Sunday, June 23, 2013

I think I have learned a few things in life.




I think I have learned a few things in life. One of them is that I do not have dominate every conversation. I don't have to carry the ball all the time and should let other people talk and dominate the conversation. I mean they are not as entertaining as me (he said modestly) but what are you gonna do. When I am in social situations now I consciously stop myself from talking. The inane bullshit that spews from other people is somewhat annoying but it seems to please them so let I figure let them go crazy.

I have a saying that I tell the wife all the time. You are not the bride. People aren't hanging on your every word or action. Let them do their own thing.

The last vestiges of the old attitude remains in the internets. I like to argue and I like to state what I think. But now I think it is at the point of diminishing returns. I would like to spend more time on the creative side of things. But I don't know if I have the time or the inclination anymore.

I mean who wants to be Donald Trump?

41 comments:

windbag said...

Well said. I used to have to "fix" everybody. Thank God I didn't have kids until I was 32. I'd have warped them even more. Anyhow, a few years back I told a guy, "There's mercy to be wrong." And there is. Nobody (even me I must admit...reluctantly) is right 100% of the time. We're all wrong about something. And that's okay. It's been a struggle to STFU, but I try. I actually gets easier, but (for me anyway) it comes with the price tage of not caring.

Trooper York said...

Very true. Sometimes I just tune out. I don't want to argue the point. Especially with people who don't have any facts.

Obama had a lot to do with that. You just can't argue with magical thinking.

Evi L. Bloggerlady said...

Troop, live well and know you have friends. Fuck the rest of them.

chickelit said...

Like tweeted Darcy the other day: "I've thought a lot of tweets I've never written. If that leaves you guessing, I'm sorry."

ricpic said...

When all the floors are marble and all the fixtures gold,
Trump's vision realized, "Yes, that's class!"
Trumpteam done at last.

chickelit said...

I rarely insist on having the last word in disputes.

Evi L. Bloggerlady said...

I rarely insist on having the last word in disputes.

You can choose to be right or be happy. And yes, they are sometimes mutually exclusive. That advice only applies to people you love. As for douchebags, you are always right.

Evi L. Bloggerlady said...

Here is a Trump Truth: Comb overs never work.

The Dude said...

I comb my beard over the top of my head. No one notices.

MamaM said...

No one notices.

Try midasizing with some gold spray for added cachet and glimmer and see what happens.

He's a character, that's for sure. I wonder if he doesn't care, does it on purpose, or thinks it looks good? Maybe a combination of all three? As with Ted Turner, behind the big ego was/is someone much smaller and younger who encountered opposition at a young age.

''He was a pretty rough fellow when he was small,'' recalled his father, who packed off his obstreperous teen-age son to the New York Military Academy...

Obstreperous: to make a noise against.

chickelit said...

I once worked with an older patent attorney who also had orange-colored hair. It looks weird, but we shouldn't judge. Or so I'm told.

MamaM said...

I rarely insist on having the last word in disputes.

Not much to say to, "No one likes a weasel, Chickie," except. "No, they don't."

Weasels consider chickens prey. Weasels have been notorious for killing entire coops of chickens. These killing sprees are probably brought on by the smell of blood. They kill with a few quick bites to the base of the skull.

Hawks, owls, foxes, and cats are among those who prey on weasels. Along with snakes.

Evi L. Bloggerlady said...

Sixty Grit said...
I comb my beard over the top of my head. No one notices.

June 24, 2013 at 10:20 AM


Never say never. That is a come over that would probably work.

MamaM said...

Gilding the lily couldn't hurt.

MamaM said...

I used to have to "fix" everybody

I was greatly surprised when the wise counselor told me fixing and convincing was off the table. But...but...but, I'd been doing it for so long and was so good at it. Who knew? What do you mean check my motives??? Weren't they all good? The other piece involved allowing myself to think and say, "I could be wrong", since being wrong meant losing in my either/or world. The buffer or salve involved finding out that criticism is the gift of discernment gone too far. This brought me back to truth and grace, which is really discernment and compassion without the intensity of drama. This is still a hard place for me to find and hold. I'm so often off track I wonder now if caring without fixing or convincing might be part of the narrow way mentioned by the Good Teacher?

Windbag, I appreciate your comment as it allowed me this memory and reflection.

Our eldest turned 27 today and I was 32 when he was born. I'd told MrM I was tired of travel (having been a travel agent) when we made the decision to start a family, not knowing I was about to embark on a journey that would profoundly and blessedly change my life.

With regard to Trump's hair, I wonder if it might serve as a flying FU to what whatever the Military Academy considered special back when he was a lad! It surely seems to shimmer with some kind of perverse glory!

The Dude said...

MamaM - that is good insight. Thanks for writing that.

Why just this week at market I quoted the XKCD comic "Are you coming to bed?" "I can't, this is important" "What?" "Something is wrong on the internet."

Yeah, that one hit kind of close to home.

As it turns out there is much that is wrong on the internet, all I can attempt to do is not be part of the wrong part. Even that, of course, is just a matter of perspective.

But I did mow the front yard this evening, so at least that is right.

Michael Haz said...

@Windbag - Well said. Thank you.

I'm genetically wired to be a fixer. Whatever the problem was, I took it as my job to fix it, never mind that sometimes the problems could be fixed by their owners. This was especially true with my daughter.

I've learned in the last few years to stand back a bit. I still care, but now it's mostly passive; more like just watching to see how someone will solve their own problems, then being quietly happy when it happens.

windbag said...

MamaM/Michael, thanks for the kind words.

Evi L. Bloggerlady said...

James Gandolfini should have switched to red wine...

Then again, maybe not.

windbag said...

Off topic for only a few sentences here...

My wife took in an all-day seminar on ObamaCare (CPE credit for her EA status). Folks, we are fucked. Accountants are fucked. Taxpayers are fucked. Our country is fucked. You would not believe the shit of a mess this beast is.

There's a new term "Household Income." If you have a boarder in your spare bedroom, or let your brother-in-law live in your basement, he has to know your income to compute his "household income." And you have to know his in order to compute yours.

If you have 100 employees, and one qualifies for insurance on the healthcare exchange, you can be liable for a $2000 fine. Oh, not just for the one employee. For all 100 employees. That's just the start.

We. are. fucked.

Rant over.

windbag said...

On a lighter note, I watched our two cats in the yard a couple hours ago. The crazy one approached the nice one as she laid in the bed of day lilies. He forced her to move from her spot. Then he shit where she was napping. I guess since she doesn't wear shoes, that's as close as he can manage to insult her.

dbp said...

I think that having a spirited conversation is fine as long as you realize something: Most of the time there is nothing you can say which will change their mind. And therefore, only participate if you enjoy the sparring for its own sake.

Evi L. Bloggerlady said...

windbag, the good news is Obamacare is so fucked that it will not be an entitlement that will endear itself to voters. Most people are going to be worse off with Obamacare.

So have faith, this too shall pass. Provided the GOP does not give the farm away and get as focused on Democrat hogs like a certain commentator who used to post here and at TOP.

The Dude said...

Obamacare, an albatross and nemesis rolled into one!

It's a dessert topping and floor wax!

chickelit said...

Bravo, Sixty!

I fond that old commercial trying to hunt down the one where the the kid comes running into the kitchen and is borne aloft on an imaginary protective shield to protect the floor.

Anyone else have brain cells storing such useless data? The product name would help.

blake said...

I think Trump's toupee wouldn't mind switching places with the rest of him from time-to-time.

chickelit said...

Found it! Glo-Coat floor wax.

There is probably an interesting chemical story behind each of claims in the product. I have the means to find out and amuse you.

MamaM said...

What's the use of a library full of books, when entering the words "dessert topping floor wax" into the magic box produces a shimmering story complete with sound?

Spokesman: [ enters quickly ] Hey, hey, hey, calm down, you two. New Shimmer is both a floor wax and a dessert topping! Here, I'll spray some on your mop.. [ sprays Shimmer onto mop ] ..and some on your butterscotch pudding. [ sprays Shimmer onto pudding ]

[ Husband eats while Wife mops ]

Husband: Mmmmm, tastes terrific!

Wife: And just look at that shine! But will it last?


As for the albatross and nemesis rolled into one, this hot mess o' waxen feathers sprang to mind.

TTBurnett said...

MamaM: Your Dryad's delightful derrière dominates the depiction of doom.

The Dude said...

Funny, that. All that marvelous painterly technique, the feathers, the hair, details like the lyre and the straps, the background, the surface crazing, yet somehow the eye is drawn to the lower right corner of the canvas.

Draper is listed as a classicist, but I see a strong link to the Pre-Raphaelites. What do I know - I'm colorblind. Even with that, however, I can see babes skinny dippin'. Old, not dead.

chickelit said...

MamaM said...
What's the use of a library full of books, when entering the words "dessert topping floor wax" into the magic box produces a shimmering story complete with sound?

Finding something in the magic box clicks off another death of the original. We can delight in the modern efficiency of such deaths compared to the agony of the olden days. One will never find true, new, and original in Google. One can only put such there. Such is the modern triumph of analysis over synthesis.

TTBurnett said...

MamaM: More poetically, I should have written,

Your Dryad's distracting derrière
Delightfully dominates depictions of doom.


Alliteration aimed at adult abecedarians.

The Dude said...

Abecedarians were a 16th-century German sect of Anabaptists who effected an absolute disdain for all human knowledge...

Nicholas Storch led this sect, and his descendant later led a troop.

They got as far as the letter F.

MamaM said...

Draper's druids, not mine, TT. I was the posting vessel prompted by knowledge and spirit. Treasure in a jar as opposed to magic in a box.

Appreciating your thoughtful comment, El Pollo.

Wax 'n' Feathers would have been better than waxen feathers, though the composition of those portrayed is questionable as they don't appear to have melted but remain fanned in glorious array around the man whose hubris led to his demise.

For the ladies and for contrast, here's another choosing the camel hair option for desert dress. Oddly enough, this one, with the gold atop his head a la Trump seems to have more in common with the Storch than meets the eye.

MamaM said...

I recently watched a Nova show on fractals and the repeat of shapes within shapes used in art (and films) to create background, and it looks as if that technique may have been used in the 1400's by Domenico to create the mountains. Not sure about that, but the show said once you start looking, they show up everywhere.

MamaM said...

Oops! Draper's Dryads.

TTBurnett said...

Ugh! How did I miss "Draper's Dryads?" I paid no attention to the artist, even after Sixty mentioned him. There are two reasons for this:

1. I am too busy and distracted to closely read things on the internet, or anywhere else for that matter.
2. There are approximately 300 square miles of such paintings from the mid-to-late 19th century. They display similar degrees of finish, and often include young Victorian women in various states of undress. Such women make me wish I was born 100 years before I was. The quality of dentistry, among many other things, makes me happy with my 20th century birthday.

Dust Bunny Queen said...

My wife took in an all-day seminar on ObamaCare (CPE credit for her EA status). Folks, we are fucked. Accountants are fucked. Taxpayers are fucked. Our country is fucked. You would not believe the shit of a mess this beast is.

My life, health and disability insurance license is up in October for renewal. I let my Securities licensees, with the exception of my 65 lapse with my retirement or abandonment of my financial planning and stock brokerage office in Jan 2011.

I was considering keeping the life and health for the next couple of years just in case I decided to get more active in that part of the business, and to keep my residuals coming. BUT....given the can of worms, giant shit pile that Obamacare is and that almost no one really knows WTF to do or what is going on.....I probably won't bother. On the other hand, heck. Why not keep the license? It isn't as if I HAVE to sell a policy right now, but if I have the desire to join an established insurance office, I would still have the option.

/shrug.

MamaM said...

Ugh! How did I miss "Draper's Dryads?

It's more fun when you do.

The Dude said...

A triad of drip-drying Draper dryads draped over and doting on a dead dude.

Yeah, I got nuttin'...

chickelit said...

Appreciating your thoughtful comment, El Pollo.

I meant to say that Google constitutes or aims to comprise the entire "prior art." If you have a thought and find it in the magic box it's not truly new and original {I originally mistyped "true and original").

I may be too influenced by the legal definition of prior art however and perhaps you can correct me.