Zuzu's Ghost Friend "Red Eyes", and the Secret To Life

Philosopher, author, and educator, Alan Watts, left us on this day in 1973, in a sense.

"This is the real secret of life -- to be completely engaged with what you are doing in the here and now. And instead of calling it work, realize it is play."

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The Milky Way is moving through the universe at 361 miles per second.

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God damn, Alcaraz has to be the fastest ever.

https://www.facebook.com/reel/347123147656731

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Vonnegut, Bluebeard- "Everything about life is a joke. Don't you know that?"

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I have to give credit where credit is due. The last president didn't take us to war. Apparently for "decades and decades," if he is to be believed.

I also have to give discredit where discredit is due. If the current president announced in his reelection bid that he didn't take us to war for decades and decades, the last president would see that as rock-solid proof that he's unfit for office.

November 16, 2022

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I just realized I've had a tarantula since 2003. He wasn't small then and shows no signs of age. He was born when I was in my 20's, and one born today will still be alive when I'm in my 60s. The one after that would have a life expectancy that would exceed mine. Realizing this is a bit disturbing... I like to believe that I still have more than two tarantulas worth of life left in me!

November 16, 2019

Postscript- Still alive! Likely 22+ years old based on how big she was when I got her.

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Zuzu told me she has four ghost friends that help her- Madaya, Malia, Maria, and... Red Eyes.

Red Eyes, huh?

November 16, 2019

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Gretel's playing with a stuffed animal monkey and making it say, "I'm going to eat some poop and poop it again." I'd correct her, except that's probably exactly what a monkey would say if could speak and had a little more cerebral cortex.

November 16, 2018

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If you ever find yourself in a moral pickle, unsure of your course of direction, just ask yourself What Would Trump Do? Then do the opposite and you'll be alright.

-Should I be for or against the ivory trade? Trump's for? I guess I'll be against. 

-Should I support a Senate candidate accused by multiple credible people of attempted child molesting? I'll take Trump's silence as tacit support. I'll be against him. 

And so on...

-Should we kill the families of terrorists?

-Should health and tax plans make life harder for the poor while making the rich richer? 

-Should I walk into the changing rooms of teen pageants that I own?

-Should I cast juvenile insults at the leader of a nuclear power who I think is crazy and has the ability to destroy an ally in minutes? 

-Should I publicly criticize families of dead soldiers? 

-Should I hire McCarthy's chief aid as my lawyer and mentor? (No longer applicable, he's dead.)

-Should I scream catchphrases every time I hear something I don't like?

-Should I go out in public looking like a clown in weird makeup, crazy hair and big baggy clothes? (Admittedly not a moral question, but it still works.) 

-Should I be greedy?

-Should I be a good person?

-Should I lead by example or make 1628 false or misleading claims in 298 days in office?

-Should I have a moral center?

November 16, 2017

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Cracked- 4 Signs President Trump Is Headed For A Hitler-Like Reign

From the article- "This isn't a call to revolt. David Wong is right when he says this is not the time to panic. But it is the time to keep a careful eye on President Trump. Really, that should be everyone's job with every president. But since shit like this keeps happening... "Trump Won't Rule Out Database, Special ID, for Muslims in US" ... it's probably extra important to keep our guard up." 

That blurb is intriguing, especially after seeing this headline today- "Trump Team Is Mulling Muslim Registry And Planning Border Wall, Reported Adviser Says." See how "mulling" is a step closer to actuality from "not ruling it out"?

https://www.cracked.com/blog/think-trump-cant-become-hitler-watch-these-4-signs

November 16, 2017

Postscript- A little bit alarmist, it's not like he tried to take over the government or anything.

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Pence has said he's a Christian, a conservative, and a Republican, in that order. Where does American rank on that list? Or human?

November 16, 2016

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After an hour meeting Trump said that he was surprised by the scope of the job of president. This is nuanced, but important- that doesn't mean he now understands the scope, it means he recognizes that he doesn't understand it.

November 16, 2016

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Democrats are hesitant to use the phrase "radical Islam," so as not to promote Islamophobia. I guess we shouldn't call anybody a "moderate Muslim" either because it promotes the false notion that all Muslims are moderate. Or should we simply understand and use modifiers as intended?

November 16, 2015

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Desi Lydic from The Daily Show, on Hillary saying most of her donors are small, while ignoring the fact that the vast majority of her money comes from large donors- "Her statement, while technically true, is meaningless- like the fact that Hitler was nice to dogs."

November 16, 2015

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Tonight in the shower I bobbled the soap 8-10 times before finally catching it. I raised it above my head and exclaimed, "YES!" My good time was interrupted though by the voice of my subconscious which stated matter-of-factly, almost audibly, "yes indeed, but one day you'll be dead." Good point subconscious, keep me humble.

November 16, 2014

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If anybody has any good tips on how to keep stinkbugs off your baby's face we could really use it.

November 16, 2013

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If your cat doesn't roll around in your dirty shirt like it's catnip, then your cat doesn't love you like my cat loves me.

November 16, 2012

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My friend's mom died last night, very expectedly. His dad died about 10 years ago. He was looking for a good heckle so I called him an orphan. It was well-received.

November 16, 2012

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On this day in 1940, New York City's "Mad Bomber" George Metesky placed his first bomb at a Manhattan office building used by Consolidated Edison.

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Chinua Achebe was born on this day in 1930.

"The white man is very clever. He came quietly and peaceably with his religion. We were amused at his foolishness and allowed him to stay. Now he has won our brothers, and our clan can no longer act like one. He has put a knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart."

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Dwight Gooden was born on this day in 1964.

The Sporting News, August 7, 1989- "I don't care how much money he (Frank Viola) makes. He can have my locker, I'll take him to all the best restaurants and show him New York. He can even have my wife, but he can't have my number, no way."

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Lisa Bonet was born on this day in 1967. She starred in The Cosby Show in the 80's, and currently stars in the famous palindrome, LISA BONET ATE NO BASIL.

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William Goldman left us on this day in 2018. From The Princess Bride:

"Life isn't fair, it's just fairer than death, that's all."

If you haven't read that book, read it! For those of you who haven't read it, read it!

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Heroes of Science Action Figures

http://datazoid.deviantart.com/art/Heroes-of-Science-Action-Figures-337514889

November 16, 2012

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Cisco Houston- The Cat Came Back

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmRA9k55dNg

Bazo's home! She'd been gone a week with freezing temps at night. I thought she was a goner.

November 16, 2012

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Yahoo News- Trump's national security adviser: It 'obviously' looks as if Biden won

What do all of these Trump-Supporting Let's-Get-On-With-the-Transition-Already Republicans not know, that all of these Trump-Supporting Multi-State-Conspiracy-Soros-Trope-Biden-Had-a-Zero-Percent-Chance-Anyway Republicans do know?

http://news.yahoo.com/trumps-national-security-advisor-it-obviously-looks-as-if-biden-won-180106892.html

November 16, 2020

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J. Robert Oppenheimer's acceptance speech for Army-Navy "Excellence" Award, November 16, 1945:

"The people of this world must unite or they will perish."

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Henry Miller, Sexus- "Every man, when he gets quiet, when he becomes desperately honest with himself, is capable of uttering profound truths. We all derive from the same source. There is no mystery about the origin of things. We are all part of creation, all kings, all poets, all musicians; we have only to open up, to discover what is already there."

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Steven Wright- "When I turned two I was really anxious, because I’d doubled my age in a year. I thought, if this keeps up, by the time I’m six I’ll be ninety."

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Oscar Wilde- "Some things are more precious because they don't last long."

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Campbell- "We're not on our journey to save the world but to save ourselves. But in doing that you save the world. The influence of a vital person vitalizes."

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Manson- "Fear of vikings build castles."

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Sagan- "The cosmos is within us. We are made of star-stuff. We are a way for the universe to know itself."

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Vonnegut, Palm Sunday- "Meditation is holy to me, for I believe that all the secrets of existence and nonexistence are somewhere in our heads—or in other people's heads. "And I believe that reading and writing are the most nourishing forms of meditation anyone has so far found. By reading the writings of the most interesting minds in history, we meditate with our own minds and theirs as well. This to me is a miracle. The motto of this noble library is the motto of all meditators throughout all time: 'Quiet, please.' Thus ends my speech. I thank you for your attention."

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Bonus palindrome- gnaw wang.

Addendum

Part 1

I was debating someone on Aayan Hirsi Ali and proof of the existence of God. She wrote this:

Tim Keller wrote a whole book on this. Do you think I can sum it up in one FB response? Basically, it's a leap of faith to believe in God and it's a leap of faith to not believe in God. It's not about what "feels" right or "resonates", it's about where does the evidence lead. There are so many books walking you through this evidence. But the thing is, once you take the leap of faith (by way of evidence, reason and logic) you discover that there's more to this than just belief. God is real and He makes Himself known to you. And it changes you in a profound way. Not like doctrine or theology does, in a REAL way. You don't understand this until you know Him. Kind of like being a parent. You really don't understand the power of the love people have for their child until you have your own. Any Lee Strobel books are good too. He was an atheist and legal editor/investigative journalist who set out to prove his newly believing wife wrong. And couldn't. Now he has a bunch of books behind him on why you can believe it's true. 🤷‍♀️ There's an awful lot riding on this choice we all have to make. God doesn't force us to believe but He will definitely try and get our attention in all sorts of ways. But so many learn to tune out His voice until our rejection finally results in His stopping speaking to us altogether. Though we have until our dying breath to choose Him. Whenever that may be.

Me- I appreciate your response. I never understood though why this type of thinking is only acceptable with god. One is never asked to take a leap of faith for anything else to be revealed as true, like vampires. We don't need a leap of faith to believe there are no vampires. The lack of evidence is enough for everybody. I don't need to have faith that JFK was assassinated, I can look at all the evidence. The evidence for God seems to be "feelings," which if we are being honest could have other explanations. I've often had feelings that turned out to be wrong. The fact that the feelings that one takes as evidence for the existence of God only materialize when someone drops the critical processing is suspicious. I don't think we're debating what she's saying in the article though. I might be wrong but she seems to be purely pragmatic, she wants the world united, so she's believing in Christianity for the ends.

*She had a positive response that I won't bother posting. When you start your response to somebody by thanking them, or pointing out something that you agree with, the point you are making is actually heard. Number one, it's nice, and number two, you ease them into hearing something that they don't want to hear.

Then there's this guy:

Only a biblical cosmology, provides the necessary precondition for intelligibility, reason, logic, mathematics, induction, self-awareness, sensory, reliability, law, morals, etc. The ultimate proof of God, is that without the Self-existent infinite/eternal, transcendent/immanent person of the triune God, who reveals Himself and His attributes by divine revelation and His intelligent created order, there is no explainable framework to know or prove anything.

Me- I think you're saying that without god, there couldn't be anything. Someone could just as easily say that without nature there couldn't be anything, or without something there couldn't be anything.

His response- You can’t make sense out of evidence, or even explain how you have the cognitive ability to ask that question, without borrowing from a biblical explanation of your own existence. It is as nonsensical and irrational, as claiming you need a flashlight, so you can see the sun.

*No use wasting time on some people!

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Part 2

Myspace Blog

November 16, 2007

Drunken Poetry on the Spot from the Bukowski Tapes

Barbet Schroeder filmed supposedly 60-some hours of Bukowski for research when he was in the process of making Barfly. Bukowski was dead drunk, if you can believe it, when he said this.

"I don't like people" Bukowski says,

"There is something wrong with me...I don't know what it is...but I'm not going to try to cure it.

(Staring straight at the camera)

"You smell a rose up your asshole, your asshole is dead shit to begin with, it doesn't matter if a rose is up it or a thorn's dick.

(snickering camermen)

"God, you kids don't understand any inventive decency of any sort...Your just so subliminal... sublime-inal... subliminal... to what ever occurence..... you just ride the tender little wave of nowhere.

You have no original courage of definition.

You're all flat pancake mamas with syrup spilled over your heads.

You have nothing...you have no direction....you have no motive.

All you want is money.

You don't even know what money is, you want it, but when you get it you wont even know what to do with it...just smear it up your asshole and swallow it....out your nostril of death. (ha ha ha ha )

And I know less than you either, even though I talk about it.

At least I smooth it out and dance it around which makes more sense than letting it sit still. (ha ha ha )

I'm pretty clever, in spite of my dumbness, don't worry.