Hello everyone... catching up with what's happened in the big world while I've been gone - both meat world and here online.

Change is the only constant.

Old and new gems from ~C; a blogging mentor, model, friend from a distance and now former ZNG employee.
OLD - We Feel Fine (link to the "open" tab on the page top)
NEW - Will this matter in five minutes/years?

Also an interesting article from the NYT to scan...
I'm so Totally, Digitally close to you...

Plan to post pics and video soon of the camping...  good stuff!

From the SUN --- is this what I'm walking towards?  

Slide

In Venezuela, which means “Little Venice”: thousands
Snuffed, mud-choked. Corpse after corpse, dug up
To be reburied, waits for a name. A mild impatience
Marks the morning hours, the medical jeeps, the kids
With picks, the smeared survivors staring. Television
Doesn’t know how to blink: a tumbled wall, a dog,
A hand and elbow remarkably whole and clean,

All pour into its open drain without clogging the flow. 
And I too am capable of taking it all — five thousand
Miles away, each detail fits behind my forehead, where
I can find a word for it. And though my body knows
The black weight mud must bring, it has forgotten
Tears. Or buried them so deep they can’t be found,
Way down below the heart, somewhere in there.

Do folks understand the concept of net neutrality?  Do folks under stand what Gen Colin Powell's son unleashed several years ago when he was in charge of the FCC and basically denied public involvement over the public airwaves.

I'm not saying send them money... I certainly have no money to send right now.  I am saying continue to get informed and spread the word.  IMO newspapers, TV, and radio are already bought and paid for by whomever has the biggest checkbook.  I get my info from the internet - so this is a last stand of sorts for me.

I received this via email today.

Dear David,

Comcast is appealing an FCC decision to protect the open Internet. Help us fight back! Support the Free Press Action Fund

Late last week, Comcast filed a lawsuit to overturn the landmark Federal Communications Commission order to stop blocking users' access to the free and open Internet.

With its army of lawyers and billions of dollars, Comcast is betting it can dismantle the protections that you and hundreds of thousands of other Free Press and SavetheInternet.com supporters fought so hard to establish. Free Press Action Fund is rallying our small legal team to fight Comcast, but we urgently need your help.

Don't Let Comcast Overrule the FCC

Our lawyer is now reviewing the fine print of Comcast's appeal. But that's just the first step in what could be a drawn-out legal battle; to fight through to the end, we must raise $25,000 today. Your contribution will make sure we have the resources we need to take on Comcast's lawyers.

We've learned time and again that we can defeat phone and cable giants by meeting them on their own turf. We know we're on the right side of this historic issue. As long as we stand up to them every step of the way -- in court, in Congress and at the FCC -- we'll keep winning.

Protect Our Net Neutrality Victory: Contribute Now

With your support, Free Press will fight the appeal and intervene to defend our victory in the FCC decision.

It's a heavy lift for our two-person legal team and will require our ongoing involvement in the case. We're a member-driven organization fighting for the rights of individuals. We don't have Comcast's billions, but we do have the skill and determination to defend the Internet from abusive corporate practices.

The FCC ruling against Comcast is our most important victory yet for Net Neutrality. We cannot afford to lose in court. Please send the most generous contribution you can right now.

With gratitude,

Timothy Karr
Campaign Director
Free Press Action Fund
www.freepress.net
www.savetheinternet.com

P.S. Our victory last month against Comcast was a milestone in the fight for an open Internet. We defied every ounce of conventional wisdom in Washington by proving that activists, bloggers, consumer advocates and everyday people could join forces through Free Press to defeat a major corporation. Now it's time to defend that victory in court. Please contribute now.

P.P.S. A generous Free Press supporter has offered a $300,000 matching grant. Your gift to today will help us meet this ambitious goal!

Has anyone else ever taken a week to recover from vacation?
So many blessings.  Every blessing attached to a loss of sorts.  Such is life.
I was worried I might really crash after the big trip up north camping - nothing else on the schedule but to prep for deployment.  Feels good to clean house and prep.

Haven't gotten pics up to share from the trip... have been laughing at inbox emails instead.  Many of them are questionable all and all... the laughs are still real.  So rather than FWD endlessly I'll just post them here and wait for them to hit the right funny spot at just the right time.

The longest scroll in the world....  I hope you get a few laughs!

From my incredible mother.  I let her know these pics are likely from the hilarious icanhascheezburger site.

First (COMPLETELY INAPPROPRIATELY FUNNY!!!!)



Phelps as a youngster

I never knew post it notes were so similiar.

Have you seen this.  Some of my first thoughts upon seeing Sarah Palin were she looks like Tina Fey and Tina would be back guest spotting on SNL to "do her"

Those folks are quick.  I think it's a sadly funny spoof on so many layers of the current happenings...



I can't help myself but to add this...  I'm still uncertain about voting.  Too jaded after reading Howard Zinn.  Hmmm...  anyway - I also still aspire to ideals and what's possible.

I try to be wise and insightful, intelligent, funny.  Here on ZNG 99% of the time that’s respected and even with disagreement folks post viewpoints without personal or inflaming jabs/jargon.  That’s why this site is a bubble of safety.  For instance, I still choose to say ZNG (ZaadzNowGai) because I’m still attached to the Zaadz I knew.  (My bookmark still is redirected from Zaadz – the day the powers that be take that link down it’ll take me several extra minutes to google and find my homepage.)

 

In trying to be informed I go seeking info on a lot of different sights.  Especially in politics I see/read so many comments where folks think they’re being cute and funny yet actually completely swamp the point of discussion.

 

I’m for free speech yet wouldn’t it be something if part of the user agreement for a site stated:

 

Your comments will be deleted and your access denied if:

You choose to use misspellings of names, events, places for the purpose of satire or humor without specifically stating you are trying to be funny and you acknowledge the real/ officially documented and accepted name.

 

I think these misspellings are perfect for a small group of friends who can laugh and take it in context.  On the immensity of the internet it seems to invariably move to a pissing contest.

 

Thus off the top of my head... Nobamanation, 90% guy, Cliton, barBRa, McSame, Sarah Phallic, would all be off the table without the commenter specifically saying they have chosen to use their own term instead of the real name.

 

Is that too much erosion of free speech?  If folks agreed to it right up front and then were held to it?

 

These times are trying either way.  Shouldn’t we be clearing the table for the most coherent dialogue to come through.

 

Preaching to the choir.

This video gleaned from here...  I'd agree skip the first couple minutes.

I'm amazed at what people will do.  Despite NEVER having gained this much speed for more than 10 feet before plowing headfirst into a snowbank and the fact they're on skateboards rather than skis I swear this is how I remember coming down off the mountain last FEB in Norway.  Oh and there were no cars to pass or cameras to hand back and forth either.  Oh and there was snow... lots of snow.

Other than that it looks exactly the same.


HOLY CRAP!

OK so I finally loaded up and semi organized pics from my week with friends and loved ones on the Big water.  Nice stuff to remember during the other coming vacation with less water involved.

Not a ton of pics really this year but lots of great memories and laughs.  Some nice flower shots one day.

Also played around with burning copper and garden hose in the fire which results in colors like you see above and more here.

If you want to see the flames moving here’s a short vid on google.  I figure this isn’t the most earth friendly practice and yet rationalized it with the point that a defunct garden hose would either be carted of to sit in a landfill or possible incinerated OR it could provide some oohs and ahhs.

Also a few minutes of the waves one day on our beach.  I was trying to capture the immensity of that lake.

Many, many blessings.

Quotes by Mignon McLaughlin

A successful marriage requires falling in love many times, always with the same person.

No one really listens to anyone else. Try it for a while, and you'll see why.

Even cowards can endure hardship; only the brave can endure suspense.

Every society honors its live conformists and its dead troublemakers.

The hardest-learned lesson: that people have only their kind of love to give, not our kind.

'Your money or your life.'  We know what to do when a burglar makes this demand of us, but not when God does.

Is it my imagination or has Carlos Castaneda shown up in many of the recent weekly quotes...???

Well, as many of them hit right home for me, that's OK.

This weeks quote especially so.

Only as a warrior can one withstand the path of knowledge. A warrior cannot complain or regret anything. His life is an endless challenge, and challenges cannot possibly be good or bad. Challenges are simply challenges.

From that I say BLESSINGS or Challenges to all,
David

Can't say I agree with all... yet as the intro says the delete button is an option

SPEAK YOUR MIND EVEN IF YOUR VOICE SHAKES.

This rings too true to exactly what I thought in my mind...
I haven't yet watched this SNL skit.  Kinda sad when big laughs are not based on reality but actually quoted.  Comedy writers are no longer needed --- just quote the actual actors.