Did You Ever Have To Make Up Your Mind? (#BOTB results post)

My thoughts are a million miles away, but I've got plenty right where I am to keep me busy...

Photo by Arlee Bird

           Somewhere there's a place for me.  Probably a lot of places before I get to that great final place.  And maybe that place is a lot of places for eternity.  But for now I'm here and all is well. 

Battle of the Bands

          My most recent Battle was "Hammond Song" performed by the original artists The Roche Sisters and the group The Colourfield.  This was a very close choice for me.  I think both recordings are outstanding.

        The version by The Colourfield has a crystalline sound as clear as glass bells.  The vocals and instrumentation have a dreamy relaxing sound that I could listen to for a long time.  At least until I was lulled to sleep.  I've listened to some other songs by this group and decisively like what they do musically.

        However, The Roches have such a unique sound that carries me to places of reverie and wonder.  I like their vocals even when they approach a certain harshness.  But the angelic side of their singing demands authority in the end.  Everything that I've heard by this group earns consideration at least.  In this match I give my vote to the Roches.

         Still, the voters decided the outcome of this round of Battle.  After an even start, The Colourfield took a commanding lead to the end.

Final Vote Tally

The Colourfield              13

The Roches                       7

Next Battle Thursday February 1st

          Something else will happen on this blog between then and now.  Let me think on that a bit.

         
           Does your world keep up with where your thoughts go?  Or do you feel like the world is leaving you behind?   

It's Just a Matter of Time--and I don't mean the song

            Few of us enjoy waiting for things, but the real irony is that we spend our whole lives waiting even though it might not seem at times that we are waiting at all...

Toufoula Dream room , waiting room
(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

   
             To be cynical one might say that we are born in order to spend a lifetime waiting to die.  But that is also a realistic point of view.   We all die eventually.   Most of us would likely prefer to stay in life's waiting room for as long as we can.

             A lot of kids might be asking their parents something like, "When is Halloween going to get here?"   When you're a kid a few days can seem like an interminably long time to wait.   A week might as well be an eternity.  A parent's vision of hell might be spending forever with kids wheedling to know when such and such is going to happen. Fortunately I don't recall having that experience with my kids nor in my own childhood.

            I've mostly been patient in my life.  At least on the outside.  There have certainly been those times when my insides were in turmoil from the waiting.  No one could ever tell unless I made a point of letting them know that I was experiencing a problem, but this has been rare in context of my sixty plus years of living. 

           There are times when anticipation for something to come is about the same as being on the edge of a cliff with someone bigger behind me waiting to push me off.  We wait.  I wait for a fall while that bigger entity waits to shove me off into the depths.  No thanks bud because in my life whenever I have been pushed something lifts me back up to start me off anew.  I just have to wait for it all to happen.  It will be okay.

         In my previous post I suggested that knowing where I am is often my most important question to have answered.  However knowing where I am in the span of time might be equally vital information to have and in some cases the main point of interest.

         Knowing when is crucial when making a date or an appointment otherwise people would have a tough time making connections and lord knows that making connections can be difficult as it is.  The "when" is what holidays and milestones are all about.  Without the when there is no history, there is no time. 

        When pigs fly, when all is said and done, or when we reach the end or our rope are all things that might pop up to surprise us or we might see them coming.  "Just you wait and see," comes the empty threat.  "See what?"  I ask.  "You'll know when it happens," from a voice filled with emotion and some tinge of helplessness.

         I wait...

         I wait for the Battle of the Bands which will be coming on Wednesday November 1st right here on Tossing It Out.  And on that same post I will neatly tie in my contribution to the November Insecure Writer's Support Group when the question posed is:  

Win or not, do you usually finish your NaNo project? Have any of them gone on to be published?

        Hope you'll be here for that as well as for my Monday special Halloween post--a true story that was part of my life.  It's something that gives me a chill each time I ponder it.  But you'll have to wait for that...

         Today's post and my previous post both hold clues as to my next BOTB song, an old classic from a Broadway show--any ideas?    How old were you when you began to grasp a workable knowledge of times and dates?   If you were a random time traveler which would be most important for you to know initially--the time or the place?

Randomness and #BOTB Results

My days can be pretty random sometimes, but mostly they seem the same.  

A "Ron Lee" Clown from my parents' collection
(Photo by Arlee Bird)

A Few Random Thoughts

Sometimes I'll just stay quiet about things rather than risk offending anybody.   Other times I'll just prattle about this or that--nothing with intended controversy.  Some people will manage to find an argument in anything.

Which is the most important knowledge to have:  Who you are?  Where you are?  or Why do you exist?

Much of the time I tend to think of things geographically.  I think we all probably slant our perceptions in regard to occupations, loved ones, our own feelings, or whatever the case might be.

I'm fixing a small batch of chili for supper tonight.  It's gotten cooler outside of late, but another heat wave is supposed to be coming next week.  Somehow chili seems like a good thing to have today.

Good chili in restaurants has been somewhat difficult for me to find over the years.  I've often been disappointed.   Ironically, Chili's Restaurant doesn't have chili that I'd recommend and I had high hopes for their chili. What a disappointment.   Personally, I like the chili at Wendy's.  But when you come down to it, no one makes chili or spaghetti better than what I make.   That's my objective opinion.

 Just heard a bunch of fireworks and people outside yelling.  I was trying to remember if it was some special Mexican holiday or something of that nature.  Then I turned to the local news and heard that the Dodgers had won their game and would be going to the World Series for the first time since 1988.   Maybe I can get a little more thrilled about this as the Series starts.  I'm not much of a sports fan these days...


Battle of the Bands Results

      My latest Battle pitched Fernando Ortega against Van Morrison both singing their renditions of the hymn "Be Thou My Vision".    Morrison definitely had the edge of familiarity working in his favor and came out of the chute in the lead and stayed there until the end.  Van the Man won this match while Fernando proved a worthy opponent.

      Morrison is a favorite of mine and his Hymns to the Silence album is still an album that I play on occasion.  However, I could listen to Ortega all day any time of day.  His voice and orchestrations are so peaceful and calming.  My vote went to Fernando Ortega.

Final Vote Tally

Fernando Ortega       8 votes

Van Morrison            13 votes

Next Battle on Wednesday November 1st
     
       That will also be the day of the monthly Insecure Writer's Support Group posting, but I will try to meld the two posts seamlessly.  Or something like that.   You might even see a post or two before that one.

          Are you ready for November 4th?  What will you be doing that day?   How about a big ol' batch of biscuits and country sausage gravy?  

13 Thoughts: A Friday the Thirteenth Post

Thirteen for the Thirteenth

Rocket Ship Galileo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 






       Lately I've had so many things that I've wanted to blog about, but I can't motivate myself to write the posts.   Ideas keep coming to me--ideas that interest me.  Do they interest anyone else?  But, alas, I don't post and I don't even visit other blogs like I used to.  And I'm still cleaning my garage.

           This being Friday the 13th, I thought I might post 13 random thoughts that have passed through my mind of late...


1.    Here's my defense of Harvey Weinstein.................................

2.   This Weinstein thing could take several directions.  Wherever it goes, this story could get mighty big going way beyond Harvey.   Unless there is some kind of cover-up.

3.    By the way, what's happening with that Mandalay Bay shooting?   This is starting to get weirder and weirder--as though it weren't weird to begin with.

4.   I'd never seen the 1950 film Destination Moon until recently.  I was impressed by the accuracy of the science in this cinematic version of Robert Heinlein's Rocket Ship Galileo.  Sure there are gaffs and absurdities, but keep in mind this movie came out nearly 70 years ago.

5.   Girls in the Boy Scouts just doesn't seem right. When I was a kid I used to like the official BSA magazine Boys' Life.  What would they call it now?

6.   I don't care what the Boy Scouts do, but please don't mess with the Girl Scouts.  Gotta have those cookies.  What the heck do Boy Scouts sell anyway?

7.  Now and then I tune into CNN just to see what they are reporting.   Has anyone else noticed how whenever they do a story about President Trump they lead-in with something negative?   I'm sure it's a psychological tactic, but that's one reason why I don't watch much CNN.

8.  I watch even less MSNBC--only now and then out of curiosity to see what they are talking about at that moment in time.   My moments with MSNBC are usually fleeting.

9.   Lately I've been tuning in more to One America News Network (OAN).  They present a wider range of news stories than one finds on the other networks.  This network reminds me of CNN in the earlier years when it was almost exclusively news stories with little to no opining.

10.   Going through a box of cassette tapes that I found in my garage, I reboxed them more neatly, looking at each one as I put it into place.  I remembered them all.  So many great memories of listening to taped music in the 80s and 90s.  The Soundtrack of my Life during those years would be very long, lasting for hours.  That box represents a mere fraction of all the cassette tapes I own.

11.  I haven't heard too much in the media about the Rohingya "Crisis" in Myanmar (Burma).   When I have heard reports they don't seem to correctly jibe with what I've understood about the situation.  This problem has been going on for some time and I think it started with the Rohingya people so I don't have much sympathy for them.

12.  Halloween is coming and that reminds me of my old job as well as many other memories.  My earliest posts on Tossing It Out were all related to Halloween.

13.  Sometimes I daydream of moving to some place where I have no connections.  Lately I've been monitoring the housing market in Marion, Virginia.  Anyone know anything about Marion, Virginia?


          Please be sure to come vote on my Battle of the Bands post that will show up on this blog space on Sunday October 15th.   This round I'll be picking a song that is Sunday appropriate. 

Related articles

• Desperate Rohingya Muslims filmed swimming through river in attempts to flee Burma
• Myanmar says 163 killed in Rohingya attacks in past year
• Harvey Weinstein 'facing criminal investigations over Hollywood sex abuse scandal as he heads for Arizona rehab'
• Harvey Weinstein

What To Do When You Can't Focus

A photograph of a Massachusetts Bible Society colporteur from the MBS archives. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

What To Do When You Can't Focus

       The answer is simple.  What do you do when you can't focus?   You ramble.   Of course--why not?  Sometimes you just want to sit back and flip through the channels and not watch anything in particular.  Not me, but you.  Okay--me too.  I'll admit it.   There are just those times when I can't seem to focus and my mind is everywhere but in the here and now.

In a Hurry

       On my desk I have a Random House dictionary and a Bible in a small stack of books.   Both of these books are similar in color and size.  One recent Sunday morning I was heading off to church and--you guessed it--I grabbed the dictionary instead of the Bible.   During church I wasn't able to keep up with the Bible references in the pastor's sermon, but I did learn five new vocabulary words.

Planning Ahead

         I was thinking about preparing all of my blog posts including A to Z posts for the next 5 years.  Oh, great!  Now I'll never get any writing done.  If I kept doing this though and scheduled everything far in advance, I could die and no one would even notice I was gone.   Of course I wouldn't be commenting or responding to comments, but maybe everyone would just assume I had become senile and rude.  I guess it would look kind of suspicious though.   Would you keep reading and commenting?

Bridges

       The Covered Bridge in Philippi, West Virginia was built in 1852.  I used to drive through it now and then when I would travel that part of the country.   I'm not sure why I suddenly thought of this, but isn't it strange how random thoughts will enter your head, seemingly from out of the blue.  Maybe some of those thoughts are like bridges spanning from one thought to another and those weird little thoughts don't mean much of anything unless you start dwelling on them.  I guess if you end up writing about those random thoughts it's kind of the same as dwelling upon them for a brief period.   And since I brought the subject of the bridge up I guess that deserves a picture.

The Philippi Covered Bridge (1852) spans the Tygart Valley River at Philippi, West Virginia, USA. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

What's in the News?

One of my recent blog posts was featured at NewsOK, the digital edition of the Oklahoman newspaper in Oklahoma City.  My thanks to Darla Lindauer for the recognition.

Have A Nice Day!

        Isn't it kind of weird when someone says to have a nice day on a blog?   What if you're reading this at night?  What if things have really been going bad for you and then you read some weird blog post?   Then the blogger says, "Have a nice day!"  Maybe you just want to reach into cyberspace and wipe that "Have a nice day!" smiley face grin off my face.  Oh yeah!   Well maybe I'm not smiling and I'm all grumpy and stuff.  Or maybe I'm just typing obliviously away and thinking of bridges in West Virginia and other such strange nonsense.

        Maybe I'll just stop here.

         What do you do when you can't keep your mind focused?   How many Bibles do you have in your house?  How many dictionaries?   What's your favorite bridge?   Have you ever crossed the Philippi Covered Bridge?   If not I guess you'll cross that bridge when you come to it.

Related articles

• The Bible is to be Understood
• Observations of Perceptions:
• Back home in Indiana
• Covered Bridges of Kentucky Part I

Halloween is Coming!

Halloween costumes, halloween masks, halloween candy, halloween decorations, halloween cards. Halloween cards? Okay nothing new, but today I walked into the Hallmark store at the mall near where I live and I was struck by the quantity of Halloween cards on display. Total display racks devoted to nothing but this "holiday". Perhaps later I can expound upon my wonderment, but I just thought it seemed kind of weird.
Halloween is coming. So is Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year. And of course right after Christmas the Valentine's merchandise will start appearing on store shelves. Today I heard mention of EID which is something to do with Ramadan or something like that-- I don't really keep up with the ethnic (to me) deals. But I did not see any EID or Ramadan displays in the Hallmark store-- and I am happy for that. So one might look at my words here and think to themself, "this guy seems rather holiday obsessive," and I might say in reply, "Okay I've been unemployed for the last 6 months or so and, yeah, it pops into my mind now and then." And it does, but not that much. But enough of that already.
I'm just thinking about blogging. Have been for several months. I guess unemployment does that sometimes. I started this blog awhile back, but this is my first entry. It's an experiment so I'm just writing stuff. I guess that partly what a lot of blogs are, right. I'm just formulating random thoughts and ideas and tossing them out there. Maybe some of them will stick. So anyway please bear with me. This may also be my last post or it may be the beginning of a long exercise in randomness. Or this all may become organized and come together as a fruitbearing farm of thought. I used to fantasize about being a farmer someday. That seems like a lot of work though--but, hey, it is employment.
So what do you think? Obama, Michael Jackson, NFL, Armageddon, Facebook, crochet, cycling, cyclones, cyclotrons, randomness, organized thought, nihilism? I don't know right now. This is my first post and I just tossing it out, seeing if it sticks to the wall. And if it does-- well, if it does I'll figure out what comes next cause right now I don't really know exactly what is going on exactly with this blogging thing.