Gulls like Cheese Puffs

if you click on the foto it gets larger and can see the little orange Puff at the top of the foto... the gull coming from the right will get it... I think I threw two backhanded and the lead gull has the first one in its mouth...

Tinted Windows

just read where Taylor Hanson of Mmmbop fame is the lead singer in a new group called TINTED WINDOWS with new album coming out... video on youtube...

Early mornings

so quiet and peaceful at this hour...

glad that my knees don't feel too badly after jogging 2 miles last evening before sunset...

Thursday

just read about Justine Henin and Carlos Rodriguez 6th sense tennis academy...
an article about the FINAL EXIT NETWORK for assisted suicide...
and an article about scientists finding 1.5 million year old human-like footprints...
off to jog or peddle before dark...

oh, and earlier was reading about General Motors... sure sounds bad... sounds like sales for the year were off close to 40% and they GM got caught with high fixed overhead that literally wiped out it's operating cash and reserves and that the company isn't viable... I assume GM and many of it's supplies will have to bankrupt and start over... can't imagine that govt cash alone can fix them... I assume that if sales don't pick up, which I can't imagine happened, GM and Chrysler will have to re-organize(file for Ch 11)... will be interesting to see if Ford does too...

3am

cookies and toast and almost the desire to go for a walk and look at the stars... but, I think I'll just read a little and have another piece of toast...

the nights are just so spectacular yet so peaceful at the same time...

pause... was thinking about why I am reading the sci fi book I'm reading... and I was coming reading fictional works to religion... I was thinking the characters and plot are created in the same way GODS are created... but religion has different purposes... guidance and control...

got sidetracked reading a bunch of different web pages...

----

Please I have read this words "an idle mind is the devil's workshop" from the Bible before and it is located in the new testerment but I cannot locate it again. It is a Bible quote. Please help me out.

----


Nothing good comes from boredom. It's said that idle hands are the devil's workshop, an old saying dating at least as far back as Chaucer in the twelfth century who called idle hands the devil's tools.

: : Fac et aliquid operis, ut semper te diabolus inveniat occupatum. (St Jerome, _Letters_)

: : Therefore seith Seint Jerome: "Dooth somme goode dedes that the devel, which is oure enemy, ne fynde yow nat unocupied." (Chaucer, _Tale of Melibee_)

: : In Works of Labour or of Skill I would be busy too: For Satan finds some mischief still for idle Hands to do. (I. Watts, _Divine Songs for Children_, 1715)

: : If the Devil finds a Man idle, he'll set him at Work. (J. Kelly, _Scottish Proverbs_, 1721)

: : If the devil catch a man idle, he'll set him at work. (T. Fuller, _Gnomologia_, 1732)

: : Idle Brains are the Devil's Workhouses. (_ibid._)

: : The Turks have a proverb, which says, that _The devil tempts all other men, but that idle men tempt the devil. (Colton, _Lacon_, 1820)

: : An idle brain is the devil's workshop. (H.G. Bohn, _Hand-Book of Proverbs_, 1855)

: : "Idle hands do the Devil's work, Paul." (K. Vonnegut, _Player Piano_, 1952)

: : "Idle hands are the devil's workshop." That seems to be the attitude among President Clinton's Pentagon appointees who recently drafted plans to involve the military in domestic social programs.... (_Washington Times_, May 18, 1995)

: "Friends, the idle brain is the devil's playground."....Meredith Willson, "The Music Man"....
: because I can't come up with anything better.....

IDLE HANDS ARE THE DEVIL'S TOOLS - "Idleness is the root of mischief. This maxim has been traced back to Chaucer's 'Tale of Melibee' (c. 1386). First attested in the United States in 'Collections' (1808). The proverb is found in varying forms:: Satan has some mischief for idle hands to do; The devil finds work (or mischief) for idle hands to do." From "Random House Dictionary of Popular Proverbs and Sayings" by Gregory Y. Titelman (Random House, New York, 1996).

Another way of phrasing it, to stay out of trouble: PUT YOUR HANDS TO WORK AND HEARTS TO GOD - Philosophy of Ann Lee, "Mother Ann," founder of United Society of Believers in Christ's Second Appearing, known as the Shakers.

http://www.phrases.org.uk/.../1217.html

The quote 'An idle brain is the devil's workshop' is not a bible quote, it is actually from the "Hand-Book of Proverbs" H.G. Bohn, it is an old English proverb.

The bible does comment on idleness, in Thessalonians but doesn't have this direct quote.

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Is_an_idle_brain_the_devil&

"Idle hands are the devil's tools" says that people (especially children) are more likely to get into trouble when they feel bored and have nothing to do. Example: "My mother taught me that children should always be kept busy; idle hands are the devil's tools!" The "Devil" (in the Christian bible) is the bad angel who fights against God by getting people to do bad things. The Devil uses whatever tools are available. "Idle hands" are the hands of a person who is not doing anything. "Idle hands are the devil's tools" because when you are not busy you may end up doing things which you should not do. Example: "It makes me nervous to see those kids outside just standing around; idle hands are the devils tools!" Hands often represent action, but idle hands are hands that are not acting; they are waiting and looking for something to do. "Idle hands are the devil's tools" says that when people are idle they will find things to do which they should not do. Example: "I'd like you to keep the kids very busy while we are gone; they get into trouble easily and idle hands are the devil's tools."

http://www.goenglish.com/IdleHandsAreTheDevilsTools.asp

The devil finds work for idle hands.

something that you say which means people who have no work or activity are more likely to do things they should not do, such as commit crimes. There's plenty more tidying to do if you've finished the bedroom. The devil finds work for idle hands.

http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/.../...rk+for+idle+hands

There is a set of English proverbs that are worded similarly:

* Idle hands are the devil's workshop
* Idle hands are the devil's tools ("Collections" 1808)
* Idle brains are the devil's workhouses (T. Fuller 1732)
* An idle brain is the devil's workshop (H. G. Bohn, "Hand-Book of Proverbs," 1855)
* If the Devil finds a Man idle, he'll set him at work (J. Kelly, "Scottish Proverbs," 1721)
* The devil finds work (or mischief) for idle hands to do

There are many variations, but they all follow the same theme: A person who doesn't have something particular to occupy himself with doing will be tempted to occupy himself with sin. The phrasing is not found in the Bible, but like many "chimney corner scriptures" it has its roots in a scriptural idea.

Idleness means you have not particular goal in mind and thus you can be easily distracted. Warning is given about supporting young widows from the church's funds because leaves the woman with little to do. "And besides they learn to be idle, wandering about from house to house, and not only idle but also gossips and busybodies, saying things which they ought not" (I Timothy 5:13). For this same cause, all Christians are commanded to work. "For even when we were with you, we commanded you this: If anyone will not work, neither shall he eat. For we hear that there are some who walk among you in a disorderly manner, not working at all, but are busybodies. Now those who are such we command and exhort through our Lord Jesus Christ that they work in quietness and eat their own bread" (II Thessalonians 3:10-12).

http://www.lavistachurchofchrist.org/.../06-09.htm

Weds 5am "solitude"

after peddling I went to the grocery store... in the parking lot I looked up and noticed what I assume is a really bright planet in the sky... I think the night sky is my religion... my connection to the universe... makes me think of two things... books I've read and a song... a book is like an idea... several books convey the idea... and the lyrics to this song...

And each one there
Has one thing shared
They have sweated beneath the same sun
Looked up in wonder at the same moon
And wept when it was all done
For bein' done too soon
For bein' done too soon

the idea in the books is that life is a solitary experience... that we really LIVE and DIE alone... that even when packed into a college football stadium with 100,000 screaming cheering fans, we are still alone...

makes me think about growing up... maybe there were four kinds of Catholics...
1. infrequent unknown behavior...
2. strictly follow the line but live in the secular world and pray but also live...
3. live your religion but in the secular world...
4. pursue a religious vocation...

1. is a pretty pitiful group of people... 2. is the way I was raised... that is the way the majority probably are... 3. is rarer... the very religious secularists... and 4. is of course the nuns and priests etc...

the other idea from many many books is about thought and language and categories... and that the human process of language and thinking creates false dichotomies... that every cut or category or distinction is a false split from the UNITY of nature and existence...

and that makes me think that in the above fourfold scheme, I am a 3...

that the thing to do is merge the religious and secular back into one... but not in the sense of the super devout Catholic... rather in the sense of outrage that there are all these false religions all of which are man made, and there are all this secular political and social systems that are all man made and arbitrary...

that life is life... that "spirituality" is really respect, awareness, participation, sharing, etc...

that the invention of GOD is such a manipulation...

but I don't mean to be negative... the important thing is what... HAPPINESS of course... and how does one find "Happiness" ???

well, like everything else, and I know you aren't expecting this, but HAPPINESS is a by product... HAPPINESS simply put EVOLVES...

:)


makes me think of two songs...

----

When I find myself in times of trouble
Mother Mary comes to me
Speaking words of wisdom, let it be.
And in my hour of darkness
She is standing right in front of me
Speaking words of wisdom, let it be.
Let it be, let it be.
Whisper words of wisdom, let it be.

And when the broken hearted people
Living in the world agree,
There will be an answer, let it be.
For though they may be parted there is
Still a chance that they will see
There will be an answer, let it be.
Let it be, let it be. Yeah
There will be an answer, let it be.

And when the night is cloudy,
There is still a light that shines on me,
Shine on until tomorrow, let it be.
I wake up to the sound of music
Mother Mary comes to me
Speaking words of wisdom, let it be.
Let it be, let it be.
There will be an answer, let it be.
Let it be, let it be,
Whisper words of wisdom, let it be

----

Imagine there's no heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today...

Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace...

You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one

Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world...

You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will live as one

----


well, I am trying to tie this all together and end up with some kind of existential unity...

:)

which brings me to two more ideas from books... one, that the interesting thing about humans is that our dilemma is to create MEANING... and that we really have three basic needs to make ourselves happy...

something to do...
something to love...
something to hope for...

and I think for most people, the three answers come the easiest with a job, marriage and a religion that gives us hope...

the tricky thing about evolution is that if something works, it works... hence false religions provide a useful service cause the hope provided is real, even tho its basis is myth...

but that is true of everything... evolution is pragmatism in motion... :)

febblog

glad that Lucy inspired me to start this blog... I've enjoyed it... Monday I jogged and last night I peddled before dark... only about 2 miles... or about 20 minutes... but a good aerobic workout... just as the sun was setting... kind of got my heart beating good...

read the text of Obama's speech from last night... makes me think Rome wasn't built in a day... AND, people ask me about the economics of it... and I need to tell them it isn't about the plan or the spending... it is always about MANAGEMENT... that is the sad thing about the 8 Bush years... to me, it reflects BAD MANAGEMENT of the war, the economy, disaster relief etc...

same is true of life or a business or government... things aren't so much a matter of what you do as much as HOW YOU DO IT... it is all about QUALITY... that is why people like Toyota's or Mercedes...

AND, we don't mind paying for HIGH QUALTITY...

so the real test of the USA is not how much we spend, or even what the details of the plans are... the key is how we oversee what is going on... and that will be the real test of whether or not the DEMOCRATS and OBAMA do a good job these next four years...

it is all about MANAGEMENT...

Tuesday

Lucy mentioned the nursing home run by nuns that she visited in France... while my mom was telling me how lonely my aunt is even tho she has lots of kids, grandkids and great grand kids... AND they are a really nice close and religious family... but for some reason all the kids and grandkids are so busy they don't call or visit her... was thinking about that in an Amish context... the kids are all busy working full time... and so are the older grandkids... all went to college or have good jobs... I think the grandkids should take more time to call and visit... they all could call more... maybe that is the amazing thing... the lack of phone calls...

I wonder what recent studies have been done on families... I could envision pie charts and bar graphs explaining family behavior and time series data showing how things have changed...

maybe with a global economy, we have more global families... and the geographical dispersion has led to less close knit families...

AND, it is probably also about food... I remember going to grandparents house to eat more as a kid... now people go out for fast food instead of family food...

fast food has replaced Grandmother's food...

but with any answer, I assume culture changes when technology changes... human beings and human behavior change as technology changes...

Monday

first time I jogged in awhile cause of my knees... I enjoyed it but wonder how long my knees can take it... :(

Slum Rourke Penn

enjoyed the OSCARS... what a life Sean Penn has had from Madonna to all his political activism... pretty wild... meanwhile I've renamed Lilly's dog RIZZO, and have been calling her SLUMDOG...

Lilly's Song

They made up their minds and they started packing
They left before the sun came up that day
An exit to eternal summer slacking
But where were they going without ever knowing the way?

They drank up the wine and they got to talking
They now had more important things to say
And when the car broke down they started walking
Where were they going without ever knowing the way?

Anyone could see the road that they walk on is paved in gold
And it's always summer they'll never get cold
They'll never get hungry
They'll never get old and gray
You can see their shadows wandering off somewhere
They won't make it home but they really don't care
They wanted the highway
They're happier there today, today

another SONG

THE UNIVERSE SONG, from Monty Python's THE MEANING OF LIFE

Whenever life gets you down, Mrs. Brown, and things seem hard
or tough.
and people are stupid, obnoxious or daft,
and you feel that you've had quite enouuuuuuuuugh...

Just
re-
member that your standing on a planet that's evolving,
and revolving at nine hundred miles an hour...
That's orbiting at ninety miles a second, so it's reckoned,
the sun that is the source of all our power.
The sun and you and me, and all the stars that we can see,
are moving at a million miles a day.
in an outer spiral-arm at forty thousand miles an hour
of the galaxy we call the Milky Way.

Our galaxy itself contains a hundred billion stars,
it's a hundred thousand lightyears side to side.
It bulges in the middle, sixteen thousand lightyears thick,
but out by us it's just three thousand lightyears wide.
We're thirty thousand lightyears from galactic central point,
we go 'round every two hundred million years.
And our galaxy is only one of millions of billions,
in this amazing and expanding universe.

The universe itself keeps on expanding and expanding,
in all of the directions it can whiz.
As fast as it can go, that's the speed of light you know;
twelve million miles a minute, that's the fastest speed there is.
So remember when your feeling very small and insecure,
how amazingly unlikely is your birth,
and pray that there's intelligent life somewhere up in space,
'cause there's bugger-all down here on earth!

more Birthday Girl

it was late evening 21 years ago... driving to Westside Hospital in Nashville TN and someone thinking they were gonna give birth in the car... kind of exclaiming and proclaiming more than screaming... (the screaming that terrorized poor little SER came later... as Sarah Boyce escourted SER out of the birthing room...)

:)

so we get to the hospital, THANKFUL, that the birth didn't occur in the car on the way, to find out that dilation was about 10% and not the 99% it felt like...

I remember the look on someone's face when they echoed "only TEN PERCENT !!!"

and as they say, that was, "In the beginning..."

our Faces

a single cell in the neural crest of the spinal cord in the neck and shoulder of an embryo explains why we each have a different shaped head and face...

Birthday GURL

so, thinking about a birthday girl out there...

"not" help

been an interesting week cause of talking/meeting different and new people...

hard to explain "teaching" economics to mature adults... you wouldn't think so... but the diversity of thought is incredible...

as I wonder about the people I meet, it makes me think about the kids Lucy meets...

makes me think about the EVOLUTION of COOPERATION... we are so affluent because of cooperation... the GREAT LEAP is that of verbal language, then written language and then COOPERATION...

if it weren't for cooperation, we'd still be living in caves...

BUT, for all our cooperation, we are such diverse thinkers... WHY IS THAT?

because the diverse thinking isn't about medicine or engineering... we all agree on what clean water is and safety etc. etc. etc.

our diversity is more just about silly things like clothes and tastes... so what if we have more than one color of wine... there is no one true wine...

:)

I think it goes back to the King of Spain... "we all have just one heart, but yet each skip to a different beat..."

HELP

Help, I need somebody,
Help, not just anybody,
Help, you know I need someone, help.

When I was younger, so much younger than today,
I never needed anybody's help in any way.
But now these days are gone, I'm not so self assured,
Now I find I've changed my mind and opened up the doors.

Help me if you can, I'm feeling down
And I do appreciate you being round.
Help me, get my feet back on the ground,
Won't you please, please help me.

And now my life has changed in oh so many ways,
My independence seems to vanish in the haze.
But every now and then I feel so insecure,
I know that I just need you like I've never done before.

The Graph that started it all

I just thought this was an interesting Graph from Pew Research... it seemed to be ordered chronologically...

U.S. Lags World in Grasp of Genetics and Acceptance of Evolution

A comparison of peoples' views in 34 countries finds that the United States ranks near the bottom when it comes to public acceptance of evolution. Only Turkey ranked lower.

Among the factors contributing to America's low score are poor understanding of biology, especially genetics, the politicization of science and the literal interpretation of the Bible by a small but vocal group of American Christians, the researchers say.

“American Protestantism is more fundamentalist than anybody except perhaps the Islamic fundamentalist, which is why Turkey and we are so close,” said study co-author Jon Miller of Michigan State University.

Of the other countries surveyed, only Turkey ranked lower, with about 25 percent of the population accepting evolution and 75 percent rejecting it. In Iceland, Denmark, Sweden and France, 80 percent or more of adults accepted evolution; in Japan, 78 percent of adults did.

The researchers also compared 10 independent variables—including religious belief, political ideology and understanding of concepts from genetics, or “genetic literacy”—between adults in America and nine European countries to determine whether these factors could predict attitudes toward evolution.

The analysis found that Americans with fundamentalist religious beliefs—defined as belief in substantial divine control and frequent prayer—were more likely to reject evolution than Europeans with similar beliefs. The researchers attribute the discrepancy to differences in how American Christian fundamentalist and other forms of Christianity interpret the Bible.

While American fundamentalists tend to interpret the Bible literally and to view Genesis as a true and accurate account of creation, mainstream Protestants in both the United States and Europe instead treat Genesis as metaphorical, the researchers say.

“Whether it’s the Bible or the Koran, there are some people who think it’s everything you need to know,” Miller said. “Other people say these are very interesting metaphorical stories in that they give us guidance, but they’re not science books.”

Old Songs n New Acquaintances

This is an Evolutionary tree showing the divergence of modern species from their common ancestor in the center. The three domains are colored, with bacteria blue, archaea green, and eukaryotes red.

The history of life was that of the unicellular eukaryotes, prokaryotes, and archaea until about 610 million years ago when multicellular organisms began to appear in the oceans in the Ediacaran period. The evolution of multicellularity occurred in multiple independent events, in organisms as diverse as sponges, brown algae, cyanobacteria, slime moulds and myxobacteria.

Soon after the emergence of these first multicellular organisms, a remarkable amount of biological diversity appeared over approximately 10 million years, in an event called the Cambrian explosion.

I still am amazed that I asked those folks if they were evolutionists or creationists... it just popped out... makes me think of Memes n Genes... and that
everyone is so busy...

Question of Balance

met a new couple today and can't believe I just blurted out the question to them of whether or not they were Creationists of Evolutionists...

don't know why I asked them that... had something to do with their saying that they were both electrical engineers... and she said her parents had dabbled with Mormonism and he went to a Catholic school with nuns...

saw an ad where David Ferrer the Spanish tennis player is endorsing the CanAm Spyder...

thinking about working more on writing my theory of everything book...

-----------

Why do we never get an answer,
When we're knocking at the door.
With a thousand million questions,
About hate and death and war?
'Cos when we stop and look around us,
There is nothing that we need.
In a world of persecution,
That is burning in its greed.
Aaah... Aaah...
Why do we never get an answer,
When we're knocking at the door?
Because the truth is hard to swallow,
That's what the war of love is for.
It's not the way that you say it,
When you do those things to me.
It's more the way that you mean it,
When you tell me what will be.
And when you stop and think about it,
You won't believe it's true.
That all the love you've been giving,
Has all been meant for you.
I'm looking for someone to change my life,
I'm looking for a miracle in my life.
And if you could see,
What it's done to me,
To lose the love I knew,
Could safely lead me through.
Between the silence of the mountains,
And the crashing of the sea.
There lies a land I once lived in,
And she's waiting there for me.
But in the grey of the morning,
My mind becomes confused.
Between the dead and the sleeping,
And the road that I must choose.

============

How is it we are here, on this path we walk,
In this world of pointless fear, filled with empty talk,
Descending from the apes as scientist-priests all think,
Will they save us in the end, we're trembling on the brink.

------------

Honda Fury

didn't know Honda was coming out with a new production chopper model...

nagels n deomns

rumor has it Woody finished the book... I wonder if he liked it???

cause of my upbringing I can't help but smile and think the book is funny, entertaining and informative in a way...

Whine-ing about Wine-ing

thinking of my mother... eventually, I'm going to have to keep her with me... it will be easier the older she gets... which is funny... she is 84 and hasn't settled down yet... maybe she'll eventually settle down a little more AND expect less... I think she is just a touch too hyper active... she has always had a more active life style and I guess it is hard to slow down... I guess I've always been a less is more person... I remember as a kid not wanting to get up to go to school... not cause I didn't like school, but cause I hated to get up in cold weather... AND, cause I'd rather stay up late and watch Johnny Carson, which my parents did... funny how that is... I remember we watched Steve Allen and Jack Paar before Johnny... I think Johnny knew how lucky he was to have that job... same as David Letterman... I don't know how Jay Lenno got the replacement job... it did seem Dave was heir apparent to Johnny... I think Dave was more Indiana and Jay more Hollywood and they wanted more Hollywood...

I guess I'm thinking it is just so nice to "vegetate"... altho vegetate may mean different things to different people...

probably cause I feel happiness is a good book, or warmth and sunshine, or wine and toast for breakfast before going back to bed...

happiness is a warm cave...

PS was just thinking that everyone is different about getting out of bed AND getting into or back into beds... some people probably read in bed more than others... or listen to music or watch TV in bed... some sofas or easy chairs etc... before that I guess it was a rocker... but I wonder... I assume beds were comfort even centuries ago... don't know when "chairs" became comfort... I forget if Thoreau wrote about that... I can't remember what he did... did he have a fireplace??? anyway, I think I split my time between vigorous activity and non-vigorous... in other words one extreme or the other... whereas other people may be more moderate all day long... :)

like they say, "to each his own"... or "suit yourself"...

More nings

it is so nice to get up and read my overnight mail, and news etc and blog and snack and shower and it is just now dawn...

so many fun and relaxing both physically sensual and mentally comforting options... I'll end up resting with my eyes closed for a few more hours...

but just such a peaceful time of early morning... that and a lack of schedule... so nice to not have a schedule... just so comforting on the "nerves" so to speak...

just a different pace of life... the weather sure is nice... so many options from breakfast to exercise to reading to going back to bed...

seems like it is recovery from reality in a way... recovery from stress... it is the luxury of time and options...

Pelican brief

my arms and shoulders are tired from "flying around" all night...

I dreamed that my friend Marilyn loaned me her new wing suit... kind of stiff but yet soft and flexible wing outfit that enables humans to flat their arms and fly around like big birds... you slip your arms into the outfit and it is kind of like tennis in that you have to use you whole body to fly and not just your wrist... you run and leap and slowly flap into a glide and then can fly...

anyway, this dream seemed to last about 5 hours... the novelty of it all kept me trying it in different locations... once I got the hang of it I couldn't quit...

I think I was watching Pelicans yesterday and that is why I had this dream...

:)

the Pelicans flap more slowly than Gulls... the Pelicans almost seem like slow motion...

I dream therefore I am...

Weds 6am

watched the KY/Vandy basketball game last night...

still thinking less is more... sunshine makes relaxing much easier than cold... amazing how the simple things are enjoyable...

hopefully more simplicity today... :)

Tuesday Afternoon

Tuesday, afternoon,
I'm just beginning to see,
Now I'm on my way,
It doesn't matter to me,
Chasing the clouds away.

Something, calls to me,
The trees are drawing me near,
I've got to find out why
Those gentle voices I hear
Explain it all with a sigh.

I'm looking at myself, reflections of my mind,
It's just the kind of day to leave myself behind,
So gently swaying thru the fairy-land of love,
If you'll just come with me and see the beauty of

Tuesday afternoon.
Tuesday afternoon.

more Monday

every day... every time of day... night is so quiet and peaceful... stars turn into early morning bird calls... sunrise brings sunshine and warmth... time to think and reflect is such a luxury...

Monday Monday

Monday Monday, so good to me,
Monday Monday, it was all I hoped it would be

---------------------

But its a five oclock world when the whistle blows
No one owns a piece of my time
And theres a five oclock me inside my clothes
Thinkin that the world looks fine, yeah

Tradin my time for the pay I get
Livin on money that I aint made yet
Ive been goin tryin to make my way
While I live for the end of the day

Photo

you can't see the laptop computer... :)

the screen runs from the chair to the pot to the plant...

Valentine's Day

birds do it, bees do it
even educated fleas do it
let's do it, let's fall in love
in spain, the best upper sets do it
lithuanians and letts do it
let's do it, let's fall in love

the dutch in old amsterdam do it
not to mention the finns
folks in siam do it
think of siamese twins

some argentines, without means, do it
people say, in boston, even beans do it
let's do it, let's fall in love

romantic sponges, they say, do it
oysters, down in oyster bay, do it
let's do it, let's fall in love

cold cape cod clams, against their wish, do it
even lazy jellyfish do it
let's do it, let's fall in love

electric eels, i might add, do it
though it shocks 'em, i know.
why ask if shad do it
waiter, bring me shad roe.

in shallow shoals, english soles do it
goldfish, in the privacy of bowls, do it
let's do it, let's fall in love

Sat 5am

here is a bigger photo of the "Elephant" lamp...

if you click on it, you can see it better...

thinking about Lucie and Paris...

more Friday 7:45am

I like to get up earlier than this and then go back to bed... but I'll still write this and then have breakfast and then go back to bed...

:)

just thinking I have to add more pictures... in particular thinking about an "Elephant" lamp...

when I woke up earlier, a lizard was crawling across the ceiling... wondered if I should try to catch it and put it out but I didn't...

thinking about "F"'s and one "T"... food, family and friends... the "T" is about time... but then I've ALWAYS thought about time... the passage of time... the use of time... the concept of time...

time is a human theoretical construct...

----------------------------------

Among prominent philosophers, there are two distinct viewpoints on time.

One view is that time is part of the fundamental structure of the universe, a dimension in which events occur in sequence. Time travel, in this view, becomes a possibility as other "times" persist like frames of a film strip, spread out across the time line. Sir Isaac Newton subscribed to this realist view, and hence it is sometimes referred to as Newtonian time.

The opposing view is that time does not refer to any kind of "container" that events and objects "move through", nor to any entity that "flows", but that it is instead part of a fundamental intellectual structure (together with space and number) within which humans sequence and compare events. This second view, in the tradition of Gottfried Leibniz and Immanuel Kant, holds that time is neither an event nor a thing, and thus is not itself measurable nor can it be travelled.

======================

interesting to note that Newton and Liebniz are the controversial independent co-founders of calculus...

wonder if these are good books: The Calculus Controversy is a major topic in Neal Stephenson's set of historical novels, The Baroque Cycle (2003-04). The antagonistic nature of the dispute also plays a role in Greg Keyes' steam punk alternate history series The Age of Unreason.

Friday 7:30am

slept a little later... read a comment to yesterday and it made me think of Ernest Becker... I had actually never read this bio, but just his book... one year I tried to read a lot of Pulitzer Prize winning non-fiction... I liked his book... it really got me hooked on the word DENIAL... here is his bio...

Dr. Ernest Becker (September 1924, Massachusetts - March 6, 1974, Vancouver, British Columbia) was a cultural anthropologist and interdisciplinary scientific thinker and writer.
Becker was born into a Jewish family in Massachusetts. After completing military service, in which he served in the infantry and helped to liberate a Nazi concentration camp, he attended Syracuse University in New York. Upon graduation he joined the US Embassy in Paris as an administrative officer. In his early 30s, he returned to Syracuse University to pursue graduate studies in cultural anthropology. He completed his Ph.D. in 1960.
Becker came to the recognition that psychological inquiry inevitably comes to a dead end beyond which belief systems must be invoked to satisfy the human psyche. The reach of such a perspective consequently encompasses science and religion, even to what Sam Keen suggests is Becker's greatest achievement, the creation of the "science of evil." Because of his breadth of vision and avoidance of social science specialization, Becker was an academic outcast in the last decade of his life. It was only with the award of the Pulitzer Prize in 1974 for his 1973 book, The Denial of Death (two months after his own death from cancer at the age of 49) that he gained wider recognition. The second half of his magnum opus, Escape from Evil (1975) developed the social and cultural implications of the concepts explored in the earlier book and is intended as the companion volume.

Thurs 5:30am

was thinking about the Pew Research article on Evolve vs Create...

http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1105/darwin-debate-religion-evolution

I was surprised at the graph... the Catholics are the most evolutionary, AND, the more PROTESTant you are, the more Creationist you are... think about that... in fact, look at the whole graph... the older the organized religious group is, the more evolutionary it is...

I guess to be a creationist takes a newer zeal... newness in religion probably means insecurity... and more denial... established religions can afford to be less in denial of reality...

humans are such strange animals... and makes me think back to my Twilight Zone opening before... the imagination is so powerful... :)

Thurs 5 am

looked at a calender... trying to imagine 2009... thinking the month of Jan is gone... L moving was a big part of the month... managing that and watching the AUSOPEN live all night seemed to make Jan a blur... was a busy couple of months... that is Dec 08 and Jan 09...

Sarah getting engaged... Lucy going to France... Mom getting so old... Lucy kind of reminds me of my time in LA...

my present perspective is surprisingly low anxiety... I think cause the last two months may have worn me out a bit... thinking is so existential and the title BEING AND NOTHINGNESS comes to mind... but it isn't nothingness... it is really fullness... and the idea of less being more...

time is so wonderful... having time to relax and think... makes me think about having a cat... cause I remember this kind of feeling when enjoying a sunshiny day and petting my cats in Nashville... wow, does that seem like lifetimes ago...

I am surprised that my desire is to relax and read... wonder how long that feeling will last... guess it is R&R...

...short list

read about SHORTCOVERS a new competitor to KINDLE...
peddled about eight miles yesterday...
bought a 1.5 liter bottle of Mattie's Perch SHIRAZ at Albertson's yesterday for $4.95...
fresh sqeezed not from concentrate no preservatives orange juice for $2.50 a half gallon...

"You're traveling through another dimension, a dimension not only of sight and sound but of mind; a journey into a wondrous land whose boundaries are that of the imagination. That's the signpost up ahead - your next stop...

makes me think of Edward Bellamy... I should go read his bio... wow, his cousin was Francis Bellamy... what a small world... and double wow, I didn't know it was the Knights of Columbus that changed the pledge... those Catholics!!!

Ariadne...

more Weds AM

feel badly about being thankful about the election to thinking that sometimes I wish for Ron Paul... maybe just tired of headlines and news etc... would like things to be well managed but don't want to be bothered about it while I eat my cheeseburger in paradise...

kind of want things to be fixed QUIETLY... let me know when the recession, the war, religion... is over...

but I get the impression that Afghanistan is not paradise... and isn't Chrysler is going under this time... surely they will merge...

guess it is my age and situation that gives me my perspective and attitude... make me think about what are the "elements" of chess... MATERIAL and POSITION...

material and position certainly affect one's perspective and attitude...

so life is different for Lucie in Dijon compared to Murray...

:)

food, sunshine, exercise, friends... and the time to enjoy them...

Weds AM

enjoyed reading Lucie's blog... at first I thought she said VIOLET winds...

:)

woke up thinking about friends and family... many thoughts bouncing around... diet and exercise and lifestyle...

thankful for friends and lifestyles... so many thoughts... jumped from Lucie who makes me think about NEW URBAN... so nice to be able to peddle safely... to yesterday my mom telling me my uncle asked her how my Dad was... (he died over 2 years ago)...

guess it is all about perspective... thinking about the administrative change in Washington DC... nice to have the world safe for EUTHANASIA...

thinking of the Foundation's lyrics:

Baby, (ba-da-da-da)
Now that I've found you,
I can't let you go,(Ba-da-da),
Build my world around you,
I need you so,
(Oooh)Baby, even though,
You don't need me,
You don't need me,


to rewrite them:

Bama,
Now that I've elected you,
Don't need you so,
Living my life without you,
Even tho,
You need me...

Bama,
Now that I got you,
I can let you go,
Build my world without you,
Don't need you so,
Even tho,
You need me...

Tuesday Full Moon

the moon is pretty high now and doesn't seem as big...

mostly thinking about friends and family... and being relaxed... funny how that comes with age... I mean lower anxiety with age... smelling the roses...

been getting the most inexpensive wine at Walmart... such cheap wine... but not bad... comparing a Merlot to a Cabernet... their appearance differs more than their taste... the Merlot seems darker and thicker and fuller... but very close in taste...

just interesting thinking about family and friends...

thinking less is more AND off to enjoy a book...

Monday 6am

baby, now that I've found you...

couldn't believe that Robert Plant and Alison Krauss won album of the year...

which led me to Joan Baez... interesting... had never read her complete bio... no wonder she can imitate Bob Dylan so well... :)

anyway, that led me to Richard Farina... was he the origin of "I've been down so long it looks like up to me?" I would have thought it older... but I couldn't find another reference...

Ariadne's thread at work again...

tried ASK A LIBRARIAN 24/7 service... they couldn't find an earlier reference... last time I used ASK A LIBRARIAN they helped me find a movie name I couldn't remember... Koyaanisqatsi- Life out of Balance...

I still can't spell Koyaanisqatsi...

was thinking there was a lot more I wanted to write about... maybe about bodily change... how it takes your body 3 weeks to change... every other day or 3 times a week for 3 weeks makes a difference...

always thought it takes hitting about 30 services to be warmed up to serve in tennis... I find I can just swing my racquet at first...

still thinking there was more I wanted to write... somehow I got sidetracked and am still thinking about music... listened to the COLDPLAY and Joe Satriani comparisons... I wonder how that lawsuit will be settled...

Sunday weekend

enjoyed the USA Fed Cup tennis matches... and bicycling... more peddling is easier peddling...

Sat 3:40am

was just reading an interview with a Nobel Prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz about what bad shape the banks are in...

and thinking about categories... for instance two types of markets.... cash and credit... and that prices(values) reflect methods of payment or terms of purchase etc... and even within credit markets there are two components... how much down and how much a month etc...

one of the basic things I learned in college economics... the distinction between a stock and a flow... a stock is measured in units... a flow in units per time period...

life is a flow... intake and output... managing a flow is more stressful than just sitting on a stock...

I thought the USA was out of balance... a false booming war economy for most of the 8 Bush years... and hard to imagine all the junk being manufactured in China... they really geared up to mass produced cheap stuff to the USA... is it the same in Europe etc...

people work cause they have to... they choose a standard of living and what happens when they can't support it...

my thoughts feel scattered... also thinking about the wasteful military spending in Iraq... our soldiers being electrocuted in a defective shower... unreal... wasteful effort... what a mess...

interesting what such affluent animals these humans are...

how complicated it is to get a couple thousand calories a day...

Friday 5:15am

just read Lucy's blog... made me think about my college life at that age... so many memories... large "beer" bars with rock bands... smaller more intimate back alley bars with solo acoutical acts... late night trips to all night bakeries with the munchies... sitting around listening to music by candlelight... can't remember what we talked about tho... maybe music more than anything... maybe about classes and books we had to read...

been so cold... a long hot shower felt so good... my fingers got cold cycling around last evening before dark... too cold to be exposed on 2 wheels...

before I sat down to type, I was thinking about the basics of food, shelter and sex... was thinking there is a missing 4th being entertainment...

makes me think of the book that said we need three things: something to do, someone to love and something to hope for...

:)

Friday 2:15am to 3:15am

hopefully this is/was the last really cold night... kind of strange not reading a book today after finishing DEMONS n ANGELS... made me look at Rome on GOOGLE EARTH...

makes me think about technology... about the date of MODERNISM or MODERN TIMES... and POST MODERNISM...

is it about travel... locomotion... sailing, railroads, automobiles and cheap gas, then airlines... or, has technology just replaced our imagination... think about the American Revolution... Franklin and Jefferson spent time in Europe... what has technology really done... GOOGLE EARTH Lucy's dorm in Dijon France, but you can still imagine it with maps and snail mail if she had traveled there 200 years ago... 1809... this is the 200th Anniversary of the founding of Miami University... just realized that...

so does the last 200 years of tech progress make a difference ???

I was going to say NO, but then I thought the real break is about the time of the US Civil War... that Darwin, and the knowledge of bacteria and the periodic table etc... that the last few decades of the 19th Century really changed chemistry and biology and philosophy... and not that it's such a big deal but Freud...

so did "thinking" really change at the turn of the 19th to the 20th century...

you can look at 100 year leaps... the 19th to the 20th Century...

then was the first 50 years of the 20th Century theory and the last 50 years application???

makes me go back and think about the Jefferson Bible... and what about Thomas Paine and his AGE OF REASON... wonder if there was a 200th Anniversary... led me to www.infidels.org...

emotionally, have humans really changed ???

Cervantes DON QUIXOTE, the first modern novel is 400 years old... and same for Shakespeare... aren't we all still Shakespearians ???

so has humanity really changed in 400 years...

:)

Thursday 5:30am again chilly

ANGELS n DEOMNS

finished the book... didn't realize that Dan Brown's wife is 12 years older than he is, and that she is his prinicipal researcher and art historian...

more than highly recommend the book... at first I thought it was trite and contrived... but the mix of theology, science and morals is second to none...

the book proves that you can have your cake AND eat it too...

Blythe must have been raised Catholic...

Weds 5:30am

been so chilly... just enjoyed reading Lucy's blog from Dijon France... called Murray State cause I ddin't know where Lucy was and I spoke to a nice young sounding history professor... he and his wife had to leave town cause of the cold weather... they just got back to campus... I think they went to stay with relatives for a week... found that Dijon has a NOTRE DAME cathedral...

the cold just makes me want to hibernate... to snack and drink and read... walked around a little today and did a few chores... seems like so much going on I don't write about... I went by a Humane Society thrift store... the manager has a greyhound walking around... skinny dog... not unfriendly but not really overly friendly... LOUD bark tho... guess they have big lung capacity...

a friend came by to visit me...

cold weather is for reading... back to ANGELS n DEMONS... I need to find the antimatter in the Vatican...

--------------

forgot to ad that I just read the OBIT of the founder of Habitat for Humanity... interesting that I mentioned recycling and buying everything used on my ANGELS n DEMONS blog from Monday... Habitat has RESALE stores everywhere... I wonder what percentage of transactions are now used goods... what percent are recycled and reused goods... interesting economics to think about our affluent society... the way conventional store sales have plummetted... makes me think about the "MARGIN"... marginal sales, marginal jobs etc...

Tuesday morning

7:40am... makes me think of the Moody Blues song, altho that was Tuesday Afternoon...

:)

read Angels n Demons yesterday as it rained all day... it is kind of silly fiction but something to do... would really rather pursue an outdoor athlete activity, but it was too rainy... sunshine is WONDERFUL...

maybe write more later... now that I started this blog, it isn't that I'm self conscious so much, but I don't really feel like writing all that I'm really thinking about... and, thoughts don't seem so important... makes me think life is about basics most of the time...basic urges...

:)

AND, sunshine is a wonderful basic urge... among other things...

:)

Angels and Demons

6am... it just started raining... had to go out to my car to get my CDs... playing Possession by Sarah McLachlan from her FUMBLING TOWARDS ECSTASY album... it is my most played CD... I used to say that if I could only save one CD for posterity, that would be it... I listened to it every day for maybe ten years...

hard to pick one book... a pleasant discovery was LOOKING BACKWARD by Edward Bellamy... but I don't know what the most valuable book is... if I could only save one... I do like SOPHIE'S WORLD by Jostein Gaarder... then things like CONSILIENCE by Edward Wilson and a whole category of philosophical scientific summarys...

just thought about thinking in catergories and time periods... I remember my first Shakespeare being THE MERCHANT... kind of ironic thinking about VENICE...

and then I remember not understanding the concept of EXISTENTIALISM for years... eventually found a great book in Nashville... Existence precedes Essence...

but maybe the most memorable reading was SIDDHARTHA as a college Freshman... which is funny... I was telling someone about Joey Dellasandro yesterday... you can read about him on Wiki... I thought he was in the movie Zachariah(1971)(The First Electric Western)...

but my movie save would be MEET JOE BLACK...

so I try to buy every used... recycled... and among Saturday's purchases for a quarter was ANGELS n DEMONS... guess I'll read it before seeing the movie in a few months...

so I'm not sure if FWJ Schelling was the first to correct Descartes(1637) "I think therefore I am." to "It thinks in me."... circa 1833-34 or about 200 years later... I get the impression that Bertrand Russell popularized it from others including Rudolf Steiner and the oldest reference I found of Schelling...

Super Sunday

I'd been meaning to do this for a long time... Lucy inspired me...