Thanks for the Dirt

DOf course my thanks are inadequate yet it needs to be given. Thanks to my friends new and old remember to be strong kind and brave and lift each other up when possible 

Check out this episode!

Peace and joy thanks all week starts with this

 Compel the Sophies Phils and Franks

Don’t paint by number or fill in blanks

Don’t trade old love songs for larger tanks

Write all new stories throw out old pranks

Stand up refuse to join the ranks

Of quiet drones  who turn the cranks

For those who worship gold in banks

Scream Gratitude Sell Hope Give Thanks

Thanksgiving Prayer 

500 That’s a lot of Elephants and things to be thankful for

 THANK YOU 500…A Mindset and A Blog?

Do you know how long this post is going to be?  Well this is the third anniversary. Of the seeking peace and joy blog and it is the 500th  posted  entry*I* and I’m using. The I because this is a very personal entry….have grown, asked and received graceful answers to countless wonderments and made concrete connections with  many readers.  In short, I’m am grateful as can be.   Sure some days I worked harder than  an ugly strippers to release the lessons I’m experiencing in word form.  However, on other days the ideas bubbled forth like a well shaken bottle  of Boone’s Farm (ok Champaign maybe).   The process of writing. This has created.a mindset where I perceive and bring meaning to everyday objects in a far richer way. Than when i started and reflexively understanding the public exercise  of sharing these meanings has helped me stay aware of the beauty and the brutality  of my human and spiritual  existence.  In a few words?—win -win!

Okay words are a?wasting…. Here we go…

What leaps to mind when the number  500 rolls beyond my linguistic logjam?  Well there are the  two most famous  US  auto races…. The Daytona and Indianapolis 500.  500 miles has come to light in several songs I kno including how many miles a train has to go before the day is done.  We will talk more about miles and transportation  perspectives a bit down the page.  

5500 hundred. Elephants?  So what if instead of creating  these electronic piles of words, I dropped. Elephants into your  world.  Placed end to end the elephants on parade would stretch  just about 1.98 miles and weighin at a dainty 7.5 million pounds.  I’m not sure how tall a stack of 500 elephants might be… stacking  elephants can be a delicate matter I believe.  Oh you don’t care for elephants… well let’s switch. To donkeys… We’re  only looking at approximately 110,000 pounds for a tribe of 500. I don’t. Know why they call a group of donkeys… (let’s not  think lawyers, bankers, and egotistical who spew  the news as filtered by their opinion.   And speaking about opinion… this afternoon I’m launching a new blog called “the grumpy truth”it will be full of information upon which  I form concepts and will share them… you know a real “stay off my lawn if you’re not mowing it sort of thin… However I’m giving you a sniff here.

500 pennies per gallon?

I’ve gone here before and probably will again… however seeking peace and joy is about perspective and I’d like to offer some perspective.  The average driver on the top side drives 15,000 miles a year.  The average (in today’s auto market car gets 25 miles per gallonThis means that on average  we buy 600 gallons of gas per  year.  Even if gas were 500 pennies per gmattersallon we’re talking three grand.  On insured hospital  overnight $11,000 this past year-Which matters

Seeking peace and joy is in the Mind’s Eye of the beholder

 WHAT YOU SEE IS…

A Podcast about a book?  Well  sort of.. a blog about a podcast about a book!

Okay if you are a “seeker” in the magical mental space  called “peace and joy” it will come as no shock when this entry opens up rambling about the here and now.  Nor will you be at all phased when the word turns to “perception becoming reality” as if there is any other kind of reality… It just so happened that the most recent  rendition of the Peace and Joy Podcast —there’s a link  on this page—features the author Eric Antonsen and his multiple volume/faceted  “epic” offering…Mind’s Eye Memories.  

Eric has opened a great description appearing  on the Amazon  link and I won’t waste more cyberspace  pasting it here.  Again there’s. Link right down below… 

Here’s what is critical.  

The book is a modern day “Homer-like”—no Homer Simpson we’re talking the original miniseries creator from Greec.  If Homer were alive today we’d be discussing  the Odyssey as it streamed on Netflix or Disney and waiting for the next episode or saving it for a holiday binge with wine and cheese or maybe a little nectar and honey.  Anyway Eric’s book(s) take the reader on fascinating  journey through Tim and human  and super human themes exploring fundamental questions through  an interesting “mind’s eye.”  

Well usually when  you read about seeking peace and joy it preaches thehere and now and yet you only recognize the here and now when you find yourself rebounding from  thoughts of the past and the future… well this book sends up warnings and the character doesn’t just stagnate. With thoughts of other times and cultures—the character goes there to exist in these present.  So maybe that’s a hint about seeking peace and joy…when your mind pulls your focus somewhere…..why not experiment with actually acting as if you are there instead of getting stuck in “what if world?”  In other word try to implement  your imagination and experience it some way. In short…when your mind imagines an alternative—no matter how different from your current perspective—why not use some energy turning a decidedly  more adventurous  context into your actual reality and realm of activities. So.. think of a book you need to read and write it. Imagine the glory of a comedian getting laughs and try an open mic night.  Life is short why not bring several possible  here and now’s into it and test out a few… maybe. In one of these you will  discover your map to a little peace or a dab of joy.  

Ok I’m about to drop the link to Eric’s book yet it is important to recognize that all creators have help…

So Eric  wants to provide a shout out  to his “beta” or test readers… If they are not all listed here… it’s my faulty so don’t interpret mistakes made as Eric’s they are mine…

The Beta reader thanks go out to  

Amy … Mark…. Lauren… and Russ oh and anyone else who has inspired Eric  with candor and even a little false praise…. 

So to the link…listen to the. The podcast… got invested in Eric and then read  the book and incorporate it in to your journey of seeking peace and joy…

 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08TQJ91PX/ref=cm_sw_r_em_api_glt_fabc_3Y9MV6ADWTKZK03CF6D3

Wtf it’s not as easy as ABC

 What’s the Frequency Kenneth?  

Well after a “rhyme time” and a week of travel this. Blog needs to get cr ankin’again.  We were looking at “words”  and so we shall continue.  The last rhyme time BTW contained a b1 u2 n3 c4 h5  of words consisting of the same number of letters.  This post goes down an entirely different path related to w1 o2 r3 d4 s5–we’re talking how often a word is likely  to start with a given letter and then FWIW let’s see if we can get R MINDS rOFL shall we with some writing that uses a ton of common texting  shortcuts.  

Well if you start spelling some sentences so sibling see stunning smarts, you may suspect the most popular. First letter.  Yesssssss it isssss of course s.  While sitting at number 19  in the alphabet s not only stands alone but hooks up with c, h, k, l, m,n, cr, and t at the start of words... in words, as in life, getting along well will others and being useful can lead to a “s” pot at the top of the list.  While those madcap wheel. Of fortune  players often b up and  “E”  they obviously don’t realize that this will rarely reveal the first letter of a word since E is at best middle of the pack as a word leader.  X marks the spot in the alphabet where we find “which starts the least words.”  Of course some letters start multiple words, however, they are feeble frightened script and need to have a sidekick along.... yes Q we’re talking about you.  I mean.The quiet queen quakes at the quality of the quacking quid—right?  

So in terms of scrabble strategy... remember  that the “Quixotic fuzzy fox place injust the right spot on he grid will land you on the victory stand.   Well K enough of that let’s look at the Morse-Ian miracle  known as texting shorts.  FWIW I don’t text as often as many...so RELAX if some of your beauties  didn’t make this partial gift.. By the time we get through. Most of you will wish  I out just STFU or just claim TLDR. At any case most of you will LMK if this goes on to long  but NVM let’s go forward.  TBH every text won’t be useful as the QOTD.  Yes IMO or IMOHO IDK  how many messages get FUBAR’D  AND LEAD TO A BIG snafu.  At  th EOD what are the most FAQ?  IDK so right now I’m thinking TGIF.  I guess I could say LMGTFY. To all my readers  I’m sending out a solid ILY and don’t care what SMS  you use or MMS you prefer as long as you are connecting  and trying to make something positive happen.  That about I say on this so TTYL...

Peace out!+   

I didn’t save any daylight did you?

 Daylight squandered (eight line rhyme) Time 

Another season cavalcaid 

That Daylight Time again did fade

Leaves fall down we lose the shade

Be brave don’t shave avoid the blade 

It’s time to make a liquid trade

Swap  cider for your lemonade

Your credit card becomes afraid

St. Nick  arrives in his parade

Season’s Greetings

A word or two about words and where to buy some

 A WHIMSICAL WALK THROUGH THE WACKY WORLD OF WORDS 

Well we had our little rant about  the fictional marketing sham being hoisted upon us as “a supply chain issue’ which is no more than poor and greedy resource planning and dehumanizing  employer notions of people as technology they just can’t quite automate enough yet…. We’re going to hear all about this for another  year and that phrase will ring out like so many bells next to little red kettles  by the door. Of your “superstor” which will amazingly have plenty of things for you to pay for while the paychecks of the people working there are told they have a light that doesn’t light on one side.  

Okay  in seeking peace and joy it seems that what we focus upon expands. And if we keep ranting on the bleak it will likely do so…. Therefore enough is almost enough and certainly plenty for now.  So let’s turn the ship and set sail for warmer waves and sandier shores.   Let’s talk the tools creators use….words, music, and pictures.  Yep the next six posts will brandish  the beacon on these topics starting with  …. Words

Now  in spite of the linguistic linguini  that accounts for this blog, nearly every idea we share  gets pounded out in the form of  words and in the case of this. Blog that group of words falls into a category  known as the English  Language.  We’re not talking grammar—she made the best popcorn balls  and kept those funky pink mints in her purse—we’re talking the actual words.  

Before  we get too far down this rabbit hole there will be a promotional. And useful message. At the end  about someone or someone’s who use words  so well that you should go buy them at Burlington by (buy) the Book on November 13th…so read on knowing this goes somewhere—alright?

Okay let’s sally  forth …. 

According to those (non-binary) chaps at Oxford (no not the shoe) who have been doing the English thing for a bloody long time THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE  CONTAINS ABOUT  172,000 words and their records indicate that  another 47,000 have become obselete.  How do words become  obsolete?  Well think of things that no longer exist say like human phone receptionists and middle class citizens…oh wait…back to the light side Sir Luke… anyway  things like key punch  operator for example are rarely talked about, written about, worried about etc… so Keypunch could be finding its way to the obsolete list.  Other  words get endangered  because we have lost a bit of our creativity  for example poets almost never use “orange” because they can’t find a rhyme… 

Well think on top of the box… Plato and combine some  words and. You’ll find that  door Hinge  is close enough—thanks (a Detroit area Rapper)… 

Anyway there re about 172,000 words.  Now how many does the average adult know and use?  

It would appear that the average adult  is familiar with about 40,000 of these words, however much like those grey and taupe (hey I used  one of the 64 crayons  as a word!) argyle socks in the back of the top drawer we don’t pull them out regularly.  In fact, a more accurate  guess is that the average adult uses about 20,000 words in the course of a lifetime and so much like our brain… we have plenty of room for improvement.  We use only about 12% of what we have in the tank…you could figure out the exact percentage but you didn’t believe the nuns who told you this math stuff would come in handy did you?  

Here’s the Peace and Joy part… So in the net few days this blog is going to do some language exploring… no not in some dictionary…that’s too simple…. We’re going useage experimenting with things such as word sounds (rhymes) word length (writing a whole blog using words  with the same amount of letters (except for the articles like the  etc and conjunctions… you know the song from schoolhouse rock and if you don’t Google it.. oh and there’s a word “Google”. I wonder what that famous passage  about two paths in the woods would have  looked like had it read— I came upon  this place and googled the way to the nearest Taco Bell?  Well anyway in the next couple blogs we are going to have some fun with words just to rev up our creativity and positivity a bit…. And now here’s a word about the folks  who are selling some books … they’ve taken the dictionary and carved away all the words they didn’t think we knew or needed and put some entertainment  and information in front  of usClick the Link  and find out more… yes it’s a tease… just like “will supply chain issues ruin Christmas…. Well… no… get to a bookstore and buy some books… the writer’s have figured out how to fence in some ideas, identify some congruent words and “chain” them together  to actually deliver  something for you… I don’t hear any writers complaining about their vocabulary supply chain problems… 

Here’s the link

https://suttercommunications.wordpress.com/

Supply chain problem ruins Christmas? Humbug

 WILL SUPPLY CHAIN ISSUES RUIN YOUR CHRISTMAS?

In the previous post there was an attempt to shine some light on the realities of “supply chain issues.”  Now let’s focus on how said matters might impact Christmas.  

NOT 

NOT

NOT

NOT

 

Okay … no supply matter can ruin Christmas….or if so you’ve  (with.a lot cultural help) have already taken it out burned it, cut it into small pieces, dipped it in acid, spit on it with cod liver oil, stabbed it and voted for it in a recent primary election—in other words  if supply chain  issues can spoil your Christmas then you’ve already killed  it long ago…. Shall I go on…oh jingle freaking bells yes!

First of all this news teaser I heard only mentioned  Christmas… so if you celebrate any other holiday  tradition other than Christmas you’re safe… Spin the Dradle and hit the mall with confidence.after all the lit candles are safe from  the supply chain bah humbug.  Atheists…you’ve got it made… worship at the shrine of moving greenbacks and melting plastic because  there will plenty for you to buy and hand around  during the office  holiday party.  You see… if this holiday is about how many “black” November deals you can score on it hold seem  the idea of giving and spending time with good folks known and Boris beyond your pail.  Back when i was young and Moses was the only person I ever heard of having a tablet,”Christmas” season started  when the first rumors f the “Wish Book” was out spread through the neighborhood and really didn’t get rolling until. Santa made a grand entrance at the downtown parade.  

This was before people started their “door busters” late on Thanksgiving or at midnight on the next day.  By the way let’s not go busting any doors because the supply chain might not have the materials needed to fix any doors.  

Come on Christmas is not about any issues except  for how Uncle Frank drinks too much, granny gets you all the same gifts so nobody complains about what somebody else got, and well those damn Chinese lights that won’t flash in the 14 ways claimed on the box.  

here’s a Peaceand Joy idea…

How about  we start a peace and joy supply chain?  

How about we think of something positive  every day between now and our chosen winter celebration and then share that  thought so that it might get passed on and linked with other  positive thoughts…now there’s a chain for you.  

How about we figure out what might make a little miracle  for someone else on the planet and spend the next month building little steps toward that?  We might not be able to make a. Savior  appearin a cow house, but we might be able to bake  six extra cookies and deliver them to everyone on our block.  Oh and let’s try this…Even if we disagree with someone,we might  not point that out and instead  start asking. Questions to see what things we might. Agree on.  What if conversations  about things we agree upon became. The holiday season norm? 

 

Solving the supply chain issues

 A RARE RANT “AGAINST” AN IDEA THAT IS A BARRIER  TO ALL SEEKING PEACE AND JOY….

QUIT PULLING MY “SUPPLY CHAIN”

A teaser for the evening or late news came across the TV while I was waiting for Jeopardy.  It came in the form of a question and since  I generally like questions, I thought I’d provide my 3 cents worth.  What  I included get two cents worth?  No… I have a coupon and a credit card so I can have up to seven cents worth and have up to 60 months to pay with no cents down…. And speaking of no sense (you see that command  of the English language that has words that sound the same, don’t mean the same and are spelled  differently?)—Let’s examine  the following question together within the context of my biased  opinion shall we?

The teaser asked….

“Will supply chain  issues wreck your Christmas?”

Where to start?  Well I have a big finish, but a story  rarely starts it’s the end…so let’s start with the idea of a “SUPPLY CHAIN.”

I wish I had been in the meeting where the crooks from  big capital came up with  this brilliant reframe and told the marketing  folks to start pushing it.  Let’s wrestle with the  question of invented the supply chain concept  and the reframe that somehow made it a national problem.  

Okay. The other day a visitor  came over and asked  if I had a soda?  I replied  “look in the fridge.”  I knew  there weren’t any drinks in the fridge and that having raised the expectation. That something might be delivered  but wouldn’t be,  I also knew the soda seeker would  get even thirstier and I was willing to  take the risk that I could make the supply chain responsible and perhaps  even get more appreciation at a time when I delivered the drink later.  So the visitor  said “there’s none in here”. I said  “oh the local store  where I get it didn’t have it on sale so I haven’t kept a bunch on hand” (sounds like a supply chain issue? Or did  I really want to deflect. The fact that i sometimes ignore the needs of visitors?  In short, let’s move this to all kinds of products  we might be trying to buy and use.  

How long ago did Walmart start “super” warehousing  things in order to control supply chains for products in their. Local  markets?  Supply chains are no more than planned  use of resources to create products. To sell.  When  inventory and those who had to be relied upon to create it  got a little more power than big capital wanted we started to see the mass implementation of “Just in Time…”. Everything.  Now we have just in time inventory, just in time labor, just in time food  as you can get it in 30 minutes or less or just drive through.  World wide products can be delivered. To you in 48 hours if you don’t ask for something suffering from  company decision  makers who wouldn’t pay labor, wouldn’t store materials in any form other than “ready to ship and sale” etc… The supply chain is a fictional entity designed and promoted by greedy people who make mistakes about  what we value asssuming everyone should value what they value when they want us to value it.  Then  it gets worse… who works  in the supply chain?  It’s not the CEO or the Director of Marketing.  The supply  chain is the people who turn raw materials into stuff to buy, put it in a truck driven buy people who brave roads we undervalue and hand to workers who put it on shelves in the early morning.  Then sometimes customers put  this supply chain in a cart and roll it to a lane where they complain  about the price of it and expect to be treated like royalty when they take it home, discover it does’t meet their every need and bring it back to a store.  In that store they take it to a cashier who didn’t talk them into buying the thing in the first place and begin complaining about it and the store where thy bought. It.  After enough  of this a lot of folks start to shoot for “just barely good enough.”  So now  the reframing of “supply chain” or just in time problems created by capitalists who don’t care about people who are only labor costs for the most part anyway. And disappoint them often enough that “just barely good enough” becomes a desired  or at worst acceptable outcome.  

So… let’s summarize this part. And then move on.  

Supply Chain  Issues are Bullshit concepts sold by greedy folks who weren’t  smart enough to guess  what just in time  would mean.  Now these same lovelies  are trying to pass the blame down the line to folks who had nothing to do with these creepy decisions in the beginning.  So let’s call this what it is “inventory mistakes, undervaluing labor that produces and makes ready the product, and now let’s go forth to what I consider. The worst  sin of all…. 

FLOATING THE  IDEA THAT THIS MYTHICAL SUPPLY CHAIN CAN OR WILL WRECK CHRISTMAS.

Oh wait my supply chain of time  is experiencing unanticipated delays. Right now.  I’m not sure I can write enough or  quickly given the state of the world so hopefully  I didn’t  ruin your  reading experience… after all your attention is very  important to us.  You can either sit by your computer or phone until I finish  this tomorrow or you can get assistance from my extensive  list of frequently asked questions at  www.I don’treallygivearatsass.com

The “supply Chain Christmas Story…. Comes tomorrow or in less time f you subscribe to  ThisWriter’srants Prime

Writing frightening eight line rhyme time

 WRITING FRIGHTENING EIGHT LINE RHYME TIME

Creepy cabin screaming teen

Blood smeared mirror won’t come clean

Once tan skin blueish-green 

Razor fingers slicing spleen 

Vincent Price upon the screen

Grizzly Breathing heard not seen

Severed heads on snapped spines lean

 

Just another Halloween

Trick or Treat?

Trick-or-treat what’s your costume?

 Trick or Treat! Hey what’s your costume?

If you live in the middle of the  U.S. then you can almost always count on one thing.  The weather  on or about Halloween is going to take a drastic turn and not for the better.  Sometimes it’s right on the 31st, but more often it is on beggers’ night when the kids, sometimes not so little come knocking seeking something to rot their teeth and thwart any serious  effort to promote public health.  

With the parade of candy craving vampires, clowns and other creeps (no not politicians)  we see all kinds of unique costume efforts and some not so ambitious efforts.  This prompts a question.

What costumes  have we worn or do we wear without  getting much candy to show for it?  

Do we wear a dress shirt and a tie to convince  folks to drop a few extra dollars in our wallet?  Do we wear a white coat to convince  people we know about their bodies than they do?  Do we wear a polyester uniform with a matching hat to convince  folks the “want fries with that?”  Do we wear a badgee, belt,hard hat or tutu?  Do we do these things to tell folks  who we are and what to expect?  did we wear a plaid skirt or shirt with a collar to convince the pontiff  that we were on the way to salvation?  Did we tie dye  things to prove our far out grooviness?  Do

Do we put on these costumes to show people  we are just acting the part or to show others we are comfortable  in our skin?  Do we put on the costumes  to change our attitude toward the actions we are about to take.  In short, are these costumes  about acceptance?  

While this is not a promotion for nudity, it seems. Like sometimes the search for peace and joy gets derailed a bit when we start confusing the costumes. We wear with the people  we are.  We get caught up in attaching what we do with who we are and the purpose for doing it.  Surely sometimes we wear a costume to represent  our true self,however how often  is it done to show folks what we think they want to see?  

How often do we wear a costume because it is what someone else  believes “fits us (not that I’m bitter  about having to wear that little clown outfit for three years in a row…yep the one with the plastic mask with holes that never really lined up with my eyes and nose….. thus I was a totally blind asthmatic tiny kid running through the neighborhood yelling wait up and trick or treat snapping out  an occasional thank you as I turned to go down steps trying to avoid the next Cinderella and Abe Lincoln.  

Ok I’m over that sort of…except the streak of being the clown ended with being a pirate with a homemade wooden sword that was somehow converted into a nice wooden  paddle I suspect  this sort of hardened  my heart with regard to the Halloween costume deal.  

In sum, we all wer some costumes  once in a while.  If you are  in charge of what another person wears be aware of what it means…. Does it mean someone is  a part of a team or is it meant to dull someone’s individuality?  Helping someone be identified as unique is not the same as grouping  them with a label suggested by brown pants and a polo shirt with a name tag clipped to it.  

If we can all be aware of our costumes then we can all be more comfortable with the great people  underneath.   

Trick or Treat!