The Good (part of an ongoing series: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly)
"We should come home from adventures, and perils, and discoveries every day with new experience and character." --Henry David Thoreau
The hotel in Manhattan has been booked, the car has been rented. I'm going on an adventure to NYC to visit some old and very dear friends. Eric and Erica live uptown, and I could have stayed there, but their apt. is way too small to accomodate a few guests for a couple of nights. It should be a good time. I may be able to post pics while I'm there.
Work has been going exceedingly well this week (*knocking on wood*), which is a nice change. I have to say, today was a good day (*insert track from that ice cube song here*).
I have to prepare for the shenanigans this weekend, so no time to write. I may be gone for a few days, will try to post pics from my friends computer in the city. Happy Labor Day Weekend! (Sorry if you happen to be working
;-)
Self-Indulgence
Since I already let the cat out of the bag, I thought I'd post one more pic of good ol' me. I finally went and shaved my head down all the way for the first time. I've been cutting it really short for a long time now (just clippers, no guard), so it was the next logical step. I've never shaved my head all the way. It feels pretty cool, at any rate.
I prefer to remain anonymous, but I do appear once (or twice) in a while. I won't delete the previous picture, but this image will self destruct in 13 hours.
The Newer One
Yes, I know, we have freckles and back hair once again. It's perfectly natural, as I am a
silverback. So, deal with it or scroll on down. I got this tattoo at a time of painful change in my life. Having it done helped my psyche in ways I couldn't describe. However, I was never quite satisfied with the artwork. I think I'll have it touched up, and made to look better.
The reason I chose this particular scene was that I saw a book combining Western astrology (the Virgo in the image with her
glyph) and Eastern philosopy including the year of the dragon, in which I was born. However, via a terrible horror movie and other sources, I have discovered a biblical verse involving a (virgin?) woman and a red dragon in the end of days. I'm not sure of the significance.
William Blake wrote and painted about it.
See here.
The Original
This is my first tatoo, which I got over ten years ago. (Please forgive the back hair. I am a rather hirsute individual, and many women find it sexy. I ooze sex, so no worries). If anyone can figure out which Dr. Suess book it came from, you win a prize (but don't expect much). I'm planning on having this touched up pretty soon. The ink has held up well for ten and a half years.
I will also post a pic of my other tattoo, but I don't think the artwork was as good. The message is good though. There is some deep, apocolyptic shit going on there though. You shall see.
Matt
This is my brother, trying to kayak.
Oasis
Seagull On the Wing
Low Tide
The Stone and the Trees
LIchen Tree
This is my brother, on on islandwe took a break on while we were on our kayaking adventure. I'm his Gemini twin, so we have much in common (even though he's the only Gemini).
Narrow Passage
Lounging
Rare Sighting
I'm not exactly sure who this guy is, but he seems really familiar. Too bad that he's squinting so much that we can't see his eyes. This random, unknown person. . .
Nubble Lighthouse, Maine
Dichotomy at Little Bay Bridges
Mmmm...Spinach
Just Pics For Now
My brother came up for a visit this weekend, and is still here. We've had a great time, enjoying the last real weekend of summer. I'll post a few pics now, and many more later.
Peace On Earth
"Jesus can you take the time
To throw a drowning man a line
Peace on Earth
Tell the ones who hear no sound
Whose sons are living in the ground
Peace on Earth
No who's or why's
No one cries like a mother cries
For peace on Earth
She never got to say goodbye
To see the color in his eyes
Now he's in the dirt
Peace on Earth
They're reading names out
Over the radio
All the folks the rest of us
Won't get to know
Sean and Julia
Gareth, Anne, and Breeda
Their lives are bigger than
Any big idea
Jesus can you take the time
To throw a drowning man a line
Peace on Earth
To tell the ones who hear no sound
Whose sons are living in the ground
Peace on Earth
Jesus in the song you wrote
The words are sticking in my throat
Peace on Earth
Hear it every Christmas time
But hope and history won't rhyme
So what's it worth
This peace on Earth
Peace on Earth
Peace on Earth
Peace on Earth"--From "Peace On Earth, by U2.I just heard this song for the first time in a while and it made me think of Cindy Sheehan. The poor woman dared to speak her mind, so of the course she has come under seige by the Cult of Bush. This isn't about politics, or what side of the spectrum you lean towards. This is about the human cost of Bush's war in Iraq, and about all of his deceptions that brought us to the disaster we face today.
Some Changes
Oh yes, I wanted to mention that I've changed the Buddha quote in my profile. Mysfit posted a much better translation of it, which you can
see here. Go, read that quote. (And
here was my response.) Very cool stuff. At any rate, I starting getting an inferiority complex, so I decided to change it (;-) just kidding, I needed a change anyways.
One last thing, I noticed that the
Evil One left a comment on
an abandoned blog. Apprently Satan thought the site address would make for a cool name for a blog side project. Alas, this one- post prick took a perfectly good blog name and wasted it. What a dick. But I did find out that
http://re-inventingthewheel.blogspot.com was available, so I grabbed it.
Still Smoking
Yes, I know I
made a tentative promise to quite smoking cigarettes again, but I've just been enjoying it way too much. The time is coming for me to quit, but it isn't happening right now. Soon though, I hope.
Things have been going well for the most part. Work has been very stressful, but things continue to move in the right direction. I've started training to get into a sales role, now that I have my license, and I'm looking forward to the new stuff I'll be doing. I was told that if things continue to go well, I'll eventually get to the point where I'll have an assistant to handle most of the menial tasks I'm responsible for right now. I think it would be pretty cool if I could say I have a personal assistant.
At any rate, I don't have too much to say at the moment. I'm still in summer blogging mode, so my posts have been few and far between. And I haven't had much time to visit my favorite blogfriends enough. It's a lot easier to sit home and blog when it's 10°F out
and snowing. And sorry that I haven't been so good about replying to comments. I do read and enjoy every one of them.
I did want to post a link to
this item from Blogger. They have a new "Word Verification Option" to combat the growing plague of spamments in Blogworld. It seems like it might make leaving a comments a bit of a pain in the ass, but if the spamments continue to grow I may have to start using it. I entered a definition of spamment on Urban Dictionary, but I'm not sure if it went through yet (and yes, I did give Livewire credit for coining the term, which I'm pretty sure she did) (UPDATE:
Here is a link to the definition, but I'm not if the link will work because the editors have to approve the definition first. It said it can take up to 28 days to get approval.)
And what the hell, while I'm at it, I might as well post up a new PITN.
Here is the story. Enjoy!
Swirl
Ripple
Blue
I just wanted to post a few pictures, from yesterday at Odiorne. There is something about this little place, something magical. Being there has a healing effect on my tired and lonely soul.
Okay, no time to write. I'll post pics separately so they can be expanded.
The Edge
Beastly
I woke up feeling really depressed today. For no apparent reason, but it cast a dark cloud over everything I've thought about. However, I just threw some music on that I hadn't listened to for a long time, and all of a sudden I'm feeling much better.
I just hooked up my mini-disc player a couple of weeks ago, which has been sitting in a box for a year and a half. I bought the player in the first couple of years that mini-discs were around. They never caught on in a big way, but I always loved having it.
I made dozens of mixes, and I also had some fun by sampling lines from the Simpsons (or other shows), mixing them up with other lines, and splicing them into and between tracks. I have some pretty hysterical recordings I made. If I can ever figure out how to get them onto my blog, perhaps I'll post some samples.
At any rate, all of my favorite music was on these mixes, and after not listening to any of it for a year and a half, it feels really good to hear it again. I'm heading toward the ocean, possibly to fish. I'll post pictures later if I take any good ones.
Why do Conservatives Hate America?
I just wanted to post a link, found via
Buzzflash.
Here 'tis, a story about the mayor of Salt Lake City calling for massive protests when Bush comes to town. Of course, certain people were offended and attacked his patriotism. Here was the mayor's response:
"Patriotism," the mayor said, "demands that people speak out when we see our government officials acting in such anti-democratic and deceitful ways to the people of our country." He also said: "I don't understand people simply blindly going along with the sort of deceit and utter cruelty of this administration. It's not just we have the right to speak out, but we have the obligation to speak out when we see misconduct on the part of the government. The most patriotic thing we can do is stand up against the misuse of governmental power." This reminded me of a quote from (republican) President Theodore Roosevelt (which I've posted
before, but it's worth repeating):
"The President is merely the most important among a large number of public servants. He should be supported or opposed exactly to the degree which is warranted by his good conduct or bad conduct, his efficiency or inefficiency in rendering loyal, able, and disinterested service to the Nation as a whole. Therefore it is absolutely necessary that there should be full liberty to tell the truth about his acts, and this means that it is exactly necessary to blame him when he does wrong as to praise him when he does right. Any other attitude in an American citizen is both base and servile. To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public. Nothing but the truth should be spoken about him or any one else. But it is even more important to tell the truth, pleasant or unpleasant, about him than about any one else."
Roosevelt, published in the Kansas City Star
May 7, 1918
That's it for now. I shall return.
Whoa, What Day is It?!?
I've been going through some serious blog withdrawal. Work kicked my ass this week. Some good things, some not good things, some intensely stressful things. . .I get bored pretty easily, so for the most part I'd rather be busy, but there is such a thing as way too busy. But I'm not here to bitch about work, as I'd hate to get
dooced (thanks to Phylos for the new word).
At any rate, I don't have much time at the moment. To atone for my prolonged absence, I've decided to drag a good story from the closet, which I'll post at some point this weekend. There are a few stories I've been meaning to tell, but I need pick the right one.
Before I go, I wanted to mention that I just noticed
Mysfit's recent post. After blushing somewhat, then realizing her quote was way cooler than the one currently in my profile, I scrolled back up and looked at the image at the top and my hair stood on end, in that
déjà vu sort of way. Compare the turtles in the image Mysfit has up to the following picture of a turtle keychain given to me by my friend Kathy (who I 've lost touch with) about ten years ago:
When I was about seventeen, a few of my close female friends used to call me Turtle, or Turtle-boy. What's interesting is that the name originated from something I wrote in a scrapbook of poems and drawings I did with a certain friend I referred to in a
comment on a recent Jenn See post. I don't even remember what I wrote in the poem, but apparently it was amusing enough for the name Turtle-boy to stick for awhile. A couple of my friends used to give me little turtle figurines, turtle-shaped candles, turtle posters, turtle anything they saw (what can I say, we were strange kids). This kind of makes me think that Mysfit could be one of my old friends, or perhaps someone I knew in a past life--which I suppose would fit with the Buddhist philosophy that started this whole thing..
At any rate, even though I did find this turtle keychain in my closet, I won't count this as the tale I promised above. I'm off to bed soon, as I've been living on five hours of sleep a night for about a week. Good night.
Rantsplosion
Oh man, I feel a rant coming on. I just read
this article, written by the aunt of a marine killed in Iraq (found via
buzzflash). I was struck by this line:
"Think, too, about naming a campaign 'Shock and Awe' as if it's a movie and, therefore, unreal. And then think that this, perhaps. is one of the problems."
I've thought about this a lot over the last year and a half or so. We did all watch the bombing campaign as if it were a movie (or at least everyone I knew). In the weeks and months leading up to the war we were told that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction and that he continued to produce them. The administration did everything they could to make the American public believe that Iraq was linked to September 11th.
I'll admit, with a bit of shame, that they had me fooled for a while. I was initially opposed to this war (
before the war) because I was worried that Saddam would unleash a holocaust of chemical and biological agents and kill millions of people. Okay, fine, I admit it. I was wrong. Are you happy now? I was duped into--not supporting--but consenting to this war, to this atrocity. For that I am sorry. But the liars in charge are damn good at what they do.
War wasn't necessary. The United States survived the Cold War, even after fifty long years. If we could deal with the fear of total annihilation of the entire planet, we could easily contain one punk in the third world. And, as we have learned, there were no weapons of mass destruction. Saddam was, in fact, contained by the policies that were set in place.
So, while we watched the bombs bursting in air, just like the Fourth of July, why didn't we think about the thousands of lives being destroyed? Bloodlust, spawned by men in power bent on war, had overcome. We watched the fireworks. . .the mushroom clouds filling the sky. This was the great and powerful America, saving the world from the menace of Iraq. Puh-leez. The effect that this thirst for blood had on the psyche of America, and on much of the world, is incalculable.
The good thing about living in a democracy, in theory, is that we get to hold our leaders accountable for their actions, and most especially for their lies. Shocking though it was that Bush was not held to account in this past election, the American public will eventually catch on. I've said it before, and I'll say it again, the People are finally awakening. And they are cranky. Accountability is such a bitch.
Still Alive
Yeah, it's been a few days since I've posted anything. This week has been brutal. I've had a bad cold for a couple of days, and I've just been working and sleeping. The week started off well, went kayaking on Sunday. I had a great time, but I have been ill ever since. I'm gradually getting better though, just in time for the weekend.
I was just noticing that the
Evil One left a comment on a republican blog (though I have a feeling she can't really be a republican if she's capable of rational thought, as this post seems to indicate).
Here is where the comment appears (scroll toward the bottom). Satan must have needed to get some ranting out of his system. That crazy bastard.
At any rate, I'm feeling lazy and I don't really have much to talk about other than how exhausted I am. I'm off to rest my weary head.
Black-Eyed Susans
Purple
Rosey
The Pentacle
I like the new image thingy on blogger, but I've learned that the pictures won't expand to full size when you click on it if you use more than one photo (at least not with Explorer). It's a bit annoying. At any rate, I have some serious house cleaning to do, so I'll just throw up a few pics for now.
WARNING: Sappy Post
It is very late, and I can't sleep, so I thought a little writing might set my mind at ease. I'm down in CT, visiting my grandmother. I love her so much. We have a very special bond, and while grandmothers generally don't admit to having a "favorite" grandson, I think I come pretty close.
There was a time a few years back when she was very sick (shingles), and was terribly depressed because she was afraid that she wouldn't be able to do her vegetable garden that year. It has always been her passion, and at her age it had almost become her reason for being. She had begun to despair and to lose her will to live. I felt like I had to do something, so I did all the work in the garden by her instructions, and it ended up being one of the best years ever for the garden. She became more positive about life again, and I truly believe that it helped her pull through the illness. She's always said that she'll never forget what I did for her that year, which makes me feel really good.
She is such an amazing and beautiful person, and it hurts me in the deepest fibers of my being to see the pain she is constantly in (physically). For the last several years her body has sort of been falling apart. As soon as one pain is healed, another appears. Mentally, she is still razor sharp, and her memory is excellent. I think that in the last few years I've heard more stories from her about her past than I ever did in all the years before. She was never "book smart," but she's always had the sort of wisdom that no book can teach. She has a natural, simple outlook on life that has allowed her to enjoy life to the fullest. She would be a great Taoist.
My grandmother always told me that she is ready to go when it's her time to die, and it's always bothered me when she said that. But she knows that she's going to heaven, and that she'll be reunited with my grandfather, so why should anyone be sad when that day comes? My grandfather died when my mom was in high school, and as far as I know my grandmother has never been seriously involved with another man since. I always had the impression that she had found her perfect love, and no longer felt a need to seek out another. My grandfather had the same birthday as me, so perhaps that had an influence on her feelings towards me throughout my life.
At any rate, I just wanted to say a few nice things about her. I will be taking pictures of the garden, etc., and will post some when get back to New Hampshire if I have any good ones.
Wits End
I just updated my profile pic again. I think I'm having an identity crisis or something. Well, not really. . .I just think life is better this way. I think I've had a bit of blog malaise recently, and I thought a little change might pique my interest once again. I'll probably change it again in a week or so.
I've been getting my ass kicked at work this week. Today I had about twenty things I needed to accomplish, but was stuck on one project all day. It is coming out really well, at any rate. I am a tightly wound ball of stress, but other than that I'm feeling great. Missing a day for the test and going on a business trip last week really threw me off, but I should be caught up soon.
I'm heading out for a while, may return later if I have anything interesting to post.
Monster
I found this little critter hanging out by my back door. He was smoking the cigarette that you see to his left, but I couldn't snap the picture in time to get it. Isn't that always the way? It didn't turn into a princess when I kissed it either, but I did see
some pretty colors, so it's all good. I'm off to watch the walls melt. . .
