Friday, August 2, 2013

An Actually Important Moments (Topics) Database

How about a website (let me know if there is one already) set up like that I M D B dot com of actually important topics and the people involved.

Yes, instrad of a movie as the main grouping for a cast of charaters, it could be an important topic, like Conservation, say, for example; or climate change, or civil rights.  And the list of characters would be populated by the individuals (or groups, or critters, or what have you) who had a major influence on that topic and the year(s) of their involvement.

"Conservation" starring so-and-so, directed by you-know-who, music by that-group-that-wrote-a-song-about it, and so on. Set up with links and bios, photos and trivia, and major quotes just like the movie database.

I mean, wikipedia is great but the layout is too textbookish to make it truly browsable.  Topics set up like the movie database would be more fun to click around.  The fun things about the movie database are seeing what else that actor has been in, seeing who they worked with, and maybe a bit of gossip in their bios.

So, really important stuff - a different format for history subjects and current issues, and the history of thise issues.

Sunday, July 28, 2013

After A While by VS


"After A While"     © 1971 Veronica A. Shoffstall
( Author's note:  This poem has been plagiarized, bastardized, renamed, reworded, redesigned, expanded and reduced.  But it is my work, which I wrote at the age of 19 and had published in my college yearbook.  Why anyone would want to claim it is beyond me, but for what it's worth, I wrote it, and if I'd known it was going to be this popular, I'd have done a better job of it. - V.S. 

Her website:  Her Link appears no longer functional.


"After a While"

After a while you learn
the subtle difference between
holding a hand and chaining a soul
and you learn
that love doesn't mean leaning
and company doesn't always mean security.
And you begin to learn
that kisses aren't contracts
and presents aren't promises
and you begin to accept your defeats
with your head up and your eyes ahead
with the grace of woman, not the grief of a child
and you learn
to build all your roads on today
because tomorrow's ground is
too uncertain for plans
and futures have a way of falling down
in mid-flight.
After a while you learn
that even sunshine burns
if you get too much
so you plant your own garden
and decorate your own soul
instead of waiting for someone
to bring you flowers.
And you learn that you really can endure
you really are strong
you really do have worth
and you learn
and you learn
with every goodbye, you learn...
© 1971 Veronica A. Shoffstall

Monday, July 8, 2013

And so the dream continues


And so the dream continues
All awareness comes to this
All is distraction, all is dreaming.

A special insanity, some would say.
A day, a day, a day.



Sunday, June 30, 2013

Hold the valley




Hold the valley inside you
Awash between your bits, strobed by memories flowing

Hold the fragrance of orange mandarin honeysuckle and red ripe strawberries
     The gently-piercing buzz of clay-coloured sparrows
          drawing attention to the trembling air
For the dark winter

Hold the smell of wet, fresh, early-winter snow
          Ozone mixed with seeped iron
     The sparkle of cold snowflakes
     The muffled world-sounds after a heavy snow
          Together alone, this city
For the hot summer

Hold the bright mountain storms of high clouds and fine rain
For blinding August afternoons

Hold the comforting cup of Steeples and Fisher
     Nigh and Teepee and Lakit, and Bootleg
     and Puddingburn
For thick forest and other places
Of the valley and clay grasslands
For, whenever hidden, to call forth, to bide
In dusk and dawn and mid, and other vicinities

Hold these always

Every day is a beautiful day


Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Turtles in the Universe

old friends, the universe,

          and I

talk walk exclaim at

turtles in the ditch beside the dike

          yet you

walk talk exclaim you haven't

noticed them before

continue on with inside your brain

I leave

You leave

Moi Quotes Public

As sentience increases, so does ambiguity.

All is better when we sing together. 

My 'eventually' has finity.

In growing old gracefully, humility and self-forgiveness are indispensible. 

It is in the denial of the inevitable that the individual maintains and asserts at least a perception of control. Often, acceptance never comes but ends up being what the individual fights rather than the denial.

Being the creatures that we are, tending to rely on intuition when facts evade our understanding (since there is never a new discovery, only a truth not previously known), I believe in a strong genetic component [in one's being and 'fate'], modified or filtered by our environment.

Procrastinator's fear: If I did everything I said I would / needs to be done, I'd having nothing left to do!