i don't mind not belonging, but!

one of the best advances in the net is blogging. being able to communicate with the world is an eye-opener. i can only hope that people use this power for things that create good. i try to but some may not believe that. in the end i have no fear of exposure since i hide nothing and do little. lol.....

truth?

upon reading many, many blog posts, articles, books and essays as well as the accompanying comments, i am struck by what passes for truth. i am not saying that opinion and guesses cannot be true, i am saying just that to put them forth as true, or more correctly stated, as completely or unchangeably true, is the most common false way of swaying people's opinion of an argument. this seems to be especially useful to those that are involved in politics or religion. if something is to rise to be always true, a more strict proof must be satisfied. it must be provable even by those that don't want it to be as well as being provable any where in the universe. 1 plus 1 is 2. this is not only TRUE when and where i say, but ALWAYS and EVERYWHERE. this thinking means, since none of us is perfect, we must be willing to accept more truth as it arrives or change our views if ours is not ALWAYS true. this might seem to some as an insignificant statement but, in my unlettered opinion, by not recognizing this we continue down the path of conflict that leads to even more conflict and grief. one can believe what one wants, but only the truth must be used in civil interaction. if at first we don't succeed, try try again.

with a little help from my friends

this is a tale for those that are active and those just thinking of doing something to bring change. in 1967 i was 13 but well on my way to being radical. listening to music, wearing weird clothes, growing my hair and more. the Vietnam war was going and every year a certain percentage of the senior boys got drafted and went to fight. since i was to young to go, i could only fight at home to stop this from continuing. some friends and i decided to also fight to get the laws changed to allow 18 year olds to vote and to abolish the dress codes in public schools. this is one story of the struggle over dress codes in upstate NY. it was relatively easy to get girls and their mothers and grandmothers to join the fight. if you have ever walked to school during a bad NY. winter and been told you must wear an approved skirt or dress you know why this is so. we got lawyers willing to challenge the NY. state supreme court, various newspapers, the plaintiffs, the school board, officials from the state and others to attend meetings on the subject. in the end we won all but a few concessions. if the clothes were not dangerous or obscene, they must be allowed. HOORAY for us. we went on, with many others. to get the vote for 18 year olds and i voted in the first presidential election that 18, 19 and 20 years olds could. 1972 was a good year.
the point of this post is to encourage. some of you take voting and wearing jeans to school to lightly. ask us geezers, we'll tell ya.lol.

LINKS

JUST ADDED SOME GREAT LINKS. CHECK THEM OUT.

writing resources on the web

when i put in "writing" and did a search, i found a very, very huge list to examine. this will take a while to give the best ones(in my opinion). please be patient with me.

children

i received a card from one of my brothers and his family. there was a picture of my 4 year old nephew in his karate garb. the beaming happiness in his smile reminded me of what it is to be a parent. all the work, disappointment, sacrifices and out and out drudgery are erased in an instant.

looking for learning

looking around the net, i have found so many sources for knowledge about writing, law and art i feel i must refine my area to study first and pick sources afterwards. i guess i will pursue writing first. since writing is the medium that i must know to make sense of all that i must learn, i will learn all i can about it in all its forms. then i will expand my sight to include other subjects. i will start this quest with some of the sites provided by some universities.

for real

the time has come for me to attempt to discus a relevant topic. the topic i chose to start with is knowledge available online. the web is so vast one can type any word into a search engine and receive more places to look at than time allows. this fact is both good and bad. since most of us have limited time to devote to any endeavor, we must choose which sites to visit and those to pass up. if i were perfect or omniscient i would only choose the ones that are the best for my purpose. i am neither so if i rely only on my own judgement or chance i may be searching a long time before my effort bears valuable fruit. this is where the opinions of those we trust really can be of help. not what they know of a subject, rather where they know to look. to use the power of the net to learn, our time is best spent learning not searching. thankfully most sites are linked to other like sites so a trail to learn from becomes instantly apparent. this is a start only since we must still make a choice as to which trail to follow. this is one of the pitfalls of independent learning. we are solely responsible for success or failure. we can't whine about or to a professor. i am going to pursue writing, the law and the arts. wish me luck. i'll keep you posted on any progress i make. if anyone has any leads, please, please let me know..lol.

the gates of heaven ( or hell?)

the need to communicate seems to be a need that all creation shares. some forms of it are easy, some are not. telling a loved one they are wrong can be difficult, telling a sports team they are playing like idiots is not. the internet has given we humans the ability to say all we want to the world or to a specific person or group. this can be good or evil or just practice. i pray that in practice this tool of communication(the net) serves to lead us to good. because as we all know, fire can cook our food or burn our finger...or both.