The words on the wall
Said BIG THINGS
But when the sign fell
It left no shadow
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Thursday, March 19, 2009
If Donkeys Were Wishes....
If Spam emails were true, I’d never shit again, be filthy rich, have a closet of Ipods, Wii;s, Laptops, be thin as a rail, live for ever and have a 50 inch cock!
Ah, if only I clicked on those links, Sigh!
;0)
Ah, if only I clicked on those links, Sigh!
;0)
Monday, March 16, 2009
Nameless Poem
All I have
is all I was,
and what just
might happen
to be.
I am the nexus;
the turning point.
The now lives
only within me.
is all I was,
and what just
might happen
to be.
I am the nexus;
the turning point.
The now lives
only within me.
Monday, February 23, 2009
Open Letter fo My Friends
Recently, I joined Facebook, a social networking site. I had never much interest in these sorts of things, until an old friend from High School contacted me via this medium. I had a little experience with MySpace and found it to be too cumbersome and slow, so I never really got into it. Through Facebook, whose features seem more streamlined and actually useful than MySpace, I was able to connect with family and friends as well as find old friends. It’s a marvelous tool for helping people stay in touch and stay in touch at a level heretofore unknown. In addition to sharing photos, movies, likes and dislikes, you can share all the subtle nuances that go on in our day to day lives, such as what are you thinking or doing at this moment and other small tidbits of personal information, through surveys such as “44 odd/random things about me”.
Part of the appeal of Facebook and other such programs is the ability to find and communicate with old friends from the past, like people with whom you went to High School. It was this part of my Facebook journey that struck me as personally poignant.
One of the features of Facebook it helps you contact people you may know, making suggestions for you, based on who you email, and it displays your ‘Friends” in a little box on your home page. Just like in reality, no one on Facebook wants to be seen as not having friends and indeed some people have hundreds. It seems that part of the goal on Facebook is to “collect friends” regardless of how much a person really is your ‘friend”. I was even contacted by people with whom I work and asked to be their Facebook friend, even though I do not socialize with them at all.
Thus, I too began my journey to collect friends. A journey not unfilled with some difficulty. Whereas I struggled to get up towards 20 friends, people I know who joined Facebook after me soon had many more friends than I…. and this bothered me. Thus, it caused me to reflect on my status with respect to my ‘social network”.
Part of my difficulty in accumulating Facebook Friends stems from the fact that I come from a small family, so “check”, less people there in my life to count on as a Friend. Another issue is that some of my closest friends from “back in the day” are now dead or have dropped of the grid entirely. Thus, “check”, yet another reason why my Friends count is challenged.
But it was when I reached out to old friends from the past that I had a bit of a revelation and that was, I may not have been a very good friend! I was not super popular in High School, but I had a small core group of close friends; we even called ourselves the “Famn Damily”. However, over the years many of these people drifted away from me, or perhaps more correctly said, I drifted away from them. Through ego and self preoccupation, I let people I cared about disappear from my life. Even worse, while I imagined that I was the receiver of many a slight from some so-called friends, the perspective of the past 20 years reveals to me, that I was not that kind either and in some cases, I may have been down right mean.
I’m not sure why I was this way. Perhaps, it’s the nature of kids to be this way, or perhaps I was making up for some shortcoming elsewhere, or perhaps I have softened as the years go by. I don’t know, I am still on this journey; trying to figure out the reasons for what I have come to learn about myself.
Regardless of what I discover, I have made a personal commitment to try and be a better friend, in person and not just on Facebook; to be less self-absorbed and more attuned to others needs. Thus, I say to you, if you are reading this and you are a friend of mine, please accept my apology if I have not been the best of friends to you and please know that, while I may have appeared to be self centered, I care about you deeply. Thank you for being there for me, thank you for being my friend.
Part of the appeal of Facebook and other such programs is the ability to find and communicate with old friends from the past, like people with whom you went to High School. It was this part of my Facebook journey that struck me as personally poignant.
One of the features of Facebook it helps you contact people you may know, making suggestions for you, based on who you email, and it displays your ‘Friends” in a little box on your home page. Just like in reality, no one on Facebook wants to be seen as not having friends and indeed some people have hundreds. It seems that part of the goal on Facebook is to “collect friends” regardless of how much a person really is your ‘friend”. I was even contacted by people with whom I work and asked to be their Facebook friend, even though I do not socialize with them at all.
Thus, I too began my journey to collect friends. A journey not unfilled with some difficulty. Whereas I struggled to get up towards 20 friends, people I know who joined Facebook after me soon had many more friends than I…. and this bothered me. Thus, it caused me to reflect on my status with respect to my ‘social network”.
Part of my difficulty in accumulating Facebook Friends stems from the fact that I come from a small family, so “check”, less people there in my life to count on as a Friend. Another issue is that some of my closest friends from “back in the day” are now dead or have dropped of the grid entirely. Thus, “check”, yet another reason why my Friends count is challenged.
But it was when I reached out to old friends from the past that I had a bit of a revelation and that was, I may not have been a very good friend! I was not super popular in High School, but I had a small core group of close friends; we even called ourselves the “Famn Damily”. However, over the years many of these people drifted away from me, or perhaps more correctly said, I drifted away from them. Through ego and self preoccupation, I let people I cared about disappear from my life. Even worse, while I imagined that I was the receiver of many a slight from some so-called friends, the perspective of the past 20 years reveals to me, that I was not that kind either and in some cases, I may have been down right mean.
I’m not sure why I was this way. Perhaps, it’s the nature of kids to be this way, or perhaps I was making up for some shortcoming elsewhere, or perhaps I have softened as the years go by. I don’t know, I am still on this journey; trying to figure out the reasons for what I have come to learn about myself.
Regardless of what I discover, I have made a personal commitment to try and be a better friend, in person and not just on Facebook; to be less self-absorbed and more attuned to others needs. Thus, I say to you, if you are reading this and you are a friend of mine, please accept my apology if I have not been the best of friends to you and please know that, while I may have appeared to be self centered, I care about you deeply. Thank you for being there for me, thank you for being my friend.
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Irony Part 2
Recently, I posted an article here entitled, Irony, about my trials and tribulations with snowblowers. If you read the story, you know that my neighbor has been storing his snow blower in my garage. Well, shortly after he began storing it here, IT BROKE DOWN. So, once again, I have 2 BROKEN snowblowers in my garage. The moral of the story must be, dont store snowblowers in my garage!
Friday, February 13, 2009
Brrr. I'm Cold. Where is my Fur?
There are a number of people out there who believe the evolution is a mistaken notion and that it is just “a theory”. Additionally, there are many people who believe that global warming is just a another erroneous concept, yet another theory.
Perhaps no one has said this to you, if you are one of these people, but failure to believe in evolution is not an expression of your faith, it’s merely a demonstration of your ignorance! Evolution is a fact! Proven, scientifically. Period. Saying it’s a theory is like saying the sun is a theory. If you had more than a 6th grade education then you would know this.
People who disbelieve the global warming scientists point to the fact that, “gee, its winter and its cold, where is your global warming?” There are still people who believe the world is flat. Are you one of them too? It looks flat doesn’t it? Can you see it being round? Hmm. But we know that it is round and we know that there is proof of climate change. Yes, there may be one or two scientists who disagree, but the overwhelming evidence from scientists of every stripe is that climate change is a fact! A little publication called Scientific American believes climate change is occurring, so your scientist at the local community college disagrees, so to you, it aint real. Oh, you great thinker you. YOU know the truth, when 95% of the REAL scientists believe in climate change and all of them believe in evolution.
Well, I am here to tell you, in case no one has, to get your head out of your ass! Its time to move on from your ignorant points of view. Now you will at least have more important things to do with your time, like fighting abortion and the war on drugs! Rock on!
Perhaps no one has said this to you, if you are one of these people, but failure to believe in evolution is not an expression of your faith, it’s merely a demonstration of your ignorance! Evolution is a fact! Proven, scientifically. Period. Saying it’s a theory is like saying the sun is a theory. If you had more than a 6th grade education then you would know this.
People who disbelieve the global warming scientists point to the fact that, “gee, its winter and its cold, where is your global warming?” There are still people who believe the world is flat. Are you one of them too? It looks flat doesn’t it? Can you see it being round? Hmm. But we know that it is round and we know that there is proof of climate change. Yes, there may be one or two scientists who disagree, but the overwhelming evidence from scientists of every stripe is that climate change is a fact! A little publication called Scientific American believes climate change is occurring, so your scientist at the local community college disagrees, so to you, it aint real. Oh, you great thinker you. YOU know the truth, when 95% of the REAL scientists believe in climate change and all of them believe in evolution.
Well, I am here to tell you, in case no one has, to get your head out of your ass! Its time to move on from your ignorant points of view. Now you will at least have more important things to do with your time, like fighting abortion and the war on drugs! Rock on!
Thursday, February 12, 2009
My 200th Geocache!
#200
This cache marks my 200th. I have been caching for nearly 6 years. I hit my 100th cache 3 years ago, so I am averaging about 33 caches a year, a casual cacher by some accounts. However, some people I know of who were going great guns and had over 1,000 caches or more have not cached in awhile. Like many things I think geocaching can become an addiction. Some people “binge” and go crazy ticking of caches, others, such as myself, we plod along, but perhaps we have integrated caching more into a lifestyle and less as a fad; some other hobby we pick up and then move on from, to the next craze.
For some, caching is all about the find: how many caches you have and finding the next one. For others like me, it’s about the journey, the adventure along the way. Sure, I’d like to find more caches and have more adventure, but I also know that life is about a balance. You have to take care of the family, work, educate yourself, rest and have other hobbies too. Life is what happens to you on the way to the cache.
This cache, my 200th, provides a great example. I had been hovering at 199 caches waiting for my friend Rex to get caught up to 249 so that we could hit our respective milestones together in one epic cache. I had identified a couple of caches that would fit the bill, but the timing never worked out. Then my mom got sick and I had to travel to New Hampster. I don’t get to travel much, so this opportunity afforded me the chance to do a number of caches and in places I get to but rarely. Rex was at 248 and had attempted to find #249, but failed to. I was unaware of this when we agreed to find this unassuming cache as I let out for the north. It was not the “epic cache” I had hoped for in a milestone cache, but it would have to do.
It was when we found the cache that I learned that this was not to be Rex’s milestone. I was a little disappointed, but hey, these things are somewhat arbitrary points on our timelines, aren’t they? I posed for a quick pic, but had to run to get some miles behind me. Rex was off to finally grab his 250 and on any other day, we would probably have made a day of caching ( its been awhile for he and I ). He had shared with me where he was going as we departed.
I got a few miles up the road when I thought, what the heck! And I turned down the road I knew that Rex would travel, hoping to catch up with him and share in his milestone as he shared in mine. I waited, but Rex was detained so I left and as I did, I passed him. We spoke on the phone as he parked and then a few minutes later again when he grabbed the cache. So we had to share it in that way.
What caused me to change my mind, was the realization that this “sport” is not about finding the cache, but about the attempt, what you do and see along the way and more importantly, who is with you as you do. Hitting my milestone made me reflect on the times I have spent caching and while I have found 200 caches, I remember best the fun, the good times and the good friends I shared this all with and to quote Robert Frost… that has made all the difference. Here is to # 201! TFTCTNLNSLTTFN. Bonsai!!!
This cache marks my 200th. I have been caching for nearly 6 years. I hit my 100th cache 3 years ago, so I am averaging about 33 caches a year, a casual cacher by some accounts. However, some people I know of who were going great guns and had over 1,000 caches or more have not cached in awhile. Like many things I think geocaching can become an addiction. Some people “binge” and go crazy ticking of caches, others, such as myself, we plod along, but perhaps we have integrated caching more into a lifestyle and less as a fad; some other hobby we pick up and then move on from, to the next craze.
For some, caching is all about the find: how many caches you have and finding the next one. For others like me, it’s about the journey, the adventure along the way. Sure, I’d like to find more caches and have more adventure, but I also know that life is about a balance. You have to take care of the family, work, educate yourself, rest and have other hobbies too. Life is what happens to you on the way to the cache.
This cache, my 200th, provides a great example. I had been hovering at 199 caches waiting for my friend Rex to get caught up to 249 so that we could hit our respective milestones together in one epic cache. I had identified a couple of caches that would fit the bill, but the timing never worked out. Then my mom got sick and I had to travel to New Hampster. I don’t get to travel much, so this opportunity afforded me the chance to do a number of caches and in places I get to but rarely. Rex was at 248 and had attempted to find #249, but failed to. I was unaware of this when we agreed to find this unassuming cache as I let out for the north. It was not the “epic cache” I had hoped for in a milestone cache, but it would have to do.
It was when we found the cache that I learned that this was not to be Rex’s milestone. I was a little disappointed, but hey, these things are somewhat arbitrary points on our timelines, aren’t they? I posed for a quick pic, but had to run to get some miles behind me. Rex was off to finally grab his 250 and on any other day, we would probably have made a day of caching ( its been awhile for he and I ). He had shared with me where he was going as we departed.
I got a few miles up the road when I thought, what the heck! And I turned down the road I knew that Rex would travel, hoping to catch up with him and share in his milestone as he shared in mine. I waited, but Rex was detained so I left and as I did, I passed him. We spoke on the phone as he parked and then a few minutes later again when he grabbed the cache. So we had to share it in that way.
What caused me to change my mind, was the realization that this “sport” is not about finding the cache, but about the attempt, what you do and see along the way and more importantly, who is with you as you do. Hitting my milestone made me reflect on the times I have spent caching and while I have found 200 caches, I remember best the fun, the good times and the good friends I shared this all with and to quote Robert Frost… that has made all the difference. Here is to # 201! TFTCTNLNSLTTFN. Bonsai!!!
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