Under The Bus Milo
It is the friday before the super bowl. Atlanta has been disappointed by its pro teams so many times. It is tough to get excited over this game. It would be fun for the falcons to win, and it does seem like a possibility. All things are possible in a world without g-d.
The poem for today is part two of the Shakespeare insult generator trilogy. PG began to copy insults, with the intention of molding them into a sonnet. Before too many brain cells died, there were 32 lines. These were loaded into a double sonnet, which should make a dandy production piece. The original 32 lines were divided up 12-8-12. Today’s product is the 8 section. It has four lines that were used to sonnetize the 12 line segments, and 4 sub par lines that were left over.
Pangloss.com is the host of today’s SIG. If you go to the Pangloss home page, you will get a random quote generator. “If the great Dr. Pangloss were here, he might say something of the sort: “About the only worthwhile thing you can learn from a bore is how truly golden silence can be.” – O. A. Battista Pangloss was a character in Candide, written by François-Marie Arouet, known by his nom de plume Voltaire. Dr. P was fond of saying, “This is the best of all possible worlds.” “All things are possible in a world without g-d” is the modern translation.
The Pangloss Insult Generator… not really an accurate description of the contents, but a terrific acronym… has a few more zingers. “Is sloppiness in speech caused by ignorance or apathy ? I don’t know and I don’t care.”-William Safire ~ “The worst of all deceptions is self-deception.” -Plato ~ “The purpose of life is a life of purpose.” – Robert Byrne ~ “Do you know what a pessimist is? A person who thinks everybody as nasty as himself, and hates them for it. – George Bernard Shaw ~ In keeping with internet custom, a source for these quotes is not given. The less famous the name after the quote, the more likely the quote is to be genuine.
The font today is candara 42. After some experimenting, the inner color is 255-224-0 yello. The border is 0-160-0 green. The pictures were taken on Peachtree Road in Chamblee, near Marta and Walmart. There is a townhouse building. At the bottom of the stairs to each unit is a brick wall. Pictures of these little walls serve as the background for this poem. The pictures were taken July 19, 2013, between 9:14 am and 9:20 am.
Lately PG has been on a Raymond Carver binge. Several of his stories are available as online audios. (here, here, here) Short stories are good for background listening…they don’t have the time investment of a novel, and can usually be heard in one session. Mr. Carver makes PG think like the voice of the story… close attention to minor detail, always thinking about what the next move will be. The two are different. RC is straight, married twice, stone alcoholic, finally had a burst of productivity before death at 50. PG is queer, single, and retired from being a drunk before he became alcoholic. PG is 62, and gets less productive every day. But he has that next day.
The high point of the day so far is a comment on facebook about Milo Y. and Ann Coulter. They did a show together last year, when Donald Trump was sending out tweets about how his wife was prettier than some other guy’s wife. The chat ended with the two discussing DJT’s pecker… Milo said “it’s huge, I just know it.” If any of the people trashing starbucks in Berkley could hear that show, they would know that Milo is an idiot. The best thing to do is ignore Milo, and wait for DJT to throw him under the bus. Others will be waiting.
#6WordFortuneCookieAnswers Part Two
1/3 Now, the old motivator is being trotted out. If you are silent in the face of evil, you aid the oppressor. Or something like that. 2/3 What this chestnut doesn’t say is that maybe the evil you are reacting to is a fake out powers that be want you to react to over react 3/3 They can then continue to do what they intended. It is time to be smart. When you are goaded into foolish action, you are complicit. 10:56 AM – 31 Jan 2017
As you have heard a thousand times by now, we are in deep doo doo. After long narcotizing dysfunction will set in, the powers that be will pause, and continue to line their pockets. When every body is crying wolf, the sheep are confused. This is the plan.
If you can’t say anything good, write a poem. The project for today is a companion to #6WordFortuneCookieAnswers. Some twitterbird started a hashtag, PG copied the results, and a poem was born. The original was 20 lines, which was split in half. Today’s effort is part two.
@BernieSanders We should be looking for guidance now not from pollsters and political consultants, but from leaders like Martin Luther King, Jr. @chamblee54 @BernieSanders please take your own advice and shut up you have caused enough damage @commonsense quit looking at twitter and get to work. The spell check suggestion for @BernieSanders is @Bandleaders.
This project may be more work than anticipated. There are few unused folders. The next step is to go into the archives. The folders from 2013 have been little used. The first one to try is a cemetery collection. The first picture went smoothly, but number two is proving troublesome.
The first podcast is a New Yorker story, David Gilbert Reads “Underground”. It is about a New Yorker. He fusses with his bf, has lunch with his mother, and picks up his twin daughters at school. While in the subway station, a homeless man jumps on the train tracks. The hero lives a life that connects to PG at a few points, but overall seems like science fiction.
Today is a good day for podcasts. There are new episodes from You Must Remember This,
Sex with Strangers, and RISK. “Southern Folk: Donna Edwards, Dave Kendall and Randall Robinson share stories of growing up down South.”
Yesterday, the guest on WTF was Robbie Robertson. The Band had always seemed a bit public radio, but Mr. Robertson told a different story. The Hawks were a “other side of the tracks” juke joint band, before they met Bob Dylan. They were a typical band, with heroin, and fights over royalties.
@ChrisCrocker Do not describe people of the Alt-Right as “eccentric” My public hair is eccentric.Call a fucking Nazi a fucking Nazi.@chamblee54 alt-right is a bunch of losers in mom’s basement third Reich would laugh at them calling them fucking nazis is a compliment
More pictures are working. Progress is being made. Sex with Strangers, is the current podcast. This show is titled “War on Porn.” It is about straight, commercial porn. When a performer tests HIV+, the industry shuts down until it is resolved. The last episode of industry related HIV transmission was 2004. The rest of the show deals primarily with a digital content law in the UK, which will largely ban adult content from the island.
The picture is finished now, and posted above. Other than making a tacky picture, there were relatively few interruptions. Before leaving, there is a story to be told.
In 1966, PG’s dad won a tv in a contest. It was black and white, about 19″ diagonally, and had UHF channels… a first for PG. At the time, channel 30 was the only UHF station in Atlanta. About a year later, PG got home from school, and turned the tv to channel 17. At four o’clock, a commercial from an ad agency played, followed by a movie, “Della.” It would be a few years before billboard company owner Ted Turner bought channel 17.
Getting back to that sunday afternoon when a new tv arrived. This was the first season for the Atlanta Falcons. That sunday afternoon, they played the Packers in Green Bay. This team was coached by Vince Lombardi, and was on track to win the first NFL-AFL championship, later known as the Super Bowl. The Packers beat the Falcons 56-3. A few weeks later, the Falcons beat the N.Y. Giants, in the original Yankee Stadium. It was the first victory for the Falcons.
Curmudgeon Day
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This is the second attempt to keep a journal. The first time was friday. At some point, PG saw some dust on an electrical outlet, and tried to brush it off. In so doing, PG turned the switch off. The notes, up to that point, had not been saved, and were lost. Jesus never loses any of his data, because #Jesussaves. (spell check suggestion: suaveness)
The poem today is based on 6 Famous Literary Quotes Everyone Uses Exactly Wrong. These six lines are from famous literature, mostly Shakespeare. The fact that PG has been on a Shakespeare insult binge lately should be of no concern to anyone. The wisdom has been made to fit in 31 character lines. The poem will not be an accurate reproduction.
The first step is to determine the size of the letters. You take the longest line of text, and paste it into the text composition file. You increase the size of the letters. When the letters are as big as they can be, without spilling over into the next line, that is the size of your letters. Today, the font is candara, the size is 44. The inside color is 192 gray, while the border is 96 green. You write this down in your text file, in case you forget later. For more information on text creation, see this tutorial.
Background pictures are mannequins from Perimeter Mall. These plastic people are easy to photograph, if you can just get past the attitude. The images will be jazzed up, so that mama mannequin won’t be embarrassed by her daughter.
Now that the font, size, color, and backgrounds are known. The rest of the process is mechanical. Create the text. Fit the text to the pictures. Save (or export) the final product. At this stage, your enemy is distractions. In an ideal world, you would stay off facebook and twitter, not go to the bathroom, and not take any phone calls. We will see how this goes.
Before the first text file is created, PG goes to twitter. There is a post from @bitchywaiter, flogging a blog post How To Enjoy Being in a Party of 25. He could have summed it up in one word :don’t. The one word option also applies to the decision to read the post.
The downloads folder has a sub folder for podcasts. Typically, PG downloads every episode of a handful of shows, and selected episodes of other shows that catch his eye. These tend to pile up, only to vanish in a fit of binge listening. Maybe today is a good day for fiction. There is “A Visit”… “Richard Powers joins Deborah Treisman to read and discuss Steven Millhauser’s “A Visit,” from a 1997 issue of the magazine.” The New Yorker just has a way with words. Fiction podcasts are hit or miss. The batting average is about .300, which is good for baseball, and so so for podcasts.
A few minutes later, the text files have been finished. It is time to check them. Open up every one, and see that it matches the text for that line. To do this, the podcast has been turned off. The story is about a man, going to visit his one time best friend. It seems like an appealing tale, which means PG will finish listening to it.
When PG stopped, he could not resist the temptation to look at facebook. There was a “sponsored” post from Cracked.com. It was the seminal article, 6 Famous Literary Quotes Everyone Uses Exactly Wrong. At one time, Cracked was a cheap imitation of MAD magazine. It has evolved into a clickbait farm. The facebook comeon: “Do you hear that sound? It’s the screams of millions of hipsters as they race for tattoo removal.”
When the text files were checked, there was a mistake. File03 was a duplicate of file02, instead of the text from line03. This is why the files are checked. While correcting this error, another file will be changed. Instead of saying and never the twain will meet, it will read and never mark twain will meet.
Two of the six pictures are finished. The coffee has run out, and will replaced by either tea or water. The story has taken a turn. The old friend is living in a shack. He is married to a frog. They are about to drink wine, out of glasses with Winnie the Pooh characters painted on the side.
Soon the story is over. The man leaves the house after one night, realizing he will never see his friend again. There were no graphic accounts of man/frog intercourse. The moving lips are going to discuss the story, and PG is not going to listen.
January 29 is #curmudgeonsday. Is saying happy #curmudgeonsday appropriate? It is the sunday before the super bowl, and the reality of winter is tough to escape. Maybe PG should finish the poem, and quit looking at twitter.
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