A rock in the path

Benton Mackaye Trail

It begins as a lark. You just meet. You find out about this person. Then it winds up as something more. You've not figured out yet, just what it is. That comes later, afterward, when it transforms to it's next state.

The amorphous feeling of infatuation is intoxicating. It's strike can be deadly and leave you in recovery for years to come. Be warned of it, it can lead you down a road from which you may never return.

At least without the help of professionals.

I have fallen, and gotten up. I dust myself off, and move along down this path when I stumble upon a rock unseen. The trail is lovely and filled with wonders. Flowers scent the air and butterflies tumble to alight softly, pause, then vanish in a flutter of wings. The stream, background noise gurgling Doppler effect, changing slightly in the depths of your hearing as you travel past.

What miracles lie ahead beyond the ridge,  terrors of overturned rock trapped in geological process, or other slithering hidden magic. Traveling the path ahead is rigorous climbing, the loose gravel shuffling underfoot.

Step lightly, and tread softly with patience for the summit is in reach.

The Wolf is always at the Door

Nothing makes sense at times, but there's always the simplicity of bliss.

We move through this life, doing our best to find some ultimate happiness. If we are lucky, we find some transient bliss that will carry us through the long spans of time when there is none. We have it within us to live within memories for our entire lives, sometimes this can be a benefit, but others it is a handicap.

The bliss, when we find it can be transformative and comforting, bringing us back to life from the long slumber we fall into in response to the pitfalls of daily living. Schedules, responsibilities, and the mundane business of making in this world today all have worn us thin to bare threads, financially and spiritually. Today, we are even more in ill-repose to our blissful lives, we are desensitized by media, our attentions impacted by technology, and our hearts hardened by the constant stream of bad news blaring from every open port.

But, there is a richness in the undercurrent of living which bliss can bring to us. Whether it is the comfort of friendship, the caress of a lover, or the sanctity of a marriage, all of us are craving completion whether we will admit to it or not. Some try to fill the voids with work and personal accomplishments, eventually, they find themselves alone with a wealth and richness of the self, but lacking the simple bliss that another person can bring to their lives. This world is better when it is shared with another, I can vouch for that.

If you find somebody to love in this world, you better hang on tooth and nail. The wolf is always at the door. -- from "New York Minute" by Don Henley.

Llife cycle of the December mosquito

This is a very rare species of mosquito. Seldom seen, it shows up usually in homes in the earlier parts of winter and late autumn. The mosquito begins life typically the same as other species of mosquitoes, until the eventual disruption of their habitat by dumping out collected water in flower pots where they breed. These mosquitoes are abnormally slow moving, likely due to lowered temperatures. Typically their lifecycle ends by a vicious swat against a wall with a magazine, newspaper, or in desperate instances a bare hand.

I started wondering why I was ocasionally seeing a mosquito langourously roving about my apartment. When, to my surprise I found they were breeding in my houseplants, recenly moved inside ahead of the impending frost. I had to end them in their larval state, flipping about in the standing water, their rarity, and their last gasp of summer's bliss.

Tomorrow is your yesterday today.

Lately, finding it quite difficult to tell what day it is. I've switched to nights, and when I fall asleep and wake up, it's effectively the same day, but it seems like tomorrow to me. Despite the fact that I'm sleeping through the most active parts of the day, I still feel like I have more time. Trying to get myself back into the writing habit, so maybe I'll be updating this little corner of the internet more often with excerpts of wisdom from the antipodes of my mind.

Profits

You know, it's dumb if we have the capabilities of utilizing alternate energies, why aren't we? It's way past time that we drop the whole 'profits' argument and make all of this about something much bigger.

Laquinta, Larieka, la, la, de, doo, be doo

Sorry folks, but we have a strict code when it comes to pronounciation, grammatical use, and diction. Don't be sitting there thinking to yourself when you're naming your kids and trying your best to combine your names together that you can simply ignore some of the basic rules of pronunciation.

Otherwise, you're damming your child to a lifetime of confusion.

All of this ridiculousness is coming from my daily interactions with individuals with non-traditional names, you know, like Bud, Charlie, Cindy, Wilma, or Earnestine. All those are earthy names and you can hang your hat on those. But today, we're getting a plethora of ridiculous names which don't make any sense whatsover, ie. "Sparkle Titsworth" or "Peanuts Huckabone".

Who would subject their offspring to such a life that must be endured, and not lived?

This message brought to you by the foundation for a brighter tomorrow.

Creative anchor

I have too many projects in my mind. I think I have ADD. I get all of these ideas, I want to do them all at once, but in the process of starting on one of them, I get another idea that I start on. My end result?

A ton of unfinished projects.

Reflections on terrible meals

I have a terrible habit of giving second chances. Today, for instance, I visited a local chinese eatery, Kim-San. It had to have been one of the worst meals that I've ever had. I'm fairly certain that it was microwaved, the broccoli was not fresh, it was rubbery, the chicken was chewy and not firm, and well I'm paying for it now with indigestion. I knew from previous experience that there food was subpar, but that was several years ago, so yes....still their food is subpar.

It still can't compare to the worst lasagne that I have ever had. That, was courtesy of my ex-wife. It was her recipe to not cook the lasagne noodles prior to building the lasagne and baking it. It was so bad, and rock-hard. At least, it didn't give me indigestion, since it was inedible.

What is this LIfe thing?

What the fuck is this Life thing all about anyway?

Some people are all "Hey, you should get a life." But, those people that are being told to get a life probably already have one, that some passive-agressive schmuck is judging their life against yours.

If I were Andy Rooney, you could hear me saying, " Life, what the fuck is it really about."

We're on this rock a good 80 years, if we are lucky. Yeah, for certain in that space of time we are going to make a few mistakes.

I know I've made my share of them, and I continue to make them, much likely judged by this posting. As well as my current need to critique my need for posting a retractionary cautionism. You're right, that is not a word.



Despite these idiosyncracies. This abberancy of genetics, heredity, ancestry, and  astrology I am but a human being and prone to make many mistakes.

I think often, should I take back some of those mistakes which I fell have played such a large factor in determining my present state of questionable-being.  I come to a split resoloution, and I'm able to see both outcomes in crystal clarity, and usually at the penultimate interpretation of my own myraid facetiousness, I come to the conclusion that it's better to have made the mistakes, and benefitted from them.

Whether the benefit is a specific person in your life, a house that you might not have gotten, a child, or some other product of a road perhaps not-taken; without mistakes we do not advance ourselves spiritually or mentally.

With my own hindsights, I can see choices which I made that had specific outcomes. While, many of those choices have come to very undesirable outcomes, others have brought me great joys. So, while it's entirely feasible, we are all the products of our mistakes, it does serve the spirit to revisit some of those past mistakes, and find our own peace with where we are as a result.

So, I suppose I could close this up with the central notion that we're really the product of our mistakes. We all have things we'd rather not have done, places we'd rather not have gone, or any patchwork of adverbs and ennuendo, but really if we wouldn't have been to all of those places. We would have never have got this this, the illustrious now.

Try not to screw anything else up today.

The Gulf between us

It's becoming increasingly more difficult for me to understand why with all of the prowess of technology we have as a planet, that we can't stop this gushing oil in the Gulf. And it could leak until December?

Way to go and pollute the entire planet's oceans!

We have put people on the moon. created technologies that 50 years ago would seem magical, made tremendous advances in medicine, and we've managed to engineer systems to kill ourselves through chemistry. But, we can't stop a leak 5000ft below sea-level? If BP and the US Government can't marshall the forces to stop this, then it starts to become a global issue.

I am wondering if the oil, as it combines with the sea water will be absorbed into the water cycle and rained back as acid rain?

I think that unless something drastic is done in how this situation is being handled, that we will be dooming ourselves.
I shudder to think of the pale blue waters of the gulf suddenly turned to dingy brackish black water streaked with chemicals and devoid of any life.

The potter's wheel

I sometimes wonder what the point of all of the questioning is. Are all of these questions, all of these hardships and universals truths just fodder for the grindstone? Do they just wear off all of these hard edges in my imperfect foms? Sometimes, I think that I look forward to a day when I'm finally made smooth in this potter's wheel, when all of the ridges and rough edges in my character are smoothed out and I am finally made a perfect being. Then, I wonder if that day will ever come. If that ultimate perfection will ever come to fruition. Will the smoothness of the spirit ever be made physical?

Oh, this imperfect clay. Tossed by the winds of Man on this wheel spun 'round and only You understand it's wobble.

You're not wrong.

When you think you might be wrong, but then someone proves you so indelibly right. You're not wrong.

The only reason that I even make a point to mention this is that I've just been proven so undeniably wrong that it practically just kills me. But with all things, if you're right, and if you're right without question than just live your life knowing it no matter the cost.

Because, it is what is meant to be. It's what is practical. Just accept it, and go on. Because, it's only going to be your issue.

No one else is going to give a shit about it.

So in the end, you'll only hurt yourself unless you just make yourself happy.

How are you doing?

There's nothing more fulfilling than being asked this question repeatedly during a day. The worst part of it is, no one really is interested in hearing the answer, and we're all bound to the conventions of knowing that no one is really interested in telling the asker how the asked is 'really' doing.

So why do it? It's empty. It doesnt' mean anything. Let's just all agree, that we are all doing shitty, and stop asking each other empty questions that we're really not concerned with knowing.

It will be much more efficient.

iSimplify

 I sometimes think that we are rapidly reaching the limits of our ability to consume the technologies we have produced.
(See Peter Principal )
I have been finding lately that I am on an information overload. Especially, by the end of the day, when I've either consumed a bajillioin bytes of information through my brain.Maybe, it's age beginning to catch up with my brain. It's more than likely, fatigue setting in.

Despite that, society has enabled this, technology overload and has even responded with the stop gap measures until society as a whole will respond, economically, politically, and intellectually. Perhaps, the best response to the gap in technical know-how and user confidence, is by creating a Corporate Help Desk America.

We're all certainly familiar with the help desk, technical support lines, inter-office tech support, and generally the whole 'geek' culture. But, the culture, beyond being supremely annoying. Has, in itself handicapped humanity to the point of invalidity. When, you must enlist a team of individuals to answer a call for help where the answer is to turn off a printer, wait 15 seconds, and turn it back on so that a meaningless report can be produced. There is a problem.

Walden seems a long way away from where we are today, in this age and time. The Earth is fit to pop with humankind covering all of the nooks and crannies of the planet. Almost weekly, we're finding new species on the globe which we've never seen. The reach of man, the breadth of mankind has spread to cover the globe in even the most imaginably remote locations.

Our knowledge as a race has increased exponentially, the technology we have now, would seem magical 50 years ago. A mere 100 years ago, we were an agrairian society. The food systems currently in place today, would be unheard of.

In your neigborhood, at  your grocers, you could go down and get a freshly ground up piece of beef from 1 cow which you could then take home and prepare in whichever fashion you preferred. However, today you can't go to your local grocer and get a fresh piece of meat from 1 animal. Instead, you get a piece of meat that is frozen in another part of the country and sent to your local grocery store. Sure, there are some lucky enough to have a good source of fresh meat!

 The Butchershop is a good example of how drastically things have changed and how completely out of touch we are with our very basic needs for sustenance. To live along with the land, to live off the land you gain an intimate knowledge of where your food is coming from. Whether you are growing it, or killing it, you are well aware that it is fresh and untainted by the hands of man. As recently as 50 years ago, you could go to a local butcher and get a fresh piece of meat to take home and cook up. Last week, when I bought "fresh" meat It was frozen. 

Plus, the fish I bought was from India. A fact which I didn't immediately notice at the grocer's.

Along with technology's development and creating the systems to get the worlds food out to the masses, we're running aground on the shore of this uncharted island.

The incompentence of mankind. We're getting to the threshold of society where the inability of the animal Man is being challenged to process, create, use, digest, consume, and reprocess more of his world, his resources, and his mentality every day.
Our society has gotten complex, evolving on a momenty by moment basis, and covered from every angle by a commentator with a very important sounding name.

I can't speak for anyone else.

But, it seems that it's time to simplify things.

Span

My Shortened attentio

Overly Positive People

I'm not down with OPP.

I'm not the most negative person, sure I can be pretty cynical at times, but the customer service field seems to be inundated with OPP. Most of their 'positivity' comes across as dripping little acidic knives of falsity. It drives me crazy.

When I hear someone going to great lengths to sound positive, so much so that it sounds forced and fake, it makes me want to jam a fork in my head.

So, sure, be positive. But, foremost, be real about it.