This is my best moon pic. I had to turn the flash off and wait until there was a little break in the clouds. Most of the pics were terrible, but at least this one looks a bit like a moon. I was standing on the second floor of my building right outside my apartment. It’s cold and windy!
I thought I saved the post with the prompt for the moon photos, but my saved folder is empty. Oh well. ✨
Cee says we can choose our own color this week, and in the Valentines’ spirit I choose hot pink aka magenta.
Match dot com strikes again!
We are talking about romantic love in this post, not love for friends or trains or apple pie with those yummy crumbs on top (mmm pie!). 💖
Humans are animals, and we have defined love as something that at least some humans feel (🚺), so technically the answer is yes. But Rory means “lower” animals, so let’s focus on them. I’m not going to nitpick over the definition of love either. Either it exists or it doesn’t. If you believe it’s only a sciencey thing, made up of chemical type reactions, we can stick with that across the board, from humans to spiders. If you believe it’s a woowoo thing, full of golden stardust and eternal flames and whatnot, we’ll shovel that in the mix. I don’t care. Just be consistent. Why would humans have soul mates and gorillas not? Oh right. God said. It’s in that book. 🙄
So. Back to logic. The higher animals (primates, dogs, cats, pigs, dolphins, yada) feel things, or react to them similarly to us in such ways that it’s fair to say they experience emotional states parallel to ours. We’re talking about fear, anger, and even some advanced concepts such as fair play. Look it up. But many hesitate when it comes to asserting that animals feel love. They’ll say a dog is “loyal” because he’s programmed to be, or a cat stays close only because you feed her. 🐱
But we could say the same about humans then and define away the concept of love altogether. Husband stays because he’s loyal, took vows, is concerned about his reputation, etc. Wife stays because she likes the nice big house and lifestyle. Where is the love? What is love? 💕
If we posit that love between humans (or among for you pervs) is something beyond these cold material things, beyond sexual attraction, then why hesitate when it comes to animals?
Idk! People weird things is my best guess. If you’re wondering whether I answered the question in this jabberish, that’s fair. I hedged. I say if there is a thing we’re defining as love for humans, then all higher animals should not be excluded from the circle. But I am an atheist and, despite my poetry (and even my latest fictional WIP) which can careen into the woo to better illustrate emotions, I don’t believe in souls, soul mates, eternal flames, fate, or anything of that nature.
Watch out for cranky tigers! 🐯
Posted in Noodling, Relationships
Tagged aminals, dating, language, love, nature, philosophy, pie, psychology, religion, sex
My thoughts turned eastward when I saw today’s ocean prompt from Jim (sea, lake, and bay are great for music lyrics too). And when I think of the Atlantic Ocean, I’m reminded of “Atlantis” by Donovan. The intro to the song is compelling, and though the lyrics consist of only one simple chorus, I find the song soothing, almost like a meditation. Donovan Leitch wrote and recorded it in 1968. Here’s a nice video to go along.
Cold-blooded…
Chilled mud
Slugs through
Snaky veins.
What must it be like
To have a body
That doesn’t
Keep your own heart warm?
Relying on a sunny morn
To shake off the torpor
And get kill-ready again?
Sliding into an icy pond,
The search for lunch
Turns slo-mo.
All you can do
Is poke your nose
Above the frozen surface
Until the gelatin mold
Returns to predator soup.
All these gator faces
Only trying to breathe,
Waiting out the freeze;
They know how to survive.
Basally alive,
Crocodile popsicles
Dream of electric blankets
And ready to eat sheep,
Hoping their soul mates
Aren’t cheating
In their sleep.
Copying Fandango, I’m posting a pic from a relatively famous landmark from my area, sans discussion, to see if anyone recognizes it. Feel free to use the photo for a story prompt if you wish!
Happy Monday! Idk about you, but I miss those 4-day weekends and 3-day workweeks. Wasn’t it just a working Monday a couple days ago? How can another one be here already?! Yet, there’s always a reason to smile, amirite? 😀
For quite some time now, I’ve been off and on feeding a few feral cats that meander into our parking lot. We’re not supposed to leave food out there, so I only put it down when I see them, on average twice a week. There are usually two or three pure black cats, but every so often a grey kitty and/or a splotchy white one stop by.
The last time I fed them was Christmas Eve. After we came back from viewing the lights, two black cats were waiting for me. Since then, no kitties! I’ve been so worried because on the Nextdoor app people are always complaining about coyotes eating up their cats (and dogs too). I know these kitties are pretty smart, having survived outside for years, but nothing’s as wily as a coyote (meep meep). Plus, there are a lot of speeding cars too.
However, this Saturday night when I came home late from my friend’s house, there was a black kitty chillin’ like a villain in the parking lot. This made me so happy! I gave him a big smile and said I’d been worried about him. I didn’t feed him though ~ I keep wondering if it’s a bad idea to encourage them to come to my complex which is so close to a busy intersection. Wherever else he goes to survive is likely a better place for him and his kitty friends too, even if I don’t get to see them. 🐱💕
This week’s provocative question came up when I read an article that talked about how the extent that Russia used social media to influence the 2016 presidential election in the United States and the Brexit vote in Great Britain was more extensive than what was originally thought and that such disinformation and misinformation on social media sites continues almost unabated to this day.
With that in mind, here’s this week’s provocative question.
“Is technological advancement a net positive or a net negative?”
If you choose to participate, write a post with your response to the question. Once you are done, tag your post with #FPQ and create a pingback to this post if you are on WordPress. Or you can simply include a link to your post in the comments.
And most important, have fun.
I am wavering on this week’s question, which is what makes it so provocative, I suppose.
On the one hand, technology has done amazingly wonderful things for the world. We’re able to grow more food, educate more people, cure more diseases, prevent more deaths in childbirth, respond faster in emergencies, etc. And we continue to advance exponentially in so many areas of science and medicine and engineering.
On the other hand, we’re as shitty toward our fellow humans, animals, and the planet we all live on as we’ve ever been. And now we can use technology to facilitate our terribleness. Instead of simply mocking some poor soul in a school hallway, we use social media to torment him 24/7 until he commits suicide. Sick people upload vids of themselves torturing animals for the amusement of other sickos around the world. And we all have so many gadgets and chargers and crap filling our lives, and we must have the latest versions, tossing the previous ones into the ever-expanding trash heap covering our earth and oceans.
Blech! 🤮
I haven’t even touched the part about our elections and the Rooskies and the hot new cold war and how our life spans are declining from sitting on our asses texting all day and how Spectrum has the goddamn nerve to increase my price yet again after my price increase last year when they switched me to “high speed” for people who game on multiple TV’s when I’m just a single person who doesn’t game on any device and singles are always being financially penalized for multi-person households who hog all the resources and pollute up the planet but at least Edison sends me a report card every month saying good job which is worth fuck all but hey.
What was this poast about again? Oh. It’s from Fandango. We hate Trump! Hells to the yeah! What do I win? 😂
Posted in Health, Noodling, Social Media, TV
Tagged aminals, anger, death, education, exercise, FPQ, games, nature, navel glazing, peevery, philosophy, politics, psychology, rants, retro, techyness
Like Fandango, I’m already breaking my own rules and playing a game instead of writing, aka lying. Blame Rory and his Daily Fun Three.
Name Three…
Three of your childhood books?
– Arty The Smarty, The Velveteen Rabbit, Little House on the Prairie
Three of your best memories?
– the themed parties I did for my kids ~ forex… one Barbie/pink, one Halloween/pirates, and one backwards birthday (probably the most fun ever)
Things that are yellow and triangular?
– a slice of lemon meringue pie and a lemon square cut on the diagonal which is now two triangles if you know math which I do so that’s three right there boom 💥
Wishes you would like to be granted if you had a magic genie lamp?
– instant and complete elimination of all weapons that cause mass death and our ability to make more of same, eliminate pollution everywhere, fix my fucking heater since my landlord is ignoring my text 😡
Beautiful places you have ever visited?
– Zion National Park, the Grand Canyon, Monterey, CA
Things you fall back on to make you feel better when having a bad day?
– sugar, rage, resolve
Things that best describe your family?
– smart, successful, funny (daughters & sons-in-law)
Of your favourite blogs?
– Fandango, The Haunted Wordsmith, Msjadeli (also all others, bloggers or not, who comment here regularly… much ❤️)
Things you would choose if you had ten minutes in your favourite store if you didn’t have to pay for them?
– three fucking heaters
Dishes you can cook in less than 15 minutes and ready to eat direct from serve?
– I don’t understand this question
Pet peeves?
– passive aggression, vehicles with obnoxious blindingly bright headlights, BMWs in general
Bird species beginning with the name G?
– gnu, goose, green parrot 🦜
Of your most favourite letters from the alphabet?
– XYZ
Of the most boring things you have ever done?
– tried to read Ulysses, played Encore with geniuses, driven from Irvine to LA on a Friday night omg
Questions you would ask of your pet if you could?
– why are you so yowly, why don’t you bury your p00ps so our enemies won’t find us, why can’t you let me smoosh you when I’m cold???
Of your favourite cartoons from now or when younger?
– the Pink Panther, Rocky, Bullwinkle
Of the emoticons you use the most when writing or in social media or comments?
– ❤️😀😂
 | stoner on a rollerco… on The Prisoner’s Dilemma |
 | America On Coffee on Texture [CFFC] |
 | Paula Light on Texture [CFFC] |
| America On Coffee on Texture [CFFC] |
| America On Coffee on For My Next Husband |
Extra nomz!
