Black Hole

Yes, I understand that this is a picture of an eclipse.

I haven't spent my life living in the penumbra.

It is amazing to me that in this modern day society, especially here in Japan, that there still exist pockets of isolation where time, even if it hasn't stopped, has slowed down to a reasonable pace.
The past ten days of my life have been spent in a place where I had very little electronic connection to the world. I thought I would be grateful for the retreat from the everyday business of being me.
Yet something quite the opposite occurred. I discovered that I could be doing something I absolutely love to do and be miserable. Spend time with people that are so very precious to me and still be completely alone or behaving poorly. I have, in the past, written about similar circumstances, yet I feel that this time I am really in the crapper and fouling things up for others.I have come to realize that we often do not know what is best for ourselves. Before people start calling me Billy Milligan; it's safer to put that last sentence into the first person singular, which is exactly what I shall do: I often do not know what is best for me.
When you are driving along and you discover that you made a wrong turn, it's usually easy enough to correct your course and get back on track even if you have been travelling in the wrong direction for quite some time.
A few voiced expletives and a turn of the wheel and you are on your way. I wish it were that easy with the ship we steer through life.
Right now I feel like my compass is broken and my rudder all wonky and the crew malevolently planning a mutiny. Ok, ok, so I am stretching things a bit and acting like a drama queen, ti's true. What I am trying to get at is how I can find my center again? Ironic that the title of this blog has become so apropos.

What would Gumby do?

Still Alive

Just making it from day to day. I guess we all know about that.
All kinds of things goin' on.
I got a new semester of work that I am not fully prepared for and I have a whole lot of catching up to do.

I want to smile and sit still for more'n just a mnute or two, but the monkey on my back keeps scratchin'...

Don't forget to fart,

NYD.

Head in the sand

I often think that I am just a leeettle bit stupid.
I have to. I don't possess enough ego to allow me to believe that I know more than the entire world and all it's inhabitants.
Well, it's not really like that. What I'm tryin to say is, that if you reach the point where you feel that you just know more and can do more and have achieved more than the common shmoe sitting next to you and there is nothing left to learn- well you are dead!
I am getting tired of encountering people who know and understand everything better than I do, than everyone does.
It's tiresome and boooring.
I understand that, because I am a teacher, I feel the urge to impart knowledge to people, but if you really want to know the truth; I spend a lot more time listening to other folks espousing their ideas of the world rather than blabbering about my thoughts. It keeps me steady, balanced and in touch with the common folk.
Here on the net and especially in bloggovision it's nice to let your guard down and allow various ideas to slide into your thoughts and rattle around the old noggin for a couple of hours every now and again. It's just unfortunate to encounter the foolish know-it-alls who are more interested in their own popularity than any new or differentiating opinion. The same goes for my day to day encounters on the streets, pubs and cafes where I live.

The question, "Why do you Blog?" often comes up in roasts and memterviews and although I always read the answers, I never understand them.
Why do you Blog?
You could ask, why do you fart?
Or even better why do you fuck?
Getting your pipes cleaned is a basic human need. It doesn't matter which of the alimentary avenues it travels.
Getting my voice out, being heard receiving some kind of response to my day to day thoughts, allows me to continue with this ridiculous and occasionally tedious life that I lead.
Without the blog I would only be tiny and ineffectual. Thank god for the Internet!
I can share my most innermost thoughts with people I don't know, have never met and really don't care about. I can pretend to laugh at endeavors I wouldn't pay to see and concede importance to facts and issues I've never heard about before.

I would love to go on about the problems with the internet and blogs for at least another seven paragraphs and write some Haiku that Wouldn't be considered poetry by third year students in the worst of schools here, but I have to go shopping for some porn. Actually I am going to watch TV on the net and forget about all the hairy bullshit thats going on in the world.

Oh, by the way. North Korean missiles did not land on my head over the weekend , so I could publish this ridiculous post.