Sunday, February 25, 2007
If you want it
I hope you folks get a chance to watch the film "The United States vs. John Lennon" at some point. I realize it is about as left as it gets, but that must be where my head and heart lie. The similarities between what was going on then and now are scary. The main thing that seems different is the draft. It got the energetic late teens and early twenty something folks saying "hell no". I wonder if we have trained our latest generations to never question authority in preparation for the current times. Old Dick C. and D. Rummy were around and in the scene back then. Makes my mind start to thinking there ain't much cash to be made on peace anyway.
One quote that is not mentioned on IMDb which struck my head hard was when Mr. Lennon said, "Once they get you violent, then they know exactly how to handle you".
Movies that make me think can't make matters worse...can they?
Saturday, February 24, 2007
Post on Post Secret
I wanted to share an observation or two with you today. Since I claim myself a prophet of all things obvious I want to point out some obvious facts about blogging.
Journaling has always been a great way to relieve mind and emotional struggles. It has helped this writer to keep a blog for that reason. When I keep a diary I can look at the pages from past days and give myself some very honest advise on a current issue. If you folks are like me you will take your own advise above all others every time. It is akin it to keeping old magazines with useful information, but most times you can never get back to that article(s), because it is in a heap with no useful reference page or card catalogue. Retrospective viewpoints are only useful if you can access them and this computer blog format is awesome for that.
In web logs one can get advice from friendships that are for the most part neutral, as it provides a way to creatively vent a boiling issue within a mind and have observers give input. Web diaries give a person a way to feel unique in this vast sea of souls. Seeing other folks thoughts and interest are as much a part of the therapy we all seek as we roam life. Connection, we all need it, but at the same time we want to stand apart as individuals, which in this obvious prophet vision the root of our human complexities.
Every Sunday morning one of the very first things I do is go to the most read blog without advertisements on the world wide web. I am sure most of you know of this place, but it never makes matters worse to reiterate a good thing.
On Sunday the new post cards are posted on Post Secret and I want to be there in that vast sea of souls.
Sunday, February 18, 2007
Dreamin' Obvious Prophet
I have been taking Cipro the heavy duty antibiotic and my sleeping patterns are screwed up. It seems like I am not getting to that deep resting point past R.E.M. so I wake up a lot during the night and remember dreams. Last night or early this morning I heard this huge thud below the house and cats screaming. I also remember a dream that was odd and fun. So come listen to a story from man named Jed, or a man using the pseudonym of Jed anyhow.
We live in an old house here in the tiny city of Knoxville that has an alley that runs the length of the block for parking and garbage pickup. It is just like hundreds of other blocks here in town, full of houses that were built in the post war boom by Americans for Americans from wood stock from the wild west or the deep south before we used up all the good pine trees. They are fine houses built to withstand this part of the earths weather and ground conditions. The houses are showing their years of half ass remodels, rentals and investors who turn them for a quick dollar. The house I rent has foundation holes that are used to vent the radon gas and moisture from the crawl space to keep it from seeping into the living quarters. I keep them open for that reason, but they lack a screen part that was kicked out years ago. The alley seems to harbor many cats and my open crawl space seems to host a warm place for them to sleep as the weather has been very cold for the past month.
This morning I awake from a light sleep to a huge thud and the cry of two maybe three cat voices. I tried to focus in on the sounds and tell if it was cat sex or cat pain, but I can't tell the difference. It was 18 degrees Fahrenheit so I did not go outside and down under to see. I did turn on the hot water to make sure the water heater was still attached to the plumbing. Yes, it was that big of a thud. I also turned the heat blower on to make sure the cage fan worked and did not have a feline obstruction. Their cries lasted perhaps two minutes. I guessed in my sleepy thoughts that is perhaps the time it takes to make a litter of kittens or die from a busted cat spleen (that is if they have spleens). My thoughts drifted from there to the comedy it is that life starts and ends in just the matter of a few seconds.
The dark cold commotion must have set me up for a guilt and shame drenched dream where I prevail somehow in bald Britney stardom. I have been feeling so very guilty because between the rent, the massive heat bills, food and transportation I have less than enough to cover all the cost around here. The little fees built into contracts at banks, utilities and most other services are eating at me because not only am I behind, I am nickel and dimed to death. These little fees utterly eat my lunch. This past year I made just enough to kick us out of a decent IRS refund using the Earned Income Credit. Yep, I am living the middle class American dream over here! So from time to time I soap box about the crappy dealings that every company uses and calls fair and ethical. To me they seem to copy the national mind set that you are only late because you are holding your money to glean the mega interest and dividends from your investments. The notion that the economy is great makes me bitter as well, because they take all the overhead cost of food and fuel out of the numbers. I came across my antibiotic by way of a plea from my wife as she took her daughter into the clinic. The Doc said the whole famn damily was a cesspool of bacteria and mercifully gave a double script. Most likely she told him how I am determined to die if I can't make enough to live around here and would never go to see a Doctor unless a truck had to scoop me from the streets of our fair city. Yea, get me started in the clever billing scams these folks pull, but hey it is all legal because they write the damn laws with their paid in full congress people and lobbyist. Come April we will either have cats to give away or stinky carcases to find and bury...life, beautiful life!
Anyway, to the dream, the dream of winners losing and losers winning. I was watching Fox on T.V. in this dream, and the contest box was flashing to call with an answer to a quiz on one of their shows. I think it was a mixed mash of Family Guy-Simpsons-King of the Hill-American Dad, and I guess the answer was Roger-Ladybird-Brian-Santa's Helper or some such shit. I won! Me?...win?...there has to be a catch. The catch call was a few moments later when someone from Fox called to say I was disqualified because I owed the Fox network ninety cents from some cable deal way back when. I don't think I have ever skipped out on a cable bill/deal. So I got really pissed off and told them I did not want their damn prize and fuck them and their ninety cent bogus fee. A little later a reporter from the Times in New York city came to my house to find the man who had the nuts to shirk a gnat and swallow a camel as he put it. I rose in this dream to some sort of Lech Walesa status and got my fifteen in the media. I felt good waking up after that dream! I still questioned if this April will bring life or death under my house.
What will I need for the future, a shovel or a whelping box? Knowing what tools are needed is a big part of not making matters worse.
Thursday, February 15, 2007
Coin Act of 2005
It looks like we are getting a new coin. I understand it came out today. I am excited on one hand and worried on the other. I guess I will expand on the worry first because it is more interesting.Does this mean inflation is real and now we have a penny colored reminder? Will the symbol of our currency the paper dollar fade into the past? No more first dollar made posted on the small business wall? No more pubs with dollars stapled up with patrons markings on them?
If they don't take the paper dollar out of circulation the coin will fail like it has before. I don't want this kind of change (pun intended)!
For some reason this feels like it will make matters worse.
Sunday, February 11, 2007
I love the 1790's
Back a few years ago I heard the Blues Traveler song "Hook" and was sure it was based on a classical song I had known from middle school band. I later found the orgional classical song belonged to Pachelbel and it was called "Canon". Today I found this on YouTube.
Set back and have a good laugh it can't make matters worse.
Set back and have a good laugh it can't make matters worse.
Sunday, February 04, 2007
iPhone
I was watching the keynote speech and iPhone introduction on the iPhone site. It is truly wonderful all the features offered on this device and I am excited for the future. Except for the fact that these will be built in some foreign place where they can get slaves to build them for near nothing and ship them here to America. America where the working class folks are being pushed to poverty because their jobs are sent to foreign ports making their efforts worth less and less. America where the greatest services are available if you have the cash, otherwise your health insurance cost more than your rent, and you still have huge deductibles. If you want to live here then decide if you want shelter, health care or information services. You can't have everything you spoiled American!
JediPhone...another Jedited photo from the mind of Jed showingthe Safari Browser on the iPhone with my blog.
I am glad the Government is trying to help with the minimum wage increase. I see it as making my wage worth less as I most likely will not get an increase. It seems to me our elected would consider making it too costly to import goods contracted overseas to help keep jobs here. Too bad I know that laws like that would never fly because the only voice heard in D.C. are the big Apples who gain from foreign wage slaves.
I guess I am doom saying and making matters worse looking at it this way.
Saturday, February 03, 2007
XL883c
I suffer from SAD some this time of year. My body is a little on the slender side and cold weather seeps deep into my marrow, or at least it feels like that. Sunshine provides so much comfort to me during the summer and I start missing it in December and get raw by this time of year. We get plenty of sunny days here in the winter, but you can stand in it all day and never feel the radiation. The condition is compounded by the money strife that is caused by Christmas and doubled utility bills.Anyway I like to dream of owning a small Harley-Davidson once again. I have had two in my life and lost them to money difficulties. I am starting to give up on ever owning anything material at this point in my life. I think after this last house deal I will never be able to own a home. I am not a bad man, I just have no income, which ain't a crime...yet. I still can not understand how the reports are saying how great the economy is and all my cohorts are doing with less and less each paycheck.
But anyway I like to go to the Harley site and do a little custom bike building and screen shot them (see above). It makes me feel some better about things, to dream of having a toy or two. The fact is, living indoors, having utilities, phone and internet is about all the luxury I can hope for anymore. I really hate seeing so many serfs like me and the numbers growing, at least here they are from my viewpoint. It would be different if we were not trying so dang hard. It makes me want to just lay down and not get up, at least my time would be my own if I were a lazy drug zombie living off the system and charity. Sorry to be glum and whiney.
It don't make matters worse dreaming of a warm summer day riding a iron horse on a curvy road.
Friday, February 02, 2007
Imbolc Day
This post is here to honor my Internet bud Anne J. at The Gods Are Bored who is a good teacher to me of things I had never bothered to ponder. I offer a poem to the Imbolc holiday we mostly know as Groundhogs Day around here. The poem is a gesture to Brigid a goddess known for poems among other things.
There is a reason Jed has not posted many poems here, because I ain't too good at it. She did ask for it, so here goes. Remember I am not trying to make matters worse by spewing poems...remember.
The sun fell away autumnal
So your forecast is worth
When your view is successful
Vernal sun of spring birth
Oh bone aches are dreadful
Small creature humble in Earth
Solaris cure this head full
Weather provide me my mirth
So your forecast is worth
When your view is successful
Vernal sun of spring birth
Oh bone aches are dreadful
Small creature humble in Earth
Solaris cure this head full
Weather provide me my mirth
