Tag Archives: Zippy the Pinhead

The stupidity factor was obviously miscalculated….

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Ffolkes,
For most of my life, my favorite activity, above all things, has been to watch people, and try to understand them. I’ve never really known why it pleases me so to just sit, watching people walk by, pondering the ins and outs of the lives and motivations of the people I see pass before me, but, I know that I can no more stop wondering than I could stop thinking, or breathing…. It’s just too fascinating a pastime to resist, for me….

Though I am well experienced at that pastime, I can’t say that I have reached any particularly earth-shattering conclusions about human nature, though I think I’ve seen enough to not be too shocked by anything it can show me in that arena….. I learned long ago never to underestimate the power of human stupidity….

I also learned to never undervalue the potential for human courage, and to appreciate that piece of human nature, I don’t know it’s name, that makes a human rush into a fire to save a child, or step in front of a bullet to save a comrade, or to stand up for the weak against the wicked and evil. even though it may cost their very life….

That part of all of us, that is brought out in such situations in reality, is worth looking for, and encouraging to manifest in other parts of life, for it is a very powerful and inventive quality, of intuitive right action, based on a morality that is unspoken, but no less immediate, and no less compelling, for all that….

There are times when I make myself laugh….. and this is one of them. The above paragraphs, while all true as the day, are about as pompous as I can get, don’t you think? Oh, it’s interesting enough, I suppose, and all correctly punctuated (if one doesn’t count the three dot journalism habit I’ve developed over the years since Herb Caen made it his iconic style), but it’s just too high-falutin’ to be real….

Nobody talks like that, do they? Nope, unless, of course, they are asking ME to explain some sort of astronomy question, which can get me going, and can easily, by its nature, fall into that sort of pattern…. No, it’s written in what I like to call my Imperial style of writing, which, while true in the realest sense, can drive folks away quickly with its arrogant tone, and pedantic presentation…..  Nobody likes someone who talks like a prig, basically…..

To get back to the subject at hand, though, I’ll mention that watching people continues to be my favorite thing to do to pass the time…. When I was about 14 or so, I remember saving up my money for a couple months, to take to the County Fair, to spend on the carnival.    On the day my family went, I’d rush to the midway, play my games, ride some rides, try to win some prizes, and blow my saved up cash in about two hours of fun. 

I never minded it going so fast, because I would then go out to the main plaza, near the entrance, and watch the crowds, for hours on end, an endlessly fascinating parade of families, young couples, old retired folks, kids, the whole panorama of human culture, all right there, passing before my eyes…..

Now, I’m old, and watching people continues to be my favorite way to pass time, when there is nothing else to do to occupy the mind. The human parade is always changing, never the same, and provides an endless supply of food for thought, humor for the soul, and unlimited entertainment, watching how people interact, and live…. As Spock would obviously say, “Fascinating.”……

Since I’m old, I now have a few perks in life, one of which is what I like to call give-a-shititis, the most common attitude among those of us retirees who think…. We are at a point in life where it can no longer threaten us to behave in certain ways, and it’s difficult to make us do what we don’t wish to do…. What are they going to do to us? Make us old? Give us pain? Restrict our movement? Been there, done that….. For many of us, this means that all the things we’ve always been too polite to say, can now be said with relative impunity, as folks give us a bit of leeway in that respect. Besides, I call it what I do because it is what we DON’T do anymore, and that is give a shit what others think about what we say…..

This, as you might imagine, allows us to say stuff that we formerly would have kept to ourselves, and not care about whether or not that person wants to hear it…. It is a heady experience for a lot of oldsters, and can become habitual…. I don’t agree with those who say that is an occupational hazard that cannot be avoided; one’s demeanor toward others is always a matter of choice, regardless of age, and there is no excuse for being rude without cause; sadly, many older folks don’t get that.

They become grumps, quite simply, and find fault with everything around them, making life difficult for everyone with whom they come in contact…. I don’t ever want to be that kind of old person; I imagine one could end up pretty alone with that kind of attitude…. and I have no intention of being alone forever…. it’s lonely!….

So, I’ll work on my attitude, which isn’t too hard for me, because my own habit of watching others has given me a great love and respect for people, and I try to treat others as I’d want to be treated (the Golden Rule ALWAYS works well…. there is a reason it is a classic idea….). It works for me, as it would work for anyone who makes Love a greater force in their lives than Fear…. Fear is humanity’s greatest enemy, the one that steals our intelligence, our courage, and often, our life, when we let it control our thoughts and actions.

Hmm… I just noticed that I’ve been ranting, or at least, pontificating, for some time now, and we’re still only in the intro section…. Sorry ’bout that, I DO tend to get carried away sometimes, don’t I? Just can’t seem to shut up sometimes…. Oh well, c’est la vie, I suppose, and fairly common for this blog. I’m going to do what I usually do in these cases, and ignore the whole thing….

We’ll just leave things where they are, mid-flight, so to speak, and go on to the remaining portion of the program…. It won’t take TOO long, as I have a task to meet today in the BBR (the Big Blue Room, you know, the room on the other side of the doors of the place where your computer lives….)…. I have to visit my grandson, and spend money….   😆

So, to move things along toward completion of today’s task list, we’ll go on….. Shall we Pearl?…..
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“Good friends, good books and a sleepy conscience: this is the ideal life. (The conviction of the rich that the poor are happier is no more foolish than the conviction of the poor that the rich are.)” — Mark Twain

This has a familiar ring to it, which isn’t surprising, as I’ve used it a number of times in previous Pearls…. It is a good springboard for discussion about society, and human interaction, and quite frankly, would have been a good place to start today’s first pearl….

Unfortunately, during my last break from the chair, I went to take a shower, in preparation for visiting with Zackary, my grandson, slipped on the wet tub, managing to keep from falling by a quick movement and grab at the sink, but, by doing so, gave my back a nasty twist, which is now causing a flood of spasms, massive increasing stiffness, and, a five-step increase in my old friend, Pain…. So…. This paragraph may seem smooth and readable; that comes with a cost, of having to stop to move around, or lie down, every few minutes…. which makes it hard to maintain any continuity of thought, or speech, as manifested by this missive….

This is a pisser, to be honest…. I was supposed to go visit with my grandson today, and now won’t be able to go, as I just can’t face an hour or two on my feet in the park, trying to keep up with a two year old and his father…. It’s one of my high points in life, as I don’t get to see Zack, my grandson, but for a few times a year, and I hate to miss this opportunity…. But, I couldn’t be as involved as I’d like, and I’d just as soon not have any of his memories of me be of an old, frail man who can’t play with him very much, and grunts a lot moving around…. Karma can be a real Bitch sometimes, you know?….

Any who, I don’t want to get into all that today, it’s too depressing, and the pain is enough to deal with…. but, I can’t think very well right now, so I’m going to have to cheat again, and use some of my previous work to fill in…. At least there’s plenty to choose from…. I’ll be right back with a pearl, a blast from the soi-distant past…..

“He who flees will fight again.” — Tertullian (160-240 AD) — De Fuga in Persecutione, c. 10

Okay, I found a perfect pearl, from Halloween of 2012… and it is actually covers the same subject as the one I began today, with the Mark Twain quote, or, sort of… so, since this is already turning into an epic Pearl, for one so broken up by my painful approach to the writing…. enjoy, it’s not bad….

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And here, poor fool, with all my lore
I stand no wiser than before.
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832)

“This instant is thine; the next is in the womb of futurity, and thou knowest not what it may bring forth; maturity of the unborn is in the keeping of the Law. Each future state is that thou has created in the present.” — Akhenaton? (c. B.C. 1375)

“The question is not whether we will die, but how we will live.” — Joan Borysenko

Living life well is a subjective goal, and, as such, whether or not it we are successful in reaching the goal is purely a subjective judgment. This kind of judgment requires introspection, which makes it somewhat of a conundrum for many people, as their skills at that particular activity are severely limited from disuse. Very few people today spend much time in self-examination, from what I can see. If they did, they sure wouldn’t act the way they do, or dress the way they are, or carry on such a foolish, self-destructive course of living….

“The study of the errors into which great minds have fallen in the pursuit of truth can never be uninstructive. . . No man is so wise but that he may learn some wisdom from his past errors, either of thought or action, and no society has made such advances as to be capable of no improvement from the retrospect of its past folly and credulity.” — Charles Mackay

Introspection, however, requires both honesty and ruthlessness, in being able to recognize those things within us that are not of value, and to remove them from our persona. As such, it is what most folks would term as “hard” or “difficult”, and they will avoid it at all cost, laziness being a rather common human trait. It is much simpler, and easier, to just take what all the powers that be, (otherwise known as either the beloved ruling class, or those most heinous of criminal manipulators, preachers/priests), are selling as moral standards, and use them, regardless of whether or not they are truly moral or not…. and I assure you, mostly, they are not….

“Religion is the masterpiece of the art of animal training, for it trains people as to how they shall think.” — Arthur Schopenhauer

I often feel like Goethe, in what he stated above, as I believe myself to be one of the few who actually do use introspection on a regular basis. I believe this because, if other folks were using this process, the world would look a lot different. Women would feel safe walking the streets; old folks would feel cared for; gay, lesbian, and transgender individuals would not suffer discrimination for their orientation; racism would be dead, and religion would join mythology as a piece of mankind’s past, rather than its current status as our jailer/executioner…..

“Being good at being stupid doesn’t count.” — Smart Bee

All of these societal problems (bigotry, racism, discrimination, slavery, entitlement, misogyny, etc. )arise from the attitude of elitism held by those individuals among us who never look within, to see just how ugly their inner selves have become, from using the sick, twisted elitism as preached by the modern religious and political leaders.

We, as a species, cannot afford to listen any more to the Judeo-Christian (note: add Talmudic, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Shinto, etc…. gigoid, 3/24/13) ethic as propounded by the beloved ruling class; this kind of entitlement and aggrandizement has led us to the very brink of extinction, as we continue to treat the planet as our toy, instead of as our home.

We cannot keep pouring millions of tons of carbon monoxide into the atmosphere and expect nothing to happen, because what WILL happen is already happening…. our weather is changing, and not in a good way…. the planet is warming up, and when it is warm enough, the ice at the poles will melt, and everything on Earth will feel the effects….

“The faith in which I was brought up assured me that I was better than other people: I was saved, they were damned … Our hymns were loaded with arrogance–self-congratulation on how cozy we were with the Almighty and what a high opinion he had of us, what hell everybody else would catch come judgment day.” — Robert A. Heinlein

As Akhenaton pointed out over 3000 years ago, what we do in the present will determine how the future will be. What our species is doing now will guarantee that most of us won’t be around to see what happens in that future, because we will be dead within a hundred years, or less, if things don’t begin to change TODAY…. Since it is unlikely that will happen, well, we may as well take the advice given to many school children in the 50’s, in learning to deal with an atomic blast…. to wit: bend over and kiss your ass goodbye….  I hate to be so cynical, but, introspection requires honesty, so….

“You were s’posed to laugh!” — Zippy the Pinhead
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It’s probably a bit egocentric, but, hey, it is MY blog, right?…. Here is a poem I wrote last August, once again on the subject so close to my mind today…. my old friend and constant companion…. Pain….

Denial of Comfort

Baleful chairs become the enemy, heralded in red
seemingly welcome softness beckons with a smile,
waiting, content with slaughter, they are finally led
screaming in agony, deluged in venom all the while.

Desperate distraction becomes such a friendless fire
for all the patterns of autumn’s pale dismay,
leaving sincerely latent trails in spirals of twisted wire,
while memory insists, again, upon failure, palpably evil, and fey.

Fat, jaded tears would have fallen in good time,
if only the suitable suitor had scaled the garden’s wall.
Credence for discounted prices luckily in their prime
bring only fascinated eyes into such a hallowed hall.

Searching for answers is ever a clever portrayal
with studious accouterments to fulfill each common rule.
Arguably patient pictures of science and honest betrayal
shall evermore languish, in light of passion so elegantly cruel.

~~ gigoid

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Okay, so you already know I’m cheating today…. therefore, another pearl from the past isn’t going to fool anybody, unless I try to pass it off as fresh, and I refuse to go there…. Hence, here is another pearl, which may give any newbies more information than they need…. it might scare them off. But, I’m nothing, if not honest…. so, I give you this again too-long, but, too bad, so sad piece from November of 2012….

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:GIGO: /gi:’goh/ [acronym] 1. `Garbage In, Garbage Out’ — usually said in response to {luser}s who complain that a program didn’t “do the right thing” when given imperfect input or otherwise mistreated in some way.  Also commonly used to describe failures in human decision making due to faulty, incomplete, or imprecise data.  2. `Garbage In, Gospel Out’: this more recent expansion is a sardonic comment on the tendency human beings have to put excessive trust in `computerized’ data. — from The on-line Hacker Jargon File V423

Many years ago, I adopted the user name gigoid, taking it from the above definition, and adding an “id” for, of course, identification purposes; with that suffix, I am assured of human status, i.e. hominid, humanoid, etc.  I chose this acronym because it is the perfect reminder of the basic integrity that is built into all computers, i.e., they can only do what we tell them to do, and cannot lie. Thus, if our results are wrong, the error lies in our input, not in the computer; this automatically cuts in half the number of places to look for the problem.

I like to think that my awareness of this principle characteristic is what has allowed me to use computers without suffering many of the common difficulties such as crashes, freezes, and blue screens of death. Only once have I ever encountered one of those on my own computer, and that was the result of a virus my defenses missed… my fault, of course, I hadn’t updated soon enough…

Oh, I’ve encountered that famous blue screen before, when I worked as a computer tech back in the late 90’s, setting up LAN’s and office systems for H&R Block…. a significant percentage of machines were dead soon after coming out of the factory box. But, on my own computers, I am very careful never to break any of the basic rules that govern those kinds of mishaps…. and I owe it all to a wise choice of user name…. Well, it’s fun to think about it that way anyway….

So, who is gigoid? Well, if you’ve hung about this blog site for long, I’ve certainly given y’all enough of my inner workings to look at, in my rants, and in my old school pearls, as well as in my poetry, which is quite revealing, to me….. but, then, if it wasn’t, I most likely couldn’t write it….

Any who, to give the short answer to that question, I’ll post below some pearls that give insight into what I believe to be true, and how I try to live…. Like any weak human, I don’t always succeed at being as moral or ethical as I can be, but, I do try, and I do feel pangs of regret when I don’t, so cut me some slack, eh? Just kidding…. What I am is all what I am, though I’m not Popeye…. and these pearls are what I see in the mirror…..

“They are able because they think they are able.” — Virgil

“Excellence is an art won by training and habituation.  We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but we rather have those because we have acted rightly.  We are what we repeatedly do.  Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.” — Aristotle

“An epigram often flashes light into regions where reason shines but dimly.” — E. P. Whipple

It is my firm belief that it is a mistake to hold firm beliefs. — Smart Bee

Computers can never replace human stupidity. — Smart Bee

“Do not confuse “duty” with what other people expect of you; they are utterly different. Duty is a debt you owe to yourself to fulfill obligations you have assumed voluntarily. Paying that debt can entail anything from years of patient work to instant willingness to die. Difficult it may be, but the reward is self-respect.


But there is no reward at all for doing what other people expect of you, and to do so is not merely difficult, but impossible. It is easier to deal with a footpad than it is with the leech who wants “just a few minutes of your time, please — this won’t take long.” Time is your total capital, and the minutes of your life are painfully few. If you allow yourself to fall into the vice of agreeing to such requests, they quickly snowball to the point where these parasites will use up 100 percent of your time — and squawk for more!


So learn to say No – and to be rude about it when necessary. Otherwise you will not have time to carry out your duty, or to do your own work, and certainly no time for love and happiness. The termites will nibble away your life and leave none of it for you. (This rule does not mean that you must not do a favor for a friend, or even a stranger. But let the choice be yours. Don’t do it because it is “expected” of you.) “

— Lazarus Long, from Time Enough for Love, by Robert Heinlein

“Do I look like someone who cares about what God thinks?” — Zippy the Pinhead

Well, that’s enough about me…. Hope this helps clear up any confusion, and if not, well, hey, life goes on…. all we can do is all we can do, and no more….
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I’ve tried to read this over, proofing-wise, and can only say, well, I’ve done all I can do…. I think it’s close to what it should be, and, if you will remember axiom #1 of Peruaosophy, you’ll realize that’s enough for me…. (For the uninitiated, Peruaosophy is the Philosophy of Pearls, as created by gigoid (yep, that’s me….) in 1986…. #1 says, to wit: “I think I am…. that’s close enough.” ) I’ve relied heavily on my past work today, but, given my justification, feel no remorse whatsoever… and neither should you….  😆      Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

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

gigoid

dozer3

Hollandaise is a sauce, not a country….

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Ffolkes,
Today’s watchword will be ‘sanity’, a word whose meaning is somewhat flexible around these parts…… It HAS to be, because my own level of that particular quality of mind is extremely variable, and depends on a number of factors, none of which are completely under my control. In fact, I long ago gave up hope of maintaining any real control over it, as my efforts, though competent enough, were not enough, by a long shot, to stem the tide of my insanity, which is incredibly powerful, if I do say so myself….

I picked this word, with such deep connection to my life, because I’m starting into a period of life when maintaining my hold on reality needs to remain strong. A lot of stuff is finally beginning to happen for  me in the Big Blue Room, from which I’ve been hiding, so to speak, while waiting for these events to arrive,transpire, and become part of current reality. All that long-winded rationalization is here to say, I won’t have as much time to write in the coming days, and the structure and content of these Pearls is liable to change once again….

I began this blog in August of 2010, or thereabouts, on another site, SFGATE, the SF Chronicle website. In 2011, I signed up on WordPress; subsequently, for a while, the amount of content grew dramatically, as I had a lot of time to fill up in the early days of my retirement (poverty didn’t catch up to me until 1/1/11, when my retirement came into effect, and my full pay income went down to the near starvation level at which it has hovered for the past two plus years…). I filled that time, after my mom left from visiting in early 2011, by writing, and the Pearls grew to comprise five sections, two or three of which were early rant-like diatribes…. It was a lot of stuff pouring out of my head….

In early 2012, the stuff leaking out trickled down to a lesser amount, though still pretty prolific…. At that time, I cut the number of sections in each Pearl down, from five to three, with at least one always dedicated to poetry, mine or someone else’s. That format has worked out very well; it has plenty of opportunity, and room, for ranting, and the poetry always manages to soothe my mind in between rants, or old-school pearls, which I use when my creative side is less active than my habitual, constant inner dialogue, which I express in the old-school format.

That brings us to today, and today’s intro section…. As you can see, I’ve once again fulfilled the intro requirements, by composing and executing (interesting choice of words to describe how I write….) a number of rather useless paragraphs. Today’s examples have something more than the usual amount of relevance, and real information, than is the case in the recent past, but, I can truthfully say that is both providential, and intentional.

Out in the Big Blue Room, I have to start coordinating my SS and State retirement benefits, so that I can maximize both for my future use and convenience of operation. I am pursuing a relationship with a wonderful woman I’ve met, and wish to spend more time on that particular phase; she’s a sweet lady, and we enjoy being together, so I want to do more of that, for certain….

Probably most significantly, I will soon have the resources to travel as I wish…. I’m going to need to sit down and do some serious planning, to, again, maximize the resources I’ll have to have them get me to all the places I want to see, and support the activities I’ll need to pursue during this latter part of my life…..

One of the most satisfying parts of finally getting some of the resources is the sweet feeling I know I’ll get when I walk into a certain store to complete the very first item on all my lists….. I’m going, first thing, into the hock shop and getting my guitar out of pawn, paying the entire loan amount off, knowing that I will never again have to put it in gaol to be able to afford to eat….

All of this will be good for my ‘sanity’, so, I’m rather looking forward to the coming months…. Today, being the 22nd, is the second day of Spring, 2013, and I’m ready to rock the house…..

Well…. that was interesting…. almost like a complete little essay, right here at the beginning, where it will probably bore everyone to death…. That seems to have happened yesterday, as my stats show only four Likes all day, from some regular visitors…. oh well, I’ve never worried about stats, and I’m not going to start now…. What I will do, in the interests of my ‘sanity, is try to keep the creative process under control, at least to the extent of not trying to compose anything particularly scholarly or precise, as I don’t think I’m quite up to either of those today…. I’m feeling pretty lazy, in fact, and want to go do other stuff, so I’ll probably end up cheating, and use a bunch of old stuff, from my archives of ALMOST FIFTEEN BLOODY YEARS of writing these Pearls…..

Sorry, didn’t mean to shout…. that has apparently been sitting in there for a while, waiting for a chance to come out….. My unconscious MAY be a little more in turmoil than I thought…. I’ll have to think about that…. Meanwhile, back here at ECR…..  Shall we Pearl?…..
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I’ve probably given ample demonstration in the past of my innate laziness; I always thought of it as being smart, figuring out the easy way to do things….. but, I also call a spade a spade, and it is a fact….. I’m lazy sometimes…… This, then, is one of those times…..

This is an old, old-school Pearl, written sometime in 2008, or so…. I never did date them, other than the date on the email that contained them, so it’s hard to figure out sometimes, just when they were first seen….. and I’m not so vain as to have kept all those emails…. Five years is old enough for our purposes; that’s our story, so, we’re going to stick with that for now…… As you can see, the process of creating pearls remains much as it was, a random, chaotic process full of fun, laughter, and despair for the author’s obvious lack of ‘sanity’…..

Another attempt at so-called levity…

Ffolkes,
Today’s offerings are more of our usual,  a subliminal array of choices; no conscious thought went into the selection process. But there does seem to be some sort of coherency, if only in attitude. (Hmph!)  So, without further ado, enjoy……

“In Christianity neither morality nor religion come into contact with reality at any point.” — Friedrich Nietzsche (Unfortunately, this applies to most religions, not just Christianity…..nrm)

“Dear Lord, I’ve been asked, nay commanded, to thank Thee for the Christmas turkey before us… a turkey which was no doubt a lively, intelligent bird… a social being… capable of actual affection… nuzzling its young with almost human- like compassion.  Anyway, it’s dead and we’re gonna eat it. Please give our respects to its family…” — Berke Breathed, Bloom Country Babylon

Every job is a self-portrait of the person who did it. Autograph your work with excellence. — Smart Bee

Beauty is skin deep. But how rich you are can last a long time. — On the role of beauty and handsomeness in love — Christine, age 9

“The young man who has not wept is a savage, and the old man who will not laugh is a fool.” — George Santayana (1863-1952)

Actually, my goal is to have a sandwich named after me. Or at least an ice cream sundae…. — Smart Bee

Y’all take care out there….

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

~~gigoid
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I’m still lazy, so, deal…. but, I’m going to at least be honest, and use my own work to be lazy with…. Here is a poem I wrote last October, prompted by, and a response to, the quote that is given just before it…. I hope you enjoy it, it’s one I’m happy with, and it’s positive enough for today’s mood….

“But groundless hope, like unconditional love, is the only kind worth having.” — EFF co-founder John Perry Barlow, “Cynthia Horner’s Eulogy”, Apr. 1994

Unsolicited Gratitude

Fear becomes familiar when reality bodes us ill
pain assumes first position, no matter our will.
Powerless, we founder, no strength to prevail
anguished and afraid, against unwanted Fate we rail.

Still, a grain of hope deep inside, hidden well against need
gives us reason to survive, our starving souls to feed.
Failure of courage burdens time, of being bested,
until our souls, in submission, become foully infested.

Bitter tears wash through us each day, with little care,
no thought, no feeling, no wish, or need to be fair.
Rendered clueless, confusion falls upon us, as prey,
we surrender a piece of our soul, little as we may.

Yet, always, a bright beam of hope is seen from afar,
no matter how dreary, or dark, it may seem where we are.
None knows, nor would consent to tell, it seems
from whence it hails, or why it so brightly gleams.

Saving our sanity, absolving our unwanted fears,
dispelling the myths and lies that come with the years.
Each man has known the precious gift that hope may give
And gives glad thanks, as long as he may live.

~~ gigoid

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“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”

I’ve always felt that a return to older ideas is not necessarily a counter-productive activity to pursue in seeking change in one’s own situation. Though there are hazards to adopting some ideas that are old, those can be mitigated to a degree with some care in choosing which ideas are considered for use. (Duh….) In other words, if we use ideas such as the one above, first heard about a century and a half ago, we have to take care to ascertain whether those ideas are effective or not when used…. This statement from Henry David can, I think, because of its very celebrity, and long-time inclusion in mankind’s treasury of wisdom, be considered one idea that is always true, no matter how much time has passed since it was spoken….

Choosing which ideas from the past that will be most helpful can be a daunting task, simply because when one is speaking of historical wisdom, there is a LOT of material from which to choose, much of which is considered to be very wise, while some others of which may not be such good advice…. One cannot always know with certainty what an idea will do, once adopted in a real sense, and used in a real-life situation…. Sometimes we win, and sometimes we lose, badly….. Of course, the latter events generally are very instructive, in the sense that they teach us what NOT to do in the future….

I suppose we could say that failing at experimenting with reality is most likely humanity’s preferred form of learning, to wit: sticking our finger in the fire to learn that it hurts to burn flesh…. Not terribly smart, but effective; most folks only need one lesson…. We dignify the process we go through in learning, by calling what we get from it ‘experience’, but, it remains a rather bozoid method of learning, depending as it does on our ability to survive the answers that Reality provides to some of our more volatile questions…. like finding out we can’t just do what we want to the planet, without suffering consequences that are incompatible with human survival.

This is approaching rant-like proportions, but, I think I can fix that…. What we’ll do at this point it to admit the truth of how we learn, and just realize we can improve our chances if we learn a bit faster, and more from using our imagination, than we do from subjecting ourselves to the lashes and bumps that experimentation can entail…. In light of that, I will now provide several pearls, all of which are good advice on how to learn, and how to live, and hopefully, do so with some dignity, some laughter, and a lot of joy…..

“If you want to go far in a decade you have to go far each year. If you want to go far each year, you have to make sure that you do something significant each day.” — Deng Ming-Dao

“We can forgive a man for making a useful thing as long as he does not admire it. The only excuse for making a useless thing is that one admires it intensely. All art is quite useless.” — Oscar Wilde: The Picture of Dorian Gray

“Not knowing when the dawn will come, I open every door.” — Emily Dickinson

“Be patriotic – question authority.” — Bumper Sticker

“The strong live off the weak, and the smart live off the strong.” — Smart Bee
(Well, not ALL of us….. but, most….)

“I’m sitting on my SPEED QUEEN..  To me, it’s ENJOYABLE..  I’m WARM..  I’m VIBRATORY..” — Zippy the Pinhead

I suppose one can never accuse me of failing to be eclectic, nor of taking Life too seriously…. It got away from me for a moment, but Zippy, as always, managed to put things into their proper perspective….. Sometimes, all it takes is a bit of warm vibration to make life alright….
__________________________________

I’m a little afraid today…. yesterday’s Pearl seems to have fallen off the scales, stat-wise, but today’s effort may just drive everyone away for good…. Or not, and, I don’t really care one way or another, as this is still all about getting this crap, er, stuff, out of my head…. I’ll go look it over, and see how it came out….. Be right back….

See? That never takes long….  Okay, well, it isn’t quite as bad as I’d feared, so I’ll go with it…. I know, I’m easy…. But, I do get posted every day, so, that’s something, I guess….  Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

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

gigoid

dozer3

Salubrious greetings included in every box….

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Ffolkes,
Early up means early bed, usually, but, only time will tell, as those incipient grammar nazis down at Cliches R Us always say….. They hate me there…. not because I never buy, but because I’m forever browsing their old merchandise, the classic stuff they keep in the basement, trying to memorize as many as I can remember until I get home….. All the best authors plagiarize. didn’t you know? If not the words, the very ideas are fair game, to an author….. Well, so they say down at the pub, anyway, where all the authors hang out between their bouts of writing, and trying to sell some poor fool what they write…. But, they’ll say ANYTHING, pretty much, if you buy them a beer…..

All the above is just so much BS, of course…. It’s getting to the point around here that you can pretty much count on the first paragraph here to be sheer nonsense, or fantasy, at least in any terms of any part of it being based on, or even connected to, Reality. I really don’t seem to have much use for Reality, not when I’m composing, anyway; it just complicates matters, and demands not only accuracy, but truth, and what author can handle writing with those two qualities simultaneously? Not many, I assure you…..

Belay that noise…. shut that fan down, too, and gather together over there, in that corner of reality for the moment, while I deal with this enraged oatmeal….. Okay, so it wasn’t enraged, only giggling, but, hey, how is an amateur cereal killer supposed to know the difference? It’s not like I see oatmeal in an enraged state on a daily basis; it usually just sits in the bowl, rather mundane and boring, if you ask me…. Maybe it was trying out for an acting part? Who knows, and more importantly, who cares? Not me, not in the slightest….

But, then, that may have something to do with the fact that I have not a single clue as to what the HELL I’m talking about now; this has gone completely off the rails, and I have no idea where it’s going, or where we might end up…. I don’t think I WANT to know, either…. I’d be lying if I said I did, anyway, so, it’s best not to speculate without data. And, how can one obtain any data, when one has no interest in doing so? Or in even talking about it? Hell, I’d give almost anything right now, just for some idea of what this is all about, if anything….

But, I’m doomed to disappointment, it seems…. that’s five paragraphs, each more confusing and worthless than the one before, and that, my friends, is enough to call an intro, at least, it is around here…. We’ve lowered our standards quite a bit, you know…. Had to after losing so much in that counter suit over the false pregnancy…. I just can’t seem to find a decent lawyer, which, I suppose would be an oxymoron, anyway….. I know I only know one of that ilk, and he’s no longer a lawyer by trade….

Having completed the minimum allowable number of paragraphs, I’m going to cheat, almost as badly as I plagiarize, and call this a done deal…. I’ve done worse, I know, though I can’t seem to recall when…. I think, as an author, I’m required to say so, even if it isn’t true…. But, you know me, if it’s true, I’ll blurt it out…. Any who, I don’t think I can be any more confused or intimidated, so I’d best get on with today’s dive, before I do something to crack my mask…. Shall we Pearl?…..
__________________________________

In the interests of fair play, and proper health maintenance, I will be cutting down a bit on ranting. I have no shortage of outrage to give impetus to such discussion, but will have to find another outlet for a time, as ranting seems to be evolving a bit, but, into what form I haven’t a clue. All I know at this point is that the urge to pick away at the underpinnings of the BRC and the priestly hierarchies, while still present, doesn’t currently offer the usual degree of satisfaction, and since I am a hedonist at heart, as are we all, I’ll look for other methods of satisfying the urge than taking shots at specific targets… I’ll stick to more general subject matter….

All of which makes no difference at all to this pearl. It put itself together in just about twenty clicks of the mouse, meaning Smart Bee has been saving them up to give me at one sitting…. Hence, here is a five star pearl, with a fairly obvious bent, and a perfect closer to drive home the point….. which comes, of course, from our own Smart Bee…. Enjoy!….

He who searches for truth must not appease his urge by giving himself up to the narcotic of belief.” — Hans Reichenbach, quoted in _ The Philosophy of Matter in the Atomic Age_

“We do not believe in immortality because we can prove it, but we try to prove it because we cannot help believing it.” — Harriet Martineau

Behold the child, by Nature’s kindly law,
Pleased with a rattle, tickled with a straw;
Some livelier plaything gives his youth delight,
A little louder, but as empty quite;
Scarfs, garters, gold, amuse his riper stage,
And beads and prayer-books are the toys of age.
Pleased with this bauble still, as that before,
Till tired he sleeps, and life’s poor play is o’er.

— Alexander Pope (1688-1744)– Essay on Man, Epistle ii, Line 274

“At twenty, a man is full of fight and hope. He wants to reform the world. When he’s seventy, he still wants to reform the world, but he knows he can’t.” — Clarence Darrow

“I would like to buy a fish license, please.” — Smart Bee

Does it get any better than that? Nope…..
__________________________________

It’s been a while since I remembered how much I like the poetry of Walt Whitman…. and it’s always such a nice surprise when I do….

A child said, What is the grass?

A child said, What is the grass? fetching it to me with full
hands;
How could I answer the child?. . . .I do not know what it
is any more than he.

I guess it must be the flag of my disposition, out of hopeful
green stuff woven.

Or I guess it is the handkerchief of the Lord,
A scented gift and remembrance designedly dropped,
Bearing the owner’s name someway in the corners, that we
may see and remark, and say Whose?

Or I guess the grass is itself a child. . . .the produced babe
of the vegetation.

Or I guess it is a uniform hieroglyphic,
And it means, Sprouting alike in broad zones and narrow
zones,
Growing among black folks as among white,
Kanuck, Tuckahoe, Congressman, Cuff, I give them the
same, I receive them the same.

And now it seems to me the beautiful uncut hair of graves.

Tenderly will I use you curling grass,
It may be you transpire from the breasts of young men,
It may be if I had known them I would have loved them;
It may be you are from old people and from women, and
from offspring taken soon out of their mother’s laps,
And here you are the mother’s laps.

This grass is very dark to be from the white heads of old
mothers,
Darker than the colorless beards of old men,
Dark to come from under the faint red roofs of mouths.

O I perceive after all so many uttering tongues!
And I perceive they do not come from the roofs of mouths
for nothing.

I wish I could translate the hints about the dead young men
and women,
And the hints about old men and mothers, and the offspring
taken soon out of their laps.

What do you think has become of the young and old men?
What do you think has become of the women and
children?

They are alive and well somewhere;
The smallest sprouts show there is really no death,
And if ever there was it led forward life, and does not wait
at the end to arrest it,
And ceased the moment life appeared.

All goes onward and outward. . . .and nothing collapses,
And to die is different from what any one supposed, and
luckier.

~~ Walt Whitman
__________________________________

“How’s the wife?  Is she at home enjoying capitalism?” — Zippy the Pinhead

It’s hard for me to say just how much I appreciate Zippy’s wisdom, or, more accurately, his expressions of what isn’t always obviously wisdom. His creator, Bill Griffith, has provided me, and society at large, with his unique take on reality since the 1960’s, including his first utterance of the perhaps the most telling iconic phrase of the twentieth century, in 1979, when he had Zippy ask, “Are we having fun yet?”

Spending any amount of time with Zippy, attempting to decode his thinly veiled sardonicism, and his even more thinly veiled cynicism regarding modern culture, is an exercise for the mind’s most subtle editors…. It is all brilliant social comedy, poking fun at the most basic of our beliefs, and allowing us to laugh at ourselves, even if it is with confusion and bewilderment at just what, and who, is being made fun of the most…. society, or the reader….

Therefore, in keeping with my new resolve to keep things a bit lighter around here… I give you a Zippy pearl, chock full of his perfectly crafted truffles made up of apparent nonsense, all of which have been dipped in the darkest of ironic chocolate…..

“Those aren’t WINOS–that’s my JUGGLER, my AERIALIST,  my SWORD SWALLOWER, and my LATEX NOVELTY SUPPLIER!!” — Zippy the Pinhead

“I’m a nuclear submarine under the polar ice cap and I need a Kleenex!” — Zippy the Pinhead

“I’m also pre-POURED pre-MEDITATED and pre-RAPHAELITE!!” — Zippy the Pinhead

“Did YOU find a DIGITAL WATCH in YOUR box of VELVEETA?” — Zippy the Pinhead

“Ninety-eight percent of the adults in this country are decent, hard-working, honest Americans.  It’s the other lousy two percent that get all the publicity.  But then–we elected them.” — Lily Tomlin

(Whoops! How did that get in there? Oh well, since it’s Lily, it can stay…. )

“In the first place, God made idiots.  That was for practice.  Then he made school boards.” — Mark Twain

(Okay, sorry, Smart Bee is being a smart ass…. Oh well, since it’s Sam, and fits right in with the rest of it…… )

“I’m having BEAUTIFUL THOUGHTS about the INSIPID WIVES of smug and wealthy CORPORATE LAWYERS.” — Zippy the Pinhead

Perfect….. and there you have it, a lovely piece of breakfast sausage, metaphorically speaking, of course….
_______________________________

I don’t imagine that any of this will get me arrested…. hell, it may not even get any laughs, though I gave it my best shot, and tried to stay away from anything remotely sober. I suppose not all of these can be gems of the highest quality; somebody has to get a C on the test. I’m just not accustomed to not getting A’s or B’s…. Ah well, old habits die hard, but are well gone…. and I have no idea what I meant by that, so let’s not read too much into it, okay?…..

Having read this over, and still not having a clue as to whether it is any good or not, I’m going to publish it anyway, because, hey, it’s done….. such as it is. Perhaps, in the fullness of time, and the compassionate depths of your heart and mind, you will forgive me….  Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

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

gigoid

dozer3

Plainly, it isn’t wise to bump OR grind….

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Ffolkes,
While it is true that I did travel there at one time, the stories that have been circulating regarding my, allegedly, legendary trip to Kansas have been exaggerated to an extreme…. I left no broken hearts, or heads, behind, no dead bodies were found in my hotel room, nobody got married, pregnant, or abandoned, and that dwarf wasn’t even looking for me! And, while I’ll admit I was talking to the old lady with the dog and the pony, it isn’t true I was trying to retain their services; that pimp wasn’t even in the room with us!…. The reporter just got mad because I lied to him about the priest…. So, you can just put aside your shock and disgust, as none of it actually happened, and if it did, it wasn’t my fault! It was those damned girl scouts, with their damned cookies!….

Hi there….. Regarding that first paragraph: you may ignore it at will…. No excuses, and no complaints, I guess. I wrote it pre-coffee, so I can’t put the same expectations on it that are valid post-salvation. Given that stricture, it isn’t too bad, all in all, though I think I could have been a bit more graphic in the line about the dwarf…. a dwarf is always good for some laughs, but you’ve got to use good imagery, or you lose the total effect of the contrast in their overall appearance when interacting with, shall we say, less fascinatingly grotesque creatures, such as ourselves….. In my opinion, I could have been clearer in my expression there…. Oh well, tomorrow’s another day, and the dwarf is on retainer….

Now what? Here we are, three paragraphs in, and, so far, nothing is manifesting itself for inclusion. I’m beginning to think I’m going to have to just break down and write a template introduction, that I can just plug in each day at the start, to get me moving, in SOME direction, if not on a specific vector…. You know, something like, “Here’s today’s news,,,,”, or, “Another day dawns without hope here in America….,”, or, “OMG, shut that window, NOW!”…. You know, something gripping, that will pull ffolkes in without hurting or insulting them, and lead them gently into the body of the Pearl…. I’ve considered this idea for some time now; it’s an attractive one, that could conceivably save me a lot of time and worry over getting the intro done…..

But, what fun would that be? I think part of what I enjoy about blogging like this is the freedom I feel to NOT restrain myself in such ways, to allow myself the mental freedom to go anywhere my crafty little grey cells want to go, and say whatever I want to say, within the bounds of good taste and compassion… I do skate a bit close to the edge of the one about good taste, so it’s good for me to keep watch on that….. and if I cop out and make a template, that sense of alertness might get dulled from disuse….. All of our mental strengths are exactly like muscles, and will grow soft and useless if not exercised, so it’s good for me in that sense to have to be creative, in a small way, each morning, first thing….

Plus, it gives me the opportunity each morning to put together five or six of these nonsensical gems, full of absolutely diddly squat (hmm… Spell Checkers are funny… it didn’t like “diddly”, but was okay with “squat”… Oh, right, that’s actually a word… What, they’ve never heard of Bo Diddly?….never mind…), which I find to be both a good warm-up for the typing fingers, and a good warm-up of the grey cells, giving the coffee a chance to work its magic before I get into anything serious (And, as long as I can avoid the use of too many parenthetical comments in one paragraph)…. Yesterday’s intro, which grew into a pretty good-sized rant, happened for just that reason, to wit: I got into what I was writing before the coffee was fully on board….. a dangerous habit to form….

Why look! What’s this? I do believe it’s happened again! I’ve found another complete intro section, just laying here, ready to go…. What do you know about that? Now, don’t get all antsy, and upset with me…. SOMETHING has to go in this section, so what’s wrong with some deliberate nonsense, and a bit of prattle? Nothing, that’s what… Besides, it’s all finished now, so you won’t have to try to figure out if it will ever get anywhere significant…. It won’t. It’s done, It’s time to dive…. Shall we Pearl?…..
__________________________________

“Better to live one day as a lion than 100 years as a lamb.” — Smart Bee

I’m in a mood today, one that, if typical of such, will not yield to any sort of alteration or modification into something less abrasive, or more tasteful… In other words, I don’t know why, but I feel like biting somebody. I have no reason to feel this way; all is proceeding quite smoothly in my life just now, pretty much, so I don’t have any really good reasons to feel grumpy.

No excessive pain going on, money and food are in the house, computer’s functioning well, as is the internet service. I have plenty of reading material, and I just finished watching all seven Harry Potter movies last night. I could ask for fewer sirens at night stopping just up the block, but, alas, there is nothing I can do about my neighbors’ behavior late in the evenings…. My lady friend isn’t feeling well, but, I think, and hope, she will feel better, so I’m only worried a little about that, not enough to cause a grump….

I could also ask for Social Security to move a bit faster, but, they have already shown me over the last two years what their typical pace is…. Their bureaucracy’s automatic cruise control is set at “crawl”, and isn’t going to go any faster anytime soon. I received verbal confirmation of my approval for benefits on Tuesday, the 12th, when the caseworker told me she would be sending out a packet of information for me, with the notice of the granting of my appeal of their original denial (long story….)…

Any who, that was eight days ago, so, I speculated, then, that she might send out the information the next day, or perhaps on Thursday, and I would receive it a couple days later. The office from which the packet is to be sent is here in the same town, so I thought, hmm, two days to go 30 blocks would be a reasonable estimate, even for the USPS, for a 10 X 12 inch envelope…. HAH! So much for speculation about the USPS…. Serves me right for assuming ANYTHING…. Especially for assuming normal behavior from an organization that has already proven to be broken, and abnormally anomalous, or anomalously abnormal, or both….

I suppose I’ve found why I’m grumpy, as these last two paragraphs show on whom my subconscious is placing the blame, squarely…. So, before I give Ms. H., my new case worker at SS a call, to ask WHEN she might be sending the stuff to me, I’m going to put together a pearl, with a specific type of pearls in mind for the search process… those that bring me peace of spirit in some way…. Enjoy!…. Oh, and, given my tendency to not be able to shut myself up, I’ll put any thoughts that occur to me about the pearls in parentheses, which is as usual as it probably is annoying….    😆

“I like living. I have sometimes been wildly, despairingly, acutely miserable, racked with sorrow, but through it all I still know quite certainly that just to be alive is a grand thing.” — Agatha Christie

“1 four letter word is sometimes worth 1000 pictures.” — Smart Bee

(Which may be why there are so many of them….. We humans are nothing if not hilariously and prolifically vulgar….)

“In the midst of the word he was trying to say,
In the midst of his laughter and glee,
He had softly and suddenly vanished away
— for the Snark *was* a Boojum, you see.”

— Lewis Carroll, The Hunting of the Snark

POETRY, n.  A form of expression peculiar to the Land beyond the Magazines. — Ambrose Bierce, “The Devil’s Dictionary”

(Ambrose was a Grand Master of Sarcasm, and a social critic of immense genius…. )

” What is it the Bible teaches us? – rapine, cruelty, and murder. What is it the Testament teaches us? – to believe that the Almighty committed debauchery with a woman engaged to be married, and the belief of this debauchery is called faith.” — Thomas Paine — The Age of Reason

(    😳    Sorry, sometimes I can’t help myself…. This one isn’t particularly soothing to most ffolkes, or folks, nor is it part of the connective tissue for this pearl; it just sounded like something I might use for a rant some day, and I saved it before I could stop myself….. Just ignore it, please, or set it aside for later perusal… Thank you for your cooperation….)

“Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.” — Albert Einstein

“Not to laugh, not to lament, not to curse, but to understand.” — Spinoza

I don’t know about y’all, but, after those last two, I’m soothed….     Okay, okay, we’re going!   No need to shove!….
__________________________________

Here is an obscure little poem from Keats; I like it, which is all it needs to get included here…. but, it’s also a nice example of classical romanticism, with precise cadence and rhyming, and very personal imagery… I hope you enjoy it, as I do….

A Dream, After Reading Dante’s Episode Of Paolo And Francesca

As Hermes once took to his feathers light,
When lulled Argus, baffled, swooned and slept,
So on a Delphic reed, my idle spright
So played, so charmed, so conquered, so bereft
The dragon-world of all its hundred eyes;
And seeing it asleep, so fled away,
Not to pure Ida with its snow-cold skies,
Nor unto Tempe, where Jove grieved a day;
But to that second circle of sad Hell,
Where in the gust, the whirlwind, and the flaw
Of rain and hail-stones, lovers need not tell
Their sorrows. Pale were the sweet lips I saw,
Pale were the lips I kissed, and fair the form
I floated with, about that melancholy storm.

~~ John Keats
__________________________________

“We are the protagonists and authors of our own drama. It is up to us; there is no one left to blame. Neither the system, not our leaders, nor our parents. We can’t go out and hang the first amoeba.” — Rebecca McClen Novick

Oh. My. Goodness. This is the perfect quotation for a rant on global warming, or overpopulation, or climate change, or any of the other immediate threats to our species’ survival one may consider. It begins at exactly the correct point to have a discussion about what might be done, for whatever can be done, can only be done when people admit the need, which, obviously, entails accepting the responsibility for causing it in the first place… Duh!….

But, as I said above, I’m in a mood, which isn’t the time to start ranting…. Outrage is necessary, and a touch of anger to fuel the outrage…. but, in a mood like this, I would likely get vicious, and lose track of what I promised to keep track of, to wit: good taste…. Instead, I’ll do what I always do in such situations, and fall back on yet another old-school pearl… I’ll make it a short one, with only five aphorisms, as small as I can find, on the subject at hand, again to wit: Our own particular brand of human foolishness, or, as I labeled it many years ago, the Principle of Bozoid Tendencies…..

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

“These round things Asur has attached to his sled: they take the wood away from the Earth-Mother, they make it move too fast; they turn around and round in a strange, e-ville fashion.  Indeed, they are ungodly, and Asur should be stoned to death forthwith.” — Translated from proto-Indo-European — scratched on clay tablets, circa 6500 BC

“I haven’t committed a crime.  What I did was fail to comply with the law.” — David Dinkins (Mayor, New York City) — Answering accusations that he failed to pay his taxes.

“Yes, many primitive people still believe this myth…But in today’s technical vastness of the future, we can guess that surely things were much different….. I think we’re all Bozos on this Bus!” — The Firesign Theater

“An INK-LING?  Sure — TAKE one!!  Did you BUY any COMMUNIST UNIFORMS??” — Zippy the Pinhead

Well, there you go…. Perhaps I should have known better…. Ah well, at least it’s all over now, but for the shouting….
__________________________________

I’ll try not to shout so loudly it will awaken those who decided to nap early….. I probably should be ashamed, but, I’m not being paid for any of this, so I have nothing to feel ashamed about, other than the entire content herein…. Too late now, I’m committed…. Or, will be, once I go back and proof it…. which, I will now do, in the interests of getting something else, anything at all, done today…..

It isn’t often I can write myself speechless…. but, there is a first time for everything, I suppose…. Here it is, such as it is…. WYSIWYG, and that’s the truth…..  Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

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

gigoid

dozer3

Bee balm is often useful with such wounds…

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Ffolkes,
“What we have heah, is a failyuh to obfuscate.” On that hopelessly obscure note, the tiny little alien, which looked suspiciously like a miniature orange bulldog in a green jumpsuit, wobbled what was apparently his head weakly from side to side, formed what seemed to be a smile with what seemed to be a mouth, closed what appeared to be his eyes (I think it’s a he…), and fell backwards into the lap of the fat dignitary seated in  back of the podium…. the mayor, I believe….

Everything would have been okay, but the mayor thought the alien was going to throw up on him, and proceeded to dump the poor wee beastie off the stage, into the crowd, which started using him for a soccer ball…. A real mess…. While it wasn’t the most dignified ending to a press conference I’d seen in my days in the mayor’s office, it was better than the one we tried to hold after the sewers all exploded at once…. No matter how hard we blew the fans, the smell wouldn’t disperse….

Ever since the entropy bomb went off last year, it’s been pretty crazy around here, what with the Anti-Alien groups fighting it out with the End of Timers, while the remnants of the churches are busy dealing with the twelve disciples, who ALL rose from the dead, and are now recanting their stories on the talk show circuit, with franchised copies of the shows running even on Al-Jazeera….. When the Chief of the World Police issued his proclamation of insanity, and said his officers would now be found patrolling the subways, because it was too dangerous for them on the streets, well, things really began to deteriorate….

I was sitting here, trying to think of how society might look AFTER the apocalypse happens, and came up with the above….. It was fun, but, all in all, not as smooth flowing, or as good, as I’d like…. Not enough coffee before starting, I’d wager….I’ll do it over again another time, I think, and do a better job of it…. Don’t know why I started out in a negative entropy scenario, but, then, I never do know, do I? No, of course not…. I am perhaps the world’s first unconscious writer.

That is to say, what I write is seldom connected to a subject that has been chosen consciously, and much of what gets written comes from the same unreliable well of inspiration. This is, arguably, an unusual format, but seems to work for me… It works well enough that I’m not willing to entertain the thought of going back to the way everyone else does it, unless I use the “in your cups” method of writing, wherein one creates while intoxicated on adult beverages, or recreational drugs, such as marijuana, or bourbon…. muses of choice, such as they are…. But, they have their own drawbacks, and plain old objective inattention works just fine for me…. It’s cheaper, too….

Of course, this opinion is probably not shared completely by those who read my work; in fact, I would doubt it seriously. But, I don’t write for anyone but myself, ultimately, so I’m the only one who has any investment in making it right…. For others, to wit: y’all, it is merely a matter of finding stuff to read that doesn’t waste your time. Which is why I DO try to make what I write stimulating, and interesting, or at least within shouting distance of either one of those attributes….. I’m selfish, like most people, but I try to make what I’m selfish about amenable for discussion, at least…. and, unlike many folks in this sad world, I DON’T try to push what I think on anyone else….

A statement such as the last one is obviously an invitation to rant, but, since I’m still in the intro, we’ll forgo that small pleasure, and finish up here…. As I look back over what I’ve produced so far, I see that it is, oddly enough, sufficient unto the day as another faux intro section…. Once again, I’ve crafted together six-plus paragraphs stuffed with nothing more than idle chatter, which is enough to satisfy my strange and flexible standards for this part of today’s effort. In short, nyah, nyah, nyah, it’s done…. so there!….. Sorry, sometimes the little asshole in me just has to get in his two cents…. It’s best to just ignore it, and it will generally stop right away….. Shall we Pearl?….
__________________________________

I found a pearl two days ago that I’ve saved for a religirant, but, as of this moment, I don’t have quite enough outrage stored up to pull it off…. so, I’ll save it for another day. It’s a diatribe with Mother Teresa as the target, so I’m sure you’ll all want to see that…. I may be one of the few people in the world who sees her as a force of evil, and is willing to say so…. Besides, I always enjoy taking a few shots at someone I consider to be a waste of sperm….. Her reputation can take it, I think, as she has the wool pulled completely over the eyes of most of the world….

In the meantime, I went diving for pearls to substitute for a rant, and came up with the following seven star grouping, with which I am quite pleased… The group makes a very cogent point, and finishes nicely with a well-rounded piece of nonsense to set the proper tone for cogitation…. I hope you enjoy it all, and, if not, well, that’s just too bad…. your choice….  🙂

“The truth that many people never understand until it is too late, is that the more you try to avoid suffering, the more you suffer, because smaller and more insignificant things begin to torture you in proportion to your fear of being hurt.” — Thomas Merton

“If you think education is expensive, try Ignorance.” — Andy McIntyre

“Conventionality is not morality.  Self-righteousness is not religion. To attack the first is not to assail the last.” — Charlotte Bronte
(The latter claim is, it seems to me, true for both initial statements….)

“At any given moment, an arrow must be either where it is or where it is not. But obviously it cannot be where it is not. And if it is where it is, that is equivalent to saying that it is at rest.” — Zeno’s paradox of the moving (still?) arrow

“True is suffering; this is true cause; this is true cessation; this is the true path. Know the sufferings; give up they causes; attain the cessation of the suffering; follow the true paths. Know the sufferings although there is nothing to know; relinquish the causes of misery although there is nothing to relinquish; be earnest in cessation although there is nothing to cease; practice the means of cessation although there is nothing to practice.” — Buddha, The Four Noble Truths

“A man learns to skate by staggering about making a fool of himself; indeed, he progresses in all things by making a fool of himself.” — George Bernard Shaw

“Is it NOUVELLE CUISINE when 3 olives are struggling with a scallop  in a plate of SAUCE MORNAY?” — Zippy the Pinhead
(I would answer, yes, yes it is….)
__________________________________

When I went looking for a poem this morning, I had not intended for today’s choice to be quite so heavy, or complex…. But, like much of Sylvia Plath’s work, I find this too compelling to ignore…. and, most certainly not, when it finishes like this, with a chilling bit of precognition about social media…

“The city is a map of cheerful twitters now,
And everywhere people, eyes mica-silver and blank,
Are riding to work in rows, as if recently brainwashed.”

Enjoy!

Insomniac

The night is only a sort of carbon paper,
Blueblack, with the much-poked periods of stars
Letting in the light, peephole after peephole . . .
A bonewhite light, like death, behind all things.
Under the eyes of the stars and the moon’s rictus
He suffers his desert pillow, sleeplessness
Stretching its fine, irritating sand in all directions.

Over and over the old, granular movie
Exposes embarrassments—the mizzling days
Of childhood and adolescence, sticky with dreams,
Parental faces on tall stalks, alternately stern and tearful,
A garden of buggy rose that made him cry.
His forehead is bumpy as a sack of rocks.
Memories jostle each other for face-room like obsolete film stars.

He is immune to pills: red, purple, blue . . .
How they lit the tedium of the protracted evening!
Those sugary planets whose influence won for him
A life baptized in no-life for a while,
And the sweet, drugged waking of a forgetful baby.
Now the pills are worn-out and silly, like classical gods.
Their poppy-sleepy colors do him no good.

His head is a little interior of grey mirrors.
Each gesture flees immediately down an alley
Of diminishing perspectives, and its significance
Drains like water out the hole at the far end.
He lives without privacy in a lidless room,
The bald slots of his eyes stiffened wide-open
On the incessant heat-lightning flicker of situations.

Nightlong, in the granite yard, invisible cats
Have been howling like women, or damaged instruments.
Already he can feel daylight, his white disease,
Creeping up with her hatful of trivial repetitions.
The city is a map of cheerful twitters now,
And everywhere people, eyes mica-silver and blank,
Are riding to work in rows, as if recently brainwashed.

~~ Sylvia Plath
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“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 have 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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Lordy, lordy, what a long, strange trip it’s been!….. I shall now test the proof of the pudding….. Hmm… this Pearl is a bit hard to classify, and I don’t think I’m up to judging it for overall quality at this point…. So…

Tiny Truth, Just in Time

I’ll leave history to say if it’s a crime,
as it will always do….
Who may challenge the prerogative of Time?….
Nobody, that’s who….

~~ gigoid

Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

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

gigoid

dozer3

This recipe calls for “floated ferrets”….

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5

Ffolkes,
For a time, it looked as if I was going to make it work….. Then, of course, Reality stepped in to remind me not to make assumptions like that, so, I put aside my anger, and disappointment, and unloaded….

No, sorry, this isn’t going to work, and I’m not speaking in any fictional voice this time…. I had thought to begin today’s Pearl with another spate of fictional fantasy, but, the stuff that is coming to the surface isn’t what I was hoping it would be, quality-wise, and I just don’t feel like forcing it out, then polishing it to a point it would fly unassisted. I don’t like to post stuff that comes out like that; I feel like I’m settling for less than my best….

So, here I am, chatting away, nattering, really, with nothing particularly compelling to say, or discuss…. I guess I could talk about my Life, such as it is, but I doubt that would be any more compelling, and would most likely end up as being much more embarrassing, on a  personal level. Besides, I have found that blogging tends to magnify the apparent size of problems, at least in the sense that issues sound worse than they are, and people get the wrong impression of what is real, inadvertently causing them distress…. It’s best not to get too detailed in these moments of sharing….

I suppose I could mention a new piece of information that I realized regarding my SS disability. Once it begins, I am forevermore restricted from working at all for pay. This, apparently, includes writing books…. If I publish a book, any money I make from its sale will be deducted from what SS pays me as benefits, because it would be viewed as income, meaning, to them, I am able to work…. So, in order to be able to enjoy my retirement without worrying about whether or not I can make anything from what I might write, I must forgo all attempts to better my situation, and must accept no more in compensation than they are pleased to give me, until I die….

From one aspect, I can see the virtue in this, as it seems to say that the money should only be given to people who are unable to make money any other way than the accepted forms of work. In  other words, if one is educated, and able to use their mind for acquiring income, without using the body, then they are not qualified for disability, no matter how badly disabled they may be, or how much it costs them to perform whatever mental functions they do to make money; writing, speaking, etc. It doesn’t seem to matter that they may be doing all that in pain, or at great physical cost; if they make money, they are disqualified to the extent that they are allowed to make no more than they receive from SS….

As usual with any federal bureaucracy, this policy is treated as if it is a religious tract, and the people who make decisions about whether or not to allow exemptions or exceptions to the rule are chosen for their unwillingness to make any changes at all. They are bureaucrats down to the bone, and their sole purpose in life is to maintain the status quo in re: federal regulations, to make sure NOTHING is done to challenge their validity, or make them more flexible, and thus, more able to help the people for whom they are ostensibly designed. That would make too much sense, and would never be allowed to be taken under consideration in any federal institution.

So, I have to decide if I can make more from “potential” book sales than I would make, for certain, as a disabled retiree…. which is a scary proposition, to be sure. There is no guarantee that anything I publish would sell well… One may hope, but it wouldn’t be wise to count too heavily on the tastes of the general public to support me in my golden years…. That particular grouping is a bit too unpredictable to make that something worth betting on with real money…. People are too random to ever let myself fall into that trap….  But, there is also my pride to consider, and my belief in myself….

Ah well, having reached an age where I can use my mind to look ahead, as well as behind, I know the best thing to do for now is NOTHING. I’ll just go along for a while, and see how I like living on disability, and whether the amount I’m able to count on will be enough for my wants…. I know it will meet my needs, for I’ve been doing that for over two years now, on less than half what I’ll be getting….

If what I will be making is enough to fix my financial picture, set up a legacy, and get some traveling done, then I’ll just go with the flow for a while…. Then, when I’ve got several books ready for publishing, I’ll maybe take a chance, and put them on the market…. I figure I’ll need to make about a half-million or so to be able to cover my retirement for the remainder of my time, so, after a time of waiting, I will have a better chance at making it work…. Hey, it’s a plan, anyway…. Even if it doesn’t come to fruition, it’s will give me a direction in which to travel…..

Well, that was certainly chatty and informative, wasn’t it? Being positive y’all are mostly asleep by now, I’ll quickly change directions, and see if the cabin movement will wake anyone up, without frightening anyone with loud noises…. I’m not sure where all this personal chat stuff came from; I guess I’ve been brooding more than I thought, being forced, again, to wait for the bureaucracy to finish grinding its wheels…. I’ve got verbal confirmation, but, so far, nothing else…. Oh well… Since this intro has grown beyond all rational bounds, I’d best be off to dive….  Shall we Pearl?
__________________________________

I’m uncertain at this juncture whether a rant is on tap, so we’ll begin with an old-school pearl, to see how the waters are today…. Random pattern, with, hmm, let’s see, I know…. I’ll keep the word “truth” in mind today as I cruise, using it as the touchstone for picking today’s pearls, and we’ll see what we can come up with for your edification, and positive delectation…..

“It matters not what you are thought to be, but what you are.” — Publius Syrus (42 BC) — Maxim 785

“You thought, as a boy, that a mage is one who can do anything.  So I thought, once.  So did we all.  And the truth is that as a man’s real power grows and his knowledge widens, ever the way he can follow grows narrower:  until at last he chooses nothing, but does only and wholly what he _must_ do.” — Ursula K. LeGuin, _A Wizard of Earthsea_

“It is not enough that we swallow truth: we must feed upon it, as insects do on the leaf, till the whole heart be colored by its qualities, and show its food in every fibre.” — Coleridge

“The goal of all life is death.” — Sigmund Freud

“Beware of me, for I am a poet!” — Friedrich Nietzsche, “Thus Spake Zarathustra”

Well, that turned out fairly well….. Let’s see what else we can find…..

“..  does your DRESSING ROOM have enough ASPARAGUS?” — Zippy the Pinhead

Whoops!  😳  Sorry, couldn’t help myself…. One more, then I’ll leave you be for the moment….

“Being intelligent is not a felony.  But most societies evaluate it as at least a misdemeanor.” — Lazarus Long

There you go, a complete, accurate take on truth in advertising in modern America…. Really, it is…. Oh, hell, just let is simmer for a while, until it gets to a consistency you can use….. Meanwhile, we’ll go on….
__________________________________

I had hoped that a poem was percolating in my head, but, if so, it’s not giving out any advance notices…. so, I will retreat into one of my default positions, and find an appropriate piece by another of my favorites…. We’ll see what Google comes up with today…. Okay, this will do nicely…. Here is one from a most powerful voice; the poem has nothing to do with anything in particular for me today, I just like it….. and so will you, I think….

SWEENEY AMONG THE NIGHTINGALES

APENECK SWEENEY spreads his knees
Letting his arms hang down to laugh,
The zebra stripes along his jaw
Swelling to maculate giraffe.

The circles of the stormy moon
Slide westward toward the River Plate,
Death and the Raven drift above
And Sweeney guards the horned gate.

Gloomy Orion and the Dog
Are veiled; and hushed the shrunken seas;
The person in the Spanish cape
Tries to sit on Sweeney’s knees

Slips and pulls the table cloth
Overturns a coffee-cup,
Reorganized upon the floor
She yawns and draws a stocking up;

The silent man in mocha brown
Sprawls at the window-sill and gapes;
The waiter brings in oranges
Bananas figs and hothouse grapes;

The silent vertebrate in brown
Contracts and concentrates, withdraws;
Rachel née Rabinovitch
Tears at the grapes with murderous paws;

She and the lady in the cape
Are suspect, thought to be in league;
Therefore the man with heavy eyes
Declines the gambit, shows fatigue,

Leaves the room and reappears
Outside the window, leaning in,
Branches of wisteria
Circumscribe a golden grin;

The host with someone indistinct
Converses at the door apart,
The nightingales are singing near
The Convent of the Sacred Heart,

And sang within the bloody wood
When Agamemnon cried aloud,
And let their liquid droppings fall
To stain the stiff dishonored shroud.

~~ T.S. Eliot
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Okay, so I’ve decided to cheat…. I’m feeling lazy, and late, so I’m going to fall back on some of the material I’ve written in the past…. Below you will find two Pearls, both of which were created sometime in 2006 or 2007; it’s hard to tell, but from the format, and the placement in my archives (which are NOT clearly labeled for posterity….), that is about when these first appeared. Both were written for the 250 or so ffolkes who received it when I was sending them out at NSH, from my office in Program 3…. The first is from a Friday, the second is from the following Tuesday, I think…. Any who, I think they’ll be perfect for today’s mood….

Fit is never a problem…

Ffolkes,
No I don’t know, so don’t ask. It is Friday, and it promises to be very….interesting. And it has already been a somewhat remarkable week, in perhaps too many ways. I can’t recall feeling this fatigued, even on a Friday, for a long time. Some of it is no doubt medication related, but the brain is not just tired, but deep-fried. Hence….

Warning: Whimsical when bored.

Paradise : two cubes with dots on them.
Paradox : Dr. Kildare & Doc Holliday

“Consciousness is that which it is not, and is not that which it is.” — Sartre

“This writing business. Pencils and whatnot. Overrated, if you ask me.” — Winnie the Pooh

Y’all take care out there….

Next, this little gem, from a few days later….

if you have to ask….

Ffolkes,
When I am distressed I tend to retreat; I think that is a natural reaction. What may be the important thing to consider is to where we retreat. What gives us shelter from Reality and its’ harsh and painful nature? Most times I’ll pick up a book, and try to find something in it that eases the pain, or at least postpones it until I can deal. Here is what I found today……

“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

Too, too deep, and yet deeper still we shall go, in search of a Truth…

Y’all take care out there…..

So, there you go…. a double blast from the past…. I hope you enjoyed it….  🙂
__________________________________

Alright, so it turned into a real battle today; this Pearl did NOT come quietly….. But, it’s done. Let’s see how it drapes on the wall….  Aside from the altogether-too-long intro section, not too bad. The intro, though not quite classifiable as a rant, nonetheless used up most of what I might have had to say about either politics or religion today, so, they get a rest, no doubt well-deserved…. I try not to give them very much slack; they already have things too much their own way….

Any who, it all works, I think, for another attempt to rescue my head from tearing itself to shreds from inside…. which is often how it feels in there…. Don’t think too much about it, it will only give you a headache, like it does me…. Better to just ignore it, and now that you’ve finished today’s torturous path through the wilds of Neddom, (homeland of the dubious few, the ONLY place where gigoid’s rules are valid), you can congratulate yourself at having gotten through the experience without bruises, bloodshed, or excessive stains on your character….  Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

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

gigoid

dozer3

That is one querulous chipmunk…..

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4

Ffolkes,
Fear, correctly handled, can be a powerful motivator; just ask any married man…. Ba da bing….. Rim shot….. No? You didn’t recognize the classic format? Shoot, I could have sworn y’all were old enough to remember that kind of stuff….. Maybe you do, it just doesn’t register that you do….. You know, a comedian makes a joke, usually very punny (sorry, never can resist a good pun….. or, a bad one, for that matter….), and the drummer in the band does what is called a “rim shot”, three quick drum beats, ba da bing, indicating the feeling of dropping off the edge of a cliff….. No, still no stirring of the old memory box?….. Hmm, this is more serious than I had imagined….

If this evidence is typical, we, as a society have a big problem….. we’re losing our sense of humor….. Everyone alive should be able to recognize the rim shot joke format; it is perhaps the only classic, truly American style joke that exists. Though it was present, and in use for a time in Europe, it wasn’t until Americans such as Jack Paar, Steve Allen, Johnny Carson, and the sociological genius, George Carlin, in the late twentieth century, that the genre became recognizable as an American art form, brought to its peak in the latter half of the century on TV, with proponents like Jay Leno, and most particularly, David Letterman, the savior of late night TV, upon the retirement of Carson, and the clear winner in that time of TV history known as the Late Night Wars of the Eighties…..

Whew, love those run-on paragraphs…. Any who…. Now, it appears that modern culture has lost touch with this classical American style of humor, which grew out of the ancient styles of Groucho, Zeppo, & Harpo Marx, (Leonard & Gummo only appeared occasionally), and Larry, Moe, and Curly Joe, the inimitable Stooges. Never again will the stage or screen see the kind of uninhibited nonsense as produced by those two genius comedy groups, the Marx Brother’s, and the Three Stooges, during their periods of popularity…… No one will ever poke their finger in an eye with quite the panache that Moe could give, and it is a foregone conclusion that the art of clowning lost its greatest genius when Harpo Marx passed on…. I still get a runny, big, red nose on the anniversary of this death….

How will future generations ever cope with all of the stress and angst they will have to face, in the fight to survive the environmental damage being done by today’s Beloved Ruling Class and the Asshole Division of Megacorpse? Humanity will be assuming a heavy handicap in trying to face down such experienced evil-doers without the benefit of having George C on their side…. Nobody could issue indictments of the asinine behavior of the 1% better than Grandmaster Carlin, and the video discs he left behind, targeting the corporate assholes, are as valid now as when he filmed them 10-20 years ago, all precise, detailed attacks on the people whose sole purpose is to fuck the rest of us at every turn….

I would suggest that society take a very close look at the state of humor in today’s culture, and begin the attempt to bring back the jokes needed to motivate society to action. Our artists have always shown the way, in revolutions and historical times of tension, by singing, and quoting poetry, and carving statues, and making jokes about the government, or otherwise expressing the outrage and feelings of anger that people have when confronted with the chicanery of their peers; we look to Art to show us how to live….. It will be a sad thing indeed if we cannot learn to at least laugh at the foolishness of our own demise, because, damn if it isn’t hilarious…. from the point of view of the rest of creation, anyway…..

Hmm…. without even noticing, I’ve already ranted once, and managed to get an intro section out of it as well…. Cool, eh?  If nothing else, it’s different than your average intro, without question…. whether that is a good sign, or not, remains to be seen….. I’m going to bow to the inevitable now…. Shall we Pearl?…..
__________________________________

It’s time, as is obvious from the intro, to mix things up a bit…. Oh, don’t panic, just a little shake-up, no major disruptions…. In this section, rather than the recently typical entry of a politirant, or a religirant, I’m switching to a harlequin pearl, the quickest, most efficient form of pearl creation in my somewhat limited repertoire of same….

I’m confused, which is both normal, and expected, so I’m going with my usual response to that condition, and making random changes to routine, so as to “go with the flow”, as it were…. You should know by now not to encourage me like this…..  There IS a point to this pearl, and you SHOULD be able to figure it out fairly easily…. If not, well, you can always look at the ads while the adults are busy playing…..

“The dictate of the light says: ‘Know yourself and what you are.’ The dark replies, ‘By all means, but then become afraid.'” — Tanith Lee

“The only way to combat criminals is by not voting for them.” — Dayton Allen

“And never, ever cut a deal with a dragon.” — Smart Bee

“Plato affirmed that the soul was immortal and clothed in many bodies successively.” — Diogenes Laertius (c. 200 AD) — Plato, xl
(I don’t know about y’all, but it’s nice to have this confirmed by ancient decree…..)

“What I need is a MATURE RELATIONSHIP with a FLOPPY DISK…” — Zippy the Pinhead

“Individuality seems to be Nature’s whole aim — and she cares nothing for individuals.” — Goethe

For those who didn’t make it to page 249 of “The Anthropic Cosmological Principle” by John Barrow and Frank Tipler, I quote : “In a randomly infinite Universe, any event occurring here and now with finite probability must be occurring simultaneously at an infinite number of other sites in the Universe. It is hard to evaluate this idea any further, but one thing is certain: if it is true then it is certainly not original!”

I have no excuses, and no rational explanation for my behavior…. too bad, so sad…. They said he showed such promise…..
__________________________________

Something about Sylvia Plath’s poetry draws me…. like my own poetry, I don’t wish to lose whatever it is about it that feels so right, so I don’t question it closely, I just enjoy…. and hope you do as well….

Child

Your clear eye is the one absolutely beautiful thing.
I want to fill it with color and ducks,
The zoo of the new
Whose name you meditate —
April snowdrop, Indian pipe,
Little

Stalk without wrinkle,
Pool in which images
Should be grand and classical

Not this troublous
Wringing of hands, this dark
Ceiling without a star.

~~ Sylvia Plath
__________________________________

You are about to witness an unprecedented event of major proportion…. Well, for this corner of reality, it’s major….. The remainder of today’s Pearl of Virtual Wisdom is hereby canceled. The reason is not one of a malicious nature, but, rather a sudden burst of good news that will require some thought and assimilation in order to settle comfortably…. which is a long winded way to say, YIPPEE!

Following up on a phone message from yesterday, I spoke this morning with a Mrs. H, who informs me that a) my status as a disabled retiree has been approved by Social Services, and b) my benefits can start immediately…. oh, and c) she would be my caseworker from now on…. I am still trying to catch my breath, as the adrenalin is making it hard to settle down long enough to cheer….

After almost 3 years, it is an exquisite feeling to know that my wait is, essentially, over. The money owed in back pay will be in my account within 30 days (or, possibly, by her report, less than that….), and my monthly benefits should begin by the first of April, or May, at the latest.

Needless to say, I am feeling a bit overwhelmed, so I’m taking the rest of today off, in re: these Pearls, and am going to go do something fun, if not foolish…. Hopefully, I can avoid anything legally actionable, but, I’m making no promises….

I leave you in this last section, not with a rant, but with a pearl of nearly infinite luster…. Well, actually it’s a pearl and a rant, all in one…. It doesn’t have anything to do with my news, it just seemed like a good substitute for the 1200 or so words I would usually accompany this with…. Just feel grateful I didn’t have the impulse to discuss this one…. we would still be here late tonight….. Enjoy, & I’ll see ya in the closing….

“Conservative intellectuals have taken on the left’s sense of persecution and repression — though in this case, at the hands of cultural commissars.  The same conservative intellectuals who denounced the psychology of victimization have been nursing a fine sense of victimization of their own. How many times have we read or heard the same half-dozen stories about the horrors of political correctness? This sense of being victims at the hands of multicultural barbarians, militant feminists, and spineless university administrators (the usual characters in this drama) gives conservative intellectuals, as it has long given their counterparts on the left, a kind of collective identity. It is a powerful, organizing myth, which is not to say the individual stories are untrue– it is the total picture that is false. The myth of liberal repression allows the conservatives to cross-dress as intellectual insurgents. Charles Murray has perfected this appropriation of radical rhetoric– the courageous, lonely truth-teller, sadly bearing the hateful facts but facts they are, willing to voice the unspeakable, to break through the repressive apparatus of liberal conformity.” — Paul Starr, at http://www.princeton.edu/~starr/libcon.html
__________________________________

Okay, I can relax a bit now…. I was afraid I wouldn’t get this done before exploding… and if I don’t hurry, that statement will be a lie, or at minimum, wrong. In any case, it’s done, and I can go start my random wandering around in a daze, trying to figure out what to do first…. It may sound like a threat, but it’s really just a promise…. I’ll be back…..  Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

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

gigoid

dozer3

Several of the anchovies have objected….

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6

Ffolkes,
Damn it! I knew this would happen! If I had listened to my own advice, I would have put it away somewhere safe…. But, nooooo….. I had to carry it around in my pocket like a book of matches or something, and now, it’s gone. Poof! Disappeared from my front left pocket, sometime between the time I put the pants on in the morning, to when I wanted to use it later that afternoon. My Dad always told me, if you want it safe, put it in your pocket; he forgot about holes, obviously, because that’s what happened here. Or, that’s what I assume, anyway, as it certainly wouldn’t have jumped out of the pocket, and there happens to be a medium sized hole, right at the bottom. Well, the size wouldn’t matter anyway, since it can assume almost any shape, and adjust its size as needed…..

Okay, you tell me….. what did I lose? I tried to write the above without a clue as to what it might be, and it looks as if I’ve succeeded at that quite well, thank you….. It’s all quite true, and there is actually an object, or rather a thing (yes, such a flexible noun is necessary….), that I seem to have lost…. well, that is, if one may assume that it was ever truly mine…. I’ll not keep you in suspense any longer, as I see there really isn’t any way to guess, unless you’re able to read my mind….. Have yet to find anyone who can do so, not with any success…. Besides, I know for a fact that anyone reading my mind would quickly go mad, from trying to decipher, or keep up with what is going on in there at any random moment….

Sang-froid…. that’s what I lost…. Since it’s rather an uncommon word as used in English, and is in French to boot, I’ll tell you that it means, essentially, composure under duress, a sort of unflappable calm that one carries with them as a defense against the massively emotional, chaotic happenings that take place regularly in Reality. These days, people would say I had lost my “cool”, or my “chill”….. and they would be accurate, mostly. It is a quality common to those who are true leaders, or to any competent philosopher; one that is not common to anyone who allows Reality to determine their feelings for them, as reactions to stress or trouble.

As a personal quality, it is extremely useful, as it provides one with a state of mind that is impervious to the depredations of Reality upon our senses, allowing one the mental space to think clearly, and to avoid the indignity of being forced to react in a manner controlled by the events we encounter. It inspires others who witness its presence to emulate its serenity, thereby being as useful to others as to ourselves. In my own case, I have not yet reached a point in my personal voyage where I can wear the cloak of invulnerability it supplies at all times; it isn’t yet that large or stable…. so, I’ve kept it in my pocket, and put it on when I can, to try to stretch it out into a larger garment that I can wear always…..

Well, there you go…. four reasonably concise paragraphs on one subject, and no sign of a pearl. I suppose the little meander we just took through that corridor in my mind was interesting enough…. if you’re a psychologist of sorts, or someone interested in self-improvement as a way of life. Otherwise, I’m hopeful it didn’t put anyone to sleep….. No matter, it filled up another intro section, and this time it’s not necessarily nonsense, as it it real, and all of what I’ve written is, in my mind, gospel…. or, what I hold in that regard…..

Now that it’s out of the way, it would be well to keep it moving, so you don’t have time to stop and think about what I’m doing…. (pay no attention to the man behind the curtain….). In hopes of maintaining the illusion of sanity I’ve created thus far today, we’ll go on now, to the area where Smart Bee is waiting for me to start today’s dive…. Shall we Pearl?…..
__________________________________

“As a draft-animal is yoked in a wagon, even so the spirit is yoked in this body.” — Upanishads (c. B.C. 800)

Each of us is faced at times with the consciousness of our own approaching encounter with Death, the moment in time when our yoke is removed, and our spirit is freed, to once more join the rest of the conscious minds in the universe in roaming through realms of Reality we cannot see in this form. This Reality we cannot see is much larger, in one sense, than the one we can now perceive; it has to be, to be able to accommodate all the souls that have gone before, and all that are now present on Earth, that will someday join the rest of them, when they die…..

Every human being alive must face their own Death (I am capitalizing the word to give it the proper respect as one of the most important concepts we have as humans….); this is a truism no one can deny, or refute. Many people have banded together, to assume the belief that our universe was created this way by a supernatural being, who, for some unknown, and unknowable (self-explanatory, I think….) reason, decided that we are “special”, and gave us, and only us, the knowledge we have, and our very lives. This, of course, is rather hard to believe, as it doesn’t really account for much of what is observable truth in Reality, being, as it is, complete speculation, devoid of any concrete evidence to support it…..

“There is no conclusive evidence that there is life after death. There is also no real evidence to the contrary. Soon enough, you will know. So, why fret about it?” — Lazarus Long, aka Robert A. Heinlein

I first read this aphorism when I was in my early teens; it codified, and made succinct, what I had already concluded about the major religions of the world, i.e., they’re a collection of unwarranted, and unproven, assumptions. What’s more, they are all highly unlikely, given the observable parameters of the real world. It became obvious to me, as it is to many, that what the religious folks were trying to get me to believe was intended merely to soften my mind, making it more amenable to suggestion, of which they have an endless supply. Preachers, priests, imams, nuns, all are quite willing to give other people advice and suggestions on how they should live, in exhaustive detail, for as long as they are allowed to do so….

Since I had very little desire to have other people decide for me how I should think, or live my life, I rejected the dogma they tried to force into my head, turning instead to other sources of thought about Life, Death, and Reality. I found an endless supply of folks who had thought long and deeply about all of these ideas, and gladly did I read all I could of everything I could find on the subject. In addition, I read science fiction, during the years when its popularity had just begun to climb to the heights it now occupies; sci-fi has always been literature that explored, and continues to explore, the very limits of thought, both in the real world, and the world of the mind.

As is seen by the first pearl above, these thoughts and ideas are not new with me; mankind has been thinking about these concepts since we first sat around the campfires, wondering at the beauty of the heavens we saw above our heads, and all around us. In all that time, no conclusions have been reached that seem to cover ALL of the questions we have about the universe. We still don’t have a clue as to “what is the mind”, or “what is thought”…. and if we cannot understand ourselves, what chance do we have of unraveling the secrets of the universe around us? Not much, would be my guess…

That, fortunately, does not mean it is impossible to know the truth, nor does it mean we are condemned to die in ignorance and fear…. I know this because I have learned in my time that our fear is a direct outgrowth of our ignorance; we fear what we do not understand. Now, if I were a God, why would I make people that way, unless for some ulterior motive, having to do with motivations that are human, not divine? No, it just doesn’t make sense to me to assume that we were put here with a deliberate handicap, just to see how we dealt with it; that seems more like an evil scientist at work than a compassionate deity.

“One must marry one’s feelings to one’s beliefs and ideas.  That is probably the only way to achieve a measure of harmony in one’s life.” — Etty Hilsum

Since I believe firmly in the Law of Conservation of Energy (proven true in this universe, to all our knowledge), and, I believe that our minds/souls are a form of energy we currently don’t fully understand, and cannot perceive directly, then the concept of Death is nothing to fear, as it merely means that my current state of energy will be replaced with another state, one I don’t currently have the ability to perceive. What that state may be like may be unknown, but that doesn’t mean it is something of which I should be afraid…. I prefer to look at it as the next great adventure….

So, when my father died, I asked him to leave me some trail-sign, to let me know how to find him in the next reality; he smiled at me, and said he would do that… and I was much comforted by that, knowing that our connection as family can never be severed, and that, someday, I would once more have the pleasure, and comfort, of his presence…. Now that’s something to look forward to, don’t you think?…. Much better than worrying that what I do now is going to determine what happens to me after I die, a silly proposition, at best……

“Do not think that man is but flesh, skin, bones and veins; far from it! What really makes man is his soul; and the things we call skin, flesh, bones and veins are but a garment, a cloak; they do not constitute man. When man departs this earth, he divests himself of all the veils that conceal him.” — Zohar
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The last week or so has been rather a struggle, pain-wise; one of my hips is annoyed at the chair I use, and is showing its displeasure in the most obvious way. This, while understandable, given my age and degree of arthritic decline, is not particularly comfortable. (As you can see, I’m trying not to whine…. not very successfully, I’m afraid….) Any who, to cut a long story down to size, and to alleviate some of my pain by sitting for less time, I’m including here a poem I wrote, from last October, that touches on the subject of pain….. actually, it’s more of a solid punch than a mere touch….

Denial of Comfort

Baleful chairs become the enemy, heralded in red
seemingly welcome softness beckons with a smile,
waiting, content with slaughter, they are finally led
screaming in agony, deluged in venom all the while.

Desperate distraction becomes such a friendless fire
for all the patterns of autumn’s pale dismay,
leaving sincerely latent trails in spirals of twisted wire,
while memory insists, again, upon failure, palpably evil, and fey.

Fat, jaded tears would have fallen in good time,
if only the suitable suitor had scaled the garden’s wall.
Credence for discounted prices luckily in their prime
bring only fascinated eyes into such a hallowed hall.

Searching for answers is ever a clever portrayal
with studious accouterments to fulfill each common rule.
Arguably patient pictures of science and honest betrayal
shall evermore languish, in light of passion so elegantly cruel.

~~ gigoid
__________________________________

Once again, Smart Bee has usurped my prerogatives, herding me to the place where I can do naught but allow him/her/it to pick out a group of pearls for this section. I guess what I wrote above could be considered a religirant, so a seven-star pearl is quite appropriate for our purposes today. This, upon looking at its final shape, is what I’d call a harlequin pearl, addressing several different categories of reality, each with its own importance to itself, and to the whole…. and if you think I know what that means, you haven’t been paying close attention…. Any who, here are seven pearls for your perusal, and edification…. Enjoy!….

“Truth is as impossible to be soiled by any outward touch as the sunbeam.” — John Milton (1608-1674)

“An injustice anywhere is an injustice everywhere.” — Samuel Johnson

“In regards to Oral Roberts’ claim that God told him that he would die unless he received $20 million by March, God’s lawyers have stated that their client has not spoken with Roberts for several years. Off the record, God has stated that “If I had wanted to ice the little toad, I would have done it a long time ago.” — Dennis Miller, SNL News
(…  🙂  …)

“If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy.” — James Madison

“* I’d say it’s an element of any post-allegorical discussive climax of the positionist stance. Either that or a load of bollocks.” — Daniel Bowen’s TOXIC CUSTARPEDIA

“Rule a kingdom as though you were cooking a small fish.” — Lao Tzu

“I’ve got to get back to Reality.  Where IS that silly Blue Dragon?” — Smart Bee
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Thus, we see, as time majestically passes by, ignoring our pleas to slow, how easy it is to be insane…. It’s fun, too!  Before anyone can take it upon themselves to call for the men in white suits, I’m going to escape back into my own little head, and let stuff percolate until tomorrow, when once more, I will take up the standards of Truth, and smite mightily the foes of Reason…. or, maybe not. Sounds good, though, doesn’t it?….. I’ll stop torturing y’all now….  Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

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

gigoid

dozer3

Dragons seldom require advice…..

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6

Ffolkes,
It is an old threat, but, if I ever find that guy, I will make damn sure he spends the rest of his short life regretting he ever lived….. What guy, you may ask? Well, actually, its a whole slew of guys, each as problematic as the next. They all inhabit this planet, but, as far as I can see, that is their only claim to any relation to other humans, because they just don’t make the grade when it comes to species loyalty, or, as a preacher would call it, morality. All of these men, and the occasional woman (generally brain-damaged) all spend their days working against the best interest of humanity at large, though their words may say otherwise…..

Yes, it’s once again time for some ranting against the BRC. In the last days, I’ve been somewhat preoccupied with other matters, and haven’t had the right degree of angst to rant. Since the election last year, most of the politicos are keeping a low profile, as far as possible. Oh, the POTUS is busy challenging the GOP, graciously trying to slip in a few reforms, and the GOP is busy maintaining their image as clueless white assholes, while the rest of us are trying to get on with living our lives without their interference.

Mostly, though, it’s been pretty quiet on the political front, if you don’t count the gun control issue (which has been raging for well over 200 years without a rational resolution….) (please, note the use of the word rational…. that is the single reason political entities will never find any such solution, as they are constitutionally incapable of that condition of mind, or of achieving any such results…. it just isn’t in them to do so….), and the economic shenanigans being played out this month….

So, I haven’t spent more than a minimum of time picking at them, since it wasn’t very interesting stuff, anyway. I’m hoping for one of them to make some really idiotic remark that I can use as a springboard, so I’ll peruse the news (hey, say that out loud…. it’s a neat little rhyme….) to see if there are any eligible remarks by a pundit, or a talking head. It usually doesn’t take more than a day or two for one of them to say something really dumb, so we’ll see what we see…. Maybe even today…. I’m tired of picking at the priestly hierarchies, and talking about global warming and overpopulation, so I’ll take a few shots at the idiots in Washington D.C. for a while…. I’m looking forward to a little fun….

Now, be aware, this may or may not happen today. I will remind you that Pearls, and pearls, are dependent on the availability of pearls, and on the nature of those pearls. (I know, a bit confusing…. just stay with me, it will get better….) So, if Smart Bee is in the right mood, or there is a good headline worth stealing, I’ll jump on it for a politirant…. (yes, I just made that word up….), as opposed to a religirant (twice, how handy!). We could conceivably end up with both, or neither, as both are likely to appear at times. But, I’ll be keeping my eye on the asses who make their money off the people by governmental decree as opposed to tithing, to ascertain where my shots might be most effective…..

As usual, though, I’ve rambled through several paragraphs of meandering conversation, while the day keeps getting older. Since I’ve already consumed the greater portion of the intro section for this, I should go for my dive, and get this slow on the road. Which I will now proceed to do…. Shall we Pearl?…..
__________________________________

What we have here is a typical Pearl in the making…. that means I have no idea whatsoever of where it is headed. I’ve ranted in the intro, a bit, then wrote a politirant in the third section, to keep the two separate. I don’t wish to completely numb your minds with another rant, so I’m going with a random old-school pearl, in hopes of getting a worthy group to go along with the rest of today’s post. You are, no doubt, hoping I can find a good group, too, to help you stay awake…. so, here you go….

“If you can’t annoy somebody, there’s little point in writing.” — Kingsley Amis

Thou shalt not get caught. — The Eleventh Commandment

“My atheism, like that of Spinoza, is true piety towards the universe and denies only gods fashioned by men in their own image, to be servants of their human interests.” — George Santayana

“None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free.” — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832)

“Do you think there’s a God?” “Well, SOMEbody’s out to get me!” — Calvin & Hobbes

“You are old,” said the youth, “as I mentioned before,
And have grown most uncommonly fat;
Yet you turned a back-somersault in at the door —
Pray what is the reason of that?”

“In my youth,” said the sage, as he shook his grey locks,
“I kept all my limbs very supple
By the use of this ointment — one shilling the box —
Allow me to sell you a couple?”

— Lewis Carroll, “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”

“Hello.  Just walk along and try NOT to think about your  INTESTINES being almost FORTY YARDS LONG!!” — Zippy the Pinhead

There you go…. a rather eclectic group, but well seasoned, I think…. Enjoy!
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For some reason, when I’ve been ranting, I turn to Emily Dickinson to soothe my spirit, though her work is not always soothing. This one is merely deeply insightful, as well as a good example of her unique style and viewpoint…. She always takes my mind away….. She also never used titles, so her poems are generally referred to by the first line…. In that vein, here is….

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Okay, that’s a good start…. Now, we all know that politicians lie to us…. It’s what we’ve taught them to do, by our calm acceptance of all the other lies they’ve told, from the very beginning. We expect them to lie… then, when we catch them at it, there is this huge public outcry, as if it had never happened before.

Sometimes, the behavior of the American public toward the political beast reminds me of a shark…. to wit: no memory of the past to slow down their willingness to rush into dangerous situations….. For millions of years, sharks and dolphins have lived together in the oceans. For just about all that time, whenever a shark attacks a dolphin, it gets killed, unless the dolphin is injured in some way, or, it is a baby inadvertently left alone. Always, if things are even, the shark dies, because the dolphins are smarter, and faster swimmers.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Ignorance kills daily. “– Smart Bee
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Well, maybe it’s not Hemingway-esque, but, it’s certainly gigoidal…. Gee, this making up words is really cool!  Any who, I’m done for now; I’ve created all the confusion I can in 2500 words or more, so I’ll go try to find some trouble to cause out in the Big Blue Room.

I’ll be facing a dangerous situation later, as the library is having its annual used book sale, and I have money in my pocket…. I have a feeling, if I attend the sale, that last part won’t be true when I get home…. I’m a sucker for books, especially on sale, cheap…. I hope you’ve enjoyed today’s effort…. it certainly was…..  Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

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

gigoid

dozer3

Safely insane amid the noise and tedium…..

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12

Ffolkes,
Unbeknownst to the rest of us, the warranty on this state of reality has expired, and I don’t think there will be any renewal, not for us, and not for the dreams we once held. Sad, but true….. A lesser man might become depressed, or fall into the state of mind where a lack of caring, about anything, becomes attractive, rather than the low-level sense of doom that is the lot of those who have any wit to spare. Instead, I think…. I’ll have a beer…..

Or maybe not…. it’s a bit early for a Budweiser, I suppose. I’m not sure exactly what the above paragraph is all about, other than as a possible lead-in to a rant, and it’s WAY too soon in this process to start that….. I haven’t even had enough coffee to be able to blink without concentrating, and I can’t be trusted to tie my shoes yet, much less start ranting about the environment, or whatever…. Hell, as is obvious, I couldn’t get through an entire paragraph without resorting to silliness….. It may be a gift, in some instances, but, just now, it’s more of a PITA…… If you don’t know that particular acronym, well, that is probably just as well…. If you do, then you’ll get my drift….

As might be apparent by now, I’m a little scattered, a little off, today. In such cases, it’s easy to tell how I’m doing, as this intro becomes rather a battleground for sanity, and gets stranger by the second the longer it goes on, and on, and on, and on…… Now, strange isn’t necessarily a BAD thing, not if it’s adequately appreciated, and taken full advantage of….. It’s when folks try to stop it, or make it normal that it gets all crazy and violent. Some folks never pick up on that, and so spend their entire lives fighting against it, rather than being able to embrace it, and allow it to become an asset, rather than a liability…. It’s easy, fun, and much more comfortable than trying to be a conformist…

Since I don’t wish for that to even have a chance to happen, I might do well to get on with business today, rather than trying to squeeze out every last drop of asininity I can from the beginning of this missive. There’s still a ways to go before I can call it a day, so, I’d best be getting to it….. Shall we Pearl?…..
__________________________________

“Oh my GOD — the SUN just fell into YANKEE STADIUM!!” — Zippy the Pinhead

I’ve just spent more than enough time looking for a pearl, and this is the best I’ve seen….. Pathetic, don’t you think? Although I really like Zippy’s little pronouncement for it’s absolutely brilliant level of strange, it doesn’t help in coming up with something, anything, about which I can write. Having already started late today, and now an hour or more into the process, I am, relatively, no further along than when I began, especially if you don’t count the intro section, which is, if not exactly Pulitzer material, at least has the distinction of a small dollop of humor, bordering on verifiable silliness…..

Well, that last sentence certainly wound its way through the grammatical and punctuation minefield, didn’t it? Any who, I was busy complaining about the lack of material…. I’m so dry, in my own head, I’m actually going to resort to a re-post…. Here is an old, and old-school, Pearl, first published, or sent out via email, while I was still working at NSH, which would make it about six to eight years ago….

At that time, the Pearls were all in the format you see below, and were sent out to about 250 hospital employees each morning via the hospital network….It drove the IT dept. crazy when they’d see the network bandwidth patterns go crazy when I sent it out…. Apparently, the Pearls, enjoyed by so many, were a bit of a load for the network at the time of sending….. Oh well….   Any who, enjoy…..

When Reality becomes moot…

Ffolkes,
Spinning, twisting, caught up in the vortex Reality creates, we look about with trepidation, seeking, seeking, and never finding the path to the future that will ease our way. Entropy makes us weep, with deep regret, the choices we never made, the truths we never spoke, the challenges we didn’t meet. In spite of all this, we go on…with courage and good humor. And why? Because we can…..and must.

Did you ever watch Sesame Street? If so, you may remember a repetitive piece called “One of these things is not like the others.” This morning we bring you another version of that, called “Betty Likes It”. If you don’t get it, don’t worry, it’s just about as obscure as I can be, meant to confuse, as the puzzle is an easy one. Comments or criticisms are welcome, though the latter will most likely be cheerfully ignored. You computer ffolkes should like it…..

RTFM – Read The F#*@^| Manual

I admit it, I tried MS-DOS, but I didn’t inhale.

“If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker that came along would destroy civilization.’ — Weinberg’s Second Law

For Dessert? I’ll take a piece of cherry 3.14159!

The definition of a successful life must include a commitment to serving others.

So, which is different? If you can’t tell, well, just look for the one that feels the best when you use it…. y’all take care out there…..

This Pearl was first published circa 2006…..
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Where The Sidewalk Ends

There is a place where the sidewalk ends
and before the street begins,
and there the grass grows soft and white,
and there the sun burns crimson bright,
and there the moon-bird rests from his flight
to cool in the peppermint wind.

Let us leave this place where the smoke blows black
and the dark street winds and bends.
Past the pits where the asphalt flowers grow
we shall walk with a walk that is measured and slow
and watch where the chalk-white arrows go
to the place where the sidewalk ends.

Yes we’ll walk with a walk that is measured and slow,
and we’ll go where the chalk-white arrows go,
for the children, they mark, and the children, they know,
the place where the sidewalk ends.

~~ Shel Silverstein
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Truths would you teach, or save a sinking land?
All fear, none aid you, and few understand.

— Alexander Pope (1688-1744) — Essay on Man, Epistle iv, Line 261

Ah, Pope! I regard Alexander Pope as the premier of all the romantic poets…. Deeply insightful, and ornately beautiful, his verse continually amazes me. This poem, Essay on Man, has more couplets and quatrains of great power in it, all of which make excellent excerpts, than in any other work I have ever seen, bar none, save, perhaps, Ode on a Grecian Urn, by Keats. Line after line of great composition, and insight after insight into the nature of Man, Mssr. Pope created one of Mankind’s most precious treasures in this epic work…..

I identify very closely with this couplet, as it is rather a good description of what goes on here. Even though I continue to rant and rail against the people and institutions, and ideas, that I believe are holding us from becoming all we could be as humans, I am often struck with how little response I get from anyone who doesn’t feel the same way….. which is another way of saying that I believe that, most of the time when I rant, I’m preaching to the choir, in a manner of speaking…. It’s more than just a little bit of a frustration, as I believe what I have to say is important to all of us, to, as Alexander so aptly puts it, to “teach, or save a sinking land.” If people continue to ignore what I’m saying, the consequences to be faced are horrendous, not from me, but from Reality…..

“All fear, none aid you, and few understand.”  This, too, seems to be a completely accurate picture of ECR and the rants that are fostered here. Actually, if the BRC was a little more nervous, and paid a bit more attention to me, I think I wouldn’t be so frustrated, as what I’m saying SHOULD make them nervous, since most of it pulls their covers ruthlessly. At least, I hope it does…..sometimes, I have a hard time with ‘ruthless’…. too much of a softie….. SIGH…. I can’t help it if I don’t enjoy hurting people…..

However, any hurt that I cause the BRC is NOTHING, NOTHING when compared to the pain and misery that will be our lot when the massive stupidity our species has displayed for the past 5000 years finally catches up to us…. Yesterday, I posted a quote from Lazarus Long, from The Notebooks Of, that is germane to this discussion…. It said this:

“Stupidity cannot be cured with money, or through education, or by legislation. Stupidity is not a sin, the victim can’t help being stupid. But stupidity is the only universal capital crime; the sentence is death, there is no appeal, and execution is carried out automatically and without pity.” — Lazarus Long

We are writing our own judgment, with our continued denial of the facts about global warming, and the serious effects of overpopulation and pollution on the ecosystem, and are being quite insistent on making it happen as fast as we can. This leaves us little time at all to save those of us who don’t go along with this stupidity, who would sooner survive into the next millennium, rather than die, to the last man, in this one.

I only wish that more people would start to throw off the state of mind that leads to denial, and start kicking some 1% ass, as the issues around all of this aren’t the major problem for us. The main problem is the assholes who are in charge of the world, who don’t have a clue as to just how stupid they are being, and are driving us, blindly, down the road to extinction…. Their intransigence in denying all of the evidence that is there is, in my mind, about as deliberately stupid as one can be, and it’s just a damn shame that, because they are stupid, I have to live with the consequences…. or, more accurately, die from them….

Ah well, c’est la vie! Writing my rants, and shouting the message from the vantage of this blog, are about all I can do…. As I’ve said before, all you can do, is all you can do…..

“Imagine the Creator as a low comedian, and at once the world becomes explicable.” — H. L. Mencken (1880-1956)
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I’ll take it…. and there is nothing about “settling” in that decision. It isn’t bad, considering the struggle I went through to write it…. It’s tough to come up with around 2000 words a day, and make it all fresh and excellent…. Not that I’m complaining; I’m the one who decided on this format…. It’s all good, or,  as John Lennon’s mom used to say, it’s nothing to get hung about…. Not sure what she meant by that…..   🙂   Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

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

gigoid

dozer3