Thursday, September 28, 2017

Unfortunately...

I can't continue this..., whatever this is, the way it's been going, do to exhaustion.

When come home from work, like today, I'm just too tired to do this to the point where it feels like I have to, not like I want to.

So, I've decided to slow down. I'm not going to be doing it like clockwork. Meaning, I may post something now and again.

I'm leaving ChipA on as an administrator, hopefully he will continue to post as he has in the past.

Thank you all for coming and hopefully you will find it worth your while to keep doing so.

I'm not going away.

New York City, 1960

32 comments:

Evi L. Bloggerlady said...

I am so sorry Lem. If you need a rest, rest up.

Donny Genaro said...

Don't blame you Lem. Thanks for what is surely a challenging task making posts that keep everyone talking.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

A few times I've woke up in the middle of the night because I had failed to schedule something.

Thank you for your understanding.

edutcher said...

Dude, everybody needs a break.

With the swarm of commenters and contributors here, it must be like herding a swarm of gnats.

Hey, Chip, does this make you Pharaoh or just Im Ho Tep?

Trooper York said...

Lem you will always be our peerless leader.

You are the man!

Methadras said...

Hang in there, Lem. Rest up and take care of yourself dude.

chickelit said...

I've lost my posting privileges, it seems. The upper right "portal to post" only leads now to my own blog, El Pollo Real.

I made a post based on an email from Sixty Grit and published it link

Trooper York said...

It looks like I can not post either.

I think it is just a temporary glitch.

rcommal said...

Lem:

It appears that you have a choice.

Knowing you over a decade, I suspect that you'd choose Troop Yorker and chickelit over harder things.

rcommal said...

A question, Lem:

How 'bout your relatives?

(Alternatively, perhaps you've been a liar, from the start, Lem. What's your ethnicity, dude: I'm asking you, Lem.)

AllenS said...

Take a break, Lem, don't worry about us.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Lem - If you need to shut this place down because Ed never gives this blog a dime - just do it.

bagoh20 said...

A good life has many chapters. Don't be afraid to turn the page. You don't owe any of us a thing. Thank you so much for what you have already done.

Don't pick on Ed. He's saving that dime for Trump 2020.

bagoh20 said...

" I suspect that you'd choose Troop Yorker and chickelit over harder things."

Cialis was invented to give everyone a fair chance.

It's FRIDAAAAAAYYYYY, you S.O.B.s!

Trooper York said...

Lem is a good man.

He needs make no apology for anything.

It was fun while it lasted.

The Dude said...

It is not ending, it is merely changing. Chip Ahoy is capable of keeping this ship afloat.

I am starting to think that there is a correlation between becoming a homeopath and profound pessimism.

Trooper York said...

Chip is great at doing his thing. No doubt about that.

Amartel said...

Thank you for hanging in with this motley crew and giving us an unsafe place to vent!

The Dude said...

The list of contributors needs to be lengthened. Troop and CL need to be added back at a bare minimum.

Rabel said...

Thanks for the blog, Lem.

Titus said...

take care Lem

ricpic said...

My take on this is that it's more important to Lem to make supervisor than it is to entertain us. And it is!

MamaM said...

For once, Titus and I are on the same page!

"Take care of yourself, Lem" is the message I wish to convey as well. When inner levity is compromised, overwhelmed, taxed, exhausted, depleted, or lost, it's time to take a step back and engage in rest, reflection and recharge.

Although it sounded from this post as though Lem alone was stepping back with the intent of taking a break and posting less frequently or not at all for a while, I did not get the impression the blog was being closed down. The comments however, raise questions.

Will the blog continue "as is", minus Lem for a while?
Are finances and funding for the blog pressing issues that need to be presented to the commenters and addressed?
Are more co-contributers needed and wanted?
Is there an email where contributions (like 60G's pictures) could be sent for posting by one of the co-contributers?
And the big one---
What is the current point and purpose of this Blog, and what tone and content in posts and comments would support and encourage that purpose?


I go back to the origin of "levity", with roots in the latin levis (Light) and this:

Gravity & Levity: Why-How Opposites Attract [W.H.O.A]


Gravity was Zarathustra’s archenemy. Gravity is the fabric of Newton’s legacy. And, when I first heard John Mayer’s song ‘Gravity’ I was blown away…like Aristotle envisioned fire escaping gravity and levitating to the sphere of the moon’s orb…where the light is.

Seneca saw levity as the bone of all good and virtuous. George Bernard Shaw believed levity to be the best package for communicating the right things to say. And, when I first read Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s ‘Antifragility’ I solidified my thinking about the importance of blending polar opposites into our lives…and our decisions.

Then I read Galileo’s ‘Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems’: gravity & levity became front and centre in my thoughts…and they stayed there…two polar opposites, hand-in-hand, sharing centre stage.

While some see his as dark, I think Nietzsche is the most-interesting philosopher…brilliant beyond bi-polar…meshing messages of and with gravity & levity:

“Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.”

“The certain prospect of death could sweeten every life with a precious and fragrant drop of levity – and now you strange apothecary souls have turned into an ill-tasting drop of poison that makes the whole of life repulsive.”

“I would believe only in a God that knows how to Dance.” Friedrich Nietzsche
By Rick Baker Jun 13, 2013 Gravity & Levity: polar opposites, each laced with double entendre.

MamaM said...

More on The Why and W.H.O.A Part: (continued)

Why-How Opposites Attract [WHOA]

WHY?

An intentional blend of gravity & levity helps ensure variety and moderation.
An intentional blend of gravity & levity promotes balance and curiosity.
An intentional blend of gravity & levity builds character.
HOW?

Read works that blend gravity & levity…as examples, choose Nietzsche over Newton…choose Twain and Taleb
Listen to works that blend gravity & levity...from the Beatles to Beethoven…with some Wagner samplers in between
Experience the gravity & levity of the arts…from Michelangelo's David to David Blaine...without riding on high horses
OPPOSITES ATTRACT!

Gravity keeps our feet on the ground; Levity places our head above our feet.
Gravity attracts one body to another; Levity adds dance to their relationship.
Gravity draws and centres; Levity enjoys new horizons.


So, when it comes to gravity & levity I will pay attention to When-How Opposites Attract.

And I am with Nietzsche and Mayer, if I must choose between gravity & levity…

WHOA gravity, stay the hell away from me

Gravity & Levity: the Meaning & History of the Words

Source: Online Etymological Dictionary

gravity (n.)

c.1500, "weight, dignity, seriousness," from Middle French gravité "seriousness, thoughtfulness," and directly from Latin gravitatem (nominative gravitas) "weight, heaviness, pressure," from gravis "heavy" (see grave (adj.)). The scientific sense of "force that gives weight to objects" first recorded 1640s.

levity (n.)

"want of seriousness, frivolity," 1560s, from Latin levitatem (nominative levitas) "lightness, frivolity," from levis "light" in weight (see lever) + -ity.

Trooper York said...

As usual Mama M puts her finger on it.

Just be careful. You can catch something. Just sayn'

ricpic said...

When you think of how brilliant and iconoclastic Nietzsche was and how he had to fight his own Germanic heaviness his whole life..and did fight it. He took flight in German! All the while complaining bitterly about the clumsiness, the ungainliness of the vehicle. If you ever get a chance there is a short story by Robert Walser (who is Swiss not German) about another shooting star German, Kleist. It's called Kleist In Thun. Kleist was a poet in the late 19th century who died at some ridiculously young age. Thun is a lake in, I believe, the German Alps. And the story is about Kleist spending a summer at the lake. He's in ecstasy. He's in despair. Back and forth, back and forth. It's an excruciating story in which nothing really happens. Nothing but Kleists' internal barometer registering registering registering. I don't know how Walser does it...but he does it.

ricpic said...

That should be late 18th Century. More or less the Beethoven years.

MamaM said...

Just be careful. You can catch something. Just sayn'

Would catching a kleist in the Thun count?

Thanks, to both of you!

ricpic said...

If you google kleist in thun and scroll down to Selected stories - page 17 - google book results, you'll be able to read the story. Well, almost the whole story, they've left out 2 pages, who knows why, but you'll get the picture. Now you have no excuse! ha ha ha

MamaM said...

Googled with story and pictures received, including on of Lake Thun http://www.heinrich-von-kleist.org/en/kleist-museum/web-archiv/kleist-year-2011/kleist-in-thun/

It's one-of-a-kindness, that matters to me, whether it's in the poetry of words used to describe the writing of another who's written on another, or an unusual video that in the same "madeja look" vein.

Art Prize 2017, currently the largest art competition in the world, is underway in Grand Rapids, Mi right now, with much going on that is and isn't worth a look. http://www.mlive.com/artprize/index.ssf/2017/09/big_and_prominent_2017_artpriz.html

Back in 2010, one of the prize winners was a pencil drawing on a sheet of paper 39 feet long and 12 feet tall, by the artist, Chris LaPorte who used a 2H pencil to create a gigantic drawing of a 1921 group photo of WWI Cavalry soldiers, with the description, "E PLURIBUS UNUM...Of many one". https://www.flickr.com/photos/stevedontsurf/5036418703/

The "of many one" and "through one, more" dynamics present in that picture are part of what I appreciate here.

This year MrM and I both scheduled our health appointments for September, recalling something MHaz shared here several years ago about he and his wife intentionally making September their month for taking inventory of their health. There are also three homes in my sphere of influence that have Awesome Cleaner (from the dollar store) in their cleaning cupboard as a result of a mention here followed by the purchase and effective use of that yellow stuff. (The clerk at the Dollar store where I bought the first 1/2 gallon showed me a white area on the dirty tile floor where someone had dropped a bottle as further evidence of its superlative cleaning power!) Seemingly small ways one life influences another, with the awareness that more than can be imagined or known takes place when lives and stories are shared and humans come together.

chickelit said...

I wonder if you're talking about the Thunersee in Switzerland. "Thunersee" translates as Lake Thun. It's not in Germany, but rather Switzerland.

Years ago, my wife made a framed collage of postcards and photos from our time in Europe (1990-1993). One of the collage members is an aerial photo postcard of Sundlauenen am Thunersee showing a tiny Swiss village perched lakeside. I remember this well: we spent a night there on a brief holiday there when we lived there. Stunning, absolutely gorgeous.

During our recent move, the glass in the framed collage broke, and I collected all the cards, photos and frame, and intend to have it reframed. I'm sitting at my desk holding all the cards and photos. I published one of the photos on my old blog. Can you guess which one? (It wasn't Sundlaunenen. Hint: beer).

The Dude said...

Wait, hold on just a dadgummed minute - are you telling me that floors can be cleaned? I would relate how the clean spots show up on my kitchen floor, but someone might find that story indelicate.