QUOTESSAYS

  When I was a little kid back in the mid 50's in San Jose there was an older woman who lived a couple of houses down who reminded me of Granny in the Sylvester and Tweety Pie cartoons. The reality was I am sure she was not all that old as much as I was so young. Everyone seems ancient when you are a kid. For one thing I remember her hair being dyed bright red and she always wore big Mumu's. I also am thinking she was possibly drunk quite a bit. I seem to remember her always having a glass of something in her hand and acting quite jolly. All the kids in the neighborhood would hang out at her house. It wasn't like our houses. It was a big mess with shit piled everywhere. She actually had a tuxedo Sylvester the Cat clone and a yellow parakeet, so the stage was set for a Looney Toon. She was very dramatic and entertained us kids with stories as she flited about her house. I recall guys being there once in awhile too, possibly boyfriends. One day an ambulance came and took her

  The big idea: Why the laws of physics will never explain the universe | Physics | The Guardian I always love these kinds of articles about science because I can understand them. I think they appeal to me because I never could understand mathematics and they make me feel smarter. Plus, the guy that wrote this article is a bigtime physics professor, so he must be smart. I bet he passed 'Introduction to Algebra' on his first try! I took it three times and never did pass. The other angle I like is the emphasis on Chaos Theory, aka the 'Butterfly Effect'. In looking back, I am always amazed at the infinitesimal variables that morphed into huge life changing events in my path's trajectory. Life has been more akin to a pinball game than anything resembling an orderly progression. I have a gut feeling that is how the universe works too.  And of course, all these theories have to be filtered through our consciousness to begin with, and that will only take us to the edge of

 More AI generated quotes. I believe the AI Overlords are trying to get me to stop posting quotes by subliminal suggestion, the bastards. I will never tire and raise my Emo middle finger to the Silicon Satan, though I will admit AI is coming up with all the best quotes lately. I think flesh's time on this planet is about wrapping up.

 Hard to fathom that it has been 40 years since I was hired permanently to work at the Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium. It really represented all my '30 something' years and was the prefect career choice at the time to keep maturity at bay for yet another decade. It took me all the way to my 40's when I decided to go back to school and take another crack at becoming an adult.  I was a 32-year-old working at a car wash with teenagers when I started working at the Civic part time. Actually, I was making pretty good money in tips drying off cars with a combination of knowing how to please people that came with age and life experience mixed with pity from customers for someone my age doing such demeaning work. One of my friends had just got busted for drunk driving and as part of his penance had done his community service cleaning up the Civic after rock concerts. He turned that into a fulltime job and alerted me to a part time, casual 'work when we need you' position of c

I have been writing all my memories and experiences going back in increments of decades and 60 years ago right now I was in kindergarten. I decided to look up my kindergarten teacher on the web. She had a real unusual last name, and sure enough I found her. It is a surreal experience to see a woman who is now in her late 80's that you last remember in her 20's as a 5 year old in the '50's. That brings up a woman I got to know at the skilled nursing facility in Florida who was a retired elementary school teacher in her 90's with dementia. Flo was not my patient, but when my own private duty lady was napping I would help out my Haitian sisters with keeping Flo entertained. She was a handful and always on the go in her wheelchair, rolling up and down the hall and into everybody's business. Her former students would visit her often, and the majority of them were in there 60' and 70's. She truly had an impact on their lives and I heard many a story about what

Never in my lifetime have I ever experienced a Presidential election cycle where there wasn't at least two relatively competent people running for that office, even if I didn't agree with their policies, which I rarely did. All we are really looking for is a fairly capable bureaucrat that can meld consensus. This time around I can't even see a reasonable, rational candidate anywhere on the horizon. At least it should make for an interesting election, as I don't see how they can keep Biden scotch taped together for the campaign, much less serve four more years. I am also detecting signs of dementia in Trump too, on top of the mental illness. I worked in a lock down dementia unit and know the signs when I see it. Add to that the 24/7 Trump circus of substance less blustering chaos, while channeling Mussolini, and we have arrived at attaining a perfect 'Idiocracy'. Any debate between Biden and Trump should be directly broadcast on SNL and cut out the middleman. Thi

  By this time 10 years ago I was becoming a fairly competent CNA. The problem with John, my WW2 pilot and 89 year old stroke victim, trying to bite and hit me had been resolved, as I wrote about awhile back. But John was still pretty much mute and I was never quite sure of how much he understood. Now a little background on John, or Hans, which was his given name. He was born in a 1920, post WW1 Hamburg, Germany and came to NYC as a child in 1927 only speaking German. Now speaking German between 2 major world wars where they were the bad guys was not real popular in Hoboken, NJ. John went to a Catholic school and the nuns would rap his knuckles with a ruler if they heard him speaking German, so he learned English lickety split. Neither his wife or son had ever heard John utter one single word of German in 60 years. After hearing this story, one day when starting my shift I just greeted John with a casual 'Auf wiedersehen, Hans!', about the extent of my German remembered from hi

 Probably still the closest political philosophy with regards to the original ideas of the guys that wrote the Constitution, but it won't work these days. Far too many people and not enough physical frontier left for it to work. The Founding Fathers would not have a clue about what Republicans and Democrats are talking about today. It has worked well for me personally as a political philosophy in dealing with the world as I hid out in the spaces between rabid ideologues.

  https://www.sciencealert.com/researchers-create-the-world-s-first-synthetic-embyro-using-mice-stem-cells?fbclid=IwAR0nxu9U8tUui6XRe3psEU5T8OlGRbf3kXGjPIpd47U7iRjnKuknQyfRdwU There are countless pop culture scenarios as to how AI will take over, from the surly 'Terminator' and 'Bladerunner' robotic versions to the more cerebral and sexier 'Ex Machina' and 'Her' silicon seductress models. I have always thought personally that human biology would play a big part, the marriage of squishy flesh with hard technology. If a human can be created from scratch from raw materials, that is going to take away one of God's biggest gigs, the role of the female and male in natural procreation. Maybe that is why gender fluidity is a such big thing now, and what is behind the plummeting testosterone level in males. Mother Nature is gearing up for the future. We will be able to order up a baby like we do groceries at Walmart and pick 'it' up after it is assemb

I already wrote about my disdain for PE classes in high school, but I did have just one day when I got to taste life as a jock in my sophomore year. It was a softball day in gym class. I was always one of the last ones picked for any team in the school yard lottery and put to pasture in the outfield. The field was so arranged that the outfield players actually shared space with the other games going on at the same time, which was nice because you could hang out with the other losers and misfits. Usually we would just lie down in the grass, talk, and not even pay attention to the games. And that is just what I was doing when I heard the crack of a bat and kids screaming at me. I looked up and saw the ball headed right at me. I did not even have a glove. I held up my hand really to protect myself and the ball literally fell right into it with a slap. It was surreal. I could not believe it. Kids were screaming their heads off. That ended that inning for the opponents and we were up. It wa

  In the 80's teen dances became a big deal at the Santa Cruz Civic. The reality was disco never really died, and the dance shows in the 80's were just the bridge between 70's disco and 90's raves. Punk rock had already kind of died out and condensed into a more codified hardcore scene. Most all the big bands of the day also issued a 12" dance single for these DJ driven events. They could be very profitable too. No huge sound system requirements, light security costs, just one union stage hand instead of a crew. And DJ's were way cheaper than bands and all of them were dying to work the Civic. Throw up a couple of cheesy light effects and you were in business. Parents also felt safer sending their kids to a dance than some degenerate live band show. I had booked a Winter date way ahead at the Civic for myself to throw one of these. As the date got closer a potential problem was brewing. Soquel High School, my alma mater, looked like they were that years 'Ci

"The years of our life are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty; yet their span is but toil and trouble; they are soon gone, and we fly away." Psalm 90:10 Since turning 70 I have been reading quite a few essays about that milestone. I pretty much passed by all the cheery '70 is the new 50' kind of stuff and went right for the more reflective and philosophical reads. I am through now and this will be my last writing on the subject until I turn 80. The reason 70 is such a big one is because it is the start of your last really fully viable decade for the vast majority of people. From 80 on the road gets exponentially tougher, and that is if you are lucky enough to make it that far. Trust me, I worked in geriatrics and had a front row seat. There will always be a few outliers like Betty White, but they are statistically far and few between, plus they have the money for the very best of care as a rule. I do miss the physicality of youth. The creakiness of old age

 When I first posted this just over 10 years ago, little did I know it would become true! Kind of like the movie 'Idiocracy' starting out as a comedy and morphing into a documentary over time. Just out of curiosity I looked at some clips of the Obama/Romney debates from 2012 that inspired this quote. Compared to the Trump/Biden debates in 2020 they came off as mature, responsible, and respectful statesmen, even though nothing of substance was uttered by either of them, but that is not the point of Presidential debates. Political debates are really a sales pitch. Much has changed in political discourse since then, even in that short amount of time gone by. Trump or Biden could not even speak in complete sentences and were unwatchable in 2020. One saving grace to help alleviate our fear is that a President doesn't have near the power or influence we are led to believe they do. They are mainly a cheerleader for their political party who has the bully pulpit for four years. I r

More wisdom from AI by way of Inspirobot. I always had a suspicion this was how it worked, but I am glad to see science back me up.   

Santa brought me another meditation tool and karmic debt dispenser this year! I have already taken it to my temple for some deep meditation practice and to share my revelations with my fellow Sangha in the Wick Parabellum Tradition of Buddhism. I can now become one with my target at 25 yards with the much clearer focus I can achieve with the CZ. I had been studying long and hard on my next step in a versatile meditation aide and went with the CZ P-10 F 9mm. I will be able to help the folks who are struggling with enlightenment and the three poisons from a far greater distance. I can help move them along the path of the six realms and finally help them break free from the chains of Samsuri. Papa-Oom-Mow-Mow Om mani padme hum Namaste