Tuesday, December 9, 2008
Is This Still A Viable Blog or Not?
I was ready to relinquish this when a whole slew of archival material popped up - now is it mine or not?
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
The Way I See It - Volume IV
Checking Back In just to say...our election was a waste of time and money; another minority gov't, to the tune of $300 million - what a load of bull-droppings. However, at least it's over. You folks, on the other hand, and by you folks, I mean those of you to the South of our magnificent 49th parallel - you are still hard at it and while Obama looks like a foregone conclusion, no-one ever went broke underestimating the last-minute crazy voting patterns of the American public.
So - have at it y'all - just don't do something you'll end up regretting for the next 4 or 8 years, hear?
There must be more important things to gripe about but I'm tapped out and need to get back to writing a 50,000 word novel in a month (that's a November challenge for the writer-types), plus a poem-a-day within that self-same month. What does self-same mean anyhow? I've always wondered since it sounds fairly redundant...
In any case - another fairly useless phrase - I should get back at whatever it is I should get back at. Later all.
So - have at it y'all - just don't do something you'll end up regretting for the next 4 or 8 years, hear?
There must be more important things to gripe about but I'm tapped out and need to get back to writing a 50,000 word novel in a month (that's a November challenge for the writer-types), plus a poem-a-day within that self-same month. What does self-same mean anyhow? I've always wondered since it sounds fairly redundant...
In any case - another fairly useless phrase - I should get back at whatever it is I should get back at. Later all.
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
THE WAY I SEE IT - Volume III
So - the stock market is plunging in the U.S., and banks are defaulting and closing faster than family farms (and you know how badly that's been going). We have our tainted meat scandals here in Canada and you guys in the states have all sorts of other scandals - a war over weapons of mass destruction that don't exist, a terrorist that has been on the run for seven plus years and no sign of him, not to mention your financial morass - is it true you're into China for over three trillion bucks? I can't even imagine a pile of crap - I mean money - that high...
And how are folks going to decide, on either side of the border, who to vote for. I mean, there's no question that everyone should vote - let's face it, people fought so we could have this privilege. But - and this is a big but - sometimes, the privilege feels onerous, doesn't it? It's as if you find yourself saying, "I will vote but really, it's just an exercise in futility - it's not going to make any difference - one person can't really make a difference..." and things of this nature.
In other words, we of the entitled class, spoiled, self-indulgent - never having to worry about where our next meal is coming from or any of the basics, for the most part, we are saying basically, that - oh poor us - our lives suck! Because the slate for elections is poor and we don't know who to vote for or why our system is in such a mess. Could it be that we've be come lazy and complacent? Things are just too easy? Hmm? I wonder....
I could be wrong - it's just the way I see it....
And how are folks going to decide, on either side of the border, who to vote for. I mean, there's no question that everyone should vote - let's face it, people fought so we could have this privilege. But - and this is a big but - sometimes, the privilege feels onerous, doesn't it? It's as if you find yourself saying, "I will vote but really, it's just an exercise in futility - it's not going to make any difference - one person can't really make a difference..." and things of this nature.
In other words, we of the entitled class, spoiled, self-indulgent - never having to worry about where our next meal is coming from or any of the basics, for the most part, we are saying basically, that - oh poor us - our lives suck! Because the slate for elections is poor and we don't know who to vote for or why our system is in such a mess. Could it be that we've be come lazy and complacent? Things are just too easy? Hmm? I wonder....
I could be wrong - it's just the way I see it....
Saturday, September 27, 2008
Where Have I Been?
That's the thing, isn't it? If you're a writer and you have a blog - then chances are you don't get to your blog very often - or maybe that's just an excuse, huh? I don't know...See lately, things have been going really well. My poetry is starting to get published and I'm thinking seriously about spending more time on my novel. By the same token, I'm committing myself to taking a trip that will use up a large chunk of time and while I think it's necessary - the trip I mean - it worries me that I'm looking for ways to procrastinate, as if I needed to do that. I think I'm beginning to ramble here...better take a break and give this whole blogging thing another think.
Friday, July 4, 2008
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Monday, June 9, 2008
Inspirational Post
http://www.namastecafe.com I hope I'm not double-posting this; I wrote a post and when I went to add a link, the post seemed to disappear. So...once more with feeling. Regarding the poem above; I heard it read Saturday night (June 7/08) at a grad dinner for the University of Lethbridge (Edmonton campus) Bachelor of Management degree convocation. I was so moved, I asked the reader for the name of the poet (anonymous)and if she would forward it to me via e-mail. Shibani sent it to me this morning (June 9/08), along with her very interesting and impressive website included at the start of this post.
Inspirational Poems
Inspirational Poems: "Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow
There are two days in every week that we should not worry about, two days that should be kept free from fear and apprehension.
One is yesterday, with its mistakes and cares, its faults and blunders, its aches and pains. Yesterday has passed, forever beyond our control.
All the money in the world cannot bring back yesterday. We cannot undo a single act we performed. Nor can we erase a single word we've said - yesterday is gone!
The other day we shouldn't worry about is tomorrow, with its impossible adversaries, its burden, its hopeful promise and poor performance. Tomorrow is beyond our control.
Tomorrow's sun will rise either in splendor or behind a mask of clouds - but it will rise. And until it does, we have no stake in tomorrow, for it is yet unborn.
This leaves only one day - today. Any person can fight the battles of just one day. It is only when we add the burdens of yesterday and tomorrow that we break down.
It is not the experience of today that drives people mad - it is the remorse of bitterness for something which happened yesterday, and the dread of what tomorrow may bring.
Let us, therefore, live one day at a time!
Author Unknown"
There are two days in every week that we should not worry about, two days that should be kept free from fear and apprehension.
One is yesterday, with its mistakes and cares, its faults and blunders, its aches and pains. Yesterday has passed, forever beyond our control.
All the money in the world cannot bring back yesterday. We cannot undo a single act we performed. Nor can we erase a single word we've said - yesterday is gone!
The other day we shouldn't worry about is tomorrow, with its impossible adversaries, its burden, its hopeful promise and poor performance. Tomorrow is beyond our control.
Tomorrow's sun will rise either in splendor or behind a mask of clouds - but it will rise. And until it does, we have no stake in tomorrow, for it is yet unborn.
This leaves only one day - today. Any person can fight the battles of just one day. It is only when we add the burdens of yesterday and tomorrow that we break down.
It is not the experience of today that drives people mad - it is the remorse of bitterness for something which happened yesterday, and the dread of what tomorrow may bring.
Let us, therefore, live one day at a time!
Author Unknown"
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
The Way I See It - Volume II
Okay - this is too delicious to resist...first of all, there's this French dude - a retired high-ranking paratrooper, in his 60's, determined to break a bunch of records, any one of which could cost him his life. Now - all of this may sound nuts - and probably is - but before everybody goes all weird and writes Michel Fournier off as Loony-Tunes, it turns out he does have an altruistic reason for doing this whole exercise.
Until this whole thing became news, I had never heard this unhappy factoid - maybe it's because I'm just out of the loop, quite possible - however - sometime after the Challenger explosion in the 80's, I guess there was conclusive evidence found that some of the astronauts aboard were alive in part of the shuttle that broke away from the main rocket, until their part hit the ocean! I'd never heard this before and I found the notion appalling. It was bad enough when I thought they'd all died instantly but, to think that some of them probably had as much as a minute to contemplate their deaths before they hit the water (unless they lost consciousness which is what I hope happened) - that's just horrible beyond belief.
And what does all this have to do with our record seeking skydiver? He maintains that if his efforts work out, he will prove there's a way for astronauts to be capable of escaping from a hatch such as the one that broke away from the doomed Challenger, even at extremely high altitudes and speeds. They could then free-fall until it's safe for them to parachute, instead of just continuing to plunge to earth (or to ocean) and die.
Well - that sounded laudable, I thought. Expensive, but perhaps worthwhile.
Expensive - that's the understatement of all time. Of course nothing to do with the space program is cheap but everything about this is pricey and, he was, after all, on his third try, doing this strange experiment, just this morning.
The small town of North Battleford, Saskatchewan on the Canadian prairie - an absolutely ideal spot for this event; flat, no lakes, few trees - had absolutely ideal conditions at dawn today;cloudless sky, nary a breeze. Perfect. Mayor Julian Sadlowski, North Battleford, opined optimistically, that this would surely put them on the map. Not today, Mayor Sadlowski.
As in Fournier's previous two attempts to break the world-record height jump, and be the first human to break the speed of sound in a free-fall, Michel Fournier was once again foiled by a huge helium balloon, the one needed to get him off the ground in the first place. In his last two tries , his balloon had actually torn - not very encouraging, but at least he hadn't been injured.
Today's balloon, not to get too technical, shorted out one of its moorings - and that was all it took - before anyone realized what was happening, it shimmied and shook and was, 'up, up and away', appearing, for all the world, as has been quoted elsewhere, "like an enormous jelly-fish", or a "giant light bulb". I opt for the jellyfish description myself.
Poor Fournier. Will he be able to raise enough money to buy himself another out-sized main balloon and its back-up? Even though each cost in the order of $400,000, Fournier believes he might well have backers by August and hopes to once again attempt his razzle-dazzle escapade then. Will North Battleford be the site of this amazing feat, should it take place? That, as they say, is in the wind.
Until this whole thing became news, I had never heard this unhappy factoid - maybe it's because I'm just out of the loop, quite possible - however - sometime after the Challenger explosion in the 80's, I guess there was conclusive evidence found that some of the astronauts aboard were alive in part of the shuttle that broke away from the main rocket, until their part hit the ocean! I'd never heard this before and I found the notion appalling. It was bad enough when I thought they'd all died instantly but, to think that some of them probably had as much as a minute to contemplate their deaths before they hit the water (unless they lost consciousness which is what I hope happened) - that's just horrible beyond belief.
And what does all this have to do with our record seeking skydiver? He maintains that if his efforts work out, he will prove there's a way for astronauts to be capable of escaping from a hatch such as the one that broke away from the doomed Challenger, even at extremely high altitudes and speeds. They could then free-fall until it's safe for them to parachute, instead of just continuing to plunge to earth (or to ocean) and die.
Well - that sounded laudable, I thought. Expensive, but perhaps worthwhile.
Expensive - that's the understatement of all time. Of course nothing to do with the space program is cheap but everything about this is pricey and, he was, after all, on his third try, doing this strange experiment, just this morning.
The small town of North Battleford, Saskatchewan on the Canadian prairie - an absolutely ideal spot for this event; flat, no lakes, few trees - had absolutely ideal conditions at dawn today;cloudless sky, nary a breeze. Perfect. Mayor Julian Sadlowski, North Battleford, opined optimistically, that this would surely put them on the map. Not today, Mayor Sadlowski.
As in Fournier's previous two attempts to break the world-record height jump, and be the first human to break the speed of sound in a free-fall, Michel Fournier was once again foiled by a huge helium balloon, the one needed to get him off the ground in the first place. In his last two tries , his balloon had actually torn - not very encouraging, but at least he hadn't been injured.
Today's balloon, not to get too technical, shorted out one of its moorings - and that was all it took - before anyone realized what was happening, it shimmied and shook and was, 'up, up and away', appearing, for all the world, as has been quoted elsewhere, "like an enormous jelly-fish", or a "giant light bulb". I opt for the jellyfish description myself.
Poor Fournier. Will he be able to raise enough money to buy himself another out-sized main balloon and its back-up? Even though each cost in the order of $400,000, Fournier believes he might well have backers by August and hopes to once again attempt his razzle-dazzle escapade then. Will North Battleford be the site of this amazing feat, should it take place? That, as they say, is in the wind.
Friday, May 23, 2008
Thursday, May 22, 2008
The Way I See It - Volume 1
I am so not sure if this is a good idea. I love to write; I even like to type, but to blog? Who knows? We'll see. My blogging name might be a clue to it all. After all - elephants are the only land mammals that can't leap - let's hope it doesn't turn out that I'm not the only writer who can't blog. Eww - blog - doesn't it sound just a tad like barfing? Yeah - I'm thinking it does.
Look who's here again today - okay, well that's already a piss off. I can't get a picture to load of dear snorty Max. Weird, too, cause I already got my whales to load and a pic of the Bluffs to come up on my profile page so I wonder what the problem is.
I'm still a bit down about Lucy buying it Sunday night but I know it's for the best...
Look who's here again today - okay, well that's already a piss off. I can't get a picture to load of dear snorty Max. Weird, too, cause I already got my whales to load and a pic of the Bluffs to come up on my profile page so I wonder what the problem is.
I'm still a bit down about Lucy buying it Sunday night but I know it's for the best...
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