Ffolkes,
Well, I’m going for wishy washy this morning…. yesterday was so stressful, I couldn’t get to sleep until after 1 AM, an hour of the day which I haven’t come within 2 hours of seeing in months. Then, because I’m so worn out, I sleep 3 more hours than normal, which felt good, but put me behind right from the get….. I hate playing catch-up….always that light sense of panic one feels until getting back to normal schedule (whatever normal is when there is nothing ON the schedule after the “Get up” entry each morning)….
Adding to my stress yesterday was my banishment from WordPress…. yes, banishment. I still have been unable to get any Help or Support types to get interested in my problem; why should they worry that I can’t access my own domain, or web page? Or that over a third of the sites I try to go to, to read the posts of those I follow, are also blocked to me; I keep getting dumped off the network to an error page.
It seems like a straightforward problem to me; there is obviously some kind of coding error in the links that are being generated for emails and well, almost everywhere. I got sent to an error page by clicking on all sorts of links, in emails, on the notification toolbar, on gravatar icons, titles… they all were generating errors, and frustrating me endlessly.
Even more frustrating is the absence of ANY response from WordPress…. it’s as if they all went on vacation together, or are at some conference, and forgot to leave anyone watching the shop….. I’ve sent them eight support requests (well, angry demands are more accurate for the last 3; I’m afraid I let my anger color my language a bit….), and have received only one short response, to ask me if I had followed the FAQ suggestion of clearing cache and cookies (which I had done three times by then). To say the least, it pissed me off royally….May the bird of paradise shit on their heads……
So, since I don’t want to spend another day in frustration, I have decided to go wishy washy, and not carry out my threat to write this morning’s post as a rant about WP’s lack of support for users…. yet. Instead, I will immerse my mind into the complex and indefinable process of Pearling, and see if my difficulties extend to the publishing arena…. so, shall we Pearl?….. Yes, I believe we shall…..
___________________________________
“How infinitely superior to our physical senses are those of the mind! The spiritual eye sees not only rivers of water but of air. It sees the crystals of the rock in rapid sympathetic motion, giving enthusiastic obedience to the sun’s rays, then sinking back to rest in the night. The whole world is in motion to the center. So also sounds. We hear only woodpeckers and squirrels and the rush of turbulent streams. But imagination gives us the sweet music of tiniest insect wings, enables us to hear, all around the world, the vibration of every needle, the waving of every bole and branch, the sound of stars in circulation like particles in the blood. The Sierra canyons are full of avalanche debris – we hear them boom again, and we read the past sounds from present conditions. Again we hear the earthquake rock-falls. Imagination is usually regarded as a synonym for the unreal. Yet is true imagination healthful and real, no more likely to mislead than the coarse senses. Indeed, the power of imagination makes us infinite.” — John Muir, American Naturalist (1838-1914)
John Muir probably did more for the American people than all of the Congress’ in session for the last 235 years. His advocacy for preserving the natural wilds of this country made it possible for every American to be able to see, and understand, how important and valuable the land and natural life of the wilderness we enjoy as legacy really are in the overall scheme of life. Yellowstone, the Grand Canyon, Yosemite, Lake Tahoe, and many more of this nation’s parks and wilderness areas are retained in their natural state, thanks to his efforts during his lifetime.
In addition, he wrote prolifically, singing the praises of life in the wild, and the sheer joy of learning to be at one with the creatures and plants with whom we share our planet. Every one of the quotes and expressions of his that I’ve seen shout out with the absolute love he held for all of Life, and the beauty it shares by its mere existence. The American people owe him a greater debt than they will ever be able to pay, or that most will ever know……
___________________________________
“Cowardice” and “self-respect” have largely disappeared from public discourse. In their place we are offered “self-esteem” as the bellwether of success and a proxy for dignity. “Self-respect” implies that one recognizes standards, and judges oneself worthy by the degree to which one lives up to them. “Self-esteem” simply means that one feels good about oneself. “Dignity” used to refer to the self-mastery and fortitude with which a person conducted himself in the face of life’s vicissitudes and the boorish behavior of others. Now, judging by campus speech codes, dignity requires that we never encounter a discouraging word and that others be coerced into acting respectfully, evidently on the assumption that we are powerless to prevent our degradation if exposed to the demeaning behavior of others. These are signposts proclaiming the insubstantiality of our character, proclaiming the hollowness of our souls.” — Jeffrey R. Snyder, Fall 1993 _The Public Interest
This is an interesting spot of reasoned discourse, and as indicated by it’s anonymity, probably very close to the truth of the matter at hand, to wit: why society is failing to preserve itself. All of Mr. Snyder’s points are wickedly accurate, and serve to act as their own proof, as these critical observations are rather stridently argued over by those spineless, politically correct slaves to public opinion.
These pitiful assumptions of false attitudes are all mostly a long-winded attempt to distract from the validity of the points in question, so that the public isn’t “offended” by things they don’t like to be told. In fact, the degree of panic found in most pockets of society where this sort of venal shiftlessness is common generally approaches the flash point in mere seconds, as the pundits of PC and perpetrators of societal cowardice boil up like a pit full of snakes that has been poked with a stick, whenever they are confronted with any ideas in conflict with their own foolishness. It’s kind of fun to watch, actually, as long as one is holding the stick……
“There are well-dressed foolish ideas just as there are well-dressed fools.” — Nicholas Chamfort
___________________________________
“I think we are trying to run the space age with horse and buggy moral and spiritual equipment. Technology you see has no morals; and with no moral restraints man will destroy himself ecologically, militarily, or in some other way. Only God can give a person moral restraints and spiritual strength. While our world is shaking and crumbling, we need to realize that one thing will never change, and that is God. He is the same today as he was ten million years ago, and will be the same ten million years from today. ” — Billy Graham
Have you ever heard a bigger crock of shit in your life? I’m sorry, I don’t mean to sound antagonistic, but this all just hits me in the wrong spot; it is illogical, cowardly, ignorant, and hatefully passive aggressive….. We’ll take this line by line…..
First line, Mr. Graham begins with a quick and severe judgment of human society today that clearly indicates that he has no respect for anyone else’s opinions or ideas, accusing even the best of us of having the intelligence and education no more complete or moral than that of a hundred fifty years ago. He patently holds us to be no more than savages in a world beyond our comprehension.
In the second line, he makes an absolute statement of fact out of his distorted and ignorant anthropomorphizing of technology, proceeding to predict the demise of the species without bothering to differentiate the methods by which he claims our fate to be inevitable. (It has always been noted that oracular statements have a tendency toward vagueness….. ask the ancient Greeks about Oracles….) (And though I might agree as to the distinct possibility of our extinction, I cannot accept or condone his reasons for believing it to be inevitable. It’s not inevitable…. yet….. just more and more likely if matters don’t change dramatically…. but the moral strength to engender that change is NOT the sole purview of him and his ilk, nor is it to be found anywhere else than it already exists, within the human spirit, slumbering until roused…..)
Then comes the worst part…. ONLY God can give moral restraint and spiritual strength to a person. With one negative assertion, for which no evidence is either quoted or claimed, he has denounced the moral status of literally billions of people in the world, over 2/3 of whom possess moral restraints, and spiritual strength that is obviously greater than his own, (they don’t go around questioning and criticizing HIS moral state, or trying to convince him to convert to their beliefs….).
And none, not one of those BILLIONS of people is even aware of either his existence, or of his opinion of their status in the Universe….. if they were, they would no doubt laugh gently, shake their heads, and go about their business, a response he would be incapable of emulating, or even understanding…. for he obviously has a deep fear of his own unworthiness, which he then projects onto every other human being he sees. He does not trust or respect himself, so it is impossible for him to trust or respect anyone else. This, of course, makes God the perfect fall guy to blame his weakness on, so he can set himself up as the arbiter of God’s will for the rest of us pitiful sinners….
In the last two lines, his sense of proportion and his memory completely escape his control…. After delivering his last judgment of the state of the world, he assumes again, and assigns to God the power of immutability, for a mere twenty million years. Either he forgot that God made the Universe about 5000 years ago, as his belief system dictates, or that it has been proven by scientific study over millenia that the Universe is AT LEAST 20 BILLION years old, by the latest evidence. Proven, not deduced, not assumed, not estimated, not guessed at, not divinely inspired…. proven, with, you know, concrete, documented evidence that you can, like, hold in your hand, see with your eyes? It seems clear to the most casual observer that a measly 20 million years is obviously a euphemism for “I don’t know what the fuck I’m saying now, so I’ll just make something up….”
I’m thinking Billy might have benefited by running this by some of his co-conspirators before releasing it for publication; someone a bit sharper, a bit more in tune with reality, might have suggested to him that he tone down the judgmental rhetoric, and check his math…. not to mention explaining to him the advantages of trying not to insult the very people you are trying to convince of your sincerity…. it’s a dead giveaway that what is to follow is nothing more than a long con, just another slick way to get the marks to give up the gelt, while distracting them so you can slip out of town in the dark of night…..
“I guess the hard thing for a lot of people to accept is why God would allow me to go running through their yards, yelling and spinning around.” — Deep Thoughts, by Jack Handey (I’m not sure why, but it just seems to fit…..)
___________________________________
Beauty is truth, truth beauty, –that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.
– John Keats (1795-1821) — Ode on a Grecian Urn
A small bite of what is probably the world’s most famous poem…. tasty, yet filling. No comments required…. just enjoy…. ‘Nuff said…..
___________________________________
“…I am opposed to all attempts to license or restrict the arming of individuals…I consider such laws a violation of civil liberty, subversive of democratic political institutions, and self-defeating in their purpose.” — Robert A. Heinlein, in a 1949 letter concerning “Red Planet”
When I first read this, it sounded exactly like something that might have been pulled from a letter written by either Thomas Jefferson or George Mason (quick quiz: how many of y’all know who George Mason is, or rather, was?…..) However, it was no real surprise to find it attributed to Robert Heinlein, whose life-long belief and support of the Bill of Rights and the concepts on which this nation was founded was apparent to anyone familiar with his writing.
He graduated from Annapolis, and might have spent many years in the Navy, had not injury shortened his enlistment; one doesn’t even walk down that path without a firm grounding in democratic philosophy and belief in the rights of the common man. This dedication to the principles of our founding fathers (and mothers; let’s not forget the women who were behind the men who started the Revolutionary War…. how far would it have progressed had those women set their minds against it?……) is one of Heinlein’s most enduring traits, and one that brought him my instant respect and admiration, along with millions of other Americans….. he was a most erudite, and popular bard during his life, and his body of work will endow him with the same popularity as long as men seek to maintain their Freedom…..
___________________________________
Today’s Pearl came together fairly well; no major difficulties were encountered, and it all looks fairly interesting (well, heck, I guess I wouldn’t have bothered to write it if not, eh?…). Interesting, at least, to one whose mind flits around from subject to subject as mine does as a matter of course. I can only hope that it stimulates the same in other’s eyes and minds….. why else would I put it out there?
Here’s hoping that my woes with WordPress have faded into history…. and if not, well, you might just see another post from me today, one I will be compelled to create should my difficulties continue to be ignored…. in the meantime, y’all take care out there…..
Sometimes I sits and thinks,
and sometimes
I just sits.
gigoid
Kowabunga!
