Welcome to the year of the Ox.....
(... is it just me that see a BIG hug and little kiss when I see the word Ox? ; )
Eitherway, whats say we just welcome the year we may hug and kiss an Ox how does that sound?
The Chinese Lunar New Year marks the end of winter and the possibility of there being a spring despite all bitter cold temperatures these day!
And what better way to ring in the Chinese New Year than with a solar eclipse that could be seen in
parts of the African continent, a wee bit of India, South East Asia, and a wee bit of Australia.
The first Lunar eclipse of the year will occur on February 9th. The eastern parts of Canada and the United States, will miss the eclipse because it begins after moonset. But people in the western parts of Canada and the USA will have the best views with moonset occurring sometime after the mid-eclipse. To catch the entire eclipse, one must be in places such as Alaska, Australia, eastern Asia, Hawaii or New Zealand.
But I get ahead of myself....
Have a prosperous and healthy New Year everyone!
Monday, January 26, 2009
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Caledonia's Bard
The world's poet.
'k, if not the world's poet, then he was the Bruce Springsteen or the Bob Seger of the working mans rhyme and life, the Bob Marley of melody, love and music, the Bob Dylan of civil disobedience, humanitarian, libertarian, equalitarian and freewill living.
Robert Burns was born 250 years ago on January 25th 1759 in a wee Ayrshire single room cottage that housed hens, livestock, a dirt floor, and thatched roof.
The cottage stands to this day, though it is better maintained than it would've been in his own day.
He was dirt poor in material life, but rich beyond riches internally, despite serious strife.
Burns wrote and spoke of and for the working man, and wrote using the everyday truncated vernacular of the country chouchter (the hard working farmer) [pronounced chooook'ter], and spoke of every universal plight, sight, feeling, sensation, lament, love, life or fright....but he did so in a truly unique and remarkable way - it was from one of the most unfathomably deep hearts to have beat in a human body.
His passion for life, his love, his humanity, his compassion, his love of laughter and joy for everything that simply is or was, was a different ken [knowing] altogether. One that isn't long for this life, but lives on for centuries for having honoured his innate love and talent, however impractical, in a pragmatic world that is fixed on collecting rent money, and working people to premature deaths, as was his own fathers fate who died at 24yrs of age.
Robert Burns died when he was 37 without a shilling to his name - literally.
Nevertheless, he was recognized as the Bard throughout Caledonia, and beyond.
He was granted the largest funeral in the history of Scotland at that time.
So, although he died utterly penniless, he was loved and respected by countless people.
Scotland itself is flinging open the doors throughout 2009 and inviting all ex-pats to return to honour Burns' life
on his 250ieth anniversary.
So says I....
raise yer snifter glass and wee dram,
and say Slange Va to the man.
tho' you be gone, yer words live oan
and will move emb'dy
wi'' heart enough to read them.
Slange va! Robert Burns
Cheers wee man, cheers.
Painting of Tam O' Shanter
by: Alexander Grant - my grandfather
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Thursday, January 1, 2009
In Memoriam [Ring out, wild bells]
Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky,
The flying cloud, the frosty light:
The year is dying in the night;
Ring out, wild bells, and let him die.
Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring, happy bells, across the snow:
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true.
Ring out the grief that saps the mind
For those that here we see no more;
Ring out the feud of rich and poor,
Ring in redress to all mankind.
Ring out a slowly dying cause,
And ancient forms of party strife;
Ring in the nobler modes of life,
With sweeter manners, purer laws.
Ring out the want, the care, the sin,
The faithless coldness of the times;
Ring out, ring out my mournful rhymes
But ring fuller minstrel music in.
Ring out false pride in place and blood,
The civic slander and the spite;
Ring in the love of truth and right,
Ring in the common love of good.
Ring out old shapes of foul disease;
Ring out the narrowing lust of gold;
Ring out the thousand wars of old,
Ring in the thousand years of peace.
Ring in the valiant man and free,
The larger heart, the kindlier hand;
Ring out the darkness of the land,
Ring in the New Year that is to be.
Lord Alfred Tennyson
The flying cloud, the frosty light:
The year is dying in the night;
Ring out, wild bells, and let him die.
Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring, happy bells, across the snow:
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true.
Ring out the grief that saps the mind
For those that here we see no more;
Ring out the feud of rich and poor,
Ring in redress to all mankind.
Ring out a slowly dying cause,
And ancient forms of party strife;
Ring in the nobler modes of life,
With sweeter manners, purer laws.
Ring out the want, the care, the sin,
The faithless coldness of the times;
Ring out, ring out my mournful rhymes
But ring fuller minstrel music in.
Ring out false pride in place and blood,
The civic slander and the spite;
Ring in the love of truth and right,
Ring in the common love of good.
Ring out old shapes of foul disease;
Ring out the narrowing lust of gold;
Ring out the thousand wars of old,
Ring in the thousand years of peace.
Ring in the valiant man and free,
The larger heart, the kindlier hand;
Ring out the darkness of the land,
Ring in the New Year that is to be.
Lord Alfred Tennyson
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
The Passing of The Year
My glass is filled, my pipe is lit,
My den is all a cosy glow;
And snug before the fire I sit,
And wait to feel the old year go.
I dedicate to solemn thought
Amid my too-unthinking days,
This sober moment, sadly fraught
With much of blame, with little praise.
Old Year! upon the Stage of Time
You stand to bow your last adieu;
A moment, and the prompter's chime
Will ring the curtain down on you.
Your mien is sad, your step is slow;
You falter as a Sage in pain;
Yet turn, Old Year, before you go,
And face your audience again.
That sphinx-like face, remote, austere,
Let us all read, whate'er the cost:
O Maiden! why that bitter tear?
Is it for dear one you have lost?
Is it for fond illusion gone?
For trusted lover proved untrue?
O sweet girl-face, so sad, so wan
What hath the Old Year meant to you?
And you, O neighbour on my right
So sleek, so prosperously clad!
What see you in that aged wight
That makes your smile so gay and glad?
What opportunity unmissed?
What golden gain, what pride of place?
What splendid hope? O Optimist!
What read you in that withered face?
And You, deep shrinking in the gloom,
What find you in that filmy gaze?
What menace of a tragic doom?
What dark, condemning yesterdays?
What urge to crime, what evil done?
What cold, confronting shape of fear?
O haggard, haunted, hidden One
What see you in the dying year?
And so from face to face I flit,
The countless eyes that stare and stare;
Some are with approbation lit,
And some are shadowed with despair.
Some show a smile and some a frown;
Some joy and hope, some pain and woe:
Enough! Oh, ring the curtain down!
Old weary year! it's time to go.
My pipe is out, my glass is dry;
My fire is almost ashes too;
But once again, before you go,
And I prepare to meet the New:
Old Year! a parting word that's true,
For we've been comrades, you and I --
I thank God for each day of you;
There! bless you now! Old Year, good-bye!
Robert Service
My den is all a cosy glow;
And snug before the fire I sit,
And wait to feel the old year go.
I dedicate to solemn thought
Amid my too-unthinking days,
This sober moment, sadly fraught
With much of blame, with little praise.
Old Year! upon the Stage of Time
You stand to bow your last adieu;
A moment, and the prompter's chime
Will ring the curtain down on you.
Your mien is sad, your step is slow;
You falter as a Sage in pain;
Yet turn, Old Year, before you go,
And face your audience again.
That sphinx-like face, remote, austere,
Let us all read, whate'er the cost:
O Maiden! why that bitter tear?
Is it for dear one you have lost?
Is it for fond illusion gone?
For trusted lover proved untrue?
O sweet girl-face, so sad, so wan
What hath the Old Year meant to you?
And you, O neighbour on my right
So sleek, so prosperously clad!
What see you in that aged wight
That makes your smile so gay and glad?
What opportunity unmissed?
What golden gain, what pride of place?
What splendid hope? O Optimist!
What read you in that withered face?
And You, deep shrinking in the gloom,
What find you in that filmy gaze?
What menace of a tragic doom?
What dark, condemning yesterdays?
What urge to crime, what evil done?
What cold, confronting shape of fear?
O haggard, haunted, hidden One
What see you in the dying year?
And so from face to face I flit,
The countless eyes that stare and stare;
Some are with approbation lit,
And some are shadowed with despair.
Some show a smile and some a frown;
Some joy and hope, some pain and woe:
Enough! Oh, ring the curtain down!
Old weary year! it's time to go.
My pipe is out, my glass is dry;
My fire is almost ashes too;
But once again, before you go,
And I prepare to meet the New:
Old Year! a parting word that's true,
For we've been comrades, you and I --
I thank God for each day of you;
There! bless you now! Old Year, good-bye!
Robert Service
Sunday, December 7, 2008
Enter: The Reductionist Movement
Circa: now.
It is said, when populations of mice and rats form rapidly, the hungry and stressed survivors tend to kill and devour the weaker.
In the case of Lions; When new adult lions take over a pride, they often kill the young and thus eliminate the chance of any rivalry against offspring he later fathers. Successful males that takeover a pride have about 2 years before another younger, stronger coalition replace them.
One of the main reasons for adults killing competitors is due to males taking over leadership of a group.
All of these mechanisms may seem cruel, but many of the strategies have a logical basis, as they are geared towards survival of animal [read: political] groups.
Danton, celebrated/hated/loved French revolutionary leader, himself executed after coming to power, said; "The revolution...devours its own children." Danton as a man “devoid of honor, principles, and morality”, who only found excitement and a chance for distinction. He was merely "a statesman of materialism".
The old revolution, not unlike Goya's 'Saturn devours its own children', was a common saying during the French Revolution (1789) and that it was most famously uttered by Danton during his trial.
By the period Danton fell out of favor with the Committee of Public Safety and Robespierre, the revolution had become so suspicious of loyalism and foreign intervention, it set up kangaroo courts throughout the country to purge society of counterrevolutionaries.
In the end, the people of Paris took virtual control of the National Assembly and the committee of Public Safety.
Successive waves of radicalization, quickly made conservatives out of yesterday's radicals.
Are you seeing what I'm getting at?
Fortunately this is not a revolution.....good god, this is Canada!! We don't do anything here.
I'm just sayin'...
"...by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned"
Georges Jacques Danton October 26, 1759 – April 5, 1794
It is said, when populations of mice and rats form rapidly, the hungry and stressed survivors tend to kill and devour the weaker.
In the case of Lions; When new adult lions take over a pride, they often kill the young and thus eliminate the chance of any rivalry against offspring he later fathers. Successful males that takeover a pride have about 2 years before another younger, stronger coalition replace them.
One of the main reasons for adults killing competitors is due to males taking over leadership of a group.
All of these mechanisms may seem cruel, but many of the strategies have a logical basis, as they are geared towards survival of animal [read: political] groups.
Danton, celebrated/hated/loved French revolutionary leader, himself executed after coming to power, said; "The revolution...devours its own children." Danton as a man “devoid of honor, principles, and morality”, who only found excitement and a chance for distinction. He was merely "a statesman of materialism".
The old revolution, not unlike Goya's 'Saturn devours its own children', was a common saying during the French Revolution (1789) and that it was most famously uttered by Danton during his trial.
By the period Danton fell out of favor with the Committee of Public Safety and Robespierre, the revolution had become so suspicious of loyalism and foreign intervention, it set up kangaroo courts throughout the country to purge society of counterrevolutionaries.
In the end, the people of Paris took virtual control of the National Assembly and the committee of Public Safety.
Successive waves of radicalization, quickly made conservatives out of yesterday's radicals.
Are you seeing what I'm getting at?
Fortunately this is not a revolution.....good god, this is Canada!! We don't do anything here.
I'm just sayin'...
"...by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned"
Georges Jacques Danton October 26, 1759 – April 5, 1794
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Golly GG
Nice to see our Governor General takes dictation well....*....
This was a lose-lose-lose-lose-faeces situation.
None of this is democratic.
None of this attends to the larger questions, or fills the dire lack that Canada faces.
None of this was or is good, but will plague us henceforth.
None of this prepares, ready's or steady's Canada as we head into 2009.
And still no one, is capable of leading our country.
But our trembling little barking mad chihuahua PM has effectively defended [whizzed on] his dog house.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)