Looking up…
Like many I went out into my yard to witness the solar eclipse… I was not in a good location so I did not experience a total block of the sun. The most amazing thing is that I appreciated little things like bugs and flowers and watching birds. So the day was great after all.
In a corn field far far away… in the summer… on a bike… that’s where I will be!
I saw a series of posters… it sets out to evoke the 1950’s by showing images of James Dean, Marilyn Monroe, Humphrey Bogart and Elvis Presley interacting in various setting. This is nice except I kept looking at one poster that depicts the group at Rick’s from Casablanca. A movie made in 1942 (Marilyn would have been 15, James Dean 11 and Elvis 7). In the background is a 1958 Cadillac (which when it was made Dean & Bogart were both dead). Not that this means anything at all… but this is how my mind works
Sometimes I have to recall that the primary reason to type and post is just for the fun of it. Not to give profound thoughts. Not to pass on wisdom. Not to become deluded by my own image of the greatness of my verbiage. Just to enjoy pressing keys and seeing words on paper is enough. When I recall this simple fact… words rush to page… without being blocked by thoughts of “why… what…” etc.
I will clearly express the view that spending 5 days to read the Mueller report was a waste of time. It was that the actual report was not what people claimed it was or was going to be. It seemed to be the elephant as describe by “blind people”. It is a report that will not change one view of events… it is a report that will alter your perception of what goes on behind the curtain. No one seems happy with the conclusions… but that is often the case when one seeks to find truth and not just support for one’s perception. Why do we not find common ground that bonds us instead of pits us against each other!
Looking for the positive in things may seem foolish… but it makes days brighter… nights peaceful… and tomorrow something to look forward to…
When sound was mono & images B/W…
There seems to be a movement where actions of youth carry over without any mediation for growing older, becoming mature, reflection, reform and wisdom. This type of thinking rewards those best able to hide their actions or change history to reflect a life that is more acceptable than being less than perfect.
There are actions that one does not recover from… some never grow old. Some never try. I just wonder how at what point due we reject “growth” and “reform” as possible?
Its 2019, the route for this years bicycle ride across Iowa has been announced… time has come to stop slacking off… time to stop making excuses to sit back and do nothing at all. Not if I want to eat all day… have fun in the sun and ride 427 plus miles on my bicycle in July.
As I often do when at a Library I will just walk down the aisles reading titles… which is what happened when I came across a book by Jo Walton that is a personal look back at the Hugo Awards 1953-2000.
If you read science fiction, then you know that the Hugo is voted on by members of the World Science Fiction Society. So when I saw the title I had to pause (while thinking… is there enough interest to justify publishing a book like this?
Then I picked it up and started looking through it and checking out the information and what the author had to say and that’s when things thing’s got interesting. The winner for 1955 was “They Rather be Right” by Mark Clifton and Frank Riley. A book some feel is the worst book to every win a Hugo. Jo Walton goes on to say: “I don’t know if the book deserves this reputation, because I have not read it, because when absolutely everybody tells me that the jar contains marmalade all the way down, I don’t feel compelled to take the lid off…” (p. 25).
A history of HUGOS where no attempt to read all the winning books or even to fine value in them. Well the book got even more interesting. The author (who has won a HUGO) will point out what is wrong with a book and still fine it readable… and points out how good a book is but other books that year were better (the 1973 winner The Gods Themselves by Isaac Asimov, for example).
The more I read, the more I wanted to read. I even bought books mentioned that I read 40 years ago… (1964’s winner Way Station by Clifford D. Simak). I have never read views that conflict with my own and still find I like what is being said.
