A Pondering Mind

Enjoy The Day

“Carpe diem! Rejoice while you are alive; enjoy the day; live life to the fullest; make the most of what you have. It is later than you think.”

~ Horace

People can do whatever they want. It’s when they conform to society that they restrict themselves. ~Erin Pracht

“Singing, it’s like it’s like loving somebody, it’s a supreme emotional and physical experience.” ~Janis Joplin

The Reagan-Bush years have exalted private gain over public obligation, special interests over the common good, wealth and fame over work and family. The 1980s ushered in a Gilded Age of greed and selfishness, of irresponsibility and excess, and of neglect.

William J. Clinton

No such thing

“No such thing as spare time, no such thing as free time, no such thing as down time. All you got is life time. Go.”

~ Henry Rollins

If you’re offered a seat on a rocket ship, don’t ask what seat! Just get on. ~Sheryl Sandberg

Time Capsules

We seem to have a compulsion these days to bury time capsules in order to give those people living in the next century or so some idea of what we are like.

Alfred Hitchcock

Every moment is a new beginning. -Elie Wiesel

Write … write … pencil … paper. ~ Heinrich Heine

No man has the right to dictate …..

No man has the right to dictate what other men should perceive, create or produce, but all should be encouraged to reveal themselves, their perceptions and emotions, and to build confidence in the creative spirit.

-Ansel Adams, American Photographer

Do not fear mistakes. There are none. ~Miles Davis

Success Is Learned

Success isn’t something that just happens – success is learned, success is practiced and then it is shared.

-Sparky Anderson

Acceptance is the only way out of hell. ~Marsha M. Linehan

You got nothing to lose. You don’t lose when you lose fake friends. ~Joan Jett

For What Its Worth

Animals and birds, know no borders.
On the other hand, mankind knows where the borders are,
and there lies the problem.

For What Its Worth

Idle thoughts
Idle mind
Its like living in a different time zone

Laugh and the whole world laughs with you, snore and you sleep alone. ~Anthony Burgess

So long as the universe had a beginning …..

So long as the universe had a beginning, we could suppose it had a creator. But if the universe is really completely self-contained, having no boundary or edge, it would have neither beginning nor end: it would simply be. What place, then, for a creator?

~Stephen Hawking

Tis’ better to live your own life imperfectly than to imitate someone else’s perfectly. ~Elizabeth Gilbert

Conquering Some Fear

He who is not everyday conquering some fear has not learned the secret of life.

~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Food Security

Innovations that are guided by smallholder farmers, adapted to circumstances, and sustainable for the economy and environment will be necessary to ensure food security in the future.

~Bill Gates

Food is as important as energy….

Food is as important as energy, as security, as the environment. Everything is linked together.

~Louise Fresco

For What Its Worth

When the mind is passive, then I know that I am with peace with myself.

Making Excuses

He that is good for making excuses is seldom good for anything else.

-Benjamin Franklin

For What Its Worth

I’m healthy, not wealthy, but wise.

Order & Chaos

What we imagine is order is merely the prevailing form of chaos.

-Kerry Thomley

Bookish Homeless People

I spent a lot of time at the New York Public Library, the main branch. I was one of those people. If you ever spend a good amount of time there, you realize there are people who spend the entire day there. They’re bookish homeless people.

-Lisa Yuskavage

Poor People And The Homeless

You can spend the money on new housing for the poor people and the homeless, or you can spend it on a football stadium or a golf course.

-Jello Biafra

The present and the past …..

The present and the past coexist, but the past shouldn’t be in flashback.

~Alain Resnais

Past time is finite, future time is infinite. ~Edwin Powell Hubble

“If you do not push the boundaries, you will never know where they are.” ~T. S. Eliot

Walk Beside Me …..

“Don’t walk behind me; I may not lead. Don’t walk in front of me; I may not follow. Just walk beside me and be my friend.”

~ Albert Camus

“Three great forces rule the world: stupidity, fear and greed.” ~Albert Einstein

Fill Your Life Up With Ideas

“Being an intellectual creates a lot of questions and no answers. You can fill your life up with ideas and still go home lonely. All you really have that really matters are feelings. That’s what music is to me.” – Janis Joplin”

For What Its Worth

Monday’s weather was strange. Rain, snow, freezing rain, constantly flipping around. It was like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde type of day.

Okay So …..

2020 is a leap year. So February has 29 days, meaning we will have to wait one extra day for Spring to begin.

Walking Outdoors Is On Hold

Miserable, shitty weather, means I will resort to being the ‘hall monitor,’ thing, and do my walking in the halls and stairways. The plus side of it, is not having to wear a coat, and also get to smell the different aromas of the various meals, that are being concocted. Does it make me hungry, not really, as I do the walking on a full stomach.

For What Its Worth

The future is staring right in front of you. Make the best of it.

Uninteresting Life

There was never yet an uninteresting life. Such a thing is an impossibility. Inside of the dullest exterior is a drama, a comedy, and a tragedy.

~Mark Twain

Conquering Fear

“Fear is the main source of superstition, and one of the main sources of cruelty. To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom.” ~Bertrand Russell

Unpopular Essays (1950) “Outline of Intellectual Rubbish”

For What Its Worth

The past is history. Time to move on.

For What Its Worth

Thinking positive about one’s self, is a good thing.

No Insulin Needed

As of today (12/28), it will be three months of not having to inject insulin of any kind. It feels good knowing that I don’t need it anymore, unless I screw up by having to much sugar in one day. If the high reading doesn’t go down within a day and a half or so, the doc told me to give myself one shot of insulin, and that should bring it down. Also, not taking any pills for type 2 diabetes, and that’s a good thing.

For what its worth: I get to see another day.

Walking Is My Go To

Most days, I go on a few walks. Some long, some short. It helps immensely with burning off the sugar and carbs. I am happy with the glucose reading(s), as the are generally in the 90s to the low 100s. The end result: one happy camper.

The world we see ……

“The world we see that seems so insane is the result of a belief system that is not working. To perceive the world differently, we must be willing to change our belief system, let the past slip away, expand our sense of now, and dissolve the fear in our minds.”

~William James

“We relish news of our heroes, forgetting that we are extraordinary to somebody too.” ~Helen Hayes

Helen Hayes, Marion Glasserow Gladney (1986). “Our Best Years”, Doubleday Books

No person is your friend who demands your silence, or denies your right to grow. ~Alice Walker

Don’t watch the clock; do what it does. Keep going. ~Sam Levenson

Memory is deceptive because it is colored by today’s events. ~Albert Einstein

No one has ever died, from an over exposure to education. ~Robert M. Hensel

Robert M. Hensel, Spanish Poet-Writer

Clear Labeling For Genetically Modified Food

Europe believes that providing clear labeling for genetically modified food is a consumer right, but such practice is absolutely opposed by vast majority of states in the U.S.

-Zac Goldsmith

Rose Bushes

We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses.

-Abraham Lincoln

Problems of the world…..

All the problems of the world could be settled easily if men were only willing to think. The trouble is that men very often resort to all sorts of devices in order not to think, because thinking is such hard work.

-Thomas J. Watson, American Scientist

Enjoy Life

Quote Source: Quote Master

“Don’t wait around for other people to be happy for you. Any happiness you get you’ve got to make yourself.” ~Alice Walker

Beautiful People

“The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of the depths. These persons have an appreciation, a sensitivity, and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion, gentleness, and a deep loving concern. Beautiful people do not just happen.” ~Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

Great News

Saw the diabetes doc (on Tuesday), and the great news is that my A1c is 6.2 which is good. No need for insulin which I have stopped using since the end of September. I only need to see him one more time, that being at the beginning of June. He told me I was doing everything right, and to keep doing what I am doing, and I shouldn’t have any more problems.

The morning cup of coffee …..

The morning cup of coffee has an exhilaration about it which the cheering influence of the afternoon or evening cup of tea cannot be expected to reproduce.

~Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

People spend to much time finding other people to blame …..

People spend too much time finding other people to blame, too much energy finding excuses for not being what they are capable of being, and not enough energy putting themselves on the line, growing out of the past, and getting on with their lives.

-J. Michael Straczynski, American Producer – 1954 –

Water And Life

Quote Source: Quote Master

Life is …..

My life is a simple thing that would interest no one. It is a known fact that I was born, and that is all that is necessary.

~Albert Einstein

Music is the medicine of the mind. ~John Logan

Life

life it is what it is: life

Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one was has learned in school. ~Albert Einstein

The two most important days in your life are the you were born and the day you find why. ~Mark Twain

One seventh of your life is spent on Monday. ~Aldous Huxley

Beauty without grace is the hook without the bait. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

There are three constants in life… change, choice and principles. ~Stephen Covey

Stephen Covey, 1932 – 2012, Author

“Anger is an acid that can do more harm to the vessel in which it is stored than to anything on which it is poured.” ~Mark Twain

“More than ninety percent of directing a picture is the right casting” ~Martin Scorsese

If you can’t tell a spoon from a ladle, then you’re fat! ~Demitri Martin

Demitri Martin, American Comedian

If you can’t do anything about it, laugh like hell. ~David Cook

Quiet the mind, and the soul will speak. ~Ma Jaya Sati Bhagavati

“Whoever controls the media, controls the mind.” ~Jim Morrison

“Readers recommend: songs about control” by Peter Kimpton, http://www.theguardian.com. March 5, 2015.

Thinking Silently

thinking silently
a smattering
of thoughts
are swirling
in my mind
nothing bad
nothing harmful
nothing slanderous
just normal
thinking
that I usually
do throughout
the course
of the day

Outlook

what keeps
me going
one step at a time
one day at a time
think positive
watch what i eat
drink plenty of water

Movies are not novels ….

Movies are not novels, and that’s why, when filmmakers try to adapt novels, particularly long or complex novels, the result is almost failure. It can’t be done.

~Paul Auster

“It’s just unconscionable that America has become so stupid.” ~Russell Means

Russell Means, B. November 10, 1939 – D. October 22, 2012

It’s easy to fool the eye but it’s hard to fool the heart. ~Al Pacino

“We cannot change what we are not aware of, and once we are aware, we cannot help but change.” ~Sheryl Sandberg

Thinking

brainstorming + bottomless mugs of strong black coffee >>> produces wild and wacky ideas

Just Thinking

nobody
ever said
that writing
comes easy

All novelists should live in two different worlds: a real one and an unreal one. -John Fowles

Book Reading

Credit: Quote Master

Bookstores

Photo: Quote Master

“Books have the same enemies as people: fire, humidity, animals, weather, and their own content.” ~ Paul Valery

A lie can travel half way around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes. – Charles Spurgeon

Coffee – Books

Photo credit: unknown

I could do this all day, and night too.

“What we think or what we know or what we believe is in the end of little consequence. The only thing of consequence is what we do” ~ John Ruskin

John Ruskin (2016). “The Crown of Wild Olive”, p.732, John Ruskin

In art as in love, instinct is enough. ~ Anatole France

Anatole France – French Novelist

Happiness is not a goal; it is a by-product. ~ Eleanor Roosevelt

“It’s just a job. Grass grows, birds fly, waves pound the sand. I beat people up.” ~ Muhammad Ali

Twitter post from Aug 18, 2010

“The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid.” ~ Jane Austen

Jane Austen (2005). “Jane Austen: 8 Books in 1”, p.460, Shoes & Ships & Sealing Wax

Not Exactly – A Short Story

the middle-age couple, go at it, day and night. always arguing. talking very loud, loud enough to be heard at least a block away. the police have made numerous visits, and have warned them many a time, to cool their jets, or else they will get their asses hauled off to the precinct house. most of the time, they will obey the cops, and keep it down, yet…a day doesn’t go by that the couple erupts into another explosion, of an explosion of screaming and hollering. they’re not exactly the junes and wards cleavers of the world.