announcement...
It's time. The time is now. Now is the time for all good citizens to come to the aid of their country. Gasoline at four dollars a gallon by Labor Day (or is it Memorial Day? I always get those confused.), housing prices falling, food prices rising, food riots around the world, no less. It's time to cut out waste. It's time to make energy from waste. It's time to conserve energy. This is why I'm running for President of the United States of America.
Fellow Citizens, and Canadian nationals taking advantage of the weak dollar. I come to you with a humble heart and ask for your support in my candidacy for the presidency of this country that is bordering on greatness, but really just getting by under the radar. This country, founded on the principles of regular office hours and Sunday drives in the country (provided you're driving a Prius.)
I propose that we cut out government waste, by, indeed, cutting out most of the government and returning to the commonwealth of nations under Her Majesty the Queen of England. This whole experiment doesn't seem to be going to well, at the moment, though it's had better moments in the past. Our mob rule Democracy seems to be splitting at the seams and allowing baboons and criminals to make decisions for us. I propose we cut out the middle men (senators and congressmen) and just let the Queen hold us under her gentle graces once again. Of course, I'll be running for President, or Lord Governor, of this great land, and making local policy decisions, but only during regular working hours. The Oval Office will be open from 8am to 5pm weekdays, closed Saturdays and Sundays. If you have an emergency outside of office hours, like, say, at 3am, you can leave a message with our answering service, and we'll get back to you within 24 to 48 hours.
Thank you all for your support, I look forward to handing over control of our country to the Britons. Love to all.
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
sometimes we don't...
sometimes the rain comes...it washes us clean. sometimes the snow covers us and keeps us from growing free.
sometimes I walk with my baby around the neighborhood and look at the trees, so tall and mighty, swaying in the breeze. sometimes I see the tiniest ant crawling through a maze of thyme and moss. sometimes I wonder if he has a family too.
sometimes I watch the sunset as it slowly drifts to the northwest this time of year. sometimes it blazes with fiery orange and red and cool blue. sometimes it sleeps above the gray overcast rain soaked sky.
sometimes the sky gods laugh at us, sometimes their mighty voices rumble in the night, or their breath blows us down. sometimes we're no different than the ants, and sometimes we're the gods. sometimes we're growing, sometimes we don't. sometimes we do something we're proud of, sometimes we don't.
sometimes, love conquers all.
chronic stereophonic...
Headphones. Some music is just better this way.
I remember, about ten years old, lying on my back in my grandmother's house on Sunday afternoons between church services, dipping into my older brother's collection of Pink Floyd vinyl. I'd lay there, tripping on the audio with classic 1970s stereophonic headphones that covered my entire ear. Every whispered word. Every soft thump and muted sound effect and back masked mystery, in my ears. Dark Side, The Wall, Meddle. Head music, for sure. For a ten year old, fodder for imagination. This era in my life, is probably one of the many reasons I'm the way I am now.
Zip the tape forward to today. It's been a while since I indulged in headphones, yet the same holds true. However, the difference is, mobility. I must have missed the whole Walkman era, because I don't remember being musically mobile before, with the exception of the car stereo or the annoying boom box. With the car stereo, however, road noise can cover subtlety. Sometimes, you don't even know how much you've been missing because of distraction and the intrusion of environmental noise.
I am, as many of you know, the happy recent recipient of an iPod Nano from Phil over at A Family Runs Through It (stay-at-home homeschooling dad and philanthropist). Listening to some of my collected musics on this device has been ear opening. For some, it's like rediscovering the music all over again. For example, I can now hear every click, buz, whir and whispered vocal of every Radiohead album after The Bends (when they finally stopped pandering to the Pop world and started getting interesting). I can hear every finger slip, scratch of bow against guitar string, and quiet distant drumbeat on Sìgur Rós' album ( ). I can hear every scratchy and endearing imperfection of the mellotron when it's used by either Porcupine Tree or Steve Hackett. In short, I think I'm hearing exactly what the artists wanted me to hear, for the first time.
CORRECTION: My wife corrected me in the comments section so I believe I should just come clean and mention that it was not actually ME who won the iPod Nano, but my wife. It is through the loving generosity of my wife who has allowed me to borrow HER iPod Nano that I am able to listen to all this wonderful music. Thank you my love!
Labels: music
the news from lake toad-be-gone...
Hello gentle readers. This will be a newsy post full of meanderings and wanderings. So, prepare thyself.
On Sunday last, my lovely wife created the nice Elmo cake you see at left. Our youngest son is now one year old. He, being the eating type, was asked to indulge in a little cake, and did so with aplomb (assuming I'm using the term, 'aplomb' correctly here, you understand).
Here you see the aftermath of the aplomb. It was rather horrific to watch, but don't be concerned, we DID get a video of the destruction. This is, in fact, the first of our children we've allowed to engage in the time honored "one year old ripping apart baked goods" ceremony. I may post it later, but persons with weak stomachs may want to look away.
In personal health news, I probably have thumb funk. Yes. Thumb funk. The technical name for what I'm enduring vis-a-vis my thumb, is just as silly as the term, thumb funk, if truth be told. They call it Trigger Finger.(click that, you'll see I'm not lying.). Also, the Ulcerative Colitis flare up that I've been having for about two months now (with varying levels of intensity), has resulted in a prescription of Prednesone.
On the bright side, according to the doc, I've lost almost ten pounds since....(wait for it)....October! Yes. At this rate, I'll be at my goal weight in just under four years. Oh man, I can't wait!
Love to all! Be healthy, be well, and pay attention!
struggle for inner peace...
If you wish to experience peace, provide peace for another. If you wish to know that you are safe, cause another to know that they are safe. If you wish to better understand seemingly incomprehensible things, help another to better understand. If you wish to heal your own sadness or anger, seek to heal the sadness or anger of another.
Last night I saw the Dali Lama speak on a local station. In broken English he said: "What use, anger?"
What use?
Sometimes I get angry about things. I'm sure you do to. Most people do. Anger hurts others, and hurts yourself. I sometimes get angry with my children. When I show this anger to them, it hurts them, and it hurts me even more. But anger is a beast, and hard to contain sometimes.
The Dali Lama said one of the challenges in life is to contain one's own anger, replacing it with compassion. The Lama also said when you destroy your enemy, you destroy yourself. I agree with this. I agree with many things the Lama says. I would also add to containing anger, we must strive to contain bitterness, discontent with ones status or means, or even job or position. Contentment is difficult to attain, because, as I would guess the Buddhist would say, true contentment comes from within.
I have to admit, however, that I'm no Buddhist. I don't believe that he's a living Buddha, or the whatever number incarnation of the Lama/Buddha. I don't do metaphysics very well in reality, though I like to use metaphysics in my writing. It doesn't matter though. For many people it brings peace of mind, and inner contentment, and that is very important not only for individuals, but for nations as well.
I like The Dali Lama. I like his outlook, his philosophy, and it has nothing to do with his religion. The Lama is one of the few people still living that I would love to meet, and shake hands with.
Who would you like to meet, living or dead?
How do you achieve inner contentment?
brimming with pride and all that....
Two things today. First thing: taxes. You see that table to the left, all spread with the thingings and doings for taxes? Check. Taxes are done. Due to the magic of, well, some sort of mathematical equation and etc.. etc.. etc.. we are getting every penny back (take that anti-penny lobby!!). The "mini-van-upgrade" savings account will be brimming with pennies when we get our winnings back this year, and that makes me happy. Oh, and yeah...we used a Fisher Price calculator...you got a problem with that? When you get lots of money back, it sings a little song for you!
You know what ELSE makes me happy? This:
He's ONE YEAR OLD today! He's walking and eating food by himself. So far, he's our earliest walker. I attribute this to the fact that he wants to keep up with his two older brothers. He's a beautiful little boy, as are our other two boys. We've been blessed with good looking kids. Like the saying goes: There is only one beautiful baby, and every mother has it.
I agree.
Have you finished YOUR taxes yet!?
naked nude nudies...Boyd, TX. writing project
There they were. Just laying there, at the back of the playground, near the chain link fence, where the weeds poked through from the rural road beyond. Our fourth grade eyes widened and popped out as we picked them up. Topless playing cards. Like finding an oasis in a desert, we crowded around them and handed them to each other, looking them over and hoarding them and saying naughty words we weren't supposed to say, like "boobies" and such.
How it got out that we had them, I don't remember for sure. However, things being as they were, I can only guess that our pride and bravado at finding such an item on the playground had lead to a certain notoriety among the other students. The other fourth grade boys, wished it had been them, as we'd by now split the pack into three equal parts, with plans on hoarding many, and selling a few. The fourth grade girls, however, so above us in both morality and maturity, must have finked on us...as usual.
It came to pass that during the afternoon of the same day of the finding of the topless playing cards, that three boys were called to the principles office from the fourth grade classroom at Boyd Texas Elementary School in the late 1970s. There we stood, our coveted booty hidden in pockets, in the principles office. Mrs. Ware was a formidable woman, and struck fear in us all, every time she looked at us. Back then, in rural Texas, it wasn't unknown to hear the tell-tale sound of a smack of a paddle on a backside emanating from this very office, followed by the wail of a student. The nature and design of this paddle were legendary, and the story changed weekly. One week it was covered in nails. The next week, it was filled with holes so that the air would past through it faster and thus strike it's victim with more force. The truth was always somewhat sketchy, as it's victims were usually facing away from it, and could only tell us what it felt like, which allowed our minds to invent such torture devices as had never been seen since the dark days of the Roman Empire. It became the cat of nine of our world, waiting to strike us lest we do something, well, like we'd just done. We knew this fate was to be ours, lest we come up with a cunning plan of action.
To our advantage, Mrs. Ware left we three fourth grade boys in her office while she attended to some business or other in the outer office area. Left there, in the inner chamber of torture, we had precious few moments to think of a line of defense. Should we do a quick search and try to find and dispose of the cat of nine that was to be the device of our torture? No...that would take to long. Should we fink on each other? There was a chance this was to happen, until something even better came to us in a moment of clarity. I don't know which one of us it was that came up with the plan, but it was simple and clean. Get rid of the cards. That was the plan. But how? In the torture chamber, there was a leatherette avocado couch along the wall behind us. We knew we had to offload our booty to save our own booty, so we gave each other a knowing look and quickly deposited the debauchery behind the avocado couch where they slid silently and unseen, to the shag carpet below.
We were questioned, we produced no evidence, and were let off on a warning only. We had escaped the paddle. More importantly, we'd escaped having to explain to parents what exactly it was we'd found on the playground that day. We were venerated for our bravery and remained in positions of notoriety until some other group of friends did something to equal our own exploit. I still wonder, some days, what ever became of those cards. The avocado couch and shag carpet has long been changed in that office...I suspect a janitor is still the proud owner of our playground find to this very day.Labels: boyd, tx
Wednesday, April 09, 2008
retreating...
The snow is retreating to the forests, where it can't be seen. The last patches lay over the hilltops in the distance, like patches of white flowers in the morning sun. It retreats, changes it's make up, it is the same, but in a different form. It is hidden.We'll wait in stone circles
'til the force comes through -
lines join in faint discord
and the Stormwatch brews
a concert of Kings
They brew pots of ambiguity, infused with uncertainty. They keep the present tense, and the future imperfect. Therefore, we retreat. We hide. We change our make-up, our form, our clothes. But we remain the same. We conform, temporarily, to their singular policies.In the wee hours I'll meet you
down by Dun Ringill -
watch the old gods play
by Dun Ringill
We form in secret. We continue in secret. We maintain in secret, that which we believe. We carry on, until they pass away into nothingness and uselessness by their own policies and decisions. We have always been here. We will always be here.
...and so the final season begins.
fourty years ago today...
He was 39 years old.
He's been gone longer than he was with us.
This year, I'll be 38.
What have I done to make the world better?
universe within reach...
At length I came to a deep cliff. I looked out across an endless view of rolling hills and trees. I sat down, and leaned my back against a tree and continued to face the vastness. It seemed the thing to do.
I watched the sun set over the distant horizon, it's light warming my face. I wondered how I was going to get down so that I could continue my journey. A large bird flew overhead through the lowering light. It flew out over the cliff and floated on the updraft for a moment, then silently glided downward toward the canopy below.
I should fly, I thought. Then, I sat up and wondered at my own thought. I hadn't thought I wish I could fly, I'd thought I should fly. Something in me said...just fly. An unquestioning confidence came over me, and I stood up. As I stood, I realized that my feet weren't touching the ground. The more I thought about where I wanted to go, the more I went that direction. Navigation was a cinch, it seemed. Just look, and go.
I soared over the edge of the cliff, never encountering fear, just the brush of air through my hair as I swooped downward toward the forest below. Direction suddenly meant nothing, place and time, nothing. I suddenly could just think and go, my body didn't exist, though the phantom sensation of air rushing past my skin remained, like that of the sensations felt by an amputee.Labels: don of the universe
ennui ennui! enough with the ennui already!!!
So, that last post was a real downer. So sorry about that. Rest assured, your friendly neighborhood toad is just fine. Just fine. Human, but fine. As some would say, I'm finer than frog's hair. Eschewing the ennui, lest it get caught in my throat, I went for a walk in the sunshine today. I went down the hill into the downtown area of the little town in which I am employed at a major Inland Northwest university in Washington State, to grab meds at the pharmacy. Listening to my new iPod, singing along though nobody else could hear the song, I was totally cool with it all, and am looking forward to getting back to better posts here. Logic dictates that I should post a prank post today, of all days...but, I'm just not very good at that, so I'll just do the following.
Here are some of the possible future posts that have been rolling around in the kettle for a while:
- Another Don of the Universe post: Watch for a subtle twist in this series. It came to me in a dream the other night, well, I think it was a dream. I may have been driving, or drifting off to sleep, or having a bowel movement, I'm not sure...
- Another Boyd, TX post: As it's getting nearer and nearer to being 20 years since I graduated from Boyd High School, I think it's time to explain to Ms. Ware, the Elementary School Principle during my years there, where, exactly, those playing cards with the nudie pictures came from that she found behind the couch in her office, don't you think?
- More Music posts: Of course. Having a new iPod, and getting some good headphone time to and from work on the bus and in the car, will definitely bring out some music inspired posts and ruminations. Look for those.
As always, thank you all for reading, listening, watching, and most of all, commenting and positive vibes. I dig it, man.
