%%USERNAME%%    %%ACCWORDS%% %%ONOFF%% |
 |   Thoughts destined to be washed away by the tides of life. |
|
I've been studying my cover photo for a while now, and it seems to me that it is more than just a photo of what is there that can be seen, more than just three white rocks stacked on a beach. It contains an important question about the future, about what happens long after the photographer has gone. What will happen to our pile of stones when the tide comes in? Will it topple or has the architect built this structure at a safe distance? I don't know what will happen to these words that I stack here on the sand. They may prove safely distant, or they may be swallowed up by a rush of self-doubt. They may be here for a season. They may lose their balance and be scattered by the shoreline, or be hidden away under shifting sands. Perhaps someday, the tides of life will reclaim them. Or maybe that's just a bunch of poetic, romantic nonsense. After all, this is just a blog. |
| After nearly a quarter century on the internet, my hands are numb. Not from typing. From sitting on them, trying not to type. So many idiotic comments, so many people looking for a fight, so much anger and so much effort to refrain from responding. I honestly don’t even care if they act this way because they are unhappy, insecure or just don’t have a life. Something deep down inside me at my most basic Viking DNA level wants to trample them, to stomp on their petty opinions, to gargle with the blood of my enemies. But I don’t. I don’t because you can’t win a fight against an open wound. You might score a point, you might manage to pour a little lemon juice into it, maybe pick the scab and get it bleeding, but in the end you will be the one who suffers. Things get messy, and it’s hard to get those bloodstains off your soul. But there’s a little lingering itch, like a mosquito bite that will flare up again if you accidentally scratch it. So the battle of conscience against instinct goes on and on. And the thought that haunts you is that the troll may think he has won because you didn’t hit back. That’s why forgiveness is almost always our last thought in these situations. Because, we worry, this turning the other cheek business might look like running away. Being the bigger person is not entirely satisfying. And, your hands get numb. |
| You know when your son has officially left childhood and entered the tweendom/teendom phase of life. Suddenly, he stops wanting to wear the superhero t-shirts and wants to wear skulls (for some strange reason, boys will return to superhero t-shirts in their 30s, but for now, it's skulls). In recent years, skulls have also become the favorite of teen girls. I even embroidered some skulls on a pair of gloves I knitted for a niece. I hate to admit that I gave in to cultural pressures, but there it is. I don't really understand the obsession with skulls - skulls on hats, skulls on t-shirts, skull tattoos. Shoot, just wait long enough and you will BE a skull. You won't need a skull tattoo because you won't have any skin. You got your own dang skull. Now use the brain inside it for something. |
| I was excited about going to flight school until I realized that it's not a class on how to run away. |
| English is not the most sensible language in the world. The rules have more exceptions than one can easily fit in a mnemonic rhyme. This is due to the vast number of words English has borrowed from other languages. This gives English a rich variety of words that one can use to convey shades of meaning to exactly capture a thought or feeling. But that also leads to confusion.Words that look alike may come from completely different roots and for that reason have different pronunciations and meanings. They may even fool us with using what appears to be the wrong plurals. For instance, the natural inclination for making the word "octopus" plural is to say "octopi". But octopus is not a Latin word, it has its roots in Greek. Octopuses is more correct. I say more correct because these days, if you can get enough people to agree to the wrong spelling/meaning/pronuciation, the dictionary will include it or even change it so that the original spelling/meaning/pronunciation is lost and found only in heavy, dusty volumes on the forgotten shelves of unvisited libraries. All of that was to lead to this question: Do you think that "synopsis" and "hypnosis"really do rhyme but we've all been brainwashed to believe otherwise? I decided that the presence of words that are spelled the same but pronounced differently is a boon to poets, because many times one can get away with a "visual rhyme". Even if words did once rhyme and now don't, who's going to tell Shakespeare he can't rhyme "flies" with "enemies"? And so I offer my visual poetry. It rhymes as long as you don't read it. Spring has sprung buds enough To thoroughly cover ev’ry bough Buds unfurled are still small though And so the Sun shines right through Rain drizzles down like sweet hypnosis So concludes my Spring synopsis |
| I have been trying to think of a blog update for two days now, and I still haven't got it quite right. I don't want to let it go to three days, because that will trigger the system email: "[Reminder] Update your blog". I don't want to see that. Although, sometimes it's the ony email that I get and I feel ignored without it. Still, I am working at coming up with a new blog post. I will let you know when it's ready. Till then, I won't post anything. I don't want to bother to blog when I really have nothing to say. That would be boring. Of course, the longer it takes me to think up a blog update, the more my ideas start to go out of date and then I have to start all over again. So, I don't have a blog idea yet. However, with all this planning, it will probably end up being succinct and pithy, not one of these blog posts that ramble on and on and just use a lot of words to convey absolutely nothing at all. I hate that. I won't even read those kinds of posts. Ugh! Have you ever noticed though, that when you have nothing to say, that your blog is the perfect place to say it? I mean, blogs don't have a character restriction, or at least I never reached it if they do. I think that a word limit might be a good idea, though. It would keep people from writing these long, boring blog updates that don't really update you on anything. Anyway, back to thinking. I need to update my blog soon, but it probably won't be today. I don't have anything to say today.} |
| I watched a few seasons of The Walking Dead (gave up about the time they killed off Glenn) but the zombie apocalypse is not what they think it is. For one thing, it's already here and it fits in the palm of your hand. It's not the fact that most people own phones that cost more than my first television set (and all the ones since), it's that the phones own us. Our phones are our connection to the world and often the only connection we have with other people. And if a phone is lost, some people are like crack addicts looking for a fix. They will do anything and everything to get that new phone before *gasp* someone texts them or snapchats at them and they *gasp* miss it. It's like Tom Macdonald said: "they gave us tiny screens we think we're free 'cause we can't see the cage." |
| Mark Twain once said: "Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect". Sometimes, just the fact that the majority approve of you is evidence that you've failed to think for yourself. There was a time when the majority thought that the hairstyles of the 80s were cool, just remember that... |
I was telling one of the twenty-somethings that he ought not to leave his car parked on the street for a week while he travels out-of-state because, if it snows, it's an automatic parking ban and they can tow your car. "It's April," he laughed. "It's not going to snow anymore!" "Never say that," I replied. "Nature can't resist a challenge." This morning Facebook presented me with a memory post from 13 years ago about an April Fool's Day snowstorm. I remember it well. Coincidence? Maybe, but a little further down the feed was this alert from a local news station: NOR'EASTER... Long duration nor'easter Wednesday-Thursday will bring significant snow... I don't know how people can live here their whole lives and not know how this works. SMH |
| The test of a great coffee is whether or not it creates a euphoria and deep yearning in you when you first open the container and the aroma of those lovely ground beans reaches your nose. A coffee that doesn't have an emotional impact the moment you smell it, can never satisfy your taste buds once it has been brewed. It may deliver caffeine, it may be fine if you adulterate it with cream and sugar, but a truly great coffee will smell so enticing, that you crave it rich, strong, hot and black in your cup. |
| I just read that the average household wastes more than 10,000 gallons of water each year and throws out 1/3 of the food they buy. The average American also creates 4.3 pounds of trash per day - that's 3/4 of a ton per year! I think we all know what the solution is. It's time to get rid of the average people. |
View Portfolio
Visit Notebook
Send Gift Points
Awards
Badges
Send Email
Community Newsfeed
General Discussion
Sponsored Items
Book of Trinkets
Static Items
Books
Groups
Interactive Stories
Audio
Campfire Creatives
Community Notes
Crossword Puzzles
Documents
Folders
Images
In & Outs
Madlibs
Photo Albums
Polls
Product Reviews
Quizzes
Survey Forms
Web Pages
Word Searches
Not quite what I meant. "Pufts" was a sidelong reference to the famous dog show, Crufts