To listen or not to listen?

Reading according to Websters Dictionary is an  activity of interpreting music, a situation, or something said or written.   But it also means to be able to read a written or printed text.  Today one can read in a variety of formats; the traditional format can be read on the computer, on one's kindle, or on a traditionally bounded set of printed words.  But also reading is now being defined as listening to books; the reader can listen to complete books via audio c.d.s or via a MP3 file, on their computer.

But is listening to an audio book reading?  Does listening to a book constitute the same experience as reading one?  Will the reader's reaction to the book be influenced by the listening experience?  Some authors have published and read their own works on an Audio format.  Neil Gammon read his Graveyard Book and recorded it onto C.D..  I ponder if my liking Fahrenheit 451 was due me listening to it, and not reading it.  Bradbury is a really good oral story teller, but is his writing good?  Hmm we ponder!

Book Clubs: No Guts, No Glory!?

I confess I love doing book clubs. But I am the only guy in the library book club called Books Sandwiched In (BSI). Every first Tuesday we have a book offered to us that we have the option to read and discuss the next First Tuesday of the month.

Men join a book club in your area if you've got the guts. 

Do I feel light in the loafers by taking part in a book discussion group? No Way! I feel that my masculinity is not challenged in any way by being a participant in BSI. Often being the sole male in the group is valuable to the whole group. I can offer insight into the stories that woman cannot offer. But the women also help me understand the books better from their shared POV. It feels good to have fellow travelers in our explorations.

There are a number of books that we all have hated. Brenda our book group leader finds books that will make for good conversation. I have had my point of view stretched by a number of the books. A novel should give you new insight that you may never have known, or even wanted to know. The art of the novel is to live the experiences of others different from ourselves.

Men may fear that they will not be accepted by the women in the group. I have never felt the death glare that tells me I am not wanted here. Not once have I felt rejected.

All right, now it's your turn to join a group in your area and be the sole guy that drives the ladies crazy.

Remember: No Guts, No Glory!

Off the Grid

Off the Grid is a heartfelt film about a bunch of bumbles living in New Mexico, in the middle of the desert. The film shows the lives of people who live Off the Grid; 

Off the Grid is defined by Urban Dictionary as - 


 1) Living without using the services of public or private utility companies (grids) such as electric, gas, or water, by generating and providing for one's needs such as by using solar power, etc. 

2) One who disdains all recordable common forms of commerce, such as eschewing any form of credit extension, banking services or reportable payroll activities, using only cash so as to avoid any traceable transactions, e.g., living completely 'underground.'))  


It is easy to overlook or gossip about people who live in an alien community: 

"Look at what they are doing!"

"They can't do that!"

"You can't live there!"

"Look at those Dharma Bums!"

But what is needed to live freely is defined in different ways; some people want absolute freedom, to live like they want to live, and do what they want to do; these people find life is best lived "Off the Grid".  Some people need the solitude only a place off the grid can offer. Some people live off the grid because they enjoy shooting guns. Some find Off the Grid the safest place to protect themselves from their former dangerous lives.  Some live off the grid because they fear society will brain wash their kids.
There is danger in living off the grid. Drugs are common here. And the law is the law of the people, vigilante old west style.
But without a full portrait, we are left arrogant. Jeremy and Randy Stulberg do a fine job of presenting these people objectively.  The people of the mesa are given a fair space to share their free formed lives.  

8 turnips out of a possible 10

Where we Stand? Open for Business

The United States is going through a period of change.  Change theory says that the first reaction will be shock; then the US reaction will move to denial; than the People will find blame in themselves; this period of Self Blame will be followed by acceptance.  Once we find acceptance and move from the river of denial we will than learn to experiment and find new ways of conducting ourselves in the United States and in the World at Large.

 The United States of America is slowly tilting to a change, a change, a change.  A change between the Old Guard watch dog conservatives, to a newer vision framed by a younger mind set.

  In a way we can blame the 1970's curriculum of "Free to Be You and Me" for the shift.  The new frame of America is shaped around acceptance of diversity, and a need to resolve all conflicts peacefully.   Their will be a battle between the old guard who desire self reliance, to the new guard who see possibility of unity in Big Government.   The important thing to do is to hold onto the rails, keep your hands and legs inside the cart, and get ready for the bumpy ride.

It is good to get informed.  It is good to comment as we will all be responsible for shaping the United States today.   Conservatives don't stop critiquing and editing the thoughts of well intentioned liberals.  For the liberals will dream and the conservatives will edit these dreams so that they are coherent to what the United States will publish to the world.

I do believe the United States will reshape itself into something we won't recognize today.  But don't fret to much,  for we (The People of the United States) will regain our footing and continue to set the tone for what it means to be a Freeman in the 21st Century.

Clucking my Writing: Acts 20:19 If Paul was a Member of NWA

(from an earlier post)
Life in the streets is just a head game
Pagans only want you to stay down
Labeling me a flesh eater,
driving me out!

Why do I call myself a Christian you ask
Because my mouth is dirt monkey nasty
Christ deliver us from a deadly adversaries...
Yo! I'll be a Christian for Life.

Greg's Journal of Found Things I

Tuesday last, I was asked, if I had ever read any Annie Dillard. I said no, feeling regretful. Tuesday afternoon, I went online and requested "for the Time Being by Annie Dillard" from the Lake Whales Public Library. Here are a few notes from my reading so far:

"I am on the field."

"The hospital like every other, is a hole in a universe, through which holiness issues in blasts."

Repetition is powerless before ecstasy." pg. 91.

"Suddenly there is a point where religion becomes laughable then you decide that are nevertheless religious."

I found the book to be unfocused and not really worth my time reading.

Curmudgeon Bookstore Cedar Key Florida

It's 12:01 pm. It's a dreary day full of gray clouds and damp palms, a day to be reading a favorite book, a day that is not often felt around these parts.

Housed on the corner of Main Street in Cedar Key Florida, next to the pizza shop, and across from the Heron Fish-House, lies the Curmudgeon Bookstore. The owner, Dick Martens is a pure curmudgeon. A curmudgeon defined by the American Heritage Dictionary, is an ill-tempered person full of resentment and stubborn notions.
Dick Martens is a conservative and has a point of view; loaded, and ready to be fired.
There will be pleasantries shared as long as you don't speak off the cuff and try to weasel in some liberal remarks. Then by duty called, he must debate with you, and you may leave offended. But don't get your feathers up, for he is well read, and even if you are liberally viewed, he will sharpen your wits. He loves sharing his favorite books with customers on little yellow sticky-notes. When Customers buy a book from Mr Martens, they know that the book is worth their time in reading.
Also check out his blog Curmudgeonalia.

Anonymous said...

I appreciate the positive commentary, but my preferred definition of a curmudgeon is that offered by Jon Winoker:
CURMUDGEON: (noun)
one who abhors disingenuity and hypocrisy, and has the temerity to say so, often recasting unpleasant facts in a droll manner.
Dick Martens
Curmudgeon in residence
Curmudgeonalia(book store,Cedar Key)

---

Tuesday: Cheap Date Nites

Tic Tac Toe Picture Hunt

Materials:

Tic Tac Toe Board (3by 3 grid)

Camera

Procedure:

You and your date will take pictures of subjects.

Here are 9 pictures ideas to get you started.
You can either do three in a row diagonally, horizontally, or vertically.
Or do all 9 (black out); that means all pictures have been taken.

1. Deli Clerk at Publix Holding Head Cheese.
2. A boy wearing a football t-shirt.
3. A truck with large, large tires.
4. A bumper sticker saying something political.
5. A man with a cigar.
6. Wildlife local to the area (Gator here in Florida).
7. A person with crazy hair.
8. A dentist holding a drill.
9. A person with dreadlocks.

I am sure you can come up with better ideas. You should ask people for permission before you take their photos. The main point is to just have fun finding these pictures.
Post your pictures online.
Share with friends.

Happy Hunting! Tell me how it went.

Monday: Greg's Journal of Found Things

Tools for Week:
Sandwich Calculator

I'LL be there! Will You?

Roller Derby is back in the Tampa Area check them out on October 10th. You probably will dig it good; Really good.

Use Everything-Get Creative

Country Bear Jamboree

Henry (The Host of the Country Bear Jamboree):
Howdy Folks! Welcome to the one and only, original Country Bear Jamboree, featuring a bit of America - our musical heritage of the past.... that's what I use to say, before they turned out the lights September 9, 2001. That was right after the release of our motion picture.
We did not see it coming that a clueless little yellow bellied, lover of honey would be the devil himself. It hurts. Management at Disney told me that Winnie drew in more of the little tots than my band of jug playing crackers. Between you and me, brother Wendell and I still sing, "Mamma don't whip little Bufford" on the back porch of our trailer.

(from Wikipedia article on Mineral King Ski Resort and Country Bear Jamboree)

Walt Disney Ski Resort

Disney's Mineral King Ski Resort was a project developed by Walt Disney and Company in the late 1950s and 1960s. Disney had become interested in skiing around this time, and decided to build a ski resort in Mineral King Valley. At the time, many skiers believed this to be the largest potential resort in all of California. Disney's bid won out over those of other developers, with plans made to build 27 ski lifts, serving an expected 2 million annual visitors, by 1973.

The ski resort was never built though, due to environmental concerns raised by a coalition of preservationists, led by the Sierra Club^[6]. After years of legal battles between pro-development and preservationist groups, the Mineral King Valley was annexed into Sequoia National Park in 1978 by an act of Congress. That legislation effectively stopped the plan to ever develop the area into a ski resort.

Country Bear Jamboree Originally to be at Mineral King Ski Resort...

The Country Bear Jamboree was originally intended by Walt to be placed at Disney's Mineral King Ski Resort which he was trying to build in the mid 1960s. Walt knew he wanted some sort of show to provide entertainment to the guests at the resort, and he knew he wanted the show to feature some sort of bear band. The project was assigned to imagineer Marc Davis.

Love: Irish Jam

Playing Gods the Board Game:

Playing Gods the Board Game:
I personally have not played this game, but it seems of interesting note.

Review from the Blog- "Zombiebacon":

Aware that much of the world’s violence comes from the source of eternal love, Radford realised that mocking various images of God and their faithful adherents would “make more social commentary” and “pierce the pretensions of extremist religious zealotry with humor.”

That it does wonderfully, passing many hours in the entertaining pursuit of monotheism.

Someone should really distribute this game to all the world’s spiritual leaders so they can settle their differences without destroying us in the process.

Order of Myths:

Order of Myths:

"They like it like that!"
Parades, trees, beads, segregated balls, and moon-pies are signposts of Southern Culture. Money or lack of money are not what opens the key to city hall in the South, family roots and history are the steps in the hierarchy platforms and stages. "The Order of Myths"stirred a bitter feeling.

Yeah, I know this is a commercial but man, I like it!
Starbucks: Take Five