Porthole

Sixteenth week of the New Year

04

It will rain.

Posted photos, may add more: "🇵🇹 Fotos de Portugal" 

Scored a lump of beast. It's thawing in vinegar. Sauerbraten? Also ground beef and bacon and what I presume is chicken...

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/my-family-visited-a-town-where-cellphones-a...

I get the idea that internet and wifi has become an addiction; but, she didn't know about the area and her husband had to tell her? How disconnected from reality was she?

Here: lovely calm morning will be followed by rain.

To Stik re "You need to learn how to face the pain" : "Clear focused writing as always. Perhaps I was wise to approach this task by staying in fiction.

I prefer bittersweet, saudade, quiet suffering and unresolved endings. "The Umbrellas of Cherbourg" and "Rashomon" immediately come to mind. It's not that there isn't joy, but real life isn't just sunrises and sunsets.

Some in the MAGA world are so convinced that they know the Truth that they forget that they can only see part of it. MALA? Makes me want to move to somewhere where I can watch the horror movie from a distance.

As for me... my 'activist' days seem to be over. I can still observe and squawk but once-upon-a-time I actively worked on 'community' facing up to racism and religious divide by bringing folks physically together. Lots of work."

My travel blog "On The Write Path"  received 2nd place in the Bard's Contest. I can now revise and add photos!

America is a tapestry woven from cotton picked by slaves, dyed with the blood of a million immigrants, covering a festive board provided by the sweat of migrant workers, a gathering disrespectful of those who lived here first, trampled by the narrow-minded who will not open up their arms to embrace all that it can be... as anger breeds anger, as fireworks terrify dogs and cats and pistols are pointed at each other, unaware that this too shall pass. K.E.

To Jim: "An odd question... Are most of your co-workers/clients male? I ask because some fields are almost mono-gender and that can lead to unexpected blind spots. Same with mono-cultural environments. I suspect (from prior personal experience) that diversity can threaten some people; but different p.o.v.s are essential to understanding anything, even technical fields."

05

I've left my eloquence at the corner of L and Quincy.

To Hermione Cortez on FB: "Nice update... I just want friends who'll sit and chat. That concept has gone out of style. At WDC I want connection... but people don't blog anymore and those that do don't leave comments. The society, even among writers, has shifted away from comunication, verbal or otherwise. The Queer Qommunity there is struggling."

To Nick Engler on FB: "Makes its point but it's a bit harsh. Women should dress however they wish. A handmaid's uniform is most proper for church... find your nearest Southern Baptist outlet, your local Catholic pay-for-sins pavilion and any LCMS storefront... not to forget the LDS magic boutique. Since they are all tax-free admission should be free... except for the LDS... they check your temple card/passport."

"Snowfall in Loei" possible GL with the color white symbolizing different times if year: hot, dry, wet, cool. It's a province (changwat) of flowers, fruits and coffee. Coffee flowers are white and very fragrant. Sounds? White lights like fireworks/rockets. Taste? White fruit/food. What turns white as it dies?

"Pathumma of Chaiyaphum" (ปทุมมาชัยภูมิ) (walk through pathumma in Chaiyaphum = เดิน
ผ่านปทุมมาที่ชัยภูมิ) Pathumma/Krachiao can be white or violet or? In any case a love affair/attraction between two men of different generations. I imagined two particular actors for the role, but may need three.

Red glow to the northwest hugging the jagged horizon.

06

Warmish morning, supposed to get toasty.

Uneasy night. Possibly ate too much yesterday.

At least I paid my rent. I never miss it. But I don't necessarily know what day it is other than today is grocery shopping. I have enough food but need bread.

Found tickets to Thailand in October... do I dare purchase? And what to do or where to go before then? I feel my axis of anxiety/depression wobbling. And that's not good.

God's Waiting Room: sat with Merry and Kay.

Tuna was on sale.

Wants to sprinkle... will it?

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/why-the-far-right-is-desperate-to-push-false-c...

Blame the trannies since blaming niggers won't workkk...

Why do I use these terms? Because the underlying hatred hasn't changed. And while woke-folk argue over properly correct terms the haters just go on hating with impunity.

To Gen Z: I was woke before your daddy was a wet-dream. Interestingly enough, There are haters among you as haters spawned haters, the unwoke, a Gen z-as-in-zombies when they refuse to think or check facts. They hide behind unholy treatises and books just like the sycophants in Germany, 1934, or the ignorant during the Inquisition. Hatred and ignorance, just like the trauma it inflicts, can be multi-generational (ask the Serbs and Croatians) as many religious groups are good at indoctination to ensure that each and every generation carries forth their legacy of supremacy of us-over-them.

Rather than a trial to assign blame and pass judgement, mere slaps and bandages, I'd rather have an inquest to look at the origins of Gen Z's sinners. Were they raised this way? taught in school? inseminated by a cult-leader of a so-called church? or a pied-piper-politician? Are they sins of ommission, commission or just ejaculation? Are they truly held beliefs or merely peer-pressured-poison? Is their insistence of my-way-or-the gas-chamber a real threat or merely smoke and illusion? Would a rainbow add color to their monocular black/white world?

I'll be long-dead, but Gen Z must face up to these threats or merely become another historical footnote in the dog-eat-dog dystopia they inherited and then gave birth to.

17:40 Thunder... not very common in Western Montana, but then neither is the rain or green-green hills.

Well-worn copper

Lincoln never visited Denver a mob-ruled town
where "a man's life is of no more worth than a dog's"*
Now I gaze at his worn face minted in 1999
stamped with a D.
But not D for Dad who died in 1999
when this coin was a shiny copper.
And not dust as surely both now are,
as surely as I will be some day.
I toss it into a jar.
How can a penny be worth so little
when once as a child I counted every one.

© Copyright 2022 Kåre Enga [179.43] (6.juli.2022)

* William Hepworth Dixon

Rain around 19:30. Chatted with Birgit whilst eating penne with spicy yellow tomato mash.

07

FB re America was founded by Christians: Regardless of the religious beliefs of the invaders, can we move on from that. I believe we are living in a post-Christian world. Some folks seem stuck in the past.

At least I was up by 08:30.

Hermione posted a meme on fb. "How do you tell someone "you're stupid" politely?"

Wisdom has been chasing you but you've always been faster.

My response: "And here I thought I was a slug. Maybe wisdom took one look and just said ugh."

Posted the Newsfeed:

"No one can see my meltdown from a distance. I've mentioned my anxiety and depression; but, this may send both to heights and depths I may or may not be capable of dealing with.

If you were here I'd ask for help but at a distance there's nothing you can do. It's up to those physically here to help or not help. So, this message is to inform, not ask advice.

I remember 7/7/77. It was a very bad day. This 7/7/22 just needs to be endured and gotten past."

No details will be forthcoming. 🤐

To Jeff: "I really should rate the Thai TV series I've watched. Some were absolutely awesome... others... fell short. I cringed at times.

But the WHY is more important than the rating. I think I've watched enough now to have some insight into Thai culture (those things that foreigners don't understand and complain about). I may make a separate listing of "what I've learned".

Whan I go to Thailand I'm in for a shock! TV isn't reality but I know I'll be somewhere and have the feeling I've been there before. At least Thai TV is closer to reality than Ye Olde Hollywood (but suffers from similar issues) and feels more real than much of what passes as entertainment in the US. The tropes are different, in the sense that the spice is different, as is the taste of the audience."

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/transgender-woman-caught-in-montana-birth-cert...

Some right-wingers are trying to hang the label 'trans' on shooters as a deflection from 'AR-15 is a military assault weapon'. That way they can ban anyone who's trans instead of guns.

Got to chat with Birgit. We did have some drops. Beautiful sunset.

Watching ขั้วฟ้าของผม | Sky In Your Heart ... a light rom-com. Not learning much.

Article re Zuckerberg admonishing him: "Research shows that employees thrive in an environment that promotes psychological safety, where people feel safe to take risks and make mistakes. By "turning up the heat," as Zuckerberg put it, the company adds unnecessary pressure and makes a bad situation worse."

08

The first shoe dropped...

Abe assasinated... wonder whether Americans know or care.

Must go to God's Waiting Room.

PO Box due $166/year.

Zak made me a wonderful banana-chocolate milkshake. He was wearing a tiara of daises. He's been bugged by bees.

Spoke with Kathi and Charles today. Charles knows how to resolve my book burden. Kathi knows what I need and that I'm willing to pay... she will make some inquiries. She also has a grand-daughter with many of the same issues.

Met Jocie at Butterfly... Wyld Womyn and Arthur Rimbaud.

I'm doing better today.

New luggage: flexible polycarbonate or ballistic nylon? My old one is worn but still usable.

Hodgepodge: Robertas's hedgehog was a button-nosed ball of white knives and hiss, a veritable hodgepodge of mammalian lore, if you want my opinion.

To Carolyn: "I'm in a situation that I need a plan A, B, C... and I'm going to have to beg for help. I don't want to... which is why I'm in this situation..."

09

May rain. Need to finish coffee and go. Gasoline $4.89/gal. I'm very jumpy.

One aspect of my plan this month is to scale back social media, including WDC.

A lemon danish at market. Didn't find who I was looking for.

Muggy 82°F with clouds gathering overhead. Will we get a drop?

Some good news: fresh strawberries at the market on Tuesday. Cherries will be slim-pickins and late. Peaches doing well (I love the white peaches).

Rewording what I commented to Patricia: I live in liminal space. Never quite here nor there. I prefer edges unless I can hide in the core like a worm... in a place nobody notices until too late.

From the New Yorker: A friend’s twenty-eight-year-old son offered the most philosophical explanation. “Maybe we buy as much stuff as any other generation, but much of it is digital—in-app purchases or memberships or things to be stored in the cloud,” he said. “This allows us the illusion of being minimalist. We’ve substituted spiritual clutter for stacks of paper.”

10

Up at a decent hour. Showered. Drying off before going out in the cool morning sunlight. Coffee.

2 hour stroll with Birgit. I'm sweating. It's only 75°F, very pleasant.

Now for another coffee. Time to turn on the music.

MSN: "The ‘Doorway Effect’ Is Why You Forget What You Were Going to Do When Entering a Different Room"

I can see implications about care of the elderly (and not move them), why it may be important to move, buy new clothes (mentioned by Birgit), et cetera.

In "Parallel worlds where issues are global, not just local." : The assasin of Abe in Japan may have been motivated by hatred of the Unification Church that 1. he accused of bankrupting his mother, and 2. supported Abe.

The parallels in the U.S.? A Catholic Supreme Court that just limited the rights of a woman to her own body in a move that blurs the separation of church and state.

Catholics need to speak up. Secularists need to redo their narrative. The Southern Baptists and Mormons need to rethink their positions. Women need to demand this.

Those promoting violence need to back down. Those who think they've won one for the White Patriarchy need to think about the consequences of criminalization.

Going forward: rights should be explicitly enshrined in the Constitution. Rights are NOT priviledges like owning a car or gun and should never be voted on.

I need to cut back and focus.

Did wash. Saw Dan-dan.

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