This world is so wide that, even if you flitted around and around it, you would never reach the end of it. This blog is a collage of more or less literary and humorous, outlandish or sometimes even serious glimpses at this great wide world.
This is a green sticker for a German low emission zone. Such zones were decreed this March in several cities of Germany. Cars that do not have a sticker are not allowed in low emission zones, i.e. if you're caught without you get fined. There are green (da cleanest), yellow (not so good) and red (barely passable, mostly diesel engines) stickers. The sense or nonsense of this government measure is subject to heated discussion. Owners of older cars – who tend to be the less affluent – are pissed because they are forced to either invest in a particle filter (which is not even available for some makes) or to get another car. While their old polluter will continue polluting somewhere else where there are no low emission zones – most likely in an East European country. While the main polluter still remains the industry, etc., etc.
Another and the final contribution to Anna Carson's Project Green, which comes to an end with take nine.
Here's what is says about snapdragons at This Garden Is Illegal, where I took this test:
Mischief is your middle name, but your first is friend. You are quite the prankster that loves to make other people laugh.
I came across this not while gardening (I don't even have a garden right now unless you count the cactus and sedum on my kitchen window sill) but while reading Linda's poems.
After coming across what seemed to be the 4000th or so post on someone's blog starting with "I'm sorry I haven't posted in awhile," I decided it is time to rethink what makes a good blog and the expectations that have come to be part of it. I am thinking that no one should utter those words again ... and with that thought I give you Blogging Without Obligation.
I release all the logos, thoughts and words mentioned here about this concept into the public domain. Take the idea and run with it ... or walk away. It is all good.
Because you shouldn't have to look at your blog as a treadmill.
Because it's okay to just say what you have to say. If that makes for a long post, fine. Short post, fine. Frequent post, fine. Infrequent post, fine.
Because it's okay to not always be enthralled with the sound of your own typing.
Because sometimes less is more.
Because only blogging when you feel truly inspired keeps up the integrity of your blog.
Because they are probably not going to inscribe your stat, link and comment numbers on your tombstone.
Because for most of us blogging is just a hobby. A way to express yourself and connect with others. You should not have to apologize for lapses in posts. Just take a step back and enjoy life, not everything you do has to be "bloggable."
Because if you blog without obligation you will naturally keep your blog around longer, because it won't be a chore. Plus, just think you will be doing your part to eradicate post pollution. One post at a time...
“You’re telling me that you lost the money because your undies got tangled up?” “In the drier, as I told you before!” “And you expect me to believe that you carry your money in your undies and put them in the drier with the money? The bus fare you owe this company, to be exact.” “Not me! My mother did.” “This is getting more mysterious all the time.” “You don’t understand. See, the undies didn’t get quite dry because they were tangled up, but I put them on anyway.” “Uhuh.” “Then, after a while, I realized they were wet, and that my pants had also gotten wet.” “I see.” “So then I had to put on the other pair of pants.” “Which didn’t have the money in them?” “Yes. – And then I had to run to make it to the bus to go to school.” “Without undies, without money, but with the new pair of pants.” “Yes, except they’re not new. You’re getting this all wrong!” “I give up in desperation. Scoot!” “You’re letting me go?” “Yes, and you better get lost before I insist on verifying the undy situation.”
– Leonard Blumfeld weaving the words money, tangled and understood into an incredible dialog for 3WW #78.
A. Like the plague, there are enough of those useless things. B. Why not, count me in.
If your answer is A., then please proceed with whatever you wanted to do in the first place. If your answer is B., then please be invited to participate in Ruby Tuesday.
What are the rules?
A. Create a post that has the word or color RUBY or something else RUBY-related or TUESDAY-related in it. B. In your post, create a link to this Ruby Tuesday meme invitation. C. Leave a comment here. D. That's all!
How'd I come up with the idea for this meme? That's simple:
A. Today is Tuesday. B. I was thinking of participating in some meme – preferably a Tuesday one since today is Tuesday. C. Somehow, in my always musical head, the Rolling Stones song Ruby Tuesday started playing:
Ruby Tuesday
She would never say where she came from Yesterday don't matter because it's gone While the sun is bright Or in the darkest night No one knows, she comes and then she goes
Goodbye Ruby Tuesday Who is gonna hang a name on you? When you change with every new day Still I'm gonna miss you
Don't ask her why she needs to be so free She's gonna tell you it's the only way to be She just can't be chained To a life where nothing's gained And nothing's lost, but such a cost
Goodbye Ruby Tuesday Who is gonna hang a name on you? When you change with every new day Still I'm gonna miss you
"There's no time to lose", I heard her say You gotta catch your dreams before they slip away Dying all the time Lose your dreams and you may lose your mind Is life unkind?
Goodbye Ruby Tuesday Who is gonna hang a name on you? When you change with every new day Still I'm gonna miss you
Goodbye Ruby Tuesday Who is gonna hang a name on you? When you change with every new day Still I'm gonna miss you
Goodbye Ruby Tuesday
– Written in 1966 by Keith Richards (and possibly Brian Jones)
For added inspiration, here's a clip of Melanie performing the song:
It's all about kitchens in Inspire Me Thursday this time around. My contribution is a razor-edge-of-time snapshot of my kitchen's current but no so unusual state (messy).
What you see are primarily the yet unwashed containers of last night's and today's foods and drinks and some utentils. The pièce de résistance, however, is my grandma's flowered coffee pot in the background.
And yes, it was takeout last night. My daughter came over, and we ooled* Chinese while watching a rental DVD - Because I said so with Diane Keaton as the high-strung and meddling mother of three girls. The movie has its moments but isn't the greatest ever made.
* To "ool" - family speak ever since we watched Ringo Starr's Caveman way back when the kids were little. Even our dog knows what the word means. One of our all-time family cult movies.
This topic came up as a result of listening to a piece by Bill Frisell (from "Nashville") in which the lyrics "One of these days I'm gonna sit down and write a long letter" are repeated again and again.
Please feel free to add any other never variants you can think of.
This list is in random order and non-exclusive and includes persons that came to my mind as I was trying to think of people who or whose works mean a lot to me or who I think have been or are important in the history or cultural history of the planet in one way or another.
The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others' comments. It’s easy, and fun! Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!
H: You have a kind spirit. I: I have, it's true. In fact, some people have told me I tend to be too kind to the wrong people.
H: Although you sometimes focus too much on your career, you try to do good for other people. I: I often think I should have focused more on my "career" – then I'd really have one. But yes, it's true, sometimes I'm a real do-gooder.
H: Today you might need to step in and be a good citizen. I: All right, if it has to be!
H: Someone around you might be suffering, and they could use your help. I: I know at least two people who love to tell me about their suffering and who always proclaim they need my help.
H: You might need to loan someone money so that they can take care of a pressing need. I: As long as it's no more than a couple of bucks. Ain't got that much more myself.
H: Or you might chat with someone who has had a lot of emotional stress lately. I: Being one who has had a lot of emotional stress lately myself, we could exchange laments.
The prompt for this week is: Dear Diary. Shhhhhhh... are your secrets deep and dark or wistful and whimsical? Do you have a character that you need to flush out by writing some diary entries? Is there something your twelve-year-old self wants to say? Do you have a silly secret crush? What needs to be written in a beautiful book and locked with a tiny gold key?
Here goes...
Dear new diary,
I’m starting you to turn a new leaf, swearing to be radically honest about the person to be recorded here. For a few minutes being.
First off, what are my motivations?
1. I want to be read, that’s why I’m participating in a blog thread. So I’m like a spider in a way, spinning a web to trap potential readers. Except that the overall web has been woven before. I’m in a chain of webs, so to speak.
2. Why not be radically honest once in a while? Even though I’ve had my share of radically honest attacks and have always come out radically honestly different, this has not worn off all my inclination to radical honesty. I’ve noticed that radical honesty – my own or others’ – is not necessarily free from strings. There might be vanity involved – Look how radically honest I can be! – or sickness with one’s own perpetual lies to cushion up one’s existence. Can we really stand the truth about ourselves? Can we admit to being greedy, stingy, stupid, envious, evil, hopeless, hopeful, befuddled, spaced out, sick, perverse, all that? Not that we are all that all the time, of course. But some of the time or the majority of the time everyone is a bit of this, a bit of that. Even though some of it might be well-hidden under so-called good intentions.
3. After this theoretical preamble on virtue and vice, let me delve into today.
I’ve already managed to be tired and not listen to some of the things my beloved held forth about. That’s why I can’t even remember the topic of her holding forth.
I’ve already ruminated about a friend – how strenuous she can be, how hectic, how difficult in her relations with others (including me). Although I tend to go to great length with her in trying to smooth things over. To explain her misconceptions benevolently.
I’ve already suffered from self-doubt, thinking that, if closely examined, people will quickly find out that I’m not all that wonderful. (Have I given you any reason to believe I’m wonderful so far? No, I don’t think so.)
I just thought about wordiness. I’m usually a man of few words. I can put things in a nutshell, but often others want more effusion than a nutshell. They want at least a big, big coconut – stuffed and overflowing. I’ve been accused of being simplistic because I’m usually happy with simplified interpretations of things. Makes life so much simpler sometimes.
I’ve already white-lied. It’s that cushioning I mentioned before. Cushioning things up for others, but also for oneself.
Worry: the truth will inevitably shine through!
I had too much for lunch. Not only that, I ate two more chocolate-covered rice cakes shortly after lunch.
Now I’ll have to go get coffee.
More reason to worry: I am doing things I am not getting paid to do.
Dear new diary, that’s it for now, some time in August of 2007, in the middle of the week. I can look out from underneath the shutters and see dense white clouds moving along the stark contrast of a uniformly sprayed sky. Just thought you needed to know that for environmental completeness.
PS: I'm fighting with some Blogspot formating issues. Sometimes Blogspot does something different every time you save the same post.
Bhaswati Ghosh has a series of highly recommendable posts on/with Bengali literature in her At Home, Writing blog. The majority of the texts posted are in her own translation from Bengali.
How many of us are out there, hoping to make it big, blogging away for THE BIG BANG, the stratospheric Harry Potter of blogs?
Google's AdSense providing the cash needed for that dream villa on some sunny beach, where we loll, blogging occasionally and languidly using our notebook computer or cell phone but mostly working on that tan and on our inebriation...
Ah cyberworld, cyberspace, cyberdreams, blessèd be thy cyberlure!
This is a green sticker for a German low emission zone. Such zones were decreed this March in several cities of Germany. Cars that do not have a sticker are not allowed in low emission zones, i.e. if you're caught without you get fined. There are green (da cleanest), yellow (not so good) and red (barely passable, mostly diesel engines) stickers. The sense or nonsense of this government measure is subject to heated discussion. Owners of older cars – who tend to be the less affluent – are pissed because they are forced to either invest in a particle filter (which is not even available for some makes) or to get another car. While their old polluter will continue polluting somewhere else where there are no low emission zones – most likely in an East European country. While the main polluter still remains the industry, etc., etc.
