rich and strong, but it is a better thing to be loved.”

~~ Euripides ~~

“Only when you drink from the river of silence shall you indeed sing.
And when you have reached the mountain top, then you shall begin to climb.
And when the earth shall claim your limbs, then shall you truly dance.”

~~ Kahlil Gibran ~~

~~ Essay on Death in The Prophet ~~

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

As noted, quick, if not short. I’ve done what can be done, and shall take my leave forthwith. Y’all try not to worry too much, okay? I know things out there look bad, but, remember, there are still more of us than them, so, all we have to do is maintain the world as we see it, and it will all be fine in the end…. And, if not, well, there’s always the next incarnation, when we can try again…. Regardless of all the reasons to NOT do so, I’ll be back tomorrow, so, see ya!….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid, the dubious

The *only* duly authorized Computer Curmudgeon.

PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.

“SCRAM!!!!!!!!!!”- Oscar the Grouch

À bientôt, mon cherí….

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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