Prunes provide a moveable feast….

Posted on April 4, 2016 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

“A man is not aware of his virtues (if any).
Nevertheless, one hopes that they exist.”

~~ Edward Abbey ~~

Tower of London from the Thames

Hajime…. ‘Tisn’t often I’ll begin by apologizing, but, that doesn’t cause it to mean less, to me, at least. Today, I’m doing so to explain the Pearl you will see, as it is one I probably will try to forget, if only for the cost of getting it done. Without complaint or retreat into plaintive excuses, I’ll merely say I was unable to sleep again, until late this morning, thus making me late getting started, as well as beginning another day with fatigue rather than any particular enthusiasm. Oh, well.

That said, the Pearl should, after a fashion, speak for itself. Most of it won’t be too fresh, as I don’t have any fresh on hand, or, for that matter, in mind. In fact, with what I have in mind, I probably couldn’t pass a test to get into kindergarten. I am, nonetheless, rather determined to get it done, no matter how it turns out, if only to soothe my own disappointment. One must find one’s reasons to go on oneself, mustn’t one? One must, and one has done. So be it.

Since I don’t have much, what you see is, once more, what you get. I, for one, am going on; y’all can follow if you like….

Shall we Pearl?….

“Once the realization is accepted that even between the closest human beings infinite distances continue to exist, a wonderful living side by side can grow up, if they succeed in loving the distance between them which makes it possible for each to see each other whole against the sky.” — Rainer Maria Rilke

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

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

Yep. Classical music, as the icon indicates so clearly. Well, it’s clear to me; listen up to the music, and it may do the same for y’all…. or, not. So be it.

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

Classical Music

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

https://youtu.be/k353I-9GgIM

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

Since I don’t have the wherewithal to produce a rant, here is a rather extensive discussion from early in 2013, on the subject of gun control…. a subject which is rather important to ALL of us, in the long run. Me, I’m of the same opinion as Clint Eastwood, an eminently sensible man, all in all, to wit: “Gun control means, if there’s a gun in the room, I want to be the one controlling it.” Y’ll can do as you like in the matter…. Enjoy!….

From 2/9/2013:

“Is this an out-take from the “BRADY BUNCH”?”

~~ Zippy the Pinhead ~~

I’m rather hoping it is, in sooth…. if not, we all are in serious trouble, up the proverbial creek without a hint of a paddle. Not that it should be anything new or unfamiliar, as most of our history has been spent thus occupied. Of course, previous centuries didn’t have the distinct advantage of having either the Brady’s, or Zippy, in all his insane wisdom, as cultural icons, as well as ethical touchstones….. They had to make do with Socrates, and Plato, and stuffy old guys like that….. Aristotle was practically a rock star in his day, and remains a pretty smart dude, by all evidence, but I still prefer Carlin, I think, for the most cogent philosophy for modern times….

“In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the assistance of counsel for his defense.” — The Constitution of the United States of America Amendment 6, 1791

For a moment, I wondered what my unconscious mind was thinking when it made me copy and paste this amendment into the pearl, as a pearl…. especially as it seems to be in conjunction with the Zippy quote…. Here I am, five minutes later, still wondering what the hell I was thinking…. It happens that way sometimes…. just give me a few moments here, and I’ll come up with it…. Aha! Got it! Naturally, I only needed to go back to basics…. The answer to the question of how the two quotes are related is…. Reality….

Aye, that’s right, reality. It’s what we do here, explore reality, and all its implications, ramifications, and delineations. Also, it’s temperature. Well, perhaps that isn’t the right word, but…. Reality, as is clear and obvious to the most casual observer, exists in varying degrees (hence: temperature…. see?). The degree of reality that is included in an out-take from the Brady Bunch is clearly not the same degree of reality that is implied in the Sixth Amendment. I’d say, the Amendment would hit around 8 or 9 on the real scale, with 10 being the Reality of Amber, where all roads lead. (See Roger Zelazny’s book, The Courts of Amber…..), whereas the highest the Brady’s could hope for would be a 2 or a 3 on that same scale. They’re too oppositional in nature to be rated otherwise, as well as being on opposite ends of the scale of Relative Importance to ME and YOU…..

Now we get to the meat of this matter…. Of late, there has been a lot of public discourse regarding gun control, as a result of the media’s steadfast love of gore and manipulation. Another school shooting took place a few weeks ago, wherein some crazy idiot got hold of some firearms and used them in an insane manner. This, of course, all morality aside, is still a reprehensible act, and, IMHO, most easily solved by just taking one of his own guns and using it on him, at the time of his crime. Bang, problem solved, and since he’s standing there over the bodies he has made, no question of guilt. In such cases, the why of his guilt should not matter; whatever it is, it is reason enough to put him down, in defense of humanity. The other questions can be answered after the children have been defended….

Sadly, there are two segments of humanity who don’t agree with this logical outcome. One segment is what I term the humanitarians, a misleading term, since it usually involves the denial of much of human nature. The other, of course, is our old nemesis, the BRC…. our Beloved Ruling Class…. Neither of these groups will agree that allowing people to have guns should be allowed, or that killing the killers is a proper solution for the issue. In both of these positions, they are dead wrong, and, more, they know they are. This serves to make their arguments more shrill, more emotionally based, and, in their eyes, more valid, in some strange form of weird logic….

“Everybody in this room is wearing a uniform, so don’t kid yourself…”

~~ Frank Zappa ~~

One of the most edifying parts of this discussion, for me, is how it makes it so easy to identify those who are wearing the uniforms, and from what camp they are from, according to their colors and insignia. You can tell the humanitarians, they’re the ones wearing the faux-camouflage pants, in support of the troops, they’ll assure you; they want the police to be the only ones who carry guns, believing, for some unknown reason, that police are somehow more moral or ethical than other people. (Of course, they also would have trouble if you asked them to define the words, “moral”, or “ethical”, in any other terms than those used in a philosophy paper they memorized in college, or in seminary….)

The BRC are always easy to spot, as their sense of entitlement provides them with all the armor against opinion, or law, they ever need. They want guns to be only held by the militia, (which they control), or the police (whom they also control), because it makes them nervous as hell to know there are guns out in the land, in the hands of people who would use them, for certain, if they attempt to perform their illegal lying, cheating, and stealing anywhere in their presence. It also makes them nervous knowing that they would be in danger for real, if the truth about what they do is ever made public with enough evidence to convince the masses to act…. They don’t want to have to worry they will be over-matched in firepower when that day comes along….

SIGH…. I’ve opened a can of worms, again, I know it….. I’m not going to claim to have all the right answers to the situation we find ourselves in today. Though it is a different world, technologically and culturally, from the time when the Second Amendment was written, deciding to abandon its precepts on that basis is not, and should never be, enough to justify any change in a law that is so important to the common man, the very people for whom the laws were created, to protect them from the self-same usurpation that is now being attempted. Once the law is amended, and weakened, the term “slippery slope” becomes very real, and a valid fear for those people.

To put a cap on it for now, I’ll say this…. Quite simply, I do not trust those who would take the right to bear arms from the people. I have seen NO evidence, in history, or in recent current events, that ANY governing body, or ANY group, or ANY single person, of ANY persuasion can be trusted to have guns, and use them solely for the benefit of the people, without turning them to their own purposes, first. NONE. You can’t show me any, either…. Go ahead, I’m listening….

I have studied people every day of my life, and I know too much of human nature to ever believe what I’m told of another person’s intentions; even the best intentions can change in mid-stream, turning its back completely on any commitments made previously. People lie, they cheat, they break in their minds, and they can’t, as a whole, ever be trusted to act rationally on a consistent basis….. at least, not any more rationally than can I myself….

“In all matters of opinion, our adversaries are insane.”

~~ Oscar Wilde ~~

Such being the case, I’d rather keep my guns, thanks. I’ll accept the risks that go with that freedom, which includes the risk of bad people getting their hands on guns, and doing bad things to others. Don’t worry, if they do it in front of me, I’ll help…. and not by running away and hiding…. Life is dangerous, ffolkes, and one either learns to get along with that idea, or one spends a lot of time worrying about shit that can’t be changed…. A very unhappy state of affairs, to my way of thinking, and not very realistic in the long run….

“When the panorama of human existence becomes chaotic and confused,
it is quite soothing to watch the sun rise in the East.”

~~ gigoid~~

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

Blithely Untitled

A poem came to me today, willy, nilly,
along with a sharp blow to the head.
Since it left me feeling just a bit silly,
anything that rhymes should lessen the dread.

Manifesting destiny into a small, insidious group
we push on toward sanity, concentrating hard.
Full engaging moments spent navigating the loop
shall ever make a difference to victims found in the yard.

Still corpses of creatures, straight out of nightmare
fill up the corners of our tortured minds.
While ever saddened, the iconic male, most debonair,
gazes softly, ironically, at all the mutual interest he finds.

Moronic public statutes compel outbreaks of sanity,
responding to momentary impulses toward inducing peace.
Still, the motions get completed, in fertile stages of inanity
while the bulk of our inmates can find no surcease.

Reluctant motivation to continue is unbound,
striving to ascertain how far there yet remains to go.
No precognitive guesswork will make any less of a sound
to soften the final strains, or teach us to truly know.

~~ gigoid ~~

2/7/2014

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

Today’s final old-school pearl is the only fresh material I can provide today; in spite of its relative freshness, it’s a little strange. But, it works, as it is merely giving us some stuff about living we may have either forgotten, or, overlooked in our haste to be…. In any case, none of it will hurt you, and may even help… Go figure…..

Though man a thinking being is defined,
Few use the grand prerogative of mind.
How few think justly of the thinking few!
How many never think, who think they do!

~~ Jane Taylor ~~

~~ Essays in Rhyme, (On Morals and Manners, Prejudice, ) Essay i, Stanza 45 ~~

“The hard questions always have more than one right answer. The easy questions have no answers at all. That’s the universe’s way of keeping things balanced.” — Solomon Short

“It is better to know nothing than to know what ain’t so.” — Josh Billings

“Yesterday is but today’s memory, and tomorrow is today’s dream.” — Kahlil Gibran

“Look to the essence of a thing, whether it be a point of doctrine, of practice, or of interpretation.” — Marcus Aurelius Antoninus — Meditations, viii, 22

“A happy person is not a person in a certain set of circumstances, but rather a person with a certain set of attitudes.” — Hugh Downs

“Nobody ever died of laughter.”

~~ Max Beerbohm ~~

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

It’s done, and that’s the best I can say of it. Today is what we call REALLY trusting the process. So be it. I’ll try again tomorrow, if I can manage to rest/sleep enough to waken with a functioning neuron or two. In any case, see y’all tomorrow; personally, I don’t seem to have much choice, if I am to remain in the vicinity of sanity….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid, the dubious

The *only* duly authorized Computer Curmudgeon.

PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.

“SCRAM!!!!!!!!!!”- Oscar the Grouch

À bientôt, mon cherí….

Golly! It’s exactly infinite!….

Posted on April 3, 2016 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

“Love not what you are, but what you may become.”

~~ Miguel de Cervantes ~~

Typical tourist shot of Abbey & Ben

Hajime…. Well. Here we are again, this time with a degree of reluctance rather difficult to overcome. Another very long night, with the bonus of tweaking my back good and proper right before arising. Joy, oh, joy…. Since I am determined, in spite of all that, to post today, I’ll struggle through the process, & see what can be done. And, I won’t even ask for any slack.

I will, however, take some, or make some, one way or another, for, today, I’m going to need some to get through this without any unwarranted angst build-up, nor any dead bodies, if at all possible. Leelu hates the smell. At any rate, this little short diatribe-like outburst, which is here merely to fill in a bit of space on the page, is all the intro you get today. In fact, you have already reached the end of what I’ve got, so, we’ll just be on our way, just as if we planned it this way…. Slick, eh?…. Well, I think so, but, then, we already know where from I began the day…

Shall we Pearl?….

“A man can’t get rich if he takes proper care of his family.”

~~ Navajo Proverb ~~

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

Betty Boop in 1934

Image from 123freevectors.com via Google Images

I’m feeling pretty down, altogether, so, we’ll go today with a bit of different entertainment. Here is a collection of all the various Betty Boop cartoons that got banned at one time or another, for various offenses against the public’s sensibilities, as legal at the time. None, of course, are anything perverted, other than with the usual human insanity, which, in Betty’s case, was mitigated by the size of her heart…. Enjoy, ffolkes, this is all classic humor and state of the art for the time…

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Betty Boop

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https://youtu.be/VkG9c1yy2lg

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There are days when I must trust the process. Today is such a day, for sure and for certain. I’m trying NOT to go into the archives for anything other than the poem, so, here is an old-school pearl, taking some shots at modern society, and a few of the things that I see we need to change, if we have any hope of making it to the twenty-second century….

“The world has taken on a thickness of vulgarity that raises a spiritual man’s contempt to the violence of a passion.” — Charles Baudelaire

“It’s silly to go on pretending that under the skin we are all brothers. The truth is more likely that under the skin we are all cannibals, assassins, traitors, liars, hypocrites, poltroons.” — Henry Miller

“The industrial way of life leads to the industrial way of death. From Shiloh to Dachau, from Antietam to Stalingrad, from Hiroshima to Vietnam and Afghanistan, the great specialty of industry and technology has been the mass production of human corpses.” — Edward Abbey

“Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.” — Genesis 1:28

(As an aside, I would like to note, the statement from Genesis, in my mind, is the root cause of ALL our troubles here on Earth….This is not only a contemptible lie, it is sheer effrontery on the part of the one who thought this shit up…. Sheer wishful thinking, and, quite obviously insane….)

“If you close your eyes, You won’t see them dying” — Eric Bogle

“The danger is not that a particular class is unfit to govern. Every class is unfit to govern.” — Lord Acton

“The individual must not merely wait and criticize, he must defend the cause the best he can. The fate of the world will be such as the world deserves.” — Albert Einstein

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

Elemental, dear Watson….

Don’t worry,
it’s not
me
you hear
screaming.

It is
only
my bones,
giving in,
to
cowardly,
pathologically,
repetitive,
fucking,’
complaints
of
past abuse,
and
all the fun
we had.
playing,
hard.

I don’t mind
too much;
I can spend my
TIME
in another space
in my head,
pretending
my bones
don’t
exist….

It
is,
indeed,
a shame
they
always
come
back….

Fuck.

It
hurts.

More proof,
I guess,
either
God isn’t,
or,
He is.

He isn’t?
Oh,
Well….

Ante up.
Deal.

He is?
Then,
I don’t fucking care
who
doesn’t like it,

I say,

He
is
a bully,
a coward,
a hypocrite,
and,
truly,
an enormous asshole.

I suppose,
God
is
what comes,
to,
and
from,
People,

because

they
feel
a need,
for
someone
to
blame,
for
a
Universe
they
cannot
understand
or
accept.

I
will
take the complaints.

After all,
they
are
my bones.

~~ gigoid ~~

9/14/2014

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

Our final pearl is an old-school, random harlequin variety pearl. It’s a bit more obscure than most, but, winds its way to where it should be, eventually. Try not to take it personally, okay? I’m tired, and it’s all I’ve got…. Just think of the children before you decide to vent….

“The only good is knowledge and the only evil is ignorance.” — Socrates

“If you don’t know where you’re going, when you get there you’ll be lost.” — Yogi Berra

“Any certainty is a delusion.” — Subtle Bee

“Cultivation to the mind is as necessary as food to the body.” — Cicero

“Don’t go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first.” — Mark Twain

“How is one to live a moral and compassionate existence when one is fully aware of the blood, the horror inherent in life, when one finds darkness not only in one’s culture but within oneself? If there is a stage at which an individual life becomes truly adult, it must be when one grasps the irony in its unfolding and accepts responsibility for a life lived in the midst of such paradox. One must live in the middle of contradiction, because if all contradiction were eliminated at once life would collapse. There are simply no answers to some of the great pressing questions. You continue to live them out, making your life a worthy expression of leaning into the light.” — Barry Lopez, Arctic Dreams

“And furthermore, my bowling average is unimpeachable!!!” — Zippy the Pinhead

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

While making no claims as to quality, I can honestly say, it’s done. That, by the way, is also ALL I’m going to say about it. I will, as usual, try again tomorrow, given half a chance. For now, I shall bid thee adieu, with the hopes your day goes better than my night. See y’all mañana, amigos; I wouldn’t advise trying to stop me….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid, the dubious

The *only* duly authorized Computer Curmudgeon.

PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.

“SCRAM!!!!!!!!!!”- Oscar the Grouch

À bientôt, mon cherí….

Uncanny visions in sauce aubergine….

Posted on April 2, 2016 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

“Yow! Did something bad happen or am I in a drive-in movie?”

~~ Zippy the Pinhead ~~

Iconic Alaskans, Pre-Zombie Age

Hajime…. In spite of the rather excellently nonsensical title for today’s Pearl, I can make no claims to any particular excellence, as it isn’t done yet. However, having, somehow, managed to fall into some pleasant hours of actual sleep, there is hope for, at least, some degree of coherency, if not erudition. Plus, having already used up half of my most elegant vocabulary in this paragraph, the rest may suffer somewhat. So be it, as they say downtown; I’m too happy to care. Sleep is a weapon, and, for the first time in what seems like a decade, I am armed well to start the day.

It’s odd to have such clarity so early, but, let’s see if we can’t take some advantage of it, to make a decent effort at a fine, lustrous Pearl, of great beauty and value. Or, we could fake it, which may happen further down the page, as one can never tell just how cooperative SB will be on any given day, and, we must always be aware of the kind attentions of our old nemesis, one Murphy, the ultimate asshole. Oops, he doesn’t care for that epithet, but, hey, he knows how I feel about him, so, as they say in certain areas of the city, fuck it.

And, we’ll apply that attitude to the intro today, in the interests of getting on with it, since I’m rapidly running out of patter. In fact, I can’t seem to find even a tidbit left in there which might have any useful effect on what is happening. As can be observed, we are rapidly getting close to a point from which extrication may be impossible…. To forgo any possibility of derailing our purpose today, I believe I’ll use this little toy right here, which is, possibly, our most efficient toy. It’s pretty cool, and it works like this….

Shall we Pearl?….

“Are people more important than the grizzly bear?
Only from the point of view of some people.”~~ Edward Abbey ~~

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

One might have guessed I’d go with a classical composer today; it’s my default. When I really want to concentrate, and be soothed at the same time, this is usually the composer to whom I turn. One of the most prolific composers of all time, I give you Camille Saint-Saënz, for your listening enjoyment….

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

Camille Saint-Saënz

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

https://youtu.be/eIZpyoKHhXo

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

Today’s rant will be from the archives, simply because I’m in too good a mood to spoil with such vitriol as might come forth. Here instead is a relatively short discussion of the tendency of the human animal to resort to violence as a means of expressing their innermost demons…. sort of. It will do for our purposes today, which, at this point, merely involve getting down to the next section…. Keeping that in mind, please enjoy our little foray into the fairly recent past…

From 1/23/2013:

“I’ve never killed a man, but I’ve read many obituaries with great pleasure.”

~~ Clarence Darrow ~~

I really love the power of understatement; this one from Mr. Darrow is an excellent condemnation of a huge class of people, unnamed as yet, but whose names are indelibly etched on our memories, just waiting to be included in a list of people the world would be better off without…. We all have a list by that title in our heads; anyone who denies it is a liar, plain and simple, and fooling no one. As a human being, it is part of our nature to hate, and nobody is so morally chaste as to escape those kinds of feelings now and then. Nobody…..

Sometimes, what amazes me about modern life is that there are so FEW outbreaks of random violence… I’d think that, with all the pressure our society puts on people, there would be a lot more of us who crack, enough to lose control over our baser impulses, and start trying to cross names off our list of preferred targets….. The way they usually go about it isn’t the most logical, or tactically intelligent, but what do you expect from somebody in an emotional crisis? Logical thinking? Not going to happen, sorry….. I’d say it would be time to get nervous when some guy starts blasting away, then disappears, only to attack again later, in a new place…. That would indicate more planning and strategy, and a much more dangerous person…..

I’m not sure just why I started this pearl…. It might have been in response to yet another random shooting spree reported yesterday in the news, in which a teenager started firing at people because of some argument he/she had with another teen, or something like that… another totally insane reason to start killing people, but, then, do you really expect rational from these people? It isn’t rational to expect them to have an understandable reason for their insanity, it doesn’t work that way…..

But, the media will spend an incredible amount of time and energy exploring every nuance of what this idiot was doing when they snapped, until no secrets are left to the young person’s life…. In looking at the entire incident, including the media coverage, I am tempted to give a big sigh, and lament the death of society, or at least the apparent death of decency…..

Amorphous anxiety seems to be our legacy as members of today’s culture; our lives consist of a series of unpalatable events fueled by unwarranted lies, and made worse for a societal tendency toward sloth combined with a severe lack of compassion; the sheer futility of it all seems to be the only message that comes through clearly. The fatal flaw in human nature that keeps us from becoming truly moral creatures is still in control of our destiny, and any impetus toward rationality is disallowed.

“The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who in times of great moral crises maintain their neutrality.” — Dante Alighieri (1265-1321)

This is the flaw we possess, all of us, and that which has plagued us throughout our history. One of my blogging friends commented a day or two ago with a relatively famous quote, in response to another discussion around the recent spate of reported shootings…. “All that is needed for evil to succeed, is for good men to look on and do nothing.” (She didn’t report the attribution, but according to Google, it was first stated by a man named Edmund Burke, with a number of slight alterations in wording since its appearance.) This single truth has been the biggest stumbling block to human progress for our entire history, and continues today to keep us from making any progress toward improving our chances of survival in the long run.

Once more, I’ve painted myself into a virtual corner, so to speak, since I don’t have any good solutions to offer to our dilemma. Oh sure, I can tell anyone what is needed for us to start making the world into the kind of place that would be home to EVERYONE…. I think, down inside, all of us KNOW what is needed for the world to be a better place. But, until it becomes common practice for people to make decisions based on compassion and love, rather than ambition and avarice, things aren’t going to change much, because the folks who don’t care about others aren’t going to stop what they’re doing…. there’s nothing in it for them if they do. Only when good men stand up, and refuse to allow that kind of usurpation of the rights of everyone else, will any changes take place…..

So, you tell me….. When is that going to happen? And how do we convince people that it needs to happen? Answer those two questions, and we might have a direction to go……

“If you ever go temporarily insane, don’t shoot somebody, like a lot of people do. Instead, try to get some weeding done, because you’d really be surprised.” — Deep Thoughts, by Jack Handey

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

Intelligent Crimes

The value of wit is often said to cause harm,
for those who think, such is its greatest charm.
The new and the bold cannot be fulfilled
if innovation and change is left unwilled.

Society behaves at its base as a mob
conformity and submission its primary job.
Any sign of rebellion against the mob’s rule
is met with resentment, naming such rebel the fool.

Intellect and talent are looked at askance,
expressing artistry stands nary a chance.
To stand out from the rest of mankind
is fraught with danger, for body and mind.

Often I stand to watch in solemn dismay
as beauty and joy are left by the way,
ignored and reviled by the unwashed masses
who prefer darkness, and acting like asses.

With shouts of derision the normals make known
their fear of intelligence, greater than their own.
They hope to stop all semblance of progress;
for thoughts and ideas, they couldn’t care less.

The world struggles on in spite of all opposition,
managing to maintain its advanced position.
Pulling the foolish along in spite of reluctance,
helping each to learn the survival dance.

Hard though it may be to keep up with the future
genius manages its plans to develop and nurture.
In the final analysis, those who live by reason
enjoy life the most, season to season.

~~ gigoid ~~

10/7/2012

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

Our final pearl today is a rather simple, yet definitive pearl, of the pointed variety. This points us toward a way to approach our lives with elegance, rationality, and a degree of style. If you don’t get it, just go by the final injunction, and you’ll be fine…. Enjoy!….

“The most precious gift we can offer others is our presence. When mindfulness embraces those we love, they will bloom like flowers.” — Thich Nhat Hanh

“If passion drives you, let reason hold the reins.” — Sagacious Bee

“But the only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.” — Arthur C. Clarke

“I’m not a teacher only a fellow traveller of whom you asked the way. I pointed ahead – ahead of myself as well as of you.” — George Bernard Shaw, “Getting Married,” 1908

“Don’t take anything seriously except happiness.” — Albert Camus

“Always do right. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest.” — Mark Twain

“If you get confused, listen to the music play.” — Robert Hunter

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

The smooth efficiency with which this Pearl came together makes me nervous; however, having trusted the process thus far, I must go with the flow. Since it’s also done, perhaps I’ll forgo the usual idiocy here at the end, & merely take my leave. Yeah, that’s the ticket. I’ll see y’all tomorrow, ffolkes, unless somebody comes up with a weapon I can’t deal with…. The odds are good, as always….

Y’all take care out there,
and May the Metaphorse be with you;
Blessed Be, dearest Carole, Mark,Theresa, & Richy
and everyone else, too…When I works, I works hard.
When I sits, I sits loose.
When I thinks, I falls asleep.

Which is Why….

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

gigoid, the dubious

The *only* duly authorized Computer Curmudgeon.

PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.

“SCRAM!!!!!!!!!!”- Oscar the Grouch

À bientôt, mon cherí….

Organized reserves of flippancy….

Posted on March 30, 2016 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

“I expect nothing. I fear no one. I am free.”

~~ Nikos Kazantzakis ~~

Captive Beauty

Hajme…. Quietly babbling to itself, the brook tumbled over rocks down the gentle slope toward the waiting trees, obligingly leading into the depth of the woods. Softly, the breeze pushed at the backs of sweaty necks of the party walking alongside the brook, on an ancient path worn by generations of animal and human feet. In the afternoon sun, which beat mercilessly upon the heavily laden backs of the porters, the party looked wilted and fatigued, stumbling occasionally on the rock-strewn path. As the afternoon wore on, they walked more slowly, peering side to side on the path, obviously seeking the proper bivouac…..

Okay, that’s enough. We’ll leave our party wherever in the hills they happen to be, & let them find their own camp site. I wrote that story intro because I don’t really want to be up at all, having again fought for sleep all night, unsuccessfully. I don’t feel too bad, considering, but, I decided to try not to complain about it first thing. Since I could only wait until the second paragraph, I’ll also place a firm limit on it, and end such indulgence before it really gets started…. The primary purpose in saying anything at all about it is to give warning to my Gentle Readers as to the general outlook for today’s Pearl, which is, sad to say, rather unpredictable in nature…. Go figure….

I only say this to give y’all a chance to skip the parts that don’t suit you today. It’s all fairly fresh, if not from the archives, and probably won’t be too weird, thought, of course, a certain degree of that is always present. However, it will be, due to circumstances well beyond my comprehension, if not control, shall we say, somewhat patchwork in nature, and, thus, the unpredictability previously mentioned. Hell, I guess I’m saying, I haven’t a clue as to what may happen after the intro, so, watch where you put your feet, and your faith. Either one could be in serious danger if you are less than mindful…..

Now I’ve probably driven most everyone away, I guess I’ll get to this; it’s already late, by my usual schedule, so, some haste might be in order…. Haste, however, as we know, makes waste, so, fuck that. I’m going to take my time, and see if I can’t make it, if not good, at least palatable as food for thought. If I can do it, it will be a first, but, we won’t comment on that. Instead, we’ll do this…..

Shall we Pearl?

A wise man once said …”I don’t know.”

~~ Subtle Bee ~~

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

Today’s music was chosen simply because it’s a default day. As always, this compilation was picked because the picture drew my eye. I hope you enjoy it as you read….

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

Classical Music

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

https://youtu.be/aJZtIHeI27s

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As a break from the usual sobriety, here is a discussion of one of our favorite things around here, to wit: sheer nonsense…. Enjoy!….

From 2/8/2013:

“Yow! I want to mail a bronzed artichoke to Nicaragua!”

~~ Zippy the Pinhead ~~

As previously noted, we like our nonsense around here…. This one from Zippy is particularly nonsensical, and will serve nicely as a segue into a discussion of the value there is in engaging in nonsensical behavior on occasion. A lot of folks, and even some ffolkes, might think there isn’t a lot to say on the subject, but, they don’t know me, do they? Having spent much of the last two years honing that very skill, to wit: propounding at length on subjects of little meaning, I think we can turn this into quite a nice little pearl, one that will shine even in the dark…. or maybe not… Why don’t we just go ahead, and see what happens, eh?….

Now, to begin, let me point out that the concept of nonsense, by the structure of the word itself, gives us a clue as to where its value lies… it is composed of two parts, “non” a prefix indicating negative state, and “sense”, in this form meaning perception, or ordered perception, more accurately (it makes good sense….). This tells us that the word ‘nonsense’, as the direct antonym for ‘sense’, supplies the balance that the universe demands from every part of its makeup….

“As a professional humorist, I often get letters from readers who are interested in the basic nature of humor. “What kind of a sick perverted disgusting person are you,” these letters typically ask, “that you make jokes about setting fire to a goat?” … — Dave Barry, “Why Humor is Funny”

Everything in the universe exists in duality, as we have explored previously; this duality is directly related to our own set of perceptive abilities, which operate solely by noting the presence or absence of certain forms of matter, or energy manifestation (light, sound, etc….) We see because our eyes note the presence and absence of light waves. We hear the moments of sound between the moments of silence…. It all exists in duality, and that is how we perceive it, for that is what gives the universe its balance, and allows it to produce life, and matter, and all that we are a part of in this grand landscape of wonder….

But, the human mind is subtle, and recognizes the subtlety of the universe…. Thus, when we are confronted with seriousness for a long period of time, our nature demands something as balance, and we slip over into the nonsense mode in the privacy of our minds, to provide some relief from the somber nature of much of what is created by the hand of Man…. Goodness knows, after I am forced, or trapped, into listening to the prattling of fools about laws, or dogma, or some such asinine bureaucratic folderol, a bit of Zippy, or Wacko, or Pooh’s evil twin can always make me smile, and get through the boredom with greater equanimity….. or, as much as I ever can summon in those situations…..

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

~~ Willie Wonka ~~

Willie knew this little fact about the universe well, thanks to Roald Dahl, whom we can thank for his contribution to literature of quite a bit of nonsense, written with great style and verve, and not a little sarcasm. This little couplet springs up in my mind on many occasions when I am confronted by some piece of societal sobriety, and reminds me to take what I’m seeing or hearing with a big dose of salt, and maybe some Cholula’s hot sauce to spice it up. What the hell, it can’t hurt…. Can it? You tell me…..

“SANTA CLAUS comes down a FIRE ESCAPE wearing bright blue LEG WARMERS.. He scrubs the POPE with a mild soap or detergent for 15 minutes, starring JANE FONDA!! — Zippy the Pinhead

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

Notes of process and program…

Poems, alas, don’t chase through my head,
bumping and pushing each other like brothers at dinner.
They’re more ripped out of my innards, instead.
Time and circumstance reveal no ultimate winner.

Simmering and bubbling near my unconscious mind
these maddening rhymes blind me sans glimmer.
Building until bursting as if to be dined and wined,
the remaining denizens appear much slimmer.

Fiery visions retain such glorious fatal dimension,
in retrospect, yet fail to leave a permanent scar,
until blessed, or cursed, with focused attention,
singing, crying, bleeding, fast as a movie star.

Pretty soon can’t be soon enough, she said
to a chameleon colored thief bathed in moonlight.
Fancy candles in stripes of blue, gold, and red
foster honest dreams in shades of white.

Passage to daylight is problematic, at best:
beastly ghosts of insomniacs cast no shadow.
Even judges with robes can pass the wrong test
while the rest of us go with what we know.

~~ gigoid ~~

1/3/2013

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Naked Pearls

Good Stuff to Remember

*******

“What you think of yourself is more important than what others think of you.”

~~ Seneca ~~

*******

“Think not that thy word and thine alone must be right.”

~~ Sophocles — Antigone, 706 ~~

*******

“It is necessary to the happiness of man
that he be mentally faithful to himself.
Infidelity does not consist in believing, or in disbelieving,
it consists in professing to believe what one does not believe.”

~~ Thomas Paine ~~

*******

“It is impossible to design a system so perfect that no one needs to be good.”

~~ T. S. Eliot ~~

*******

“Do not look for all the answers at once.
A path is formed by placing stones one in front of the other.”

~~ The Giant from Twin Peaks ~~

*******

“…for the most part happiness consists in being willing to be what you are.”

~~ Erasmus ~~

*******

“Tanstaafl!”

~~ Ancient Sage Bee ~~

*******

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

Well, I did it. As I figured before beginning, I don’t think I’ll comment on the quality of whatever you find above; too easy to look silly, and, I’ve probably already reached my limit for that today. I think I’m going back to bed, to see if the sleep I seek, which seems so elusive at night, can be found, or persuaded to approach for a session of indulgence. The way I am feeling, fat chance…. In a perfect world, who cares, right?

Okay, that does it. I’m outta here, before I try to be rational. See y’all tomorrow, ffolkes. I can’t seem to help myself….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid, the dubious

The *only* duly authorized Computer Curmudgeon.

PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.

“SCRAM!!!!!!!!!!”- Oscar the Grouch

À bientôt, mon cherí….

Bargaining is intrinsically sordid….

Posted on March 26, 2016 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

“Take me disappearing through the smoke rings of my mind
down the foggy ruins of time
far past the frozen leaves
the haunted frightened trees
out to the windy beach
far from the twisted reach of crazy sorrow.

Ah, to dance beneath the diamond sky with one hand waving free
silhouetted by the sea
circled by the circus sands
with all memory and fate
driven deep beneath the waves
let me forget about today until tomorrow.”

~~- Bob Dylan ~~

Traffic Monitor Leelu

Hajime…. My first task today is to apologize to those blogging friends whose sites I have not visited in the last few days. I’ve been posting, then spending most of the day offline, recovering from, or dealing with the physical issues plaguing me of late. I’ve made a few comments, but, mostly have skipped surfing at all, and made only a few comments. I hope to be back to relative normalcy soon, or, what we call that around here, anyway, so, bear with me in my struggles to find my center/balance, and get back to doing what I wish to do….

Today’s mess was mostly done, save for the final section, which has a short bit to finish. It’s just as well, as yesterday’s events nearly put me in a world of trouble. A young security officer made the mistake of attempting to intimidate me when I showed some anger at a bureaucratic conundrum that had developed during my time out of the house; he is a very fortunate young man, in that I was able to refrain from sending him home in a box, with a massive effort of will. He simply had no clue as to how much danger he was in, so, I was compelled to let him go, and merely lashed him verbally. I then had to walk off the anger, and today, am paying for that in stiffness and pain…. SIGH…. So be it.

That’s probably enough whining for one day. In fact, it’s enough, period. Let’s get on with this mess before I fall into any more chatty, boring episodes, okay? Okay….. Besides, this isn’t as easy as it looks, when I have a very hormonal teenage cat, trying her best to call the neighborhood boy cats to come play, while alternately rubbing up against me for attention in her affectionate state…. It isn’t easy to type with claws in the leg, you know. But, I’m getting it done, with the help of this little Tardis Toy, which works very simply and efficiently. Watch this….

Shall we Pearl?

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

~~ William Cowper ~~

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

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Playing For Change Logos

In keeping with my new cause, here is another video from Playing for change, with one of the best versions of an old Stones tune I’ve ever heard…. Enjoy, ffolkes; it just doesn’t get much better than this….

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Gimme Shelter

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https://youtu.be/GJtq6OmD-_Y

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My recently adopted policy of working ahead with old material seems to be working okay, for the time being, hence, here is another discussion of morality/ethics and religion from the last day of 2012…. Enjoy! At least you don’t have to listen to any more BS about the elections, or Republicans, or the Hillarity, or Brussells…. Bonus!….

From 12/31/2012:

Forgiveness. How does a person without faith in a higher power obtain this boon? Certainly not from themselves…. I know, if I have done something for which I feel the need, or desire, to be forgiven, then I most likely don’t deserve it, and refuse to give in to self-indulgence. According to the preachers, God forgives all, but damn me if I can see any reason to do so, no matter how ‘merciful’ he/she/it might be. How can anyone expect moral behavior, if even our most grievous sins are forgiven? Because of the promise of reward for compliance, or threat of punishment for refusal to conform? I agree with Albert Einstein, that any such philosophy is not realistic, and certainly not moral…..

“In his private heart no man much respects himself.”

~~ Mark Twain ~~

All of us, without exception, have things we hide inside ourselves, secrets that nobody else will ever be told. Whether it is a memory of an act one is not proud of, or a bit of severe foolishness, or something so shameful that to share it would be to become a pariah, all of us humans have secrets. I would guess that almost all of them are akin to what is described in the first paragraph, to wit: acts that need forgiveness, but do not deserve it. I believe that this may be a method by which one can tell another person’s outlook on religion, for almost all religions are based on this principle, of divine forgiveness. Even though we may do things in life that are unforgivable, the gods, or God, for the monotheistic among us, are so merciful, that they will do so, if you but acknowledge their divinity, and admit they are your higher power…..

It’s a good deal, all in all, if one buys it. Myself, I’m a bit sanguine about it, since I only have the word of the preachers that it is so; there is no real evidence to be found that supports the theory, and the scientist in me wants at least a little bit of proof before accepting something as truth. I’m not going to buy anything just on someone else’s word, or assertion of truth; I’ve been alive long enough to know that doing things like that can only lead to losing something, if only the advantage of self-respect.

“His ignorance covers the world like a blanket,
and there’s scarcely a hole in it anywhere.”

~~ Mark Twain ~~

Wait, I thought we were talking about religion, not the last Republican President….. Sorry, couldn’t resist…. Any who, it all comes back to the basic idea of how we view reality, in terms of the concept of God, or a power greater than ourselves, that is responsible somehow for everything that exists, and thus, for us. By giving away that responsibility, I think, we are showing our own cowardice; I’m not willing to do that, not without more compelling evidence than hearsay.

I’m not blind to the other evidence that many religionists claim as being proof of God and his will; I’ve burst into tears myself at the sight of a particularly vivid sunrise, without knowing why, other than the beauty of it was so arrestingly powerful. I’ve seen good things happen everywhere, in human interaction, and in Nature. I’ve witnessed what priests like to call “grace”, and will admit that such events are not explainable by ordinary means. I’ve also witnessed the other side of existence, where human nature turns dark and cruel, while Nature reveals its own complete indifference for human suffering, and cannot accept that the same entity would dare to assume, or want responsibility for such a wicked universe, even if the balance of good and evil is maintained by the presence of the other.

That assumption is purely human, and thus does not qualify, in my mind, as evidence of divinity in the form of God, by any of the visions held by any of the churches of Mankind. Unless, of course, one goes beyond doctrine, into philosophy, where the above contradictions do not apply, or can be explained by one further assumption. That assumption is a hard one for most humans, as it involves taking responsibility for EVERYTHING that they do, and for everything that happens to them. (Yep, that’s a paraphrase of the basic principle of Karma…) In other words, as Robert Heinlein put it so aptly in Stranger In a Strange Land, “Thou art God.” I know, it’s blasphemous, but, hey, been there, done that, let’s get past it…. It is the only explanation that fits ALL the facts in evidence, and even if a bit grandiose, really isn’t, because we are, after all, just a bunch of bozos on the bus.

Being God, though, would be a really boring job, the way the job descriptions in all the churches read, and I don’t think I want to take that on, particularly. It may be the only way I can find any forgiveness for those things I’ve done in my long life of which I am not proud, but, since I don’t feel that I SHOULD be forgiven for them, I think I’ll just accept the responsibility, along with the consequence, a certain lessening of my self-esteem, and try to act in the future in ways that won’t make me feel that way…. It really isn’t hard to be good, in reality, as long as you care…. The problem is, not enough people care, or even think about stuff like this….. Me, I can’t help myself…… Caring, to me, is what being human is about; those who don’t care aren’t fully human, and won’t be until they do…..

“I am covered with pure vegetable oil and I am writing a best seller!”

~~ Zippy the Pinhead ~~

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

Random Visions/Coloring Between the Lines of Grief

Everywhere is dark, and shining,
with points in dissonant pain.
Sharp, senses dull past divining,
tears burn, a torrential rain.

Escape! Flee within to cower,
find an unconscious cave.
Call on Morpheus’ power
deny reality’s beckoning wave.

Light breaks, drawing the inner eye,
leading to the slippery slope.
Risk is critical, we may only sigh,
yet welcome, for bringing hope.

Sanity seems far out of reach
Insanity’s a stronger friend.
Decisions made will merely teach
our way toward Death to wend.

Lost, while still on familiar ground,
the future yet undesigned.
Making way on paths unfound,
to Now, as yet undefined.

~~ gigoid ~~

2/22/2013

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

Naked Pearls

Thoughts on Love

*******

Again, Again! Again, again, even if we know the countryside of love, and the tiny churchyard with its names mourning, and the chasm, more and more silent, terrifying, into which the others dropped: we walk out together anyway beneath the ancient trees, we lie down again, again, among the flowers, and face the sky.” — Rainer Maria Rilke

“When you’re around it all the time, you don’t notice it so much.” — Garrison Keillor, “Lake Wobegon Days”

“When one loves, nothing is too much trouble, and there is always time.” — Abdu’l-Baha

“If you’re smoking after sex then you’re going *WAY* too fast!” — Thinks he’s humorous Bee

” Approach love and cooking with reckless abandon.” — Instructions for life

“A coward is incapable of exhibiting love; it is the prerogative of the brave.” — Mahatma Gandhi

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

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

Well, I did it, in spite of the cat’s yowling for love, which we are NOT giving in to this year; no kittens for us. In looking back over what happened today, I have no explanations, or clues, so, I’ll just let it fly as it is, trusting once more to the process. Tomorrow, at this point, is still a question, so, we’ll see how it goes, eh? My plans are to post again tomorrow, but, y’all know how plans go. Regardless, y’all be chill, it’s strange out there….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid, the dubious

The *only* duly authorized Computer Curmudgeon.

PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.

“SCRAM!!!!!!!!!!”- Oscar the Grouch

À bientôt, mon cherí….

Verifying solitary rice cakes….

Posted on March 25, 2016 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

“It is much more comfortable to be mad and know it,
than to be sane and have one’s doubts.”

~~ G. B. Burgin ~~

Cork, Ireland, from a football pitch above the city….

Hajime…. I suppose there is a certain virtue associated with feeling disappointment in life; it happens often enough to warrant such award, if the disappointment is borne with dignity. However, since dignity has been eliminated from my life, by choice and circumstance, I can honestly say it’s a fucking pain in the ass to have slept relatively normally, yet wake up & have my first thought manifest in complete denial, saying only, “Damn, I sure want to go back to bed!”….

Having successfully ignored myself, here I am, to make another attempt at coherence, with, perhaps, a dash of reason to fill it out nicely. I do so with some trepidation, admittedly, but, with strong hope, based entirely on wishful thinking. Given those parameters, perhaps the hope is misplaced, but, we’ll see how it goes. I do have the advantage of having had almost three full days to complete this particular mess, so, we’ll see if that plays into the final results. Personally, I can’t say there’s any evidence to suggest success, but, none seems to be jumping up on the negative side, either, so, we’ll have to see how it goes.

I am sure, given my fogginess, I could wander around here in the intro for some time, padding this in the front, so to speak, but, I don’t believe we’ll need any such shady techniques today, since I had enough time to make it reasonably right on the first shot. In fact, I’m going to show some confidence in the process, well-deserved, and bring this to a somewhat timely close. I won’t even have to use any of the Tardis Toys today, as we are making good time already…. All I need to do is this….

Shall we Pearl?

“The best portion of a good man’s life is his little, nameless,
unremembered acts of kindness and love.”

~~ William Wordsworth ~~

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

Playing For Change Logos

When one contributes to the cause with this organization, the first level of participation provides you with the title of PFC Ambassador, which gives the privilege of displaying the logo when sharing the music with others…. I’m happy to be a part of this cause, for it is one of the few real effective weapons the people of the world can claim as their own; it cannot be taken away…. It is also one of the two best weapons we have, to wit, love, and laughter, both of which bring light into darkness, turning it around from evil…. Here is one of the first videos they put together, with some fine musicians from around the world…. Enjoy!…..

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Stand By Me

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https://youtu.be/Us-TVg40ExM

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I am attempting to work ahead a bit, but, in order to do so, must resort to archived material, as I am currently rant-free, though not by choice. However it may be, or seem, that, ffolkes, is the way it is…. Actually, I’ve found some decent stuff, so, count your lucky stars it isn’t fresh and depressing…. It’s old and depressing instead…. Hey, what do you expect? It’s a rant!…. Try to enjoy it anyway….

From 12/30/2012:

“History is a lie commonly agreed upon.”

~~ Friedrich Nietzsche ~~

I often wonder how the future will view these times, it being a given that the fabric of our society is based primarily on lies and/or delusions.* Which ones will stand the test of time, and end up in the books as being the one everyone agrees upon? It has also been said that history is always written by the winners, and that seems to me to be fairly close to the real truth of the matter. It would be a bit more acceptable to me if it weren’t so bloody predictable, and that there was at least a small chance that the events we experience would be reported truthfully. Alas, I am not hopeful that will ever be the case…..

* (Note the use of the technique of the positively stated assertion, using the assumption of its truth as proven, the same as exemplified in ALL religious doctrines as the basis for their truth and relativity…. Just thought I’d make it clear, that this is real, serious stuff…. 🙂 ….)

In all honesty, I’m not convinced that we, as a species, will have much of a future. Given the current state of the environment, I can’t see us lasting more than a couple hundred years more, without some major changes to society, changes that are not imminent, or even under consideration. When I first started this blog, over a year ago, I posted a link, to a World Clock at Poodwaddle.com ( I love the human imagination!…..). You can find that clock here: http://www.poodwaddlecom/clocks/worldclock/ This clock has a number of faces, one of which shows exactly how much CO and CO2, along with unnatural amounts of other toxic substances, are being pumped into the atmosphere every second, by industrial and manufacturing facilities, and by cars and other vehicles.

I am a scientist, first. I chose the path of the scientist in my youth, before my tenth birthday, before the warrior’s path I chose later. In essence, scientists ARE warriors, and vice versa, as battling the universe requires study to be effective, and acquiring knowledge requires the curiosity and courage of a warrior, in order to find, and face, Truth. Each path, or persona, complements the other, and, in my time, have led me on a journey of great beauty and wonder. This journey, though, is in danger of being ended before its time, by the asininity of the human race….

There are some scientists who believe humans do not have the power to harm the planet, and the danger is not as great as others, and the evidence, might indicate. In one respect, they are right…. I don’t think the planet itself is in danger from what we are doing, though I’m sure it is suffering pain from the symptoms we’ve managed to saddle it with in our time. No, our activities, such as polluting the air and water, wasting resources, and killing the other creatures we live with indiscriminately, only endanger us, and the other life forms on the planet. Once we are gone, the planet will easily clean itself of the trash we deposited everywhere, and move on to the next evolutionary step in the parade of Time.

“Where man walks the earth hurts.”

~~ Smart Bee ~~

Many years ago, I used to believe in the ingenuity of scientists, to overcome the technological difficulties we’ve created, and find a way to keep us alive, perhaps by colonizing space, and leaving Earth behind. But, the figures don’t lie, and the figures say we don’t have the time to fool around waiting for space travel to solve the problems we have. By the time we could achieve any kind of significant progress there, we would be forced to live in domes, and wear protective gear to go outside them, to walk on the surface of our own world. That is if there are enough remaining resources to build the domes, and to power them sufficiently to survive.

The other possible solution is for the ruling classes of our species to come to their senses, to reverse their moral compasses, and start acting in the best interests of everyone, instead of just themselves. The whole problem with pollution we have today exists solely because the ruling classes, the people who control all the resources, don’t have any moral compass, or, choose to deliberately ignore its demands. They choose to deliberately structure society in their own favor, so that they have the power and control over what occurs, while the rest of us try to survive on what they don’t want. It is the same picture that history has drawn for all the millenia since we came out of the caves to live in cities, and the 1% of mankind who is in control is not interested in helping anyone else, unless and until they have secured their own….

Even the lies we agree upon in history show this to be true, so I don’t think there is a huge chance that we will see any changes before it is too late for it to matter. I just don’t see those in the beloved ruling class all of a sudden reversing the entire course of the history they’ve chosen to allow to happen; it is not in their nature to be altruistic to even a small degree. We are either going to have to rise up and throw them out on their asses, or suffer an ignominious death, when the air we can no longer breathe begins to choke us as we walk down the street toward our destiny….. which at this point, leads only to a coffin…..

“I can’t decide which WRONG TURN to make first!! I wonder if BOB GUCCIONE has these problems!” — Zippy the Pinhead

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

Stray Cats

The veils that billow and fold
between dreams and reality
may sometimes part,
showing the visions of one to the other,
blending, bleeding as one,
only to bring us up short,
closely jammed against immovable fate.

Still, we keep our watch,
seeking to find the vision
that brings with it the mark of reality’s regard,
a humble mind, and a compassionate heart.

Events of broad impact draw us away again,
distracting with shiny glitter and tinny music,
leaving our feelings raw and bruised,
the victim of universal disregard.

Now, in the twilight of years, the music is fading,
and the glitter has all gone;
yet the memory of visions remains sharp and clear,
melancholy reminders of reality’s promises,
unkept…..

~~gigoid~~

4/12/2013

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

Today’s final old-school pearl took a while to put together, as SB was in a funny configuration, or something. I managed to persuade a nine-star necklace of gems to come together, but, the message they tell together isn’t clear until it’s all over. That, in and of itself, is a good thing; whether you think so is both another thing, and, in the final analysis, immaterial, as it is what it is…. I hope you enjoy it; it’s all good stuff, and offers a chance for some rather positive, helpful reflection…. Go figure….

“They must often change, who would be constant in happiness or wisdom.” — Confucius

“A mode of conduct, a standard of courage, discipline, fortitude and integrity can do a great deal to make a woman beautiful.” — Jacqueline Bisset

“I have never met a man so ignorant that I couldn’t learn something from him.” — Galileo Galilei

“Remember, we all stumble, every one of us. That’s why it’s a comfort to go hand-in-hand.” — Emily Kimbrough

“Where the map differs from the terrain, believe the terrain.” — Swedish Army Manual

“For one human being to love another human being: that is perhaps the most difficult task that has been entrusted to us, the ultimate task, the final test and proof, the work for which all other work is merely preparation.” — Rainer Maria Rilke

“Wheresoever you go, go with all your heart.” — Confucius

“When someone is having a bad day, be silent, sit close by and nuzzle them gently.” — Things we can learn from dogs

For age is opportunity no less
Than youth itself, though in another dress.
And as the evening twilight fades away,
The sky is filled with stars, invisible by day.
It is never too late to start doing what is right.
Never.

~~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow ~~

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

I did it, with relative ease of effort, too. Since it’s a new day, we’ll use a new technique here at the end, which is rather abrupt, but, works quite well to bring things to a clean end. It works like this: Bye, ffolkes. See y’all tomorrow….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid, the dubious

The *only* duly authorized Computer Curmudgeon.

PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.

“SCRAM!!!!!!!!!!”- Oscar the Grouch

À bientôt, mon cherí….

Adrift on The Sea of Ambiguity….

Posted on March 23, 2016 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

Nature, whose sweet rains fall on just and unjust alike,
will have clefts in the rocks where I may hide,
and secret valleys in whose silence
I may weep undetected.
She will hang the night with stars
so that I may walk abroad in the darkness
without stumbling,
and send the wind over my footprints
so that none may track me to my hurt:
she will cleanse me in great waters,
and with bitter herbs make me whole.

~~ Oscar Wilde — “De Profundis” ~~

Main Street, Invergordon, Scotland

Hajime…. Well…. I cannot say with any real engagement I am happy with my night of attempting to sleep, as the epic battle into which it turned was fought to a draw. I spent four or so hours up, down, turned over, and groaning in pain, as one hip refused to accept the program, insisting every position I tried to assume was worthy of slipping a sharp knife into the hip, in order to indicate its refusal. Finally, around 2 AM, I found one position, approximating a half-twisted pretzel, in which no knife appeared, and I was able to drop off for about 3 hours or so…. Heaven, in comparison….

Now I’ve related the depths of futility in which I spent my night, let’s move on, before this becomes merely another litany of complaint. Perhaps the process of putting together a Pearl, while fending off the insistent demands of a feline familiar to play, will distract me from the fatigue and overall blah-ness under which I currently labor. It certainly isn’t doing much for my writing skills, or the creative urge, is it? Moreover, the more I type, the more my left arm and hand is trying to tell me this isn’t a great idea; the guitar playing yesterday seems to have annoyed it a bit….. SIGH…. this getting old business just sucks, big-time…..

Ah, well, it’s nothing anyone else isn’t going through, in their own way, so, I’ll quit complaining, and offering excuses, to go make the attempt at coherency which gives me a reason to act sane the rest of the day. Believe me, you don’t want me to skip this; the body count could get massive before the day is out, and, then, I’d have to kill more ignoramae, when the cops come to see what all the fuss is about. Probably best to stay off the streets today…. Y’know, maybe it’s time to…. No, better not. I need to stockpile more necessities first; I guess we’ll wait for that….

On that cryptic, yet hopeful note, I’ll take my leave, to go put this mess together for today. It will be late, and probably long, or, at least, thick, so, gird your grids for that. We’re using one of the Tardis Toys today, just to factor in a bit of random efficiency. It’s pretty cool; here’s how it works….

Shall we Pearl?

“If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up people together to collect wood and don’t assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.” — Antoine de Saint Exupery

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

Rather than try to guess what music might go well today, we’ll go with our default, classical music, combined with my own preference for guitar music, giving us, naturally, classical guitar….. Enjoy!…..

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

Classical Guitar Music

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

https://youtu.be/V80EzF–UNk

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

In lieu of a rant today, I’m substituting a poem, written by a blogging friend, a man who lives in Tokyo, and whose haiku and poetry has been one of my favorites for the entire time I’ve been on WP. He is also my most faithful follower, having visited this blog very close to every day since I began posting it here on WordPress. He is a man of great, gentle spirit, with deep compassion, and a love of beauty. This is his poem in response to the official ceremony in Japan, at a memorial for their war dead, on the official first day of the Cherry Blossom Festival, their rite of Spring…. It is beautiful and a powerful message of peace, that I would ask all my followers to share with their own readers…. Thank you, and, enjoy!….

https://ashiakira.wordpress.com/story-poems-2/cherry-blossoms

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

After the odyssey….

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

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

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

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

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

~~ gigoid ~~

3/10/2013

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

I began this pearl yesterday, whereupon SB decided to have a snit. Let’s see if it’s ready to cooperate this morning…. Well, that wasn’t so bad; only took a half hour to find three pearls. Ah well, I think it came out pretty well, considering, with a nice twist at the end…. Enjoy!….

There is more to reality than meets the eye.” — Subtle Bee

“Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations. But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it.” — The Buddha

“Hope cannot be said to exist, nor can it be said not to exist. It is just like the roads across the earth. For actually there were no roads to begin with, but when many people pass one way a road is made.” — Lu Hsun

“The fundamental delusion of humanity is to suppose that I am here and you are there.” — Yasutani Roshi

“Most people are on the world, not in it…” — John Muir

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

“I just forgot my whole philosophy of life!!!” — Zippy the Pinhead

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

I did it. That, in itself, is an achievement of grand craic, to be sure. Not only is it done, it’s done in a reasonable time, if we don’t count Daylight Savings Time, which I never do. Why, look! It’s the end of the page. I guess I’ll stop here; looks like it’s made for that. See y’all tomorrow, ffolkes; I’m determined to do this right, at least once before I kick the proverbial bucket…. Let’s hope that takes a while….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid, the dubious

The *only* duly authorized Computer Curmudgeon.

PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.

“SCRAM!!!!!!!!!!”- Oscar the Grouch

À bientôt, mon cherí….

Soliciting for abrupt renovation….

Posted on March 20, 2016 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

“I am the shadow my words cast.”

~~ Octavio Paz ~~

Giving new meaning to the word “relaxed”….

Hajime…. ‘If’ is a big word, for having so few letters. We’d all have a tough time explaining options to each other without it, for it is a word indicating the presence of imagination at work, imagining things which might be, but, are not yet real…. It helps us to describe possibilities, and gives us the power to create solutions from out of that imagination…. How many times have you said to someone, “If we do this….”? Or, the very powerful, “What if…:” If you’re anything like me, you’ve said that a lot….

At this point, I imagine y’all are asking yourselves, “What the hell is this about?”, but, I’m afraid you’d be asking the wrong person, if you expect a coherent answer, because I don’t have a clue. As I sat this morning to begin, I found myself completely at a loss as to how to start; no muse, no inspiration, and very little will power, all lacking for unknown, but, no doubt, compelling reason, which will occur to me some years hence. So, I just began to type what was in there, and, what you see is what I had. (Ha! Y’all thought I was going to use wysiwyg again, didn’t you?….) As the beginning of a discussion/rant, it’s not bad. For an intro, it’s a sure invitation to get lost, fast.

In order to regain some sort of integrity, of purpose if not delivery, I think I should probably cut this part short again today. Wandering around, looking for an opening doesn’t seem to be working very well, does it? No, it doesn’t, and, since I do try to be realistic whenever possible, I’ll submit to necessity, again, and leave this to die an unnatural death, on its own. Requiesce in pace.

Now we’ve concluded this portion of today’s program, there is nothing to keep us here, but our own incompetence, which has been amply demonstrated in the past. I have a new method, called the Sandbag, and it works like this….

Shall we Pearl?

“He who has a WHY to live for can bear with almost any HOW.”

~~ Friedrich Nietzsche ~~

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

As usual when we go with our default choice for music, the mix you’ll hear is the one which had a picture I enjoyed…. I hope you enjoy it, too….

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

Classical Music

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

https://youtu.be/qgHNOtQT-aU

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

“It’s the RINSE CYCLE!! They’ve ALL IGNORED the RINSE CYCLE!!”

~~ Zippy the Pinhead ~~

As I cruised around my collection/database of aphorisms/quotes, etc., I came across this from our old friend Zippy. Now, to look at it, one might think it is just nonsense; one might be wrong about that. To my eye, it’s a deeply metaphorical lament about modern society, and that part of human nature about which I rant here on all-too-frequent occasions, to wit: the human inability to understand themselves, or to use the gift of intelligence and imagination with which they are born. This, of course, confirms your previously held opinion as to my insanity, I’m sure, but, wait a moment or two, and I might just convince you I’m saner than anyone you know.

You see, I’ve read a LOT of Zippy, and you must understand his metaphorical language use in order to comprehend his meaning. Of course, his next statement could very well veer off into yet another dimension, either figuratively, or literally, but, that’s Zippy for ya. Nonetheless, it doesn’t take away from his compassion, it merely highlights his somewhat stubborn refusal to consider any sort of consistency of focus. He prefers to take it as it comes, so to speak. But, if we examine his words above, we can see it relates, in a purely logical way, to where I left off in our last rant, to wit:

“Is consciousness just a special form of hallucination?”

~~ Frank Herbert ~~

I had intended to finish out this rant with a discussion of the issues involved in the impending environmental and societal crises I see coming in the near future. But, I happened to stop in at a friend’s blog, where she had written a poem introducing the video you see below. The video turns out to be a rather excellent discussion of exactly what I had intended to say; moreover, it comes with graphics to support all the arguments, which is a much more effective way to get the points across; it’s all perfectly clear, and shows exactly how we all have allowed ourselves to be trapped…. I think it will do just fine as a finish to this discussion, thus saving me a bundle of time…. Here then, is The Lie We Live, which I found at: https://ladybluerose.wordpress.com/2016/03/19/8358/

The Lie We Live

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

https://youtu.be/ipe6CMvW0Dg

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

Accentuated Lessons

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

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

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

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

Peace lies within, always…..

~~ gigoid ~~

9/27/2012

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

Naked Pearls

Random Thoughts on Life

*********

You live and learn. Or you don’t live long.

~~ Lazarus Long ~~

*********

You may be capable of great things,
But life consists of small things.

~~ Deng Ming-Dao ~~

*********

To lead the people, walk behind them.

~~ Lao-Tzu ~~

*********

“Given the choice between the experience of pain and nothing,
I would choose pain.”

~~ William Faulkner ~~

*********

“Let us endeavour to live that when we come to die
even the undertaker will be sorry.”

~~ Mark Twain, from Pudd’nhead Wilson’s Calendar (1894) ~~

*********

“We have loved the stars too fondly to be fearful of the night.”

~~ Tombstone epitaph of two astronomers ~~

*********

“An it harm none,
Do what ye will.”

~~ Wiccan Credo ~~

*********

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

There are days when creating a Pearl of Virtual Wisdom makes me wonder just what the hell I’m doing here; today has been one of those. However, it’s done, so, I’ll forgo any further waffling over purpose, and get it posted. I’m a firm believer in “better out than in”, as you may know. In any case, I can’t think of any more ways to torture either of us, so, I’ll give it up for today. I will, regardless of whether or not I wish to do so, be back again tomorrow, simply because I’m one stubborn son of a bitch (sorry, Mom…). See ya….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid, the dubious

The *only* duly authorized Computer Curmudgeon.

PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.

“SCRAM!!!!!!!!!!”- Oscar the Grouch

À bientôt, mon cherí….

Platypae are indefatigable….

Posted on March 17, 2016 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

“He who possesses most must be most afraid of loss.”

~~ Leonardo Da Vinci ~~

Practicing dignity at an early age….

Hajime…. Having engaged last night in an epic battle for sleep, (which I fought to a draw), I greet the new day with some anticipation, if only for the passing of the night. A small bonus; it’s St. Paddy’s Day, a day when every Irishman in the world goes out to find another Irishman to make a speech to, while pulling at a Guinness or five. It’s also said an Irishman is the only man alive who will step over ten women to get a bottle of stout, but, then I never did believe that one. I am, after all, part Irish, and I hate stout….

I see I’ve managed to lose my way with my usual efficiency in such matters. ‘Tis of little consequence today; I’m late, I’m tired, I hurt, and the day stretches out ahead of me with a promise of more. C’est la vie, as they say in Burgundy and the Cote du Rhone, which are across the channel from Cork/Cobh, hiding behind the Isle of Guernsey. Well, I guess the Cote du Rhone is also on the other side of France, but, hey, I’m talking mostly to Americans, who are famous for NOT knowing any geography. And, now, I’ve managed to insult my own audience…. SIGH…. Today, that’s a big, West Counties sigh, complete with huge indrawn breath, and a sad expression of sympathy.

Such dramatic expression is handy, as well; for example, it got me this much further down the page without much effort, with the possibility of leading us in yet another direction. Since to do so would be to lose our way even more so than we already have, I think we should pass on that, and go directly on to the oyster beds, before I completely lose my way. It shouldn’t take long, as Luigi decided to start his St. Paddy’s Day binge a bit early, like yesterday, and Guido had to be called in to get us on our way. I guess we should probably do something about Luigi; he’s getting a bit unreliable…. Ah, well, that’s for later…. For now….

Shall we Pearl?

“I tore myself away from the safe comfort of certainties
through my love for truth – and truth rewarded me.”

~~ Simone de Beauvoir ~~

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

Riverdance-Cloudsong-Photographer-Jack-Hartin

Riverdance

Image from thriftynorthwestmom.com via Google Images

Here is my celebration for Saint Patrick’s Day. I’ve seen this company’s show three times now; it gets better every year, and that is saying something. For your enjoyment, here is a full show, well worth it just for the music; the dance and joy is a bonus…. Enjoy!….

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

Riverdance

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

https://youtu.be/gdVF2pefNpg

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

Given my battle during the night, you probably knew we were going to the archives today…. I’ll try to keep it light….

From 2/9/2014:

“The essence of Christianity is told us in the Garden of Eden history. The fruit that was forbidden was on the tree of knowledge. The subtext is, All the suffering you have is because you wanted to find out what was going on. You could be in the Garden of Eden if you had just keep your fucking mouth shut and hadn’t asked any questions.” — Frank Zappa Playboy Interview, April 1993

Hmm…. Frank’s take on matters are such that I generally find myself in complete agreement with what he says. Here, he has again put his finger on one of the more obvious facets of Christianity, one that defies all logical explanation in lieu of subservient belief, to wit: faith vs. knowledge, and the Christian’s unfortunate tendency to embrace the former, without any appeal to the latter….. To my way of thinking, that is not only foolish, but cowardly….. but, perhaps, that’s just me….

The fruit of the tree of knowledge gives mankind the go-ahead to use the brain with which we were furnished at birth; the preachers would have us abrogate that use, having us, instead, give over all our power of belief into the hands of the faithful, who, naturally, have only our best interests at heart….. Sure they do…. NOT. I’m sorry, but, no matter how many times these folks say so, I am not going to accept that they know better than I what is best for me…. Nope, not even if there were twenty Bibles out there, all proclaiming how true they are…. Oh wait, there are twenty of them, aren’t there?…. Oh, well, you know what I meant….

Why do people fall for this? I cannot understand how people, who are normally reasonably intelligent, will, by conscious choice, bury their heads in the sand to buy into this, without ever taking even one moment to examine any of it for truth, or even logical assumption. Is there some kind of mind-control drug in that incense? Maybe in the sacramental wine…. Whatever it is, it turns normally competent, intelligent people into mindless slaves, and does so with their complete agreement and approval….. To my mind, it is one of history’s saddest, most incomprehensible features, when I look at just how easily people fall for such egregious, and so obviously self-serving idiocy, as most of the dogmatic proclamations of the major religions tend to offer up.

“I hope I never get so old I get religious.” — Ingmar Bergman

I am compelled to add, “Me, too!” to this sentiment…. In the recent past, I’ve been taking a lot of shots at religions, and need to make clear that I do not hate Christians, or Buddhists, or Muslims, or the followers of any religion. I think they are being silly, deliberately and evilly so, at worst, or at best, misguidedly so, but I don’t hate, or fear them, as is the case on their part whenever they consider me, or my criticisms of their beliefs. I don’t hold that against them, either, as it is logically consistent for them to do so, given the limitations of their dogmatic position. Since, however, the fervor with which they will often defend their position can reach a rather fevered pitch, I tend to treat many of them like a stinging insect, so I will move, and speak, slowly and carefully, so as not to frighten them more than they already are….

Ethical and moral behavior is not confined to those who follow the precepts of one religion or another, despite what any of the proponents of those religions will try to tell you. In fact, if you look closely, the number of folks who are believers have a much higher percentage of failure in that area than do the non-believers, which only makes sense…. The believers all have a sense of entitlement that gives them the idea that the rules of behavior don’t always apply to them, in terms of how they treat people who are not of the same faith, so, to those who are not of their own sect, they don’t bother being truthful, or honest, or ethical, as those people don’t count, in their eyes. People who make their own moral codes tend to follow them, and are much more tolerant of those who do not share their beliefs.

Basic human nature dictates these responses in people; thus, one can see how dangerous it is to remain ignorant, in the Biblical sense. Those who choose to buy into the myth of the Garden of Eden, giving up all their personal independence of mind for the comfort and safety of dogma, will always fail to act according to their own morality much of the time, generally acting, instead, out of their sense of entitlement, and the belief that all of their sins will be forgiven, merely by the act of confessing them. Only those who consciously choose their moral code have the courage to act it out, it seems, except for those few people who actually try to live according to the morality that is espoused, and is seldom embraced by their less ethical peers.

Having the strength of mind to make one’s own moral code also implies the courage to act it out…. This is why I choose to deny the dogma I’ve been exposed to all my life, as being illogical, and, ultimately, immoral…. It makes more sense to me to make my own decisions on such matters, and tell the busybodies who assume they know best for all to go jump in a lake…. Even better, just shut the hell up, and get out of the way, so the rest of us can get something relevant done, without having to put up with all the nonsense from that quarter….

“What is a church? Our honest sexton tells, ‘Tis a tall building, with a tower and bells.” — Crabbe

Note from 2014: Since the validity of the above remains strong, I leave you with the following pearl, to finish off this discussion with the proper tone of accusation, and indictment, of those guilty of this sort of crime against humanity….

“The impression somehow prevails that the true believer, particularly the religious individual, is a humble person. The truth is that the surrendering and humbling of the self breeds pride and arrogance.” — Eric Hoffer

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

Finisterre

This was the land’s end: the last fingers, knuckled and rheumatic,
Cramped on nothing. Black
Admonitory cliffs, and the sea exploding
With no bottom, or anything on the other side of it,
Whitened by the faces of the drowned.
Now it is only gloomy, a dump of rocks —-
Leftover soldiers from old, messy wars.
The sea cannons into their ear, but they don’t budge.
Other rocks hide their grudges under the water.

The cliffs are edged with trefoils, stars and bells
Such as fingers might embroider, close to death,
Almost too small for the mists to bother with.
The mists are part of the ancient paraphernalia —-
Souls, rolled in the doom-noise of the sea.
They bruise the rocks out of existence, then resurrect them.
They go up without hope, like sighs.
I walk among them, and they stuff my mouth with cotton.
When they free me, I am beaded with tears.

Our Lady of the Shipwrecked is striding toward the horizon,
Her marble skirts blown back in two pink wings.
A marble sailor kneels at her foot distractedly, and at his foot
A peasant woman in black
Is praying to the monument of the sailor praying.
Our Lady of the Shipwrecked is three times life size,
Her lips sweet with divinity.
She does not hear what the sailor or the peasant is saying —-
She is in love with the beautiful formlessness of the sea.

Gull-colored laces flap in the sea drafts
Beside the postcard stalls.
The peasants anchor them with conches. One is told:
“These are the pretty trinkets the sea hides,
Little shells made up into necklaces and toy ladies.
They do not come from the Bay of the Dead down there,
But from another place, tropical and blue,
We have never been to.
These are our crêpes. Eat them before they blow cold.”

~~ Sylvia Plath ~~

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

Our final pearl today is an eclectic, slightly humorous random, harlequin version of an old-school pearl. I hope you enjoy it, for it is one of my better efforts in a while….

The lake rises above the trees:
The image of Preponderance of the Great.
Thus the superior man, when he stands alone,
Is unconcerned,
And if he has to renounce the world,
He is undaunted.

~~ I Ching ~

“It really doesn’t matter if you’re the prey or the predator, if you want to live to see the sunset, you’ve got to start the day running.” — Realist Bee

“Are we THERE yet?” — Zippy the Pinhead

“Brains first and then Hard Work.” — Eeyore, Pooh’s Little Instruction Book, inspired by A. A. Milne

“A life lived in fear is only half lived.” — Spanish proverb

“You can observe a lot just by watchin’.” — Yogi Berra

“The best way out is always through.” — Robert Frost

“If you’re ridin’ ahead of the herd, take a look back every now and then to make sure it’s still there.” — The Cowboy’s Guide to Life

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

~~ Walt Whitman, Song of Myself ~~

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

Well, it’s done, in spite of some severe demands for attention from our resident familiar, who, for some reason, seems to think today is HER day. Maybe she’s Irish, mixed in with the very apparent Siamese; must be the Calico in her. At any rate, it’s done, and pretty damn fresh, aside from the rant and the poem, which speak for themselves. I’m going to take this opportunity to take my leave, as it were, so, I’ll leave you with my usual caveat, to wit: See y’all tomorrow, ffolkes…. Consider it a matter of submitting to the inevitable….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid, the dubious

The *only* duly authorized Computer Curmudgeon.

PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.

“SCRAM!!!!!!!!!!”- Oscar the Grouch

À bientôt, mon cherí….

Will Robinson was never IN danger….

Posted on March 15, 2016 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

“Toes, knees, NIPPLES. Toes, knees, nipples, KNUCKLES…
Nipples, dimples, knuckles, NICKLES, wrinkles, pimples!!”~~ Zippy the Pinhead ~~

Sunrise/Sunset in Florida

Image from http://katiemiafrederick.com/2016/03/09/womens-day-love/

Hajime…. Should this particular Pearl get posted today, it will be a testament to both indulgence and persistence, an odd pairing, if I’ve ever seen one. Nonetheless, ’tis true as the day. Last night, having consumed a rather larger portion of sleep aid in the form of a Toklas brownie of massive strength, (most ffolkes would sleep for days if they ate such a dose), which had the most excellently delightful effect of tumbling me into sleep, hard and fast, & keeping me there for seven straight. Yay, me!…. However, when I awoke, I was still foggy, and in new pain from not moving so long. As I sat with coffee to write today’s Pearl, I was struck by a wave of fatigue so great, I simply got up, & went back to bed…. Hence. the indulgence.

Two hours later, I’m up, and feeling almost real. Now comes the persistence part, for I will try to get this done today, & get it posted in a reasonable time, disappointing, perhaps, a few early readers, but, with the confidence given by getting the damn thing done at all. So be it. I’m not offering any apologies, or any pleas for patience; it all is what it is, and we’ll all just have to deal with the results. Some of your disappointment will, I hope, be mitigated by the most excellent poem I found for today, sent to me by a friend. You’ll like it; if you don’t, well, you don’t know diddly about poetry, so, it’s your loss….

There, I’ve shown my curmudgeonly side, so I suppose that means we should be off to get this done. I do hope y’all enjoy whatever has happened. If nothing else, it’s unique, if in no other way than for the perseverance needed to get it done. Since I can’t think of any tricks, or magic, we’ll simply leave it at that. If you would kindly fasten your belts, we’ll be off…..

Shall we Pearl?

“Is is not true that we have only one life to live;
if we can read, we can live as many lives
and as many kinds of lives as we wish.”~~ S.I. Hayakawa ~~

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Yep. We’re going default, because I’m in a hurry, and because it always hits the mark. As usual, this compilation was chosen simply for the picture it displays when I see it…. Enjoy!….

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Classical Music

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https://youtu.be/1Cp0ypTnu-8

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Time constraints mean we’re going to the archives, as I didn’t have time to finish the piece upon which I’m working…. Here’s one from a while back; I hope you enjoy it….

From 2/25/2014:

From 12/12/12:

“He who proselytizes in the cause of unbelief is basically a man in need of belief.” — Eric Hoffer

This is true…. you never see an atheist going door to door, trying to convert the pious to their unbeliefs. However, I would go further on this train of thought, and add that, “He who proselytizes, in any cause, in basically a man in need of a life.” I’m sure it occurred to Mr. Hoffer, but he was too busy trying to explain this statement to somebody who didn’t understand the word ‘proselytize’….. For my own case, I have never, ever understood why people feel compelled to go door to door to try to get other people to believe what they believe; it’s one of the most persistent delusional systems I’ve ever witnessed, to believe that anyone wants to hear what they have to say, much less they will find their beliefs palatable to others, or find anyone who believes them to be superior to their own…..

“More people would learn from their mistakes if they weren’t so busy denying they made them.” — Smart Bee

Humans seem to have an immense blind spot when it comes to their own actions and beliefs. Most of them never seem to question the things they are told, even when those things are presented with no evidence other than faith. Of course, the people who are invested in the religious system, to wit: the preachers, begin their indoctrination when their constituents are very young, when they are still prone to accept whatever an adult says as truth. This ensures a life-long predilection for being simple to control…. or, in short, mental slavery, if you will. Unless there is some sort of rebellion of spirit, where new knowledge is injected, these poor saps will spend their entire lives believing that what they have been told is real, when, in fact, they are fitting themselves with shackles, that will forever imprison their minds, and their imagination…..

“To defend one’s self against fear is simply to insure that one will, one day, be conquered by it; fears must be faced.” — James Baldwin

In my life-long quest for the truth, I’ve come to believe that religions, while originally intended to benefit people, (by their iconic progenitors, anyway…. I’m sure Jesus was a quite nice man, and wanted the best for those to whom he preached his own philosophy of compassion….), have historically been taken over by the predators who live to control others.

To be fair, some of those who become priests, or any of the other varieties of religious fanatic that prevail in our society, may indeed believe that their beliefs are true, and act accordingly, but the majority are, as far as I can tell, only concerned with maintaining status quo, thereby benefiting themselves, while never actually allowing any REAL progress in the development of the human condition. They would have society behave as if we were still living in caves, in essence, still cowering in our meager shelter while the storms and lightning are raging outside, terrified of the power of what we do not understand, and, therefore, allow ourselves to fear….

“A universe of death, which God by curse
Created evil, for evil only good;
Where all life dies, death lives,
and Nature breeds Perverse,
all monstrous, all prodigious things,
Abominable, unutterable and worse
Than fables yet have feigned, or fear conceived,
Gorgons, and Hydras, and Chimeras dire.” ~~ Milton, Paradise Lost, Book II ~~

(Side note: I’ll bet Milton had a hard time sleeping….)

The Universe is a big place, and there is a lot to learn. Fearing that knowledge, or fearing what changes that knowing will always bring, is the act of a coward, to my mind, and should not be encouraged. Supernatural beings of unlimited power are not a required component to the understanding of Nature and the Universe; we need not fear that our lack of knowledge of how things work is unattainable. Just because we do not understand a part of reality does not mean that whatever it is, is beyond our understanding.

It is not necessary to ask for exemptions, or intervention by our own personal gods, for us to achieve happiness, or even contentment; that is completely within our own power, if we but acknowledge that part of us that is free, and connected to everything else we can perceive. The connections may not be fully understood, but they are there, and if we can only learn to recognize it, the power to change reality lies within us, all the time…. As Epictetus said, “Happiness lies in learning to accept a simple truth. There are some things you can change. And there are some things you cannot.” It’s really quite that easy, you know, once one learns to accept this fact of life…. No dogma required…..

“If brains were outlawed, nothing would change.” — Smart Bee

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Yesterday, I received an email from a friend, a regular visitor to the blog, who knows I enjoy poetry. She sent me this poem, which she found in her own wanderings around the world of reading. My initial reaction was simply, WOW! My second was to go follow the link to find more of his work, and look forward to seeing more of it. The link is provided below…

Alienation

In the good old days
Before rock and roll
Heroin
The velvet underground
Cocaine
Sid vicious
And assorted bad men
And bad women,
In the good old days

No man and never a woman
Would profess their alienation from society
As society was a god society
And if you were alienated from society
You were in effect alienated from god
Which made you a sinner
An outcast
A candidate for purgatory, hell or if unborn or unbaptised,
Limbo.

Thus a man or woman
Would confess their sins
On the first Friday of each month
In the local church to the priest
Who knew them intimately
Despite the darkness
And the little grilled window
And the closeness of voice to ear

And on the first Saturday
All of society
Would be full again
Of forgiven sinners
And the good old days
Would continue

There are of course flaws in this.
In the new days
You can be alienated
From yourself
Your wife
Your mother
Your father
Your sister
Your whole shit gang bang of people you know
You don’t know

And you listen
To sid vicious
Nirvana
Rammstein
The voices in your head
The dreams of your nightmares
The girls of the canal bank leafy walks
The boys throwing cars at each other in the boreens
The men
The women
The whole gee bang sheebang hee bangs

There are flaws in this

And what you project is no longer god
And so no man or woman is god

Cranky tin pan alleyway of a universe
Cluttered with suffering silence once more
As no one knows the unknown language
Of the unknowable when all you can
Know if the echo chamber of the mind and soul and two pence
Mind we rig up with lights and flashing noise
Known as the modern
Keeps mouthing nonsense on top of nonsense
Without due regard to that fucking boat
That brought us here,

Echos of hades, charon, siren siren siren siren

This morning I watched as crows
Grabbed black pudding left out by my girls
On a small wooden bench

And over the hand made wall of dry stone
A thousand bodies kept each other warm
In that other place, no place, some place, where place, what place,
Marked by lichen crusted stone crosses and then some,

Discord they cawed, discord, discord, as they swooped
And watched with eyes sliding magnetically open and closed
Revealing milky white spectral analysis
Of this small earth ball of mucky matter
Which on closer inspection
Reveals much space between
And the nothing inbetween which makes us more of what we are
Much more so than believing we are flesh or bone or even water

The nothing in between, between, the start of and end of the sentence
That begins I am insert whatever the fuck twixt the blanks,
And no amount of miraculous sonerous beautous melodifications
About blooming effing flower petals nor soulful dirges
Can be the blank in the between

Is it a scream, a whooping holler, a mouth rounded beneath
Roundier eyes miracling a confrontation with all of space
And
Maria Callas does not end on that note, ever.

I told the crows to fuck off. I ate the pudding. It is only fair.
My feathers are darker and more spectacular

Though my girls
Whooped and hollered
As I flew away

A space in space.

~~Brendan McCormack ~~

Dublin, Ireland 1970 –
Irish Poet. Two collections published, ‘Selling Heaven'(2013) and ‘Phuckle – Irish Auf English’, (2014). Both available on Amazon.co.uk.

http://hellopoetry.com/brendan-mccormack/

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Our final old-school pearl today is…. Hmm. Well, it is what it is. It’s somewhat eclectic, though, not really. It’s also rather subtle, but, only in defense of its point, which is, as always, left as an exercise for the Gentle Reader…. Hint: it’s about Life.

“At birth we woke to dream in this world between.” — Kan’ami Kiyotsugu

“If ever I become entirely respectable I shall be quite sure that I have outlived myself.” — Eugene V. Debs

“It is not length of life, but depth of life.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

“A wise man first determines what is within his control; all else is then irrelevant.” — Epictetus

“Courage is the complement of fear. A man who is fearless cannot be courageous. (He is also a fool.)” — Lazarus Long

“Fear nothing, for every renewed effort raises all former failures into lessons, all sins into experiences.” — Katherine Tingley

“Life has no other discipline to impose, if we would but realize it, than to accept life unquestioningly. Everything we shut our eyes to, everything we run away from, everything we deny, denigrate, or despise, serves to defeat us in the end. What seems nasty, painful, evil, can become a source of beauty, joy, and strength, if faced with an open mind. Every moment is a golden one for him who has the vision to recognize it as such.” — Henry Miller

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I did it. Moreover, in some ways, I did it well, though that may only be my sense of accomplishment talking. Y’all will, of course, make the final judgment on that. Me, I’m gonna go start another Pearl while I’m hot, while simultaneously attempting to distract and entertain my resident familiar, Leelu the Annoyed Magicat. Wish me luck, because I’ll need it. Her routine has been seriously disrupted today, and cats don’t like that much…. Ah, well, I can do it. And, I’ll do it well enough to make another attempt tomorrow…. See y’all then, like it or not….

Which is Why….

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

gigoid, the dubious

The *only* duly authorized Computer Curmudgeon.

PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.

“SCRAM!!!!!!!!!!”- Oscar the Grouch

À bientôt, mon cherí….

gigoid

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

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