Trip to the Groomer

Miles and Bailey went to the groomer on Monday.  When I went to pick them up I was greeted by a large group of clients.  Pretty soon Miles realized I was there and stood up to greet me. He was ready to go home.

Tuesday I went to Eastern Star. I got a lot of my new book read and am enjoying it.  (That is one reason I took the office of Sentinel is that I can read in the ante room and guard the door.

Lunch after was cake and ice cream.. Yum.  (It turns out that was my supper also.)

I got an e-mail today from someone requesting that I forward it on to others. It was supposed to be a new pledge of allegiance written by a 15 year old. I do not usually forward these type of things without checking them out. It was a piece of crap.  I sent the refutation back to the sender and told him that I would not be forwarding it.  I pissed him off.  He wrote back that he thought that someone who watched Conan and Saturday Night Live would appreciate something so "tongue in cheek"   Well in the first place I do not watch Conan or Saturday Night Live (or Craig Ferguson) and in the second place it was not "tongue in cheek" and I do not appreciate getting e-mails like that. So I probably won't get e-mail from him again. And that is fine with me.

I think interacting with puppies is much nicer than some people.  Just for the record..in case you had not noticed it. I am a progressive, liberal, left leaning Democrat and proud member of the Teacher's Union. The National, and State Education Associations.  If you want my take on that scroll down to the bottom of the blog. One of my old poems is up there.  I figured it was still something I could say today with all the Union busting going on.  Anyway I appreciate your stopping by.  Be good to one another.  Hugs, j

E-mail

I got this little movie in an e-mail from Sam.



I love e-mail. I have conversations with friends on e-mail and I check up on folks with e-mail. It is a good way to keep in touch with them. I can send group notices to a lot of people with e-mail and hopefully they are read and acted upon. Be that as it may be there are also limitations. Some folks have e-mail addresses and never read their e-mails. Some seem to be challenged about being able to answer their e-mail and the occasional e-mail comes back so I know it did not get through.

Text messages are like e-mail on your phone but I don't like them- for one thing my plan costs me if you send me a text message and I do not have a keyboard on my phone so to answer a Text message is a pain. But over all I do like the wonderful age we live in with the ability to commentate almost instantly with people halfway around the world. When I look at the little map and see where you folks are who are reading this blog I am awed. It used to take months to exchange the communications via letters. My Aunt Ellen used to write a newsy letter and make copies and send it to every one in the family. She lived in California and it was a great way for her to keep us in touch. Just think if she had been able to use e-mail. She signed her letters Isle of View - (say it out loud)

What I don't like about e-mail are the same things you probably don't like about them. I guess this little video explains all of that. I got the link to it in an e-mail today. Watch here.

And then tonight James sent me an e-mail with a link to an article that I recommend. It is here. It is called How Giving Changes Everything.

Some folks just forward e-mails with stories and advice in them that is spurious or false. Sometimes when a story is just to sweet or far fetched then I check it out with Truth or Fiction or Urban Legends. Like Mr Rogers being a Marine sniper in Vietnam. The truth is here. Or how Mars was going to be very close to the earth this summer. Truth here. I usually check them out and send the truth back to the person who sent it to me in the first place. Sometimes I get "caught" then I feel stupid. Anyway, that is my mini- rant for tonight. I guess it is really just an observation. Thanks for stopping by. Big Hugs, j

Dogs and a mini-rant

This guy was over at the Ledges yesterday. I forgot to include him in the pictures.

I was looking up at the sky today and got three pictures of the clouds. Now it is raining and it is chilly and I'm sort of bored. But the sky was beautiful.

I got to thinking about Beauty Pageants today. The flap over Miss California and her remarks got me to wondering about why we have this type of contest anyway. I mean really! I have seen pictures of girls as young as 6 years old dressed up and made up for junior beauty contests. I think our values are all screwed up that we put this much emphasis on physical beauty. It seems to me to be out of control and why all the bother about this young woman's comments. Who is she anyway and why does her opinion matter to anyone? What are her credentials to make what she has to say important. As John Stewart says "Who Cares?"
Anyway here is what the Wikipedia has to say about the history of beauty contests.

History of beauty contests

Choosing symbolic kings and queens for May Day and other festivities is an ancient custom in Europe in which beautiful young women symbolize their nation's virtues and other abstract ideas. The first modern American pageant was staged by P. T. Barnum in 1854, but his beauty contest was closed down by public protest—he previously held dog, baby, and bird beauty contests. He substituted daguerreotypes for judging, a practice quickly adopted by newspapers. Newspapers held photo beauty contests for many decades: In 1880, the first “Bathing Beauty Pageant" took place as part of a summer festival to promote business in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. Contests became a regular part of summer beach life, with the most elaborate contest taking place in Atlantic City, New Jersey, where the “Fall Frolic” attracted women from many cities and towns.

The modern beauty pageant's origin is traceable to the Miss America Pageant, which was first held in Atlantic City in 1921, under the title "Inter-City Beauty Contest." The Miss America Pageant eventually included preliminary eliminations, an evening gown competition, musical variety shows, and judging by panel. Still, the contest was at first shunned by middle-class society. Pageants did not become respectable until World War II, when "beauty queens" were recruited to sell bonds and to entertain troops. Scholarships and talent competitions evoked even closer scrutiny of contestants’ morals and backgrounds.

I used to watch these shows all the time. But somewhere along the line they became just one commercial after another and often they would repeat the same commercial three or four times and it got boring and old. And the answers to the questions made me think that there was very little in their heads anyway. Their comments do not show up among the most quotable. Sometimes the word to describe what they are saying is vapid. So it matters very little to me if Miss California doesn't like gay marriage or not. I don't really care if she posed partially nude or not and if she didn't like her boobs it is fine with me if she had them "fixed" - It just doesn't matter.

That's my rant on the matter and you know what? It doesn't really matter what I had to say either. I hope you liked the pictures and thanks for stopping by.

Now I want to leave you with another dog. This one is fantastic. Enjoy The Amazing Skidboot

Miscellaneia

I got my car back today. It is working again. It is nice to have a quiet ride again.

I spent the entire afternoon getting ready for the Lodge Stated Meeting tonight.

The meeting went well. Dave had to be Master as our Master had a track meet. I know his problem. He is a school teacher and the job is demanding. - We missed him.

We got a new petition tonight so we will have work to do in June.

Having become a "Blog of Note" has scared the bejesus out of me. I have no idea whatsoever to write. 11.407 people have been here in the last three days. It is slowing down. I imagine I will go back to the earlier numbers. In the meantime scroll down and look at the little map with the red dots to seen where the people are coming from who have been here.

Tomorrow I will go to Des Moines for our first Third Degree as a Lodge Under Dispensation. We will have a Table Lodge following and listen to a paper that Brother Kurt has prepared.

I have a new necktie to wear. I am looking forward to it.

Theresa came and cleaned when I was at Lodge. I love having her clean. She does a great job.

Jeremy donated a Masonic Flag to the Lodge and tonight following the meeting they flew it under a new US Flag. It looks really nice.

I am now going to work on the Found For Friday Post so I don't have to do it in the morning.

I am looking forward to Star Trek this week-end.

Oh yes one more thing. I appreciate all the comments but in order to be published I really need to see them in English. If I can find a translator for them and I can read them I will post them. Otherwise they get rejected. I will also not enter into a dialogue with people about my religious ideas. They are mine developed after a lifetime of thinking and if you don't like them that is your prerogative. You can put your religious thoughts on your blog not on mine.

I do not listen to proselytizers or Mormons who want to talk to me about their religion. They can baptize me a Mormon after I am dead as they did with President Obama's mother. I can't believe the chutzpah of these people. Two of them came to the door today as I was working on Lodge "stuff" - You can always tell two young guys together. Ordinarily I am cordial to them. Today they rang the doorbell and got Max and Bailey to barking and I saw who they were and just said "Go away." Not nice of me and I regretted it the minute I said it. But as I said I am not interested. I think I will get a No religious solicitation sign made to put up.

Thanks for stopping by, ARTYAL, Hugs, j

Comments

So last night I went down to work with Kurt on Ritual and then we went to the Royal Mile for supper and Severen joined us. We had a great evening.

I had to do some running around today and one place I went (twice) was the Doctor's to have some blood drawn for a test. (I hate tests) - Had lunch at the Grove and met the husband of the waitress. I had a nice time talking to him. Turns out that he is in a band. The Al Landin Band. Larry had Meat Loaf on the menu today and it was really good. I tell him that I come in there for the Culture. Ames has a Cultural District and it encompasses Main Street and probably 5th street (I am not sure) but you know that they do that sort of thing here. We have a part of Ames called the Historical District and they have rules so that the folks who live there cannot do certain things to their own homes. It has to do with control. People in power in this town seem to like to control things.

They are trying to pass a new rule about the way we maintain our homes. I suppose that means that they can come by and tell me to paint my home. I may move.

But back to Larry and the "Cultural District" - this group is trying to pressure Larry to give them money and join the district. Now really there isn't much "culture" there. We have a couple of nice coffee shops (one is a Chocolate shop) and we do have the Center for the Arts.(the Octagon) and I suppose you could count the Ames Historical Society but they are struggling and don't have much of a display place yet but really there isn't much there and I don't thing that Larry's business is affected much one way or the other by the "Cultural District." In fact there are probably more people coming to the area of Main Street to eat at the Grove than they are for anything else.

We do have a lot of Cultural events in Ames but most of them are centered somewhere other than at the Cultural District. It is sort of like the Chamber of Commerce. Does the Chamber really help the business? I generally go to a store to buy something because they have what I want for sale, not because they are members of the Chamber of Commerce. And the Chamber almost blackmails you to join.

Anyway I like the Grove and the gang in there and I will go there whether or not they join those organizations. Oh, and by the way. The guy I was talking to who is married to the waitress. He is a Mason. You can find us all over the place.

In other news. There is a guy who has a Poem a Day Challenge going. I did not find out about it until about 5 days into the challenge so I am playing "catch up." He gives you a prompt and then you write your poem and post it on his blog. I am putting mine there and also on my poetry blog. So if the postings here are scarce you can go read my dumb poems. At least he is causing me to write poetry again. I am finding it fun.

Thanks for stopping by, ARTYAL. Hugs - j-bear.

Shrine Past Masters - Mini-rant

Tonight I went to Des Moines to participate in my first Shrine Past Master's Club Third Degree. The Past Master's Club travels all over Central Iowa and puts on the second section of the Third Degree. I rejoined the Shrine earlier this year and was asked to join the Past Master's Club. This is the group that performed tonight. It was a great degree.
Worshipful Master Larry was the first one at the table. He made his hot dog into a chili dog and I followed suit. It was delicious. Larry is Master of his Lodge (where we met) as well as a member of the Past Master's Club. He does really good work. He came up to Arcadia the other evening and did the third section of the first degree and I had not seen it for years. It is nice to see someone who can impress me.
One of our Grand Officers is also a member of the Lodge. Kyle is Past Master of the Lodge and is a really good ritualist. He took the part of King Solomon in the second section and again, I was very impressed with the delivery.

Auburn Union Park has a beautiful Lodge room

And here is our newest Brother. Brandon works for the Scottish Rite and I had asked him when he was going to get his degree. I planned to come down just to see him get his work. So it was a real nice treat for me to be able to participate in his degree and also for the first time to be a part of the Past Master's Degree Team. Many of these guys have given a lot of service to the Lodge. They have been Master more than one time. Some of them in more than one Lodge.

Now completely away from Lodge. _ Cause we aren't supposed to talk politics in Lodge - but this isn't Lodge it's my blog. One real advantage of going there tonight was that I did not have to listen to the lies at the Republiscum convention. It is bad enough to hear them lie about Barak Obama on their commercials but what really bothers me is that people believe them. There are so many brainwashed people in this country who have listened to the religious crazies who lie to them and the politicians who pander to those people that I sometimes think I shall go find a cave and take my books to read and hide out. In the meantime Bailey and I are going to go to bed soon. Thanks for stopping by, Hugs