A Fawn Is A Baby Deer

A fawn is a baby deer. A woman is a female person. Of the opposite sex.

Stag is the name of an old magazine. And a party I've never been to one of.

Compelling Impulses

I was looking at a book I have. I can't remember the title. But it's something like "2,143 Meditations, Koans, and Whatever," a book that has little snippets of meditations. It's a cool book, one you dip in at random and it gives you something to think about.

I saw several things just looking at it for a minute.

One of them was this pointer, though not in exactly these words: "Wait until you have a compelling impulse two times before acting on it."

That would be good to do, because I get a lot of compelling impulses. When I'm looking at candy bars, for example, sometimes I have pretty good restraint. Then other days, like today, I went to the store specifically to get candy. Sometimes I'm definitely compelled. And frankly, had I waited for a second compulsion today it would've come.

I have a lot of my compelling impulses of the past surrounding me. I'm always trying to find shelf space for them. Many of them I waited for a second impulse. Many of them I didn't.

It's good advice. Maybe wait 10 times as a matter of policy. Because for me it's easy to secure that second one.

Picking Up Poop Even When It's Not Necessary

I took my dog for a walk in a deserted campground today.

We're going through the place where there are sometimes 300 campers and tents. But now there's none. It's completely wide open. Nobody there. The attendant is long gone. The newspaper machine has a September newspaper showing through the window.

It's so bare even sagebrush avoids it.

So there we go, walking across a deserted campground. My dog takes a poop. I think, Why am I cleaning this up? There's not much of a good answer, but I guess I'm just conscientious. I cleaned it up.

15 Years For Stealing Cigarettes

Stupid guy.

This guy, 26-year-old Jared Smith, admitted he was a career criminal and could've gotten 25 years for stealing cigarettes.

Good comment by Brookings (South Dakota) County State’s Attorney Clyde Calhoon... He called Smith a career criminal but not a very good one, “because he seems to always get caught.”

Should've picked a different career. Or not been a smoker.

Started Frankenstein

I started the old movie, "Frankenstein," the Boris Karloff one. Got it on VHS today at a thrift store. I half think I already had it somewhere.

I like the beginning. A guy comes out on the screen and warns us, the audience, about what's coming up. So what's supposed to happen? You're in the theater and you get up and leave?

He never actually says that. He just hints around that it's going to be horrifying. So I hope I can stand it. I'll be watching 10-20 minutes a day till I get it done, watching only during my exercises.

Ardath by Marie Corelli

I finished the book "Ardath" by Marie Corelli. It was a big one but a good read.

Synopsis:

There's a guy named Theos Alwyn, a poet from England who's also skeptical in the religious sense. He happens to be in the East somewhere, the Caucasus mountains, and meets with a monk named Heliobas. (Heliobas is also the main character in Corelli's novel "A Romance of Two Worlds.") He's a mysterious, all-seeing, all-knowing kind of guy, with some deep in's when it comes to religion.

Alwyn stands against religion and Heliobas guides him along. Soon Alwyn takes a serious nap and is transported into realms somewhere above, where he meets an angel he comes to love, and he comes back around and immediately writes a long, inspired poem. One sitting.

Now he's interested in religion. Heliobas opens to him certain mysteries from the book of 2 Esdras, and sends him to the field of Ardath, mentioned in 2 Esdras, which is at the ruins of Babylon. He gets there, goes to the field of Ardath, has some mystical experiences involving the same angel figure from before, then he seems to be transported to a whole other time and place.

The bulk of the book is his experiences in this other time and place, the city of Al-Kyris. In Al-Kyris, they have a king, priests, a High Priestess figure, poets, critics, professors, the whole thing. Alwyn doesn't have recall of who he is, just vague hints come to him occasionally about his life and religion. In Al-Kyris he becomes fast friends with the Laureate of the realm, Sah-luma. There's enough hints dropped along the way that it's obvious the two of them share something very intimate in common.

I can't summarize the whole Al-Kyris section since it's huge. He's there when the whole kingdom experiences its downfall and Sah-luma is killed. Then he's back to the present day. It's revealed to him that all that was a dream, but it was a dream of actual people and things that happened. In fact Sah-luma was a prior incarnation of himself. That explains why all of Sah-luma's poems are poems that Alwyn also wrote, including the long one, Nourhalma, the inspired one from before.

In the experiences he had he focused in on many presentiments of Jesus Christ, the Cross being used as a mystical symbol in anticipation of the Gospel, prophesied to come into the world in 5,000 years. So he was reliving things that happened close to 7,000 years before.

Because of his life of flesh and denial of the spiritual things, he has been denied a final consummation and life with the female angel figure, his everlasting beloved Edris. But obviously he's well on the right path now, being aware of the reality of spiritual things and God.

The last section has Alwyn back in England, where he's with friends and heavily engaged in the social scene. His big inspired poem was a bestseller and everyone wants to meet him. The last section has some truly boring parts. It's kind of a let-down. The big thing in it is that he's a completely different person and fame holds no charm. So he's put off by all the hangers-on, etc.

He meets Heliobas, who's in England on his way to Mexico. They talk over Alwyn's transformation and what his life has in store for him. He knows he'll someday be with Edris. He also knows he has some kind of power to bring her back, but keeps avoiding it out of true love. He's denying himself, which turns out to have been a good move.

Finally he meets Edris in a cathedral and it's revealed that she's come down to spend mortality with him after all, because every time he prayed that she be spared this and that he get along as well as he can, it actually meant she was that much closer to being sent.

They go somewhere, to some mountain retreat somewhere, and live there. He's writing poetry, as I recall, and doing his best to convert the world to spirituality through poetry and away from their vain ways.

Adam Lambert's Songs

I just got the CD yesterday. I heard most of the songs streaming on MySpace the other day. Then I've heard the other songs at least twice. Plus the performances on the CBS Early Show (You Tube).

The good news is I like them. The bad news (if you want to call it that) is they're already running through my mind.

This is only bad news because those incessant loops in the brain, song worms, can be very annoying. So here I am, constantly imagining, "What do you want from me?" And the simple guitar thing that starts and is in the middle of it.

The songs are quite good on the CD. Maybe too good.

Reading "Ardath"

I mentioned somewhere on one of my blogs that I was reading "Ardath," by Marie Corelli. I still am! I haven't ended it, since it's a longish book, but I'm getting there.

It is a three part book, and it looks like it was published as three separate volumes, going by what I see at Google Books. Fortunately the edition I have has all three volumes together, making it so I don't have to track down three separate books and buy them.

I'm in the last part, so that's pretty good. I think it's a compelling book. I like it a lot. The author had a real lavish way of describing things, apparently from having read so much poetry. So she's not shy and not reserved in giving things a completely over the top description.

I'll probably write about it when I get done with it. I notice there's not many descriptions of the contents online. So that's something that could be filled in. And I'll try to do that when I make it the rest of the way through.

Heath Bars

I usually have a craving for candy about once a week.

Yesterday it was for a very particular kind of candy, the Heath bar. I haven't had one of these for maybe years, a couple years maybe. But suddenly that's what I wanted.

Under the word "Heath" they're labeled "Milk Chocolate English Toffee Bar." They have a real delicious toffee bar under the coating of chocolate. So they go from soft to hard in about five seconds. If you have the discipline to let the toffee melt in your mouth, you can get some lasting enjoyment out of them. But I don't usually have the discipline.

Like right now, I chewed a piece and it's already gone. Bad move!

By the way, this isn't a paid endorsement of any sort. I read about blogs that do that. So to be just up front, I am not a paid spokesperson. I have these two candy bars and I might not eat another Heath for another two years. The craving is not constant.

These Three Stooges Films Are A Drag

Toward the end of the Shemp years, and I believe into the next years, the Three Stooges films weren't so good.

I guess the thing was the shorts weren't making enough money or the studio didn't want to spend any money on them, or something like that. Surely they didn't just run out of ideas.

I'm watching the Seventh volume of the complete Columbia shorts and many of them are retreads, including footage from films from prior years. It's a complete drag. They put a new title on them though, so at least we have that (ya ha!)

I guess there are different scenes, somewhat, but still ... just retreading an old film and with extended scenes from the earlier film ... is not my way of doing things.

They're very stale.

My Good Deed For The Day

This is from "The Annals of You Never Know What You Might Be Doing In Five Minutes."

I was bringing the dog home from a walk in the park and there was a guy on the corner who asked me a question about the school bus schedule.

Since I didn't know, I started calling around and couldn't get anyone at the schools to pick up. Within five minutes I was in this guy's house, looking for other phone numbers and making calls.

Finally, when none of the calls paid off, we were in my car heading for the school to see if we could find the child in question. We did, they made it home, and everyone was safe and sound.

None of it was predictable. Showing that you really do not know 100% what you might be doing five minutes from now.

That's Me On Guitar

That's me on guitar on Adam Lambert's song "Music Again." It's a hot solo, done by me of course. I had my lip curled at the time. That's how I got it so hot.

George W. Bush's Presidential Library

What a waste of money and space. A presidential center in honor of idiot George W. Bush.

If they want to build something else we don't need, how about another McDonald's or Kentucky Fried Chicken?

I like the sound of one of the exhibits though. Some kind of $100 million holograph of the Constitution continually going through a shredder. Just like during his failed presidency.

Wish I Had Some Chocolate

I have a craving for some chocolate or some candy of some kind. But there's no candy in the house that I know of.

And I hate to go all the way to the store to get some. I would need to go to one of the discount places since I despise the idea of buying candy at convenience stores, where it's twice the price.

But I should resist. It won't do me any good. Either for my weight, my teeth, or my wallet.

Still, we crave what we crave. And it definitely does sound good. I will try to resist. I will try my best.

Caught A Glimpse Of Alf

I was exercising last night at the exercise place. And I was trying to find a particular channel, one that had Andy Griffith on. I could see it across the room on one of the main TVs, but I'm not familiar with where any channel is on the TV there.

As I going at it, exercising and searching at the same time, I was pushing the channel UP button and getting the picture and moving on. In the process I caught a glimpse of Alf for about a second. I wonder what channel that was. Are they showing reruns of Alf?

It's funny I didn't stop on it. That was a favorite show of mine at the time, way back when. But the bottom totally fell out on my interest in it. My interest hasn't held even in the sense of it being a nostalgic favorite.

I wonder what the chances are of that. Since most things that we like from years ago, we still have a soft spot in our hearts for, and would want to see it a few times years later. But for some unknown reason that doesn't hold for Alf. Or Married With Children, which I was crazy for when it was first on. Really crazy for. No more.

I watched the Andy Griffith episode for a little while -- I didn't have any sound -- and even that was not very interesting (without sound). So I flipped over and was going to watch two women shooting pool, except I tuned in right at the end, so I saw one woman's last five shots, then she won a big silver cup and that was it.

TV with the sound off isn't very interesting. It's about the same as with the sound on.

Beware The Ides Of November

I was going to say, Beware the Ides of November. But I see the definition of "ides" is not what I expected.

(in the ancient Roman calendar) the fifteenth day of March, May, July, or October, and the thirteenth day of the other months.

It's not the fifteenth of November, just the fifteenth of March, May, July, and October.

The rest of the months get the ides over with on the thirteenth.

So if anything bad was going to happen to you on the ides of November, for which you should've been aware, it's already happened.

Nothing's quite as dangerous as the ides of March, of course. But this year, the ides of November having been on Friday the 13th, it could've been bad.

There must have been someone out there who had a terrible day on Nov. 13. To those people I would've said, Beware the Ides of November. But now that it's over, sorry about that.

Christmas Music Is Starting

I'm starting to sing Christmas music. I haven't listened to much of it yet, although I was listening to a Slim Whitman Christmas album a few weeks ago.

But the usual songs are coming to mind. I like ones like "Through the years we all will be together, if the fates allow, hang a shining star up on the highest bough, and have yourself a merry little Christmas now." Real sentimental stuff.

"Here we are as in olden days, happy golden days of yore..." That's so pretty.

Or "I'll be home for Christmas, you can plan on me..." It's so sentimental. This looks like one of those weird years where I probably won't make it "home" for Christmas, even though I maybe should do it anyway, since you never know how many there will be left.

This Is An Old Blog

That's one way to look at it, this is an old blog. I have over 400 posts. Pretty old!

Another way would be, maybe it was just created yesterday. And the 400 posts were already there just to test your faith. If you believe in the young blog theory.

But another way to look at it is this: It's old, yes, but not as old as it's likely to get. By the time another 50 years passes, and I'm still going strong, with 30,000 some posts by then, we'll all look back and say, 400? -- that wasn't so old.

If I last another 50 years, more power to me! The clock starts .... NOW!

A Verizon Hack

I'm depressed.

I just heard a family member, who doesn't have very much money, had her Verizon account hacked, and someone ran up between $500-600 fees for one thing or another.

She tried to talk to them at Verizon customer service but they won't help her, they say, get some of these charges off her bill. You know, I have never ever heard one good word about Verizon customer service. It seems like everything I've ever heard about them, their policy is to turn you down.

Anyway, it's not over with yet. I found a thing online about how to have a (maybe) successful dispute with Verizon. They ought to be able to look at her history and see that she hasn't had a history of these kinds of charges in the past. And since it's apparently easy to hack a Verizon account, if they put 2 + 2 together, they could see that she is telling the truth.

Like I said, she doesn't have much money. So I would probably have to step in (not that I'm loaded either) and help get the stinking thing paid.

I would guess it'd be up to her to keep better track of her account, although I don't know what the actual answer is. Someone could run up a lot of charges in a short amount of time.

I hate those people!

Lou Dobbs Quitting CNN

Lou Dobbs reportedly is quitting CNN. Good. He's terrible.

During the very few minutes that I watch TV at all, I surf between CNN and MSNBC. But if Lou Dobbs is on, for the most part I'd rather watch commercials on MSNBC.

A couple nights ago I heard him for a few seconds railing about something. The guy is nothing but grief and complaints. So, zap, back to the commercials on MSNBC.

Lou Dobbs quitting? Yea! What took so long?

Ardath

I got a new book today (new to me), first published in 1896, I believe.

It's called "Ardath" by Marie Corelli. I read a book by her within the last month, "A Romance of Two Worlds," so I bought a couple more books online. This is the one that came today.

It's fairly lengthy, being around 550 pages of smaller print. The publisher looks like some kind of cheapo publisher, since the type is broken in places, the printing is poor, and I've noticed a couple of typos in the first 40 pages. So I don't know if this was some kind of bootleg copy from way back when or what.

The publisher was Hurst & Co. There's no copyright information, date, any of that. That's weird.

It's not great but I can make out most of it. I noticed there was one use of the word "sever" when "several" would make more sense. I looked at the copy on Google Books and it said "several." So that's a major typo, as far as I'm concerned.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to making it through this book. It's interesting that Heliobas, from the "Romance" book is a character in this one as well. I didn't know that was going to be the case, so I was pleasantly surprised.

Ideas For Tomorrow

I notice that if you want to do a different idea everyday, some kind of theme, that days pass by very quickly, and you're always pressed for what it's going to be.

I'm thinking of cartoonists, who reportedly work two months in advance or more. They have that kind of everyday schedule to keep up. Maybe they can come up with a dozen strips a day or a dozen panels. I don't know.

If you do anything everyday -- except going to the bathroom and eating -- it's a demand on your time. Because that time rolls around very quickly.

I don't have any great ideas for tomorrow. I'm rooting around in my mind for one, but one hasn't come. I'm thinking I'll get to bed and something will surely ferment in my mind overnight.

I always know it (or semi-know it) when it comes to mind, so all I have to do (hopefully) is sleep, then wake up, and Voila, there it will be!

Dead Swan On The Bathroom Floor

Shapes.

Online Clip Art

I still don't know the rules about using online clip art.

I've been doing graphics for one of my blog. And looking up pictures at Google images to use in collages is of course a great way to find things.

But then what? Is it legal and permissible to just use elements of stuff you find around the internet? I don't think it is. I see there's some clip art places that, even though it seems to be "free," I think they still expect some kind of credit or whatever.

And some of them have a little identifier in the middle of the picture, like they're trying to discourage you from using it.

I was looking for pictures of a "junkyard dog" and found some great clip art for that theme. But some of them I was reluctant to use because of these possible restrictions.

But one thing to say about it. It looks like clip art has come a long way since 8-10 years ago, when all you'd get were links to clip art places that themselves were links to clip art places. You followed the links till you were back at the first place and you never actually saw any clip art!

I'm serious about that. Back then clip art was tough to find.

Old Candy Wrappers

I have a sad sight here at my left hand. A pile of old candy bar wrappers, the Fun Size kind. Snickers, Milky Way, and a few Three Musketeers. They're left over from the left over candy from Halloween. I've got it eaten. But the wrappers remain.

Snickers are good to let melt in your mouth, which is hard to do because we have a natural inclination to want to chew. Same thing for Milky Way. Three Musketeers is the most boring candy bar I can think of. It has to be my least favorite of the main candy bar brands. I don't think letting it melt in your mouth would make it any better.

If Three Musketeers was a car, it's be so stripped down, you'd think, Man, where's the radio? Does this car even have a glove compartment? How about a steering wheel? In other words, there's nothing to it. Chocolate on the outside. Then whatever that nougat stuff in the middle is called. And that's it.

Three Musketeers as a candy bar is like kissing your sister. Nothing happens and you'd just as soon it didn't anyway.

They show Three Musketeers floating away on their commercials, because they're so light. That's truth in advertising. Except when they float away I won't be running around trying to catch them.

Will The Democrats Get The Message?

The time to get the message is now. It's not the day after Election Day a year from now, going "If we had only known!"

The time to "know" is now. We want you to govern like actual Democrats, not corporate shills or those too timid to govern. Be bold and get something decent and honest done for the people. The people will appreciate you more.

There's always going to be another election. If you're too timid to govern because there's an election coming, then you're never going to get the job done.

We want action. We want bold action. Don't go toward the right, the center, all that hogwash. And the Republicans aren't looking for bipartisanship. They're there to stab you in the back.

Do what we want -- what's right for the American people -- and you'll be rewarded for it.

A Whole Year Since The Election

2008 was a killer for me, all the waiting, all the political suffering. It didn't seem like we'd ever get to the election. Then we finally, finally did. And now it's been an entire year since!

How is President Obama doing? I think he's doing pretty much OK. I would prefer a more out and out liberal agenda, and more of an out and out killer instinct to get it. I don't like the idea of pussyfootin' around with political enemies when you're President of the United States.

I think this health-care thing could've been better. And it could've been done sooner. Maybe not, because I'm not really there to know. I tend to think the president has more power than he uses. I imagine he could've twisted some arms off and broken some knee caps, politically speaking.

As far as the Democrats in Congress, I don't like it that they're going a hundred different ways, always in rebellion over one thing or another. I think a surer way to bury the Republicans is to govern as Democrats with good Democratic principles. And among those principles I don't mean shooting yourself in the foot while no sense of direction.

Now it's election day again, and the Republicans have a mixed bag. They're going to spin it as a big night for them, that Obama's bad and the Republicans are good. It doesn't really mean that, but just wait and see.

What happens in 2010, I'm hoping we get our act together and crush them. But if 2009 is any guide, I don't know that it will happen.

Enjoyed Some Tacos

I just enjoyed six tacos that I get from a Mexican restaurant in my town that I like. I like it but all I ever get are tacos. I got a burrito there once and didn't care for it particularly. But I love the tacos!

I'm the only one in my household who likes the place. So that doesn't make for very many outings together. I only go stag, get my stuff to go, and bring it home.

This is my second dose of tacos there in three days. I normally cherish them and guide them tenderly in my mouth, etc. I think tonight I felt a little more jaded. I ate them about the same way but didn't enjoy them quite as much.

I might need to lay off getting them for a while ... then it'll be special again.

Halloween Candy

I've eaten way too much Halloween candy.

We bought two bags of candy bars, the little Fun Size ones. Snickers, Milky Way, and 3 Musketeers. Then we had precisely one kid come to the door. It must not be like it was when I was a kid. We were gung ho for going trick or treating. We had it down to a science. We had so much candy we were eating it for a month. The kids these days, I don't know what's wrong. Maybe the parents are overly paranoid.

It's OK with me. We remain optimistic in buying so much candy. Then I get the excess, which is much. But it's hard to quit eating it.

I had a weird 3 Musketeers in this batch. Must have been a factory mistake. It was a half 3 Musketeers candy bar, no wrapping, and looked like it was sliced at a 45 degree angle on one end, with some little groove marks. I didn't examine it before throwing it away, so that's just my take with one glance.

They obviously make millions of 3 Musketeers bars and I'm sure this one hit a machine badly or something and somehow sneaked by.