whatever NOTICE #2

A Few Clowns Short's first notice was issued back in 2015. It's still in effect but given these uncertain times I believe it prudent to reissue it.

Effective 2015-10-28 2020-06-02, NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that Lisleman will discontinue all telepathic services. I regret any inconvenience this may cause you, and I thank you for your loyal patronage. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact a customer service representative. But realistically, good luck doing that since the customer service position was never filled.

Longer term, my proven four pillar strategy and relentless focus on execution will continue to drive this blog toward…

Oh crap, just check in once in awhile. Who knows I might surprise you and assemble a few words into an enjoyable read. 

Meanwhile enjoy some relaxing music.

Contagious smiles

Breathe, breathe in the air
Don't be afraid to care
Leave, but don't leave me
Look around
Choose your own ground
Long you live and high you fly
And smiles you'll give and tears you'll cry
And all you touch and all you see
Is all your life will ever be
(from Breathe by Pink Floyd)

The best of lives have a surplus of smiles. The tears you’ll cry are an essential part of the big picture but sharing smiles will wipe them away at least for awhile.

Do these lyrics provide some guidance? I think so, but you need to ponder over the ideas behind the words. Life is not so simple especially as we become adults and struggle to make our way through many obstacles and sad times. Life is simpler when we are very young and naive about problems.

Getting a child to laugh is so rewarding. Often the younger ones’ laughing spreads and those around them laugh or at least break a big smile. The simple fun of knocking over a stack of empty boxes at the library provided our granddaughter laughs. Her picture gives me a smile.

simple laughs and smiles

Two song clips for your enjoyment. First is the Pink Floyd song from their The Dark Side of the Moon album. The song starts quietly and slowly so I started it after the one minute mark (I tried but it doesn't seem to work so slide the control over past the 1 minute mark). The album's songs really should be played sequentially.

The second song is a cover of "Smile" which I learned goes back to Charlie Chaplin. I discovered this cover by Trinidad "Trini" López III on Ms. Scarlet's blog, Wonky Words.

A better position

The sleeping position works well for me. I’m probably in the sitting position too often too.

I’ve had positions of some authority somewhere in my past, I’m sure of it.

a bed or a bench?

A few thoughts to nibble at before I offer a more consequential one. Grab a drink, some might be a bit dry.

Walking on sunshine - certainly more stable than walking on moonshine.

Facebook confession: Bless me Facebook, it’s been 14 minutes since my last reaction to someone’s rant.

Poor Renee - So many people telling her to walk away. Wow, such a multitude of “Walk Away Renee” covers. And when I see the sign that points one way, I’m going to just stand, stare and cause a traffic jam.

Start playing bridge - I just discovered the game of bridge uses the terms, no-trumper and dummy. I’ve never even tried to play bridge but our dummy president doesn’t even make a good joker. It would be nice to have a no-trumper day.

When you retire you work by the hour. You punch out when you die.

I was just a kid with black and white TV when JFK was shot. I didn’t need technicolor to eventually learn that our world should not be viewed as black and white.

a sign found at an art museum

Now a slightly more serious thought regarding position. Are we/world/you/family/anybody in a better position today than a generation ago? Looking backwards can distort your view. The good stuff will appear larger in the rear view mirror. What exactly was better back then?

There are a few books out about this idea (I have not read them but did read a magazine article on this subject). Here’s my short take - yes in general we are in better position regarding life expectancy, crime, education, air quality and other stuff like availability of flavored yogurt. However, the better positions/conditions are not evenly distributed. Also, the billions of connected internet users become more aware of news. (first quarter of 2018, Facebook had 2.19 billion monthly active users - I didn’t know the number was that high) Since stories of tragedy, threats, disasters, deaths, and general awful events sell much better in the news business than the wonderful stories there are more people than ever before learning about awful stuff. It makes us think our world situation is very bleak.

One more thought about viewing/remembering the past. Often the bad times are forgotten more than the good times. (let the bad times roll??) The result of this is the past looks better than now. I reason this is because if the bad didn’t actually happen to you, you probably were upset because of its uncertainty. Uncertainty of possible bad events can be very scary. If that possible bad event never happens or at least if it doesn't happen to people you know, then later on you forget about it.

I recall a time when news organizations and government would worry about spreading a panic. Do they still worry about panics or have they discovered there is revenue in little panics?

Certainly we are better off. We have youtube. Ok here’s a cover (from Ally McBeal soundtrack) of that simple song about Renee and a street sign:
 

coping mechanism

I’ve got to find a better coping mechanism
I’m falling apart, disintegrating in the schism

Have you heard the duet “Shovels and Rope” from Charleston, SC. yet? I don’t think I’ve mentioned them on this blog yet. According to wikipedia they are in the “folk” category. Well I’m no musicologist but their type of folk certainly isn’t that soft Peter, Paul and Mary type. I have a few of their songs in my iTunes list. I really like the lyrics of this one. Here’s a few lines:

...To be the victim of my personal delusion
Just to find that I’ve been living an illusion…

...I do my best to keep the confusion to a minimum
I’ll try not to be the monster of the millennium…

...Put your head down, wipe the spit out your eye
Ain’t nobody coming to your poor me parade...

Relate-able words? For your listening pleasure I’ve included their youtube clip.

wishy washy wednesday

Should I post or should I wash my socks?

My darling will surely let me know.

should I jump or wait for it to drop?

I don't know, maybe my ventromedial prefrontal cortex is on the fritz. According to this Huffington Post article scientists have linked that part of our brains to decisiveness. They imaged the subjects brains while they asked them what they wanted to eat. Ok, I'm no scientist (aspire to be a mad scientist someday) but I would suggest tougher questions that what I want to eat. I have NO problem making eating decisions. How about you?

Well today has been one of the days that was fine but difficult to pin down the annoying parts. A wishy washy day.





The idea of wishy washy came to me after reading Unknown Mami's post on wishes for universe. I don't have a clue about her washy activities but she is very wishy.

missed the memo or kool-aid

Back in my corporate world days we use the expressions “they didn’t drink the kool-aid” or “they are all drank the same kool-aid”. This expression (warning this might be a history lesson for you young-ins) comes from the terrible 1978 Jonestown massacre tragedy.

When you found yourself not knowing what everyone else in the group seemed to know, you might say the above or I didn’t get the memo. In the connected world of today do managers even bother to issue memos? Maybe they put all their employees on twitter.

Now that I’ve manage to get off-track on a tangent lets get back to what inspired this post. (another minor thought flare-up; reading an inspired post does not necessarily result in writing an inspirational post)

I was browsing around a few of favorite blogs. “Working the reader list”, if you like. I noticed a theme coming together on a few of the posts. Now this was not an organized meme thing. Sort-of a “smell-the-roses” or “carpe diem” type of theme appeared for no particular reason.

Now anytime I get a chance to throw around the few Latin words I know. Well, alleluia.

It started over at Mrs. 4444’s blog with her post, Gratitude Touchpoint. 

Then I scrolled through, Tami’s Time Flies post.

You know that feeling when things seem to be coming together and making some strange sense of purpose? No? Yeah it doesn’t happen much with me either.

CiCi posted a similar message too. 
The Child Spirit of Joy

At this point the line from Taxi Driver is circulating in my brain:

You talkin’ to me? 

(youtube link for those that don’t remember Taxi Driver - oh strong language included)

Was blogland talkin’ to me? I like to remind other people to lighten-up but I often forget to “walk the talk”.  Maybe I just didn't get the memo tweet.  I'm not on twitter.

If you would like a bit of carpe diem reflection then browse over to those posts linked above and tell them I sent you.

watch out

you might get what you're after

young driver with older brother instructing

While we were visiting grandkids and family, I received an email that was a pleasant surprise.  It offered an opportunity to make a little money.  It was not the foreign businessman help-me scam.

A real offer

A few years ago I grabbed the domain name solarsquared.com. My idea-of-the-day was to start an online site related to portable solar panels and chargers. Now that I see portable solar charger usage has not taken off as I first thought (at least I don’t see a huge demand), it doesn't surprise me that solarsquared.com didn’t really go anywhere.

Go Daddy offered a few freebies with the domain name so I started using one of them, the photo album, on solarsquared.com. The domain name still sounded good to me and the photo album was useful. I renewed the domain name more than once.

do you seriously think I would burn down my house

A small solar-related start-up in Canada researched the ownership of solarsquared.com and found me. We quickly came to an agreement. A small amount was transferred to me and I transferred the domain to them. I’m very pleased with the ending. Now if their operation becomes a big corporation someday I’ll probably kick myself for not holding out for a little more.

A few bucks and knowing my name idea was worth something is a good feeling. While downloading the photos I stored up there in the album, I found these two photos shown here and wanted to share them in a post.





another circus 

Don't Worry Be Happy

Another fun blog game.

Happy 101 Sweet Friends

What a nice surprise to be reading through your blogroll blogs and discovering your name and blog getting recognition.  That's what happened the other day on the  Technobabe's Adventure blog.  She was happy and sweet enough to pass along the above award.

These awards are also like a game so just like a game, it has rules.  The rules are to link this award back to the presenter, send it on to at least three other bloggers and list 10 things that make me happy.
Check out Technobabe and her hippie blog (her words) with the above link.

Here's a fun part - listing things that make me happy:

1. Family - supporting wife, kids, grandkids, brother, sisters and even in-laws.
2. Making the family laugh especially a little one's giggle.
3. Having my son or daughter buy me a beer.
4. Learning new stuff about the world and how it works
5. Warm spring days (soon I hope)
6. Having the mortgage paid off.
7. Finding an old postcard sent to me from my kid sister back in the 70's.  Reading it made me laugh (again).
8. Blogging and getting supportive comments (hey the comment button is just below, see it down there?)
9. My wife's homemade pancakes or waffles with her blueberries sauce (the secret is in the sauce).
10. Listening to 'Wait Wait Don't Tell Me'.  (also remembering the time my wife and I went to see the show live).

With regards to the passing this on to other bloggers rule, I refer you to both my blogroll, or the list in the  last reward/blog game post.  They are all award winning blogs.

Thanks again and
Remember as Bobby McFerrin sang:
Don't Worry Be Happy