Golden Milestone

I have been making posts on WordPress every day and I never get any of those consecutive streak notifications, although I have read many posts where other people get them.  They send out these milestone notifications to encourage bloggers to keep on blogging here on WordPress.  Right now, WordPress says that I have 1336 followers and so far, today I have published 5 posts and I have received 238 views, but this also includes older posts that I made.  Today I got 115 visitors, which have viewed my posts with an average 2.07 times per visitor and I don’t think that any of these statistics are a milestone for me.

Out of the posts that I wrote today, Thursday Inspiration #103 Just Like A Woman has been the most popular getting 24 views.  G is for Galveston got 13 views, What the Flock got 10, It Breaks My Heart received 9 and How Do Butterflies Do It got 5.  I don’t usually look at my statistics, as I write mostly for my own enjoyment and likes and comments mean a lot more to me than views do.  Oddly and I say this because it seems unexpected to me, I am doing very well in Finland today as it says that I got 80 views there today and I don’t know anyone from Finland.  I got 68 views from the United States, 34 from the United Kingdom and 14 from India.  My most popular day is Sunday which is not surprising as that is when I host Song Lyric Sunday.  So far this year, I have published 273 posts, which is not bad for this being the 97th day of 2021.

People have left a total of 3,512 of comments on my posts so far this year which works out to being 13 average comments per post.  I have gotten 4,808 total likes this year which gives me an average of 18 likes per post.  A lot of my posts are long and I have written a total of 153,912 words already this year, which makes each of my posts come to an average of being 564 words long.  My best views ever occurred on March 8, 2021 where I got 826 views that day, which seems odd because I only published 2 posts that day and neither one did all that well.  My top commenters lately have been glyn40wilton, badfinger20 (Max), Fandango, Peter’s pondering and Melanie B Cee.

I don’t have any milestones to celebrate at the moment, and although my life is busy at the moment with me running three different challenges here on WordPress, there is not a real lot happening in my life besides my writing.  I am very close to achieving my goal of finishing up all of my A to Z posts, as I just started writing my Z today and then I can relax a bit.  If I had anything noteworthy to celebrate, I would be happy to do that, as I don’t view milestones as being pointless and superficial.

The ancient Romans marked their roads with a milestone, which was a circular column on a solid rectangular base, set for more than 2 feet into the ground, standing 5 feet tall, 20 inches in diameter, and weighing more than 2 tons.  At the base was inscribed the number of the mile relative to the road it was on.  Milestones marked every mile from Rome, so that no traveler would mistake the fact that they were on a Roman road under imperial domain.  Below the Temple of Saturn in Rome, Augustus set up the golden milestone, which was regarded as the point from which all the principal roads of Rome diverged, this gave the Romans a way to record the distances that separated the capital from the principal cities of the Empire.

Written for Reena’s Exploration Challenge #180 – Milestones.

Such A Jerk

One way or another, someone has to kick that guy right in his head, what on Earth is he trying to do, he better get himself together before Karma bites him in his ass.  There is no reason for him to be threating this poor little girl, who by the way seems completely innocent to me, so harsh.  He admits to being a wicked guy with a jealous mind, but that is no excuse for this type of behavior.  I can’t see anyone in their right mind ever singing about domestic abuse where women get beaten and battered by their man, but it does happen.  March is all about celebrating the accomplishments of women, but we also need to do something for the ones that need protection.  When a man threatens to take a girl’s head off and tells her that she better run for her life, then that man has gotten too angry and I think that they have classes for that now, but don’t go if Jack Nicholson ends up being the instructor.

This guy would rather see his girl dead, than her be with another man, but this song never discusses if he is also being faithful and it doesn’t give any reason for anyone to suspect that his girl is actually cheating on him.  That is what puts this song a bit over the edge into making me think that this guy probably enjoys beating his woman and he is looking for any excuse to take his belt off and give her a good whacking.  He says that he is willing to spend his whole life, just to make her toe the line, which doesn’t tell me that he is a man of convictions, it screams that this gut is a nut job.  I am not sure if this girl is hiding her head in the sand or not, but she needs to wake up, smell the coffee and run for her life, as fast as she can, because if she doesn’t get away from this dangerous dude soon, she may not get another opportunity.

Well, I’d rather see you dead, little girl
Than to be with another man
You better keep your head, little girl
Or I won’t know where I am

You better run for your life if you can, little girl
Hide your head in the sand, little girl
Catch you with another man
That’s the end, little girl

Well, you know that I’m a wicked guy
And I was born with a jealous mind
And I can’t spend my whole life
Trying just to make you toe the line

You better run for your life if you can, little girl
Hide your head in the sand, little girl
Catch you with another man
That’s the end, little girl

Let this be a sermon
I mean everything I’ve said
Baby, I’m determined
And I’d rather see you dead

You better run for your life if you can, little girl
Hide your head in the sand, little girl
Catch you with another man
That’s the end, little girl

I’d rather see you dead, little girl
Than to be with another man
You better keep your head, little girl
Or you won’t know where I am

You better run for your life if you can, little girl
Hide your head in the sand, little girl
Catch you with another man
That’s the end, little girl

Na, na, na
Na, na, na
Na, na, na
Na, na, na

Written for Reena’s Exploration Challenge #178 – Karma Bites.

Time to Pay the Piper

They know that Trump is a criminal, and they want to put the screws to him to make the dirt come out, but he has not been put on the rack yet.  They will scrutinize his tax returns, which he claimed that he was not able to release because he was under audit, but he is no longer the president and he can’t continue to make excuses, so these tax experts will run through his tax return and start ripping it to pieces, and then he’ll end up in an audit, which will ultimately produce taxable consequences, and he will be forced to pay penalties and I hope this ends in jail time for him.  Trump has tried to avoid releasing his taxes for decades and it is not clear yet if he broke any laws, but it is thought that he has avoided paying hundreds of millions in taxes over the last 10 years.  Trump has overstated the value of his assets to brag about his wealth in an attempt to be listed amongst the wealthiest people in Forbes magazine, but when it comes to the IRS, he has taken the opposite position, saying that his assets are worth far less than what has been reported.

One of America’s biggest secrets is the speculation over what exactly is Donald Trump hiding in his tax returns, but most people feel it is his lack of paying his fair share of income tax and I am almost certain that he claimed some illegal dubious deductions, or took some distorted suspicious and mysterious write-offs.  The Times discovered that Trump paid no income taxes at all from 2011 to 2014, and a paltry $750 in 2016 and 2017.  The deal making business genius claimed that his businesses lost massive amounts of money, but he wants to keep this damaging information from public view.  In 1985, Mr. Trump reported losses of $46.1 million from his core businesses which were largely casinos, hotels and retail space in apartment buildings.  They continued to lose money every year, totaling $1.17 billion in losses for the decade and in fact, year after year, Mr. Trump appears to have lost more money than nearly any other individual American taxpayer.

They are just scratching the surface not, but these documents that he was forced to release will be subject to grand jury secrecy rules that will restrict their public release.  The New York State grand jury is investigating alleged hush money payments and other issues and their subpoenas span his tax records from January 2011 to August 2019.  Trump is doubling down saying this is nothing more than a fishing expedition and he is calling this the greatest political Witch Hunt in the history of our Country.  Things are not looking so good for Trump, as he has hundreds of millions of dollars in loans, much of which he personally guaranteed, coming due in the next few years.

Written for Reena’s Exploration Challenge #174.

Understanding Time

Electrons are always moving.  They spin very quickly around the nucleus of an atom.  As the electrons zip around, they can move in any direction, as long as they stay in their shell.  Electrons can move in any direction you can imagine.  Electrons are constantly spinning in those atomic shells and those shells, or orbitals, are specific distances from the nucleus.  A guy named Schrödinger started realizing that all electrons weren’t the same and they didn’t move in the same way.  The mathematics describing the vibratory patterns that define the states of atoms in quantum mechanics is identical to that which describes the resonance of musical instruments.  Eventually it was found that all forces in nature can be classified into four types.  The gravitational force holds together the universe at large, plus the atmosphere, water, and us to the planet Earth.  The electromagnetic force governs atomic level phenomena, binding electrons to atoms, and atoms to one another to form molecules and compounds.  The strong nuclear force holds the nucleus together.  The weak nuclear force, is responsible for certain types of nuclear reactions and has little bearing on energy sources today.

In 1905, Albert Einstein published his Special Theory of Relativity, which deals with (frames of reference) objects separating with constant high velocities (close to the speed of light).  In this first theory, Einstein stated that the speed of light was the absolute limit for all velocities and furthermore all observers, whatever their motion, must measure the speed of light to be exactly the same.  Finally, only mass-less objects may attain the speed of light.  This is because as massive objects contract in their direction of motion, their clocks slow down relative to observer’s clocks and they gain mass and thus inertia as they accelerate towards the speed of light.

In order to sidestep the issue of Newton’s Third Law of Motion and the impossibility of matter traveling faster than the speed of light, we can look to Einstein and the relationship between space and time.  Taken together, space, consisting of three dimensions (up-down, left-right, and forward-backward) and time are all part of what’s called the space-time continuum.  In his Special Theory of Relativity, Einstein states two postulates: 1) The speed of light (about 300,000,000 meters per second) is the same for all observers, whether or not they’re moving.  2) Anyone moving at a constant speed should observe the same physical laws.  Putting these two ideas together, Einstein realized that space and time are relative, an object in motion actually experiences time at a slower rate than one at rest.  Although this may seem absurd to us, we travel incredibly slow when compared to the speed of light, so we don’t notice the hands on our watches ticking slower when we’re running or traveling on an airplane.  Scientists have actually proved this phenomenon by sending atomic clocks up with high-speed rocket ships.  They returned to Earth slightly behind the clocks on the ground.

Because space and time are part of the same entity it’s impossible to move in space without moving in time.  Time, for anything moving, changes.  One of the most startling consequences of special relativity is that any moving clock slows down relative to a stationary observer.  There are of course many different types of clocks, such as digital watches, clockwork clocks, atomic clocks and even our own biological clocks, but they are all equally affected by the same principle, namely: moving clocks run slow.  It isn’t until we get to speeds that are a large fraction of the speed of light that any change in the flow of time becomes apparent.  However, at speeds very close to that of light the effect grows in magnitude very rapidly indeed until time almost comes to a standstill.

Written for Reena’s Exploration Challenge #172 – Components of Time.

Well Water

A breakdown in domestic water supply caused the town leaders to consider new alternatives and they made an appointment to talk with the well water sales engineer today.  When Mr. Jones arrived, they asked him what type of guarantee they would get for their money, if they decided to invest in this well water system technology.  Mr. Jones said that he would need a retainer to do a study and depending on what information came from that, then he could give them an estimate.  Mr. Jones told them, “Since you can’t see ground water, we have hydrologists on staff that utilize scientific methods to find water, but this can be a crap shoot and sometimes your neighbor may have water and you won’t.  We will have some test holes drilled and check our records that we have acquired for all the holes that were drilled in this area and that should give us something to go on.”

The mayor spoke up and said, “How much of a retainer do you require to get started and instead of equivocating the issue, tell us the chances on a scale of 1 to 10 that you will be able to hit pay dirt or us hitting rock bottom and this project becomes a money pit that runs us completely dry.  Ten would match up with us having to pay a minimal amount of money and would yield a vast water supply that would last us for years to come and one on this scale will have you run out of here on a rail.”  Mr. Jones replied. “Do you want me to calculate the cost of water treatment, just in case there may have containments present?”  The mayor said, “Yes of course”!  Mr. Jones said, “Well in that case, I am going to need a retainer and you can make the check out to the We Dig Wells company.

Written for FOWC with Fandango – Instead, for Linda G. Hill’s ‘Life in progress’ JusJoJan January prompt – Neighbor, and for Reena’s Exploration Challenge #168 – A breakdown in domestic water supply.

The Sure Thing

I woke up in 2021 caught in an intimate relationship and I guess that I just got used to having her around.  When we met, she told me that there was no need to romance her, as she was a sure thing.  I became distracted by her beauty which was mesmerizing, but romance was one aspect that I certainly wanted to have in a relationship.  I wanted more and I turned into a basket case because I started ignoring the ignorance of this situation.  I wanted to kiss her and she insisted that wasn’t necessary, so we argued constantly till I got tired.  She looked just like Elizabeth Taylor and I asked her if we could go up on the tin roof with a blanket where we could be like street cats making love.

Written for Sheryl’s Daily Word Prompt – Distracted, for the Daily Spur prompt – Aspect, for FOWC with Fandango – Intimate, for Linda G. Hill’s ‘Life in progress’ JusJoJan January prompt – Caught, for January Writing Prompts – Ignoring the ignorance, for Ragtag Community – Blanket, for Reena’s Exploration Challenge #167 – I woke up in 2021, for Mindlovemisery’s Menagerie Tale Weaver hosted by Michael prompt – A basket case, for Di’s Three Things Challenge prompt words – Tired Tin More and for Word of the Day Challenge Prompt – Mesmerizing.

Reverse Strategy

For Reena’s Exploration Challenge #166, we are asked to find an appropriate picture that fits the following two poems.

inkblots mutate
to form pictures,
alphabets,
stories
I did not create

This reminded me of the DC Comics Watchmen character Rorschach.  Walter Kovacs was a violent and ruthless vigilante who is driven by moral absolutism.  Walter got a job working in the garment industry where he had to handle female clothing.  There was a special order for a dress in a new Doctor Manhattan spin-off fabric, made out of two plastic membranes with fluid between them, so the fluid keeps shifting around like a lava lamp.  The customer didn’t want it, saying that the dress looked ugly, but Walter thought otherwise, and since no one wanted the dress, he took it home.  Two years later, he heard that the customer was raped and tortured outside of her apartment building while her neighbors just watched, not calling the police.  Being ashamed for humanity, he took the remains of her unwanted dress and made a face that he claimed allowed him to bear to look at in the mirror.

decorated trees
sway to songs
emanating from
masked lips
imagining smiles
that reach
twinkling toes and
luminous tips

I gave up on this one.

Written for Reena’s Exploration Challenge #166 – Reverse Strategy.

All I Want for Christmas

This is not a letter to Santa, as this is meant for the team of WordPress Happiness Engineers who from what I have heard are helpful individuals.  I would like you to pitch in and lend a hand to a wonderful blogger named Fandango, yes that guy with the paper bag over his head.  He is a very decent guy and he hosts a bunch of challenges to keep other bloggers busy and that is not an easy task.  He blogs on his iphone and one of your recent software updates has caused him a lot of trouble.  I am sure that you know all about this because he has written several post alerting everyone that he has contacted you and that you promised to work on this issue.  Please give him the assistance that he needs to remain the awesome guy that he already is.  If you can resolve this problem for him. I am sure that you will be the one Who Won The Week.

Written for Reena’s Exploration Challenge #165 – photo prompt Hands.

I Had No Idea That I Was A Netizen

Apparently, this word is a portmanteau of the words Internet and citizen, so that fits me quite well, because I am often involved in online activities.  ‘Paper in Fire’ was a hit single from John Cougar Mellencamp’s ninth studio album The Lonesome Jubilee which was recorded in 1987.  This song reached #9 on The Billboard Hot 100 and it got to #86 in the UK.  Mellencamp’s Uncle Joe had died of cancer at the age of 57 the year before this song came out and ‘Paper in Fire’ is about Joe and the family’s ingrained anger.  John Mellencamp came from Seymour, Indiana and this is where his father, Richard Mellencamp, met his mother when he slammed into her on the street one day in the late 1940s.  Richard and his big brother Joe were running from the cops after pummeling four guys in retaliation for a whupping that his father Richard had gotten earlier.  Mellencamp recalled that his Uncle Joe who was once a massive man was down to 100 pounds in the intensive care ward, but he still didn’t want to spoil his macho football star image by letting loved ones see him.

The “paper in fire” represents the dreams that disappear when Americans are hit with the harsh realities that destroy them.  The song touches on elements of the bible, the 1963 Paul Newman film Hud, and the rock-and-roll lifestyle.  Paper in fire is hell, and it is mentioned in Revelation 20:15, “Anyone whose name was not found recorded in the Book of Life was thrown into the lake of fire”.  The Book of Life is the book in which God records the names of every person who is destined for Heaven or the World to Come.  The line in this song, “We keep no check on our appetites”, comes from the 1963 movie Hud, starring Paul Newman.  The line is said by Melvyn Douglas who played the character of Homer Bannon who despised his son Hud.  Homer got pissed off with Hud and said, “You don’t care about people Hud. You don’t give a damn about ‘em. Oh, you got all that charm goin’ for ya. And it makes the youngsters want to be like ya. That’s the shame of it because you don’t value anything. You don’t respect nothing. You keep no check on your appetites at all. You live just for yourself. And that makes you not fit to live with.”  Mellencamp liked the movie so much, that he named one of his sons Hud.

Mellencamp recorded six albums as John Cougar before switching to John Cougar Mellencamp and finally back to his given name.  In 2008, John was inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame.

She had a dream
And boy it was a good one
So she chased after her dream
With much desire
But when she get too close
To her expectations
Well the dream burned up
Like paper in fire

Paper in fire
Stinking up the ashtrays
Paper in fire
Smoking up the alleyways
Who’s to say the way
A man should spend his days
Do you let them smolder
Like paper in fire

He wanted love
With no involvement
So he chased the wind
That’s all his silly life required
And the days of vanity
Went on forever
And he saw his days burn up
Like paper in fire

Paper in fire
Stinking up the ashtrays
Paper in fire
Smoking up the alleyways
Who’s to say the way
A man should spend his days
Do you let them smolder
Like paper in fire

There’s a good life
Right across the green fields
And each generation
Stares at it from afar
But we keep no check
On our appetites
So the green fields turn to brown
Like paper in fire

Paper in fire
Stinking up the ashtrays
Paper in fire
Smoking up the alleyways
Who’s to say the way
A man should spend his days
Do you let them smolder
Like paper in fire

Written for Reena’s Exploration Challenge #164 – photo prompt.

Stoner Psychobabble

Reena gave us three sentences to ponder today, those being, “His thought process was on so many levels that he gave himself a phobia of heights.”  “Random words in front of other random words create a random sentence” and “I come from a tribe of head-hunters, so I will never need a shrink.”  This made me think about a flexible record of Neal Cassady babbling on about who knows what that was included inside of a Grateful Dead album that I bought.  Neal was a fast-talking whirligig of a man who’d been the real-life inspiration for Dean Moriarty in Jack Kerouac’s On the Road book.  Neal was often shirtless and it seemed like he was always high on speed while he danced around to the music of the Grateful Dead.  I have no idea what happened to that record and I only listened to it a few times, as it was mostly stoner psychobabble, that was not particularly coherent.

I am pretty sure that the stuff Neal Cassady said, probably made sense to him inside of his own mind, but for anyone else it must have been hard to follow along.  I found a recording of Neal online, but I don’t think that it is the same one that I had.  This one was included in The Dead Book: A Social History Of The Grateful Dead published in 1973 by Hank Harrison where Neal was at the grand opening of the Straight Theater in September 1967.

Written for Reena’s Exploration Challenge #162 – three obscure sentences which Reena says that we can build our piece on.