12. 21. 2012

Favorite Ancient Civilization :   The Hebrews, of course .......   The world wouldn't have lasted this long without Chicken Soup .......

I just checked my medicine cabinet, and strangely coincidental,all my placebos expire on that date....I had better get the dosage of my placebos increased in anticipation....

As an avid listener to Coast to Coast Am...I've heard various takes on the whole Mayan Calender ending. It always has the same ring as Y2K.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           I have nothing more to add, as this topic has me more confused than having any real understanding. Given all the different points of view on the matter it would seem I'm not alone.          

Wasn't that supposed to be the start-date for the "Age of Aquarius" or something along those lines? I wasn't around for the hippie era, so I may be slightly off.

I don't really have any plans set, yet. If all goes according to plan, I will be 6 months into my (hopefully) better paying job, if I am able to find one after I get my MFA degree, which (also, hopefully) I will be starting in August.

And I am an Aquarius . . . maybe it will be an age shaped by me.

We're going to need more wine.

Starting about mid-2011, I'm going to apply for a dozen or more new credit cards. I'm going to completely renovate my wardrobe and home accessories entirely from the Peterman catalog - probably twice, or at least once for each residence. And then on New Year's Eve I'm going to dress resplendently and take a cocktail on the forward deck of the Valhalla... and wait. Don't disappoint me, Destiny. I'll be dressed to the Nines, and I expect fireworks in Oh-12.

all time and age is shaped by the observer(witness)...therefore creating relevence to it for you.  perceptions of relevance, if you had none?
 
i am.....?

and after the age of aquarius comes slovency ratio...........watch the mushrooms.

Hellsfire, in the old days, they would have been smoking Mushrooms and Brewing Tea ... Mayan Calendars make marvelous wall decorations if one has a large, blank wall somewhere to give some definition to ... but to have to go to a Curandero for a seance to get clarificatrion, is just too much .......   Besides, like Yogi said, "It Ain't Over Till Its Over ..."

I'm just going to keep partying like it's 1999.....

If the world does end in 2012, there's a silver lining.... nobody need worry about Medicare running out of money!

We are who we were and as Yogi Berra says the future ain't what it used to be. Much to be learned from the Mayans but perhaps they should have been more focused on their own longevity instead of some future civilization with problems of its own. But good fodder for cocktail hour on the front porch swing.  

In the meantime, a programming note…


That guy you borrowed an hour from last fall is coming to get it back this weekend.

Doc, you don't need to learn all that stuff. There's iPhone apps for most of it.

What is it about the concept of "calendar" that necessarily creates, in the human mind, a concomitant obsession with its end?

This is the same perverse psychology that follows the Watchmaker argument for so-called "creationism", which goes "If you find a watch laying about, perfectly made and in excellent order, then you may correctly infer that somewhere there is a Watchmaker". So if it's a calendar, then there's a calendar maker, and therefore there must be a date that says 01/01/00? And therefore xx/xx/THE END? Whoever said that failed Intro to Logic. I guarantee it.

Of course when we're talking about Universes, then one has to remark that there is only one of those while there are plenty of watches to be found - and some of them are really cheap. So the simile collapses rather than sustains itself. One can't really make inferential arguments where the conclusion is a set containing Absolutely Everything.

And I can't imagine why I should be special on the following account, but it just doesn't seem a difficult thing for me to imagine the converse of the "Calendars Must End" argument, namely that "Nothing Ever Ends. Or Begins." But I talk to people all the time who get visibly agitated at the idea that they exist in a stream of time that has no beginning and no end. Why this is a difficult Prime Condition of the Universe for people to accept is a mystery to me; just say it, and be done - "Nothing begins or ends" (including you, probably).

Now, if people take issue with that on the basis of a faith... Well, they're asking and answering their own questions there, so they're on their own. But even if I were a believing sort of fellow, there's a whole lot of scriptural text throughout the world's religions that says, in essence, "These sorts of things you don't need to know about, and you can't know about it, so stop worrying and just be a good person."

Naps and cookies!

And scotch.

And by the way, a completely over-looked and AWESOME movie to watch tangential to this topic is Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz in "The Fountain".

Predicting the end of time has been done to death. If the world should stop revolving on 12-21-2012, or even end tomorrow, I would have no control over its demise. I long ago stopped worrying about things I cannot control. I have more than enough other things to worry about besides the possibility of approaching doom that I am powerless to prevent.
So, while I find myself here on a planet that still exists, I will live each moment as if my life is a dot. The dot is now...this very moment...and each moment is the pinnacle of my life. It matters not how good or how bad the moment is, but it's my moment in time - and that's the point!
As for the celebration, I do think a round of hot chocolates is apropos...perhaps with a wee bit of peppermint schnapps added to also honor Einstein's theory that time is part of the universe and cannot be separated from the space it travels in...besides, a Peppermint Patty just tastes great!

Ditto, BEBE.

From what I've gathered 12-21-2012 will not signal the end of the world but the end of an era.  Signs all indicate major changes but the signs are positive. Some are looking for a cosmic shift.  We shall see.

Bebe:   I  like  your  strategy ....   When  in  doubt,  party  and  party  HARD. 
Jonathan:   You're  quite  Jesuitical  today.   I  remember  being asked  to  analyze  theories  for  determining  how  many  angels  could  sit  on  the  head  of  a  pin.   I don't  think  I  did  fairly well,  "Nobody  gives  a  rat's  arse"  was  an  unacceptable  answer.

I'd hoped that moving on from the Oughties would banish fin-de-siecle angst.

On 12/12/2012 I'll be 62. My head will explode and cover the earth in darkness for 2 and a half seconds, after which the disaster team will clear away the confetti and half empty cocktail glasses, and I'll go back to waiting for 12/12/2112 when the magnetic poles shift and we won't know which end is up.

To do list:

12:21:2012 Buy green bananas

12:24:2012 Buy green bananas
Late night ride on thesepia train under the light of a silvery moon. It'll be chilly outside so the fire place will be roaring. Your seat by the window is reserved for you. 

12:25:2012:  Christmas Day, be grateful and smoke 'em if you got 'em

BONGO:  My Dunce Cap is off to you, Sir !!!!!!!

Backpackers learn that 'the end of time' is a slippery concept since the last mile always takes forever to go by and the first mile is gone before you notice... The really IMPORTANT 'time issue' is 'when is sunset?' (especially on rocky paths high up in the Ozarks...).   Calendars are handy in places where clocks are so much overkill.  Example: "When are you coming off the trail?" means what DAY are you finishing, not what TIME.  Of course folks tracking the ages of stars figure days are a ridiculously silly concept (like, is the Sun 2.5 billion years and fourteen days old OR 2.5 billion years and fifteen days old?).  At the other end of the spectrum are the guys messing with mesons, positrons, and the evanescent (and possibly mythical) Higgs boson.  Oh, my, time is a mess!  Let's go back with Rosemary to thyme!  Or pig and pepper, to shamelessly steal a friend's re-discovery.

I find it immensely satisfying when I get on Continental's CO-6 flight in Tokyo at 4:10 p.m. and and arrive at 1:50 p.m. the same day -- more than two hours earlier than I left!  Who says one can't time travel!

To do list:

12:26:2010 J. Peterman's Annual Sale

Since the Mayans were into corn, I think corn liquor is the way to go. Anyone know any moonshine sources? I'm ready for a cosmic shift. Funny post Mr. P.

I just need to know which shoes go good with 2012?

Actually, the Mayan civilization, as they knew it, died long before 2012 -- not sure what that says about their predictions. 

Been a while, thought I would look around.  Not being Mayan and since I lost Trask's borrowed hour, I'm heading out back to make more crop circles. 

Good point Cyndy....think I'll just appreciate my little silver box with a miniature Mayan calendar on the lid and let the rest of the world go by....

Stopped by Stoney's to return his hockey skates. He was on the speaker phone with a doctor, David, in India answering questions about diet, water consumption, meds and sleep.
"Forget that eight hours stuff. I don't go to bed that early and I don't sleep much after the sun is up."
The doctor is good humored because he wants to open up an avenue of inquiry beyond what they agreed to.
Stoney is patient in explaining the difference between bending over backwards and forward.
"Just keep on being you, my friend," says the MD, "see you next mo."

Stoney makes a phone call: "Karen? No, I don't want to talk to him. Do you have that list of questions? Let's do it... Hey, look at me and listen! Yes; yes; yes; almost never;
not ever; don't ask me that and May 3rd."
He waits for a read-back and hangs up all in under a minute. Very un-Stoneylike.

He has created a music file I requested for me to burn but I have to click the button and wait.

He's out the door on the way to the gym. The door reopens: "You know I love you... right?"
"Get outta heah."
His desktop, usually choked with little stories, has only two files. One showing that he won an Elmore Leonard sound-alike contest in which two of the other fifty-some entries actually were Leonard quotes and this:

The unread daily papers are piled inside the door
The neglected brindle boxer sleeps in sunshine on the floor.

Which is true or would be if it weren't for the fog.

There are cookies, although not thin mints, and a couch. They won't be back until three thirty central.







 

House Guest - Give Stoney a big Howdy-Doo from me and keep one for yourself.

Be well and content, House Guest and Stoney. (How is that not possible when you are in possession of a couch and cookies?!)

Y'all Have a Great Week End !!!
 
Be Safe, Be Well, and Enjoy it All !!!


Blessings To Everyone .......

DO YOU ALL NOT KNOW WHAT THAT DATE ON THE CALENDAR REALLY MEANS?!?       THAT THE CUBS HAVE WON THE WORLD SERIES   .   .   .   could be

Oh, RoadYacht...then that will be the day my husband will be in Seventh Heaven. I get it now!

Jalopkin:  and Mel Brook and bagels!

It does seem to have the same ring as the doom sayers anticipating (dreading) Y2K.

"Brooks" with an "s" -- even reading it over looked right -- damn!  It's that second glass of wine at dinner -- used to hold it so much better

I believe ANDY is also partying like it's 1999....

RY-- I would go w/ a simple spat....

John ~ Are you still around tonight?

BeBe~ i won't argue  with you...it's not worth a fight...   .   .   (I know that's not what you meant..he he he )

With Mel Brooks and Bagels, Andy, and just a little schmear .......
 
 
 
maybe a little Felafel ... with Cucumber Sauce ....... and the tiniest hint of Mint .......

Roadie, I knew you a sterling, upstanding, stalwart character of the highest order. But a Cubs fan, too?!? Well done. I'm damned proud to know you.

Jonathan Isles of the West Coast Bay of San Francisco is a Cubs fan?
 
You must have some midwest history?
 
No matter:  Welcome to Wrigleyville Online.  I believe we have season bleacher seats for all Eye Bleacher Bums.  I think we'll need more than a few seats... 
 
 
(I agree about RY's character.  I'm damn proud to know him too.)