To do things today exactly the way you did them yesterday saves thinking.- Woodrow Wilson
...as if we could change the celestial definition of night.
I know a fellow, a good old boy, who formulates his world perspective using sticks-and-stones metaphors mixed with yard-dog analogies. Literally.
If a person hits me with a stick I am going to hit him with a stone. A big stone. If he hits me with the stick again I am going to go out and get a bigger stone. A much bigger stone. Pretty soon he is going to think twice about hitting me with a stick.Never mind that factions in the middle east have been having their current conversation for hundreds if not thousands of years. Never mind that fundamentalist believers on both sides fuel their argumentative positions with sticks-and-stones metaphors mixed with yard-dog analogies.
Now iffen my neighbor had a dog and this dog came into my yard to take a crap, well I wouldn't think too highly of my neighbor, iffen you know what I mean. But iffen that dog was to come into my yard and bite one of my kids I'd just plain shoot the dog. An then iffen the neighbor complained I would remind him that he was the one that put up with the dog to begin with. And iffen he still complained I'd just go find me a bigger stone, just to be ready.I suppose I, and this fellow, are just railing against the darkness. He for applying such down-home-reasonin' to a situation half the world away that is steeped in history and culture far beyond his wildest imagination. I rail against the cost. The cost of politely listening to good ol' boy rants. The cost of perpetuated simplicity and naivete among the good ol' boy movers and shakers.
SWJ Blog
I have been found out. "You goof!" I believe was the exact expression, offered with the highest regard. None the less, I have been outed.
I am a napper.
A sleeper agent, if you will. As such I may be awake at any hour of the day. I might have been napping but while you were fast asleep I am awake. Ha! All your dream are belong to us!
Truth be told there is absolutely no sense tossing and turning and not sleeping in the middle of the night. So relax. You just finished one nap. Work, read, ponder, muse, amuse, daydream, or just chill. Then somewhere around 3ish (AM of course) it might just be time for another nap. (Hmmmm, 3ish PM could just as well be nap time too.)
(Added Bonus: Insert serious socio-economic observation here: in agrarian based social orders people traditionally followed the daylight rule: work when it is light, sleep when it is dark. In this current cyber-social community where it is always light somewhere on the planet there is no longer that clear night-and-day distinction to be made. I am just as likely to encounter on-line friends and associates at 01:00 as I am at 13:30.)
Tara's terrarium was moved to the counter beside the stove when the power went out. There she has stayed without complaint. Warmed by the continuous boiling kettle of water. Nibbling on the occasional errant cricket. Today... today, I get this...
Copyright © 2003 Robyn Judith Waayers
...when I am adding water to her bowl... guess she might be tired of this too.
... municipal electricity has returned (for the moment) to the Flying Pig Ranch. We rejoice! Thank you Kenergy.
... It has been ...er, lemme look at the paper calendar... uh, 12 days... without municipal utility high grade, uncut, pure 'tricity' ... yeah, I am jonesing... this lame portable generator stuff is just a alternating alternative to the real main-line, high tension BUZZ that I have become accustomed to. FLAT! Can hardly carry a sine wave.
NakedJen said it, I read it... let it be so...
"Fidelity": Don't Divorce... from Courage Campaign on Vimeo.
Sunday 08 February 2009
by: Dahr Jamail, t r u t h o u t | Perspective
... turning the generator on. All it does is drink fuel and produce too little electricity (Addicted, starting a 12 step, 3 phase, alternating current program - progress notes to follow.)
Only reason really worth while... chilling the peanutbutter cookie dough. Just wish I could follow Grandma Lo's sage advise... fresh peanutbutter cookies and a cold beer. (If memory serves it would have been an Ol' Milwaukee.)
Nothing has changed from the days of Slack 8.x and FVWM... I still cannot afford KDE... so now it is Xfce, ahhhh
I have to start getting some of this out of my head... so I will engage in some microblogging until there is room for some more formal substantial thoughts...
Great raging torrents of sadness cascade-crash over me. My children have fled. Hearth and home offer no comfort. There is no warm light beckoning. My sanctuary is cold and barren.
In disbelief I sit staring blankly at Cardinals and Sparrows foraging beneath frozen feeders. Spreading seed on the hard snow pack was the only thing I could think to do. Feeding the birds is the only good I could do. Then sit and blindly stare.
Seething raw anger erupts railing against the futile state. Then deflated realizing I cannot will the electricity to return any more than I can will my children to give up the boisterous company of their friends to return to this cold house.
Empty now save the racking sigh-sobs of despair. Tears welling in glassy unfocused eyes overflow, trace cheek to chin then fall away into darkness.
17:45ish last Tuesday the lights went out in Kentucky...or at least my little corner of the world. By the time an account was taken 70% of our county was without electricity. Today is Saturday. I will be surprised if service is restored before next Saturday.
Judiciously running the gas stove keeps the main room between 55 and sometimes 63ish. Water pressure is holding so the bathtubs full of water are only a convenience not an absolute need. Temperatures hovering right around 32F means that food stuffs stored in the shed are at least 'refrigerated' - curiously frozen things aren't staying frozen but that is another matter.
Today it was a hot shower at the Y and a couple of hours at the office ... to recharge the cell phone. The Saint wants instant coffee. Not as tasty as mountain grown, cold ground, french pressed but a helluva lot easier ... and instant Cocoa mixes in better too!
The kids got cabin fever after the first 36 hours and a couple of them abandoned the family homestead for friends with amenities. This exercise in limited resources has been very enlightening. SPOILER ALERT: there is life without an internet connection ... but you can't blog without one. Another interesting fact is that it get REALLY REALLY dark when the sun goes down. So bed time is somewhere around 18:30-19:00 cause there just isn't anything else to do in the COLD and the DARK. Now iffen it were warm and dark that might be another story.
Cell is charged. Better git back out to the Flyin' Pig Ranch 'fore it gits dark. Gotta eat supper early 'cause cain't see to eat oncest the sun goes down.
Stay warm ya'll 'n' keep yer powder dry.
After a long conversation with a good friend I thought I would try to solidify my thoughts regarding what is truly important between people...
I do not want You to like me.
My wanting You to do something is imposing, pressing my views, values, needs and desires on You. Instead, I want to be likable. If everything works out correctly then You get to decide if You like Me or not.I do not want you to please me.
My being pleased is not Your responsibility. My being pleased is my responsibility. If I am displeased with my circumstance(s) then it is my responsibility to do something for or about myself, not You.I do want to like you.
And I will like you unless or until you do something that I find unlikable. If that time arrives then it is my responsibility to be honest in my actions. Either I can distance myself from you, denying friendship by the lack of proximity, or I can tell you the truth of my feelings. If the occasion warranted it I might say, "I do not like you when you speak badly of your peers."I want validation (respect and approval).
In the rare circumstance when I cannot remove myself from a difficult situation I will do the hardest thing I have ever had to do, tell another human being that, "I do not like you."
I can say from personal experience that this statement, "I do not like you." offered directly to another human being has devastating consequences. This is why it is so seldom said 'mano a mano'. More often than not it is alluded to in a gossipy fashion, "Oh, I don't like so-and-so."
The actual expression "I do not like you." is incontrovertible. Once spoken it cannot be rescinded. Once expressed there is a distance between the two people involved that cannot be bridged. When those words are delivered then the most primal foundation of trust is shattered.
[Note: Distancing oneself from an objectionable person or circumstance only relieves the discomfort. It does not resolve the situation.]
As such it is my responsibility to be respectable and be worthy of approval. As well it is my responsibility to know that validation cannot be given before the fact.
A demand for validation is the same as wanting some one to like me.
[I believe the practice of unconditionally protecting Janey/Johnny's self-esteem has had a very detrimental affect on our social values. If every action is met with approval and validation then Jane/John can no longer tell what is truly valid or worth of approval.]
I ain't erudite.
I ain't got all that book learning at my fingertips so's I can add in all them fancy quotations and citations. I don't know all them intricate linguistical turns of phrase that give substance to the foundation of my writing. I do not have the ability to adequately convey higher order concepts. At least not as well as I might. It is very unlikely that I will ever write a seminal thesis on any given subject.
I do endeavor to speak to issues of the human condition. I attempt to write in a voice that can be heard and easily understood. To that end I take certain liberties. I depend on the commonality of the human experience. I even go so far as to make assumptions about the environment we live in and the experiences we share. I write to reflect my observations of my human condition.
...S'there! I tol' you I weren't erudite. Now do you believe me?
A Commonplace Blog
(Featured in this space was a count-down timer to the moment that Barack Obama became President. ...and none too soon.)
Yaron reacts by posting the following image, displaying an IDF soldier protecting a baby carriage, while a Hamas fighter uses the baby as a shield:
