humor

The Irrepressible Nature of Irony*

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Or, Nothing Is As It Appears To Be

If you were to do a search on my site for the word “irony” — and why would you? — but, if you were to, of the ten results you would receive, the first three would have the word “irony” in their heading, so it’s easy to see why they would be pulled up in the search; but as far as the other seven, it’s been so long since they were written that I have no clue why they were pulled in with the results, except for maybe the eighth one: it’s a post about Radiohead allowing fans to pay whatever they want for their latest release at the time. There’s probably a decent amount of irony to be found in that one.

Anyway, of the first three positively ironic posts pulled in the search, they are:

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There’s so much to gripe about I can’t decide which gripe to blog about so instead I’ll just share this…

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According to this article, which is a derivative of this article, which leans heavily on this study, creative people literally see the world differently than us lesser than creative types, as is illustrated by the following video…


 
Some of you may remember this similar titillating* exercise in awareness I shared in days past.

#prayforopenness
#andpuertorico

*The word “titillating” was added for clickbait purposes only; although, some may in fact be titillated by brain teasers. Who knows…

 

Emily Dickinson on Daylight Saving Time*

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764

Presentiment – is that long Shadow – on the Lawn –
Indicative that Suns go down –

The Notice to the startled Grass
That Darkness is about to pass –

 

*Admittedly, it’s highly unlikely that Ms. Dickinson while sitting alone upstairs staring out her pondering window penned this pensive poem about Daylight Saving Time; that being said, it’s time to throw open those curtains, spread sunshine on those foreboding winter-fouled floating dust mites of presentiments and drag those lagging Clocks for-ward and on-ward to-ward that Fresh Breath of presentiment-less and Carefree Air affectionately known as Spring, yo!**

**What’s with all the “yos” lately, yo?

 

Fake News is so Poe-thetic

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I read an Edgar Allan Poe story today entitled The Angel of the Odd.

It’s a fun, fast, Kafka-meets-Twain, easy to forget kind of read.

But what is most memorable to me about the story is that it is entirely set up around the protagonists drunken dismay over what we would call the “fake news” of the day…

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The Murky Link Between the Russian Cyber Threat and My Novel

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This is a link to the live recent Senate Intelligence hearing regarding “Russian Hacking and Cybersecurity.”

This is a murky link.

This is a link to The Sea Trials of an Unfortunate Sailor, my book about the harsh realities of life in the navy during the Don’t Ask Don’t Tell era.

What is the relevance of the murky link between the two?

Probably none.

But you won’t know for sure unless you watch the hearing to understand why the Russian hacking of our cyber space is threat to our sovereignty and read the book to understand why intolerance and bigotry is a threat to our humanity.

#prettymurkyright

BELIEVE IN LEAVE

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So, I was thinking (yes, I understand the risks)…

But, I was thinking, just imagine if each of the 25,109 and growing followers of this humble site were to donate just $1.00 to help me fund my film LEAVE…

Just imagine how much that would be!

Keep in mind that I am a product of the United States public school system, and that, by design, my higher level degrees have absolutely nothing to do with math, so my calculations may be a bit suspect…

But I believe that if every one of the 25,109 followers were to donate $1.00 to help me fund my film, that would come to the heavenly financial figure of… [finger cipher]…

$25,109.00!

Now that there would be a whole lotta of cheeze and it would help me in a whole lotta ways in realizing my cinematic dream called LEAVE.

Now, I’m a practical man (not!), and I know all 25,109 of you donating $1.00 each to support my dream is an impossible expectation…

But, let’s consider what you get here for free 24-hours a day, 7-days a week, 365-days a year non-stop and in perpetuity for as long as our pretty yet petulant planet revolves around the sun that may help motivate you towards donating that $1.00…

You get to publish your work to the RELATING TO HUMANS feature…

You get the IABS&R…

You get occasional “PRO-TIPS”…

You get LITERARY ZEN…

You get ARTWORK?…

You get HUMOR…

You get HEALTH advice…

You get MOTIVATIONAL ADVICE…

And you get so much more.

But, even with all this free stuff created just for you forever floating around here, I understand that my hope of everyone donating even just $1.00 is an impossible expectation.

But then again…

SO WAS THE CAVS COMING BACK FROM BEING DOWN 3-1 IN THE FINALS!

AND SO IS THE TRIBE WINNING THE WORLD SERIES!

BUT IT’S THE YEAR OF “BELIEVELAND” BABY!

THIS YEAR, ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE!

WHICH MEANS, WITH YOUR HELP

LEAVE IS POSSIBLE!

…

Uhm…

Too much, right?

Yeah.

Sorry ’bout that…

Anyway…

Please donate what you can, if you can, my friends >> BELIEVE IN LEAVE.

Thank you.
 

BELIEVE IN LEAVE

 
 

My Chemo Brain Counter-Offensive

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So… yeah. I’ve been having some chemo brain issues for quite a while now and I’m in search of interesting ways to build up my brain muscle to counter these “cognitive disorder” side-effects, as my neurologist so neatly calls them.

I’ve never been a board game – or any game for that matter – kind of guy, but I’ve read and I’ve heard anecdotal evidence that board games do help with one’s focus and clarity issues.

With this anecdotal evidence as my impetus, of course I went to Amazon, the event horizon of the internet, and searched around for what the best board game for my particular interests would be.

And I found this:

Cards Against Humanity
 
As you can see, it tags itself as “A party game for horrible people.” And while I don’t feel that I’m all that horrible, after reading a few of the many thousands of reviews, it does seem like a game that would appeal to my interests.

Does that make me so horrible?

That was rhetorical.

Anyway…

Which brings me to the point of this pointy post…

Research, with you being my source information.

Have you played the game? And if so, what do you think of it? Is it fun? Challenging? Stoopid? Do you feel you have a stronger brain because of your playing it?

And don’t worry, just because you played the game doesn’t mean I will judge you as a horrible person.

Necessarily…

I will, however, admire your courage for admitting it.

If you’re not familiar with the game, you can learn more about it here.

 
 

I and Me Confusing You and Yours

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Still confused about the whole “me” or “I” thing, I see.

Listen, just slapping “I” in every sentence where there is a need for a pronoun for you isn’t going to make you seem smarter, my friend.

It will make you seem just the opposite to those who know the rules…

So what is the rule when it comes to “me” versus “I” usage?

Grammatically speaking, when you are the subject of a sentence, use “I.” When you are the object of a sentence, use “me.”

Yeah, I know… so what that means for you and me in plain English/American:

Simply take out the other name(s), noun(s), or pronoun(s) listed in the sentence with you and use whichever pronoun for you (I or me) you would normally use in the same sentence without them.

For instance:

A copy was given to Rick, Steve, and (me/I).

Copy is the subject. The people are the objects.

Without Rick and Steve in the sentence we would easily know to say:

A copy was given to me.

So, the correct sentence would read:

A copy was given to Rick, Steve, and me.

Another example:

Betty, Jane, and (me/I) are going to the library.

The three people are the subjects.

Without Betty and Jane, we of course would say:

I am going to the library.

So, the correct sentence would read:

Betty, Jane, and I are going to the library.

Piece of cake, right?

Of course it is. But that means you’ll have think (to do the grammar math) first before you speak so that may continue to cause you/us some problems.

Anyway…

Follow this simple grammar hack and you and me will get along just fine, my friend.

😉

 
 

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