Wednesday, May 01, 2013
The State of the Scribbler, Belatedly.
There are a few people who claim to read the Scribbler, although considering how often I post to the blog, I'm not surprised if they've moved on to fresher and more relevant fare. To those who still hang on for the drops of literary crumbs that fall from my mind onto this medium, I say 'thank you', and in the same breath, I incredulously ask, 'Why??' I sometime ask myself the same question. Last year was the the third lowest in terms of post count in the seven year history of the Scribbler. Only 19 posts were made in 2012..
Now there are bloggers who put out 19 posts a day. But my 19 posts are at least 600-700 words each. But it still must be said that my interest in maintaining this thing has waned over the years, and round about April 6th, I keep trying to decide whether to keep the Scribbler going, or whether to stop posting. Now if I do stop posting, that doesn't mean that the blog will be taken down. As long as Google allows me to keep it up, it'll stay up. There is some good stuff here. Some of my best writing, as a matter of fact. So, if for no other reason than to at least keep a "Pierre was Here" plaque in my little corner of the Internet, the Scribbler will always be here.
But while I still must review my options re: the continued existence of the blog on a yearly basis, I have come to the conclusion that for 2013, I will keep posting to the Scribbler, although as per the rules of this thing, I never have been and never will be held to a rigid posting schedule. Except when I do my City League football posts, which are a large portion of the content on the blog, that go up once a week or so from August to November, It's business as usual. I post when something gets lodged in my head and won't leave. The posts will be cross linked to my Facebook and Twitter accounts as they always have been.
It seems like my desire to write has gone down significantly. I don't post here nearly as much as I used to. The current fan fiction piece based on the "Oh, My Goddess" franchise, The Liaison, that I have been working on since last year has all but stalled out. I'm in no hurry to start the original fiction work that I've been wanting to do. Maybe I'm just being lazy. Maybe the writing muse has cleared out her things and took off down the road again like she did a couple years ago. Maybe I just need a good swift kick in the ass. I don't know. But I hope and pray that I can regain the spark of motivation again. Writing is about all I can do anymore. If I lose this, what else is there?
Let's get off this morbid tone, I'm getting depressed. I hereby declare that the Moonlight Scribbler is back for 2013, and while her state isn't what it used to be, it's better than the alternative.
Monday, December 31, 2012
New Years Eve 2012
This was the last Post I posted to my Facebook account, hence the FB references, but the same sentiments remain for those throbbing masses that read this blog. So substitute 'Moonlight Scribbler' for 'Facebook.'
"This will probably be my last post for 2012 on teh Facebook. It's been a fairly ho-hum year. Some good, some bad, and a lot of the other. But at least I fulfilled one of my goals and that was to stand at the end of the year with most of my senses more or less intact, and my mind still somewhat functional. Anything more was and is gravy. I keep my expectations low these days. Therefore, what I wish for next year is pretty much the same as last year. To be able to still be here in another 365 days, hale, somewhat hearty, and able to look back on the past year having learned something that I can use for the next year. To all my friends on teh Facebook, thanks for the laughs, counsel, the high weirdness, and letting me experience some of your lives thru this medium. I pray God's blessings on all of yinz. Hug your spouses, kids, and critters and hope and pray (if you're inclined to that sort of thing) that sanity, and peace will be the rule instead of the exception in our society. Be careful out there tonite, NYE is amateur night. And I offer my traditional New Year's Wish for all of my Facebook family. Health, happiness, healing where needed, and may your 2013 be a damn sight better than 2014. See yinz on the other side. Pierre."
Monday, December 17, 2012
Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, Whatever...
To me, it's not how you celebrate a holiday in public, but how you respect it in your heart and in your family. I'm not a pagan, but I respect their right to celebrate the Winter Solstice. I'm not Jewish, but if my Jewish friends asked me come to a Hanukkah observance, who am I to decline? I'm not British, but they have a right to celebrate Boxing Day. I'm black, but I don't observe Kwanzaa (although I probably should), and for those that do, more power to them. Wikipedia, the source of all unassailable truth, mentions 27 different holidays, major and minor, that occur during December.
And all of them are celebrated by someone in this world, or even in this country. Who's to say that their holidays are or are not more important to them than Christmas is to me. We in America love to throw God out there. Which one? There's a lot of them out there. There are as many incarnations and representations of God as there are people who believe in him, her, it, whatever.
To me at least, and I'm not very smart, but it's all about mutual respect of each other's beliefs and traditions. We're too damn busy shoving our beliefs down the throats who differ from us, to truly understand and listen to what those beliefs really are telling us.
I'm a live and let live kinda guy. You do your thing, and respect my right to do mine, and I'll do the same for yinz. So whether you wish me 'Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, Happy Winter Solstice, Happy Pancha Ganapati, Happy Hanukkah' or any other holiday that happens around this time of year, I wish you the same. I don't offend easily.
For me, Christmas is not something I celebrate by decorating the house and putting up a tree. I live alone, and have no close surviving relatives, so why bother. I celebrate it in my heart and in my mind. And I think we'd all be a little better off if we just practiced a little mutual tolerance. Then again, what the hell do I know?
Thursday, December 13, 2012
Fan Boycotts?...Feh!!!
And I feel for those businesses, and the Penguins should do something for them as a token of appreciation for what their games do for local businesses, but fan boycotts? I laugh my butt off about that.
All the fans want is their hockey. Give them NHL hockey and they'll be back in a heartbeat, all will be forgiven, and talk of fan boycotts and shows of support will be just that...talk. That's what the players and owners are counting on, and most likely they will be proved right.
Show me one fan boycott that worked, or that ever got off the ground. The NHL killed their season in '04-05, and the fans came back. In '94-'95, the NHL cancelled almost half the games due to a lockout, the fans came back. The '92 strike cancelled 30 games, the fans came back. And if and when this current lockout ends, guess what, the fans will come back. Recurring theme here, boys and girls. It's like an abusive relationship. Pro sports league go on strike or have lockouts, and the fans, who always get it in the end, always come back.
Thursday, November 08, 2012
Where Do We Go From Here?
And while I'm glad that my candidate won, I, for one, am not the kind of person who will gloat and rub it into the faces of those who supported the other guy. One, because it's not in my nature to do so, and Two, other than making me feel good for a few moments, it serves no useful purpose.
I have no idea about what the next four years will be like while President Obama continues to work on trying to get this country back on the right track. But I know that he can't do it all. The Constitution, among other things won't let him, and, whatever happens on his watch will be attributed to him whether he had a direct hand in it or not. Everyone needs to have a single point of blame, however unfair that is, and the Leader of the Free World happens to be it for this country, and a good chunk of the rest of the planet.
Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown, as it were.
But what I want to expound upon is an appeal to my fellow Americans to stop the divisive and bitter partisan bullshit that has crippled this country. We need to start working together to address this country's problems. No one side has all the answers, and many of the answers need the input of all sides. I do believe that people who espouse such polar opposite agendas as the Greens and the Tea Party can put their mutual distrust of each other's agendas aside, and concentrate on the common issues that affect the people of this country. I mean, when a tornado is bearing down on your community and threatening to wipe it off the map, that's not the time to be debating the existence of climate change, and refusing to help those who don't agree with you. Only an idiot would engage in such behavior, but sadly, it seems that there are those in this country that would do so.
It seems these days that it's not enough to win over your opponent, we have to rub our opponents face in their defeat. Why is it that families and friendships are destroyed because we can't agree to disagree?
I listen to the 'This American Life' podcast, and highly recommend it, by the way, and the issue that came out before the election was called 'Red State, Blue State.'
http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/478/red-state-blue-state
The onus of the podcast is that we as a nation are so divided that we even let our divisions affect our relations with our families and friends. People are ending long lived friendships and disowning beloved family
members simply because they don't agree with each other and don't choose to agree to disagree. This is madness. Who in their right mind would let blood and friendship suffer because of loyalty to party and philosophy? This is the sign of an immature person and an immature nation.
One of the great things about living in Pittsburgh is that on the first Saturday in October, we have an event called the 'Head of the Ohio.' It's a series of competitive rowing races that is quite popular and has gained some national attention. Have yinz ever seen how a rowing crew operates? Depending on the event, there are up to eight men or women in a very narrow and light boat who have to work together perfectly in order to get the boat through the water as fast possible. Their oars have to hit the water at the exact same time, drive through the water with equal force, and recover and repeat the evolution consistently hundreds of times during the length of the race.
That crew can have a liberal, a conservative, a Green, a Socialist, a Tea Party member, two moderates, and an anarchist on it, and they may get into titanic political arguments, but for the singular purpose of getting that boat from Washington's Landing 3.5 miles down the Allegheny River to the Point faster than the other teams they are racing, that crew has to put their differences aside and depend on each other to achieve the ultimate goal. For that moment, they do not care about how best to fix the economy or whether our foreign policy is alienating us in the eyes of our allies and enemies. They are focused on that common goal. They don't care who gets the glory as long as they all can share in it.
The people who are digging out of the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy are of all different races, creeds, orientations and otherwise, but when that storm hit, all that went out of the window, and they were reduced to one common identity. Humans in general, and Americans in particular. And Americans love to pride themselves on helping out their own. The storm doesn't give two shits that you're a Green, or a Tea Party conservative, it'll blow your house over just as quickly as it would someone who's the exact opposite of you. And facing that, if you see your neighbor is in need, are you going to vet their worthiness for help based on your political or philosophical ideology? If you do, I wouldn't want to live next to you.
It's about teamwork. That is how it should be for all of us. I don't give a damn who gets the credit as long as we all can put our differences aside and tackle the problem together. Why does it have to require that humans face the possibility of sudden and violent death and the loss of our 'stuff', before they get their heads out of their collective asses, and get over themselves and their petty differences?
While we're listening to and agreeing with the pundits that tell us what we want to hear and demonize those whose only crime is that they aren't a True Believer, our country is slowing devolving into tribes where we segregate ourselves into our own little ghettos, gated and otherwise, and are happy to surround ourselves with those who think as we do. That's not the America that I took an oath to protect and serve. I'm not saying that people shouldn't have their own opinions about how to deal with the problems that the US faces. That's to deny human nature.
When I saw 'United we stand, Divided we fall', I'm not saying that we all have to march in lockstep. What I'm saying is that we have to pursue those things that unite us. The desire to live as you want as long as you're not harming others. To be able to provide for yourself and your family. To pass on positive values to your children. To respectfully disagree with those who share different ideologies than you. Those are things that we all have in common. We have different ideas about how to achieve them, and it's not easy. But nothing worth having ever is. But it can be done.

