moon phases

Started this before change to "New Blogger", as backup in case of trouble with digiphoto blog "In a Small Dark Room", or rants & links blog "Hello Cruel World" . Useful - at one stage Dark Room was there, but like the astrophysical Dark Matter, we could't see it ... better now, but kept Just In Case.

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There is nothing. There is no God and no universe, there is only empty space, and in it a lost and homeless and wandering and companionless and indestructible Thought. And I am that thought. And God, and the Universe, and Time, and Life, and Death, and Joy and Sorrow and Pain only a grotesque and brutal dream, evolved from the frantic imagination of that same Thought.
Mark Twain (letter to Joseph Twichell after his wife's death)
[me, on a bad day]

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(and my Wish List)

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For Easter  
Opening Words

I believe the earth
exists, and
in each minim mote
of its dust the holy
glow of thy candle.
Thou
unknown I know,
thou spirit,
giver,
lover of making, of the
wrought letter,
wrought flower,
iron, deed, dream.
Dust of the earth,
help thou my
unbelief. Drift
gray become gold, in the beam of
vision. I believe with
doubt. I doubt and
interrupt my doubt with belief. Be,
beloved, threatened world.
Each minim
mote.
Not the poisonous
luminescence forced
out of its privacy,
The sacred lock of its cell
broken. No,
the ordinary glow
of common dust in ancient sunlight.
Be, that I may believe. Amen.

— Denise Levertov

Easter has come to have associations of death & disease for me.

Labels: annual cycle, celebrations, poems, poetry, religion

More ... [permalink] posted by Mez at 3:34 am

 
Best Pirate Event Evah  
Possibly the best use ever of ITLAP Day (Which I keep calling ISLAP* Day): from the Arkansas Times' Arkansas Blog.

Way to go, matie!
Posted by Leslie Newell Peacock on September 19, 2008 09:36 AM
www.arktimes.com/blogs/arkansasblog/ 2008/ 09/ way_to_go_matie.aspx

"What do you do to make a bunch of soulless nutcases abandon their post at the Convention Center? Send in the pirates!
Yep, the cuckoo Phelps hate group walked the plank this morning after a happy bunch dressed like pirates and holding signs saying 'God hates shrimp -- Leviticus' and 'God hates cotton-polyester blends' stood opposite them at the corner of Markham and Scott streets. The group, made up of Central Arkansas Pastafarians, waved swords and growled 'Arrghh!'" …'

* International Speak Like a Pirate Day instead of Talk Like a Pirate.

Sorta-kinda related: International Free Hugs Day, inspired by 'Juan Mann', will be held in 90 countries on 19th October, 2008, according to the story below. No details yet — the website I can find is not operating.
(Recent news on Free Hugs Man: www.smh.com.au/ articles/ 2008/ 09/ 20/ 1221331273987.html)

Labels: Australia, humour, people, religion, society, USA

More ... [permalink] posted by Mez at 8:00 am

 
Falling: Well or Badly?  
Obituaries: The Times; Toronto Star;
Chris Hitchens: Slate (YouTube) & a more general interview Late Night Live (MP3), (streaming)
I flashed back to my reactions on hearing that Ayatollah Khomeini had died: relief that he wouldn't be able to, personally, do more harmful & hateful things, then sadness that he wouldn't have any more chance to make any amendments that might help, because now there was no hope that he might help his followers change their minds.
OK that's a very faint hope indeed, but >0.

I recommend Lady Sisyphus' comment, which includes: "In the hearts and minds of folk who use Christianity as an excuse to hate, Jerry Falwell lives. He's arguably more useful dead, as his spirit lives on while his potential for embarrassing himself further has been curtailed."

Roy Zimmerman had an earlier musical comment.

Labels: obits, religion

More ... [permalink] posted by Mez at 1:10 pm