Sunday, January 31, 2016

One More Reminder that I'm Not All Gloom and Doom


This is one of my most favorite Barclay James Harvest songs -- Little Lapwing. If ever there was a harmony and lyric to bring back days of summer, running along mountain ridges, or warm meadows, young, and abuzz with everything, this is certainly it. Also a very nice way to close out a rainy Sunday afternoon. Enjoy.

Little Lapwing (2002 Remastered Version)


Saturday, January 30, 2016

Another Open Source Song Lyric


Just so we're clear here, I am going to keep doing this whether any of you participate or not. I do have to admit, though, that it would be a lot more fun if the participation would take hold at some point or other. Just sayin...

In any case, however, to reiterate what the deal is, open source lyrics are your chance to make your take on what the melody and arrangement should be for that lyric. The result is then yours to perform, and to sell to the public, without regard to remuneration for me. The only thing I ask is that you never sell the rights to your version to some company so that they can use it for a product jingle. I really hate that.

So... Without further ado here it is:

"Just For a While"

Oh father father
as you lay
Can you tell me
please I pray

What are we for?
What are we for?

And as he smiles
deep in her
he whispers softly
within her purr
we are for a while
We are for a while

A while
a while
of what
you say

A while to keep
the what away
A while to be
what length allows
A while allowed
in time to play
what wonder makes
our measures pay

We are for a while
What are we for?
What are we for?
we are for a while

A while to will
our time with her
A while she creates
a feeling for
and no more meaning
than before
just a moment
to adore
that wonder for a while

We are for a while
What are we for
What are we for
We are for a while

Friday, January 29, 2016

Jefferson Airplane was a Band that Was so Much a Part of the Sixties


They say that if you can remember the sixties you weren't there. Maybe that makes me an oddity (beyond what I've already accumulated for same) because I sure do remember. And if you hadn't listened to White Rabbit while on one psychedelic or another you just have no basis to understand what "you had to be there," really entails.

My heart goes out to Mr. Kantner's family. I'm sure that him and Iggy Stardust are jamming to the angels now (separate gigs maybe, but still).

Image: Jefferson Airplane's co-founder Paul Kantner dies 74

Paul Kantner, Jefferson Airplane Founding Member, Dies at 74

Wednesday, January 20, 2016

Tuesday, January 19, 2016

His Music Put Him on the High Way, It Showed Him the Sign, and He Took it to the Limit Time after Time.


What a talent. What a partnership he and Henley and the rest of the band had. Poetry. Melody. And Harmony seldom heard in a rock band. Perhaps only Simon & Garfunkel, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, and Queen could match them.

My heart goes out to his family. The only comfort I can think of at this point is the thought that the music of the Eagles will be flying out to the stars as long as there are ears to hear it.

Image: Glenn Frey dies at age 67

Monday, January 18, 2016

Earth Is a Ship We're All Flying On


This parting scene from the movie Serenity never gets old for me. I'm hoping its the same for you:


Just before the climatic final battle scene the main character Mal is told by the preacher that he had to believe. Mal of course mistakes this for believing in God but that wasn't what the preacher meant. "Just believe" is what he tells Mal before he dies, the implication being that it is in something much more fundamental than any one deity. I think its clear here what he settled on for that belief.

Saturday, January 16, 2016

The Truth is Out There. Does Anyone Want to Take Responsibility for It?



There is a particular brief discussion held between the "Cancer Man" character in The X Files, and an alien portrayed by Roy Thinnes (The "Talitha Cumi" episode-- time frame 25:04 to 27:55) that has always intrigued me. This is the one where the alien is in a full body strap down harness, which is itself in a dark prison cell. Cancer Man has come to visit not only because the alien has exposed his abilities to heal people, he has endeavored to help Mulder and Scully to find out about an elaborate cloning project project making very young worker drones. And, of course, that being hardly enough for an X Files machination, the clones have been working on a special crop tended to by bees who's sting will kill you.

What's the crop for? Why have so many people had their genetic identity recorded? Why are human-alien hybrid's being worked on? And how does all of this fall into the "Greater Purpose?" Do the specifics really matter here at all? Any more than the nearly endless list of amazing occurrences that also have to be kept from general knowledge?

C.M.:
This becomes a responsibility, a thing that I'm now called upon to put right and put down.
Certainly you expected nothing less.

Alien:
I'm not ashamed of my actions.

C.M.:
"Ashamed" ? You're not allowed the luxury of human weakness and penitence.
You're not allowed to put your indulgences ahead of the greater purpose.

Alien:
I no longer believe in "the greater purpose.

C.M.:
" Then your fate is just.

Alien:
My justice is not for you to mete out.
You may have reason.
You have no right.
You have no means either.

C.M.:
You presume to dictate duty to me ? Have you any idea what the cost of your actions is ? What their affect might be ? Who are you to give them hope ? 

Alien:
What do you give them ? 

C.M.:
"We give them happiness, and they give us authority.
The authority to take away their freedom under the guise of democracy.
Men can never be free because they're weak, corrupt, worthless and restless.
The people believe in authority.
They've grown tired of waiting for miracle and mystery.
Science is their religion.
No greater explanation exists for them.
They must never believe any differently if the project is to go forward.

Alien:
At what cost to them ? 

C.M.:
The question's irrelevant, and the outcome inevitable.
The date is set.

Alien [after face shifting to another major character, now diseased]:
At what cost to them for your own selfish benefit ? How many must die at your hand to preserve your stake in the project ? 

C.M.:
[Knocks On Door] I'm not impressed by your miracles or moved by your trickery.
Your justice will be meted out.

Alien:
By whom this time ? And by what tool ? 

C.M.:
By those who possess the tool of your destruction.


As always with the X Files the point here is that our government, looking for new enemies, has found them, supposedly, in aliens, but then, in glorious deference to corruption, has made a grand bargain with this enemy and now must make enemies out of its own citizenry. The truth may be out there, as the show repeats fairly often, but it certainly can't be allowed to fall into the hands of the governed. Information is power after all and we can't let them have their hands on that.

The thing is, however, you have to ask yourself this simple question: Do we really want all of the information to make truly informed decisions? Have we made it so easy for them to take real choice away from us for some deeper reason?

I think the answer to that is yes and I think it has to do with the bottom line terror we have for unbridled choice. Even as we love it we fear it. We do this because choice automatically implies responsibility. And to be fully conscious of your ability to choose is to also understand that you are sole owner of the outcome.

Knowing the truth is also quite bothersome because it makes demands on you to take action in the first place. It grabs you by the throat, shakes you to your core and says "no more playing games, and sitting comfortably diverted. Wake the fuck up and choose."



What a coincidence:



Friday, January 15, 2016

On the Question of Questioning


Where am I?
How did I get Here?
Where am I going?
What motivates my progression?
And What really constitutes progression?

Have I ever fully appreciated
the miracle of here?
Have I ever fully appreciated
the wonder of having at all?
Do I ever contemplate
the depths of what
I might not have?

Do I question questioning
to the point of abandonment?
Can I accept that the question
is the inhale
and the answer is the exhale
and its OK to take
a few moments
in between each
and just enjoy
the process of breathing?

Wednesday, January 13, 2016

The Withs, and Withouts, of Life


Knowledge without
wisdom
is power without
thoughtful loving purpose.

Creation without
pause and reflection
is destruction without
the time to embrace
any meanings.

Worship without
the questioning light
of uncertainty
is purpose without
the contrast to understand
your own darkness.

Reason without
a tender aspect
towards holding
makes facts without
any wonder
or magic made
from the miracle of choice.

Please continue
to wonder about
what you are with
and
what you are without.

Monday, January 11, 2016

Ground Control to Major Tom...


The stars will always glow with a bit of that Ziggy spirit dust.

David Bowie's Best-Loved Characters: Ziggy Stardust to Goblin King

You are the rock it on Rocket Man.

Saturday, January 9, 2016

The Need for Alone Time and the Power of Other Meaning Processors


I have been considering for some time now a couple of related issues of a personal nature. The first is the fact that I absolutely have to have a great deal of alone time. The second is why, when I do enjoy the company of others, I am left feeling quite exhausted, both emotionally and physically.

The alone time thing has always been there for me. For as far back as I can remember I had this ability to let my mind idle away freely on its own; playing with pretty much anything as a toy, or indulging on great flights of imagination. Now its a combination of idling as I play computer games, or reaching out with all of my ability to feel, and visualize, everything around me, but without any inner dialogue. There is also a great deal of reading of course, but I try to do that with as much emphasis on the simple act of observation that I can muster.

I have always thought of my head as the big tub which (I remember being depicted in various ways) in the Li'l Abner comic (which I realize dates me considerably). They would throw in some of the most absurd things you could ever imagine to get rendered down into a psycho turbo, intox-atronic, B.F.G. blast in the ass drink.

The upside of this as far as thinking goes is that you can get some pretty amazing counter blast (as Marshall McLuhan used the term) insights into the morass of stimuli that you may find yourself in. The down side, as is probably even more obvious, is that you have a head that can go off in rather negative ways as well.

In any case, however, an important aspect of how this works is to let the bubbling mess simmer on its own, without forcing it to produce on demand.

As far as being with people is concerned, though, I want to be quite clear. I have, and still do enjoy the company of others. I especially enjoy being able to provide laughter to others; something I had to become quite good at as I had an alcoholic, manic depressive, mother.

The thing is, though, when I am again by my self I find that I have been taxed to the limit; a fact hardly noticed at all as it built up along the way. Understanding why this occurs has been quite perplexing.

One aspect of what may be going on here is stress I have always felt with the implied situation of being on stage, or on camera, in the context that Sociologist Irving Goffman described in his book "Frame Analysis." Nominal social interactions never created a great deal of this stress for me, at least that I am aware of, but more specifically literal on stage moments certainly did, and still do.

This is, coincidentally, one of the problems I have had to deal with as a developer. The combination of how my very odd head works, and being on camera for job interviews was always an exercise in fear management, and the ability to accept the occasional humiliation.

The problem here was that I never wanted to be a developer in the first place so I internalized only the minimum of what was needed to get the work done. And over time I internalized quite a bit, but I could never count on having much of any of the buzzwords, or design paradigms of the day, on the tip of my tongue. A lot of times, in fact, I never had any experience at all with a particular development environment before, and/or the business systems that needed problem solving. The most I ever had was a faith in my ability to figure out what I needed to figure out, and pick up on whatever technology, or coding syntax that was required. And when given that chance I usually did quite well.

In any case, though, that kind of stress may be involved to one degree or another, but I don't believe it to be the main part.

For that we need to turn to an aspect of what Carlos Castaneda (partial fraud though he may have been) talked about in describing the power we allow others to have in influencing how we perceive most anything, including ourselves; and especially in the perception of how we come across to others in everyday discourse.

There are always many ways to see a thing, and often it is simply a choice as to how you will see one meaning as more valid than another. If you are, however, a natural empath you can add extra fertile ground for giving weight to your perception of how others perceive you. You can even do this without consciously being aware of it.

There may well be, however, more to it than even that part of the meaning choices of others. It may be that being in the presence of other meaning processors, even without a word being spoken at all, or any demonstrative behaviors engaged in, an interaction of meaning field affects that we can only begin to imagine now. Field affects that, depending on the individuals, and the experience association history they bring to the table, can cause unknown quantities of frisson, resonance, or a host of other similar effects in quite varied combinations. And again, with all of it being received without our being conscious of it at all.

So, if you too find yourself exhausted by social interactions here's something else to consider as to its cause.



Check the cartoon out here.



The Goffman search link.

Sunday, January 3, 2016

More Lovely Complex Spatial Relationship Engineering


This is great to watch.

PERFECT FOR POWERING YOUR TIME MACHINE

Allow This 3D-Printed Triple Gear To Blow Your Mind

The Infinite of Potential and the Potential of the Infinite; as well as the need for faith in the process itself.


I love
the process that possesses
no limit
and knows
nothing
but expresses
everything
to surrender to
or separate from.

The container
not contained
with no width
or height or
depth or
space for duration.

It is
endless formulation,
the dark that makes
the light and
the light that makes
the dark.

It does
boundaries
across boundaries
without limit,
as it forms
singularly referenced
lines of assembly
to make meaning
have space
to have time
for more meaning.

It loves
to make mind
so that mind
can know love
and speak of it
through endless making
to grasp
and act upon
the miracle of choice.

I talk to it
knowing
that it cannot hear
what I express
of knowing
but that it feels
the connection
that is made
of all my meanings.

We are
the circle that goes
around to come
around to continue
again and again
the very process
that makes us
possible at all;
to draw upon that
which makes the canvas
and the pencil.

Please I beg of you
Talk to love
and love to talk
to it
and to each other
so we can
all feel
the connections
to keep the love
and the knowing
going;
making more
meanings and connections.