Here are some of my favorite words:
Brang - As in; "I brang two bottles of wine."
Sprunt - I will sprint. She is sprinting. I sprunt.
Gove - The clown gove me a balloon.
Usposter - As in; "I'm usposter do the dishes."
Parn - As in: "I beg ya parn?"
Arks - Just ask a person who mispronounces "ask" how they manage to pronounce Mask or Task.
Monday, 23 July 2018
Monday, 17 July 2017
Dark Ages
I like history. I'm a keen amateur. Unfortunately, because of this interest, I see the world is once again repeating itself and taking several steps backward again.
Every 1500 to 2000 years, or so, the world decides that we have to enter an age of darkness. Civilization builds itself up and then tears itself down again. And it's the same pattern. Disaffection, complacency, degeneracy, terror, wanton killing & destruction, disillusionment, selfishness... All of these factors seem to herald the beginning of a Dark Age. But most telling is mass migration by a violent community.
The last dark age began about 1700 years ago followed by a several hundred years of restructure and rebuilding followed by a thousand odd years of growth. Before that another dark age happened when the Sea People destroyed the bronze age civilizations about 1500/1600 years prior to the era we call The Dark Ages. Only a much reduced Egypt remained. Form that earlier dark age Ancient Greece, Persia and finally Rome emerged and rebuilt civilization. There is evidence for earlier civilizations and it's possible that they suffered a similar fate.
The first (known) dark age began with the mass migration of the Sea People's the later by the Huns, various Goths and their ilk and ended with the Vikings in Northern Europe. All of them came with violence and destruction to gain their ends. Only the strong survive and it is civilization that is the weaker of the opposing forces. All the gains and that civilization has made are destroyed and we start over again, several thousand steps behind where we left off.
So here we are, on the cusp of a new dark age. I'm not happy about this. I'm getting too old to resist it. My soldiering days are done. I feel sad that my own culture will be destroyed and, as history shows, it tends to destroy itself from within first and, so laying the ground for what will finally destroy it.
This has happened in other parts of the world too. Civilizations have grown, prospered, advanced and then died. Something else always replaces it and whether what replaces it is better or worse is up for debate. We, with all of our technology, still can't replicate ancient structures like the Great Pyramids, Machu Picchu, etc. So are we more advanced?
Anyhow, I don't believe that this blog post will survive any upheaval as we are destined to go backward once again. So I can't say: "I told you so."
Every 1500 to 2000 years, or so, the world decides that we have to enter an age of darkness. Civilization builds itself up and then tears itself down again. And it's the same pattern. Disaffection, complacency, degeneracy, terror, wanton killing & destruction, disillusionment, selfishness... All of these factors seem to herald the beginning of a Dark Age. But most telling is mass migration by a violent community.
The last dark age began about 1700 years ago followed by a several hundred years of restructure and rebuilding followed by a thousand odd years of growth. Before that another dark age happened when the Sea People destroyed the bronze age civilizations about 1500/1600 years prior to the era we call The Dark Ages. Only a much reduced Egypt remained. Form that earlier dark age Ancient Greece, Persia and finally Rome emerged and rebuilt civilization. There is evidence for earlier civilizations and it's possible that they suffered a similar fate.
The first (known) dark age began with the mass migration of the Sea People's the later by the Huns, various Goths and their ilk and ended with the Vikings in Northern Europe. All of them came with violence and destruction to gain their ends. Only the strong survive and it is civilization that is the weaker of the opposing forces. All the gains and that civilization has made are destroyed and we start over again, several thousand steps behind where we left off.
So here we are, on the cusp of a new dark age. I'm not happy about this. I'm getting too old to resist it. My soldiering days are done. I feel sad that my own culture will be destroyed and, as history shows, it tends to destroy itself from within first and, so laying the ground for what will finally destroy it.
This has happened in other parts of the world too. Civilizations have grown, prospered, advanced and then died. Something else always replaces it and whether what replaces it is better or worse is up for debate. We, with all of our technology, still can't replicate ancient structures like the Great Pyramids, Machu Picchu, etc. So are we more advanced?
Anyhow, I don't believe that this blog post will survive any upheaval as we are destined to go backward once again. So I can't say: "I told you so."
Wednesday, 17 May 2017
Friday, 28 April 2017
Today I Noticed Something
Today I was looking for an interesting piece of science fiction art work to use as my wallpaper and I noticed a couple of things.
The first things that came up were recent digital pieces. They were all done in a landscape format and they were generally dark with grey, dirty blues and black the predominant colours. Quite a few of them had very detailed images and most of them were of a pretty high standard of ability although they were mostly uninspiring.
At the top of the Google Images page there was a link to 70's Sci-Fi art. I clicked on that.
Now here's what I noticed. They were almost all in a portrait format and there was colour. Lots of colour. And the artistic standard was high in all cases.
I assume this change in format is because the '70's art was made, in the main, for book covers and posters where as the recent stuff was made for computer. Some of the older stuff was square and I recognized some album covers. I found that interesting.
However the difference in colour palettes was disturbing.
It made me think about why we, as a collective, tend to see the future as bleak whereas once we saw it as something extraordinary and wondrous. The future use to be something to look forward to. It use to inspire and drive people to try and achieve greatness in order to bring to all, the fantastic things the future offered.
In the 60's and 70's the 2000's were the future and it looked bright. It looked special. But now that that future is the present it isn't bright and, in many, many ways it's horrible.
As I write this piece and prepare to send it into the ether to post it online I believe that it's the internet that has caused a lot of this blight on our, once bright present. Instead of projecting light and joy and goodness it has done opposite and has attracted the bad the nasty and the dark. In all of the science fiction of the past, the internet was not a factor. Computers were always present but they were tools. They didn't govern people or determine society. They didn't threaten.
It's a shame the future turned dark. Maybe it's time that we switched the lights back on.
P.S. I found a nice image - Done in landscape for a pc (but it took me a while).
The first things that came up were recent digital pieces. They were all done in a landscape format and they were generally dark with grey, dirty blues and black the predominant colours. Quite a few of them had very detailed images and most of them were of a pretty high standard of ability although they were mostly uninspiring.
At the top of the Google Images page there was a link to 70's Sci-Fi art. I clicked on that.
Now here's what I noticed. They were almost all in a portrait format and there was colour. Lots of colour. And the artistic standard was high in all cases.
I assume this change in format is because the '70's art was made, in the main, for book covers and posters where as the recent stuff was made for computer. Some of the older stuff was square and I recognized some album covers. I found that interesting.
However the difference in colour palettes was disturbing.
It made me think about why we, as a collective, tend to see the future as bleak whereas once we saw it as something extraordinary and wondrous. The future use to be something to look forward to. It use to inspire and drive people to try and achieve greatness in order to bring to all, the fantastic things the future offered.
In the 60's and 70's the 2000's were the future and it looked bright. It looked special. But now that that future is the present it isn't bright and, in many, many ways it's horrible.
As I write this piece and prepare to send it into the ether to post it online I believe that it's the internet that has caused a lot of this blight on our, once bright present. Instead of projecting light and joy and goodness it has done opposite and has attracted the bad the nasty and the dark. In all of the science fiction of the past, the internet was not a factor. Computers were always present but they were tools. They didn't govern people or determine society. They didn't threaten.
It's a shame the future turned dark. Maybe it's time that we switched the lights back on.
P.S. I found a nice image - Done in landscape for a pc (but it took me a while).
Friday, 14 April 2017
Conundrum
It's been a while since I made an entry on this blog. But, then I decided that I'd only write things on this blog when I had interesting or thoughtful to to say.
Today I have a conundrum...
If tuna is called the chicken of the sea, is a chicken considered the tuna of the land?
Today I have a conundrum...
If tuna is called the chicken of the sea, is a chicken considered the tuna of the land?
Wednesday, 22 February 2017
I, myself...
I, myself...
This phrase annoys me. It's like saying Me, me... Why refer to yourself twice? As far as I'm concerned if I write or say "I", I must be referring to myself. I'm not referring to someone else. The phrase is useless and asinine.
I think that people who use this phrase just want to sound more intelligent than they really are. Or maybe they believe that it makes them sound like a thoughtful individual who has put a lot of personal time and effort into whatever revelation it is they are about to impart to their unsuspecting audience.
Imagine if I was talking to you and I kept referring to you as, You, yourself... You'd think I was a bloody idiot. Even if I said it once you'd think I was a knob. And the reason for that is because if I did call you, You, yourself... then I would be a knob and I would deserve your contempt.
In my opinion, "I, myself...", makes me think that the person perpetrating this inane utterance is a self important turd. I wrote above that it's like saying Me, me... But on reflection what it's really saying is: Me. ME! What I'm about to say is so damn important that I need to be recognised twice. And I need it to be me who is telling you it's me. ME!
ME, ME, ME, ME MEEEEEE!
This phrase annoys me. It's like saying Me, me... Why refer to yourself twice? As far as I'm concerned if I write or say "I", I must be referring to myself. I'm not referring to someone else. The phrase is useless and asinine.
I think that people who use this phrase just want to sound more intelligent than they really are. Or maybe they believe that it makes them sound like a thoughtful individual who has put a lot of personal time and effort into whatever revelation it is they are about to impart to their unsuspecting audience.
Imagine if I was talking to you and I kept referring to you as, You, yourself... You'd think I was a bloody idiot. Even if I said it once you'd think I was a knob. And the reason for that is because if I did call you, You, yourself... then I would be a knob and I would deserve your contempt.
In my opinion, "I, myself...", makes me think that the person perpetrating this inane utterance is a self important turd. I wrote above that it's like saying Me, me... But on reflection what it's really saying is: Me. ME! What I'm about to say is so damn important that I need to be recognised twice. And I need it to be me who is telling you it's me. ME!
ME, ME, ME, ME MEEEEEE!
Monday, 20 February 2017
An Anniversary Forgotten
I realised today (20 Feb) that 20 years and two days ago is the anniversary of when I joined the Australian Army for the second time. I initially joined, for the first time, some time towards the end of October (or the start of November) 1986. I don't remember that date. I only stayed a couple of years and then returned to being a musician. The only reason I remember the date in 1997 is because It was just after the wedding of two of my friends on St Valentines Day.
I think about my time in the army almost every day. Often it makes me angry or sad. Very rarely do I think about my second term of service with any affection. It was very easy to start with but it ended with everything that I hoped to achieve in my life in ruins.
Not a happy time.
But then things got worse for a while.
I think about my time in the army almost every day. Often it makes me angry or sad. Very rarely do I think about my second term of service with any affection. It was very easy to start with but it ended with everything that I hoped to achieve in my life in ruins.
Not a happy time.
But then things got worse for a while.
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