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Interesting Math

FROM BELGIUM

A New Month

2020 has seen 5 months pass by and needless to say these last 5 months will not be forgotten any time soon in our minds, our actions, our behaviors, and by the historians who will document us and at some point-in-time will write about us...

What do you think JUNE will be?

• more of the same
• a little different
• another direction

These last 5 months I only left the house if I had a doctor's appointment or a chemo treatment until the last 2 weeks in May where I went to a restaurant and also to a wedding.  This month, I have just as many doctor's appointments cheno treatment in two weeks that I had in 4 months...  plus, we are going to Myrtle Beach, SC for two weeks.

Regardless of how we find our apartment, my wife and I will enter the room with gloves on and will clean the room again...  that is to say all surfaces that could be touched and make sure that we put the remote in a zip locked bag....  we will request that are room not be cleaned everyday but that towels be delivered everyday...

As far as the beach chairs are concerned, we will not worry about that because of the exposure to the UV rays of the sunlight...  and, will probably go to restaurants and dine-in rather than take-out because that part is being well managed.

I fear this will be our new normal...

SpaceX Does It Again

Black Lives Matter

What exactly does BLACK LIVES MATTER mean?

FIST OF VIOLENCE

Black Lives Matter (BLM) is an international activist movement, originating in the African-American community, that campaigns against violence and systemic racism towards black people.

I am totally in favor of this movement...  however, in order for BLACKS to show WHITES that BLACK LIVES MATTER, Blacks are acting like WHITE LIVES DON'T MATTER...  and, for someone like me that is a TURN OFF regarding the entire BLM movement...  I was on board and supporting the movement until violence towards white has ensued after 1 or a few white people demonstrate inappropriate behavior against blacks or in some cases actually KILL BLACKS for their own selfish, self-centered desires...

Ever since the Vietnam War, I have had the following belief:

MAN IS BUT HALF A GOD, HE CAN TAKE A LIFE BUT HE CANNOT CREATE ONE...

The taking of any life is SENSELESS and POINTLESS and should never happen under any circumstance... unless one is defending one's self or one's family...

It does not matter if one is:  Black, White, Red, Yellow, Brown, Albino, Maroon, or Gold...  all people are members of the Human Race and therefore ARE ENTITLED TO LIFE...

BUT, when you respond to violence with non-defensive violence then you are just as bad as the one who committed the first act of violence and I stop listening to what you have to say...  and, let me tell you this one REALITY AND/OR FACT OF LIFE:

Our Federal Government cannot force me to stop being RACIST AGAINST YOU, nor can Our Federal Government stop you from being RACIST AGAINST ME...

If I wanted to, I could:

• refuse to let blacks ride in my own personal vehicle
• refuse to sit at a table close to blacks in a restaurant
• refuse to rent beach chairs next to blacks at Myrtle Beach, SC
• refuse to sit by a black at a movie theater
• refuse to act civil when talking with blacks
• refuse to be polite when passing blacks in public
• refuse to ride up an elevator if a black got on

How is OUR FEDERAL GOVERNMENT going to force me to act differently???

Will the police give me a public courtesy ticket?

Will the police lock me up in jail for the night?

I AM TIRED OF BEING BLAMED FOR SLAVERY BECAUSE I AM 

THE SON OF A WHITE MAN 

WHO WAS THE SON 

OF A WHITE MAN 

WHO WAS  THE SON

 OF A WHITE MAN 

WHO WAS THE SON 

OF A WHITE MAN...

It Happens

Too Late For Coffee

COMMUNITIES OF COLOR

FOX NEWS LIVE
Around 10:10 am
MN Governor Walz (D) in a press conference this morning used the phrase:  'COMMUNITIES OF COLOR.' 

What is wrong with this phrase...  because the phrase is accurate...  there most certainly are communities of color in America and in her States...  in fact, I live in East TN and am very familiar with where the communities of color are located and that these communities of color, in most cases, are no different than those communities of non-color.

And...  what I just wrote is what is wrong with this phrase...  think about it...  communities of color rather than communities of Americans...

1. Black communities
2. White communities
3. Asian communities
4. Hispanic communities
5. Latin communities
6. Jewish communities
7. Irish communities
8. Italian communities
9. Catholic communities
10. Baptist communities
11. Middle class communities
12. Wealthy communities
13. Poor communities
14. Cajun communities
15. Retired communities
16. Student communities
17. Muslim communities
18. Military communities
19. Oriental communities
20. Celebrity communities

And, now do you see what I am saying?

 ALL THESE PEOPLE ARE AMERICANS...

Racism will continue in America as long as we see these various communities because that sight HIGHLIGHTS OUR DIFFERENCES...

I'm Ready For Bed Hon...

Chicken Jumps For Food

Octopus

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My Old Circular Saw

Friday morning started off muggy, foggy, and overcast and it just looked and felt like it was going to rain, but it didn't and about 1:00 pm, my wife and I realized that the sun would probably be out in a cloudless sky for the rest of the day.  We went outside to work and our hunch paid off.

I piddled around measuring, designing, and cutting wood for a two step stool with hand rails to make it easier for me to get in and out of the hot tub since these last few times, I have noticed me grunting more than usual.  Arriving at a good stopping point, I turned my attention to finishing the top caps on the deck rails, as I had 5 more to go...  and, not wanting to end up with a sore lower back again, I decided to cut and screw in 3 and finish the last two tomorrow.

As I was putting my tools back inside the storage shed, I had the realization that my circular saw was fairly old and decided to take a minute to figure it out.  I left military service in 1972 and was required to serve in the RESERVES for another 3 years...  one night a week from 6:00 pm to 10:00 pm and was paid $100 a month.  In the summer, I was required to spend two weeks on ACTIVE DUTY and do not remember how much I was paid for those 2 weeks.

I used my $100 each month to buy hand tools and other devices that I thought I might need sometime down-the-road rather than saving the money or taking the wife out to dinner.  Three tools in particular I remember:  an electric drill, an electric jig saw, and an electric circular.  Several years ago, the drill was losing oil so I discarded it in the trash and I lost sight of my jig saw but my circular saw is still around.

STILL AROUND CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT?

THE DAMN THING IS SOMEWHERE BETWEEN 45 AND 50 YEARS OLD...

It's a CRAFTSMAN in case you are wondering...

I doubt tools made today will last 50 years...  who's fault is this?

RACISM IN AMERICA

Ignoring racism in America allows racist ideas to flourish.  Here's how to be antiracist.

Americans love the idea that you can avoid being racist by passively treating everyone equally. Ibram X. Kendi's new book explains why this is false..

Aug. 21, 2019, 4:30 AM EDT
By Noah Berlatsky
American University professor Ibram X. Kendi's new book, “How to Be an Antiracist,” begins with an account of how he once delivered a racist speech.

Kendi participated in Prince William County’s 2000 Martin Luther King Jr. oratorical contest when he was in high school. In his speech, he chastised black youth for being unmotivated and unambitious. "They think it's OK to climb the high tree of pregnancy!" he remembers telling the crowd. "They think it's OK to confine their dreams to sports and music!"

READ ENTIRE ARTICLE...

Unless you are on a ventilator in the hospital as a victim of COVID-19, then you are aware of the senseless killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis... and yet, this is not the first time that blacks have been killed by white policemen in America... and, we have just learned that prosecutors will not rush to file any charges against the 4-5 law enforcement personnel who have been fired as a result of this senseless violence... either committing it or standing by watching it happen... There has been 3 days of violence in Minneapolis as a result of George Floyd's death.

HOW CAN THE GOVERNMENT FORCE WHITES TO STOP THEIR RACISTS BELIEFS AND ACTIONS AGAINST BLACKS IN AMERICA?

DIY Projects

It is a foggy morning in East TN and I believe it must have rained all night here as well since the deck out back still has puddles of water all over it, leaving me with 5 boards yet to cut and screw down to finish my handrails project.  It took me 3 days to get this far which I suppose someone who knew what they were doing could have done it in 1 day...  but, this is the price one pays when one gets old...  but, it is also the price that one pays when one does not do manual labor especially any form of building and/or construction.

AND...  this is the main reason why I returned to College and graduated so that I could use my degree working behind a desk with my mind rather than working somewhere else with my body, like would have been the case working on a construction site, building homes, or as a plumber, electrician, or carpenter, and...  the idea was to make enough money to hire those people to do the work that I needed done; although, now when I attempt to perform work as a carpenter, I really don't know what I am doing.

However, there are many College Graduates working behind a desk with their minds that also have taught themselves DIY projects at home that involve carpentry, plumbing and electricity because they simply wanted to know how to do that as well...  which I did not...

So...  this foggy morning and wet conditions keep me from finishing my task and I will have to wait another day or two until conditions dry out sufficiently to cut the wood and screw it in...  and, in a way I am happy because I am also experiencing extreme lower back pain from slightly bending over the cutting table and from standing in one place too long.

This lower back pain from standing started when I was in the military and on guard duty and later discovered that I have a curved spine which "acts up" when just standing around or walking slowly...  the condition must worsen with age.

DAMN I LOVE BEING OVER SIXTY...

Over My Lifetime

I always write in the mornings with coffee...

From 1972 until 2015, about 43 years +/-, I have been seriously writing poetry everyday...  usually in the mornings when my mind is fresh and open...  and, when I stopped writing poetry in a serious way, I counted them all and discovered that I had over 42,000 of those jokers...  In 2009, I decided to create my first blog that would be totally dedicated (for the most part, not counting all the extra pages) to the publishing of my poems.  Nothing much happened that year, and the next year that blog was completely ignored but in 2011 I started publishing more and by 2012, I was publishing a poem everyday which lasted until 2018 when I slowed down again, and in 2019 only published two...  but, in 2020, I decided to start publishing again...  except this time, I also created three other blogs that because I was retired, felt like I had plenty of available time to devote to them.

On December 26, 2001, I began keeping a daily journal that I referred to as DAILY PAGES for some reason and I was so obsessed with writing everyday that I filled up a 100 page (200 pages both sides) every 3 months...  so, for a solid 18 years I have been writing my Daily Pages and keeping them and have all 70+ notebooks in a file cabinet in the basement.

In 2020, one of my new blogs JOURNAL OF DAILY PAGES was theoretically supposed to substitute for my DAILY PAGES but I still write in these notebooks but not as much because I have my online forum.  These days, these notebooks record my financial calculations and calories for the various meals that I cook.

This morning, sitting out on the back porch thinking about my poetry, I began to calculate how long would it take for me to publish all my poems.  According to my calculations, if I published 5 each day, it would take a little over 21 years or 10 a day would take a little over 11 years.  These last several days and some are still scheduled to be published, I have a series where 3-4 are published each day and a second series where 13 are scheduled to be published...

I'm toying with the idea of publishing all my poems before I die or before I get too old to type...

WHY?

Vanity I suppose.

Just Cats

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Just Dogs

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