It’s A Beautiful Day, Enjoy It While You Can

Pic of the day:  Woman with a parasol, by Claude Monet

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Aloof with hermit-eye I scan
The present works of present man —
A wild and dreamlike trade of blood and guile,
Too foolish for a tear, too wicked for a smile!

Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Ode to Tranquility

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The sun is up and I am writing.  Kind of an odd thing for me to be doing, I usually write at night after all, the daylight is normally for more active and outdoor pursuits; running , walking and the like.

I haven’t run in three days, might run later, before the sun sets.  Not 100% certain about that though.  Running is fun, I really do enjoy it, but I guess I am getting old.  And what I mean by that is that I no longer have the urge to go out there and break my ass the way I used to out there.  The fact that almost every run hurts on some level somewhere makes it harder to enjoy.  I need new running shoes, that would make things less painful, but I haven’t the money to buy even a crap pair of shoes at this point.

I’ve sent all the resumes out to all the places that I could find that looked like their needs (art handler/mover) and mine (a job that pays enough to pay the bills) meet in such a way as to make both of our lives easier.  Sad to say that there were only two places that met those not very stringent requirements.  Well there was a third but it looked like a scam to me, and I never give my Soc. Sec. number to anyone without knowing who they are.  I try to send in as many resumes as I possibly can to as many places as I can, and I am not done for the day, but I am done for the moment.

Quizzes and form filing is a hairy pain in the ass that has to be dealt with when doing this stuff.  Not difficult, not by any stretch of the imagination, but the person doing it gets little out of it.  99% of the time I never even get a call back from these people.  Low incentive tasks are not the stuff that dream jobs and careers are made of.   Putting this crap out at the very beginning of the process of getting the job doesn’t to my mind bode well in any way whatsoever.  These places can do better, but they don’t, because they simply don’t get it.  I am more than just a machine to move your stuff, dammit.

I’ve gone to the store to get all the things that my wife and I need to live our lives that we didn’t already have around the apartment. Not much stuff, a few small things.  I never spend a lot of money when I go out on these errands.  I hate spending money, especially as I barely have any at this point in my life.

So here I sit, writing…

When I should be out there enjoying the beautiful day while I can, before winter shows up in earnest, before the inevitable full time work shows up making it impossible for me to do while the sun is up.

I’m going to head out to run in a little bit (pain be damned) and then back to the job search.  I’ve been staring at screens all day, and I hate when that happens.  Too much of that in my life, too much sedentary crap, just sitting around staring at words on screens while life is passing me by.

Enough.

I have things to do.  I can write more later, and I will.  Much work is there to do yet on the novel I was working on, much work.

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That’s it from here, America.  G’night.

 

How?

Pic of the day: North America from the low orbiting earth satellite Suomi NPP

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It is natural that one cannot understand deep and hidden things. Those things that are easily understood are rather shallow.

Yamamoto Tsunetomo, Hagakure

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We ask questions like “Who made us?” and “Who made the world?” Because we make things. If we never made a thing, it never would have occurred to us that the world was a created thing, created by a being of any type. The thought can only exist in your head if you are capable of imagining it, and any creature capable of an act of creation can imagine other acts of creation. And because the world is gigantic when thought of in proper proportion, it cannot be helped that some of those thoughts would necessarily turn to the immensity of the world we ourselves live in.

We ask questions like “Why was the world created?” and Why were we created?” Because we, every single one of us act with intent most every day, and have for millions of years of our evolution. If we hadn’t, we would not be the creatures we are now. We could not have survived to become the top of the food chain without it. We didn’t survive because we had the biggest claws or the best physical anything. Intention and creativity gave us the strength to become who we are today. We created bows and spears and a thousand other weapons to kill that which threatened us, with the intent to protect ourselves. Intention and creation are at the heart of who and what we are.

We cannot imagine a world without intent because we have intent everywhere in our lives. It’s hard wired into our brains. Capitalism is an intent engine. It starts with the intention to create capital, to intentionally create something for ourselves to build a better life for ourselves. Nations are intent engines, as are political machines. We are intent engines whose sole purpose is personal fulfillment. Nothing in our lives goes untouched by these things.

So when I hear the above questions, I cannot help but think they are the wrong questions. Who and why, as good a set of simple questions as mankind has ever created, should be replaced with a more pertinent question. How?

How were we created? I don’t know, to be honest. I wasn’t there. I have heard speculation about it but have done no research myself. I think we came down from the trees a few million years ago, but that’s just me. I could be wrong.

How was the world made? Again I don’t know as I was not there when it happened, but I have an idea because others have done research and I’ve read and heard some of it.

It isn’t enough to ask questions. We have to ask the right questions. The wrong questions lead to wrong answers and push us in the wrong direction.

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I feel bad for not writing here much lately. I have been writing, a lot. My novel is coming along nicely. A hair over 33,000 words since I started on November 1st. I’ll write more about that later.

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That’s it from here America. G’night.

Ugly Man’s Complaint

Pic of the day:  Duel with Cudgels (Rina a Garrotazos), by Francisco de Goya

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Until you understand a writer’s ignorance, presume yourself ignorant of his understanding.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

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Only a few hours left until the final debate before the election.  Should be good, I plan to watch most of it.  Not all of it mind you, most of it.  Partly because I will simply have other things going on, from cleaning up after dinner and cats and the like, but because of simple distraction.  The wife speaking, something happening that needs my attention, a phone call, an idea for the next chapter in the book I’m prepping for Nanowrimo, something.

Because there is always something.  Which doesn’t bother me.  In a mans life there are always a million things to do.  Woman’s life too, I would imagine.

Woman’s life.  Happy to have one in mine.  Ugly bastard that I am, I am surprised as hell that I have someone as good as my wife in my life.  I giggle when I say ugly bastard just a little.  Why?  I was getting ready to go out and take pictures outside of the beauty that is the local park with my galaxy tab, with all the leaves changing colors, and I hit the wrong button.  There are two cameras and I turned on the other camera, the one facing me.  I looked hideous.

Laughed at this.  Took a picture.  Made it worse.  Did it again, was even more spectacularly gruesome.  Took a few more pics and with each pic I took the worse it got.  Deleted each as I took them.  I wanted no evidence of such vain behavior from such an ugly old fuck as I.

Dunno why I felt the need to say it, but I did.  On the positive side it does make the Halloween costume easy.  Just gotta walk outside.

But I digress… as usual.

I never ended up taking the galaxy tab out. I wanted to kill some time outdoors though, so I went out and just walked around the woods, just enjoyed the view and the beauty of nature. And got stuck with thorns.  Because,  love nature though I do, it apparently doesn’t love me back.

lol

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I have of late been writing a chapter by chapter outline for a novel. I started out writing a ghost story, but abandoned it, if only for the moment.  The politically active writer in me started fighting for room on the written page, and being a persuasive ol’ cuss, I’ve given it to him.

I’ve written a very basic outline for the entire story arc, and am in the process of getting the more minute details ironed out.  It’s the story of a law.  A less than wonderful law that enhances law enforcement’s ability to stop, frisk, and detain Americans. Having the effects of the law play out through the actions of two overbearing cops (with more joining in later) and one person who happens to have connections in high places, who disappears thanks to those cops.   It is also the story of the media’s portrayal of the events (things happen very publicly here) and the man who is the face of the legislation, and how their stories intertwine.

The story is really coming out well so far.  Hope the novel is as good as the story seems.  If I get this to novel length and like it, I may self publish before years end, if the final edit is done by then, after that if it takes longer.

Crossing my fingers.  Man it would be great if I could make a few bucks writing.  That would be fantastic.

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Being out of work sucks, but it gives me time to rest and relax.  Which I have not had in a long time.  Being unemployed, or only marginally employed is no vacation.  There is no break.  At least not for any self aware, responsible adult who has bills to pay and the prospect of no money to pay for it.

I put in for unemployment yet again.  I need the money, but would honestly rather just have work. I’m gonna keep sending in resumes.  Some one has to need a strong ugly bastard who takes orders well and is a quick learner.  Seems they either need pretty people or people who are too stupid to know how to take orders.

That’s what it looks like from the sidelines.

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Go watch the debate. Make sure you watch it on C-SPAN, and as soon as it is done, turn the TV off and make up your mind.

Because if you don’t you’ll just watch people on television who will try to make up your mind for you.

And who needs that crap?

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That’s it from here, America.  G’night.

You Don’t Need to Know but I’m Telling You Anyway

Pic of the day: Peulik Volcano and Lake Becharof in Becharof National Wildlife Reserve, Alaska

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Idiot, n. A member of a large and powerful tribe whose influence in human affairs has always been dominant and controlling. The Idiot’s activity is not confined to any special field of thought or action, but “pervades and regulates the whole.” He has the last word in everything; his decision is unappealable. He sets the fashions and opinion of taste, dictates the limitations of speech and circumscribes conduct with a dead-line.

Ambrose Bierce, The Devil’s Dictionary

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Mitt Romney is ahead in the polls.  Looks like I was right when I said that this thing is far from over two weeks ago.  The man seems to have gotten a bump from not just his debate win last week but also his moving his message to the middle, taking it from the far right.  He is doing message wise much of what Obama did in 2008, moving his message to the middle in order to get votes from moderates.

I don’t particularly have a problem with him doing that.  What I do have a problem with is the fact that his message until now has been so far from that moderate viewpoint that I cannot believe that it is genuine.  When Obama made his move to the middle 4 years ago it was not nearly as far of a stretch.  He was despite being called the most liberal man in the senate back then, he was actually pretty moderate in his senate voting record.  You can look that up yourself if you like.

With all that said, all the events that have occurred do not mean that Romney has this thing wrapped up either.  Obama, like Romney has a large base of voters that will vote for him simply because of the party he is affiliated with.  Between the two of them they get approximately 90% of the population that way.  It’s that last 10% that makes the difference in the election.  And it is that last 10% that will make of break the next few weeks.

Romney got them looking in his direction by being a great CEO at the debate.  Obama played professor and lost.  If Obama turns on the juice and shows what he can do, like he did in the debates in 2008, He’ll do much to fix the damage he did to himself in that debate.

It doesn’t help Romney that he had to roll back several things that he said in the debate because they were lies.

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Politics, n. A strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. The conduct of public affairs for private advantage.

Ambrose Bierce, The Devil’s Dictionary

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Two more days of work for the year.  After Friday I won’t be back there until January 2013, because that is the way the contract that the union signed with the company I work for says it must.  I don’t mind, I’d like full time work there though.  Happy to have worked there for as long as I have, and hopeful that next year will bring me permanent employment there.  But I am out on my ass for now, and looking for work.

I’ll find something.

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Writing every day putting story ideas together for Nanowrimo.  I’m gonna do that for 3 or 4 more days then find a story that is the most interesting and outline that for a week or two and then write it.  Lots of political and sci-fi and horror story ideas bouncing around my evil head.  Wonder if I should do a mix of several of them, or even mix all three.  Damn that would be weird, and obtuse, and not just a little fun.

I’ll keep you posted.  Cause I’m like that.  You don’t need to know but I’m telling you anyway.

So there.

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And I’m telling you something else.

FUCK ROMNEY, VOTE FOR ME!  A vote for me is a vote against the established Republican order!  I promise that my first job when I become your Lord and Master President  is to repeal the law of gravity and to make Mexico illegal!

If I need to appoint a supreme court justice, I’ll pick some multimillionaire lawyer well known judge who is a real dick  a pillar of society and put him on the payroll make him the pick.  That’s what everyone else does, so why the hell not?

I will repeal Obamacare and replace it with Fuckyoucare!  Fuckyoucare is a proposal whose main point is simple.  Get sick? FUCK YOU!  Can’t pay your insurance premiums? FUCK YOU!  Need a break? FUCK YOU! Insurance companies are more important than you are.  Don’t like it? FUCK YOU!

I also promise to lie cheat steal, and fuck over as many people as I possibly can and make as much money for me and people who know me as I possibly can.  Why? Because I am an honest man!  I tell you that up front because I don’t want you thinking that the President is a good guy and then you find out later he’s a hater who just wanted to take advantage of you!  No conspiracy!  No bullshit!  The truth!

Vote Walsh/Some Other Fucking Lunatic 2012!

Plus Romney likes Mondays, that idiot (note definition above.)

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That’s it from here, America.  G’night.

Bit Of An Obsession

Pic of the day:  Autumn, by Guiseppe Archimboldo

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Who said I was wise? I’m a professional bad example. You can learn a lot by watching me. Or listening to me. Either one.

Robert A. Heinlein, Stranger in a Strange Land

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I’m just a man, just an ordinary man.   I work when I can.  When I can seems to me all the time, so I work seemingly every day, every hour I’m awake.  Work at something.  At home, when at my job, wherever I am.  Work is a man’s life it seems to me, and all life should have some element of toil in it.  A man who does not sweat every day is not a man, he’s a boy playing at manhood.

Politics is as important as oxygen, so I take an interest.  I’m a liberal, but I don’t know that that matters all that much.  Liberal to my mind means that caring enough about people to put the needs of others who need help ahead of my own needs. It means that government has a place in the everyday life of men and women.  It means all people are important, not just people who look like me or talk like me or think like me.  Society is too overfull of people who are different from me to think any differently.  And if caring for those who cannot do for themselves means life costs a little more, then so be it.  We’re all in this together, we help one another along or we all fall together.

I was taught to care about people growing up, and I see no reason to stop that now that I’m an adult.  And no I don’t think that conservatives don’t care, but I simply could not hold those political views and speak about caring about people and mean it.

I pay my taxes and I expect them to buy something.  Something good for the people.  Feed someone who would otherwise not be able to eat, shelter someone who would otherwise be homeless.  I don’t want to pay a ton in taxes and not see any good done.  And there are plenty who abuse the system, but there are plenty who need the help.  I will not complain about helping those who could help themselves if those who need help are helped.  Better to help those who need help and some who don’t then to leave everyone high and dry to insure no one abuses the system.  That is inhumane.

That is wrong.

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Man, as a social animal, can no more escape government than the individual can escape bondage to his bowels.

Robert A. Heinlein, Stranger in a Strange Land

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I don’t want to see my taxes pay to kill my own people.  Iraq went on too long, but that war is thankfully over. Afghanistan has gone on too long, and we’ll be out of there soon enough, and that is great.  We pay too much for defense.  Who are we defending ourselves from?  Where is the threat?  Terrorism is a threat but not enough of one to justify our defense spending.

Or our insane security complex.  Our rights get trampled there daily.  We have rights, or we should.  But the law allows warrantless wiretaps.  The courts have been circumvented to protect us.  From what, terrorism?  Hell no, it is to make sure we don’t stray from the path those who run the industry want us to walk.

And it will be a cold day in Aruba before I let that go unopposed.  I am secure in my person.  I need no security apparatus to help me there.  We had apparatus already in place that did the job, and did it at less cost and was equally effective. Our security apparatus has not made us more secure, it has made us broke when we have no money.

I have no money either, but I never have.  Doesn’t bother me overmuch.  Poverty, or more aptly put the constant feeling that I have nothing has shaped much of my mindset about the world around me.  It has guided my thoughts about security, about people, about the constitution and the law and taxes, about terrorism and our military, about work and all that goes with all of the above.

And all that is important.  But I tell you this; none of it matters, not a single belief makes a shit of difference if I can’t keep my wife and myself fed and sheltered.  All my strength means not a damn thing if I don’t have enough money coming in to pay the bills.  And with work coming to an end sometime in the next week or two has me thinking much on the thoughts of survival.  It’s a bit of an obsession with me.

Beliefs are important, but money and work are the most important things in this society, and therefore are the most important things to me, for without them I cannot live, so I work.  When I can.  It starts and ends with work.  And work is ending soon.

I’ll make it, just wish it was a hair easier.

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That’s it from here, America.  G’night.