Wednesday, August 22, 2012

MUZAK MOMENT:


Joe Jackson's 1982 hit, "Steppin' Out" at 1:08PM at the O'Reilly auto parts store while purchasing motor oil.

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

# 74 BOUND ONE TOWN FOR A THOUSAND YEARS




Bound one town
For a thousand years
For a thousand years
For a thousand years

Bound one spine
One heart, one head
With the only ones
That we get 'til dead

In the blue and red
Color blind instead
For a thousand years
For a thousand years

Bound one town
And then walk around
For a thousand years
For a thousand years

It's been said
That until you're dead
For a thousand years
For a thousand years

Cut the lights
And draw the shades
You're the only one 
That was ever made

For a thousand years
For a thousand years
Bound one town
For a thousand years

I just heard a voice 
In the cricket dark 
For a thousand years
For a thousand years

Pinpoint light
And the wicked moon
For a thousand years
For a thousand years

Sit and write
For a thousand years
Random monkey words
For a thousand years

Bound one town 
For a thousand years
In the cricket dark
For a thousand years


Friday, August 10, 2012

Earth, Jupiter and Venus (as seen from Mars)

Earth, Jupiter and Venus (listed from top to bottom) seen from Mars.  How cool is that? Go Science!

update: turns out this picture is fake.  not so much a hoax as a representation from some software that has been passed around (like I did at first) as real. See the comment below by Justin for a link to the explanation.

boo science that makes fake pics looks so real...

Wednesday, August 08, 2012

#75 SPRINKLE A MIGHTY LAWN


Trapped by our Nice Things,
We soldier on.
The indomitable spirit of a
Set Schedule.
We look at the numbers and sigh.
It must get better, if only
We soldier on.

Trapped in our Conditioned Air,
The automatic sprinklers
Mock your tiny lawns.

Trapped in our Conditioned Air,
Staring at bumpered
Tail lights.

We sit in our Churches
And pat ourselves on the back.
We hang pictures of our penniless
God
In our Mortgaged McMansions.

On the rolling lawns of our
Golf Courses, we feel the
Mob
Closing in.

We built this.
You cannot take it from us.
It is ours.
"Blessed be the meek,"
But I got MINE.

I deserve this because
My grandfather beat Hitler.
This old house belongs to
ME.

The bad luck of my brothers
Is not my problem.
My automatic sprinklers
Sprinkle a MIGHTY LAWN.
A lawn decreed by God.

That I would go to a good
College
That my job be deemed
Important enough to keep (for now).

That my evaluations would be sufficient.
Here, and in the Hereafter.

*  *  *

My father's money,
And his father's money before him,
Says I get to gamble
With your money.

My car's leather interior,
The space-aged dashboard,
My commute to work,
My eventual comfortable retirement.

Light beer.
High definition sports.
Hardwood floors.
Wife in yoga pants.
Pacified children.
Peace.

These are the promises
Made to ME by a successful
Chain of theme restaurants
That are sprinkled
Among the strip malls and
Malls Proper.

Places themselves in their
Rightful places across the
Six Lane Avenues from such places
As PF Chang's and
Applebee's.

I have earned this.
I worked in a vacuumed.
It is I who chose to be born
To a woman who chose to be married
To a rich man.
That is my wisdom.

I drink a refined combination of
Craft Beers and watch
The Right College Sports.
On magnificent, wall mounted
Screens.

My yoga panted wife
Works hard also, and
Our Children play
Video games on the biggest
Screens
And go with us on the biggest
Vacations.

And this stuff is OURS,
And one day this stuff with be
THEIRS.

How dare you blame us
For having nice stuff?
But think:
If our positions were switched,
You'd want to keep your stuff too.

Same as me.

But I would never feel like you.
Outside Looking In.
I would never want the system
Changed,
Even if it worked only
For a Lucky Few.

We all get the
SAME EXACT OPPORTUNITIES
(to spring from the loins
of the rich)
It has to be that way.

Otherwise, the story I
Tell myself
Doesn't work.

A system that works for some
But not for others
WORKS (for some).

I got mine.
Screw you.

Tuesday, August 07, 2012

#85 THE PISSED OFF WITH GUNS SONG

Pissed off white guys with guns,
Pissed off white guys with guns,
Pissed off white guys with guns,
Oh yeah, Oh yeah.

Pissed off Muslims with guns,
Pissed off Muslims with guns,
Pissed off Muslims with guns,
Oh yeah, Oh yeah.

Pissed off soldiers with guns,
Pissed off soldiers with guns,
Pissed off soldiers with guns,
Oh yeah Oh yeah.

Pissed off police with guns,
Pissed off police with guns,
Pissed off police with guns,
Oh yeah, Oh yeah.

Pissed off humans with guns,
Pissed off humans with guns,
Pissed off humans with guns,
Oh yeah, Oh yeah.

{repeat, ad infinitum}

Sunday, August 05, 2012

The Lord of the Rings, J. R. R. Tolkien (1955)

5 out of 5, of course.  So much has already been said about this book.  I've read it 4 or 5 times now, and I won't read it again until I'm 65.

The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath (1963)

The Bell Jar: 4 out of 5.

Well built scenes.  Tragedy with understatement.  No self-pity in it, although the subject matter calls for it.  Shock therapy is pretty shocking!

More BS about the universe


The question of the origin of the universe is simple, if you ignore one of the assumptions people seem to have:

Whenever people talk about the beginning of the universe, there always seems to be the assumption that there was a point previous to the "beginning of the universe" when there was "nothing."

What if the universe was just always there?

There is no "origin of the universe" if it simply always existed.

Why do we assume it had a "beginning" point?

*  *  *

Everything we see seems to have a beginning, middle, and end; but those things are just combinations of other things.  Things are composed of atoms and molecules for awhile, and then they decompose.  They are made of "universe" stuff.

But the universe might be a special case:

The universe itself, since it encompasses "everything" cannot be a composite thing.  It has no beginning, middle, or end.  It cannot be put together, since it is already "together" as the set of all things.

And it cannot "decompose," because where would its individual parts go?  Its parts must always be "in" the universe.

*  *  *

The things we see are all part of a subset of the set of all things; they are composed of other things, and they have beginnings, middles, and ends.

But the universe is the "set of all things."

There is only one "set of all things" so what applies to subsets may not apply to the single "set of all things."



Saturday, August 04, 2012

bla bla bla-dee bla


Public discourse today seems like an endless current of stupid things said by overly serious, moneyed people. The flow of stupid is ever increasing in its frequency and amplitude.

It is polarizing, harmful, cynical, and crude. It gets us nowhere, solves nothing, and tears us apart.

There is a story about King Solomon, who, when two women were arguing over who should keep a baby (for whatever reason), King Solomon suggested cutting the baby in half. He suggested this not as an actual solution, but to find out which woman really loved the baby.

Our political sides, both of them, would not only always insist on cutting the baby in half, (they've already cut America in half) they would claim to have the better solution on HOW to cut the baby in half. Then they would fight over who gets to cut the baby in half. They would form committees to discern the most wasteful way to cut the baby in half. They would fight over who got to keep what half, and once that was decided, they would try to cheat the other side out of the other half.

All that is left is satire, irony, and the vague hope that when the wheels come off, the rich and powerful will suffer along with the rest of us.

About Me

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I am the author of 5 books: Android Down, Firewood for Cannibals, The Cubicles of Madness, Robot Stories, and most recently, Various Meats and Cheeses. I live and write in Michigan. My website is at danmanning.com