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 |   All that remains: here in my afterlife as a 'mainstream' blogger, with what little I know. |
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The Idiotic Ideate?? Formerly: New Zenith To Hell…(all started with arc as writer here from the trials of Rising Stars to Preferred Author to WDC Quills Best Poetry Collection to the falling action I feel now that settles in a white case.) Got to hustle to preserve the best of me before fully fading on that virtual horizon glowing more brilliant with each passing day to permanent nuclear winter. if people don’t get it, I don’t need to explain it. We kill all that’s beautiful before we question it’s purpose. So many people find it easier to think in the black and the white. God forbid you get lost straying in the gray. "Whoever fights monsters should see to it…he does not become a monster.” I’ve been to the abyss and back. Not so bad. The loneliest happy person you'd ever meet, when not the saddest person who needs to be alone. In an ever-changing world, we need to handle topics at the ready. If you roll over and give in to the narrative without lending a voice of your own, you might as well hand over your civil liberties. We have voices that should connect to true conscience and spirit for honest and open discourse. Why feel so redacted? Unify on issues and put drama aside. Open minds require complete objectivity. If none need apply, question the unbendable sources for answer. If you knee-jerk react to every issue lurking out there that clutches your neck, you fall victim to your own ignorance born from a life of apathy (no doubt) in pathetic cries of injustice. Just writing what I feel without the narrative-altering mind f---ing with my head. [MY Chorus] In your house, I long to be Room by room, patiently I'll wait for you there, like a stone I'll wait for you there, alone "It amazed me how truth was often suffocated in minutes, but lies were given sufficient air to breathe indefinitely." "You are all better than you think you are, you are just designed not to believe it when you hear it from yourself." ![Merit Badge in Second Time Around Contest
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Congratulations on winning the Grand Overall Prize in [Link To Item #2164876] with your beautiful poem, [Link to Book Entry #933358]. This poem really moved me. Great writing!
Rachel *^*Heartv*^*](https://images.Writing.Com/imgs/writing.com/writers/badges/group-Second_Time_Around_Contest-2164963_14.gif)    "...lasting art is never anything more than a mathematical expression of the relations that exist between the internal and the external, the self [le moi] and the world." -Jean Metzinger I'm in love with carefully chosen words, arranged just so, audible, edible, to inhale. I attempt to post new poems and epiphanies daily with some links to what inspires. I am legally blind with a rare, genetic form of glaucoma. I'm described as "end stage" after two successful surgeries, still subject to further vision loss. Cataracts complicating matters. Writing Can get strenuous but seldom deters what yearns to emerge, despite a documented history of depression and recently diagnosed ADHD and undefinable social disorders and/or PTSD. My recent poetry:
Sometimes epiphanies about my insights on writing and life and what goes on... Making sense of life is maddening. Why do I need to know, when truth may not actually exist? Learning to accept would be a better pursuit? Flailing about in my own mediocrity, hoping to bust out. I am visible. You can put a face with a name. I would like to see other writers, too. Fiction is what you write, not who you are. Reinventing myself. I couldn't continue on the path I was on and needed a fresh start. This time around I want to put the focus on writing and the world outside of this community as it affects my life. I realize now that I have been baring my chest a bit more, as when young. fake me much more boring and unliberated than the real me. A world arriving as silent as that blossom in your garden that I told you about... |
| (Advanced Peek) As yet to be fully realized and edited: George Floyd was a drug user? https://www.newsweek.com/george-floyd-was-fentanyl-medical-examiner-says-experts... I had to Google cause of death and understand what fentanyl is and learn from my wife its used in combination with methamphetamines (also listed in coroner's report). She knew this before me (not a sharer) and I was floored. I was checking to see if the officer held responsible for Floyd's death has spoken or entered a plea. Chauvin's lips are sealed. I want to understand how he could not see what was happening to the victim. The Floyd family had their own autopsy done but do not mention drugs in their report. Chauvin should fry for what he did. But, this complicates my sympathy for Floyd, a man who has sparked a long-needed movement that now memorializes his untimely death with strangely awkward sit downs mimicking the last nine minutes of his life. How must the family feel about this, above the violence and riots? Can we assume whether Floyd was above the law, contributing erroneously to his own demise? Is defense council going to raise this issue? Dangerous court days ahead. I think the nation would not accept a plea deal, but the family should. And, could tell a nation they do it out of respect of memory of their loved one. It diminishes for me the unified movement, by not acknowledging Floyd's weakness. Outrage for murderous police brutality, deserved. But, tempered when you consider everything that could fuel an ugly court case. I need to empathize with Mr. Floyd, if indeed he had a drug dependency. And, that's before a trial that could daringly reveal two conflicting autopsy reports. Very sensitive this issue of drugs complicating heart failure, which he knew he struggled with. Fentanyl killed Michael Jackson, too. And on a related matter: I agree that taking a knee is NOT about the flag. I believe SITTING (that first time in 2016) during the national anthem was about getting benched (losing one's starting job). "(Colin Kaepernick) The former Super Bowl starting quarterback's decision to go public (about stand on systematic racism in America) comes while he is fighting for his football life with the (San Francisco) 49ers, who drafted him in the second round in 2011. He lost his starting job last season after being one of the most promising players in the NFL during his run under former coach Jim Harbaugh. Over the past few months, his relationship with management has turned sour. He requested a trade last spring, which never came. He also has spent most of the offseason rehabilitating from operations to his left (non-throwing) shoulder, his hand and knee. His recovery left him unable to fully compete with Blaine Gabbert for months and has him seemingly in a bind to regain his starting job." 8/26/2016 https://www.nfl.com/news/colin-kaepernick-explains-why-he-sat-during-national-an... Colin still has good intentions. The NFL should have never shunned him. I learn shunning is a common practice among those who want to diminish another for whatever reasons. |
| If you have a disability and laid off from your job as a result of this pandemic, it sucks to be you. That is, if you collect SSDI from the government, also. You probably heard the federal CARES Act was going to drop an additional $600 a week in your lap. But, because you live in Wisconsin, the state said ‘none for you.’ Sure, people who can’t claim a disability like you can get at least a hundred bucks a week from state unemployment, plus another $600 bump from CARES. So, that’s $700 weekly, about 28-hundred monthly. And what do you get? Zero. But, you have that cushy SSDI that amounts to about, what? Half that? I’ll bet you’re extra lucky if you have dependents. How is it, post COVID-19 for you? Can you go out in public without greater fear than the others? Among those who defiantly won’t wear a mask? Are you able to travel? Require assistance? Use public busing? And where do you go to meet these maskless villains who don’t know you live with a handicap? Make it hard to conveniently shop in these stores like war-torn battlefields for the last of some necessities? Do you get those supplies all home safely through whatever means of transpiration? Okay, you’re supplied, you're hunkered down. Fears of inflation? Fears of trips to hospital? Can you know what the future holds? Will your employer ever call you back? Do you consider no job will be waiting for you when this is over? Who will take you on with your special needs? Who will train you? What security do you have? A monthly check from the federal government? You don’t want to beg for help. You don’t want to be a charity case. You learn 48 of 50 states give people with a disability a shot at additional federal assistance in these times. And you think, why isn’t Wisconsin and it’s Governor doing something to lift this restriction? If you don’t get an at bat, you don’t get a stat. Right? Baseball had these odd rules for negating plate appearances. It equates to when jobs reports come out. Right? No state is going to tout how many claims were rejected. If you’ve been denied, the jobless rate goes down. A law has diminished you, negated you. Impressive Governor, Wisconsin, you tromped on about 175,000 workers so you can look good. Who gets hurt? In 2013, when this legislation to block ‘double-dipping’ was enacted, a certain Governor was cutting all kinds of stuff to make the budget float. Questionable, the way they went about it? Somebody benefits. And those nasty, no-account-for disabled workers can’t ‘double-dip’ now. Didn’t see coronavirus coming? Do politicians care? Ahem. Scott Walker. You’re the double dipper. WISCONSIN, look sharp. I’m talking to you. Are you collecting unemployment insurance from those that employ the handicapped? Where does that money go? Do I have to dig and find out? Rebate to employers who hire disabled? What?? But, the feds earmarked money to distribute to the laid off. Did you get that extra portion for EVERY worker? Or, were the handicapped conveniently left out? Hmm. This is systematic. Disabled Lives Matter. I’m coining it. They struggle. They have special needs -- the feds recognized that through a serious vetting process that may have involved attorneys. Where are the lawyers now? Litigators? No. They don’t want to take on your law. Wisconsin agencies/programs to assist this handicapped sector just recite the 2013 law and back off. No help there. Bunch of sycophants. You got a sector of the workforce cornered, demeaned, nullified. And the CARES Act is just a huge taunt to people who dared make ends meet and find security. And the world goes on lock down and they are systematically treated like lazy, worthless people whose lives DON’T matter. Yeah. You got a law. Nice going. Get your act together legislators. You have not breathed one word publicly on this subject. Go ahead. Hide behind the headlines. I know I will get calls from concerned citizens after reading this. I would rather you call, write or email your legislators to rescind the 2013 law immediately. Tell them what matters. Tony Evers: E-mail: EversInfo@wisconsin.gov Phone: 608-266-1212 Senate Bill (SB) 200 passed the Wisconsin Senate on June 11, 2013 by a 17-15 vote, with all Republicans voting in favor of it and all Democrats against. |
| Irony: the movement to support police, fire and military post-911, Today, the coronavirus scourge that had us honoring healthcare workers for their bravery is in the shadows of a defund police movement meant to rile rather than unify a nation on the ills of police brutality and the cries of racism. Whether it was the blue light illuminating a porch stoop or blue hearts displayed in our windows, what I feel growing out of this is an attempt to shame and fool people into believing humanity is not being served: https://nypost.com/2020/06/06/the-movement-to-defund-police-is-based-on-nothing-... Stop reading just the headlines and ask questions -- why we are inundated in an election year with so much stuff that you want to shrink from the very presence of triggering words? Answers aren't necessarily being offered. Plenty of accusations made. No true leader can rise above this to lead us to some promise land. America functions. It's not perfect. We have freedoms. We risk losing what we have if we cannot understand the need for proper civil discourse. Read the provided article. Mind you, it comes with a bias, but some serious evidence that you are being put in a position to question something that actually serves us better than you've been lead to believe. Also, related to Minnesota: https://www.lawenforcementtoday.com/editorial-why-the-defundpolice-movement-does... Stay informed, even if you feel you don't have a voice. Just, don't get led around by your nose. You have eyes and ears. Extra reading, because I'm so tired of the ignorance right down to a 15-year-old proclaimed transgender I love who tried lecture me about all things on the spectrum but did not know difference between confederate flag and communist (both I condemn): https://www.huffpost.com/entry/lets-get-it-right-bigotry-is-not-racism_b_57eddcd... I think if you feed anything called truth on a plate, people will partake and maybe rave about it. Ignorance is real. I have a right to be sick and done with it. And, if someone educated uses information to mislead, I have a little bit more contempt for you. I see you. And what happened to George Floyd publicly is sad and perplexing. But, imagine living in a true, racist environment your whole life In a sundown town in Texas. As one man describes at a rally for Black Lives Matter honoring Floyd in a small Texas town, he ducked bottles and jumped away from cars rolling over curbs... https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.texasmonthly.com/news/black-lives-matter-vidor/... Racism does exist in much scarier places. It takes bravery ever day to be true to who you are, no matter where. Final Thought: Perhaps, the defund movement is sponsored by those who want to scrap the constitution. Careful, it could mean totalarianism and not your beloved socialism. |
| I guess we're all struggling to say the right thing. There are a lot of pieces to this puzzle. Collectively, the white majority is either ignorant, complacent, afraid or feels their voice is unwanted or doesn't matter. I think white shame got lumped in there and that is on our forefathers who founded this country. Let's not forget this an election year and politicians are really stirring it up. The elected lay it in our lap so we will vote for them. whether Republican or Democrat; but what change has been made? These politicians don't mend fences, they keep race separated so this division will stand between their aisles. if black and white stood arm in arm and told Washington you will not divide us, what would they do? I'm white. I don't favor racism. But, by keeping us from agreeing as a nation what type of leadership we want, we'll always feel helpless to join together. Integrating races/culture in our country is hard to do without a bold leader to unify. Look what's happened to religion in our country. I rooted for Rev. Jesse Jackson. I thought he could do it. Fleeting at best. We're stuck as a nation, repressed. So, we find distraction when we feel our voice is just one and doesn't matter. and then, we don't vote. That's as best I can put it. |
| How it goes down...Reddit Style: https://www.reddit.com/r/PublicFreakout/comments/guevu6/shots_fired_in_green_bay... Shots Fired! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rage_Against_the_Machine_%28album%29 |
| A little bit more knowledge. My brother-in-law is a retired Michigan State Trooper who alerted me years ago he is suspicious of our country headed toward a police state. With recent riots and response across the country with the President's incendiary remarks, I had to google and learn. Now I know why the CNN reporters were arrested on live TV the other morning in Minnesota, if you'll read... https://www.pbs.org/wnet/need-to-know/the-daily-need/are-we-becoming-a-police-st... I'm sure post pandemic this is not what the government wants or could have foreseen happening. However, my brother-in-law spotted earpieces in the ears of some of those masked rioters in reports he watched from his area of Detroit. If this is organized, it feels like groups are taking advantage of a vulnerable time in a political year, for whatever reasons. I get images of a lot of questionable stuff from our nation's past from 911 to the fires destroying America's churches some 20 years ago. I know the nation is outraged, but this feels extreme. I just don't see diplomacy setting this right. Regarding George Floyd's horrible death at the hands of a white officer, I was also unaware (until my wife showed me a photo this morning) about the race of the other responding. All of these things just make me wonder why the rage and hostility has gotten this far out of hand, when they've fired all four officers and promised a criminal investigation. I want to read or see something that can inform me more why American citizens are responding in this fashion that would ease my concerns that their is anything political to totalitarian motivation behind this. There is a nation with a lot of time on their hands this summer, without jobs, sports, family activities and more from shut downs to the slow down in our economy. I hope there are some good people with diplomatic intentions ready to roll up their sleeves and go to work. I fear the Sunday columnists like the New York Times will paint a slightly slanted picture that isn't designed to resolve but embroil a weakness in our nation in its current state. If you read, details of events are conveniently left out. Like, over 70% of rioters arrested in Minnesota were from out of state. One more thought, President Trump needs to retire from Twitter. You're 'very, very bad' tweeting isn't helping matters. You need to be more presidential than what you are exhibiting (did you really quote George Wallace?) and are not unifying (but dividing) a country (you are hired to lead) with comments you have to clarify after it's too late. I agree, we should act like grown ups, rather than children and blame you for our 'very, very bad things.' But, you have to talk to people like they are adults, just this short of patronizing. I'm sensing your dignity is more important than a two dollar face covering. We can upgrade you to the Presidential Seal if you like, Sir. But yeah, totalitarianism has reared its ugly head. Just wanted to let you know. Forgive me if I don't edit this right away, if ever. Not sure how much I want my brain spinning on subject like this. I really don't have time for passion as a reporter anymore. Or as a citizen of this great country. As long as the beer flows and my backyard blooms, I'll write my odes to nature and the returning echoes in the hollow of my heart. |
| I’ve got insight and opinions on a lot of things that I could write about. I don’t have enough people to consort with who will network With a journalist about this era arriving. It seems appropriately apocalyptic. Civil unrest following a pandemic and I’m sure more is in store. I can’t talk about my favorite food to what movies I like. Set aside the trivial talk. Let’s get to the meat of it. Why doesn’t civil discourse exist? When they invented PC lingo and the internet, freedom of speech went sideways and backward. So many opportunities to stay informed, except the media is owned by conservatives or liberals. Nothing truly centered on getting to the truth in an ever dividing world that had a chance to co-exist and coalesce post Martin Luther King or John Lennon and Barrack Obama. I suck at typing on my phone. I hate this. I am tired of restraint. Time to loose these tongues, seek sensible people who can’t diplomatically get a firm footing on unrest and mend not just a nation, but the world. Love. Peace. |
I was ready to call it yesterday, as I posted on Twitter. No NBA or MLB or NHL (can't forget them) this season. All these media stories about talks of when and how they'll resume is tiring and a charade. It makes me think they do it to remain relevant. People are discovering there's more to life than sports. And, fan bases could shrink, losing fringe viewers who will find and are finding other interests outside of sports. Kids summer sports programs were canceled long ago and now today is word that minor league baseball is cutting hundreds of players and more expected to be handed pink slips, signaling ab end of one baseball season. I'm looking at you next, NFL. NBA would have seen a trophy hoisted this coming month. Hockey, too. MLB's tiresome summer sked would be two months in. College sports are also on the hot seat this fall. I'll believe when any football training camps are fully open for team drills. But still, revenue is key. Who's going to concessions in empty stadiums? Sales of swag will dwindle without visions of scintillating highlight reels on scoreboards or videos boasting on ESPN. Nightmare just trying to get people to social distance at a grocery store, let alone get all to agree to wear masks publicly. You don't have the manpower or the capability to ensure the safety of people at your venues, let alone the athletes, staff and attending media. So, I'm learning toward no sports at all until end of year, and possibly more. So, get used to this new world full of boogie man diseases. Get used to shuttering in your homes and taking extra precautions when you travel. The sports world as we know it will drastically and radically change after this, similar to how HIV-AIDS also reshaped our logic in an innocent world. I'll think on this more later. 20-minute write. I'll post Twitter links later. |
| George Carlin surprised me in the early 80s with a revelation during one of his standup specials, I think on HBO. Thanks to cable he didn't have to self-edit about how angry and disturbed he could get. He was a comic genius who could also be quite silly, but I always imagined comics to be funny. There wasn't another side to that coin. And what he helped me realize was humor can come from rage and deep-seated feelings that need construction expression to fully realize and relate to others who feel the same way but cannot express it. It was about this time I was also discovering Richard Pryor and his rage. Comics we're opening up about how they felt and how society was affecting them. Perhaps, the origins of self-discovery and pop psychology are partly rooted in standup comedy from this era. I listen to Carlin relate that his entire day would be ruined if he tripped over a crack in the sidewalk. My mind was blown. I was partially sad to see this side of him and thrilled that the two of us shared a commonality We could get so easily upset about the smallest of things. It might be that we are deep in thought and prefer not be disturbed. The disconnect from our inner processes are startled by simple incidents like this. It could be a child gently asking for a father's attention while busied with writing streams of thought into an internet portal, as my case in recent years. But when I was experiencing Carlin's revelations, I was insecure around other young adults and just wanted to put on my best appearance. I didn't want to be the subject of ridicule or shame because someone saw me accidently acting a boob by walking into a door. Carlin taught me not to take myself so seriously and learn to laugh at my mistakes, though I doubt he took a cue from his own missive. I think he was just deconstructing what made him so intense, which leant to his comic genius and a wordsmith in his own right. The whole approach to standup comedy was becoming observations of the world, the human condition. It was searching for irony in the way we are humanly constructed to live with shame, to preen and put on our best appearances rather than show ourselves warts and all. Where it was once funny to laugh at people slipping on banana peels, I developed a sense of self-deprecating humor. Here I walk into an internet community wanting to divulge the best parts of myself and play upon it because it can be so loving and rewarding. But, when you fall short of expectations and true goals, a writer can have adverse reactions to it. It is a world just like any other that feeds off shame and insecurity to manipulate those emotions, to either nurture or reject accordingly, however it fits in the plan. Social media; bunch of narcissists. I cannot even imagine a world inside Instagram; and I value my image, my self-worth enough to know where not to reside within walls of indifference. My son, easily accepts these internet living conditions where he will find himself, but cannot find a real world where he can get his course work done and pass his classes to move on to his junior year. He would have gotten academically booted to the curb if not for a pandemic. He is facing humiliation because he could not express the number of times he kept tripping over the same place in the walk, even though family and school stood at the ready to help and support him. So, today, I doubly fail. First as a parent, which I will live with until this somehow turns around. But second, as a resident of the internet. I trip and trip and trip and smile. I could do a cartwheel at the end, but no one would give a rat's behind. Maybe, I intimidate or piss people off when I get too intense. My goals, my expectations unmet cause me to stew and think I deserve better, and I do. I can't get accepted as I am, because I'm no George Carlin. I have not found an arena for my ability to advance myself and thrive. And, it's all because I hold back. I learned from Carlin to laugh at myself. But, I also learned not to try. I don't put myself out there to fail, because I never feel supported or ready to try. With enough evidence returning from a world that doesn't appreciate my hostility and how it's revealed, I'm unworthy of further foray. I feel like being a cog in the surrounding systematic indifference applied, rather than a finely oiled thing that could keep this machination inside the internet moving. I burn to be the thing that smokes and smolders within a negated existence that offers phony platitudes and 'thank you for not smoking' warnings. People need hear hard truths the way Carlin revealed them to me. I'd say that's the end, for now. To be edited later. 5.24.20 My apologies to my son who I am trying to support. I'm taking blame for his situation. But, it's time he take ownership of his own mistakes and start being a man. This is probably just the first of my blog entries revealing feelings about manipulation and corruption on the internet. |
| I sometimes wonder if I should write an explanation with every poem I write. I shouldn't have to, right? Except, this is a perfect opportunity to help reviewers deconstruct what they are seeing, what they are missing. I have seen reviews that meander. They try to offer input and perhaps pick up on something that they think they understand and misinterpret and the whole review goes south. I feel sorry for them that I cannot give them more to go on. Perhaps, they are not up for the challenge of decrypting poetry such as some of the stuff I offer, when I'm really trying to stretch my wings. I also suspect reviewers are not as much concerned with processing what they are reading, but try to sound like they know something. Perhaps, some are just getting their reviews in and the focus is just satisfying some goals. Whatever reason, these motivations are put in place to increase interactions, I suppose. I think it would help both of us, but mostly the reviewers here. I see poets who seem very knowledgeable offer feedback that over-interprets or just assumes that I'm just throwing a bunch of hoo-ha at the screen, like I'm laughing maniacally while they attempt to sound intelligent revealing their high brow reactions. Listen, I'm not even the best interpreter of poetry. I don't want to judge. I look around and I see what's offered and I know where I stand. This is an opportunity for many to learn and that includes me, but not foremost. I sometimes wonder if there is an agenda for some. I know we have a past and I see the players change but not the attitudes, so I'm not sure why sometimes I get the words and expressions sent my way. I am sending very little back on my end, being courteous and generous in my cordial response. I offer very good reviews for some, when I'm hitting my stride. Does the community need me, or want that from this writer/reviewer? I'm puzzled by my underwhelming welcoming here. I get the 'oh no, we appreciate you Brian' line from time-to-time. It's tiring, but I don't care. I came here to develop as a writer 13 years ago, without or without the help of an audience of observers that are mixed to barely existent. I realize what your agenda is, your prerogative. It's questionable at best. I'm not the morality police. So, take a cue to learn something here like I do. I've evolved. I think it's a great chance for other members to see the value in true content. And, that's as nice as I can put it. (of course, I can't stop typing...) I also predict a very sunny morning for more writers who will do this community proud. Meanwhile, overcast with a chance of 13 more years of darkness here, but I don't really care about your systematic segregation. Anything I achieve here, I know I worked for and earned. But, you don't really believe that, because it doesn't benefit some of you. Where is the silver lining in our relationship and why haven't you acknowledged it's true value? Am I cog? I must be a cog. Don't know what I am to you really, because you 'employ' indifference in the upper ranks. I might add, all you liberals out there, I know you to be some of the biggest hypocrites. Nope, I'm not the morality police. Nope, but I said. Sooooo...yeah, gonna let my hat hang on that because I also have a bug up my butt about being true...to myself, I suppose. Whoever is offended by this shouldn't be, unless they must know they are guilty of something. Are some of you guilty of something, I wouldn't point fingers. I'm just very aware. |
| Why do we put ourselves out there, come on in here? We are the recluses. I wanted to be discovered like you and yet found I must reject your conformity before my outstretched arms would receive to your bosom, to then stand at your side, look out upon the rest. I see you don't accept an animal without stripes bared. I might be spotted, but I'm not the ordinary one. And while I sought you out, eager to share, I saw you discovered I was becoming a recluse. While I can share my selfies, my poems and my words of attitude, I cannot share who I truly am. I cannot be who I am, the real Salinger in your world, knowing some would prey upon me, pick upon my flesh, pull me apart; and while I'm resistant to tearing, I'll not just stand here in your desert without water, let your indifference crawl up, reside within my brain. I choose recluse ever-most, my only lonely option, the sole choice offered non-conformity, cast within an infinite, societal jail, for one who arrived for salvation, a drop of consumable water in your -- beautiful -- 'community' garden. 5.17.20 edited 5.19 If I click the link to join to comment on the HuffPost article, I've already failed (the writer who counts themself among 'us' doesn't fully grasp why we become reclusive. I'm a day late and a dollar short to inform you, Kim): https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/kim-smiley/genius-recluses_b_4669001.html Just one note: the reclusive don't form their own society. Another: we're hardly empathetic to the cause. |
As opined in newsfeed, but probably not seen by the masses.  I've probably done four to five thousand reviews here. But, I don't think I'll ever actually know how many, because people have to delete items to fit within their portfolio parameters. Or, just all out delete their account for whatever reasons. I don't feel I have that review feather fully stick in my cap. Not that anyone goes out of their way to see the effort that it takes/has taken to provide review content. But, it's like taking four to five thousand essay exams, where you don't want to mail in a 'C' effort because people/professors are watching. Plus, you have the added pressure of knowing the real authors see what you offer, and you respect them enough to really try understand and comment with a measure of intelligence the assembled words they need or want to hear. I even forget myself to fully comprehend what it takes for just one other member to stroll over and gander at what I share. If they review, it's a blessing. The amount of effort I see from some either really comes from a source of higher experience or a true desire to fully commit to feedback. Either way, I think reviewing as a writing medium at this website is likely undervalued. But, the act of reading and responding is the true reward. I just know when I reread my old reviews, what I can still obtain in my port, it helps build my reviewing skills and gives greater perspective. Appreciate reviews. When related items are gone, they're gone. "Note: I've probably done four to five thousand revie..." If you also find sitewide activities alluring and engrossing that you lose all ability to perceive space and time, you might be a writer desperate for some attention to your ability to construct words eliciting response from peers. I commented on Tina Stone's newsfeed thread about her good fortune following the misfortune of deleting many activity files. It was more in response to Alyssa, a faithful follower and word junkie, who felt like she was mailing in her activity posting efforts: "Chibithulu (Alyssa)  ,I wouldn't begrudge you for the truncated content, because I image these events are designed to be time consuming for whatever reason. We all have lives to live and personal goals to attain as writers foremost. I see the activities as useful as long as it keeps us within target of our own goals and not astray. In fact, so tedious is it to fully comprehend and comply with multiple activity rules and guidelines, let alone the time it takes to commit to ideate and write, I just step away. I know we need traffic and activity to keep this site hopping, but I have seen a lot of burnout. It's good folks find fun things to do here. Unfortunate that I see so much resignation of true goals in the process. God bless you all for trying to keep us entertained.  See, I was nice.  But to further my point about traffic, I wonder if a great opportunity to take advantage of a captive audience was missed. I saw the efforts to inform and direct people to participate here, post-pandemic awareness in the states. In about that time frame, I've witnessed Writing.Com traffic numbers fall off sharply for the month after its peak on March 4th (per Alexa.Com free traffic stats). Activity has continued to slowly drop in the time since. I'm certain that this is a seasonal effect, nonetheless. However, when you consider that people were essentially sequestered, around the world mind you, it's possible whatever efforts may have been made to drive traffic may have missed the mark. I can't speak to it with any authority other than as someone who stands in the shadows, watches and has learned over thirteen years as mainly a sideline participant. I see strategies and types of members who are drawn here, cultivated as preferred members and moderators to do whatever it is they do to help WDC thrive. Some really good people trying to do really saintly-type stuff. I know that there are some that buy in. The result to me is there is not a lot of worthy content floating about for people floating through the internet streams to discover. Unfortunate. I'm old timer. I've seen better days. I'm sure it's no ones fault. I'm not criticizing. I'm trying to just be that bellwether in the storm, just one of the indicators to help with someone who is inclined with any prognosticating ability. Ship's off course a might. I should shut up, right? Send the PR consultant over to have a talk with me about my blog content. Are you sure? Listen, there are billions of websites around the world. You got lucky on the domain name and it is likely the diving rod that draws a mecca. But, it's not holding anyone here. If you look at the dead sea of cases and wonder why they lie about in purgatory, inactive, and think of the potential of retention. This could be a much greater force in the writing world, community. Perhaps, those at the helm do not have the necessary sea legs to captain such a mighty vessel. Wow, I'm going with this> Yes, this site has great potential. Some say it's antiquated. But look at the name of the side of this listing ship that cannot possibly capsize and know you are safe here. It might not be aimed for high ground and it might not have the best meals or food and you could get sick, throw up overboard, may jump overboard, but it will keep drawing passengers. It has the capacity for so many more. It could have so many rooms more to explore with really good entertainment you could come back for night after night. But, this is what you get mid pandemic. This is the menu and these are the activities you can expect. Shuffleboard! No, that was an exclamation. I went on to long Oh, shuffleboard! I love you all. I'll return to my cabin and wait further instruction. Or, worse, remain below deck with no one to talk to. Aye, aye, cappy! he exclaimed.  That's me blowing off air after that long exortation.I'm not going to check grammar, spelling or word definition at this point. I'm a big boy. I know my English good. |
| For your consideration: they painted black the offending sheep that veered from the flock bleated loudly warnings of the sacrifice and slaughter others blindly were led you are not at the table unless you are the feast, honey. they kill messengers, too. |
Review of "Societies Nature"  "Societies Nature"  Review of "Tanka Poem on Pollen" "Invalid Item" Review of "Dusk" "Dusk" Review of "Pick Me" "Pick Me"   Thank you so much for your honest review and your advice. sincerely, |
| To the plucky healthcare worker who spent half the night on our couch comforted by the felines now sleeping on blanket-wrapped legs and on the arm just above her head -- clouds obscure our horizon -- this morning. Two other truants -- still a-snooze with no plans to lift -- have internet-ordered paraphernalia (on the way), after I announced she's not my mother just one week before this day. Not my turn to cover her with flowers to bed, favorite chocolates or exquisite coffee blends -- it's up to you -- while she is still suffering, post-recovery from symptoms of a Covid19/SARSCoV-2, what have you, that lynched her as she performed obediently her newfound hospital duty (to get paid) -- forced her 18 days in a room on mattress on the floor -- -- shower curtain to divide her in our house her beloved laid waste -- attacked where she greeted ailing symptomatic sufferers of a potential deadly virus until one of them spilled on the pavement near her face with her paper-thin PPE, when her true isolation would begin. -- No hugs for three weeks, no kisses upon the cheek -- certainly could be made up in 24 hours, let alone seven days this week. As I type and then view through our kitchen window, I am imagining our neighborhood market arriving, others with symptoms hiding, co-mingling just inside that obedient, sliding door, knowing I alone could deliver her all described and much more in just one hour. But, the best gift I can give is to remain vigilant, stronger and not another sufferer in this crisis until the last lung heals, she stops complaining post-recovery. And, would it kill you God to turn back on the sun before she arrives another abysmal morn in a captive world, inside this sequestered, ruminating company waiting for the day we can linger outside this door? |
| Today, is Jen's first day out of isolation from the Coronavirus. It has been 72 hours without major symptoms, which means she can go back to work. But according to of the county health department, the rest of us have to quarantine at home for the next two weeks. That's going to make it difficult for a few upcoming appointments. I have to reschedule the dentist for my daughter and I. But questions surrounding testing me for the virus before shoulder surgery with my current quarantine are going to make it interesting. I am going to be coming out of Quarantine on the 18th and on the 19th I am scheduled for surgery, tentatively. Part of the problem is, they will need to do a coronavirus test for me going in and then having to quarantine for three days prior to surgery. With me home self quarantining during that time I wouldn't be able to come in three days early, so they're talking about testing me right away to show that I don't have the virus so I don't have to further quarantine another week to two weeks and reschedule that surgery if somehow I test positive. So, the left shoulder tear is the result of an injury I suffered over 25 years ago and have just lived with because it has not hindered me. However, I did use yoga about 10 years ago and got further mobility out of it and basketball helped, too. It's time had come, especially with this worldwide shutdown. A lot of contact sport and usage caused the rotator cuff to become so deteriorated I could barely reach out to pick up something off my nightstand without pain. I knew it was time. And what they discovered is a 1 cm x 2 cm tear all the way across. I luck out once again by having the right doctor for my surgery. First time, on my right shoulder, I had the best rotator cuff specialist probably in the state. They said it was like repairing a major league pitcher's arm. And now with my aging, I am fortunate to have a Sports Medicine specialist who would do a surgery on tear as large as mine, despite. The other doctor would've told me to just live with it. My wife is telling me horror stories about how much harder this is going to be for me to recover from this, versus the first shoulder repair. But this is not a dominant arm, and I don't think that I have to get as full a range of motion from it. I think she thinks that there's gonna be a high pain factor because, but she forgets I have a high pain tolerance. She had me taking too many meds. I was acting weird on here post surgery in late 2013, early 2014. I sometimes laugh at what I wrote, though I did snag first place in the Dear Me contest in January that year, somehow, against great odds. I'm suspecting greater than 90 to one, if you catch my drift. So, okay then. 5.5.20 |
| See you next fall? https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/convinced-fauci-says-there-will-be-coron... you had me at: "(a group of scientists and billionaires with a backdoor plane to advise president Trump) describe their work as a lockdown-era Manhattan Project..." https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/the-secret-group-of-scientists-and-billionaire... |
My daughter and the girl in the plastic bubble are listening to vinyl tonight. Right now, playing song we sang to her at bedtime when she was little: Listening to the high parts now. I was the only one who dared sing that part. Life will be normal again. Making new and special memories. It’s the dawn of a new era. When these 14 days of captivity are up, I want to get a video of her climbing up the back stairs to the garage like a miner exiting a shaft trapped by a cave in. But that would be insensitive to those who’ve been through that very real life or death drama, except I don’t know them. And, they’ve never heard of me. So, the only people who could be offended are people who just take offense on behalf of those not available to witness. And yet, this is a real life drama. This does factor life and death. This is about sacrifice and a family kept apart. I will have my video. But, I’m seriously worried she’ll just run right upstairs to her Waterpik. (CURRENT PHOTO NOT AVAILABLE) Instead, I give you this:  Three days in partial captivity. Bring my wife and our mother home! We’re hungry. Serious, nothing to eat except cereal. |
| Put your acorns where your mouth is? Collect as much of those acorns as you can now before this forthcoming recession (more willing to call it depression now?) arrives... https://apple.news/Am1N1UWv1STqruHLssGERqw Before inflation affects grocery prices and other needs (fortunately oil war caused cheap gas), get your ducks in a row for more TP shortages and things we don't have the imagination to realize flying off store shelves. Expect inflation and price gouging. Expect more fledgling stores and companies to go under...Kmart, Sears types. Because Amazon is king, followed by Walmart, Costco and Target. https://apple.news/AejaFUKbjSrGnfe2OLmZyqw The more we get comfortable with online shopping and vactioning indoors, streaming live stuff from movies to games to each other, the more local communities are likely to suffer. Trump will have a hell of a time in coming months reacting to fickle Wall Street, if it doesn't do him in. Or...we come out of this stronger and more resilient than ever. https://money.com/fed-bazooka-your-budget/ What you got your money on...sorry, acorns? I'm not a professional doomsday prepper, but I have two cabins in the woods I can flee to. We can drop a thousand gallon fuel tank in ground and get an oil company over with a truck to fill it up with cheap crude. We got weapons and ammo and plenty of wildlife for survival. I don't think my kids are ready for a world without wifi...out of necessity rather than it not being available. They don't use it now to complete their homework, so forget them man. Let's eat a squirrel and leave a squirrel in the woods. TP reference. Still at top of food chain. Come on Wall Street. Don't screw this up for the rest of us who don't want our money tied up in bonds again or for eternity. |
| Okay, Wall Street closes higher again. I've got my broker on speed dial to get me out of the market if this thing nose dives again. Value of my portfolio is almost back to where I want it. The value of bonds is rising. Thankfully investors are more hopeful for our future amid this pandemic. I think that's because the worst of it may be over in major cities. Now mid to small size areas more remotely located are feeling the brunt, like here in Green Bay. Why am I posting this in newsfeed? I just started typing and now this thing is getting long. Financially, things are looking up for investors. It's getting people back to work and back into arenas to enjoy leisure that is going to take awhile. This is a rollercoaster ride for sure. I need to secure my investments and not lose another 30% of my portfolio value. So, i'll see how fickle market will be in days, weeks and months to come. You know, most trading is done by computers that are programmed to react to market conditions. I'm in some hedge funds that rely on this, and between my wife and I are over 70% reliant on stocks. I went to all bonds in 2008 and pretty much dove back into the market the day after Trump was elected. I pulled out most of my portfolio to fund an annuity one year ago. I can start drawing on that in seven years, if I chose.Three years away from no mortgage payment. Most people live from paycheck to paycheck, I hear. Unemployment checks are still not arriving. And the government stimulus lump sums got here, but the additional federal money for unemployment is still months away. Lots of information about this unusual time in history to take in and consider. Are they driving the market up unnecessarily to get investors a false security before another major sell off? Corporations still doing buy backs like pharmaceuticals who would rather own their own stock to control price rather than spend more money on research. Well Wall Street investors don't have all the control, because what drives economy is the consumers ability to spend. If there is no place to drive our cars to but grocers, and everyone is getting the virus at meat packing plants, and not enough money to spend, where will we be months from now? Even if we wind up with extra dough. You can't even bet on sports. I have a few stock tips. Just bet on Amazon, Walmart, Costco and Target to name a few, because they are set up well to deliver goods. Leisure on the internet is growing. Look at Zoom. They are creating playrooms now. Imagine, we all could be Zooming or playrooming all at once. Too much unknowable yet about that. But, but some industries are popping up out of this. Eating at home is getting easier. As is buying goods over internet. More people will order from home in the future, as people grow accustomed. Well, you could bet on the market with an online app and make a few bucks. I just do it because I'm bored. Just to show my financial advisor I can outinvest him. I might or I might not. Okay, i'm taking this to my blog. Edit later. |
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In the Falkland Islands, internet is very limited and very expensive. The place I'm currently staying only lets me use it in the middle of the night, so when I have to get up at 3 am to check my texts (no cell service to the US here unless I'm on the internet) or WdC, I don't do nearly as much as I used to. 
Have you spoken to the doctor about your vision problems lately? I know there are special glasses for it because I have to wear them to read much ever since the brain injury. It's part of why I now only listen to audiobooks instead of reading regular books. It took 8 years for anyone to diagnose it because I have a brain injury and while one might think it would be obvious to me that I see double, it wasn't. Partly, my brain does a fair job of compensating. But also, partly, you use your brain to realize and understand that the 2 images you constantly see are double vision and something you should mention to your eye doctor. Since my brain was damaged, even basic things like that can escape me. 
I never once thought to mention it, even with annual eye exams in the Army and an exam every 2 years at the VA. Though, in my defense, since it happens in something like 41% of people with a brain injury, it should have been discovered by an eye doctor much sooner. 
I know doing that activity is a CRAP TON of work. But you made a difference in lives, not just his, but for all the people he's reviewed since. 
Well done! 
