NaPoWriMo 2024 Day 27

Really? A sonnet? An American sonnet you suggest, NaPoWriMo? I had a day. So here ya go.

Woke up this morning wanting to paint
Wanting to use the vacuum cleaner
Not wanting to think it had been awhile
Made breakfast to let me feel normal
Sat down and painted a landscape
some clouds, some blue sky, some hills
why so pastel hills, I wonder
why is my palette so messy? so of course
I spent time cleaning all the corners
dug out two blues and spread fresh paint
Noting that a couple tubes were almost spent
Of course I went to the art store and
then the grocery store, just to feel normal.

From the Quote Box:

When you get into a tight place and everything goes against you, till it seems as though you could not hang on a minute longer, never give up then, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn. — Harriet Beecher Stowe

NaPoWriMo 2024 Day 27

The Gettysburg Address

I am reposting this, from 2019 and as far back as 2015, because it still matters, remembering what our nation is about.

Looking back,I first posted these words here in 2015 after an incident in Baltimore triggered violence and looting. I reposted them two years later, a month after this president took office and thinking about what it means to be American and what is worth fighting for.

Today is the anniversary of those words being said overlooking the battlefields of Gettysburg. Two minutes that sum up what is worth fighting for and why we must continue to fight for what we believe.

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate — we can not consecrate — we can not hallow — this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us — that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion — that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain — that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Abraham Lincoln
November 19, 1863

The Gettysburg Address

Still on the Brink of the Web

A year ago, a first big wave of migration from Twitter happened and I found myself trying Mastodon and CounterSocial. Mastodon felt better somehow and it’s very nice, has great community, you can work up some conversation if you persist and post and leave comments – but that’s how ALL social media works.

Today I see a FB memory that I was trying these out and now we’re in the middle of another round of shouting about how awful Twitter/X is and especially because

the owner is a loud jerk who allows others to be loud jerks. OMG the other N word! OMG! Another round of migration.

Oddly, this is not at all my twitter experience. I don’t see any of that and it’s a MUCH better platform for getting faster news. I’ve laid off it for a few days because a part of me is bothered by the jerk-who-owns. (since the first migration, I’ve actually increased the number of artists and writers I see there as well as adding some excellent opinion people)

But, despite following so many of the same accounts of news and opinion people in Mastodon and now Threads (another arm of FB so don’t bother telling me how wondrously shiny and human it is – it also has a board of directors and a profit motive and an often jerky bossman), there is just not the same stream of information there. I don’t know why these news and opinion folks say they’re on other platforms and then don’t mirror their posts but they don’t.

Mastodon at least has the ability to find people across the fediverse, to search for hashtags etc and to f-ing edit posts. So despite and because of its reliance on volunteer folks willing to run physical servers, it has a lot going for it. Twitter has lost a lot of features but keeps its speed of delivery. FB is just awash in fake ads and other crap.

Deep in my gut I think that even if the Far Right folks prevail in real life, no one will care as long as their cat pictures and videos can still be posted. I am SO positive about this. I hate it. I remember when I had to continually explain what a blog was, so there’s not much can be done about my disappointment in this.

Congratulations for making it this far.

Still on the Brink of the Web

Recommended reading and listening

A gazillion years ago this book was assigned reading for a short round of couples therapy. I read it and had huge ah HA! moments. The therapy didn’t go very well but I found it personally successful. Since then, I’ve recommended the book to people over the years, along with a couple others by the same author.

I had a few Audible credits to use up and for some reason this turned up in recommendations so I took a chance on it. I also found an Audible version of The Art Spirit by Robert Henri (pronounced Hen-rye) and I got that too. Previously I’d listened to a a handful of recordings from the Dalai Lama.

The Art Spirit was good in audio form. Reading it is like reading a lot of quotes and snippets stirred together. The narrator really did a good job and made it sound like a kind, knowledgable and skilled art instructor and mentor, talking to and instructing his students. I came away with a lot to think about, not how to apply paint, but what to aim for and a lot of whys about being an artist.

Today I started the Albert Ellis book, How to Stubbornly Refuse to Make Yourself Miserable about Anything, Yes, Anything! and it is even better than I remember! If you want to work through the exercises it comes with a PDF version you can download. I also had a moment of being wildly excited as the basic precepts of buddhism snuck in during the introduction. Guess all the time spent with the Dalai Lama was well spent. Also guess I might pick up the new edition after listening to it.

Recommended reading and listening

“We are here on Earth to fart around, and don’t let anybody tell you any different.”

This could be The Way.

Richard Smith's non-medical blogs

This comes from an interview with Kurt Vonnegut. I’ve loved it for 20 years and you might too.

“I work at home, and if I wanted to, I could have a computer right by my bed, and I’d never have to leave it. But I use a typewriter, and afterward I mark up the pages with a pencil. Then I call up this woman named Carol out in Woodstock and say, “Are you still doing typing?” Sure she is, and her husband is trying to track bluebirds out there and not having much luck, and so we chitchat back and forth, and I say, “Okay, I’ll send you the pages.”

Then I go down the steps and my wife calls, “Where are you going?” “Well,” I say, “I’m going to buy an envelope.” And she says, “You’re not a poor man. Why don’t you buy a thousand envelopes? They’ll deliver…

View original post 210 more words

Button, Button – Who’s Got The Button?

Very unexpected find today. I’m pretty confident that that’s my very first Question Authority button, which I got by asking the woman who was wearing it if I could get one and she handed it to me (a bit reluctantly perhaps). Because of this, if people comment on my RESIST or “Dare to Call It Treason” buttons, I am ready to hand them over. The more the merrier!

Button, Button – Who’s Got The Button?

Found on the way to something else.

I found some interesting stuff last night on my way to finding my traditional shamrock pin for today. I think every little kid should be given a rather substantial box of some kind in which to keep treasures, whether they’re rocks and feathers or all the pins and stuff that come along.

Found on the way to something else.

Day 25 NaPoWriMo 2022

Guess what I did today.

Tell me what you see
and now? now is just a guess
too small, far away.

look straight ahead now
now right, left, up, and now down
now the other side.

in a darkened room
small space made large with mirrors
my eyes wide open.

Day 25 NaPoWriMo 2022

NaPoWriMo Day Sixteen

I had a bunch of time on my hands this morning – and into the afternoon – and among other things thought about tomorrow being National Haiku Day. So let’s just say I got an early start…

I remain on hold
despite the incompetence
of those I speak with.

You transferred me and
thought the problem was solved but
I am still on hold

soothing hold music
followed by ‘will you please hold’
becomes annoyance

you try to distract
with a different service
but to no avail

yes we all agree
that you have no ability
to assist me here

Despite your answer
I request to be transferred
to one who can help.

in between people
i try focussing on hope
to shake off anger.

NaPoWriMo Day Sixteen

Today’s Best Thing – Maybe of the Whole Month

This might be the best thing I’ve done in months. Went out to the mailbox this morning as I do and there was a letter – from the IRS. Now, if you’re waiting for a refund, this isn’t exactly what you want to see in your mailbox. Walking back to the house I opened it. I knew, folks, what had to be done, and I did it.

I’m proud of it. I would and will do it again. And I’ll laugh now every few days over this.

Yes, I fed him to the worms, at the risk of corrupting or damaging my new worms in my composting bin, I ripped him up and buried him in there with all my other compostible bits.

Next time Jerk, don’t waste my tax dollars sending me your signature in re to something that’s already freaking happened.

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Moisten and prepare your addition to the compost box:

Ensure the paper is adequately damp before shredding:

Prepare a place in the box and add in the new addition:

Cover and let the worms feast and do their thing:

Today’s Best Thing – Maybe of the Whole Month