Conditioning And Conditioner

Here's some more correspondence from Frank. I got it about a week ago:

the conditioning...or the indoctrination...didn't take with me. for whatever reason, i couldn't be socialized 100 percent. Now watching other people is like staring at a fish tank or going to the zoo. it scares the shit out of me. if you ask why, it's because the animals are behind barriers...but the people aren't...except the ones in jail...and they're the worst of the lot. i wonder if i have become callous or indifferent to people in general and people in specific. i wonder if i could just kill one or two or more of them without feeling...

and thinking of conditioning makes me think of conditioner...the stuff you put on your hair to help it...so i think...i don't use it...and what are the conditioners used by society? the usual...sex and money...

An Example Of Narcissism

This thought came to me suddenly about two hours ago.

An example of self interest is this. If a tornado's coming, you worry about you, your loved ones, and your stuff.

An example of narcissim is this. If a tornado's coming, you worry about how it's going to mess up your hair.

I tried to show the difference in intent: Seriousness versus frivolity.

Maybe it works for you. Or it might not. It works for me now.

Roses From Ashes? Not So Fast...

Somewhere on the net I read a post by a woman who changed her life for the better.

She said and I quote:

From the ashes grew a rose of a self, dedicated to a new life.

I thought: If you want to improve your life, that's okay with me. And it's a nice metaphor, if a little too cliche for me.

But...but do roses grow all that well in ashes?

So I surfed the net, especially for sites about growing roses. One rose grower said he would use ashes on roses only once or twice a season because it would interfere with the PH of the soil. He also said he would do it only if the ground was too acidic.

Therefore..adequate metaphor, if cliched, but bad botany.

More Closed Sidewalks

Back in October 2008, I wrote a post about the ignorance or stupidity of people putting signs on sidewalks. A link to that post is here.

Well, the state is fixing and widening one of the main north-south streets through my town from the business district/downtown to the interstate. They've completed the first part, which runs about halfway through town, but...

The state put up signs that the sidewalks were closed.

I gave my reasons how and why that is stupid in my previous post. I find it hard to believe that they continue doing that.

You Open Your Mouth For Me...

You open your mouth for me and I enter...

You close your lips around me...

My in-and-out motions are sometimes slow and deliberate...

Sometimes they are fast and furious...

Sometimes they feel fabulous...

Sometimes a hair or two get s stuck between your teeth...

I always leave a white fluid in your mouth...

Afterward, you rinse out your mouth and spit out that liquid...

Sometimes you swallow it...

Sometimes you notice the taste is not that bad...

Sometimes your mouth feels pretty good after the whole thing is over...

You ought to do it once in the morning after you wake up and eat breakfast...

Then once in the evening before you fall asleep...

Hey...

Get your minds out of the gutter...

I'm your toothbrush...

(Photoillustration from the goodhousekeeping.com site).

A Haiku That Works...

At least in English.

It's one of the few I've read that DOES work because it fits the 5-7-5 syllable scheme and has a succinct message.

Here it is:

I am done trying.
If you want me in your life,
let me know. Good bye.

I found it on the net and wrote it down. Now, I present it to you.

A Sad, Sad End

Back in October of 2008, I ran a cheesecake picture of this actress...Brittany Murphy.

Earlier this week, I remembered the picture when I noticed that a story about her last days was on the internet.

Murphy had died in late December 2009 from pnuemonia, anemia, and prescription drug abuse. She was only 32 years old.

So I read the story today and was surprised at the sadness in her last days of life and also the praise she got from critics from her acting.

If you want to read the story, please click here.

It's sad. She was beautiful, especially her eyes; I'm a sucker for a woman who looks like that. Or at the least, she was a cutie.

I knew she could be make a decent living through her looks, but I didn't know that critics like Vincent Canby, Roger Ebert and David Edelstein, said she had the talent to be a good actor.

I won't provide a link to the earlier picture out of respect for the departed.

RIP, Ms. Murphy. You need it.

Baggage

I've been working on some psychological issues in my life. Some of them weigh heavy on my mind.

The general/colliquial word for that is baggage.

And we all have baggage. It just depends on what type it is:

• Louis Vutton;
• Samsonite;
• Big black trash bags held together with silver duct tape.
  

Remember...

The moon is watching...

The Colts And The Playoffs

Well, they halfway lucked into it and halfway played into it.

The Indianapolis Colts, my hometown team, will play the New York Jets Saturday night in the first round of the NFL's playoffs to see who goes to the Super Bowl.

They backed into the playoffs when the Jacksonville Jaguars, their biggest divisional rival, lost 34-17 to the Houston Texans. They played into it by defeating the Tennessee Titans 23-20 on an Adam Vinatieri field goal with no time left on the game clock.

I'm a little surprised that the Colts made the playoffs. They had suffered a boatload of injuries during the season; 17 players were on the injured reserve list.

And back on December 5, they stood 6-6 after a 38-35 loss to the Dallas Cowboys.

But they won four straight, including a 34-24 victory over the Jaguars. It was needed because the Jaguars beat them 31-28 earlier in the season. They also had two wins over the Titans.

As for Saturday night's game, I won't be surprised if the Jets win. They have the better team this season. Also, the Colts won -- as well as lost -- a lot of close games this year.

But I also won't be surprised if the Colts win it. Peyton Manning can pull something or anything out of his pocket to make sure of a victory.

But if they do win, they must go to Pittsburgh to play the Steelers on Jan. 15.

At the least, the Colts made it into the playoffs. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers and New York Giants both had 10-6 records -- the same as the Colts, by the way -- but won't be in the playoffs because the Seattle Seahawks won the NFC West title -- with a 7-9 record. And division winners, no matter how bad they are, get into the playoffs.

First Conversation Of The New Year

Ace: First...happy new year.

Deuce: And a happy one to you, too.

Ace: Did you celebrate last night?

Deuce: Yep. Started about ... oh...about 3 in the afternoon. Maybe 3:30. No later than 4. Started drinking the bubbly. Some sort of sparkling wine. Asti Spumanti, if I remember the name. Had some cheese and champagne crackers with it.

Ace: For dinner?

Deuce: More or less.

Ace: Damn. Eat healthier. Try to make that one of your new year's resolutions. I just opened a bottle of some dry red wine and drank two glasses of it . Went to bed around 10 p.m.

Deuce: I gotta admit, I went to bed a lot earlier than that. Woke in the middle of the night and finished off the sparkly. Hair of the dog and all that.

Ace: You did all of this at home?

Deuce: Yes.

Ace: Good. You stayed off the roads. I know you can be dumb sometimes and crazy at other times, but at least you're not stupid.

Duce: Hey, you were talking about new year's resolutions. You got any?

Ace: One of them is to stay away as much as I can from racists. Cut them out of my life if possible. And I think they're going to be more prominent. Obama's halfway through his term. He's had a lot of opposition. From the public, and I know --I just know -- that's a lot of it is because he's black. And it's true schadenfreude on my part to know that it gives them pain that a black man is president. To them, he's an inferior person; if he's a person at all and not some cross between a primate and a human.

Deuce: How do you think he's doing?

Ace: As best as he can. The Republicans in Congress will be sand in the gears of government and will act worse than they did during 2009 and 2010. They'll oppose him for the sake of opposing him.

Obama's too reasonable. You can't be reasonable with them. They're like dogs. You gotta be hard with them. It's the only thing they respect.

And who's more like an animal: Obama or the congressional Republicans?

But fuck them and fuck those who support them. They remind me of Nazis.

Deuce: You know what they say on the internet. Once you mention Nazis, it can only go downhill from there. Or so I remember.*

Ace: Fuck that fucking bullshit. I'm not talking about your redneck stormtroopers or your psychopathological SSers. I'm talking about your basic hometown Nazis. Like a lot of Germans were in the 1930s.

But at the same time I realize these Republicans and their supporters aren't Nazis, who wanted to a big transformation of Germany. They're more like Francoists; Instead of radical revolutionaries, they're radical reactionaries, with evangelical Protestantism and big business taking the place of the Catholic church and the nobility in Spain. So you might as well call them home town quasi-fascists.

Deuce: Damn. You don't like those people.

Ace: I never have. When I was younger and Richard Nixon was president, they used to show the uglier sides of their souls too much in public. Nixon was the dark soul, the demonic side -- their shadow, to be Jungian about it -- of what they were.

I also used to read and see a lot of comparisons between a lot of my "fellow citizens" and Nazis in the 1970s. By the early 1980s, those comments disappeared. Don't know why. It still applies.

But enough of that now. I gotta start walking. Wanna get in shape and lost some weight.

Deuce: I'm gonna go to the grocery story. Get some green leafy vegetables. You're right. I should eat better.
*
ADDENUM: Deuce was referring to what's been called Godwin's Law. For an explanation of it, please click here.