Tipping Points, Beginnings and Endings
Arthur C. Clarke, Intro to 2001, also a good start to any year:
Behind every man now alive stand thirty ghosts, for that is the ratio by which the dead outnumber the living. Since the dawn of time, roughly a hundred billion human beings have walked the planet Earth.
Now this is an interesting number, for by a curious coincidence there are approximately a hundred billion stars in our local universe, the Milky Way. So for every man who has ever lived, in this Universe there shines a star.
But every one of those stars is a sun, often far more brilliant and glorious than the small, nearby star we call the Sun. And many--perhaps most--of those alien suns have planets circling them. So almost certainly there is enough land in the sky to give every member of the human species, back to the first ape-man, his own private, world-sized heaven--or hell.
How many of those potential heavens and hells are now inhabited, and by what manner of creatures, we have no way of guessing; the very nearest is a million times farther away than Mars or Venus, those still remote goals of the next generation. But the barriers of distance are crumbling; one day we shall meet our equals, or our masters, among the stars.
Men have been slow to face this prospect; some still hope that it may never become reality. Increasing numbers, however are asking; 'Why have such meetings not occurred already, since we ourselves are about to venture into space?'
Why not, indeed? Here is one possible answer to that very reasonable question. But please remember: this is only a work of fiction.
The truth, as always, will be far stranger.
...
I've been off work since just before Christmas and I've been doing a lot of genealogy. I just found an ancestor who fought in the Revolutionary War. Some people have this notion that we have two family paths our father's and our mother's, but that's nonsense, the last names are arbitrary. This 6th great-grandfather, Mathias Coldren, is my mother's father's father's father's father's mother's father's father, and around the time of the Revolutionary War I had about 256 (2 raised to the 8th power) ancestors. One had my father's last name and one had my mother's. Best I can tell so far, all 256 seem to be from Lancaster County somehow.
January 1, 2019
...
I just took a break from the book I'm reading and saw that the author of the book liked a comment I made (about loving the book but only being halfway through the book) a different time I took a break from reading the book.
January 1, 2019
Postscript- It was the AJ Jacobs book about being thankful.
...
Did you ever come across one of those people who think Trump critics suffer from Trump Derangement Syndrome? Instead of discussing the content of any criticism, they simply think (or in most cases, pretend to think) the critic has a mental disease. Clever deflection tactic, right?
It turns out that they themselves are suffering from a made-up disease- Trump Glorification Disorder, or TGD. The three key features of which are: belief in the president's infallibility, cognitive dissonance off the charts, and a nonsensical belief that his moral, rational, mental, social, and intellectual difficiencies are somehow explainable in terms of his critics' own psychology. It's like he could shoot someone in the head in the middle of Fifth Avenue and not lose any supporters. Strange belief system.
Stranger yet, the president is the prototypical case, the likely cause of which was his own parents cases of Trump Derangement Syndrome. What other reason could possibly explain the fact that they sent him away to military school at an early age?
January 1, 2019
...
Dropping the ball. Is it a good idea to start a new year with a metaphor for screwing up?
January 1, 2018
...
Resolutions
-Drink a quart of water a day, more if I exercise.
-Vigorous exercise 3 days a week.
-Keep the house clean- ordered surroundings, ordered mind.
-Find books I'm compelled to read
-Stay informed.
-Know both sides of every argument, find common ground when possible.
-Resist what should be resisted.
-Speak up. As Hitchens said, "the grave will provide plenty of time for silence."
January 1, 2017
Postscript- Good list to use every year to refocus intent. Others I could add, cook more using recipes, fix things up around the house... dare I say eat less sugar?
...
Emma- "Ben Kreider literally has egg on his face."
January 1, 2015
Postscript- I don't remember the details there but I'm sure they were hilarious.
...
2014 already? Jeesh, my two-month-old baby's life already spans two years.
January 1, 2014
...
I don't want to worry you, but I'm certain that vacuous celebrities are one of the harbingers of the end of civilizations. #happynewyear
January 1, 2011
...
On this day in 45 BC, the Julian calendar took effect as the civil calendar of the Roman Empire, establishing January 1 as the new date of the new year.
...
Ceres was discovered by Giuseppe Piazzi on this day in 1801- the largest and first known object in the Asteroid belt.
...
Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay became a United States federal prison, on this day in 1934.
...
Birthday of the internet. On this day in 1983, the ARPANET officially changed to using TCP/IP, the Internet Protocol, effectively creating the Internet.
...
English author, E. M. Forster, joined us on this day in 1879.
"Humanity, in its desire for comfort, had over-reached itself. It had exploited the riches of nature too far. Quietly and complacently, it was sinking into decadence, and progress had come to mean the progress of the Machine."
...
J. Edgar Hoover was born on this day in 1895.
"There is something addictive about secrets."
...
J. D. Salinger was born on this day in 1919.
"The world is full of actors pretending to be human."
...
Documentary filmmaker, Frederick Wiseman, it was born on this day in 1930. He turns 93 today! He started it all off with Titicut Follies in 1967.
https://youtu.be/FlKUYY9MYQM
I would like to take a month and watch all his films.
...
The Hillbilly Shakespeare, Hank Williams, got out of this world on this day in 1953, 70 years ago today.
https://youtu.be/GNUBqrZ765I
...
There's a story about Townes Van Sant sitting on the balcony of a third story apartment building. He was teetering on the edge, trying to find perfect balance. He realized that in order to find the limit, he had to risk going beyond. Well he went beyond, fell off, and landed perfectly on his back. He got up, and that was that. He left us on this day in 1997.
William Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell- "The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom... You never know what is enough unless you know what is more than enough."
...
Vonnegut, Player Piano- "I want to stand as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all kinds of things you can’t see from the center.”
...
...
Choose your resolutions well- he not busy being born is busy dying.
https://youtu.be/_CJHbfkROow
January 1, 2012
...
...
Last night Obama signed the act allowing the military to indefinitely detain American citizens arrested on American soil. Is that right, or did some trickster replace Bush's name with Obama and change '08 to '12 on the Wikipedia page?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Defense_Authorization_Act_for_Fiscal_Year_2012
January 1, 2012
...
The Marginalian- Famous Resolution Lists: Jonathan Swift, Susan Sontag, Marilyn Monroe, Woody Guthrie
I particularly like the juxtaposition of 26 and 27 on Woody Guthrie's resolution list.
http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2013/01/01/four-famous-new-years-resolution-lists-jonathan-swift-susan-sontag-marilyn-monroe-woody-guthrie/
January 1, 2013
Postscript- Woody's list
Work more and better
Work by a schedule
Wash teeth if any
Shave
Take bath
Eat good — fruit — vegetables — milk
Drink very scant if any
Write a song a day
Wear clean clothes — look good
Shine shoes
Change socks
Change bed cloths often
Read lots good books
Listen to radio a lot
Learn people better
Keep rancho clean
Dont get lonesome
Stay glad
Keep hoping machine running
Dream good
Bank all extra money
Save dough
Have company but dont waste time
Send Mary and kids money
Play and sing good
Dance better
Help win war — beat fascism
Love mama
Love papa
Love Pete
Love everybody
Make up your mind
Wake up and fight
...
Oh my! Judging by the 12 million views I'm late to the party... maybe you are too.
Ain't Nobody Got Time For That
https://youtu.be/po3jPq5LT0g
January 1, 2013
...
...
"Past research has found that even brief social interactions with others can promote cognitive functioning, and the same seems to hold true for brief social interactions with deities."
http://ow.ly/s4RoS
Broken link, what was the context???
January 1, 2014
...
...
Christian Science Monitor- Are you smarter than an atheist? A religious quiz
Atheists and agnostics scored 20.9 out of 32 on this Pew religious quiz, the highest of any group. Catholics were last at 14.7. The national average was 16. What's your score? I got 30.75!
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2011/0105/Are-you-smarter-than-an-atheist-A-religious-quiz/When-does-the-Jewish-Sabbath-begin
January 1, 2014
...
New York Times Opinion- Nixon's Vietnam Treachery
New evidence of Nixon telling Haldeman to "monkey wrench" the Vietnam peace talks. No telling if they would have come to an agreement, but extending the Vietnam War 6 years eclipses Watergate in my view. The things people are able to in the pursuit of power astound me...
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/31/opinion/sunday/nixons-vietnam-treachery.html
January 1, 2017
...
...
The Hill- Predictions: Trump goes, unexpected candidate emerges in 2019
Interesting reading. I'm posting this not because it's an accurate prophecy but rather so it turns up in my history a year from now and I can see how much of it came true.
https://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/423132-predictions-trump-goes-unexpected-candidate-emerges-in-2019
January 1, 2019
Postscript- 100% wrong?
...
The Onion- Report: 750,000 Americans Die Each Year During First Attempt To Get Back In Shape
Be careful out there people...
January 1, 2020
...
...
New York Times Opinion- Why We Will Need Walt Whitman in 2020
"Today democracy is imperiled not by civil war but by a citizenry torn apart by warring ideologies, in part because of the compelling, if nihilistic, story that authoritarians have told about nationality. An authoritarian promises a shallow union with others who look like you; the true democrat ensures that such a union is possible with everyone. In democracy there is the reconciliation of opposites, the elevation of the vernacular, the transcendence of the individual through the equality of humanity."
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/30/opinion/walt-whitman-nytimes-2020.html
January 1, 2020
...
I cooked some oatmeal this morning, the non-instant kind. Reminded me of the Mitch Hedberg joke... he just tosses a potato in the oven every once in a while, even when he doesn't want a baked potato, because later on... who knows.
https://youtu.be/9rvVugY-kZc
January 1, 2021
...
...
Heather Cox Richardson- Democracy Needs to Find the Will to Roar
Zowie! Just in case you need a clear lesson on how we got from 1980 to where we are now.
Fun fact- we're 1/5 through the 21st century.
January 1, 2021
...
...
Kurt Vonnegut joke from Jailbird:
Yes, and there in my padded cell I told myself a joke I had read in The Harvard Lampoon when a freshman. It had amazed me back then because it seemed so dirty. When I became the President's special advisor on youth affairs, and had to read college humor again, I discovered that the joke was still being published many times a year--unchanged. This was it:
SHE: How dare you kiss me like that?
HE: I was just trying to find out who ate all the macaroons.
...
Kipling- "I always prefer to believe the best of everybody; it saves so much trouble."
...
McLuhan- "Every society honors its live conformists and its dead troublemakers."
...
Charles Bukowski- "We're all going to die, all of us, what a circus! That alone should make us love each other but it doesn't. We are terrorized and flattened by trivialities, we are eaten up by nothing."
...
Unamuno- "We should try to be the parents of our future rather than the offspring of our past."
...
Sarah Vowell, Unfamiliar Fishes- "I guess if I had to pick a spiritual figurehead to possess the deed to the entirety of Earth, I'd go with Buddha, but only because he wouldn't want it."
...
David Sedaris, on undecided voters: "To put them in perspective, I think of being on an airplane. The flight attendant comes down the aisle with her food cart and, eventually, parks it beside my seat. “Can I interest you in the chicken?” she asks. “Or would you prefer the platter of shit with bits of broken glass in it?”
To be undecided in this election is to pause for a moment and then ask how the chicken is cooked.
...
Henry Miller, Sexus- "Imagination is the voice of daring. If there is anything godlike about God, it is that. He dared to imagine everything."
...
Vonnegut, Breakfast of Champions- "There is no order in the world around us, we must adapt ourselves to the requirements of chaos instead."
...
Hitchens:
The quality you most admire in a man? Courage moral and physical: 'anima'—the ability to think like a woman. Also a sense of the absurd.
The quality you most admire in a woman? Courage moral and physical: “anima”—the ability to visualize the mind and need of a man. Also a sense of the absurd.
...
A farmer I know named O'Doole
Has a long and incredible tool.
He can use it to plow,
Or to diddle a cow,
Or just as a cue stick at pool.
...
Flabbergasted women in sex ed class, in 1929.
...
“January” by Charles Bukowski
here
you see this
hand
here you see this
sky
this
bridge
hear this
sound
the agony of the
elephant
the nightmare of the
midget
while
caged parrots
sit in a
flourish of
color
while pieces of
people
fall over the
edge
like pebbles
likerocks
madhouses screaming in
pain
as the royalty of the
world is
photographed
say
on horseback
or
say
watching a procession
in their
honor
as
the junkies junk
as the alkies drink
as the whores whore
as the killers kill
the albatross blinks its
eyes
the weather stays
mostly
the same.
Addendum
Myspace Blog
January 1, 2007
Good advice for the new year...
1. Do not give opinions or advice unless you are asked.
2. Do not tell your troubles to others unless you are sure they want to hear them.
3. When in another's lair, show him respect or else do not go there.
4. If a guest in your lair annoys you, treat him cruelly and without mercy.
5. Do not make sexual advances unless you are given the mating signal.
6. Do not take that which does not belong to you unless it is a burden to the other person and he cries out to be relieved.
7. Acknowledge the power of magic if you have employed it successfully to obtain your desires. If you deny the power of magic after having called upon it with success, you will lose all you have obtained.
8. Do not complain about anything to which you need not subject yourself.
9. Do not harm little children.
10. Do not kill non-human animals unless you are attacked or for your food.
11. When walking in open territory, bother no one. If someone bothers you, ask him to stop. If he does not stop, destroy him.
Now how about a round of applause for Anton LaVey everybody. Hard to believe it's been 40 years since he wrote The Eleven Satanic Rules of the Earth.
Comments
Post a Comment