Try The New Blogger (again)

I have tried the new Blogger, which is supposedly to become the default this month.

The thing that made me switch right back to the "legacy" blogger was that I couldn't upload images.

My guess is that it has something to do with the heavy migration of web activity to mobile devices.
I had been told by a friend that my blog looks really basic and old fashioned, and that I should update it. He only went to it on his smartphone.

So, here I go, trying to post a cartoon of myself that I did last night...

Holy Moly, it worked this time!!
Maybe the new blogger will do, after all...

That worked, but now I am back in the legacy editor, even though I added the cartoon using the new interface.
I had started the post the old way, and then clicked "try the new blogger" midstream.

I just learned, in my weekly perusal of Alex in California's blog, that he lost a long post that he had done; swallowed up after some glitch involving the new Blogger thing.

I always copy the text of any long post and paste it into a notepad type text editor; that way, if my post gets lost, all I have to do is paste it in again and only have to add the images manually...3 minutes of work, instead of 3 hours of retyping.

"They started to fight when the money got tight..."

I can feel a rage coming to the surface inside me which is inversely proportional to how much money I have left from the stimulus check that I got back in the middle of May. Being out of work is going to become more of a pain in the ass, is what I'm afraid of...

I woke up as the sun was about to go down, this Thursday evening.

That is a really annoying aspect of the schedule that I have fallen into lately.

My radio was still on the station that plays unabashed right wing conservative type of programming.

I have been looking for any ways to break up my routines and get out of my ruts.

Anything is better than those stations, of which NPR has apparently become one of, which always have to have an agenda of some sort.

NPR will have on an interview with, perhaps, a restaurant owner in New Orleans, and he will be telling his story and the story of the restaurant, and the history of the neighborhood and the building and talking about the food etc..

At just the point that I start to wonder what makes that restaurant so worthy of the spotlight and the time slot on National Public Radio (New Orleans chapter) and thinking that the place didn't sound so unique or interesting the guy will drop in something like: "...and we are the first all gay owned and operated business in the neighborhood..." which might even elicit a few claps from the interviewer near the microphone.

"Of course," I would think. That is why the business is getting free advertising on NPR. Someone is trying to "lift up" the LGBT community, to elevate them; to celebrate them...whatever.

That kind of stuff makes me sick.

They are not going to have a feature about a new business, unless it's the first "all female run" business, or they might interview a new musical group whose members are all trans-gender, type of thing.... 

It's the same with black people whose every action is directed at "elevating" their race, which they see as being a distinct subset of the human race, thus making them racist.

There are some black men that I love (proving I'm not racist)

Beyonce can't just try (unsuccessfully) to record something that is going to sound good and be a work of art. No, the song has to be a musical complaint about "the way things are" for people of color, and make some kind of statement that is going to empower her contemporaries, to perhaps burn something down or commit an act of random violence, or whatever people of color have in their bags of tricks.

Wouldn't it be easier just to bring the white man down? That would elevate everyone else the way a rising tide raises all ships. You don't have to stand up in order to see the movie screen; you just have to get the person in front of you to sit down, type of thing.

The white created society can be dismantled, and all of his history erased. The lunar landing can be debunked as something that never happened (like in that movie: Capricorn One) and new textbooks can be PDF-ed to future students with all the correct omissions as such.

That way, sometime around the year 2525, after the people of color have advanced to the point that they can engineer a manned rocket flight to the moon, the colored astronaut can be lauded as "the first man on the moon" and, to underscore the historical significance of it, he can moonwalk over to the U.S. flag that is standing in the sea of tranquility and tear it down (because it's a symbol of white superiority) replacing it with the flag of whatever the world government at that time is; and then the astronauts can all grab hold of the staff of the new flag and twerk for the cameras.

Anyone who starts to open his mouth to ask "Hey, how did that other flag get up there?" will be told to "Just shut up!" before the words are out.

Just tear the white man down; that will save every other group under the sun the trouble of having to elevate themselves.

Why Am I So Pissed?

I am true enough to mine own self to understand that; as my money is running out, with no foreseeable way to replace it, I am prone to having angry and/or hateful thoughts.

When I woke up the radio was broadcasting the "money matters" show, or the "wealth building" hour or whatever they call the show that answers the questions of callers who are considering a reverse mortgage on their house, or whether or not they should wait until they are 70 years old to retire.

That was the absolute worst thing, in my state of mind, to have to listen to; so I got up and turned the radio off.

Last night, around 4 AM, I left here on my bike to go get a bottle of wine from the Brown Derby store down the street, which is run by some kind of middle eastern people.

They are the ones who will mutter things in their language, said in the same tone as you would cuss in English or Spanish or Russian, kind of spitting sounding words, whenever I go in there.

I got my $4.38 dollar bottle of wine and went to the register.

I kind of feel guilty, as a guy who went something like 3,187 days without taking a drop of alcohol beginning January 4th, 2016 and ending on Halloween night of 2019.

So, I am already kicking myself over having decided to drink in the first place, so I am already at war with my ego...whenever I decide to.

And I realize that, as Muslims, they aren't allowed to drink, though some of them seem to smoke.

And there are spiritual undertones that go along with them selling tobacco, alcohol, and pot pipes, crack pipes, porn magazines, etc. to the infidels -profiting off the weakness of the non believers, type of thing. Becoming stronger in mind and greater in prosperity, while giving the barbarians the ropes with which to hang themselves. I get that. That goes back to Kashmir in the 15th century. There are even either actual verses, or interpretations of them, in some quarters, in which this is encouraged in the Koran. Those that are weak of mind, their money will be yours, I think it was...

But, last night after the one of them rang up the $4.37 wine, he said: "5 dollar limit!," referring to the fact that I was using my green American Express card to pay.

So, I started to forage for whatever might be in the store priced just over 62 cents. At least something that I would want.

The Sheikh became impatient. It was somehow troubling him that I was taking so long to re-neg on the purchases of such things as potato chips that are 89 cents everywhere else, but $1.79 there in Mecca.

I did see a singe Zebra Cake that I figured should have been around 50 cents, but didn't want to bring sugar into my household..

Then he shouted something like "I don't have all night!"

He absolutely DOES have all night; he is there all night every night, it seems. Forget about customer service and how if it weren't for the customer, he wouldn't have a job in the greatest country on earth, yada yada. What else has he got to do?

So, I went back to the register and asked; "What's the cheapest thing that you sell here, just to put me over 5 bucks?"

He didn't seem to know what the cheapest thing was in the store was, even though he is behind the register all night, every night.

He then grabbed a certain candy bar that was on prominent display as if it is an item that is being pushed by them; maybe with some kind of bonus behind the sale of them.

"Here," he said "These are good!" and then swiped the thing, whereupon $1.79 appeared on the display, without even having consulted me.

I am most angry now (beginning right after I walked out of the store) because I had just shrugged and said: "Whatever," and paid for it, rather than telling him what was on my mind, which was "$1.79 is the cheapest thing in the store? Is this your first night working here? Give me one of them dollar cigars and stop actin' stupid!" That's what a person of color would have said. But I don't have that privilege, I guess.

It would have been in his character at that point to say: "Too late; already swiped..."

Then, he would have (hopefully) gotten me to say that, which would have allowed him to bar me from going to that store -one of only 3 that are open at that hour that are within a mile of my apartment (in which was just installed a new air conditioner which has brought the temperature from 92.6 degrees, down to the 81 degrees that I have it set at).

Of course, once a cooler head prevailed, excuse the pun, and I was back home; it became more obvious that he had been trying to anger me so he could bar me from the store; to spread the misery he feels over having to work long hours there, selling all kinds of things that make other people happy but that he is forbidden to enjoy himself, perhaps. Perhaps because his mother used to spank him when he pee peed not in the bowl. I took Psych 101 at Fitchburg State College. That was in 1980, but it's like riding a bike...

It would have made him feel good to say "Get out store! You no come back here ever!"* or something. And then to come out if he even sees me using the air machine on my bike tires in the future and yell: "No, you no use! Go!" or something.

*Mark Twain got away with using colloquial vernacular in Huckleberry Finn, etc. so I think I'm actually being less racist by delivering of myself the closest approximation of the style of English that those guys at that store use.

But, I have been (disproportionately to the degree of a $1.79 candy bar) angry over the fact that I capitulated. I really feel like he had A: lied to me about the candy bar being "good" and B: basically stolen money from me.

...Which Jesus shirt?

You go off feeling like a guy ripped you off and then you start sipping that wine, and there is a danger of falling into a funk, and wanting to fire off a nasty blog post, if not break the glass and loot the place as soon as they close, or something.
But, I am still allowed in the Brown Derby.

And it is just about 4 AM now.
And that was wine time last night...
I am quarantined, what a drag, might as well get a buzz...

I think I will return there, now that I once again have love in my heart for them, through Allah, and get another bottle of wine, not as an affront and a vote against their religion and their god, but to afford them the opportunity to rip me off again. I'm turning the other cheek.
And a Zebra Cake and just kind of smile pleasantly and place them on the register. And tell the guy that that candy bar was so good, I wound up having sex with 2 women, a blond and, well...I'll invent the other one based upon his reaction to the news of the light skinned blond, with blue eyes that look like they are reflecting the stars all the time.

I will first put on my best "Jesus" shirt.

Peace Is Peace

I have always been friendly and in a good mood for the most part; and maybe that really rubs Ahab the wrong way -to see a white man smile...
Because it's a two way street. If you go in there with only positive feelings for them, and somehow they get to you; with their muttering and their obtuseness when it comes to helping me (I have no idea what any other person's experience would be in that place) and if I walk out of there pissed off enough to come home and call them awful names in a blog post (and then having to delete them upon sobering up; and then having to post a public service type post warning others of the dangers of alcohol and what it can make you do; then I am totally to blame for that aspect of it.

This one, people? They're some pretty rude middle easterners...

The thoughts that are being created in my mind stem from their display of dislike towards me.
But, if I were in Christ consciousness, then I would have seen clearly their motives and motivations, like Jesus did the prostitute at the well, and I would have had compassion for them and said the right thing to bring peace to them. They would have been thanking Allah, instead of Jehovah for that peace, but, hey, peace is peace...