Modern day Rockwell?

Hi Friends;
  I just noticed that Thomas Kinkade has died at the very young age of 54.  His work was prolific, to say the least, and nearly everyone could find something that was nice for them.  Earth shaking, art defining, breath taking, perhaps not.  But, his art was quiet, alive, and fascinating in of itself.  And, quite commercial.  Here is an example of his work.  He uses bright colors to capture the attention, but not so much as to overload the senses.  It's sad to know that he is leaving us so soon.  I've often wondered if he did other types of art.  Anyone know the answer to that?

Thomas Kinkade, passed on at age 54.

The power of music

Hi Friends;
  Do you like music?  I love music.  I love to sing... I just do it poorly.  Music makes me feel, and makes me feel alive.  There are some that I just don't like.  I don't like current country music.  Oddly enough, it makes me feel angry and even violent.  I don't like the r&b of the current day either.  But, the older country and the older r&b I love.  Earth Wind & Fire, Freddie Fender, Cab Calloway, Marvin Gaye, Johnny Cash.  And I also love to listen to rock, and even the music like Enya and Andre Botticelli. 
  I came across this vid that was really interesting.  It was about the power of music to bring life and identity back to elder patients who have withdrawn.  I hope you like it too.

http://www.wimp.com/reactionmusic/


hugs;

Is it Easter yet?

Can I has my Easter Basket now?

  Good Morning everybody;

  Welcome to Good Friday.  For those who don't know, "Good Friday" is the day that Christ was put upon the cross to make way for our shortcomings and come before God.  He was the sacrificial lamb, for those in the Old Testament way of thinking.
  Hanging on a cross next to Christ was a thief.  This thief, knowing he was guilty of his crimes was willing to pay the cost.  But, he saw Christ hanging there and being abused by the crowd and called out to them to let him be, that he was innocent.  He then asked that Jesus remember him to the Father.  It is said that there in Heaven sits this thief.
  I tell you this to say...that not one priest on the ground could change the destiny of that thief, nor could they get themselves to heaven.  Not one could be so righteous as to declare themslves fit.  Not one believer could condemn the thief to hell.     Only God gets to judge us!
That's a little throw at the jerk I heard on the tv this morning.  He knows who he is.

  I expected to be writing this morning to tell you that I would be absent from the blog for a bit as my parents made it home from their winter migration destination and would be spending the Easter Holiday with me.  I was mistaken in that belief.
  They pulled in at 3:30 on Wednesday afternoon.  I visited with them for a bit, but I had to be in bed by 6:00 to make it to work on time with even a little sleep.  On the way home from work I stopped to buy breakfast muffins and a paper - Mom likes the local paper.  When the newspaper called me last year  I told the circulation salesman that my dog is housebroken and I don't have a bird, so have no need for their paper.  He didn't appreciate my humor, but it tells you about the quality of the local paper.
   They liked the muffins, drank some coffee, and were gone for home an hour later. 
  So, I guess I'm spending my Easter with you.

Last night I made my dinner and sat down to watch 'Cowboys and Aliens'.  I thought it was another sequel to the Aliens series, but these were new ones.  Still an enjoyable film.  I went too long without eating and found myself a bit too receptive to the beer I'd had.  I don't normally drink much but Dad likes it so I have it in the house when he's coming.  Well, gotta do something with it.....  So, I made it to bed with legs feeling a bit unsure and slept great! 
  Not feeling the best right now, but that's ok. 

I did really well on my diet this week.  I made baked chicken breast with salsa on top, a bit of shredded cheese.  Then, side bowls of green beans and brown rice.  That was my main meal each night.  I'm going to buy some lemon and make some lemon chicken next, with salad.  That's another thing I have... two dozen eggs because the folks like eggs in the morning but I don't really eat them.  So, I guess I'll hard boil them and cut them into a salad.
 
Be well, my friends.  If anyone else is alone this week, feel free to email me.  That includes you, Miles!   I lost all your email with the closing of the prior email, so I'm missing you a bit, and of course I'd love to hear from new people, too.  blundersonword (at) hotmail (dot) com.
hugs;
randy

Hugs

http://milkboys.org/article/hugs-sex-insanity/
Once the memory of their school days starts to fade, many adults think the troubles of this time are not much of a burden compared to the problems they have to face in their world. But I’m sure everyone who’s still in school or was not too long ago will recognise that there are many things that can make an ordinary day at school seem like hell, something you might at some point even think you don’t have the power to endure any longer.

No matter if it’s bullying, problems at home or “just” the normal pressure that comes with what seems to be a planned out school “career” nowadays with parents apparently thinking that their kids are doomed if they don’t study for hours every day once they attend kindergarten.
And everyone who was lucky enough to have some loving friends helping them through such days will tell you that there are some little things that can mean so much, that can give you the confidence you need to face these problems once again, that can be a game changer in the harsh world school has become for many kids.
A hug from a friend is one of these simple, yet incredible powerful things.

But not everyone is seeing hugs for what they are: A way to embrace your friends, a way to comfort someone who is in need, a way to save someone’s day. For some people hugs are a threat. A dangerous act that leads to something these people fear more than the devil itself: Sex.

I would be preaching to the choir here if I point out that this is, of course, utter nonsense; that there is nothing sexual about hugs. That not every time people touch each other it’s a ritual to initiate a wild orgy of teenage sex full of sweat, cum and endorphin. Hugs are just that: hugs.
But some societies are so scared by the idea of two people loving each other, as friends or as a couple, that they don’t even dare to use the word hug. Instead they come up with technical terms that are outright disgusting in their lifeless blandness. A hug becomes a “PDA”, a “Public Display of Affection”, a term that would easily fit into Orwell’s 1984.
Once they do this it can’t really surprise anyone when they start to outlaw hugs. More and more schools all over the Unites States actually state in their school rules that hugs are not allowed or that students can’t come closer than 30 centimetres to each other. The school that banned hugging as an “unsuitable physical interaction” was just the latest example, this is going on for years now.
The hypocrisy of a system in which weapons are glorified and a film about a game that consists of kids slaughtering each other is celebrating one of the most successful opening weekends in cinema history while the mere slip of a nipple of a female singer causes enough controversy and outrage to keep the nation’s media busy for weeks and weeks is hardly worth pointing out since it’s so painfully obvious. It’s this kind of hypocrisy that leads to schools prohibiting hugs while bullying gay teens is defended as “freedom of religion”.
It this really the world we want to live in? Is this how we want the next generations to grow up? Under the impression that affection is something dirty, that caring for each other is “inappropriate”? I don’t have any solutions handy here. But I do believe that it’s time to do something. To make it better for American kids and to make sure this attitude won’t spread to other parts of the world.

But what do you do in the face of insanity?

Hi Friends;

  I read that and just shook my head.  We are a social people, conveying a great deal of subconscious and cultural meaning in touch.  We have all sorts, from a handshake or light punch on the arm to a flying American football tackle.  It's all about being part of the group, part of the community, part of humanity.
  The image to the right of two teens hugging may come to some as inappropriate.  Should it? 
  Is this one then so horrible as well?
 

Who gets to suddenly have that power to dictate how we will demonstrate camaraderie?  What gave them the right?

  As an adult, I look back on my school years and think of the many times a simple bit of contact would have gone such a very long way.  A simple sharing of the moment, a gesture to let someone know they are not alone.  Oh I wish I could be a parent in that school district, because I would organize a demonstration of kids walking arm in arm, of their parents walking right behind them daring the pompous school officials to say a word.  Well, I'd like to think I would.  I'd think about it....

  The problem is that we as a people have a tendency to simply shrug and let things slide by.  We just want to live our lives - go to work, eat too much while we watch a bit of tv and yell for our favorite teams.  In our desire to simply live our own lives, we lose track of the psychos that keep finding their way into leadership, like mosquitoes to a bare arm in August, until suddenly we find ourselves being sucked dry.  So, I declare a war...

Shel Silverstein... the greatest poet ever!

Sorry.... not quite part of the post, but had to be in here somewhere....

 

Well, I've made my point.   Hugs everyone......  Oh, damn. 

 

 

I think he lied...



Those were NOT chocolate easter eggs you left back there!