Before I begin this poems, ditties, muttobs count: I have added 24 of my earliest verses (poems) to the other poems in the autobiography (a) section; and as there are now enough for e-chap status, I am ending that project and naming it Autobio Poems. This links to the main Autobio entry. Yesterday when I did a quick count, I found 11 in August, 11 in September, 7 in October, 52 in November, and 13 in December. Am fairly certain this is accurate, but will be checking another way today to be sure. Miscounted. December has 16. Therefore, 97 (not 94) is correct. So, 771 + 97 = 868 pdm's from 03nov2006 through 31dec2007. The others are: 1 in Postures 2007, 6 in Seminary, 18 in Venturings, and 48 in The Undulant Trees. Zip over to the site map (the Journal Links Center) for informative connections, or browse through the Archives for hazy connections. [ 2007-01-17 Note: 771 should be 768; so 868 should be 865 ] Brian A. J. Salchert
Thinking Lizard
About Me
- brian (baj) salchert
- Rhodingeedaddee is my node blog. See my other blogs and recent posts.
Monday, December 31, 2007
sw00762a-pdm.count3
Sunday, December 30, 2007
sw00761st73-tagging
For the moment/ things remain normal at S H. Tomorrow will be an end-of-the-year pdm-count day. From the site map originally known as Journal Links Center, there are major links through which nearly every entry in this blog can be accessed. The one exception being the Sprintedon Tracker series. Since this series is likely to be the permanent ongoing journal within this journal, I have given each entry its own simple a/n code, but that is all. - 5:17 PM Changed st73 to 30dec2007st73 Brian and his crazy codes. On 09sep2007, st1 was posted. - Added date/st# tags in all the Sprintedon Tracker entries. - Honestly, tagging confuses me. Some bloggers use tag clouds, some don't use any tags; some use simple tags. My use of alpha/numeric tags and subjects might be daft, but the Google robots care not. Just did a quick count of poems posted since July 31: 94 If that count is correct, the number of my poems, ditties, and muttobs in this journal through tomorrow will be 865. - Brian A. J. Salchert
Saturday, December 29, 2007
sw00760st72-tech.forums
I have long had an aversion to forum sites, but the important experiences I have had at two technology forums this week changed my opinion about them. Thought is needed to use them effectively, but the best forums reward such care. It is after 5 PM, and though the sky is clear, Earth's spin is deepening darkness. The sun sinks somewhere/ I cannot see. Earth rising/ sunset is. It is after 11 PM, and I am waiting for an answer to a question. I doubt one will be posted tonight. Am hoping my concern is due to my lack of knowledge, and so is moot. - Brian A. J. Salchert
Friday, December 28, 2007
sw00759ut-34.poem
The Undulant Trees The Ghost in the Dumpster And there he was weeping and weeping and no one could make him stop who had tried so hard but ever had failed until even that which he did well seemed somehow a failure who wondered how he could go on knowing that with each choice he was slipping further behind and yet who had to however ever poorly he did. - Brian A. J. Salchert
sw00758st71-pop.song.favs
Overcast day. Overcast me. Over at The Suburban Ecstasies is a 1967 video of The Moody Blues playing their "Tuesday Afternoon". Knew about it yesterday, and it made me try to recall songs I like, which is difficult for my fog-pocketed memory to do. Have always favored songs about wind and songs about loneliness, but I have never analyzed my musical tastes. Here are some titles: "Dust in the Wind" "I Am, I Said" "Baker Street" "The Way It Is" "Key Largo" "Smooth Operator" "Pieces of April" "Norwegian Wood" "Turn the Page" "Wild Horses" "We Are the Champions" "Don't Fear the Reaper" "Bridge Over Troubled Water" "Ring of Fire" "Some Velvet Morning" "Free Bird" "Down In a Hole" "Imagine" "The Rose" "Magic Man" "The Breeze and I" "The Seventh Seal" "Ghost of a Chance" "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" "Stairway to Heaven" "Vincent (Starry, Starry Night)" "Ride Like the Wind" "Only the Lonely" "Amazing" "California Dreaming" "Breathe" "You've Got a Friend" "MacArthur Park" "Galileo" "Teach Your Children" "Cat's in the Cradle" "Me and Mrs. Jones" "Suspicion" - Brian A. J. Salchert
Thursday, December 27, 2007
sw00757st70-tech.lessons
Maybe all/ will be well/ but it's still too early to tell. Was able to get some program questions answered. Discovered www.neuber.com has an excellent forum. Of course they also want to sell products. When the name of a program such as mantispm is searched at Google, Neuber's site often comes up. Take a look. For my needs/ My Routine is not useful. However, the address bar is, especially now that it empties each time I sign off AOL. I use Go to get to AOL Search, and the arrow to get to a session's history. It is replacing my now deleted offline homepage/ which the house icon brought up when its file was the current page in Internet Explorer. One day I may go back to that method of connecting. Had been wondering why my firewall / anti-virus / anti-spyware product stopped giving the number of attempted intrusions. Learned today that the NAT technology in my wireless product blocks such intrusions before they get to the protections provided by the fw/a-v/a-s product. - Brian A. J. Salchert
Tuesday, December 25, 2007
sw00756st69-Christman
Because they had worked before--even if only for one day, I went back to techagv's 12/16/2007 instructions. Skipped instruction C because after I'd completed instruction B/ I got a message stating my system was restored. However, having recalled from somewhere that a slower mouse speed might help, I lowered its speed one notch even though it passed the provided open/ close folder test where it was. Earlier I had made a number of changes in my browsers, my security, in AOL space; and I deleted my "offline" homepage. All this constitutes my Internet Christmas present to me. Took Community / Journals route to S H. Several days ago I sent the lyrics (along with suggestions for singing them) of a Christian-centered lullaby I wrote/ to the Wisconsin Province Jesuits headquarters in Milwaukee. This is the season for those lyrics. It would please me endlessly if someone thought well enough of them to compose music for them, and found a few people to sing them. But that is minor compared to what else I need to do outside the computer realm. Peace / Love / Community. [ Imagine the following sung by at least 2 female & 2 male shepherds as their visit to Joseph, Mary, and their heaven-sent child ends. The lines at the left margin should be sung in a rocking cradle song tempo, but slower on the final "Emmanuel Jesus" and on the two "sweet good night" words in the last two lines, with the first of these in higher rising notes and the second in lower falling notes. The indented lines can either be sung in a different melody with the highest note on the "we" words or simply spoken. They do not need to be in the order shown. God's gift to me/ to you. PM 8:19 CST - Brian A J Salchert ] - "Emmanuel Jesus Lullaby" A sweet good night, a sweet good night, Emmanuel Jesus, a sweet good night. A sweet good night, a sweet good night, Emmanuel Jesus, a sweet good night. We wish for You as You wish for us; we tend by You as You tend by us: A sweet good night, a sweet good night, Emmanuel Jesus, a sweet good night. A sweet good night, a sweet good night, Emmanuel Jesus, a sweet good night. We live in You as You live in us; we pray with You as You pray with us: A sweet good night, a sweet good night, Emmanuel Jesus, a sweet good night. A sweet good night, a sweet good night, Emmanuel Jesus, a sweet good night. Emmanuel Jesus a sweet good night, a sweet good night. 12/12/2007 Brian A. J. Salchert Truth About Birth of Jesus Christ -------
Monday, December 24, 2007
sw00755st68-travails
* * * Travails, travails. Bethle is hemmed in. There's no inn in the room. The center has been sold. Hither and Yon have wandered on. Go. ------- Brian A. J. Salchert
Sunday, December 23, 2007
sw00754st67-wish4you
~ ~ ~ Pleasant holidays and blessed holy days. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ------- Brian A. J. Salchert
Saturday, December 22, 2007
sw00753st66-3poets
Have a Sprintedon winter. Since I had other things to do, shortly after 3 PM I shut down this wicked machine. Around 3:50, while I was eating, darkness set in. By 4:10 the outdoor airs where swoopin' and whoopin'. Ten minutes later rains were streaming on the windows. Though I'd rather not toggle off the surge protector and unplug the two wall socket connections, I did; and went back to reading Auden's introduction to his selected Byron. It is PM 6:38 and the temp's heading toward 32, and gusts are again whoooushing. Could get an inch of snow tonight. 7:20 - Just returned from exploring the latest of John Latta's twisted and tangled and ever delicious ruminations at his Isola. However poorly I understand him, he is always a livening read, and the photos top and bottom of each post/ with their curt captions. - Brian A. J. Salchert
Friday, December 21, 2007
sw00752st65-aol.live.help
At 8:02 this morning there were 15 Mourning Doves at the apex of the roof of the apartment building just north of this one/ and a single Mourning Dove on a telephone wire between the buildings. They were having a foggy morning meeting. Notes about my journal edit troubles: - As I indicated in st64, my situation has improved, for now at least. - Since a LIVE HELP tech wished to know how things were going with me, I sent an email yesterday to one of them. Do hope they have read it because it contains useful information. I have kept copies of it. Still will be doing more investigating on my end. - Save button sometimes gets stuck. Cancel key did not get stuck when I clicked it moments ago. It is AM 9:28. - Well, made several security changes on my system. Seems to have made no difference. Did chat with tech person about blocking cookies from 2 ad locations. - 2:15 PM Need to know certain things it may be difficult to find out about. Found a site via Google which answered a question concerning TopSpeed & Footprints. I did 1 clearing action to find out more. Doing so did not get rid of my edit annoyances. Save button is back to sticking again on my first use of it. Of course, the last two times it didn't stick. Maybe it saw what I wrote about it. As I have 7 months of my blog to check, I'm returning to that need. - Brian A. J. Salchert
Thursday, December 20, 2007
sw00751st64-edit.problems
Still having edit problems, but they are slightly diminished because of a change I made in IE/ and also because I have found a more general way to stay connected to my blog. Am not going to share the details here. Want to continue my investigations for a while first. If the malfunction routine consistently stays as it now is, I can be assured that on my third entry attempt I will get the error message by which I know my edit has been saved. This means that after the second malfunction I can safely enter more characters. - Did a defragmentation which finished at AM 10:44. Helped a smidgen. Can't say whether it will last, but for now--though the error messages have not gone away--the Save and Cancel keys are not getting stuck. - Brian A. J. Salchert
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
sw00750st63-ditzy
Hi. Well? And then again. Maybe not so high. Anyway. In the course of remorse he fell off his horse. Ney, ney. ------- Brian A. J. Salchert
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
sw00749st62-editing
Did a lot of editing in spite of edit malfunctions. ------- Brian A. J. Salchert
Monday, December 17, 2007
sw00748st61-blog.snags
Deleted S H link in F P. Why? A post from Joe I found on G said to. Only 1 edit saved properly so far. Usually getting J i u / J i u / P c b f. J i u = AOL Journals is unavailable error message. Erases HTML edits. P c b f = Page cannot be found error message. Untrue: saves HTML edits. Homepage link saved properly. Tags are not saving. Went offline. Set hover for links. Returned here via Community. Got a tag to save. Still usually J i u / J i u / P c b f. Read sw00747st below. When a SAVE gets an immediate Done but the page does not turn over, the page must be closed out. That Done = dead. Yesterday, per instructions, I cleared the AOL Utilities cache to 0 MB and rebuilt the Adapter. PM 2:55 - I just did an AOL ARTWORK PURGE as per instructions. Sometimes when I click SAVE// nothing happens. Am going back to revising my journal. 8 PM Removed the dates from the other 60 st entries. It was not easy. It did not cure my editing problems. One entry kicked me out about 12 times before it went into the J / J / P routine. 9:27 PM Was offline and over at Google for several reasons. Found one possibly useful item in IE: days to keep pages in history feature. I've known about it but can never decide how many days to set it at. 400? Something's amiss in javascript. And it's been amiss since 11-27-07. - Brian A. J. Salchert
Sunday, December 16, 2007
sw00747st60-caches.adapter
Tunnelling is still off, but I printed the instructions sent to me 12/11/2007, and followed them. I've lost my IE hyperlink hover as a result, but that is not as important as I felt it was. Since I never had to concern myself with footprint clearing before (especially on a daily basis), I do not get why I have to now; but my SAVE button is working properly again. Darn. T on. Tough day. Sent status report at PM 6:06. The Fates are snickering. Got more info. Cleared Utilities cache and rebuilt Adapter. It's PM 8:26. Will see how it goes. Re-instated old special IE homepage. - Brian A. J. Salchert
Friday, December 14, 2007
sw00746st59-memory
Hazy day. Had a RAM upgrade installed this morning. Trying another fix idea. Birds about: blue jay, mourning doves, juncos, cardinal, and maybe a sparrow and a starling - Brian A. J. Salchert
Thursday, December 13, 2007
sw00745st58-2poets
PM 4:14 Overcast is becoming mostly cloudy. Today has been a Bill Knott and Franz Wright day.
See my Rhodingeedaddee blog rho00029 post. ------- Brian A. J. Salchert
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
sw00744ut-33.3poems
The Undulant Trees (Do not know when I first wrote the second two poems.) Suddenly we turned the corner and then there was. § A Spinner of Emptiness Manifestations of Dionysus sputtering from the deep fire: blue jays, sparrows, cardinals, gulls draw and draw him to his bedroom window; & even, maybe, to a tittering smile. Still, as the sun tucks itself in, his thinking ego, tossing his body back & back, stands awake and into the darkness spins a web with which to snatch Eternity only to--as the sun shakes--undo it again. And yet, and yet, he cannot stop-- who dreams he is of Apollo-- trying to figure his being out-- or is of Dionysus, or also, or neither. Sunk in his rocker, he'd clap from his head/ the incessant birds. § Arthur Joe All his life the 12-foot wall trapped his desires; attracted him; beat him down whose salient gift was a small stature; yet, once again (having thought, trained) he presses through the undergrowth to try to leap to grip its top in the sharp sun, only to have reaffirmed-- on his scraped knees & scraped arms-- the concrete's sealed dominance, and the two stones sullen beneath a film of water where he sits/ dreaming of salmon. = Aurthur Joe (most recent version) All his life the 12-foot wall trapped his desires, attracted him; beat him down whose salient gift was a small stature; yet, once again (having thought, trained) he presses through the undergrowth to try to leap to grip its top in the sharp sun, only to have reaffirmed-- on his scraped knees & scraped arms-- the concrete's sealed dominance and the two stones sullen behind a film of water where he sits, teetering, tottering, shadow against shadow, dreaming of salmon. (2006-10-08) - Brian A. J. Salchert
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
sw00743st57-save.button
My SAVE button problem was fixed by an online AOL technician. I have sent a (no text) email to Joseph Manna about it. All I had to do was follow his instructions, two of which involved clearing files in Internet Explorer. I requested that he email me his instructions. He did. - For Live Help go to Settings. Once there, scroll to bottom of page and click on Contact Us. Click the link to Live Help. The weather in SW Missouri is in a state of uncertainty, but it is considerably warmer than it was yesterday. That means/ if this area gets anything, it will be rain. - Brian A. J. Salchert
Monday, December 10, 2007
sw00742v-33.poem31
Venturings April 18, 1970 (Saturday) 1 Dreams?--we have them all, Climbing into our deaths, Rising through the roots of every tree. Do I need to tell you something? Do I need to touch you? There is more; there is more than we. Cycling through the winds of middle morning, Anthologies in my briefcase in my basket, The growing clouds devour me. 2 We are old once only, Climbing into our deaths, Rising through the roots of every tree. Do our differences divide us? Do I need to touch you? There is more; there is more than we. Leaning over my desk, Anthologies in my briefcase in my basket, The growing clouds devour me. 3 Leaning over my desk, Cycling through the winds of middle morning, Do I need to tell you something; Do our differences divide us? We are old once only. Dreams?--we have them all. (1970) - Brian A. J. Salchert
sw00741ut-32.2poems
The Undulant Trees As the Eye Can See at the flick of a thought a chair moves from here to Saskatchewan all the hairs on my head were hay for Pizarro's horses the dreams of lettuce are heavy with stars not even nothing holds its own having a name (1972) § Yes, Archibald MacLeish, we who with words would tease, please, deepen minds, spirits, bodies, hearts-- Homers, Virgils, Dantes, Shakespeares-- will not be by Beauty stood dumb in a corner, our behinds to the world so the world's flicked darts stick in them. (????) - Brian A. J. Salchert
Friday, December 7, 2007
sw00740st56-praise
PM 5 -- Praise to the techs! My blog is back in Community / Journals. ------- Brian A. J. Salchert
Thursday, December 6, 2007
sw00739st55-3poets
This afternoon while reading Eileen Myles's "The Sadness of Leaving" poem it occurred to me that people who commit suicide do so not because they want to be dead, but rather because they believe they are dead. About the ways of making poems I prefer not to say anything. About the way a specific poem is made I might have a word or two to say. I have written "experimental" poems, and Wallace Stevens has said that all poems are experimental. My tendency is to agree with him. Still, some poems seem to me to be nothing more than debris aloft in the air as if in a tornado or a hurricane. Other poems seem too simple, too stolid. Warning: If you have a weak bladder, do not read a poem by Paul Violi. - Brian A. J. Salchert
Wednesday, December 5, 2007
sw00738ut-31.2poems
The Undulant Trees And Who Am I? I am Tantalus, Sisyphus, Narcissus; I am he who quests eternally, and who eternally is/ frustrated. (1988) § At 47 she feels like a bankrupt company; or, if not bankrupt, deeply in debt; and doesn't know whether a month from now, a year, will feel the same, or worse, or better; but does know arrogance will not do, nor condescension, nor--even-- the need to prove to those who might invest in her that she is good (real good) and can in time turn around, for such abet liquidation; yet, would the genius in silk laugh at her, the genius with the flyaway hair almost imperceptibly smile? - Scintillant green, deep in the wood, they tell me not to talk to you. Let them. Many things are pathetic, cast against cerulean. (1988) - Brian A. J. Salchert
sw00737st54-bad.night
Not a good night. Didn't get to bed until around AM 12:20. Wasn't in bed long when I thought it best to go to restroom. Between 2:30 and 3 I awoke. Not sure why, but I went to restroom again. Nothing. Went back to sleep. Was awake early. A black chihuahua lives with its owner in the apartment left of mine. Had a vision of it sitting off to the right of my bed near the desk my computer tower is on. It barked at me once. I said to it: "What are you doing here?" Then it faded. Blustery out. My furnace's response was to heat less well. - Brian A. J. Salchert
Tuesday, December 4, 2007
Monday, December 3, 2007
sw00735st53-electoral.college
Our nation's forefathers were highly intelligent, but they created a structurally-flawed nation. It is a democratic republic, and republic is the key word. For many years I have maintained in one-on-one conversations that this country may well be "the home of the brave" but it has never been "the land of the free". "These United States"--see the morrisonhimself comment--need to be reconstructed. However, this post will only address the Electoral College issue because it is the core reason so many of this nation's citizens do not vote. The Maine-Nebraska method is an insufficient improvement. Inherently, the Electoral College cannot be fixed. The Electoral College idea subverts democracy. (Of course, "democracy" is a dirty word; and "of the people, by the people, and for the people" is a pile of doo-doo.) "Politics is the art of preventing people from taking part in affairs which properly concern them." Paul Valéry Tel Quel 2 (1943). See Quotation #163. Before any other federally-mandated institution is, the Electoral College must be garbaged. There is not one argument in its favor that stands up. The distribution of US citizens cannot be accurately accounted for by even a census every year. Circumstances, natural and otherwise, constantly keep people on the move. Giving a state to a candidate who won by 70% is not the same as giving a state to a candidate who won by 55%, even if the population in each is relatively equal. Red states, blue states, purple states: the conception itself is anti-freedom. Wyoming gets 2 senatorial votes and California gets 2 senatorial votes: what kind of crock is that? What I'm saying is not that California ought to have more than 2 senators, but that the supposed checks and balances the E C provides is untenable. There are other problems: 1) the voting age 2) citizens who don't vote (for whatever reasons) are automatically disenfranchised 3) balloting systems are too diverse and unreliable 4) the ways in which campaigns are conducted, to say nothing of the cost of them. About point 1: The age at which one is allowed to vote should be the same age in every state. Sometimes states' rights = states' blights. Maybe each state should be its own country. Wouldn't that be the cat's diapers. Have so far not founda state-by-state voting age chart. Read this pertinent cogent argument for lowering the age to 16. About point 2: Say that in a general election 30% vote for Bluu, 25% vote for Redd, 5% vote for Purp, and 40% vote for Nota. I think every ballot should include a "None-of-the-above" option. I think such an option would encourage more citizens to vote, especially if it were accorded its rightful power. That is, if the majority of citizens chose that option, then the election in which it occurred should be considered null-and-void. Well, do you or don't you want a democracy? & what about Americans who are in prisons in this country? About point 3: Every ballot across the land should have the same look. None of this filling in an oval or punching this or that with a machine. A simple X to the right of a name, of a yes, of a no would suffice. Special assistance should be given to those who are handicapped but are able to choose. About point 4: We live in a capitalist society, a fate which is both good/ and evil. How/ many/ of our leaders are poor? We persist in a veritable oligarchy which, if it had its way, would happily become a tyranny, if it hasn't already. Alexis Tocqueville saw this coming. The birth of These United States was marked by an undesired but necessary violence. Nothing prevents it from being reborn by a similar undesired but necessary violence. Our own Declaration of Independence recognizes that possibility. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these, are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That, to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that, whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute a new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect theirsafety and happiness. And it goes on, though in a more cautionary tone. Read it. - This is an annotated text of the Declaration. Scroll down to it. - Brian A. J. Salchert
Sunday, December 2, 2007
sw00734st52-cyril.wong
------- Poetry Hut - item 7. Singapore poet, Cyril Wong ~ Brian A. J. Salchert
sw00733ut-30.poem
The Undulant Trees Funning with my imagination suddenly the eagle come alive jerks the Kleenex out of its bowels white & frightened like a dying fish bits of ivory fluff turning the colors of shadows rush beneath my barely opened windows invade my neck my voice box spits screaming blue-black ropes all the leaves are popped-out eyes twisting away i speed through a rainbow maze brown rows of mud arcs of green corrosion red plumes stunned by a million grinding teeth covered with cobwebs the odor of crushed Gingko fruit my body floats like a cork in a spout / catches on the tongues of a whirlpool the teeth part secluded spiders crouch at my approach * staring at the lowest orange disk on the four-color windchimes i center on one pale rectangle & find in it valleys hills mountains & every shade from near-transparent to triple orange vibrating vibrating & the mountains flow to the valleys & the valleys to the hills slow slow slow & each shape resonates a soft squeezing the juices of mandarin of tangerine & the beat picks up & the smooth edges roughen a cloud of exploding stars a cloud of exploding stars a cloud of exploding exploding d g in o l p x e slivers of orange-filled mirrors whistling - (1971-2007) - Brian A. J. Salchert
sw00732ut-29.poem
The Undulant Trees Blinks Her eyelids snapping the dandelion air the photographed boy is so simply brilliant fuzz that while she wishes for clarity her turning head drifts him behind a bridal wreath and all at last she recognizes can not be held (1968-2007) - Brian A. J. Salchert
sw00731ut-28.4poems
The Undulant Trees Postscript to Doctor Zhivago Rummaging among the shards of jugs and men or floating between the stars, we turn ourselves to whatever we find; to whatever we turn we find ourselves: leaves of a birch scratching the ground or the consecrated wine; buds inhaling the bright wind, opening, or broken shelves. (5-5-69) - Because I Move menageries wander about me their cottony bodies catching on bricks, grasses, etc. gyrating off into birds waves (1971 ?) - As I Said one must but then there are times oh you know don't you (?) - My Walking Stick There is an evil in my bones I cannot kill, not even with a metaphor made by God; so just outside our metal door, when I would sleep, a black and black-&-white cat yeowl and brawl. There is an evil in my heart. It eats my will. (1990 ?) - Brian A. J. Salchert
Saturday, December 1, 2007
sw00730st51-breakthroughs
Linh Dinh's Borderless Bodies book of poems was recently awarded. * 12.01.07 See Magic Smoke main message about journals. * Three important technology breakthroughs: stem cells without the embryos . clean energy . printed silicon technologies * What comes out of a literary canon? Nothing other than heavy word-balls whose sole purpose is: to hurt people. Someone needs to change the metaphor. It just doesn't sound right: pun, pun, pun. - Brian A. J. Salchert