tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29914922012-01-19T12:13:23.577-05:00Curiosita<em>Surviving in the left-brained world...</em>-mbnoreply@blogger.comBlogger931100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2991492.post-12039352990265482252012-01-19T12:13:00.000-05:002012-01-19T12:13:23.590-05:00"That the value of a telecommunications
network is proportional to the square of
the number of connected users of the system (n2)."
- Metcalfe's Law
A Facebook entity known as "Revolution News Network" posted this extremely thought-provoking article, which I personally believe every US citizen ought to be reading and commiting to memory. I also believe every US citizen ought to take to -mbnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2991492.post-55166346302860910432011-10-19T13:16:00.000-04:002011-10-19T13:16:19.147-04:00“There are risks and costs to a program of
action, but they are far less than the long-range
risks and costs of comfortable inaction.”
- USA President John F. Kennedy
I hate what's going on in this country, and a dramatic example of the worst aspects of what I hate showed up in today's news digest. Last night, outspoken author, political activist and feminist Naomi Wolf was arrested and led-mbnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2991492.post-22419689176818998682011-10-08T09:19:00.000-04:002011-10-08T09:19:27.906-04:00"When you choose the lesser of two evils,
always remember that it is still an evil."
- Max Lerner, political commentator
I'm sick to death of hearing and reading comments from people who offer up the "lesser of two evils" as justification for whatever lame, misguided action they've taken or are about to take. Take the TSA apologists (please, take them), for example, who say that although the-mbnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2991492.post-33987300727890254062011-05-16T13:52:00.000-04:002011-05-16T13:52:23.669-04:00 Thou shalt remain, in midst of other woe
Than ours, a friend to man, to whom thou say'st,
'Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.'
- John Keats, Ode to a Grecian Urn
Independent thinking requires full consciousness and mindfulness of what we choose to accept or refuse. Part of what makes that independent thinking so -mbnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2991492.post-24702188525542222412011-03-17T11:20:00.001-04:002011-03-17T11:22:41.935-04:00Our environmental problems originate in the
hubris of imagining ourselves as the central
nervous system or the brain of nature. We're not
the brain, we are a cancer on nature.
- Dave Foreman
My spouse is a retired nuclear physicist. We've been watching the tragedy in Japan unfold for a week now, and he's horrified by what's going on. This morning, I heard him typing at his desk, and an -mbnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2991492.post-35275896800797380272011-02-22T13:11:00.000-05:002011-02-22T13:11:16.994-05:00All animals are created equal,
but some animals are more equal
than others.
- George Orwell, Animal Farm
Sometimes the story just has to reach you in pictures. Since my page design doesn't allow the full display I've provided you with a link to another page where the image does properly appear.
I promise, it's worthwhile to click the link:
"TSA Gone Wild"
The whole, horrible history of -mbnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2991492.post-49979536454210107982010-12-11T08:46:00.002-05:002011-01-30T10:40:39.610-05:00It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks
were striking thirteen.
- George Orwell, 1984
Two days ago, I received an email invitation from President Bill Clinton asking me for a donation of $5 or more to help pay off his wife's campaign debt. To sweeten the deal, Mr. Clinton said that for as little as a $5 contribution, I'd be entered in a drawing to win a free trip to New York City -mbnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2991492.post-56931689065157031392010-10-27T20:38:00.002-04:002010-10-28T15:58:30.373-04:00All power tends to corrupt,
and complete power tends to
corrupt absolutely.
- Lord Acton
Here's a later-breaking update of my last update. The comments are back up. As of right now, more than 1,900. I guess they can't decide which is worse; taking them down, or leaving them up.
Curioser and curioser.
R.B.
# # #
Here's a late-breaking update.
As of 7:00 PM (-5:00 GMT), there were in -mbnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2991492.post-55059594858695243532010-10-27T13:07:00.001-04:002010-10-27T23:41:33.585-04:00Maura Kelly is a very provocative
blogger. She was an anorexic herself
and this is a subject she feels very
strongly about.
- Joanna Coles, marie claire Editor-In-Chief
Plenty of people are up in arms across the Internet today over the blog posting Maura Kelly wrote for her editor Kate Schweitzer at MarieClaire.com. Tempers are frayed, hot accusations are being hurled, and howls are -mbnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2991492.post-30071662875061963032010-10-24T13:20:00.013-04:002011-02-01T11:18:52.692-05:00"Where love rules, there is no will to power,
and where power predominates, love is lacking.
The one is the shadow of the other."
- C.G. Jung
A man in my town murdered his mother-in-law, his wife, and his two children (son aged 4, daughter aged 2) this summer. After his rampage ended, he stayed overnight in the house. He used his laptop to create and print more than one version of his -mbnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2991492.post-51503366140198946032010-09-22T18:07:00.001-04:002010-10-27T23:41:56.367-04:00Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?
- "Yip" Harburg, lyrics and Jay Gorney, composer
Even though our government is trying to make us believe that the economy's again on an upswing, I find that really hard to believe. The national Bureau of Labor Statistics provides compiled statistics that completely undermine the Administration's efforts to rally and cheer us. As of the end of August, 2010, the -mbnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2991492.post-78845669322694371872010-09-09T00:35:00.001-04:002010-10-27T23:41:51.750-04:00Treat everyone with politeness,
even those who are rude to you--
not because they are nice,
but because you are.
~Anonymous
When Steven Slater delivered his parting shot at the rude, annoying passenger and then slid down the emergency chute with a couple of bottles of beer in hand, he probably lived out many a flight attendant's darkest fantasy and provided them with a guilty, vicarious -mbnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2991492.post-41657076975347225692010-06-17T11:02:00.001-04:002010-06-18T00:59:34.177-04:00It is easier for a camel to go
through the eye of a needle,
than for a rich man to enter
into the kingdom of God.
- Bible (Mark 10:25), King James version
When it comes to the really, really rich, I guess there's no limit to the weirdness.
Bill Gates and Warren Buffett are now of the opinion that the world in general, and the human condition in particular, could be vastly improved if -mbnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2991492.post-60505981147424755232010-04-10T21:04:00.000-04:002010-06-18T00:59:10.116-04:00Anger cannot be dishonest.
- Marcus Aurelius, Stoic philosopher
Anger rises like bile in my throat as I am typing. The truth is, I'm at the mercy of yet another dishonest man who does the dirty work for his dishonest employer. He, like so many others just like him, uses my lack of mechanical expertise as a way to extract money from my pockets.
A few days ago, something in the exhaust system-mbnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2991492.post-11208143420590036182010-03-16T15:42:00.001-04:002010-03-16T15:52:13.529-04:00We the people of the United States, in order to form
a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic
tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the
general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to
ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this
Constitution for the United States of America.
- Preamble, United States Constitution
I received yet another-mbnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2991492.post-20792857771387612182010-02-13T18:42:00.002-05:002010-02-13T18:46:18.702-05:00Love makes the world go 'round.
- anonymous
About love and intimacy with men.
I've been learning some lessons recently about this very thing from watching my son with his brand-new daughter. Shortly before she was born, he was agitated enough to ask me, "I've never been so happy in my life; before I was married, I was nowhere. What will happen if the baby comes, and she doesn't love me any -mbnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2991492.post-7984614187910618032010-02-09T22:12:00.000-05:002010-02-13T18:43:03.809-05:00“Be what you would seem to be--or, if you'd
like it put more simply--never imagine yourself not to
be otherwise than what it might appear to others that
what you were or might have been was not otherwise
than what you had been would have appeared to them
to be otherwise.”
- Lewis Carroll
I occasionally look at the visitor statistics for this website. I know that there are many people who-mbnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2991492.post-32768178751216553012010-01-27T12:27:00.002-05:002010-03-13T01:17:19.307-05:00Introducing the new 7 Weeks Challenge 2010
(back by popular demand), where we encourage each
other to set wringing goals and meet them in the next 7
weeks (our deadline is, conveniently, St. Patrick's Day).
- Brian A. Klems, Newsletter Editor,
Writer's Digest Magazine
Another day, another rant. This week, I've received two emails that set my teeth on edge. The first arrived several -mbnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2991492.post-20921771120719807152009-11-26T16:27:00.001-05:002010-01-04T09:56:21.673-05:00"And what rough beast,
its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born."
— W.B. Yeats
A friend recently told me that she was so involved with her work, time had completely fallen away, and she didn't even know what day it was. I laughingly replied that she ought to see if she could work out a deal with the moon to get some more epagomenal days.
When Nut was pregnant, -mbnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2991492.post-20754672645550917082009-11-12T10:58:00.000-05:002009-11-12T10:59:36.040-05:00 No clever arrangement of bad eggs will make a good omelet.
- C.S. Lewis
Like most people today, I'm cautious about how I spend my money. Discretionary spending is a thing of the past. I live frugally, and I carefully track my expenditures against my income. There are challenges at times--occasionally, things go wrong without warning--hard drives crash, roofs develop leaks, windows break, -mbnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2991492.post-55394290694007032972009-10-20T12:10:00.000-04:002009-10-27T09:58:35.147-04:00A fool and his money are soon parted."
- Thomas Tusser
I received a noteworthy email this morning. I offer it without comment, typos and grammar intact:
Dear Friend,
I am MR MAYO JARRAR the manager In charge at the bill and exchange department BANK OF AFRICA (B.O.A) In my department the bank management discovered an abandoned sum of $15m US dollars ( fifteen million US Dollars) . In an-mbnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2991492.post-36133604754193571292009-10-15T11:09:00.001-04:002009-10-27T09:58:58.363-04:00Oft in the lone church yard at night I've seen,
By glimpse of moonshine chequering thro' the trees,
The school boy, with his satchel in his hand,
Whistling aloud to bear his courage up
- "The Grave" by Robert Blair
Here is a sampling of the headlines I faced when I went to Google News this morning. It's not for the faint of heart to read:
"Gunmen, Bombers Hit 4 Sites in Pakistan; 37 Die," "-mbnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2991492.post-11048024192992844282009-09-29T20:11:00.001-04:002009-12-05T14:24:57.603-05:00“I still have my feet on the ground, I just wear
better shoes.”
- Oprah Winfrey
The publication in May 2009 of a relatively non-wavemaking medical study went largely unnoticed by major media outlets. The study, titled "Foot pain: Is current or past shoewear a factor?" was funded by the American College of Rheumatology Research and Education Foundation Abbott Health Professional Graduate -mbnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2991492.post-90260576883571293492009-07-15T18:07:00.000-04:002009-07-30T10:10:32.719-04:00Therefore Sarah laughed within herself,
saying, After I am waxed old shall I have
pleasure, my lord being old also?
- Genesis 18:12
Where to begin? We begin today with an ending. With a death, and an obituary.
Maria del Carmen Bousada de Lara has died at the age of 69 years, in Cadiz, Andalusia, from cancer. Her death is noteworthy because of who she leaves behind. Her twin two-year-old -mbnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2991492.post-77165789932164580472009-07-02T10:01:00.001-04:002009-07-02T10:06:40.368-04:00"The ideal tyranny is that which is ignorantly
self-administered by its victims. The most perfect
slaves are, therefore, those which blissfully and
unawaredly enslave themselves."
- Dresden James
I recently had occasion to send an email that described some recent contacts I'd had with the medical community--primary care physician, specialists, surgeons, test technicians, and hospitals--an -mbnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2991492.post-34796293841715855402009-05-20T15:48:00.013-04:002009-06-27T19:46:37.591-04:00"I call it a week of Utopia..."
- Shelley Ackerman, IWWG Member
Call it what you will--Utopia is certainly fitting, in my opinion--but whatever you call it, you need to do whatever you can do right now to attend The International Women's Writing Guild 32nd annual Remember the Magic summer conference on the campus of Skidmore College, in Saratoga Springs, New York.
From June 12th through the -mbnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2991492.post-63440350566740815422009-04-24T09:02:00.002-04:002009-04-24T09:05:02.930-04:00“We cannot do great things on this Earth,
only small things with great love.”
- Mother Theresa
I attended the IWWG Big Apple Conference in New York City last weekend. Not only did I have the enormous privilege and pleasure of participating in the Authors Panel Discussion on Sunday and then meeting several leading literary agents, but I participated in the all-day workshop on Saturday, conducted-mbnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2991492.post-30941325260409738672009-03-27T20:58:00.003-04:002009-04-10T11:20:32.767-04:00It is not so much our friends' help
that helps us as the confident knowledge
that they will help us.
- Epicurus
Know someone who is grieving? Help is on the way.
Wakefield, MA – March 26, 2009
Sourcebooks, Inc. (Naperville, Illinois) announces the release of 101 Ways You Can Help: How to Offer Comfort & Support to Those Who Are Grieving, by Liz Aleshire. The book contains 101 sensible, -mbnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2991492.post-4443391870715280062009-03-02T11:31:00.002-05:002009-03-02T11:35:35.412-05:00“You cannot prevent the birds of sorrow
from flying over your head, but you can prevent
them from building nests in your hair.”
- ancient Chinese Proverb
I've just finished reading a story from the Evansville CourierPress. It's arguably the worst I've read in a very, very long time.
An 18-year-old tried to rid herself of head lice with gasoline, and ended up with severe burns over more than -mbnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2991492.post-14329732397898181822009-02-27T12:34:00.002-05:002009-02-27T12:44:22.512-05:00“If it sounds too good to be true, it
probably isn't.”
- anonymous
A friend recently forwarded an email to me, figuring I'd be excited about the opportunity it presented--a work-from-home job that would pay me big bucks for simple data entry.
I hear terrible stories all the time about how cons and scams are perpetrated against unsuspecting and trusting people--and when it comes to computers,-mbnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2991492.post-24639095196923788542009-01-28T11:25:00.005-05:002009-12-05T14:33:58.282-05:00“Most of the luxuries and many of the
so-called comforts of life, are not only not
indispensable, but positive hindrances to
the elevation of mankind.”
- H.D. Thoreau
How many gadgets does it take before you know you've got too many? Honestly, I don't have the answer, but I wish I did. This question rises after I realized that I spend a goodly portion of my life tending to things that I -mbnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2991492.post-47614238614366537502009-01-25T21:04:00.006-05:002009-12-05T14:26:58.634-05:00“People are like stained-glass windows. They sparkle
and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in,
their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light
from within.”
- E. Kubler-Ross
I've been reading accounts of the death of Mariana Bridi da Costa. The details of how her life changed, and then ended, are at once horrible, ironic, and mythic.
da Costa, a 20-year-old model -mbnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2991492.post-55093533672507397952009-01-15T15:13:00.010-05:002009-01-15T16:22:18.713-05:00"The prostitute has come to symbolize
for me the ultimate liberated woman,
who lives on the edge and whose
sexuality belongs to no one."
- Camille Paglia
Let's get something straight. I'm not a prude. I'm a person who is perfectly comfortable in the presence of adult conversation, adult bodies of both sexes, adult acts, and adult toys. However, I do believe that there are some things best not -mbnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2991492.post-77850521480256352492009-01-08T00:23:00.004-05:002009-01-08T01:10:56.836-05:00Thou shalt not steal.
- God, according to the King James Bible
Man. Just when I think I've heard it all, I hear something new that just
leaves me scratching my head, wondering how we ever got into this
mess in the first place. This one's a beauty, though.
According to a January 6th article by Motoko Rich that I read in
the NY Times, Neale Donald Walsch, who wrote the wildly popular
"-mbnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2991492.post-77041424863047924022009-01-01T12:31:00.010-05:002009-01-01T13:38:56.923-05:00 And we’ll tak a cup o’ kindness yet,
For auld lang syne.
-Robert Burns
It's the first day of the new calendar year. It's too cold outside, so I figure I'll just take an internal constitutional today.
For the first time in two decades, we missed spending New Year's Eve with our friends. There was a snow storm yesterday that made the roads dangerous for driving. By mid-afternoon, we -mbnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2991492.post-25122274302197215672008-12-12T11:09:00.005-05:002008-12-12T21:41:22.446-05:00From error to error, one discovers the entire truth.
- Sigmund Freud
I've just spent the last three hours being aggravated. Not in the usual, "ooh-I'm-so annoyed" kind of aggravated that I now and again hit, but in the "get-me-a-handgun,-I'll-solve-this-problem" kind of towering rage that I reserve for real idiots. The "idiots" in this case are an author, a bookseller, and the -mbnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2991492.post-31092926702879501292008-11-03T17:18:00.004-05:002009-04-12T11:11:51.297-04:00"In God We Trust."
- Motto of the United States of America
I just read the news. Senator Barack Obama's grandmother lost her fight against cancer, and died today, only twenty-four hours away from the outcome of the historic campaign.
I wanted to send a note to the family, offering condolences, but I couldn't get through on the website. I'm hoping it is because there is such an outpouring of -mbnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2991492.post-62040508984411120832008-10-12T12:26:00.007-04:002009-04-25T00:51:55.875-04:00"There's a sucker born every minute."
P.T. Barnum, empresario
I haven't written here in a long time. I mean, a really long time. I've got reasons, of course, the usual excuses--I've been busy trying to launch a new business, I've had to deal with some family health issues, I've been following the downward glide of our once-great country as it loses steam, and readies for a devastating crash -mbnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2991492.post-1119961062841083752005-06-28T07:50:00.000-04:002005-06-28T08:20:46.703-04:00To be, or not to be, that is the question.
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind
to to take up arms against a sea of troubles,
and by opposing, end them...
It's been a while, and I've been busy. We've all been busy, and everyone of us struggles to stay afloat in the sea of troubles we know as our daily lives.
Some peoples' lives are worth noting, however, for the ferocity, bravery, and tenacity -mbnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2991492.post-1067295732656197712003-10-30T13:21:00.001-05:002009-01-17T20:34:00.340-05:00"I'm not sure... about automobiles....
With all their speed forward they may be a
step backward in civilization - that is, in
spiritual civilization. It may be that they
will not add to the beauty of the world, nor
to the life of men's souls. I am not sure.
But automobiles have come, and they bring a
greater change in our life than most of us
suspect. They are here, and almost all
outward -mbnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2991492.post-1066673512024711212003-10-20T14:12:00.002-04:002009-10-18T21:34:30.732-04:00It isn't so astonishing, the number of things that I can
remember, as the number of things I can remember that
aren't so.
- Mark Twain, a Biography
Try as I might, I can't keep facts straight from place to place, year to year, person to person. Not that I'm a natural-born liar, although as a writer, I do have family members, friends, and even enemies who are willing to attest to exactly -mbnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2991492.post-1058750498124807712003-07-20T21:21:00.001-04:002009-01-17T20:09:08.403-05:00Why grab possessions like thieves, or divide them like
socialists when you can ignore them like wise men?
- Natalie Clifford Barney, socialite and heiress
Last night, there was a Levenger catalog, a pre-approved credit card, and a J. Jill’s catalog waiting on the kitchen table for me when I got home. I briefly scanned the catalogs, but the credit card invitation went straight into the trash. -mbnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2991492.post-947532552003-05-22T16:33:00.000-04:002008-10-12T12:25:53.983-04:00Who's on first?
- Lou Abbott
It's difficult for me to believe that so many months have passed since my last entry in this blog.
I tell myself, "Today, I'm going to write," and then somehow, today becomes tomorrow, and tomorrow becomes next week, and ... well, you know how this goes, right?
The difference is, whether I write today or tomorrow is actually a point of pain for me, -mbnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2991492.post-820461032002-09-24T11:18:00.000-04:002008-10-12T12:25:54.012-04:00I have not observed men’s honesty to
increase with their riches.” — Thomas Jefferson
I have just finished browsing through what is probably the most honest, although astonishing admission ever to reach me from a writer.
On the celebrity news site, "Page Six," a small item about author Stephen King's response to an interviewer asking him if he'd miss publishing. Here is the response he -mbnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2991492.post-810679022002-09-02T21:47:00.002-04:002009-06-21T23:31:54.924-04:00We are healed of a suffering only by experiencing
it in full.
-- Marcel Proust
I have finished fifteen hours of grueling, mind-bending work at a dear friend's home. I downloaded, installed and configured virus-checking software on her Thinkpad, and also on her darling's Presario. Once installed, I ran full scans on both machines, and discovered both were infected with Trojan polymorph -mbnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2991492.post-805013942002-08-20T21:40:00.000-04:002008-10-12T12:25:54.373-04:00The end of all scribblement is to entertain."
- Jonathan Swift
I had a sobering moment at the local bookseller's today.
Let me give a little background information here. I write a regular newspaper column about journalers, focusing on topics and issues, rather than on the mechanics and how-to-do-its. Week after week, I slog through published journals, some dating back several -mbnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2991492.post-804248562002-08-19T07:57:00.000-04:002008-10-12T12:25:54.427-04:00"Go, and catch a falling star,
Get with child a mandrake root,
Tell me, where all past years are,
Or who cleft the Devil's foot."
- J. Donne
I was at a birthday party last weekend. Since it was such a lovely night, we decided to move ourselves outdoors, where we could enjoy the perfect summer night and the stars. We had a wonderful time, with good food, good drink, -mbnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2991492.post-799959352002-08-08T16:24:00.000-04:002008-10-12T12:25:54.552-04:00"Pay as much attention to the things that are
working positively in your life as you do to those that
are giving you trouble."
- Life's Little Instruction Book
A friend and I were having conversation over dinner the other night. The last time we were together, she was edgy and anxious. She was doing a great deal of soul searching, and in the course of her investigation, she -mbnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2991492.post-797300382002-08-02T07:56:00.000-04:002008-10-12T12:25:54.621-04:00"From error to error one discovers the entire truth."
- S. Freud"
Bias and prejudice creep up on us in the most insidious ways. We calmly go about our business, wending our way through the myriad contortions our lives afford us, and the whole while, we are being conditioned. That's a passive sentence, and it's a passive act I'm describing. I've come to the conclusion that it's impossible-mbnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2991492.post-781777632002-06-25T10:31:00.000-04:002008-10-12T12:25:54.646-04:00"Ain't nobody here but us chickens..."
In fewer than three hours, I'm on my way to the other side of the world. I have packed, re-packed (you don't want to know about this, trust me), and winnowed my life's possessions for the next four weeks down to one goodly sized suitcase (it's sort of an enormous duffel-bag thing), stuffed as full as I can get it, and one carry-on backpack, full of paper-mbnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2991492.post-770238492002-05-27T10:29:00.002-04:002008-10-15T08:09:33.925-04:00 "Would you tell me, please dear
Cheshire Puss, which way I ought to go from here?'"
"That depends a good deal on where you want to
get to," said the Cat.
"I don't much care where," said Alice.
"Then it doesn't matter which way you go,"
said the Cat.
- Lewis Carroll
Today is my birthday. I'm moving into my second half-century, and I'm sitting here wondering what it's all -mbnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2991492.post-765095252002-05-13T17:23:00.000-04:002008-10-12T12:25:54.768-04:00"Ask not for whom the bell tolls,
It tolls for thee..."
- John Donne
Mercy. This was absolutely the worst day I can remember.
I went to the funeral service today for Rolf and Amy Andersen. I have never seen such a thing before, and I hope never to see such a thing again in the brief time I have here on this swarming little planet at the far end of the galaxy. Everything was -mbnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2991492.post-761851372002-05-05T11:30:00.002-04:002009-04-12T11:43:57.578-04:00Hell is -- other people!”
- Jean Paul Sartre, Huis Clos
I found a sheet of three-hole punched notepaper folded and tucked between the pages of a book about the salutory effects of a positive attitude at the Public Library last week. On the notepaper, a message, or maybe a fragment of a message, that fills the whole of the front, top to bottom. The writing is large, bold, written in a hasty-mbnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2991492.post-761613322002-05-04T15:54:00.001-04:002009-01-17T20:35:05.562-05:00Margaret, are you grieving
over Goldengrove unleaving?
Leaves, like the things of man, you
With your fresh thoughts care for, can you?
- G.M. Hopkins,
Spring and Fall: To a Young Child
Everything's blossoming at once, it seems. As I was driving along the highway yesterday, I noticed something unusual. The trees in their half-budded states seemed caught between the death of winter and -mbnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2991492.post-760535792002-05-01T17:31:00.000-04:002008-10-12T12:25:54.806-04:00"The unexamined life is not worth living."
- Socrates (attrib.)
I've been cruising Buddha's "net of jewels" we know familiarly as the Internet, and have come across several things that made me stop dead in my tracks. There's a movement about, folks, one that is going to change the world for sure. I'm not talking about cyberporn or online auctioning, either. I'm talking about philosophy-mbnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2991492.post-760198342002-04-30T20:25:00.000-04:002008-10-12T12:25:54.936-04:00I feel my fate in what I cannot fear.
I learn by going where I have to go.
- Theodore Roethke, The Waking
George Santayana entered the annals of philosophy when he coined the oft-repeated phrase, "Man is condemned to repeat what he cannot remember." Various and sundry sages have lifted the sentiment, and attributed it to everyone from Napoleon Bonaparte to Seneca, back through the -mbnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2991492.post-112577062002-03-29T15:52:00.000-05:002008-10-12T12:25:55.411-04:00"You don't want to make me mad, do you?"
- Xena, Warrior Princess
Wow. I never would have referenced Unamuno's quote in my last entry (and I'm sure most people thought it was the last, indeed), had I realized I was going to move away from my weblog... err... blog... for more than two months. But I didn't -- realize it, I mean -- and I got a nasty surprise today, when I discovered the -mbnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2991492.post-85434302002-01-09T12:40:00.000-05:002008-10-12T12:25:55.442-04:00"To fall into a habit is to begin to cease to be."
- Miguel De Unamuno
This is the start of a new year. We face a fresh beginning, with the whole of the calendar unblemished ahead of us. We aspire to health, happiness, prosperity, and some of us, a little more. Many of us begin a new year with lists of things we want to accomplish. We select things we want to learn, acquire, or do by -mbnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2991492.post-83783092002-01-03T13:13:00.000-05:002008-10-12T12:25:55.478-04:00"There is no calamity greater than lavish desires.
There is no greater guilt than discontentment.
There is no greater disaster than greed."
- Lao Tzu
I've been watching the Enron scandal unravel itself in all its terrible splendor. I am in awe of the dollar amount lost to the investors in this enterprise, and not at all surprised by the public outrage against the management that -mbnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2991492.post-83432642002-01-02T09:28:00.000-05:002008-10-12T12:25:55.505-04:00"Whom unmerciful Disaster
Followed fast and followed faster."
- E.A. Poe, The Raven, st. 11
It seldom occurs to me to give vent to my feelings about computers, software applications, and the havoc they generate in our lives, in writing. It's certainly never occurred to me to write about those things in this forum. Until now, that is.
While the rest of the world watched -mbnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2991492.post-73923352001-11-25T16:18:00.001-05:002009-01-17T20:04:10.371-05:00"We must grant the artist his subject, his idea,
his donnée: our criticism is applied only to what
he makes of it. [...] If we pretend to respect
the artist at all, we must allow him his freedom
of choice, in the face, in particular cases, of
innumerable presumptions that the choice will not
fructify. Art derives a considerable part of its
beneficial exercise from flying in the face of
-mbnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2991492.post-67924222001-11-01T15:25:00.001-05:002009-01-17T20:36:58.397-05:00 “Margaret, are you grieving
Over Goldengrove unleaving?
Leaves, like the things of man, you
With your fresh thoughts care for, can you?”
- Gerard Manley Hopkins,
Spring and Fall: To a Young Child
Autumn snuck up on me this year. Like everyone else in the nation, I was so stunned by the events of mid-September and their repercussions, I did not notice the brilliant colors-mbnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2991492.post-66366422001-10-26T12:02:00.000-04:002008-10-12T12:25:55.579-04:00"All men desire to be immortal."
- Theodore Parker, A Sermon on the Immortal Life
We are lost in our dreams, gone to places only we know exist. I think I might have been in Lyons, or St. Malo, last night. There were tall, imposing battlements of dark, heavy stone looming around us. I wasn't alone. I had a brother who'd been recently released from a sanitarium; he was suspected of -mbnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2991492.post-63532832001-10-15T11:31:00.000-04:002009-01-17T20:03:12.724-05:00"There is no sin except stupidity."
- Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde, The Critic as Artist
Oscar Wilde declared the above more than one hundred years ago, and we apparently still agree wholeheartedly with him. I offer you evidence. As of last week in the online catalog for our Public Library Network, which serves 62 area communities, there are 1,018 occurrences of "for Dummies" -mbnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2991492.post-62636422001-10-11T11:37:00.000-04:002009-01-17T20:03:12.732-05:00"Go right on and listen as thou goest."
- Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy, Purgatorio, canto III, V, l.45
Hearing and religiosity seem to be shaping themselves up as a theme today. My beloved came to me earlier to announce that Rush Limbaugh, that pompous, arrogant windbag who has for many years been espousing his conservative and usually intolerant views on the public airwaves, has -mbnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2991492.post-61520862001-10-06T11:56:00.003-04:002010-10-22T15:15:03.393-04:00All writers are vain, selfish and lazy, and at
the very bottom of their motives lies a mystery.
Writing a book is a long, exhausting struggle, like
a long bout of some painful illness. One would never
undertake such a thing if one were not driven by some
demon whom one can neither resist nor understand.
- G. Orwell
I was recently reading a book about writing, a collection of essays by famous -mbnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2991492.post-60347002001-10-01T12:17:00.000-04:002009-01-17T20:03:12.747-05:00All the world loves a clown.
- Cole Porter
I am not a clown.
See the clowns? They run Nortel.
I am a mirror.
- Pseudo-haiku about Nate, now unemployed
I was out browsing the other day, and found a news item on a well-known dot-com "dead pool" site that actually made me laugh out loud, no mean feat these days. I don't think the situation is particularly funny, or the people -mbnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2991492.post-59102212001-09-25T15:59:00.001-04:002009-01-17T20:46:00.231-05:00”Make no mistake; the American Revolution
was not fought to obtain freedom, but to
preserve the liberties that Americans
already had as colonials. Independence
was no conscious goal, secretly nurtured
in cellar or jungle by bearded conspirators,
but a reluctant last resort, to preserve
“life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” "
- The Oxford History of the American People
Every day -mbnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2991492.post-58431862001-09-22T08:57:00.000-04:002009-01-17T20:03:12.799-05:00"What mighty contests rise from trivial things!"
- A. Pope, The Rape of the Lock, canto I
Albert Camus wrote L'Etranger, known also as "The Stranger." The book was an immediate bestseller when it was released, because the theme of being a social outcast, a misfit, an outsider, struck a chord with readers. The book became a cult classic. All the great poets and writers were wrapped in -mbnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2991492.post-58260312001-09-21T11:37:00.001-04:002009-01-17T20:40:01.494-05:00"I don't care about the word isolationism, and I
don't care about the word appeasement. I'm
interested in the rights and needs and
responsibilities of the United States. We
are not the policemen of mankind. We are
not able to run the world, and we shouldn't
pretend that we can. Let us tend to our own
business, which is great enough as it is.
It's very great. We have neglected our own
-mbnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2991492.post-57458132001-09-17T18:12:00.003-04:002009-01-17T20:53:43.377-05:00"Who if I cried out, would hear me among the
angels' hierarchies? and even if one of them
pressed me suddenly against his heart:
I would be consumed in that overwhelming
existence."
- Rainer Maria Rilke, Duino Elegies, I
I've been speaking this last week with people all over the world, and I have yet to encounter even one person who has not been sad, horrified, and anxious about what might -mbnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2991492.post-56899242001-09-14T15:37:00.000-04:002009-01-17T20:03:12.829-05:00"Across time
and space
for all
eternity."
- White Feather
I'm trying to make sense of the events of the past week, just like everyone else in the world. Not much does make sense, unfortunately. All the philosophy, all the flag-waving, all the religion -- none of it addresses the real issue for me, which is connected to all those people who stepped out of time and into eternity -mbnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2991492.post-55994452001-09-10T19:06:00.002-04:002009-01-17T20:42:27.422-05:00"The requirement of conspicuous wastefulness is not
commonly present, consciously, in our canons of taste,
but it is none the less present as a constraining
norm selectively shaping and sustaining our sense
of what is beautiful, and guiding our discrimination
with respect to what may legitimately be approved
as beautiful and what may not."
-Thorstein Veblein
From time to time, I get -mbnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2991492.post-54863282001-09-04T20:57:00.001-04:002009-01-17T20:33:00.906-05:00"You are what you do. You can recreate yourself
every second of your life."
-Xena, Warrior Princess
I'm in a quandary. I just discovered I am handicapped for a position I want, not because I am not qualified (I am), but because I have spent too many years doing something for which I have considerably less qualification, and being far too successful at doing it.
In other words, I'm -mbnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2991492.post-52611922001-08-23T19:01:00.001-04:002009-01-17T20:32:14.556-05:00"The trouble with the rat race is, even if you win,
you're still a rat."
- Lily Tomlin
I am sitting at my workstation, sunlight pouring into the room at an unreasonably early hour. I’ve been online already. Even though the service provider has gone bankrupt, the systems are still up and running while another provider salvages the usable pieces. I had a look to see if anything new is posted -mbnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2991492.post-52141292001-08-21T13:12:00.000-04:002009-01-17T20:03:12.880-05:00"Let the world know you as you are."
- Fanny Brice
Prompted by some perverse urge, yesterday I decided it was time to look myself up on the World Wide Web. I wanted to see what the viewing public thought it knew about me. I wanted to know how exactly to what extent my private life was exposed, and whether there were opinions or ideas about me in existence that I didn't already know -mbnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2991492.post-48698582001-08-02T12:07:00.000-04:002009-01-17T20:03:12.889-05:00"The price of greatness is responsibility."
- Winston Churchill
Elian Gonzales was recently in the news again, a follow-up piece to show people what has become of him since his return home to Cuba. I commented, “It’s too bad what’s happened. They’ve ruined that child’s life. And ruined the child, too. Look at him. He’ll never be normal again. How could he be, after this?”
The-mbnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2991492.post-48144232001-07-30T12:19:00.001-04:002009-01-17T20:31:06.854-05:00“It is good to be without vices, but it
is not good to be without temptation.”
- Walter Bagehot
I seem to be having trouble today with my attention span. It’s hard staying focused on a single activity for more than a few moments. Right now, even as I make these words on the page, I am edgy, thinking about the books on the shelves behind me, on the papers covering my desk, on whether or not-mbnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2991492.post-34328762001-04-30T11:32:00.001-04:002009-01-17T20:30:14.032-05:00"Whoever said we have only two beings
wrestling within has greatly underestimated
the number by a considerable amount."
- Goethe
I don't underestimate how many beings are wrestling within me--the number is currently hovering somewhere between fifteen and twenty. This seems to be the maximum number of sentient beings I can sustain at any one time in my life, without becoming the crazy old -mbnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2991492.post-33343052001-04-23T16:23:00.001-04:002009-01-17T20:29:13.651-05:00"A man who is always ready to believe what
is told to him will never do well."
- Gaius Petronius
I like living in the twenty-first century, with all the conveniences, labor-saving devices, and astonishing breakthroughs in technology and science. I'm a real fan of progress. I was first on my block to own an answering machine, a personal computer, a cell phone, a wireless PDA. Instant -mbnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2991492.post-33056802001-04-21T13:49:00.002-04:002009-02-03T00:16:32.569-05:00"A man of genius makes no mistakes. His
errors are volitional and are the portals of
discovery."
- J. Joyce
I read the most interesting thing about journal writing recently. Virginia Woolf was commenting on how Ottoline Morrell kept a journal, but allowed as to how the journal was vastly different from her own, filled up as it was with Ottoline's writing about her inner life. The thought of -mbnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2991492.post-32639012001-04-18T18:02:00.001-04:002009-01-17T20:27:33.749-05:00"Life is real! Life is earnest!
And the grave is not its goal: ..."
- H.W. Longfellow
I've been thinking about one of my dear friends. She and I recently had a conversation over coffee during which she groaned about her position, one that I had myself occupied several years ago. She has incentive options from her company, and she's praying for an IPO before she's burned to a crisp. She's-mbnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2991492.post-32479272001-04-17T18:36:00.001-04:002009-01-17T20:26:46.959-05:00"Spring is sprung,
the grass is riz...
I wonder where
the birdies iz?"
- anonymous
According to that esteemed Missourian, Thomas Stearns Eliot, April is the cruelest month. I believe him.
I decided to take the long way to and from the Library today, given I've been cooped up in the house for the last three days, trying to meet a writing deadline. And yes, there are projects in my queue -mbnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2991492.post-32250372001-04-16T11:41:00.001-04:002009-01-17T20:26:11.025-05:00"If I didn't have writing, I'd be running down
the street hurling grenades in people's faces."
-Paul Fussell
I don't feel particularly entertaining or witty at this moment, so what I want to write about is how writers who sit and wait for divine inspiration often end up not writing anything at all, while at the far other end of the spectrum are those who madly dash off words as quickly as they-mbnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2991492.post-32129742001-04-15T14:31:00.000-04:002009-01-17T20:04:30.086-05:00"Oh, well, perhaps one has to be very old before
one learns to be amused rather than shocked."
-Pearl S. Buck
It's still unseasonably cool in my neck of the northern woods, and I've naturally been thinking about warmer climes. Say, like southern California, where my house might one day take a slushy header down a steep embankment into the ocean, but I'll never have to wear mittens, -mbnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2991492.post-32007032001-04-14T12:09:00.002-04:002009-01-17T20:25:26.450-05:00"Integrity is a matter of considering the
consequences of every action and of never
being drawn mindlessly into anything."
- Anonymous
Diogenes once traveled the streets of Athens in broad daylight carrying a lit lamp aloft in his hand. While not precisely a luxury, lamp oil was expensive, and burning it while the sun shone brightly was beyond extravagance, the act of a madman. When -mbnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2991492.post-31907752001-04-13T15:40:00.001-04:002009-01-17T20:24:53.700-05:00"A woman's time of opportunity is short,
and if she doesn't seize it, no one wants
to marry her, and she sits watching for omens."
- Aristophanes
My mailbox had a surprise in it today, a business-sized window envelope addressed to me. The return address was empty, except for three US dollar signs, big, in currency green. The postmark was metered, bulk-rate pre-sort, stamped from Omaha, -mbnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2991492.post-31075522001-04-07T19:43:00.001-04:002009-01-17T20:23:50.821-05:00"Be what you would seem to be --
or, never imagine yourself to be otherwise
than what it might appear to others
that what you were or might have been
was not otherwsie than what you had been
would have appeared to them to be otherwise."
- Lewis Carroll
For the faint of heart who can't bring themselves to slog through the subjunctives above, it's not to worry. I'm thinking about online -mbnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2991492.post-30953292001-04-06T17:05:00.002-04:002009-04-12T11:16:11.105-04:00"There is no calamity greater than lavish desires.
There is no greater guilt than discontentment.
And there is no greater disaster than greed."
- Lao Tzu
Get 'em while they're hot! Be the first on your block to own one of these! Hurry, before it's too late!
I've been online recently, having a look around a popular auction site. I confess, I don't understand the attraction of online -mbnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2991492.post-30353192001-04-02T17:28:00.002-04:002009-01-17T20:17:11.551-05:00"Write as often as possible, not with the idea of
getting into print, but as if you were learning
an instrument."
- J.B. Priestly
P.T. Barnum was right. There is a sucker born every minute. Worse, all the people who recognize this is true are also likely to follow W.C. Fields' advice, which is to never give a sucker an even break. The result is always the same: the gullible and the greedy,-mbnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2991492.post-30060092001-03-31T12:28:00.002-05:002009-04-12T11:11:13.647-04:00"We do not choose our subjects. They choose us."
- G. Flaubert
I wrote a story this week about an abusive, predatory man. In my story, the man gets his comeuppance, courtesy of a victim who just happens to be an abused predator. I had a lot of fun writing the story, imagining the final clash between the two, knowing before I even put the words onto the paper how it was all going to -mbnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2991492.post-29961772001-03-30T16:49:00.003-05:002009-04-12T11:10:35.396-04:00"I know of only one rule: style cannot be too clear,
too simple."
- Stendhal
It is snowing, sleeting, and raining outside my window. All at once. The wind howls, and I can see the tallest trees swaying, sagging under the weight of the icy slush caught on their branches. The nasty weather comes on the heels of last week's flooding, and the rivers and streams are still running much higher -mbnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2991492.post-29915992001-03-29T18:43:00.002-05:002009-04-12T11:08:11.737-04:00"Curiosita" - the goal of a life is to continuously, actively,
unrelentingly learn.
I can well imagine the next "learning" this right-brained writer is going to need is in the memorization of HTML codes. For some reason, I never bothered to memorize any of the codes, except for the really obvious ones, like bold, or italic, or underlining. Oh, and lists. I can do lists.
The question is, -mbnoreply@blogger.com0